I knit the following sachets for little gift bags this year. They're only grainy images from my phone camera, but at the moment it is the only camera I have...

The cream one is to hold a small piece of handmade stained glass for a friend of mine.

The gray one is the front of a largish sachet that would -- at a stretch -- hold a CD I think. I'm using it for gourmet tea bags. I think this would make a nice block for an afghan or something, provided all that sewing together wasn't off-putting!

I'll upload patterns in a separate post, once I figure out what I did (I never write down patterns as I'm creating them "laughs")!

(Questions snagged from Faye L. Booth)

And I feel a bit presumptuous answering these, because as of yet I don't even consider myself a writer! Hmmm, let's see, over the last 22 years. Articles published in the Komondor Club magazine in the US, in the Komondor Club of Great Britain in the UK, in the Blessed Bee magazine in the US, in Knitting World magazine in the UK, several articles sold to and published in Prediction Magazine in the UK, many classes written for different online schools and newsletters, and three CD's have been produced by Fylde Folk of my songs. (You'll notice that none of this is fiction!) So you guys tell me, am I a writer?

1. Are you a “pantser” or a “plotter?” Plotter. Typical Virgoan anal-retentiveness. Have to have it all mapped out in my head before fingers even touch keyboard. Oh, sure, I'll weave and dive and bring in new bits on impulse, but the whole story, complete with chunks of dialogue, is already in my head before I even start.

2. Detailed character sketches or “their character will be revealed to me as I write”? Both. The main players are so detailed they are already alive in my mind. They'll show me their personality nuances as I give them voice, and new characters will pop up as my main characters develop, but my main characters are nearly always good friends of mine by the time I start to write.

3. Do you know your characters’ goals, motivations, and conflicts before you start writing or is that something else you discover only after you start writing? Usually I know them. Intimately. But sometimes someone will develop a quirk I didn't see coming.

4. Books on plotting – useful or harmful? I can't say as I've ever used one. I tend to find an author whose style I appreciate, then use their methods as an outline for my own.

5. Are you a procrastinator or does the itch to write keep at you until you sit down and work? I keep putting off writing fiction because I'm frightened I'll fail. When writing articles or classes, once I start writing, I'm in a world of my own until I stop. I guess I itch until I have this unbearable desire to scratch, and then I scratch and scratch and scratch til the itch is gone.

6. Do you write in short bursts of creative energy, or can you sit down and write for hours at a time? Once I start writing, I tend to keep writing. I have to remind myself to drink, take a break from the chair so I don't get back ache, to eat. When it flows, I can write and write and write some more. When it's not flowing -- well, we won't go there (smirk).

7. Are you a morning or afternoon writer? I'm an 'oh-my-gods-I-need-to-write-this-now' writer. I've been known to get an idea for a class and jump out of bed at 1am to start writing.

8. Do you write with music/the noise of children/in a cafe or other public setting, or do you need complete silence to concentrate? It doesn't matter. As long as no one is talking directly to me, where my attention has to be diverted from my writing so that I can answer them, I'm good. I just go into my own little world...

9. Computer or longhand? (Or typewriter?) I balked and balked at writing directly into the computer; now I do it that way most of the time. I'll do outlines, brainstorming, and that kind of thing in front of the telly, but the actual writing goes right into the computer and then is immediately saved to a storage device, even if it is only Google documents. I lost 6 classes that were in progress, and the start of the very first piece of fiction I ever tried to write when a computer crashed about 3 years ago. N-e-v-e-r again.

10. Do you know the ending before you type Chapter One? Usually. Most of my ideas for fiction start with a great ending, then I work backwards.

11. Does what’s selling in the market influence how and what you write? I can't comment really, because I'm so embryonic at doing this. Current trends do influence what I submit to knitting pattern magazines and new age publications. One of the reason I am girding my loins to write a bit of fiction is I've heard that 'crossover' stories are gaining popularity, and most of what I an inspired to write is metaphysical fiction, as opposed to science fiction or fantasy.

12. Editing – love it or hate it? Not really experienced enough to comment, although I do remember having to edit one of my classes something like seven times before it was finally in a fit state to upload. That was NOT fun.

Bonus questions: (snagged from a post by rebekah1213 )

13. Why do you want to write? I've always written. In 8th grade we had to keep a journal as part of the class assignment. I still have that journal, and I have been adding to it for nearly 40 years. Sometimes I write several times a day. Sometimes I write every couple of years. But I still have the journal. In it are ideas for stories, poems, sketches, tears, laughter... And I've always told stories. I was taught to read the Tarot by telling stories. I told stories to the neighborhood kids when I babysat. I told stories around the campfires at the feet of my Medicine Elders. I told stories in the tent villages at folk festivals I worked. It comes natural to 'tell' stories; I want to see if it comes natural to 'write' stories.

14. Do you want to publish your work? Why? For my non-fiction that is easy. I want to share what I have learned. Too many of my elders have died and taken their knowledge to their grave. I'd like to put what I have learned 'out there', just in case anyone might need to use it one day. But fiction? I don't even know that I want to publish it. I just want to be good at it.

15. Do like to write alone or do you like to work with other? Alone, alone, alone. While I'm writing, it is MY world. I'll share it with you when I'm finished. Unless, of course, I invite a guest to write a lesson in a class. That's different than in a piece of fiction, I think.

As I was making the bed the other night, the hem ripped off the side of one of the flannel sheets. I'd bought these sheets at a yard sale for $2 about 5 years ago; they didn't owe me anything.

"Don't worry about it," I commented to Homer, "When we next change the bedding I'll just throw these away. We have plenty of others."

Now, what does that have to do with quilting, you might wonder. Well, let me change tracks here.

I  have a friend who is obsessed with quilting. She has these computerized sewing machines that she programs, and they embroider and sew while she runs the sweeper. She has this contraption on which she places the sandwich of quilt top, wadding, and quilt bottom, and it does all the intricate quilting patterns while she watches a movie.

She loves to quilt.

She collects the fabrics that the manufacturers produce, and follows their kit patterns, and gathers with others who do the same thing.

And the whole thing confuses me.

See, I have a 96 year old cousin (yes, really) who still quilts by hand. Her dining room table is a quilt frame with a piece of plywood on it. She pieces everything together by hand, she quilts the tops to the bottoms by hand.

She loves to quilt.

And I've seen the PBS documentary The Quiltmakers of Gee's Bend, and been fascinated by the story of these resourceful and strong women.

They loved to quilt.

However, they didn't have Thimbleberries or Mary Maxim or Alexander Henry. If they did, I'm pretty sure they could never have afforded the price of these fabrics! They had resources, and determination, and wisdom, and soul.

So what does this have to do with my torn bed sheet?

Well, there is a lot of talk about scarcity these days. Scarcity and shortage. My torn bed sheet took my thoughts to when I lived on the farm. My mother-in-law would take a torn double bed sheet, remove the torn bits, turn the weak sides to the outside and the strong sides to the inside, and make a single bed sheet. When that got worn, She would keep the good pieces for mending and use the worn pieces as rags. When she made a quilt -- usually from my father-in-law's old work shirts -- she would use two layers of the old sheeting scraps for the wadding, and the larger pieces of old sheeting for the backing.

She loved to quilt.

My mother-in-law was also very good at reusing sweaters. She would knit a sweater, and when the cuffs and elbows went, she would unpick it all, and knit the good yarn into a vest. When that got worn, she would unpick that, add some other reclaimed yarn, and make a different vest, or an afghan, or gloves and hats and scarves.

Most of us take so very much for granted these days. Rip the sheet? Never mind. Throw it away. I've got another one here somewhere. Yet there is still good fabric in that sheet! It can be used for a myriad of things!

I still maintain that if we have enough to throw away, there is no shortage...   although I know many will disagree with me. 

I've had more peppers than ever in my garden this year. I've eaten, given, frozen, and canned, and I still have peppers. And zucchini and kale. The Brussels sprouts are taking over the homestead at the moment. This is not a shortage.

When the local thrift stores have signs outside saying that they are no longer accepting goods in large quantities, this is not a shortage.

It makes me wonder if we have been presented with the illusion of shortage, in order to get us back to being the strong and resourceful people we're supposed to be -- although I'm sure many will disagree with that, too. That's fine. You're allowed your opinion. I'm allowed mine.

And that bedsheet? Cut up for the wadding for one of the "kiss-me-quilts" that ysabetwordsmith  and I have so often discussed.

Thus endeth my rant for today...