Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
You may or may not remember how much I *love!* Old World Arts & Crafts as it isn’t a topic which I share too often on Jorie Loves A Story. However, if you caught sight of a book about the artful approach to natural dying for fibre arts – you would have known how much I love playing with fibre as a knitter and how much I’d love to expand my skill set with both the projects I knit and what I can create as a fibre artist in the future.
I’ve been binge watching podcasts (which I used to consider vlogs) via YouTube with my Mum for the past several years now which involve all manners of the world of knitting – from festivals and fibre shows to knitters who are vlogging (er, podcasting) their knitting lives to the world via their YT channels. It is quite an interesting section of YouTube as it is similar to our bookish booktube world wherein the niche of interest is just as passionate about the world of fibre, knitting, crochet, spinning and other fibre art delights as we are about books, reading and book world culture.
When I first heard of this series I thought it sounded quite delightful – even though I wasn’t sure if I was ready to read a series that involves Alzheimer’s as I’ve gone through that personally with family members and at times I find those stories to be quite harder hitting than I presume they will be going into them. I tend to shy away from stories involving dementia and/or terminal illness – even though there are times where I feel inspired to seek them out as I love the overall plot and the journey of the characters. This particular series seems to be dealing with the early on-set of the disease and not the mid-to-late stages of it which I feel is an easier place to enter into that thread of the storyline which is why I look forward to seeking this series one day to read for myself.
As an aside, as a knitter I’ve not picked up my projects in four years – as I sort of lost track of where I am in the patterns. I was on such a strong roll with knitting several projects at once as I enjoy charity knitting as much as personal projects and/or gifts for friends and family. The hard bit is that when I lose where I am with the patterns, it is harder to re-adjust as our knitting and yarn shoppes have either shrunken over the years or have had reduced their hours which makes getting to their places a bit inconvenient. I look forward to visiting a shoppe in the future – sorting out where I am with my projects and getting back into knitting. It is something that I love to do and it is such wonderful blissitude to be lost in fibre and stitches.
If you enjoy Fibre Arts yourself, perhaps this series will resonate with you – I am thankful I could champion the collection on Jorie Loves A Story today. And, hopefully the extract which is being shared leaves you with a few ruminations, too!
This is a Self-Published series
Converse via: #ForTheLoveOfFiber, Contemporary Fiction, #Fiber, #Yarn & #Spinning
as well as #WomensFiction and #LFPrism
Book One : For the Love of Fiber Series
Published: 26th August, 2019 | ISBN: 978-1733467407
A determined widow faces the challenge of a new life to regain the confidence and independence of her youth, but finds that life, unlike knitting, doesn’t always follow a pattern.
After twenty-five years of being the perfect wife and mother, Martha LeBeau finds herself unexpectedly widowed and shocked to discover her husband had been living a double life, leaving her penniless and in debt. Determined to regain her lost confidence and independence, she sells her suburban Chicago home and moves to the Wisconsin countryside to forge a new life away from cheating men and smothering children. There she meets the Wool Gatherers, a group of fiber artists who teach her the art of spinning wool and raising sheep. Along with one determined Border Collie, she begins on the path to self-growth and healing.
Riley O’Connor is the single father of a child with Asperger Syndrome. The child’s mother walked out on them because she found that life too difficult to handle. Since then, he has dedicated himself to protecting his son from any further emotional damage.
Meeting Riley and his son through her new job brings love and challenges to Martha’s newly found independence. Romance blooms like a finely knit cable, entwining their lives.
Can either of them learn to trust again?
Book Two : For the Love of Fiber Series
Published: 9th May, 2020 | ISBN: 978-1733467421
Cara Olson is forced to put aside her struggling art career in Chicago to care for her ailing grandmother in Wisconsin. While journeying with her beloved Gram through the diagnosis of possible Alzheimer’s disease, she loses and then rediscovers her passion for art and experiences the resurrection of a past love.
Struggling artist Cara Olson is called home to Wisconsin to care for her ailing grandmother who is showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Leaving behind her mentor//boyfriend, Stefan, she begins to look at her unsuccessful career and relationship in a new light.
Surprised to find her Gram’s doctor is her high-school crush, Peter Andreson, she fights her reignited feelings. When Chicago critics dismiss her artwork as a poor imitation of Stefan’s, she is devastated and vows to give up art.
While caring for Gram and running her small Scandinavian gift shop, the Wool Gatherers, a local group of fiber artists, help her find new outlets for her creativity, designing works of art with hand-made felt and her re-emerging love of landscape and portrait painting.
Along the way, her feelings for Peter grow, and she realizes she has once again fallen for a man only dedicated to his career. When the opportunity arises for her to return to Chicago with the promise of a new career, she seizes it. But even her success can’t fill the void she experiences without Gram, her new friends, and Peter.
Can she return to Shoreview, the place that inspires her art, and be satisfied with a life that doesn’t include him?
She Wears the Mask
The Sea Gate