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Cothing that can tell you where it's been

This is the article of clothing that increased my awareness of the 'travelogue' aspects of some unstructured garments.  The colour, the drape, the texture, the feel of the pieces of fabric in a box at a church rummage sale appealed to me so I collected them all; when I got home I discovered they were pattern pieces for a blouse.  I knotted them together and made a shawl/scarf which combined all the things that had attracted me in the first place. 

As I wore it, across the months I realized that the release of threads from the main body of the material was more abundant than I had experienced and I was actually leaving a trail of fibre.  Oh, not so that I could retrace my steps from place to place, but with enough visibility - car, public  library carpet, chair in sushi restaurant,  rough spot on wall on stairway etc. - to offer the awareness.  Not to mention, of course, those dear people who pick threads that have separated but are still on me somewhere and then alert me to the fact that I am 'shedding'.   I am never sure if I should  admit to the fact of doing this on purpose and feel the same way about leaves or flower petals sticking in my hair.

This denim vest is a favourite and worn often.  It does not 'shed' but it does have threads that shrug away from the  fabric and hang loose. 

I love the freedom of clothing with edges left to their own devices, both in the aesthetic sense and also in the fit:  they tend to move with the body, to adapt to a person's movement and possibly personality:  one side of this front has turned out at the neck, the other side has turned under.  The flow of the fibre vertically has taken on intriguing patterns. 

The intent of the free edges is obvious and I have gotten into some very interesting discussions with people (usually while perusing racks of cut fabric or garments that could be turned back into cut fabric or things like blankets and curtains that could become something wearable, usually in thrift stores) about design and creativity and patina and having fun with the things we use to cover our bodies.

I put the pocket on the inside of the vest because I wanted the outside front to have an interrupted line - but - I need pockets! 

The decision about placement of said pocket (same or contrasting side showing) took some time, even though it is not 'on show'; eventually it felt 'right' to do it thusly.

This is the newest member of the family of vests.  It is only a few weeks old and seems to be more  a separate-and-stick-around  rather than a shedder.  The scarf/shawl is a rayon or rayon blend while this vest is linen; the former has attitude;  the latter will loosen up once it has some history behind it.

Balloon sculpture

Yesterday I told how becoming a clown led to looking into different types of playful activities:  twisting balloons into different shapes was one of them.

There are books in the library (and bookstores, of course!) and much information on the Net about balloon sculpture.

I have twisted animals and hats and - most recently - flowers!  (it is neat how you can pull the knotted end into the balloon, secure it in a twist, and have that the stamen of a tulip).  What I want to twist is a person knitting.  This is a photo of an ongoing attempt.  It is not finished but I am having fun.   And learning  different techniques by browsing  photos online, some of which are truly remarkable and nudge the adventure into an art form.

Scented bouquet a few seasons after being gathered

Last summer, in a garden stroll, I gathered the following for a scented bouquet: rosemary, lavender, lemon scented geranium, southernwood, two kinds of Australian bushmint, sweet woodruff. 

Each of the plants have been chosen and planted (or were here already!) for their own qualities; the rosemary for its pungent scent, blue flowers, culinary properties and - beauty;  the lavender for its fragrance,  flowers and - beauty;  the lemon scented geranium for its distinctive aroma,  teeny flowers, restful colour and - beauty;  the southernwood for its haunting natural perfume, delicate soft foliage, memories of my first encounter with it in a little old lady's garden in Ontario and my lack of success in getting it to grow in my garden back there, my success with it here and - beauty;  the bushmint because  it is the most dependable of scented plants for me - it tosses out its scent abundantly when in bloom, its leaves are scented, its bark is scented, the scent lasts and lasts and - beauty;  sweet woodruff because it spreads readily and if you pick a leaf or two and put them in your pocket (or encourage a guest in the garden to do the same) and come upon the leaves later you will find they have become even more fragrant and - beauty.

Gathered into a bouquet they make a most worthwhile gift for self or someone else: they need no water; you want them to dry.  Over the years I have taken small bouquets to people in hospital and they have been welcomed - meant to be touched and sniffed, they bring the outdoors inside, and a person in a hospital setting benefits from this. 

Now, this bouquet, dry and crisp, will be crushed into pieces and added to the year's collection of pot pourri and used for sachets or dream pillows or sprinkling in drawers or floating on water around a fresh flower. 

Spring cleaning discovers these characters

                                                                                                    
People think I am joking when I say that spring cleaning - heck, any kind of housekeeping - involves opening the windows on all the four sides of the house and letting Nature take part with breathy wind.  It works!  And when the weather is warm and the windows and doors remain open, the breeze does a very thorough job.  The dust that collects under the frig during the winter came scurrying out in a gray ball that I first thought was a mouse. 

This year I  did another simplifying (more about 'stuff' in a later post) and investigated the contents of boxes.  In the seaman's chest (a wonderfully rustic, handmade, wooden box with rope handles) which serves as storage for those special things from my 'journey',  I found this crowd of characters.  They were made by my youngest son nearly  twenty years ago and were used in animation.  I have taken them out periodically over the years and enjoyed and admired them and did so again.  But this time I noticed some were 'damaged' and beyond repair.  Regretfully I threw them out.  That is what happens when you use batteries as armature!  But some were just fine (golf balls don't 'leak') and were carefully put back in their box in the seaman's chest and will likely make another appearance when that son and his fiancee make a visit here next month.

Spring cleaning continues.....I wonder if anyone has come up with a solution one can spread on windows that allows the rain to clean them.  If not.....why not!?  And I am, again, not joking.

Gracious and goofy scarf

The sight of this drying on the counter tickled my sense of fun and I found myself grinning.  It's knit from Katia linen, a cotton/linen blend, a gift from daughter-in-law and eldest son in the order of who likely chose the content of the yarn and the colour.

Starting with my beloved (I knit it a lot: I must love it!) yin yang square, once I got to the mid-point (47 sts.) and started in the reverse stockingette stitch for a row or two, "scarf" began to make sense, because, even though it was then 'winter' and wool made more sense for a scarf, the yarn knew spring was (eventually) going to occur.

I had started to knit the square thinking it might be a building block for a blanket or a garment or a hat or....whatever one can construct from a 'building block' - which is pretty well anything!  But, I suddenly heard "scarf!"  So I decreased  to a width that felt right and just kept knitting. 

It was only when I had it spread out on the counter that its resemblance to an arrow struck my funny bone.  (Tangent query:  why do we think our funny bone is our elbow?)

Here it is in its simplest form for wearing.

And here, with a double wrap round neck for chilly spring days, with the cheerful  knitter scarf pin

A single wrap and making use of the other end (I cast off evenly and did not repeat the yin yang square) for some freeform origami with the addition of  two interesting safety pins (I love safety pins!) enhances the funky aspect.

Forsythia clippings make a very nice bouquet

Son's and daughter-in-law's forsythia bush got a pruning  and on the way to their compost pile a nice bunch of the trimmings  got re-routed to my home. 

Their casual sprawl in a clear glass vase shows the beauty of the stems and the newly-emerging leaves. 

A gangling  flowering branch from the forsythia bush in the shared-with-a-neighbour's garden (she pokes around in it from her side; I poke around from mine)  was considered for a period of time (I do dislike bringing outdoor flowers indoors for some reason - except lilacs!) before it felt right to take it and put it in with the green-only twigs.
"They're family," I murmured.

A teeny branch needed its own container.

Placing them in front of the clock seemed a good idea:  we've been having weirdly chilly weather lately and perhaps this was one way of reminding "Time for spring temperatures!"

Something to ponder...

Look Locally  :  See Globally

The 'world' is all around us to an extent it never has been. 

In my small city I see people from many different cultures, different countries - friends and neighbours and citizens I don't (yet!) know and tourists.  I encounter people on my far-flung travels on the Internet - blogs and web sites and comments and networking.   

There are restaurants in Victoria that give me a taste of India, China, Japan, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Poland - to name just a few! 

I can buy clothing made in Lithuania,  Wales, Africa, Iceland etc. - hooray for rummage sales!

'Looking'  with this awareness - the world is my neighbourhood. It makes a difference to 'see' this way.

Finger Knitting

Some fibre and one's  fingers and 'doodling' likely produced the first piece of 'knitting', maybe a cord to tie around the  waist and keep leaves or pelts or lengths of grass covering the lower regions likely for warmth or protection more so than modesty.  Maybe the fibre was long grass or sinew or vines or hair.  Perhaps that first length of looped material got coiled into some mud and when it dried - voila - the first floor mat.  I could google for historical facts but, heck, imagination works great.

What started all this was - well, sitting with some fibre and doodling on my fingers and producing a length of finger knitting and suddenly remembering that, when I was seven or eight and knew how to knit using knitting needles,  I was introduced to finger knitting by a friend and was so enchanted with the simplicity of it I finger knit my way around an entire city block, allowing the chain of knitting to  'follow'  me in a most satisfying trail .  (I seem to recall that more than one neighbour called  my mother to ask  if she knew what her daughter was doing.)

Shown  is finger knitting using three strands of yarn: you put a slip knot on your forefinger, loop the yarn over finger beside the slip knot, lift the slip knot stitch over the looped yarn and repeat.  It could be used as a cord for a belt or gift wrapping or anything else that requires tying. 

It could be coiled into a flat surface, square, round, oval etc.  It could be coiled flat and then built up the sides for a hat or holder or cat bed etc.  It could be used as yarn and finger knit into a thicker cord.  I wonder how far I could get around my present city block with this much wool....

This is  hemp rope finger knit with a single strand.
I very much like the firm structure of the stitches and can imagine using the chain as panels in an over garment such as a vest, perhaps crocheted together or machine stitched onto a backing like fine burlap, then the burlap cut away in places to highlight the panels. 

That pile of chiffon scarves I bought at a church sale awhile ago to use for teaching/practicing juggling got put to use (temporarily) as a medium for finger knitting.  Joined corner to corner with simple knots and then finger knit,  the scarves knit up thin-thick-thin and could be worn as a necklet scarf.  There is something pleasant about knitting with the fibre worked right against the skin: even with these scarves, all chiffon, I became aware of the subtle differences in texture running through and across my fingers. 

Thinking about the kitchen....

The definition of a kitchen in the dictionary is "a room where food is prepared";  I would add to that where the food is also stored and eaten. 

Does it have to be a room in the sense of being partially or fully separate from the rest of the house.
(I am going to leave off question marks: these are meant more as queries for speculation than questions expecting  an immediate answer;  queries to inspire some creative,  enjoyable ideas.)

Could  a kitchen share space with another area that requires running water -  like the bathroom.  (My home has the toilet in one room with basin and bathtub in  another room ; the addition of  an old metal garden rocking chair with two looped rugs for comfortable seating,  a folding  canvas  stool  that doubles as table or footrest, books and knitting, have made this 'wash' room a reading/studio  as well,  so it  is not  such a giant leap to wonder if  kitcheny things could be done here also.) 

With light and air being so important for healthy living but most walls and windows being lined with counter, sink, stove, cupboards - could these be regrouped so that the full benefit of light and air is focused upon.

Why are appliances the size and shape they are.  Many years ago  I read that most counters are a height to conform to the average 5'2" housewife of the Fifties and this awareness led us,  in more than one house renovation,  to raise  the counter six inches which made a difference to comfort;  this got me thinking, now,  about appliances and how, perhaps, their design is outdated.   Once I had a stainless steel stove with the oven on top, the storage below inside a door with swivel-out shelves and - this was just too cool - two burners that pulled out to reveal two more burners should four be needed. This was back in Toronto more than twenty years ago and the stove had been discovered in a used appliance store so it was not at all new.  I've never seen one like it since.  But  an oven at eye-level made so much sense visually and physically.  And the stove itself was so unusual in appearance that you just couldn't take it for granted;  it was definitely a conversation piece.

How come we stand up to cook,  prepare the food,  wash up afterward.  What would it be like to sit - or lean - while doing this.  I find eating with my legs outstretched is relaxing and this has got to benefit digestion;  a simple fold-out stool under the table is nifty for this;  a lounger with a swivel tray outdoors is even niftier:  I've lived in countries with outdoor kitchens and these are my preference.

Would a kitchen as the center of a house with other activities open to it be as pleasant as recent 'talk' on the subject seems to suggest.  Would someone on the computer or watching television or reading a book or doing homework or sewing/knitting/weaving or talking on the phone or napping/sleeping or -  bathing - want to be able to see and hear,  and be seen and heard by,  someone making a meal.  Would people in food preparation want to see and hear etc.   Food for thought........

What if a kitchen was simplified so that you could see everything in it -  the food, the  utensils, the dishes - and  everything  was used regularly.  When the kids were small we used twelve inch deep bookshelf units for cupboards and took the doors off the under-counter cupboards.  The memory of the  efficiency and ease of use, the satisfaction of seeing dishes and foodstuff,  has stayed with me and I tend to remove cupboard doors still.  People do ask - "Don't things get dusty?"  Well, they do if they are 'stored' but if they are 'used' - no. 

Meaning,  in a kitchen,  as in all parts of the home,  is something worth fostering for contented living.  Sure,  kid's art work and notes on the frig and tea towel gifts from a friend's trip to France and flowers from the garden and a book or two to discuss with someone at the next meal....things like that.  But incorporating personality into the actual fixtures goes a long way in making that statement of individuality.   My favourite countertop  was in our  Arts and Crafts house and constructed from old pine planks removed from a home down the block which a friend was renovating but not restoring. 
We sanded them lightly to smooth the wood but not lose the patina and then finished them with urethane.  They glowed!  They were 'warm' to the sight and the touch.  They 'spoke' of their origins.  The photo above is of that counter.

I've seen handmade tiles, created by a family member, used in the back splash of a sink - a permanent gallery for the artwork.  Also in the photo above are three pieces of a stained glass window  rescued from the 'rubbish' at a heritage house demolition.  A tin ceiling, another rescue, this time from an old store, travelled with us (heavily! in stacks of two-foot squares)  until we found a spot for it.

Light switches - or walls, table tops, curtains...- that have been stamped with offerings from the garden (paint the leaf or fern or grass blades with acrylic paint, lay on surface, cover with paper towel, roll gently with rolling pin or round bottle, carefully remove paper towel and let dry) are another way of adding a signature.

'Wear' a home like a well-chosen, well-loved garment.

Meditation.....out of the 'cave'

Grandkiddo is more likely closing his eyes as the bubble collides with his nose and not meditating but it was a perfect shot to accompany this posting.  He does look serene, in any case.

The newspaper article headline read "Meditation retailored for youth".  The details  can be found at www.getselfcentered.com

I liked the use of the word "retailored" with its 'cutting the suit to fit the cloth' association.

Thing is, I have been meditating across more than forty years.  The practice of  meditation fosters  increasing awareness which results in new experiences, observations, questions, purpose,  choices  about meditating.   

You can 'control the mind' with the mind but my greatest epiphany occurred several years ago when I discovered that if the spine is kept straight and the body relaxed and then the attention or focus is directed toward 'inhabiting the body' - the meditative process happens easily and effortlessly. 

Meditation is a tool, available to everyone.  And, as a tool, it can be used anywhere for any length of time.

More details about my journey in this can be accessed for free in  Life, Travel Notes at
http://books.google.com    Type in  Life, Travel Notes