Plus one more r...robe. The one that I started a long time ago for one of Jude's classes. I have been wearing it but am also ready to do a few more things with it.
More layers of wool, pockets, and a button or two.
Yesterday's sunrise. It's been a beautiful couple of days.
Out on the porch I found my indigo pigment ready to wash. It's so beautiful...
Satisfying.
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.
There is so much paper in this world...and I love making paper.
It's a great way to make recycling personal.
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.
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.
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?
The basic questions: Who? What? Why? When? How?
The questions I listed out this morning:
What can I make with this?
How was that made?
How can this be useful?
What am I trying to say?
Why am I doing this?
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.)
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:
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.
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."