About Elinor

I was born at some point during the 1960s and live somewhere in the UK, along with three cats of various sizes and temperaments.  I have my own business – a music agency specialising in classical singers – and a day job that I’m gradually winding down as I build up the business.

I learnt to knit and crochet at an early age, but was always more interested in knitting because it seemed to be the more versatile of the two crafts.  By my mid-twenties I was an expert knitter, capable of designing complex patterns including arans.  Unfortunately, I then developed tenosynovitis in both wrists as a result of using a heavy old-fashioned manual typewriter, and it has never cleared up.  I now have to wear wrist splints during waking hours, and I am no longer able to knit because it gets very painful after just a few stitches.  I can still crochet to some extent, but have to be careful how much of it I do at a sitting.

This left rather a hole in my leisure activities, and so I started looking for needlecrafts that I could do.  There was always dressmaking, which I have done for most of my life (by hand; I have difficulty getting on with sewing machines), but I wanted something else.  For a time I did a great deal of cross stitch, which I still do now and again, and I also experimented with different forms of lacemaking.  I would probably still be making bobbin lace if the cats had not come along, but I acquired all of them as kittens, and lace bobbins and kittens are not a good combination!  In the last year or so, however, I discovered the SCA, and with it an entire range of lesser-known historical crafts which got me very excited, most notably lucet cording and tablet weaving.  I rarely go anywhere without my lucet, and I can often be seen cording with it on public transport, which is a great conversation starter.  I’ve had some lovely chats with people whose curiosity has finally got the better of them to the point where they’ve asked, “OK, so what exactly is that?”  Recently I’ve also found a way to make the weaving portable – it involves a cheap chopping board, a G-clamp and a bulldog clip – so I’ve started taking that on longer train journeys.

When I’m not at work or crafting, I read avidly, write occasional stories and poems, translate mediaeval and Renaissance poetry from Italian (and sometimes French), bake interesting things, maintain a couple of websites, and stay in touch with a very wide and interesting circle of friends who mostly live at a distance.  I also go to quite a lot of concerts featuring baroque and early music, and as a result of voice lessons I have been transformed from a nervous lady tenor into a pretty decent-sounding mezzo.  The voice lessons continue, as there is still room for improvement – isn’t there always?

And, finally, I am a very big fan of old-fashioned yo-yos, the sort with the fixed string.  Because someone ought to be. 🙂