Another one of my first knitting projects.
It would be perfect, if I made it for a blind bank robber.

Updated 9/16/08:

About Susan:

I’m a number-cruncher by day, who is more at home working in Excel than with an exacto knife. I am easily overwhelmed in bead stores, craft stores, and fabric stores. I am scared of color, and can never quite pick out the right shades, let alone find colors and patterns that work together.

I started knitting a few years ago and loved it. Knitting started me on the path of trying to be more visually creative in the time outside of my number-crunching day job.

I’m fascinated by crafting, and want nothing more than to learn how to sew, crochet, and bead. Quilting scares the pants off of me. I may dabble with papercrafts, but I don’t think I’ll be taking up scrapbooking. I love to knit, but embroidery isn’t my thing.

Who knows? I may discover a hidden talent for wireworking. Or Play-Doh sculpting. Or candle-making. I’m willing to try anything at this point.

If you’re looking for the basics: I’m Susan. I’m 30-something. I live in Chicago Louisville, Kentucky with Mr. Martini and our two cats, Ruby and Zelda. I don’t have a car, so trips to the big box craft stores are rare. We now own a car for the first time in six years, so I’m excited to take road trips to find new crafty-type shops. I can spend hours in a bead store and not buy anything out of sheer befuddlement. I can spend 15 minutes in a yarn store and buy way too much wool. I’m scared of learning to embrace the colors orange and green, and love blues and reds. I’m a Leo.

That’s me, wearing my first ever completed knitted objects: a hat that was way too big, and a scarf knit on too-small needles, making it as stiff as cardboard. Go, me!

About Almost Crafty:

I’m not what you’d call “artistic.”

I’m a numbers girl. A rule follower.

When I was a kid, I colored within the lines. My skies were always blue and my suns were always yellow. I never got all crazy, mixing up colors.

I never really got over that. I still have a desire to color within the lines. I long to be creative, but I can’t seem to figure out how.

This site is all about my attempts to become more crafty. Am I still scared of color? Sure. Do I suffer from near-paralyzing panic when I walk into a bead store or a big box craft store from all of the choices? Absolutely.

This will be a place for me to document my journey to become crafty. I don’t expect to become proficient enough to write a book or sell my creations from my own storefront.

“Why the heck should I read about you, when there are a million other craft sites out there with authors who actually know what they’re doing?” you’re probably asking yourself.

Good point. I’m clueless. But I’m hoping to learn and grow and put things in the perspective of a newbie. Because maybe some other people out there feel the same way.

I will also mostly likely falter and produce ugly, ugly things, and probably get my hair stuck in my glue gun. Which, admit it, is sometimes more fun than watching the pros in action, right?

This site has had a few incarnations over the last few years, and changed names several times, first due to a hosting problem, and then due to my fickleness. Any posts you see prior to 2008 were from these other sites - which is why links or images may be broken. I’m trying to fix all of these, but if there’s something you just need to see right away, feel free to let me know via the info on my contact page.

As always - thanks for reading!