Recovering From Wildfire – Page 5

Yarn Tasting: Miss Babs Northumbria

Published on December 4, 2017December 8, 2017 by Jen10 Comments

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Northumbria Fingering, 100% Bluefaced Leicester wool, in the color ” Beachglass “.

How can one stray toward unhappiness with a beautiful hand-dyed wool on the needles like this? Just my thoughts exactly. I will be on the straight-and-narrow toward a hopeful horizon because I have this woolly lot given to me by a lovely little tadpole. Something to cuddle and keep my hands busy & warm.

Soon I will cast on for an Fishwives Lace Shoal being that an engaging lace is just the tonic needed, because I haven’t knit a stitch for two months, and I do believe knit-walking in particular has supernatural ability to fend off all that is unpleasant. Just me and 100 grams /437 yards, and a good & kindly level path to meander on, while contemplating the Territory Ahead. Thank you tadpole!

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Its been a very difficult time for me in recent last month (already nearly two since the wildfire) as I grow out of shock, and face grief in its many facades. There simply aren’t many things I can expect from myself for a while, but to survive this period of hard knocks, dealing with the insurance company and inevitable constrained possibilities of future rebuild … I am to say the least, just staying afloat with sails down, in a sea of uncertainty. Spinning some, soon to be knitting again.

i heart tweed

Published on November 20, 2017October 20, 2024 by Jen7 Comments

jenjoycedesign© hearts3 In this holding place where I have been living a short while, there has been left behind this little grouping of hearts in a line. It makes me think about … (how could it not?) … what I love.

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And what I already miss of my own.

There are things which are not objects that I love, obviously . . .

I love, love, love knitting …

And I love designing knitwear & writing patterns …

and stitching & spinning …

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But I have come to see that I most definitely love right now, color blending of fiber ! Enough feeling sorry for myself while not having the things I love, it is time for me to focus on doing the things I love. Some good people have given me for my own, a spinning wheel & loads of fiber.

I have at loan until I can make my previous jumbo blending board to specs again, an Ashford blending board which is doing the trick for my setting everything into motion. I have bought some colors, and am presently in a learning curve, how to do it on different equipment and a different creative space … and I’ve already gotten knee-deep into a new unpredictable tweedy blend to spin on my new wheel.

But I have decided that presently what I enjoy most of all is color blending with fiber, especially unpredictable color blends . . .

Everywhere people are giving, at the yarn store I was given a donated knitted vest, as well as bags full of yarns, all from a back room filled with donations for the hundreds of displaced people who lost their homes in the wildfire. So, having been given a Noro silky tweed knitted vest, I decided to unravel it for the yarn, which I think is quite beautiful as a fluffy neckwear piece on Abelene #2 ( I was lucky to find another just like Abelene#1 ) … who is modelling in front of the antique dresser & mirror given to us by a friend of a relative, the mirror which I am photographing many of my tweed chronicles experiments!

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Tweed News: I am totally and completely immersed in my tweed blending and spinning. Being my own micro mill is pretty much what excites me these days, and I feel I am making headway on my personal palette. More to come, very soon to post my next forthcoming, after it gets spun up. But for now, I leave you with yet another Tweed Film I have found, as these old films so inspire me!

Intuitive

Published on November 16, 2017September 4, 2018 by Jen14 Comments

Moon phase is Waning Crescent, and at 3.5 percent this very hour. The Old Moon quickly moves into the New Moon in less than twenty hours. Symbolism attributed to this moon phase is a time of subconscious enlightenment giving way to conscious awakening of values. Indeed, an event for me this morning, so ripe with meaning. The waning crescent moon is about to seemingly disappear, when it is directly between the Earth and the Sun, hidden and obscured.

And I have felt obscuring in my life, without routine and wandering without confidence. Where is my mothers skirt to cling to as I did when a child of the world? We are all thrown out into the water at least once in life to test our instincts, and to strengthen that innate mechanism of survival. I’ve been thrown into the water, and I have been lashing about for weeks and weeks, lacking trust of my buoyant inner self.

I crave to feel the presence of my strong intuition, and let my life develop here forward in a more fluid state, stroking instead of splashing, trusting instead of panicking over what is perpetually lost.

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From here I stride away from the recent difficult experience …

and (hopefully) toward positiveness & creativity.

Artful

Published on November 14, 2017March 12, 2019 by Jen17 Comments

jenjoycedesign© new artful spaces

There is a whole different gait about me in this holding place.

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Seeking out new photogenic sweet spots …

I look and look in this new place, and think there is nowhere artful …

Then the sun only needs to fall a little and the angles of glowing light reveal it to me …

There are the same warm light and shadow like old friends …

Coming to visit for the afternoon.

Come friends, and sit at the table, and I will make tea in my new teapot. I am so glad you are not lost, but found again and again …

and every day.

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Oh, and the Autumn sweaters are finally finished. The sweaters were one of the few things I took with me when the fire came. (( Thank you so very much Wendy for the buttons! )) I hope to get them to my nieces soon, and experience their beautiful form & faces, and those familiar places of Calistoga … soon.

Fresh

Published on November 13, 2017April 6, 2025 by Jen20 Comments

Fresh. Clean. Beginnings.

In a new place, a space to explore, and lay-about.

Emma and I are sleuthing out comfort in this transition, doing alright but not brilliantly, as can be expected. I have not knit, nor have I walked very much to speak of. Life upside-down brings different perspectives for certain, and as I find myself upside-down, well then I am resolved to learning new angles on form and experience. Its okay, I have no complaints …. except that I miss my home terribly and to have to wait for it to be rebuilt is something I can not embrace just yet.

We’re fine otherwise, and are contemplating a far more minimalist life-style.

I am so grateful for the flurry of pattern sales from you supporters out there (the post Recovering) and those of you who gave to me loving good thoughts & prayers. A few things which managed to come to us by gift from friends have been shaping this holding place, and it feels just a teensy bit homier now ~~ thank you!

Abelene Two just just arrived at the door … just in time to inspire me to knit something to drape on her lovely form. And I still am grateful for cups of truly delicious fresh coffee.

Thank you to all of you who have left heart-full notes during & in the wake of the wildfire. Please forgive my silence, and please know that I am so very much appreciating your words, in a wordless time. Thank you.