bee creative

staying cozy

It was the perfect day to finish up the baby blanket and make split pea soup... 

y...

Of course, there is yarn. 

I love so many yarns but my absolute favorite is hand spun. 

 

This morning another "y" word came to me: yield.

To give the right away to another person ...to produce or provide, a return.

This morning's treasures. 

And if I were harvesting seaweed, today would have been a good day... 


 

some things

Soup: Carrot, rice, and a lemon flavored olive oil.  It needed a little bit of something else but it was fine.

Strawberries:

Last of the season?  They are sweet and good.

Stitching:  Working again on the sweater that I labeled percentages because it's made of a variety of mostly local yarns. 

That and when I think about choosing local and about sustainability, I believe it isn't about perfection but about doing the best I can.  So far the materials for this sweater are from Washington state and California, close to where I was born. Some of the yarn I've dyed with indigo (the plant).  

Sunshine:  We've had a few amazing days but the rain is coming.

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.

 

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? 

 

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...

brought to you by

the letter C! 

Hopefully there are no copyright issues with that.

..................................

What are the things that we don’t remember learning to do? The skills we learn along the way as we grow? How to roll over, crawling, walking, talking, how to feed ourselves…

I don’t remember learning to crochet or who taught me. Mom doesn’t remember who taught me either. It is all muscle memory for me now.

To crochet is to connect a thread or a skein of yarn to itself or another strand until it becomes whatever you are making.

Chain one or chain two, the pattern might read.

Crochet is also, for me, a connection to one of my great-grandmothers. I don’t remember seeing her crochet as her arthritis made that difficult during the time I remember but I have pieces that she’s made and some of the cotton thread that was hers.

It is cherished.

We also shared a birthday.

I took this picture when I was maybe twelve or thirteen? It's in front of the cabin that she was living in...which also happens to be where I spent the first months of my life. 

Some of the lace she crocheted. 

This type of crochet is called Filet crochet. 

Connections hold us together.

Thinking about the thread…awhile back Jude was considering the thread that runs through. I’ve been thinking about that since (and it may have planted the alphabet seed). About how curiosity is the thread that runs through everything that I do. It's probably why I never settle on one kind of making. 

And then thinking about how curiosity lead to creativity.

(This seems bluer in reality.)

I am also thinking about when curiosity can go too far.

Do we always need to know?

Can’t somethings always be a mystery?

(Something to explore, an interview with Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio.)

Yesterday I was asked whether I thought creativity could be taught. I don’t think so…but I do think that play encourages creativity and that the more we play the more we keep that creative muscle working or rediscover it if we feel that it has gone missing.

Connection, communication, curiosity, creativity, community, caregiving…they are all words that I keep coming back to.

I suspect that as I move through the rest of the alphabet, these words will be a part of all the rest.

taking my time

The baby shower will be soon and I know there is no way that I will finish the blanket in time. 

I had a thought that I could do "so many squares a day" and maybe I would get there if I sat down and dedicated some time...

but some days it just doesn't happen. 

And...I don't want to rush this. 

When I am working on it, I am enjoying the texture. It's so soft. 

I smile because the colors make me happy and they make me think of flowers. Mostly roses.

I want the blanket to be filled with joyful energy...

that means it will take time. 

For the baby shower I am thinking to give a doll sized blanket. 

When I am finished is soon enough for the baby blanket. 

This took time and love too...blackberry plum sorbet. 

Plums from a tree in my garden that has been growing for 7-8 years.  This is the first year it had a good crop. 

The recipe is a blend of a few.  About 3 cups fruit, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, and a couple tablespoons of an unlabeled cordial that I made last year, maybe quince? 

this week

We've had days and days of sunshine. 

Today, some overcast and just a sprinkle of rain. 

It feels good.

Today's harvest.

Underneath the top layer are blueberries. 

The calendula will be used for salve and the marigolds for dye.

All of this, but the cheese (and the sugar for the jam), came from the farmer's market.  The cheese is local, a smoked scamorza. It's really yummy with apricot jam.

I've started a new project...baby blanket for a coworker.  Her favorite color is pink!  I also know she likes granny squares so it's a safe bet that she will like this.  There is no way that I am going to finish it in time though...the baby is due in September.

This week's collection on some cord that I made.  A dried rose from the garden, a shell and a bead from Venice Italy. 

Still house painting...

 

thinking of the full moon, the flower moon

The flower moon was right outside my kitchen window at 3:00 AM. 

I am simmering a mixture of black tulip petals, the deepest of purple pansies and the last few blossoms from my favorite auricula primrose to make a flower moon ink. 

At the moment it is a deep dark liquid about the color of the flower petals but a piece of paper dipped in the liquid comes out yellow.  I will share the results tomorrow. 

Other flowers...the dog rose. 

I will make more rose hip ink from it in the fall.

By September it will be the harvest moon. 

 A flower bud the shape of the moon. This is a new peony for the garden. 

The flower should be about the color of the yarn I am knitting with.

Silk so it has a shine.

Thinking of all the transformations.