Feral Knitter

Flattened

I can't seem to find a catchy way to say this. I'm sick. I've been sick for over a week now. I haven't been this sick in years. I hardly have any energy and not much more voice. I have coughs, and used Kleenex galore.

Just wanted to stop by and let you know I'm still alive. Madrona reports to follow, along with a play-by-play account of how I managed to put on the car chains all by myself.

Tolerance for Uncertainty

People who need certainty in their lives are less likely to make art that is risky, subversive, complicated, iffy, suggestive or spontaneous. What's really needed is nothing more than a broad sense of what you are looking for, some strategy for how to find it, and an overriding willingness to embrace mistakes and surprises along the way. Simply put, making art is chancy--it doesn't mix well with predictability. Uncertainty is the essential, inevitable and all-pervasive companion to your desire to make art. And tolerance for uncertainty is the prerequisite to succeeding.
~ David Bayles & Ted Orland, Art and Fear

I had my last tapestry weaving class yesterday (10 of 10 lessons I've been taking from Tricia Goldberg in Berkeley, California--a very good teacher, by the way)!

I felt a great sense of accomplishment at finishing my sampler, and a sense of anxiety that I might not follow up on this new passion of mine. When I look at my weaving I can see how quickly I moved from uncovered warps and wobbly tension to a smoother finish and a more assured way of handling the bobbins. I've learned to make angles and curves and a circle; dots and lines; hatching, the traditional way to blend colors optically; straight selvedges; blend colors; well, the list goes on.

But there is also a small but very very noisy and influential part of me that wants to make SURE that I realize just HOW FAR I have to go before I can make the visions in my head into something tangible. I know that I am not alone in this, that in fact the majority of people are probably stuck in the same quicksand of doubt.

I'm going to resist the entropy, though. I will try a bit every day--whether by designing Fair Isle, drawing, spinning, or weaving--to keep the fear of uncertainty from running my life.

I'm packing up the car to head off to the Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat and then to Seattle, where I'll be teaching at Village Yarn & Tea. I've packed some books on art and drawing and "creativity," that irritating and omnipresent I-want-to-sell-you-something word, to help me stand firm against the Voice In My Head.

Sharks in the Water

Free means being aware, being able to generate new options and to make fresh choices whenever we need.
~James Walters and Sylvia Cosh, Crochet Workbook

The more I look at my swatch for Surf & Sand, the more I love it! But a problem has surfaced.... It started with a simple question about the motif I had chosen, which came from Latvian Mittens by Lizbeth Upitis (Mitten 53)--one reader noticed that the same motif had been used by the designer of Alcea, from Simply Shetland 3 Galisteo. We had an interesting discussion about the use of traditional motifs by different designers--at what point is it copying another's work? etc. I hadn't seen Alcea before to remember it (although I love seeing other people's work, I no longer look at it all that closely, prefering the creative process in my head to following someone's design, no matter how lovely), so I knew that I had not pilfered the pattern. Furthermore, once I did know about it I could see that the sequencing of colors was very different (not to mention the colors themselves) and the garment design was going to be different, so no problem.

When I was picking a motif, I was looking for a traditional allover design. There are a couple of wonderful examples in Fair Isle books, but Betts Lampers had used them for her garments in Sweaters from Camp. Many Selbu patterns are perfect, but I remembered that my friend Lori had used one for her masterpiece and I didn't want to follow in her footsteps.

Imagine my dismay when I was looking through some photos and found that I had chosen the exact same motif Lori used! I'd even posted the photos on my blog! Stupid stupid memory. It's one thing for completely unconnected designers to use the same motif--it's another when two members of the same guild do it! I need to make a fresh choice, so I've made many modifications to the motif now to give it a different look. I wonder if I can get away with not swatching?

And now for something completely different:

Bridget Rorem's absolutely lovely Near Solstice Shawl pattern is now available from Schoolhouse Press! Do not be deterred by the fact that this project has languished on my needles (I had an early copy of the pattern), this is heirloom knitting.