monday musings - reconnection

in which our plucky heroine finds that conversation is a useful antidote to disequilibrium... An excellent Crafternoon yesterday, wherein much conversation on various topics was the activity of the day, though there was a modest amount of crafting as well, of primarily the textile persuasion.

The evening followed with more conversation when five of us proceeded to Sushi Ichiban for various fishy tidbits. Though not the traditional eating format, my tummy is much happier saving the rice for my hens, and just eating the tasty toppings off various nigiri sushi (thereby turning high carb into low carb) One idea that came out of our conversing was to have days, or even some weekends, for sharing/teaching workshops of various Useful Skills that we have between all of us. This is a great way to increase competency for all of us.

Doing a personal inventory of such useful skills seems like a good place to start:

what do I know how to do?
what do I know well enough to teach?
and probably also
what do I want to learn?
what gaps in my skill/knowledge am I aware of?

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Day seven of MeMadeMarch: Really, there are not that many clothes in my closet and cupboard, so mix and match is how my wardrobe works. Today my favorite embroidered jumper, grey corduroy with a bird on the bodice (no jokes now about "put a bird on it", even if I do live in Portland) works well over the cornflower blue ikat dress. Blue polartec leggings, and my grey hat from last summer. I'll probably wear my intarsia sweater (seen here) when I head outside later today.

That sweater has garnered a lot of comments, and is a proud bit of make do and mend... This is it's second incarnation and is about 11 years old in this form. It was originally knit, by me, in the mid 80's, from a now unavailable Penny Straker pattern, I added the decorative motifs myself. I wore it so much that it wore out, with the yarn becoming thin and even worn away in places. My dear friend B offered to re-spin the yarn and ply it double, if I would take it apart. I was delighted at his offer of help, and the sweater gained a second life, being re-knit after being re-spun. After the additional eleven years of wear, some of the edge bands are starting to look a little worn, but those can be unravelled and re-knit fairly easily.

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this post, on Luann Udell's blog, seemed in a way quite apropos of my own current concerns. Good to read, well... her writings are always clear and thoughtful, and thoughts about moving forward whilst not getting trapped in anxiety are both helpful and necessary. For me, my connection with community (friends and family) is what I count as my true wealth, and renewing my connection reminds me that whatever the future holds, we will be moving into it together and not alone. As I'm so fond of saying "all of us together are waaay smarter than all of us one at a time..." So a grateful shout out of thanks to my pals for helping me stay grounded.

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Favorite, and unexpectedly now-ist...

Dust In The Wind - Kansas


Life Gets Away - Clint Black