Friday, April 8, 2011

The Giver

Dear friends,

Long before I could sew bags, I was crocheting bags. Recently one of my blog friends, Tamdoll asked me about these bags. So I hunted high and low and managed to find two of these babies. My skills in crocheting is quite basic and once I discovered I did not like crochet "raw seams", I gave up making crochet bags. Yes, I do feel sad about it.


This is a simple drawstring pouch crocheted in a spiral manner. This spiral method does not leave an ugly "seam line" so I'm happy with it. Don't you just love the colour of this yarn? Olive green.


What I really like about this pouch is the cord. It is made with simple chain stitches one way followed by a slip stitch (or the join stitch?) the other way back. I've never learnt crochet from a teacher so I don't really know the terms. I learnt it the visual way by looking at a pattern. I like the cord so much that whenever I found the excuse to use a cord in one of my fabric bags or pouches, I would crochet one this way.


Okay, this bag was quite ambitious. I did not make it the spiral way. Instead I made the individual pieces and joined them together at the side seams. Exactly how you would sew a fabric bags. But the result is I have really ugly raw seams inside.


Yesterday I went on a beading adventure. I've always had a vague interest in beading but my knowledge never went beyond stringing a few beads together. My friend, Vivi wanted to learn to bead a complicated butterfly from a teacher. So I tagged along and before you know it, I'm officially a beginner beader. These are my supplies for my beading project. I was of course gunning for a beaded pouch or bag but that's too complicated for a beginner. So it's gonna be a simple necklace. Anyhoo, I discovered there's a class for crochet beaded pouches so I'm really, really wanting to sign up for that too. But first, I have to practise my crochet stitches.


Recently I finished reading The Giver by Lois Lowry. Have you read this book before? My son is studying it for Literature and since I have interest in books, I decided I would read all the books he has to study so we could talk about them.

It's a very easy book to read because the story is very compelling. It's about a community of people living a kind-of utopian life where everyone is governed by sameness done thru' genetic engineering perhaps? There is only one eye colour and one skin colour. The people do not suffer pain. Jobs, babies are assigned to the people. Can you imagine being assigned the role of birth mother? You get to enjoy life, give birth to 3 kids and afterwards you become a labourer for the rest of your life.

On surface, it looks like a pretty perfect world. But as you read more, it is revealed that it is a world robbed of choices, senses (colours, ability to hear music) and the ability to know any better. The main character is a 12 year old boy, Jonas who has the gift of colours meaning he can see colours and he is chosen to receive memories of the past from The Giver. Once Jonas starts to receive the memories of the past, he realises that his people are governed by lies and he decides he wants to help his community change. There is no neat ending to this story and you have to figure it out for yourself. My son asked me why Jonas chose the world where you could feel pain over the world of sameness where you don't feel pain.

My answer: I believe it wasn't pain Jonas chose. He chose a world where choice, emotions and basic human rights were respected and pain is a price you pay for it. I have realised that literature is not as easy as it was in my days.



I made another iphone pouch with another skulls and roses fabric. Me hubs asked me why I don't put the skulls in front. Well, the skulls are rather creepy and I was making it late at night. That's why. The next time I make another one, I'll do it in the day and put the creepy skulls in front. See ya.

4 comments:

Kandi said...

That book sounds like something I would enjoy, I will add it to my list.
I love your crochet too, like you I taught myself and got along ok. Looking forward to seeing your beading makes.
Kandi x

Bethany said...

I've never read that book but I've heard of it....
Your creepy fabric cracks me up--I don't like sewing with skulls because I feel like they're leering at me, haha.
And remind me to never make anything with raw seams as long as you're checking in :)

BUSIR said...

I found this:http://youtu.be/JX1faBMHy50 it combines crochet and beading it's written by Midori Nishida&CRK design .it's japanese i could get it in french. read about it on this blog:http://crochodile.blogspot.com/ april 4th.
To sew my crochet work i use a hook and take one stitch from each piece.(sorry if it's not clear i'm french)

tamdoll said...

That's a great pouch! I do love olive green, aside from red, it's probably my 2nd favorite color to wear. Is the cord chained the long way and then you slip stitch back the whole length? I never made a cord that way, it seems like a good idea. I'm not crazy about seams myself - I like to make things in the round, or slip stitch the sides together to keep it neat.

Good luck with the beading. I always wanted to try making bead jewelry after I started buying beads to embellish my dolls. But that didn't work out so well. So, now I have a lot of beads and need to do something creative with them all. I've been trying to incorporate them into my other fabric and yarn projects when I get a chance instead of working with wire.

I read the Giver a long time ago and I think there's a sequel to it also. It's a pretty good book, and I think you're right, It wasn't the pain that the boy chose, it was the choice and freedom to have experiences -pain was just one of them.

I like your iphone pouch, too. Someone asked me to make cell phone cases to sell and I haven't gotten around to it yet. Skulls are still trendy with teenagers, I think I'd have the creeps working with them late at night also.

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