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the brilliance of a warm jewel only dawned on me when i moved from sunny australia to the north of england. I started to notice a different kind of body adornment being used by some locals...not cold metal chains and sparkling gems, but lovely items made of felt, fibre and wood. How wonderful! Ah ha I thought! Warms Jewels! what a sensible art. So I have decided to investigate this concept and learn to make felt and design a few warm jewels for myself. This follows on from my earlier decision to learn to knit, because 1) I was moving to a cold country with long dark winters not conducive to outdoor activites, and 2) i was pregnant and felt i would be more likely to actually knit something if it was very small in size.

So, I started by knitting a scarf. For a baby. Have you ever seen a baby wearing a scarf? No, me either and my baby, now 11.5 months has yet to wear the scarf, although i did try it on her a few days ago, and it looked pretty good, and she didnt try to pull it off or strangle herself.

Then I made a blanket, of 56 squares, which then had to be sewn together. Big mistake, I managed to sew them into strips, and when my mum came over to visit the newborn babe i begged her to sew the strips together. She took pity on me but did a really rough job and managed to make the back of the blanket look like the Wrong Side. In my opinion a blanket shouldnt really have a Wrong Side. Anyway, then she embroidered some pink flowers on it. Again, there is a Right and a Wrong Side to embroidery. I love the blanket, but am constantly irriated by the Wrong Side. I have been trying to figure out a good way to put a backing on it so it looks like it has two Right Sides, and Very Nice Neat Edges. The Nice Neat Edges are providing the stumbling block.

Anyway. Then I knitted a jumper. Which I was fairly happy with, except, again, my sewing up could have been better. Popsy was good enough to smile when i put it on her.





It was about this time when my mother in law came to live with us. A knitter from way back, who had gone into retirement and thrown away all her kit. But at 81, and a first time grandmother, she got inspired. So I have since then promoted myself to knitting foreman, in control of wool and pattern purchasing and giving directions on the shop floor.

Interestingly this development is actually freeing me to focus again on my main goal, and the real subject of this blog. Warm jewels.