Making a difference

I was thinking about this posting as I hung out the laundry last night. I love hanging out laundry! And this year for the first time I'm going to be able to hang out laundry all year round thanks to lines that Lloyd has strung under the roof of our back porch. Coincidentally, this is also a national day of action for the 350 movement....see http://www.350.org/ I signed the pledge to stop using the clothes dryer as one significant action that I am going to take to reduce greenhouse gases. Hanging out laundry is much more creative than dumping the clothes into the dryer. I'm not consuming any gas or electricity plus I get to sort by colour, size and shape...a very creative endeavour! Plus I like the flutter in my belly from giving everything a good shake before pegging it to the line!

We humans are creative by nature but within the last 50 years or so, many of us have lost that impulse opting to be consumers instead. What's creative about that? We now have more leisure time, and how do many people use that time? They go shopping. Wow. I hang up laundry, I cook, I sew, I knit... and sometimes I do housework...

Tosca!

I tried something new last Saturday--I took some yarn and needles into the movie theatre and knit a scarf while watching Tosca! I've turned into an opera fan thanks to the Met Opera's live transmissions. And I surprised myself by being able to knit a garter stitch scarf in the dark by feel. I had chosen two chunky yarns and knit them together on 10 mm needles. By the end of the three hour production I had a rudimentary scarf. Thanks to 2 intermissions I was able to check for any dropped stitches and correct them...and there weren't many. In fact I could feel when I was going astray by noticing only one strand of yarn on the needles rather than two. The first time this happened was when the evil Scarpia was trying to seduce Tosca. I was thinking how close the passions of lust, love, and hate are when he sang about the "spasms of hate, spasms of love" and my fingers seized up...I had to take a break from knitting, this was just too much!

Later when I got home, I cast off and deliberately dropped three stitches to create ladders.

This lightened the feel of the scarf making it lacy and improved the drape. The fringe finished it all off.

Knitting and Stitching a Creative Life

To be happy in life one must have a passion...mine is fibre. It feeds my soul...whether it be yarn, fabric or thread. Knitting is a way of centering...meditating and problem solving. I'm especially content when knitting with intention, imbuing each stitch with love and affection. It's then very powerful to literally wrap someone in prayers of hope and peace. A prayer shawl is the perfect way to do that--socks are another.

I love to coordinate a group in knitting prayer shawls. At the top of this posting is one knit by about 25 friends of my neighbour.