4th Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week Day 7: Looking Forward

One year from now where will you be with your crafting endeavors?

I hope to continue to grow my business, I want to keep designing and self publishing, but I also want to branch into magazine designs, maybe a book and work with more yarn companies!

I want to keep Tech Editing and better my skills at writing my own patterns clearly. 

I want to keep teaching, I really really love teaching.

I also want to try new techniques.  I’ve never done contiguous sleeves and I want to try.  I’ve never designed a bottom-up top and I want to try.  I’ve never designed socks and I want to try.

Where do you see yourself in the next year?  What do you want to try?

4th Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week Day 6: A Tool To Covet

Knitting and crochet both require some simple tools to get started but it’s easy to collect a plethora of hobby paraphernalia.

The most basic of tools, and arguably the absolute most important, is your hands.

Without my hands, I wouldn’t have been able (or maybe “able” but “less than motivated”) to pursue my knitting hobby and career.  When I teach new knitters the basic stitches or experienced knitters advanced techniques, hands are the most integral part!

I try to take regular breaks from knitting (and even typing) marathons to stretch out  my wrists, fingers and palms.  I definitely have hurt myself in the past by knitting too much and this usually renders me unproductive and sad for days.  So, take a break knitters! Do some yoga, pour some tea, or a beer, walk the dog, take care of your most valuable tools!

What is your most coveted tool?

4th Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week Day 5: Something A Bit Different

A note from my dog, Mona Lisa

……………………………………………………

Hey Guys, Lisa here,

I know you all like coming here and seeing what mom’s making and where she’s going and what she has to say about all sorts of boring things, but when she’s hanging out online and doing that thing she does with those sticks that I am NOT allowed to chew on, she’s not taking care of the most important person – me.

So, if ya’ll could just, like, ya know, point her in my direction, that’d be great.  I’m going to go lay down and look pathetic at her feet, maybe bring her a toy to distract her from her obsession or nose her elbow to snap her out of that silly trance she gets into when she’s “working” ::coughignoringmecough::

Signing off,

Mona Lisa

4th Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week Day 4: Color Review

Colors!  We all know I love colors and I love mixing them and playing with them.  On the one hand, my favorite color is yellow followed closely by purple, but the colors I knit with the most?

I think it’s blue.  I have a lot of blue designs and blue FOs.

From the looks of my stash, I have a lot of white, cream and beige yarns although I rarely knit entire garments out of these.  I use them for accents, but I do have a few creamy/white designs coming out in the future. 

What colors do you knit with the most?  Has your preference changed throughout the years?

4th Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week Day 3: Infographic

This prompt, although fun, was definitely tricky.  I learned how to do a lot of things and I had a fun time doing it!  I think if you click on it you can make it bigger, some of the text looks a little small.

What do you think?  Did you participate?

4th Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week Day 2: A Mascot Project

As I mentioned yesterday, my house is that of the Bee – I like having a lot of different projects going at once for a few different reasons, travel mostly.

When I think of the reasons why I fit into the House of Bee and I try to find a good project, yarn, tool or idea that could be the mascot, I keep coming back to my itty bitty mitred square blanket. 

It’s perfect – it uses tons of different kinds of yarn in lots of different colors.  The sizes of the squares are different – they’re portable as individuals and small groups, but they all come together to form the bigger picture.

As I always say with life and with knitting, Every Little Bit Counts and this blanket really shows that!

4th Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week Day 1: House of Bees!

The prompt today was to pick a house based on your personal knitting preferences.  Of course, I fit into a few different categories but as of late, I think the Bee House is the one for me!

Although I do like to expand my skill set with new projects, like the House of Monkey, I think more often than not lately, I have multiple projects going so that I can switch up my projects when I need to.  There are a lot of reasons for me to switch up projects; sometimes we all get bored working on the same project over and over, but I also do a lot of traveling and my knitting needs to fit into my purse or carry on depending where I’m going and for how long.

If I’m taking a short trip, I don’t want to pack an entire suitcase and I don’t want a knitting project that will take up too much space.  If I’m going on a longer trip, I need a project that will keep me busy for the duration of my absence.

Travel is one of the main reasons I have different projects going, to be honest.  I like to go to knitting groups, I knit waiting in line, or waiting for anything, really, I knit on planes, trains and automobiles and each of these situations requires different knitting characteristics.

What house do you fit in?

Crafting Balance

Welcome to Day 7!  Today we’re talking about crafting balance.  Now, primarily I am a knitter.  I know a few things about crochet, I use it for embellishments, etc but really, I knit.

I balance this massive part of my life with other creative and productive outlets – I thoroughly enjoy cooking, music, reading and writing.  All of these other “crafts” have a lot of the same aspects to them as knitting – creative expression, productivity, post-apocalyptic skills, all that important stuff.

Improving Your Skillset

Welcome to Day 6!  This prompt is another tricky one – on the one hand, I feel fully capable of learning anything I fancy, I know the basics, I know the way to figure things out for myself.  What I’m trying to learn now, as a designer especially, is how to communicate that to my readers/customers/fellow knitters.

the process

I like to teach, I think teaching is actually a really fun thing to do.  I really enjoy watching how other people learn and understand and deciphering the best way to communicate, teach and learn is highly interesting to me.

I’d say, as far as improving my skillset, I’d love to learn how to teach better and how to more effectively write my patterns within the next year – next Knitting and Crochet Blog Week we’ll see how well I did!

How To Make a Knitter

Recipe for a Knitter

If you feel this awesome enough to nominate for the Creative Post Vote, please feel free to but be sure to check out all the other creative posts from today to make sure it’s your fave