Anybody who has known me for a long time knows that I'm crafty - not like the Beastie Boys song, though Marcus does sing that whenever I say I'm crafty
. The lame thing about me is that I'm extremely fickle with my crafting. It leaves a lot of UFOs (Unfinished Objects) and a huge craft room full of supplies.
When I was little, Mom taught my sister and I how to crochet. I made god-awful granny square (everything you could image - scarves, vests, doll clothes). We also used to sew a lot, too. Those desire waned and were replaced by cross-stitching. I'm not even sure exactly when I started, but I remember that even in college, I had a cross-stitch project every where I went. I even used to stitch during orchestra rehearsals (contrabassoon players had a lot of resting). That gave way to decorative painting (plaster, wood plaques, clay pots). I remember doing a lot of that the year that Marcus and I lived out in Deer Trail. When we moved back to Aurora, I was huge into digital art. I was pursuing my graphic design degree, so I drew, I made digital art, I coded web sites. Not crafty, per se, but it was my method of creation at that time. I started collecting all of my scrapbook supplies at this time, too. It's funny, I've yet to actually finish a whole scrapbook page, yet alone make an album. I think I was more in love with the supplies than the act of producing anything with them (though they do come in incredibly handy for things every now and again).
I've always wanted to learn to knit, but mom absolutely hated doing it, so she wasn't the best teacher. I tried to teach myself over the years (Marcus' mom even sent me a "Teach Yourself to Knit" kit for Christmas) and it never took. Finally, for my birthday present to myself in 2007, I splurged and took a class. The bug had been caught and every spare minute was spent knitting. I spent lots of time perusing yarn stores, I met up with knitting friends every Sunday, I surfed
Ravelry a lot. Last summer, though, I was at a quilting store in Rapid City, SD and I found the cutest wool embroidery kit. I was really enjoying hand sewing again, and I put down the knitting. Last November, the Counted Cross Stitcher group on Ravelry started a Christmas swap and, on a whim, I signed up. I hadn't done any cross-stitching since before Mom passed and I figured it was time to give it another go.
The weird thing is now I have absolutely no interest in yarn whatsoever. I drove up to Estes Park today to go to the annual Wool Market. I stopped at the yarn store up there (The Stitching Den) and found absolutely nothing I wanted. It was surreal. I did actually make a purchase there, but it was clip-on magnifiers for my glasses so that I could see my stitching better. I made my way to the local cross stitch shop (a collaborative shop of other area shops that I frequent) and picked up a couple of charts. Wasn't terribly exciting as I've seen all of it before. Then I went over to the Market and thought for sure I was going to be in danger of draining my meager checking account. Except for a print from
Sheep Incognito (I buy one crafting-related one each year for my craft room), I only found one skein of yarn I wanted. Unfortunately, it was alpaca/bison and I refuse to pay $60 for 200 yards of yarn. I walked around the vendor barn 3 separate times hoping something would catch my eye. Nothing ever did. Oh, well. Even strolling through the alpaca tent (which was very empty exhibit-wise this year) did not get me excited. I found myself at one point wishing I had just stayed home.
So, I guess I'm going with embroidery, cross-stitching and quilting at the moment. Let's see if I can actually get anything finished before I'm bitten by another crafting bug.
Name: LaDonna
