I'd assumed that this would be one of the first badges I completed, as I've enjoyed doing various crafts for about as long as I can remember! I'm not sure what's taken me so long to actually buckle down and get on with it, other than perhaps just Life... However, I'm finally there.
I've been a keen sock knitter for many years now, and have made probably in the region of 15 pairs for myself, plus occasional pairs as gifts for other people. The most recent pair I did (the ones I'm counting for this badge) I tried something new - using a different yarn for the heel and toe. This was particularly handy as both yarns used were leftovers from something else (the colourful one was spare from a previous pair of socks; I've no idea where the plain blue came from!). I wasn't overly taken with these in the end, but Teen liked them so was very happy to adopt them. And as she's living in a student house Up North, I'm very glad she'll have cosy warm toes this winter! No photo as they're currently a hundred miles away!
Cross-stitching is another skill I learned at a fairly young age - I'm not sure exactly how old I would have been, but I think around 10 or so. Having done large numbers of cross-stitch pictures through my teens, I've done very little in my adult life. The penguin here was a free gift with a magazine many house-moves ago, so of course the instructions were nowhere to be found. The embroidery itself wasn't particularly challenging, but having to reconstruct the graph for it from the finished photo added that extra little step in.
Back in my teens, my best friend and I made numerous pairs of earrings using Fimo - and I think I even still have one or two of them somewhere now! It's a long time since then, though, and I didn't feel up to the challenge of sculpting something from modelling clay. My elder daughter, however, has a large box of various charms, earring fittings, seed beeds etc. as she's been making lots of bracelets recently. So I chose myself a couple of nice charms and made them into earrings. They're not particularly complicated, I admit, but I wanted to make something that I would actually wear. Having asymmetric ear piercings, and tending at the moment to wear heart or star earrings, I wanted to make something which would fit in with my normal earrings but could be used for a bit of variety. I'm very happy with these, and will definitely incorporate them into my normal rotation.
Papercrafts have mainly been my Teen's thing, although I've done bits of origami and papercutting over the years. However, at work we have a large glass vase and a set of colourful paper strips for making little wishing stars. Originally brought in as a mindfulness activity - at least for those of us who don't find making these stars to be utterly enraging! - this has remained in our staff kitchen/breakroom and I find myself making a few almost every time I'm in there waiting for the kettle to boil. I've also taught a number of other people how to make these, which is a real test of my skill as I have just about no aptitude for teaching At All!
My fifth and final craft (for now) is crochet. Again, I've done this on and off through the years - my biggest project ever being two baby blankets (one for a friend, then a few years later while pregnant with my eldest daughter). I enjoy the way the finished piece grows so much more quickly than with knitting, but somehow always end up going back to two needles. Some time ago, though, I bought some white cotton yarn with the vague idea of making dishcloths or wash cloths or something with it. So I thought that some washable, reusable make-up removing pads would be an ideal little project. They're fairly straightforward to make, and are useful - and have obvious environmental benefits too over the shop-bought packets of wipes. I've tried three different designs and will let my daughter choose which she likes best before making more.
So, that's my five crafts - some more challenging than others, but it's taken me quite some time to get through it! And now that this badge is finished, I've already made a start on my first project for the Advanced Craft badge!
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