Happy Christmas and New Year!!

Apologies for the blog being a bit slow in December, life stuff catches up with you and trying to find the time to keep the blog updated can sometimes be difficult.

A Very Very Happy Christmas and New Year 

to all the knitters, stitchers, felters, crocheters, weavers, spinners, papermakers, printers, teachers, and anyone else who has read and contributed to the blog.

2009 may have been a hard year in Ireland, with rain, more rain, recession, scandals, and lots of other depressing news. Think of the current economic climate as a blank slate. The Celtic Tiger didn't work out for us, it was all wrong. We need to develop a grassroots, home-made, movement, lets develop an industry for ourselves, that is both sustainable to not just our pockets but to our way of life.

2010 is going to be a very exciting year for textiles. We have more textile supply shops opening up then every before, more people teaching and more people learning. It has the potential to become a real area of growth for Ireland - as a profession from farmer to designer, as a recognized artform, as a form of community development, and the huge potential for activity/craft tourism.

The original idea for the Woolly Way was for it to become a community project. I have tried to keep my own personal opinions, (favourite textiles!) etc, out of the blog. But I wanted to write a personal message now to say I really appreciate everyone who has been in contact through the blog, I have met some wonderful people, and heard about many wonderful textile related things in Ireland at the moment.

I honestly think the blog has the potential to develop into something bigger and better, but only if there is more volunteers to help out! The textile map and calender has been a great success, but they need to be updated more regularly, with up-to-date information. I had ideas to develop spin off blogs to cover other areas of interest - the history and heritage of textiles in Ireland , developing a network for textile/fibre art with discussion, information and even a gallery of sorts. I would like to also develop a network/blog for farmers who are producing fleece, they may have a network in the farming community,but to create a network with textile workers to help develop Irish yarn.

If anyone wants to get involved, has ideas they want to discuss. Please, please get in touch. We have some very exciting projects happening in 2010, but we want more!

Anyway, little personal rant over, HAPPY CHRISTMAS and NEW YEAR everyone!!

from stitchlily..