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Soul Craft 2018 - Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Won.

July 2, 2018 thecraftsessions
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Wow! So I've tried to write this post many times. And it's hard. It's hard because it was just so special but rambling on and on about how special it was can make a person seem gushy and inauthentic. But as my Dad reminded me yesterday on the phone when he called me to tell me to "post already", I don't need to say that much as the photos will speak for themselves.

We set out to do something really different with Soul Craft. We wanted to create a space where we could come together and share, share our love of craft and share a bit about ourselves. We wanted to talk about how hand making improves our wellbeing, how it sustains us. And we wanted to create a space that facilitated connection with others - where saying hi to someone you vaguely recognised from online was welcomed.

"Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose!" is what Coach Taylor gets his players to repeat before they go out on the field in Friday Night Lights. Now you might think that Texas high-school football and Soul Craft have little in common..... except that "clear eyes, full hearts" is exactly what happened.

Everyone arrived with such joyful, invested, interested, open energy that we couldn't help but have a good weekend. Conversations were had, and because the hearts were open and our passion was shared, the conversations were of a depth that doesn't normally happen so quickly among groups of strangers.

Lovely women you blew my mind with what you brought with you - your joy, your kindness, your enthusiasm, your stories. It showed me that it is possible to create spaces that are different - spaces that fill us up, sustain us and connect us.

So thank you! Thank you for coming. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for showing up in such a beautiful whole hearted way.

Felicia x

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In Soul Craft, The Craft Sessions
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Welcome! I'm Felicia - creator of The Craft Sessions and Soul Craft.

This blog is about celebrating the connection between hand-making and our well-being. These posts aim to foster a love of hand-making and discuss the ways traditional domestic handcrafts have meaning and context in our everyday lives.

I love the contributions you make to this space via your comments and learn so much from each and every one. x

Thoughts On Craft
How To
Simple Sewing 101
Stash Less
I Made This
Inspiring
The RetreaT

popular posts

Craft As A Project V’s Craft As A Practice

Making Is Not Inherently Creative

Why All Crafters Need A Visual Diary

Craft As A Manifestation Of Love And Loss

Moving On From Perfectionism

The Secret To Becoming A Great Knitter!

Simple Sewing 101 - Part 1

Craft In The Middle Of Motherhood

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Snakes!!! It’s my birthday lovely people and so -as is family tradition - we ripped the kids out of school for a day of family togetherness. Cape Schanck was my choice. Now I grew up in the bush, wild and barefoot, and know the rules... but I’ve gotten complacent. Today, in spite of the BIG sign I forgot to remind the kids, forgot to take care myself, and one of them was one footfall away from standing on a big one. She was barefoot too as we just got off the beach. It’s all good but my heart is still in my throat.
Craft is a skill, and like any other skill we learn, it takes practice. It takes hours on the road to learn to drive, and hours at the stove to learn to cook. ✨ As we practice our bodies and heads begin to internalise ideas and knowledge. As we practice the learning shifts and becomes something we just know. Our fingers know how to manipulate the fabric. Our heads know how many pins we need to use. ✨ Sometimes we learn best by having a teacher, whether that be in a class, a friend, a book or a YouTube clip. That teacher can be the difference between struggle and understanding. ✨That said we all learn differently. A lesson that changes your world might mean nothing to me. I might not be able to “see” until I happen upon a different teacher at a different time, when I have internalised more lessons. ✨ My gathers are even only after many many hours of pinning and sewing, and many mistakes, failures and unpicking. I’d done years of practice before I happened upon a pattern that demonstrated gathers created by running two rows of basting stitch either side of the seam line. This allowed for a much more even distribution of fabric and changed my gathers forever. It was only because I knew through many hours of practice and mistakes that I didn’t like my gathers, that I was able to understand what a difference this technique would make. ✨ I’d love to hear some of your aha moments if you’d like to share. And how you feel about hours on the road?  #craftasapractice
The Year Of The Scrap - One of my favourite uses for a couple of balls of dk/sport weight yarn is a baby version of #grannysfavourite by @tikkiknits. I’ve made this little sweater so many times - because the result is something really special and it’s such a fun little knit. ✨ This is the 3rd size which is a 3-6month size and I’m using one 200m stray ball I had. The reason this is such a good scrap knit is that it is top down and seamless, and looks super sweet sleeveless if I run out of yarn. ✨ How to make the most of your scraps? I knit the yoke, then the body before using my kitchen scales to weigh what yarn I have left for the sleeves. I then divide it into two balls based on weight and knit till I run out of yarn. When I get to the end of the first sleeve, I leave it on the needles without casting off, and knit my second sleeve to make sure I haven’t weighed it wrong. I cast off when I have two sleeves the same length. ✨You can knit this pattern with as little as a ball and a half. ✨ Even if you don’t have babies in your life this is a wonderful charity knit for organisations like @knitonegiveone, especially if your scraps are machine washable. ✨#theyearofthescrap
On the blog today: How Artefacts (Craftefacts) Elevate Craft (and our lives). ✨This is one of those posts that I’ve been pondering for an age. About the super power that craft has to elevate our lives by providing us with a visible representation, an artefact, of the process. How these “craftefacts” capture our history, our feelings, our capacity and our values, at a given point in time. Living among them adds a richness and depth to our lives that is incredibly special and life elevating. ✨ The experience of living with the things we have made doesn’t have a word, and so I created one - craftefact! A little silly and clunky perhaps but the only way we can talk about ideas is if we have language. I’d love you to read the post and let me know if you can come up with something less silly😊. And I’d love to hear how living among the things you have made affects you. ✨This photo is of my biggest two wrapped up in their quilts on a lazy school holiday morning. ✨#craftefacts #craftasanelevatedlife
Snakes!!! It’s my birthday lovely people and so -as is family tradition - we ripped the kids out of school for a day of family togetherness. Cape Schanck was my choice. Now I grew up in the bush, wild and barefoot, and know the rules... but I’ve gotten complacent. Today, in spite of the BIG sign I forgot to remind the kids, forgot to take care myself, and one of them was one footfall away from standing on a big one. She was barefoot too as we just got off the beach. It’s all good but my heart is still in my throat. Craft is a skill, and like any other skill we learn, it takes practice. It takes hours on the road to learn to drive, and hours at the stove to learn to cook. ✨ As we practice our bodies and heads begin to internalise ideas and knowledge. As we practice the learning shifts and becomes something we just know. Our fingers know how to manipulate the fabric. Our heads know how many pins we need to use. ✨ Sometimes we learn best by having a teacher, whether that be in a class, a friend, a book or a YouTube clip. That teacher can be the difference between struggle and understanding. ✨That said we all learn differently. A lesson that changes your world might mean nothing to me. I might not be able to “see” until I happen upon a different teacher at a different time, when I have internalised more lessons. ✨ My gathers are even only after many many hours of pinning and sewing, and many mistakes, failures and unpicking. I’d done years of practice before I happened upon a pattern that demonstrated gathers created by running two rows of basting stitch either side of the seam line. This allowed for a much more even distribution of fabric and changed my gathers forever. It was only because I knew through many hours of practice and mistakes that I didn’t like my gathers, that I was able to understand what a difference this technique would make. ✨ I’d love to hear some of your aha moments if you’d like to share. And how you feel about hours on the road?  #craftasapractice The Year Of The Scrap - One of my favourite uses for a couple of balls of dk/sport weight yarn is a baby version of #grannysfavourite by @tikkiknits. I’ve made this little sweater so many times - because the result is something really special and it’s such a fun little knit. ✨ This is the 3rd size which is a 3-6month size and I’m using one 200m stray ball I had. The reason this is such a good scrap knit is that it is top down and seamless, and looks super sweet sleeveless if I run out of yarn. ✨ How to make the most of your scraps? I knit the yoke, then the body before using my kitchen scales to weigh what yarn I have left for the sleeves. I then divide it into two balls based on weight and knit till I run out of yarn. When I get to the end of the first sleeve, I leave it on the needles without casting off, and knit my second sleeve to make sure I haven’t weighed it wrong. I cast off when I have two sleeves the same length. ✨You can knit this pattern with as little as a ball and a half. ✨ Even if you don’t have babies in your life this is a wonderful charity knit for organisations like @knitonegiveone, especially if your scraps are machine washable. ✨#theyearofthescrap On the blog today: How Artefacts (Craftefacts) Elevate Craft (and our lives). ✨This is one of those posts that I’ve been pondering for an age. About the super power that craft has to elevate our lives by providing us with a visible representation, an artefact, of the process. How these “craftefacts” capture our history, our feelings, our capacity and our values, at a given point in time. Living among them adds a richness and depth to our lives that is incredibly special and life elevating. ✨ The experience of living with the things we have made doesn’t have a word, and so I created one - craftefact! A little silly and clunky perhaps but the only way we can talk about ideas is if we have language. I’d love you to read the post and let me know if you can come up with something less silly😊. And I’d love to hear how living among the things you have made affects you. ✨This photo is of my biggest two wrapped up in their quilts on a lazy school holiday morning. ✨#craftefacts #craftasanelevatedlife
Blog
How Artefacts - Craftefacts - Elevate Craft
How Artefacts - Craftefacts - Elevate Craft
about 5 days ago
Thinking About Combining Yarn Scraps
Thinking About Combining Yarn Scraps
about a week ago

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