How is your New Year shaping up so far? I know – we’re only 3 weeks into 2023, but for our family, if the first 21 days is anything to go by, it’s going to be a wild ride, in a good way, I hope!

2022 finished off with some little hurdles but on January 3rd, a new life came into the Brown family and little Tyler joined us!! Isn’t it funny that even at such a young age they can have a resemblance to other family members? Or is that just the doting Nonni’s imagination?? I think that little Tyler is the spitting image of his dad Chris at the same age, but maybe new babies all look the same!!!

We were in the UK for the event and were able to help out with house- and dog-sitting/walking when an unexpected turn (literally and physically by the baby) meant an emergency C-section was required, but mother and baby got through it well and were home just two days later.

It was so lovely to have some quality time with them all and also to see friends and relatives from the UK. It was fun to stay on a canal boat for a week before the birth – surprisingly warm – thanks to our previous neighbours and then to stay with three other sets of friends which allowed Chris and Sammy to have their own space to get used to their new addition! True friends just start from where we left off, don’t they? And even though one to six years had passed since we had seen them, it was like we had only been together yesterday! A wonderful time of catching up and reminiscences – and a couple of pub lunches!!

Some things continue as before – Woven Optical Illusions is still on the way!! Katharina and I want to produce the best book possible for everyone, so we are ensuring that we take the time, rewriting where we feel it’s necessary, and we’ll get it out to you when it is ready. I would love to be more specific, but we all know how life just seems to happen and temporarily steer us off-course, so I will just say that we are working hard to bring it to you just as soon as we can!

There’s just one other thing I wanted to mention in this blog post. Inspiration for weaving can come from absolutely anywhere – a book, an artwork, a song, another discipline. Being open to sudden insights from the medical field, or architecture, or sea-life, or a science article, can open up how we think about our wonderful world of weaving. As the current weave editor for the Journal of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers, I am in a privileged position to hear about lots of interesting approaches, and bring them to the Journal’s readership. But outside of that, I also get approached about all sorts of projects, some of which are really left-field. Even during our short trip to the UK, one of our hosts in the music industry had an idea which he showed me in musical terms which led to lots of interesting ideas. I have no idea whether these will lead to anything, but isn’t it fun and mind-expanding to think about, nonetheless?

So please let me wish you lots of whacky ideas, synchronicities and wild flights of imagination in your weaving world for 2023! Who knows where those ideas could take you!!

Happy Weaving!!

(Photo – ‘That’s my Daddy!’)