She's crafty

It may be impossible, but my dream is to be the Noah's ark of yarn and thread crafting. I absolutely can't get enough. Crammed under my little dorm extra-long twin bed, I have supplies for knitting, crochet, cross-stitching, spinning, and a touch of sewing (but only under extreme duress). Back home I still have my bobbin-lacemaking supplies which have been looking a little abandoned lately (your day will come, my lovelies). Somewhere I have a tatting shuttle which I still have no idea how to use. I also have a list of new skills I wish to acquire, including:

• spinning on a spinning wheel
• using a sewing machine
• actually learning to shuttle and/or needle tat
• card weaving
• triangle loom weaving
• regular loom weaving
• embroidery beyond cross-stitching

I'm sure there are more, I just haven't found them yet. To compound the problem, I have half-finished projects stashed nearly everywhere. I have a blanket I've been working on for almost a year, but now that it's more than halfway done it's fairly heavy to work with. I have several doilies abandoned at the point when they either ask me to break of the thread and re-join it on a different stitch or when I have no idea what the pattern is saying. Or if it starts to ruffle too much. I have a crochet string bag barely past the base and a dragon who is nearly done but still needs wings (I dread the wings).

Not to mention all of the yarn I've spun on my Turkish drop spindle which my amazing roommate got me for Christmas, but for some reason I never use any of it. Maybe it's because I'm mostly using cheap wool with bits of vegetation still trapped in the fibers, or maybe because I've already gone through one leg of the journey with the fiber and I think that's far enough to take our relationship. Or maybe I keep saying "ooh, shiney!". After the dragon I am going to make a crochet version of Jiji from Kiki's Delivery Service, maybe another doily, a hat, possibly a new cross-stitch project, and then I'll consider all of the other projects. Oops!

I love having all of these skills. Give me a pair of needles, I can make you a scarf or anything else. A crochet hook? I'll try to sketch up a pattern for a filet crochet doily or dig into the internet to make a stuffed animal. My pattern making software has not only allowed me to make cross-stitch patterns, but also filet crochet patterns and even the color-working for my Star Trek sweater project of two years ago. All of these arts are basically disappearing. You can't buy any good lace bobbins outside of the UK and you can barely find anyone who does most of these crafts who is under 50.

It's sad, because you can do some amazing things out of yarn and thread. I've been trying to get my boyfriend to take up crochet because I think he'll love the pattern manipulation that forms amigurumi. Bobbin lace is absolutely incredible, but I dread the day when we will ask how it was made and the only answer will be "I don't know, but they did it". Crafting will not become the next Stonehenge as long as I can help it. Even if I only learn the basic skills for each craft I want to know, I'll at least have a foundation to grow off of.

Now if only I could get a good number of Midlands bobbins, I could really make some awesome lace!