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!

The motivation returns!

Freshly spun yarn

Last week, while I was sick, my motivation reached sub zero temperatures. In fact, it disappeared, and unlike Arnie, it didn’t shout ‘I’ll be back!’

I tried to coax it, used every trick from my motivational books including planning and goal setting, treated myself to lovely food, took it easy…still, my motivation was gone. This, of course, is bad when you are self-employed and have to bring home the bacon.

I tried to use creative visualisation, imagining myself as an energetic, successful and wealthy crafter – that lasted five minutes, and I was in deep slumber on my sofa.

I was desperate for somebody to feed me motivation with a big wooden spoon, because I kept lying postrated on my bed, reading chick lit from years back, and eating nuts.

My knitting was abandoned, my spindle hadn’t been twirled in weeks, and my sewing basket was overflowing.

Even the prospect of new yarn only caused a mild fluttering of eyelashes.

On Saturday morning I wrote a song about why I want to be my neighbour’s dog.
(It is actually funny.)

Things were bad!

OK, I did have some kind of virus, but this seemed to have turned into a motivational crisis, a creative blank, and the desire to sleep all day. Maybe I was knitted-out, but maybe I just needed to get a kick in the proverbial…?

However, motivation suddenly has returned! Not with all guns blazing like Arnie, more with a tentative ‘hello everybody’, but yes, it is back.

Hear the clicking of knitting needles and the whirring of the spindle!

Hurray!