unexpected and incredible!!
I have been thinking for two weeks about this blog entry, I just wanted to write about my weekend at Yarndale and few Yorkshire tales too but it occurs to me that I might have to write something else.
I am going to write how surreal these past two weeks have been and how touched I am for all your comments and the amazing popularity the blanket has reached. I totally wasn’t expecting such a success and it fills me with happiness, do you know why? It is because when I started my blog I started because I wanted to share something that I thought even if it is just some yarn worked with a hook it has some amazing power to bring people together and to bring a little slice of rainbow and warmth.
It might sound a bit pompous but I knew the Eastern Jewels was a good blanket, sometimes when you crochet so much you have good blankets and maybe not so good blankets- it is all a part of the process. BUT when I was making the eastern I thought “WOW this one looks good!!” as I never plan ahead or sketch the different squares it really becomes alive as it grows.
BUT when I was making the Eastern I thought “WOW this one looks good!!” as I never plan ahead or sketch the different squares it really becomes alive as it grows. But I never thought in my wildest dream that it would have been so good! What I thought about as I was making it, and please correct me if you think is not the case, is that crochet is really universal and never mind who you are, where you live or how old you are, you can see the same thing I see and that to me is mind-boggling. And so exciting. So when I read all those amazing comments under the Stylecraft competition I was like ohhh my goodness- all that work, all that frogging and endless cups of tea and pieces of octagons on the floor everywhere do have paid off! I manage to let you see what I see or better what I want to see.
Can we crochet something as ephemeral as happiness? Probably we can, or better according to your comments we absolutely can! You can sit in your home or whenever you like and with some balls of yarn you can make something that makes you smile and it is not an attempt or a copy! And it is not like a painting that you need a magic touch…you just have to follow some lines written in a piece of paper and there you go! You have the exact same blanket done by you for you. And I find that so amazing! I wish I could find the words to better express what it has been like seeing all these messages, and following all the saga of Stylecraft running out of yarn, running out of brochures because no one could have predicted how popular the blanket would be!
It has been so crazy that I started to make another one myself! I started before I left for Italy at the beginning of the week and I took some of the octagons with me to let my parents see them and it is so interesting remaking the same blanket again and so enjoyable because this time I have not to think or frog constantly I just follow the patterns and it happens again all those colours start to sing together! Yes, you can repeat over and over.
Now I am thinking about all of you crocheting the blanket in your homes, maybe you have a special place where to put it once it has been done or maybe you have a special person in mind to gift it to. I find it so humbling that you decided to take a little bit of my thoughts and bring it to something as special as your own home!
But also want to point on something else which is collaborative work. How great we are when we join together and work together! I would probably never manage to make something as the Eastern Jewels is if Jane had not let me use her pattern!
Patterns are a piece of you and it is really something quite special to let someone else take over and interpreting your work Jane is an amazing artist and a generous mind and to me this is the best of all this experience the collaborative side of it. You do not need to work alone or be jealous of your work. Go out there, get together use your mind and hearts and make something amazing! We all have something to bring to the party, we all have ideas, experience, happiness, to share! Buddha says “Thousands of candles can be light from a single candle and the light of a candle will not be shorted happiness never decreases by been shared.”
Love you all,
Lucia .