DodoTheHooker

My first batch of yarn for my Elf Coat has finally arrived! It's had a tortuous journey to get to me. I originally ordered it in early December and it was posted before the Christmas rush. However, the postie decided not to leave it at my door and just returned it to sender without trying a redelivery or leaving it with a neighbour. I'll put it down to a new postie on a Christmas job who didn't know the code to get in or the ins and outs of the mail.

I contacted the mill who were now on Christmas break and they offered to send me another parcel once they were back in the New Year, which I accepted. I got an email to say it would be delivered but that because they couldn't get in, they took it to the local post office. I got home, checked the closing time; I still had an hour. I quick marched up to the post office only to find it shut an hour early. “They'll be open Saturday 0900-1700 though!” Ok, I'll go back. Finally picked it up on Saturday and opened the box. The colours look amazing in person, pictures don't do them justice!

Last night, in a fit of excitement to get started, I decided to ball up the dark blue skein. I still had a ball winder from my last Crochet Journey, but I'd given the swift away to Charity some time ago. I researched how to wind it without a swift and found I could use the back of a chair. “This can cause issues, however, as it can cause tangling” said many of the sites I read. “I'll be fine,” I thought “How hard can it be?”...

I spent a good 2 hours and several restarts due to uneven tension and a messy ball before I finally had something vaguely resembling a ball of yarn. I have no doubt it will fall apart on me during unraveling, but it should be enough to get a swatch done and check my tension for the project.

As a certain Scottish Actor once said: “Allons-y!”

#CrochetJourney #Crochet #FiberArts #FibreArts

This blog is going to be used to share my thoughts, ponderings and wonderings on my Crochet journey, my second.

To start, I will share a quote by Martha Graham:

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you.”

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I think the TL;DR of that is “Create whatever you want, no matter what your feelings on it are, because it will be uniquely you”, which is something I definitely struggled with in my first crochet journey, as I would make mistakes and I would feel that the piece was “ruined”.

This time round, I want to try and work past that feeling and create anyway. Part of my reasons for restarting my Crochet journey are desire to have a hobby that is not solely screen-based, and to have something I can do away from a screen. The other is to help my mental health, which my first Crochet journey did, and now that I'm going through a lot of personal issues, I want to try to head off any issues I may encounter, and even counter them by making new friends both online and IRL.

I already have a plan on what my first big make is going to be, and that is a coat which is following the Elf Coat pattern by Morale Fiber, although it will have some slight alterations to make it a little more suitable for a man, as the pattern is designed to be dress-like. I've already chosen the yarn I will use, which will be John Arbon Textiles Devonia in Moon Bloom and Dark Skies. The desire to make this coat comes from my other new hobby which is my Dungeons & Dragons character. My character is a Druid, and although the pattern is titled Elf coat, I think with some minor alterations, it will be good for a druid too. I wanted to make it a dark forest green, but decided that green doesn't suit me as well as blue, and that blue could still be a good colour for a Druid.

Stay tuned for further developments.

#CrochetJourney #Crochet #DnD #MentalHealth