gratitude…

The last prompt in this ‘Love Your Blog’ series had me thinking the subject of ‘Gratitude’ all round the houses, trying to find a clever, insightful, alternative interpretation of something that’s really very very simple…

Thank you!

I do try to make sure that the thanks is embedded in every parcel, every post, every communication… that it’s obvious how thankful we are… but just like the boys sometimes forget their manners and need a little prod when faced with the gift of their dreams, it can’t hurt to take Kate’s ‘prompt’ as a ‘prod’ and say it properly, out loud…

Thank you… for every ‘like’, every ‘share’, every ‘friend’, every conversation, every email, forum post and last but certainly not least, every ‘add to basket’. Every way you spread the word and every.single.little.thing you buy from Meadow Yarn supports our family, our 3 boys, us all. Meadow Yarn isn’t a hobby, a vanity project, a way to knit with nice yarn (although – ahem – yes! nice yarn!) it’s our family business, it puts food on the table every single day and we have worked so hard to make it work… and we’ll never be rich (or even what lots of people would deem ‘comfortable’ – although I hate that expression, it makes me think of golf sweaters and pot pourri 😉 ) but we have carved a life that suits us absolutely down to the ground, so thank you…

 

Ugly fail…

When Kate posted this week’s ‘Love Your Blog’ prompt I knew straight away I’d struggle to get to grips with it…

At this time of year, early Spring, as things burst back into life, we get a warm day here and there and the sky miraculously turns from grey to blue I can only see beauty…

So, I started thinking about what ‘ugly’ means; unattractive, unsightly, hideous, unpleasant… and I realised just how hard we’ve worked, as a family, to get rid of the ‘ugly’ – and just how successful we’ve been! More by luck than judgement (although it was a pretty stressful crisis-led decision 15 years ago that brought us to Suffolk) we live in a really beautiful part of the UK, minutes from the beach, surrounded by lovely countryside and in a very lovely house… almost the home of my dreams! It’s not a house we own, nor ever could but that is irrelevant, we live here, right now, in the moment and that’s what matters when contemplating the *ugly* alternatives…

I know, I know, I regularly have to pinch myself and I thank my lucky stars, karma and fate many times every day for the life we’ve built ourselves.

That’s not to say that we haven’t faced the odd curveball over the last few years… like everyone, we have been through tough times and seen people we love go through worse but being surrounded by beauty – beautiful people, things, surroundings does help us to keep focussed on what a huge amount we have to be grateful for.

I thought about our ‘work’, we certainly know people who might very well view their ‘daily grind’ as ugly but we run an on-line yarn store – every knitter’s dream – and our  ‘niche’ has become beautiful yarn! I can honestly say that we don’t stock *anything* that would qualify as ugly 😉 and while we have good days and bad days just like anyone, this way we’ve found to support our family beats almost everything!

And there’s eye candy to boot…

(it’s the Fibre Co. Canopy Fingering in ‘Red Ginger’ in case you were wondering…)

 I carried on hunting for the ‘ugly’ inspiration and dwelled briefly on some of the less attractive elements of this on-line world we inhabit… there are truly some unpleasant tales of trolling and threats on social media and I’ve certainly encountered ideas (and people) in fora that I wouldn’t entertain ‘IRL’ but for the most part I have moulded – & pruned where necessary – my on-line community to eradicate these unsightly elements (now if someone could just find a way to prevent me coming across the mere mention of K*atie H*pk*ns the internet would be almost perfect 😉 ).

I considered the ‘ugly mutt’ in answer to the brief but she’s really not is she…

 

Then I came across these three and thought I’d found the answer…

but it’s true that a mother sees only beauty where others might not 😉

… and then it dawned on me, just as plumbers often have half finished bathrooms, decorators have half scraped walls and builders live in building sites, yarn store owners, who have all the beautiful needle storage possibilities at their fingertips might, they just *might*, choose instead to store their not insignificant collection of circular needles in a bag… a paper ‘takeaway’ bag…

Yep, that’s it – that’s *ugly*!!

Beginnings…

When I read Kate’s ‘prompt’ for this week’s ‘Love Your Blog’ challenge my mind didn’t turn immediately to knitting (although I obviously *have*  cast on something new this week 😉 ) nor did I linger on the tentative early days of this blog, as I am sure others will have… Nope, my thoughts zoomed straight outside to the garden!

It’s starting to turn green… shoots are appearing and the blossom is reminding us that there will be bounty to harvest come Autumn…

This is our second growing season in this house and last year, although we produced lots to eat, it was all about getting to know the conditions, the soil, the light and shade and sowing/planting on a wing and a prayer. This year, with the polytunnel established and the year of experience we’ve no excuses…

So, we’ve been chitting, sowing, planning, imagining… as all gardeners do at this time of year. This moment always feels like the beginning of something exciting!

The Broad Beans are looking good, they were sown in pots in the polytunnel back in March and will be ready to plant out into the walled garden very soon.

We’re simplifying the polytunnel planting after trying to cram every exotic pepper, tomato and cucumber known to man into it last year and we’re concentrating on producing lots of the varieties we eat lots of… stubby ridged cucumbers, cherry toms., salad leaves and tender herbs like coriander…

It’s also being used as a nursery for Brassicas (curly Kale, Cabolo Nero, purple sprouting broccoli etc.) which we’ve never successfully grown before. They’ve germinated, it’s a start!

Out in the walled vegetable garden a fair chunk of space is given over to potatoes. Then there will be runner beans, dwarf French beans and more lettuces. We grew lovely carrots last year – but not nearly enough of them – so we’ll be extending the carrot bed for sure! The raspberries are already shooting everywhere (they are thugs, raspberries, don’t be fooled by the delicate fruits!) and we’re hopeful that our strawberry harvest will be a good one after ruthlessly removing the flowers last year for the good of future crops!! We’ve also ‘forced’ some of our Rhurbarb using a large dustbin, the custard awaits 😉

So… beginnings… a new growing season, new shoots, lots of hard work… with great reward (we hope 😉 )

What are you beginning this Spring?

Interactions & Community…

When Kate at A Playful Day issued her ‘Love Your Blog’ challenge last week I felt compelled to join in. This poor neglected space really needs a kick start and what better way than to take inspiration from another super talented blogger!

Kate’s first ‘prompt’ – Interaction & Community – got me thinking about how and where I exist within this crazy crafty world of knitting & yarn. Of course, running an on-line yarn store it might seem that I’m fairly central but it often doesn’t feel like that. We don’t do ‘shows’… we’re tucked away in rural Suffolk, with a young family and that makes it logistically just too complicated. We’re not physically open to the public so all our lovely customers are at ‘arms length’ via the web site and often pretty anonymous. So, I have to grab opportunities to interact with this amazing community when they arise and that’s where my knitting comes in handy…

I just finished knitting myself a new cardigan.

Many evenings spent creating, stitch by stitch a garment just for me. I chose the pattern, the yarn, the shade and knit each and every stitch myself. Knitting isn’t generally a team sport, it might even be considered by some around here to be quite anti-social 😉 Questions directed at a knitter in this house might possibly elicit a sharp response… “Shhhh, I’m counting”, “Hang on, just let me finish this row…” you know how it goes…

But this cardigan wasn’t a solo effort, it involved a huge community and lots of interaction 😉

A quick snap to show early progress… Sharing love for the yarn and the pattern along the way and receiving lots of lovely encouragement via Instagram…

Celebrating my lovely little local haberdashery (where I chatted with a fellow knitter while choosing buttons and thread)…

A sneak peak of the finished garment while we wait for an opportunity to capture it ‘in action’ going down well on Facebook…

And the final reveal (documented, of course, on our beloved Ravelry)…

I’m not a ‘natural’ model but the urge to show off a finished cardigan outweighs the instinct to avoid the camera and gives me a very good reason to blow the cobwebs off the blog 😉

And the final cherry on the cake… while enduring the local ‘panic’ chocolate egg buying in my local supermarket on ‘Easter Saturday’ (goodness, the shops are only going to be closed for ONE day!!!) a fellow shopper tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘I love your cardigan, do you mind me asking where you got it?’ Well… thanks for asking, I made it myself 😉

This solitary hobby sure involves a lot of far-flung community and a fair bit of interaction. Now, what to cast on next?

A promise to love my blog just a little bit more…

I am a terrible blogger, it happens in fits and starts when I’ve a finished project to show off or I’m just feeling particularly guilty about the wanton neglect…

My intentions are good, I have ideas in my head… they just rarely make it as far as here!

Well, Kate over at A Playful Day has issued a challenge, she’s encouraging us to love our blogs this month and given she exudes completely infectious, unfettered enthusiasm, how could I resist!

I’ll be trying to get back into the groove, unearth the magic, rekindle the spark (and many other cliches) to create a blogging ‘habit’ that will continue long after the challenge is over.

If you are joining in too leave a comment and we can cheerlead each other along 😉