2011: The One Where I go Exploring

This was meant to be one of those New Year posts. You know the ones? ‘This is what I’ll be up to this year and these are my resolutions’.

Hmm, well. It isn’t one of those posts anymore, and not only because it isn’t the newest of new years anymore. I don’t really tend to do resolutions very well. I don’t keep them for one thing.

So instead of resolutions per se, I’m going for more of an overreaching arc that I will try to apply to all sorts of areas of my life: this is to be my Year of Exploration. Er, not exploration as in trekking off to the Andes or into the depths of the Grand Canyon (well not this year anyway), although there is a metaphor there.

In 2011, I’d like to make a change to things; to explore in a different way. In particular I’m going to overhaul the disparate way that I usually start to research things. Sometimes there is a good solid reason behind the research, such as an article, but often it is far more sporadic, and sends me off all over the place without actually getting much in the way of deeper research done. Oh, to be able to concentrate, sometimes! Everything is too exciting… (Do you find this too?)

I know that once I get into a deeper groove of examining and researching around one particular subject, it comes to life so much more: it leads off in unexpected paths and, frankly gets me more and more excited about that one thing.

This year of exploration is the start of a bigger research project that I will keep track of on the site. I’d like to share what I find out with you, in a series of topics. I want to bring you interesting insights on all manner of textiles and textile-related stuff: historic and contemporary. I’m planning to investigate themes over a few weeks or so, finding out about their history, the way they affect the world, giving you interesting links and books to read for further information and opening your mind to what might be thought of as some more perhaps, shall we say, mundane topics.

I’m going to start with a little bit of laundrywork…