handstories

Full days

    "Ruby" for the gem-like feel to it.

    Someday I'm going to find the perfect clear pink glass bowl that lives in my imagination.  Some days it will be empty except for the rosy light glowing inside of it, other times rose petals might float in it, or a few special marbles will roll at the bottom, and once in a while it will be filled with sea water.  Someday.

    What happens when you have five minutes in the bathroom and a pair of scissors...

    It went much better than the last time.  K didn't have to repair any oddly cut angles, and I can roll over in my sleep without getting tangled again.

    Autumn is going full blast this week- wind, rain and dark dark mornings.  I love it, except for the fact that my studio room is cold.  It has the best light, and the worst temperatures- an added on room that holds summer's heat and winter's chills. 

    I've been wrapping myself up in this length of knitting.  A few of you might remember it... Knitted eight to ten years ago from some of my first handspun, over six feet long, and called "Breathing" because of this moment.

    (I do own a shawl pin thingy, but have no idea where it is.)

    And there's been more moon play.  The story changed over and over as I worked on it.  Actually, I guess that the cloth just grew somehow, because all of the stories are still here.  No name yet... still thinking on what words will hold all of the layers.

Friends & playing

"Cara"

        A few trees have sprung up this week, brought to life with Deb's rainbowed scraps and threads.  I do love the surprise of each of them, the not knowing who they are until they're finished.  Once done, I hold them and see what feeling or word comes to mind.  In Cara's case, it was the connection between the tree and star.  There seems to be a conversation, an understanding, a connection... which led to thoughts of friendship.  "Cara" means friend in many languages- Irish, Spanish, Latin...

"Yawen" and "Linnea"

    "Yawen" is a Chinese name meaning cloud patterns.  Do you see the faint cloud line that I followed in blue stitches?  "Linnea" is where I landed after a search for pink names.  It's Scandinavian for a small pink mountain flower.

    I wonder who will show up here?

    A blue moon playground by Tina.   I wasn't sure about my ability to stick with and pull off a tidy stretch of Jude's stacked stitches, but ended up enjoying the process, and could see that I improved as I went along.  Practice, practice, practice really does work.

    Twinkle is so glad that I'm home, but not happy that I'm spending time at my table, rather than on the couch with her.  She tried to balance and make do on my lap, but not for long.

    There was a beautiful glittering silvery dream last night- a boat ride near waterfalls and a new version of Portugal.

    

    And more waves for Barbara....

Jumping all over the place

    Yesterday's wish for a boat...  Actually, it was a wish to be in a boat, in the middle of the sea...alone.

    There are seventy days until Moon goes to college.  Being a summer birthday, we waited a year to put him into kindergarten.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.  He'll be nineteen in a couple of weeks, and is more than ready to move on to the next phase of his life, as he constantly reminds us... sigh.  While we're going to miss him (and I think he'll miss us too, even if he doesn't know it!), we are all ready to love each other from some distance! 

    This parting is going to be so much easier than Blue's (some of you may remember my mama drama- part one and part two).  Being second, and going to school only an hour and a half away should make for a much less dramatic transition.  Finger's crossed.

    Jump!  (I have a cousin who writes "Jump!" whenever changing topics without a segue.)

    Inspired by Deb's lovely dress, I pulled out my copy of  The Act of Sewing, consulted Deb (many thanks!), and have almost finished a version of the shirt.

    Weirdly, I love making bias tape (first photo), but really dislike hemming.

    Jump!

    There will be new pieces in the shop tomorrow morning.  A few longer moon cloths, two tokens, a tree and one peaceful boat (without me in it). 

Beauty in a bit of storm

    I've been off the last few days.  Wandering aimless through the house, putzing, unfocussed, trying to stitch, but not liking anything that came out of my needle.  One piece was even thrown across the room with a "There's no hope for you!"

    Today was so dark- windy and raining.  Stormy weather often shakes things up for me.  I forced myself to sit down and try, "Make a boat."  It almost always works to help me find my way back home.

    In the middle of working on it, the old windows were rattling from the wind.  The blanket over my lap wasn't enough.  My feet fumbled around under the table in search of slippers.  There's been no need for them in the mostly nice weather we've had over the last weeks.  In fact, the last time I used them was while visiting my ferry-ride-away friend's house.  The visit when my wallet went missing.  I finally gave up on finding it two days ago... after several calls to the ferry lost & found, going there in person, searching the shrubs around the dock, and asking my friend to search between the cushions and in her long gravel driveway... On Monday I ordered a replacement driver's license, saying to K., "You know it will turn up now."

    Anyhow, one slipper was way under the table.  Reaching for it with my toe, I pulled it closer and slipped a foot in.  There was something in it.  My beloved $10 glittery designer wallet.  When I dropped it into the tote bag it must have fallen into the slipper.  Upon arriving home the slippers were tossed under the table, and the next day when I realized the wallet was missing, the fact that the slippers had been in the bag was completely forgotten.

    "She Needed Some Stars" with an indigo silk sail dyed by Deb G., and rainbow stars & deep sea by Deb L.

At home with myself

   "Moon Marks"  Stitching this one was very comforting, soothing colors, simple stitches. 

    p-a-l-E-t-t-e a word I will always struggle to spell.  Rhythm and restaurant are two more.  There are lots of others.

    For the first time since mid-March 2020, Moon went back to school.  They have divided those who wanted to come back into two groups (based on whether the last digit of their address is odd or even).  Each group goes for two afternoons a week.  They will still continue on-line for most of their school hours.  It's a bit of a scramble to finish the last morning class, eat lunch and get to the school in time, so I made his lunch for him the first day.  I made it into a face like I did when the boys were little.  He was so anxious and flustered that he didn't even notice.  Fortunately, he came home saying it was great!  I'm so glad he'll have a smidge of his senior year with friends.

    This one.  I don't even know what to say.  A party on, in and around a hill?  Or some folks on Instagram saw a Duomo, or a campsite.  I'm calling it "Her Happy Place".

    We've had a beautiful week of weather.  Clouds coming in tonight.

    Tree stitching across the water at my friend M's sweet house yesterday.  Her ranunculus (hey, I spelled that right!) were just opening.  The one on Tina's pretty pink cloth is "Clementine."

    Today, a home.  It's about now, and then.

Blue & potatoes

    Before the boat it looked quite desert-like with its soft colors dyed by Tina, Deb and Laura.  There was quite a long ponder as to what might be in the wide open pink space?  At first, a boat washed ashore onto dry land.  Fortunately, the sea rolled in, silk from Richard that I dyed in indigo.  

    It's been good and fun to dip into new color combinations lately, but I do find that after each wading there is a craving for the familiar comfort of blue.  

    And now for the nature portion of our show...

    The birthday "card" from Blue arrived.  Yes, a real potato.  It came inside of a mailer labeled "The Best Gift Ever".  Inside was a shiny gold box holding the spud, with a message from him written on the other side.  This is so my family.  I texted him, "You're so weird!  And I'm so glad!" 

    He has always had a thing for potatoes.  You can't imagine how happy he was to discover blue potatoes, there was a potato costume for Halloween at age nine, and in high school his email address included the words "bluepotato".

    A sprig that K brought home from a walk.  The smell is delicious.

    Speaking of delicious... stitching into this silky moon gift from Jude... sigh... like melting.  A very soft thin cloth.  This one has so many tiny stitches, some to include the whole rainbow spectrum, others not needed for design or stability, but because I just didn't want to stop.

Trying to get a grasp on things...

   

    And then there was the dream of coming home from blueberry picking to find a pile of octopuses (yes, it's octopuses) on the front room floor.  They were beautiful, the colors of sea stars- purple, orange, rust, gray.... dozens of them intertwined and slowly wiggling in and out of each other.  Thinking they needed to be in a safer spot, I kept trying to pick up armfuls of them, with them sliding and dripping out of my grasp, creating a trail of them as they slithered under furniture and into secret crevices.  

    Later in the day, I was not surprised when the glass I blindly reached for in the cupboard turned out to be the octopus one.

    (FYI- you can refer to them as a tangle, knot, sucker, armful, or a grasp of of octopuses.  Although, the collective noun is rarely needed, as they are usually loners.)

    Speaking of grasping.... There was a sudden decision to grasp and chop off the end of my ponytail today.  It's been a year since it was last cut.  It's been making me nuts, especially at night.  Turning over it kept getting caught under my shoulders, or would wrap around my neck or face.

    Six inches later, and a follow up trimming by K. (because it turns out that reaching behind your head with scissors does not a straight line make), things feel much lighter.

    These little rose branches are traveling all over the house with me and are lasting well.  K. brought them from the grocery store on one of the dark days, just before things turned around.  The painting in the background was a gift to myself a few years ago.  "She Kept Herself Safe" by Amanda Blake.  I consider her a good friend and a reminder here at my making table.

    The frayed edge in this moon makes me think of fringe, which makes me imagine it swaying... a dancing moon.  It's good to be thinking about light again.

Being home

    This happened after a little reading about the Hundertwasserhaus.  It's weird and I want to keep going with it.  Wherever that might be.  No idea yet.  It's about home- a place to be in, and the home that is within.  I suppose much of what I make is.

    There has been a lot of self questioning in the last weeks... What I make and why?  Wondering if there's a next to step into?  And what it might be?

    Can comfortable become uncomfortable?  (The "do not repeat" painting actually has nothing at all to do with what I'm talking about...probably.)

    In the meantime, there are moon cabin squares slowly being made.  Another place to live...inside and out.

 

floating dots of thoughts

"The Quiet Filled Her"

    I soothed myself with this piece.  That's another bit of Deb's indigo dyed silk in that left corner.  It was a gift when we met in real life for the first time, last autumn, a lifetime ago.

    Something I've really been looking forward to was cancelled yesterday.  These days it feels hard to hope for anything.

"Lui," "Fatima" and "Fern."

    The first two are names of students at my last school.  There were two girls named Fatima- both were challenging and full of spirit.  K. had a great Aunt Fern.  She lived on the family homestead property and was near a hundred when I met her.  She lived to be 102.   These tree tokens are fun to make.  Ten are finished for tomorrow's shop update.  They've spent the week on the table, becoming friends.  Naming them makes it a little harder to let them go.

    To cheer myself up last night, I ordered two new paints.  "Smalt Blue" and "Rain Cloud".  A blue and a gray.  Surprise, surprise.  They should be here next week...something to look forward to!

"In A World of Their Own"

    I have been thinking a lot about friends.

    This morning Moon stumbled down the stairs half an hour after online school began, after ignoring his alarm clock three times.  "This is Monday, isn't it?  Shoot."  Then headed back up the stairs to turn the computer on.  Later, we got the call from the attendance office.  For years we've heard the message..."This is to inform you that your student was marked absent..."  Now it says, "This is to let you know that we are not sure if your student participated in class today..."  It's hard to be sure of anything.

"She Wondered About it All" 

    The debate about whether or not Blue should come home for the holidays continues.  

    Needing to go to the grocery store, and desperate to see something different, K. and I drove to a different co-op in another town this afternoon.  It was good to wander through someplace new.

   

"She Knew Her Own Magic".

    I'm realizing that it's really important to figure out new ways to surprise myself.

    I hope you are all faring well enough and finding some magic in your own worlds.

    OXO, Hazel

More trees & seas

“It Was a Map of Possibilities”

    Trees and boats, back and forth.  Grounding and going.  Holding on and trusting.  Knowing and wondering.  Strength and bravery.

    I'm really liking the grays lately, and how they add to and deepen other colors.

    This painting makes me think of an inukshuk.

"Anika"

    The tree tokens are being named now.  Names from heroes, storybook characters, former students, and ones that I just like.  Sometimes it's clear who they are while stitching,  others take a while to get to know.  I'm hoping a Ramona will show up.

   How many trees does it take to make a forest?  This small stand will be in the shop in the morning (Saturday, 11/14, 9am PST), along with a handful of story cloths.  Thanks for taking a peek.