handstories

wading

    While at the beach earlier this month, I bought this yarn in the colorway of "shoreline".  

    Knitted up it pooled into the image of a shoreline- with the sandy shore giving way to the deep sea.

    I can imagine dipping my toes in the tide.

something new for the resume . . .

    One of our tutors brings her dogs to school each week.  The Pre-K class worried that their recent haircuts would not keep them warm in the chilly autumn air.  They asked if I could help them make dog coats.  With a little Halloween influence, we created two doggie wraps.

    Each child drew and cut a stripe out of polar fleece, then we stitched them down.  I'd forgotten how much skill is needed to wrangle scissors through fabric.   My finger tips barely made it out alive.  

    Nanook and Tanner modeling their new fashions.  (I will not be adding pet photography to my resume).

a last look

    It went off to the post office today.

        It has been a good lesson, first step, in learning to pay attention to process,

    to evaluate it, 

    and try to answer the question of worth and value.

    Packaging it up.

    Wishing I could just take it outside and let it fly on the wind to her . . .

unfocused

    Growing . . . inside-out, outside-in, bottom-up, round-and-round, sideways,        willy-nilly .  . .

 

going along

    Early morning was a list of odd tasks . . . trying to pry off a slice of frozen ham for Moon's lunch, trying to convince Blue that two slices of cinnamon bread does not a lunch make, (remembering that in high school I would often buy two carmel rolls and milk for my lunch and wondering if I should stop caring what he eats?), searching for Blue's school picture order form (that I handed to him last night), which is due today since he forgot to take it the last time, sending Moon off to school with the neighbor's then realizing he forgot his homework and running across the street in slippers and mussed up hair to catch up with him, looking for and finding my friend's house key, so that I can feed her cats next week just in time for her to call and say that she'd locked herself out of her house this morning and could I come unlock it?, which led to listening to the latest politics at school, which I've been working really hard at staying away from.

    But then I came home (8:30am), made cups of tea, was glad that it was cold enough to put on my blue corduroy tunic (that no one thinks looks good on me, but feels so good on that I don't care), and have been knitting away on Moon's monster buddy.  So far, so good.

       Maybe I'll have cinnamon toast for lunch?

rainbow love

    At the end of last Winter, Moon wished for a rainbow hat, with earflaps.  He chose the bump (bump and photo below by Loop), it came, and it sat.  Last week it was pulled out, and hugged rather intensely, "I just love it, and want to keep hugging it!"  

    As most hats are not so huggable, he's decided it should be a buddy instead.  The spinning is done, here's hoping this one goes better than the Easter fiasco!

tending spirits

Sea Fever

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

            -John Masefield, 1902

    Moon and I came upon this wing while walking down the beach.  We walked on, but suddenly, without a word, he ran back.  

    This boy's soul constantly touches me.

the blue within

    This makes me so happy.

    It was one of those moments of knowing what to do.

    Without pondering, I pinned it in and took it outside to look at it.  

    There was a flicker of wondering . . . Is it too dark?  Does it make sense in the whole?

    But I know it will balance it out somehow.

    Even if it becomes the focus- the center, that is ok, because maybe it is.

    In this moment of knowing,  the name "Hypatia" came.

    Tomorrow I will take it to the the big blue ocean. 

     I have been longing for it.  

into the blue

    It started with one.

     In a sea-sky of blue.

    It was hard to stop.

within the dim

    Today darkness arrived.   I pulled out the "daily squares" cloth (I wish I knew it's real name, but she hasn't whispered it to me yet).  A while ago, I saw a tree in it, but I can't quite see it today... either in my mind or the dim light.  The pale blue and brown are not allowing me to focus.  

    There is a faint outline of roots and trunk coming into shape.

    Today I’m wishing for some dark blue, a deeper contrast.  So that I can see clearly.  Because today I am not.  Proved by the fact that I just realized that I’ve been wearing my sweater inside out all day.