Text Box: # Text Box: The View from My Wheelchair This month I thought I would choose my hobbies as the subject to write about. Some of you may already be aware of them but I am sure there will be others who are not familiar with what I do in my spare time. I have two hobbies, writing and doing tapestry and cross stitching. Both were begun during my years at school and still continue to this day. My writing abilities are hampered by my sight difficulties in some ways but I have learnt to get around this by using magnifying glasses, writing frames and an address pad which means addresses on the front of envelopes are written straight. Without these writing aids my sentences and addresses would end up very slanted on the page or envelope. I still enjoy writing letters, and I have several friends who like receiving my post on a regular basis. For many people of my age or younger the idea of writing has been replaced with texts, mobile phones and internet access but I prefer letters arriving on my doormat as well as emails and messages on my computer. Besides the letters and emails I have several websites that I write pieces for every month, especially one in America that wants contributions about ordinary news that affects me, not the often biased reports they hear from the media over here. Just this last week I have been asked to write a piece called Lynn's Thoughts for a disabled website. It makes me feel proud but also humble that they consider my writing worth having on their website. My tapestry & cross stitching is particularly challenging when you consider the sight problems I have but as with writing, there are ways to get over every difficulty. When a hobby you enjoy becomes a problem to cope with you have two choices: either find a way round it and continue enjoying it or give it up and possibly replace it with something you can do or use the time for something else. For me giving it up was not an option so I had to find ways to continue doing it but using other materials and equipment to help to enjoy it. Tapestry pictures come in two forms; printed canvas that you complete with set colours and effectively fill in or work up as I have heard it called, or blank canvas that you design and choose the colours for yourself. I like doing both types of tapestry picture and get enjoyment from following a set printed picture as much as I do designing a picture using graph paper and then transferring the idea onto sewing canvas. The stitching used is usually a diagonal going from left to right for the entire picture or the opposite, but all the sewing must go one way. When I was younger I was under the impression that tapestry canvas came in one size and one colour but I have since discovered that different colour canvases exist in many sizes and several colours. Cross stitching is sewn using a different range of coloured blank canvases and is done using cross stitches, hence its name. Most of the ones I have come across are in kits which contain the blank canvas, a pattern & the coloured threads to complete it. Now come the problems I have encountered as my sight has got worse. The cross stitch canvas tends to be very small so therefore the stitching has to be small and I end up straining what little sight I have to do it. My way to get around this is to use the cross stitch pattern as a base, double the amount of stitches used and to sew it on blank tapestry canvas as a tapestry using the much easier tapestry larger holes but still ending up with a lovely completed picture. Several of my close friends are amazed at the lengths I go to in order to produce the pictures that they receive as Christmas or birthday gifts. My biggest tapestry project to date is a friend's fiftieth birthday present which is a set of smaller pictures similar to a sampler. Each individual picture depicts some personal aspect of my friend's life and the friend has had some input into the design. I wanted to give him a very special carefully made gift and not just some thing bought from a shop. Another stumbling block I have had to overcome since my mobility got worse is obtaining the materials I need when I need them to complete my pictures. Gone are the days of visiting market stalls in Bolton or Bury, or trips into Manchester to the annual Gmex Knitting & Stitchcraft events. I spent happy hours in those places, spending money getting my hobby requirements and often investing in spare threads & canvases for future projects. Now I rely on occasional trips to Hobby Craft when my friends can take me, and more frequently people on Ebay who sell tapestry and cross stitch items. It may interest people to note that many people have used Ebay to sell tapestry and cross stitch items when relatives have died and they leave hobby items which need to be disposed of. You can find many items at reduced prices through the crafts section of Ebay at a lot less than in most shops or on sewing websites. I have also found it helpful to buy different bundles of threads in a mixture of shades so I always have spare colours should I need them for something. It’s also worth saying here is that some people sell their completed pictures as a way of increasing their income; apparently people like having tapestry and cross stitch pictures on their walls. I could not sell mine, as all my pictures are specifically chosen as presents for people or as pictures I want for myself. Readers may be interested to learn that whilst I am sitting doing my sewing, I am quietly thinking and praying for the person whose picture I am completing so it fulfils two things for me. It is a very enjoyable and much loved hobby whilst spending time in prayer to God my father. Lynn Marsden