June has come and mostly gone and the shifting sands of the global “new normal” continues to make time feel like it has tilted off its axis. Sometimes it flows fast, sometimes moments seem to last forever.
Seeing. Being there for the experience. That is my goal this summer. There are long stretches where I have let the running of a business and my propensity for a jumbled, rambling mind to propel me through my days at breakneck speed, scarcely experiencing the moments passing me by. I have taken the opportunity this month to take a breath and it feels great. My focus for the summer is to see what is right in front of me.
I have three avenues in this goal of taking the time to see. You won’t be surprised to hear that the first two are weaving and hiking. The third is drawing.
I had planned to hike the Colorado Trail again this year. I was going to weave as I went—my favorite sort of documentation of my surroundings in my little tapestry diary. The pandemic has squelched that plan. But it has given me the gift of exploration. Instead of walking a trail that will force me into small towns and into contact with many different people over our fragile mountain towns already overrun with tourists, I'll stay closer to home and hike all the trails I can get to easily from my house. The 500 mile plan has become a series of 20-50 mile ideas and that opens up the opportunity for growth. Because I know the Colorado Trail so well I can watch thru-hiker’s videos and tell you where the images were taken. Visiting new places as a solo backpacker is scarier but it also opens me to new experiences and vistas and that seems like something that could remind me to take the time to really see what is around me.
Walking. Weaving. Drawing.
I suspect most of us have found our plans down-sized and our vision turned further inwards during this pandemic. I think we can make this often scary time into an opportunity. For myself, I am sitting still more often, taking time to listen, and allowing myself to experiment. I’ve noticed that those impulses toward experimentation have been pushed sideways at times with my efforts to create something that I can “show” on Change the Shed. So I’m cutting back again on the number of times per month I hold that live YouTube broadcast so that I can allow my mind more time to explore without the pressure of having something to present. (The schedule is posted HERE.)
Below are some tidbits from my recent joyful explorations. None of it is of any consequence and at the same time, taking the time to explore is everything.
Sample Along 2
I finally finished the yarn for Jillian Moreno’s second spinning Sample Along. I have not knit any of the yarn and of course one can’t really see the result until I do. These yarns are not tapestry yarns. I spun them with a shortish backwards draw and they are too loose and airy for tapestry. But I think this same process applied to making yarn for tapestry would be fascinating. We’ll see what my spindle produces as I hike this summer.
Wheel-spun yarns for #samplealong2. I struggled with these yarns for various reasons including the variety of fibers spun together, stress, and occasional impatience. But they’ll make something nice when knitted up anyway.
Drawing
Pride and The Supremes
I took drawing classes in undergrad and later when I was working from the nearby university as a non-degree student. That was many years ago and though I’ve done some drawing here and there since, I’ve never pursued it in a dedicated fashion in almost 20 years. Drawing isn’t for everyone, but I remember the place my brain goes when I’m drawing. It is similar to the flow state that weaving brings me to. And I wanted to get some of those skills back. So I’ve been drawing again. The practice is way too new and fragile to share in a more general way, but here is one little person in celebration of Pride month. I was sketching some ideas for a small tapestry I so far call “Pride and The Supremes.” Because wasn’t that a great day? The person wasn’t part of the tapestry design, just a little remembrance from some of the DC images from THIS court decision.
Weaving
I’m paying attention to the voices in my gut more than my head this month (when I remember, which honestly still isn’t often enough). I was doing an online yoga class this morning and as I lay on the floor looking up at the tall shelf of yarn, all categorized and labeled, waiting for a tapestry that I had skipped over in favor of small works and a new design,* I realized that I wanted to go back to that design I finished last summer. So it’s on. The cartoon will be enlarged this week. The Harrisville Rug loom will be working again soon! I’ll show you the cartoon once it is under way. I do have a little dyeing to do before it is all lined up. I know that seems incredible when you realize there are probably 20 pounds of yarn stuffed into that shelf, but it is true. I don’t quite have the colors I want for one element of the tapestry.
The yarn shelf view from my yoga mat. The blue tape labels indicate which yarns are in each bin.
I’ve also been working on this little Pride month piece during Change the Shed. The tapestry was started years ago and has been languishing on this loom for a long time. I want the loom back and I also think June is a good month to finish this. The original plan is lost to history, so I just went off-script. There will be a version of the Pride flag that includes the black and brown POC stripes along with the stripes from the trans flag. I talked about this in the latest Change the Shed episode HERE.
The tapestry as it lived in the corner of my studio for years.
The tapestry today with the new pattern just started.
Hiking
I love hiking more than most things in my life. The feeling of rolling along a trail when it is level or struggling up it with a 25 pound pack when it is not, makes me feel alive. Wondering if the scrapes on the trees are from porcupines or elk** and finding a meadow to stretch out in while I watch birds flit through the trees with my little binoculars is magic.
The gallery below has some Colorado eye candy for you. Click on the images to enlarge, hover for captions. If you get the blog via email, you can see the captions by going to the post online HERE.
On a recent day-hike along the Colorado Trail, I happened upon this tiny house. Chicken and duck were having a nice lunch before chicken headed off to his own house for a nap.***
May you have the time to spot the fairy houses along your trail this week.
*and clearly not meditating
**Elk. I’m sure it was elk though I wanted it to be porcupines as one of the only two times I’d seen a porcupine on trail was on that exact trail 17 years ago. Thankfully I saw it before my unleashed dog did. The other time was a not-so-fortunate incident in Nevada where my partner’s dog saw the porcupine before we did. Hundreds of quills and dollars later, that dog was still not sorry he had tried to take that porcupine down.
***The little houses were not built by me. I never would have seen them but the friend I was hiking with spotted them next to the creek I was busy taking a video of. When you look, you find magic left by others. Thanks for paying attention Kelsea!