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A note on daily journaling with a tarot card.
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As a part of my overall wellness journey I start each day with journaling. I try to capture my mood, be aware of how my body is feeling, make a note of any dreams. Essentially it’s about setting my intentions for the day with mindfulness and awareness of how I am feeling and thinking.…
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The Wonky Bag – a loopy love story
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Blog Post 1 of 4: The Wonky Bag: The Inspiration & The Lean (Intro to the Design) Hey there, fellow makers and lovers of unique things! Kay here, the heart and hands behind Indie Heart Crochet. I’m absolutely thrilled to be introducing you to my first crochet pattern, one that perfectly encapsulates everything I…
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Queen of Cups: Finding My Magic and Dreaming Big
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I’m having a recurring thought of late that my soul mate is not far away. He’s a sensitive, creative, artistic soul. We will understand each other instinctively, allow each other space to grow individually, and support each other to thrive together. Oh yes, she’s a dreamy one, this Queen of Cups.
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The Day the World Turned Around: Finding Joy and Resilience Amidst Life’s Battles
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I don’t have the answers, but it starts with conversations. It starts by being prepared to rip up what’s not working. We come in all shapes, sizes, and forms and need to feel welcomed, supported, understood, and included by systems that are reflective and responsive—not rigid and reactionary. We shouldn’t need to feel we…
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Two of Pentacles Reversed: Juggling Dormancy
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Enjoy the branches, now unburdened of their leaves. The leaves now lying on the bare earth of the garden to break down, to become the compost. The nutrients for the arrival of spring. When seeds can be planted and growth can be anticipated.
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The Sweet Satisfaction of the Quick Finish: A Crochet Reflection
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Well, isn’t that just exactly what I was saying? It’s astounding to me how often the card a day is so pertinent. I wrote my reflections before picking the card, as is my way when I already have thoughts to reflect into my journal. But I can gain further clarity from the book interpretations.
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S.A.D, Gluten-Carb Trap and think before you press send
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Armed with that, I can approach this year’s SAD onset differently. Granted, I still felt the rug being pulled from underneath me, unceremoniously, successfully, and invisibly for the first couple of days. But I see you now, and I challenge you. You might be making your annual visit, but I’m not making up a…
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The Knight of Cups, Seasonal Blues, and the Problem with Milk
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14th of November, and the Knight of Cups rides in. I don’t draw this card often, so I’m studying every detail with fresh eyes. Cups signify community, union, and partnership. He’s more than a mere Knight; he wears the winged helmet of Hermes, the messenger, or perhaps Cupid. He looks intently into his golden…
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The Reversed Tower: Finding Resilience in the Midst of Minor Alarms
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13th of November, and the cards offer a paradoxical image: The Tower, reversed. I admit, my deck maintenance has been lacking since my last full moon cleanse. My usual ritual of ordering the cards, all upright, was abandoned. I simply scooped them up and left them, leading to an interesting side effect: a much…
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Miserly with My Energy – The Four of Pentacles and a Rest Day
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12 Nov It’s the 12th of November, and this morning, my mind is a blank slate. Nothing is on my mind, apart from random thoughts about water—the hard rain outside, rinsing my toothbrush, measuring just enough water for the kettle. I’m pondering how water seems to be in all the wrong places, and the…
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The Quiet Aching: Loneliness, Solitude, and the Magic of Crochet
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11.11.25 It’s a very quiet dark morning, not as still as the last couple of days. I can hear wind and rain. I like that. The stillness in the quiet can be a reminder that it’s just me here. All on my lonesome. I always tell myself, I am not lonely. I live alone.…
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The Day I Gave Up Being the Hamster on the Wheel (Six of Wands Reversed)
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I woke up well-rested—a reward, I suspect, for recent exhaustion that went far beyond typical fatigue. I’m taking back control this morning, starting with my delicious coffee and the corvids calling. When Journaling Stops Being Therapeutic I didn’t intend to write about this, but I’ve realized my journaling dynamic has changed since I started…
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Gratitude for Pink Skies and The Hermit’s Call
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9th of November I’m starting my day with gratitude, woken in a much better mood than of late. I was aware almost immediately of an orangey-pink light surrounding my room. I’d slept past sun-up and what majesty the sunrise had brought. Pink sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning, but impossible to ignore how pretty…
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Eight of Wands: Frantically Going Nowhere
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Living with Fibromyalgia Second outing for the Eight of Wands this week I note. I haven’t felt at all well for the past week, and I have to remind myself sometimes that I live with fibromyalgia. The pain and discomfort are daily constants, as is the truly crazy sleep I experience. The temperature fluctuations…
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Nine of Wands: The Warrior’s Fatigue
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It’s the 6th of November, and I’m pulling the Nine of Wands. If I had a handy mnemonic guide to the suits, I wouldn’t need to test my morning brain power. But where’s the fun in that? Today, I’m choosing one interpretation: Warrior, Action, Necessity, Determination. Yes, that will do. I feel like a…
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The Quiet Morning: Bonfire Night Reflections and the Wheel of Fortune
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5th of November bonfire night. I’m not going to draw a card first. I’m going to reflect first today. I live quite high up and have a great view over town from an upstairs window—a vantage point that has offered spectacular views of fireworks for miles on New Year’s Eve. If I suspend the…
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Five of Pentacles, Doctors, and the Chronic Fatigue Trade-Off
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It’s November 4th, and the Tarot card I drew today is the Five of Pentacles. Looking at those poor souls—cold, battered, and crying—you’d think I was down on my luck. While that’s not exactly how I’m feeling, I’ll heed the warning. My Fitbit keeps nagging me about “overtraining” lately, though I’m certainly not training…
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The Eight of Wands: Rushing Ahead, Crafting Joy
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November 3rd: Sparking Creativity Wands are Fire, the spark of Creativity. If I had to create a guiding phrase for the Wands suit, it would be: Willpower, Action, Nurture, Determination. That feels like a solid foundation for the week ahead, even if it’s not textbook perfect. I absolutely love a Monday morning. It’s a…
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The Crochet Sustainability Deep Dive: A 4-Part Love Letter to Yarn That Doesn’t Wreck Everything
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Part 4: The Plot Twist (Or: It’s Actually Getting Better Out There) Right, after three parts of complicated nuance and occasional moth-related trauma, let’s talk about something genuinely hopeful: the sustainable yarn landscape is actually improving. This isn’t greenwashing or wishful thinking – there are real innovations happening, real companies doing good work, and…
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The Crochet Sustainability Deep Dive: A 4-Part Love Letter to Yarn That Doesn’t Wreck Everything
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Part 3: The Making Matters (Or: Slow Craft as Radical Resistance) Here’s something the mainstream sustainability conversation often misses: the act of making is itself a form of environmental activism. Not in a precious, “I’m saving the planet one granny square at a time” way, but in a very real sense. When you make…
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The Crochet Sustainability Deep Dive: A 4-Part Love Letter to Yarn That Doesn’t Wreck Everything
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Part 2: The Stash Whisperer (Or: How I Learned to Love Secondhand Yarn and Fear the Moth) Let’s talk about something most crocheters don’t like to acknowledge: we all have too much yarn. “There’s no such thing” I hear you cry, and I’m crying along guilty as the next in this particular conundrum. I’m…
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The Crochet Sustainability Deep Dive: A 4-Part Love Letter to Yarn That Doesn’t Wreck Everything
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Part 1: The Yarn Situation (Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Interrogate My Fibre Choices) Let’s address the acrylic elephant in the room, shall we? You know the one. It’s sitting there in your stash, possibly in a shade called “Passionate Plum” or “Ocean Mist,” and it cost £2.50 for 400 meters,…
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The Infernal Internal Jukebox: My Constant Companion
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A post about my internal infernal jukebox. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have my internal infernal jukebox. I used to think that everybody had one, perhaps confusing what people call earworms with my own unique experience. It was only after a few conversations about earworms that I realised what I have…
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The Great Crochet Starting Chain Debate: A Geeky Deep Dive Into Rounds That Don’t Count as Stitches
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Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Ch-3 (That Doesn’t Count) I’ve recently published my very first pattern, a free version of the whole pattern. A paid version is coming later with photos, a chart, and a few other bells and whistles, but more of that later. A lovely person contacted…
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Wonky Bag – a loopy love story 3
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Blog Post 3 of 4: The Wonky Bag: Your Project, Your Way (Creative Expression & Pattern Versions) Welcome back, fellow makers! We’ve explored the origins and clever construction of The Wonky Bag in Part 1: The Wonky Bag: The Inspiration & The Lean (Intro to the Design) The Wonky Bag – a loopy love…
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Wonky Bag – a loopy love story 2
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Blog Post 2 of 4: The Wonky Bag: Beyond the Basic (Construction & Customization) Welcome back, fellow makers! If you’re joining me from [https://indieheartcrochet.com/the-wonky-bag-a-loopy-love-story/Part 1: The Wonky Bag: The Inspiration & The Lean (Intro to the Design)], you’ve learned about the concept and origin of my inaugural pattern, The Wonky Bag, and the playful…
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A Fish Out of Water: Embracing the Transition
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Tuning into the Internal Jukebox 23rd of October and I have drawn the page of Cups. My internal infernal jukebox (There’s a post about that here (The Infernal Internal Jukebox: My Constant Companion) has been playing Sympathy for the Devil since I woke up. Navigating the Waters: From Theory to Practice with the Page…
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Taking a Pause to Practice Gratitude
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The “Four of Cups” on October 22nd – three goblets on a table, with a fourth being offered from a cloud to a deeply contemplative figure. This figure, lost in thought, seems oblivious to the new opportunity presented. Initially, I perceived a sense of sadness in the figure, but upon deeper reflection, it’s more…
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West Yorkshire Spinners Elements DK: A Review
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I’ve made a wonky bag using Elements DK from West Yorkshire Spinners. How would I describe this yarn? Naturally, it’s light and luxurious. Elements DK is a sophisticated yarn in shades inspired by the joyful hues of Summer. This sustainable yarn has been created with the environment in mind and uses a naturally harmonious…
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Old Spool, New Sparkle: Turning Vintage Thread into Eco-Friendly Christmas Joy
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I’ve had this old thread in one of my boxes for I don’t know how long. I think the spool itself is absolutely beautiful—it’s really solid wood—and the thread, well, I don’t know what you do with it. I’m wondering if it might have come from my Nan’s old box, in which case, it…
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The Tower: Demolishing and Rebuilding for a Breakthrough
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The Tower card has appeared, a powerful, albeit initially heart-sinking, symbol. Yet, it arrives at a crucial moment, demanding I confront a quandary that has plagued me: when to truly launch my venture. I’ve soft-launched, offering a free pattern, and am diligently building blog content. But without anything to sell, I’m not yet a…
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The World: Untangling the Threads and Finding My Flow
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The 18th of October started with a wonderful “lightbulb moment” around 1 am! You know those moments when you’ve been wrestling with a problem all day, a knotty puzzle to untangle, and then BAM! Your sleeping brain just hands you the solution? I absolutely love it when that happens! This particular puzzle has been…
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Three of Wands: Navigating the Tides of Expectation and Reality.
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A Wistful Mood and a Big Life UpdateToday, I feel a sense of relief. A couple of evenings ago, I composed a significant life update on my personal Facebook account. I was incredibly nervous about how it would be received, a classic case of overthinking. Thankfully, the responses were largely positive. While it’s impossible…
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The Persistent Ace of Wands: Embracing New Beginnings
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I drew the Eight of Wands six days ago, and it keeps reappearing. This often happens; a card will keep showing up until I’ve fully absorbed its message. For a long time, that card was the Ten of Swords – it got to the point where I considered buying a new deck! But no,…
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Justice: A “Soft Launch” and a Hard Truth
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Justice: A “Soft Launch” and a Hard Truth Today, October 13th, was supposed to be launch day. The Tarot card I pulled? Justice. I’ve had this card fairly recently, and remembering its various interpretations without opening a book, is a perfect example of why my previous musings about becoming a Tarot reader needed to…
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Why I decided to start a crochet business
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I first found crochet when I was going through a hard time. I’d always knitted and found that to be very relaxing. Somehow the craft of crochet kept eluding me. One particularly rough day, in need of distraction, and what I now understand to be a desire for mindfulness, I went to pick out…
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Why Wonky? The Science of the Lean: Why Crochet Leans (And Why That’s Beautiful)
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A post for the geeks and the curious. An in-depth exploration of the mathematics, physics, and geometry behind crochet’s natural lean If you’ve ever noticed your work starting to curve or lean to one side, you’re not alone – and you’re definitely not doing anything wrong. What you’re experiencing is one of crochet’s most…
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The Eight of Wands: A Day Off (Sort Of)
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The Eight of Wands: A Day Off (Sort Of) October 13th, the Eight of Wands. I desperately needed a day off, a complete mental break from all things Indie Heart Crochet. Easier said than done, as it turns out. This week has been anything but plain sailing, with endless issues developing and building the…
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Judgement Day is Fast Approaching
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Judgement Day: Embracing the Imperfect Launch Today is the 11th of October, and I have drawn Judgement. I should be launching my new venture on the 13th of October. So Judgement Day is fast approaching! I had first wanted to launch on the 1st of October—the first always feels like a good day to…
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The Unstable Vessel: A Meditation on the Eight of Cups
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Oh boy. Eight of Cups. I’ve come crashing down to earth reality with a huge bang. I suddenly realised yesterday evening like a thunderclap: I’ve done all this preparation, some of it years in the making, and I’ve overlooked one very, very, very important piece of the puzzle. These days, possibly the most important…
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Ace of Cups: A Morning of Inspiration
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October 9th and I’ve pulled the Ace of Cups. Wowzer. Two Aces in a row! I’m up super early, which is not unusual for me. The sky is deliciously dark, and the stars—oh my, the stars—they’re so bright against the velvet night. Not forgetting the moon, which is just off from being full. I…
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The Ace of Wands: A Spark of New Beginnings
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8th of October – and today’s card is the Ace of Wands. Wow, powerful cards recently. I try and remember the suits through acronyms—on account of my brain not being able to remember things forever—I realize how many years I’ve never been able to recall all the card meanings. I wonder if this is…
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A Page of Swords Day: Finding Action and Mindfulness in the Everyday
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October 7th: The Page Arrives I had thought I’d draw one of the fours today, expecting a day of stability or pause, but the cards had other ideas. Instead, I drew the Page of Swords. The figure stands right on the edge of a cliff, a sword held firmly in two hands—a picture of…
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The Chariot: Full Steam Ahead on the Journey of Self
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6th of October: A Day of Unstoppable Momentum The Chariot. Yay. Full steam ahead. Today is the 6th of October, and the energy of this card is palpable, guiding my steps and settling my mind. I woke up at 8:45 a.m.—a rare luxury— I was wide awake between between 1.00 and 4.00 a.m though,…
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Navigating Emotions with Tarot: The Empress
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So, this is my reading from October the 5th. And I pulled the Empress card. Good morning world. Am I ready for the day? I am not. But I’m willing to be, very, very willing. Lots to do. I overdid working on the Wonky chart the other morning and had to seriously rest my…