Recovery and Distraction

If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden. --Frances Hodgson Burnett 

It's taken me quite a bit longer to recover from the headcold/flu I caught the other week. It's really only today that I'm starting to feel more or less normal. I guess that's what happens when you don't catch a cold for three years: the one that gets you REALLY gets ya.

Happily, this is the time of year when I am totally distracted by the beautiful blooms all over the place. Some of them I'm sure I've photographed more than once, but I can't help but be amazed by them each year:


Others are flowers that I've never seen before or ones that I've probably walked past several times and never noticed before until the light is just right or my mind is open to seeing them:


Regardless, they are all a wonderful distraction and give me cause to daydream of other projects and colours and colour combinations. I enjoy those little reveries whenever I can get them. It's a balm to the harder stuff that happens throughout the day.

Since my energy had been so low, I hadn't really accomplished much by way of any of my projects recently. I did, however, get to the end of one of the panels I am weaving on my loom, but I waited until today to take it off the loom to be sure I had my wits about me. It turned out much better than I expected:


This is the first time I've achieved a "balanced weave," which means that I used the correct gauge of yarn for the warp and the weft to be able to showcase them both equally. One did not cover up the other. I really enjoyed watching the fabric form as I worked:


And I'm also particularly proud of how straight I managed to get the selvedge edges. I really took my time to make sure the weft was sitting just where I wanted it before I beat it down:


My plan is to make a second one of these panels and then sew them together to make a kind of vest/ruana-type thing. It didn't take all that long to make this one, but I think I'm experiencing "second sock syndrome" in this project as well. I had to practically drag myself over to my loom to re-warp it for the second panel. I forced myself to get it all done this afternoon. At least that part is finished...

... except now I'm totally distracted by another project I picked up recently. It involves embroidering flowers over a white summer dress. I'm torn now... should I finish the dress so that I can wear it while it's still summertime? Or should I stick to finishing my current project so that it doesn't languish on the loom for too long?



I guess this is the problem with my energy returning to normal levels... I just want to do ALL THE THINGS. Maybe that's not such a bad problem to have.

I'm going to go do a bit of embroidery for the rest of the evening. Hope you have a good week!

Comments

karen said…
when my energy levels are low I switch to reading novels and chilling out. The older I get I find it's better to listen to what your body wants to do.