When I first started really enjoying sewing and wanting to play with it on a regular basis I had some basic skills.  My mom helped me make a truly hideous orange dress when I was about 12 and I had done some simple altering of my clothes over the years.  I’m short and have quirky taste in fashion so knowing how to thread a needle and such was a necessity.  But about three years ago I really started wanting to make things so I dug around the internet and started trying things out.  Of course being me I didn’t want to follow anyones directions I just wanted to figure things out…I’ve since learned to suck it up and do a little combination of the two.  Some of the things I tried worked, some didn’t (Hence the dud pile).  Some ended up being abandoned, unfinished to dwell in darkness until….

Here I am three years and many projects and added skills later, totally uninspired.  So I decided to reach back into the dark corners of the closet of crafty delight and revisit some of those abandoned projects.  I found this

When I find things that I want to try to make or a material I want to try working with the first thing I do is hit the Goodwill and try to find something I can transform into what I want.  (I’m a cheap ass new materials cost too much, plus recycling, yeah.) So I was loving all the hats and mittens and things that people were making from old sweaters and I especially loved the pweaters my sister and I made based on these sweater pants.  Being a total cheap ass I was unwilling to let go of the little pieces of wool left over after making all those things.  So I had a bag full of wool scraps.  One day I was feeling like sewing but I didn’t have anything specific in mind so I just sort of started sewing the scraps together and this interesting looking thing started to develop.  I was having fun.  I thought wouldn’t it be cool to make a whole wool blanket like this….yeah.  Do you know how big blankets are? Even a little one is kind of huge.  My mind wandered, I thought of something else I wanted to make and the wool scrap improvisational blanket got shoved back into the bag.  And there it waited for me to come around to another what the hell should I do now moment.  I keep telling myself and everyone else who will listen to just do stuff.  To keep doing even when you don’t know what you are doing.  So I pulled it out yesterday when I couldn’t think of anything else to do and I HAD SO MUCH FUN!  I was just going with my gut and letting it happen.  Here is what it looks like now

This may have to go back into the bag a few times before I get it big enough to actually be a blanket but it was so fun and relaxing to just do it, no direction, no plan, just feeling and making.  Maybe when I’m done it won’t be that pretty but it will be something that I felt good doing and it will surely be very warm.