Atlantic Thread

  The Craft and Sewing Basket was a delight, I went there straight off the bus, and met the lovely Mary and Gabriela. They do classes, repairs, and groups and it felt really happy there, the infectious kind. And welcoming. Of course you would come here for yarn and fabrics over the glitziest of websites. Talked with the twinkle eyed Mary about the world of wool- thrown away some places and then imported from others. It's not rational, let alone sustainable. I got some delicious green marl spun in Donegal yarns, for Wild Atlantic yarns. I had a strange time in Sligo. It's very pretty. The Polish shop is the best I've seen outside of Poland. I found some sweets I had forgotten how good they taste. It was my day between two nights at the same place, and I changed my accommodation to in the town, cos I found the suburb a bit eerie. This was the day I couldn't really be fully on the Atlantic Thread. It was Sunday, and no shops to visit...I had work work I needed to do and li...

  I'm on the 458 bus between Ballina and Sligo, immersed in the next level Green all around me. The skies have been moody, and every so often, the view opens out onto the ocean and the cliffs. It's really complementing the Wu Tang coming through my headphones (NYC connection? New York, after all, is part of Ireland in a way, and vice versa). I find their music often complements crochet, and I have just started on the first scarf of this journey- cerulean alpaca which I got yesterday from the first shop of this visit, in Ballyvary. I'm starting to see patches of that very same colour appear in the sky. It's nearly 8 years ago that I embarked on the first yarn pilgrimage, from the Connemara through west and south Ireland, Brittany, Cantabria, Asturias, Galicia, Portugal and Morocco...connecting 42 independent yarn sellers who all face the Atlantic winds- and the challenges of facing this neoliberal system (the Empire), which will never really understand the nature of a pl...

Good morning all, I hope this finds you well. It's wild and windy outdoors- great weather to be by the ocean perhaps, for all its rejuvenating qualities of blowing the cobwebs away, but also the weather that exposes the dangerous power of the ocean too, picturing people literally battening down their hatches...but I'm in London, so it's a more prosaic case of putting on a coat and a scarf. And if you are in London too, please come along and see my exhibition 'Atlantic Thread and Other Stories' The opening will be on Tuesday 9th April, 5.30-9, at the lovely Apple Tree pub in Clerkenwell. This is when I'll unveil the blanket, to show with the map, photographs, and some other pieces of textile art. I will also bring along my Twelve Steps sculpture for the opening, and all the rest will be up for 2 months, during which I'll do two or three crochet workshops. I chose this place because it's been fairly recently taken over, with a view to make a true communi...

Good afternoon all, hope this finds you well and happy! I left you last week on a happy bus journey to Sines, and it was happy too to arrive. It's the first place I had ever wandered around in Portugal, and I did just that on this day, with a pilgrimage to say thank you to the town beach where the idea came of doing this project. This is an Atlantic town, and stays in touch with the rest of the world through being a port, and its World Music Festival every summer.  I end up wandering quite a lot backwards and forwards throughout the whole town, eventually finding the lovely Fernanda at the yarn shop. Someone recently, on seeing the pictures, asked me for directions to the shop, as she was from Sines and wanted to visit next time she saw her folks. I couldn't tell her, and I couldn't tell you either, but if you go around on a spiral from the art gallery in the middle, you will eventually come across it. Probably. And then followed an even happier bus journey to Cercal, ...

Good afternoon all, Hope this finds you well- and warm, it's cold outside, but I do love a bit of winter sunshine, and I have Grace Jones in the background, which always makes things feel quite sunny anyway. I've just posted off the last of the scarves, so work on the blanket is well underway, and am starting to look for an exhibition space, and aiming for April/May. I have found a couple of possibilities, both local, but if you have other ideas, please feel free to suggest! I'm now casting my mind back three months...three rather difficult months in my life...but I won't go into that here. I left you in Porto, just after my birthday, when I had a teeny weeny meltdown, but also a speedy recovery. I'm pretty introverted in general, and having three days in the same place, being able to stay in, away from too many people a bit, with time to reflect is pretty essential; and quite hard to get while travelling sometimes. The brightness and energy of Porto definitely ...

Good afternoon all, I hope this finds you well and happy. Please excuse the title if you're a bit fed up with people larking about with the names of the months. Movember was always particularly annoying when I already had a moustache anyway, and Sobertober isn't very inspiring either...but gloan is the Breton for wool, and it's nice to think of what's glowing amidst these dark months, so Gloanuary is my choice over Lainvier, Lenero, Olannair or Laneiro. I know I broke off from blogs mid-journey, so three or four more diary entries to add soon, but wanted to wish you all a Happy New Year, and to celebrate that the Atlantic Thread journey has finished, the final scarf is on the hook, the blanket is well underway and have just started compiling all the photos; have posted on facebook (billyblacklondon) those of the yarn shops and their inhabitants; here is Mohamed at my final stop in Essaouira. It's been a very tough time emotionally, and I'm grief-stricke...