Pay It Forward: Handmade Edition 2011

In the beginning of this year, my friend Amy over at Mrs. Darsie’s Menegarie participated in the Facebook/blog meme, Pay It Forward: Handmade Edition.

Basically, she promised to send something handmade to the first 5 people who left a comment on her blog post. I was excited that I was able to be involved! This has been on my to-post list. Since I hadn’t been posting regularly, I had completely forgotten about it!

It wasn’t until I came home after knit-night on Tuesday evening that I saw a package waiting for me on my workstation. Puzzled, I looked at the return label and I remembered that Amy had mentioned that I should be on the “snail-mail” lookout.  To my surprise it was her pay-it forward package to me! And pay-it forward she did!

Below are two gorgeous hand-spun by Amy skeins. 

Van Gogh's Starry Night with Tardis by TerryLightfoot.

This soft blue fiber has been amazingly spun with silver crochet thread, giving it a glamorous look and feel. It is cleverly named, “T.A.R.D.I.S” after my favorite means of vehicular space transportation, from the BBC show, Doctor Who.

Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor, Episode 13 "The Big Bang"

The deep velvety red skein, “Bow Ties Are Cool”, is inspired by the 11^th Doctor from the series, in which he wears a red bow-tie and is a fan of red Fez hats.

I absolutely love the two skeins. They are totally me! Thanks so much Amy! This has become the inspiration I needed to keep knitting away at my current projects so that I can start on my very on Pay It Forward! 

• Pay It Forward: Handmade Edition 2011 •

I promise to send something handmade to the first 5 people who leave a comment here.  They in turn must post this and send something they make to the first 5 people to comment on their blog.  The rules are that it must be handmade by you and it must be sent to your 5 recipients sometime in 2011.

While I know some of you are not active bloggers, but are active followers, I am willing to break my little promise and offer you the chance at a handmade item by me as well. Maybe it will inspire you. So comment away my dear friends. :)




with peace, love, unity, and respect,
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

The Beat Goes On

Happy Wednesday!

This post is inspired by my friend Amy over at Mrs. Darsie's Menagerie. Part of her recent post was about listing mini goals each month via her blog. She was inspired by Lisa over at Ruby Corundum. Great idea, so I'm having a go at it too!

I was going to start listing goals next month, but with that in mind, I knew I wouldn't post until then. April is going to be quite the busy month for me. It doesn't seem like it is yet, but we're still in the first week.

My goals for this month:

♥ Finish knitting an over-due baby blanket

This is quite the heavy task, considering it was never on my to-knit list. I was basically handed the yarn from someone with a thank you. And that's it. You can see why I'm so passionate about it. /sarcasm

♥ Continue on DB's Anniversary Waffles scarf

I started the pattern with reading the repeat incorrectly. Realized about 6 inches into it. I've since taken it out and have started again. Good thing it gets chilly in the summertime here.

♥ Magically finish 4 seed stitch crochet cowls

My Dad really loved the cowl I made for myself & said it would be perfect for the ladies in his motorbike club. I had him pick out some knitpicks cotton & so he chose 3 colors, plus one for himself. I've at least started one.

♥ Afternoon Tins

Spend a crafty afternoon with my dear friend Heather. We're planning to decoupage some tins to house stitch markers. Our goal is to get them done before our local Shop Hop in May.

♥ Blog more!

I really enjoyed blogging nearly daily last week so I'd like to continue to post regularly. My idea is to give myself topics that I can write about while also staying true to my blogs purpose (see banner). I've written some cosmetic ideas down as well, I just need to find the time to figure them out.

Wow, it seems like a short list and I'm sure there are a couple of things I'm leaving out. At least it's a start!

What kind of goals do you have this month? Also, I'd love to hear some ideas for my blog! Is there anything you'd like to see featured or posted? Let me know, thanks! :)

with peace, love, unity, and respect,

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Where to Craft? That is the Last Q.

Day seven: 3rd April. Your knitting and crochet time.

Write about your typical crafting time. When it is that you are likely to craft – alone or in more social environments, when watching TV or whilst taking bus journeys. What items do you like to surround yourself with whilst you twirl your hook like a majorette’s baton or work those needles like a skilled set of samurai swords. Do you always have snacks to hand, or are you a strictly ‘no crumbs near my yarn!’ kind of knitter.

Yesterday was the last day of Knit and Crochet Blog Week, and sadly I was unable to make it to the finish line. Not that there was an actual race between bloggers, but I had set myself up for my own goal to write each day. My intentions were fallen short when DB (darling boyfriend) and I stayed up to the wee bit hours of Sunday morning, thus causing us to sleep until Sunday afternoon. So my schedule was totally off. Especially because it was such a lovely day out that the last thing we wanted to do was to stick to a schedule.

So out went the list and out we went too! To enjoy the beautiful day we had with 70 degree weather, clear skies and vivid blue waters.

Lover's Point, Pacific Grove, Ca

Now you can truly see why I was not at home blogging away. I also was not at home crafting in my favorite area of our place: my craft table. It is located in our dining room since we do not have a proper dining table yet. Here you can find me passionately crafting away with all of my tools neatly organized by craft type and easily accessible. 


I'll sometimes sit and yarn away in our living room, either on the floor or the couch while catching up on Gossip Girl or House. You can imagine that I do not get much knitting accomplished when Hugh Laurie is on. *winks at Ang*


Another favorite spot of mine to craft, particularly yarning, is with my crafting group. I enjoy the companionship with other like minded crafters and the fact that we can all go out to dinner each Tuesday. I always leave feeling so inspired by everyone. On gorgeous days such as the one we had yesterday, we'll meet up for brunch over at the Beachside Cafe for views of the bay or we'll meet for coffee. We don't do this as often as I'd like, so my hopes for this year (and has been for a bit now) is to expand the group. Perhaps offer more knitting night options or different brunch options. 


We are getting off to a great start though! My favorite coffee spot in town is Coffee Mia. Here is where I met my new friend Danell who suggested we meet every other Saturday morning. Our first meeting was a couple of weeks ago and there was quite a turn-out.

Central Coast Crafters at Coffee Mia • Marina, CA

In the photo above, you'll notice that I am actually knitting with DPNs! I knitted a toddler sized hat for one of our members. Sadly, I did not take any photos. Hopefully she can provide some for me.


So this wraps up 2011 Knit & Crochet Blog Week for me! I've read a couple of other blogs that have also done the Wild Card post for kicks, but I'm not one for embellishments, besides the basic amigurumi buttons, safety eyes, stuffs. But I will add that for my first time, I have really enjoyed participating and I'll definitely be doing it again next year!


It's given me a new drive to keep posting too. How about you? Did you partake? Share your story + blog. Love to follow ya! ♥


as always,
with peace, love, unity, and respect,
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Something To Aspire To

Something to aspire to – 2KCBWDAY6 Is there a pattern or skill that you don’t yet feel ready to tackle but which you hope to (or think you can only dream of) tackling in the future, near or distant? Is there a skill or project that makes your mind boggle at the sheer time, dedication and mastery of the craft? Maybe the skill or pattern is one that you don’t even personally want to make but can stand back and admire those that do. Maybe it is something you think you will never be bothered to actually make bu can admire the result of those that have.

While I am still relatively new to knitting regularly now, I will say that I aspire to learn more than just knit and purl. Ha!


Seriously though, whenever I see a hand knitted item, I immediately think about the pattern design aspects. Did they sketch it out beforehand? How long did it take them to write it all out?


Coming from a background in crochet, in which I free-form a lot, I am finding that sticking to an actual knitting pattern is becoming increasingly difficult.


So when thinking about aspiring to a particular craft or crafting skill, I suppose I admire the many knitting designers. The more I've been knitting, the more I feel like wanting to design my own patterns. Just the skill and time it takes to write it all out is amazing to me! 


I do have a couple of crochet patterns written by me, scattered in my big box of piles of patterns. I suppose this is a start to dabbling into pattern designing. I'm not sure if any of them will be published, since they're more for my personal use and scribbled really. But I am happy to report that one of my patterns will be published soon! 


I am currently in the middle of sending off a crochet pattern I wrote a couple of weeks ago to someone interested in testing it. It's my seed stitch cowl that I created last November.

Pattern: Seed Stitch Crochet Cowl
Yarn: Sunshine Yarns Worsted
Color: Vampire

Hopefully if testing goes well, I will soon post it via ravelry.com and my blog.


This brings me to something else I aspire to: craft vlogging! I read so many different blogs, many of them craft related. Some of them are vlogs, which I totally heart and would love to someday create! Maybe I can video my own patterns or WIPs or even FOs. Wouldn't that be neat?! 


What types of videos would you be interested in? Instructional, random chatter, fun? Share in your comment. ♥ Also, what are your aspirations? 




with peace, love, unity, and respect,
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

KCBWDAY5: Amigurumi Love

And now for something completely different - KCBWDAY5

This is an experimental blogging day to try and push your creativity in blogging to the same level that you perhaps push your creativity in the items you create.

There are no rules of a topic to blog about but this post should look at a different way to present content on your blog. Examples: wordless photographic post, video blog post, podcast, etc.

peace, love, unity and respect,

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥