Just thought I’d un-whine a bit. (but I’m still very close to running out of whites 😮 )
Incidentally, the warp is not lost nor abandoned, although it is no longer on the loom.
Tag: creativity
Bumbling about (again)
Can’t seem to find my feet this week, although it was long anticipated for having 4 long days with a totally quiet house. 😉 Serves me right for making plans. Mind you, nothing prevents me from carrying them out, besides myself!
I started with 2 headachy days, then I noticed something was wrong with one of the kittens. At 6 in the morning just as the car was about to leave the premises. It happens a lot around here, has for years, I must have the sickest pets on the planet. And I worry every minute of the day(s) until it’s over, big issue or small, feeling a hurt deep inside. There must be some lesson in this for me, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what it is. Except to stop worrying, but all my rational thoughts fail to make a lasting impression so far. So that’s one thread of distraction, pulling a whole wad of strings with it. In fact I got so wound up with all the hasty new arrangements, crashing traffic rules to get to the train unexpectedly etc. I could not face the act of shopping for my 4 day isolation, having the car and all. Well, there’s coffee…
It’s a cold week, so I have to pile on clothes. Another distraction for my already scattered mind. Getting covered in cat hair from all the healthy ones suddenly lining up to sleep on me whenever I think of standing up to practise varnishing a picture (try doing that covered in hair!) Change sweater, repeat. Don’t indulge them I’m told. But if, then, why do I even have pets? (I do know why they want me, I’m the warmest dry spot in the house after a romp in the rain)
When I worry I also begin to doubt everything. Why I do any of the things I do, how I pretend to imagine there is even a path and a purpose to be revealed. I still want to do them, but I question my motivation, my skills (always), and most of all the importance. It makes no difference in the world if I make pictures all day or just eat cake. Tomorrow I could win the lottery or die and anything in between. And some days I find that highly exciting and motivating, when I worry I’m certain that what WILL happen tomorrow is in fact absolutely nothing. You know, the old “all is vanity and chasing the wind” theme. (of course, most days nothing really does happen, at least on its own accord or any differently than the day before)
Sigh. Last week I began writing a very enthusiastic blog post about my progress in keeping up the creative work every day, eliminating excess activities to give me focus, succesfully ignoring noise and distraction, having talked down some of my fears and self criticism. Ha. Can you spell H U B R I S ? Well, at least I’m getting instant feedback on some issues. XD No need to even go public with it first! But now I’m telling you anyway to make the humiliation complete, like.
How do you like them apple blossoms?
Sew done
Had a bit more energy today, colder outside (+inside) and windy = I managed to get some of those fabrics done that I threatened to zigzag etc. yesterday. Well, the fun bits anyway, such as the saori jacket, not weaving in ends on my sweater. Most boring task in the world. The vest works great under an oversized, ruined (as in I got paint on it) sweater for keeping me warmer.
A couple of sneak peeks (and pssst – I did paint a teeny bit too! It’s difficult to dive back in, though, as I haven’t been in any kind of flow yet to just pick it up where I left, so I started something new)
Sunday debate
âWe should do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian Darwinian theory he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.â
â Richard Buckminster Fuller
Let this sink in for a little while and note how it makes you think and feel. Then ponder my questions below or make up your own.
- Do you find the idea repulsive, a lazy person’s manifesto?
- Attractive but an impossible dream? (after all we need a roof over our heads, and somebody must collect the trash etc.)
- How many people do you think enjoy having a steady employment vs. those who thrive on “having ideas” regardless of income but feel miserable in “some kind of drudgery”? Would it in fact even out without much hassle or would everybody want to be artsy fartsy useless buggers?
- Would you feel exploited if you did in fact enjoy your day job, to finance the artsy fartsy buggers? And why, if you’re actually enjoying it and they wouldn’t?
- What, in your opinion gives a person the right to exist and be happy (and have a roof over their head etc.)?
- How could we even implement this without becoming a population glued to the tv and smoking weed 10 hours a day? Let’s pretend there was just food for everybody, what would happen?
- Wealth distribution – can we rethink and redo, or are we doomed and determined to do what we’ve always done?
- Which questions didn’t I think of and how would you reply?
I’d love for you to share your sentiments below and feel free to discuss amongst yourselves too. Just keep it civil, please.
Change your clothes
After I’ve put on weight I have a notion to camouflage my bum and legs, and besides, the new clothes (a rare treat) I bought last year are still in the closet with labels on, fitting like sausage skins. 🙁 So I decided to try out the concept of dresses, something I’ve been opposed to ever since I was 4 and my granny dressed me up for dance lessons. Shudder. But I actually have the shape for it, because I have a lot of shape, at least I used to when I had a waist. 😉 Anyhow, I couldn’t bear seeing myself in shorts this summer, it’s as if my body type has aged 10 years in 12 months.
There are plans to weave fabric and use that for clothing, but that all takes a bit of time, so I needed something “now”.
I wanted to keep a low budget, so I mail ordered a bunch of stuff 1-2 sizes larger than my normal. Some were much too large after all, some ok. One dress is actually quite roomy, but the little sleeves, oy! I felt like my armpits were being cut open and the whole dress moved up if I tried to lift my arms.
I decided to keep it however, because I’m not used to inelastic fabric and tend to feel constrained if the fit is close and stiff. But I removed those sleeves and all of a sudden it was fine. In fact I could have just seamed and used it like that, but I’m A. also a bit selfconscious about my chubby arms and B. once it was released from the sleeves, the opening actually became quite large and shows too much bra for my taste, and C. their seaming allowance was very narrow, so the frayed edges show.
So I went ahead and tried to make new sleeves. It took a lot of paper and three versions from an old bed sheet before I finally had a good template, then it’s just a matter of finding a nice sleeve material. Either look in my box, the thrift shop or weave some, what to do? I’d just warped the loom with something else, so in the end I opted for what I could do on the same day. (it did in fact take me most of the day, which surprised me a bit – had I known I probably would have gone with the visible bra!) I found an old shirt the exact same colour and type of material, not as exciting, but not too hippie either.
I rather like the idea of recycling and making rather than constantly buying new, even if I’d had a large pay check every month. I also like the challenge, and it seems it’s a necessary skill when you’re not an average body type. So I learned to shorten my trousers even as a teenager, and luckily I remember some of the stuff my mum taught me about sewing then. It’s not very pretty, either because I pedal too fast or get my pins stuck in the feeder mechanism, but it works.
Strangely as soon as the new sleeves were firmly attached, there was again some tightness in front and the armhole was raised? Very odd, because the circumference is fine both top and bottom, about 5 cm/2″ more than my actual measurements, so it’s some other design thing. I’m keeping it for now, but I may actually remove them if it gets annoying. As you can see from the template, they’re still vastly improved, but it really isn’t all that simple to figure out! Possibly if I shorten the top end of the sleeve? (as in on top of my arm, making the angle of the hem different) Don’t want it to flare too much either. Anyone who has an idea what angle I didn’t get right, please chime in here! I haven’t actually done anything this elaborate before. I guess it all depends whether I want to wear this outside in the community, or just use it for gardening. In case of the latter, I definitely want to be able to move my arms freely. Maybe I should have done zip on sleeves, LOL.
The other two items that I kept also needed some alterations, but nothing major. All in all it does seem like a good idea though, to sometimes buy a roomy size and then use the excess fabric to tailor the garment a bit to your own dimensions. While I’m in the mood for tentlike, there’s no reason to actually look pregnant… Mimi has really been handy for wearing the dresses while I put pins in them, rather than trying to juggle them flat on the table (amongst cats, paint brushes and whatnot).
But the fact that it takes so long also made me rethink the whole concept – not that I would have spent any less time in shops searching perhaps in vain for something that fit, using diesel to get there and getting annoyed, it still seems out of proportion to spend so many hours on a single task. Just for vanity… Obviously if I knew what I was doing it might not have taken so long, but it’s not how I want to spend my time on a regular basis at the cost of other projects. I try to look for activities that give as much or more back than I put into it – time or money. Some things are worth paying for to get it out of the way, compared to the “joy” you might have of making them. Such as a mechanical ball winder for yarn vs. winding them by (arthritic) hand. Others yield a different value and seem to be worth any number of hours compared to what salary you could have made in the same time, does that make sense?
