Am I still a blogger?

Well I guess I am. Although this year marks an all time low in terms of posts it actually reflects a high amount of activity and a bit of diversification.

even moving away from fabric, yarn and fibre

But first a question... I have not blogged since 18th May and until recently my weekly hit stats were going down week by week.  Generally when I am a busy blogger they are at about 300-500 a week but quite understandably the numbers were heading into single figures by mid July.  Then. WHAM. suddenly they began to climb until today, as I write they are at 1,016!  How can that be?  The focus of attention seems to be this post about knitting buttons into a cardigan as you go.  The post was featured in the Knitty blog soon after but otherwise I can see no reason why it should be so popular.  I have scrutinised my stats, the hits seem to come from the East. This happened once before, at that time a scurrilous tabloid columnist with a similar name to me was hitting the headlines but this time???  I have no idea.  Do any of you (particularly if you use the Blogger platform) have an idea?

Still Knitting, this is the Reyna shawl, knitted entirely from stash (yarn chicken was played)

SO! To the real business, getting back to blogging and some diversification. When I retired I believed that it would enable me to spend more time with all things crafty. More sewing, more spinning and above all more knitting. Then I got a bit stuck, too much stash acquisition for a start. My attempts last year to buy less yarn were only replaced with buying books, equipment relating to knitting and building up my fabric stash. Epic fail.  

Far less stash acquisition this year but this is a recent purchase to finish a very old WIP (see below)

Then there was that sudden realisation that I no longer felt I had a role in society.  My life, by spending more and more time on my fairly solitary hobbies, had moved to the margins, away from the mainstream

It was time to get a grip. So I took on a couple of volunteering things, one at our local Citizens Advice and the occasional day helping out in a local school.

Cleaning sinks in the art department can be creative when you spot hints of Jackson Pollock

When you can't photograph a class in action you can still take an after shot (featuring Teacher's Pet)

And there has been some diversification in my crafting too.  It's true I have always sewn some of my own clothes as well as knitted but these past few months I've not only made clothes for myself

Merchant & Mills Camber Dress (Ikat fabric from John Lewis)

Detail of my standard shift dress (heavily modified Simplicity pattern)

but embarked on a big patchwork project

Mostly hand sewn quilt but I always enjoy hand hemming the binding (am I odd?)

Finished 50s style from Quilting Modern

Then something totally new - watercolour painting.  I have played with it for some time but last year my friend Vandy encouraged me to take a short course with her (it's on again this year and I going again) and I was off! Even producing some fairly pleasing results

Watery Greek Island olive tree 

Passion flowers in my garden

 Finally I picked up a crochet project that I began over five years ago (I'm aiming to get this finished this August)

Beach Blanket

And all (or nearly all) of this makery is from materials I have in stock.  Yes indeed I am making great inroads into the multiple stashes <<smug face>>

xx

c

All this activity, it's all so exhausting