Flashbacks to my education

I mentioned previously that I worry about my parenting style, but at the same time I agree with Rahima Baldwin Dancy:

Our task is to do our best, and trust in the best. We need to trust our children to be resilient, to be able to heal, to be terrific people despite our flawed efforts and our most regretted actions. (from You are Your Child’s First Teacher)

I’m glad that before having a child of my own I accepted that my own parents did their best based on their knowledge, their resources and their emotional/psychological fit with me. I feel that my acceptance of their parenting style gives me more confidence in my own and allows me to be gentle with myself, to forgive my own mistakes faster. I know I’ll make many mistakes, but all parents do.

I started reading R. B. Dancy’s book as part of my research into various educational streams/theories: Montessori, Waldorf, homeschooling, unschooling, autonomous education. I just finished reading John Holt’s How Children Fail. Here is excerpt from his own foreword to it:

But there is a more important sense in which almost all children fail: Except for a handful, who may or may not be good students, they fail to develop more than a tiny part of the tremendous capacity for learning, understanding, and creating with which they were born and of which they made full use during the first two or three years of their lives.
Why do they fail?
They fail because they are afraid, bored, and confused.

His book is so easy to read and I had no trouble agreeing with him throughout the book, because, despite being a good student, I disliked school and as result skipped some of it. Yep, I was a truant. According to my mum I even disliked kindergarten.

At school I was often bored, because the subject matter was irrelevant to me, too easy or plain boring. I still remember listening to my uncle’s stories about Catherine the Great when I was 10 or 12 and being surprised to discover that history can be interesting, that it involves real complex people, that it isn’t all about poor underprivileged people rebelling against the rich.

The whole life in Soviet Russia was full of fear and confusion to me. There were so many unwritten rules, that no one explained to me, but plenty of people were eager to tell one off for breaking them. I think my capacity for learning and creating was getting squashed long before I started school. But specifically at school, I was afraid of being presented as model example to the other students (it had great side-effect of cutting me off from the rest) and being ridiculed for the wrong answers. Being in the middle of the pack was the safest option. I still remember being asked to tell what the classic composer was trying to portray in a short musical piece and being laughed at by the teacher for saying that I heard a train speeding away and the sound of the train horn. The correct answer was the hunters on horses chasing prey and blowing a hunting horn. Trust me when I say that hunters and galloping horses weren’t part of my childhood experience in small Soviet town. So the whole situation seems totally ridiculous to me now. Actually all of us dreaded music lessons, which mostly consisted of learning patriotic songs, because our teacher was sadistic bastard. I learned a lot of things at soviet school like how not to show initiative, not to ask questions, avoid responsibility, hide my thoughts and feelings, cheat, pretend to be dumber than I am, not to stand out.

Yet while reading a book I was also trying to think about studying in Australia and I realised that I can’t form any judgement on their schools as by the time I got there I just wanted to get good grades at school to get into university and at uni to pass to get a well paying job. Learning wasn’t one of my goals. There were some great teachers, some average ones and only one I truly disliked.

I hope my daughter will have better educational experience than I did. After I started working I made sure I enjoy my jobs most of the time and didn’t dread going to work every morning. I don’t see why a child should dread going to school where they spend so much of their time. To keep our options open we are trying to move to an area, which has a range of good public and private schools/kindergartens including Montessori & Waldorf.

On Saturday we actually went to the Waldorf kindergarten/school open day. How could I not like a place that is full of wood, balls of yarn, crayons, music, kindness and respect? I loved it and think I would enjoy chatting to the people, who work there, and creating my own things surrounded by its magic atmosphere. But I’m still not 100% convinced that it is perfect for my daughter, though she enjoyed playing with all their toys, was happy to be away from us and didn’t want to leave.

And since this is supposed to be a craft blog, here is a picture of the shoes I crocheted for her last week, since we were asked to bring slippers as outdoor shoes aren’t supposed to be worn inside the Waldorf school. Crochet pattern from DROPS Design - there are many other free crochet and knitting patterns on their website.

Crochet beauties

I had yesterday’s post all written up and ready for posting in the evening, but I had two glasses of wine with the few friends to celebrate my cousin’s birthday (the lucky girl herself is in Australia at the moment) and since I don’t usually drink alcohol I totally forgot about blogging. I keep on wondering how everyday posters manage to find time for it. Anyway, here is yesterday’s post:

I love reading What Not to Crochet blog, though I don’t always agree with the authors assessments, but I have to admit that there is a surprising number of hideous crocheted things and crochet books often disappoint me with their impractical, boring and even ugly designs. Therefore I treasure finding beautiful crochet masterpieces. On Saturday in Fortnum & Mason store I discovered the work of French designer Sophie Digard. Sadly her website doesn’t have much information, but you can see examples of her amazing multi-colour work here.

Start of a new wardrobe

No, not for me, but for Cat's doll. First I crocheted a hat in under two hours.

Then it took forever to make a simple dress out of my husband's old work shirt and a scrap of fabric from Polina, because I did it by hand as I don't own a sewing machine.

I was dreaming of "borrowing" my sister's sewing machine on arrival to Australia, but since we are staying in UK for longer I'm wondering if I should buy one. I have a long list of things I'd love to sew, like this Simple Kimono Wrap. Does anyone have any advice on buying a sewing machine for a total beginner? Anyone knows where one can buy/look at sewing machines in London?

Unbalanced Rainbow Shawl

I thought I finished crocheting the shawl, but when I looked at it I realised that I made the beginners mistake of getting too caught up in the stitches and forgetting to check the whole. Its sides are tonally unbalanced due to one having more dark colours than the other. Ironically after reading This Year's Word: Half Way Point post I was contemplating the Balance, the word that I would choose as the theme for the rest of the year. I have a tiny bit of yarn left, so I can unravel few rows and use it to shift the colour change somewhat. Or should I just leave it as is?

Pattern: Eva's shawl
Yarn: Noro Kureyon Sock

The simple projects

I like having at least one project that is very simple and can be done few stitches at the time, while I wait for Cat to finish her dinner or she is busy looking through a book or playing with her toys. This time I choose to make another amigurimi from the Japanese craft book. My husband tried to remind me that I swore never to make another one of those ever again. As always crocheting head and body was easy, but I started loosing my enthusiasm once I reached the smaller parts making stage. The amigurumi supposed to be a robot, but for a long time we played with the limbless, earless and eyeless creature and therefore it was renamed into Orange Alien.

This week I finally crocheted the limbs for it, but gave up on trying to find energy to make it ears or eyes.

Yarn: Some unidentified cotton
Pattern: From Japanese book (ISBN 978-4-309-28103-2)

Hopefully my next simple project won’t turn into the same prolonged fight with myself to finish it. Mettetations always finds the best patterns and after seeing her recent shawls, I couldn’t resist making an Eva's shawl for myself.

PIF done: one for Polina

Pay It Forward (PIF) gift for Polina was actually finished back in February, but I didn’t want to blog about it before finishing Rachael’s one. It was inspired by Polina’s gorgeous bright summer dresses. While outside was grey and cold inside I was enjoying looking at the beautiful red, orange and yellow beads. And from them I made this spiral bracelet.

(Note: Sorry for quality of the photos, they were taken back in February - I'm glad to see that my photography skills improved in the last few months)

I loved the colours so much that I kept on wondering if I should make another one for myself. And then I made few small mistakes and decided that this bracelet wasn’t good enough to be given to someone else. Excitted about having a good excuse to keep it, I started wondering if Polina wouldn’t prefer something less geometrical and more flowery. So I got out Carol Wilcox Wells' The Art & Elegance of Beadweaving book and used their flower pattern to crochet a new bracelet for her. I also tried making a seamless join. It didn’t end up being so seamless in my case, but not too bad for a beginner.

While in Odessa I was happy to see Polina wearing the bracelet with one of the dresses that inspired it in the first place.

(Note: This photo was taken by my husband)

I'll post about PIF gift for Rachael tomorrow.

Purple for Julia

Today was a beautifully warm and sunny day. However my poor husband had to work, so Julia volunteered to come over and help us enjoy playing at the local park. Since my order of silver earring findings arrived in the morning, during Cat's nap I made Julia a set of purple earrings

to go with her purple brooch and purple crochet rope bracelet I made for her in February.

Another toy

Pattern: kristieskids.weebly.com/patterns1.html
Yarn: Rowan Cotton Glace
Changes: I used The Magic Adjustable Ring to avoid big holes and made legs slightly longer by adding 7 rows

Happy Easter, Everyone

As you can see we are enjoying the chocolate and the hot cross(less) buns. I made them using a recipe from the Complete Bread Machine book. And everything about them is so much better than the store bought ones – the smell, the texture, the taste. One day I want to try out Delia's recipe, but I’m struggling to find normal yeast.

The little chick was crocheted out of Rowan Cotton Glace using this free pattern in under 2 hours. I added few more rows to make the bird bigger and fatter and choose to make simpler wings. The rest of the family approved the new addition to the growing toy collection, though Cat’s favourite toy at the moment is a shoelace!

And to make this Easter even more special it snowed! I think it is the first snow of this winter in London.

Wire Pendant

After my unsuccessful attempt to crochet wire bracelet and while my parents were stil here, babysitting the little girl, I went to the big book store in search of the perfect book to teach me how to crochet with wire. (Is there a better place to spend few extra hours of freedom for a self-confessed book addict?) I loved Crocheted Wire Jewelry book by Arline M. Fisch straight away and am finally trying out one of the projects. I’m crocheting a small round pendant using copper wire over wooden bead following instructions for Cube Pendant by Eugene Keefer Bell. Trying to figure out the best placement for the next slip stitch to achieve random-pattern covering is so addictive that I don’t really want to finish it.

Green bracelet for Anya

I used bead spinner to string the beads, so the actual making of the bracelet took almost no time. But once I finished crocheting it, I spend forever agonizing over how to do the closure and doing it took disproportionably long time. I’m not sure if I’ve done it correctly and how strong it is. Since I never done any beading previously I’m sadly lacking the most basic skills. I looked through all the available beading books in the local library and closely studied many of the beautiful jewellery creations on FLICKR, but I guess I’ll just have to try making few different things to get comfortable with various skills I need to create durable work.

A new hat

After I saw the hat created by Mette, I wanted to make one to go with my ruffle scarf. Mette made it sound so easy, but still I kept on putting off starting this little project. My mum’s knitting without patterns finally inspired me. Unlike Mette, I crocheted from top down increasing every other round until the hat reached the desired circumference - easy, though I had to restart few times to get the shape I like. The flower is simple Irish Lace motif from Crocheting School book – lovely book of crochet stitches that I find very useful during the design stage. There is one slight problem with this hat – it is too warm for current London weather, but hopefully it will be perfect for the usual cold snap in February.

After my friend saw the hat, she asked if I can make a flower corsage for her. Everything was going well until I ran out of wool for the leaves. So I used scraps of Rowan cotton glace instead and to make the whole thing fit together better added some beads.

And here is another photo of the hat – trying to photograph a hat on oneself is hard and this is the best I could manage.

Crafting in Berlin

Cat received this cute hat (and a matching scarf) from Polina.

Polina also made some lovely aprons for the rest of us as New Year gifts.

My mum knitted most of the Cat's jumper.
She finished it yesterday and I tried to photograph Cat trying it on, but all I got was a bunch of blurry photos. The bunny pattern is from Nursery Knits by Tessa Watts-Russell.

And I crocheted another scarf. (The pattern is from Crochet for Beginners by Carroll & Brown)

In search of Christmas Spirit.

No matter how hard I try to prepare for Christmas it always catches me by surprise. During my childhood, being a very ordinary Russian family, we always celebrated New Year instead. Things didn’t change much after we moved to Australia. After more than 10 years of living in society that celebrates it I still need to check the calendar to find out the exact day for Christmas (without calendar I’m not sure if it is 24th, 25th or 26th).

This year I managed to send out FOUR Christmas cards, which is more than I did last year or the year before. In contrast my dear husband, who grew up with proper Christmas celebration, sent out cards to his family and all his friends long time ago. He also managed to get presents for his SA family (can I get some credit for giving him ideas and helping him find them?), our little family and my parents. I’m ashamed to say that I still didn’t get his present (at least I know what I want to get him) and since I’m not a big fan of shopping in general and shopping just before Christmas day sounds to me like the worst possible nightmare, he may have to wait for the New Year (or Russian Orthodox Christmas or Russian Old New Year) to receive his present. I should admit that I actually didn’t buy any presents so far. But I have plenty of time as I will see most of the people, who will be getting presents from me, few days after Christmas (or at least this is what I keep on telling myself).

We already received few presents. The earliest gift giver was lovely Julia, with who we had coffee and cake last weekend at the Louis Hungarian Patisserie on Finchley Road (photo above was taken by her as well). The evening was made perfectly magical by live piano music. Julia and I strongly suspect that the piano player was Russian as his entire repertoire was sweetly familiar to us. And we got a package from Clive’s cousin, who now lives in Japan (I think it’s highly exciting to have a cousin-in-law in Japan), but Clive is waiting for Christmas morning to open it (the tortures inflicted on others by Christmas traditionalists!).

This week I thought a lot about my lack of Christmas traditions. And my conclusion is that Christmas to me is much more about getting together as a family, having fun time eating, drinking and playing than it is about present giving or sending out cards. I can also create whatever traditions I want. Maybe I’ll decide to turn into Mrs Weasley and knit everyone a sweater next year (except I can’t knit). This year I’m starting with something smaller – I’m crocheting a little scarf for my cutest and most precious baby (it’s colour is actually closer to emerald – English winter light makes taking photos super hard).

In case I’ll forget to say it on the 25th – Merry Christmas to you, my Dear Readers.

Welcome to Celine

I made my first amigurumi using the crochet pattern from here. Crocheting her was very fast, but putting together took forever. I had to remake the eyes and nose few times (please don’t point out that she doesn’t really have a nose) to achieve the result I’m at least semi-happy with. But I love the little bow and sticking out tongue. I can just imagine her staring wide-eyed at the world and exploring it, with the tiny tongue sticking out in excitement and concentration. (I have to credit my own little explorer for giving me the idea). But taking time to get to know someone helps to find out their name - so welcome to our home little Celine.



Looks like I’m at least one year behind on what is fashionable in the blog craft circles. I’m very keen to try making some felted beads, but need to figure out the easiest place to buy supplies.

I love the amigurumi creatures created by Pepika and wailintse

Reminder to plan

Семь раз отмерь — один отрежь.
Русская пословица

Measure seven times – cut once.
Russian proverb

--
I decided to crochet a necklace out of wire and beads using Solomon’s knot stitch. Very quickly I discovered that there were few tiny problems with this project. I have never done anything out of wire before except few rings when I was about 7 and some manual wire wrap circuits for my electronics/computer engineering subjects at university. I have never done Solomon’s knot stitch before. But worst of all I didn’t have any plan or design in mind. After stumbling about and getting totally confused in all the wire bends, I gave up and decided to use the simplest possible stitches to make a plain bracelet.

I’m still not happy with the end result and not sure if I will ever wear it. For now I’m going to hang it above my desk to remind me about the importance of planning.

And to practice Solomon’s knot stitch I’m crocheting a shawl for myself.

The ruffle scarf

I crocheted another scarf – I may have to base the rest of my new wardrobe around all the scarves I own. The pattern for this one is from Essential Crochet by Erika Knight. I love this book because it doesn’t have any bikini top patterns, that seem to be the obligatory for any crochet book, and makes the crochet look elegant.

And this is what happens when one tries to take a photo with a small child around:

Adding beads to crochet

Last week in the middle of all the outings and before the visitors came I finally finished a tiny present for my cousin.

About two years ago I saw the Bead Crochet book by Bethany Barry in the library and despite the ghastly colours loved the projects in the book and the idea of combining crochet and beads (ok, I’ll admit that colour preferences are very personal and changeable and that some people will love the colour combinations in this book). After renewing the book numerous times I had to return it to the library. A bit later I bought another book(The Art & Elegance of Beadweaving by Carol Wilcox Wells), but for a total novice to beading the variety of ideas, skills, projects and beauty was totally overwhelming. And so it sat on my bookshelf for almost another year – I would take it out regularly; look through the pages excited at the prospect of learning to create something so magical, but fearful of complexity involved and possible failure I would put it back on the shelf. Finally one day I bought some beads and decided to try my hand at making simple crocheted rope. It took a very long time, but while making it I contemplated on how much my cousin’s friendship means to me and got inspired to make a card for her as well. I felt so happy to be able to express all my respect and love for her in few simple sentences. And I was reminded again that crocheting allows me to take a peaceful break from everyday busyness, to connect to my thoughts and feelings. Hence this small present for her ended up being a huge one for myself.

Полина, я тебя люблю

P.S. the quote on the front of the card is from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
When you part from your friend, you grieve not; For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

Pink

I picked up some knitting wool at the local charity shop – totally an impulse buy: it was cheap, I needed something to crochet with, but it was pink. Since I don’t really like pink (except the very pale kind) I stared at the three balls of wool for two weeks wondering what possessed me to buy them in the first place and what I’m going to do with them. And then I added some purple thread, found the fattest hook I have (think it’s 6mm) and using simple treble crossed stitches made myself a scarf. It was great for practicing the turning chain (it finally makes sense after years of crocheting and eventually reading the instructions in TWO books) and keeping the tension even (still not so good at it).

While making it I gradually grew to like the scarf and think it will work well with a simple black coat with a straight collar. Now I just have to find the said simple black coat – this is one of the top reasons why I hate shopping, I decide beforehand exactly what I want and then struggle to find it. But my best ever shopping buddy (hi mum!) is coming to London soon, so I’m looking forward to hitting the shops with her.

Maybe I’ll make myself more scarves as all the ones I have are in various shades of green and blue. Staring at our white walls and neutral IKEA furniture (flats in London mostly come furnished) I realised that I want more colour in my life.

Tranquillity of crocheting

Yesterday I was in both retrospective and introspective mood. Now familiar and comfortable, it strikes me sporadically, but is sure to spring up around my mum’s and my birthdays (They are so close together that I view them as one). I would love to walk for few hours on my own - contemplating quietly, letting go of the current noisy everyday clutter that took secure residence in my brain and opening the flow to the wiser deeper thoughts. But rain and loved but constant presence of the Babe kept me close to home. So I used every trick to encourage the Babe to play by herself or at least to happily enjoy gentler activities with her subdued mum.

We lay on the bed. She put her tiny warm hand on my arm. I stoked her fingers with my other hand. She looked in fascination and then reached out, stopped my moving fingers and slowly and softly started to explore them. And so we stayed there for another magic ten minutes, taking turns stroking each other fingers. Occasionally she would grunt unhappily, arrest my movement, force me to be still. I guess she had some type of game plan and I was too slow to figure out the finer details of the rules.

And later, when she played on her own, I baked bread and finished crocheting a doily. I never learned to sew, embroidery frustrates me, knitting disastrously ends after few lost stitch; but I love crocheting. Treble, treble, treble, few chain stitches, treble, treble, treble. I count, my hands move to the rhythm, the thoughts disappear and my mind achieves temporary tranquillity.

However now my brain is abuzz with ideas for new crochet project – I may try making something different, like a hat or a bag or bead crocheting, there are just so many doilies small two-bedroom flat needs: