Adore Yoga Blog

Our Tea-cosy Celebrity!

While other yoga studios have images of the buddha or an altar dedicated to a guru, Adore has the Sacred Tea-cosy. Meet Rosemary Long, the extraordinary woman behind that marvellous cosy in the Avenue Rd studio.

Adore Yoga: How did your yoga practice start?

Rosemary Long: I moved to Byron Bay in early 2001 where the local real estate agent, a keen yogi, sold us our house and introduced us to Lance Shuler’s 5.45am Monday to Friday class! So that was it, five days a week, 2 hours a day at 5.45am. There were times when the effort of getting up early really hurt and times when it was just the best part of the day. I surprised myself that I continued but I got into the habit and now its about 10 years to the day since I attended my first class. 

AY: What do you love most about yoga? 

RL: I no longer do so many classes a week but I love the way yoga keeps me moving, stretching & strengthening my body so I can bend and lift in my ordinary day to day activities. I see older people getting around in those electric carts with a red flag on top and I hope I never have to do that. I want to keep my legs and arms moving naturally as long as possible. 

Yoga has also taught me how to deal with fear. When I first started yoga I rarely moved my left arm above my shoulder because I had dislocated my shoulder many years ago and I was extremely fearful of my arm separating from my shoulder again. It took many years of gradual improvement but now the fear is no longer there even if there is still some physical limitation. I used to get really angry doing standing poses which I came to realise was really my fear of the pose. Now if I get angry at something, I look to see if there is fear involved. Yoga has taught me to investigate all sorts of things. And frankly it just makes me feel good.

AY: You’re famous at our Avenue Road studio for your wonderful tea-cosy. How did you start crafting? 

RL: Like most women of my vintage, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t do some sort of craft. I’ve always knitted, crocheted and done a lot of sewing. Along the way I’ve also done leatherwork, stained glass, basket weaving, water colour painting, rug hooking, embroidery, tapestry weaving, needlepoint and macrame. 

I got rather bored with early retirement and opened a craft shop in Byron. It was always one of those things I wanted to do. It turned into a knitting shop and that’s when I met such lovely people as Loani Prior who writes the Wild Tea Cosy books.

AY: What keeps you crafting?

RL: I love working with my hands. Craft is a very tactile thing so I love the feel of whatever it is I’m making. When I’m knitting, I’m forever squeezing the knitted fabric and holding it up and running my hands over it, watching it drape and flow.  I also love colour which I really didn’t discover until I left the world of finance and insurance and devoted a lot more time to crafty things.

AY: How do you experience the benefits of yoga in everyday life?

RL: Yoga seems to complement anything else I do. Right now it stretches out my hands which can become cramped with all the knitting that I do. When I‘m busy it grounds me, when I’m bored, it uplifts me. I’m really quite dedicated to my weekly yoga class and besides, I then don’t feel guilty when I have my croissant and coffee.

AY: What do you do when you’re not knitting or doing yoga?

RL: At the moment my other passions are bird watching, patchwork quilting and music. I’m learning to play the lever harp. I just wish everyone would do some yoga. As we age our bodies stop being so flexible and yoga can be so helpful in all sorts of ways to keep the back from being painful, the hands from seizing up and all that sort of thing. Like most things, it helps to start early in life.