The other craft

Believe it or not, there was a time when 1. you couldn't cross a street here without seeing a yarn store, 2. when I couldn't pass a yarn store without at least checking out the sale items.

It was the 80s and knitting was very en vogue. I had never been a friend of yarn myself, but being surrounded by friends who were avid knitters - those were the days when half the class was knitting during the school lessons - I eventually tried my hand at it, too.
My first attempt was frustrating. Not only did a few of my schoolmates make fun of my color choice, but there was a mistake at the very beginning, too. That combination did it, I tossed the whole project.
I started again when I was in library school, and this time things worked out just fine. I would knit like crazy, mostly sweaters (still have one of those, too, and wear it from time to time), for myself, for others as gift and made even a few custom orders.
 I had stacks of knitting magazines, and as mentioned above, I was addicted to yarn that I could afford. I remember one sweater whose sleeve had a stripe of grey at one end because I didn't have enough red left. Some people even complimented me on that thinking I did it on purpose.
And then there were the outlet stores of a few companies not far from here. One of them was just amazing. There was a part of the store with the regular outlet shelves. Much more interesting was the room with the bags. There were leftovers of all kinds. Small bags, mix bags, huge bags. Even I who never handled big crowds well was right in the middle of it. Bags were being tossed around and every, now and then you could hear happy yelling. Ah, good times. Nowadays I would probably have a panic attack.

Then I would suddenly stop and not knit for years. It always came in phases, my last one being after a big surgery when I couldn't sleep much and had too much time on my hands.
You may have noticed that I didn't mention crochet. That's because I didn't crochet. I hadn't liked it as a child in elementary school and that didn't change.

Then I discovered wire crochet. I still can't explain why crocheting with wire was so much more fun than doing it with yarn. So my yarn went into hibernation once again until I finally gave the whole lot away. I thought the addiction was over, and since knitting in general had started to disappear again, there was only one yarn shop left in town, anyway.
Eventually, however, both knitting and crochet came back with a vengeance, and I found myself peeking at yarn again. I don't buy at the mentioned one shop, however, and hardly get to the department store which makes it easier for me to resist. Most of the time at least ...

A post is worthless without pictures.
Here's my latest yarn creation. Not only is this hat crocheted (I didn't find a knitting needle set in the right size at home, so I was brave and went for my biggest crochet hook), but also felted in the washing machine as I happened to stumble upon a few balls of "wash and felt it" yarn. I had never tried it before, had no idea about the size and when I had finished felting, I let my muse take over to make something of it that I could actually wear (meaning I just fiddled here and there without knowing what I did) - and it worked! That is not always necessarily the case with hats for me. Often enough my big head and my hair gets in the way, the hat gets pushed up in the back and over my eyes in the front which is terribly annoying.
My muse did some folding and sewing and more folding and sewing and added some blue pearls and metallic AB seed beads for a small accent in back. You will have to believe me about the fitting part, though. I'm not a selfie taker, you know, and my doll Jo is doing a much better job as manikin even if she could look a little more enthusiastic ;-)

I'm proud - okay, I admit it, I think I was very lucky, especially with the size!
Oh, and I forgot to mention that this post is part of the Jewelry Artisans Community blog carnival. Do you want to know what the other members do beside making jewelry?
Have a look here!

Violetmoon's Corner
Jewelry Art by Dawn