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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?

Fun Halloween Cowls to Knit

One of the fun things about knitters is that we will use a holiday theme on any kind of project. From Easter bunny socks to Christmas sweaters, there’s no combination of holiday motif and knitwear genre we won’t combine. 

Case in point: Halloween cowls. 

This fun cowl from Sweet Vireo Designs features large carved pumpkins and little cats and skulls. It uses two colors of DK weight yarn and I love the multicolored yarn for the background color on this one. And the braids! So cute. 

Spooky Season by Jocelyn Tunney (also on Ravelry) uses fingering weight yarn in two colors to make a design with crescent moons and eyes. There are two circumferences and two heights available so you can make it a neck hugger or a slightly bigger project if you like. 

Make more moons with the Broom Riding Cowl from Vanessa Ewing Knits. This two color pattern looks extra fun with a multicolored yarn for the colorwork, but you can use a solid as well. It calls for DK weight yarn but there is also a fingering weight version if you have some yarn in your stash you want to use. 

Jinx Made has another fun Halloween cowl, this time covered in skulls. South Philly Skulls uses DK weight yarn and comes in two lengths, and there’s also a matching hat pattern, both of which can be found on Ravelry. 

The Ghost Stories cowl from Melissa Knit Wear is a two-color cowl with ghosts of different sizes on the body. It uses DK weight yarn, and average sized skeins will allow you to get two cowls out of two skeins. It also calls for stitch markers to help you keep your place in the chart. 

Or stitch up a cowl with a giant bat on it. The Nightling Cowl from Jen Immer uses DK weight yarn in two colors and has moons and a large bat on it. This pattern can be found on Ravelry. 

How about spooky trees? The Weirwood Cowl from Andrea Krüß-Anders is inspired by the weirwood trees in the Game of Thrones books, and is worked in two colors of fingering weight yarn. You can find this free pattern on Ravelry. 

If a bandana cowl is more your thing, try Cowloween from Tellybean Knits (on Ravelry). This colorful design is worked from the top down and features pumpkins, ghosts and candy colored stripes, and is worked in a light fingering weight yarn. There are kid and adult sizes available.