Yes I know some may still be experiencing hot weather. And the calendar doesn't officially turn to fall until September 23 at about 5:05 PM (in the northern hemisphere). But it's here in River City already, I tell you. There is that distinctive hint of coolness within and behind the warmth of the sun. The air has that autumnal cooling and the sunshine has the particular golden quality which signals the end of the summer.
Autumn sunlight is like no other. Firstly, the sky appears slightly hazed even on the brightest day. Unless you are looking directly at the zenith, the sky appears to have a faint pall of smoke or haze drawn across the deep blue. The sunlight is filtered through this haze. The haze could be a general casting over the whole of North America or it could be local: the haze of the many wildfires across our continent every summer, or someone burning garbage a few blocks away. The heated inversion holding the smog closer to the ground. Whatever the cause, the haze is there.
And then the light itself. The sunshine has a weakness despite a glaring golden brightness. It seems all the brighter perhaps for some trick that it is shining through the atmosphere at a different angle than it has for the last 3 months. But you can feel that it lacks the punch of intensity it had in July and August although the temp may still be high. You can stand out in the light longer, and the sun seems more goldeny bright than before but the brightness is all optical not radiant. I love this light. The sunsets are all the more tinged with pinks and blues for the gold in the daytime sun. It promises crisp cold days soon to come.
My summer flew by, despite being rather lazy. I got to go swimming a few times, thank you Tina. I got to visit the grandkids a few times. I knitted myself a dress. I read a few books.
Now I am rushing to get going with my Christmas knitting. I have started with easy things. I have discovered in the last week that I love the look of linen or tweed stitch but oh boy, I do not like to do it. Trouble is I have a half completed very densely knit linen-stitch placemat. I dont think I can bear to finish- it's killing my right hand and its yarnivorous like no other. I will finish and it can become a lone plant doily or something.
One string bag is also nearly completed. Mesh stitch, I do love you!
Meantime I am planning out the other hand knit gifts for my little family and friends. For the first time in years I am actually looking forward to fall and winter. Many fellow crafters know. These seasons are the best time for knitting cuddly stuff to give to friends, family and strangers. Keep yourself warm with the afghan you are crocheting or knitting. Create and fulfill your destiny as you select the design, the yarn, the colors, for some work of art that will be given to one you love. It is the ulitmate in creativity.
Sculpting life out of fiber, one stitch at a time.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Aging Gracelessly
Sheesh. My icon, my hero, my favorite singer, songwriter, poet and odd duck, Bob Dylan turned 70 on May 24th. I am sure you read all about this stunning event in Rolling Stone and a host of other magazines.
Since it's all about me, here, I have to tell you that this realization that Mr. Dylan is 70 somehow both magnified and trivialized my own birthday, which was Tuesday. I mean, who am I? I'm just me, and I am 55. Bob Dylan is Bob Dylan and he is important and after a lifetime of some surely hard living, he is still going strong at 70.
So my own birthday is both a milestone and just another step along a dark corridor. But I am starting to see the home stretch, to imagine the light at the end of a tunnel: you know the one where you show up every day for 30 years and then get a cake and then you are retired. If you make it. If you can survive every last minute that was wrung from your existence by a job you really just have to go to, if you don't drop in the traces and just keel over, or go out in a blaze of glory with a tragic car wreck on your morning commute, or slowly dwindle away from a cancer caused by too much stress and exposure to copier fumes.
So this little tiny light at the end of the tunnel represents the transition between 'have to' and 'want to'.
If Bob Dylan can turn 70, so can I, a concept which is both scary and liberating at the same time. I'm not 70 now, but I have often wondered if I would make it to the magic 58. What's so different about 58, you may ask? 58 doesn't seem a particularly important birthday, nor does 55. They are both between 50, surely a milestone birthday and 60 which sometimes borders on seeming dodderingly old. And I don't believe 60 is old. My mom died at 58 and I will be 58 when I can retire from my drudging civil servant job. So the thought that maybe, if I play my cards right, say the right incantations, don't tempt fate, behave myself and stay home, stay sober and stay safe, pray to the right gods, eat the right foods, drink the right water, take the correct vitamins, exercise, get enough sleep, do good works,... maybe I can get a reprieve from death for a few more years after.
If I can make it to 70 I will have lived longer than both my parents who died relatively young. If Dylan can make it to 70 and still be relevant and inspiring, maybe I can too. Perhaps I can become relevant to myself.
What am I saying? I am saying that it is possible to have a whole other life after retirement. I believe, I believe, I believe...
The life I want to live. Marsha Sinetar urged us to "Do What You Want- The Money Will Follow" and I have been struggling to do that around my job for the last 30+ years. It has been hard, the years of child rearing and working full time take their toll. Now I have enchanting grandchildren who are the apples of my eye, the reason for my existence, the closure of the full circle of my life.
Now I feel that I can finally start reaching for that brass ring: it's tantalizingly close. I want to become the artist I have always secretly hoped is inside of me. I want to transform my life. I want to matter more to myself than I do now. Stop thinking of myself as a servant and drudge and start imagining the person I want to be, who is locked inside, waiting for liberation. The creative type, the artist, or at least artisan, the crafter, the happy person I am on the cusp of becoming.
But having said all that, what if I fail at being creative? What if I just sleep in every morning and putter around all day for the rest of my life? If that's all there is, if I can't do better than that, then I might as well either keep working or just pack it in.
Since it's all about me, here, I have to tell you that this realization that Mr. Dylan is 70 somehow both magnified and trivialized my own birthday, which was Tuesday. I mean, who am I? I'm just me, and I am 55. Bob Dylan is Bob Dylan and he is important and after a lifetime of some surely hard living, he is still going strong at 70.
So my own birthday is both a milestone and just another step along a dark corridor. But I am starting to see the home stretch, to imagine the light at the end of a tunnel: you know the one where you show up every day for 30 years and then get a cake and then you are retired. If you make it. If you can survive every last minute that was wrung from your existence by a job you really just have to go to, if you don't drop in the traces and just keel over, or go out in a blaze of glory with a tragic car wreck on your morning commute, or slowly dwindle away from a cancer caused by too much stress and exposure to copier fumes.
So this little tiny light at the end of the tunnel represents the transition between 'have to' and 'want to'.
If Bob Dylan can turn 70, so can I, a concept which is both scary and liberating at the same time. I'm not 70 now, but I have often wondered if I would make it to the magic 58. What's so different about 58, you may ask? 58 doesn't seem a particularly important birthday, nor does 55. They are both between 50, surely a milestone birthday and 60 which sometimes borders on seeming dodderingly old. And I don't believe 60 is old. My mom died at 58 and I will be 58 when I can retire from my drudging civil servant job. So the thought that maybe, if I play my cards right, say the right incantations, don't tempt fate, behave myself and stay home, stay sober and stay safe, pray to the right gods, eat the right foods, drink the right water, take the correct vitamins, exercise, get enough sleep, do good works,... maybe I can get a reprieve from death for a few more years after.
If I can make it to 70 I will have lived longer than both my parents who died relatively young. If Dylan can make it to 70 and still be relevant and inspiring, maybe I can too. Perhaps I can become relevant to myself.
What am I saying? I am saying that it is possible to have a whole other life after retirement. I believe, I believe, I believe...
The life I want to live. Marsha Sinetar urged us to "Do What You Want- The Money Will Follow" and I have been struggling to do that around my job for the last 30+ years. It has been hard, the years of child rearing and working full time take their toll. Now I have enchanting grandchildren who are the apples of my eye, the reason for my existence, the closure of the full circle of my life.
Now I feel that I can finally start reaching for that brass ring: it's tantalizingly close. I want to become the artist I have always secretly hoped is inside of me. I want to transform my life. I want to matter more to myself than I do now. Stop thinking of myself as a servant and drudge and start imagining the person I want to be, who is locked inside, waiting for liberation. The creative type, the artist, or at least artisan, the crafter, the happy person I am on the cusp of becoming.
But having said all that, what if I fail at being creative? What if I just sleep in every morning and putter around all day for the rest of my life? If that's all there is, if I can't do better than that, then I might as well either keep working or just pack it in.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
PS
In the blog I just wrote I tried in vain to link to Mothed by Mags Kandis which is a lovely free pattern from Knitty Deep Fall 2010. Since I am a noob to all things url go to Knitty.com and search Mothed to see the pattern I have been trying to link to!
Spring is arriving...
Want to know how I know? Last Thursday driving home from work, out of the corner of my eye as I went down the ramp where I-5 merges with I-405,I swear that I could see a faint blush of pink in the trees that grow along the ramp. These are trees that will have a definite pink bloom soon. I dont know what kind of trees they are (I think some type of plum) but I really thought I was imagining things. Not the actual blossoms yet, just the sort of coloring the branches acquire from the buds that are just peeping out from under their little covers. Then last night in my neighborhood I spotted a huge clump of daffodils in full bloom on the corner. They were beautiful in the fading light. Now I know that those distinctive chirps I heard outside this weekend were real: robins do herald spring.
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee was writing about spring, isn't everyone writing about spring? She was enjoying new yarn for her March socks. A beautiful bud-like spring green. I have some new yarn coming this week...any day now in fact for a nice spring cardigan to wear with skirts. I have a cardigan's worth of my first order of Wool of the Andes by Knitpicks enroute. A beautiful aquamarine that I imagine to be perfect with all the print skirts I plan on making...and that brings me to:
patterns- specifically cardigan patterns.
I still haven't decided which cardigan pattern to knit from this yarn I have coming, and I need to get on the ball. I have spent probably 90 hours over the last 2 weeks browsing Ravelry for cardigan patterns. I have downloaded probably 50 or more freebs. I have about 15 books on hold at the library that should start trickling in any day. And I still have no clue what cardigan I am knitting from my yarn!
First off, it has to be a cardigan, it can't be a pullover. Why? Because in the chaos of a hotflash, I want to be able to merely flip it open, cooling my neck and chest so that I don't expire from excess heat buildup in my upper torso. Pullovers are a pain, you have to take them off over your head and mess up your hair and usually when I am experiencing one of my "power surges" I forget to take my glasses off first, and invariably end up with those askew or one hoop earring dangerously tangled in said pullover.
Second the pattern has to be the perfect card. I don't want it too short (I look hideous in cropped anything), I don't want it too long-this is for spring remember (so not a car-coat). I don't want it too plain-you know something a little challenging, but not too hard. I don't like the look of too lacy (as in too hard or too busy) or too cabley-read as bulky appearing, nor do I want it too heavy in actual weight, nor too light, nor a pattern requiring silky drapey yarn (the yarn I am using is wool) and of course I dont' want the pattern to be too difficult. I prefer seamless, but I can do seaming I just don't like it.
Third to consider is shape. I want it fitted but not tight across the midriff-bulge area. So I'm not keen on ribbing right there. But for a cardigan I don't want the hem curling. So that means a band that won't roll. Which means something other than stockinette all the way to the bottom edge. I don't want to actually have to sew a hem either. And I don't want it so complicated that it takes a year to finish.
So where does that leave us? With diddly. I still can't decide. I have confidence I can select and execute a reasonably attractive, beautifully finished hand-knit cardigan. So long as it meets all the criteria above.
Originally it was going to be a pullover. There is a pattern I fell in love with and want to make, and I had successfully nearly completed, called Mothed, from Knitty by Mags Kandis. I absolutely love that pattern. I was executing it from grey and black Simply Soft just to get the hang of it. It was turning out very well and I was 3/4 done when I ran out of yarn on the sleeves and set the whole thing aside, in order to complete Christmas knitting, fully intending to get more Simply Soft after Christmas to complete it.
Which I did. And then: I accidentally brushed my wrist brace against the front of the sweater--the velcro part of the wrist brace came in contact with all that stockinette. Right smack-dab in the middle of the front. The sweater is ruined. Not only did the velcro pull the stiches as in creating a huge 2" across pucker/run, the velcro tugged actual fibers out of the yarn itself creating a clump of acrylic fuzz. It is ugly and huge and very noticeable and impossible to fix with blocking or anything else. I nearly cried, but then reminded myself that I had only lost about $5 worth of yarn, most of which can be reused after frogging and that I had learned how to execute a simple top-down raglan. And it will look good on me when I knit it again in different yarn.
But returning to the subject at hand? This new spring project is going to be a cardigan.
There are many many good candidates out there. But which one?
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee was writing about spring, isn't everyone writing about spring? She was enjoying new yarn for her March socks. A beautiful bud-like spring green. I have some new yarn coming this week...any day now in fact for a nice spring cardigan to wear with skirts. I have a cardigan's worth of my first order of Wool of the Andes by Knitpicks enroute. A beautiful aquamarine that I imagine to be perfect with all the print skirts I plan on making...and that brings me to:
patterns- specifically cardigan patterns.
I still haven't decided which cardigan pattern to knit from this yarn I have coming, and I need to get on the ball. I have spent probably 90 hours over the last 2 weeks browsing Ravelry for cardigan patterns. I have downloaded probably 50 or more freebs. I have about 15 books on hold at the library that should start trickling in any day. And I still have no clue what cardigan I am knitting from my yarn!
First off, it has to be a cardigan, it can't be a pullover. Why? Because in the chaos of a hotflash, I want to be able to merely flip it open, cooling my neck and chest so that I don't expire from excess heat buildup in my upper torso. Pullovers are a pain, you have to take them off over your head and mess up your hair and usually when I am experiencing one of my "power surges" I forget to take my glasses off first, and invariably end up with those askew or one hoop earring dangerously tangled in said pullover.
Second the pattern has to be the perfect card. I don't want it too short (I look hideous in cropped anything), I don't want it too long-this is for spring remember (so not a car-coat). I don't want it too plain-you know something a little challenging, but not too hard. I don't like the look of too lacy (as in too hard or too busy) or too cabley-read as bulky appearing, nor do I want it too heavy in actual weight, nor too light, nor a pattern requiring silky drapey yarn (the yarn I am using is wool) and of course I dont' want the pattern to be too difficult. I prefer seamless, but I can do seaming I just don't like it.
Third to consider is shape. I want it fitted but not tight across the midriff-bulge area. So I'm not keen on ribbing right there. But for a cardigan I don't want the hem curling. So that means a band that won't roll. Which means something other than stockinette all the way to the bottom edge. I don't want to actually have to sew a hem either. And I don't want it so complicated that it takes a year to finish.
So where does that leave us? With diddly. I still can't decide. I have confidence I can select and execute a reasonably attractive, beautifully finished hand-knit cardigan. So long as it meets all the criteria above.
Originally it was going to be a pullover. There is a pattern I fell in love with and want to make, and I had successfully nearly completed, called Mothed, from Knitty by Mags Kandis. I absolutely love that pattern. I was executing it from grey and black Simply Soft just to get the hang of it. It was turning out very well and I was 3/4 done when I ran out of yarn on the sleeves and set the whole thing aside, in order to complete Christmas knitting, fully intending to get more Simply Soft after Christmas to complete it.
Which I did. And then: I accidentally brushed my wrist brace against the front of the sweater--the velcro part of the wrist brace came in contact with all that stockinette. Right smack-dab in the middle of the front. The sweater is ruined. Not only did the velcro pull the stiches as in creating a huge 2" across pucker/run, the velcro tugged actual fibers out of the yarn itself creating a clump of acrylic fuzz. It is ugly and huge and very noticeable and impossible to fix with blocking or anything else. I nearly cried, but then reminded myself that I had only lost about $5 worth of yarn, most of which can be reused after frogging and that I had learned how to execute a simple top-down raglan. And it will look good on me when I knit it again in different yarn.
But returning to the subject at hand? This new spring project is going to be a cardigan.
There are many many good candidates out there. But which one?
Sunday, January 2, 2011
2011
This just in: Sandyt pointed out that this year will have a lot of interesting configurations of 1 in the dates. 1-1-11, 1-11-11. 11-1-11. 11-11-11. Hmm. We don't know what it means yet, but I like it.
List of resolutions: None.
List of goals for the year: I find goals may be more achievable than resolutions are keepable. With this in mind, I have a short list of achievable goals.
1. Finish fixing up my "studio" which of course has to double as the guest room. All the necessities are affordable.
a)This involves adding another work surface (for sewing and cutting fabric, making collages, setting out craft stuff). Whatever.
b)get some storage for yarn/fabric/craft materials
c)a bookshelf
d)make my own curtain panels for this room.
2. Bring up the length of my walk from 30 to 65 minutes by the end of the year. i can do it.
3. Make at least one art project a quarter, be it a painting, a short story, or papier mache, something in addition to knitting.
4.Don't forget to read at least 1 book a month. When I was younger I used to average 3 novels a week. I read Gone With the Wind in 3 days. I used to be a voracious consumer of the written word. Now reading is something I do before bed. I find I start and discard alot of books because life is too short and time too precious to waste finishing a poorly written book. So 1 book a month is a realistic goal.
Knitting goals:
--Finish or frog my current WIP's.
--Knit at least 1 charity item per quarter. I was going to say per month, but I am trying to keep my goals achievable, not frustratingly out of reach.
--When knitting gifts for others I have decided to keep it to a one-skein project-except for baby blankets. I get bored too easily and nothing gets done.
--when purchasing yarn to build my stash- make sure its something I will like. wool.wool blends. more wool. Silk. Bamboo. Less acrylic and cotton.
Oh yes--Happy New Year!
List of resolutions: None.
List of goals for the year: I find goals may be more achievable than resolutions are keepable. With this in mind, I have a short list of achievable goals.
1. Finish fixing up my "studio" which of course has to double as the guest room. All the necessities are affordable.
a)This involves adding another work surface (for sewing and cutting fabric, making collages, setting out craft stuff). Whatever.
b)get some storage for yarn/fabric/craft materials
c)a bookshelf
d)make my own curtain panels for this room.
2. Bring up the length of my walk from 30 to 65 minutes by the end of the year. i can do it.
3. Make at least one art project a quarter, be it a painting, a short story, or papier mache, something in addition to knitting.
4.Don't forget to read at least 1 book a month. When I was younger I used to average 3 novels a week. I read Gone With the Wind in 3 days. I used to be a voracious consumer of the written word. Now reading is something I do before bed. I find I start and discard alot of books because life is too short and time too precious to waste finishing a poorly written book. So 1 book a month is a realistic goal.
Knitting goals:
--Finish or frog my current WIP's.
--Knit at least 1 charity item per quarter. I was going to say per month, but I am trying to keep my goals achievable, not frustratingly out of reach.
--When knitting gifts for others I have decided to keep it to a one-skein project-except for baby blankets. I get bored too easily and nothing gets done.
--when purchasing yarn to build my stash- make sure its something I will like. wool.wool blends. more wool. Silk. Bamboo. Less acrylic and cotton.
Oh yes--Happy New Year!
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