While I think and muse and potter and walk and create and just be, time keeps on flowing by and my mind turns to the fact that soon – soon – we will be at the mid winter mark of the longest night and the light will begin to return my way.
I always miss the light the most when I am in winter. I don’t mind the cold, the wet, the sleet even. I mind the shortness of the days at both ends and I miss the feel of sunlight on my face. I don’t miss the heat. I quite like not having the energy sapping, robust glint of hot summer days. But I miss the hours the sun stays in the sky. Soon I tell myself, the season will peak, the world will turn and the sun will start to move back towards my hemisphere. I walked in mist this morning thinking these thoughts of waiting. And, as we exited the park and looked up to the hill ahead, the sun glinted off the windows of houses through the mist and made me a most delightful fairy tale castle of sparkling light to guide me on and make my waiting happy. Later, at home, I realised that only in this season can such a wonderfully serendipitous meeting of mist and light occur at 9 am. I appreciate the reminder to be okay with where I’m at!
But still I wait, and while I wait I hook. My Persian Squares blanket is close to being finished. Orlando has helped, oh such a lot!
He pretty much ensured every component of the blanket was pressed, whether I desired it to be or not.
As I write this one half of the blanket is draped over the back of a dining chair
It ought to be finished but I got sidetracked.
I made this
Now, here’s the story that goes with ‘this’. Do you want to hear it? (Err, come back – that was a rhetorical question folks!)
Back in the days when I was still intermittently going onto Facebook, I logged in and the first thing I saw was a picture of a crochet etui doll. At the same moment that I was falling in love with it, facebook did that thing it does and updated my feed in a tumbling rush of alternate posts and I lost her. I searched, wasted an hour of my life and didn’t ever see her again. Maybe that was the moment when I decided to quit social media (except for blogging). Any how, I searched around and had myriad conversations, but never found another etui doll. Maybe they aren’t called that any way – but I don’t know what else to call them. Then, one day, when searching through my stash of yarns for something else I found a bit of brown that said to me ‘I make doll!’ “Okay!” said I and gathered it up and off we went to Happy Hooking Land.
Now I have never made a crochet doll before, I have no clue how to make one. But undaunted I set to with hook and yarn and made a head, the rest just followed along. I also kept no notes of what I was doing, so now have no clue how I got from the first stitch to the last. But I do know what I’d do differently.
I also took no photos until I got to the final stage of face features placement. As you can see from that photo I used pearl headed pins to get an idea of placement and size – and grabbed the camera. I had my reading glasses on and when looking for a place to put them down, realised she was, among her many other talents, the perfect specs holder!
I’m just the teeniest bit in love with her
As you can see from the pockets close-ups she holds all things sewing and hooking related. There is more to come and her face to be finished – and a name to be given of course – any ideas? But this has to be the most fun thing I have made in forever!
So that is why the blanket hasn’t yet been finished. Nor this – which insists on photographing brighter and lighter than reality, but gives you an idea that at least some progress has been made…….
Finally, here’s Siddy in his posh winter gear to say “Hello!” or “Grrrrruff!” to you all, just in case you need that kind of puppy cheerfulness in your life…..
Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did!
This is crocheted, adapted from an original pattern consisting of lots of little hexagons all stitched together in long panels. Made from Lion Brand ‘Shawl in a Ball’ I used three different colour ways all featuring my favourite colour. The back neck requires building up a bit – I might even do that this evening.
Here’s a closeup of the bottom edging:
So, here’s some bits from the art journal – I’ve done something every day for a bout two weeks – some pages were complete in one sitting – others took days to come to anything. It’s all practise and remembering while playing about with colour.
After that first attempt I resorted to something I knew well – I’d made quirky houses for years, long before they became a staple of art journalers and I was figuring I may as well give myself some therapy while I tried to remember how to apply colour and use paint to come to form…….
The Contented Crafter 