as an important part of my work, and my life, blankets deserve a separate category!
Three Blankets, One Beach. The winter wind, white sky. There were once three blankets: the purple one, the green one and the pastel rainbow. They were all similar yet very different. They were for different people, marking different life events. They were brought to a beautiful beach at Rhos on Sea and displayed in space to give them time and space to breathe before leaving my house to be united with their respective rightful owners. And then, as it often happens, something unexpectedly beautiful had occurred. As we tried to photograph me presenting the blankets, nature had other ideas. Wind had different plans. There was no way what we presumed and perhaps planned…
There is something poignant about finding myself back where I began. Not in a dramatic, cinematic way; more in the way you open a drawer you haven’t looked in for years and think, oh… yes, yes this makes sense entirely, you again, welcome and thank you please… I’ve been crocheting mostly presents. BLANKETS for people I care about, stitched in between work and study and stress and worry and the general swirl of life. And somehow, without planning it, I’ve looped right back to baby blankets, the very thing that started this whole crochet obsession in the first place. It feels like an inheritance I didn’t consciously choose, more like one that chose…
I do not feel happy when I feel cold. If you know me, the most frequently said phrase of mine, you can confirm, is: 'I don't do cold! The minute I get a cold nose, I get grumpy... ' Don't ask me why, I just am. That is how it is. HOWEVER As always, there is a clause... I want to dedicate this post to a trip I completed recently, which negates the above statement and brings a little bit of nuance to me and my experiences and to my tolerance for distress... One of my friends, who is a total outdoor admirer says something that maybe, just maybe, made me think a…
Before I ramble on, let me clarify my intention for today’s blogpost. Today marks an end of my latest change, today I share again, today I bring celebration of ending a learning phase and beginning a shiny new working phase in my professional development. As such, it is suitable to talk about a kaleidoscope of knotty transformation… i feel I used to really dislike weaving in the ends and would dread finishing a crochet project for this reason. Well. I loved finishing the yarn, I loved the last race to the finish line for the project on my hook to be done, then I would get the dreaded Sunday night feeling. Back to…
Continuing on my last STARRY eyed post looking up to heavens for answers to the nature of our being, I want to bring us down to Earth, back to our bodies and embodied experiences (don't yawn yet, it gets deeper). I want to look at the connections we create and continue in our making. The themes that keep us going, in fact propel our creativity forward. Other people To be precise, the important adults that shaped us as kids. It would have been your 89th birthday this year, and I miss you now more than ever. As I was frantically making star shaped blankets for all my friends, I looked at them one…
"I am Stardust gathered fleetingly into form." - Laini Taylor Stars! There are many people who liken our being to stars, including Joni Mitchell and Jostein Gaarder (read HERE). A magnetar is a type of neutron star with a powerful magnetic field, the strongest in the universe. I don't know, I cannot say, why the STAR Crochet blanket pattern has captivated my mind and hands recently. I do not know. I found it by chance, randomly seeing someone posting about a 6-day crochet-along blanket. It kept popping up. So I found the pattern HERE and HERE started... I am including a YouTube tutorial below, very helpful for us visual learners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhPSXvp3Dqk I made…
It is cold! Winter appears to be LONG this year. And COLD! When I recently started updating my BLANKETS and WEARABLES pages, I noticed a trend in the photos I took of my crochet creations. I have not been able to blog regularly because of other commitments. That is okay. I have various things pulling on my time and consciousness, mostly for educational and personal development reasons. It's all good. I am still able to crochet, please do not worry. Just that I am doing it less frequently, because my mind is otherwise engaged. And so are my hands - typing mostly... So when I crochet, at the moment, I make easy things…
As we all know, end of the year is nearing. This usually means a lot of reflection on my creative year, as well as work year, and all other things that were there for the year. So how about, then, the year 2022?! With this in mind, it is a good place to reflect here, and validate, and explain, and share experiences. Start with the most colourful: For those of you who have been following, this will be no surprise. I do have an announcement to make here, which again, for my @instagram followers is no news now, but it is nice to give this a proper space, and a send off! I…
Ugly arse blanket and how it really ISN'T! To begin with I was ill. Having to isolate. Being cooped up in our spare bedroom. Making sure that i did not infect the rest of the household. Naturally, i had loads of opportunity to do crochet. What i also had alongside this opportunity was a substantial blocked feeling of not wanting the next thing i make connecting with the ill feeling forever and always reminding me of it... Therefore, at this point i am stuck! In more ways than one. Understandably angry. Feeling frustrated and sad and anxious and all these things which you may naturally imagine anyone at all feeling in a situation…
Retrospectively REWRITTEN DUE TO TECHNICAL Difficulties in 2026... She* asked me for a blanket in "Missoni Style" (it's what she calls my work; it's what my crochet work reminds her of) in “the colours of the sea,” because "she feels calm looking at those colours". I understood this as the meaning of the nervous system regulating sea properties, the one that whooshes in long exhalations and pulls you back into yourself. The sea that steadies your breath without asking anything in return. The sea that she and I both know as adults, we know, and we seek when in need. The sea, which my nanny, for all her wisdom and care, never had…
