Sleepy Sick Drugged Watson

I’ve been dealing with a sick cat for the last week and a half (Watson, who I love to photograph), and
everything I want to share on the blog pales in comparison to what’s been going on behind the scenes. Now that Watson’s starting to improve (knock on wood), I’m starting to get back in the groove of things, especially because I’m not visiting the Vet everyday.

I’ve got a little downtime in the space between the end of Fiber Festival Season where I’m doing a lot of behind-the scenes work for next year.  This involves a lot of computer work: writing proposals for classes, creating design proposals for magazines, and planning how the next year is going to go.

It’s given me some time to do some crafting that isn’t work related (well, at least not at the moment), and start reaching out into the Ashland community in a way I haven’t been able to do until now.  On Monday I went to a knitting group that meets at the town library.  They’re an older knitting group that recently decided to stop meeting in each other’s homes and instead open themselves to the public and meet at the library.

I’ve been to a few knitting groups since I moved, but most of them were much further away, closer to the heart of Richmond.  As the winter gets colder, I wasn’t keen on making the drive all the way there.  On Monday, I bundled up and biked the 5 minutes to the yarn store.  (It was much like when I used to bike from my home to the Yarn Spot, including the reminders to put on my bike light so I didn’t get run over on the way home.)

Oh, yarn friends, meeting up with the group was like coming home.  I haven’t really felt that sense of belonging since I moved, and I came home feeling not exhausted (which is often what I feel in group settings, being a borderline introvert), but creatively rejuvenated.  It drives home how much people rely on their sense of community, and mine is tightly connected with yarny things.

Speaking of yarny things, I’ve recently revived my interest in punch rug hooking.  About a year ago, I bought a punch from the Oxford Punch Needle Company, tried using it a few times, and then put it down.  Mostly because I couldn’t seem to get things to work in a way that kept me happy.  Recently my interest has revived, and I’ve been fooling around with my rather sophomore effort.  I often tell people that their first project should be a swatch, because the amount of mistakes you’ll make whenyou first start is incredible, and the improvement you see from the beginning to end is noticeable.  I followed my own advice, deciding to create something that was  Mighty Ugly, like Kim Werker (who I have a industry-crush on), suggests.

I started out with it ugly, in colors I didn’t really like , but somewhere along the way it turned into something I liked.  Oops.

I particularly love this section of pinks, greys, and blues.

The difference between the beginning and the end is very noticeable: I’m not showing you a picture of the back, but suffice to say that the back in the beginning isn’t pretty.  And that’s okay. I think I’ll shoot for my next project not being quite so ugly.

I’m also working on a beaded sock, which may or may not end up being a design.  A quick glimpse of it here:

What’ve you been working on lately?

Huntress Shawl by Jennifer Chase-Rappaport

A few housekeeping things: The Indie GAL is in full swing.  I’ve been enjoying watching the hubbub around the event.  Perhaps my favorite thing is all the new-to-me designers that I’ve been missing out on – there’s so many of them!  I love reading the interviews that designers have been doing of other designers.

Some of my favorites:
Nancy interviewing Jessica of Goosebear Knits
Stephannie Tallent interviewing Jenise Reid
Lily Go interviewing Marnie MacLean (which was just one gorgeous design after another)
Jen Lucas interviewing Jennifer Chase-Rappaport (heh, me, Jennifer, talking about two Jennifers)