Recovery Discovery Hospital Game

January 18, 2015 | Cultivate, Make

More than once, crafting has become my only way to find a voice. It’s happened a few times when I’ve felt otherwise helpless. This Recovery Discovery hospital game is the result of one of those times. I devised it for my second cousin while she was battling childhood cancer last winter. (She’s since gone into remission after receiving a bone marrow transplant. Now she supports other kids fighting the disease.)

I wanted a fun way for her to interact with visitors, who may or may not know what to say. It needed to be portable and small enough to fit on a hospital table. I also wanted to make a craft that would involve my parents, who flew in for a long weekend. It happened to be February, during a stretch of harsh weather, so indoor activities were a must.

This is what we created. It’s a card game designed to spark conversations. Players build a path from start to finish by placing cards face down. (A short path for only a few minutes; longer if there’s time to spare.) Everyone puts his or her game piece at the start, rolls the die, moves forward, flips the card, and answers the question. The first person to reach the finish wins.

Making the game turned out to be a bonding experience. Mom taught me some new stitches, and she and I made the felt pieces. Dad and I made the question cards. It took us several days, a few hours at a time. We sat by the fire, talked, and worked.

Of course, we weren’t the ones who took R’s cancer away. She has her (mightily heroic) anonymous donor to thank for that! Her medical teams deserve infinite credit for guiding her through the procedures and recoveries. Her parents, friends, and community–2,000 miles from my home–are the strong ones. And I admire her more than she’ll ever know, for living through it all.

Dad and I at the warming house of a nearby nature center. We made some cards there on a subzero afternoon.

I like that these are handwritten. They reflect the personality of their writer.

Even so, I’m grateful for for crafting. In this case, it was the only way I could find to contribute some small shred of love to a situation that sometimes felt insurmountable.

Is there something you feel helpless about? Can you think of a craft that could become a way to contribute?

Hand-Stitched Baby Book

January 16, 2015 | Make

This is the project that got me through the winter of 2013-14, one of the snowiest in Twin Cities history. My niecey girl had arrived the previous October, and I learned to stitch so I could make this baby book for her. Its pages are made of felt, and the book feels good in your hands. I don’t know how many Wild games I heard from my spot on the couch while my man actually watched the action.

My stitching lessons came from an online class I took from The Brave Girls Club. Go immediately to this site for artistic inspiration and sisterly soul searching. I found the wonderful felt-book pattern in Sew Liberated by Meg MceElwee. Some of the page designs came straight out of her tutorial, and some I created just for my niece.

Upcycled Infinity Scarf

January 8, 2015 | Make

This is the story of a minor miracle on a wintry night, and it happened because of Pinterest. Five weeks ago, after a long day at work, I was enjoying some well-earned couch time, jammies and all. Sure, it may have been only 8:15, but this was Minnesota in December, and it’d been dark out for hours already.

I was doing one of my favorite things: browsing for upcycling projects. It’s hard not to feel uplifted when seeing examples of people making pretty things out of discarded sweaters. And it’s common for me to get inspired, hit the pin button, and think, “I can’t wait to make that!” But on this particular evening, after seeing a cute infinity-scarf tutorial from Stuff Steph Does, I actually couldn’t wait.

Before

Polka-licious After

I checked my local Savers and discovered it was–glory be–still open. “If I get there by 8:30, I’ll still have a whole half hour,” I may have said out loud. And here’s where things got supernatural. I actually got up, put on regular clothes, jumped in the car, and went. Did you hear that? I changed back out of my cozy pjs, people!

I’d never made an infinity scarf, but that didn’t stop me from finding way too many sweater candidates. Within 15 minutes of arriving, I’d gathered so many possible combinations I had to hold myself back. (I love thrift stores and all, but I don’t want to build one of my own in the sewing-room closet.)

Turns out the tutorial was a success and my purchases were wise ones. I chose six, and I’ve since turned them into three scarves: two gifts and a third for myself.