I am so very proud of myself. I am going to make a toy Lion for my nephew’s upcoming 2nd birthday and I am using yarn I already have! Sounds logical doesn’t it? I have so much yarn, however nothing that quite qualified for a lion. I then realized that he is going to be 2 years old and really won’t know if the color is a bit off. So, out of the stash it comes. I do love buying yarn though and I am wondering how much the joy of purchasing some more yarn was overshadowing my logic on color choices.
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Men and any craft actually, pose a bit of a problem and I truly hate that. Firstly, there is the difficulty in finding suitable patterns for men. Then there are the ‘are they too girly’ patterns. Will he wear a crochet item? Does he feel isolated if he does crochet?

Let’s address these problems. Obviously this is only my point of view and people are more than welcome to disagree with me.
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Having read all your responses to my Frightened of My Craft Room post, I have had yet another change in the way I do things here.

First of all – what is the 15 minute thing? That is cleaning anything for 15 minutes, it’s that simple! I randomly go to an area of my house that needs cleaning (that’s everywhere so not hard to find somewhere) and then armed with my trusty kitchen timer I start my cleaning. I set it for 15 minutes and just do whatever I can in that 15 minute time span. If it is not finished then it’s ‘who cares’ and then go to another area or do another 15 in that spot. It is funny as it has turned into almost a game trying to see how much I get done in that time span. Things are picking up here. I must confess that my poor craft room is still suffering from a) not enough 15 minute blocks mostly because I am still daunted by it and b) the fact that I am not sure if there is enough 15 minute blocks to ever get it done.

What’s this got to do with crocheting? Well. I have a lot of unfinished crochet things, they range from afghans to scarfs, toys and towels. When I sit down to do a certain crochet item that I actually WANT to do I first pick up one I don’t want to do and work on it for 15 minutes before I am allowed to do the ‘fun’ one. This has proved to be most successful. Firstly my unfinished stuff is being slowly worked on but secondly, once I pick it up I usually do more than the 15 minutes.

Who new that 15 minutes and a $2 kitchen timer could make such a difference to my house, crocheting and attitude.

Thanks to all of you who suggested it.

Well I was going to call this article “Real Men Crochet”, and that is still applicable however RECENTLY I have had an unusual amount of emotional ‘stress’ and I have really appreciated my crocheting – more than normal. My life has been on hold for a few weeks and whilst sitting, waiting, pacing, worrying and comforting in various hospitals and nursing homes I found that crocheting saved me. So I now figure that I need to save the world one person at a time and you need to help me – pretty please.
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Have you ever made a gift and the recipient hasn’t used it? Have you taken offense? I know I have been very upset when something I have made ends up hidden in the cupboard or the guest room that never has guests in it.

I am sure it has happened to some of you – however I hope it hasn’t – giving the perceived unwanted gift. The gift you have slaved over with thought and love and they have no idea what went into it. Gifts that you spend hours on to find they are stuffed in a spare bedroom that is a totally different color when you thought it would be nice in the lounge. Nobody wants to be put on a pedestal but a genuine thanks would be nice don’t you think?

Think again my crocheting friends.
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My craft room is my nemesis. I am very lucky I have a craft room all to myself that doesn’t double as anything else. In 2000 we built a house to our needs, once again we are very fortunate to have been able to do that. So why then does this one room terrify and intimidate me at the same time?

It all started so very simple, we moved in and all was perfect in there. I gave up my job when we moved in to become a full time mother to our then 3 and 10 year old daughters. Money was short so I worked from home. First I did piece work sewing for a company so everything had to be perfect in the craft room in order to determine what was theirs and what was mine. I slowly went mad doing that so I began my own business sewing and crocheting. An odd assortment of fabrics, cottons, zippers, buttons, lace, and various other things all built up in my room with my precious yarns and threads.
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With the exception of the obvious dialects around the world, the language our forefathers spoke, we all speak another language to each other but can actually understand each other. As far as spoken language I am only versed in English, toddler, and teenager – for those of you without toddlers and teenagers, believe me, they speak a different language.

As I write these stories each week I write in English, or more precisely, Australian. After I have finished my writing I then go over it all and make it American. Rachel prefers me to write in American. You would be surprised how many words are different.
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Well, Rachel has out witted me again. This article that you are reading, well the one with the above title – she sabotaged me. I thought it was a good idea, I had it ¾ written and then I went to the Crochet Spot home page for something and what was there staring me in the face??? Hmmmmmm??? “Submit Your Crochet Pictures!”.

Well I got all bent out of shape there for a bit, just because this is her site she shouldn’t steal my ideas should she? Even though she had no idea I was writing a post about making stuff from this site. Maybe she could have mentioned she is psychic.
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I had something written for all of you it was titled “WIP and WIM”, that’s changed – as you can tell by the title of the article you are now reading. I’ve kept with the original thread but added some! I know your just bursting with excitement to find out why I have changed the title (pretend you are) – I shall tell you.

Firstly, what am I going on about? For the uninitiated, a WIP is a “work in progress”, you know, the one or ones you are currently working on even if you have only done the first row before putting it into a bag or box and forgetting about it. A WIM is a “work in mind”, they are all the other projects that you know you need to, or want to do next.
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How far would YOU go to get some yarn, and I don’t mean distance?

I am now officially something…. not sure what though, I could be totally deranged, insane, fixated, total idiot, obsessed, possessed or maybe on a more positive note simply dedicated to my crochet. How have I come to this conclusion?

I really, truly hope that you cannot relate in any way to this story because it is really, really embarrassing. The only reason I am sharing this with you is because we will never meet. I am in Australia and I don’t think there are many Australians on this site, also my address in not published. Just a side note – I am really quite bright, I manage a hubby, house, children, animals and have a degree. This story I do not believe, and hope isn’t, a normal episode in my life.
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