Poppy Finch Crafts

Knitting Pattern: Moose River Valley Fingerless Gloves

April 30, 2016April 30, 2016 / Krista C-G / Leave a comment

My beringed and I recently made a huge move from the greater New York City area to southeastern Vermont, and of course one of the first things I did was stop at the local yarn shop to introduce myself, find out about knitting groups and, well, buy yarn.

ball

The one I ended up falling in love with (that I actually bought) was James C. Brett’s Marble Chunky. It’s a two-tone strand variegated yarn where the strands shift colors independently of each other, creating this great tweedy effect. It comes in so many great colors, but the one I eventually decided that I absolutely had to have was color 53 – Moonstone; it runs through this beautiful creams, greys, and pastel blues and pinks, it reminds me of an old antique sweater from the ’20s. Plus the ball cost me $15 for 340 yards, how could I resist?

In searching for a pattern to use it with, I found the Compromise Cowl on Ravelry by Rauni Pakkala, which is absolutely beautiful, and I adore the end result. But I ended up 10 rows short of the end by the time I ran out of yarn.

So back to the yarn shop to buy another 340 yard ball of yarn to finish up 10 rows, and I have all this yarn leftover!

Time to make some matching fingerless gloves! And since I’d just picked up a new knitting motif book, I figured why not finally take a foray into making a real pattern on my own? Thus the Moose River Valley Fingerless Gloves were born!

gloves

… and I still have about 100 yards left over.

Please feel free to comment, ask questions, add corrections/adjustments, share pictures of your finished projects!

-Poppy

Revamp

April 30, 2016 / Krista C-G / Leave a comment

It’s been over a year since I posted anything here and I’ve since made a lot of changes including monikers and a general focus.

I’m going to be rebooting this blog under a new name and probably using it mostly to post knitting patterns. Who knows what else might come up. But all of the old content, however little there is, will remain in the archives.

-Poppy Finch (formerly Nix)

Card of the Day — November 13, 2014

November 13, 2014 / Krista C-G / Leave a comment

Today’s card of the day is Death from the Housewives Tarot.

Boy do I rarely pull this card; in fact I think it might be the first time I’ve pulled it from this deck.

Anyway, here we see various foodstuffs — half a head of lettuce, a wedge of cheese, half a tomato, a can of evaporated milk, and, most prominently, a jar of mayonnaise. But here’s the catch: Everything is in some state of decay and flies crawl in and around it all. A nearby cooking timer has run out and the label on the mayonnaise jar reads, “EVERYTHING EXPIRES” and “REAL SALMONELLA.”

Death is a natural and inevitable part of life, even for things that seem to have an eternal shelf life like an unopened can of evaporated milk. But the thing is, just because your tomato turned a little brown and slimy doesn’t mean that you’ll never have tomatoes again. All it means is that it’s time to clean out the fridge and do a little grocery shopping. It’s okay to mourn the loss, but you just have to remember that your life doesn’t stop moving just because something’s gone.

And something is gone. Today is a day where something important is being left behind. Mourn its loss, but remember that your life is still going and now you’ll have room for something else in your life.

-Nix Finch

In honor of National Novel Writing Month I’m making it my goal to write an original post a day for the whole month. If there’s a topic that you’d like to see discussed, please leave me a comment!

Study study study

November 12, 2014November 12, 2014 / Krista C-G / Leave a comment

Everyone learns differently, this is just a fact of life, but one, unfortunately, they don’t really teach you in school (they make a sad attempt at it, but don’t actually bother doing anything about it). As such, a lot of people think that they just have a hard time learning things.

Or, in the case of tarot, they think that they’re just not a good reader, that they don’t have any talent for it.

This, my friends, is a load.

It’s true that some people resonate with it better than others, but everyone can learn to read the cards.

Now, there are a lot of tips and tricks out there to familiarizing yourself with the cards, and those study tips work for some people.

To be perfectly blunt: This post isn’t for you. This is for everyone else who comes at learning things in a different way.

Card of the Day — November 12, 2014

November 12, 2014 / Krista C-G / Leave a comment

Today’s card of the day is The Magician from the Housewives Tarot.

Here we see a figure dressed in their best suit presenting to you a washing machine, a town in the background. A traveling salesman introducing the latest at-home gadget to make life a little easier. This person has the charm, will, and tenacity to turn a pitch into a sale.

The Magician is about creation — almost the personification of the Wands suit. The Magician is and has the ability to change ideas into reality, to channel energy from the universe and create change in the world around them.

Someone powerful is coming into your life today, someone with the ability to change something about your situation. But do beware of the “used car salesmen” who promise more than they can deliver.

-Nix Finch

What Male Witches Need To Understand or Why I Don’t Care About Male Witches Being Underrepresented

November 11, 2014November 11, 2014 / Krista C-G / Leave a comment

There’s a common trend among people who identify as male witches to complain about how the most common image of “the witch” is that of a woman. Even historically when people talk about witches they’re almost exclusively referring to women. They call for representation, but most of the time without knowing, understanding, or acknowledging the complicated history that wicca and witchcraft has with feminism, sexism, and male witches.

Card of the Day — November 11, 2014

November 11, 2014 / Krista C-G / Leave a comment

Today’s card of the day is The Tower from the Fairy Tale Fortune Cards.

Because this is a Lenormand deck and not a tarot deck, this Tower card actually has quite a different meaning to the tarot’s Tower card.

And since we’re using the Fairy Tale deck, let’s use some fairy tales to explain why: One of the most famous fairy tales that features a tower is the story of Rapunzel. In the original version of that story, a husband steals from a neighboring witch’s garden to satisfy his pregnant wife’s cravings, only to be caught and bargain his life and the food in exchange for the unborn child. When she is born, the witch names her Rapunzel and, when she gets a little older, takes her to a tower in the middle of the woods to protect her from the world.

So not only is the Tower a symbol of protection, it’s also a symbol of destiny since, because of that agreement before Rapunzel was even born, she was fated to end up in that tower.

But destiny isn’t always a negative; even though Rapunzel was kept away from the world in that tower, had she not been there, she never would have met the man she eventually fell in love with.

So the Tower isn’t a negative card; rather its basic meanings are “Destiny and protection.”

Whatever might happen today, remember that it all contributes to your future path and goal and that, no matter what, you are being protected.

-Nix Finch

Witchcraft? In MY Catholicism? It’s more likely than you think!

November 11, 2014 / Krista C-G / Leave a comment

When people hear the word “Christian” or “Christianity,” a very specific collection of associations comes to mind. The one that I’m going to talk about today is the idea that Christianity — Catholicism specifically — can never ever have anything to do with witchcraft, because anything to do with witchcraft is inherently satanic (or at least is believed to be by many Christians).

In order to talk about that, though, I first need to talk a bit about the history of Catholicism, and of its troubled relationship with the rest of Christendom.

Card of the Day — November 10, 2014

November 10, 2014 / Krista C-G / Leave a comment

Today’s card of the day is Dawn from the Halloween Oracle.

The bright sun rises over the land, chasing away shadows and sending nocturnal creatures off to bed. The key phrase is, “The light after the darkness.”

Today is a day for renewed hope. The world is always turning and the cycle of life continues. Regardless of how grim things looked before, you can be assured that they will pass and that better times are coming.

-Nix Finch