Daily Practice

I've been hyper creative lately, quilting, dyeing, spinning, weaving, and knitting, of course.  It's a stress-management effort, to be sure.  Plus, I'm teaching a first year seminar on creativity and stress, so there has been lots of mental energy focused on understanding how the two interact.  A group of students in my class have taught the rest of us how to make friendship bracelets.  Add that to the list of creative pursuits!

We have focused a bit on mindfulness, and how regular creative practice might foster our ability to be in the moment. The challenge I face now is that most of my projects are not well-suited for being mindful.  They are new and therefore require lots of focused attention.  One aspect of my recent knitting projects that I have found especially appealing lately is plain garter stitch.  I find garter stitch boring typically, but when you add color changes, it gets interesting.  

I have long been intrigued by various "temperature" projects: scarfs or blankets that are worked over long periods of time, with a row or section added each day to represent that day's weather.  So, I got fixated on the idea of dyeing 12 skeins of yarn to represent the range of temperatures that we experience in coastal New England.  I was going to place a new wholesale-sized order of the bamboo/wool blend that Oogy and I dyed last spring from Wool 2 Dye 4.  However, that blend is not in stock.  Plus, I didn't really want to wait!  So, to the stash.  I was able to find yarn that I have already dyed in most of the colors I needed, and I dyed a few skeins of sock yarn to fill in the color range with 2 orange hues.

This is "brilliant orange".  Aptly-named, and too brilliant for my project.  

I opted instead for the lighter coral that was a result of mixing brilliant orange with wild orchid, shown at the top of the picture.  

My plan is to add a few rows or ten every day, maybe in the evening when I'm unwinding from a long day, or in the morning when I need something easy to knit.  Looking ahead to later this year, I know that I'll be away occasionally, to Chicago, Shetland (!), and a few other places where the weather is likely to differ from home.  I'll use the temperature wherever I am, and maybe be able to see in the finished product when I was away.  The main objective of this project is to foster mindfulness and center the present moment, so it seems appropriate to acknowledge whatever the weather is wherever I am.  

Speaking of varying temperatures, it was in the 70s here yesterday (day 2) and today we are struggling to stay at 50 degrees.  At least today's forecast (grey rainy skies and 50) is more in keeping with November!  I'm looking forward to adding some rows to the project today.

I modeled the project after the last few Casapinka "noncho" projects we've done.  This one has 104 stitches with a built-in I-cord on one edge, but the entire thing will be garter stitch.  It might become another asymmetrical poncho, or maybe a wrap.  We'll know its fate on November 10, 2023!