handstories

of alligators and wool

    I've been spinning for relaxation, in between wrestling with cardboard, paint and glue.  We are buried in it.  It is turning into props for our family singing group show in a few weeks.  A fairy tale of loss and love set to music in the swamps of Louisiana.

    The table is covered with frog legs.  There are truffles and honey drops to sew.  We open the front door carefully and step tip toe over and around the eight feet plus alligators that fill the only floor space big enough to hold them.  

    Remembering meals at Grandma's.  Mom would say, "Grandma's asked us for dinner."  Followed by us moaning, "No, please!...."  I loved Grandma, but not her cooking.  You never knew what it would be, once it was frog legs.

    There is more to tell, but I have lyrics to memorize and gator jaws to hinge.

can you hear it?

    It's a good size.

    It will be flying away now.  

    I've probably said it before, that my favorite pieces come into being without a plan.  They seem to have the most heart and potential for story.  Maybe it is because I'm not talking, just listening.

    This one is whispering so many things.

dimension

    Still spending time with this little patch.

    Wondering where is the line between 2-D and 3-D?  And once all is stitched and done, with the thoughts and ideas woven into it, what "D" is that?

spirit stitching

    Thinking of  . . .

    Jude's thoughts on space, place, and context,

    protection and lifting,

    standing and steadying in the face of the wind,

    and of how we are all characters in each others stories.

don't ignore the inklings

Monday morning.  "I'm going to knit K a scarf for Valentine's!  It's a light week at work, I can do this!"

Monday Night.  "I wonder if I should have swatched?  No, it's a scarf, you can't screw up a scarf."  (Foreboding music plays here.)

Tuesday afternoon.  "This is going to happen!"  (Nagging feeling is ignored.)

Tuesday night.  A tape measure is found.  "I'll just check that it's about six feet.  It can't be too far off..."  (Theme music to "Jaws" grows in volume.)

Thirteen feet.

Yanking it off the needles and wadding it up, I threw it into K's lap at the other end of the couch, yelling, "Arrgh!!!  Happy Freaking Valentine's Day!"  He tried to help by saying, "It's the thought that counts....I could just wrap it around and around and around...."  I informed him that he would be late to everything if he were to do that.  I grabbed it back.

Wednesday morning.  "I can do this."

Thursday afternoon.  "This is going to happen!"  (It goes twice as fast if it's only half as long.)

Valentine's Eve.  (Angels hallelujahing.)

zipped

    It's been a while since I've done any kind of exacting sewing, the kind that involves a sewing machine, measuring, and making things line up.

    I guess it's still been a while.

    But the zipper is in.  I don't think I've dealt with a zipper for more than twenty years!

    The back was pieced together from recycled and felted wool sweaters.  

    That wavy top edge . . . sigh . . . I tried.

    "You Zig, I Zag" pillow,  yarn and design by Spincycle Yarns.  

    Knitting, sewing, zipping, muddling, wonkiness, and enjoying by me!

another mama bear

    First of all, I hate papier-mâché.  I love what it does, what you can make with it, admire many papier-mâché artists' work, but I hate sticking my hands in that goopy slimy stuff.  So, when the kindergarten teacher asked me to think of a way to make a giant mama snow bear for their play, I practically hurt myself trying to think of a different way to create her.

    Unable to come up with anything, grumbling and whining inside (and a little outside), I began.  We stuffed wadded paper into paper casings, and began . . .

    The teacher kept asking, "Is it working?"

    I would reply, "I have no idea, I'm making this up as I go!"

    But she came together, with help from packing tape, wire, and layers and layers of slippery gunk up to my elbows.

    She was painted white and covered with a jar and a half of clear glitter.  Sorry, I didn't get a photo in the sunlight.  She was wonderfully sparkly.  She is about six feet long and a doorway wide (that took some maneuvering!).

    During the week of making her, Mo had left a comment that brought back a memory.  As a ten year old Campfire Girl (a girl's club in the 70's), we were to make up a name and it's meaning for ourselves.  I chose "Keema" claiming that it meant "Stands in the face of the wind".  Even at ten, I was already so much myself.  I whispered the name among the kindergarteners while we worked on her and she became another "Keema".

       Keema and the kindergarteners put on a fabulous show Friday, with the parents "Ooohing and Ahhing" properly at her reveal.   We have all grown very fond of her.  Maybe I will have to rethink my feelings for papier-mâché?

good growling

    The other day, Jacky shared the beginning of her "Protection Cloth", using red thread as Judy had described in her work.  Thinking of this stitching, for those who need a mother's safekeeping, I added a crimson "mama" to my own cloth.

    I was so focused on the word, I didn't notice what was kitty-corner, sewn into the piece almost two weeks ago.  

    A few years ago, there was a some bullying directed at my Blue, it was when I discovered my inner mama bear.  There may have been actual growling on my part, and I was surprised and thrilled to meet this piece of myself.  So, I was very happy to have a mama bear show up here.

    Not until I was looking through the camera lens did I see the word above "mama".  

    I love it that this trio of words found each other, in their heart-like shape of love colors of pink, red and white.  

    That fierce mama bear, she's there when you need her.

sleep stitching?

    We are all well bathed and showered now.  Ever grateful for modern conveniences.  It's probably a good thing, now and then, to be reminded of how much we take for granted.

    In the cleaning mood, I dug through the couch basket- sorting, putting away, pondering . . .

    What is this?  I know, it was made during January, because I emptied the basket in December.  I have absolutely no memory of making it.  It must have been some late night, glass of something, or maybe I've been stitching in my sleep?

water woes

    "It seems that boiling water is all we do around here!", exclaimed Moon yesterday.  This is because we are on day five of life without a water heater.  Hopefully, today we will have a new one.  Unbathed boys smell much better out in the woods camping, than in our small house!  Fortunately friends have shared their showers to fill in the gaps between bucket sponge baths.

    There was the mess of cleaning up the water that leaked all over the basement floor, and all of the laundry, junk, etc.  that covered it.  It did force us to go through it all, and we ended up with a cleaner space and a trunk load of donations- the silver lining, I suppose.

      Meanwhile, I have knit through it all, on this linen stitch shawl started way back when.  Calm mindless breathing.  

    And a bit of spinning, as the yarn for it is running low.