I wrote last week that crafting continued to be slow and so it holds for this week. A trip to Bath on Saturday sent me crashing hard for a few days.
I am recovered, for the most part, but I remain cautious so everything is slow. Still, before this happened as well as yesterday, I managed to sit down and make.
Crochet
Triangle shawl
by Briana K. Designs
Work continues on the crochet shawl for my niece at a steady pace. The repetitive motion is soothing but also boring at times. I would like to get this garment completed before my niece's birthday in late June, so I am making an effort to show up and crochet regularly. Every now and again this has felt almost like a chore, something that had to be done rather than enjoyed. I never truly verged into the full on chore mode though and mostly enjoy my time with it.
The third colour expanded fast and with it so did my worry. When I ordered the yarn, I did some calculations to make sure I ordered enough. Numbers are not my strong point and I kept wondering whether or not I could trust past me to have worked things out properly.
I needn't have worried. By the time the last row was on the hook, it was clear I had enough. I even have some leftover for a little something else. What that will be, I have no idea.
I joined in the last colour and fell in love with the shawl all over again. First white, then cream, then pink, and now a deep burgundy that I feel really brings the entire shawl together, makes it pop in a way I hadn't imagined. I am less than a row in that fourth colour and I cannot wait to keep going.
Knitting
Learning to knit
I have not returned to my needles but the itch to do so grows.
I do not think I will return to ribbing yet. This has so far been too difficult to learn. Instead, I am going to continue practicing stockinette as well as turn my hands to increases and decreases. I may come to regret this decision but I need something different to learn than ribbing for now. I need more practice with rows of knit and purl to build more familiarity and muscle memory of those before I return to the now dreaded ribbing.
Cord Making
Camera wrist strap
For a few months now I have been playing with a lucet and a spool knitter. I've not shared anything about it online mostly because those crafts have been my main crafts when unwell. When energy is low, long covid wrecking havoc, and hormones out of control, the only things I can easily do are cords.
I have created a placemat and soon I will have a small basket, but last week, whilst I was well, what I wanted was a camera wrist strap.
I mentioned earlier that I am gradually returning to image making. An important step in this process has been to change my camera. I do not mean to literally change my camera. I love the one I currently own and it fits my needs perfectly. Instead I want to change the look of it.
In the same way that picking up the camera again has not been a conscious thought, changing the look of it hasn't been either but it makes sense. I need it to look different, to shave the way it used to be and allow my mind to associate it with different patterns and habits. So I stripped the case. It feels a lot less necessary now that I don't sling the camera across my shoulders or stash it in a handlebar bag as I pedal across the countryside. I have undone the shoulder strap too. I want to hold the camera, to keep it in my hands and reflect the slower more grounded pace of my life these days.
I turned the lucet again and again with some of my early handspun wool until the length felt right. I stitched the yarn in place as best as I could (read not very well but it does seem sturdy enough), and now I carry a little bit of my new life with me when I carry the camera about. A new era of image making can begin.
