In the Beginning . . .

This is my first blog post; actually this is my first blog.



First about me: I just turned 50 on the day before Samhain (Halloween to the non-Pagan).


I was married, once, but have been widowed for over twenty-five years. I have two children; 'The Girl' I acquired by birth, 'The Boy' and I adopted each other when the girl went away to college. Without him I probably would have gone nuts. 'The Girl' had been my reason for breathing since my husband died when she was six months old.


Several members of my family are creative.

My father's mother could crochet anything, literally. She could see something once and recreate it in crochet. She couldn't read a crochet pattern, I'm not sure she could even read; but create with yarn and hook, oh brother! She died in 1972, but before that she taught my brother and I how to crochet a chain. That was it, just a chain. After a while, my mother got tired of us wasting her yarn and she began to teach us how to turn and crochet back. I haven't crocheted in years; I think the last thing I made was a baby blanket for 'The Girl'.


My mother crocheted any number of items, but she had to have a pattern. I remember a poncho she made for me; I'm not sure exactly how many colors were in it, but each round was a different one of the colors she had selected. I liked that poncho; wonder if I ever said 'Thank you'?


My father is like his mother, but his medium is wood. Show him a picture of a wooden item and he can recreate it for you.


I do not claim to have gotten all of the creative family genes; but I can create. I can crochet, as mentioned above, I knit, sew, needlepoint, cross-stitch, spin, and weave. Most of the things I finish are given away as soon as they are done. The things I still have are mostly unfinished. I do still have the first and second things I ever wove; but the knitting I still have is all unfinished.


Currently I am in my first year as Coordinator of the Bloomington Spinners and Weavers Guild in Bloomington, Indiana. Through the guild, I am a member of a natural dyes study group. (Very interesting stuff, natural dyes... hmm another post.) From my LYS, which is over twenty miles away, I am taking a class (for the second time) to learn to knit two socks at once on magic loop from the toe up. Also I'm taking a class to knit a cat bed, I have five cats (I will talk about them in another post), and a class to knit a cowl. By the way, my LYS was started by none other than Betsy Blumenthal. Jealous yet?