When my daughter got married a couple of years ago, I carved her a one of a kind crochet hook. I wrote on it:

Wherever you go

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

whatever you do

be happy

and know

that

I love you…..

Guess you can tell that I adore her….. LOL!

I took pics of the process of carving the one of a kind crochet hook, and have  just put them together as a video tutorial.

Remember: Always wear safety equipment and work carefully!

Carving a handmade crochet hook is a slow and meticulous process.

You will need to work carefully, using close grain hardwood that can sustain the pressure of the carving, and even more important: To be able to stand up to the rigours of crocheting later!

By the way: Be gentle when crocheting with wooden hooks! Lighten up on your tension, as you don’t want to break the hook after all that work!

When shaping the hook section, sand after every little nip of the knife, and test crochet with it frequently to make sure it is a ‘happy hook’.  If it catches or splits the yarn, it’ll make you crazy, so keep working at it until the hook flows and floats through the yarn.

And, sad to say…. prepare for some ‘fail’ …… sometimes, you’ll invest hours and hours into making a handmade hook, and the stinker will break in your hands.  Sigh…. back to the drawing board.

But! when you do achieve a perfect hook, it is just a treasure!

Here’s the video:

Last Sunday, when my husband, Jim’s trio was playing at the Blue Chair, I brought along my little Flip video camera, and taped a few lovely moments to share….

I was weaving away on my potholder loom, so there’s even a little fiber content in the video!

Jim wrote ‘Gypsy Girl’ for me…. sigh……  having him write music for me is one of the most incredible gifts I have ever received!

photo and video by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I was sitting quite far away from the bass player, so, sadly, you don’t hear much of the bass.

I was sitting with one of my closest friends, who hadn’t heard ‘Gypsy Girl’ yet.

You’ll hear her say: Wow….. and me laughing in delight

at the end of the video.

That’s my ubiquitous cup of green tea next to my potholder loom.

The little wooden notebook in the pic is one that I made my friend for Christmas, and the white crochet is the bag I crocheted for her for her birthday.

It’s the prototype for the bag in Book 1 of the Strapped for Bags series.

Anyhow… I hope that you’ll enjoy ‘Gypsy Girl’ (even though it’s a YouTube video and NOT recording standard by any means….)

That’s my Beloved in the red shirt, playing the guitar…..

Contemplative Crochet: A Hands-on guide for interlocking faith and craft by Cindy Crandall-Frazier

is a lovely book, that is indeed true to it’s title: It is deeply contemplative.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Cindy Crandall-Frazier has written meditations that are linked to key issues in the life of anyone who is looking for ways of deepening their spiritual path.

Ms Crandall-Frazier writes from the perspective of being a Quaker, and her book reflects the gentleness and respectful approach to life of the Quaker’s path.

The book has 10 chapters. In each one there is an exploration of a spiritual concept, and musings about artists who are embodying those themes in their lives and work.

In each chapter, there is also a simple project that is meant to be created in a spirit of connection to the Divine Presence. As a finished object, it acts as a reminder of that spiritual process.

I highly recommend this book - in fact, I am one of the people on the back of the book who wrote endorsements for it before it was published.

My one disappointment with the book? That the publishers chose to print it in black and white and not in color.

One of the main strengths of crochet is that it is painterly, and by loosing the ability to see the works in the book in color, we loose a great deal of the impact that they should be conveying.

Lovely book, though…. so full hooks up to Cindy Crandall-Frazier!

If you have felt that the work of your hands is connected to your heart and spirit, you will definitely resonate with Contemplative Crochet.

Have you ever had a day that wasn’t really all that different from any other day,

and yet….

doll and photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

somehow….

it filled you with delight….. just to be alive?

A few years ago, I was working away in my studio, and was in a state of pure enjoyment,

as ideas were flowing and projects were just chugging along and everything felt

wonderful!

I grabbed my sketchbook and made some quick drawings of how I felt about the lusciousness of a day of happy work and feeling blessed.  Then, I made a doll-

that was the first of many, many variations on the drawings. The photo to the right is a pic of the first ‘joy’ doll…..

Those drawings have become the basis of a whole series of  joy based cloth dolls,

paper dolls, wooden dolls, spool knitters,crochet hooks and all manner of other things.

Ah, joy……

Which brings me to today’s pictures for the Faces of Joy pictures…..

Chrissy left a comment in one of the previous entries in the Face of Joy Challenge, leaving a link to her entry in the Challenge.

Chrissy’s face of joy is made in socks!  Fun!

Nancy sent me a pic of her husband looking quite bemused in a rather grumpy looking hat….. since she didn’t tell her hubby that his pic had been sent off to a blog…. I cropped to just the hat:

Nancy's hat copyright

and, then I turned the grumpy little mouth upside down to make it somewhat more joyful…..

Nancy's hat smiling

And Caroline has joined in with  her Face of Joy, which has taken wing!

Caroline's yellow bird (copyright)

There are an infinite number of ways of expressing the face of joy….. Thanks Chrissy, Nancy and Caroline for sharing your faces of Joy!

I look forward to seeing more faces of joy……

In March, I ran 3 contests on Hankering for Yarn.

One of the contests was the Compassionate Crochet contest.

compassion caps crocheted by Barbara Pretzsch copyright

The winner of that contest, Barbara Pretzsch, has proved herself

to be a winner in more ways than one!

Barbara has used the kit that she won to create a whole collection

of compassion caps and has shipped them off to the Knots of Love folks

so they can distribute them to cancer patients.

Bless your heart, Barbara, and thank you!

Yesterday, I began the ‘Face of Joy Challenge’. So, that has me thinking about how to show the Face of Joy in as many ways as possible.

It’s a F A C E of Joy challenge, right?

teddy designed, made and photographed by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Soooooooooooo…..

that means that the face doesn’t have to belong to human being.

AND……

I did say that for this challenge,

WIRE counts as yarn, right?

So……..

my entry for ‘The Face of Joy’ challenge for today

is

A teddy bear that I crocheted from 28 gauge coppper wire.

He has a big heart and a happy disposition.

He’s got wooden beads inside his head and his tummy to keep him

from squishing flat when he’s off on an adventure, inside my pocket or a bag.

He’s about 3 1/2 inches tall (9 cm).

And, when I look at him, I have to smile…..

and isn’t that what the face of joy is all about?

I invite you to play with wire today and see what joy you invent.

Remember to hold the wire very lightly, and don’t try to put much tension on it

or it’ll play havoc with your tendons, and that’s no joy…..

have fun!  Play time!

Please remember to send me pictures of  YOUR face of joy projects, so you can win the Jane Austen crochet hook.

Any month that starts with with a day of foolishness deserves to have a celebration of playfulness, doesn’t it?

I’ve been reading up on ‘play’ (click the link to read what wikipedia has to say about play)

image & photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

and playfulness.

Expert after expert has talked about the importance of being playful

for our entire lives.

There was a wonderful conference about Serious Play last year.

All the experts agree:

Play is essential to our well being, in body, mind and spirit - as individuals and as communities.

Being playful can alleviate all kinds of stress.

Playfulness increases resiliency and flexibility….and, whew… do we ever need to be flexible these days!

Because of the grim situation with the economy, we are all rattled and frazzled to some extent or another…. sooooooooooo…….

I thought……….

How about starting a challenge of playfulness?

Here’s the scoop:

For the month of April, I would like to challenge you to  show us all

your face of joy.  What does that mean?

Well, play with some yarn and make a face that shows an image of joy,

image & photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

whatever that means and however you interpret that. NO! you don’t have to be an “artist”  !  A few simple lines CAN convey joy!

For example: I drew a ‘joy’ face with spool knitted cord. (1st pic)

Then, I played with my photoshop program in the 2nd pic. (you don’t

have to do that…. I just wanted to play with it!)

The RULES:

1] Make a face that shows joy- BUT… the face MUST have yarn as some part of it. (Thread and string and wire all are going to count as yarn for this challenge).

2]Any technique that uses yarn IN ANY WAY to make a face, and, the more playful the better! (You can make a mask or a puppet or a doll or a wall hanging or or or… )

(knitting,weaving, crochet, photo collage, spool knitting, tatting, beading, embroidery… and…. and… or…..

ANY playful way you can think of to make a face  of JOY and you’re in!)

3] Send me a pic of your Face of Joy OR blog about it and link to this posting.

4] The challenge lasts for the month of April

5] You can make as many faces of joy as you would like….. please post a comment with your blog links if you’re going to post the pics on your blog, so people can see what you are up to.

6] Would winning a prize bring a smile to your face? Well…. I thought that it might…. so, I am going to give one of the challenge participants one of the one of a kind Homage to Jane Austen crochet hooks that I carved: ( I do ask that the winner pays the postage… sorry about that part…. )

image & photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

image & photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

All right! Now go have some fun! and make some faces of JOY!

Okay… now, here is an invitation that is hard to resist….

The invitation is  from Luib na Lùban, (Lùban air an Drochaid in Gaelic, pronounced, roughly, “Loooban er n drawkitch”),

copyright stitches on the bridge

which translates to: In Amongst the Stitches.

They are  a new textile art group in Skye, Scotland, that is inviting all Scots, ex-pats, Scotophiles and any other stitching folk  to take part in a wild and woolie project to cover the Skye Bridge in knitting and crochet.

On their Ravelry page, they have listed the dimensions of all the pieces that they need. (They need a lot, and don’t worry, the pieces won’t be wasted! They’ll be re-configured later to donate to charity)

The Skye Bridge links the Isle of Skye with the mainland in the West Highlands of Scotland.

The plan is to link this gigantic and glorious feat of urban stitching with Highland Homecoming 2009.

The Highland Homecoming is an exuberant  celebration of Scotland’s many wonderful contributions to the world, in October 2009.

Here’s the website: stitches on the bridge, where you can find links to myspace and facebook as well as other group links,

and here’s the  link for the yahoo group yahoo stitches on the bridge and the  Ravelry page

Get your hooks and needles flying! They need to cozy up the bridge to Skye starting now!

Speaking of books, Gwen has a wonderful new book coming out next year:

One of the things that I love about Gwen is that even though she’s  an elegant, gracious

image by Gwen Blakley-Kinsler copyright

and a mailbox has been blessed by Gwen’s hook, too….

Melody MacDuffee is a creative genius.

She developed a crochet  technique, called ‘crochet overlay’ that creates a kaleidoscopic effect.

Her book: Crochet Overlay Jewelry

is a collection of stunningly beautiful crocheted pieces that will inspire awe.

Melody teaches people how to crochet pieces that are like mandalas, with exquisite geometric progressions. You can see how mathematics and artistry have melded so harmoniously in her work.

I met her a few years ago, when we were both teaching at a national conference of the Crochet Guild of America. Unfortunately, when you’re teaching a full slate of courses, you don’t get to spend a whole lot of time with other teachers, who are also run off their feet.

But, even in the brief conversation I had with her, I knew that she was definitely a very special person.

As well as being a gifted crochet designer and teacher, Melody has a passion for beading and teaching beadwork.

It has been fascinating to see where her love of beads has taken her.

It has lead her to become an African Queen! Yup!

Melody has created a small foundation in Ghana that is doing great work.

(and that has resulted in her being recognized as an African Queen).

She is working together with a small but dedicated group of bead makers, bead designers and wire workers to create a sustainable bead industry in Ghanna.

The bead makers use recycled glass that they pound into powder and then they individually sculpt the beads.

Melody writes all about the process of the bead making, as well as the impact on the beadworkers lives at: Soul of Somanya

I am so pleased that Soul of Somanya now has an etsy shop so that people can easily buy the Soul of Somanya beads.

Once again, it’s creativity, compassion and crafting in action to make the world a better place! Yay, Melody! and Yay! Soul of Somanya!

Images: Copyright Leisure Arts and Soul of Somanya