Category Archives: Notions

same old, same old it’s not

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the hazy early morning light

seemed to forecast a normal type of day

but that was just not to be.

IMG_4990satbecause later that day, under the same sort of light

my dad taught my 14 yr old

how to mow with

 the ride on.

IMG_5002crophe sat on my rock, with her younger siblings

and a few assorted neighborhood kids

to ‘supervise’.

IMG_5032cropthe smallest of the onlookers

was by far the loudest as he chanted

‘go, go, go, go!’

trying his very best to be heard over the

roar of the engine, unsuccessfully.

IMG_5029satand then, as if pretending

that this day which feels so monumental

(watching my oldest baby do such a ‘grown-up thing’)

was ‘just an average day’ after all,

things have wound down to quiet knitting

which is the ending of a lot of good days around here.

IMG_5137crop‘rock’ taken from 32:31 of deuteronomy.

in the groove

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i was enjoyingc775a2_b6b62d75f815518b923c40c1a654fb39.jpg_srz_p_150_74_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srz

the camaj fiber arts’ website

(silk, silk yarns and sari yarns), when i stopped short.

on the screen in front of me was bright yellow soffsilk for spinning.

it was called, of all things, ‘funky monkey’.

my head immediately ran to

‘chunky monkey’, which used to be one of my

two favorite ben & jerry ice cream flavors.Capture

needless to say, the color had my attention

and i began to wonder ‘why’ the color had that name.

honestly, i expected something to do with bananas.

i clicked to see and found an explanation

which tickled my funny bone and had me

c775a2_12207271d4f84e558fbee2160e2d7ac8.jpg_srz_p_800_403_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srzgrinning for days.

because under

the soffsilk colorway

‘funky monkey’

it simply said:

‘if i had a monkey, i’d want it to be funky’.

and now you’re smiling, too.

no use trying to hide it from me.

i just know you are.

‘bright’ taken from 11:17 of job.

pictures and logos from camaj fiber arts.

the beaten path

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one of the few things i miss

from before i had kids: time alone in the out-of doors.

time to walk in the quiet and just be

especially in the woods.

so, for my birthday a few days ago i finagled just that

and it looked like this.

IMG_5048satfirst my excuse: wheelbarrows that needed emptying.

once there this is looking up…

IMG_5053brightand even farther up…

IMG_5052lightthen down…

IMG_5095upand an even closer look at the ground…

IMG_5068cropall the sights and smells and the soundlessness

of the hush, filled me right up.

out with the old wheelbarrows full, in with the

new thoughts of growth and spring

and the beauty of naturally aging things

like this bark i caught as a last shot

on my way back to my new year’s beginnings.

IMG_5099crop‘quiet’ taken from 4:40 of 1st chronicles.

careful consideration

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why is it that a reflection

can speak to me

more loudly

than looking directly at the actual thing?

does the image being ‘once removed’ cut out the distractions and the glare,

paring it down to the essence which i can grasp more easily?

IMG_4749graintoday i wonder what my reflection says or fails to say about me

as my kids played with othello pieces

and jenga sticks under the

kitchen ceiling fan.

‘reflection’ taken from 13:12 of 1st corinthians.

if 8oz is good…

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since my man was

headed out to run errands,

i asked if he’d pick up our favorite ‘easier than slipping on ice’ meat spice.

as we’d spent the last two years using up the last bottle,

it wasn’t an emergency, but definitely something i wanted on hand.

IMG_4341cropa few days later he proudly handed me

the supersized  bottle on the right

note: normal bottles of various spices are about 4″ high.

our original vial of adobo was a hair over 6″.

the 1 lb, 12 oz canister of adobo i am downright afraid to measure.

needless to say, we now have enough

to last us until our 14 yr old moves out for her first year of dorm life…

and i so wanted to say “what makes you think that if 8oz is good, 28 oz is better?”

but i know there are times i’ve headed out to the lys

to replace a misplaced dpn

and returned home with enough yarn

in tow to create a sweater, or two.

so i zipped my lip.

and smiled.

‘better’ taken from 8:8 of corinthians.

 

 

 

as fast as i choose

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i don’t often feel

rushed or hurried by outside forces.

i’m pretty easy going in my days and at ease in my nights.

but on days like today, the rate of speed at which my head

is churning out new ideas

threatens

to topple me into something like stress

or nearer to chaos than i want to choose to live.

IMG_4903conttime for ice cream, a breath of prayer and a little strumming

in my prototype mountain colors glove

to set me back on course.

‘breath’ taken from 1:17 of 2nd corinthians.

cey & i: so very close

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this is

about as scary

as knitting gets for me

(if we don’t throw steeking into the equation,

but that is another story for a different day):

will there be enough yarn to finish?

IMG_4975sati almost never cut it close.

unlike my friend (and fellow contestant in ‘the fiber factor’), tracy

who if i remember right was left with only inches of yarn

remaining at the end of two different challenges.

i would have sweat myself into

a little puddle of goo.

i’m the knittah who buys an extra skein (or two)

over what the pattern calls for just to be exceedingly sure

that i could not possibly run out.

but, two nights ago

as i was working on one of the patterns

for my upcoming indie collection with classic elite yarns

i cut it close.  real close.  too close.

IMG_4977satfor the last 18 rounds my head spun

searching for options of what i might do if, or more likely when,

i ran clean out of yarn.

when i tied off the final stitches

with a whopping 98″ left,

i felt a little silly.

i mean over 2 yds remaining isn’t really cutting it that close, right?

i tried telling that to the butterflies in my stomach

and to the weak in the knees feeling between my ankles and my hip bones,

but they were having none of it.

irregardless, this piece is done and i’m moving

full steam ahead into the next new design

 which i’ll be sure to have just

one extra skein for.

smile.

‘enough’ taken from 36:7 in exodus.

(this is an ongoing series of posts chronicling

the process of my yet to be released collaboration with classic elite yarns.

to search, all post titles will include ‘cey & i:‘ and be tagged with ‘artistic differences‘.)