Athena Dreams

Squam Art Workshop .:. The Fibre Event

Last September I attended the first Squam Art Workshop in the Holderness area of NH. About 125 people stayed at this amazing camp (Rockywold-Deephaven Camps) from the turn of a couple of centuries ago, by the edge of Squam Lake (think On Golden Pond), and attended all kinds of art-making and writing workshops, dined in the dining hall 3 times a day, sat by warming fireplaces in cabins at night and talked and laughed and made new friends. 

AND all of us were lucky enough to have some time away from our daily lives to create, and not just that, but also to talk about creating, to think about creating, and to share the experience with a group of people who were all doing the same.

In 2009, there will be 2 sessions of the Squam Art Workshops, and the first session, in June, is all about FIBRE. There will be teachers like: 

• Sally Melville
• Annie Modesitt
• Megan Ingman of Lettuce Knit fame  

Also appearing - more knitters, crocheters, felters, fabric printers: 

• Traditional Gansey guru Beth Brown Reinsel   
• Textile designer and printmaker Lizzy House   
• Schaeffer Yarn Design Guru Laura Nelkin 
• Seamstress extraordinaire Catherine Slye  
• Green Crafter (and Cupcake maker!) Betz White 
• Felter  (and designer of AMAzing bags) Lisa Klakulak 
• Handmade with Maya Donenfeld  
• DIY Crafters Derek Fagerstrom and Lauren Smith from the Curiosity Shoppe 
• and The Effervescent Margaret Hubert 

And, just to round things out, there will be painting and mixed media art classes with:

• Marisa Haedike of Creative Thursday
• Lisa Occhipinti
• Tracy Huskamp  
• Alex Shur 

So I post this to get a little more word out there, and also to say if you have been needing and wanting an adventure, a retreat into your craft, your art, and a means to embrace your creativity, this could be your thing.

Truthfully, I cannot say enough good, positive, energised, grateful, happy words about my experience last year. Elizabeth MacCrellish, the hostess extraordinaire of this event, has created an open, creative, magical, vital and supportive environment for wonderful things to happen. 

Visit the Squam Art Workshop site and have a look around... consider a magical adventure in the woods with your knitting needles and a huge group of like-minded souls. 

It could be the best gift you have ever given yourself . . . I know it was the best one I have given to myself, and I'll be doing it again this September . . .

EDITED TO ADD: And there is a Ravelry Group in full swing for this event!

Right Now it's About the Little Things (Kinda)

Putting up all my stashed yarn on Ravelry has a twofold purpose: first, so that I could see how much I had and perhaps curtail some of my rash yarn buying habits, and second, so that I could start using some of what I had and yes, same as the first, stop some of my rash yarn buying habits.

And to that end, here is Joni the Second:

Joni Hat

Yarn: Jo Sharp Alpaca Silk Georgette

Colours: Pebble and Kelp

Designer: Kerstin Kapur aka Through the Loops

This is a great pattern, and a fun, quick and wonderful hat, AND I used up 2 skeins from the stash.

Now, I will confess that I more than balanced that out with a yarn purchase, and in my weak defense, will say, stop with the sale announcements that keep dropping in to my inbox, because apparently I am too weak to ignore them. Actually, truth be told, I have thrown 97% of the sale mails away without even looking at them, but then one snuck in under the radar, and that lovely and most wonderful of Tweeds was on sale, and in the colour I wanted, and so I caved, and added a bunch o' Plymouth Tweed in a beautiful maroon-ish, flecked with hot pinks and oranges to the stash (a rather moody photo below).

But I do have a plan, all is well if one has a plan. Someone must have said that before me...

SO, here's the plan: it will be used, and soon, now will the ever so lovely Tweed of Plymouth turn into (in no particular order):

#1 Flyingdales

Yarn: Plymouth Tweed

Colours: Maroon-ish

Designer: Lisa Lloyd from the book A Fine Fleece

#2 Pamelia

Yarn: Plymouth Tweed

Colours: Maroonish

Designer: Norah Gaughan from Berroco #277

#3 Puzzle Me This

Yarn: Plymouth Tweed

Colours: Maroonish

Designer: Cheryl Oberle from Knitted Jackets

#4 Amanda (no photo, Raveled here)

Yarn: Plymouth Tweed

Colours: Maroonish

Designer: Lisa Lloyd from the book A Fine Fleece

All lovely and wonderful cardigans, and now, to choose...

Knitting in 2008

Well, considering that I announced at the opening of this year that 2008 was to be the Year of the Cardigan, not too many cardigans were started, or even finished for that matter. But as someone recently said to me, sometimes you just have to announce things and see what happens.

So on the positive side: 

• I did finish the edging on the Babette Blanket after it languished for months in a basket
  
• I finished the Honeybee Stole after running out of yarn, and so kindly receiving an extra skein from Anne the generous and wonderful dyeing queen 
• Finished the Morning Glory Stole 
• I made hats and cowls galore for Christmas presents 
• I determined that multiple colour knitting is not for me, after months of planning and plotting and dreaming, 2 colours at a time is my limit. Sometimes it's good to realise one's limitations.
• I completed some pretty drastic stash busting, trading, selling and knitting down the surplus, and actually spent the time to document the existing stash and humbly post it to Ravelry for all to see.
• I fulfilled my Pay it Forward commitment 
• and after not knitting very much all the live long fall, I renewed my love and dearest adoration for knitting, and the month of December has been full of needles and fibers and good times. 

I know not what 2009 will bring, but, here's to a prolific and wonderful 2009, both in life and in fibre, and to all of you a very very happy new year.

Pay it Forward .:. Oh Yeah, That

To the 4 lovely giftees that made my list of Pay it Forward recipients, though the year is almost over, it never slipped my mind that a gift was due to be sent, it just got past all my other ridiculous deadlines.

I have thought a lot about what I would send, what would make each individual feel special, happy, and thought of, and after a fair amount of thought, the gifts have solidified in my mind.

Late September is my goal date for sending out my gifts to you 4 lovelies... I sure hope you're going to like them.

A Day to Remember

Today is my grandmother's birthday. She hasn't been here with us for a long long time, but I think of her almost everyday, and most especially on her birthday, On my list of people who have inspired, influenced, encouraged and even dared me, she is at the top.

An artist, an inspired gardener, a writer, a reader, and a woman beyond her time. She was not encouraged to be independent, not encouraged to be an artist, or a traveller, she was encouraged to marry and have children, because that's what women did in her era. And she did that, and also painted, and designed gardens and organised reading groups with her friends, and lived a life that on the outside had little in the way of frills or accessories; but on the inside was rich with beauty and ideas, and deep thoughts.

on her honeymoon

As my grandmother though, she told me at a very early age that I could do anything, be anything, have and be a part of anything that I wanted to be. She told me I was special and unique. She encouraged my dreams and my hopes and my wishes for my life. She encouraged my independence and my sense of self. In effect, she gave me permission to be myself all the time, in a world where conformity is the safe and easy route. 

with mum and uncle Johnny

My relationship with her was like an open door: it was like walking to and fro from room to room, while in the midst of a never ending conversation, punctuated with other characters entering and leaving, kind of like a one act play, that just keeps going and going. I think of her as my first role model for a generosity of spirit that I since have always looked for in friends, in business partners, in romantic partners, in life. And I think that if I had not had her my whole young life, I might never have known that that kind of spirit existed out in the world. Because truthfully, as we go through school, through jobs, through relationships, as we grow and change and move through our lives, those kindred souls, those open spirits, filled with kindness and generosity and support, and the purest kind of love and devotion, do not come along around any old corner. They are the rare and most gorgeous jewels in our lives, and we are always the luckiest for having found them, or for they having found us.

I like to think that she found me, that is still my young girl's daydream, I like to imagine that the first day she saw me, she knew who I was, she recognized me, and I her. I like to imagine she was my fairy godmother, not necessarily finding me the prince, but definitely turning my pumpkin into a carriage, and the mice into horses to take me anywhere I wanted to go.

 

She loved her life, though she did not get to live out many of her dreams, but she always said she got to live may of them through me. I still hear her voice in my head, her energy still vibrates in the universe, and she is still encouraging, me, inspiring me and daring me to do more, and ever more.

Happy Birthday to my best and most wonderful jewel, to the rarest gem I have ever known, my grandmother.

Happy Solstice .:. Happy Holidays

There were so many things to write about, so many things to be shared, so much work to finish up, so many people to meet up with as the holidays were arriving, and then, the cold and sniffles and coughs arrived at our house. . . When the body wants to slow down, the body has the final say. . . it is slow going with a head full of cotton, but there's lots of tea, and a fire crackling, and candles burning, and soup to eat, and a blanket to wrap up in, and so plans didn't go as planned, but the winter times they are for slowing down and that's seems to be the keyword this week.

Here's to a wonderful holiday to you all: with many friends and family and smiling faces and warm winter-y hugs and whispered dreams coming true and heartfelt prayers shared and then answered.

Pay it Forward .:. Updated

Thanks to all who contacted me about the Pay it Forward phenomenon! I have my (4) giftees now, and so I have 365 days to send them a handmade something in the mail.

For all of you who contacted me privately, feeling concerned about time and holidays and etc, please know that you have 1 whole year to send your Pay it Forward people something that you have made, so it can wait till after all the holiday hoopla.

My peoples are: Anne from How the West Was Spun, Lotta from Knitter Nutter, Jennifer from Words Wits and Wool, and Janine (Guernsey Gal) from Knitting on an Island.

So if you were kinda on the fence, go visit one of them and sign up when they post their own pay it forward announcement.

I want to make sure though that everyone is clear, I am doing 4 Pay it Forwards because of someone else's generosity to me, but the original rules are for 3 Pay it Forwards.

Here are the rules:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

Pay It Forward (via Deanna, via Kirsty, via Mrs Eliot and onwards ...

And on that note .:. A Happy Thanksgiving to all. I hope your holidays, in whatever way(s) you celebrate them are beautiful and heart warming and inspirational and thoughtful and thank-ful.

Paying it Forward

Ganesha - Lord of Beginnings and Remover of Obstacles

I first came across the Pay it Forward of art and creative blogs at Deanna's Artist Emerging. I was #4, but she said she was feeling generous and would send me something... I came across it again on Kirsty's blog, and so, I am following the rules (with my own small twist) and Paying it Forward to the first FOUR* commenters on this blog. The rules below say 3, and I dont want to go and change the original theme, but feel I have to up it to 4 because of Deanna's generosity.

I spent WAY too much time being a forensic detective (no blood, just words and links) trying to go back in time to where this started, and after a bit more than an hour, decided perhaps I had better things to do with my overscheduled day. It sure would be great to know where this originated though...

Pay It Forward (via Deanna, via Kirsty, via Mrs Eliot and onwards ...

Here are the rules:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

Pretty cool, I agree to make and send something to the first three (*four in my case) people to comment, who then make things for their first three commenters and so on.

There is something SO totally pleasing about artwork and creative projects winging their way around the world for no other reason than, just because.

Froth with No Foam, Please

There are rumours here that we may have our first autumn rain this week, and so I continued with some knitting in the sun and gazing at the blue blue sky. This piece has been waiting patiently in the basket of unfinished things for about 2 years now. She is finished and blocked, and ready for a cool breeze.

It is the Froth scarf from Rowan, the free gift for joining, and she was made without the edging. Just plain and simple with some open work knitting and all the lovely Kid Silk Haze in Dewberry. Thus she is Froth with no Foam . . .

Stepping out of my deadline driven world, and finishing something that has been waiting patiently does wonders for the jagged-y feelings of stress, and she will be so lovely when it starts to get cold.

When Life Goes Too Fast . . .

. . . I need to remember to slow it down when I can . . . At certain points through the course of a year I will find myself with more things to do than I have time for; more things that I want to do that I have even less time for; and then the larger pile of things I really must do, and have to make time for.

The Have To Dos
The Deadlines
The Please Dos
The Want To Dos
Followed close by the: I Can't Do Anymore

That was my list this weekend. And instead of adding more pressure to the pile, I picked up something that I left half done about a year or more ago, and quietly sat in a patch of sunlight and knit.

It didn't take the feelings of pressure off any of my other deadlines, but it gave me a bit of peace in the middle of a sunny autumn Sunday, and it felt warm and freeing, to finish something from the basket of half made things.

How do you all deal with the stresses of life and the deadlines?
Do you have creative ways of removing the pressure?