All Fingers and Thumbs

I think the biggest gift that crafting and blogging brings to me is to give me a window of awareness of all the amazing things around me. Amazing things right here. Every. Single. Day. It give me a framework that makes me stop and just be. Sometimes. It could be more. I wish for more but at least sometimes it helps my eyes be wide and my brain quiet and it lets me see and feel and hear and smell and taste more. To get deeper in to what is happening in the moment and further from the to dos, should bes and never enoughs. It's peak plum blossom time. Sensual overload.

Well escapism it certainly was. An absolutely wonderful weekend of hacking at lino, in a studio in an orchard. This was my Christmas present from my Mr. A weekend course for the two of us from Flagstone Press . An inspired choice as I would never have guessed how much I loved this. It makes bad drawings good, gets you to think about things in a whole new way and really challenged me and I have never been so pleased with my first attempts at any sort of creation. Can't wait to do more I'm starting to see the world in linocuts!

..I went to Cornwall and had a very delicious time. Not only did the sun shine (though the cold wind was still blowing) but I got to play in Poppy Treffry' s workshop and made, with a lot of help from the very lovely lady herself, a cheery cushion with a house on. She is a wonderful teacher and I have high hopes that with lots of practice freestyle machine embroidery and I are going to get on very well. Mum and I had a wonderful trip all round. We found a great quilting shop and booked in our next workshop and few days away together and brought home plenty of fabric and other souvenirs from our few days in the depths of my home county. Over to the pictures now as I'm just dashing in to make sure I share at least a little of the pleasure from the last workshop before I head off tomorrow on another one! Here's a blog post from Poppy's site from someone who attended one of her courses last year or a link to a video if you want to understand more of what we were actually...

I may actually be too warm. Having cursed England to an eternal winter by finishing my honey cowl late in the season I would like to apologise! I am very much enjoying this sunshine. It's cold outside but I'm snug on a train with a double seat for me and my knitting and several hours with nothing to do but knit in the sun. Just what holidays are for. I'm heading down to Cornwall for the rest of the week with a very special treat on Friday. A machine embroidery course with Poppy Treffry. Hurrah for holidays.

I've been intending for forever (and likely blogging about it too) to sort out my craft supplies. I missed the tidy training part of my life and create a big happy mess whenever I make anything. Even when I've finished knitting something the ends, leftover yarn, needles from that project, scribbled on pattern are just left in the project bag as I scoot on to the next thing. Anyway years of this behaviour have led to such a mess in my stash, now I'm layering fabric and sewing supplies on top of that and it is definitely time to get organised. Not knowing what I have, not seeing some of the stuff in deep storage, feeling it it all just stuff weighing me down is limiting my inspiration. With some basic organisation I have enough space and (just) enough of a rein on my supplies to be able to create a pleasing crafting space in our spare room. I recognised that overwhelm at the thought of tackling that room that just gets stacked out with everything on our lives has been holdi...