"Not enough hours in the day."
How many times have you heard, or even said, those words? Work, children, relationships, home maintenance, and sometimes just plain survival take a toll on creativity. By the time I have accomplished all of those things, I'm ready to fall into bed so I can get up and do it again the next day.
I decided yesterday to take back my creativity. I have a wide variety of interests, each with its associated tools, books, and half-finished projects waiting for me to find "enough hours". My nebulous plan is to get up an hour earlier than I usually would, and spend that hour dedicated to one project. That's about as specific as I have gotten. I didn't do any prep work last night; no to-do list, no laying out of materials. I wasn't even sure what I was going to do. This is not my usual modus operandi.
So, at 6 a.m. I got up, made my coffee, wandered into the laundry/office/craft/animal feeding station room and looked around. What to start with? The desk was piled high with binders of genealogical research, to the point I couldn't begin to work there. The sewing table was surprisingly clean. Bags of knitting projects hung expectantly from various hooks the previous homeowner probably intended for laundry. Decades-old cross-stitch was tucked up so high I would need to fetch a ladder to reach them. Looms? Don't even see them here. Sigh.
My eyes rested on my spinning wheel. It was actually set up and had a half-full bobbin of some such I had been spinning. All I had to do was sit down and go. Bingo, we had a winner.
Today's Project: Spinning
I purchased this fiber at a local festival. It is a blend of 50% merino wool, 50% tussah silk. The color reads as a celery green but has bits of gray, white, and red in it. The silk gives it a wonderful shine and it is as soft as a pile of kittens.
I began spinning this last October at a re-enactment at Locust Grove in Louisville, Kentucky. Watching the shiny fibers slip through my fingers in the warm autumn sun was a treat. I'm spinning this fairly fine with the goal of making a two-ply yarn for a cowl or scarf. This fiber definitely needs to make contact with skin.
Podcasts du Jour
I'm always listening to podcasts. I use the pay-for app Pocketcasts and the free app Stitcher. On today's playlist while crafting:
- A Playful Day--appropriately she was discussing blogging creativity today.
- CraftLit--I consider this my book club. We are currently reading/listening to Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.
I make time to knit a little most days. Knitting is portable (at least most of my projects are) and I can take it to work with me. Because of this, it won't be the focus of my morning hour. However, I'd like to discuss what I'm working on, so each post may include information on my current project.
Knitting Corner
Today I'm working on a pair of stockings. I generally love knitting socks, but these are a bit of a slog. The pattern is
Ladies Useful Stockings from Nancy Bush's book
Knitting Vintage Socks. I highly recommend this book for its easy-to-follow patterns. The designs, though vintage, make great modern socks.
This particular pair, however, is for my re-enactment kit. I'm making them out of 100% silk that I harvested from a Goodwill sweater. Cost: $4. Recycled silk, as well as many other fibers, tends to not have any twist to it, so the yarn is very splitty. Working with size 00 needles, this has to be watched for quite closely. That's part of the slog; the other is the sheer length of these babies, being over-the-knee. I'm finally in the calf decreases and it's moving a little faster.
And that's it for today. My hyper-organized side it screaming at me to make a list! Set some goals! At least set a schedule, for crying out loud.
My answer is no. For now, I'm going to let this just happen.