Stitch Marker Factory

First, many thanks for the sweet, sad thoughts in regard to the death of Patrick's friend Jerry. I now light candles for him sometimes on Patrick's candlelighting page. I'm not sure where to put my thoughts and questions and emotions about death in general and the particular deaths we've experienced among our family and friends. I'm not sure how to even think about it these days. Wisdom-- I await some wisdom! Meanwhile, what seems to serve me well is to patiently abide in the present moment.

Life has been hectic and challenging of late, moreso than usual. We had family in to visit with Mom in the nursing home followed by a health issue for me which requires surgery (out-patient, scheduled for this Wednesday.) It's a relatively minor surgery in the grand continuum of possible surgeries. Still...it's ME....so please send whatever spiritual support you normally provide....healing energy, prayer, white light, blue light, angelic beings....I appreciate them all. And of course, being the devout UU I am, all humanist sentiments of compassion are equally appreciated.

So.
Overwhelmed I am (I'm not even thinking about The Holidays). But not so overwhelmed that I haven't been occupying my head, hands and heart with creative work. There is much accomplished on that front - knitted and crocheted gifts, socks, an Isis shawl in progress. AND I think I'm most excited about finally beginning to do some beading and wirework.

The latter started with stitch markers. I made dozens.

I began to call the kitchen table The Stitch Marker Factory.

The first ones I made fit up to size 10 needles. I made some that will fit to size 17.

It became apparent that I was going to have to sell some of the markers, so I created a little hanging card stamped with my signature leaf, with the markers strung on bright snippets of handspun yarn. Martha at Riverwools loved them and has now got them nicely displayed at her checkout table. Last time I checked a few had sold. I had the absolute pleasure of being in the shop as a woman saw them and said lovely things and wound up buying a set.

Making the stitch markers opened some pathway in my procrastinating about learning wirework and beading (this has to do with perfectionism and I think I will write about that later, it's important insight for me!) And I have since made some pendants and earrings and a necklace. Which will hopefully be the subjects of my next post.

I shall leave you with a picture of The Sock Factory:
Yes, that is THREE PAIRS of socks-in-progress. I thought that my way to avoid Second Sock Syndrome was to have two pairs going, but three seems to work really well for me. These aren't complex socks, just a basic pattern I use over and over for size 1 needles and Opal yarn, although the yarn on the left is another German-made sock yarn Super Soxx by Lang. My basic pattern has a preference for cuffs, heels and toes in a solid color.

Here's the first pair of socks out of the queue (I think I photographed them in-progess awhile back):


Ah, it feels good to write a blog entry here after such a long silence.
Namaste,
Zann