Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Crafting Away

High school for me was a a total blur -- I don't even know how I survived since what I remember the most is looking out the wooden jalousie windows into the rolling hills beside my school building and daydreaming. Until Home Ec time. Every year, Home Ec has a certain theme or craft that we have to study. I hated most sewing topics and I would even fake an illness to go to the clinic just to avoid cross-stitching for 40 minutes. My mom, a talented all-around homemaker, would do all the cross-stitching and dressmaking for me. But what I totally loved about Home Ec were crocheting and knitting. I used to sit at home and crochet useless stuff like doilies and coasters which we didn't use. My knitting project was a 2-color zippered pouch bag with heart designs and I totally loved making it. I knitted sporadically after college, making projects like my brother's hockey leg warmers that I never finished. I've had big and small crochet hooks; metal and wooden knitting needles; skeins of multi-colored yarns and threads but I never really did get around to making a major project.

Early this year, my office allowed me to work at home and this presented a great opportunity for me to take up hobbies again. As always, I gravitated to crocheting and knitting. Unfortunately, years of working in an office do nothing to hone your crafty skills so I had to look for a way to re-learn how to cast-on, do cute stitches and even to properly hold a hook or a pair of needles. A great book found its way to my hands (thanks to Booksale, my favorite 2nd-hand bookstore} and it's the Reader's Digest Complete Guide To Needlework. Surprisingly, I have learned to appreciate sewing thanks to this book, but I still do hate cross-stitching. Needless to say that this book single-handedly sparked my own internal crafts revolution and is fueled by all the wonderful art and craft projects I see on the web.

Needlework book

No comments:

Post a Comment