Dearest Friends of Needleworking!

Important note: the warmest welcome to Hive, dearest friend Hive account@marilella !! 😊 😍 👋

Ahhh, another blessed day of being alive and in love (see my Hive Soulmate post and podcast via this link)… I am sitting at the Arthouse kitchen table, amongst chaos and pompoms, beside my Love, after doing our Duolingo practises of Gaelic and Dutch – and as the sun is just silvering the sky into life…

trousers minus two mini-pompoms

I did very little sewing this week, but a good bit of repairs, buying a few interesting items from the 50c stall, packing a load of clothing for our exodus from Italy – and making two mini ponpon/ pompoms.

The mini pompoms were very good fun, though it was rather intense getting all that fluff contained into a tiny wee round shape. I make pompoms from scratch, using old cardboard from e.g. cereal boxes, to make two donut shaped circles which I want to use as the right size – putting them back to back to make one shape - wrapping wool around the shape, and then cutting between the cardboard circles with very sharp scissors.

Doing this on a small scale was fun; I made the second ponpon in the beer garden of a bar down the hill, where we had Sunday beer and ice-cream. It is fun crafting when out and about and relaxing… I really need some of that unwinding time, between bouts of intensive clearing, sorting, cleaning and throwing old things out: today we are likely to be buying a ticket for the car ferry from Rome to Barcelona!

I’m reminded even with this wee job, how vital sewing/ crafting can be for wellbeing; the calm space no matter what fabric-related situation that I’m in, as I get immersed in the sensation of the stoffe. Even mini projects with just one length of wool can be powerfully focussing and relaxing. Other repair jobs mount up amongst the drama of moving house: a burned favourite coat, which I forgot to remove from behind the stove before lighting it, Vincent’s new clothing purchases from the mercato, cutting shell buttons off of a not-so-lovely shirt...

Though this is a period of more organising than creative making, and between bouts of packing, language-learning and cooking for my man, I’m making time to sew, mend, pompom-make, so as to keep grounded and calm. It would be easy to get into a headspin with the amount of decisions that I have to make and the immense release of my time here in Guardia Sanframondi, but there are at least a couple of significant projects that I’d like to pursue, in between the chaos of leaving the Arthouse.

The two mini pompoms are for a pair of fabulous trousers that I got at the 50c stall some months back; too heavy for summer, I’ve been waiting to wear them. They were also missing just two of the decorative ponpon on the long cords which sit from the waistband. The new ones are differently coloured, which I love. It is great to make clothing new again like this, and to have the perfect ‘travelling pants’ for the big road trip coming up….

completed ponpon in place!!