An ordinary Friday 7/2/10

Funny at work is when you realize how extraordinary, everyday "folks" are or can be. The office "gals" (of which I am one) the humor of living everyday life, as well as the pathos or sorrows of this life.

One gal is a stitch, as she recounts the story of her dad doing "guy things" ( farting and lighters). I can't quite wrap my head around that piece of "too much information" but she is good natured about how cool she thought her dad was for being able to blow flames out his a__. And yes it is funny listening to her and genuine and human. Oh the stories we tell about our parents and each other.

I find that the language and slang phrases are a means of learning about our everyday lives, and I'm willing to ask "what does that mean?"

We stand in the parking lot, smoking on a bright, summer Friday before the 4th a celebration of Independence (from what I ask), tired from the work load of year end and inventory, ready for something different yet something restful and fun. It is Friday and all that that means when one is ready for the weekend that will be all too short yet just enough for now. Grateful, joyful on this (Her/His) Divine day!

Letter to a F/friend

Hey doll Pen,
Yes I do use both.

Icelandic sheep are a lovely breed, and their wool has distinct qualities, especially being double coated. The long outer hair is great for rope and bands for weaving especially card weaving. The downy under coat is especially lovely for fine yarns for lace, and softer yarns. Now what is the challenge is how many of the critters do you need to make enough yarn.
2 fleece per year is a lot if you don't spin much. Now I know that there are farm mini-mills that you could get it processed into ready spin-able roving, or batts for quilting (which is yummy to quilt with by the way. Learning to spin is not so hard and of course there are lovely upright wheels known as castle wheels (Majacraft has a beauty called the Tina I think, that is just wonderful) that take up minimum space but spin a mighty fine (or medium or bulky) weight yarn.
That said, Spinning can be done with a simple hand spindle, over time great yarn can be had! That said I am almost finished skirting and grading the largest fleece, and will hopefully wash it up over the holiday weekend. Oh glorious, how you send me off into my spinnerly brain.
I'm getting ready to empty the storage locker and bring it down to a
5x10 and the big loom comes home. For I do think of my small apt. in a vintage farm house in the middle of the town is home. I've been knitting lace and spinning lace weight yarn, going to work at my daily bread job not on my feet and looking at my art life as my full time part time job, preparing for fall and holiday markets. May kit some of my yarns suited for mittens or hats or scarves.
A small batch well spun is more precious than the vast quantities of ho hum that is to be found on the market.

I'm going to three fairs, Michigan Fiber Festival in Allergan (on a motor coach with a bunch of crazy women from the Knitters guild) Midwest Folk and Fiber Fest (in my back yard at the county fair grounds with the shop Wool Warp and Wheel, volunteering a bit and seeing friends). And lastly the Lake County Fair. (Ah a cosmopolitan, heartland girl in the rural space totally at home with it; believe it or not and I am at ease)
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I now belong to two guilds Windy City Knitters and Wcubed "Wise Woolly Women" at my favorite shop in Richmond IL about 20 miles NW, but has weaving, spinning and knitting and more.
Check out Spin Off magazine (Interweave press) either their web site or an issue (Summer is yummy) They have good/great resources about all things spinning as well as breeds for spinning and dinner

Spirit is strong and ever present, a feeling of sinking into my bones knowing. And so we progress forward doing what we can to the best that we can being in the first motion which is Love. Reading Rufus Jones this summer, some of his selected writings. I am enchanted with him. At least at the moment. Maybe for ever, definitely wisdom and a "hearing of his voice in my heart".

“When we’ve faced down impossible odds: Been told that we’re not ready, or that we shouldn’t try, or that we can’t, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people… YES WE CAN!!” Barack Obama New Hampshire primary 2007 (?)

Found this on Ravelry knitted as a scarf and strangely enough I am inspired. It's been a long time since I have written words in my blog. I am doing many things in my artist world. it seems that right now it is lace, and spinning lace weight yarn.
It is the antidote to my daily bread job in customer service and invoicing. My big loom will be home this month coming up, fabric, color out of black first up.
Zummm maybe a few rugs, progress on the swing sweater for fall. Close to finishing my shawl with the lace edge, a Meg Swanson garter and lace. It is so cool.

I think that I don't write because I want my words to be perfect. But they are as perfect as they can be today, for this moment.

Love and Service: Dateline Libertyville September 11,2009

It is eight years later from the day that the world changed with the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon was attacked and the hijacked plane in Pennsylvania was destroyed in a field. I still remember driving to work, Nestle Clinical Nutrition in Deerfield on the highway, listening to the radio, walking into the office and seeing the horror on my co-workers faces. I remember when the computers would yield no further news, no signal, communications off. I remember driving to my friend Darryl's house worried that the Sears Tower would be a target and would my brother Hank get out of the building should it be hit. I remember going to the Gurnee Mills Mall, just to be somewhere other than in the car or at what was then my home in Wadsworth, a cold, sad place, not wanting to be alone. The mall was not busy, it seemed oblivious to the events going on outside of it.
Eight years later actions that I took then have moved me forward to continued sobriety. Those actions moved me towards returning to college, Shimer College. It changed the trajectory of my life that I left a sick, brutal co-dependent relationship. My sense of loss that day I still feel, the collective loss of the soul energy of the thousands who winked out that day.
So much changed that day on so many levels it still feels astonishing. We have a two country war (Iraq, Afghanistan) A black President and the counter-forces of bigotry, and racism in civil discourse, deeply polarizing forces against spiritual and moral advancement.
Here is a quote for President Obama's speech to the joint session of Congress that speaks to my fundamental beliefs in the American people,

"that great unfinished business of our society," he called it -- would finally pass. He repeated the truth that health care is decisive for our future prosperity, but he also reminded me that "it concerns more than material things." "What we face," he wrote, "is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country."
President Obama continued with,
"I've thought about that phrase quite a bit in recent days -- the character of our country. One of the unique and wonderful things about America has always been our self-reliance, our rugged individualism, our fierce defense of freedom and our healthy skepticism of government. And figuring out the appropriate size and role of government has always been a source of rigorous and, yes, sometimes angry debate. That's our history.

That large-heartedness -- that concern and regard for the plight of others -- is not a partisan feeling. It's not a Republican or a Democratic feeling. It, too, is part of the American character -- our ability to stand in other people's shoes; a recognition that we are all in this together, and when fortune turns against one of us, others are there to lend a helping hand; a belief that in this country, hard work and responsibility should be rewarded by some measure of security and fair play; and an acknowledgment that sometimes government has to step in to help deliver on that promise.

This has always been the history of our progress. In 1935, when over half of our seniors could not support themselves and millions had seen their savings wiped away, there were those who argued that Social Security would lead to socialism, but the men and women of Congress stood fast, and we are all the better for it. In 1965, when some argued that Medicare represented a government takeover of health care, members of Congress -- Democrats and Republicans -- did not back down. They joined together so that all of us could enter our golden years with some basic peace of mind.

You see, our predecessors understood that government could not, and should not, solve every problem. They understood that there are instances when the gains in security from government action are not worth the added constraints on our freedom. But they also understood that the danger of too much government is matched by the perils of too little; that without the leavening hand of wise policy, markets can crash, monopolies can stifle competition, the vulnerable can be exploited. And they knew that when any government measure, no matter how carefully crafted or beneficial, is subject to scorn; when any efforts to help people in need are attacked as un-American; when facts and reason are thrown overboard and only timidity passes for wisdom, and we can no longer even engage in a civil conversation with each other over the things that truly matter -- that at that point we don't merely lose our capacity to solve big challenges. We lose something essential about ourselves."

Barak Obama September 9, 2009
It is a spiritual thing, a test that we must do. It is in our capacity to do the necessary work to "care for the least of these" per Jesus's messages that make this such a momentous and powerful task ahead of us. Blessed Be, dear one's, my heart and love are with you.

Late night musings; too tired to sleep

What a quantum shift the move to my sweet home has given me. I know it has been a long and tumultuous journey to my personal sense of homeyness. But it is so, I now live in a vintage (circa 1909, scary basement, some original moldings, hig ceilings)white frame house in Libertyville, Il.
I have four rooms plus a bath, high ceilings, hardwood floors (in need of redoing, of course), windows (some that open, some that don't)and real trees (a big maple and I think a Tulip Magnolia) and outdoor space (driveway and garage 1 space thank you). I live almost in downtown about a half block from Milwaukee Ave; it is affordable and my dining room has turned into part studio part dining
I look forward to having the laughter of my friends over and for the ability to create the next series of work that is ever beckoning, just at the edge of the real world of work. I opened the store today (445 am up looking for tea, at the job at 530 am not my best time I assure you) Did in town stuff yesterday on my day off, picnic in the park, banking on foot, meeting within walking distance, so much within my footfall.
I am thankful, and willing to live in gratitude (paying it forward).
Enough, need to sleep, tomorrow has elements of intrigue, service and fun. Blessed Be!

Elbow grease, a hope and wingingit.

Too long since I have posted to my blog, but is that not the case when one is living one's daily life away from the computer? So much to note, from knitting camp in WI to a possible living space in Grayslake, to odaat with work to job search to on and on it goes.
All of my journals and creative work feels to be on hold as I get ready to move forward from Janice and Dick's home by September 1st. Affordable housing in the Libertyville, Grayslake area is not an idle notion. Especially on my Panera income. It is time to step up my game and bring my best to a new apartment and job pronto.

Of course there is artness rolling around as stop gap measures with knitting baby clothes for Addison Taylor the grand niece to come. Started a new sweater of myself in a new fiber made of sugarcane, similar to rayon or silk in it's sheen.

It is late and my day has been long, actually my last two days have been long, rich, filled with love and insight. So much so much I'll end with a thought that came from Wendell Berry's Jayber Crow novel, " we are not given the answers to the questions we must answer for ourselves" C'est la vie!

Launching the thoughts, tentative words in an uncertain world

Writing out loud on the blog; unsure who will read these words, when they will read them and struggling that this is not vanity and ego presenting itself on the page.

That said, I spent a long time writing my daily pages when I did "The Artist's Way" (Julia Cameron)with my friend Virginia and three other women whose names escape me 13 years later. With much diligent yearning and scribbling I wrote my way out of the chaos of my mother going into a health decline that eventually led to her being moved into a nursing home 65 miles from where I lived. I wrote about the throes of a divorce that has lessened in pain (12 years later) but was truly a sad, tawdry and horrendous upheaval of my life.
Combine this with incremental progress and steadfast loyalty to becoming a sober woman in AA and seeing all of my life previously as a perilous lie and not knowing any of the outcomes as I moved forward into the uncharted waters of sobriety
Fast forward to my 16th anniversary, March 1, 2009 living in Lake County, Libertyville and working daily and making my art as best I can. I want to end this on a high note; with a current snapshot adding a few pix of the work I have recently done
I have added 4 images: 1. The Fisayo, red on red Nbele herringbone sides with strung links in matching beads at the front for a necklace. 2. ivory, peach and amber beaded bracelet, 3. better shot of same bracelet 4. Shannon's wedding bracelet in pearl, forest green, Swarovski crystals and bright & satin finished gold beads modeled on a crytal river pattern. All were created using off loom beading techniques