Athena Dreams

Oh! the Weather Outside . . .

is not so frightful, though it is cold, (I will clarify, for here)... it's more the weather inside my head that is frightful. The countdown is for real now. How does that go... T-minus 14 seconds till my studio explodes.

All packages for back East must leave, oh about 3 days ago, but since we have the 3-day air option, which is ever so much less than the overnight air option... we still have a few ounces of time.

I begin with one of the work tables, cuz really it's the place to start.

Choices, choices, choices. This year, the theme ended up being pearls. Only 4 more pairs to go, and then the table gets cleaned up for another day.

And then there is the Red Ranger Sock. The last, but certainly not least in the hand made gift items category.

The second one is close on the heels of this one... ok bad pun, but I am in the throes of handmade christmas present hyperventilation...

I just need to do a bite more of this, and all will be well with my world.

The funny thing is I started earlier than ever this year, and yet, still I am knitting at 1 am, hoping I will be done anytime now, and will be able to move on and back to the Me projects. All those things I started and have yet to finish. All the plans for things yet to be, and not started.

So now, it's off for a walk to counteract the too much coffee this morning, and back to the work table I go.

Happy pre-Christmas Week Count Down!

Socks: Take 2

I ripped the whole sock out... and am re-knitting, and am just about where I was when last you heard my sock story.

I was knitting with Size 3s, thinking I was using 2s, and when I got to the foot part of the knitting, it just looked too loose and kind of huge. So I did it, I ripped it all out. I had the obligatory internal dialgue and thought about NOT ripping, because after all it is my first sock and allowances can be made. But the OCD shoulder angel won out, and away it went, no more sock.

I did however make it through the hell (why do I keep typing that instead of heel) process first time through, without resorting to hysterical e-mails to anyone.

So, hopefully I will be done with the first sock of the pair sometime this weekend.

Okay now, Marina cover your eyes...

I bought more sock yarn. (uh-oh). But seriously is this stuff not beautiful? I do realise though without anyone needing to point it out to me that neither of these skeins of yarn are suitable for presents for the guys I am supposedly doing all this sock exploration for, I do see. But again, how beautful is this stuff...

There will be Trekking socks in manly greys and blues to come...

but meanwhile, I will be distracting myself with some luscious blues and shiny silvers - the residuals of the small purchasing spree I went on while my mother was visiting. Am thinking bracelet, or bracelets, depending on what I do with them.

G is for . . .

gold n 1 : a malleable ductile yellow metallic element that occurs chiefly free in a few minerals and is used esp. in coins, jewelry, and dentures 2 a : gold coins b : money 3 a variable colour averaging deep yellow 4 something resembling gold: esp something valued as the finest of its kind {a heart of ~} -Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary

Gold, traditionally regarded as the most precious of all metals, is the perfect metal. The Chinese employ the same ideogram, kin, for both metal and gold. Ancient Egyptians believed that the gods' flesh was made of gold, and images of the Buddha are gilded as a sign of enlightenment and of absolute perfection. In Greek tradition, gold suggests the Sun and the range of symbolism belonging to it – fertility, wealth, dominion, a centre of warmth, love and generosity, the fire of light, knowledge and radiance. The Sun-god Apollo, was clothed and armed with gold — tunic, buckles, lyre, bow, quiver and sandals. -The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols

Gold is the noblest of metals; it is incorruptible and precious. It has an association with the sun and the colour yellow, and is an attribute of the gods Horus, Mithras and Vishnu. In dreams gold is the symbol of precious psychic energies. But it is an ambivalent treasure because of the feeling of power associated with it. -The Mammoth Dictionary of Symbols

I love gold, and yet when I try to work with it, I am often at a loss. This month of April is also the month of yellow and orange - too which I include gold - at the Project Spectrum and I am looking forward to the challenge.

When working with gold in jewelery designs, I find I stick with certain stones and certain colours: pinks, earth-y, reddish, and very occasionaly purples and violets.

Here is a bracelet in process, with the signature pinks and yellows paired. One of my goals this month will be to create something with blues and golds and yellows.

And in the meantime I will finish my transition piece - the red and gold (and purple) Ella. When I knit, I have never chosen anything yellow, gold or orange. Ever. The closest I have come is the gold in this colour "motherlode". So I can't imagine creating something totally yellow or etc., but why not put that thought out there and see what comes back.

And since we got a record 4 hours of sun today, note the over-exposed yellow tone to all the photos. I couldn't bear to colour correct them, as it will be grey and gloomy again tomorrow, I can look at these photos in the next few days and smile.

The rain. The gloom. The clouds. I love rainy weather - I willingly moved to Scotland years ago - but after March with what every one is saying is record rainfall — 25 out of 31 days rainy and grey, and at least 2 more weeks to come, I am feeling a bit gloomy myself.

So G is for Gold and with it a little brightness to push away the ennui.

Don't miss all the beautiful colors of the rainbow looking for that pot of gold. -unknown

Lace and Beads and...

Today I purchased some Koigu PPPM(?) do make the little shawl/scarf pattern.

I ordered the wool on line, so no pics, but have never attempted something so lacey-ish... it is in the realm of what I would like to theoretically start designing... cardigans and other wearables with panels of lace inset into a stockinette or other more solid stitch base...

Anyway, it is a set pattern that will get me into how the some of my sketches and ideas could actually work and hold together...

Started cleaning off my beading table this weekend.... all the news of rain rain rain, and it sprinkled, and I mean sprinkled, for about 30 minutes on Friday night, and it has been in the high 80s since... eeesh. I had all the best plans for inside work, and ended up outside cleaning up the garden that is starting to die back.

So, anyway, the bead table: I have a few designs that I want to finish up that are in pieces all over the table, and then it's on to holiday earrings for some of the girls in my life.

I always get all geared up in the fall to be working on pieces - knitted, beaded, collaged - because I am feeling gift driven, and I was thinking to day that it would be so much better if I could be creation driven more of the time, all year long. All the sketches I have for designs - on paper and in my head - would actually see the light of day.

That would be the way to live.