Stravaiging

Welcome

In this space I aim to share behind-the-scenes happenings, the hiccups and hurrahs in my creative life, the occasional recipe, musings on the joys of small-scale walking and wandering, an interview or two, and other words as they spring up from my overactive imagination.

A little background?

I was born in the Scottish Borders, quite a while ago. Aged 12, though, I was on the move with parents and brothers to start a new life in the Outer Hebrides. Having the wild Atlantic only a minute from the door meant there was no shortage of fresh air and exercise to balance schoolwork and helping in the family's printworks.

My textile creativity comes from my mum, my love of words and paper from my dad.

On finishing school in Stornoway, I enrolled in a four-year full time course at the Scottish College of Textiles in the Borders (long since subsumed into Heriot Watt University), ultimately specialising in weaving.

Back to the islands I went, with a beautiful hand-built wooden floor loom, where I set to weaving mainly shawls and floor rugs. I learned to hand-spin too, taught by a speech therapist on secondment to the island hospital from London.

Since my twenties I have lived in 11 different locations, including the island of Orkney for a year, and had 8 respectable jobs before launching out as The Border Tart.