ACCEPTANCE

Hi everyone. Thanks for joining me once again in the beautiful 

Glenkens of SW Scotland.

A New Year

I may be a couple of weeks late in writing this but welcome to 2020 - a fresh new year. Signs of hope and rebirth are starting already - I saw my first snowdrop yesterday despite local flooding and snow on the Galloway hills :) I wish you all the very best for 2020 and I hope that your plans and wishes for this year come to fruition. Slainte.

Tebay Services M6 - Lakes view

Thank you for bearing with me for such a long delay in posting a blog. Everything in my life seemed to come to an abrupt standstill in mid November with the sudden death of my Father. Nothing felt important anymore but life does rush on around you, even in times of grief. I found myself, along with my brothers, arranging a funeral and also trying to make preparations for Christmas. As the world was whipping up into a frenzy of celebration, joyfulness and socialising I felt anything but. After a few distressing delays my family came together just before Christmas to say goodbye to a wonderful man who will be missed so much by so many. As I said in my eulogy, he was not just my Dad - he was my best friend. I am coming to terms with his loss and taking it one step at a time. Some days are better than others but I recognise grief for what it is and I am so thankful for the love of my family and friends. Those that matter have come together to support each other.

Me with my wonderful Dad

I decided to follow the example of fellow bloggers and vloggers with choosing a word to guide me this year. For me 2020 will be the year of ACCEPTANCE. It is about accepting that I can not achieve all of my plans and dreams straight away. It is allowing the past to remain there and not colour my future. It is knowing that it is alright to have memories but not to let them hold me back. Of course the main focus is to accept that I will not see my lovely Dad again but that he will be in my heart forever. 

In the lead up to Christmas I had been busy making gifts for family and friends. Knitted socks, mittens, hand made cushions, crochet cloths and scrubbies, etc... It felt good to give gifts made with love. I lost my crafting mojo for a while but then found that the mindfulness of knitting and crocheting helped me through dark days. Simple patterns that did not require much thinking but enough to let me concentrate on the repetitive act of making something - anything - really has been helping me. Since the new year I have developed a plan for long term projects that I do not feel under pressure to complete in a rush. I'll share these below in my Works In Progress (WIPs). I have also set myself a little challenge...

My crafting world:

As I have a dream to travel around the complete coast of Scotland (and visit as many of the little islands as possible) I decided to set myself a virtual challenge for 2020. The 'Stitch Around Scotland'.

Embroidery by Margaret Montgomery, made in tiny silk cross stitches,
early 19th century (National Library of Scotland)

It is my plan during 2020 to travel (in the virtual world) around all 6,160 miles of the coast of mainland Scotland. I will achieve this by travelling one mile for every metre of yarn/ thread stitched in my knitting, crochet, stitching projects this year. I will be interested to see how far I manage to travel. Wish me luck!

WIPs:-


(i) This project started with some kindly donated yarn and unfinished garment. The yarn by Artesano is called 'Inca Mist' and is 100% baby alpaca. So beautifully soft. The original pattern that came with the yarn was not a garment I fancied making but I liked the idea of making a colourwork garment. I have made several Keps (hats) in Fairisle colourwork in the past but my success at garments is poor. I decided to make the 'Night Shades' jumper (pattern by DROPS of Norway). The pattern was printed in 'Knit Now' magazine Issue 111. It is knitted in the round from the bottom up, sleeve up, and then all joined together to complete a lovely Nordic colourwork yoke. So far I have knitted the main body and I'm on the second sleeve. I did swatch up a Scottish thistle design at first but decided to stick to the Nordic yoke design this time and use the other design in the future. I felt that the yarn choice was not correct to make the thistle as clearly defined as I would have liked. I have decided to stick with additional hem and cuff detailing using some very pretty glass seed beads in sage - produced by Preciosa. 

My original thistle pattern design

(ii) I have started a year long crochet project - a 'temperature' blanket. Each day I will note the average daily temperature for the Glenkens. I have allocated 14-15 colours of Stylecraft Special DK (from my scrap stash) to the project. For each 2 degrees in temperature - ranging from below -5oC up to over +25oC - I will use a designated yarn colour. This is my palette of colours and my progress so far. I am using the ripple row pattern from Attic24's 'Woodland Ripple' blanket pattern. I was up-to-date but decided to start again as initially I had allocated 3 degrees per colour but was ending up with solid blocks of several rows (due to our unusually warm and steady January daily temperatures averaging about 6-8oC). So I am a few days behind but catching up after starting again!  

(iii) I have joined in with Winwick Mum's 'Winter Haven KAL'. Please do go to her blog site to find out details of this very relaxed KAL. I downloaded her 'Sanctuary Socks' pattern to try out some cabled socks for the first time. I am using some lovely indie dyed yarn by Wee Sheep Yarns which I was fortunate enough to win last year. I had been saving it for something special and this felt right. It is called 'sugar almonds' and is a 75% Merino/ 25% Nylon superwash blend. My winter haven is sitting in my crafty corner, listening to good music or an audiobook, brew (or hot toddy) by my side and Alfie 'the pedestrian collie' curled up next to me. Bliss!

(iv) Another KAL I have joined was recommended to me via a friend on Twitter. You can join the closed group on FB. It is called 'Knit-along 2020! Knitting & Crochet Guild 1923 Woman's Weekly camel sweater'. We are following a vintage garment pattern with classic 1920's lines. I am swatching up some Rowan Handknit Cotton yarn at the moment as I think it will make a lovely cool top to throw on in the spring or on summer evenings. I'll let you know how I get on but recommend the FB group to see how other people are experimenting with different yarns types, tensions and artistic licence with the camel motif. My favourite was one person who changed the camels to Star War's ATAT walkers! Brilliant! 

(v) My other year long project is 'A Year of Blackwork' SAL by Peppermintpurple (FB, IG, Pintrest, Twitter). Each week a new Blackwork design is published to place on a pre-set grid. I will share photos once I have started stitching more than just the grid lines. The SAL is on week 3 so not too far behind if you fancy joining in. Again, there is a FB group to join in a see how others are getting along.

I have plans to make several other projects but I think this is enough to occupy my spare time just now. I am starting to create some new cross-stitch designs and I am really hoping that 2020 is the year when I can finally publish and sell some of my patterns.

FIs:-

Not much to report really. Most of the FIs I had were Christmas presents and so have been sent off and I did not get many pictures due to the pre-Christmas craziness.

(i) I completed the Stylecraft Yarns 'Sunstar' blanket CAL. The blanket used Stylecraft's Special DK 100% Acrylic yarns. It has come out really well and is now much loved by my youngest daughter to keep her snug through the winter nights. I will take a better picture once we lose the constant wind, rain, grey and generally 'driech' weather out there!

'Sharing The Love'

I call this section 'Sharing The Love'. I want to grow my blog within the wonderful crafting community I have found online on Ravelry, YouTube and Instagram. I thought that each week I would share one of my favourite sites so that you can also go and visit them. To help me grow my site (and help me in my future plans to set up an online textile design business) could I ask that when you visit them you mention that I sent you their way? Thank you so much xx

Sewrayme Uk: I have been enjoying Rachel's YouTube channel for a while now. She is very creative with her crafting - knitting, sewing, etc... but also talks about nature and cooking. Rachel makes you feel welcome into her home to share her passions. She makes lovely mystery boxes, each with a theme, with lovely crafty items to enjoy - as well a little treats. She makes beautiful project bags and other items that can be found on Etsy. You can also find her on IG. 

'Another Love'

(aka The music, book, podcast section where I share my other passions in life)

Griefcast: Podcast by Cariad Lloyd

This podcast has really helped me to work through my thoughts and feelings. It helps to hear how grief effects everyone in different ways and also to hear the personal memories each guest relays about the person being remembered. The host and guests are comedians so be warned there is quite a lot of dark humour and irreverence along the way. As my own Dad brought me up to enjoy subversive humour of the type Monty Python, The Goons, Douglas Adams, etc... produced I have found this podcast uplifting as well reflective.   

'Journey of the Sorcerer' (Theme to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) 
by Tim Souster (Originally by The Eagles) 

Released: 1981 Produced by: Tim Souster 

My Dad introduced me to the wonders of Douglas Adams at an early age and I remember loving the TV series version of 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'. I like to think my Dad would have greatly enjoyed that his children chose this wonderful version to be played at his funeral.

'Islander: A journey around our archipelago' by Patrick Barkham

Released: 2017 Published by: Granta ISBN: 978 1 78378 190 4  

I love that I live on an island - albeit a large one. I have dreams of living up in the Orkney Islands. I have visited Uist, Orkney, Hoy, Rousay, Birsay, Crete, and Ireland. I love islands. This books is a great exploration of 11 of the smaller Islands within the UK. Patrick goes into great detail about each island and it's history, people, floral and fauna. A good way of exploring afar from your armchair haven. 

Thank you for joining me once again. Enjoy being creative until we meet again.

Midge x

Please feel free to visit me on my links to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. I can also be found at Ravelry as MidgePorterDesign