New Beginning

Wool Basket in the Trees

   It might be a New Year's Resolution or just something that had to happen but here I am at last!


  A first post on the last day of 2014! New beginnings tomorrow!


  I have thought for a while that I should write a blog about the things I care about and want to encourage in others.  I care the most about making things with my hands, followed by learning new things, or maybe it is in the reverse order. Next, I care about my family, friends and community and the land around me.  All the things I care about are in the context of my belief in my Heavenly Father and his Son and his plan for all things.


  When I was a very little girl my mother and my grandmother encouraged my deep love of making things and answered my incessant questions patiently.  My father kept me at his side while he worked the farm and garden and then tucked me in at night with his own bed-time stories.  Gran's hands grew knotted with arthritis but she never stopped using them to make baskets, write letters, or work in her vegetable garden.  A love for these things was planted deep inside me and nurtured as I grew.  I was forever wanting her to show me the new craft she had learned at the local C.W.A. or asking my mother to help me with a scrap book or school project. 


  I think showing tourists around our old homestead and explaining how the pioneers made do with very little made me realize that we have gone a long way from self reliance in this modern interconnected world.  It worried me that knowledge would be lost.  I collected many books on how to make things from scratch and tried out quite a few of the basic instructions.  I thought perhaps I needed to start an archive library to store knowledge about pioneering techniques such as how to make tools and grow gardens.  Now the World Wide Web has put everything in front of me without the dusty shelves!  I don't know if I need to worry about information being lost anymore.  Maybe it will be and maybe it wont.  Now the need seems to be to spark people's interest in making things by hand and show them the beauty and peace that comes from creating something yourself.  I hope I can inspire people to give making things a go.





  Each day I get creative with my hands.  At the moment I am knitting.  I have created a cute beanie for wearing in the cold of winter and I hope to sell a few on Etse.  Last year I couldn't help myself and knitted lots of scarves.  In between, I made my mother a beautiful soft blanket for her bed and then a soft green and white blanket for my newest grandson.
 Last year, a friend and I explored the possibilities of weaving Cat's Claw vine into beautiful and practical baskets of all shapes and sizes.  I also learned to spin wool and use a simple spindle to make primitive yarn.
 I tried some felting and I am sure I will do lots more of that.  There is always something interesting to try.


  I hope you will read this and be encouraged to get creative yourself.  Try something you always wanted to learn.  You will surprise yourself at how easy it really is to use your hands.