Look forward, don't turn back

Well, we are almost at the year's end.

So here I sit (skiving at work) on a Friday afternoon, thinking about what has happened in the last twelve months or so and what may lie ahead for my crafting fingers.

First, a quick recap on the crafts. Well...it has definitely been big on exploration and broadening interests. I learnt hardanger and how wonderfully quick it is. I also learnt tatting, and how wonderfully portable it is. And I began what I suspect will be a lifelong love affair with beads. (you know you are besotted and the first word that comes to your brain in the morning is "bicones", not "shit, do I have to work today" or "I want to stash" or "I am horny") hahaha, ok, stop laughing.

I have gone stir crazy over
a) HAED charts
b) more BAP charts
c) samplers!!!!

On the latter, there are a few people who I would like to blam.. er, thank... some of these people know me well, others not at all, but here is the glory list:
Aida Marleena (thanks for introducing me to IR and Patricia Ann and all the hours we spend poring over Stitchings Bits and Bobs and trying to break each other's stash diet), Marc Davis (as always, such a great inspiration), Novia (Sexy Fairy, how can I even begin to describe your role in this one), Magi (I call her Mag for short... amazing taste in charts and great stasher!), Aw FC (again, impeccable taste... I miss writing to that woman), Tracy Horner of Ink Circles (for modernising the sampler)... the list goes on and on.

For other crafts, I would like to single out Mona for posting stuff that makes me drool helplessly and being so supportive for just about every craft I dabble with and Faizon for the enormous amount of support she's provided for tatting, not only to me, but to so many others. Faizon's career as a tatting designer may be set to take off soon, so be sure to haunt her blog many many many times!

2006 started out sort of quiet... I remember my first "action" for crafts this year was to purchase US$50 worth of PINN charts ... and it sort of mushroomed into buyingbuyingbuying.... and a stash diet... and another round of buying, and another stash diet. I am starting to think that deprivation is very bad for the pocket, so this means, should I make a note to stash or keep some money aside each month... and roll it over to the next when i need to stash? (like, say, save up for silks instead of plugging my gullet with beer)

It's been a year of establishing new ties. Strong ones. It's also been quite an eye-opener about other people (disappointingly so). Here's a rundown of the best parts of stitching communities

My local circle of real stitchy friends here...we don't meet often but we have fun when we do... and we share WIPs and show each other stuff ... most resounding one I hear during these meets are "When are you going to finish THIS one?" (hello ladies, I am a serial starter... means i may die with 1000 WIPs..erk!)

25 Motif Challenge... it is not a formal community per se but a bunch of tatters brought together by the fabulous Sharon to tat 25 motifs in the year. The best part about it, is, I've made some friends from on there, which I've learnt quite a bit from.

Crafty Coven. We know everybody's name, and yeah, where each other lives too hahaha... and the sharing of every day experiences is somehow... profound? bonding? meaningful? I really like it that we behave like a tight-knit clan, even when Joyce cracks that whip hehehehe, and we share joys and fears and happiness and woes and stress. We have a Ding Dong lover, a gay man (superqueen sean!), a straight man (nannerboy), a fabric dyer, a new designer... and we share good news like starting new things in celebration of pregnancies.. hehehe... Nikki just found out she's pregnant...

4 Stitching Bandits. I think this is really quite a special story to tell. We got 3 Chinese girls and 1 gay man (not Chinese, but might as well be our sista). We're spread out across the world, but most nights, we log in and chat ... we mix languages and stuff but it's like... so cool, you know? And we understand one another... (Well, except for OAATing). Ever met a group of different people , you just get together and you feel that you belong? That's the Bandits for us.

On sadder news, I quietly left Malaysian Stitchers in September (MYS) due to mounting unhappiness about the politics on the board. (this is cross fucking stitch...why inject politics into floss and linen???!!!) No, it wasn't about the entire group... it was just that the situation turned into something I cared not to be a part of, so I kept my friends and walked away.

I had thought "okay, there's the end of that, life moves on". However, I was e-mailed privately by a moderator about why I left. So I told her, in frank terms, about it. I didn't point fingers. I just stated what i thought was the facts. There was no need to lay any blame. Contrary to my expectations on what defines honouring the privacy of a personal e-mail, this person took specific details (without referring to the entire context of the letter) and plugged it onto the MYS board, in full public. And she made enough references for people to guess who it was. Without me having any chance of defending what i had written. Of course, in typical fashion, there were people who fell silent and some others who made fairly harsh references to me. And yet others who did their own round of backstabbing... funny how they won't say it to my face but prefer to conduct character assasination behind my back.

How bloody low can you get? And she's supposed to be some sort of responsible person?! Following this, she blew up some major drama and wanted to leave (don't know whether it has happened or she hasn't followed her word, but not like it matters). Well, I wonder how she sleeps at night.

So... that was quite an eye-opener. It's sad, because I once considered this person a friend. She turned around and hung me out to dry, and I felt like I was led to burn at the stake. And yeah, she never once owned up to it.

But then...I learnt my lesson and moved on. Screw the slings and arrows of misfortune. No more greedy, drama-centric, untrustworthy people for me! I got my Bandits, my Coven and my real friends.

Happy 2007, everyone!