Making Time

Keeping a craft blog is not easy. I just published a post over at Whipup.net that I had been composing for a little while for tips on starting a craft blog. One of the comments so far mentions how you should talk about yourself and your life on your blog… and I think this is an interesting point… I think there is a certain amount of utopian-vision in a craft blog, and an idealized domestic fantasy. Is it all bad?

In a ‘bad mood’ moment, Scratch Craft boldly said she was jealous of the ‘big craft blogs’.

“I have just decided that I hate, no loathe, crafty girly blogs. I’m starting to question what was it about those blogs that made me want to start my own. I get so jealous of the big craft blog girls, they make amazing things and maintain the site. And of course you read their profile and it’s some stay at home mom, which just makes me wonder where do they get the time?”

I know what she means about the SAH (stay at home) craft blogs. I’ve lived in a house with four children, and I know what turmoil that is, so you have to wonder how they can do it all? I suppose in other ways I’m jealous too. I would love to be raising a family, and decorating a house and generally nesting… but that is not the direction I pointed myself in so many years ago.

I work full-time, study japanese, live in Japan (so try to do required touristing), live with my boyfriend, try and cook and bake at home, make the place homey, socialize as often as i can, and try to veg as much as I can, and I write on a couple blogs…. so it’s hard to balance it all. I crochet in all the little cracks and spaces in between but I’m not as prolific as I would like to be.

And on top of that posting online takes alot of time. Before I make a post on a topic, I look online to see what others might have said, so I can link to them. All this ‘research’ takes alot of time.

And on top of that, I’ve probably been too impersonal and dry, and created some utopian vision of creativity and making things. It’s all too much to bear.

Through Michelle of Green Kitchen I saw this article Touch the Spindle wrote about the way craft blogs show a kind of smoothed over image of life.

“I notice, as I read through several (million) blogs out there, a dearth of, well… reality. Is it the nature of craft bloggers (especially the “popular” ones, you know who they are) to just kind of skip over the sticky bits of life? I wonder about what is really going on sometimes…maybe we blog to create a world we most desire, or as an escape, or (in my case) as a way to re - invent ourselves as we would prefer others to see us. Is everyone really so skinny, happy, satisfied, creative and fulfilled? In any case, there’s a lot missing about messy relationships, addictions, resentments and other darkness. I think the silence is deafening.”

I thought that was very true. The craft world is more product-focused. I guess for me, I see this blog as a showcase and focus for my crafting specifically, so I don’t have alot of other personal info on it as well. I can see now that I don’t want to be projecting any image of a perfect life in anyway.

But I don’t know if I feel that comfortable sharing personal intricacies. I don’t want to share trials and tribulations of my family and friends (since it’s not my business to share). I am a person here though, and I do try and share my process here… I just don’t know what the boundaries should be.

If anyone has read my blog and thought I was projecting some kind of domestic fantasy, I promise I didn’t mean to.

A couple of years ago, I made a post on my old blog about sharing old vintage patterns, and some copyright intricacies that I discovered. I was wanting to share patterns from a cool crochet book of vintage patterns edited by Jane Waller. I had learned that since the famous Disney ruling, copyright has more strict and essentially, some feel it is making works hard to find, share, and enjoy.

and this insight came from ookpik:

“see how useless this extended copyright term is to anyone except giant disney types? most of the pirated stuff on these boards has not been in print (i.e., profitable) for decades, and copyright protection does nothing except relegate it to obscurity.”

The book I was enquiring about was: Jane Waller, (ed), A Stitch in Time, knitting and crochet patterns of the 20s, 30s & 40s, G. Duckworth, London, 1972
Examples from the book online, but without patterns. The photo is NOT from her book, I just want to add a pic, it’s from Designing Britain website

Apparently, a fan found my mention of her on my old site, and wrote in to tell me that Jane is still writing books, and has a new vintage crochet book coming out in the autumn!

“Hi, I found your web site while doing a Google search for Jane Waller and I note that you posted back in 2004 about sharing some old patterns from one of her books. I expect you sorted out the copyright legalities by now but did you know that Jane is still around and publishing? She has a new pattern book due out this autumn: The 1940s Knitting Pattern Bookand a whole personal website.
http://www.janewaller.org.uk/
I own a few of her books and am a great fan as I enjoy the old patterns.”

This is great to know. Of course I could not knit my way out of a slipknot, but I think others might enjoy this news. Thank you, Judith!

If you’re wondering why it’s so quiet here lately, I’ve been spending some time at WhipUp.net as a craft agony-aunt with a new column Whiptips! Please send in your questions!

Whiptips is an crafts advice column for readers to ask questions or offer advice by leaving your comments. View the Whiptips archive here. You can submit questions, to whiptips@gmail.com. Please include photos with your questions! And a link to your own blog

Writing for Whipup, which is a big group craft blog has been amazing. Behind the scenes, each writer puts alot of thought into every post. It’s a great resource. It has some of the most prolific crafters. I wish I was more prolific myself!

I suppose I need to do a little less surfing and a little more making!

okay, i know it’s spelled sherbet but it sounds like sherbert. anyway, this is one from my photo archives. just another one of those things of mine which are packed away in storage while i’m here in japan. another thing to miss, i suppose.

i made this before i had heard of the word ‘amigurumi’ and just thought ‘crocheted bunny rabbit’.

I made this out of some very light soft mohair that i rescued from my nana’s stash of yarn. i could not have kept it all and saved this only. and made this rabbit. i loved the way the light was glowing through the synthetic translucency of it all. Flickr tells me this photo was “Taken on October 4, 2004 ()” I guess I was back in Ireland then… and spending most of the time working with this yarn thinking about Nana knitting, and how precious this one skein of yarn was.

This is how I constructed the bottom. It’s weird… I left holes for the arms and legs. it did make it more awkward. I think I might have been trying to conserve yarn.

this is him before piecing

i used an egg shape on the frog, and also on this bird. i made her little chick as a pompom, and the egg shell for him to sit in.

i should have photographed my first attempt to do the egg shell using a picot stitch. it did not look right at all!

i ended up stitching down her kerchief. while i believe in removable clothes, it just was not sitting right, since it was so small. i used stitches to hold it open around her face. this improved her profile.

someone left a comment on my blog asking for more how-to photos.

i used to just go fully freestyle, and not make much of a plan. but when i attempted to do a frog it came out like this:

now, i like to start with sketches. i had a general idea that i needed an egg shape for the body. and cylinders for the forelegs. but i could not decide whether i would do the back legs long, or like big circles as if he was sitting.

so i started on the first part of the design and pinned him together. it was easier to get an idea of how he’d look then.

i decided in the end to keep them long, because then he was more floppy and moveable. voila!

i had such a hard time with their faces, and their ears. i’m not entirely pleased… and this has made them despair.
i tried doing the nose with felt: not good. so i redid them with pink wool yarn.

I liked the brown bear I made for the Coloriffic Swap-o-rama swap so much, that I made a new littly guy like him. A bit smaller! I tried to make him with longer arms like the early 20th century bears. They had long arms, because they were styled more closely to real bears and were meant to walk on all fours. Oh I should post the sketches!
The wool was leftover from yarn hair for a doll, it’s wool, and I used a 2.5mm hook- so the final fabric is nice and firm. I like doing psuedo-joints. It means he’s poseable, but it’s a lot less fuss.

I could not get plastic eyes small enough, so I made them out of small blue felt circles, and embroidered black dots into the middle, which also anchored them.

Both me and my swap partners have officially received our swap packages for PurplePinkandOrange softies swap. I can’t figure it out, I think we’re supposed to post the pix on either swapbot or the main website.
I was excited to my swap partner (to send to) was Kristin from Kleas, because I have been to her site before. So I wanted to give her something super special, and make a challenge for myself. I attempted quilt-making, and also made my first pincushion: a block of cheese. She really likes the wee mouse, and she calls him Itty! What a cute name. I’m very happy for little Itty.

Belinda Bunny arrives in Japan!

I received my PurplePinkandOrange softies swap too!. What a cutie. When we opened the package here, we did full belly laughs. She’s very funny! My boyfriend named her Belinda, which is very appropriate.

She is made by Janet Wilkinson, thank you Janet! (Thanks for the other doo-dads too!) You can see Janet’s work here at Flickr, and on her site. She is fully made of recycled materials. There is even fabric from Janet’s prom dress on Belinda. Very fancy!

Janet wrote me, having thought that the PPO Softies swap was one-to-one, and she’d be receiving a crocheted fella from me, not knowing it was random partners. So we’re actually planning on doing another swap after this. She’s going to make me a dress!! I’m so happy.

All in all, a very happy swap experience was had by all.

japanese paper dolls

Originally uploaded by feather.

these are vintage japanese paper dolls. i worry about ephemera, they are in great condition, but you can tell they are yellowing at the back.

such crazy colors, i love their ‘outfits’.

if you’d like more vintage japanese eye-candy, i found a flickr group for it! vintage japan!