Samhain giveaway

I decided to have a giveaway for Samhain to celebrate the turn of the wheel.
This shawl is the prize. Hand dyed mohair and a large shawl to keep you warm during outside rituals.
The colours remind me of misty skies and the way that mist mutes the colours of the trees and plants. It is very soft and very light to wear, yet warm.
If you would like to win this shawl leave a comment for me. I'll draw the winner on Samhain.
A close up of the colours.

Elsewhere and handspun

I've finished my Winter Solstice Elsewhere. I love the colours in this. I wanted something that reflected winter skies in all their glory. I think I've captured that:)

It still needs blocking but I made this slightly larger to allow me to layer something under it for winter.

I love knitting with bluefaced Leicester aran yarn. I purchased it from Bluefaced.com and recommend them for undyed yarn and fibre.
I've also been spinning, so has Mr Mog but that is another story altogether.
This is some Falkland tops from FeltstudioUK, that I purchased in a ravelry destash. My first spinning of Falklands fibre and it was so easy. It practically spun itself:) I'm still spinning thick and thin in parts but it is getting better I think. I love Daniella's colours. They are very muted for me but a delight none the less.
This was before I set it, it is now on the line drying.
I got 334 yards from 200g which I'm inordinately pleased with:)
Currently on the wheel is some glittery fibre from Laal Bear, my first glitter yarn. Laal Bear's batts are so soft and she dyes such luscious colours. Today the sun is shining and it makes such a difference to my spirits. I'm awaiting a parcel of fibre then I hope to go and take the air on the promenade.
My next blog post has a giveaway for Samhain so stay tuned:)

Quote look upon

Quote by Johann Paul Friedrich Richter

Look upon every day as the whole of life, not merely a section, and enjoy and improve the present without wishing, through haste, to rush on to another.

Curator of ideas

I am a curator of ideas.
Some I work on
Others I just look after.
Yet others I cook and marinate then pass them on to be worked on by others

If Luck

If luck had a colour it would be red. Fire of enthusiasm and vitality that makes luck work for you.
If inspiration were a colour it would be blue, blue of the sky as you search it for ideas.
Blue of the sea as the tide comes in to shore.
And if I had a colour I'd love to be RAINBOW shades to colour my life and colour my day.
Yellow to light up the day to come,
orange glow as energies rise,
red as I grasp the day and ideas.
Green to go out and create.
Blue to calm the night to come.
Violet as I look within.
Purest white sends love into the world.
A rainbow of energies swirl through and through.
You have to learn to use them wisely and with love.
Not to overuse and drain your spirit.

looking for an Ashford traveller spinning wheel

I'm looking for another ashford traveller spinning wheel. Single drive double treadle if anyone has one and wants to sell or trade. I can offer an ashford style traditional in part exchange.

Paths a quote and shawls

A quote from Alexandra Stoddard

Once you find your path you want to stay on it and live it fully each day.
There will never be enough time but there will be the time you need.

I love that:)

I'm making space and have a few shawls I'd like to pass on to new homes. All new.

Music

I definitely can't turn the music down
Its playing in my head
It swirls around and through my brain
until its time for bed.

Why?

Why am I not my parent's child?
Why am I not my siblings sister?
I am a person full grown and relatively mature.
I have habits good and bad.
Yet I am not a ..
I do not think, live act like a ...
I have a brain that thinks.
I have a mind that imagines
Oh how it can imagine when it likes.
But for all I am there is one thing I am not. A ...
They are different, narrow minded individuals who love to gloat.
Who live for tragedies, bad days and bad things.
Who like to pick the bones from an argument, not once but several times and then before they spit them out they do it all again.
I'm not a .. am I?
No, I can't be a ..
I take joy from simple things of nature. A squirrel running across the path in front of me.
A flower i see blooming for the first time.
The sound of bird song waking me in the early dawn.
They don't hear or see this.
Why?
What gene was in me and lost by them?
What gene in them that didn't start in me?
I'm not sorry.
I'm glad.
But still, it makes me think.

And so the add1ction grows, even to the extent of tempting others.

Why did no one tell me how addictive spinning could be? Why did they let me walk into it with eyes closed, not knowing the torment that would ensue? Who knew just those few short weeks ago that I'd be addicted? What is more not just addicted but forcing(VBG) my husband to take up the self same craft.
We went to the local guild yesterday morning and there was an ad for an Ashford traddy from one of the members.
Yes I know, I have one already BUT I want to put a jumbo flier on it for plying yarns because I can't put one on my double drive traveller. Then said husband pulled a face and said "But I want to learn to spin" After all we had tentatively agreed this was going to be his wheel to practice on.

The upshot is we are now a 3 wheel family, 2 for me and 1 for him. Well 1 .5 each if we are being exact as we will both use the jumbo to ply on.
Meet Claudia the newest member of the family. Why Claudia? Do you remember the song Laudy Miss Claudie? That is exactly what I thought when seeing them posing so prettily for their picture to be taken.
So we now have Myrtle the original traddy, Claudia the new one and Tilly the travelling one:)

I have warned him that he needs to keep his hands off my fibre stash though.

Magpies and balance.

Today has been a Magpie day. Everywhere I looked magpies were flying or sitting. At one stage 7 of them. They were on our roof, across the ways roof, in our tree and in the park when we went to catch up on the progress of Autumn in the woods.
This was in the park, there were many more but this was the one who wanted to be photographed.
At one time I was quite bothered if I saw magpies around. The old fables and tales were uppermost in my mind. Bad luck, evil all the old superstitious tales.

Then I started to rethink,what if?
What if -
Magpie was there to help me?
What if-
Magpie could teach me something?
Food for thought so I started to read up on the old lore about these birds.

Some of their other names were Two tone ambler, Pioden, Snag Break.
They are associated with Hermes, The Pleides. Allied with Hawthorn and the elements of fire and air.
Their festival is reputed to be Beltaine. That would be right if you think that the year starts to grow at Beltaine and this in turn initiates it's death at Samhain.
These birds were once important in augury, just think of the old rhymes.
One for sorrow
two for joy
three for a girl
four for a boy
five for silver
six for gold
seven for a secret never to be told
eights a wish
nine is a kiss
10? a bird you must not miss (Magpie song from children's program that used to be on here in UK)
There are many versions of this rhyme across the UK.

So going back to magpies, for me I found that they taught the secret of balance, you have to have the dark and light sides to balance each other. Nothing is grey after all. It made me realise I was off balance. I was seeing only what I wanted to see, avoiding the dark side that was also possible in my situation or with people and events.

I've had magpie in my life for a long long time, from my fears as a child and into adulthood. I always had to see a second if I saw one. One was bad and struck fear in me. I always said good morning or hello when I saw one. Actually I still do that:)
So what did magpie say to me?
Fear , trickery, thief, bright bird, worry, evil, pain.
BUT
What if?
Trickery, all is not what it seems.
Black and white? A magpies plumage has many other colours in it.
So it isn't always cut and dried, right or wrong.
There is a middle ground, a balance.
I started to explore my knowledge of magpie.


FEAR. In old days Magpies were supposed to bring or foretell death. If you saw them around the roof woe betide you or your family.

THIEF. They love bright glittery things. Silver paper, jewels, glass. But also all that glitters is not gold as the saying goes. They are attracted to bright things, they take them to their nests. Do they do this when they are mating? Is it a display ritual? Maybe.

Bright Bird. They are easy to see, they stand out. Does that help them or is it a disadvantage in hunting? No, they can devastate the small bird population.
So colourful is not necessarily a bad thing(Note to self, there is a reason for your bright colours)
It doesn't stop them surviving and very well at that.
So could it be that my fear of magpies was a test?
Do I acknowledge it and them?
Yes I do and welcome their presence in my life.

So for me Magpie is a teacher. I just need to listen to the lesson he brings. Am I learning it yet? I do hope so. Can I embrace Magpies lesson? Can I then use it to move on to the next part of the wheel and the spiral?
Magpie brings me courage and a warrior spirit. How will I use this?
Will I be able to?
YES. I will use it to grow, to open myself, to take down the invisible shields. I will still shield when necessary but with the knowledge I am doing so.
Not with a rebuff built in.
MAGPIE, black and white carries all the colours of the spectrum between. So a rainbow between black and white? All the colours but we only see those two.
Is that because they are stronger, brighter, more dominant?
At this dark half of the year magpie gives me hope. It gives me a sense of the balance of life. No I don't like the way it decimates small bird populations but that is its way of life and I can't change it. I can only look on and accept that Nature isn't all fluffy bunnies and love and light. She has a darker clawed side and that balances the light.

We have our dark and light sides, for me being a witch means trying to balance those to the best of my ability. Do you?
What will you take into this dark half of the year and what will you discard? What have you grown and what has failed for you?
One of the prompts on an artist board I was on was My Hat.
I wrote this:-
My hat has feathers several.
A magpie, a rook, an owl and a fun feather.
My hat has a brim, it has charisma.
My hat is black.
It has ribbons dangling and a cat on it.
My hat is me.
What is your hat?