bee creative

pulling a green thread

From Teju Cole’s book, Known and Strange Things:

“There is another possible book that contains all that is not in this one.”

I put myself on the wait list for a few of Teju Cole's books after listening to his interview on On Being.

I've read a few of the essay's, enough to know I want to find a copy to keep, to take time with.

Counting stitches for a sleeve.

Stitching with plant dyed fabric, some printed silk that I've had for a long time.   

It's May and the first rose is blooming and I may be absorbed into the garden...

random moments

1. This is Lightning. He lives at the childcare where I work. On Friday one of my co-workers gave him a hair cut.  I combed some of the fur into some sheep's wool and then showed the preschoolers how it could be spun into yarn with my drop spindle. And then how that could be knit into fabric. 

2. Multiple photos and projects, layered. It's been windy and it's raining cherry blossoms.

3.  Salad made of fried potatoes, radishes, lettuce, walnuts, avocado, bread, cheese. Tonight's version was asparagus, toasted bread, cheese, lettuce, spring onions (cooked), lettuce. 

4.  Yesterday I was looking at some wooden spoons and pottery at the farmer's market. The vendor greeted me and then asked me a question I thought was a bit odd for starting a conversation...had I ever tried making pottery? (The answer is yes but not much.)

 

 

assignment #2 March, reading list

Assignment #2 is to finish 12 books that were picked out at the beginning of January.

Book number one finished:  Wanderlust, A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit.

Where my mind wandered...walking puts us directly into the world in a way that encourages, among other things, wonder. We look closer, we see more.

Walking encourages community and conversation. Community helps builds resilience. We need that.

Having a safe place to walk is a privilege.  There are limits and boundaries in our world. Where do I fell safe walking and why? How are we shaped when we live in places where it is unsafe to walk? Considering vulnerability.

I spent a lot of time thinking about Solnit's writing about streets as part of city as part of forming citizenship. About the act of having space to gather, spaces to walk and space to protest.

We have a growing problem of homelessness where I live and they walk. They walk to stay warm, walk so that they won't be labeled as loitering, walk so that they don't take up space.

Considering what it means to be out of step.

 

 

stitches create lines

A place to write, a place to read. 

goodbye summer

"Everyone is an artist. Each person brings sound out of silence and coaxes the invisible to become visible." John O'Donohue, Anam Cara

Sometimes it's easy to get lost in silence but really there are still things to say.

 

butterflies and beasts

I recently found this video and think all that love Jude's beasts and strays might enjoy this...

 

The buddleia is blooming and the hummingbirds and butterflies are regular visitors.

Maybe this all inspired me seeing a butterfly here...

I'm thinking of making a good supply of patches for mending.  

fieldnote #36

Blossoms can be found everywhere now.

Starting to plant things.

Mostly I grow mint in containers but this one I'm letting loose on a corner of the garden. 

Hoping it will spread.

I am spring cleaning.  Going through things and working to take any found projects to the next step. 

When I first started this I think I was thinking beast.

But turned another direction I saw something different...

I like it like this, where it could be either.

Liminal and in transition. 

l (and friday fieldnotes related)

light, lettuce, limit

Light: energy from the sun or created with electricity or a flame that makes something visible.

Sunrise:7:36

Sunset 5:11

Lettuce: A green leafy vegetable.

I’m going to plant some this weekend as a micro green.

Limit: The point where you have to do something different. 

There are so many lovely "l" words, such as letter, luminescent, loquacious, and liminal; but I am at my limit for the night and can do no more...

 

friday fieldnotes #18

Last Sunday morning while Lola was outside I heard a very distinctive noise...

I wish I'd thought to try video.

It's been a week of fog and glorious sunny afternoons. 

Perfect weather for walks on my lunch break.

My favorite wool sweater has been mended. 

Cold weather on the way, maybe even some snow...

Okay, I'm skipping over pumpkins but a snow person could start with a dot (inspired by Jude). 

 

 

liminal & altered

Liminal: thresholds, transitional.  Something I've been considering for the past year. My thoughts gathered while spinning and knitting. 

Started a year ago, with the original intent to measure light on Sunday mornings.  Around December I realized if I continued as planned it would be an immense scarf and adjusted my rows so that it would be more reasonable.  In July I decided to stop,  I saved the last rows for last Sunday. 

I keep thinking about the need to alter. As we move through liminal spaces we don't necessarily exit the same as when we enter.  There is the opportunity for change.  We emerge altered.  That's the word/concept I'd like to explore for the next year. 

Altered. It’s the change you make on a piece of clothing to make it fit better. The correction you make to a sentence to make it flow and be more easily understood. It’s when you move something in the garden from a place where it’s struggling to thrive to a place where it may bloom. The line that you draw a bit differently to make the image stronger. Or it could be the change you make to your diet to make you feel better, to have it be more sustainable.  It's the photo you've added a layer to so that it tells more of a story. 

The project that I am choosing for the next year is to make a blanket.  I have a fleece that I need to do something with and random roving that needs to be used, altered, transformed.  So...fleece or roving (carded wool), to yarn, to knit fabric and then probably fulled/felted.  Fulling the wool would make for a surface that would invite stitching and needle felting. 

The plan to start:

Spin for at least 15 minutes each day.
Knit everything that I’ve spun for the week each Sunday.

Alterations to follow...