Midori Snyder's Blog, page 20

4AM Knitting Me and the Bear

4AM knitting -- me and the bear working out our feelings about the Joma sock and listening to Doc Watson instead of the birds because I am in a hurry to see how this sock turns out. Dropped down a size in needles (aka hat pins) to get a gauge that kept the stitch definition tight -- so am wondering if I will ever get my Cinderella foot into it!

How I See Myself In the Stones

Every morning we hike at sunrise to watch the sun lift in the east and light up the Front Range in the west. The path is full of river stones and rocks. And at this one, I stop and say hello -- for it seems to me a perfect description of my working life: weaving, writing, and knitting. And I think, yes, even broken into three fragments, it is still whole.

Green Garden Socks: Crisp and Wonderful

I have finished early this morning my green garden socks -- I love them, they are a perfect representation of all the colors on the Front Range -- the deep greens, spotted with pale pinks and rust of the wild flowers. Also, I am happy that after having taken a major buffeting by not-one-but-two hail storms at the end of May, my garden is at last thriving. I purchased this gorgeous wool from Everyday Yarnworks and the colorway, appropriately was "Jungle Sunset" which is a pretty apt description of the lush growing fields around here This is a small-batch hand-dyed yarn -- and they go quickly when on sale -- I was fortunate to purchase the last available skein. 

 

JOMA Soon to be Underfoot

For around 20 years I was an editor, webmistress and co-creator of the online quarterly, the Journal of Mythic Arts with author and editor, Terri Windling. We always called it JoMA...so when I saw this amazing hand-dyed JOMA yarn, I pretty much wanted it. So beautiful... I'll be making JOMA socks soon as I get the current pair off the needles. This is a lovely yarn (color: Cherry Bomb) hand dyed by Canadian indie artist Emjay Bailey whose work can be found throughout Canada and the US. 

I already know these socks will be a blast to knit and that every time I put them on, I will smile remembering those years of working on the journal .

4AM Knitting with the Birds

It is a great pleasure to rise before the sun, when the house is still and quiet, but the birds outside my window are calling out with rolling trills. The "Flower Moon" hovers full and bright in my window. I sit in my study, still a bit dreamy and sleepy and enjoy the slow handwork of making a sock in a most beautiful yarn. It feels intimate and personal and timeless. 

Magpie Blogging: Redux.

I first published this post some seven years ago and decided it seemed as apt and revelent today as it did all those years ago. Perhaps even more so as I have undertaken a new art in addition to the one that has served me well for many years.

Making the rounds these days in a "moveable feast" are posts from fellow authors and artists** on why they blog (with a universal plea for someone to coin a more elegant word for what we all do).  So I thought I would add my own thoughts to the feast. 

I blog because I am a collector, a magpie attracted to shiny things -- not all of them beautiful, but for some reason of interest. In the old days, I kept notebooks with photocopied images, postcards, and lots of little baskets filled with peculiar objects that had no function other than that they were interesting to my magpie brain and I couldn't bring myself to clean them out. I built a sizable bower around my desk of stuff (and looking at Terri's terrific series on people's desks and work spaces, I see I am not alone in this nesting habit!). But the internet is a huge forest of shiny things, of images, of people and places I might never have found on my own in the material world. So I have shifted my acquisitive self from the cluttered realm of my desk to the endless capacity of my desktop.

Over the last three years (*now eleven years!) I have used the blog to keep together all the treasures I have found and from this internet bower, share them with others. Some posts and images are personal -- a copy of my father's name on a document at Ellis Island, the textiles produced by the women of my family, my grandfather's paintings, my garden. Some are quirky, like Samurai armor for dogs, vintage Mexican Paper Dolls, and my great grandmother's calling cards. Some posts have brought gifts, which I have re-gifted, such as the disk of 700 photos from Pinky Werner of Madrid, NM where my grandfather briefly worked, and which over the last two years has generated a renewed interest in the old mining town, especially among the descendants whose relatives once lived there. (Pinky's photographs remain to date one of the best visual records of Madrid and I have had the pleasure of not only sharing them on my blog, but donating copies of the disk to former residents, graduate students, and art institutions -- insuring for the future the history of the town.) Through posts on my grandfather, I was "discovered" by a maternal  cousin Earl (another magpie!) and with his help I have been able at long last to fill in the complicated backstory of my mother's family.

 

So there it is -- I keep my treasures in front of me on the blog, sharing them with anyone who is interested..and delighting when they are. Nothing is lost -- I can use the search function to find an item from long ago (would that I could do that with my filing cabinet!). And I blog, because really, it's easier than having to clean my desk.

**For the moveable feast see Rima Staines, Terri Windling, Ravenwood Forest, and A Mermaid in the Attic.

Art: Rubans Peale "Magpie and Cake," Toshi Yoshida, "Plum Tree and Blue Magpie,"  Eduoard Travies, "Magpie."

Two Paths, One Destination.

For eleven years my website has been devoted to my endeavors as an author -- the research, books reviews, excerpts from my work and the writing life. And it has been fun writing and publishing a bunch of books, articles, and short fiction. Some of it is available on the website here at In the Labyrinth, such as a collection of posts on writing and research, and the odd quirky stuff of a usual blog. Elsewhere, you can find my Bordertown Stories and thoughts here , my essays and articles here,  and my short stories and the odd poem here. (The bottom right hand sidebar also has links to all of the above. )  My writing career has spanned about 30 years -- and I am glad that I accomplished what I did in that time.  I still write, and will still be contributing new material from fiction to essays to the occasional reviews here, but there is another art that pulls me in a different but structurally similar direction. 

I am returning to my original creative passions -- textile arts. And in my 60's with a greater awareness of the approaching horizon, I want to revisit that which I first loved. My loom (nearly as old as I am! ) is getting a new warp in a few days, I have four projects on knitting needles (there is no greater pleasure than wearing one's hand knitted socks) and I have two pairs of old jeans which are getting a make over with some detailed embroidery. The history of textiles, the feel of the wool, the rhythm of the needles, the thump of the treadles, and the joy of slow earthy work. You can find me on Handwork and the Craft for more on this new adventure. Please join me if you wish -- I always welcome fellow travelers, and even the curious first timer. 

Picking a Button! Buffaloed, Braided, and Wooded.

The hardest part of finishing up knitting a sweater is to find the right button. Here are three for the Mountain Girl's "Big Wood" sweater. I sent these pictures to Mama so she could decide, because I sure couldn't. The silver buffaloes are a bit of joke because they live in Boulder, home of the Colorado Buffaloes at the university. 

*Mama said "Braided" emphatically. 

On the Cusp of Another New Year

Wishing everyone a happy, productive, and peaceful 2018. My resolutions will probably last as long as the evening. But I am confident my prayers for a better world and a year full of friends, family, art, and books will endure.

Advent Day 15-18: Animals