Creative Exchange

A girlfriend of mine from grad school who now works in Ohio has been into knitting. I knew she did this in grad school during classes as she has ADD and it helps her to focus, but over the years she's gotten insanely talented at knitting. I've seen her work on Facebook and one day saw that she had made a knitted tablet case. I thought this was pretty cool and sense my tablet case just recently broke I suggested we do an art exchange.  She liked my paintings and so we exchanged a painting for a knitted tablet case.  This was a very fun exchange utilizing our creative selves.

Knitting Like a 90 Year Old

I purchased this really cute knitted cupcake hat for my niece and decided to make some matching baby booties. Problem is I only know how to do a basic scarf when it comes to knitting. However, my  friend Sarah is an awesome knitter and said she'd help me make the booties. So I reached out to her and we ended up having a Saturday morning knitting session with some other friends also. I told my sister I was getting together to knit and she laughed stating "Isn't that something 90 y/o women do."

I brought over hot cocoa and latte mixes and others brought scones. I love my friend Sarah's apartment. It's on the third story and is cozy and reminds me of a tree house for some reason. It's the perfect place to curl up and knit.

I felt a bit bad for Sarah as she didn't get to knit a whole lot herself since she was helping us to make/learn knitting, but she didn't seem to mind.  Anyway, Sarah taught me to follow a pattern, the right size needles to use and the correct yarn to use.  By the time we wrapped up our knitting session I had one cute bootie made and another one started. Later that evening I turned on the fireplace and sat down to finish knitting the second bootie.  Thanks Sarah!!!

Here's the cupcake hat that prompted it all!

Long Days, Lots of Art, INFJ

This week was a fairly productive week especially considering I had four very long 13 hour days.  I accomplished most things on my to do list and even took a much needed day away from reality and transformed into a slug.

Here's some of my adventures from this past week.

1.  I co-hosted a Paint Your Heart Out party for students. This was a successful event from last semester  that we brought back. The twist was that we made it a ROCO 6x6 party. We used 6x6 canvases and students were given the opportunity to donate their pieces to ROCO.  We had over 120 students partcipate. This week we will hang an art exhibition at the college for a month and then take down and donate the pieces at the end of March.  This event was videotaped and spotlighted on the Wellness Wednesday Series that the college has started.
You can check ROCO's 6x6 at; http://www.roco6x6.org/6x6x2013.php
And the Wellness Wednesday video at: www.naz.edu/wellness

2.  A GA for Res Life at the college is working to put together a how-to series and was looking for faculty or staff to teach students in an informal setting based on the topic of that month.  The first workshop in the series was How-To Knit.  I volunteered and took part in teaching some students how to do a basic knit this past week.  Other staff taught arm knitting and a basic knit. One of my goals would be to learn how to art knit!  This was a fun event that taught over 15 students a new skill. Most were excited to create a scarf as some were headed to NYC for a weekend trip. (Of course I think we all forgot to take pics!)

3.  Wednesday night found me not wanting to do anything I needed to get done so instead I spent the night finishing my sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project.  I officially completed all pages and mailed it out Friday! Hopefully in 4-6 weeks you will be able find it on the online digital library and if you ever are in Brooklyn, NY you can find it in the actual Sketchbook Library.
You can check out the digital library at; http://www.sketchbookproject.com/library

4.  I completed a couple of 6x6 pieces myself this week.  I'm hoping to find time to host a 6x6 party with some of my friends before the April 20th deadline.  That would be a fun time!

5.  For one of my classes I had to take the Humanmetrics Jung Typology Test which is the Myers Briggs Personality test.  I'm pretty sure I took this in undergrad for a class but of course that was so long ago I don't remember it. Plus the results can change over time.  A staff member from Career Services came and provided us each with a personalized packet containing our "type" and what it all means.

I'm proud to say I am INFJ= Introvert, iNtuitive, Feeling, and Judging.  Before having known what each meant I agreed with it all except for the judging part. However, after it was described to us, my results were pretty spot on especially as judging means you like organization, schedule, details, finish things early to avoid stress, and are a short and long term planner.  Not surprising was that one of the top career suggestions for me was a counselor!  If I could I'd share this one page description that shares what it means to be an INFJ but not sure how to do that. Basically it calls me "The Protector" and everything it says describes me pretty accurately.  According to the test only 1% of the population has an INFJ Personality Type, making it the most rare of all types. This test is helpful to become aware of how you process information and how your personality may positively or negatively affect communication with others.

If you want to take the short free version like I did go to; http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp. It's pretty interesting. If you have a significant other you should both complete it and talk about the results.

6.  My friend Christie emailed all of us ladies and wanted to host a craft night to make soothing snakes for her two groups of clients she works with who are around age 5.  If you aren't aware weighted or soothing snakes are a sensory accessory that helps to comfort and calm those with autism or other sensory disorders.  About six of us got together for pizza, drinks, peanut butter chocolate brownies and lots of material to make some weighted snakes.

Anyone can make these no matter what your level of craftiness is. They are pretty easy.  You can use cool long socks or fleece material sewn up on three sides, fill it with rice, and sew closed. Add accessories such as buttons for eyes, scales to make a dinosaur, wings, ears, teeth or tongue. You can use fleece scraps or satin for the accessories. We didn't but you could add iron on patches or other accessories if you desire. Beware rice can be messy (especially if you were me and my sock full of rice slipped while I was threading my needle- sorry Christie!).  We were a creative bunch and were able to get all of them made. Hopefully my friend's clients will enjoy them and be soothed!

I had a hard time finding a tutorial but here is something close to the weighted snake; ipops.blogspot.com/2010/05/no-sew-caterpillar-and-butterfly.html

**Bonus:  I was parking at work Friday morning and as I pulled into the parking lot this was parked in the lot and still there when I left for the day.

The Scooby Doo Mobile!!!

**Stay tuned as the coming few weeks promise to bring many new and wacky fun adventures!

The Snuggles Project

I decided for my January donation/charity project to knit some blankets for cats and dogs who are living in shelters. Online I found this charity called; The Snuggles Project.
http://www.snugglesproject.org/about/  One of the main goals of this project is to to provide a security blanket to animals who may be in a animal shelter and frightened. The blanket helps provide a calming effect for the animal and can also be a transitional object for the animal when it is adopted and adjusting to a new home environment.

I asked around work for anyone who may have some extra yarn they would be willing to donate for this project. Our wonderful nurse Chris provided me with a entire bag full of soft luxurious yarn she had left over from a quilting project. I am very appreciative to her for donating the material!  I was able to create eight small snuggle blankets. They took maybe an hour each to create and I did most of them on my lunch break or while watching Christmas movies. I tested out how well animals may receive the blankets by making one for my parents dog whom they adopted just about one year ago from a shelter. As you can see from her picture she has embraced the snuggle blanket.  I believe whole heartedly in adoption of any kind. Seeing this wonderful loving dog when I visit my parents just confirms my beliefs.  She doesn't even bark (at all) which is my kind of dog! My family has lovingly nicknamed her "Fatty Patty" because the vet says she overweight. The only problem with this nickname is that my mother's name is also Patricia and is often called Patty! Thankfully my mother isn't overweight and shouldn't get a complex hearing us saying "Fatty Patty" all of the time. ;)

I looked on the Snuggles Project site to find out where to donate the blankets to. As it turns out there are many shelters in my own area that have signed on to accept snuggles. I wanted to donate them to the Verona Street Animal Shelter;  www.vsas.org/  downtown because I know they don't have as much funding resources as Lollypop Farms, but they weren't on the list as accepting the blankets. In the end I've decided to donate them to Lollypop Farms as they receive and shelter a ton of animals and I'm sure could always use the blankets. Check out their site at; www.lollypop.org/ and don't forget adoption benefits everyone! I may even inquire into if they have any hedgehogs up for adoption when I drop the blankets off this week.

"Fatty Patty" sleeping.

Knitted Hat Craze Continued...

Here are some hats I knitted for Christmas gifts. The first two are baby hats for my colleagues daughter who is 8months old. The last one is a hat I made to give my friends "little sister" for Christmas. Since I helped her make a hat for her mom I decided to make her a hat. I even followed the directions for once and figured out how to make an actual rim and tie it off differently. This way was easier and looks better. What do you think?

Update 12/19/12:  My friend said her "little sister Destiny" loved the hat, especially that I had mentioned it was one of the best I had made yet.

I went to my friend Megan's house last night and gave her daughters their Christmas gifts. Baby M. wasn't quite sure what to think about being squashed into her new hats. Shown below with permission from my friend.