Swampland…

A dreary Monday, yes I’m getting letters.  Nice to know my fan club misses me when I am holed up in the studio incommunicado!  Truth is, there isn’t really anything to write about.  I am thoroughly enjoying the quiet days in the studio, with not much on the calendar.  I’m getting my fill of just being alone because in about four weeks, I’ll go back to nut case on the road, sitting in airports, knitting socks, and wishing I had done more with my five months of quiet in the studio.  And of course as I write the above sentence, the panic of OMG, not enough time, is already sinking in.  There are all kinds of deadlines for artwork and exhibits calling at me, and I’ve actually let a number of deadlines for shows come and go.  Truth is, I don’t have a lot of new work for exhibition purposes.  I have handwoven fabric, which remains unsewn, and I have warped looms for artwork and a commission that remain unwoven.  I have a committment to two exhibits for work due within the month, and they remain undone, unplanned, and certainly not ready for delivery. And I have a keynote address that needs to be written.

Yet I’ve done a lot over the last few months.  And I have no regrets.  My only regret is that there aren’t 48 hours in a day, and of course if there were, it still wouldn’t be enough.  This whole past week has sort of been like the weather we are experiencing today.  It is raining, heavily.  Our mounds of ice are dwindling fast and along with the rainwater, the rivers are ready to crest, and flooding is imminent.  The back yard is a swamp.  When I have to take the compost out to the back quarter, I have to slog through the muck that was once a beautiful lawn, kind of like wading through jello, but not nearly as pretty.  I felt like that in the studio this week.  I started over on my jacket and rewove the first two yards of trim.  And I’m not happy with the weft I picked on one of the scarves I started weaving today.  It is only one scarf, and I’ll try a different weft on the next, but the mid toned beige weft is diluting the vibrant warp.  That will definitely change when it is washed, more than likely it will be fine, but I’m not as thrilled with how it all looks as I thought I would be.  I spent the whole morning between online banking for three accounts, checkbook balancing, and Quicken Books, which I still deplore.  All the bills are paid for the month, and the paperwork caught up.  My inbox is about four inches lighter.  But that doesn’t make for a good blog post.

I’m tired, and working in slow motion, I stayed up too late watching the Academy Awards, for movies I’ve never seen.  They are all  “On the list…”  My list is so long of stuff I’d like to do with my life I’ll never get to it all, but that’s OK, no one ever died of having a too long list, people have died from boredom I’m sure.  (I’m probably making that up, but it makes me feel better.  Boredom is not a noun I can define from personal experience…)

Saturday I spent the afternoon at the Newark Museum, demonstrating garment construction for the Spring Arts Workshop Open House.  It was great to sit in an airy open court, surrounded by the other instructors and chatting with the public about what I’m passionate about.  I took the suit with me, now completely interfaced, and the redone braid, and sat happily sewing and chatting, and made some serious progress on the suit.  I’m now seeing how much fun the suit will be when it is finished.  The braid is striking.  At least I think so.  I’m glad I redid it.  And of course the public was really excited when I showed them the little loom that made the braid.  Lots of requests for an inkle loom class in the fall.  I’ll be teaching an eight week sewing class at the museum, starting on March 15, Tuesday afternoons, from 1-4.  It will be a feat each week to leave there on time, race across two counties, to my class at the college to be set up and ready to go there by 6pm.  I can only try…

So I can cross another thing off my to do list today, that would be “blog post”.   I still have

• print handouts for class tomorrow
• ship order
• Vacuum/dust den and dining room
• yoga class
• install second sleeve in jacket
• make a five inch sample of a flat braid in kumihimo for the class next week.
• make dinner

I sent my kids off to the grocery store.  We needed some basics, and they are good at scrounging for junk food.  I’m always amused at what they come home with.

Stay tuned…