New projects

Yesterday I attended a craft class at the local library. This one was about the uses for recycled sweaters (easy to find at nearby thrift stores). The instructor gave us plans for three possible projects - a scarf, a business card case, and a toy animal. Most of the class chose the animal but I was the only one making a cat. My classmates made bears though by modifying the ears, you could easily make a dog or a rabbit, too.

I learned how to do the blanket stitch. Since I'm not much of a sewer, that's something I've never done before - something readily apparent if you look closely at the stitches on this little cat.

It was certainly easy enough to do but probably not something I'll be doing again. I already have too many knitting, crocheting, and embroidery projects to take on sewing projects too but I did like that things were being recycled. And old sweaters work fine for this.

My main reason for taking the class was to get to know some more people in the neighborhood, people who enjoy crafts. Most of my classmates were from the neighborhood and there were a number of them that I'd like to know better. A few of us plan to get together at the next craft circle at the library and I'm looking forward to that.

In spite of not wanting to take on another craft, I have signed up for a woodworking class through our local community college. It starts tonight. Will we get to make our own projects? Or will there be something already planned? All the other woodworking classes I've taken (not all that many) were based around a specific item that we were making. If we make our own projects, I have a lot planned - kids' building blocks, a bench for the yard, bird feeders, bird houses, some further work on the doll house I built a couple of years ago, some bases for B.'s mosaic work. My main goal is to become more skilled with tools, especially the saws, so whatever I build will probably help with that. If this class works out as I hope, I may sign up every year just to have use of all the tools and expertise of the instructor.