This is one of those books that you read then carry around with you everywhere. You do the exercises, then do them again you get inspired, get ideas…get all the creative juices going.

Finding Your Own Visual Language is a magnificent book. After reading this book and other similar ones this week I’ve learnt four valuable things.

1. Don’t TRY to be original.
2. Accept that some work will have a lot of time and effort put into it but still may not work.
3. Einstein said "in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity".
4. Creative block may just be an important, if not essential, aspect of the creative process. Work with it.

This design book is created by Committed to Cloth artists Leslie Morgan and Claire Benn and Art Cloth Studio artist Jane Dunnewold. Its raison d’etre stems from textiles. Although it illustrates quilting, printed cloth and tapestry weaving more directly it will give huge inspiration to all other weave textile artists too. It’s about getting ideas going, continuing to work and relating those ideas or even just concepts to your practice.

Sixteen very easy to approach visual exercises form the ‘Getting Started’ section of the book to set the maker on a path of artistic and personal discovery. The exercises allow any type of imagery but provides practical ways of breaking down those fixed ideas that lock our brains down and make us unable to continue. These are followed by how to ‘move forward’, examine your progress then going deeper into finding your own visual style or language. I’d give this book 11 out of 10. (I’m not one to reserve the best mark for something else that may come along!- life is short.)

The book is beautifully presented, with illustration and lovely paper and has a spiral binding. I usually don’t like spiral bindings, although I always appreciate the way they lay open so flat, but this one is enclosed within the cover which is neater and more durable.

Look what arrived in the mail. A hand dyed merino/silk sliver from Ewe Give Me The Knits Top Paddock Blends Fibre Club. I signed up with this club as a way of receiving three different hand dyed fibre packs over three months. Mandie also has a blog and sells rovings on her EGMTK site. The club is a great way of getting a variety of fine fibres in beautiful colours – like a lucky dip for spinners.

The other big news is the release of Weavezine,an online zine aimed at weavers but including knitting dyeing and I suspect every other skill that delights us.The inaugral issue is wonderful. Syne Mitchell from WeaveCast is the editior and publisher.

Yes, still knitting in some form. In fact I think I’m using knitting as a studio avoidance measure. These are the smallest socks I can knit from Sensational Knitted Socks.
The pattern is easy enough to remember which I like and they are always handy for gifts

I really wanted to give them to my 18 month nephew, but do you think that a mother would be offended by a lace like pattern for a boy? I just think it’s such a shame that generally boys aren’t allowed to have beauty around them. No flowers, curves, lace or nature. Can this be right? Perhaps Australia is a special case. Perhaps my idea of beauty is delusional. Or am I determined that my nephew will be an artist, poet, musician, textile designer or a coder writing elegant code- am I forcing my ideas of a noble life on him. I hope so!

Here are the finished chenille scarves from Syne Mitchells’s shared warp. They were quite quick to weave up; the fringing seemed to take much longer. I use a 2/20 cotton for the weft to try and make them drapey and light. But plain weave never drapes as well as twill.

Yesterday became Sorry Day for Australia. The parliament of Australia made a formal apology and expressed remorse and sorrow, for the policy of removing children from families – the Stolen Generations.

Significantly, Taree TAFE college marked the occasion for all of us to remember and release the burden of what has happened. Many Indigenous people have suffered and are still suffering from the result of these policies in our community.

Although symbolic in principle, a recognition and acknowledgment of this great suffering for so many people somehow signals a new beginning of moving forward in a way that makes the path clearer and more positive.

Here I’ve been making aprons again, this time for my mother. She gets cupcakes in brights.

I didn’t leave my husband out either and you can see here that he actually wore it for a BBQ. It had the appropriate racing cars on it. Of course they were the wrong type of cars of interest as they all look the same to me…I don’t think I’d have any luck finding drag cars on fabric, it’s just too specialised.

Like many of us I’m always surfing the net looking for weaving eye candy. Thanks to Fibrescape I found this wonderful link to weaving classes at Penland School of Crafts. The dyeing of the yarns made a great difference to the woven textiles for these weavers. Colour just makes everything more exciting especially for beginners.

The Exhibition opening arrives…and Threadbare even has its own titled wallspace in a nice font. I enjoyed the opening and was happy with how my work was presented and how it fitted in with the other artists.My husband, great friends and daughter came along so I was very happy. After such alot of weaving its nice to be reminded that it can culminate in a rewarding way, sharing the textile art I love.

Other artists are Ainsley Hillard, Marli Popple, Jennifer Robertson, Julie Ryder, Donna Sgro and Anne Willsford. Threadbare continues until 9 March at the Manning Regional Gallery, Taree, NSW.

I rarely see print designs which relate to knitting, weaving and other textile techniques, but this pattern really got me thinking. This design was used for the endpapers of Margaret Atwood’s book The
Penelopiad by Nina Chakrabarti. (not sure which edition)

The design captures the rhythm of ‘winding’. Something all textile arts have in common in some way. The winding can be soothing and meditative but sometimes it seems rushed, urgent and overwhelming.

I decided to research spindles as my theme as they are such delightful tools. There are so many different types and designs. Drop, Turkish, Navajo, supported, etc, etc. Ancient whorl designs are a subject in themselves.

I’ve designed a little birthday wish for everyone…whenever.