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How to Cre8time with a Little Help from Michaels

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Since you’re reading a crafty blog, you probably know that March in National Craft Month. You might not know that the Craft Hobby Association has launched a new project, Cre8time, which is all about getting people to take time to create for themselves and rediscover the joy of crafting.

They’re also hosting a Crea8time Blogger Challenge with a little help from Michaels Stores, and I’m so thrilled to be a part of it!

It’s a relatively simple challenge: craft for an hour a day every day for eight days straight. In exchange, participating bloggers got Michaels gift cards to buy some goodies to help us recharge our creative batteries.

My Craft Haul

I should start by saying that I went way over budget. I haven’t been to a Michaels in years, since the closest one is about an hour away from my house, so I really wanted to stock up on some goodies.

Here’s a look at some of the stuff I got.cre8time craft challenge

Mostly there’s stuff for mixed media projects, some fabric paint, cross stitch supplies, a heat gun and a few candlemaking goodies.

I decided I really wanted to use this challenge to work on some crafts I’ve either never done before or haven’t done in a long time, so there will be stitching, candle making and maybe some card-making, too!

You may notice there’s nothing yarn-related here at all. That was intentional. Knitting is my job and I wanted this experiment to be about crafting in other ways. (Don’t worry, I’ll keep writing about knitting this week, too.)

I did buy one yarn-craft thing, actually, that’s been on my wish list for a long time.martha stewart loom

That’s the Martha Stewart Crafts Knit & Weave Loom Kit. I’m so excited to give it a try, and I’m sure I’ll have a bit of a review for you all once I’ve gotten a chance to play with it.

I’m going to start my creative journey tomorrow and would love it if you would join me!

In the meantime, check out this slightly dramatic but still powerful video from the folks at Cre8time to learn a little bit more about what it’s all about. What would you create with more time?

Comments

  2. I try to craft daily, but don’t often have a whole hour to devote to “making”. I’ve been a hat binge lately, and have knit on either a hat or sock just about every day this past week.

Have you read?

Knit a Log Cabin Blanket with All Your Scraps

I guess I must have had this pattern on my mind, because I had chosen this log cabin blanket recipe to write about, promptly forgot about it and a couple of weeks later started knitting a log cabin blanket using all my pink yarn. 

It might stay pink if it makes it to baby blanket sized, or I might add in some pastel green and blue, too, to make a bigger blanket. We’ll see. I’m also holding several strands of yarn together to make a kind of bulky yarn, which means it’s deeply satisfying how much yarn is used even as the project is still relatively small. 

In Kristen Finlay’s version, DK weight yarn scraps (or fingering/sock yarn held double) are used to make a simple scrappy log cabin blanket that’s lighter weight than my version. Log cabin is a great technique for knitters of any skill level because it’s worked in garter stitch. The only not completely basic technique you need for log cabin knitting is picking up stitches. 

If you’ve never worked a log cabin knitting project before, this is a good introduction, and it is really nice to use all your yarn scraps in one big project you’ll use for years to come. 

If you use a lot of DK weight yarn you can keep building on it whenever you finish a project, or if you use more worsted weight you can do the same thing with it, it will just be a little bigger starting out than the pattern calls for. How big it gets is totally up to you. 

I have really been enjoying working on my log cabin project, and it’s my current sitting at my desk and need a break knit (do you have one of those or is it just me?). 

Ready to start your own log cabin blanket knitting project? You can grab the free pattern from Kristen Finlay on Ravelry. 

Need more log cabin inspiration? Check out more log cabin knitting patterns. 

[Photo: Kristen Finlay]