Reflections on the Pathway

It's seven years today since I started this blog.

When I first started it, my thoughts hovered round plans for posts and ideas of what I was going to say. I liked blogging here, it gave me a chance to indulge in one of my life-long passions: writing.

Meanwhile, I did the Woman Returners to Science Engineering and Technology course with the OU. It helped me identify what work I wanted to do - researching and writing, perhaps a technical author role or something like that - and I developed an action plan.

But stuff happened, and instead of putting my Action Plan into action, I took a different OU course in the History of Maths. I loved it and decided to undertake further study - but not just then.

Meanwhile, I blogged on, and crafted on, and wrote essays, and met bloggers, and helped Ferret at the Festival of Quilts.

And then more Stuff happened, and I found myself writing a Proper Blog on a Technical Subject. It was not just writing, but a whole other set of happenings, like being quoted in the national press, and getting mentioned in the House of Commons. And I started a SideBlog, so that the people who liked Me on the Technical Blog could see some of the other things I wrote as well.

This blog got overlooked: my words were being used up by the Proper Blog. Crafting turned into my break from net stuff, so I don't want to have net obligations for writing about it. I sometimes put pictures on ravelry. I am knitting some Phlangees gloves at the moment, and the summertime top still.

Life has changed since I started this blog: the Proper Blog is the kind of work that the OU course said I wanted to do.

This blog was a necessary part of the route. The journey is not over, but I may have left this part behind

'Summertime'

What have they done to the compose window, since I was last here? Shows how long it is since I last posted!

In essence, I've been doing a lot of other writing, so I use up all my blog words before I get to this blog. I have been mainly knitting on 'Summertime', by Hanne Falkenberg

Twas a wrench...

Twas a wrench to let my pansies go!



There's a lot of fabric sitting unused in my stash. I like all of it, but there's more then I want to own. So I ummed and ahhed and pondered and finally decided....

Quite a few of the people who go to my knitting group also sew. Quilts and clothes, ornaments and posies, they like fabric as much as yarn. I knew my fabric was lovely, I thought they'd like it too.

So I sent out an email, saying I'd bring it along and was there anything in particular they'd like?

And I pulled it out of lurking places and categorised and organised and generally tidied up. I even found the hideous leftovers from the home economics blouse at school (and realised that if it wasn't for the uggh school memories, it was a pretty brown and orange flower pattern that is perfectly up-to-date).

I wondered about my pansy fabric collection. It hasn't even got a plan in mind, but it will become something one day. I thought about not taking any of the range in the picture, and then I thought maybe I'll tuck them behind some other things, and then I decided I'd add them to the rest of the fat quarter collection, because if anyone did want them, they'd only want one or two.

Anyway, lots of people looked and some chose some things and others chose others, and C picked up the pansy fabrics and sorted and ordered and re-arranged them and then said how much would all seven fat quarters be! Seven of my best pansy quarters! So I smiled and added up the prices on the fat quarter band, and named an amount and she seemed happy and handed over the money, and I told myself even if my best pansy FQs are gone, I still had other pansy FQs.

But 'twas a wrench to let my pansies go!

Since now I'm OK about it.

Firstly, I found that I still had three FQs from the range - the bottom two in the picture and the matching bigger pansy print for the bottom right cappuchno colour. Secondly I have the picture above: it was on my blog from the Ally Pally post of 2007. Which shows two things to me. Firstly, they've been lurking in my stash for four and a half years, and were no nearer being made into anything then the day I got them. Secondly, looking in the picture gives me as much pleasure as looking at them in real life - without the guilt and pressure of ougth-ing to make something.

And I can happily think about them in Carol's stash, and her pleasure in owning these beautiful fabrics.

£55.90

February Roundup

Done a good chunk of Lily Pond.

Did a bit of Travellors's Tales Bookmark.

Made a Heart Card.

Started a Celtic Knot kit.

Finished sewing on Lovelace Poppas.

Sure there is something missing!

Your taste is still killer...

Found this on a new-to-me blog and had to share.




It reminds me of something Ferret said to me ages ago, which was along the lines of do what you can now do so that you learn to do the more adventurous bits.

TAST - started, sort of

The TAST stitch this week is the Fly Stitch, and so I have been practising the Fly stitch. I even managed to write "Fly" in Fly stitch.

But what with one thing and another - including doing a live TV interview, on a national TV channel - last week was a very busy week, and a photo remains untaken. This weekend we are away, so it won't get posted very soon.

Aiming for a chart hit - the Old Oak Lament

Absolutely great song, please buy it. Details here.

Take a Stitch Tuesday

One of the few craft blogs I get time to read these days is Pintangle.

A while ago, the author, Sharon B, ran a weekly study, called "Take a Stitch Tuesday". She's show a stitch on the website, and people would work a sample, and post a picture of the results. She's running it again next year. So, I'm signing up.

I think I'll probably do a band sampler type thing, although that means finding the right fabric. But I've got a month, surely that's long enough...

Knitting: the next gen

There has been knitting going on. There has been lots of knitting going on. There has been much buying of wool and even the odd bit of buying of knitting needles.

For Dear Daughter has discovered knitting.

It started with a scarf. She knitted it for herself, and discovered the joy of knitting. Then she decided to knit Christmas presents, scarves and fingerless mittens. This all involved her mother taking her to John Lewis, and letting her choose some nice yarn, Rowan even, and buying ball after ball.

Tricky thing for DD was her mother's Christmas present. But I gather that is in hand, and will involve beautiful wool.

After the Christmas knitting, DD has plans. They might involve a jumper. A hand knitted jumper. They may involve a handknitted blanket. Or they may involve crochet.

Who knows?

Watch this space....

My hand dyed scarf on TV

I wore a scarf I hand-dyed to do a TV interview today.

The scarf was dyed perhaps twelve years ago, at a craft open day at a hall near where I lived at the time. The organisers changed a nominal fee for doing it. We started with a white silk scarf. The dyes - in this case pink and blue - were dripped onto the scarf, and then it was microwaved to set the dye. I did two, one with lighter colours, the other darker ones.

The interview went incredibly badly - luckily it was pre-recorded, but I got asked the same question about five times, before it had a passable take. In the end, they used a very short section, about two or three sentences, but I made the important points. (It was about this. I was scarfing, scafthing, critical.)

Not at all relevant to the scarf, I thought this article about creative tribes was interesting. In particular the part where the writer says that her quilt guild was subtly influencing her fabric choices, being lukewarm about the ones she choose. Nobody was to blame, but it still had effects she didn't like.

A dearth of creativity

Can you write a craft blog if you aren't doing anything crafty?

Weeks have passed with almost no activity on the craft front: unless you count packing an ambroidery kit when I went away for a week (I was so busy I didn't even take the kit out of my suitcase).

Luckily, I have now done something creative, a "Dyeing for Shibori" course at Threads and Patches, in Milton Keynes. It was the second part of the course, I failed to get to back in March.

I'm really pleased with some of the pieces, but until I install the software for my new camera, they will remain for viewing in real life only.