Crafting Fingers: when one craft isn't enough: Page 32

Ahh, the joys of a quiet weekend:

1. My new crush: the Mini Romany bag from Jan Constantine

2. My contribution to the fantastic #ImAPiece campaign

3. Eagerly waiting for Simply Crochet‘s first issue to download!

After last week’s business, I’m looking forward to a lovely crafty Sunday! And psst, I gotta say Simply Crochet’s first issue is positively YUMMY. So many lovely projects in one issue it’s unreal! A few of them are on my to-do list this month.

Keep your eye on the blog next week for peeks of my crochet project, AND a couple roundups for your enjoyment. ;)

Speak soon,
~ Anna xo

I know, I know! It’s over a month away, but I can’t help it. Valentine’s Day is such a wonderful day of the year.

It’ll be my first Valentine’s in Britain, and I have to say I’m looking forward to the first signs of spring as they pop up in late February. After eight years in Finland, a February full of spring will be a wonderful experience. I’m used to it being full of snow!

In order to perk up my little office corner I’ve started working on a Valentine-friendly mood board for spring.

There’s a cork board on the wall next to my chair, and it’s my place to gather notes and lists. Today I thought, why not a mood board? I wanted to make something beautiful but simple, so there’s still plenty of room on the cork for new notes and clippings.

January is always a prolific month for crafty bloggers, it seems. The quiet lull of December is followed by a burst of activity, and it makes for fantastic reading! It’s so much fun gobbling up the energy we’re all feeling the first days into the New Year.

Articles this week

— Crochet is Trendier Than Knitting in Recent Years on Crochet Concupiscence

This clever article takes a quick dive into crochet’s trendiness of the last few years, comparing it to knitting and sewing. Guess which is trendiest? Yep, the title says it all! Surprised? Just go look at the pretty charts showing it off!

— Easy Peasy Granny Crochet Cowl Pattern on Bee & Buzz

Words can’t do this one justice. Go check out this lovely free crochet pattern! It’s so cute and colourful. Who doesn’t want a warm, bright cowl to cozy up with after all this rain?!

It’s one week into January already! And what a wonderful start to 2013 it has been. :) On top of starting my learn a craft a month project, I’ve been following Apartment Therapy’s fantastic ‘January Cure’. It’s is a month-long start to organising your home for the New Year. (Although the tips are fantastic for whenever!) So far it’s been a wonderful week of loving my home!

This weekend one of the assignments was to get flowers. (And to mop. But that’s not as fun to talk about.) I swept Alex off to Tesco and when we were there I got the flowers, as ordered. Cos I totally never like flowers otherwise, or anything! Gosh!

With £4 of flowers I made five arrangements for the home, using some makeshift vases:

Ahh, there it is. My first granny square, ever, and my first proper crochet project!

Isn’t it adorably wonky?

Learning to crochet is something I never thought I would do, but look! There’s the proof that ‘cannot’ isn’t permanent, after all. A perfect start to my ‘learn a craft a month’ project.

It’s been years since I learned to knit, but learning crochet brings back memories of dropped stitches and scary looking patterns. I have to confess the first hour into crochet I was ready to scrap it! The yarn I had chosen to start with was a very beautiful sock yarn, but it was splitting all over the place and driving me crazy.

I switched to a thinner, tougher yarn just in time to save my sanity, and off I went. Whew!

It’s fascinating to make something with your hands when you barely understand what’s going on. I sat there and followed some step-by-step pictures in a book, and then I was holding the start to a granny square in my hands.

It was a very amateur, wobbly start, but I was proud. And still am, thank you very much!