Things to do when you're bored

1. Crochet a Happy Bunny

(Much more fun than clearing out the spare room. Or any of the other rooms where the clutter nearly reaches the ceiling!)

That which cannot be named

The Ravellenic Games start on Friday. This knitting and crochet challenge is apparently inspired by some sporting event or other that's also starting then; the said sporting event sent a "cease and desist" order when Ravelry called their games the Ravelympics, so they renamed them. Maybe like Oxford Street Waterstones we should call them "Lord Voldesport - it which cannot be named".

I'm not taking part. I've tried taking part in a crochet challenge before and it took all the fun out of it. I'm taking wool and hooks on holiday with me and I'll probably turn out an object or two over the two weeks away, but I can't work to a schedule.

On the other hand, I have every intention of taking part in the madness that is Nanowrimo this November. Unlike crochet, I don't write much during the year and I always need something to set me off. Maybe it's because crochet is mostly mindless by comparison with writing, or maybe I just like the feel of wool between my fingers. Or perhaps I'm just lazy.

What about you? When you're writing, crafting, taking part in sport or whatever you do for fun, do you like a challenge or do you prefer to go at your own pace?

Silver

My younger son gets married at the weekend and I finally finished the silver shrug I was making to go with my dress.

I have silver sandals and a silver bag so I also sprayed a hat silver. It's great if you don't mind the silver coming off on your hair and fingers. So I bought one on ebay. Then I saw a better one.

How many silver hats does anyone need?

What shall I call it?

Not for sale!

I want to change my Etsy shop name because I hate it that it's currently called fairyhedge; I couldn't even get my full pseudonym accepted!

You only get one chance to rename it, ever, so I really need to get it right. I rather like the idea of My Crochet Shop but what if I start selling other things in it? Would that matter?

Any thoughts, anyone?

Shameless Plug

I made some phone cosies over the weekend and as I can only use one at a time, I've put two of them up for sale on Etsy. Please feel free to pop over there and favourite my shop!

All the cosies in the picture above are the same size, but one has a phone in it!

Busy

I've been busy. I made these:

The top two are crochet and the bottom one is knit for my sister. It's all I've been doing lately.

But today I wrote 600 words of a story. My writing mojo hasn't gone completely. Yay!

#notwriting

Pattern thanks to Attic24

This month as well as finishing a granny lap blanket I've made a hat, another hat, yet another hat, a scarf, a shawl, a bag, a soap saver, and a rainbow bird decoration.

I haven't been writing. I think I needed a break - writing was beginning to seem like work and crochet is play.

Do you ever need a break from writing, or from whatever you mostly do?

Edited to add: here's a picture of the shawl at Bab's request:

Pattern thanks to Lion Brand

In other news

Here is one I made earlier

I've had some sort of a bug, which on top of the CFS mostly had me stuck on the sofa for a week feeling too knackered to post. I dug out an old granny blanket (afghan) that I'd abandoned years ago and added a few rows and looked online for some wool (yarn). Then I found Ravelry. There should be trumpet sounds here but you'll have to imagine them.

Ravelry is a site for people who love knitting, or crochet, or both and I've found a whole host of fellow crocheters as well as learning more about how to crochet than I have in the past thirty odd years.

What's odd to me is how I seem to end up in the more marginalised section of whatever I love. Crochet is looked down on by a lot of knitters, who are in the majority. And in the same way, I've always loved reading but my favourite genre sci fi is even now often regarded as inferior and many people only seem to relate it to films. It was worse in the 60s: a girl reading sci fi! You could see by the covers the books were meant for men!

I've no idea when this is from

Being a woman, and older, and into computer games isn't entirely mainstream either. I don't do any of these things because I like to be in a minority; they just come naturally!

Are there any things that you do that put you outside the mainstream?

My work in progress

The limits of creativity

In the last few weeks I've made an elaborate birthday card for my son, a window cling for the window by the front door (see above), started knitting a winter hat and bought the materials to make a silver dolly bag to go with a some shoes I bought to wear to two weddings. I've now ordered a crochet bolero pattern so I can make a top to go over my dress for the weddings.

I haven't written a word of my story. Of any story.

Do you think that creativity has to come out somehow and if it's coming out in one direction it doesn't come out in another? I seem to be all art and crafts at the moment and nothing about writing.