Permit me to introduce myself...

Hello, and welcome to Things Made Slowly, a blog about doing things by hand, and taking the time to do them well.  I’m a thirty-something rare books librarian with a nasty habit of picking up new hobbies--mostly costuming and its associated crafts (sewing, embroidery, knitting, crochet, spinning, tablet weaving, etc.), with occasional forays into other areas such as pottery, woodworking, and odd culinary avenues.

What my stash looks like now: a mixture of old
Renaissance Faire costume bits, unfinished
projects, fabric, and other textile-related
tools and supplies.

Formerly based in Southern California, I was for several years a regular attendee at the San Bernardino/Santa Fe Dam, Ojai (now defunct), Long Beach (also defunct), and Escondido Renaissance festivals, Vista Viking Festival, Riverside Dickens Festival, Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade, (Los Angeles) Edwardian Ball, and of course, Costume College.  Consequently, my crafting projects ranged from early medieval to late 19th century, with plenty of fantasy and gothic styles thrown in.  I made (too) frequent shopping expeditions to the L.A. garment district, amassed a tremendous fabric stash, and racked up a staggering number of unfinished projects.

In 2012, I moved from West Los Angeles to rural Scotland, near St Andrews.  In packing up my collection of fabric and unfinished projects for the move, I was appalled at how much *stuff* I had accumulated.
I gave away huge amounts of fabric and older costume pieces and cut my losses on several unfinished projects, and still ended up filling about eight large plastic storage tubs with stuff that I deemed that I could not live without, and that had to be shipped across the Atlantic at $10+/cubic foot, plus the guilt of having consumed all those fossil fuels for the sake of my hobbies.

The fabric stash may have spilled over
into a few other boxes...

Over the past several years, I’ve become increasingly interested in living simply and sustainably, de-consumerizing as much as possible.  My hoard of fabric, while potentially useful, is not consistent with my long-term goal of downsizing my living space. Having been confronted with this crisis, I devised and began to enforce a set of rules that I hoped would, in time, help me to downsize both my stash and my queue of unfinished projects, and save me some money in the process.

The rules are as follows:

1. Finish two old projects before starting each new one.
• Mending and repairs count as ½ project.
2. On any given day, knit two rows on the Blue Blanket* before working on other crafty projects. 
3. Do not buy any new fabric until it all fits into the wooden chest pictured below.
4. Do not buy any new yarn until the blue blanket is finished AND all of the yarn, crochet thread, etc. fits into one storage tub.
• Fleece for spinning/felting/peg loom weaving is not included in this quota, but given that I currently have 3 animals worth of raw fleece (2 jacobs sheep, 1 alpaca) plus about half a pound of combed and carded icelandic wool, I will not buy any more fleece until this also fits into a single tub.
5. Do not buy any new notions or trim unless it is required for a specific project which is to be started immediately.

*More on the blue blanket in next week's post.

My ultimate goal is to fit all of the fabric into this wooden chest.

These days, in the absence of big dress-up events in my local area, my crafting has changed its focus toward clothing that is practical and comfortable for digging in the garden or lounging around the house, usually influenced by early medieval or traditional folk dress.  My intent in starting this blog is primarily to post weekly updates about my craft hobbies as a means of self-motivation through peer pressure.  Although I have started this exercise primarily for my own benefit, if you have stumbled across this blog by chance, I hope that you enjoy following my progress, and are inspired to make some things slowly yourself.