I had a wonderful time at the Knitting and stitching show on Thursday and was remarkably restrained in my purchases! Some sock yarn, a few skeins of thread and a couple of books because most of the time I was chatting to people... fellow Opus students, fellow Missenden tutors, some of my current and ex-students and of course some bloggers -
Stephanie,
Dale, Lynda and
Maggie. I also met a "lurker" (I'm sorry I can't remember your name!) who recognised me whilst I was trying on a gorgeous jacket. Ah yes... the jacket.... I bought that too!
Since Thursday I've been doing a lot of thinking and reassessing. For a while now I've been feeling exhausted and slightly run down. Lots of headaches, trouble sleeping etc. and over the weekend I decided some things had to change. I've made a difficult decision to give up some of my work committments and to concentrate on my own work and my adult teaching. I will miss working in schools and the community work but I know it's the right thing to do because already I feel much better and more relaxed. And talking of adult teaching....
On Thursday I'm teaching a machine embroidery class at
Art Van Go - Machined Textures. We will be looking at various ways of building up texture with the sewing machine resulting in a landscape panel like these:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhan6IYjhyphenhyphen23qW5Cs-2c3qcm0259BsszdoP_R6xhf9cg6Ri0fcZbArTtj1x83SwKVeLROqatsJEkV5CljXRETnD0W20ipxdvXMnmAHHAhvqIQaFfM_arB66kxlZ8VdgxifWPLq_g-fdJ4E/s320/The+beach.JPG)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk-Ea_dS7kNDstO0ewzbHw4aGYOUanHHT669phDsFPuJb5gjP4i61L5r_oJk6MKOm8KCOJXiNf6sXhH01bfrnyhMyO2K9yY-zZAnWwe8VBI038Sz7cXKgkeJGQPS2XbGL6jSHMgLVsSEQ/s320/highland.JPG)
So if you live near or within easy reach of Knebworth (good rail links from London) and fancy a fun day out there are still places on the course. Just ring Art Van Go on 01438 814946. I would love to meet you!
And while I'm advertising... do you remember these dubious gentlemen?
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKbhg4ZOYcusWWAx8YRBxl6BUulGeKqXCqbNDL6-74djCLM36hex5kd5qi9q6DylG-VTqhPcktj_BZcITP7LOnr1ahlXKholFc9-p1lpXbtpoaXfUKP5aDOmc62mlgVU9iUtJASXIGOWA/s320/cosyB+3.JPG)
I finally finished three more tea cosies to go into my badly neglected Etsy Shop.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6BJAQSIippClNQfV6y49CrGULt0cTs_NKztMJwySc6fe5LKbc6c7bsOzn1uSDhOjkqDAlQer9GIiQlIAc199TCLjYoOeS1m976L3F5XNI1Komx4jkjMLgxIQa-uyN2MI-_IxQKwIg3Bs/s320/tea+cosies.JPG)
Two have already sold but there's still this one left!