Nayu's Craft Time #17 Good found in not so good things

Pretend it's crochet not knitting!

Falling flat on the floor was pretty much how I felt on the day I'm writing this (Monday). I had an evil migraine Sunday evening, been awake since 1am, got woken from a 70min nap by my cat purring while pawing me and digging her claws in, and am doing blog work as quickly as I can. Ordinarily I don't mind writing this type of blog post on a Tuesday since Wednesday is my day off, but due to said migraine & my work being closed on Thursday until Tuesday, instead of needing to take a sick day I'm working Tuesday & Wednesday. It always takes me a few days to get over the extra fatigue of a migraine (which is worse just because fatigue hits me really hard). & that's why I didn't put up a post this weekend - I'd planned to Sunday but then evil migraine happened.

What I'm saying in a long winded way is that I'll announced the winner of this wonderful blanket on Thursday. Sorry it's not sooner but I'll need to rest as much as I can after work this week. 

Will this be yours?

The only plus side of Sunday's migraine was I started a new blanket, as all my current ones involved a fair amount of sewing squares together and I wanted something quick and easy. 

 There'll be excitement here on Thursday when I announce the blanket competition winner and on Saturday when I share my latest very exciting news with you! As always thank you for stopping by Nayu's Crochet Dreams ^o^ 

If I remember correctly this girl is from the anime Sugar Snow Fairies (or something like that!)

Nayu's Craft Time #16 I'm on Facebook!

This is a random cute yarn pic I discovered this week

On Wednesday I thought I'd try and make a page for Nayu's Crochet Dreams on Facebook, and with only a few glares at my laptop I did it! You can find me here. It's one of may tasks on my blog work to do list, and it's fun being able to cross it out ^o^

Nayu's Craft Time #15 My weekly experimental time!

Time to experiment!

On the day I'm pre-scheduling this post the sun is being chased by some clouds, but the sunshine streaming through the window is lifting up my spirits. Remember how I recently explained how Wednesdays is my sewing day? Well, the last few craft sessions I've spent a fair amount of time playing with yarn and doing a few experiments. I can't share any with you yet as they haven't developed into anything substantial, but it's led me to carve out some experimental craft time each week. 

What will I do with this?

The reason I'm setting aside time is because I can easily see all my time going to playing with ideas while I get distracted instead of focusing on making crochet blankets which I both need and want to make. By having a set time I won't restrict my ideas whenever they strike - I'll simply jot them down and explore them in my allocated time. I confess to not quite having figured out when that is - it will be at the weekend, either Saturday or Sunday depending how busy I am on each day. So let's say my experimental time will be at the weekend! 

I don't expect to show you anything for a while - I am still experimenting, and my creative self is mulling over ideas trying to work out what they could be. Before setting up Nayu's Crochet Dreams I never thought I could actually make up my own pattern and create something with crochet. I stuck with the reliable granny square. Well, I have made up my own borders, which I'll post about another time, so it makes sense I'll start to experiment with granny square shapes. I often don't have the head space to count and focus, which is why making things up is so fun! That I don't have to worry about copyright. It might be a while before you see the results of my experiments, but rest assured you will see them in due course!

Playing with yarn is so much fun! This chibi is knitting rathr than crocheting. Bye for now!

Nayu's Craft Time #13 My weekly sewing day

Here's my sewing self!

Every week, usually on a Wednesday because that's my midweek break from work to rest, I have one day when I don't crochet at all. This may seem a bit odd as I adore crochet, experimenting with new patterns and being able to show you my latest projects. However, I love sewing. Having an entire day for it gives me a small break from crochet, and as a saying goes 'a change is as a good as a rest'. 

To be fair it also means I'm not juggling crochet and sewing on the same day. With craft although I can chop and change projects on the same day, my personality as such that doing that annoys me. I prefer to do 1 project at a time. I do alternate projects on different days for variety. 

I'm not sewing using a giant needle...

 Sewing is a little bit different to crochet. 

For starters I can and do accidentally prick myself with my needle at least once each session.

If a project involves beads you can almost guarantee I'll break 1-2 needles. Thankfully my current projects are beadless! 

Thread is much thinner than yarn
 

I have to count where to put each stitch, which is hard to do on a work day because I'm tired. When I'm tired I frequently can't think straight and even simple counting is beyond me. That's why I don't 

yet crochet in rows. I may in time, but not for now

There's also something about using needle and thread with a sewing hoop, it reminds me of some fantasy novels which have historical slants, where characters do weaving, spinning and other hand crafts. People have been sewing for hundreds of years, which when is pretty cool when you stop and think about it. My hobby in 2015 is the same as another woman in 1015! (I think. I haven't looked up dates yet). 

Spinning is an ancient craft

Today was an extra day off as I went out for lunch with my family, so since I barely did any sewing last week I'm sewing both tomorrow and all of today. Yay! I've got some owls to see twoo....(Belated bad pun alert!)

Today I finished the big red owl! Next up....some more lettering.

Gallery #1 Younglings' Dream

 This is my first official post of many for the Gallery section of Nayu's Crochet Dreams - yay! You can find it at the top of my blog, nestled between Coming Soon and About Me and NCD tabs. 

Please note: these early pictures aren't taken in the same way all NCD pictures will be taken from now on. There won't be any more date, and the background will be white (thanks to purchasing a white sheet...)

Looking good together

 The debut for the Gallery is these two blankets because they share pictures together and were both for younger members of my family. Because they were gifts they don't have actual titles as products for sale do, so Younglings' Dreams capture what the blankets are about. 

Ever since I learnt to crochet a few years ago I'd wanted to make a blanket for each of my family's younglings. The hope is that the blankets will stay with them as they grow up, possibly to be paired up with bigger blankets when they are older So I did! 

The older youngling (sounds a contradiction but it isn't) adores anything red, so choosing a colour was easy. The creative part of me wanted to add something extra to make it more than 'just' a red blanket (not that older youngling would mind), so I added the blue rows. 

Here's a closer look

The way the blue rows are spaced out, with  one more row of read as the blanket gets bigger is a pattern template I have already used & will continue to use for future blankets. It's pleasing on the eye, stands out, and most importantly is fun and easy to do! 

The younger youngling (try repeating that really fast) adores pink, purple, and every colour of the rainbow, so using a variegated yarn (multicoloured) seemed the obvious choice. 

A closer look

 Unlike the older youngling's blanket which didn't need a border, to bring younger youngling's blanket together a simple cream border finished it nicely.

The blankets went to very happy homes which makes for a happy Nayu. I hope you've enjoyed today's post, more coming soon! 

Bye for now!

Nayu's Craft Time #11 Nayu's Crochet Dreams business cards!

side a

side b

I've been waiting since last week to post this, but here are the official Nayu's Crochet Dreams business cards! I hope you like them as much as I do. I got them through Vistaprint UK at a reasonable price,  I wanted it to match the stationery design (to be shown in another post as I'm possibly getting a headache so need to be speedy online), but since it didn't I went through all 6900 and something business card designs to get this one. It took a while, but was worth it & fun while listening to audiobooks. I did my best to use similar colours of text to match the colours in the design, and I like how it's sort of a similar colourscheme to the Nayu's Crochet Dreams logo (seen at the top of this blog).

I'd love to know what you think of them! These will be sent out with all blankets that are sold, but if any of you comment on this post I'll happily send you one (or several) for you to keep and share with friends and family.

Nayu's Craft Time #10 Pet blanket paw print prototype progress!

Paw progress!

Sorry this wasn't posted yesterday - my internet played up so I had to give up on using it.

As much as I'd hoped to be writing about what can influence my crochet style, I'm opting for a shorter post of the progress on my pet blanket paw print prototype - trying saying that several times in a row! This time it wasn't a migraine which made me switch my post plans, thankfully. I'd unexpectedly had to have my super strong pain meds yesterday, which I usually have every 5 week, because I'd been having a pain flare for the last 2 weeks and needed my body reset, which the meds sort of do. I'm feeling heaps better than I was, albeit a bit tired because continuous severe pain is exhausting. I'm mostly used to it, but extra high levels wear me out.

Never fear tho, it doesn't stop me (much) from doing crochet! This has been on both Facebook and Twitter, but as you can see I'm making progress on my paw print. Please ignore the different styles of borders to the squares - since it's a prototype I'm experimenting with how I join the squares together. Due to the extra time it takes to make something like this there will probably only be 1 paw print per blanket, but I'm sure none of you will mind that. I'm hoping to work on it a bit more today, but since I've got several hours of reading planned I don't think I'll finish this project today. 

Remember there are some fab competitions which need entering! You can win a blanket made by me (worldwide competition)

win an audiobook of your choice  (US/UK only competition)

Nayu's Craft Time #9 Craft is wonderful therapy

Everyone go 'Awwww!'

I'd hoped to write this post on Tuesday, so my time on Wednesday could be for my review blog. However a migraine formed at work on Tuesday morning while I was at work. By the time I got home I had to head straight to bed. However, it was almost a migraine because the pain part disappeared! I had the usual migraine exhaustion and feeling mweh, but was able to crochet while lying down & catching up with TV. Happy Nayu! I love being able to do crochet when I'm unwell because it makes me feel like I'm doing something, the repetitive nature is soothing and it's just plain fun. The post I'd planned about explaining my style & colour choices has to wait for another day.

If you have a pet, go spend some time with it! I would, but at the time of writing this post my cat is lazing in the sun on the spare bed. I know when I'm not wanted!

Nayu's Craft Time #8 Audiobook Competition

What audiobook would you listen to?

Today's post is a little different. I'm directing you all over to my post on my other blog, Nayu's Reading Corner, which talks about why I love audiobooks and gives you a chance to win an audiobook! (US/UK entries only). This weekend I spent most of Sunday looking for stationery design - including business cards - for both Nayu's Crochet Dreams and Nayu's Reading Corner. I used up my allotted time for blogging and then some, so my next craft post will be Thursday where I'll show a small part of Nayu's Crochet Dreams new stationery which I'll use when sending off my handmade dreams to their new homes. Until then, think about audiobooks!