unleash the power of inspiration...

                                         unleash the power of inspiration...

Thanks for reading...I hope that you enjoy the photos! 

This month I'm celebrating the return from a both a seasonal and a personal doldrum by sharing my photos of the first Spring flowers. 


Please check back next month / year to find out what my latest fascination is.

See you next month      
Fiona xxxx

Watch this space / Up-coming:  
Now that I'm able to knit - I knit yesterday  for the first time since January 22nd  - I have a series of swatches that I need to make for some up-coming classes:

River City Yarns, Edmonton 

and my own guild's Knitter's Frolic
I'm also going to be Marly Bird's guest on The Yarn Thing's Podcast on March 16th. 

On-line, On-nine
Monthly post on the 9th of each month! 
On-line, On-nine  March 9th 2017

As I walked home from my hospital appointment today I found myself at the "scene of the crime"....the spot where I fell. As I approached from the opposite direction I spotted this bill-board right next to the exact spot - it made me really laugh out loud, because I have been calling it my broken wing.

Budding Ideas!


This 9th I have a double celebration: my birthday (why I chose to post on the 9th's), and today I also got the "all mended" check from my orthopaedic surgeon - Jesse. The past 6 1/2 weeks have been a challenge for me. I fell and broke my left wrist - a break that required surgery to put a plate into my arm. The whole scenario threw me for a loop; not being able to knit meant I was limited in what work I could do and not having my usual creative outlet meant that I was so down that I almost didn't recognize myself.


Our experiences change who we are and if we're lucky and pay attention they can open us up to new thinking and ways of seeing things. 


Judging by how busy the X-ray dept at the hospital can be it turns out that it's a very Canadian thing to have a broken bone in the winter (although I fell on a completely dry non slippery day). Once you become aware of your own incapacity you start to notice other people who might need help. As I sat there I noticed that nearly everybody tried to help others, offering a good hand or mobility when needed. We can all learn to pay more attention to the needs of others. Of course a broken limb is visible to all, and not everybody's limitations are so obvious. So I'm going to try really hard to carry this lesson with me as I regain my abilities. 


As I tried to "keep my chin up" I would remind myself that others had many more difficulties than I. But then as a wise woman said to me early in my healing, I am allowed to feel both sorry for myself and sympathy for others...and both can exist in the same continuum. I realized that sympathy, like creativity, isn't like a pie that needs to be divided up, and if it's all been served there is nothing left for others. No...it seems to expand to encompass more and more as you share it.  Now if we could do that with pie too wouldn't that be great?



Following on from the trend spotting that I spoke about last month. Travel to out of the norm places has the ability to encourage us to seek out new books, music, recipes, and traditions and maybe even philosophy following our trips - a much nicer experience (than a broken wrist) that indeed opens us up to new  ways of seeing. A friend who is a general manager for a restaurant had mentioned to me early in January that if we watch where people are traveling, we get an insight into potential trends in foods they may wish to eat on their return.  This of course also applies to aesthetic sensibilities and cultural influences as we become attuned to new ideas. Our current looking towards the Scandic and northern nations (Iceland) is a case in point. 


As I said I have been so unlike myself. I tried hard to be creative but nothing seemed to come. I didn't even sketch - it was like I had to be quiet and still (early on for physical reasons too). I did however keep trying to "fill the well"; reading mostly, some movies and of course the Art Deco lecture series (see last month's post). The one thing that I was able to do easily and brought me the most joy was chatting with friends. This has served as a big reminder of how many wonderful friends that I have. Then, in the last 10 days or so, it occurred to me that maybe it was supposed to be a fallow period, like winter. My ideas needed to be dormant for a while and then just as we see those brave, tender, little green shoots begin to push through the frozen earth my ideas would once again spring to life (and hopefully bare fruit).


As my own personal sprouts, I feel the early stirrings of some ideas that draw from these Nordic inspired trends; pared down beauty, rugged landscapes and gentle quiet ways of looking at the world. I feel an urge to blend these with ideas that I was exploring last year, namley the technique of dropped and laddered stitches: Adelaide & Spadina and Reticella and a brand new design for Sweet Georgia Yarns which will be launched next week (14th).

I'm really hoping that my fallow period will bring much blossoming.​