Amenably Crafty: Ramadan Mubarak

Sunday, 5 June 2016

Ramadan Mubarak

Alhamdulillah (thanks be to God) we made it to Ramadan 2016 or as my trusty Ramadan App tells me - 1 Ramadan 1437.

Ramadan Mubarak (Blessed Ramadan) to all of my wonderful sisters in Islam, we made it, not everyone has, there have been some who were taken before this time, Alhamdulillah the rest of us have another chance to try to win brownie points before we're carted off to our deathly abode - InshAllah (God willing) we shall make it to the end and manage to reap the greatest rewards we can.

I've been waiting for Ramadan this year, with my Imaan (faith) at an all time low, I've been living in dread of becoming one of the Hypocrites as mentioned in the Qur'an many times. I don't want to be left behind, for all my wappy ways, I do have a deep rooted belief. I CANNOT believe there is nothing after this life. To me, a caterpillar has it's life as an egg, then as a caterpillar, a pupa and finally (or maybe not) as a Butterfly. Well, if they can do it - why not us - who's to say there isn't life after death, who's to say, there isn't more after this? I believe there is, and I believe the answers, for me at least, are within the preachings of Islam. Therefore, it's been deeply distressing for me to find that my imaan and my practice have been slipping, and I have struggled daily with myself and my feelings of desolation.

Things aren't easy at the moment in my life, it's just the way it is. In Islam we believe we are tested,

And surely We shall try you with something of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth and lives and crops; but give glad tidings to the patient, Who says, when afflicted with calamity: “To Allah We belong, and to Him is our return”: They are those on whom (descend) Blessings from Allah, and Mercy, and they are the ones that receive guidance. (Al-Baqarah 2:155-157)

He Who created Death and Life, that He may try which of you is best in deed: and He is the Exalted in Might, Oft-Forgiving. (Al-Mulk 67:2)

Whatever misfortune happens to you, is because of the things your hands have wrought, and for many (of them) He grants forgiveness. (Ash-Shura 42:30)

On no soul doth Allah Place a burden greater than it can bear. It gets every good that it earns, and it suffers every ill that it earns. (Pray:) "Our Lord! Condemn us not if we forget or fall into error; our Lord! Lay not on us a burden Like that which Thou didst lay on those before us; Our Lord! Lay not on us a burden greater than we have strength to bear. Blot out our sins, and grant us forgiveness. Have mercy on us. Thou art our Protector; Help us against those who stand against faith." - 2:286

Sometimes I wonder if I'm strong enough to carry my burdon. I find it terribly difficult to practice as a Muslim when I'm on my own, and then I look at all the other sisters around who are in the same situation as myself - who seem to have few if no problems. My conclusion always swings back to my being weak and I must try harder.

So I've been praying, BEGGING to live long enough to be given the chance to slightly redress the balance inshAllah (God willing) and Alhamdulilah, I have been..
I nearly didn't though. I had promised my son and his partner that I'd visit them on Monday. For some idiotic reason, I had convinced myself that Ramadan MUST be on Tuesday, I was praying for Tuesday, but no, the moon was sighted a few hours ago in Mekka, so Ramadan (for us in the UK) is on Monday - tomorrow, the day I'm driving all the way to Nottingham and back, having been up until 2.30 am trying to ensure I've drunk enough water to carry me through the 19 hour fast.

I'm happy, because my belief that I'm in a sorry state as far as my Islamic strength is - it's true, I am in a sorry state, but, perhaps not as sorry a state as I believed (alhamdulillah) because the moment, the MOMENT, I heard that the moon had been sighted - I burst into tears, I was absolutely devastated because I'd promised to go to Nottingham and I DESPERATELY didn't want to fail in my Islamic practice. This tells me that my believe is VERY strong, my practice might be lacking, but my believe is strong, so strong that I was completely torn over what to do - fortunately (alhamdulilah) we've sorted out the Nottingham business, and I am free to start my fast alongside all the other fasting Muslims in the world alhamdulilah.

I know I'm not the best, I know I'm a long long way from being even remotely good as a muslima (lady muslim) , but I AM happy it's Ramadan, I am happy that I burst into tears, and felt so desolate when I heard, it gave me a feeling of strength because it showed me that I am still muslim in my heart and soul, I'm a bit lost at the moment, but my belief is SO strong, I'm praying that I manage to build up my strength again this Ramadan. My soul needs this, I need this, I pray that I will manage to get through this inshAllah (God willing)

Ramadan Mubarak to all my Brothers and Sisters in Islam, may our efforts be rewarded and our prayers accepted throughout this auspicious month. Ameen <3

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My First peruse into the world of Free form Crochet (Scrumbling)

Well! I can hardly be called an exemplary Blogger can I? It's been nigh on 8 months since I last wrote on here - I will endeavour to do better. I didn't take many photos of my latest project, but I'm very proud of it none the less, I'm currently in to making phone socks, mainly because they're relatively quick and easy to make (well, for the average crafter, not me, because I keep getting side tracked!) I'm absolutely determined to get myself a shelf in the crafter's shop on Burton Road at the top of town. It only costs £25 a month, but when you have no job and no money, that's a lot of money to find. However, I keep working on it and thought to make the phone socks as a quick fill for the shelf whilst I'm working on larger and more time consuming projects. Seemed like a good idea anyway. I've made a variety of socks and am relatively pleased with the result but, as always, they're none of them actually 100% complete and ready for sale yet. I really must work on my attention span! Anyway, I was particularly proud of my latest phone sock because I've started tying in different skills that I've been teaching myself - and this particular phone sock was done entirely by SCRUMBLING, or Free form Crochet. I really enjoy this kind of crochet, not least because I have a massive problem with following patterns, I tend to start off reasonably okish and get sidetracked along the way and the next thing I know, I'm completely fobbing it! So free form suits because there are no rules to follow, absolutely perfect for me - but I don't have much imagination, so it's still a pretty hard process for me. Unfortunately there are no photos to show - other than the end result because I didn't think to write a blog about it, however, I shall try to do better next time. I started off with a small piece of green wool from my oddments bag and started practising with the Bullion Stitch, I love it - but haven't really ever got the hang of it, now this is where scrumbling really comes into it's own, because you're not following a pattern, so you can just do as many or as few stitches as you like. My practice piece was 13 bullion stitches long and curved off to the left slightly - that was as far as my attention span took me, so then I got bored and started to add several stitches into one stitch, kept this up for a while to develop a nice little wave. I then moved onto scarlet wool and double (UK triple) stitch except I was doing the chainless double foundation stitch, did enough of those to have a nice curve that allowed me to make a full circle and tail which, rather fantastically seemed to flow nicely from the green Bullion curve - at that point I decided I had to do something with it, and ended up drawing around my phone to get a rectangular base to put my scrumbled pieces on. From that moment forward - I was making a phone case. Grabbing a lilac, I did yet more Bullion stitches, was back on track with my practice by then, (but only briefly, 13 stitches seems to be my limit) did a bit of a chain and made some shell like curves and moved onto dark purple. Tried a bit of lattice stitch and a rectangle of (US) treble (UK) double. Another frilly effort around the base and corner of the phone sock, with a smidgen of scarlet on the top side. Then I had a go at making little puffs, I just stitched in a round from a base of two chains, and kept going round until it was big enough for me (about three rounds) then I started pulling it in by missing a couple of stitches - and the next thing I knew, I had three beautiful puffs! I played around with my scrumbled pieces and chose the best fit for them, and crochet them together in what I considered the best pattern. However, it still looked pretty bland, I wanted more, so I sewed on some beads to bling up the center of the puffs, and crochet in embroidery thread (which is incredibly hard to do I found!) over the top of the green frilly bit and then did a slip stitch chain to highlight the swirl of the lilac bullion stitch. I'm pretty pleased with the result, especially for a first attempt. I do enjoy scrumbling and am in the middle of another set now - I haven't decided on what I'm going to make from it, but I figured, if I just did my own thing and then kept them all in a bag, at some point, they might come in useful. In the meantime, I have a rather interesting phone case to complete and sell. I intend to line it with some kind of matching/complimentary lining, if I said it was mainly because there are so many loose ends for me and my gnat's attention span to concentrate on, would that be a bad thing to say? If it is - then I'm going to line it with a complimentary material because I think it's a necessary addition :p