Crafting Fingers: when one craft isn't enough: Page 5

Fall is my favourite season.

I can’t even call it autumn when I say that—nostalgia makes me go back to my American childhood. Living in Maine for 10 years made autumn easy to love.

Autumn makes me feel fresh and alive with ideas. It’s a throwback to all those school starts. As an adult, my favourite parts of school remain: lots of books and raiding the back-to-school sales for stationery. If I didn’t use a Kindle I don’t think I could physically fit all my books in my office. (Thank goodness for technology, right?)

Even more than on New Year’s Eve, I’m thinking about what I want to do with the next year. Where do I go from here?

Where do you go after you’ve been burnt out?

A crafter can never have too many patterns.

And Kerry Lord’s second book Edward’s Menagerie: Birds is enough to satisfy any pattern junkie. We’re treated to a selection of over 40 new patterns in her most colourful designs yet. I jumped at the chance to get a copy to review.

The book is beautifully laid out and easy to understand, even for a beginner. There are stitch lessons and step-by-step assembly instructions, which even experience crocheters will find useful. Each bird adapts shapes from a clever library of patterns to create the different species. For example Celine the Dove—the simplest “level 1” pattern—uses the “standard” body pattern and then adapts the “perching” leg to get the right look.

I’ll be completely honest. It took four months in this house for me to get my craft room organised.

First, my desk sat on the back wall. That wasted too much space throughout the rest of the room and was a bit dark. Then when my desk was by the window, there wasn’t any wifi signal. And the impractical period of 4PM to 8PM all summer was too bright for me to see the screen.

I felt a bit like Goldilocks. Too much space. Too dark. Too bright. Too little wifi.

Now the room is perfect. And I love having my blue bureau centred in the back.

When I was a kid I totally and 100% believed in astrology.

That might not be true now, but that love has been transferred to astronomy instead. I love watching the stars and hearing about the latest discoveries in space.

I’ll be honest; this project was supposed to get finished weeks ago. My three weeks away in Finland were so hectic I didn’t even get the chance to watch the Perseid shower, let alone make coasters in honour of it. C’est la vie.

Here’s a star-loving project for my fellow astronomy lovers. Fabric is courtesy of Zazzle.

Skolbacka used to be a school—hence the name “school hill”. Now my parents own it.

My parents bought the place this summer. I spent my holiday—a leisurely three weeks—exploring the building and spending time with family. The school has so much character and history hidden in its rooms. The hidden attic (above) is probably the most charming.

Here are a few peeks of my stay.