Sometimes love ain’t enough…

No, I am not going all cheesy on you. I just had a mad few days, and spent more time on politics than anything else. I love it. I love being a political animal, and I would like to be involved in decision making one day. However, a lot of aspects in politics are really not me, and I worry that I have to change too much to make this work. So it is stressful, and serious, and I want to laugh, and dance, and knit.

So today is a craft day for me. Sadly, it isn’t warm enough to knit in the garden, but so I am sitting at my desk with coffee, knit and muse about my life, about how I can combine crafting and politics and writing, as well as laughing and dancing. Oh yes, and recycling, too. The latter, however, worked out very nicely.

I had this top which was beautiful - on the hanger! But not on me. No matter how many people told me that I looked nice, it never felt like it. I loved it, I loved the medieval-looking sleeves, I loved the purple colour, but when I was wearing it, I kept tucking on it and twisting in it, and just felt…wrong. I altered it. Still felt wrong. It seemed to give me a strange shape that just wasn’t me, partly too big and partly to short. It just didn't fit. So eventually, I had to make a decision. Charity shop, or cutting it into t-shirt yarn? The fabric and sleeves are gorgeous, but did I want to cut it?

Then I thought, why not use those amazing sleeves…as part of armwarmers! Right now I am very much into combining my knitting with textile art in mittens and armwarmers, so I decided to use the sleeves and make something for me!  Luckily, I found a matching yarn in my stash – beautiful, purple, and handspun by Rachel from lindsaycrafts.  So I cut, turned the sleeves upside down, fitted, knitted and sewed, and here is the result (one done, one more to go)!

  So, now I have something I love and love wearing, too! 

If politics were so easy…but then again, maybe it is?

Thowing down the gauntlet and dancing to Bellowhead!

Hitting the keys once again...

After a long hiatus, I decided to hit the keyboard once more. Not too sure why I dropped the pen last year, but maybe it was a kind of writer's block. The urge to write just left me, and I just couldn't do it anymore. I 'wrote' in my head, but did not put anything down on paper or on computer file. It didn't help that my computer slowed down until it was nearly slouching backwards - the wheel was not turning, and the hamster was certainly half-dead.

However, I missed writing, and I do only feel half-human when I am not creating words. When I write, I seem to come alive twice - first in real life, and then in the captured word. I also capture time, and life slows down. I remember events far better after I've written about them. No wonder that last year was a bit of a blank...only my knitwear and yarns remind me of what I was doing.

I so love my knitting and spinning, but knitting without the written word is not enough. There has to be a different yarnspinning going on, not just the whirling of my Turkish drop spindle.

I shall write. And knit. And spin. And do politics. Four halves make a beautiful cake, and I want to have my cake and eat it whole. Without the writing slice, there is a big hole in my cake, and I do want to devour it all!

The spring sun finally flows into my window, I have a shiny new (second hand) laptop (massive hugs to its previous owner), I am surrounded by yarn, fibre and good music, and I write. Total happiness!