metalwork | First Light Handcrafts

I have been involved in that conversation – the “what is creative, really?” debate – several times and in several places, with no real agreement among participants. I, personally, never really considered myself a creative person. As far as I was concerned, buying a knitting pattern and finding a skein of yarn to knit it with….not really all that creative. Many people respectfully disagreed, for the record. To me, creative requires vision, and imagination…and I really wasn’t sure I had either, to be honest.

Lately, things have been different. I am finding myself interested in, well, creating. Shireen taught me some polymer clay fundamentals a few weeks back, while her hubby Tito was showing me some copper metal work.

The makings of a copper bezel for a clay and resin insert.

Clay work done without supervision (I really need to learn to take better pics!)

Polymer clay work done at a later date without supervision (I really need to learn to take better pics!)

I still need to play around with my copper wire and anvil to start making the shawl pins that started all of this!

I have been playing with design ideas for my own knitting patterns; in fact, I am looking at a series of them…who’da thought?! I have been playing with kettle dyeing fibre, and hope to eventually dye some yarn. (I don’t really have any sort of set up or training for hand painting yarn at the moment, but the kettle dyeing has been fun.)

I am super excited! Tonight, I pick up a loom from someone here in Toronto who is destashing hers and hope to get a warping lesson from Shireen ASAP.

Still not sure where all of this is coming from, but I think I should enjoy it and take advantage of it while I can.

So, if any of you run into my knitting/spinning/fibre mojo, can you send it home please? I believe it has hopped a plane for Cuba where it is sitting on a beach, drinking mojitos. Because really, if you had that option, wouldn’t you??

I traditionally struggle with January and February. I get a little blue and kinda lazy and it’s hard to pick myself up and do anything. My friend Christina, over at Lone Maple Studio, blogged about this very thing this weekend. In her case, a new hobby has taken her attention; in mine, I am looking into new hobbies in hopes that something grabs my attention because my interest in my current habits is definitely waning.

Last year, I purchased a couple of Craftsy classes, including a class on Lace Shawl Design. In an attempt to engage my brain in something interesting, I finally hit it the play button on it and started watching. It’s interesting so far. Miriam Felton, the instructor, has talked yarn and needles and yarn overs and decreases…and now we are at the part where we are charting stitch patterns from stitch dictionaries. I may have given in and purchased a recommended one from Abebooks – one of the Barbara Walker treasuries. I also may have gone to Staples for graph paper, and a new note book because what troubles can’t be solved with yarn can frequently be solved with office supplies.

Additionally, my friend Shireen dropped by for a bit of a knit night on Friday, and she and her metal-working hubby, Tito had picked me up a little gift while shopping that day: the cutest teensiest, tiniest jewelery anvil you ever saw. Looks like this and fits in the palm of my hand:

This acquisition meant that I needed to stop by Bead FX on Saturday to add a chasing hammer to my collection of tools, so I can get practicing at some simple metal forging. I grabbed some 16 gauge wire, and am now going to start looking at creating some fibula pins, and maybe eventually learn how to do more complicated things. I did get a book from my mother in law for Christmas called “Simple Soldering”…that would be next.

So, while I did a very small amount of knitting this weekend and no spinning at all, I did spend an inordinate amount of time designing lace cowls in my head, and hanging out on Pinterest, looking for shawl pin ideas.

Maybe this is one of those “If life hands you lemons” things.