Introducing: Kaity's Corner

My Yiayia (Greek for grandmother) Kaity was the absolute definition of a Renaissance woman.

She could knit and crochet. She could buy a thrifted sweater, unravel it, and knit a new sweater without a pattern. She sewed clothing, both new and alterations. She painted and drew. She could cook. She could sing and dance. And her garden was a paradise that you could get lost in, even in her small suburban backyard. She loved pressing flowers from her garden and decorating things like picture frames and candles with the pressed flowers. If the Internet had existed when she was young, people would have been begging her to run a blog and a YouTube channel for tutorials, recipes, and advice, and open an Etsy shop to sell her handmade goods.

My favorite painting of Yiayia's - I did a tribute to this one on my nails for her funeral.
See details on my old nail art blog here!

I used to draw and paint with my Yiayia when I was young. Her rheumatoid arthritis had made most of her crafts impossible for her, but she adapted her grip on a paint brush and used a simplified impressionist-like style to paint using dots. I never had the honor of crocheting with her - sadly, I didn't learn how until several months after she passed away.

Just some of the things that she painted in her later years. Yes, that is a 23 year old Easter egg.

My mother named me after her own mother, but changed the spelling - Yiayia Americanized her name to Catherine, and my mom spelled my name Katherine. Days before she passed away, Yiayia reminded me that I am her ambassador, and what I do represents her in this world. This wasn't to be vengeful or threatening in the slightest - rather, a reminder that she will always be with me because of our shared name.

Recently, I was thinking about my ambassadorship and I mentally slapped my palm to my forehead. How can I have a crafting business and not have named it after my Yiayia? I was definitely already too attached to the name Charm and Strange Crochet to start over by this point. So, I decided to name a corner of my blog after her.

Whenever I write a pattern of my own and publish it, or write a blog post about a project I've been working on for myself rather than for the shop, I'm going to subtitle it Kaity's Corner. Because making up patterns and making something just for fun is 100% something my Yiayia would have done, and would encourage me to share with the world. So whenever you see a post title starting with Kaity's Corner, know that something different is about to show up!



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