Since I last wrote, the leaves have been blazing orange and gold despite some peculiarly warm days that fooled one of our rhododendrons into blooming. The wild bunnies have been confused as well. Should they be in their frightened-prey-animals-in-cold-weather mode, or their lackadaisical-summer-mode where they scamper fearlessly to the Carrot Giver? Yesterday, I saw a bumblebee wandering around the shrubs. Very, very odd.
On Sunday, I became a spinner. If you're on Ravelry, you can see my spinning gurani's comments here. She believes in a racial memory that blooms when you re-create an ancient fibre art, such as spinning. I was hopeless and clumsy and confused at first, when I was aping her movements. Literally, they were making no sense. But-- when I switched hands (pinched with my right hand and held the fibre with my left), it became natural and easy - and fun!
My gurani, you see, is entirely right-handed, whereas I was born sinistral and got, well, switched. I needed to find my own balance. Moments like this can lead into genetic, metaphysical, or Jungian speculations about whether some kinesthetic knowledge has been passed down in our bodies, bypassing our brains entirely, or whether the collective unconscious, and its myths and archetypes, are more literal than we usually believe. Perhaps my hands re-enacted the movements of Clotho because she once was a mortal woman ...
Penny gave me a hug - a beautiful, perfect shoulder shawl, a hug just when I needed it most. It's soft and pretty and gentle, and it makes me happy even when I just see it folded on my shelf. (I think she's going to blog about it tomorrow...)
I sent off my second hat for Save the Children. This one is so cute you could bite it: Baby Conehead. The pattern gets a little fiddly on top (MEPS!), but it's a great pattern for using up little spoonsful of Sugar/Peaches/Cream/Creme. Very soft, very cute, and very washable.Reading: sporatic, except for Vanity Fair, which is more fun than you can imagine, and an audiobook of To The Lighthouse, which never disappoints. Up soon will be Cassandra and Jane by Jill Pitkeathly, Jane Austen: a Life by Carol Shields, and some poetry. Robert Frost, perhaps. Seems fitting.
10 comments:
Virginia Woolfe's To the Lighthouse?
Apparently my ancestral lineage was huddling in caves reading because that's about the only thing I have any real affinity for. That and starting fires which I can imagine used to come in handy.
But very cool about your spinning!
I am finally at the point where spinning feels like a natural motion. I never thought of it as being ancestral memory but maybe I have finally tapped into something primordial. I do like the idea of performing a task that has been performed by people for hundreds of years. I have an old wheel and I like thinking of all the women who have sat at it making clothing for their families.
I missed you! Oh. And sorry, I'm fighting the urge to learn to spin, so I won't follow you there.
The hat is adorable!
(((hugs)))
I am so glad you're back. Thanks for the reminder about Caps to the Capital. I participated a few years ago, and I am so glad to see they have started a new campaign. I will do my best to think positive thoughts about whoever will receive the hats in January.
Sending you best wishes and virtual tea.
Thanks, Purl! The virtual tea was delicious.
It's been crazy warm here, too, and I like it not. The woolybear caterpillars are on the march, the leaves are falling without really changing color first, and the garden still thinks there's something for it to do. It's very distressing.
Congratulations on your new hobby. ;)
The moments of mind/body/fiber alignment are spectacular, aren't they?
I want to spin now - yay! The rubber duckie making its appearances with your hats is fantastic :)! I, too, was born sinistral and was extremely happy about it until my brain tumor surgeries. Amazing how your brain and body can adapt and overcome...
:)
huh. holding fibre in left and pinching right is "backwards"? *sigh* i'm half lefty anyway (snort) so what else is new?
I am so happy you like your hug. :)
Glad you're still about!
And yay for spinning! I find it more relaxing than knitting, quite frankly. There's something just letting fiber run through one's fingers that is very soothing.
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