A park in monochrome with added colour for interest

Today we ventured out for some fresh air. Luckily we found a disabled car space very close to where I wanted to be.

Although we are currently snowless(thankfully) there is some all around us.

 I love pictures like this where it looks as though I have been snapping in black and white.

 with slight tints of copper

 and moss green

 It reminds me of old photo albums, a frozen moment

 Glimpses of other places as you turn a corner

 Then home and the start of a one pot dinner. We found some candy beetroot yesterday in Booths and I thought it may add a little colour and taste to the savoury bean pot . Lots of different vegetables and beans and 3 tiny hot chorizo sausages sweated with ginger and garlic to begin

 The flowers are all in full bloom now and add a little colour to the Buddhas dark corner

 When you are sitting of an evening they release their perfume, just a slight aroma permeating the house.

Reasons to be cheerful

The sky today, and after this photograph there were no clouds at all and at 3.30pm there still aren't.

 Snow all around on the Pennines and Trough of Bowland but clear roads

January batts from Enchanted Knolls  Happy Hooves club. colourway is first snow which is very apt

remains of first half of batt as it awaits spinning

Last nights tea from left over lamb, spices and veg

 

Lamb curry.

Joy

On various blogs before Yule and around the new year I've seen people chose a word for the year and on other blogs talk of a positivity pot to record good things throughout the year and the idea is that at the end of the year when you empty the pot you see all the good things that happened.

The ideas sat there obviously stewing in my head and about 2 weeks ago when settling down to sleep the word JOY turned up in my head.
Next morning the word was still there and the pot had joined it so what could I do but listen?

My idea is to try and see or have some joy in my life each day. Joy doesn't have to be massive, tiny things can bring as much joy as large events. I think the idea is an awareness which coincidentally also  harps back to some of my previous posts about how much of our day to day life is lived mechanically and by habit rather than with awareness.

Many moons ago I used to make abundance pots for people. Handmade and hand dyed felt with certain things inside. This pot idea strikes me a lot of being similar. An abundance of Joy.

I think also that if I put slips of paper in with the joyous happening then on very bad days I can close my eyes, dip in and relive a joyous moment. I am sure that will help lift the day.
I haven't worked out the logistics  at the moment. I am going to put on the slip of paper what the joyous thing was but no dates or such. Just something like 'saw the first lambs' (last week)

It strikes me that it is very much a journal but in individual slips of paper rather than a book. I do still have an art journal and in fact starting this blog post inspired me to do a couple of pages. I also pulled out an old journal page that made me smile.

I think sometimes we forget the small joys when something negative comes to the fore.

It is snowing here but not sticking, massive snowflakes that spiral down in front of the window then disappear into thin air.

Spinning and a giveaway

I haven't had a giveaway for quite a while now and I thought it was about time:) 

This yarn is my handspun. it is the November hooves club batts from enchanted knoll.

I joined this club in October after waiting a while for a space. I've had 3 lots of fibre now from them and all have been stunning. I've had other sellers batts before and they can be a little like the curates egg

They can look beautiful on the top but when you open them up they can sometimes have less than perfect stuff there. Doesn't often happen but I have been disappointed several times. Enchanted Knoll look exactly the same inside as they do on the outside and what I particularly like is there is no preparation needed. You can just spin:) 

Meet Common Grackle, the November batt offering. This was my first batt from the club and I loved spinning it. The sparkle and the various colours that were part of it. 

There is 118g approx and approximately 755yards. So why a giveaway? I'll be honest I have tried the beginning of 7 different shawl  patterns and none felt right. I've only actually used 2 or 3 yards, if that ,you can just see it wound round the middle there. It obviously does not want to stay with me so who would like it for Imbolc? I will leave the comments open until Friday then choose a winner. You will hopefully get it in time for Imbolc and I'd love to see what you make with it:)

I've also been knitting. This is another Dragonfly wings and the yarn is some I dyed 2 years ago I think?

 This is yet another Wingspan shawl. I do love this pattern. The purple yarn is some left over Posh Elinor I think? and the yellow mix is some left over sock that I dyed a while ago.This is quite large as you can see.

 Then on Ravelry we had a hat challenge and as I hadn't made one for a while I got the needles out. The pattern is Propello from Woolly Wormhead and the yarn is some of my handspun. The fibre was a gift from a good friend and my attempt at spinning thicker than my default lace to 4ply.

 waiting blocking

then blocked. I think this needs a light felting to finish off.

Then finally there is this

This is my December batts from Enchanted Knoll, colourway Rusty Cockerel.

 
860yards from just 94g. So pleased with the yardage on this.

Not sure what to make yet.

Belief,faith, believer

You can't have a faith unless you believe, really believe in something and don't just go through the motions.
You can't have a faith then flit from religion to religion. The faith is what's inside you, really inside you.
The tiny part of you that is buried beneath the day to day and the mechanical doing that makes up the biggest part of us all.
But inside this is the belief, the heart and the thing that keeps us ticking.
The Buddhists practice a thing called mindfulness.They also believe in an empty mind open  for meditation and a space for nothingness.
Within that quiet can be found the belief and the core, Your inner faith. It may not be an established religion, it may not be clothed in incense,rich robes or song.
But it doesn't have to be.
A faith in who or what we are/ can  be.
Established religions are just that, money and  influence that gives them respectability and power.
But within that there can be someones faith.
It is a personal thing.
My beliefs may not match yours nor should they. We are all different.
But for me my faith,my beliefs resonate within my heart and inner child.
They make me who and what I am or strive to be.
I don't always listen because I am human, but when I do its there just waiting to be heard
By me

New year

Happy new year again:)

The new year has started with sunshine, I am hoping that is a start of brighter days with a little less rain

 

As it was so bright we decided to have a little stroll in the local park and feed the birds. The chestnut buds are starting to grow and the fungi as you can see

I love primulas, they bring a welcome glow to the woodlands at this time of year

 We weren't just feeding the birds, the squirrels have to eat as well and they loved the peanuts in shells. They always amuse me as they try to fit several into their mouths at the same time

This tree is so vibrant it lights up the undergrowth

 and so do these

 in all the colours. They have been growing under the trees in the park for many years

I also decided it was time to show you some of the shawls I have finished lately.

This one is a pattern called wingspan and is a fabulously simple design but looks stunning finished as I'm sure you will agree

 This yarn is from the Knitting Goddess and is her same difference yarn in the bumble bee colourway

 This shawl is my favourite pattern Pamuya and the yarn is from a fabulous new dyer Woo sheeps.
I love the colour ways not just for the colour but for the unusual names both of the  yarn bases and the colour ways. This is Dick yarn and the colourway is Stupid Boy. Why stupid boy? The colour way is lavenders, anyone remember Dads Army? Pike (Ian Lavender) was always called stupid boy by the captain:) It is refreshing to see a dyer with a sense of humour as well as a great sense of colour. Other yarn bases up to now are Tom, George, Cyril. I think you get the idea? Go and check them out, you wont be disappointed. I am looking forward to the fibre that they hope to have on sale soon. I particularly like that  there will be repeatable colourways as well as one off colours.

This next shawl is Dragonfly wings pattern and made in Faery wings mohair/silk from Fyberspates. Isn't it lush?

I haven't made any resolutions as such but I do hope to blog more regularly as well as get back to creating fabric and paper art. And you never know maybe even some femmes.

Happy new year

As the new year takes its first faltering steps we know not what will evolve. But I hope that what ever transpires it will bring you much joy.
A dear friend posted earlier on Facebook and I am blatantly copying her post with a little addition:)
I wish you and yours all that you wish me and mine
BUT with the witchly addition. I send you all you send me  but thrice fold :)
Happy new year may you take it for your own, harming none

Winter Solstice

It is 21st December,, the Winter Solstice, Midwinter,Yule call it what you will:)

It has been a very long time since I have blogged but this morning I woke with the need to mark this longest night and shortest day.

 I had the need to feel the words beneath my pen again. I haven't felt like blogging for a long while or indeed for any writing in my journal.

 I do miss it somewhat and obviously more today, hence this post. As usual I don't have anything particular in mind but just the need for words to flow from pen to paper(or from keyboard to screen as I am now copying this onto blogger)

 It is a need to write as opposed to type and that is what I have always loved, the act of writing and not just the content.

 So with that in mind maybe I will try a page a day in my journal as the days grow longer. Words or art but most likely words, for words I am. The art being merely the illustration of the page where words are the star.

 For others the art is the important thing, the colour that runs wild over paper or is genteelly placed, a dab at a time.

 My art when it comes is wild,untamed, a way of writing the words that must spill. But with colour sometimes instead of letters.

 My other crafts mean much to me as colour escaping from its box, a wilder form of words in visual form.
But the words are still there. They are always there, waiting their chance to play upon the pristine paper. To spill as jumbled,windswept ideas.
Or to march purposefully one by one in straight lines.

 Does it matter which form my thoughts choose? Not at all. As long as they dance their way into form from dreams I care not. Just letting them free is an act of beauty, a way of meditation and of ritual. A way of being that is all they need to be, nothing more and nothing less is required.
Just a beginning, a middle but not an end. A spiral, not a circle. Always moving up and on.

So Winter Solstice, a dark time but with the promise of  more light to come  each day. An introspective time. We all need this time of quiet, even with Christmas and all its gaiety our hearts are still and our minds thoughtful.

Mr Mog had his latest oncology appointment this week and they are very pleased with him. The drug trial is keeping the cancer static.It hasn't spread any further. It hasn't  gone any less but we aren't bothered. As long as the drugs keep it in stasis, long may it last.

We are both currently nursing the latest flu virus which isn't good. This time of year I think we are more susceptible to bugs and it isn't helped by those who insist on coughing and sneezing without covering mouths and noses. 

May I wish you all a peaceful solstice.