Looking Back

I like to look back every now and again...see the progress I've made, see what's still the same about me.  Because I have kept a blog since 2006, I can say "what was I doing 5 years ago today" and actually look back and find an interesting approximation of what I was doing 5 years ago.

Believe it or not, Easter fell on the same weekend of April in 2007. I have a gorgeous picture of the girls dated 4.8.12  On this date (which was also a Monday) in 2007, I started a column titled "When I was a Little Girl."  You can link to the entry here if you're interested in reading about how difficult it was (and still is!) for me to get up in the morning.

I was doing a lot of thinking this weekend while I was knitting and weaving about how I'm always busy with my hands.  I don't sit and do nothing like some people; in fact, I can't imagine sitting and doing nothing.  How awful and miserable would that be!  And, ironically, I was thinking about when I started this habit of crafting and working with my hands (I think this thought process was partially prompted by Elizabeth's friend coming over who thought I was amazing working at my loom and looking at the other art-work in my house).  Crafting for me is simply a way of being. 

My earliest memories of crafting involve learning to needlepoint.  I made this little canvas with mushrooms on it.  Even then I could see that my execution wasn't all that great, but I believe my cousin Mary Kay made a little pillow out of it.  I also did this "string art" which was very cool and fun, but I ran out of new kits at Wal Mart and eventually quit doing that. I loved the little potholder looms and remember being estatic when my mother bought me a giant bag of the elastic bands. I had several little velvet posters that I colored, but I was never very good at coloring.  Put a needle in my hand, however, and I could create.

I learned to cross stitch in 6th grade and never really looked back after that.  I still have a very early cross stitch I did in four pieces.  It has butterflies on a rainbow and when arranged it creates a circle.  I have never framed it or made anything of it.  I really should one day.

I have so many projects lined up to do,  in needlearts, knitting and weaving.  I could sit and create every day of my life from now on and not run out of things to do.  That's a very comforting feeling.

Today's picture is of potential.  Weaving is such an active craft.  It's definitely not sedentary.  It's one of the reasons I have such difficulty taking pictures of myself weaving...I'm always a blur, or at least the important parts are.  This is my shuttle with the wound warp underneath.  And if you look closely a kitty body too.