Tag Archives: understanding

Not All Color Is Created Equal In My Eye

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ScannedImageSummer creates a time of adjustment in my household. Our routine is thrown upend…okay, my routine is thrown upend. With the children home from school, it seems that their lists of activities and events occur daily, and leaves me to working in smaller spurts of time, except for when the sun finally dims and I convince them to go to bed.

So it might seem odd that I sometimes find great insight in my work during this time, but today proved to be one of those days. As I drove my kids to yet another outing, I was looking at the colors upon the land scape, and my reaction to colors of yarn came into focus.range-68838__180

There are certain colors that have never held much inspiration for me, there are definitely some other colors that just sing new ideas for me, and today I understood why that is true for some.

I will admit, I am picking about green. I like what I describe as happy and cheerful greens, greens with a little touch of yellow, greens that are bright. Greens that lean more olive, greens with a blue/gray tinge, green with a reddish brown underlay have never piquet my interest. If I am completely honest with myself, they make me a little uncomfortable, and today I understood why. They remind me of colors of certain pine and live oak trees that flourish in the area I have grown up and live.

Now there is nothing wrong with these trees, however when I think of the colors, it can remind me of hot, yes I mean hot, the dry hot of California summers. They remind me of afternoons that I spent as a child helping my family gather firewood for summer, or find missing cows in the rural foothills, or simply times I spent outside to avoid my younger siblings. The colors remind me of the trees that I sought shade, which never seemed to cool. Of the prickly nature of the live oak leaves, and the tall dead grass that would stick to my sweat socked legs. Unfortunately these colors never were ones that I associated with comfort.

I hope that by finding and understanding the association I have with these greens, it might help me to find a new relationship with them. I believe that the colors we love, or dislike, have some associations that cause us to feel the way we do…so know why am I so drawn to blue?

 

Nothing Ever Stays the Same

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ScannedImageI usually see an image of what I want a particular yarn to be, by simply holding it and letting my mind wander, but that is where things actually become difficult. Now I need to play, okay, it is swatching, but I have never been good at creating swatches, I want to get on to making something not just make squares of stitching.

However, I usually need to figure out how to get my image translated into an actual creation, and that often means finding the stitch patterns that will accomplish this.DSCF0868.1

Sometimes I get into the process and realize that I like something else better, and either re-create my idea or create something completely new. Okay, this happens in many aspects of life; from everything like what to have for dinner of what I am wearing to that holiday party. Ideas constantly evolve. This is my reminder that nothing is a constant; the only thing that I can accurately predict is that everything will always change. I will admit, this keeps me from getting too attached to any one idea for very long, and I hope helps keep my work fresh. One can hope at least.

Something Special…Do Not Wait for the Moment

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ScannedImageI had a moment of clarity and awaking the other day when going through my yarn stash; I treat special as something cherished and don’t indulge in it very often.

I actually have a couple of stashes around the house; one closet that houses most of the yarns I do work with, current yarns of large yarn companies, then I have a large tote that is filled with yarns that are discontinued of inherited from the stash of others that get used for charity projects (this is also the only stash the kids are allowed to go through to make their own projects). There is the little desk (that I can easily forget about) that houses yarns that I use for class instructions. Then there is last stash, a cabinet that houses those “special yarns”, ones that I have purchased of the years, ones that are beautiful to me, or one skein luxury gifts in a sense.

This cabinet is a little hodge podge of different fibers, some I have even hand dyed, some handspun, but they are all yarns that evoke some kind of memory or feeling. I keep them in a “special” category; someday I will find the right pattern for that “special” yarn. It always gets put off to tomorrow as I work on today.

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one corner of one shelf in my “special” cabinet

Yes, I attempt to save the best for last. A good bottle of wine can live decades in my house as I find the best moment to drink it, my strand of pearls gather dust in my jewelry box as I wait for events special enough to wear them to, heck even at a good dinner my favorite dish on the plate has to be my last bite saving it to be cherished longer before moving on to the next thing.

I have always been like this, but as I was going through my cabinet, I realized that some of my “special” yarn had not seen the light of day in years. A little collection of merino yarn that I created at a dying workshop that was…oh, at least 5 years ago, but no more then 8, has been sitting in little cake balls waiting to be made into anything. Some little skeins of silk I got at a show a few years ago, and a few skeins that I spun myself on my own wheel (considering that I have a layer of dust on my wheel, and it has not spun anything since 2011, I know those have been there a while) easily dance in the foreground.

Time does pass in odd ways like this, waiting, waiting for something special. I recognize its passing in everyday life, all the things I need to get done, the deadlines before me, but I seem to neglect the “special”, waiting for the moment.

I hope that with this epiphany that I can at least attempt to “make a moment “during the week to address something special. Bring more of the richness life has to offer into the every day, at least I hope that I can keep this as a conscience goal and that it does not get eaten up by time…but only time will tell.

 

 

Learning the Hank (part 1)

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Hanks of Blue Heron Yarn

ScannedImageOne of the more challenging aspects of my personality is not really wanting to admit that I don’t know something, especially when everyone around me thinks it is common knowledge…This probably caused me not to grow in my crochet abilities as early as I could have, but everything happens in their own time for a reason. So what is this that held me back? Understanding a hank of yarn.

I grew up with all of the big name yarns, I can probably identify most blind folded, and just by feel. These are the yarns that are most readily available for me to buy in larger stores, with a nice skein that has a “pull the yarn from the center” string. They are easy to use, come in a wide arrange of colors, and there are many projects to tackle with them.

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Hanks of Lisa Souza Knitwear and Dyeworks Yarn

I had received a gift certificate to a Local Yarn Store (a.k.a. LYS), and went to check it out. There were rows and shelves of yarn, but none of it looked familiar. There were no pretty little ends to pull from a center, most of these were twisted up and I couldn’t even see an end. People in the store were talking about how nice is or that fiber was, and I began to feel a little uncomfortable. People were purchasing these little twisted “hanks” and were talking about the projects they had in mind for them. I did not have the inclination to ask “how do you use that”, since I didn’t want to appear ignorant. So I found a little ball that looked somewhat familiar, though smaller then I was use to , but it appeared to have a pull from the center once I got the band off it (since the band was run through the center and kind of attached like a hand cuff to the round). I purchased my little ball feeling like a complete novice. I thought about those hanks when I got home, but for the life of me could not figure out how they were to be used.

The little ball I got was nice, and introduced me to new fiber types, but it wasn’t until I took my first spinning lesson that I got a firm understanding of the hank, and the light bulb when off in my head. Basically the hank is a twisted loop if yarn, like I saw in old movies where little Jimmy was having a circle of yarn held between his arms as grandma as knitting. These hanks just have to be opened up, find and end and roll into a ball! Then I could use it fine. Damn my pride for standing in the way for so long… or was it that easy….(to be continued…..the saga continues on the next post)