Improvisational Knitting-Finished Scarf No. 2

It's so so soft!
After I finished knitting it, I randomly wove in  beautiful golden sari silk ribbon.
Ingredients & construction details here.

)O(

I Love Pinterest

I love Pinterest. I really do. Not because I'm trying to find a way to  use it make more online connections and 'drive traffic,' but because it's fun. And I see a serious benefit to my work. 

The fun part is collecting without clutter in my physical space. The fun part is googling for images I've decided to collect.  The fun part is creating a board for something whimsical, like....armadillos. 

Kansas City Kidney Foundation Armadillo Races
the text says on Pennsylvania Avenue in Historic Westport
Signed W. Wiley 83
 [sent to me by Deb Brandt, who makes fabulous hand-dyed roving for wondrous spinning and felting]

Oh yes, it's a time-chomper, so I view Pinterest time as I regard time spent watching video or playing a game: another way to relax, not a way to spend the day.

The useful part (and something I haven't yet done in a serious way) is to use Pinterest to create specific mood or vision boards, a place to gather an inspiring variety of visuals, colors, textures around theme. I do have a board for nature pictures that inspire, and a board for moths, even one for leaf skeletons.

If you do use Pinterest to explore personal visions, it's important to remember that it's public space. If you're worried about anyone stealing your ideas, or learning more about you, I'll say it again: remember that it's public space.

I've discovered that just putting a picture on my "want" board, takes away a great deal of the want for the actual thing.  This is a really useful discovery for someone who has many of the tendencies of a hoarder - the emotional investment in objects that requires one to keep them.  I've seen often enough the advice to take pictures of things you are finding hard to let go, and always thought that wouldn't help.  But now, after experiencing the satisfying effect of keeping just a picture of something I want, I can see how it might work with objects one already has and needs to release.

I love that when you click on the pictures, you connect to the source of the pictures. You can create boards for sites you want to remember, patterns you want to try, recipes.

Finally, I love how easy it is.  You can put a little Pin It icon in your toolbar and pin things as you run across them online, and move on - you don't have to go into a fullblown Pinterest Session.

You can view all your pins (they are arranged in chronological order, with the earliest ones at the bottom of the page) or see all your boards with the last nine Pins showing. Click on a board to see all the Pins on that Board.

All my pins.

All my Boards.

I like that you can rearrange the order of the Boards. I don't like it that you can't rearrange the order of Pins on each Board - they stay in the order pinned with the earliest at the bottom.

You can re-Pin from other's Boards.  I love that there's a kind of provenance established, showing who you re-pinned from, and retaining the original source link.
You can follow other Pinners - all their Boards or just a particular Board. Others can follow you.

Now that I've professed my love for Pinterest, I'll state, too, that it's a honeymoon right now. I suspect that eventually things will change, evolve, as profit comes into the picture. And we'll start hearing how awful it is that Pinterest is doing this or that. That seems to be the way things go online. For now, though, I'm enjoying it and I'm all about the now.

Go on, join ( I think there's still a little wait time like Ravelry at first)  and start Pinning and enjoy it while it lasts!

BookNation RIP

Well, I've been through the closing of another bookstore. This was an incarnation of BookNation which has been in existence since 1991, at various locations in the southwest corner block of The Crossroads of American in downtown Terre Haute, IN. 

I saw the first BookNation on our very first day in Terre Haute in 1991 and it made me very happy to see an independent bookstore. (I, of course, had just said farewell to a most marvelous independent, Books & Books in Coral Gables. )

BookNation was closed that day, but I made sure it was one of the first places I visited in Terre Haute later that week. In 1996, BookNation moved to a larger store around the corner, and Todd Nation, Tim Kelley and I started Wabash River Books (for used books) in the old location.  (If you're really a fan of bookstore closing posts, you can read about WRB by clicking the link in my profile on the sidebar.)

The current late incarnation of the shop moved into 675 Wabash three years ago, and I began clerking a couple of days a week and gradually added my books to the mix over these years.  It was fun working with Todd and the store was a nice place to sit and be with people and books. Occasionally we sold a few.

This last month or so, we sold a LOT. And that's because we  went from 20% off everything, to 40%, to 60%.  And last Monday, we went to 80% off and wound up with a great big bargain extravaganza, 80% off or fill a beer box for $20.

By Saturday evening, we were looking at many empty shelves and pages and pages of sales.

I'm taking what's left of my stock in the shop to my church, for a book sale fundraiser the church is doing at the end of the month. I packed up 12 boxes Saturday night and have more to pack up on Monday. I had way more books in the store than I realized.

Both Todd and I are ready to wind down bookselling and the first step was letting go of the bricks and mortar shop. We'll both be selling a bit online, I think, until...well, until we're really finished.

And since this is a collage picture of what just one area of my book storage looks like at home, I cannot even guess when "finished with the bookselling" is actually going to be for me.

And, of course, I want to keep in mind that there is always the option of truly letting it all go. Packing up all the books and letting them all go.  I think I'm going to spend a little time envisioning what that might be like...

Imbolc - Brigid Poetry Festival

 In honor of Brigid , fire goddess and saint, and the season of Imbolc.

Hands
by Siv Cedering
I When I fall asleep my hands leave me. They pick up pens and draw creatures with five feathers on each wing. The creatures multiply. They say: "We are large like your father's hands." They say: "We have your mother's knuckles." I speak to them: "If you are hands, why don't you touch?" And the wings beat the air, clapping. They fly high above elbows and wrists. They open windows and leave rooms. They perch in treetops and hide under bushes biting their nails. "Hands," I call them. But it is fall and all creatures with wings prepare to fly South. II When I sleep the shadows of my hands come to me. They are softer than feathers and warm as creatures who have been close to the sun. They say: "We are the giver," and tell of oranges growing on trees. They say: "We are the vessel," and tell of journeys through water. They say: "We are the cup." And I stir in my sleep. Hands pull triggers and cut trees. But the shadows of my hands tuck their heads under wings waiting for morning, when I will wake braiding three strands of hair into one.       Perpetual flame picture found here. Brigid's Cross picture is Wikipedia Creative Commons & found here.
)O( - Blessed Imbolc