Craft Gossip

Independent craft blog since 2007

MixtapeZine Giveaway

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Mixtape is a craft maga(ZINE) about making time for the small things!
mixtape is a collision of craft, eco-cool and pop culture kitsch.

And we have 5 copies of Issue 9 to giveaway to lucky readers. For your chance to win, tell us  (in the comments section below):

How you make time for the small things?

Competition Open Worldwide

Competitions Ends June 8th

Sign up for our newsletter or twitter feed to get bonus points!

They ship ALL around the world and their articles are written by people all over the world!

Issue 9 (Out June 1st) features articles such as:
Craftism
Handmade Help
Selvedge Queen: Jodie Carleton
Crafty Lady: Kitty Speer
and a WICKED pull out poster designed by Black Pio

Pre-Order Now

This competition is now closed and the winners will be contacted shortly.

Comments

  1. I make time for the small things when my kids are napping or watching their favourite TV shows (like Sesame Street)!

  2. i get up before anyone else in the house and spend a couple of hours with my dog at my feet while my creativity flies with all the quiet

  3. I was finding larger projects took too long to finish, and I wasn’t that fond of storing them, either, but then I discovered ATCs. Artist Trading Cards make up fairly quickly, and are easy to share and trade and store. I can carry the materials to make one in my purse, and be creative whenever I have free time – it makes getting an oil change a lot more fun.

  4. Personally I believe that when we give, we get. But I enjoy the nature around me, so filling my bird feeders and bird baths regularly helps me enjoy the teeming life all around my house; my respite. From the smallest hummingbirds to the largest Pileated Wood Peckers, I am reminded there is beauty in the world just in front of my eyes.

    Whether I am reading a book, sitting outside to sip a cup of tea, making dinner and glancing out the kitchen window, I have little reminders of life surviving. Trust me, for a mother of two teenagers, it’s so nice to be able to pause when that awe of nature flits by!

    Lisa
    aka Hootie

  5. Making time for the small things? Ah! That is taking a few minutes to revel in awareness. It has taken a lifetime of ‘getting things done’ to learn that those few stolen minutes of stopping and appreciating the things around me revives and energizes. This morning I lay and took a few minutes listening to the sleepy birds waking and welcoming the day. Now I look across the table at my adorable husband and send him a loving word. Yes, small things are the flavor of life.

  6. I think that the small things are overlooked by too many people, so I try to give attention to those small details, after all, it is the small things that really make the difference in the end.

  8. it’s really hard to make time…. so i just schedule it along with my daily musts

  10. To find time for crafting, I do some on my way into work (I take the 6:12 a.m train) and take up two seats to do it. I leave early enough that I can do it.

    I craft coming home after my friend gets off half way to my home. If I do it while I am talking to her, I usually screw up.

    If we are going some where that will be a long drive, I take my knitting, crocheting or small loom projects and do them in the car.

  11. Wow the magazine sounds wonderful. The little things can really give you a lift.

  12. Tonight while driving home, we all began singing “The Name Game.” (You know…. Etsy, etsy, bo-betsy, banana-nana, fo-fetsy….) My 2 year-old hollered out names for us to sing. She’s an impatient one, and didn’t wait for us to finish one verse before yelling out another. (“Puppy, puppy, bo-buppy…. Mama, Mama, Bo-Bama…”)

    Ride home? Nah. Good times. Wouldn’t miss these small wonders for anything.

  13. The ‘small things’ are, to me, what make up the ‘big things’, including life, itself. So, f’r’instance, while I’m doing a ‘big’ job, such as making several gallons worth of fresh fruit salad, I’ll stop to enjoy the fragrance of the each piece fruit I’m preparing, and how the various hues work together to make the dish look appealing. If I’m creating a new piece of art I’ll deliberately pause to experience the texture of the media I’m using, and to drink in the colour choices I’ve made. Of course there are always occasions where time is of the essence and I have to prioritise even my thought processes. But in my every-day, workaday existence, I make the effort to enjoy life to the fullest, and that means being aware of my surroundings and rejoicing in all the beauty that envelops me, and all the opportunities I’m given to appreciate it. I make it a practice to incorporate enough time in scheduling each job, chore, errand or project, so that I can fully appreciate and take joy from all the individual components that go into completing them. To me that’s what really LIVING life is all about. Life IS beautiful.

  14. Use every spare minute, even if it’s just 2 or 3… a button can be sewn on, a cup of tea made and started, a cuddle given, or an I-love-you kiss had.

  15. I try to do at least 15 minutes every day of something creative. I set my timer and then head to where my projects are. If I have a weekend with some time, I make a list of things I want to do duirng the weekend and include “play” time on the list, too. Gotta recharge, you know!

  16. I hardly have any spare time at all. The only way to make time is by taking notes… This way I know I have to clear out my calendar for all that small things to do…

  17. Get a cup of coffee and surf the net for creative ideas. I work 2 jobs and have little time for crafts most of the time. I write down ideas and imagine what I’m going to make one day. Even if I never get around to it.

  18. I make time for the small things when it’s me and my son at the park. Watching him play with friends or by himself makes me happy all over. Sometimes I bring something small to craft with as well.

Have you read?

Book Review: The Knitter’s Sweater Fitting Bible

It’s one thing to follow a knitting pattern and get the fit that the designer wanted for that particular project. But it’s quite another thing to decide how you want your sweater to fit and making a project work for you. 

Designer Kim McBrien Evans aims to help knitters understand why sweater patterns don’t always work for them the way they expect and what to do about it in her book The Knitter’s Sweater Fitting Bible.

She describes the book as containing “everything I’ve learned about sweaters, bodies, and the art of fit.” It covers how to plan for a good fit through things like taking measurements and choosing the correct size to knit, understanding ease, reading schematics and fixing fit issues. 

Sweater style templates give knitters a place to start knitting better sweaters with made to measure patterns that work with any body, any yarn and any gauge. The book is designed to give knitters confidence to go their own way whether they’re modifying existing patterns, using one of the templates or designing their own custom sweater.

McBrien Evans argues that the best way to make a sweater that will fit well and stand up to lots of wearing is to work from the top down flat in pieces that are seamed when the knitting is done (the exception being circular yoke sweaters, which are worked in the round from the top down). She offers advice for making seaming easier like using selvedges and short rows.

She goes into a lot of detail on how and where to measure yourself and how to understand schematics in knitting patterns to help you choose the correct size for you and know where to adjust. The fixing fit chapter covers how to fit a sweater to your body from the shoulders down, with tips for things like balancing uneven shoulder height, accommodating a larger bust, using different shaping on the front and back of a sweater for better fit, fixing neckline depth and fixing sleeve and body lengths. 

The book includes photos and drawings of people of different sizes and with physical differences such as a smaller limb or having a mastectomy on one side, which is nice and helps you see how these concepts work on different bodies. 

The sweater templates offer options like a straight body, A-line and waist shaping body; set in sleeve caps and armholes, straight raglans and modular compound raglans, drop shoulders and circular yoke shaping; crew, scoop and V-neck options; a variety of sleeve templates, neckline finishes, and button hole options for cardigans. 

It’s easy for all this to feel overwhelming if you’re trying to read the book cover to cover, but it’s good to know that all of those options are there if you need them. There are also nine design profile sweaters that show you how all the pieces go together that you can knit through to help you understand some of the concepts. 

A fit kit in the back walks you through the math so you’ll feel comfortable with things like determining your rate of shaping, adding darts, shaping diagonals and calculating the lengths of curved edges, among other things. 

The good news is you’re not going to need all of these tools for every project. The better news is that now you know these are things you can do to make your sweaters fit better, and you’ll have McBrien Evans as your able guide every step of the way. 

While this might not be a book you want to spring on a new sweater knitter, it’s a guide that everyone who enjoys knitting garments should have on hand to reference ways to make sweaters they want to knit — from written patterns or designing for themselves — that much better. 

About the book: 192 pages, hardcover, 9 patterns. Published 2026 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $29.99.