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Restingmotion

  • Finished Objects 2013

    I only finished four things in 2013.  I did manage to double the population of the UFO pile, but that seems to be a dubious accomplishment, at best.  

    1. 6a00d8341c699253ef017ee7f4fe39970d-800wi_medium2 Blue Spectra

    Pattern:  Spectra by Stephen West

    Yarns: Noro Silk Garden Sock and Madeline Tosh merino light.  

    It is smaller than some versions of Spectra.  I didn't really compare my guage to the pattern, just knit to a guage I liked, and I do like like this scarf and have worn it frequently.  I would in fact also like a bigger one, so I will knit another.

    2. Summer Poncho

    (shown in my last post, back in August, and that is almost as bad as finishing only 4 projects)

    3.  Fingerless Mitts for Mom

    No photo.  I gave them to her the moment I finished and forgot to get a photo.  I will try to get one soon. I don't even know what I did with the leftover yarn.  It will turn up one of these days.

    IMG_80954. Baby Blanket

    Yarn: Universal Yarns Classic Worsted Tapestry in Baby Shades.  I used about 4 1/4 skens for a 38" square blanket. 

    Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Blanket Pattern from Knitting Workshop.

    This used to be my go-to baby blanket pattern as it is fairly meditative and is easily knit in the evenings but it is not boring.  I had forgotten how enjoyable it is to knit.  

     

    I need a couple of lap robes as the living room is often cold.  I was thinkng of making a quilt or two but maybe I will knit a blanket or two as well. However the UFO pile is filled with items I actually want to finish and wear, and there are a few other things I'd like to knit as well.   Hopefully my knitting focus will hold steady in 2014.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Baby Blanket

    I made dinner for the family of one of the newest members of our parish last night and was reminded of the baby blanket that was knitted for him.  

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    It was my fourth finished item for 2013 and it is the third one have I posted; the other two are here, and here.  The third finished object was a gift for my mom but I neglected to take a photo.  I'll try to get one next time I see her.  Don't hold your breath.

    This used to be my standard baby blanket pattern.  But it has been quite a few years since I've any reason to knit baby blankets.  I had forgotten how much fun it is to knit.  If you want details about yarn or pattern, you can find all that information over at purlsandmurmurs. 

  • Top Ten

    Bonnie asked for a list of my top ten books from last year's list.   Of course the list is subjective, and even my own sense of what is "best" might change over time.  In the end, aside from selecting a group of favorites, I can't narrow it down to a strict order.  They jockey for position, depending on the lens through which I am viewing them.  

    At any rate, for better or worse, here are the top 10 from last year.

    1590525132.01._SX140_SY224_SCLZZZZZZZ_Redeeming Love  by Francine Rivers.  This novel was recommended by one of the women in my bible study class when we were studying Hosea.  It is a romance based on the story of Hosea but it set during the California Gold Rush and I thought it would be a good piece of escapist fiction.  I found it to be more than that. The search for grace and redemption are not easy in this story (as they are not for Hosea)  but I felt the book captured all the pain and doubt and messiness that the human search for grace can entail.

    0758269285.01._SX140_SY224_SCLZZZZZZZ_The Ties that Bind by Marie Bostwick.  This is the fifth book in Marie Bostwick's cobbled quilt series, and although I enjoyed them all, with their story of the trials and tribulations and caring friendships between a group of women, this book was my favorite, probably simply because the stories of Margot and Phillipa resonated with me. 

     

     

    0399158170.01._SX140_SY224_SCLZZZZZZZ_Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton.  Shapton swam competitively when she was younger and she is a very good writer and artist.  This book is a series of reminiscences and reflections presented as a series of vignettes interspersed with drawings and photographs.  The resulting pastiche captures a sense of a person, place and time in a way that a simple narrative could not.

     

     

    073820904X.01._SX140_SY224_SCLZZZZZZZ_Transitions by William Bridges.  Disintigration provides the fuel on which renewal can be built.  Perfect book for me to be reading this year.

     

     

     

     

     

    0062065254.01._SX140_SY224_SCLZZZZZZZ_The Round House by Louise Erderich. Wonderful and engrossing story about a boy dealing with some very difficult issues. Not an easy book, but the writing draws one in and creates a sense of intimacy.

     

     

     

     

    0316182338.01._SX140_SY224_SCLZZZZZZZ_The Violinist's Thumb by Sam Kean. Keen is a good writer who makes science clear and easy to understand without being patronizing.  Filled with interesting facts and tidbits of information, the chapters are discrete, enabling the reader to pick and choose, reading a bit here and there.  

     

     

     

    0767903439.01._SX140_SY224_SCLZZZZZZZ_The Marriage of Sense and Soul by Ken Wilber.  I would not recommend this book to anyone who does not have a philosophical bent, but I loved it and read it twice.  It was very helpful to me in clarifying my thoughts about science and spirituality in ways I hadn't previously considered.  I disagree with Wilber on some points, which feels like a bold statement to make.  But I can love a book without agreeing with everything the author has to say.

     

     

    006073888X.01._SX140_SY224_SCLZZZZZZZ_The Seamstress by Frances de Pontes Peebles.  This is a really good novel, compellingly told about two sisters in Brazil in the 1920s.  I felt the story occasionally got mired in detail.

     

     

     

     

    1416562605.01._SX140_SY224_SCLZZZZZZZ_The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga.  Brilliant novel but not a particulaly easy read. On one level it is a rather savage condemnation of the injustice of the Indian caste system and the rather unpleasant underbelly of globalization.  But it is also a story of individualism, the burning desire for freedom and to make something of onself, of greed, of the opportunities and dangers of misinformation.  Perhaps one of its greatest strengths though is that it is a serious book that doesn't take itself too seriously. 

     

    0810996170.01._SX140_SY224_SCLZZZZZZZ_The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger.  Short illustrated story about the love of reading and the danger of loosing oneself too deeply in books.  Disconcerting.

     

     

    1439169012.01._SX140_SY224_SCLZZZZZZZ_Her fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffeneggar.  This is a thought-provoking novel of great intensity and detail masquerading as popular fiction. I don't think it works very well purely on the level of story and none of the characters are easy or likeable.  And yet, if one is willing to spend the time and effort to read this novel closely, it is fascinating.  Niffenegger explores the complexities of relationships and the nature of couplehood, and while doing so touches on duality, the nature of the mind,  integration, loss, internal versus external, even art versus sciene.  But then perhaps I would say that all these things are tied together in the way we see the world and the way we relate to both ourselves as individuals and in our relationships with others.

  • A Warm Winter Sweater

    One nice thing about the cold weather is that it has provided an opportunity to wear some of the heavier handknits I brought with me from New York.

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    Now if only they would keep my hands warm.  I have never found a pair of gloves or mittens warm enough to keep my hands warm.  No I take that back there was a pair of neoprene gloves purchased in Italy.  Everything else seems to work only if your hands actually start out warm, a minor problem, as my hands are rarely warm.

     

    Anyway, now that the sweaters are down and off the high shelf, it is quite apparent that I could wear a few of them more frequently.  Perhaps the lovely black striped boxy turtleneck is not as versatile as the cardigans, but I am sure it could see an outing or two even in a more typical Tennessee winter.

     

    The nicest benefit is having something I actually knit to wear.

     

  • On Books and Bookcases in 2013

    The books are finally off the floor.

     

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    The bookshelves went in the week before Christmas.   This large wall unit is in the living room and there are more shelves in a small bedroom that has now become a library/office. A significant portion of my time  during Christmas week, and up to New Years Eve, was spent shelving and cataloging books.  When this picture was taken the Baylor Bears, my great-nephew's team, were about to play in the Fiesta Bowl and I was ready to unwind and cheer them on.

     

    There are 2000 books shelved in this house.  As I put away the books and catalogued them, I found about 50 books I am no longer interested in reading,  and they have been sold.  I also found 3 books (out of another 2000 or so) that I donated before moving that I should have kept, that I regret not having now.  I think this is pretty good.  

     

    Of these 2000 books, I have read 1700 of them and I am interested in reading all of them again at some time in my life.  I accept that I may not reread them all, but I recognize that libraries are as much about promise, about hopes and dreams, as they are about actual accomplishments.  If I have kept a book it means that the conversation that was begun when I read the book is something I consider worth continuing.    I do expect to make headway on the "to read" list now that it has been indexed but don't expect me to limit myself.

     

    Reading fell off a bit in 2013.  This is not surprising really.  I read 48 books, 30 of which reside in my library.  Because I like lists (and anyone who majored in medeival and renaissance literature probably likes lists), they are listed below in alphabetical order. I don't really care about the order in which they were read, and an alphabetical list is more tidy.  I can state that April – June were particularly heavy in terms of light reading.

    1. Ahab's Wife, Sena Jeter Naslund.

    2. Around the House and in the Garden, Dominique Browning.

    3. The basic Laws of Human Stupidity, Carlo M. Cipolla.

    4. Beautiful Ruins, Jess Walter.

    5. Believing the Lie, Elizabeth George.

    6. Between Heaven and Texas, Marie Bostwick.

    7. Deep Nutrition, Catherine Shanahan.

    8. Eleven Days, Leah Carpenter.

    9. Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark, Bill Dedman.

    10. A Framework for Understanding Poverty, Ruby Payne.

    11. Friends Forever, Danielle Steele.

    12. The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson.

    13. The Great Cholesterol Myth, Johnny Bowden.

    14. Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger.

    15. Hornet Flight, Ken Follet.

    16. House: A Memoir, Michael Ruhlman.

    17. Intelligence Reframed, Howard Gardner.

    18. The Marriage of Sense and Soul, Ken Wilber.

    19. The Millionaire Mind, Thomas J. Stanley.

    20. The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas J. Stanley.

    21. The Minotaur, Barbara Vine.

    22. Never Go Back, Lee Child.

    23. The Night Bookmobile, Audrey Niffeneggar.

    24. One Shot, Lee Child.

    25. Redeeming Love, Francine Rivers.

    26. The Round House, Louise Erdrich.

    27. The Seamstress, Frances De Pontes Peebles.

    28. Severe Clear, Stuart Woods.

    29. Shutter Island, Dennis Lehane.

    30. A Single Thread, Marie Bostwick.

    31. Sweet Tooth, Ian McEwan.

    32. Swimming Studies, Leanne Shapton.

    33. Teaching with Poverty in Mind, Eric, Jensen.

    34. Think Like a Cat, Pam Johnson-Bennett.

    35. A Thread So Thin, Marie Bostwick.

    36. Threading the Needle, Marie Bostwick.

    37. Ties that Bind, Marie Bostwick.

    38. Transitions, William Bridges.

    39. Travels in Alaska, John Muir.

    40. The Trouble with Physics, Lee Smollin.

    41. Under the Lake, Stuart Woods.

    42. Venus in Winter, Gillian Bagwell.

    43. The Violinist's Thumb, Sam Kean,

    44. A Wanted Man, Lee Child.

    45. The Way of Transition, William Bridges.

    46. White Cargo, Stuart Woods.

    47. The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga.

    48. Wooden Boats, Michael Ruhlman.

     

    Usually I remember every book I read.  When I compile the list I reflect on the books, no matter how trivial.  This year however there is one book I have absolutely no recollection of having read.  The book is Eleven Days, by Leah Carpenter. I noted that I enjoyed it and wrote "beautiful novel of mothers and sons, committment, love and courage".  I know what it is about.  But I remember nothing.  Strange.  It is back on my reading list for next year.

     

     

     

     

  • Beginnings

    The problem with putting things aside sometimes is in not just in the sense of loss and absense, but in the taking them up again, especially when those things that were misplaced represented a continuity of sorts which has now been broken.  Rather than muddling over what was, or worse, what wasn't, it is probably best to just start.

     

    I lost my voice for a while.  I could not write, not here, not in a journal, not even on scraps of paper destined for immediate shredding.  Words came but they were like a maelstorm, spinning around, taking control, eating me alive.  Not being able to write is like losing your voice, as if you cannot speak, and if you are like me, a person who often can't pinpoint exactly what is going on in either my heart or head until I can put words to it, it was in a sense like losing oneself.  

     

    But even though I felt lost, the fog of silence was preferable to the tempest wroght by words. In that silence I was groping, waiting for a beacon of light. In words I was driven toward panic, toward anger, toward despair.  I was clearly not ready for the conversation that words imply, the putting right and "making sense" of conscious reckoning.

     

    I tend to be a leap-first kind of person by nature, despite being somewhat thoughtfully and philosophically inclined, and the ongoing struggle with patience has been, and undoubtedly will continue to be, the most difficult of life lessons to master.  I probably never will master it.  I thought I had made great progress.  Losing a loved one slowly, over a long period of time, forces one to reach some accommodation with waiting.  If one cannot embrace patience, perhaps one can achieve detente.  But of course, detente is not a solution, merely a postponement.  Patience with others does not imply patience with oneself.  

     

    I did not anticipate being blindsided by confusion. Knowing intellectually that moving forward often involves a step (or two) backward was no preparation for the actual fall, does not prepare one for the constant questioning of how one came to be the person one is, for the challenging of assumptions, for the clamoring of forgotten emotions, thoughts, wounds and joys that bound up threatening to overwhelm the fragile structure one has spent a lifetime creating.

     

    It seems that there are times when silence is the only answer. It seems that I had forgotten that the seed must rest in the cold damp earth before it can martial enough energy for new shoots to emerge. Sometimes it is the attempt to take control that causes the most confusion, and the letting go that gets us what we need.

     

    I am fine. The holidays were good.  This blog is here, and once again so am I.  

  • Elements

    I wrote (started writing) this post a couple of weeks ago.  Life intervened.  It seems I'm busy but not in a connected, world-wide-web kind of way.  I'll work out the details in time.

     

    In the meantime there's this:

    A couple of recent acquisitions that have become wardrobe staples that I wear again and again and can no longer imagine not having them in my wardrobe.

     

    IMG_0596Wendy Brandes Black Swan Ring.   Wendy was wearing this design when I met her in February 2011.   I knew I would order it someday.  I finally contacted Wendy this past spring, although I didn't actually finalize the purchase until this summer.  

     

    I've had the ring now for slightly over a month, which I suppose, is a relatively short period of time in which to know something is essential.  And yet the ring just seems like it was meant to be on my hand.  I love everything about it:  the detail, the workmanship, the size, the weight, the color of the gold.  It makes a statement and yet it doesn't shout.  I love it even more wearing it than I did when I saw it on Wendy's hand.  It is not quite what I imagined; it is more perfect.

     

    IMG_8067Ferragamo Varina shoes.  

     

    When I was young (in my 20's lets say) I would have told you that I would NEVER wear Varinas.  Well, in the intervening decades I've learned to never say never.  

     

    I love this particular color as it is very soft and feminine, and completely neutral with my pale pale legs, a perfect summer color.  But it is not the color that is so important here; I have another pair, a darker caramel, which I will probably wear far more often come fall.  I just love the shoes.  They are comfortable.  They go with everything from jeans and a tee to a skirt, although this summer I have been more inclined to wear them with jeans.  I can move quickly and decisively in them.  They make me feel simultaneously firmly in control and softly feminine.  Quite a feat that.

     

    Anyway, I haven't really worn heels since my back went bad early last spring.  So far, these are my heels.  I haven't addressed the shoe problem yet, or decided what to do with my collection of heels, but I have grown accustomed to speed and comfort and the Varinas are here to stay. 

     

    Added:  Decisive is a good word.  I like that idea of moving quickly and decisively through life, when I'm not moving slowly and thoughtfully.  I don't need power shoes, or power anything really, just things that make it easier to bridge the divide and integrate the contradictions.

  • Watch This

    Watch This. I have no words.

     

     

  • Weekend Fun

    Its been a busy few days here and I am amazed at how quickly life just jumps in and fills up the space once you give it just a little bit of an opening.  And no I am not complaining.  I haven't figured out if this past weekend was the last summer weekend, or the kickoff of fall.  Certainly my fall schedule begins in earnest this week, and the often empty days of summer have been banished.

     

    IMG_0577Friday was filled from dawn to dusk, beginning with my daily walk, watching the sunrise and barely making it home in time to get to work:  volunteer work answering phones, but on a schedule nonetheless.  In the afternoon I rushed home and started baking in preparation for an evening social event, a picnic/potluck on the lawn, a chance to meet new people, and a local band playing favorite songs from my youth.  What can be better than sitting in the grass staring up at a cloudless September sky, with a glass of wine and new friends?  

     

    I think I spoke to more people than I probably had in months.  All the baking paid off as well. There is nothing like a batch of chocolate chip cookies as a conversation starter for those of us who are small-talk challenged. 

     

    IMG_0575The band continuing playing until ten.  Just as darkness fell, the band played Black Water, that 1974 hit from the Doobie Brothers, and it reminded me of another outdoor concert long ago.  I had my first real kiss dancing outdoors in the dark to that song, with a boy from another town, a boy who didn't know me as the girl in the Milwaukee brace…   Of course I'd been out of that brace for a year that summer evening, but I grew up in a small town, where it is hard to escape the backward pull of history. Even a late start is a start afterall and that song always reminds me of the joy and wonder of new beginnings.

     

    And yes I danced a bit this weekend as well; I couldn't not dance after all that. I'd forgotten what a joy it is to just forget oneself and just dance.

     

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    But that was just the beginning of a weekend filled with friends, family, food, and fellowship.  But not to worry, amidst all the hullaballoo there was also some quiet time, time to retreat and just let my mind wander, to read a book, to enjoy the silence. Perhaps not quite enough time, but sometimes it is good to let abundance overflow.  And then of course, there was baseball.  There is nothing quite like watching very small boys playing their first baseball game:  the eagerness, the determination, the joy.

     

    Life is good.

     

  • Cutting Room 3: Cutting Table

    The work table/cutting table is complete.

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    This table is nothing like what I had before.  In New York my table was 4' x 8' and it was covered with a custom-sized rotary cutting mat that I had ordered from cutting-mats.net.

    But I did not bring that table with me for several reasons.

    1. That table was too wide for the new space and it was both too wide, and too tall for me to work comfortably. My previous table was 42" high and 48" wide.  A better table would be around 37" to 38" high and 42" wide.

    2.  Although the large seamless rotary cutting surface was great in many ways, I also found it incredibly frustrating.  It ends up, that except for quilting or cutting small geometric pieces, I don't usually use rotary cutters.  I prefer to cut garments with long shears.   I prefer to draw on my fabric and cut directly from the drawn patterns with shears.  I pay far more attention to what I am doing with shears than I do with a rotary cutter, when my hands tend to run far faster than my brain can register what they are doing.  

    3.  Delicate and problem fabrics slip on the rotary cutting mat but not so much on a cloth-covered surface, and I can always place a rotary mat over the padded surface when I want to use it.

     

    My original plan was to make a table that was 42 inches wide by 8 feet long.  But my room is long and it gradually occurred to me that a longer table might actually be better.  It started with the fair linen.  I am in the altar guild of my church.  The woman who has cared for the linen for many many years needed to take a sabatical, and I offered to fill in.  Now I love caring for fine linens and find the process of caring for them and ironing them to be a very mindful and calming way to spend some time.  As I was ironing a linen one day, the same time I was planning my cutting room, it occurred to me that if my work table were 9 feet instead of 8 feet long, I could lay the long altar linen out flat for ironing without having to drape or move it.  

     

    After that day I couldn't get the idea of a 9 foot table out of my mind.  It is not necessary.  I don't even know how long I will be doing the linen, if this is a temporary or long-term assignment.  Yet while I am doing this I have linens spread out on this surface at least 4 times a month and I have the space.  The table is long enough that I can do pretty much anything I want on it, I can spread out 3 yards of fabric for cutting.  I can work on two projects at once.  I can block a sweater and still have room to work on something else.  

     

    And so my work table is not exactly what I originally planned.  Even though I had issues with my slippery former table, it didn't really occur to me to pad a table until I started planning how I would put this table together.  Maybe I'm just ready to accept how I actually work rather than how I think I should work. I think I am happy with the result.  Only time will tell, just as it took me some time to figure out what I didn't like about my previous table.  But I might just have it right this time. 

     

    This new work table is made from 1/2 inch plywood.  Over the plywood I placed two layers of 1/2" thick wool batting which was compressed to 1/2" during the process of stretching the cover over the top. The cover fabric is cotton twill printed with a 1" grid. The entire process worked well. However, if I were doing it over again, I think I would use 3/4" plywood, or have a proper table top built.  1/2" plywood is a little too flexible and unstable at this length, although it doesn't really matter because it is completely supported by cabinetry underneath and I have no real reason to move the top.  It should last for several years before this becomes an issue.  When I do need a new top, or to repad this top, I will enlist another pair of hands to help with the stretching and lifting.