somewhat overactive

Published on February 20, 2012 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments Tags: .

my imagination leaves little to be desired

except a mute button every now and again.

when anticipating an event,

i can make something so big, so wonderful,

that reality has no hope of living up to my internal hype.

so, i do my best not to think too far ahead,

not to fill in the details of things that have not yet happened.

knowing that i was going to soon see

the new classic elite yarn headquarters,

i did my best not to dwell on the idea of it in advance at all.

so i loaded the car with cds, and a map

(no gps…old school…i know, but i like maps).

and here’s the thing. even i could not

have imagined it any nicer.

i knew a few names from e-mails

and each person i met was what i expected,

(turning my mind off completely is so not an option) only better.

the food was fabulous, the conversations engaging,

and i had a thrill walking, for the very first time,

up and down the aisles of a warehouse of yarn

as my imagination swooned with the possibilities

(note that i do have a penchant for lower case letters. perhaps you’ve noticed…)

now, picture me

reluctantly leaving for the night.

there’s a wicker basket of ‘party favors’ by the door.

i’m touching each one of the felted key fobs trying to pick

only one color combo as they are all lovely

each saying  ‘CEY’ in felted letters

with a real little ball of

yarn sewn on.

except

there is one with ‘cey’ drawn across the front in a curvy lower case script.

ever so loudly

this one calls out, ‘take me home’ and i do

all the while feeling like they they’d known i was coming

and they’d baked a cake

just for me.

‘dwell’ taken from 2:22 of daniel.

backstory

Published on February 12, 2012 in Uncategorized. 3 Comments

once

upon  a time

we were married

barefoot on the beach

with my white lace dress

swirling in the surf as the tide arrived

in a little seaside town in southern maine.

we lived for fourteen months

on the 2nd floor of a 3-story walk up

literally across the street from old mill factories,

one of which now holds the quince and co headquarters.

after a year of counting literal pennies

(and any larger denominations we could get our hands on)

we owned a tiny house.

pine trees in the backyard,

cast iron sink in the kitchen,

and an honest to goodness twoholer (outhouse)

in the attached two story barn teetering on the last legs of it’s stability.

we stoked both the woodstoves,

one for warmth the other for cookstove baking,

taking frequent walks to the town’s namesake, the ‘steep falls’

(rushing water just loud enough to drown out the clutter of every day

and just soothing enough to allow a deep breath and heartfelt gratitude for this spot).

the large flat stones where i sat

feeling almost a part of the dancing water

as it leapt and ran (gurgling happily like a child left free to play with abandon),

were beautifully ‘decorated’ by the friction between their stillness and

the passing speed of the frolicking waters.

the stitch pattern for ‘sokokis‘

was inspired by those marks of erosion

which the rocks wore proudly like badges

  of their steadfastness and long term endurance,

just up the road from that little house on sokokis road.

‘pine’ taken from 44:14 of isaiah.

the whole ‘scarves, etc’ collection can be seen in the lookbook here.

 

am i blocking you?

Published on February 5, 2012 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

when i knit

i see

the not quite right

bits in my work

lit up

like bawdy vegas neon.

this leaves the extreme scrutiny

of blocking feeling

a little too close for comfort.

but

i recently

discovered that

blocking other people’s knitting is a blast

right from the word ‘go’.

so far

i’ve convinced 3 friends to let me pin and spray their stuff.

there is, i might add, great giggly fun to be had

when spraying something so precious all willy nilly

knowing that no harm can come of it.

feels a bit like landing a covert

snowball while being

sure that retaliation of like kind is not headed my way.  sheer fun.

in the near future

i will have to knuckle down and block something of my own.

but perhaps sooner, rather than later, i will want

to get a t-shirt made that reads,

“real friends let friends block their knitting”

or something like that

to keep the supply of yet to be blocked items,

that i haven’t knit myself,

headed my way.

any takers?

‘comfort’ taken from 7:13 of job.

post script

Published on January 19, 2012 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment Tags: , .

i would

like to maintain

that i am not the one

who actually put scissors

into the mailer.

this is very

possible, as

3 pair of willing

hands could easily

have done the deed

(and been happy to do so).

but, i usually do things involving

sharp objects and important things

after all those curious fingers

are done for the day.

not sure which would be worse:

that i fumbled them in there myself,

or being a mama who would have left scissors of that magnitude within reach.

given the choices, i’m gonna shoulder the blame myself this time,

but the kids sure were giggly when i questioned them.

‘possible’ taken from 12:18 in romans.

a sharp first impression

Published on January 17, 2012 in Uncategorized. 3 Comments

once upon a week

there was a yarn company

that i really wanted to work with.

so when they posted a call for submissions

i fully intended to impress, hoping to really stand out

in the seas of ideas i was sure would soon be flowing their way.

i was happy

with the sketches

and the swatches i got ready.

packaged them up prettily and sent them off.

when the choices were made, i was in (in the 11th hour).  yeah!

so excited.

so pleased to have

my ideas taken notice of.

when the package returning my swatches and sketches arrived

(companies courteously return these) there was a little hand written note inside

that ended something like, “…also returning your ____”.

the last word was a little hard to make out so i assumed it said ‘swatches’

until i

emptied

it out

and saw

my scissors.

yup.

my well worn

workhorse pair

with the paint

chipping off.

i cringed.

i squirmed in my seat

(even though i was alone in the kithen).

i closed my eyes real tight, hoping

that when i opened them the scissors just wouldn’t be there.  but, they were.

then i laughed.  what else can you do?

‘seas’ taken from 78:15 in the psalms.

 

addendum: remedy for the 4 o’clock slump

Published on January 15, 2012 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

note: i intended this post for friday, but it was delayed (in all honesty)

by friday’s 4 o’clock slump.  “so”, you ask, “what is your excuse for yesterday?”

ah, yesterday was saturday.  packed, as always, to the gills…

4pm almost always

finds me well into weary,

lugging my bedraggled to do list limply behind me.

i’m often mentally calculating the hours left

until the kids drift to sleep and the intensity of the physical motion

required of me every few seconds decreases significantly.

tried plain old knitting as a pick me up

and shortly thereafter nodded off

with upright needles still in hand.

i was at a bit of a loss

as it is only those mid-day hours that trip me up.

once it is deeply dark outside the glass

my ‘night owl’ genes kick in and i am good to go for hours.

then poking through a fav lys,

i spotted this.

the only question

was how many colors

it would take

to properly

recharge me

the next time 4pm

came stomping the mud

from its boots into the workings of my mind.

the answer?  four.  four colors and a tall glass of ice water.

and here it is, 4:05 pm yet again.  so i’m off to knit in these rich machine wash tones.

more later. much later. say around midnight.

‘weary’ taken from 25:25 of proverbs.