History

I decided when I started blogging again that I would make things a little more manageable. Three days of posting rather than my initially overenthusiastic five days. A set schedule of content so I never had to sit down listlessly at the computer and stare hopelessly into the void of the internet waiting for The Best! Post! Ever! I even had a backlog list of post ideas waiting for me from my initial foray into blogging. That list is (ahem) eighteen months old. And it is weird.

I am not someone who can keep a journal. The thought of reading old posts makes me cringe. When I found my junior high/high school journal I burned it. That isn't as melodramatic as it sounds- I threw it in the woodburning stove with some other paper trash when I was cleaning out my closet in my parent's house. I don't like looking back and seeing who I was. Rather, I don't like looking back and seeing who I really was. I like reminiscing and comparing my current accomplishments to my prior self. I don't like reminders of what a different person I was. I don't like reading a journal and feeling contempt at the navel gazing combined with the discomfort of realizing that the stranger's diary I am reading is mine.

The list is a diary of sorts. A collection of articles and pictures and quotes without any context. It makes it easier to deal with than a journal, but that is because it contains none of my own thoughts. I've stumbled across this artifact of my own recent history, and it means nothing. Half of the content is on topics I no longer care about, and the other half makes me wonder what I cared about when I saved them. I don't know who the person was that saved those scraps. And yet- I've also written three posts inspired by that list on topics that still move me.

Should this unease motivate me to journal, or dissuade me? Is it better to forget your past foibles, or should you continually remind yourself of your mental history?

Collection: Dancing

Ballet kills me. It looks like they are prancing around, but the amount of motor control is insane.

 

 

Not ballet, but fantastic. I don't understand why rhythmic gymnastics gets ridiculed.

Working Wednesday

I need a less obnoxious post title for my Wednesday work in progress updates. Suggestions? What's Up Wednesday! was too chipper, and Working Wednesday is too dour. I need Goldilocks.

I broke out of the sunset palette for this week's dyeing extravaganza- and what an extravaganza! I felt so accomplished getting six skeins of commercial yarn (for a quick sweater for myself), two skeins of white handspun dyed in long color repeats, and a braid of fiber done in one evening. Results:

I also have been experimenting with making laceweight yarn. I'm pretty excited about this small sample, I have big plans for a shawl.

Children

"It is a wise father who knows his own child."
       -William Shakespeare (from The Merchant of Venice, Act II, sc 2)

Parenting a child is such an ordinary and surreal experience. You realize you are your parents, whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. You realize how incredibly smart and capable your parents were/are. You realize that your parents must have also had moments of doubt, wondering if they really knew what the hell they were doing trying to raise a child into a responsible adult. And then you realize that being a parent is such an ordinary thing. An ordinary thing that never feels anything less than extraordinary.

Once you get past the baby stage, you realize that this tiny human is actually another person. Someone with dreams and desires and fears and passions. It's disconcerting, they've been so predictable until now. Crawling, eating, walking, talking. Oh the talking. The joy and bane of my existence is the talking. The point is, once they start talking, they can tell you their internal monologue, and you realize how much you have missed. You assumed that they thought the same things you did, because they are your mirror, your reflection, with a doubly familiar face and your words and actions. Until one day, they say something new. Something you never thought or said or did. And you realize you will only ever know them as well as you can know another person.

Collections: Unsettling

This week I have been running into unsettling videos. Where are the rainbows and puppies?

It started with this one, which had me super tense and gripping my lap blankie.


VOICE OVER (English subtitles) from Kamel Films on Vimeo.

And then I almost had nightmares after the "Blink" Doctor Who episode. (SPOILER)

And then I read this in the morning, and although it is pretty cool, the idea freaks me out a little bit. And weren't Cyborgs the bad guys?


CYBORG FOUNDATION | Rafel Duran Torrent from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.

What's Up Wednesday!

I haven't been up to spinning much this week, but there was a blizzard of activity with the dye pot. It's the only kind of blizzard you are likely to see here in Las Vegas. I dyed up two weeks of sunsets (and now I need to knit them....) I also came up with some intense colors that will definitely be repeated.

Cobalt:

 Pink:

 Steel:

 Teal:

The teal will just not photograph true. The camera wants it to be blue, and even with fiddling with the camera and then fiddling with the photo, I can't get an accurate representation of the color. Which is a shame, because it is my favorite of the lot.

I've also been working on a sock. I have a goal of being the crazy sock lady, but I had trouble liking socks. Part of the problem was the patterns I was choosing, and part of the problem was the yarn I had. So I picked a pattern that, while pretty tedious and complicated, was nowhere near as difficult to follow as my first attempt. I also found some yarn that makes me happy to work with. My husband said it looked like "a parrot on a Rastafarian island." Now that's some happy yarn.

Collections: Slightly Nerdy

Only slightly. I'll start with the nerdiest.

I have plans to make this Tardis cowl.

Some fun photoshopped Calvin and Hobbes pictures.

Via laughingsquid

GIFs are awesome. GIFs of animals are even more awesome.

via headlikeanorange

I love weird animals, so I really like WTF, Evolution?

via wtfevolution

What's Up....Thursday!

I have this problem. If I think intensely about something, I put it in the "Done" folder of my brain. Which means that I think I've done things like call my friends, replied to text messages, or post on my blog, simply because I thought really hard about doing it.

Which is all to say- this should have been here yesterday, but I like to excuse myself with the adage "Better late than never."

I spent some time last week finally setting up an Etsy shop. So if you like what you see here, go check it out.

I've also been making some fun things. The first is this yarn, which I made in response to a local guild's Winter Fiber Challenge. For last year. S'okay, I got a really fun experiment out of it. The challenge was to create a skein of yarn inspired by a picture of nature. 

from ecologiesofknowing.com

I've also started on this laceweight- I'm using up some grab-bag fiber I purchased on sale, and I'm stretching it by making lace. Only 1700 yds to go...

I was feeling overwhelmed this morning, so I needed a project that I could finish today. So I'm spinning up singles from the last batts I have in this color. I'm calling it "Under the Bridge." The colors came together as an experiment to combat a tragic dye accident that had left me with neon virulent green. As my brother remarked "troll hair green." It turned out well, so I may try to do this again on purpose.

Education

“Our whole theory of education is based on the absurd notion that we must learn to swim on land before tackling the water.” — Henry Miller

If you are attempting to learn something, you should spend a lot of time doing the actual thing. I spent a lot of time in college finding ways to jump in the water, and I was always annoyed at how many of my classmates were content to go through the motions on land. My personal manifesto is that the goal of anyone's trip through formal education- whether that education stops at high school or with a Ph.D- should be to learn how to learn. The second part to that manifesto is that you should never stop learning.

How do you teach yourself to learn? You can start by trying. Try anything. Do it wrong. Find out why you did it wrong. Try it again. Let yourself be curious. When a small curious thought runs through your head, follow it up. Follow your curiosity wherever it leads you.

See a complicated recipe online? Go for it! Use your Google Fu to find out how to make a macaron! Want to rock climb? Find a climbing group- actually, find any group you want to start a new hobby. Passionate people will never be annoyed at a beginner, they will be overjoyed to find someone who wants to share their passion. Try anything you like, and just know that if you didn't like the results, you only have to learn a little more and try again. Or not. If you hated something, you never have to do that again. I think that should be on my family's crest: "Well, we never have to do that again." It sounds like a negative, closed-minded sentiment, but it is the opposite. It means that we tried. And we learned something.

Collections: Music Videos

For your Friday afternoon viewing pleasure, three "music videos" that make me laugh:

 

As an aside, one of the blogs I read has a knack for picking up off-beat music that becomes huge radio hits. I first heard "Somebody That I Used To Know" on yes and yes, and that soon became overplayed on the radio. I heard "Thrift Shop" on her blog about a month ago, and today it was played on the radio no less than three times during my errand run.