Keti

Dear Friends, My Mom has been taken ill and I am leaving for Poland today, September 9th, to take care of her. I hope to be back at the end of the month.

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I'm Malgosia from Oxford, England. I am half-Polish and half-Russian, was born and educated to university level in Poznan, Poland, and came to Oxford to study and then work in 1987. I met my husband, Andrew, at work in 1991 and we got married in 1993. We have no children (and, regrettably, no pets, either). I used to work as a researcher and editor. At the moment, I'm on disability but trying to get back into the world of work. I teach and write. Reading and crafts help me get through my days as well. I also have a very strong faith in God. I belong to the Russian Orthodox Church. I sing in the parish choir, participate in a women's fellowship group, contribute to the monthly gazette, and try to be fully involved in various aspects of parish life.

Knitting: I love 100% wool, alpaca, llama, as well as silk, bamboo, hemp, cotton, and some microfibres. I am not too keen on novelty or fashion yarns or on ribbon. I prefer finer gauge as opposed to chunky. I love knitting lace, hence my yarn preference. My goal for 2009 is to learn knitting socks and cables. Other things I love to knit are scarves and stoles, sweaters, cushions and other home decor items, and kitchen items such as dishcloths, towels, coasters, and placemats. I also knit in acrylic for a UK charity and for a local homeless shelter. For my favourite colous, please see below.

Scrapbooking: I love the vintage, "aged", "distressed" look (Tim Holtz etc), travel, as well as floral/botanical look. I love journaling on my pages, I like vintage, travel, and botanical papers and vellum, epoxy stickers, deep embossing enamel, ribbon. In addition to colors listed below, I use a lot of bronze/gold on my pages, as well as reds and deep colors in general. I love anything from Anna Griffin. One thing I'm not too keen on is stamping.

Card Making: I am relatively new to card making but love experimenting with tea bag folding, iris folding, spirelli, and parchment craft in particular. I like waterfall cards and "exploding boxes", but I also like to leave the sender room to write something on the card! ;-)

Cross stitch and needlepoint: again, I'm relatively new to these crafts. I like Elizabethan and floral designs the most. I would love to branch into hardanger, blackwork and crewel work.

Crafts I'd like to try: altered art; sewing; pottery; and stained glass.

ivory, cream, white; silver, silver grey; lavender, lilac, mauve, pale pink; dusky blue; sea green, moss green; burgundy; black. Not too keen on: yellows, oranges, neon colors.

Jasmine, vanilla, amber, musk, other Oriental; coffee; herbal - rosemary, basil, thyme, marjoram, cardamom; lavender; tea rose; neroli; tea tree, eucalyptus; clean cotton.

Medieval: Coptic Church and Gregorian chants; Medieval chansons; Monteverdi; Berlioz; Tchaikovsky; Brahms; Schoenberg; world music, in particular African tribal music and Japanese No music

Iris Murdoch; JM Coetzee; poetry (too much to mention!!!)

wombats; bears -- black, brown, spectacled, polar; elephants; cats; mice; viscachas; llamas; alpacas; guanacos; squirrels; flying squirrels; dogs

travel, travel, travel; reading; creative writing; poetry (reading and writing); cooking and baking; walking; hiking; mountaineering

anything homemade; altered objects; journals, stationery, notecards, and notepads; yarn (please see Favorite Crafts, above); scrapbooking items (see Favourite Crafts); anything from other countries, particularly from Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Greece

It's wonderful to keep in touch with people and get to know new friends. I love surprises in the mail, too, and it is exciting to discover new favorites!