Starting something new

Blogging about my crafty side has been something I've been contemplating for quite a while now, so here goes...

Maybe I should start by giving you some background ... I have been crafting and creating since I was a young girl thanks to some special women in my life, my Granny and my Auntie Margaret.

Granny taught me to knit and my aunt taught me to sew.  Granny used to sit there with her needles clicking away making school jumpers and complicated arans and still carry on watching the television or conversation without any effort, it was as if the needles were an extension of her. Thanks to Granny's patience I learnt how to knit making jumpers for myself eventually.  The most vivid recollection of Auntie Margaret was me standing on a chair while she snipped away to make a circular character skirt for my ballet lessons.  Once she was certain it was right the trusty sewing machine came out and to top it all she then had to sew a number of rounds of ric rac around the bottom to finish it off.  I used to stay at my aunt and uncles most summer holidays, when I arrived there was always a printed embroidery doilly, threads and Needles for me to keep me out of mischief.  Margaret used to painstakingly show me how to do satin stitch, french knots, stem stitch and then I got bought a cross stitch kit.  For a long time cross stitch was my passion, a trip to America opened my eyes to the wealth of possibilities and a whole host of projects both around my house and for gifts for momentous occasions like friends weddings.  I also thanks to my Mum and Gran discovered the art of machine sewing after receiving one for Christmas, I made clothes for myself and curtains and blinds for the house all self taught. Starting a family put all of this on hold, no time or energy with having 2 boys, 2 years apart.  I might have been a stay at home mum but I got involved in the local mother and toddlers, playgroup and then the primary school pta.

Well the new chapter has begun, the boys are both now in High School and I don't have the ties of pta and I better find something to do or I better get a a job!!  So I picked up the knitting needle again, got out the sewing machine and also decided it was time to learn a new skill, crochet!  The internet is a wonderful place to start, I discovered Lucy of Attic24, a Nikki Trench book and I was hooked with the help of a few videos on youtube too!!  Twelve months later I'm not looking back, I'm thoroughly addicted to being creative, boring my facebook friends with all my projects and eager to do more, tentatively seeing if I can also make some money out of this hobby, who knows!  I'm also going to blog about it!!