Tiny Collages

 

 

Pondering NaPoWriMo

Pondering NaPoWriMo - a National Poetry Month challenge to write a poem a day in April. I have successfully done it three times now and the experience has always shifted my work in meaningful ways plus given me a great deal of material to work with, even a few poems that are pretty whole, requiring little in the way of revision.

But this April, I will be away at the Small Knits Symposium for 4 days at the end of the month. So the pondering is on how that will affect the poem-a-day goal. Do I start early or finish late? Do I try to write poems during the symposium? That will mean handwritten because I don't intend to take my computer. I will have my iPad which has a MacJournal app (MacJournal is the environment in which I journal and write poetry) though writing on the iPad is cumbersome to me.

Part of my writing process is working on a keyboard. Whether typewriter in the olden days or computer now, I have always noticed a dramatic difference in flow compared to composing poetry in manuscript. I have used that difference, too. The act of handwriting must use different neural pathways or something. There is definitely a difference in the way I connect with my 
imagination.

Found Poetry Project

 

 

This project is just beginning. As I obscure the original words on the page, the lines seem to create the appearance of weaving and I am as interested in exploring and extending the visual effects of textiles as I am in locating the poem hidden in the page of words. 

It was a leap for me to begin to alter the pages of the 107-year-old book I am working with. I did not choose a book that is in poor condition or disbound. No, I chose a book that was just fine.  And doing this to the pages, then tearing them out, seems....like I am breaking a taboo, committing a sin if not a crime. But my bookseller/booklover soul merely winced as I made that first ink mark. It did not cry out in agony, merely winced.

What becomes interesting is the relationship I am developing with the book of essays I am pillaging for parts. Title: From a College Window. And its author. Arthur C. Benson. He seems also to have written fantasy and  supernatural tales as A.C. Benson.  Even the names of the previous owners are part of my thoughts. And a search.  I believe this is the grave of one of them.

It will be interesting to see where this project takes me. It is exhilarating to find something that combines my love of words with visual art that evokes fiber.

Morning Tea Thoughts

 Morning tea. So visually lovely, I had to take pictures. As I looked at this picture, I realized that what makes this so very lovely to me is:

that substantial blue/white pottery vase was made by one of my oldest and dearest friends, Tandy, & it has accompanied my life and given me great pleasure for more than three decades

that thin china teacup was made in Ireland and my son Shaun was with me the day I bought it at that little Irish import shop in South Miami more than two decades ago

that iron teapot warmer was bought for me behind my back by my daughter-in-law Lisa when we went to Teavana on the Boston trip that Shaun orchestrated to get his agoraphobic mom back out in a world beyond Terre Haute, IN

the bliss-making tulips were a gift from April, and made me feel so special and remind me of the poetry reading and the sweet community of heart writers  Sarah and I are privileged to hold space for each month.

the tea, called Bohemia was lovingly hand-blended by tea whisperer  Lindsay Luna, one of the many creative and inspiring women I've come to circle with through online magickal & spirit stirring experiences.

the oil lamp was purchased from an Illinois potter at a Crossroads Arts Fest and illuminated countless Saturday night meals shared with my granddaughter Sophia. It was Our Thing for a long while.( Now we make linguine & Wacky Cake and watch Cake Boss. Everything changes, nothing perishes.)

the tea tray was a garage sale rescue, broken and restored to wholeness by me.

These are but Things I know. And as I am in the midst of a  space-clearing, Thing-discarding, Chi-freeing whirlwind energy....I realize one of my questions before letting go of a thing is 'how much JOY does this vibrate with?' Not nostalgia, not poignancy. JOY. All of these Things are keepers.

(Sometimes my Facebook posts want to be blog posts and often I stop writing over there and come here. This one I left there, but it really wanted to exist here as well...)

Emerging

Brutal winter.
I spent much of it worrying whether or not the electricity would go off and lying on the sofa in a kind of stupor, wrapped in blankets, snuggled with Lily, my dog-being friend. Apart from the worry, it was  an enjoyable stupor.

 For three years now,  I have chosen to consider time from Winter Solstice to Spring Equinox as retreat time, and refuse to make any commitments, and have the luxury of not having to go into the world much at all during this time. This is the first year when I have actually come close to a state of hibernation, and I think it may have done me a world of good. Apart from the worry.


Blanket Report

The blanket I wrote of in my last entry is in the home stretch. It would have been finished by now, but I am dealing with awful pain in my right shoulder, which I directly attribute to working it.

I have dealt with similar pain and loss of range of motion in each of my shoulders in the past, and somehow, after long periods of time and physical therapy each of them resolved. And yes, both seemed to be the result of stress from fiber art work.  Spinning in one case, knitting in the other.   I am hoping this will resolve as well. And trying to find my handouts for exercises from the PT.

I am still knitting, though for short periods and not with large needles and doubled yarn. 

Latest Knitting

Here is a new (to me, anyway) Noro!

Kibou - 54% Cotton, 34% Wool, 12% Silk - a generous 270 meters per 100gr ball



I made pouches for my husband (to carry saxophone parts) one in colorway 11, the other in colorway 9. This was a perfect project to get a feel for this yearn.

Worked sideways on #8 needles.  30 stitches in reverse stockinette (what the stockinette stitch gets called when you choose to make the purl side the public side). Sewed up bottom and side and topped with a round of single crochet (Hook size B), a round of double crochet, a round of slip stitch.  Draw cord is just a length of chain, threaded over and under 2 dc around.