Whale Shark phone cover

This was too cute not to share. It's a freaking cover for your phone that is a Whale shark. I hardly use my phone, but if I did use it more I would tote it in this bad boy. The good news is that the pattern is totally free. Somebody please make this and tell me how awesome it is. I'm already working on Christmas stuff so it'll be ages before I get to make it for someone else.

Mittens vs. Gloves

For my son, the choice was easy, because who wants to try and get a one year old to get all his fingers into the holes of a glove. So I made him mittens. For me, the choice is not so easy. I used to be a smoker. So gloves were a must b/c you just can not smoke in mittens, unless you want to hold it between your thumb and the rest of your fingers and that's just getting too complicated. Now I'm trying to decide if I absolutely need a pair of gloves or if I can go the easy route and make mittens. I'm one of those people who has exteremely cold hands and feet so I always end up wearing fingerless gloves underneath too. But how dexterous do you really need to be during the winter? What else do we do in the snow? I mean I know I'll be shoveling snow and making snowmen. I'll have to open doors, but do I really need to take the time to make gloves?

So I'm asking you what do you prefer? Mittens, gloves, or glittens? At least that's what I call them. Those fingerless gloves with the little flip tops. I'd like to hear your opinions.

Also a picture of the mittens I made for my son (my pattern, yet to be written up). It's a very simple pattern, but I couldn't find very many simple ones for toddlers. He is not a fan, but he has a bunny I made him using the same yarn and seed stitch pattern. So I told him they were just like his bunny and he seemed to warm up to them a bit.

My hobby keeps me healthy

A lot of people think that crafting is for people with too much time on their hands. Allow me to enlighten those of that mind set. I make time to knit. I have so many others things I need to do, so I push them all to the side for later. It's not being lazy. If I were trying to exercise more (which I'm also doing) I'd be applauded for my effort. I have strained tendon in my knee that I'm terrified of making worse and nothing has seemed to help make it better in the year since it happened. Except for short walks, which was the last thing I tried, so that's a new thing.

Knitting is more about keeping up with my mental health. My family suffers from various problems. I had an uncle commit suicide, my mother suffers from depression, my sister and I both suffer from different anxiety disorders (mine is social, hers is stress induced), and in the past I myself tried to kill myself. Recently I've suffered from depression, postpartum depression, and large amounts of stress due to various life happenings. This is enough to drive anyone into the nut house. Instead, I knit. I wind down. I destress like no other activity can. Even when it gets frustrating it's still helping.

There have been numerous studies done that prove there are health benefits to knitting. I've tried meditating. Can't do it. My brain doesn't shut off. It's constantly going. I fidget, especially my hands. I think they only still when I'm reading. Knitting is my calm place. It's been said that it can put you in a similar state of mind as meditation does. I don't know because I can't do it, but if I'm angry or sad it just pushes all that away. When I'm done, I've some glorious piece of something to look at.

It doesn't just help with emotional problems, but it helps physically as well. I can't say much because I over did it during pregnancy and I got carpal tunnel, but that can happen even without knitting. So here I will leave you with this link with a little more details.

http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2014/02/the-health-benefits-of-knitting/

If anyone has a deeper interest in a topic I lightly touch on, such as this, let me know and I will delve deeper into it.

I wanted to put this out there for the skeptical crafters. Some people are afraid or nervous because they think they might be terrible or some other insecurity. I was awful when I started, but I took some time and I got it and now it's my go to stress reliever. I even avoid alcohol so I can knit, because I tend to mess up a lot if I don't. Knit responsibly.

I was in hiatus getting my house back together after a failed potty training attempt, but I've finally started a new project. Nothing fancy, but I'll go into it for my next post and maybe something about cooking...until next time....allons y! (Ten is my Doctor!)