Getting the Crafty Mojo

So I've been on blog silence for the better part of the summer, not a lot to say, not a lot to write about, and all kinds of self indulgent stuff going on but now, I'm back in my creative zone, I think.

I've been dreaming about all kinds of things crafty and I use the term crafty to mean things made with needles or hooks, not necessarily glue or stickers or paper, not that there's anything wrong with that but I'm more of a needle girl than a glue girl. You would be correct in assuming that scrapbooking is at the bottom of my hobby list, and if my pages are any indication, I'm sure your kindergartener or niece or nephew in first grade could create more artful scrapbook pages than moi. But I'm ok with that. I determined this summer that my pages will never, ever be Creating Keepsakes worthy so I'm more about putting the pictures on the pages and writing things down. I used to obsess over my hideous handwriting but now I "get" it. It's not about your writing being neat or perfect it's about it being your handwriting.

So what am I dreaming of crafting these days, I want to make the afghan picture at the top of this post(picture courtesy of the Caron website). I'm trying to decide if it's a lack of imagination that makes me want to use the exact colors the Caron people use because I like those colors a lot, even the way they have them laid out in the afghan.

Is it the cross stitcher in me that isn't bugged by using just what the pattern calls for? Is that what sets us cross stitchers apart from other crafters? The fact that we follow patterns? Yes there are those cross stitchers that take a chart and take it apart, change threads, fabric, everything, but there are many more that stitch patterns as charted, never questioning the process, the designer, just gathering supplies like the chart instructs them to and then we, meaning me, stitch away.

Anyway, I'm definitely wanting to crochet the Tucson Throw this winter, using the recommended color combinations, maybe a different yarn but I have decided yet.

Anna has made it a point to make sure that all us cross stitchers see how the media or marketplace portrays cross stitchers. We are all grannies. It's definitely a hole we need to dig ourselves out of. I'm not a granny and I was no where near being a granny when I started seriously cross stitching in my teens. I'm not sure why we are targeted as being "old" or maybe more "mature" than others in the crafty world but it's starting to bug me.

How do we break out of this mold? What do we have to do as cross stitchers to show the crafting world at large that we are hip, that we are the same age as the knitters who are seen as happening and cool? Ponder this and let me know what you think. Subversive Cross Stitch is "now" but unfortunately because I have a big old potty mouth, dropping an F bomb even with needle and thread doesn't really scream youthful to me. Fun, different, just screams rebel, but it doesn't necessarily mean you are young.