privileging making

I've been struggling for a long time to work out what sorts of things I should be making and doing within this PhD.  You might have noticed that there's been a lack of designed and made stuff on here for a bit...a symptom of my lack of confidence and confusion over what I can responsibly bring into the world given the ethical issues attached to a lot of stuff...it's quite disabling...
Anyhow, I do make a lot of things for myself and the house which I fill my everyday life with and I'm thinking that it might be of use to start paying attention to and seeing value in these things.  It's pure love of making and/or transformation of ideas into reality that drives the creation of my more personal projects, which I think I lose when I try to get serious and more considered!  So my aim going forward is to privilege making...

So...I thought I'd start documenting and sharing some of my current/past/ongoing projects...

One of the things I always have on the go is a baby cardigan from sock yarn...I'm of the age where all my friends and family are having babies and this particular style goes down the best as a gift...

This is the second one which I made a few years ago (thanks to my pal for taking a pic for me...her second bub is wearing it now...I'm really bad at taking pics of these before I gift them!)  I must have made about a dozen of these now...They're made from 4ply printed sock yarn...

I always keep at least a couple of balls on hand...one ball makes one cardi...I think the cardi above was a smaller size as I had enough to make a beanie too...I love how the colours and stripes develop as you knit, it feels like a nice surrender to serendipity :o)

I usually make the 6 month old size...they're nice and versatile as the rib stretches out as bub grows...it's knitted sideways starting at one cuff and finishing at the other...

My latest making is something I've been thinking about doing for ages with the remnants from the cardigans which I've been collecting...it's been a bit of a guilty pleasure when I really have other things to do, but sometimes it's food for the soul and so satisfying to act swiftly on the desire to make something when you want to do it without any pressures...

I've been making granny squares, just a plain ordinary 5 round square, but so beautiful in this yarn...the colour changes take on another dimension and unpredictability in crocheted form and I love grannys in a thinner ply than you normally see.  This is all of the remnants made up now, so I'll join these to make a scarf or mat and gradually add to it over the years to come.  Also nice that I can pick out which squares are made from the remnants from certain babies cardi's...lovely!