I was out for coffee with a friend from my college days. We’d been roommates before either of us got married. She married her boyfriend – the one she’d been dating while we were living together – I traded up a few years later. My former roomie and I always got along very well and still keep in touch all these years later.
My friend, Valerie, is very creative. And she’s always encouraged me to stay creative. She’ll remind me if I’m not doing something, that creative people need to do something to stay happy. She’s right. She wants me to pick up knitting again. I want to reply, ‘Right or left-handed?’, but usually tell her I’ve fallen in love with bra-making. It takes up all my spare time and a good chunk of my thought process.
Back to knitting, I did learn both ways of knitting. Right-handed knitting is something my Mum taught me. I understand it’s English.
But not everyone in the world is English. A friend I met from Japan teased me about throwing the yarn when I knit, and she taught me left-handed knitting. It’s a much ‘tighter’ way of knitting. Your hands barely move, just the fingers. And the needles stay relatively motionless – not a lot of up and down movement going on.
I must say I prefer right-handed knitting, even though it does go more slowly because we really do ‘throw’ the yarn around the knitting needle tip, however I’ve done it this way for many years, and it’s what is embedded in my brain.
Valerie is an Artistic Fibre Specialist, and is incredibly talented. I was privileged to be on the receiving end of her talents this week. Valerie brought me a couple of gifts.
Isn’t this exquisite? I was so impressed with this lovely scarf. Almost made me push my sewing machine aside and take up knitting again. I settled for wearing it the same day I got it.
This is the second lovely gift I received.
Valerie does incredible work and not just to give away as gifts. She has an Etsy store. You can see more of Valerie’s designs here:
No time for sewing for me this week. I’m making Anointing Oils for a Ladies’ Retreat, and a Custom Medical ID Bracelet – one of my favorite designs:
This is a Triple-strand Bracelet made with Gold-filled beads and Swarovski Crystals. It’s a very elegant Medical ID Bracelet – you can see the ID tag hanging in the back.
I have a treat coming later in the week, or early next week. All I can say is it was love at first sight. And I’ll be starting a bra for a friend next week. She only wants something basic, but I’ll still take pictures and post them.
Happy creating!
