Without Guilt, and not bothering about the Plagiarism or copyright issues, I went ahead placing an order for the yarn from the link provided by the same blog.The yarn arrived and I couldn’t wait to start …The colors were tempting and inviting, thanks to my mother who had taught me how to use the Crochet hook, and with a great desire to achieve the same, I embarked on this journey to fulfill my dark ambitious pursuit, I sat on my chair to pen down the details of this unknown design, With hitches and glitches, with more Huff’s and few Oops, finally I cracked the design and made my way into transforming nothing into a little something and started pouring  life into the yarn. 

With days passing by, I was more excited,With chain by chain, step by step, it continued to grow, minute by minute, day by day and it soon became a part of my life,   

I forgot to eat, it affected my sleep, sometimes, it kept me away from the things which I otherwise would do, it became an addiction. To hook!

Now surprise,Everyone would agree with me when i write that a person’s thinking usually shapes his personality.

To read further Pls Click on Next Page,Thanks.

While this blanket was taking a shape, I saw my happiness getting reduced, I started feeling guilty in taking pride to own something that  dint belong to me. To borrow someones work was not me.

 With time and with a difference to my otherwise straight approach, the journey soon saw some hurdles. It made me restless; day after day, the speed came down. I became impatient and I wanted this blanket to get over soon, so that I could free myself from this unpleasant tiresome journey.

              Still,i continued the travel on this blanket,as giving up something was again not I.But now with a guilt.Positive thinking can build creativity,and the opposite can collapse it.                 My journey with guilt couldn’t proceed long, as the time went by, I developed a love-hate relationship with this blanket, and one day when positive thinking overtook the dark shade of my desire, I felt threatened and I stopped working on this blanket.Those beautiful colours disappeared and they lost charm in my eyes. 

They reduced to  only bundles of pale yarn.

               For days,i ignored them,for monthsi dint see them,they sat quietly in the closet wrapped tightly in a plastic, no complains, no noise, accidentally I would come across them, they would stare at me, I felt more guilty at their silence.To weave love into the yarn was the most difficult thing, not hooking.

 Another Surprise:One day, suddenly something came flying into my head, I thought to myself,

 “One can copy someone’s idea, but not the Interest”. Even copying involves one to apply his mind, apply his head working,It required my time, it involved my attention, to think, to see the exact product of someone Else’s creation.Not to offend Creativity,it involves seeing the result of one’s imagination even before someone has actually started to design it or create it.

And a more compromised definition meant which appeared to me then was-If someone offers a readymade picture of their imagination, then its half job done.Idea can be copied, but not the interest and certainly not the product.

I beg your apologies,here, I was not just hitting the lifeless keys on the keyboard pasting some one’s exact lines into my article. and I’m not even advocating or favouring anybody to copy, Mind you!

I just  accepted something  which convinced me, and I pulled out the yarn from the suffocating plastic, and now I was at a serious task, a task of wanting to see the blanket grow again, while I resumed back to my work, something stroke my rhythm, it was the involvement which I started to have with this blanket, Now it became a sweet addiction, it was no more some body’s idea to me, it required dedication, it needed me to take time to pay attention towards all the minute details which resulted in a look-alike product of someone Else’s creation, I’m not defending,but it required patience, and moreover it asked for my  interest. This hook set me into the moment, it was as if, it was playing with my hands, yarn after yarn; row after row; color after color, it helped me get over my guilt and a kind of harmony set in.I learnt to make Peace with my Guilt. 

 And what a journey it was, from a beautiful mess to a Cozy Bliss!

Moral of my journey -The only way is to get over Guilt is to Proceed.     And here it is, Take a look.

    PS: To own this Bliss, click on the  link  below and don’t have a guilt,

                                            http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/neat-ripple-pattern.html

    Thank you Lucy for your inspiration. Hope you had a fulfilling Journey!

Bon-Voyage!  Good Reading!

1. Read a book

I used to hate when my parents told me to “go read a book” until I realized how fun it could be. My latest read is 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It is such an interesting novel that I don’t want to finish it because I love it so much. Other books I enjoy: The History of Love by Nicole Krauss; Hope For the Flowers by Trina Paulus; Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer; and everything by Charles Bukowski.

2. Crochet

This is an easy thing that you can do while you are doing other things. It is relatively inexpensive and pretty easy to learn. Check out any crocheting websites for tips and tricks.

3. Make something. There are tons of things you can make like

1. At home body salts

It is easy enough to add a couple of teaspoons of sea-salt, some lavender oil, and olive oil to create your very own bath salts. Also coffee grounds are great for reducing the appearance of cellulite. 

2. Jewelry

If you have some string and antique buttons lying around this is a great way to re-use them.

3. Postcards

I love sending them but I hate buying them. You can purchase postcard backs from online stores to create your very own postcards with personalized drawings or pictures.

4. Refurbish Furniture

All you need is a staple gun, fabric, and creativity!

4. Write a letter

I know it seems outdated but I am sure your daughter/son, father, lover, and old friend from college would love to get some mail. 

5. Relax

Take a yoga class, meditate, listen to music while taking a nap, take a bath (use your homemade bath salts) or just chill outside with a drink. Try: Spring Water: 10 lemons, 1 1/4 ounce of vodka, a squirt of tonic water, club soda, fill with sprite. 

Enjoy!

Since I started crocheting I’ve had a lot of compliments on my scarf, so I sort of did a little survey on people I know come to find out there are a lot that would like to have a crochet scarf, hat, and mittens. So I though why not I could make complete matching sets and sell them. I already have several orders so Im so once I go back to school I could end up with a lot more

So I decided to start a website and display what I have so far. Here you can order what I have listed so far. I will be adding more to it and adjusting the website as needed to make it better. This is my first time doing something so Im sure I will be adjusting it as I go. I hope that everyone will visit.

http://www.wix.com/madison_lynch1/degins-by-maddie

Life is short.  We as humans need to do all we can during our time here on earth to help out others.  I do my best to do my part as well.  April is abuse awareness month.  For me I decided to make key chain scarves.  

Why particularly a Key Chain Scarf?  Most of us keep our keys handy, when leaving home the first or last thing we grab is our keys, they are always there.  They are with us wherever we go.  It will be a constant reminder attached to us.

Constant reminder for what you may ask?  To always keep the welfare of the children in our hearts and minds.  A reminder not to abuse them.  A reminder to look us what abuse is.  A reminder that the children are our future and they need taken care of.  A reminder they are little and break easily.  A reminder that even words can be twisted to such a degree that they too cause abuse.  

What I have done is taken a skein of yarn in the colors of pink and blue, for all the little boys and girls in the world and crocheted small scarves that tie on the key chain.  Like an extra fob.  In just a matter of 5 minutes I can have a lovely Key Chain Scarf.  

For those of you who would like to do something to remind the world that you too support Child Abuse Awareness, I will give you the pattern I have used. 

The Pattern:

Small amount of yarn size G crochet hook.

Chain 6. Slip stitch into first, chain 6, slip stitch into first stitch, chain 6 slip stitch into first stitch (should have 3 loops) This makes the ‘tassel’.  Chain 45, chain 6 more, slip stitch into 45th chain, chain 6, slip stitch into 45th chain, chain 6 clip stitch into 45th chain (3 loops, making 2nd tassel).  Single crochet into each chain going back to first tassel.  Finish off and tuck in the yarn ends.  

That’s it!  You have made yourself a Key Chain Scarf!

Now make a bunch more, and do what I do, give them away!  I stop strangers in stores, or wherever I meet new people.  If you wish to include the key chain rings with them, you can purchase 10 for a couple of dollars at Walmart or a craft store.  

How many does 1 skein of yarn make?  I have no idea, I have lost count of those that I have given away, and still have over ½ a skein left to make more!  It’s an inexpensive way to make your mark on the world and open the eyes of strangers.

If you can’t crochet, do something else to show your support!  The lives of the children all over the world are depending on you to take a stand.  Just because April is Child Abuse Awareness month, doesn’t mean you can’t carry it throughout the year.  

Keep in mind this is for the children.  Do your part to show your support!

Plastic grocery bags…most of us have them.  We try to do our part by using recyclable bags, but occasionally we forget to take them to the market with us.  What ensues after awhile is a pile of bags that we don’t want to throw away, but also can’t use that many as trash can liners.

The best thing to do with them is to make them into something functional, like a rug or a bag.  I have even read an article where the bags were cut open and several layers were ironed together to make a waterproof fabric.  I have yet to personally try this method, but with the pile of bags that has accumulated it is definitely on my “To Do List”.

For those of you who crochet, it is quite simple to put these bags to use.  It is time consuming to cut them into strips, but once that is done the project goes along relatively quickly.  I try to get family members to cut the bags for me so I can do the crocheting.  Sometimes they help…sometimes they don’t.

To make a rug, cut the handles off the bag.  Start at the top of the bag and cut one continuous strip of plastic approximately two inches wide.  Roll the new “yarn” into a ball, tying strips together as you cut them.  When you have about 20 bags cut and rolled you can start your rug.  Using a large hook (I have used a 7mm and it has worked well) chain 50.  Work a single crochet in each chain across.  Chain one.  Turn.  Work back and forth until the rug is about three feet long.  You will need to cut more bags as you go along, as 20 will not be near enough.  A woman in a neighbouring town had some for sale in a local shop, and said she used over 200 bags to make her rug.  These rugs are nice to stand on as they cushion one’s feet.  The strips may be cut wider and a bigger hook used for a thicker rug. 

The bags used may be either sorted into different colors to make the rugs, or cut and used as they come out of the pile.  I have mostly one color of bag, so it is easy. 

Something else that may be made is a crocheted bag.  Depending on the intended use it may be made using single, double or triple crochet.  A triple crochet will have almost a fish net look, while the single will be a closer stitch.  The fish net one may be used for groceries, while the tighter stitch bag may be used for beach towels.  This way, the sand will fall out but the towels and sunscreen won’t.

There are many uses for plastic grocery bags…for the crafters out there it is a new challenge to make something with them.  For those of you who aren’t craft oriented, give your extra bags to someone who is.  They may make you something you will use for years to come.

Let’s all do our part to keep these bags out of landfill sites.  

Image via Wikipedia

Many people during the great depression actually would take whatever scrapes of yarn they had left and turn them into granny squares. These I would guess, would be eventually turned into scarves, blankets, and sweaters for the family and also to sell for a bit of extra cash to help make it through the worst of the great depression. This of course would not make you too much because not a lot of people would buy scarves and hats and other things that seemed more of a luxury than a necessity. So there is a small chance that this did much good to help relieve money problems during the great depression.

Also, the popularity of bead crochet lessened during the 1930’s, as most people just did not have the time or the money during this time era to spend making this form of decorative craft, more time and money had to be spent making items that could be more of a necessity, like scarves, hats, sweaters, blankets, socks and such. These can be made in a much quicker amount of time and actually be much more useful to a person.

Image via Wikipedia

There is not a lot of information, about the actual process of crocheting during the great depression era. But it would come into play, because knitting and crochet are similar in popularity and status, that if knitting became popular or anything coinciding on the process of knitting during a time era, would be the same or similar to the process of crochet.

references:

http://www.buckden-village.co.uk/knitting-uk/knitting-history.htm
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Learning+to+crochet+during+the+Depression+turned+into+a+life-long…-a0131865556
http://www.crochetkitten.com/referencecharts/history.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bead_crochet

Links to some of my other articles

http://relijournal.com/religion/somethings-many-refuse-to-see-on-homosexuality-and-transsexualism-and-the-bible/

http://gomestic.com/home/a-list-of-strange-and-useful-things-that-are-made-into-fabric/

http://healthmad.com/conditions-and-diseases/simple-ways-to-lose-weight-without-all-the-hard-work/

Quilts are beautiful and very inexpensive to make. They can easily be made out of your old clothes. Just cut them in quilting squares and sew them together.  On cold, winter nights, your loved one will be nice and cozy as they feel the love you put into the wonderful gift you made for them.

If you know how to crochet or knit, you can always make a scarf, hat or gloves. This is a really nice gift for children. During Christmas break they will be outside playing as the hats and gloves will keep them nice and warm. It’s also a nice gift for ladies in your church. They will love it if you put a note in with the gift set that tells the person that you prayed for them as you made it.

Another gift idea comes straight from your kitchen. You can make cookies, candy, cakes, pies–you name it! Who doesn’t love all the goodies during the Christmas season? Most people don’t have the time or energy to bake after working long days.  If you are a stay at home mom, you have to bake for your family anyway, so why not bake a little extra the week leading to Christmas and package it as you go. Then you will have nice homemade baked goods wrapped and ready for your friends. You can get inexpensive tins to put fudge in. Your children can help you bake cookies and put them in pretty boxes for neighbors. Pies are always nice for friends who are having extra company for the holidays but don’t have the time to bake a ton of things. Home baked gifts are always a real treat! 

For grandparents, you can have your children draw pictures. Have them do their best. When they are finished with the picture, you can buy an inexpensive frame and wrap it up. Grandparents love sentimental gifts. Another idea is to take pictures of the children with their grandparents over the year and make a collage or photo book. You can make these right at your computer.  Use your imagination for these one of a kind gifts. Put clever sayings under the pictures or tell a story in a booklet about what the children love about their grandparents. It’s an extra thrill if you ask the children to tell the story and then quote what they say in the book. This way, grandparents know just how much they are loved.

If you don’t have the time to make all of the gifts you give, then you can buy little things and make baskets for people. Over the years, I have given several different themed baskets to friends and they have been a big hit. Below I have listed a few ideas that may help you out.

For individual friends, you can get a pretty basket and put in a nice mug, a few packets of hot cocoa, some cookies and a book. Arrange it so it looks pretty. If you find an inexpensive blanket you can put that in the bottom so your friend can snuggle as he/she reads while drinking a nice warm cup of cocoa.

For couples, it’s always nice to give a gift that they can use together. You can get a nice sized basket and put a game in it (something like Uno, playing cards or Connect Four that is a two player game). Along with it you can put a couple of sodas and some snacks.  Younger couples usually love baskets like these.

For families, baskets might be a little tricky. Usually there is an age difference with children. The best kind of basket in this situation is a movie night basket. Start with getting one or two family movies. Then load up on the goodies! Get some microwave popcorn, movie candy (dots, m&m’s, chocolate covered raisins, mild duds–you get the point). Put in a few drinks and there you go–family movie night!

There are so many different ideas you can come up with to make homemade or inexpensive gifts for Christmas–or any time of the year. What matters most is truely the thought you put into it. Everyone needs to know that they are loved and thought of. What better way to show that you care than to put effort into the gifts you give to loved ones? Whatever you give this year, make sure you give it with your heart. You will see extra bright smiles this year! Merry Christmas!!

www.etsy.com

www.artfire.com

www.shophandmade.com

             These are great sites to start with. All you need to know is-

1. Take good pitchers.

2. Write good descriptions  (how does it feel soft/hard, what color is it, what it is, what size is it, what did you use to make it).

3. Talk in the forums.

4. Payments- PayPal is good. Don’t send item until you get payment.

             It really is a great feeling to sell something you have made. Not only that but sending it to a place you yourself have not been to.

I am a child of the seventies. It was a time of lack hook rug kits that you never knew what to with once they were finished. Macramé planters with big, brown wooden beads hung from every ceiling. There was string art, and parents didn’t worry back then about handing small kids hammers and nails. Of course there was knit or crocheted blankets hanging on the back of every couch, with the matching throw pillow cases. Who could forget such raging crazes as the mood rings that changed color, the bell bottoms that always got caught and chewed up in your bicycle chain (this was before chain guards), and believed the Dr. Schols’ ads that said if you wore their clog sandals, you’d get toner looking legs. The only thing you got were your toes stubbed as your feet would slide forward out the front of the sandals. It was the day when Foster Grants ruled the sunglass scene, and on your feet were either platform shoes, or cheap pop out roller skates that never turned easily and landed you face down on the pavement.

When I see boot cut jeans today, I wince. When I see those big floppy train engineer hats back in style, I cringe. Thankfully, I haven’t seen my red and white polka-dotted polyester pants make a comeback. When I tried to describe this to an eighteen year-old kid a few weeks ago, she asked, “What’s polyester?” I couldn’t find an example of the fabric to illustrate the hell all seventies children experienced.

To watch an old re-run like “All in the Family”, it’s not for the bigoted language to show us what we used to be like, but to look at the kitchen table that I still see on “Everybody Loves Raymond” (in the parent’s house), complete with the vinyl and chrome seats you’d stick to on a hot summer day. It’s to look at a TV set when you still had to get up and change the channel yourself, and as a kid, you didn’t mind doing that back then. And it was for the love of everything harvest gold and avocado green – the only two colors that existed back then if you look at your parents’ old scrapbooks (if you’re too young to remember). You chewed on the lead based paint and you didn’t go to the doctor’s office for every little thing – only for your mandatory school injections so your parents could find a few hours of peace and quiet before you returned home and reminded them, “why didn’t I take my birth control pills that day?!”

The front doors were all unlocked, and the ice cream man was the highlight of your day. If you were lucky, you weren’t going to be the one the other kids would sing about that day: “You ain’t go no ice cream!! You ain’t got no ice cream!”

You were super lucky if you happened to be at grandma’s house, where she rarely said no, and was always the epitome of grace even if she looked as wrinkled as laundry you leave in the dryer overnight as an adult. She never asked if you did your homework before you went out to play or she gave you a sweet treat, and you always lived close enough to walk to her house unsupervised. No one grabbed kids off the street back then – they were busy pushing them out, and I think secretly hoped we wouldn’t find our way back home.

It was super cool when Grandma let you help on her paint by numbers craft kits, and you always knew you could find a good, hearty meal at her house. The liberated working moms of the seventies all had the same curse: they cooked by fire alarms, and often used the broom handles to whack at them until they shattered and rained down pieces of sharp plastic. They had barely managed to avoid burning water with their domestic goddess skills.

I can remember reading a book about how the way it used to be in the 1940’s and laughing so hard I had tears running down my cheeks, with my curious schoolmates finally taking the book out of my hand to see what was so funny. The book talked about how the woman’s mom used to boil solid food into a liquid. They didn’t get it. My mom had been reducing solid food into a liquid for years – it’s called “Irish cooking”. Ham and bean soup? What ham?! I don’t see any ham in here! Are you sure there are beans in here? It looked and tasted the same always – like the box of wallpaper paste you used to buy at the small family owned hardware store around the corner.

Back then it was ok for kids to play a game of horseshoes or lawn darts, and your parents always sat there with the backs to you, drinking Budweiser from the can with the pull tab ring that cut your finger. Nobody ran for the Neosporin and a Band-Aid – you sucked on your finger until it stopped bleeding and you went on, making sure to avoid Italian salad dressing you knew would burn your cut at the backyard picnic. The only antiseptic back then was iodine that stained your fingers red for what seemed an eternity. No one cut up the plastic rings that held the six-packs together because it wasn’t an issue if ducks at the dump were dumb enough to choke themselves on them.

You had the gas guzzling car that got ten gallons to the mile, and the super cool huge tail fins that you were always guaranteed to run into and get the wind knocked out of you as a kid when you played “Red Rover” and triumphantly smashed through the “enemy lines”. There was no such thing as seat belts or baby seats in those cars, and it was serious business calling “SHOTGUN!” for the front seat. Of course you had to drive around in those cars to understand the value of fighting over the front – the back seat had comfortable room for two (those cars were all trunk and engine) and the dreaded “hump seat”, that got hot as a frying pan. If you were last in the car or the smallest, you were sentenced to the hot seat. In winter it was great because the car heaters didn’t work worth a damn, and only the ultra rich had air conditioning. It was also the day in which some of the windows were for decoration only, and you had to have some strength to actually roll down the ones that did work because they stuck. You left kids in the car as you went into the grocery store, but most often, the unemployment lines.

The rich kids had small above ground swimming pools, and you always tried to make friends with them. The poor kids had the lawn sprinklers and you didn’t worry about water consumption back then. It simply kept the kids outside while your parents were having sex inside. If you were really good at begging and pleading, you moved up from the sprinkler to the HOT toy: the Slip and Slide.

For those of you who weren’t born yet, a Slip and slide was a heavy-duty plastic sheet that was like twenty feet long and the sides had little tubes with pinholes poked in them. You would attach the garden hose and out of the holes would come water to wet the plastic; you would run and dive down on the plastic and slide through a stream of water. The only problem is you could never find the rocks when you laid out the Slip and Slide…until you were sliding down it and it ripped you like the chain link fences you always got your bell bottoms snagged and torn on.