Author: Betsy

system down.

| Betsy

So a certain software update from a certain fruit-named company has wiped out the operating system on my computer, meaning that I’m computerless until I can archive the files and locate the install disks. Not having access to the files on your computer really makes you realize a) how important backing up your files are (yes, they’re backed up) and b) how frustrating it is not to have instant access to everything. Now, please.

It’s a good thing I have a lot of reading to do, as it’s given me a little bit of extra time to catch up on my reading, although somewhat by force…Over the past few days, I have been loving the style, photos and text of Handmade Nation!

It arrived on my doorstep last week and was the loveliest of things to come home to after a long week of traveling! I’m so happy to have an essay in this book, and keep flipping through just to read different artist’s profiles. So inspiring!

And if you can’t wait to purchase the book to see what Handmade Nation is all about, you can check out the trailer for the upcoming documentary of the same name here, which is amazing! The trailer is animated, leaving me gobsmacked at all the production it must have entailed. Wow!

Also on the reading list?
Neo Craft
The Object of Labor (Which I discovered via Heather)
World Textiles: A Visual Guide to Traditional Techniques
Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life

What’s on the top of your bookshelf lately?

the sweet sweet end of summer.

| Betsy

The other day my friend Kerri and I had ice cream for dinner at Maple View Farm.

We figured that since when we were kids we used to beg to eat ice cream for dinner, it was only suitable to purposely accomplish this on a hot summer night. As a result? We were treated to a sweet sweet sunset along with ice cream goodness at the tail of summer.

So we ate ice cream, talked about where we thought we’d grow up to be when we were kids, mused over whether we were on track with our 1985 dreams and watched the sun go down until it disappeared. Lovely.

Lately:
*Hecho a Mano (via Extreme Craft)
*Reading posts on Craft Unbound
*Learning about cool parents who teach schoolkids art
*The coolness of Kayte Terry’s Complete Embellishing
*A clock shaped like the queen for sale at the lovely Oak

*Wishing I could teleport to NYC tonight for Knitting Jam at the Chelsea Art Museum
*Am apparently the last human on earth not to have finished Rob Walker’s Buying In. So good!

Not necessarily sweet, but still awesome: Coming across an mp3 of Pantera’s “Walk”, I’m rocking it old school like its 1993 this evening…
Mp3 found over at Soundtrack to the End of the World via Faythe.

rebel, rebel in the rain.

| Betsy


It’s raining and I’m sleepy and trying to enjoy the last few minutes of my Sunday night. I’m lucky enough to have a wide view from my room of the lightning show above me, and I’m thinking it’s the perfect way to end the day. Although I know that if we had thunderstorms every night, I would soon take them for granted and resent them, cursing the sound of the rain instead of allowing it to lull me to sleep.

I’m wearing paint-stained jeans, my grandfather’s belt, a thrifted Kern River t-shirt from 1986 and a shrug to keep the chill off which seems damn near inexplicable in North Carolina in late July. I know that changing into my pajamas signals the official end of the weekend, so I’m protesting.

It’s been one of those hot, sticky, summer weekends perfect in its simplicity and sweetness, with lovely late nights, good friends, homegrown tomatoes, getting lost in tiny towns, lengthy shavasanas, strong cups of coffee and long talks with the cicadas battling to drown out our voices.

Also this weekend, The Guardian had a knitting supplement today! I was happy to be one of the 13 knitters chosen to knit a pattern created by Mazz (Marisa Turmaine) who was profiled. Mazz made the news a few months ago after the BBC told her she couldn’t offer her knitted Dr. Who patterns on her website thus making the theme for the supplement “rebel knitting.” The photographs and blurbs of those of us asked to knit one of Mazz’s patterns for the supplement, are here.

Lately:
*Making sheets into skirts
*Dreaming of abstract knitting
*Happy to see people I know learn new things
*Listening to Lykke Li and The Gossip entirely too loud
*For the Love of Light: A Tribute to the Art of the Polaroid
*Finding time to watch Randy Pausch’s last lecture. (Thanks for the reminder, Garth!)
*Getting ready to cheer on the Olympics in just a few short weeks! Yay! (Especially excited to root for a good friend’s little sis, Margaret Hoelzer!)
*Fabric of Resistance, an amazing herstory project by the people who brought you Radicalcrossstitch.com! Awesome!

And now, to fall asleep to the sound of rain.

buoyant.

| Betsy

Last week I took a little vacation down on the South Carolina shore with 40+ of my relatives, something we’ve been doing for the past 30 years. After recently finding both the perfect sunscreen and the perfect bathing suit, I went swimming in the ocean for the first time in years.

When I got out far enough to dive safely, I dove into an oncoming wave. Immediately that feeling of freedom and floating that I used to love as a child came rushing back as everything went quiet underwater even though the wave was crashing up above. I did somersaults and handstands and laughed outloud without really thinking about it, it was like I was on autopilot from 1985. There was nothing to do but immerse myself as the waves bellied out to the shore and lost their roar.

I’ve always been drawn to water no matter how vast its expanse. In Norwich, it was the Wensum. In London, it was the Thames. In Wilmington, it was the Atlantic. In New York, it was the Hudson. All of these bodies of water heard my deepest secrets, held my hand in sadness, showed me beauty when I felt lost, gave me energy when I felt weary. They all nurtured me and were my greatest confidants when I needed them most.

I have no idea why I took an almost decade-long absence from the sea, where in the broadest sense, all these old playmates converge as one. In just that one short dip in the Atlantic last week, I went back in time and remembered what it’s like to float buoyantly and stare up at the sun, letting the waves take you where they wish. It was some sort of homecoming, as I dipped and jumped and dove and swam and smiled, covered by my perfect sunscreen and wearing my perfect bathing suit.

Lately:

* Knitting keeps you nimble
* The new Sigur Ros album
* The work of Kari Steihaug
* Knitting is good for your brain
* Learning about social surplus (via Murketing, thanks Rob!)
* The seemingly inevitable fear hits the inevitable Tracey Emin
* Reading Shreve Stockton’s archives of traveling solo across the US on a Vespa and current coyote adventure

ALSO: Dislike global warming? Like crafting? Want to combine the two? Go to 350.org and participate. Go for it.