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Now on to this week’s musings…
January is a strange month. It begins with a bang, New Year welcomed as if it truly ushers in change. But it has no connection to the season going on around us, were any change is invisible and we still have some of the harshest and coldest months to get through. It would make more sense for a new year to begin at Samhain, the end of the harvest season, or at Beltane when summer begins, or the Spring Equinox. Any of those dates on the Wheel of the Year, the Pagan Calendar, would have a deep connection to what is happening in the world around us. But no, January 1st comes, a new year starts, and we must begin it by slogging through January itself, a month I always find both drags and gallops by.
January has become a month I plan carefully, attempting to ensure it feels productive and positive while also being snuggly and full of hibernation. I have always thought animals that hibernate are much more intelligent way than the rest of us. There is a lot we could learn from the act of hibernation and the power that comes from matching our breath and heart and life’s rhythms to the land. As I planned out this January, I thought very carefully about how to use the month in the best way possible, how to make sure that when Spring shoots start appearing, I am ready. Last year I filled out an obscene number of application forms in January. I thought it would be a positive way to set up an exciting year. Instead, it exhausted me, and I only became more exhausted as each application was rejected.
I am trying something different this year.
In my last letter to you I shared my wishes for 2024. Among them I wrote of home and of learning new crafts. I have begun January, and so begun the year, by putting these two wishes into action.
My home means my van, and though building in freezing temperatures is tough, taking a few hours at the time to slowly breathe life into my home at the start of the year feels powerful, and is proving productive. The overhead cupboards that have been leaning half built against the bookshelf in my bedroom are now three quarters built and almost ready to go up. Next will be the kitchen.
Building my home during frozen winter days feels like an appropriate way to use of the season and a way of readying myself for the growth and abundance that Spring and Summer will bring. Under the earth right now bulbs and shoots and roots are starting the business of getting ready, waiting for the moment to send out green shoots into the spring air. That is what my van build currently is, roots ready for abundant growth.
So that’s Home, but what of Craft.
For a long time, craft was a dirty word in the art world. The highly skilled crafts people whose arts have filled our lives with colour and beauty were considered less than fine artists. Thankfully that is changing.
Craft is something I’ve been thinking about a lot over recent months, ever since learning the basic but transformative skills of two-ply cording with nettles fibres. I am full of stinging nettle ideas, ideas for fine art built on traditional crafts. I will share these with you when they are ready to be shared.
I have also been thinking about the joy I get from the crafts I do, not for my art, but as hobbies. I have been knitting for over a decade, starting with scarves, and learning until my woolly jumpers are now epically complicated. Every Christmas Mum buys me a jumper, one that arrives as balls of yarn and a knitting pattern. And every year I joyously craft my way through until I am warm and snug.
There is evidence that knitting, and other similar crafts, have physical and emotional health benefits. They are mindfulness activities that engage our hands and our brains. I know the joy I get from them is unique in my life. While recovering from surgery this winter, I fell down a YouTube rabbit whole watching a Dress Historian named Bernadette Banner sew incredible reconstructions of Victorian and Edwardian clothing. She is brilliant to watch, her videos equal parts fascinating and mediative. They kept me company as I healed. Perhaps unsurprisingly I came out the other side with a burning desire to sew my own clothing. I wrote in my letter from London that Lauren generously helped me start this journey, guiding me through selecting my first sewing pattern and sending me back to Cornwall fully armed. Or almost fully armed.
One important item was missing, but thanks to the Boxing Day sales, I am now the proud owner of my very first sewing machine, and last weekend I began learning how to use it. I spent two day practicing seams and creating a bag. This weekend I plan to line it and make handles, then learn to sew buttonholes.
I got so much joy from the simple act of sewing two carefully cut pieces of fabric together that I beamed my way through the weekend. Crafting as winter continues on outside feels appropriately seasonal, and the impact positive impact of crafting certainly helps set one up for a positive and productive year.
I am going to keep going, and I am looking forward to writing again in two weeks, on the very last day of January, to let you know how the rest of the month has gone.
Hi Rosie, lovely thoughts and words. of course here in this side of the world we have summer storms and heat wave days, hibernation could be good here in the summer months .. haha. gosh that jumper looks amazing. xo