Really there

I have made the decision, and opened up ‘An Elbow’s Length of Thread’, which began in 2017, to all my previous and new stitchy, textiley posts. A separate space in which to talk cloth and stitch. I will remain here too, with Ganna's lamp to my left  and all my loved ones, here and gone, beside me.

This space remains as it has been from the start; musings and gardens and thinking stuff. I would love it if you joined me in both.

So, a fresh post there, on the Venus Coat - follow me over 

While for here, another little touch of spring - these cyclamen make me smile every time I see them, so I thought I'd post them again

The vivid red leaves of the trachelospermum (star jasmine) have been there all through the winter, and soon will be joined by fresh leaves and then, in summer, by glorious jasmine scent

Sleevies

There's a joke about "sleevies"; I won't repeat it here for fear of a great groan of derision. But these will be sleevies quite soon. I have been knitting a jacket since darling daughter bought me the wool for my birthday in August (a "significant" one). She really shouldn't have but I had been wanting to knit up a pattern I found at a Knit and Stitch show we had been to several years ago. It was on my "when I've finished x,y,z and all things in between" list.

The pattern begins with the words "cast on 503 stitches" Not for the faint hearted then, but it is a lovely one; the body all knitted in one piece. It is the "Venus Coat" from Purl Alpaca designs. Like my previous jacket I have no illusions that I will look all sylph like, as per their model, but I thought it a lovely design and I've never knitted an all in one garment before so was looking forward to the challenge.

As I have reached the sleeves, you'll gather that the main body of the jacket is now completed. Every row of the "skirt" section took a Very Long Time, but was worth the effort. The pattern involved lots of "yo, sskpo, yo K2tog, yo ......" instructions, but the resulting open fabric will have a lovely swish to it. It was fascinating seeing how the pattern maintained the lacy open skirt while reducing the bulk up to the 3/1 rib body. The sleeves are now nearly complete and I face the final hurdle. In this case it is the fact that there are no making up instructions - no, really, there aren't. It just says "FINISHING Fasten all loose ends". I have looked and looked, and there is no small print hidden just beneath the front picture, or tucked away in the bit showing the measurements. I'm pretty sure I can work it out. At my advanced years I jolly well should be able join shoulder seams and neckband and set in a sleeve, but I think an email to the company might be in order, just in case there is a catch! 

In other news, I am considering moving all my stitch/textile/yarn related posts to my other blog - one I started in 2017 in an attempt to take part in the Year of Stitches project. (I lasted 'til May!). Perhaps that would be a better place for textile themes, leaving the current blog for my more family, garden and pondering posts. "An Elbow's Length of Thread" seems a more appropriate title for stitch related things. I wonder about the variety of posts here; perhaps the blog's title doesn't reflect content; can I manage to keep two blogs going? If I keep everything here then "An Elbow's Length" will just have to go!

What do you think?

The danger of blogs

I love wandering round other people's blogs, there are just so many creative people out there, doing their thing, making beauty in the world and sharing it generously with the rest of us.

BUT, they are dangerous. Having returned home from a lovely workshop with Christine today, I came to my computer to add an album to my digital collection, by the band Rising Appalachia, discovered in one of Terri's always inspiring series of posts Tunes for a Monday Morning. I thought I'd "just browse" for a bit while waiting for the CD to add itself to my PC. Seven or eight blogs later, having met Els's wonderful sheep, caught up with Jude and Judy, admired some lovely stitched forget - me - nots, dropped by Penny's daily scratchings and drifted though several other creative places, I realise that I have wandered around the world, but also have run out of natural light to photograph my experiments from today, so they will have to wait I'm afraid. I also haven't confessed to my purchases at the Knitting and Stitching Show yesterday, for how could I go all that way to London and come back without something to add to the creativity store? It was a lovely day, always a delight to spend some time with darling daughter.And now I must run off to watch the latest Battles on The Voice - a pleasure I can't resist - more people sharing the beauty they make with the world, or at least with those of us who love the programme :-)

craft blogging

I'm sure I have commented on this before, but there are such riches to be found amongst those sharing bits of their lives by blogging. Recently I have been watching several things being created, bit by bit.
There is Judy's Manitoulin Circle Project, which always holds within each post a deep sense of art and craft in action and in community.
Gina with her great textile creations and current, sketchbook project - really inspiring, in an "if only I could manufacture enough time" way!
Susan's lovely Lavender post, dye and stitch in soft harmony,
Penny's Celtic Crow, along with the numerous book inspirations in her side bar,
Karen's lovely piece of peaceful circles
And always Jude's amazing and fascinating work, words and pictures. I keep promising myself some time spent following one of her on line courses, but don't feel myself skilful enough yet to take advantage!

All of these good souls take time, not only to create things that are lovely, but add that extra time to photograph, think about and share their processes with anyone who wants to watch and maybe join in. I am learning so much from them, not least that you can only create if you - well - create, which seems obvious but  I tend to spend too much time reading and not enough doing. The beauty of  blogging of this quality is that you get to see the doing and the thinking behind it, along with the time it takes to create. Real lessons from real life in how, really, to follow the dream.