13 days of making | day two

I am having too much fun with this.

A couple weeks ago, I snagged some craft foam from a friend of mine. I had absolutely no plans for it, but the crafter in me wouldn’t let go. Then yesterday, I got this idea to cut letters and put a positive affirmation on the wall. Lo and behold – I HAD SOME CRAFT FOAM!

My favorite part of this is that the letters are completely freestyled and totally imperfect. For whatever reason, the backwards L felt right to me, just spontaneously and a little silly, and perfectly matching the saturated, primary school vibe of the colors. Also, aren’t kids the realest people you know?

BE REAL. With yourself. With the world. It is a mantra I live by and it felt important that these words reflected me: little skill in straight lines, a little goofy, and inexplicably bright. The type A in me tries to fight these not so perfect qualities all of the time. Even with this project, I agonized a little bit over not posting yesterday because this is supposed to be 13 straight days of posting. “Actually, it’s 13 days of crafting,” I had to remind myself. Full disclosure: I edited this post because I had a few more words on my spirit. I hope you don’t mind!

Check back tomorrow.

xx

13 Days of Making

Friends!

Long time, no? Well I’m finally on break from school and I have 13 days to do whatever I want. (get wrecked) Nah, I’m probably going to study at least half of those days, but I also want to challenge myself to put in hours making and what better way to track that but through the blog. Join me!

Day 1 – A few days back I noticed that I jacked up a cable more than a few rows back. Luckily some insta friends recommended I rip back only the cable. Never done this before, but so far, so good!

 

On Friendship

Friendship. I was prompted to write this post after receiving an unexpected and incredible gift from a blogfriend/knitfriend Nicky a couple weeks ago. FIBER. and two DROP SPINDLES. Things that I was too chicken to invest in myself. And then, I unwrapped a skein of sock yarn, a notebook, and a card! Y’all, there is power in handwriting.

(a million thank you’s wouldn’t be enough to express my gratitude)

Soon after, another random act of giving happened upon me. A camera! A neighbor and new friend who happens to be a pretty good photographer were talking about photography, particularly how I had been inspired by Elise to jump into film. Actual film. Used SLR cameras and the film (unused) are actually quite affordable. I have wanted an Instax for a while, but those never seemed economical. My friend insisted that learning my way around a camera would be easier than I imagined, and so I went home ready to buy. Not an hour has gone by and my neighbor is visiting, camera in tow. Not to demonstrate, but to LOAN so I could figure it out. WHAT?!

I am looking to be more intentional about sharing. Perhaps that is my ideal world, one in which gifts are not momentous events, but also not expected. (does that even make sense?) That sharing becomes like breathing and we don’t feel compelled to hoard or evaluate.

Thank you friends.

xx

P.S. I sat on this for a while because school and because I couldn’t figure out exactly how to put these feelings into words or if the words were right, but in the spirit of sharing I just decided I needed to press publish.

tips for packing knits + tools

This is the sister post to my packing and knitting reflection from last week. While these aren’t the most complex tips, I thought I’d share my experiences. Same as last week, would love to hear your additions to this list.

It is okay to vacuum seal yarn. When my mom first suggested this, my heart sunk; I could not bear the thought of squeezing the life out of my cherished yarn. After two moves, however, I have come to the conclusion that it is not only harmless, but may even be the best option for moving a stash. Even caked yarn retains its properties through storage. While I cannot speak on the long-term effects of storing this way, I have read that some store their stash in this way to protect from dust, moths, etc.

Organize your needles and notions. Although completely obvious, this is something I neglected to do during move #1. If you’re like me, needles and notions tend to get scattered over time. It is worth it to make a conscious effort to gather and pack them together and avoid the stress of wondering if something is ‘in the next box’ or totally got left behind.

Utilize unconventional storage for needles. Speaking of needles, I think we can all agree it’s best not to toss them in a box or even squeeze them between yarn skeins. I bundled my double-points using scrap yarn and stored them with most my other needles in a packing tube similar to this one. I loved how accessible the needles were – I could pull them in and out with no problem.

Keep your most fragile needles close. I had one casualty: an extra-long circular US 1 needle broke over the course of moving. Luckily, I had an identical pair, but I can’t imagine if it had been a more expensive or precious set. If you are flying, it is worth making room in your carry-on for these (I have yet to have any knitting needles confiscated by TSA).

holla.

tips for knitting and moving. at the same time

My friends! Sorry it has been a while. Those of you on insta will notice that I moved and while the knitting didn’t stop, I could not get myself into blogging gear.

In the spirit of life happenings, the next couple posts will be focused on moving. I hope you find them helpful and please feel free to add your own tips!

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Plan ahead. The yarn hoarder in me wanted to wait until the very last second to pack up my yarn, but I know that doing so would make it incredibly hard to part ways. I need to set aside several sets of yarn, needles, and patterns and waiting until the last second would spell disaster for me. Listen, how many times have you put off a project because the yarn needed to be wound? Trivial, but that has been my life on several occasions. As much as would prefer to knit on impulse, waiting until a night or two before leaving would probably frustrate me into submission, leaving me with nothing to knit. Plus, once you pack up that yarn, you are not going to want to unpack it. Moving is expensive and your wallet (and loved ones) might scream if you go buy yarn after packing up a stash. Be kind to them.

Work on something that can be used to decorate your new home. It will both motivate you to get moving on the dreaded packing (and unpacking, depending on how big your project is). Plus, it is always exciting to knit with a theme, like your own little KAL. In my case, I am using some stashed cotton to make a rug. Several designs later, I settled on this: super squishy garter with tassels for because every home tassels. Other ideas: pillow covers, framed swatches, dishcloths.

Choose projects that are portable. Try to choose projects of reasonable size with few moving parts. With all of the boxes and luggage and (lets be real) paperwork you have to juggle, the last thing you need is a bunch of heavy tote bags full of WIPs. My rug was not small, but it was easy enough to stuff into my under-the-seat carry on and basically knit straight from there. I also had a shawl for a little reprieve (my yet to be finished campside), which I decided to cake only two skeins, packing away the third for later. It worked out; I made it through maybe half of the first skein. Bonus points if the pattern is improvised or easily memorize, eliminating the need shuffling through papers or pulling out your tablet/laptop/phone.

The main takeaway here is to strive for simplicity. This is my second time moving with yarn and I can say confidently it is nice not to have to dedicate brainspace to finding/fixing/screaming over haphazard knitting projects/patterns.

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I am so glad to be done with the big moves for a while. I have another post, lessons learned from packing, coming next! In the meantime, have you carried knitting through a move? What did you find helpful, or not?

P.S. notes from my improvised rug can be found here.