5 posts tagged “knitting”

One of the advantages of having a bunch of projects on the go simultaneously is that sometimes they actually get finished simultaneously, which is quite gratifying, as are many things simultaneous.  Here for your viewing pleasure are my two most recent productions:

                                  
This shawl, was designed by Vancouver artist Sivia Harding for the Victoria Fibre Festival in June.  It's called Harbour Lights.  She was inspired by Victoria harbour -- the lighthouse, going up the center and the waves along the bottom.  Knitting lace is a deeply concentrated experience -- you can't really do it while conversing or trying to be in a meeting.  To me it represents one aspect of meditation -- concentration practice -- while plain knitting represents vipassana or insight meditiation.  In insight meditiation you keep a "bare attention" on the breath, but you allow thoughts and feelings to come up as they do and you just notice them and let them go.  You pay attention. 

These fingerless gloves were pretty easy to knit.  They are very very soft becase 

I used handspun cashmere and plied it with silk.  I chrocheted some embellishments on top in silk.  They are warm as anything.  Probably too warm for this climate because really, there are not a lot of times when I think to wear gloves or mittens.  But I may have to start making excuses to do so.  I think the fingerlessness will actually help because you can drive or do stuff  with your hands.  Even knit, I suppose. 

It was a fun weekend.  We hosted Shellie Mackie of Fun Knits  on Quadra Island and invited the Victorian Spinners for a potluck.  (The few brave husbands that attended were rewarded with great food and a chance to try their hand at flying a radio controlled helicopter.)  Shellie is amazing, and her on-line store is one of the only places you can find Kauni  which has been popularized by the Yarn Harlot and others.  I couldn't resist.  Anyway, this was the weekend the Hollyhock retreat would have been, so we played one of the games I had planned for the retreat.  A bunch of circular needles, a bunch of odd scraps of yarn, a bunch of committed and or tipsy knitters, and soon -- a refrigerator cozy!  Or perhaps....I think mine is going to become a Christmas tree ornament.  It was great fun!

Despite the fact that I do strategic planning for a living, I must admit I'm not one for elaborate long range planning in my personal life.  However, I have a date on the calendar for next October to be leading a workshop at Hollyhock that will involve all things fibrous.  (Note to self, learn to weave.) Anyway, Hollyhock is a deleriously wonderful spot to rest, recuperate and regain your sanity, but it is a tiny bit on the pricey side.  If (unlike me) you are a thrifty long range planner, you can sign up for this workshop before December 31 and get this year's rates locked in. 

I'm pretty competent at the knitting, crocheting, spinning, needle felting arts, and I will either have learned to weave by that time, or my friend Joy will be joining me to add that piece of the puzzle.  Lots of new toys to try.  For anyone who is interested in learning how to connect their intentions to their handiwork, I'll also be offering guidance on how to amplify the therapeutic, hypnotic, meditative, and soulful aspects of your craft.  And did I mention, community?  There is nothing more conducive to great group energy than handicraft.  I like this quote someone gave me long ago at a yoga ashram, but I don't know who it's from: 

I flew back to Victoria from Boston on Wednesday and played with my new little PDA mini computer and the wireless keyboard Ihor got me for Christmas.  I also mused about what my (yes you heard right, MY) knitting workshop at Hollyhock will be like next October.  Here's the stream of consciousness that resulted:

Not at all sure I should be doing the wireless keyboard thing at 30,000 feet but since Ihor spent an entire day of his life trying to get the thing to work, I thought I should at least try.  I don't see the plane hurtling out of the sky, in any event.  Keyboard works pretty good I'd say.  So Krishna Das is now chanting into my ears, thanks to the pocket player he also installed at considerable length.  Good thing I'm not paying him by the hour.  Oops! the music just quit.  Not sure why.  But now I can hear the simulated  typing noises through my sound cancelling head-set, which are not nearly as soothing as the chanting.

Ok...the wee thing must have crashed, but I managed to execute a very slick soft boot and now fifteen minutes later am back to Krishna Das chanting whilst typing away on the gadget.  I even managed to save my stream of consciousness ramblings before  the thing seized up completely.   Some of his techno savvy must have rubbed off.  Hari rama.  If I make it back to in one piece, I may post this as a blog  entry.  Must say it makes the time pass pretty quickly.  The things you can do with batteries these days!So I'm pretty sure I failed to tell my enormous blog audience that the knitting retreat at Hollyhock next year is mine to design.  They're calling it"The Woolies."  It's a good name because I intend to encourage us to do a lot more than knit. I'm thinking crochet, spinning, felting -- possibly even weaving if I can add that to my bag of tricks over the coming year.   Fusion fibre.   

So I guess that's objective number one -- allowing the participants to experience a new fibre craft if they so wish.  And in the meanwhile learn something new about learning something new.  I think it's very telling how we approach novelty -- do we stick with our expertise and our comfort or do we explore?  If we do explore, do we jump right in and experiment?  How important is doing it right? 

Ok, we won't do that part first.  I think we will start with something simple.  Being present while knitting (or whatever people bring to work on).  I think just sitting quietly in a group and working on our project for a few minutes.  Should be easier than the sitting still form of meditation.  Staying focused on our fingers like the yogi's stay focused on their mala beads and their mantras.

Knitting mantras.  Now here's another experiment --perhaps not for everyone.  But how about setting our knitting to words?  A kind of silent music --a positive intention.  If we are knitting a baby blanket,  why not make our work a prayer, a spell, a mantra of protection?  Or indeed why not for ourselves.  A cloak of power.  Socks for taking those first scary steps on a new job or on one's first parachute jump--or staying sober.  Whatever.  Possibilities are literally endless.  And whether you call it hypnosis, or a higher power, intention is a powerful thing.

Ok, we have the silent knitting meditation, we have the mantra knitting; a bit of intentional magic...and then there's art....how can we break into art...?  When does the soothing act of following a pattern morph into the excitement of doing something no one has ever done before?  What if you make a mistake?  Can you be comfortable with mistakes?  How many "mistakes" turn out to be amazingly good discoveries? 

 

So I went to this knitting retreat at Hollyhock last weekend and had a great time.  What's not to like about knitting in a beautiful spot with a bunch of unusual and wonderful women and being fed three meals a day, plus oysters on the beach one day?  I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  The workshop leader,  a competent knitter/instructor, did not add a whole lot to the experience, but really, I hardly noticed, I was having so much fun. 

Anyway, a professional hazard of being a professional facilitator is that when in a group I tend to facilitate, especially if no one else is.  Tried very hard to keep my head down and just knit, damnit.  Failed.  One conversation led to another and before I knew it I was workshopping an idea for the retreat I really wanted to be having. 

I imagine myself doing for knitting what Michal Murphy did for golf at Esalen.  For those who love them, all of the fibre arts produce a lovely, peaceful trance state.  Focused, calm...time flies by --just like we would like to be in all of our endeavors.  The thing about trance is that we can use it to transform ourselves.  We can go deep into our unconscious states (and those of others) and we can plant little seeds of suggestion or aspiration that will miraculously flower at later times.  We can knit protective spells into our baby sweaters and invoke the sprits of our grandmothers.  Oooh, the posiblities for the inner game of knitting are simply endless. 

So I submitted a very hastily written proposal to Hollyhock, and I have now managed to convince myself (and a few others) that it's a book waiting to happen.  The Knitter's Way, perhaps?  Anyway, stay tuned.  If Hollyhock decides they want me, I think it will be an intense year of developing this into (at the very least) a magazine article, and perhaps a major motion picture.  Next stop, Esalen.  Michael Murphy, move over.  Actually, it would be fun to have a simultaneous fibre-craft session for the golf widows, don't you think?