My crochet has not been going as quickly as it normally does or as I would like it to. I am behind on projects as many who read already know. It makes me sad I really don’t like being this behind on gifts (Yule) though I do know everyone understands. I love crochet, it is a place where I can feel content and Zen like reading only my hands are always busy as well, which is a big deal for me. I feel better if my hands are busy and being useful. I have been busy there is no doubt about that, I usually am. That isn’t the only reason why crochet has been slow recently.

You see, it seems lately that my mind turns to just about anything else to do before it turns to crochet. Spring cleaning, organizing lists, organizing supplies, organizing anything, testing and making new products (a to do task anyways but still) and other things. If you asked me a few minutes before this post why I thought I was doing that I would have shrugged and told you I have no idea. It is true, I had no idea until a few minutes ago when Dutchy sat down on one of my Yule gifts that I picked up to make myself work on it. I do love the project but I have to make myself work on it. So why?

I miss Cubby so much and that feeling hits me more when I pick up my crochet projects. Sometimes it hits so hard that I can’t see through my tears. I feel bad that I seem to downplay how hard the loss of my Pasha sweet has also been, I miss him so much too. So very much, but Cubby was Cubby. He so rarely left my side. He was my barnacle. Sure, it could be annoying sometimes, but his comforting, warm, sweet presence was always welcome. His unflagging love was always cherished. His sweet purring and moments of knowing when I needed him to be even a little closer I just never looked past a time where he wouldn’t be with me. I could not picture my life without him. Which is silly, of course, because eventually we do lose those loved ones in our life, four pawed and two pawed as it were. Yet I just never looked beyond.

Now that presence is not with me all the time. I still walk at a slower pace so he can follow along, I still pause before turning around from a counter or fridge ect because he was always right behind me. I still wait for him to climb into my lap and adjust whatever project I am working on to fit around him. Cubby adored sitting on my crochet projects. He loved taking part in that zen time for me and of course he liked snuggly warm yarn as well. I still have the crochet, but I don’t have him. I think that is why I end up putting the project away after such a short time now. Especially the holiday ones, as they were of course started when he was still here, still testing them out giving them his approval.

I am sure it will get easier as time passes, but for now it doesn’t feel like it. The world will turn and life goes on, but in the darkness of the night or the quiet moments of the light I stand still because I miss him so much.

So any reader who has spent more then 5 seconds on my blog knows that I crochet and I love to do it. What you may not know is that I am always on the hunt to find a crochet hook/handle combo that makes my hand “happy”. While my rosewood hooks make me pretty happy I don’t use them for every project sometimes I feel I need a hook with more substance on a project.

The solution I have been using for a while is the simple solution of pencil grips over the crochet hook handle.

 

This worked pretty well however, the more I crochet I found a problem I was working through the grips. Meaning I was working so much and holding the hook so much the grips were ripping and I had to buy more. I also had the problem on some of my smaller hooks that no matter how much tape I used the grip would slip down. So what is a happy hooker to do?

 

I turned to google again and I found this website DIY crochet hook handles. I was impressed and thought the hooks were pretty so I set out and even though I didn’t have all the supplies needed for the baking part I made my first handles!

 

These aren’t perfect as they are my first go. I also didn’t have the batting and enough foil to make a good tent so there is a little bit of a burning through my batches (i made 6 handles total) but overall I think I did okay for a first go and better yet they work. I took one of the hooks with my new handle to my knit night and showed everyone 🙂 I got some nice feed back. I like the weight giving me balance and I feel less hand fatigue with my handles like this so overall it is a plus for me.

I won’t do this to my rosewoods of course only my cheaper metal hooks, but hey when you are a happy hooker you have to have a variety of crochet hooks! Next up..I am hoping to try out some works of art by Furls..

 

 

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Happiness is a Needle and Thread Away!

Turns out, it is possible to knit yourself into a better state of mind.

Clinical psychologist Ann Futterman-Collier who runs the Well Being Lab at Northern Arizona University, is studying what Arizona Public Radio station KNAU calls “Textile Therapy” — the emotional benefits of knitting, as well as crocheting, weaving and quilting.

“People basically have a vacation from their problems,” she tells KNAU. “They can forget about what’s bothering them, and they get into something in the moment that energizes them, that leads to the repair in mood.”

Futterman-Collier studied 60 women suffering from various levels of stress. She had them either work with textiles, write or meditate. During their respective activities, the women kept track of their moods. And for good measure, Futterman-Collier also took saliva samples, monitored their heart rates to determine their stress levels and measured their inflammation. She then compared the stress-reducing results of each of the three activities.

“Textile handcraft making was associated with the greatest mood repair, increases in positive, decreases in negative mood,” she tells KNAU. “People who were given the task to make something actually had less of an inflammatory response in the face of a ‘stressor’.”

Futterman-Collier’s conclusion jibes with other research on the benefits of handcrafting hobbies. In January, Yahoo Makers looked at three similar projects:

Betsan Corkhill, a licensed physiotherapist and founder of Stitchlinks.com, published a report of knitting’s health benefits, which she says includes curbing anxiety attacks. “You are using up an awful lot of brain capacity to perform a coordinated series of movements,” she said. “The more capacity you take up by being involved in a complex task, the less capacity you have for bad thoughts.”
A very small (38 participants) study in the Eat Weight Disorders journal found knitting had positive effects on women suffering from eating disorders.
A study in the OTJR: Occupation, Participation and Health journal cited the benefits of needlecraft in blocking negative thoughts, calming oneself through repetitive motions, and providing opportunities to socialize in knitting groups and social circles.

As for her own textile therapy study, Futterman-Collier tells KNAU: “People basically have a vacation from their problems. They can forget about what’s bothering them, and they get into something in the moment that energizes them, that leads to the repair in mood.”

So if that old saying is true and “idle hands are the devil’s workshop,” hands that are busy knitting might be the workshop for positive thoughts.

I am doing three projects at once right now I think my crochet ADD has started in full. This blanket started out as an earthtone blanket for my Aunt. It still is of course but the more i put the colors together and watched as it went the more I noticed. I subconsciously seem to have created a woodland elf theme. I am really enjoying how it is coming out and the progress that it has taken. This pattern is also very fun to work. When I am finished I may make an attempt to write out my first pattern. I am not sure yet. So much to think about in 2015 so far so behold the Greenleaf blanket.

Here we have the first row, doesn’t look like much but they never do when they first start out.

Ah now we can start to see the pattern more. 5 rows of the first color and starting on that first row of the next.

It is fun watching the colors come together and I really like the third in this one.

Another green and you can really see what my first plan was. Descending shades of each color. Kind of like an Ombre but split up.

I was not sure how much I liked the 5th color at first but the more I did and the more it came together I decided it really wasn’t so bad.

and last but not least the lightest green in the bunch.

I really am loving this design one thing I can say though is it overall uses more yarn then any of the others I have done so far except perhaps for the aligned cobble.

These crochet button flowers are the perfect way to brighten up a crochet or sewing project and to use old buttons you don’t know what to do with.