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a day ends

a day ends

I’d like to begin this week with a warm welcome to all the new subscribers that seem to be adding my blog these past few weeks, whether you’re actually here to read or just hope to make somebody read yours. I’m afraid you’ve chosen to join me for the slow season, as my back has been out of commission again and my head then needs to adjust to sitting tasks only, with not much to show or tell just yet. I hope some of you will stick around for later antics!

This also coincided with planned weaving, carding and spinning work, which means I spend an inordinate amount of time just sitting here thinking about them, making endless weave drafts and colour samples. I need to find a plugin/app/whatnot that makes swatches from photos because just using the sampler in PS does not give me the vibrant shades I see with my eye/mind and it takes too long. Any suggestions? I prefer one that is installed, rather than having to upload single photos to a website each time, as I tend to work in batches. Oh, and it needs to be for Windows – I found a really cool one, Mac and i-things only.

I’ve checked out ads for bulky spinning wheels and e-spinners which I can’t afford but feel that I need, one for a task my current wheel can’t handle, the other for the spinning my back and knee can’t. You get my drift, fixating on the old plan and definitely not diving efficiently into all the “administrative” work I’ve been saving for just such a contingency! I have a list. It’s just a matter of picking an item.

Cultivating a flexible mind

I don’t think my disc has slipped again, but it’s hard to feel the difference and after bad nights where I struggle to even turn over (and I have to or my hips start screaming) I had all sorts of stress reactions upon waking, usually an hour before the alarm clock, anxiety, deppy repetitive thoughts about finances. Logically I know I’m the same person I was before, same views, same creative interests etc. so it must a case of body-mind-emotional connections and interactions. Muscle memory? Sometimes I get the idea I’m cycling through old traumas and injuries, which means that theoretically when I’ve been through the whole lot and “let them go” eventually I’ll be all fit for fight, yes? Or I could be just getting older and this is my new winter standard… Most of it subsides when I’m up and, well, not so much about, but at least hobbling between downstairs rooms once in a while, and I’m convinced I’ll be all bouncy and enthusiastic the second I’m able to do the things I want to do. But it’s an interesting theory seen from a bystander’s viewpoint anyway.

Well, there’s reading, there’s finishing various wips, and I’ve also been knitting up that sock yarn which I spun a couple of months ago. I found out I could actually make two pairs of slipper socks. Colour progressions are so much fun to watch, so I almost made just one pair of really long boot socks. One skein, the worsted spun I presume, is rather thinning at one end and could have done with a smaller needle, but too late. They are what they are. (and I don’t actually have cankles, my leggings are always too long and bunch up at the bottom)

I’d also like to try out this stitch pattern for a sweater, but not until I’ve finished everything else. Whip and carrot all in one. Let me hear about your winter knitting plans in the comments.

In other words, all deadlines have been suspended for now. For a change I’m totally not tired, but I can choose painkillers to help my back a little and they give me a headache instead. I sort of alternate between the two, or I can just sit still ALL day and feel ok as long as I don’t move an inch. Right… Thank goodness for books as pacifiers while I transition into a different mode and get my mind back. I’d like to become more resilient and adaptable to these incidents rather than spend 2 weeks whining before I adjust and comply, because I should know the drill by now.

In the meantime we’ve also had a brief visit by winter, but obviously I didn’t make it out on elaborate photo excursions, just as I missed the opportunity for the last mushrooms which will have turned into slime now by the frost. It looks very pretty from inside though and since my studio is currently just 3° C if I don’t heat it, I guess it’s fine to stay in the house after all. 🙂

sunupnov16

another begins