A New Home

"The happy years are those that are wasted; we must wait for suffering to drive us to work."   ~Marcel Proust, Time Regained, ch III

 I moved this summer, and in the madness & happiness of packing, unpacking, and making art- I have had no time to write!  Well, now that it's getting cold out, there is much to tell:

"Bench; Summer 2013 Watching Game of Thrones."  40x17x17"

I made the legs with my dad this spring, over the summer I spent 40+ hours hand spinning fabric with a drop spindle, and weaving.

It is one of many handmade touches that are making my new house feel like home.

The warp.

The whole weave.

New kitchen set-up.  My first map painting, and some chairs I refinished summer 2012.  

The view from my kitchen to the back porch, I crocheted this curtain.

 I found moving a bit taxing mentally, and I took a very intensive summer course on Yoga Therapy.  My art, in contrast, returned to the comfort of repetitive motions like hand spinning and crochet.  They offer a meditative quality that is so soothing.  I have read every book by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (AKA, the Yarn Harlot); and in All Wound Up, she connects knitting (and other fiber arts) to meditation.  Here are a few of her musings that I'm particularly fond of.

“...the number one reason knitters knit is because they are so smart that they need knitting to make boring things interesting. Knitters are so compellingly clever that they simply can't tolerate boredom. It takes more to engage and entertain this kind of human, and they need an outlet or they get into trouble.

"...knitters just can't watch TV without doing something else. Knitters just can't wait in line, knitters just can't sit waiting at the doctor's office. Knitters need knitting to add a layer of interest in other, less constructive ways.” 
― Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

"It was so simple that I was almost ashamed that it had taken all day to put it together.  Knitting wasn't always about creativity, and neither was writing; it was about creation, bringing something into being.  Making a thing where there wasn't something before. When I was writing, I was coming up with an idea, and then using my skills to make it a reality.  Same thing with knitting. I was imagining a sweater, or socks or whatever, and then using my skills to translate that image in my mind into a real thing you could touch and see.  I had been right (and rather wrong) the whole time.  They were the same, they fed the same human need, they enriched the soul the same way.  They were not an act of creativity, they were a pure act of creation. 

 "Who knew.  To your spiritual self, writing a novel may be exactly the same as knitting a sweater."  ~Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Free-Range Knitter

 While spinning and weaving I watched all of "Game of Thrones," and "Orange is the New Black." The Marathon tv was justified by the art, and the slow paced art was justified by the tv! At the end, I feel lucky to have a beautiful hand made object in my home, and Game of Thrones has left me feeling very lucky indeed to be a woman living Now, rather than any time in the past!