bee creative

return and reflect

What do I come back to? 

The garden, reading, the beach, rearranging things in my home, color, yarn, sewing...

I know making paper and baskets will be added to this.

And reflection...as in thinking, the kind where you are considering but not necessarily making a decision or doing research.

I've been thinking about why I make and what I make.  They are kind of heavy questions right now when I consider the state of the world.  How much of a privilege it is to ask that question.

Unless I have a specific project, this is the last year that I will buy any materials for dyeing with the fresh indigo.  I have enough to make several things and it's time to focus on some other things. 

I do still want to grow indigo though. What I will do is add another layer of color to things that I have been dyeing. And then I can make pigment because this is something that I can keep using in a way that is a better use of resources for me.  

Making a lake pigment, not sure if this will work but it looks promising!

There is so much paper in this world...and I love making paper.

  It's a great way to make recycling personal. 

I used the leftover walnut/marigold dye bath for this paper. Also a bit of a hop flower and marigold seeds

My assistants as I reflected on all this:

They are laying on top of my collection of handmade paper and some scraps I've been using for a project. 

They do love a box.

 

R...

Rose hips...so much potential. 

I could make a syrup or a jam.

Or ink.  It wouldn't turn out red. When I've made it in the past it's a soft pink. 

They could also be strung for a decoration. 

Resilient.  Being out in the garden and making things helps.

I've been soaking black beans today. 

It was so tempting to keep the liquid for dye but I didn't.

Release.

I am working on letting go.  This just wasn't something I could find time for today. 

There is also letting go of things.  I am working on that too. 

Recipes...I think we all know that I am not good at them.  Baked apple, yogurt, and granola (oats, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, honey, molasses, sugar, salt, and butter).

Return...thinking about that.  Things that return. 

 

questions (part two) and qualities

Which came first the chicken or the egg?

(If you want to know the answer it is here.)

I think that some questions shouldn't be answered. 

We need mysteries. 

 

This morning I finished attaching the cowl to the neckline on one of the sweaters that has been "under construction."  It will be useful and wearable...for at home. It has some funny little gathers along the neckline. Not the greatest technique but I am not starting over again. 

To recap the project:  This is the second attempt at knitting a sweater with the brown yarn.  In the process I learned that alpaca drapes a lot. It probably wasn't the recommended yarn for either of the patterns that I tried.  Seaming the front together so that it is a pullover instead of a cardigan helped it fit better.  Making a cowl neck made it hang better. It's cozy.  

Something I am thinking about regarding this sweater...what came first, the questions or the answers?  I tend to leap in and do things.  I make the same way I cook...directions are optional.  It was about trying something and being willing to learn. 

Maybe the only question was, "What if?"

The beginning of a basket (random weave) made with the willow I brought home from work.  There is also a bit of birch from the garden. 

In The Book of Qualities J.Ruth Gendler writes, "Creativity is not efficient.  She has a different relationship to time than most of us." 

What next? 

 

q....questions

The basic questions: Who? What? Why? When? How? 

The questions I listed out this morning:

What can I make with this?

indigo dyed yarn, I have a plan.

How was that made?

How can this be useful?

Handmade paper scraps. I need to start over with the paper lantern I was covering.

What am I trying to say?

Why am I doing this?

Willow branches brought home from work.

What was I thinking? (Said from a place of being overwhelmed.)

Will this work?

What am I feeling? (I don’t always know.)

Why did that happen?

When will I find the time? (When is not a question I ask much.)

Hops from the garden, the edge of a dye pot and a stack of wood scraps I brought home because they were going in the garbage. I am going to practice wood burning on the wood scraps...someday.

How do we become who we are?

Why do children have so much creativity and adults question theirs so much? What happened?

Why is creativity so important?

Where should I start?

What was this used for?

What would that taste like?

Would it be better if I did this?

So much of making starts with a question... So much of life is about questions.

Jude brought up quality of life this morning. 

That's been on my mind too... What does that look like?  How do we balance the present, which is what we have, with what we need in the future?  It's a big question for me right now.   

Ear worm of the moment:

 

 

q... field notes

Harvesting the last of things in the garden.

Today I picked quince, grapes, peppers, tomatoes, zucchini (probably the very last) and dahlias.  There is a bit more Swiss chard and celery but I am saving that for later.

There were also a few raspberries.  First harvest for these. 

I haven't turned the heat on yet but have pulled out a few more quilts.  This one is the first quilt that I made that I consider a "story quilt."  I stitched several lyrics of "Don't Fence Me In" on the back.

It needs quite a bit of mending. 

quiet

Low tide.

Sea stars...I grew up calling them star fish. 

The first time I heard them called Sea Stars was in a college biology class. The instructor specialized in Marine Biology, "They are not a fish" he would say.

It wasn't quiet down at the beach (quieter than during the summer though), but it always quiets me. 

I probably won't be able to post every day for awhile, maybe every other.

I will keep going with the alphabet until I get to "Z."

present

Present as in a gift, to give. 

Present as in this very moment, this place. 

I had to pause on my trip through the alphabet for awhile because I really didn't feel very present...

Mostly I've been working on the blanket for my coworkers baby. 

She is due any day now. 

It's made things extra busy at work. 

Tonight I took the ends that I've collected from the blanket and carded them into some roving.

And then I spun it into yarn.

This had me thinking about practice...practice as in to do something with the intent of getting better at something and practice as something that you do. 

I don't particularly care if I get better at spinning yarn with a drop spindle.  I can make consistent yarn when it is my goal but really, I love the bumpy lumpy texture. The parts where I spin it tight and it loops over on itself. 

I spin in a way where I am very present and paying attention to what I am doing.  Spinning consistent yarn, at least for me, is about muscle memory and paying less attention to what I am doing.

Using up scraps as I go is something I want to get into the practice of doing, rather than storing them for future projects.

And then I took the yarn and knit it on to the end of a strip I started for the Field Note blanket. 

It was such a pleasure...