Bella Knitting

Cheers to New Ideas

Laura

I've been working on a few lace projects lately. Swatching a bit of this and a bit of that. I found that traditional stitch markers were driving me nuts. They are too large, too hard and awkward on small needle sizes.

So did I head to my LYS looking for new stitch markers? No, of course not. I started combing the hair care aisle of my local Target (sorry, just had to do it). These mini hair bands are perfect for my needs. They are firm but flexible, do not interfere with tiny stitches, and with their bright colors they're easy to spot. Wait, there's more. There are so many colors I can code the beginning and end of pattern segments and - last but not least - they are so inexpensive I can just cut them off when I don't need them.

I also think they work well at the other end of the spectrum on US size 13, 15 and even 17 needles. The larger size hair band moves easily on these bulky needles.

Got any unique knitting tools you'de like to share with the rest of us?

In a Moment of Weakness...

Sarah

Ok, I must come clean -- last week, in a moment of weakness, I bought a sewing machine. I'd been thinking about it for a while, but had always reasoned that I already have too many hobbies, I don't have enough room, I don't have enough time, yadda, yadda, yadda. But last Thursday I woke up in a mood to shop (Jason had to leave for Chicago at 4:30 in the morning for a one-day business trip -- he didn't get back until nearly midnight, so it was a long day) and when I sat down with my coffee to check my blogs, I saw this post on the CRAFT zine blog. A good sewing machine for a beginner? On sale? I knew I made the right choice in buying it when, shortly after, I came across this post of Ashley's. This was kismet.

I'll find room for it. The tough thing will be finding a home for the (hopefully small) fabric stash I'm sure I'll build up. I hope the yarn and fiber don't bully it around. I haven't done much sewing in the past ten or so years, but I'm looking forward to getting back into it. In honor of my new hobby aquisition, I thought I'd pick up Laura's meme -- I noticed it's been making the rounds the past few days, and I want in on the fun!

1.  I have no interest; complete lack of creativity in this area:
Cross-stitch, needlepoint, macrame, scrapbooking, stamping, jewelry making, paper making, calligraphy, candle making, doll or toy making, flower arranging, gift wrapping (thank goodness for gift bags!), decorating, music

2.  Would love to try it:
Quilting, shibori, graphic design, filmmaking, inventing

3.  I do it or have dabbled in it:
Crochet, dyeing, sewing, beading, painting and drawing, cartooning (I wrote a comic strip for a college newspaper, actually -- it was about a pair of robots and their misadventures), gardening (I've got the touch of death, but I make an effort now and then)

4.  Love it! This is my thing:
Knitting, spinning, cooking and baking, photography, poetry, writing...and I'm sure sewing is going to be in this category soon!

Oh, yeah, and I'm stoked -- my sockpal, Liz of Knitting Hawkeye, got her package, and she likes the socks! It sounds like she likes the Bella Sports Scarf kit, too, which I got in her blog's (Hawkeye, naturally) colors -- black and gold. Be sure to bookmark Liz's Etsy shop -- she has dyed some great colors of Harry Potter-themed sock yarns and she will be updating her shop on August 24. Be sure to check it out, it's great stuff!

Areas of Creativity

Laura

Creativity and Inspiration, Part 3: We've All Got Limits

I was struck this morning by the very defined limits of my own creativity.

It’s summertime, the kids are at camp and Friday was Super Hero day. Upon reading the notice, panic crashed in on me with all the speed of swooping Dementors – sucking all rational thought from my brain and leaving me repeating one terrifying word … costume. Yes, I admit to costume phobia and the reason is very straightforward; I utterly and completely lack any creativity in this area. I skillfully avoid costume parties in the same way that mouse avoids a hungry cat. Hunted by enthusiastic Halloween hostesses that require you to dress up in some thoughtful, innovative and hopefully age-appropriate way.

As long as I am confessing, I might as well just add cooking to my personal list of visionary blockages. My husband (the cook in the family) is baffled by how someone “so creative” doesn’t find cooking inspirational. Sarah’s new blog Nibbling Along is highly inspirational and absolutely gorgeous. I marvel at her abilities and am already angling for an invitation to dinner. However, at risk of falling into the same trap as Ava  I still don’t want to make these tantalizing dishes  myself.

How about you? What are your creative limits? Consider yourself tagged! ;)

1.    I have no interest; complete lack of creativity in this area.
2.    Would love to try it.
3.    I do or have dabbled in it.
4.    Love it! This is my thing.

• Knitting
• Crochet
• Spinning
• Dyeing
• Cross-stitch
• Needlepoint
• Macramé
• Shibori
• Quilting
• Sewing
• Scrap Booking
• Stamping
• Beading
• Jewelry Making
• Paper Making
• Painting or Drawing
• Cartooning
• Calligraphy
• Candle Making
• Doll or Toy Making
• Other Crafts
• Cooking
• Entertaining
• Gardening
• Flower Arranging
• Gift Wrapping
• Writing
• Poetry
• Photography
• Decorating
• Graphic Design
• Inventing   
• Story Telling, Acting, Stage work
• Video / Film Making
• Music
• Other fun stuff

The Verb's the Thing

Sarah

Creativity and Inspiration, Part 2: Enact the Verb

In her last post, Laura said something which at first sounds counter-intuitive: creativity can take a lot of work. It's true, though. Inspiration does occasionally pop up like an unexpected patch of wild strawberries, but you can't rely on serendipity all the time. To be sure you won't just draw a blank when you are able to snatch a handful of quiet hours to yourself, you must cultivate inspiration like a garden. Or at least like a Chia pet.

Whatever your creative discipline, the important thing is to make like Nike and just do it. All the time. As one of my writing teachers put it, "Writers are people who write. Enact the verb." You can't expect to write like Margaret Atwood if you sit around twiddling your thumbs, waiting for 400 pages of brilliance to drop into your brain like an artfully crafted meteor. (Or meteorite, possibly. I can never remember which is which.) And knitters all know that there is a difference between themselves, and people who merely know how to knit: for the former, knitting is a part of their identity, while for the latter, knitting is something to do when a friend has a baby or when a scarf seems like a good idea for a holiday gift.

Bloggers, you know what I'm talking about -- when you first started, you know you had a little voice in your head saying "how the heck am I going to feed entries into this thing several times a week?" Then you started doing it, and it got easier. Maybe the gardening metaphor above doesn't quite work -- maybe it's more like birdfeeding. If you just look at your garden occasionally, you'll see a bird now and then. But if you put out a birdfeeder and add seeds or peanut-butter pinecones on a regular basis, you'll see birds all the time. You may even start to attract squirrels, racoons, and other crafty little critters. After all, when you get into knitting and knitblogging, you're getting into a community that isn't limited to just knitting -- you started out with knitting needles and a little yarn, you end up with a needle and notion collection, a yarn stash, a spinning wheel or two, a fiber stash, a sewing machine, a pile of pretty fabrics...inspiration stops flitting into your life like the occasional hummingbird: it swarms to you.

When I sit down, notebook in hand, sometimes I draw a blank. But putting it down again doesn't really help -- I'll just have the same problem the next time, and the next. So, if I'm trying to write, I might pick ten words from the dictionary and force myself to write a poem using one of them in each line. It won't be the next "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," but it will be something new. Or, if I'm trying to come up with a new knitting design, I might drop the pen and paper and swatch the first thing in the stash I grab. The swatch will tell me something, even if that something is "I'm a pain in the butt to knit on size 4 metal needles." It's weeding and feeding the seeds of inspiration I've planted, but pretend that I wrote it in a way that doesn't sound like a really lame greeting card.

So how do you keep your creativity muscles in shape?

The Perfect Afternoon

Laura

Creativity and Inspiration, Part 1: Scheduled Creativity
 

Creativity, like life, sometimes takes a bit of work and planning.

We all have hectic schedules, are experts at multitasking and are most often electronically connected to others who want something from us. I find I need to occasionally schedule time to clear my brain of all that clutter so there’s some room left for thought. Today was such a day, with millions of to-do items behind me and most of the family out of town it was the perfect time to schedule an afternoon off to reboot the brain.

Have you ever vacationed at home? It’s a marvelous idea. There’s so much right around us that we never stop to take advantage of and sometimes just a few hours is all that’s needed to appreciate it.

When planning the perfect afternoon it’s important to lay out your priorities, eliminate things that might prevent you from leaving it all behind, think about the atmosphere you want, ask yourself if you want to be completely alone or not, and plan what you need to bring with you – tools of the trade, so to speak.

After arranging a sitter and packing my bag, here’s how I spent my mini brain vacation. I chose to keep it simple and although I wanted to be alone I did not seek solitude. There’s a little bistro / wine bar in downtown Palo Alto named Vino Locale. A small converted Victorian where locally grown produce and wines are the specialty. Their back garden was perfect for this sunny afternoon; quiet patio, soft green grass, bright scented flowers, a gurgling fountain, some shade and a gentle breeze. After ordering a salad, some artisan cheeses and a white wine sampler (yup, at 1 in the afternoon!) I unpacked my bag. I brought some new magazines for inspiration, a notebook and some pencils for doodling or writing, and a new project to play with. This one a simple scarf I've had in the back of my mind. It didn’t really matter what the project was, just that it was new and full of potential.

I left the restaurant a few hours later just one magazine, a six inch scarf, inklings for a few new projects and a list of ideas for an entire blog series on creativity and inspiration.

How about you?  How would you spend your perfect creativity-building afternoon?