So a little while ago I discovered a program that accepts hand-knit items for donation to the homeless. They promised me they'd even take my nasty acrylic yarns if they were knit into useful items. Suddenly I've been re-inspired to knit all kinds of things!
One of the big reasons I haven't been knitting so much recently is a feeling of inability. I keep looking at all these wonderful books I have, finding great projects and going "Oh, but I can't afford that yarn." or "I haven't got those needles". I came away from the things that were supposed to inspire me feeling nervous and inadequate. Nothing was being knit because I didn't want to take the chance that I'd do it wrong.
I've learned in my life that I'm missing out on a lot of stuff because I'm afraid of it. I'm scared to start a new hobby or try a new food or even talk to someone because I didn't want to do it wrong. Because I know so many amazingly talented people, I've been scared to try new dance forms or even push my acting further, not wanting to be mocked. I really hate attempting my school work on my own, because I don't want to mess it up and not have a perfect grade, so I put it off until the last possible moment. Then I hurry it through and don't get as nice of a grade as I could have because I was so rushed.
This idea that it doesn't matter, that anything I choose to make will not only be fine but will actually be treasured and wanted even without perfection, is very freeing for me. Here is pleasure simply in what I can do now, instead of what I will be able to do or should have already done. This is the simple present tense and I am discovering that this is exactly the right place for me to live.
Send help, there are knit things all over the desk and they appear to be getting bigger!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Do Homeless Women Still Like Pink?
I've gone and picked up another hobby. More specifically, I've picked up an outlet for a hobby I already have, no new tools or spaces required.
The other night I was taking the kid and a friend out to Schlotzky's for dinner and I walked into the middle of a fiberfest. There, amid the sandwiches and pizzas, an intrepid group of women had set up a spinning wheel. They were knitting in the corners and crocheting in the aisles. The wheel was whorring along, turning purple fluff into a lovely fingering weight yarn. When I asked them why, they informed me that they were a group of local fiberfans who met there every Thursday and stayed quite late. They originally formed thanks to the Austin Scarf Project, a group who makes hats and scarves for the homeless.They take donations of yarn or pre-made scarves, but they really enjoy having people come out and just knit (or crochet) with them.
This idea really appealed to me on a number of levels. First of all, I tend to avoid doing a lot of social work because I always feel overwhelmed. While I don't mind helping the Red Cross with a shelter, or mucking out a flooded house, I come away from the experience depressed because I can only do so much. The last flood I helped clean out put me in bed for a few days when my back went out at the end of work. But this is an immediate solution to a problem.If you're cold, you put on a hat.
Secondly, I really like to make scarves. They've become the knitting addiction of choice for me. I can cast on an easy one and blow through it in a few hours or pick a fancy lace or cable pattern and work on it for weeks. I can knit them on the bus or in line, at the theater, or in class, or in front of the TV. I have a box full of the things since almost everyone I know already has one. You've only got the one neck so how many scarves do you really need?
Thirdly, and most selfishly, I'm running out of room to buy yarn. I have a fairly impressive stash at this point and I'm under interdict to not buy anymore. When you find yourself sneaking more yarn into the house and hiding it in the liquor cabinet you know you have a small problem.I'm fairly sure I'm addicted.
One of the reasons I have so much yarn is that I inherited a large amount from my grandmother. While she was a busy and active woman, my grandmother didn't actually knit. She used the yarn to make canvas cross-stitch pictures. That means that all the yarn she bought was the cheapest acrylic possible. I haven't been knitting with it because the wools, cottons, and silks feel better on my hands. The acrylic isn't *nasty*, it's just not what I prefer to touch. Which is where the questions come in for me. If I knit a scarf from bubblegum pink and white acrylic, something I'd never ever wear unless I was desperate, is it appropriate to give it away? Just because I don't care for it, will someone else still love it? If you're freezing to death do you care if your scarf looks like someone skinned a Barbie?
I think the answer to these questions is "Start knitting!" and I'm doing my bit for now. Tonight, I'll go knit in a sandwich shop, tomorrow I'll knit on the bus. My motivation is clearly not without some self-interest, but I hope I can also do a little good along the way.
The other night I was taking the kid and a friend out to Schlotzky's for dinner and I walked into the middle of a fiberfest. There, amid the sandwiches and pizzas, an intrepid group of women had set up a spinning wheel. They were knitting in the corners and crocheting in the aisles. The wheel was whorring along, turning purple fluff into a lovely fingering weight yarn. When I asked them why, they informed me that they were a group of local fiberfans who met there every Thursday and stayed quite late. They originally formed thanks to the Austin Scarf Project, a group who makes hats and scarves for the homeless.They take donations of yarn or pre-made scarves, but they really enjoy having people come out and just knit (or crochet) with them.
This idea really appealed to me on a number of levels. First of all, I tend to avoid doing a lot of social work because I always feel overwhelmed. While I don't mind helping the Red Cross with a shelter, or mucking out a flooded house, I come away from the experience depressed because I can only do so much. The last flood I helped clean out put me in bed for a few days when my back went out at the end of work. But this is an immediate solution to a problem.If you're cold, you put on a hat.
Secondly, I really like to make scarves. They've become the knitting addiction of choice for me. I can cast on an easy one and blow through it in a few hours or pick a fancy lace or cable pattern and work on it for weeks. I can knit them on the bus or in line, at the theater, or in class, or in front of the TV. I have a box full of the things since almost everyone I know already has one. You've only got the one neck so how many scarves do you really need?
Thirdly, and most selfishly, I'm running out of room to buy yarn. I have a fairly impressive stash at this point and I'm under interdict to not buy anymore. When you find yourself sneaking more yarn into the house and hiding it in the liquor cabinet you know you have a small problem.I'm fairly sure I'm addicted.
One of the reasons I have so much yarn is that I inherited a large amount from my grandmother. While she was a busy and active woman, my grandmother didn't actually knit. She used the yarn to make canvas cross-stitch pictures. That means that all the yarn she bought was the cheapest acrylic possible. I haven't been knitting with it because the wools, cottons, and silks feel better on my hands. The acrylic isn't *nasty*, it's just not what I prefer to touch. Which is where the questions come in for me. If I knit a scarf from bubblegum pink and white acrylic, something I'd never ever wear unless I was desperate, is it appropriate to give it away? Just because I don't care for it, will someone else still love it? If you're freezing to death do you care if your scarf looks like someone skinned a Barbie?
I think the answer to these questions is "Start knitting!" and I'm doing my bit for now. Tonight, I'll go knit in a sandwich shop, tomorrow I'll knit on the bus. My motivation is clearly not without some self-interest, but I hope I can also do a little good along the way.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Some Progress
I've made a little progress on the Killer Craft List (of DOOOOOM) and I thought I'd share what happened.
The kid got her Spanish Gown from the underthings out on time. It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it worked out. I made a chemise with the giant hanging Spanish sleeves and a square neck. I learned the weight of the sleeves will pull that neck right off the shoulders no matter what and I'm going back to the portraits to see if there's something I can do to fix that.
The corset was a gift from a friend and I wound up buying a hoop skirt from a bridal store because I was out of time to mess with it. That changed the shape of the skirt in a way I hadn't wanted and pushed the time period from 1490's to 1560's. So instead of making the skirt and bodice all one and pretty unique, I just whipped up a regular separate Elizabethan over-skirt and turned an old dance vest into a square-necked bodice. The over-skirt had been most of a velvet Norman bliaunt that a friend had given me last year and the dance vest had been a gift from a few years back. I used leftover trim from another project for the neck and made the under-skirt out of some terrifying black stretch velvet that had been a gift also. The hat was one I had bought for myself years ago and never liked how it fit me. It fits the shape of her head much better. I'm rather proud of the fact that the only money I spent on this project was the hoops. Everything else came out of the stash and that makes the room just that much cleaner.
The kid and I have put in our money and gotten onto the list. We'll be going to Gulf Wars this year with one of my girlfriends from the acting troupe. Lots of estrogen on this excursion. We'll spend a week living in a tent together with no contact with the outside world. It's going to be very interesting, possibly in the Chinese sense of the word.
That being said, we don't have enough washable (and mud-able) period clothing to get us both through the week at the moment. I'm going to keep working away on the craft list and I'll probably see what of my old stuff I can make over for her as well. Emergency clothing always seems to come up when I least expect it.
If I can find a good looking photo of the new stuff I'll put it up here for you at some point. Right now I think the ones I have don't show the clothing well.
The kid got her Spanish Gown from the underthings out on time. It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it worked out. I made a chemise with the giant hanging Spanish sleeves and a square neck. I learned the weight of the sleeves will pull that neck right off the shoulders no matter what and I'm going back to the portraits to see if there's something I can do to fix that.
The corset was a gift from a friend and I wound up buying a hoop skirt from a bridal store because I was out of time to mess with it. That changed the shape of the skirt in a way I hadn't wanted and pushed the time period from 1490's to 1560's. So instead of making the skirt and bodice all one and pretty unique, I just whipped up a regular separate Elizabethan over-skirt and turned an old dance vest into a square-necked bodice. The over-skirt had been most of a velvet Norman bliaunt that a friend had given me last year and the dance vest had been a gift from a few years back. I used leftover trim from another project for the neck and made the under-skirt out of some terrifying black stretch velvet that had been a gift also. The hat was one I had bought for myself years ago and never liked how it fit me. It fits the shape of her head much better. I'm rather proud of the fact that the only money I spent on this project was the hoops. Everything else came out of the stash and that makes the room just that much cleaner.
The kid and I have put in our money and gotten onto the list. We'll be going to Gulf Wars this year with one of my girlfriends from the acting troupe. Lots of estrogen on this excursion. We'll spend a week living in a tent together with no contact with the outside world. It's going to be very interesting, possibly in the Chinese sense of the word.
That being said, we don't have enough washable (and mud-able) period clothing to get us both through the week at the moment. I'm going to keep working away on the craft list and I'll probably see what of my old stuff I can make over for her as well. Emergency clothing always seems to come up when I least expect it.
If I can find a good looking photo of the new stuff I'll put it up here for you at some point. Right now I think the ones I have don't show the clothing well.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Self: Absorbsion, Entitlement, Adoration...Annoyance
I'm going to indulge in a shameless fit of hypocrisy. I'm going to use this forum, which few if anyone besides myself are (is?) aware of, to complain about a person who is currently complaining about me. The reason I feel no shame about this is because the complainer is my teen-aged daughter and I've been able to hear her complaints about me for well over an hour now. I'm sure the neighbors have heard it all as well.It's sheer hypocrisy of course because there's no way a person who can't hear the charges can defend themselves. Of course, she can't hear them when I'm telling them to her face.
Obviously, every parent of every teenager ever born has to deal with "You never let me do anything!!!" along with the associated slamming of doors and heavy sulks. Until I had a teen I didn't know that 'heavy sulks' could actually be felt. I've walked into them in my own home now and been convinced they're a form of emotional spider web. She manages to give a depth and breadth to sullen I haven't personally felt since my younger sister moved out. The few times I've slipped and called her by her aunt's name haven't helped I'm sure.
The door slamming itself might not be so bad, if she'd keep her fit inside the room. Instead, she gets on the phone with whichever one of her cronies she's not currently fighting with (aka her BFF!) and maligns me as loudly as possible for as long as her voice or her listeners' ear holds out. So far the max has been 3 hours, but I think she only gave up then when her phone ran out of battery. Sadly for me, since she has constant fights with all her friends, she gets to recount her story multiple times in one week. By the end of the list I'm 70ft tall with fangs, and I've never let her out in the sun since the day she was born, and I eat babies.
Sometimes, in a fit of outrage, she'll send really nasty texts to everyone on her contacts list informing them that she's had it with living here, she just can't handle it, etc. This produces instant results with worried parents calling me having found these things on their kids' phones or my own parents racing over to the house. What normally happens then is yet another visit from CPS or the school counselor, yet another round of "so where is she going to therapy?" questions, and in the end everyone except the teen figuring out that this is yet another time she's cried "wolf!" None of this registers as excessive to her of course. No matter how much help she's been given it's never enough and there's just never quite enough attention to satisfy her. The difference between good and bad attention never enters into it.
I love my daughter and I have every hope that she'll grow up to an intelligent, useful, generous member of society. Some days I have to sit on the floor in my closet telling myself that over and over, but I truly believe it. One day, when she is a mother of a teen, I will do what my mother is doing now. I'll come over when they need me, I'll always try to have an encouraging or distracting thing to say and I'll call once a week to make sure everyone is still alive.
I can't wait.
Obviously, every parent of every teenager ever born has to deal with "You never let me do anything!!!" along with the associated slamming of doors and heavy sulks. Until I had a teen I didn't know that 'heavy sulks' could actually be felt. I've walked into them in my own home now and been convinced they're a form of emotional spider web. She manages to give a depth and breadth to sullen I haven't personally felt since my younger sister moved out. The few times I've slipped and called her by her aunt's name haven't helped I'm sure.
The door slamming itself might not be so bad, if she'd keep her fit inside the room. Instead, she gets on the phone with whichever one of her cronies she's not currently fighting with (aka her BFF!) and maligns me as loudly as possible for as long as her voice or her listeners' ear holds out. So far the max has been 3 hours, but I think she only gave up then when her phone ran out of battery. Sadly for me, since she has constant fights with all her friends, she gets to recount her story multiple times in one week. By the end of the list I'm 70ft tall with fangs, and I've never let her out in the sun since the day she was born, and I eat babies.
Sometimes, in a fit of outrage, she'll send really nasty texts to everyone on her contacts list informing them that she's had it with living here, she just can't handle it, etc. This produces instant results with worried parents calling me having found these things on their kids' phones or my own parents racing over to the house. What normally happens then is yet another visit from CPS or the school counselor, yet another round of "so where is she going to therapy?" questions, and in the end everyone except the teen figuring out that this is yet another time she's cried "wolf!" None of this registers as excessive to her of course. No matter how much help she's been given it's never enough and there's just never quite enough attention to satisfy her. The difference between good and bad attention never enters into it.
I love my daughter and I have every hope that she'll grow up to an intelligent, useful, generous member of society. Some days I have to sit on the floor in my closet telling myself that over and over, but I truly believe it. One day, when she is a mother of a teen, I will do what my mother is doing now. I'll come over when they need me, I'll always try to have an encouraging or distracting thing to say and I'll call once a week to make sure everyone is still alive.
I can't wait.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Some Progress
So, a report on the Craft List o'Doom!
First up: A Black and Blue (and Grey) Jayne hat!
While said critter may look complete, I'm still unsure about the trustworthiness of that pom-pom. I think I may just sew the thing down before I release it into the wild.
Next: Kaitlyn's Candlemas Outfit!
I've got the chemise finished except for the hemming and the fancy work on the collar. The bodice is ready for eyelets and trim and the skirts, both hoop and outer, have yet to be cut out. I still need to go buy boning for the hoops anyway and I'm very temped to just go to a wedding supply place and purchase one due to the tight schedule.
Last but not least: The Gold Elizabethan hat!
It still needs bling, but since the last time you saw it was as a pile of parts I thought you might like to see how far it's come.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Craft List 2011
Often for New Years we make really silly resolutions such as "I'll jog 5 miles everyday!" when we hardly get off the couch on a regular basis or "I'll cut all the sugar out of my diet!" as we start another batch of cookies. I'll admit, I've done both of those in my time and like most unreasonable things they didn't work out. Many times I get so frustrated with my lack of success that I react in a childish way, stuffing my face with fats or sleeping until noon just because things didn't work the way I wanted. This year may be a little different though.One of my friends was joking around with me and made the comment that I should make a list of all the unfinished craft projects I have laying around and then finish them. I laughed and blew it off at the time, but the thought stuck with me.
From that old urge to start the New Year right and a random comment from my friend, I've created this list of UFO's floating around my house. Currently my goal is too just finish them. A very few of them have actual hard deadlines, so I feel I can take my time and enjoy the hobbies I've chosen to learn. I'll also be able to prioritize things better when I can see what needs to be done, so they won't get swallowed up in school work and other stressers. This is supposed to be fun, not a death march, but I'd like to have this whole list cleared by the end of year.
With all the best intentions in mind, I often still fall short of my goals. So I give myself permission to take it slow, or stop altogether if need be. In that case the item must be reduced to component parts or given to someone else who will finish it as soon as possible since I have a limited amount of space and tools. I give you, the reader, permission to randomly poke me and ask about the status of a project if you feel it hasn't been attended to recently enough.
If you're curious, anywhere I have 'materials' listed it doesn't mean I haven't bought the stuff yet, it just means I don't have enough on hand.
- Charles Hat- needs a pom-pom and shipping
- Kai Black/Grey Armwarmers- needs pattern, correct yarn
- Kaitlyn Gambeson- needs quilted, edged and closed
- Kaitlyn 1490 Spanish Gown- needs fitted, hooped, trimmed and closed
- Kaitlyn Purple/White Italian Ren- needs trimmed, hemmed and eyelets
- Kaitlyn Red fringe Dance Belt- needs bells, more fringe
- Kaitlyn Gold/ Blue Doublet- needs fitted, tabs, buttons (lots)
- Kaitlyn Purple fuzzy Armwarmers-needs re-mathed and finished
- Kaitlyn Green Persian Coat- needs fitted, lined, hemmed, closures
- Kaitlyn Black Persian Pants- needs cut-out, assembled
- Kaitlyn White Persian Shirt- needs cut-out, assembled
- Kaitlyn Breastplate- needs fitted, rivets reset, back plates removed, new straps
- Pink/Brown Starfish- needs more arms and belly
- Black/Red Choli -needs sleeves, front panel, trim
- Patchwork Choli- needs cut-out and assembled
- Gold Turkish Coat- needs to be taken-apart, refitted, re-assembled
- Blue/White Velvet Burgundian- needs fitted and assembled
- Blue wool scarf- finish
- Red lace Hat- check pattern, frog or finish
- Blue Tudor Gown and Kirtle- needs more material, cut out, assembled, hemmed, trimmed, closed
- Blue Sweater- check pattern, frog or finish
- Green Saxon Braid Sweater- frog or finish
- Red/White/Blue Stripe Scarf- frog or finish
- Blue Stripe Sock- frog or finish
- Grey Stripe Sock- finish # 2
- Fluffy Grey/ Rainbow Scarf- check pattern, frog and fix
- Blue Cotton Bikini- needs strap and assembled
- Black/Blue/Grey Stocking Cap- check pattern and finish
- Breastplate- needs bottom cut/curled, get help
- Metal Vambraces- needs pattern, materials, strapping/buckles
- Helm/Knees- needs rust removed and restrapped, look into plating
- Spinning Wheel- needs head fixed in place, drive belts
- Storage Chest- needs drawer repaired, top drawers waxed
- Desk- needs leather top cleaned/sealed
- Elizabethan Necklaces- needs pattern, pearls
- Black Velvet Hat- needs cut-out, assembled, trimmed
- Gold Brocade Hat- needs bling and feather
- Trailer Curtains- needs cut-out, assembled and hung
- Trailer Cabinets- needs materials, installation
- Trailer Walls- needs materials, paint, insulation, assembly
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