37 Ways

To Be A Total Badass.

Dave Becker, conductor of the Oregon Ambassador’s Band,
Director Emeritus at Lewis & Clark College and State Band Contest Co-Chairperson

Go read all about this well written,terrific article.   I love Chris McCombs’ exceptions, awesome pictures and quotes.

Lily the Elephant, a beautiful motifs…fabulous quick knit/gift
in Brown Sheep Lanaloft Sport (Scottish Hillside and Celery)

Today, I focus on making as many mistakes as possible.

Lily the Elephant Baby Legwarmers
in Brown Sheep Nature Spun Fingering (Blueberry colorway)

Be amazing at making mistakes, make more mistakes in the next year or two than I’ve made in my entire life.

Boy, do I learn when I make mistakes.  Amen!

I love trying new things,

making mistakes along the discovery journey,

to learn my weakness and strength,

and to grow a better, well being. I really do.

Deep Night in Kaleidoscope was one of my favorite
own-design crochet hat made in December 2010

Now that you have skimmed through Chris’ badass post…which of the 37 ways spoke to you most?

Rose & Lily–the Elephant hat and leggings designed by Lenka Ilcisin & Emily Williams as February pattern for Twisted’s Itty Bitty Baby Knits Club–is now available to the general public.  Test drive these samples at the shop if and/or when you are in the Portland, Oregon area.  Here is an excerpt about the design by the designers:

“New kid at the Portland Zoo this winter – Lily the tiny baby elephant!  Her mom, Rose-Tu, couldn’t be prouder as she shows off her new baby to the adoring onlookers. Share in Rose and Lily’s cuteness with this mommy (or daddy) and me hat set, with plenty of sizes to fit kids and adults of all ages and sizes. Add on legwarmers for the kidlets and you’ve got a cozy matching set for the whole family.”

Happy crafting and keep those creative juices running!

(still doesn’t do texting, MySpace, Twitter, StumbleUpon, DiggIt…but caved into Facebook!)

A Brand New Day

Begin again.  Enough said.

The sun was high.  All the birds were singing.  Tulips were flirting with me happily.

I had the uncommon pleasure of hearing my man singing, chatting, and being silly his way through the day.

I took opportunities to do something GREAT.

No act of kindness is ever too small.  (My Mood Swing has a lovely new home in Corvallis.)

I show my gratitude by giving and do so with all my heart. It feels absolutely wonderful.

The best part and probably the simplest way to say it truly…keep my family safe, healthy, and happy.

Love and light to all.

Happy crafting and keep those creative juices running!

(still doesn’t do texting, MySpace, Twitter, StumbleUpon, DiggIt…but caved into Facebook!)

Savor a Moment

Recognize these moments that I will look back on one day and miss dearly.

Breathe them in today.

Don’t rush them.

Sometimes when I pause to savor a moment, the hardest thing to do is not trip over the sadness of knowing it will not last.

I vow to enjoy them while they last.

On the creative front…these side-way-garter, jazz/swing-knitting gloves knit up quickly and require very little finishing.

I avoided grafting the sides of each finger together, simply by doing the 3-needle bind-off method.

They fit nicely and are not bulky to wear!

Since I like mine to fit snugly, I would use smaller needles and cast on more stitches to start the horizontal piece.

They’re perfect all-year-round “walking–the-dog” or “tail-gating” gloves.

It is in Zitron Trekking XXL (Green Hues and Purple Heather) and Zitron Trekking Undyed.

Super fabulous light-fingering yarn to work with, nice squishy fabric.

Wish I see it worn…

My approach to fiber art honors the connection I feel between my mind, body, and spirit. These aspects are inseparable and must all be activated in order to support the creative flow.  This type of short-row, color knitting is my happy, favorite projects.  It brings me joy and makes my soul feel alive.  What’s yours?

Happy crafting and keep those creative juices running!

(still doesn’t do texting, MySpace, Twitter, StumbleUpon, DiggIt…but caved into Facebook!)

Creativity Starts

Creativity starts from a belief.  An idea.

This ad sponsored by ADCOM–made by Florence Ki of Junior Chamber International, Petaling Jaya, in Malaysia–is remarkably creative and full of animation.  I applaud the magnificent minds that made this creative project.  It makes me nostalgic.

I do have an brilliant idea.  It may not make my nation proud, but, who cares.  I am darn proud of myself for taking action.   Not everyone will to be happy about it.  I will do it anyway…simply to live, collect moments and not things.  Play big.  Act accordingly.

Make your ideas happen, my friend.  All you need is a belief.  It’s never too late.

Optical Spectrum–Organic Waves and Rosettes–was one of those ideas I let it played out, a couple of weeks ago, using a quarter skein of Caron Vickie Howell Sheep(ish) and a skein of Red Heart Boutique Treasure in Size 10 needles.

A goal is not always meant to be reached.  The idea was served simply as something to aim at.

A great way to spend a violent wind-storm afternoon.  Once conditioned and rinsed, the points were blocked out…organically.

A nice wrapped scarf started out with a single idea of a classic fan & feather stitch…with random changes…into a wing-like, similar to this last one but totally random on short-rowing.

Another jazz/swing knitting success.

I do hope my teen’s flute mentor will like it as I do…it’s my Pay-It-Forward to her for all that she does for my child.

Happy crafting and keep those creative juices running!

(still doesn’t do texting, MySpace, Twitter, StumbleUpon, DiggIt…but caved into Facebook!)

Landfill Harmonic

A slum built on a landfill.  Someone refurbished a violin shell found in landfill and the idea of making instruments from rubbish resulted in Landfill Orchestra.  Absolutely incredible video will make you weep.  The human spirit soars…music rising out of the landfills of Cateura, Paraguay.

The most poignant statement for me in the clip is “People realize we shouldn’t throw away trash carelessly. We shouldn’t throw away people either.”   Brilliant and beautiful.   It’s lovely to see the faces of these young people walking together with their instruments.  They could be anywhere in the world.

Never underestimate the power of music!  Where there is a will, there’s a way.

Nothing stands in the way of vision and the human spirit.   Peace and joy.  Happy Hanukkah, my friend.

Coming up next will be my free-spirited “optical spectrum” fiber play…stay tuned.

Happy crafting and keep those creative juices running!

(still doesn’t do texting, MySpace, Twitter, StumbleUpon, DiggIt…but caved into Facebook!)

The Thought of Sharing

When working on my designs, I often think to myself, “I need to remember to share this idea with everyone.”  Funny how blogging pulls that out of me…sharing techniques, ideas, and inspirations.

I have read often how artists are afraid to share “too much” or are constantly worried that others may copy their ideas.  I find that I actually WANT people to create what I’m making–or if I’ve learned about something that works–it’s so niffy, cool to pass that knowledge on.

Creativity is like the fish and loaf story in the Bible.  As I share my ideas, I feed others’ creativity and then they are inspired.  They, in turn, want to make something wonderful.  As they share, their creativity continues to encourage others…and so on.  Don’t you agree?

Even if I create something that you’ve made, mine will be ME…yours will be YOU, as we all have our personal style and our work will always reflect that.

So today, I choose to not hide my light, little talent I may have, or ideas for fear of others “stealing” it away…I will forge ahead and give it away so I may be inspired to always be creating something new and wonderful to share that will be uniquely ME.

Happy crafting and keep those creative juices running!

(still doesn’t do texting, MySpace, Twitter, StumbleUpon, DiggIt…but caved into Facebook!)

Do or Do Not

There is no try.  Kill fear by taking action and build on that confidence.  A real decision is measured by the fact that I’ve taken a new action.  If there’s no action, I haven’t truly decided.

Ideas alone don’t bring success.  The habit of putting ideas into action is now.

There is never a right time. I can ‘t wait until condition is perfect or put off tomorrow what I can do today.   The most difficult time to take action is the very first time.  After the ball is rolling, I’ll build confidence and things will keep getting easier.

I know. The longer an idea sits in my head without being acted on, the weaker it becomes. However, acting without thinking would make me look like a doer, instead of a thinker. A good idea will grow stronger; stupid ones will go away.  I prefer to wait a week before acting on it.

Instead of stimulating the amount of ideas, I much rather set the target to filtering my ideas internally before polluting the environment.  I will start my creative motor mechanically.  I will sit down and write, put pencil to paper, brainstorm, doodle…By moving my hands, I’ll stimulate the flow of ideas and inspire myself.

I will be a doer, seize the initiative, and live in the present.  Today, I’m taking positive steps to creating a new mind space based on this very solution. Cheers!

The dress coat I mentioned earlier is being dried (will be a long while as it’s heavy, dense…and very cold out.)  It gave me time to think and came up with a solution.

Through a seamstress’ lens, the pocket needs to be relocated from bottom to where the white napkins are placed. But, “How?” you ask. Of course, “steek” and “patchwork,“ I tell you.

Where’s that pair of magic scissors?  lol

Happy crafting and keep those creative juices running!

(still doesn’t do texting, MySpace, Twitter, StumbleUpon, DiggIt…but caved into Facebook!)

Every Second

Every second that I live, I am never going to get back.

I am never going to get to change what I said, didn’t say, did, or didn’t do.

Live how I want to live.

Act how I want to be remembered ‘cuz I never know how long or short I am going to be here.

Do it today for tomorrow, I can never tell what happen!  Just do it!

Blessed are the weird folks–poets, misfits, writers, mystics, painters, troubadours–for they teach me to see the world through different eyes. ♥

One of the greatest diseases of the human race is doubt and fear.  That is not to disregard other diseases, but, doubt and fear rob more people of more life than all the diseases of the world put together. Great minds often spend the greater part of their lives failing but their ability to take something out of the failure has ultimately created the world I live in.

Everything I would ever need to be prosperous, successful, and powerful is within me.

Failure could be a wonderful catalyst for change ‘cuz it has the potential to make me a wiser, better, and smarter person.

All I need do is to step out of my comfort zone and deal with the challenge.

That’s what I did last month with my knitting–especially with the second faux fair-isle one–testing out another one of Anne Lernout’s interesting construction, fun design piece as shown in one of her samples below

I challenged myself to step out of my comfort zone by 1) casting on both shoulders, two-at-a-time to keep changes symmetrical at best, 2) by re-skeining each ball to keep color repeats on each same–that I discovered was impossible with  my irregular stitch tension, 3) randomly alternating different colorways and adding garter rows to get a color to “pop,” and 4) adding a buttonhole on outside and inside bands for closures.

Keeping ‘em symmetrical in both colorways and garter-rows took additional effort.  It slowed down the speed in an epic way.  To give you an idea as to how much time it added to the second version…Blue Lagoon was knitted up in 4 days (spread over a 2-week duration.)

The faux fair-isle one took a week to accomplish.  Not sure if I would do that again…but, I must say, I am quite pleased with the effect.

What do you think?  Which one of the Amandine cardigans do you like best?  The pattern is available for purchase.  Be sure to swing over to Anne’s blog and see a series of Amandine and Amande for yourself.

Today, I choose to boost my motivation!  This may be my chance to finally live my dreams.

Happy crafting and keep those creative juices running!

(still doesn’t do texting, MySpace, Twitter, StumbleUpon, DiggIt…but caved into Facebook!)

Days Like this

I can’t really see where I am going.

I have just enough of the road in front of me–and through my side mirror–to know I’m probably still on the road.

If I drive slowly and keep my headlamps lowered, I’ll still get where I was going.

Sometimes crafting–knitting, crocheting, sewing–is like driving through fog.

I much rather move through the fear rather than around it.

It help me forget the upcoming cold, windy, wet, dark winter that seems to go on forever.

There’s rarely a benefit to charging into a situation trying to control the outcome.

There’s a time and place, but, there aren’t many places and rarely a time.

At the root of most of my disasters was a deep fear, masquerading as something else.

Fear rarely names itself.  Instead, it points fingers.  It slings spin.  It runs for the hills.  What am I afraid of?  Losing my pride?  I am a culture that hide my fear.  When I hide, I don’t connect.  I shoot myself in the foot ‘cuz what I want most is security.  Security comes through connection.  The long way around will never change my character.

So today, I choose to be strong.  I will face my fear…instead of faking my way through it.  I won’t run.  I just show up.

I will stand here with both hands in my pockets and live in the fear.

I will move through my fear instead of around it. I will find grace to help with my every lonely need.

In a brief fit of inspiration one summer day–a good way to recharge the batteries–I whipped up these baskets in no time

…only took a couple hours to crochet up–to hold balls of yarn for knitting two socks at a time or a fair-isle project.

It turned itself into kinda an art piece…and looks nice. Don’t you think?

Would you squeal like a pig to find it under the Christmas tree this holiday season?

Happy crafting and keep those creative juices running!

(still doesn’t do texting, MySpace, Twitter, StumbleUpon, DiggIt…but caved into Facebook!)

What May Happen

…when things fall apart.  I can learn what I like and what just will not do.

I can pay attention in a whole new way.

I can find reserves I did not know could be mine.

I can discover who my real friends are.

I can let the past go.

I can let tears come up for old sorrows.

I can give love a chance.

I can say no without thinking or second-guessing.

I can find myself tender and new.

I can learn what it means to know nothing.

I can tune in to my kids and really be there.

I can produce extraordinary results under less-than-ideal conditions.

I can find out I am more resourceful than I think.

I can be disappointed.

I can come to realization that is not the end of the world.

I can let myself be needy.

I can tell the truth.

I can surprise myself and be surprised.

I can survive.

I can learn.

I  can grow

How you like ‘em socks! Just thought you’d like a tour…a tidbit of my dull, summer days.   That’s my favorite part of moving around…

In one of my rare, more lucid moments, I had a splendid  idea of making some Toe-up, two-color brioche socks–that aren’t just tubes–in circular concept from 2010.    Plus, I’ve been inspired by talented Kirsten forever with her “engineering” mind and creations.  Be sure to check out her spectacular mitten and sock designs!

I finally made me some brioche socks…two years plus later.  It’s never too late. ♥.¸¸.•°´°▪♥ღ

What have you done this summer that’s outside of your comfort zone?

Happy crafting and keep those creative juices running!

(still doesn’t do texting, MySpace, Twitter, StumbleUpon, DiggIt…but caved into Facebook!)