Why Craft? or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Ignore the Nay Sayers

On-Going Project Today: Crocheted Candy Apple Shrug, Lion Brand Yarn

Project Inspiration: Crocheted flower amalgam peices

Soundtrack: Remember My Name, Fame (soundtrack)

 

“So, you’re going to teach young women to knit, and make them little domestics?”

…This, sadly, was an actual question put to me in college while I was planning my first yarncraft workshop. The workshop itself was a huge success, but his lingering comment from a colleague still bothers me. Hosting my first workshop was a big deal – I felt it was my graduation from novice to beginner… if that makes the amount of sense to you that it does to me. My yarncrafting had been extremely rewarding for me, and for some bozo that had never picked up a skein to claim I had set up a factory for Stepford Stitchers?! Outrageous!!!

Thankfully, this moment was one of those fantastic fusions of the “I know exactly what to say!” moment, and the “My reflex reaction is SO much better than pulling the punch!” moment.

“You never make someone less of an independent by giving them a new skill!” Perfect closing, complete with elevator doors closing on said bozo’s face. My workshop was a huge success – a large, mixed crowd interested in learning the craft that had begun sweeping campus arrived, learned from me and from one another, and I picked up a couple cool tricks too (including the super-handy cast on method I call the Gun-Slinger Cast On, detailed HERE).

The take away message? Craft non-believers are out there. But the more we do, the more we create and the more we enjoy ourselves, the more 2 things happen:

1)    They get less and less evidence they have that crafting is for shut ins and campers,

2)    The less their opinions matter! If you’re having fun doing something you love [without putting anyone at risk, a disclaimer should read], what does it matter? 

Life: the ULTIMATE CRAFT!

After creating my plastic yarn, trying to melt plastic bottles into usable material and recycling the pages to my eco-friendly page a day calendar, i decided to get a breath of fresh air and brew up some mint iced tea. My little mint plant has been doing well since I moved her outside! in the tiny pot in the kitchen window, things weren't so good. But out in the brilliant august sun the little bugger has been thriving and sprouted up about 3 inches in the past week and a half!

...So, when are we getting to the crafting part?!?!

I have decided to follow Dr. Frankenstein's lead and see if i can create life myself - only without the galvanism or the penchant for Lamarkian science. There are a lot of great artciles out there, and I'll link you to the ones I looked at first!

The trick here is doing what gardeners call "cuttings." When cutting a plant, you take a small portion of a healthy plant (roughly 4 inches, for typical garden herbs) and slice the end off in a diagonal cut. 

Have a glass container of water at the ready! Getting that cutting into water before the plant starts to heal is important! if the plant has time to heal, it will essentially "scab over" and refuse to sprout roots. Some experts even say to make the cut underwater - but lacking the finesse for that I simply sterilized my scissors, snipped and dunked.

As an experiment, I added sugar to one of my two water jars. some think that by adding table sugar to the cutting, the plant will grow quicker and hardier.

So, to do this at home, here are the steps!

1) Have a healthy plant, sterilized blade/scissor, small glass container of water, sunny safe place for the plant to grow, and possibly sugar and a calendar to monitor your progress.

2) Take a section of the plant, cutting about half an inch lower from where you would like the final cut to be.

Optional) Add sugar to the water you intend to put the cutting in.

3) assure that all your materials are ready to go, as the next step is a quick one.

Optional) carry out the cut itself underwater - it's totally up to you!

4) Snip the stem at LEAST a quarter inch below the lowest place where leaves sprout from the stem. IMMEDIATELY plunge the snipped end into the water.

5) Secure your cutting in the glass in it's resting place, ideally near a sunny window. Check on it every day.

Pictures to follow!

No Reason a Cubicle Can't Have Its Own Crafts!

If you're interested on doing some up-cycling, check out this great article from Geek/Eco Sugar!

My favorites? Gotta be the cord corraller (you could use a tube sock as suggested - or maybe a tee shirt sleeve or mitten) and the desk toy organizer. These really are great first-steps into the world of crafting for a cause, and can be modified (or 'modded' if you prefer the current crafter jargon)

The white paper CD holder seems a little wasteful - until you consider using paper with old printing on it, or magazine pages!

I'm crafty, you're crafty, check out "She's Crafty"!

Hot (as in Cool) Tin Roof

There I was, walking down the street in the village on my way to meet up with friends in my beloved, bohemian Alphabet City when I came upon... this:

So, I got a little closer. this was an honest to goodness tin roof in an east village garden, made entirely of TIN CANS! A fantastic project for using up those larger tin cans to create an out door structure. It has a similar structure to terracotta roofs, and my guess is that by applying them like shingles (the top pieces slightly overlapping bottom pieces) the roof remains solid and water proof.

Sadly, there weren't any gardeners around to explain who built the structure and how well it functioned, but based on appearances it's a fairly weathered structure that has held up through the sort of spastic weather NYC is prone to.  I can see this roof technique working wonders for a play house roof, a dog house or awning over a pergola. Enjoy the pictures - and if your near Avenue B and 6th street sometime soon, keep an eye out for this garden.

If you're not on Craftser already...

It's a great online resource for crafters, and a fabulous place to show off your work and look at inventive projects from other crafters. It's a site i check regularly and am a member of myself. Additionally, they have crafting challenges each month - and this one is simply delicious! Bon Appetite!

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=311369.0

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CraftingCrusade

Welcome!

Here's the first post!

Welcome to Crafting Crusade. In the past few years, the time-honored tradition of buy-use-trash-buy-use-trash has, unsurprisingly, bought up, used up, and trashed up our globe beyond belief. It has also taught us that things are bought, not created - used, not made - trashed, not reused.

Right now, we're caught between a looming environmental catastrophe, and a self-inflicted lack of creativity. It's up to you to shake things up. You, and all the crafting, garden-keeping, farmer's-market-shopping, eco-shoe-wearing, wind-power-using greenies we can find.

Don't just think outside the box. Take a crafting blade to it and turn it into a book stand. Or an ottoman. Or a work of art. 

So have a read and take a look around. What can you do differently, and how can you make things greener, safer, and more original? Make it, fix it, find it, reuse it. And save some money doing it.

Welcome to the crusade.