Growing Creatively

"Creativity always has the stamp of the individual upon its product, but the product is not the individual, nor his materials, but partakes of the relationship between the two."

Carl Young from On Becoming A Person

Old Knitting Form

In March of this year, I spoke of seeing a piece of ancient South American fabric that looked like i cord or spool knitting and was described as being made with a needle. That was a long time ago and I wasn't even sure I trusted the curator of the museum to be correct. Turns out that textile specialists know a lot about some very early forms of needle looping. Shortly after making that post, I came across a beautiful, special, knitting publication from Interweave Press called Knitting Traditions. There is a short article in it by Kax Wilson, author of A History of Textiles. She describes, and includes a picture of, a tiny, detailed strip of looped fabric very similar to the one I saw so long ago. This fragment was found in a 2,000 year old burial ground on the south coast of Peru.

Textile historians call this looping technique "needle knitting" or "cross looping" or "looped needle netting" and it is made using cactus thorn needles. Only a needle and some very fine yarn were used to create miniature figures of people, plants and animals with lots of color changes, connected along a needle looped band of the same fabric. This article is followed by another, written by Jean Scorgie detailing a way to experience the technique while creating a finger puppet. I recommend these articles and further study to all my fiber friends. My only disappointment is that a photo of the fiber tools wasn't included in the article.

The Joy of Hands

I love this quote by Elizabeth Gilbert from Eat, Pray, Love...

"So I stood up and did a handstand on my Guru's roof, to celebrate the notion of liberation. I felt the dusty tiles under my hands. I felt my own strength and balance. I felt the easy night breeze on the palms of my bare feet. This kind of thing - a spontaneous handstand - isn't something a disembodied cool blue soul can do, but a human being can do it. We have hands; we can stand on them if we want to. That's our privilege. That's the joy of a mortal body. And that's why God needs us. Because God loves to feel things through our hands."

Crochet Motif

Many crocheters, frustrated by years of seeing crochet used only for the ubiquitous granny square, have been ready to throw the baby out with the bath water. Yet motifs are one of the glories of crochet. A color-playground is created while easily constructing unique shapes from the center out. I invite all crocheters to join me in seeking new ways of looking at these little wonders.
The purse in the photo represents my response to my own challenge.

Bob Dylan's Hands

"His indescribably white hands moved constantly: putting a cigarette almost to his mouth, then tugging relentlessly at a tuft of hair at his neck, inadvertently dumping the cigarette ashes in dusty cavalcades down his jacket. He would stand thinking, his mouth working, his knees flexing one at a time, right, left, right, left. He seemed to function from the center of his own thoughts and images, and like a madman he was swallowed up by them."

from AND A VOICE TO SING WITH by Joan Baez

Payin' Attention to Details

When my husband gave me a Turkish spindle for Christmas last year I began to automatically produce a beautiful center-pull ball as I spun and wound on. I learned that when I am ready to remove my cop and consider plying it, an intermediate step to pull both the inside and the outside strands from the ball and wind them into a new ball helps make the plying go more smoothly. But I kept having to ask my husband to hold the ball for me to keep it from bouncing around, especially at the end when it became lighter. A similar problem arose when I plied. One day I got out my hat with earflaps and ties, knotted the ties, hung it over my wrist, plopped a ball of unplied yarn into it, and discovered I had a new kind of distaff.
Maybe I could make something prettier and more to the point? I did, and I found myself paying a lot of attention to details, in particular at transitions, as I crocheted. When I started the sides of my yarn distaff, I worked the first round from the inside. This made it bend up from the flat bottom more easily. When I changed the color and started to work in a row of bobbles, I also worked from the inside, allowing the bobbles to pop out on the outside. I made my bobbles with only two double crochets each so they would be more subtle. I expected to make only two rows between my bobble rows for a balanced look but found I needed three and, voila, I could work the second row of bobbles on the inside also! I finished the body of my distaff with a variation of the crab stitch. A silky lining, a balanced, corded handle and a loop and button (to guide sticky strands) and I was ready to make another to post on Etsy.

Showing My Stripes

I almost always carry a small, drawstring shoulder purse that my mother gave me. The truth is that I was the ungrateful recipient of a gift that has served me well. The poor little thing has evenly spaced multicolored stripes and the first thing I noticed was the misfit of two colors with the rest of the colorway. Yet its size and shape are practical and lightweight. Cashiers rarely fail to remark about how cute it is. That I thought I could do a better job has come home to me. Today I put these three mini shoulder purses up for sale on Etsy. Each was an experiment in stripes. The green purse was worked in textured stripes of back and forth rows alternating with continuous rounds. Consciously spaced rows of pastel stitches give the effect of a flower garden. The blue, purple and pink mini hobo bag is an experiment with single-row color stripes worked back and forth in a tube. And the chevron striped stitch pattern of the last purse automatically shape shifts the colors. What fun! I'll probably carry my little misfit shoulder bag until it falls apart but I hope someone else will enjoy traveling light with well-chosen stripes.