My home-alone-Christmas-project was this hooded cowl. I found the pattern online on Ravelry (here’s the maker’s blog) and have started it a few days ago. As I started, I made a few changes to the pattern. I didn’t want to work it back and forth, turning the work at the seam, but I wanted to work it in rounds. I find this to be prettier in the end, but that’s just my opinion.
I can’t count stitches properly, it seems, and I just winged-it entirely. It’s a bit wonky, but I don’t think that will be too much of a problem while wearing it.
This is my progress so far. I need to work more rows on the shoulder part of the cowl, but I’m very happy how it’s turning out to look and feel. It’s such a pretty color and I can’t wait to wear it outside. 💜
These can be found on a diversity of shops online.
I looked for these online, and I have found them on the Big A and Aliexpress, too. But alas, on A they are pretty expensive and on Aliexpress, the shipping is just meh. I don’t want to import these, tbh. So, how else to acquire something you want when it’s seemingly not available to your conditions? Right. Do it yourself. 😏
So, I started thinking what I’d need to make one of these. It’s fairly easy: some leather scraps, paper, something bind it all together and a strap. I’ve got everything, so I did it.
I chose my leather scraps. There is some grey, light brown, some red and black leather scraps in my collection. All of these are leftovers from crafting projects my Mom did or just scraps from former leather clothing from my grandparents. It’s a wild mix, but I did not buy any of these, is all I am saying. 😉
Next up: paper. My favorite theme. I collected some sheets from my stash, cut them all to DIN A8 size, so that in the end, the pages of my journals are about A9 in size. So that’s really tiny. I cut all my papers and it was a lot. I decided I had enough to make 4 little journals, so I folded all of them and stacked them up. then I made a template for the stitches, punctured the first stack of papers and stitched them together as signature for my first mini journal. After finishing this, I stitched the signature to the leather cover I cut out previously. For the first little booklet, I make a little strap from a rubber band. Attaching it to the leather proved to be difficult. In the end, I made a hole with a punch into the spine of the leather cover, put the band through it ant glued it to the leather. I also put some glue into the spine of the cover to glue the signature into it. And there, it was done.
I ended up adding some charms to it, but I’m done and I love it. The second one was basically done in the same way, I just used some waxed cotton yarn to wrap around the cover to hold everything together.
Now, I still have two stacks of paper left, so two more mini journals are to be made, but I will not do that today anymore. I hope you enjoyed reading this! ✨💜
I got some yarn from my mother last year and I intended to make a scarf from it, initially.
it started out with two balls of this colorful yarn I got from my Mom
I started and wanted to make a loop scarf. In the process, I decided to just.. unravel it and start over, crocheting something else entirely. A leaf-inspired pattern I found only seemed like a great idea, so I started to do just that and crocheted along. It was so much fun, but this pattern really, really needed a LOT of yarn.
Unravel a Scarf, Start a Star
I was kinda happy how this turned out, but I never got to use or finish it entirely. So I, well, put it away for a while until my Mom found the other yarn balls of the same kind and color in her stash. She wanted to try knitting something from it, deemed the yarn to be “weird to work with” and unraveled her project again before handing me the rest of the yarn. And there I was, thinking what to do with it now before I decided to unravel my scarf project and start something else entirely: a star-shaped afghan.
I used this pattern here: Ravelry.com – well, mostly. I needed a Video Tutorial to be able to follow along better. And so it started! Unravel the scarf, start a star.
Conclusion
Somewhere in the process, I picked up too many stitches so it ended up a little crumbly, but I still like how it turned out in the end. 🥰✨ I can even use it wrapped around my shoulders, if I want to.
Not sure if anyone is reading this, but I will try to write more. I know it helps me to clear my mind off of things and stuff, so why not. Also, everyone likes a little exhibitionism, why else would one use Social Media after all.
Time has passed and I haven’t found neither energy nor motivation to get myself to update this site. I mean, I wanted it to be my gallery, self-hosted, my little semi-private space on the webs, but here we are. Without energy/motivation/determination, nothing makes sense anymore and this is what happens then: I focus on RL and on the things that need to be taken care of to keep Lucas and me alive and everything else is pure luxury.
My KoFi-Shop is now live!
https://ko-fi.com/valhund/shop
You can now buy some of my artwork and crafts I created over time via my Ko-Fi Site. It’s very handy and offers just what I need without being that other website to see arts and crafts over.
I need your help.
If you want support me and my art, you can do so in various ways!
This symmetry sketch is sort of vent art-ish for me, so this is getting quite personal here.
Last year around this time, so in June 2020, I had a severe mental breakdown. It was caused by a massive burn-out which was caused by me ignoring my depressions. Long story short: I went to clinic, had therapy, got meds, I‘m feeling way better now. But this event and everything that followed left an impression on me.
Ever since this all happened, I try hard to not fall into the same old habits and thinking spirals. And it‘s really hard to work on that, but I think I’m on the right path with it. And it also works way better than it did a year ago or before the breakdown. And I‘m really helpful for that.
So, what‘s with this picture now?
Seek yourself. Who are you and what defines you? What are the achievements of your (recent) past?
I, for example, have kinda learned to accept myself as I am. It takes time, though, and practice and it‘s tough. Not gonna lie. But I know myself good enough now to take care of myself, when I need it.
And what did I achieve? A whole lot. I managed to finish my Bachelors and my Masters, I got a job that pays the rent, and I‘m still doing art on the side. just to name a few.
What matters most. Ask yourself. What are the things in life that matter the most to you? Can you figure out what does not benefit your mental health? Can you remove that from your life? If you can answer the latter with „yes“, then go ahead.
Yes, it‘s easier said than done. But what is not? Life is a challenge and while we‘re all not up to it at some point, we gotta push through.
