Creative Blog Hop

Today I’m taking you “blog hopping”! The very talented and equally lovely Heike Gittins – blog: “Made with Loops” – has asked me to join in and I am honestly honored that she did. Heike and I “met” on Instagram, I think about a year ago. Around that time she started sharing the (free and beautiful) patterns of her “Homely Blanket” (I told you she’s talented and lovely) and after some hesitation (always too many wips on the go ……) I could not resist joining, and have not regretted doing so.
My own “Homely Blanket” is nearly, nearly finished and I will definitely give it a decent “ta-dah” here, soon I hope. This “blog hop” is all about introducing inspiring blogs to the readers of your own blog and to me it is also yet another proof of how encouraging, caring&sharing, supporting and sometimes plain loving the – creative – blogosphere is. A big “thank you” to you all, who encourage, care&share, support and love me here is definitely in place! Taking part in the “blog hop” also means I have to answer a few questions about my creative process and why it is that I like to blog about it, so here we go!

What am I working on?
The only correct answer to that question is: too many projects at the same time ……. I don’t know about you, but I am easily inspired to start something new, to see whether I can make the project look exactly like the picture I have of this idea in my head. Restriction is needed and I try to write down the many ideas that pop up over time and focus on finishing the projects I’m already working on.
However, I decided to come clean here and share with you all photos of my current wips here in this post. How does my work differ from others?
I find it very hard to answer that question – I do think one characteristic is clear: I lóve color, so yes, “colorful”, that would be mostly me. Also, trying to put my own mark on a project, I like that too. Why do I write and create?
Creating, making “things” is in my DNA – as long as I remember I have been doing so. Drawing, coloring, crafting in general, knitting, crocheting, cross stitching/embroidering, sewing/quilting: I have loved doing all of this ever since I was a child. Seeing my grandmother knit and my mother sew, knit, cross stitch/embroider was definitely a huge inspiration, but proof too that creating is in my family-genes and I’m very thankful for that. I also love seeing this creativeness in our children. Crochet is my biggest love, that I’ve come back to in 2010. A granny square blanket was my first project and while working on this blanket, I realized crocheting meant something more than ‘just’ making things. I find crocheting very, very relaxing, actually a sort of meditative. I think it’s my turn on mindfulness. It makes me happy on all kinds of levels! The reason I started my blog was basically the encouragement from others to do so, in order to share my love of crochet. I have felt privileged to be enormously inspired (and still ám) by many very talented crafting and crocheting people on the web, coming from all over the world. I have also learned so much from them, it’s quite amazing. With this blog I hope and try to inspire others and thus give back a little of my knowledge and inspiration.

And only after I had started blogging, I found out it is a great way to document the things I make – quite often I use my own blog to look up how exactly I crocheted a border on this or that: really handy! How does your creative process work?
Through the eyes! Of course I find a lot of inspiration on the internet (Pinterest, Blogs, Instagram), but the color scheme of a random photo, a piece of fabric or some packaging in the supermarket can also easily ignite an idea. Very often I see something I like and combine this with something else I like and a good example of this is the grey South Bay Shawl with the black border and pink pompoms (or my “Florence Shawl“).

Well, I’ve enjoyed my part in this “blog hop” so far and I knów you will most certainly enjoy the next part as much as I do, namely introducing two other bloggers, who I love to follow and I’m sure you will want to do so too after you’ve paid their blogs a visit:

Eliane, over at “Roest Haakt“, and
Tanya, over at “Little Things Blogged”

Already I’m looking forward to reading their “creative blog hop”-posts next week!
Happy Crocheting everyone!
Love,
Marianne  Photos in this post (top to bottom):
1. + 2. “Homely Blanket”-squares
3. Crocheted Little Hearts
4. “HEMA”-blanket, traditional granny squares
5. Crochet Mood Blanket 2014
6. Granny squares “Simply Crochet Magazine”-app
7. Knitted Shawl
8. “Bétaille Throw” (aka “Springtime Throw” by Nicki Trench)
9. Crochet Mood Blanket 2014