Murder on the Moor

With the help of Phil I have managed to create three very gifted and talented creative people.

All three are passionate about their life's work and dedicated to their passion.

 My big girl Fep is an extraordinary painter, creating contemporary mythical worlds on canvas, my baby boy Fred is a computer genius hoping one day to build his own games company.

And my number 2 child is Daisy, (only number 2 because she was born between the other two).

Daisy is a serious writer, she studied creative writing at university and has a passion for the written word.
She has been runner-up in several writing competitions and been published numerous times.

You know her as Daisy of The Natural Dye Studio.

This time last year we had just persuaded her to write a few murder stories for our new NDS Murder on the Moor club, it was a bit of fun and completely different to any other yarn club we knew about.

We wanted a club that was new and exciting, so decided to run a club that each month had the next installment of the murder story, a skein of NDS yarn especially dyed for the club and a clue (gift)

Daisy had never written murder stories before so it was something very new to her.

Her main character is Florence Blackmoor a forensic pathologist/detective, and over the course of the year she got to know Florence and been able to develop her character, as a result Daisy's stories have got better and better

This last quarter's story has been the best so far and finishes on a dramatic cliff hanger, you'll have to sign up HERE for January to find out what happens next......

Incidentally Daisy had rough plots for all 4 of next years stories and I'm really looking forward to reading them, you can find the synopsis of all 4 quarters on the link above.

Lynton is linked to murder stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who frequently visited his friend Sir George Newnes who lived here. Sir George is famous as the  publisher who published The Strand magazine and in 1887 he published the very first Sherlock Holmes story, he also built the Lynton town hall, cliff railway and a mansion on the top of Hollerday Hill.
http://www.ingleside-hotel.co.uk/hollerday-hill.php

I like to think that maybe Daisy is following in Sir Arthurs footsteps and maybe Florence will go on to be the new modern day Sherlock Holmes.

Bad maths

I'm working on the Kaleidoscope Club Blanket at the moment.
The crochet bit is easy, but I'm having to do lots of maths, working out how much of each colour is needed for each motif variation and so how much wool is needed to complete each month, then adding it all up to work out how much of each colour is needed for each quarter, so we can send members the right amount of wool.

My maths is appalling, I'm frustrated and confused, there are so many variables that even with a calculator I'm coming up with different totals each time.
Luckily I have Phil and Valerie to check my maths and correct my mistakes, but I have a sense of panic and dread every time I start thinking about maths.

I have really bad number dyslexia (there is a proper name for it, but I can't remember what it is and probably couldn't spell it even if I did remember.
My inability to do maths (and spell and punctuate) has made me feel frustrated and stupid all my life.

I remember times when my parents spent long journeys in the car making me recite my times tables, my mother shouted at me at the time, she was good with numbers and she couldn't understand why I couldn't get them right. It wasn't her fault, being number dyslexic wasn't recognised at the time.

Nor was normal dyslexia (which I also suffer from)

I hated maths at school, always got an "e" or failed, reports always said "could do better" and "she doesn't concentrate in class"

Had to take my o'level 2 or 3 times till I passed it and my lovely teacher said she was convinced the exam board had marked my paper incorrectly and with anyone else she would of sent it back to be checked.

English and spelling of any sort was also a struggle, but I loved reading and books, so I took English literature A'level, I hated the essays, but loved the books, so manage to struggle through.

Numbers don't stay in my head, I have no idea what my mobile number is and I've had the same number for about 10 years, after 18 months living here I can almost remember my phone numbers, but sometimes get them wrong too. 

My postcode is a bit of a struggle too, if someone asks me for my phone number I panic and stutter and do my best to remember.

It wasn't until a few years ago that I realised I'm not stupid, its just I have a number problem, but I'm good at other things like colour, design and art.

I've kind of got normal dyslexia under control with spell check, but always spell some words wrong however many times I write them. 

I'm still rubbish at punctuation and normally have to read everything I've written and re-order the words so they make more sense.

Hopefully my writing isn't too bad.

Very occasionally I get e-mails from people pointing out my spelling mistakes and even more very occasionally the e-mails are quite indignant and rude about my lack of professionalism.

I'm sure these people have no problems with spelling or numbers and don't understand that other people do.

In the past I have read forum posts laughing at people who can't spell or punctuate, they just don't understand and assume anyone who makes mistakes is obviously stupid or badly educated.

I find the lack of understanding very sad, everyone is good at something, but the somethings are all different.

I design crochet patterns that need lots of maths, my motifs have got simpler, but my colour layouts have become far more complex.

I've made life difficult for myself, but I love what I do and keep doing it so, have to fight maths on a regular basis.

But having said all this I love geometry and how shapes fit together, I even have a  Pinterest  Geometry board

I guess geometry is visual and as long as I don't have to work out the angles, its brilliant.

I've written this blog post as I know I'm not the only one who struggles with numbers and spelling and punctuation, in fact I gave birth to and work with one - Daisy, who's a writer, which means she's made her life difficult too :-)

I just want to say to them "your'e not alone, don't feel stupid, as your'e not, its just numbers and when you write them down they make pretty patterns" :-)

P.S I didn't let anyone proof this post, so its bound to read all wrong and have the wrong punctuation, I thought it would be a good illustration of my issues.

Twinkly sunny blanket day

After a week of gloomy grey skies we finally have a glorious sunny winter day.
So we took Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star on a photo shoot in the Valley of Rocks.

And as a result I've been able to publish the pattern HERE on Craftsy, I'll add it to Ravelry, the NDS website shop and Etsy later.

Valerie

Is my tec editor.
I mention my tec editor quite a lot in my post's, she is a major part of my life and I thought maybe you'd like to know a bit more about her.

I can't quite remember how our relationship came to be, I think I asked for feedback on a design I was publishing.
She was kind enough to take time out of her day to write a really constructive, detailed and helpful appraisal.
So I asked if she would like to help me with more of my patterns and she said yes.
Since then she has worked on every pattern I have written.

I work every waking hour a day, 7 days a week, the time I spend away from NDS and dyeing is spent crocheting and designing.
She is almost always at the other end of an e-mail, whatever time of day or night.
I feel guilty e-mailing her over the weekend as she should really be enjoying her time off and its not her fault I am an obsessive workaholic.
Sometimes I am so wrapped up in my work I don't e-mail her for day's, its not that I'm ignoring her, its just I am ignoring the world and indulging myself in my crochet.
She always understands.

We only ever see each other at show's, where there is never enough time to talk. I fear if there was we would brain storm for hours and hours and hours and maybe its not good for me to have too many new idea's, I have too many already.

The photo below was taken last year, I have made it very small as I'm not how sure she feels about having her picture on-line, we both look like scared rabbits caught in the headlights, I hate to think which problem we were discussing.

Not only does she tec my work, she also comes up with suggestions of how I can improve my patterns, sometimes I love her idea's, sometimes I'm not so sure and don't use them, she always accepts my decision with grace.
I think between us we have come up with a fairly good pattern template, that hopefully is understandable for most people.

On top of all this she also tec's for magazines and is a talented designer in her own right, has several patterns published in magazines and more to be published in the pipeline.
She also dedicates her time to her local knitting group, arranges bus's to the shows, organises KAL's and CAL's and answers my customer's questions.

So if you want to read more about a very modest, reluctant superwoman, you can find her blog HERE 
And her patterns on Ravelry HERE