Art

Hello; Happy Weekend!  My posts ususally come along at the weekend, which is when I get most of my crafts done.  I absolutely adore waking up on a Saturday and Sunday knowing that I can do whatever I like ALL DAY!!!  And the best bit of all is that I always want to create something and I get on and do it; unlike evenings when I don't get much done - and I could kick myself for it...  I get home from work during the week, have some supper and settle down for the evening and I could easily have 4 crafting hours...  but I'll think about it...  and think a bit more...  and look at what projects I have on the go... and see what is on the TV...  and as usual switch off the TV again...  and think it's now getting later... is it worth starting something...  and turn on my laptop... and browse pinterest, ravelry and blogs... and finally get inspired to do something and AAAARGHHH!!! It's bedtime!!!   Honestly I get so frustrated with myself and it's just because I have a limited amount of time available to me and not all day.  Am I on my own with this affliction or are there any more sufferers out there?  Actually, I think part of the problem at this time of year is the hours of darkness; I always feel more inspired during the daylight hours... 

But enough of that... today I want to talk about COLOUR...

I love it.  It affects my mood.  It lifts my spirits.  It makes me happy.  And part of the appeal of crochet to me is the colour play you get with creating stripes or fitting modular squares/hexagons/shapes together.  I can waste loads of time just looking at the colour explosion I have created with a hook and seeing particular combinations of colour within that I love, sometimes quite surprisingly.

But really 'just looking' at a piece of work you have created isn't a waste of time is it?  We don't put all this effort into making something that will be stored away and never looked at (well apart from the disasters anyway!)  And I feel varying emotions when I look at my work; I can feel pride, and accomplishment, and sometimes relief that it's done.  But because I love colour so much, mainly when I look at my work it lifts my mood and brings me happiness.  I think it can be classed as Art.  Britannica Online defines Art as "the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others."  Yes, definately Art.  So, with that in mind I decided to experiment with some crochet that doesn't have any use other than to be looked at; just displayed on the wall.  As expected my taste in art is very colourful.  So I decided to create a very simple striped picture.

I bought a very inexpensive stretched canvas, and a glue gun, and set about making a long rectangle of stripy goodness that roughly fit symetrically within the canvas.  I used my usual 4.5 mm hook and dk yarn and did 2 colour stripes of single crochet with 15 stitches until I reached the desired length.  I edged the whole thing with 1 row of single crochet in charcoal.

I'm not the most precise worker, so in order to aid me in lining my (blocked) crochet up visually, I stuck strips of sellotape along each edge of the frame to make the inner space smaller - this helped me to centre the crochet visually within it -

I then stuck the edges down with a hot glue gun.

And placed pins at the sides to keep in shape until dry.

The glue didn't take long to dry at all, and the 'art' could be hung on the wall within half an hour.

What do you think?  Is it art?  My verdict is that I like the idea, but not my sloppy execution!  I think the charcoal edging looks messy, and it looked better without it.  Worth more experimentation me thinks!  Watch this space...

There has been an amazing response to the Almond Blossom Bag and I've received lots of fantastic comments.  Thank you sooooo much!

Until next time; happy crocheting!
xx