Here's why I make things and craft. What about you?

Why do you craft?
For me, making things and crafting have always been a part of my life. Crafting is a place for joy. A comfort. A best friend.

I craft because...
it's how I can experiment and learn. One thing I really love doing is looking at a traditional craft and then thinking "What if I tried _____?" or "What would happen if I changed _____?".

There's a great thrill in giving an idea permission to come out of your head and be real.

It's just a bonus if a crafty hypothesis works out how I wanted it to. Even if it doesn't, I know I'm going to learn a ton from what did and didn't work.

I craft because...
it grounds me. Whenever I get stressed out or anxious, the inherent repetitiveness of crafting helps me calm the nerves. It's amazing what a hundred knit 2, purl 1's can do to gather some perspective.

I craft because...
it's awesome to create something that didn't exist before. So much fun fun fun!

The best is creating something new out of something that was going to be thrown out. Then I get the "Woo Hoo, I'm recycling!" feeling too. One of my favorite craft projects was when I "recycled" several sweaters from the thrift store by unraveling them, washing all the "yarn", then crocheting it into an afghan.

We did something similar in our Sew & Stitch Embroidery book where we made a "fake knit" scarf that was made from thrift store sweaters.

And right now I'm crocheting a doily out of all my embroidery floss scraps. It's the same pattern that my grandma used to make all of her doilies. You can see a little detail of it in the "I craft because ____." graphic above.

photo by Sarah Hebenstreit

Now it's your turn.
I would love to hear from you!
Why do you craft?

Email me (Alyssa) at info [at] penguinandfish [dot] com with your answer to:

I craft because _______.

Me being crafty at 1 1/2 years old! Love this pic!

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