Monday, March 26, 2012

Lady Crafts

I finally succumbed to peer pressure and read The Hunger Games.  I remember two years ago when Shorty was raving about it, and as she told me about it, I kept thinking how it may not be appropriate subject matter for a sixth grader--sounded so violent!  I also have a tendency to avoid teen fiction (don't get me started about Twilight!) because, while I still don't quite feel like a grown up, I am a realist and have a hard time relating to 16 year old girls.

Anyway, while it is quite the gory read, I am so glad I finally sat down and gave it a chance.  Katniss is not your typical teen age girl and after I spent two nights with my nose buried in a book for the first time in ages, I had a lot to think about.  Like fear and control and oppression and strength and survival and love in the most horrible of places.  For some reason it kept bringing me back to thinking about a conversation I had with ERL after watching a Twilight Zone (or was it Outer Limits?).  Either way, it was about a post-apocalyptic future and he turned to me and said, "You know, you ladies with your needles and hooks are really going to save us all."

He's so right!  I've read a few things about the feminist movement and that many woman dropped crafts, not only to go into the workforce, but because they felt knitting, crocheting, embroidery and things of that nature were anti-feminist.  Things have shifted back the other way and woman are learning to do those things once again, learning the skills from their mothers, friends, books and the wonderful world wide web.  I for one intend to pass down what I've learned (and am still learning) to my daughters so that they too can learn that there is nothing more feminist then women sharing valuable skills with one another and the world.  I know that I can mend torn clothing and crochet a basket out of anything rope-like, and for that, I feel empowered.

Maybe these skills aren't the most important on the survival skills ladder, but since I know I will likely struggle to kill something for food, the least I can do is make a pretty pillow.

Oh yeah, I made a pretty pillow!



Yet another gorgeous design from Doodle Stitching :)

Get out there and make something pretty (or useful) ladies!  I think I might just find a stick and a blade and whittle myself a crochet hook...

Friday, March 2, 2012

X Stitchin

Productive week here at home!  Not only have I been spring cleaning/organizing, but I have also checked an item off of my WIP list (huge granny square blanket for the couch, started, oh I dunno, a year ago???) and completed a swap over on Craftster!

This was for the Hoopla swap (check out the gallery!).  The theme was Negative Space or Silhouette, which was a great opportunity to make one of the patterns from A Rainbow of Stitches that I've just been itching to do.   It pales in comparison to some of the amazingly creative hoops made for this swap, but I'm very happy with it and it was really fun to try!


I have a nice running list of more projects from that book, which has both embroidery and cross stitch designs in it, so I'm all set to stitch up a storm.

I've also discovered that I LOVE cross stitch magazines from the UK.  A little steep in price for a magazine at $9.99 a piece, but when I looked into getting a subscription it was going to be around 150 USD yikes!  I'll stitck to buying them when I can find them at Jo-Ann!  They are packed full of charts though, so worth the price if you plan on doing a lot of stitching!

This little one was from Cross Stitch Crazy magazine, Issue 155, which was packed full of really cute small, Asian themed charts.  I'm definitely making more of these, there are 5 different Geisha and tons of cherry blossoms and koi fish designs.


Two more needlework swaps in the work so I'll get to stitchin!  Hope y'all have a fabulous weekend!
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