november post 15: craft friday report

My friend Beverly PoMoGoLightly has good ideas. Like Craft Friday: her movement to subvert the consumer-y bummer of Black Friday. It's a day that you cruise on, in the afterglow of Thanksgiving, making stuff. And eating leftovers. (I am not entirely sure the eating of leftovers is required, but it works very well here.)

The sweater is a not-yet-released pattern by Mary Lou Egan, knit in Berroco Fiora. I am crazy about both the pattern and this yarn. More on the gilded gourds, below.

My hands-on handmade/DIY efforts this year have been heavy on ideas and light on time. Do I have ideas? oh yeah. So, here with a full day that I put aside to craft,  I was paralyzed by indecision. Knit? Stitch? Crack out the sewing machine? Crochet? Recycle/upcycle old sweaters into mittens and cowls? Beading?  In the end, beautiful weather made it impossible to stay inside all day, crafting was put off till the afternoon. Add the lure of being able to finish the sweater I've been working on (slooowwwwwly) for weeks, and clearly, knitting was irresistible. Done!

Before the fog burned off--it was already unseasonably warm by 8 am.

I realized that it was the mindset that made it an absolutely lovely day. Once I'd mentally committed to Craft Friday and staying out of the scrum of retail or anything errand related, the day became a gift. 

And the leftovers were delicious, too.

PS Wishing you all--if you are in the US- a belated happy thanksgiving At the 11th hour, as is our style, we got into it and painted anything we found in the yard gold-- leaves, twigs, little tiny pumpkin-y gourds. Scatter with some votive candles and dayum we looked swanky.