Category: Philosophical

Capturing

Published on by Jen12 Comments

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Light in the stairway, from above, morning light piercing through from the roof window, and stretching shadows to incredible lengths.

I think that being an artist of any kind is nothing more than capturing an inspiring moment and freezing it.  Objects & angles.  This stairway is one of my favorite places in our house. It is very bright and ascends into rooms, one of which is the creative space I call my loft.

Yesterday I was manic and coming up with big plans to design a shaped ‘plus’ size range of the original Pin-Striped Sweater Tee, and after charting, drawing, messaging with kind knitters wanting to partake in my design experiment, setting up a virtual knitting room for it, and then at the end of the day, after nearly collapsing into a state of ‘what have I done?’…. I was very unhappy.  So strange, that in order to please others, I was making myself unhappy.

Just last week I was pacing myself, immensely looking forward to two big accomplishments to get behind me ~  and that was to submit the Pin-Striped Sweater Tee  pattern, which was the culmination of which I had spent all of spring knitting four of,  and also the  Dicey Bonnet  pattern, which is my dear pet project.  But last night I realized I was not relishing my accomplishment , but getting myself into a pile of more work, and so I cancelled the plus-sizes tee project.

I need to spend some time celebrating, as I finished all I set out to do! Unwinding now, I am going back to knitting hats & socks for a while. Perhaps I will  sit on the steps of this blithe stairway and just capture some happiness today.

Christmas Bits & Bobs

Published on by Jen10 Comments

I never really thought of myself as a holiday kind of person, in fact, I’m pretty grouchy around holidays. But this year I am welcoming the cheer from our Christmasy bits & bobs . . .


Everything out of boxes, queuing up for a little decorative cheer in our house in the coming week.  Our tree ornaments  are integrated,  his & mine together, in a sentimental sort of chaos.  Such a perplexing emotion these objects evoke, these bright colorful new & old baubles shuffled together, our childhoods super-imposed upon each other’s, representing Christmases Past, separately & shared.  Two snowy white sheep from the late 80’s given to me when I first learned to spin wool . . .  an airplane wth lost propeller and a merry skier on its ski lift of Jeff’s from the 70’s . . .  a bicycle from my bike shop days in the mid 90’s . . .

Our dog Emma is familiar with these strange and intriguing Christmas things too, she makes our little family a trinity, she even has a stocking put out for Santa which gets filled with doggy goodies, and she loves unwrapping presents, is quite the ace at it !  Emma recognises all these seasonal sparkling & feathery oddities spread about our the table, and perhaps she anticipates a succesful heist from all the tempting things to steal from on and under the tree . . .


Strands upon strands of shiny golden stars get ready to be flounced about the evergreen branches . . . shiny red painted paper mache’ apples , a dozen of them,  will hang on the tree as if ready to pick and bite into.  A few antique toys will sit beneath the tree, inviting anybody’s child-like bewilderment to bubble up , bidding good-bye the imposed sense of stodgy ‘grown-up-ness’ ~ at least  for a while.

A doll’s doll which was my mothers as a child, and which I decided to put a hook on and hang on a branch, an old painted cast metal toys hang on the tree . . . and many feathery birds ready to perch on the branches. . . many miniature mandolins & guitars too, given in encouragement of my learning to play … and little painted nutcrackers.  Most of all I think I love the jewelled tones of the really old glass balls in varying sizes of crimson, ultramarine blue, spruce & moss greens, burnt orange, indigo & violet purple. The colors just tickle a place inside of me which only gets tickled for a couple of weeks a year,  when I bring them all out, it almost seems as if I’m bringing my past to life.

I am glad to say hello to the holiday boxes for another Christmas,  and glad to very soon bring in a fragrant tree who’s fresh needles perfume the house so sweetly.  The magic begins when the forgotten boxes emerge from behind musky suitcases in the furthest recesses of the closet, and these little things find their place among the house, as every year they do. Let the lights sparkle on the holiday ornaments , it is soon to be a brand new winter season ! And you can bet I’m knitting in a frenzy for holiday gifts !

Each Day

Published on by Jen10 Comments

Each day, in the morning light, as I go into my kitchen, I hope to see the sunrise cast its blithe shadows on the wall.

Everything so penetratingly deeply glowing as if I am peering into the mouth of a firey oven . . . but then the light changes so fast, within only one or two minutes.

I then can see the form of the trunks and foliage from the fir trees outside the window, as shadow puppets performing a merry show,  while the soft benevolent orange sun climbs up rapidly from the east.

The light which peeks in so intimately through the window early in the morning for only a few moments, so suddenly becomes aloof,  and then the wash of the light of the day floods the room, so fast !  Then everything just looks and feels … well… brightening … yet fading. 

This makes me realize how creativity works.   When conditions are right, a window through which I feel intensity of life, of inner light perhaps, and a bulls-eye to be glimpsed, and aimed toward.  But only moments later the light changes and does not show so clearly the target, and conditions wane, inspiration washes out.  Inspiration is merely a flicker, really, when I think about it, when conditions are right.  I must let my mind’s eye capture that flicker , let it be etched in, and hold it for as long as possible.

In between these flickering moments, I bide my time with the work which needs to be done.

Sock News

Published on by Jen4 Comments


I am sort of taking a break from any projects which require  a lot of creativity, for a spell.   Sometimes I want to just defrag and knit a basic project, and contemplate more logical ideas.

For instance, sock knitting. Very basic sock knitting, I’ve decided, is extremely under-rated. I want to cultivate the utilitarian-ness of basic-sock-knitting, and I can’t really see myself ever becoming very decorative about them.   Just two knit/two purl rib sock knitting , where the numbers are multiples of 8, and really, for the adults and teens I know and love and knit for, and using fingering or even sport weight yarn, I’m figuring there are likely going to be two common sets of numbers to work from ~ total stitches being 56, or total stitches being 64.   Sport weight yarn with 64 or 56 stitches,  on #3 needles will be a large-ish sock, maybe a little snugger on size#2 needles (like for Kilt Hose !) , and I’m seeing that fingering weight yarn with 64 or 56 stitches and size#0 – #2 needles is a good variation of size range too. I’m knitting my second pair of Regular Ol’ Socks and  keeping very vigilently to #2 needles ~ this time careful to not accidentally knit with the #3 needles.

(Question: How can one so easily and so often mix them up? Answer: too many needles heeped in a cigar box, unlabelled).

I knit very snugly, and these stitches are super duper fine and …. well these puppies are tight! Imagine what I could do with fine fingering weight, my tight knitting, and size #0 needles !!! I could change the world ! Or… at least… I could knit some very fine, very nice socks for my wee hoofish feet, using 64 stitches, or even introduce a new number of 68 or 72 stitches… just imagine…knee-highs…with delicious rib decreases…and even increases !  I’m salivating !

So here is another observation I’m making : Using two 16in circular needles (a pain, yes, and having to adjust needles every half row is high-maintenance knitting for me, but must be done, because the 56-stitch socks in fine fingering weight yarn, stretched around one 9in circular needle is a job wrestling the whole way, pushing stitches along at their widest possible girth is also high maintenance.

Here we have progress with two 16in circular needles…


And here is progress with one 9in circular needle…

I must admit that I prefer low maintenance for something as ‘easy’ and ‘simple’ as a Regular Ol’ Classic Sock.  I’m thinking that streamlining the two 16″circular needle method is the best bet for a sock that’s not big (like for gent)… but for my feet, which are more like wee hooves of a baby burro… but   I still am sleuthing out the best method.

Edit In : Okay, for the second time , on the second pair of socks, I’ve decided a set of 4 double-pointed needles are actually the least bit fussy and least maintenance.  Suprising, since I have to switch out 3 times in one row !  Most importantly the yarn loops don’t get stressed when getting pushed between the fine cable and over the needle join.. where I’m constantly having to really pull and that I’ve decided , is the agitating ‘fiddly bit’ I can do without.  DPNS are IN.

Summer Breeze

Published on by Jen5 Comments

It’s particularly quiet on the mountain this morning.

In the summer stillness of Northern California, there is usually no weather to report for months on end. Sometimes there is a breeze. Sometimes a little fog which swells up from the valley in the morning. Sometimes a relentless wind which cracks off dried branches from the trees in the forest and whips off tips of new growth, littering the country road.

The wind whistling through the tree tops is the most eerie up in the Rafters O’ Society, above the towns, overlooking ridges which  overlap , one behind another clear into the next county. Because in the breeze one hears a kind of silence which is felt in the restless sound of the trees quivering. The fact that one hears *only* the breeze, I guess is what makes it seem so quiet.

(Two pensive ravens perched in a dead fir tree, photographed with a zoom from my house, yesterday early evening.)

I do like rain, or even a lot of rain ~ in fact, I love rain.  But for now there’s blue sky. Lots and lots of clear, dry, and very blue sky.  This summer season makes me feel rather despondent, clear through September.  I must hunker down in the shadows.  It’s time to make a good strong pint of tea and stir things up.

In the dusty wild west, where things are a few degrees removed from finery, some of us pioneers, well, we devise our own way of doing things.  I do have a couple of small tea pots, but I have gotten into the habit over the years to brew loose-leaf tea in a canning jar,  sometimes a pint sized (to be pour’d into a pint glass) , but more times than not, I make up in a quart-sized jar.  What is left can easily be put into the fridge for cold tea later, which is a treat in the summer heat.

This really isn’t about tea, or the wind, or the ravens.  Its about my changing course,  about drinking in what nature brings to me, and waiting for the wind in my sails again.  Having  had a house full of family for an epic family reunion I am ready for something cheerfully  rejuvenating.   I am going to shake it loose and default to some good ol’ classic knitting ! So time to finish these…

I learn from my mistakes very clumsily,  like using a machete through the bush, I rip back and then knit forward, rip and knit, rip, knit.

Last night I had to rip back the mindless knitting I had apparently done while at a long break during a gig last weekend, I kept decreasing through the heel gussets (two at a time mistake) and ended up with far too few stitches. So, having fixed that, now I am merrily on my way again.