Busy Bee Work

To me, free time is optionality, choice. It's, "How can we create a little more space and spaciousness in our calendar so that we have a choice on what to work on?" it's not necessarily less, but it's less of the stuff that drains us. --Jenny Blake

I've been back from my UK trip for just about three weeks now, and in some ways, it feels like I was never away. My work and day-to-day routine are so heavily ingrained in me that it doesn't take long for me to get back into the saddle and do what needs to be done in the way I've always done it: efficiently and precisely. I do good work. I am good at my job. And I am very aware of that.

But I've also been thinking a lot over the past few months about what energizes me, what gives me breath and inspiration. For me, it's making things. And I've been really making an effort to do more of that whenever I can.

I've been pleasantly surprised at how easy it has been for me to pull out paints and brushes to play. On my way to work one day, I was listening to a podcast and heard someone say, "I wish someone would make a t-shirt that says, 'Imperfect is the new perfect.'" That stuck in my mind so well that later on that week, I started to do this:

Which eventually became this:

Which I have played around with on my computer to make this. That stain in the corner is a tea stain I made with a tea bag and a piece of watercolour paper which I superimposed onto my image.  And it is now at the printers being made into some notebooks with it on the cover. And I feel really proud of it. Stay tuned for when it arrives from the printers:

I also decided it was time for me to make use of the pile of stash fabric that is growing in my closet and actually make something. I recently got myself a membership with Seamwork which gives me access to their library of patterns for download as well as to their tutorials, forums, and classes. I thought I was going to be the sort of person who could teach herself to draft her own patterns, but I realized what I really needed was to re-teach myself how to sew and to learn how to envision garments from a sewing perspective rather from a knitter's perspective. So last weekend, I printed out a pattern and got out some of my beloved fabric from the closet and got straight into it:

And now I have a cute summer dress to wear... whenever summer appears... *cue Canadian spring weather*

Easter rolled around without me noticing this year, as it often does. I always think it would be really nice to do some kind of Easter-y craft, but I never get organized in time. This year, I tried to go out to see if I could find some paper mache eggs to paint, but it turns out that Good Friday is really not the time to be doing that. So I went home and got some eggs out of the fridge, blew out the yolks, washed and dried them and then got painting:

I thought I would find it really hard and tedious, but I really enjoyed doing the detailed work. It was a good thing that I needed to take breaks to let the paint dry because I've learned from my watercolour painting that that is a good rhythm for me. I based the patterns on these eggs on Japanese Sashiko, a way of doing decorative mending stitches on fabric. I really enjoyed watching the patterns emerge as I painted:

I also am making a point of using up the greeting cards I have collected over the years. I am sending one out to a friend this week, and I watched someone decorate an envelope on Instagram and thought that would give it a try. This was done in with markers, ink, and pencil crayon. I love looking at it, and I love that it is going to go to someone else who I know will enjoy looking at it as well:

 

And of course, I have been knitting. I finished my second pair of socks earlier this week, and I am quite pleased with them. After so many years of knitting, I have finally figured out how to make 1x1 ribbing look nice and even without any gaps in it. I used a combination of knitting the knit stitches through the back loop with Eastern Style Purl stitches, which makes the purls tighter and results in gap-free 1x1 ribbing. It was a revelation! Finally, no more gaps in my ribbing! You probably can't see the difference in the photos below, but indulge me and say that it looks amazing, ok?

The pattern is based on Strands of Gold by Linda Garland. I liked how the slipped stitches made for a slightly stiffer fabric that hugs my feet well. Yay, cozy feet!

So yes, I have indeed been a busy bee. But I feel better having spent the time to really try to listen to my creative urges rather than push them away to scroll on my phone or because I was too tired. It looks like a lot of work and a lot of effort, but for me, creating has been the equivalent of continuing to put one foot in front of the other. It's the only way I've found to carry on moving forward when I haven't been able to find my way in this crazy, unpredictable world. I realized that I've been down this road before... in fact, I wrote about it in one of my earliest blog posts way back then. To quote myself:

Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote: I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living. In the same way, I think I could say that I must create at all costs, for it is more than doing. It is being conscious of doing, of sensations, of the wonder of my muscles that are making these things. It is being conscious of the miracle of being this person, this combination of atoms and molecules that walks and speaks and makes.

I'm off to go make some dinner and to work my way through a lace knitting pattern. Gotta keep going, gotta keep breathing. Have a great week.