Ordinary Time

One day last week I had a day with nothing on the calendar and no project at home that needed my attention. It was the perfect day to work on something that I had been putting off because I didn't want interruptions once I began... Finishing up little odds and ends of projects that we're lying about the studio and getting things put to rights. So that is what I did. The little projects were the last 2% of many different things that I hadn't bothered to completely finish, so I couldn't put them away. I washed skeins of yarn, I completed various notes on projects and filed them, I completed weaving a swatch for my ongoing breed study project so that could get filed away, etc. It wasn't even things that warranted a picture.  This allowed me to clear the decks a bit. I realized that I needed a dedicated staging area for future weaving projects, so I reorganized a bit and made that. Things are much more organized now and it makes me happy.  The large inkle loom needed a ...

So it seems having possibly identified the reason behind my creating desert was enough to move past it. Going with the assumption that I needed a project that required more concentration than I typically need for a fiber related project, I dug out something that I had put away for a while because I hadn't wanted to work so hard.  A long time ago I had seen a blanket by Arne and Carlos that was made solely by connecting crocheted flowers created out of yarn leftovers. I loved how it looked and I certainly have lots of bits of yarn. The crochet bit was the issue. I can crochet and have made crocheted objects. I just don't do it very often and a long time passes in between projects. So long in fact, that each time I start a project I have to essentially teach myself how to crochet all over again. That made this project seem like the perfect one for my current mental state. I will say that each time I do pickup a new crochet project, the relearning process goes a lot faster.  I al...

You may or may not have noticed (I certainly have), that the amount of things I have made this year so far is incredibly small. I just haven't had the mental energy to do very much. I haven't been concerned because my interests do have wild swings, but I have made note of it. I think I have figured out a small piece of what's going on. When I read the news today that the selling of public lands was removed from the Big Ugly Bill the amount of relief I felt was significant. I don't think I was quite aware of how much stress and anxiety I was carrying about this. While this issue is important, there are still so many others, not the least of which is ICE kidnapping people off the street, that are still ongoing. I think that there are many of us who are carrying weight the extent of which we don't fully realize.  What I have been doing is reading. Copiously even by my standards. I'm currently averaging over nine books a month. It's been a lot of reading. Its al...

Easter will be coming and that means egg dyeing. My crew haven't had much interest in dyeing eggs for a couple of years, and when egg prices were so high and the chickens weren't laying, this was not a bad thing to my mind. We still tend to boil a few dozen eggs, though, for egg salad sandwiches to have for Easter lunch. With the hens all laying again (13 yesterday, 9 today for example), I will probably boil several dozen.  And then I came across this. (credit goes to littlepinelearners.com ) Aside from the hibiscus flowers, the rest I typically keep in my kitchen or can easily purchase. Even better, this way I can boil the eggs and dye them all at the same time. I bet the masses might even be interested in this kind of egg dyeing.  Yes, I know Easter is still five weeks away, but by putting it on the blog, I stand a far better chance of finding this picture again when the time comes. And now you do, too. Plus, any little bit of beauty and happiness we can find right now is a ...

Eight or nine years ago, I found myself reading a lot of books with craft settings. I probably read at least a dozen novels or mysteries where the structure of the story was women making things while also being friends and supports to each other. The type of craft didn't really matter. I remember quilting, sewing, knitting, dyeing, and needlework off the top of my head. I realized as I came to the end of this little jag, finishing yet one more rather poor to average book that I was reading them not for the story (and obviously not for the writing) but because of a deep need and desire to belong to a group such as being described. Like so many dreams I had during that period, this one also seemed unattainable. I've long since learned that my crystal ball is broken. What I was seeing as something that would never be was instead something that was not yet. It makes me almost teary to find myself having made friends with a group of women who very much fill the needs I was feeling n...

Since much of what I do when facilitating equine assisted learning or coaching parents is helping people experience positive change, the idea of change has been high on my list of things on which to do further reading. Currently I'm working my way through Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. (I'm enjoying it and finding it interesting a quarter of the way through.) This quote came very early, but I've been thinking about it quite a bit since I read it, so I thought I'd share it with all of you. Really, it comes down to learning to be compassionate towards ourselves, I think. We're fairly good at being compassionate to others, assuming we think they are worthy of our compassion, but we're really not very good at being compassionate to ourselves. "And when people exhaust their self-control, what they're exhausting are the mental muscles needed to think creatively, to focus, to inhibit their impulses, and to persist...

The best laid plans and all that. In the middle of December, when I was busy doing Christmas preparations and not making a single thing, I comforted myself by thinking about the great swaths of free time I would have right after Christmas. And then I got sick. This has been a tough illness to kick. My energy levels are very slow to return. Yesterday I fell asleep for three hours. I don't typically do that. Today has been a little better, but I still wouldn't call myself one hundred percent. I also have done very little making of any sort.  Today I was able to finish the embroidered towel that I've been vaguely working on for years.  I'm actually pretty pleased with it. And exceedingly happy to move it to the completed column. Here's a close-up. The other thing I've done is get a new project on the loom.  My original plan was to get the blanket I'm weaving for B. and HC on the loom. This is not that. This is a last-minute test of the yarn I'm going to usi...

We've had various degrees of sickness here the past week, myself included, but we had a lovely Christmas in spite of that. W. and MC truly outdid themselves in terms of Christmas gifts to everyone this year. Each family member received a personalized gnome. The level of detail is astounding. These are all handmade by the two of them. Mine, obviously, is the weaving gnome. But I'll just let you guess the others if you can.  The whole group: And the individual gnomes: Shakespeare gnome Weaving gnome Beekeeper gnome Inside the beehive  And the lower box of the hive Mushroom gnome Collecting basket with miniature mushrooms  Jiu-Jitsu gnome With snacks Movie going gnome Neon and light gnome Who lights up Flower gnome Activist gnome Complete with a miniaturized version of the receiver's divestment plan document  Butterfly gnome Princess gnome LEGO building gnome Also with personal snacks Pokemon trainer gnome With Pikachu  Shepherd gnome With a sheep Geologist gnome...

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the huge fabric haul I made at my favorite thrift store. We'll it's now all washed and ironed and put away ready to use. It was a lot of ironing. This is because nearly all of it was 60 inches wide and no less than a yard and a half in length, though much was far longer than that. Here it is right before I put it all away. ("Put it away" sounds so much nicer than crammed it in the small space available, doesn't it?) You can see how thick some of it is. It's a lot of fabric. And I realized when I was going through receipts last week that I only paid $7.50 for all of it. It was definitely worth all the ironing.  I'm also realizing why I never finish Christmas projects aside from the fact I only like to work on them in December. It's because December is just so busy. I'm not sure what exactly I've been doing since Thanksgiving, but by the time evenings roll around, I have no energy to think about anything. Usually...

I inspired myself last week to get out one of those lingering Christmas projects and take advantage of the month of December to see if I could finish it. I'm now reached the magical tipping point of being 3/4 of the way done, which usually means that I will work on it fiendishly because the end is in sight.  And what is this particular project you ask? An embroidered dish towel.  I'm done with the holly leaves and partway through the evergreen springs. These go much faster than the holly leaves. Which will then mean all that is left are the red berries. The blue pen marking the pattern is water soluble, so will wash out. You can see it's already significantly faded over the time it's been in process, making it a bit more challenging. The pattern is from the blog Needle and Thread , which is a fantastic embroidery resource. It's also filled with gorgeous projects.  It's been an easy project to grab when I need a project to take with me somewhere, such as children...

I have nothing to show you, so instead I wanted to talk about something else craft-related. There are a lot of memes and such going around that essentially say that having 5-10 different craft projects in progress at one time is actually healthy. This way you always have something to work on that fits your current mood and energy level.  I'm not disputing this at all, but my first reaction is just 5-10? Amateurs! I actually did a quick count of the projects I have started and are hanging around the studio in various states and I think I reached 18 without having to work too hard. There's probably more if I went and rummaged. This number also doesn't include the not-yet-begun projects that float around in my head waiting to see the light of day.  A few of those projects are Christmas related. The trouble I have with Christmas projects is that I only want to work on Christmas projects during the Christmas season. I have very little interest in any of them the rest of the year...

It's always nice when children create things that I can share and use as a blog post.  K. has become interested in video editing, so I decided to take advantage of that fact and asked him to create a video with some of the animals here on the farm. I think he did a terrific job. K. also decided that he would like to learn to do watercolors, so has been doing a bit of painting this school year. Here is the painting he did this afternoon. And Y. has also been making things. Here are a few of the pumpkins she crocheted so our church could use them as centerpieces for their monthly community dinner. This is her own design. She has an amazing ability to look at something and intuitively understand how to crochet it