Passing on the skill of knitting

A wonderful story about a bairn who wanted to learn to knit.

At Purple Patch spring fair on Sunday I had just finished setting up my
Patching workshop. The first person to arrive at my stall was a
wonderful human who knew exactly what he wanted to do. I asked ‘Would
you like to try some sewing?’

He replied ‘No, I want to learn how to do that.’ He pointed at the
knitting needles in my basket. (This was the first time I had brought
knitting needles with me to a patch workshop - syncronicity? I think
so!)

I then taught him how to cast on and knit.

He asked how I learned and I told him “My Gran Susie”

Whilst I was teaching him, my own memories of being taught to knit by Gran
Susie came back to me and I started chanting her chant “Under, over,
through, off” it was pretty special teaching him in the exact same way
as my Gran Susie taught me. It was a full circle moment of passing on
those exact skills she taught me onto a new generation of knitter!

My wonderful student got tired very quickly and needed lots of rests. He
had some great knit goals “I want to knit the longest scarf and get in
the book of guiness world records!”

I said this was a great goal to have!
After one row he said “Why isn’t it getting any longer?” I told him that it
takes a while but the more we practice and get in our flow, it will
eventually get longer and longer. We just keep going.

Later in the day I met his mam and she was so excited that I had shown him
how to knit. She told me - “that morning he had woken up and said he
wanted to learn to knit, so his Gran was going to take him into town to
buy some wool and knitting needles, but instead they came to the fair
and found me as soon as they got to Purple Patch. It felt as though this
was all meant to happen.” :)

It really was meant to happen.

I am so grateful for Gran Susie’s patience, knowledge, love and skills.
And I am also really grateful for my new pal’s patience and willingness
to learn too! Go Generation Alpha!

In April I visited Canada and Vancouver Island.

A camping adventure with my partner.

On the first night we had Garter Snake neighbours, a family of three. I
discovered so much about the flora and fauna out there. From the
beginning of the trip I noted down all of the birds and other animals we
spotted.

Our first morning on Salt Spring Island felt like an open-hearted, warm welcome to Canada.

I woke before sunrise and thought I heard  water droplets in a well? I
thought to myself - have we accidently set our tent up next to a
flowing, meandering stream? To my surprise and with the help of my
Merlin app I found out the sound was a Brown-Headed Cow Bird. I had a
little look around and found it on the tree where the Garter Snakes
lived. They have an incredibly unique sound and movement in their body
when they call out. You have to hear it! Here’s a video of the wonderful sound and motion.

There were plenty of wonderful rock pools to explore too! I love how secret
rock pools are, and how quickly the beings hide when they sense a big
mammal like me approaching. (I loved also viewing from a far with the
binoculars too! There’s a little rock pool tip if you want to try.)

The most gorgeous Sea Anenome’s were dotted around everywhere. These lovely
beings were in gorgeous hues of pink and green! They were incredibly
beautiful! I love nature and all our planets natural colours, they
always seem to be perfectly combined. It fills me with joy and curiosity
when I dream into how these colours exist and how lucky we are to
experience all of the beings on Earth.

The rockpools were a key part of my adventure. The next surprise were my
new mollusk friends! In particular the Mossy Chitons who would spend
their youth as plankton (Hell yes to metamorphosis!) I reflected on the
incredible transitions we all go through multiple times in our lifetime,
and the mossy chiton was a key inspiration in furthering my wandering
inside.

I have been focussing alot on my own metamorphosis and growth over the
last few years. Connecting with community has been a huge part of this
too and meeting the Mossy Chiton felt grounding and solidified the
reasons for continue down the path of wandering inwards, outwards and
just being myself.

I have loved meeting lots of new people on Vancouver Island and in
Bristol too and I’m so excited to meet more in the coming months.

Some more animal friends we met along the way:- Vultures, Bald Eagles,
Hummingbirds, Northern Flicker Woodpecker, Red Crowned Pileated
Woodpecker, Sea Otters, Fresh Water Otters, Deer, Sea Lions, Paupoise,
Wood ducks, Loons, Frog, Sea Raspberry, Starfish and lots of Canadian
Geese.

I’ve been wanting to mend my partners holey socks for weeks now! I had a little trip down to Devon, and during the drive down I started! I used lots of my wools from my piling collection, including my plant dyed wools for that extra POP!

Slowing down, taking time to care for these socks became a thought provoking and full feeling process. I was carrying a sock around everyday. It reminded me of children with their favourite blanket or toy.

I was wanting to repair at any free moment, breathing new life into the sad socks.

The joys of being by the sea and being in the sun mixed with the loving care towards the socks I was darning was a wonderfully calm practice.

I’ve given the socks a new lease of life and not one is the same.

I now wish they were my socks!