New Skills

Hi tvman,

Well done on deciding on a new skill. The willow weaving sounds good and will be useful for your garden. I saw your bird feeder on the other thread but didn't realise you'd made it yourself. I'm impressed.

Below is a photo of the cross stitch design that I am doing. It's not a new skill but I want to get it finished. It has been ongoing for years, I started it in my other house before we moved and I've been in this house 16 years!

A new skill I recently learnt is crochet. I can only do one type of stitch so far though. It is my aim to teach myself from a book but the cross stitch must be done first. I'm currently well but not sure how long it will last or whether chemo will work again. I feel like I'm on a time limit but don't know the kaput date!

A x

This is my progress so far, quite a bit to go!

A x

Hi Tvman, The peanut holder is fantastic. I look forward to seeing your beautiful baskets. I think you could turn your hand to anything and it will look as if you are a professional!

Hi Sistermoon, It is going to be amazing when you finish it.

Just after I got m do, I decided to do a Cross Stitch for our granddaughter's room. It was quite big and as I love the seaside, I did a seaside picture with a lighthouse. I worked morning noon and night to get it finished within 6 months (prognosis 5-7 months). All of a sudden, I was passed my sell by date and our son's wife was expecting her first baby. The beauty of the seaside is it does for a girl or boys room. Head down work work! Lo and behold the following year I was still here and our daughter was expecting her second baby! Thankfully, I found a third seaside cross stitch.

They are all hanging in the children's rooms. 1 boy and 2 girls. I finished the last one-------can you believe almost 7 years ago!!!

You go for it! Please post a photo when you have finished it!!

Hi Annette,

The seaside pictures sound lovely. Cross stitch is its own kind of mindfulness, I think. I will post when it's done, who knows when that will be but I'm going to make the effort to finish it.

A x

Hi Sistermoom, they are really good, my spouse used to do cross stitch for year's till her eyes packed in, so I know what I'm talking about when I say Fabulous.

Hi Annette, you could put a photo of one on here, l like the seaside, it would be a real treat 

That would be nice. We need some photos of tvman s willow baskets as well. 

Sorry, I feel like I've hijacked your thread,

A x

What a lovely topic for dicussion, thanks for starting it, Tvman! And it's lovely to hear about and see everyone's creativity! 

So my new skills are not new new skills but I have recently taken them up again :-)

The picture on the left is the large thick woolen blanket which I am knitting. The front, already complete is granny squares in a variety of stitches and the reverse is little squares in a double rib. I'm making it up as I go along as I don't want to have hundreds of squares to stitch together at the end. And I thought you all might like to see a dog in the picture.

The next picture is of my hammered dulcimer. I was in a really low place before Christmas, thinking I hadn't long to live and was giving up work and what is the point of living, why not just cut to the chase? Obviously it's unbearable to think like that for long. So I went to the doc and got an extra little dose of an antidepressant which cheered me up and calmed down my raging hot flushes and helped me to sleep. Then I had an idea....music. I used to play traditional dance music year ago, but then Life happened and among other things I became too busy, so I stopped playing. I realised now that I needed a hobby, as all I was doing was cancer and daily chores. And what better than music, music for the joy of it, music for the moment. It's a place I find eternity in the moment, where emotions flow without the need of words or thoughts. I've rejoined the music club I used to belong to which is nice as they have zoom sessions which are easy to join in with even when I am tired. I am relearning to play easy tunes slowly, which is an excellent discipline.

A hammered dulcimer is an ancient musical instrument and has been known since biblical times in the Middle East, as well as there being a Far Eastern tradition. They are played across the world and there is a strong Middle and Eastern Europe tradition, along with the closely related Cymbalom. Think of a Hammered Dulcimer like the ancestor of the piano. If you strip away all the coverings and the mechanicals of a piano, what you are left with inside a piano or a dulcimer is a steel frame with wires strung across it. Each wire is a different length and plays a different note when struck with the hammers. The difference is that with a dulcimer you hold the hammers in your hands to play. The sound is a little like a cross between a piano and a harpsichord.

I am getting a lot of joy from my little music hobby. I am trying to learn to aim not to play difficult or sophisticated tunes but just to play in a simple way. This is a new way of being for a person like me who has always tried to excel (and succeeded and failed in equal measure). My illness and music are teaching me that aiming to excel may no longer be realistic, but getting joy from doing something still is.