About

We are a small group of creative friends based in Edmonton, Alberta, who love to create both alone and together, a sort of informal sewing circle (except we do more than sew!). We are busy designing a new website and Etsy store so that we can showcase and sell some of what we do.

Linne is the site admin. She is often heard muttering “My inner geek is a Luddite!” because her dream cottage would have a hand pump at the kitchen sink, a cast iron and nickel cookstove and oil lamps for lighting. Of course, there would be a nice workroom and office with all the mod cons; after all, how would she update the website or store (or blog) without power? Linne learned many of her skills from her mother, who started her on hand-sewing at the tender age of two, adding knitting, crochet and embroidery by the time she turned ten. Linne loves all things fibre and fabric and hopes to do more weaving in future. She is particularly inspired by colour, pattern and shape, whether she is painting, writing or working with her hands. She has more interests than there is space to describe, but those may be mentioned here and there along the way . . .

Information about the rest of the ladies will be added as they wish.

57 thoughts on “About

  1. Thanks, again for visiting my blog. It is appreciated. I like how crafty and ambitious you and your friends are.

    • Thanks, Cheryl. Sorry this is so late; life, as usual, is a bit crazy here. I’d love to see craftiness become common again; I worry about the old skills and trades being lost forever . . . but I also love carrying on traditions and feeling connected to my Mum, grandmothers and women in general going back through the ages. It feels good.

      • No worries! 🙂 I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy life to read my blog. Keep those wonderful traditions going. 🙂

      • Thanks, Cheryl! Reading the news from my online friends keeps me going . . . and sane! For me the most important thing is the elders in my family, for now, anyway. In the meantime, I can adapt to everything else. It helps to have a sort of inner priority list, at least, it helps me . . . I do really love traditions, though, and we have few enough of them these days.

    • Hi, Pauline! Yes, I’ll be happy to, but not sure exactly when; tomorrow or the day after, I think. I had library day today, so not much time for the computer. Sounds like fun. I began reading your post; realized you’d answered; decided not to read further ’til I answer for myself. Thanks, though. ~ L

      • Hi, I’m Tom from TechnoTeamBlog. Are you ok with the current questions for the challenge or do you want some updated questions for the challenge?

        Thanks,
        Tom

      • Tom, thanks a lot. Since I accidently read the first of Pauline’s questions, I’d love new ones, please and thank you. I think I’ll do the post and nominations first, then answer in a day or two, as my time permits. Hope that works for you . . . be prepared for a few laughs, though . . .

      • Yeah. I’ll look out for a post on the challenge here on your blog.

        I’ll post the new questions here when they’re finished.

        Enjoy Blogging,
        Tom

      • That’s great, thanks. Hopefully this challenge by Will will go across the WordPress community eventually!

        We’ll send you your score badge to put on your blog soon and Will will tell you how many questions you answered correctly soon as well.

        Thanks again,
        Tom

      • Thanks, Tom. No worries. I doubt I was right too often. But it was fun, anyway. Hope I gave you a chuckle or two. My youngest sister is a real techie; started out programming with punch cards, then build computers, then taught classes on using them, then moved into custom programming, which she still does. I could, but it ain’t gonna happen . . . I like using computers, when they work (otherwise I’m a confirmed Luddite LOL). No hope for some people, eh?

        Thanks for the invite, though. And yes, it would be nice if it went WP viral . . . hope you create some more of these. It’s one way to get informed, anyway. ~ Linne

      • Hi Linne! Here are the new questions:
        1. What is Google and Yahoo?
        2. What company is Tim Cook currently the CEO of?
        3. What’s the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?
        4. Is Google Chrome a web browser?
        5. What does RAM stand for with computers?
        6. WWW is an abbreviation of what?
        7. Is CPU and a processor the same thing?
        8. What technology company is Bill Gates currently the chairman of?
        9. Who designs the PlayStation range of gaming consoles?
        10. Who designs the Lumia range of smartphones?

        Some of the questions have yes or no answers and some don’t.

        Enjoy Blogging and taking part in The Computing Challenge!

      • I just figured out why I couldn’t find this on my blog – WP marked it as ‘spam’. Oh, well . . . I found a way around anyway (my usual approach). Now it’s approved. Thanks again, Tom (and Will).

    • Nice to see you here, Miss M. That Boomdee is great, isn’t she? I just loved your story of helping out at the market. How nice of her to give you the apron you wore, too. A lovely memento. ~ Linne

    • Jean, I was so delighted to find yours! We have so many things in common, I ws quite excited; The last job I had was as admin to a non-profit that works in the social work field. There were counsellors upstairs and several different departments downstairs. Family Support; Roots and Wings; where I worked as one of the admins was with social workers who work closely with the provincial Child and Family Services. I believe in bridge building, too, in the figurative sense . . . I suspect that Harmony is quite high on the list of my strengths.

      I have been fascinated by Ireland all my life and follow a coupld of bloggers from there. Just now I was listening to “Eirinn” by Runrig (a fantastic Scottish band, if you’re not aware of them; 40 years this year and still going strong). So it was nice to move from that to your comment. Thanks for dropping by. ~ Linne

    • Another Edmontonian! Ellen with the ESL blog is from here, too. How nice!! I don’t have very mmuch skill, honestly, but I make up for that with a multitude of crazy interests and a willingness to jump off high cliffs of ignorance; I always assume I’ll figure things out on the way down . . . Nice to see you here. I’ve been over at your blog a couple of times, as some of my readers follow you. Now I’ve joined them. ~ Linne

  2. It is nice that you have a group of friends to work with – this was always a dream of mine, it just did not eventuate, so I have my blogging friends instead 🙂 Your knitting is impressive. I can do stocking stitch and cable stitch and maybe some minor variations and that’s it. Something like you have done on your latest post would leave me in a sweating tangle.

    • Hi, Pauline; thanks for dropping by. I have one couple who both craft that are near enough to visit, but I’ve only seen them three times this year due to my family situation. Another friend is now living with her husband on land well out of the city; her knitting is awesome! I haven’t seen her for two years now. I, too, had hoped for more of a crafting circle; maybe when I’m done here and go back to BC. But, for now, the virtual village meets most of my needs and I’ve found some good, supportive friendships here.

      Haven’t had time to check out your store yet, but soon. Seeing you take the plunge has re-lit my hope to follow suit.

      The current cardi has its errors, like a couple of dropped stitches I will fix later. Really, I’m an average knitter with oversized dreams 😉

      Fair Isle style is much easier than it looks. If you can do knit stitch and count, you can do stranded knitting. I recommend beginning with something easy like my bag first, though. And I highly recommend the motif book I’m using. I’m going to buy a copy so I can give this back to the library lol.

      Anyway, I’d best post this. Be back soon . . . ~ Linne

  3. Oh how I wish I had a group of creative souls living near by( long sigh…)That is so neat. Before I had kids, ( many years ago-lol) I was a Modern Dancer and had friends locally that we would work on various projects in the performing arts. As the years rolled by we got busy with having our families and every once in a while we get together for coffee…the bodies may not work so well,but our “creative” souls still connect–I will be visiting often to see what your group is creating:-)

  4. Pingback: Friday Faves, May 24 | Living Simply Free

  5. Hi!
    This is a beautiful blog, well done for everything, your creations are gorgeous!!
    Good luck with everything,
    Wawawr xx

  6. Hmm.. I never heard of a Luddite before. How very interesting. I love the way History is filled with Humans just like us except in a different time. Thanks for sparking an interest in Luddism!

    • I had to smile at this. I have an interest in peoples such as the Luddites, Amish, etc. But the quote came when I heard someone on a radio show talking about his ‘inner geek’. Immediately, the thought sprang to my mind “My Inner Geek is a Luddite!” I love my computer (when all works well!!) but I also love living without power, running water and with a woodstove. Don’t know if I’ll get to do that again, but I sure hope so. But there will always be a room for the high-tech stuff, too. I’ve noticed that about myself; I always seem to have two opposing interests or preferences; I love both Japanese Zen sparseness and Victorian clutter (I lean more toward the clutter in everyday life, though LOL). I like edginess in some music, but not in all of it. Books are the same, too. Well, I’d best stop here. It’s getting late again and that’s when I ramble on and on . . . ~ Linne

  7. No matter how it works out, I’d love to hear about it, Narf! Problem-solving is one of my high strengths, so I can always put on the old thinking cap and see what happens . . . and if you care to spoil Earl’s fun, try putting your ball of yarn in a clean bleach bottle or the like (first you have to cut a hole out of the upper part of the side, just big enough so you can put the yarn in). Feed the end of the yarn through the mouth of the bottle and cast on! If you are using several colours at once (Fair Isle, mixed strands, whatever . . .) put each ball into its own bottle. I’ve seen 2 litre bottles used for this, too, but I like the larger ones as they generally have more stability. I was thinking, too, that one could use a 2.5 gallon bucket with a hole or two in the lid for the yarn to thread through.

    By the way, as FLYlady says: Progress, not Perfection! I’m a big perfectionist, too, which has led to things like owning many (and I mean MANY!) lovely journals, nearly all of which I have not written in, ’cause while my handwriting is fairly even and all, it’s not nearly as lovely as my Mum’s and as I LOVE paper and books and blank books, I hesitate to mar the treasures.

    I suspect this is one reason behind my not finishing so many of my projects, too; most of the criticism is received once an item is finished; therefore . . . don’t finish and there will be no criticism (well, the criticism will turn its focus to the fault of ‘not finishing anything you start’ LOL). But mostly it’s that I just plain LOVE starting new things. Wish I could just store all those UFOs and then come back as a ‘finisher’ who inherits the stash . . .

    A last thought (for now): when you try larger needles, I recommend making a sample maybe 3 or 4 inches wide; knit (stocking stitch is good for this) a couple of inches, then switch to another size. Repeat until you find the size that works best for your hands. Then go for it. You may end up needing to make a smaller size of whatever it is, too. Go by your gauge. ~ Linne

  8. You talented girl you! I am a half doer when it comes to working with my hands. I get extremely frustrated by my hands need to work with extreme tension. My grandmother was frustrated beyond belief by my weird way of knitting and crochet till she read up about German crochet and realised that my familial heritage (from way back) must have led me to naturally work the needle like that. I love to crochet more than knit because it only involves 1 needle and the dog can’t steal it easily. Aside from that Earl does his BEST to help me when I crochet by keeping the tension on the wool (usually by grabbing the ball and running at full speed across the room till the tension increases enough to make electrical wire out of it…sigh…). I would love to be able to make things by sewing them and my eldest daughter has taught herself to sew and is amazing. I…suck :(. I guess we can’t do EVERYTHING but in my case, I can’t do a lot when it comes to being able to get down and creative with my hands and with fabric. I bow to your creativity and thank you from the bottom of my little aging hippy heart for heading over to Serendipity Farm and becoming one of the madding crowd 🙂

    • One way I’ve found to ease tension when a person knits/crochets very tightly is to use a hook/needles that are a bit bigger. Try one size up and do a sample; then you can see if a half size is enough or if you need to go even bigger. One thing that does is make sure your work comes out the size it should be.

      As to sewing, I’m much better at it when I do handstitching, but that’s pretty slow; I’m a slow person most of the time anyway. I love handstitching! You have control at every stitch, unlike the blessed machines, which can just ‘run away’ and leave you looking at a very crooked seam . . .

      • I agree Linne…slow is best for me but Earl doesn’t agree…he is like Steve…his idea of fun is FAST and that involves suruptitiously sneaking up (ootching along the floor works well) on me when I am concentrating. I am not a normal female…I have to concentrate hard on one task at a time and he knows it! He waits till I have been lulled into a false sense of security and he is close enough and then he strikes like a puff adder! I am OK at hand sewing and as someone who loves things to look “perfect” I guess it can hamper you more than you know ;). Oh well, at least I might get to knit something that doesn’t resemble an elasticated sock if I upsize my needles? Consider it done! I will post about it if it works… if it doesn’t, it will be our little secret 😉

    • I don’t believe that we can’t do EVERYTHING, NARF, evidence to the contrary . . . as to sewing, have you tried handstitching? It’s fun and a great way to relax with mindless tv or, even better, radio. I’d recommend small projects ’til you see if you like it (don’t ask if I began with small projects . . .) The two pillow tops I posted about recently were done by hand while visiting with my Aunty. I still haven’t ironed them; been busy and out of here, but in a day or two . . .

      I was pretty inspired by Homesteading On a One Dollar Dream; and the house . . . what a great deal!

      as to Serendipity, well, more people with kindred spirits. The world needs all it can get, IMHO. (well, not so H!!) I’m beginning to see us all as bits of yeast, scattered throughout the world, each providing a bit of much-needed ‘leavening’ wherever we are.

      Narf, you have as much creativity as I do; it may show up differently, that’s all.

      . . . and all of you have to quit with the ‘aging’ before I find myself confined to that rocking chair by the fire (on the other hand, if you promise to bring me books, yarn, thread and treats, I may move in and stay there . . . as they say “be afraid . . . be VERY afraid!” LOL

      I DO love this ‘madding crowd’ that I find myself a happy part of . . . lovely to be included. It’s a treat to listen in on your conversations with your friends (and that feels ok, ’cause, after all, you DO post them on the ‘net!) I love to learn and I am learning much from following the blogs that I read. What a range of people with similar hearts and minds! This is the ‘family we choose’, isn’t it?

      • Mi casa su casa Linne 🙂 Darned right about the family you choose…online we can be whoever we like. We can talk directly to people’s minds without the song and dance involved with meeting, judging, preconceived ideas etc. That’s how I met my husband. Online, without the physical bit ;). Social media has really made a difference to us all and people who are shy, elderly, disabled etc. are all on a level playing field and its only the purity (or not!) of our minds that are reflected here in the ether. My conversations are open and out there and anyone floating around who wants to drop by for a cuppa, a chat and a chocolate biscuit (or a bit of chocolate sourdough cake 😉 ) is perfectly welcome. If you drop by my REAL house, it might or might not be messy, it might or might not smell like dogs and be covered in dog hair (despite my determination for it not to be…) the carfully constructed world online is usually completely unrepresentitive of what happens in the recesses of your computer monitor and thats good, because like one of my favourite authors would say…”We all float down here!” ;). I love meeting minds. I love knowledge and information and sharing and possibilities and I love the way that people interact when they can hide behind a persona. Not “dishonest” per-se, but visceral and somehow more really “you”. I didn’t think I would meet as many like minded people here either, but I have and continue to do so :). By the way, I am not being disparaging towards myself about crafts…I have a “failed crafts cupboard” of great depth and bredth (however you spell it 😉 ) and my adult children enjoy the fact that I don’t know EVERYTHING ;). Feel free to hover around Serendipity Farm as much as you like 🙂 I just forgot to hang the washing out and its 6.40pm! I also have to post todays post so I had best get a wriggle on 🙂

Thanks for stopping by my blog! I look forward to reading your comments. ~ Linne