Organic Mama

Now that I've got that Felted Cloche hat pattern wired because I made eight of them for our business proposal, I tried to make the one I'd bought wool for back in December '05. The hat was going to be a gift for my BF and business partner, so she picked the yarn. I thought it would be no problem, although I altered the pattern slightly for a shorter brim. When it was time to felt the bugger, I had a really bad feeling. I washed and washed and washed the sucker, but to no avail. It is the size of a large mixing bowl! Oh well, apparently I have a lot to learn about felting.

In the meantime, I'm taking a bit of a break from knitting, which is to say I'm only working on one project at a time and its a simple rectangular poncho (my color choices are a bit strange, so I'm calling it a circus poncho) that is done in garter stitch the whole way through with the exception of the ribbed neck and wrists. I'm also going to (FINALLY) finish up a cross stitch project I started in approximately 1999, right before my divorce. It's a very detailed rose on 18 count aida. In my usual fashion, I've added a color to the background, so it will take me a bit longer, but the rose itself is done and is waiting to be backstitched. Then it will be a Christmas gift (seven years in coming) for my mother. Whew.

I've discovered that I can get some reading time in if I check out books on CD from the library. Usually, I avoid this format because it's prohibitively expensive, not to mention that my eyes work perfectly well. However, Little J's sleeping schedule has made my eye efficiency pretty moot unless applied to the intracacies of getting finger paint out of hair. My first foray into books on CD was a fluke: I happened to notice a spine that was a violent shade of green mixed in with mostly drab olive and brown hues. I snagged The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd, and six weeks later I still hadn't finished the sucker. Okay, we don't spend much time in the car. I turned the CD's back in to the library, but checked out the book instead, and viola, finito. And it wasn't a bad read (or listen, mostly). The only thing that was a drawback to listening rather than reading was that the readers voice started to feel a little oppressive in a heavy southern accent. But that might have more to do with my recent refugee status as an ex-North Caronlinian than the reader's voice.

At the same time, I was working on Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, and 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell. Ms. Powell's writing felt like a piece of my own voice put to print, which was both thrilling and reaffirming. For example, it was nice to find someone else who uses the work "fuck" as every part of speech (anyone remember that Carlin skit "Fuck the fucking fuckers"?) without either shame or regret. Apart from that, the experience Powell describes of working her way through the entire Mastering the Art of French Cooking sounds exhausting, but fun, for those of us with the compulsive need to take on projects far larger than sanity dictates is realistic. I read the book in two days, and could barely be convinced to put it down, which for me means that I'm actually being actively engaged by a text. And that doesn't happen often anymore.

I also started reading The Magician's Nephew (I am not linking to the book for reasons that will come clear momentarily) after the Powell book. A bit of preface: I searched around for an indication of which book to start with, being marginally aware that there was some controversy over this issue. I decided on chornological ordering because my brain is fairly linear and I could give a crap about surprises. I am abandoning the reading of the Narnia series (yet again, I tried when I was a pre-teen as well) only part way through the first book. Reasons: 1. I'm not much for heavy-handed biblical references, 2. The book isn't particularly well-written (and no, the "children's book" excuse doesn't work here, see J.K. Rowling as proof), and 3. I think the whole series and C.S. Lewis might have been a little over-praised. That last assumption will need proof from other sources, if I ever get around to it. Otherwise, my opinion: it's crap, don't bother.

Helloooo, all. I think my blog might echo a bit....

Well, my BF and I finished up our first business meeting with a prospective buyer last weekend, and things went better than expected. I know I hadn't illuminated our business plan much, so here's a few details: we're both artists of one kind and another (I knit & make jewelry, she sews and makes jewelry) and ever since we stopped working at her wine bar and art gallery in NC, we've been looking for another small business project. So now, three years in the planning, we actually incorporated, made samples (I knitted something like 16 hats!), got business cards and apparel tags, and then we put it all together at the last possible minute and showed our stuff to a children's gift shop in WA. I made my first $100, and we have an actual client. Well, sort of. The owner wants to see how our stuff sells, and then we'll talk more. But that is $100 in capital to go back out and buy more supplies, and I still have about $200 worth of hats to show around Portland and see if anyone else in interested. Now that the initial push to makes samples is through, I have several new patterns I want to test out - things I've been mentally crafting - and I can't wait to get back to my own projects.

In other news, I finished "Saturday" by Ian McEwan - HOLY COW! What an incredible book! I haven't read a book that made me want to turn around and start it all over again in a long time - probably years. The metaphors were spectacular, and the contemplation of a world where terrorism is normal really knocks your socks off. McEwan's best so far, I'd bet. (As I've only ever read one other book, "Atonement", I don't think I can offer that opinion in an authoratative way.) I had a bit of a fiasco with my library request list, so I'm up to my ears in things I don't have time yet to read.

I'm sorry to anyone who actually reads this blog - or tries to - but I don't seem to have much fire for it. I'll leave it up and post occasionally. Sadly, I'm not reading online much at the moment either, and with the holidays rapidly approaching I'll probably spend more time working on knitted gifts than clicking the mouse.