bee creative

filling in the gaps

I've spent most of today working on a section of my Good Enough quilt.

There has been some problem solving to do.

 

As usual, Timber wants to help.

 

present two

I've got to teach them to read.

The label says, "not pet friendly."

Basket made from red twig dogwood and hops from the garden. 

Local wool, washed but not carded to soften the edges. 

time and to-do lists

Time...today I had some for myself, a day off work.

I decided to not make a to-do list. 

It was sunny so I spent most of the day outside.

I pruned hops for baskets and gathered rose hips for ink.

And then picked the last of the dahlias.

There was dyeing with some of the last of the indigo plants...

A paste of leaves and salt rubbed in circles to make polka dots. 

It was so good to sit in the sunshine and just play.

I added another layer of color to this silk and wool.

And worked with pigments a bit. 

The indigo and lichen lakes; brick and earth pigments. 

There has been more poetry too,

Mary Oliver... "The Summer Day" on an autumn day. 

"Tell me..."

 

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:

 

 

keep

From the garden, a keepsake. 

This weekend I will be sorting...what to keep and what needs a new home?  What do I want to keep doing?

One thing...baskets (still working my way through the class with Harriet Goodall at Fiber Arts / Take Two.)

I shouldn't have been surprised to find out that a basket making technique called looping is the same stitch used to weave crab pots and fish nets. 

This is the first time I've tried to do this at such a small gauge and I was using fairly rough twine so I had trouble keeping things a standard size.  There is a second stitch that I was practicing as well that has a twist. 

I want to keep practicing this... I am imagining bags and baskets for hanging plants.  I think it might work for mending chair seats. 

A way to keep things useful. 

I also want to keep knitting...one of my favorite kinds of making.