she grew up on a farm there
I’m crying today because I’ll just miss the Midwest Fiber & Folk Art Fair in Illinois this summer. If you don’t know, I’m a daughter of Illinois, and most of my family still lives there. I’ll be visiting in July, a week or two before the fair. Oh, the humanity!
One consolation, though, is the Fine Fiber and Folk Art Show will be displayed in the McHenry County College galleries during my visit, so I have hopes of dragging my family along on an inspiration-gathering mission.
I’ve never been to McHenry County, but it turns up in my favorite Tom Waits song “Johnnsburg, Illinois” and really, what more of a reference does one need?
Filed under Fiber Obsessions, Folk Art | Comment (0)1930s marital scale
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-11 As a 1930s wife, I am |
This pretty much sums it up.
Filed under Feminism & Politics | Comment (0)a gift for Pops
For Father’s Day I bought WD a light box with which to take photos of my handspun. (I have dreams of joining the Etsy ranks… please make room on the bandwagon.)
Right now, it’s sitting unopened next to the bed. I fear before the weekend it’ll get buried underneath a pile of dirty clothes. But I’m determined to unearth it this Saturday and document the stuff I’ve been spinning up.
In the meantime, thanks to a Father’s Day request from father himself, I’ve started knitting a hat for my Pops with some of the more decent handspun and it’s coming along pretty well. I cast on 84 and planned to make a simple 2×2 rib stocking cap, but the yarn is too bulky, so I had to start over with 64. I mean, the hat was freakishly huge. Even with the ribbing. Even with Pops odd-shaped noggin.
Now I’m knitting it from Crazy Aunt Purl’s Brangelina, which is a 4×4 brim and then stockinette stitch. I think it’ll be perfect.
Just don’t tell Pops the name. Not that he would know what it means, but if it came up in a crossword puzzle, I’d have some explaining to do.
Filed under Fiber Obsessions | Comment (0)the joy
I slipped into another obsession since my last post. Thanks to a wonderful series of synchronistic events, and a lovely new friend named Annette, I am the owner of an Ashford Joy.
Don’t know if I have room in my life for another obsession (between Niblo, music, writing, knitting… no sleep for me… no time to breathe…).
Committed to spinning 15 minutes a day, I find myself still there, long past the proper bedtime of a new mom, treadling away for one to two hours. It is gratifying in that soulful way, turning raw fleece into yarn. It takes my attention away from my other artsy (pre)occupations (I have a gig at the Portland Saturday Market in August for which my fingertips are not nearly calloused enough), but I’m letting it be what it is.
A psychic once told me that the patterns of my life and work will always be non-linear. I try to remember this when it seems I’m just fickle and unfocused. I mustn’t compare myself, is all. (Ha, good luck with that.)
And in addition to the spinning wheel, the joy this summer, my 30th, is kinda overwhelming me. With Niblo as my sidekick the importance of weddings and births are much more obvious than they were to me even last year, and some of the most cynical people I know are falling in love again.
Now if only the sun would shine on this little island for a while. Then all of it would be good.
Filed under Fiber Obsessions | Comment (0)
