Stuck in Ruts

Eurgh, I feel awful that I haven't blogged or created anything awesome in the longest time. But trying to manage 15 assignments due in over the next 7 weeks for the 5 psychology subjects I'm completing this semester (which is just suicide by the way!) between Penrith and Bankstown campus is an exhausting hellhooooole. But eh, it's my last semester left of uni forever and ever so I may as well go out with a bang. A big bang! A bang of scrap paper, printer ink, powerpoint presentations, portable flash drives, cans of energy drink, and soup bowl sized mugs of sweet sweet tea.

My point is.. watch this space! Once my assignments die down a little and there's an opening for a little needle or sewing action, there'll be a craft explosion around here with more blogging, photographing, knitting, sewing, painting, and drawing than your cyberlife has room for.

Till then.

Recap

Here are some quick photographs of some of my very first attempts at knitting and crocheting! Except for the first two pictures of me--a friend from work gave me this gorgeous piece of fabric that was block printed by hand in India in the 70's. It was used a few times as a table cloth but I've washed it, hemmed it, and turned it into an ethnic-feel wrap dress. Tricky stuff, that dress is held up by a belt and a knot!

Following are a knitted scarf, knitted handwarmers (super warm!), a crocheted stuffed owl, a crocheted beret, a muff with faux fur lining (super extra warm!), knitted beanie, crocheted brooch, grey handwarmers, striped beanie, crocheted phone pouch, a crocheted jewelry bowl, and the first beanie I ever knitted in my life!

Social Action Projects

I have two main projects forthcoming that will feature predominantly in my knitting and handmaking activities for the next few/many weeks. I got sneaky and tried to find a way to bring my crafty obsession into the realm of academia--in plain words, I've decided to do some knitting and crocheting for the major assessments for two of my subjects at uni this semester.

But I've aligned it with a good cause so it's not just some futile attempt to get easy marks doing what I love. Firstly, I want to practically address the concept of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink for my Peace, Sustainability, & World Futures subject; I've tried to consciously turn RRRR into my motto and I believe I'm doing okay as of late (switching off appliances at the wall, checking taps for leaks before bed or going out, shorter showers, turning off engine at drive-thru, eco-bags!). Specifically for this unit, I have plans to crochet ordinary plastic bags into much larger, virtually indestructible reusable shopper bags to take to the supermarket for groceries etc. I do need to come up with some more ideas but essentially, I want to give old items a new purpose for the Greener good. Towards the final days of that subject, I also plan to distribute my handmade resurrected items to students at my university with a pamphlet outlining some tips for going green and making it fun and do-able.

I'm tossing up the idea of whether or not I should hand out my items in exchange for a gold coin donation to be forwarded to an appropriate charity... I suppose it would do no harm; if people want to donate, then good on them!

My other big project is for Community Development: Education for Soccial Justice. The project will involve knitting (or generally handmaking) baby clothes, booties, and blankets with other willing members of the community in order to donate them to the RPA Hospital for the neonatal intensive care unit--for premature babies and newborns. I'm very excited about this one because it will involve the input and effort of more people than just myself. I started my first baby beanie today :-) Tiny things are just so precious!

My dear friend Sandra is making an appearance at my house this afternoon (today is our Craft Day Saturday) so it's just going to be fun-filled with yarn and thread and chai tea and Hungarian bread and laughing and love!