This week, I'm writing to you from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where I'm taking a leadership and development course alongside my husband. His classes are all about preparing him for his next job. The class I'm in is specifically designed for military spouses, to help inform and prepare us to be able to better support our spouses, ourselves, and our families—and the Soldiers and their families, too, in this next role. It's... a lot! I'm a bit overwhelmed. Over-stimulated. Exhausted. But it's...
13 days ago • 2 min read
Last week was a bit of a vulnerable share, showing you the work I was submitting to two juried art shows, but I really do believe in championing our own creations! Choosing myself first, declaring my work worthy enough to invest in the submission process, maybe has even more value than being chosen by someone else. That said, it sure does feel good to get a yes! And to get two yeses? Wow, what a week! I'm delighted to share that one tapestry was invited for the 15th Annual Abstracts Only show...
20 days ago • 3 min read
This week my primary goal was submitting work for some local juried art shows. Well, local-ish. One of them is actually in Hilo, so if any of my pieces are selected, I'll have to mail them. But what a great excuse to visit one of our neighbor islands, right!? I'm still pretty new to juried art shows, with my first one only being just last year. You can read about my experience being a part of Fiber Hawaii 2024 here. The first of the two shows I submitted work for will also be held at the...
27 days ago • 3 min read
I admit that I'm usually pretty meh about granny squares. Sometimes they're cute and fun. Sometimes they're a little... questionable. 😬 But usually I could take them or leave them. Recently I went stash diving, though, looking for something easy to work on (hello, summer break!) and ended up pulling out a WIP I started way back in 2017. It's actually one of my rejected design proposals. My original plan? A cardigan made entirely of tiny granny squares. No, really. Like, hundreds of them. 😆...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
You know, I just really love that we're still talking about the Ocean Virtual Artist Residency! It may have ended weeks ago, but the inspiration, like the ocean itself, just keeps on flowing. And I'm so very proud that fiber art is playing a part in that! I'm one of two artists who used crochet in our work for the exhibition, and this behind-the-scenes blog post that Frieda just shared gives you a peek into the creative processes from all nine artists. It's beautifully written, has tons of...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
So last weekend I taught my first in-person crochet class since Covid and talk about a trial by fire! Somehow 18 people managed to sneak into the classroom, even though we capped registration at 15, and I didn't stop moving for the whole two hours. It went well, though! Maybe a tad chaotic, especially in the very beginning as I tried to just get everyone started working on something, but no one threw their yarn out a window and stormed out, ha ha, so it felt like a win. Almost ALL of them...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
It took me longer than I thought it would, but I finally got my ish together and have added Granny at a Rave to my Etsy listings! Get Granny at a Rave on Etsy The Etsy listing ONLY includes the new, three-skein version of the shawl, so if you're looking for the original version using the mini skeins, you'll only find that on Ravelry (you get both versions at one time there). But you could totally riff off either version of the pattern to make it your own, bigger or smaller, stashbusting, mini...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
This week I've been busy working on a display for my local library. I'll be setting it up tomorrow! A couple months ago I spoke to the Branch Manager at the Pearl City Library about displaying some of my work from the Molokai residency. They don't have much wall space, but they do occasionally show work from local artists on some tables they have set up (currently displaying books, of course!) so we decided to roll with that and see how it goes! During my final presentation on Molokai, which...
2 months ago • 2 min read
It feels like it's been a quiet week, but now that I think about it, it's actually been pretty busy! I've made a lot of progress on the shawl, though it's definitely getting slower as the rows get longer: I'm still looking for a better name than the Sand Bubbler Crab Shawl, ha ha. Any suggestions?? By the way, if you're following along with the pattern over on Patreon, (it's available for all members, both paid and free) the eyelets that you see here are a new addition! They'll be included in...
2 months ago • 1 min read