Guernsey goodness. . .

Guernsey location map  - courtesy of google

Did I ever tell you that I have a huge affection for Guernsey? I first visited that lovely Channel Isle in October 1986 as a 15 year old, on a family holiday. 

It's where, aged 15,  I flew on my very first flight ever. . . Bournemouth to Guernsey. I remember saying to my mum "How is the plane ever going to get airborne like this?" much to the mirth of the surrounding passengers - we were taxi-ing over to the runway at the time, but I didn't know that, and wondered how we were supposed to get airborne at THAT speed!

It's where, aged 15,  I met two very eccentric and lovable spinster sisters in their late 70s/early 80s, who lived in an old farmhouse in St Sampson. We stayed with them for our week long holiday at the "DIY B&B" they ran. . .

It's where, aged 15, I met one of my most amazing friends, who has remained a rock through thick and thin. . .

It's where I went camping as an 18 year old on my first truly independent holiday. . .

It's where I got my first "Guernsey jumper"  - a grey woollen one.

It's where I first met Golden Guernsey goats and fell in love with goats full stop, but Guernsey goats in particular. . . maybe one day we will have a piece of land big enough to have some Golden Guernsey Goats, or in fact any goats at all ;-)

It's where, as a teenager, I first flew in a little yellow island-hopping plane (also known as a flying banana!), immortalised through a series of children's books. The most famous plane of the fleet has the registration G-JOEY and is Aurigny Air Services' pin up boy!

More recently, Guernsey has been back on my radar with the 2009 gift of a wonderful book "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" from that lifelong friend I met in Guernsey. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it, if you are wanting a gentle slow paced book which really brings the characters and Guernsey itself to life.

Late last year, a local friend Jesse recommended a relatively new craft podcast called iMake, by a woman called Martine, based in Guernsey. The mention of Guernsey had me interested right away without even listening to the podcast!

I am pleased to report that the iMake podcast is a really good listen, whether you are a "Guernsophile" (yes, I just made that word up!) or not. . . It is a multi-craft podcast, with an emphasis on knitting, but plenty of airtime for a multitude of other crafts including soap-making, precious metal clay jewellery, scrap-booking, sewing, candle making, card-making and heaps of other crafts too multitudinous to mention! There is even a regular "Guernsey section" and occasional "outside broadcasts" or visits from Martine's friend Charles who is a witty conversationalist and craftsman to boot! Martine's voice is very easy on the ears and her podcasts are usually around 25 to 30 minutes duration, which suits me perfectly as it means I can listen to an entire episode on my drive to work.

In a lovely circular scenario, which will become apparent eventually, in 2008 a local knitting friend Susan inspired me to start making a sock yarn blanket after I saw her beautiful mitred square sock yarn blanket. Last year I showed Jesse and the rest of the local knit group my sock yarn fish blanket, which inspired Jesse to start on making a mitred square sock yarn blanket of her own. In turn, Jesse inspired Martine to start her own sock yarn blanket and Martine set up a sock yarn swap circle, which I became part of! I received one box of sock yarn scraps from Martine and I sent a bag of sock yarn scraps to Guernsey long before I thought of writing this blog, but a couple of weeks ago another box of yarn arrived for Jesse and me to share, and tucked inside was a delicious lip balm for each of us. . . Thanks Martine!

Another amazing piece of Guernsey goodness happened last week when Martine asked me if I would like to be interviewed (by questionnaire) for her iMake website. That's a link to the "interview" by the way. . . and if you do have a look at it, make sure you have a good look around the rest of the iMake website. It's a very slick design and loads of interesting information and tutorials there, as well as the podcast and show notes. . . a wealth of information and inspiration to be found.