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!

Pole dancing with Mr Dyson

The last few days were very cold, so a great excuse not to do housework, especially doing the dishes in a freezing kitchen! Alas, with rising temperatures and rain, I’ve run out of excuses and dishes, so today I started to get active in my home (no more huddling beside the heater, knitting feebly and dozing off).

I decided to ease myself into the work, and hoover the studio/living room first. Mr Dyson, my 14 year old vaccuum cleaner, who is still going strong, despite its age and being dropped a few times rather unceremoniously, was whipped out and whirled around, after I had to move boxes, yarn baskets, thread, scissors, scribbled notes of knitting patterns and spinning books out of the way. Amazing how messy my studio can get (all the time!).

I turned on the music, and since I had watched The Full Monty last night in Channel 4 (what a great film!), I was inspired to dig out that CD soundtrack – definitely great music to get you in the mood…erm…for housework! So I was (in a way) pole dancing with Mr Dyson to ‘You sexy thing’, and got my studio…spanking clean!

There may be some people who are suckers for punishment and actually like chasing dust in the house, as well as washing floors and scratching dirt from ovens, but I always need some motivation to get down and dirty. However, things are so much easier if you do it to some good music.

If anyone has a good suggestion for music to clean to, please let me know! There is a very filthy oven to attack…