Author: Betsy

new things, old things.

| Betsy

I have this poster by Nikki McClure above on my front door. I love its simplicity mixed with its directness. How the hands are together but separate as they are held up to be counted.

Today’s my Dad’s 60th birthday. (Happy Birthday, Dad!) He was the one that took me to the library to register to vote when I turned 18, considering it a rite of passage. I’ve voted absentee from different states and countries, waited in lines, shook hands of random politicians like so many of you.

I was lucky enough to have parents who were very civic minded and taught me early the importance of casting my vote. I’m going to vote early next week. I hope I see you there.

Outside of voting, I’m keeping busy. I can’t believe the book will be out in a few short weeks! So much to do!

 
P.S. Needing some craftivist motivation? Go read about Louise Phillips, her charity knitting and occasional American flag knitting! Go Louise!

for the dreamers.

| Betsy

If you’re reading this, you came from here. I’m gobsmacked to have finally found it. I didn’t know where it came from, but tonight discovered it’s from the beginning of James Kavanaugh’s 1970 book There Are Men Too Gentle To Live Among Wolves. It’s amazing how something can just hit you to the core, even so very many years later. It’s awesome, it’s lovely, it’s knowing, it’s kind.

 

Some people do not have to search, they find their niche early in life and rest there, seemingly contented and resigned. They do not seem to ask much of life, sometimes they do not seem to take it seriously. At times I envy them, but usually I do not understand them. Seldom do they understand me.

I am one of the searchers. There are, I believe millions of us. We are not unhappy, but neither are we really content. We continue to explore ourselves, hoping to understand. We like to walk along the beach, we are drawn by the ocean, taken by its power, its unceasing motion, its mystery and unspeakable beauty. We like forests and mountains, deserts and hidden rivers and lonely cities as well. Our sadness is as much a part of our lives as is our laughter. To share our sadness with one we love is perhaps as great a joy as we can know–unless it be to share laughter.

We searchers are ambitious only for life itself, for everything beautiful it can provide. Most of all we want to love and be loved. We want to live in a relationship that will not impede our wandering, nor prevent our search, nor lock us in prison walls; that will take us for what little we have to give. We do not want to prove ourselves to another or to compete for love.

This is a book for wanderers, dreamers and lovers, for lonely men and women who dare to ask of life everything good and beautiful. It is for these who are too gentle to live among wolves.

-James Kavanaugh

testing…the new blog design.

| Betsy

It’s beginning to get cold in my little part of the world. There are so many exciting things to get excited about this time of year!

Frost signals things like big boots, fluffy duvets, cups of tea just to warm your hands, snuggling, warm toasty fireplaces, holidays, crazily darned old wool sweaters, scarves, lip gloss, legwarmers, winter squashes trying to catch all the holiday Claymation movies you can. It’s the most magical time of the year, and I’m not talking about Christmas.

Here’s a photo from last Thanksgiving when I was in Maine to get you ready for all the good things to come.

pics + links.

| Betsy


Tiny stars on big bricks up close. Tiny stars from farther away. Wilmington, NC
Tile floor, purple shoes, sparkly socks. Bathroom graffiti I still don’t understand.** Jacksonville, NC

What I’ve been loving lately:
*The work of Ruth Laskey
*Trying to unclutter with Unclutterer
*Sort: Just how much stuff do you really own?
*How to make your own kitty litter! (via Tiny Choices)
*Comfort doll knitting pattern for children affected by AIDS
*Biblical knitting? Can it be? Did Mary make her own wardrobe?
*Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable! Complete with 1736 Thieving Slang!
*Loving the work over on Etsy by The Candy Thief. Beautiful, colorful and lovely.
*Popknits, a new online knitting magazine with vintage patterns! (via CRAFT)
*Getting ready for Halloween on thanks to the lovely recipes over at Wing-It Vegan
*Chairlift’s ‘Does You Inspire You’ reminds me of my teenage love, the Drop Nineteens
* Blind Paralympian runner Henry Wanyoike buys knitting machines with prize money, teaches the disabled to knit pullovers and earn a living. Yay.
*“I hung up my investigator’s cap and picked up my needles.”: Former FBI agent opens yarn shop

**I think it’s supposed to be inspirational. Or something. Thoughts welcome.

candy + craft = lovely.

| Betsy


The pretty little candies above were waiting to be eaten at a hotel I was checking into the other day. Even though they were almost too gorgeous too eat, I found a butterscotch one soon after I took this photo. Yum.

In talking to the desk clerk, apparently the hotel manager saw the candies at another rival hotel and liked them so much that she bought them for her lobby, too.

A few days earlier, in another hotel, I finished the above cross-stitch pieces for the show “Craftivism” at the Lawton Gallery at the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay curated by Faythe Levine. The show opened today and will be open until October 30th.

The pieces are #2 and #3 in my International Anti-War Graffiti Cross-stitch series. Although I still use lots of yarn in things, I do love the cross-stitch and the radical cross-stitchers who make lovely things with lots of teeny tiny x’s. The pieces above are around 30,000 stitches apiece!

And speaking of radical crafts, check out the new Holiday 2008 issue of Vogue Knitting for a lovely article by the amazing Shannon Okey called “The Politics of Knitting!” If you don’t feel like reading the paper version, you can read the article online here!