Dear Yogis,

PLEASE CHANGE MY EMAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR CONTACT LIST.  IT HAS BEEN CONFIRMED, MY NETCON ADDRESS IS FINISHING IN A WEEK OR SO, Chariot my ISP is closing its doors.  Technology has overtaken them.  They have struggled to supply a service all this year (it has been patchy) and they can’t keep going.  I have been with them for 30 years, so there are some changes I will have to make.  A nuisance and time consuming!)

Yesterday we had a VERY TINY yoga lunch, but that being said we had a wonderful time and solved the problems of the world as even a small group of women can do.  Please, please determine to come to our next one, mark it in your diary now – The last Thursday in August, the 30th, at 12 noon in the Victoria Hotel, Woodend.  Commit to this date, and let me know that you will be there.  I would like to book the meeting room just for us, but can’t unless we get a good number.

BEARS.  I have uploaded the first of my bear patterns to www.myyogabooks.etsy.com    The directions are all there for you to not only make a bear of your own, but also to get your group together and make bears for local charities.  It is easy enough to teach to children there are only three pattern pieces necessary (more are optional) and one main seam right around the outside of the bear.  You can upsize or downsize.  IT IS SIMPLE.  I just love making them and even DREAM about them.  Sitting up until all hours to add belly buttons etc.

I am starting some new bears today…. I will let you see them as i progress.

I also buy old knitted bears and animals from op-shops.  Wash, re-stuff, repair. redress,  and put new faces on them.  They go from scruffy, smelly, lumpy,  to beautiful.  I then give these away or sell them so I can make/fix. more to give away to children/people in need.  No matter the age, we all need something to cuddle and to love.

Dearest Yogis,

Wow – “what a difference a day makes”

OK.  So I now will be teaching yoga at Windarring in Kyneton from next Monday, (remember when we did it last time supported by one of our students, now supported by the Government).    The classes in our own studio are bumbling along, made hugely difficult by Covid.  People either have it, think they may have it, their family has it, or they are afraid of getting it.  All of these factors keep them away from class.  At the moment, I am still here.

I withdrew from lecturing next month at The Theosophical Society because I would have to travel on the train and nobody is wear masks, then move around Melbourne and lecture to a class of unknowns (mostly) probably not wearing masks… so I have determined that the risk is more than I want for something that is optional.  I am not hiding, I just am not taking on extra risk.  When people come to our classes I know who they are, and they have been very good at staying away if there are any health concerns.  I also have good ventilation and an ION AIR FILTRATION system which, unlike most schools, I know how it works, and actually switch it on!

Yogis have differing ideas about vaccination.  The vaccinated seem to be still adamant on keeping classes free from the unvax’d.  Although some who have had three and four vaccination have still caught MILD covid.  Even in our studio there are cases of people who are vaccinated having no symptoms of infection and then developing long covid.  It is tricky.  Everyone agrees that we probably will all at some stage get some variant, but almost everyone thinks it will not be them.  Covid could now be called endemic, and like the flu, we probably can all expect a dose every few years.

There is some talk in City Studios about the legality of asking people if they are vaccinated, and barring them from classes based on their answer..  It may be determined to be “discrimination”.  We shall have to wait and see what the outcome is over time – we have not yet had a test case come up, and it will take that to determine our legal position.

Most city classes no longer ask about vaccination, but ask if students have symptoms they stay home.  Compliance with this (as in our studio) is exceptionally good.

THE BEARS…..

The possibility of teaching “Making Friendship Bears” is quite exciting.  Actually making more Friendship Bears FOR  my students, and opening the doors to make Friendship Bears in the studio and in other studios and galleries makes me very happy.

I am exploring the possibility of making bears with Windarring (a community of persons with disabilities of all kinds)  because the bears can be made by people who can’t sew, as all the bits can be painted or drawn on with textile mediums.  All I have to do is cut out the bears, and for those who can’t sew, sew them up.  Everyone can draw the details on, and stuff them.  Then I finish them so they are ready to be loved.

Could you do this with your children or group? You can keep the bears, or you can pass them along to the service groups in your area – police, red-cross, rotary, Churches etc etc.  The bears are always in demand in their roles as either “Friendship Bears” or “Trauma Bears”.    If you are the social type, you can make small ones for wedding place cards, gifts for Baby-Showers, Birthday gifts and so on.  I have now put the pattern on etsy for downloading,  so, if you want to make your own FRIENDSHIP BEARS please go to www.myyogabooks.etsy.com

You don’t even need to have a sewing machine… you don’t need to be a fancy sewer, and there are only three pattern pieces – a back, a front and a muzzle.  Of course you can make them as fancy as you like…

“EASY PEASY” FRIENDSHIP BEAR MAKING WORKSHOP.(Limited numbers please book early).

When:  Saturday the 13th August
Where: the Yoga/Art Studio, 37 Morris Road, Woodend (please park on the white gravel) – I do have good ventilation and an ION AIR FILTRATION system, and unlike many schools, I actually do switch it on!
Cost: $45 including using some of my materials and a template of the bear to use and take home, although I ask that you bring a piece of fabric for the main colour, and contrast for the face and belly.
Please pre-pay so that I can get a template and little bag of possible materials organised for each student – you can add to these.

If you buy the pattern on Etsy I will have a free group zoom workshop, just to help you with the bits and pieces.  Etsy lets me know who buys the pattern as does pay-pal, so I will know who wants to do the zoom, and who to send the ID to.   It is the simplest of patterns, but there is the easy way and the hard way to do things.  I prefer the easy way.

Dear Yogis,

Yoga classes (any classes) are taking a bit of a hammering from covid, and the fact that once clients are “mended” they have focussed on the home and renovation, rather than their yoga schedule.  If you are lucky enough to snag a tradie you have to do the job in their time rather than yours, and I have found that yoga classes have been suffering from the choice.  I can understand it though – I have been trying to get some plumbing done for months and it is so hard (but not critical as some of your work is, was and has been)..

As covid progresses and prices for the basics rise, we all need another string to our bow (or in my case several), in order to get the income we once got from yoga classes alone.  Luckily right now I have sewing, darning, and bear making which not only fills the coffers, it is enjoyable, and the end result is that I can give the bears to charity, sell some, do classes – every bit of which gives me great joy.  It also means I can swap, barter, exchange and give others joy with the end result of my efforts (especially darning), and get some essential such as eggs, and cat meat in exchange.

We have to know ourselves.  I am a Capricorn – it is an advantage and a disadvantage.  We are goal oriented, so I know how to make the best of situations, but that goal orientation does make it a single minded path.  Some folk just don’t understand it – they are out having fun why don’t I? They want me to take a mid-day holiday but I don’t.  Why?   Because like the squirrel, I am laying aside stores for lean times.  It is my nature, and I feel relaxed when I have got the work done – then I can take time out.  I am a Capricorn – I   have to plan my spontaneous time.

“EASY PEASY” FRIENDSHIP BEAR MAKING WORKSHOP.(Limited numbers please book early).

When:  Saturday the 13th August
Where: the Yoga/Art Studio, 37 Morris Road, Woodend (please park on the white gravel) – I do have good ventilation and an ION AIR FILTRATION system, and unlike many schools, I actually do switch it on!
Cost: $45 including using some of my materials and a template of the bear, although I ask that you bring a piece of fabric for the main colour, and contrast for the face and belly.
Please pre-pay so that I can get a template and little bag of possible materials organised for each student – you can add to these.

This could be a Charity Bear, or it could be a Friendship Bear.  Our local ambulance service runs out of bears from time to time and we have been asked to top it up.  You could do the same for your local service clubs.  We should finish the bear in the time.  There is no knitting required just sewing.  No need for machines, we can do it all by hand, although you can use my machines if you are in the studio and want to do this.

In the next couple of days I will put a pattern on to Etsy (will let you know on Wednesday if it is there – although you could check) which you can adapt size-wise. I will have templates you can use in the studio.  Please bring half a metre of main fabric and half a metre of contrast and some odds and ends for eyes mouth etc.  You can see how I use them above – although the placement of the eyes and the belly are up to you.  The fabric  can be cotton or wool – polar fleece and  felt are the easiest because they don’t fray.  Actually I like a frayed edge.

If you buy the pattern on Etsy I will have a free group zoom workshop, just to help you with the bits and pieces.  Etsy lets me know who buys the pattern as does pay pal, so I will know who wants to do the zoom, and who to send the ID to.   It is the simplest of patterns, but there is the easy way and the hard way to do things.  I prefer the easy way.