Well, I was going to blather on about something else today but this morning I was horrified to read this article on the BBC News Website: Music tuition falling, poll says. Now, the article does go onto say that other studies have found that the number of children learning to play a musical instrument is higher than that found in the ICM survey but the stats were enough to make me sit up and pay attention.

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to have music lessons throughout my time at school; I am very grateful for the work the Kent Music School do in allowing kids to have music tuition during school hours. After trying keyboard and singing lessons (the latter I only gave up because my teacher left to have a baby and I didn’t gel with her replacement), I eventually started to learn to play the euphonium when I was 15. Learning the euphonium not only helped to give my brain a break from the stress of GCSEs/A-levels and provide me with a creative outlet, it also introduced me to the fun of playing in ensembles (and, well, brass players are a mischievous lot, truth be told). Oh yeah, and I learned not to be a complete spanner when speaking to boys (long story short, I went to an all-girls school so not much chance of learning to non-spannerness in that environment) – my first ever crush was on one of the trumpet players though I don’t think he ever knew.

The thought that children these days are less likely to have that opportunity makes me really sad.

Learning music has been shown to improve children’s learning (especially in maths, which makes sense seeing as notes in bars vaguely work the same as fractions) but it brings so much creativity and the ability to socialise. I’m not saying all children should be forced to learn an instrument because some don’t want to, but I do wonder if any problems in musical-instrument-uptake is due to children not having the opportunity to find out about the plethora of instruments out there for them to learn.

At the very least, I think there should be a way to help those who do want to learn an instrument to explore what they can learn and then find a way to finance their tuition. I know it’s easier said than done in today’s economic climate but there must be a way, mustn’t there?

I have actually been knitting in my absence from knit-blogging! Honest!

In fact, I’ve been doing more fibrecrafting in the past couple of months than I did in the entire first half of the year which is good. It all kicked off, really, with my trip to the Isle of Lewis, Scotland in July. I could actually relax and I had plenty of time to haul out the needles and get knitting. I managed to knit an entirely Swallowtail Shawl in 1½ weeks (granted, one of the Sundays I was up there I spent most of the day curled up in bed knitting which helped) – unfortunately, once I got back and blocked the shawl I realised I’d dropped a stitch in one of the final details so I’m going to have to fudge a repair on that once I get the spare yarn back from Ali.

Since my return from Scotland, there has been Knit Nation (which deserves a post all of its own, so that can wait for another day), an evening with my local knitting circle, several afternoons spent with some adorable sheep and a glorious Bank Holiday Monday spent with my friend E and M from knitting circle just spinning, chatting and learning how to comb wool.

I finally finished my flatmates socks too (it’s only taken me eight months and three pattern changes *headdesk*). She really likes them, which is great and they’ve been made just in time for the change in weather too!

Now those socks are finished, I’ve finally been able to start on the Knit Love Club 2010 socks – I’m so far behind everyone, but it doesn’t matter because I’m having so much fun knitting the pattern for the first sock.

Hopefully I’ll be able to get plenty more spinning and knitting in before the end of the year. However, even if I don’t I’m sure I’ll thoroughly enjoy whatever I do get around to doing. It’s certainly good to be back on the fibrecraft bandwagon again – it’s been far too long.