FAST FORWARD TO 2017

Hello Everyone!

 Fast forward from 2014.....here we are 2017, good grief where DID the time go???
Time goes by so quickly, things happen....some good (New Grands & Great Grands), some not so good (Bon lost her Mother & I lost my Dad & Brother In Law). You know, life goes on and gets in the way at times and often we find we just get stuck in the mire. That's life.  You never know when life will throw a curve ball or two (or three).
The GOOD news is ......We're Baaaaack!  After a considerable "time out" or loooooong hiatus (whatever you want to call it) we have recharged our batteries so to speak and are ready to tackle the business of sketching & blogging once again. Time to catch up on what's been going on with the Sketchy Girlz and their adventures!

Love Birds in ink.

When we last left you all, Bonnie and I had just signed up for a few classes online to start the new year off.  Taking classes online is something I really enjoy doing and one of my favorite classes was with Joanne Sharp  "Draw Your Awesome Life".  Her class showed me how our everyday life is filled with artful moments if we just look around.

A cuppa Joe

We both participated in an online Journal/art forum called Journal 52.  It was interesting for awhile, Bonnie dropped out because it wasn't her cuppa tea and I just lost interest after a few months.  Here's one of the collages from my Journal 52 and I'll post more later.

One of the best places I've found for taking workshops online is either with the artist themselves (first and foremost, if you can, always support the artist directly)  or on the Craftsy.com website.  The classes are inexpensive and provide videos on how to do just about any craft you might be interested in.  Check it out and let me know if you take any classes, I'd love to hear what you think about the format and if you like taking classes on line or prefer classes online with the artist or in a real classroom setting. 

 Perhaps one of the best things that came from some pretty bleak days was our re-newed love of  knitting.  When you spend time in the hospital and nursing home sitting for long periods, it gets pretty darn boring.   Knitting to the rescue! Can't begin to  tell you the number of hats we both knitted during those stressful days. It seems like my knitting bag traveled everywhere with me for months and the best part was the hats we knitted went with a group of missionaries to Guatemala! Between Bonnie and I were able to send  3 dozen hand- knit hats to bless our brothers and sisters in the mountain regions of Guatemala that needed warm hats.

 Both Bonnie and I LOVE to knit, she is the Queen of HAT & Scarf knitting! Since Bonnie is now retired, she has lots of time to enjoy her knitting and other hobbies these days (and truthfully speaking, I may be a little envious that she has time to do ALL of her hobbies).  Granted, I'm only working part-time 5 hours a day, four days a week, and I'm NOT complaining about working because I enjoy what I do and feel blessed to have the job and what it affords me to be able to do, but it DOES cut into the hobby time (if you know what I mean). It's a Catch-22 situation <wink>.

Bonnie & Suzy

We've been on some adventures too and you'll be seeing our sketches and photos coming up in the next few weeks/months....you'll need to stop in for regular visits weekly and when you do, we'd love it if you would leave us a comment to let us know you were here.

Until then....
Be Creative!
Suzy

ONLY TIME WILL TELL

My mother was an exceptional knitter, she mostly knitted socks as I recall.  When I was a teenager she tried to teach me to knit.  She showed me how to cast stitches on to the needles and how to make the knit stitch, then how to purl. 

It was not as easy as it sounds, and if you have ever tried to teach a teenager anything, you will know the difficulty she was facing.  I remember Wanting to knit, but had extreme difficulty with knitting the first row, the tension was all wrong and it became impossible to get the stitches to the other needle, needless to say, this was very frustrating for me and more so for my mom as she untangled the mess and for me each time I started over.  Eventually, I learned the basic knit and purl stitches but did not continue with knitting, my mother thought crochet would be easier for me to learn. 

We started with the basic chain stitch and then on to the single crochet, and she lost me at the double crochet, but I was determined to learn in order to make a Juliet Cap inspired by the 1968 movie Romeo and Juliet.  Even after all these years I remember the actors names : Olivia Hussey and Len Whiting. Oh I loved that movie! Juliet wore this lovely knitted cap and it became all the rage, everyone wanted a Juliet Cap.  I was no exception and my mother figured out how to make a crocheted version of the cap (no Google back then).   

Only as time will tell......I learned to adjust the tension in both knitting and crocheting although my projects didn't quite turn out the size they were supposed to, you see Mama forgot to tell me about gauge! 

Coats & Clark (see it here) "Learn How To Book" (#170) was a wealth of information and my "go to" book when I got in a pinch. In the late 70's  I decided to give knitting another chance by knitting a sweater for my son (I had no idea this was a bit ambitious for someone who just learned to knit).  Bonnie came for a visit one day and I proudly showed her what I was doing and because she seemed to want to know how to knit, I gifted her with the Coats and Clark booklet, needles and yarn at Christmas. Bonnie went on to be a wonderful knitter. I gave knitting up after making that sweater but continued to crochet. 

Bonnie and I are both knitting again for various church ministries after having given it up for many years. I've had to relearn the process of knitting and adjusting tension and gauge is something that still escapes me, but I'm enjoying the process so much more now.  

Sketching this week has been put on hold as I am busy knitting a sweater and hat for my baby grandson, Jackson as I in anticipate visiting him in his new home state of Michigan! 

Promise more sketches next time! Until then,

Happy Sketching!
Suzy