Spring Forward…thinking of Spring today as the snow is falling outside my window making a new blanket of white.  We have been very lucky these past few weeks with a wonderful warm spell that melted a portion of the snow we have been receiving since the end of October.  Yes, winter starts early here some years and the past few years have been very snowy to boot. Surrounded by the lovely warm weather these past weeks put me in the mood for some Spring weather and gardening.  The Floral Elegance scarf is a “new” version of my original scarf that brought me back into the knitting, crochet and designing world.  The picture below is one of the original styles I designed when my sister, Cheryl, asked me to design some scarves for her to sell.

Off I went to try some of the new and exciting techniques I learned while taking many wonderful courses at www.rivercityyarns.com.   One of my amazing customers wanted something different from what I was currently designing with flowers on a green base for the scarf.  I immediately thought of my first set of scarf designs under Valerie Baber Designs.  I have been wanting to revamp them a bit and change the overall design to a more 3D effect and add some fingerless gloves to compliment the designs. This scarf was inspired by various people in my life; my sister, River City Yarns and a wonderful customer.  It amazes me how different things and people can inspire your life daily.  You can link to this design on my Esty site, Intricate Knits at https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/177538387/floral-elegance-scarf-in-green-with? and https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/177535174/floral-elegance-fingerless-gloves-green?ref=listing-shop-header-1

A bit of background into my past designing. I previously designed various children’s hats, sweaters and other items under my business Hey, Diddle Diddle Knitwear.   Back in the day when my kids were babies and my greatest inspiration then and now in  my life. While designing finished garments and progressing into pattern writing and design I was inflicted with a serious hand injury that took over  a year to mend.  During this time I realized I needed a change in what I was creating and went back to school to finish my Interior Decorating and continued to work on achieving my Interior Design.  This duration was about 6 years and though I knit like a race horse running down the track in my Hey, Diddle Diddle days, I barely picked up a knitting needle at all.  This was very strange to me as it had been such a big part of my life for 10 years prior.  I assume it was that my creativity was elsewhere in my school and trying out new arts such as Stained Glass, Mosaic Tiling and more.  Ok, I said  this would be short…oops.

During the middle of my Interior Design program I had a serious back injury that made it impossible to finish my goals.   I was devastated, I had been working on school in this direction for 6 years at that point.  In sharing this background about my designing ventures I wanted to make a point about how life sometimes gives you moments of “pain” and anguish, but it can lead you down a path you never thought of going in the first place.  When you look back you see how it was exactly how things were to be and without these moments in life you wouldn’t be who you are today.

The strange part for me was an injury took me out of designing with yarn and an injury put me back into designing with fibre. I look back and see how all of the Hey, Diddle Diddle days, Interior Decorating School, Interior Design School though very different actually made it possible for me to design today with Valerie Baber Designs and Intricate knits.  Without all of these twists and turns I wouldn’t be able to accomplish what I do today.

Long story short you never know where life will take you and sometimes the worst times end up being the most important times in your life as they guide you to where  and who you should be.   I wanted to encourage those who needed a moment to see that sometimes when life gives you rotten lemons, pick your self up (or your knitting or crochet needles) and keep yourself going forward.  You never know what is around the next corner!!  My life took a complete turn around!  When things are tough don’t look back to see where you were, look forward so you can see what’s up ahead.

I am very thankful for all the people in my life who inspire and push me forward when I am trying to look back.  There are many others who have guided and helped me along this path including my other sister, Laureen, the Alberta Craft Council  http://www.albertacraft.ab.ca/ and the Art Gallery of St. Albert http://artgalleryofstalbert.ca/  to name a few.  Spring is a new start to the earth and life around it.  A perfect time to try something new and look at life in a new perspective.  I am looking forward to Spring…are you?  Have an inspired day!