Seeking Camelot: Hobbies

Ready...Set...Go!

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 18:58:13 GMT

Remember awhile back, I talked about starting a new hobby?

Well, I'm on the road to getting started. I got a gift card to Hobby Lobby as a Christmas gift and finally decided to use it this past weekend!

In my mind, I have the perfect stamp for letterboxing...it goes perfectly with my onscreen id and would just, well, be PRETTY. Unfortunately, I didn't find one like what I was looking for...not even close. So, I settled.

I mean, I need one just to get started. I can always get one (or make one) like I really want later.

I wanted something that would go with my onscreen id: Guinevere.

I settled on a Celtic cross.

This one to be exact.

Although Guinevere is actually the French form of the Welsh name Gwenhwyfar, I decided to stick with the Celtic roots.

What do you think? Is it a good starter?

Guinevere

A New Hobby? Oh, Like I Have Time!

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 16:23:15 GMT

Something I've heard about only fairly recently is letterboxing. And the more questions I ask and the more I research it online, the more I want to do it! I even know what kind of stamp I want to make for it!

Does anyone out there do this? I know of one person who reads here that does, but I'm curious how many other people do.

It just looks soooooooo fun! I even looked up my area to see if there were any because, well, frankly, I'd never heard of it until recently. It turns out there are BUNCHES of letterboxes in my area!!! I'm so excited! And so I started checking other locations that I know we're going to be in in the coming months and guess what?

There are BUNCHES there too!!! lol

This could keep me busy for awhile!!!

The best part is, though, you can do it while on errands doing other things. It's not like you have to carve out large chunks of time to work on it....unlike my beading project that is still setting on my craft table half finished.....maybe I can get back to that this weekend.

I swear I'm just a glutton for punishment....

don't I already have TOO MANY hobbies???

Oh, and I did do some knitting on a baby blanket last night...

hehe

You know what they say about idle hands....

Guinevere

A-Beading We Will Go...Hi Ho!

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 03:52:35 GMT

I was sooooo excited today when I got up! All of the work is done on our old house, so I was able to spend all day at home....HERE...in our new house! This is the first Sat. we haven't had to be up at the crack of dawn to drive to the old house to work.

Aaahhhhhhh!

It felt GREAT!

I set a goal for myself today too. I promised myself that I would unpack and put away at least four boxes of STUFF before I could so something really fun for myself...something I've been waiting since early spring to start working on.

I managed to unpack SIX boxes!

I was on a roll....so why stop at FOUR???

lol

THEN I set everything up I was going to need to work on my beading project.

I can honestly say that I've been dreaming about starting this project for MONTHS!!!!!

I'm not kidding!

The only thing I wasn't quite ready for was how small the beads actually are...and my eyes aren't as young as they used to be...those beads are positively EENSY!!!!!

(They're Delica beads for those of you who know your beads!)

Here's a pic of how small they are:

I got about 6 rows or so done:

And this is what I'll have when I get done:

It's an amulet bag and it is absolutely gorgeous! These BEADS are absolutely gorgeous! I wish the pics would do them justice!

Anyway, I'm just in bead heaven......

Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Guinevere

Knit One, Purl Two...

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 17:16:27 GMT

I love to knit. And crochet. And cross-stitch. And bead. And sew. And I’m learning to tat. I just love to do crafts. If it involves working with my hands and making things, I like it. Sometimes I even make things that I don’t particularly think are something that I could use…I just love the process. The finished product is the result of…not the sole purpose of…knitting or whatever I’m doing.

I cannot sit and just watch tv. My hands have to be doing something. It just drives me crazy to watch a movie and not be working on something. It drives M crazy too. He’s like, “How can you watch a movie when you’re not even looking at the tv?” Well, I do look at the tv quite a bit. Usually, if we’re watching something we’ve rented or something on tv that we haven’t seen, I’ll work on something mindless. I can work an entire row of knitting on something like a baby blanket without looking at what I’m doing. My hands just need to be moving. It drives me insane to sit idle.

My grandma taught me how to crochet when I was about 8 or 9 years old. When we would go to her house, she always had tons of yarn on the dining room table and was crocheting a blanket for someone. I used to just sit and watch her crochet as she and my parents visited. Finally, one day while we were at her house and Mom and Dad were gone, she showed me how to make a chain (foundation for crocheting anything). She handed me a skein of yarn and a crochet hook, then sent me on my way to the living room to work on my chain. She thought I would get frustrated with it and quit, but after about 20 minutes, I came out of the living room and said, “Now what?” My chain was about 11 feet long! She said that she knew then that I really wanted to learn, so she sat me down and showed me how to do two of the very basic crochet stitches and how to turn at the end of a row. The rest I learned on my own.

From then on, it was like a virus…the desire to make something spread into other craft medium. The biggie, though, was knitting. I had always thought it would be awesome to know how to knit! Well, no one I knew knew how to do it, so I bought a booklet and a set of size 10 knitting needles and sat down to learn. I was about 15 and learned how to purl and knit (the two basic knitting stitches) pretty quickly.

My first major project was a sweater I made for myself. It turned out so well and fit so perfectly that I wore it until it was worn out. I also made a sweater for my then best friend, who happens to now be my sister-in-law. Hers fit her perfectly too. I’ve made a huge number of baby blankets and things for other people. I hardly ever make anything for myself anymore. Every time someone I know has a baby, I’m like, “Yippy! Another excuse to knit!”

Every other craft that I’ve learned, I have also taught myself. After teaching myself to knit, I realized that I had stumbled upon an area that I’m naturally talented at. I’ve designed some small projects, but have never had the time to devote to designing a major item. I would love to, though. I have pictures in my head that I just need to get down on paper. (When I was in college, I was majoring in Art and wanted to go into either fashion design or graphic design.)

Now my daughter is at the age that she really wants to learn how to do these things. Unfortunately, I’m so busy that I don’t have the time to teach her like I want to. She is dying to learn how to sew. I’m just going to have to take some time off of work sometime to teach her how to do some of these things. She’s made a pillow on my sewing machine for her great-grandma (who adored it!), but that’s all I’ve had time to teach her to do.

I’m working on a pretty shawl right now that is very lacy and very difficult, but I love it! The harder the challenge, the more appealing it is! Maybe I’ll post a picture later…

Now I’m just waiting patiently for my size 0000 knitting needles to come in so I can start working on the Mary Ella that I first saw on Beth’s Space. Pretty pretty pretty. Of course, it’ll start out as something for me and then my daughter will end up with it…c’est la vie.

Guinevere