Things are busy my friends - general work insanity (to be expected at this time of year), and lots going on in real life too, which equals less wordiness from me as most of my energy and attention are drawn elsewhere. So, an update on the activities of the last week (two, actually) in list form:

A new T-shirt from Connie (which has already seen a good share of wear in the week since it arrived. Thanks Connie - I love it!) - her brother’s beautiful design:

Swatching for planned projects and new designs:

A greatly improved schematic for Summer Sky with a little preview for you all, this may not be the final version, but I’m MUCH happier with it than the orginal - Step by step the redux is moving along, I’ll give an update on the expected timeframe soon.

An excellent show last week (The Swell Season) and another amazing opener I’d never heard before (Dawn Landes - check her out with the link below). The music collection grows.

A completed logo for Purling Plans by a very talented friend, to be shared with you all soon.

The Golf came home after some much needed work - followed by some brakework too, and is now running like a top - not bad for 140k - Here’s hoping for another 50-100,000.

Time with Friends & Sheep last weekend - Ironically, more pictures of the sheep than of the friends!:

Lots of time in the Garden (which is coming along quite nicely!) - Pictures soon.

An especially fantastic mess has been documented, but I’ll save that for next Messy Tuesday.

Spinning, as you saw (and helped me along!).

Yarn winding - Newly arrived z-ply Mora Yarn for more Two-End Knitting and the upcoming second installment of the Two-End Knitting Exploration (Did you happen to see? My first installment was featured by Eve in Yarnival on Monday much to my surprise! I’d been wondering where Yarnival went off to, not having seen an edition in a couple months, and as always I enjoyed some new and existing favorite blogs and projects. Thank you to whoever recommended my post!):

So, lots going on here - what’s new with you?!

—————-
Now playing: Dawn Landes - Dig Me a Hole
via FoxyTunes

POTENTIAL

This time of year always sneaks up on me. Although spring is my favorite time of year here in North Carolina (even rivaling Autumn in New Hampshire!) there’s a creeping sadness that comes with it, and sometimes, there’s just nothing to do but make a really excellent mess.

Nothing says potential like bare earth. And not many things feel as good as the tiredness that comes from working it. Combining the compost made from the remnants of last years garden and a years worth of vegetable scraps and turning it into the soil felt like giving back a bit of what we took out last year. Awesome, in the truest sense. With hope that there will be some seedlings soon. I was surprised at how late our frost date is - April 24rth by one account and May 11 by another. So, though I thought I was late, it seems I’m right on time. Some have been started outdoors, and some indoors. The tomatoes and peppers and eggplants I’m not quite sure what to do about as it seems they need a lot more TLC to start from seeds than the rest of them… I may stick to seedlings for them this year and try to set up a better indoor planting scheme for them for next year - we’re learning as we go here!

Hmmm… Veggie or Weed?

Not too many pictures as my hands were messy as can be - though I’m ok with that, I thought the camera might not be. So no pictures of the action or of me tracking my mess into the house (shame on me!) just a couple of dirt. I’ll leave the rest to your very capable imaginations.

I am my mother’s daughter - I love being outside, hiking, playing in the dirt, growing food, and getting up close and personal with the flowers.

Mom’s garden, flourishing.

I’ll bet you all made some great messes in the last couple weeks, I will catch up on your posts shortly here!

—————-
Now playing: Bon Iver - Flume
via FoxyTunes

Two bobbins down, one more to go! Hurray!!

It’s been a busy week, and a messy week. The reading of this post by Felix this morning made me feel so much better about my messes (those both literal & figurative), and then this one by Ms. Half Soled Boots cinched the deal because they both rang so true for me. Thanks ladies, for sharing a bit of your lives and your messiness, and making me feel a little better - and not alone - in my own. Count me in on the messiness, and the posting of said messes. I have many more thoughts on the subject, but you’ve said it all already.

In the midst of the messiness, spinning has been soothing and fun. Look! Somehow these two just go together, don’t you think?

Bobbin #2 & Chrysalis #2 - fiber and yarn painted by Gryphon.

I hope your weeks were not too terribly messy (or rather, VERY messy indeed, if it means that you had fun, spent time with people you loved, and exercised your creativity - dishes be damned!)
—————-
Now playing: Toad the Wet Sprocket - Windmills
via FoxyTunes

Each year I find myself relating less and less Christmas and more and more to New Year’s. In part due to the overt commercialism associated with the Christmas holiday, the perceived pressure and expectations, but also and perhaps more than anything due to one very large hole in my heart belonging to the person who helped tie my family together and make the holidays meaningful for us. So, I’ve been a little quiet this last week or two. I haven’t been knitting much, I haven’t been online, and I haven’t written at all (if I have been slow getting back to any of you, please accept my apologies!).

What I have been doing is spending excellent quality time sharing stories, laughing, talking and dreaming with my brother & his SO, whom we haven’t seen in more than a year. They’ve just returned from living and working in Armenia, where they had some amazing adventures. Having them home safely and getting to spend the holiday with them was the best Christmas gift we could have. Those kind of gifts always are.

Back to New Year’s. I know full well that we all have the freedom to start over every day, new beginnings are a mostly mental thing - blah, blah, blah. But for some reason the new year holiday always provides me with a sort of mental break, a specific time that encourages me to reflect, re-evaluate, and mentally regroup. This is the time of year when I am most generous and forgiving with myself as well as a time when I am hopeful for the future. I feel less pressure and sadness, and more excitement and anticipation for what the new year will bring. And I AM very excited about what this new year will bring!

So, since this is actually a knitting blog, here’s a retrospective of fibery things from the past year!

And a forecast that 2008 will be another wonderful year with lots more new things to learn, yarns and fibers to experience and wonderful people! I usually set some pretty specific goals, but this year I’m foregoing the list in favor of the flexibility to go where my knitting may take me and explore anything that I find interesting along the way.

Thank you all for the incredible inspiration through all of your blogs, and your encouragement and support through your comments here over the last year. 2007 was the first year that I have been an active blogger, and I have become unexpectedly fond of this little space as another creative outlet and documentation tool - and SO fond of all of you that read and that I correspond with. A very Happy New Year to all of you! I hope that whatever holidays you may celebrate were filled with love and laughter and many new warm memories, and I wish you all the best in life and fiber pursuits in 2008.

See you next year!

—————-
Now playing: Asobi Seksu - New Years
via FoxyTunes

“…If we allow ourselves contemplative time in nature - whether it’s gardening, going for a walk with the dog, or being in the heart of the southern Utah wilderness - then we can hear the voice of our conscience. If we listen to that voice, it asks us to be conscious. And if we become conscious, we choose to live lives of consequence.”

- Terry Tempest Williams

I believe that almost everything happens for a reason. I’m not at all religious, but I absolutely do believe that life sometimes steps in and lends a hand, either affirming something that I already know, or revealing something that I hadn’t yet considered. Whether that equates to my subconscious at work or some great karmic plan, I may never know. But I do know that things have a way of working out the way that they’re “supposed” to, and if a thing is meant to be, well then, be it the universe or karma or maybe just general good vibes, it’s seems to work toward that end. Does that mean that everything works out the way that I want it to? Of course not. It just means that sometimes I assign meaning to seemingly random events, those which seem too coincidental to be meaningless - both those happy and positive events, and those “learning experiences” that we all have along the way. And that when I’m paying attention, these seemingly random events help me to work things out in my head, take comfort or draw conclusions, and sometimes after enough time and thought, make decisions and changes. An entirely unexpected situation sometimes presents itself, and though it might not be exactly what I was looking or hoping for, there might be a very good reason for it and it might be just the thing that I needed.

In the last few weeks there have been a quite a handful of these little thought-provoking events. And being that Tad and I have been in a period of re-evaluation over the last, well really over the last few years, I feel encouraged in this area. Our values and priorities have changed a great deal and continue to evolve as we educate ourselves about our impact on the world around us and make choices to influence and hopefully to lessen that impact. Just recently there have been many discussions with friends and with Tad about the direction that we’re headed. There was a particularly fortuitious meeting, which also turned into correspondences about the future and options regarding land and farming. There have been articles and blog entries which have spurred the thought process. And I found this write-up in my email box - which wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t subscribe to the email you know, but still (I do hope that they find an appropriate solution). It does seem that a lot of occurences are affirming the direction that we’re headed and the steps that we are taking to that end. In any case, we are paying attention, and thinking. And taking comfort, and talking and formulating plans. Change is inevitable. Not necessarily fast-moving change, unless one of those fall out of the sky things were to happen. Certainly though - change in perspective, change in focus, and incrementally and over time, change in lifestyle. It starts here, with the two of us, our priorities, our commitment, and our attitudes.

My compass…. I got this at a time of big change in our lives (Tad’s & mine); It represents different things to me (click to go to the notes), but among others it’s a reminder of what’s truly important in my life. And because of the time when it was drawn, the time that it was inked and all that has transpired since, it reminds me that re-evaluation is a good thing. We are not the same people that we once were, or that we will be 10 years from now. It’s all about having the courage to make changes on a both a large and small scale to build a meaningful life.