If Einstein Can Do It So Can You * Christmas Jumper Day * 13 December

Time to get out those fabulous kitsch woollies again! Lift your spirits, make people smile, wear a fun jumper on Christmas Jumper Day - 13 December - help save a child's life by donating £1 to Save the Children. Go on - you know you've really been wanting an opportunity to show off Auntie Edie's knitting since you put it for safekeeping at the back of the wardrobe.... Even better get your guild to dust their jumpers down and join the fun, or the people you work with, or your local church. Send me a picture of you wearing your jumper and I'll donate £1 to Save The Children, too! To find out more about the work of Save The Children and Christmas Jumper Day, just click here. At the last count they have raised £103,337.

Meetings With Remarkable Women * Jennifer Gaudet from Montreal * Saving Traditional Silk Weaving in Turkey

Jennifer's Hamam opened on August 1st, 2009. It is the dream child of Jennifer Gaudet, the Canadian owner. Jennifer had been teaching English in Thailand for 7 years, but had started thinking about opening her own business. She came to Turkey as a tourist in October 2005.

During her holiday, she discovered that Turkish laws were very open to businesses owned by foreigners, and she made the decision to move to Istanbul and open a business in the tourist area of Sultanahmet. Her first project was a cafe´ and art gallery. But in July 2009, Jennifer sold Java Studio and pursued her second dream of running a shop selling real Turkish towels made not in factories, but on old-style looms.

Jennifer takes great pride in visiting her weavers on a regular basis , and only buys from people whose looms she has seen in person. She aims to educate her clients about this art form and hopefully help preserve it for future generations.

There are only three families left in Turkey that know how to do the looping technique, one of which Jennifer met just by pure accident. They were just two weeks away from shutting their workshop, selling the looms and getting 'real' jobs. Just six short months after this serendipitous meeting, Jennifer financed another loom for them and they've been busy producing designer towels for her shop ever since. Jennifer came to realise that the slower you make something, the longer it lasts.

Jennifer says, It's my goal to find at least one more loom before the end of the year. This will really make a difference in the amount of down-time needed to re-thread the looms for different-sized towels. We're just at the beginning. I can hardly wait to see where we're at in another five years! For more details of Jennifer Gaudet's shop click here.

Softest Clothing Wooly Bright

Just last month, Richard and I were following some of our favourite trails across the North Yorkshire Moors. Great childhood memories are stirred by treading the ancient broadstone slabs of Featherbed Lane that lead down from Aislaby - one of the Queen's narrowest highways. We also love to ramble on the moors above the tracks of the old Whitby to Pickering steam railway that still whistles, now with the help of many volunteers, through the Hole of Horcum, gladdening us with its cheery toot and wafting smell of burning coke. This year we ran like children to meet the passing train as it shunted through the station in Newtondale. The land here is boggy - to say the least - mud up to one's armpits, almost! It proved quite an obstacle, too, for George Stephenson, the architect of the railway. Finally, the difficulty was surmounted with the help of bales of sheeps' wool and wooden hurdles to give the ground sufficient stability to carry the track and the railway.

I thought you might be amused by the sign above that greeted us at the next turn! Now we are celebrating the special advent season and for me there is a little sadness this year because the composer of one of my favourite Christmastide carols died recently - Sir John Taverner. This setting of William Blake's The Lamb is very special to me - the words are below. Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed.
By the stream & o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice!
Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Little Lamb I'll tell thee,
Little Lamb I'll tell thee!
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb God bless thee.
Little Lamb God bless thee.

Herb Pillow * Gawthorpe Hall Textile Collection

Gawthorpe Hall in Lancashire is home to famous Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth textile collection. This is intended as a teaching collection and items can be borrowed for educational purposes. While browsing some of the items in the collection I thought you might be interested to see this beautiful Elizabethan herb pillow which has one side complete and the reverse side designed and drawn ready for embroidery. This is so interesting because one might assume that the embroidered side was executed over a similar pattern to the one shown and so gives us insight into execution liberties and techniques. To visit Gawthorpe Hall and its textile collection, click here.