Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Renovating, vegetating and cooperating

 Current reading, aside from a Maisie Dobbs reread of  Pardonable Lies and the audio of The Late Scholar by Jill Paton Walsh, one of a creditable series continuing the Wimsey/Vane saga, is 

Ironic in view of that previous sentence. It's about resisting the produce at all costs mentality, a Western ailment which counts only results and considers a day wasted if not productive. I'm hoping to be enlightened as I go.  

It's a result of the industrial revolution, I think. Before then people certainly worked hard, but not to acquire and own and prove their worth and  please a boss and fit in,  so much as to live day to day.

It's also a suggestion about resisting making our lives into Instagram fodder, not a bad idea. I'm quite good on this point -- I don't do anything in order to blog about it, just blog about what I did.

Yesterday, down with a bump, I finally did this.

I unravelled a vest I'd knitted long ago which proved to be a bit too warm. But I think it will make grand socks, doing that two in one method.


It's beautiful yarn, part of a gift from granddaughter long ago, her fiber share from Shepherd Susie, in the natural cream color, lovely quality wool, definitely worth another try. And with enough small lengths for the inevitable darning which will happen. Using Joanne's Grandma's darning egg.

And yesterday I spent time on the deck, catching good weather while I can, along with butterflies doing likewise






And, the streets of San Francisco now back in the box ready to pass on, I broke out out Jungle Paradise or whatever it's called

It's turning out to be a nice sidebar thing, a piece now and then in passing. I don't sit and fiddle  at it, not my style, just stand a minute while the kettle's boiling, that kind of thing.. 

Yesterday morning the sun, now moving around the living room, fell just right on this handmade paper artwork, so I seized the day

            Ebb Tide                      Liz Adams 

White on white three dimensional art is so tricky to picture with no special lights and a liw level camera, so you catch the moment. A few minutes later the cooperative light had moved on. 

Happy day everyone, keep moving on, any direction will do 




15 comments:

  1. Finally, a cool morning here, even a bit chilly, though it will warm up fast. The first real front to come through is going to give us a few nice humid free days. I was undoing stuff too but not knitting.

    Yes, the 'produce at all costs' culture. I have to remind myself that it's OK to not be productive every minute, every day. I read somewhere that primitive people had way more free time than we do despite the constant struggle to survive.

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  2. Tis the season for butterflies, isn't it?
    That yarn is so nice. As poor as my skills in knitting and crocheting are, I do have a deep love for good yarn. No idea why. I think I'm a tactile person. I've always bought clothing and fabric by feel.
    I like Ebb Tide. The three dimensionality of it.

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  3. Monarchs! How wonderful to have them around the yard! Gorgeous creatures!

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  4. Nice artwork, tricky taking photos that show off the lovely texture.
    It does show through though.

    Back in the 1960s, a woman told me she reuses the yarn from her children's sweaters to knit the news ones. I don't remember how many times the yarn can be reused. I expect quite a number of years.

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  5. I have done that a time or two myself - unraveled something because I liked the yarn too much to have it go to waste.

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  6. Definitely a hard lesson that not being productive everyday
    But I tell myself im a human being not a human doing.
    So just being is enough

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  7. Good way to look at it, Angela.

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  8. Sometimes I thank my enormous head injury that switched my brain from left to right. Now I can admire something like your Ebb Tide and surveyed every grain of sand and shell as if they had just happened. My heart was a little full, too, reading Joanne's grandma's darning egg. It is a beauty, isn't it.

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  9. Thank you for this. I have a husband who feels if he hasn't done something his day is wasted. I shall remind of this. And Angela's human being.
    Do tell, what are two in one socks? That is lovely yarn.

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  10. Sparkling, scroll back a few blog posts and you'll see a mention of the Two Socks in One book.

    And yes, a gentle reminder that we can sometimes just be rather than always do, might be good to offer your husband.

    Joanne, that was a moving comment, thank you. The darning egg and dibber are permanently out where I can see them.

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  11. Maybe when you live in nature like I do, it becomes easier to just be. Or is it old age? Or both? But, truth be told, I often feel like I just must be doing something, cleaning, laundry or whatever. Habits of a lifetime, I guess.

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  12. Still here and a bit scared, also debating where I could move, I'm a lot more forgiving of myself because doing nothing often means re-charging.

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  13. E, you're very much on my mind right now. I pray for your safety in the storm

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  14. I must see if I can find a copy of that book because I have real issues with attempting to do nothing. I can last maybe an hour and then I get antsy.
    Lovely flutter-byes and I like the idea of re-using yarn. Not that I would necessarily actually DO it though! Do do-overs count?

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