on the road.

Cataloging what happens when you travel, whether near or far.

Finding Ground.

| Betsy

I’m grounded by history.

I’ve been reminded of this many times over the past few weeks as I discover Washington, DC. Passing signs to my father’s old high school, waving to my great-grandmother in Arlington Cemetery (she has a great view of the Pentagon, where her husband worked), hearing stories about my grandfather’s grandparents farm (now a park), hearing about how my grandfather would walk their pony to Tyson’s Corner to be reshod as there was a blacksmith there.

Lately the photo above has been a touchstone. When I was a kid, my grandmother used to tell me about how we were related to the sculptor Daniel Chester French. This photo reminds me of big dreams and creativity and a smidge of hope that it will all look as magical as conceived once fully constructed. I still haven’t found the building that housed the bakery my grandfather’s grandmother owned, but my grandmother has a map.

There’s something about knowing all of this that allows me to sink into the city more, wondering about how our genes and journeys will mix as I wander around eying old buildings and time-tested construction. After moving so often and taking so many trips far and wide, it’s nice to find a spot of ground that feels firm and real and solid under my feet. In thinking about the hopes and dreams and fears and loves and first crushes in my family’s lives as they strolled along these streets to the market, to work, to the doctor, to school, a sense of magic surrounds me. It may seem silly or impossible or mawkish to some, but after feeling so temporary and transient, here, for a moment, this sense of being grounded comforts me deep and true and completely.

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And for some crafty and otherwise creative links:
*Textile Encyclopedia*How to hem jeans in 3 easy steps
*The Newly Redesigned Mr. Xstitch! (Great job, Jamie!)
*Guide to Reading Japanese Crochet & Knitting Patterns
*Find where your clothes come from with the Baacode
*The Art of Manliness (Ok, not so crafty as interesting)
*Copenhagen Cyclic Chic (see how to bike in high heels)
*National Museum of African Art archives
*Make softies? How about making a few for Softies for Mirabel
*Awista Ayub’s However Tall the Mountain (what happens when young Afghan girls learn about soccer… and more)

Giving Permission and Paying Homage.

| Betsy

There is something about the delving into the past that is magic. Not the pulling rabbits out of hats, disappearing, shackling yourself underwater to a safe and then appearing at the surface magic. But magic in a sense more real. I found this magic the other week on the morning of July 4th walking through the cemetery of Christ Church in St. Simon’s Island, Georgia. My father and I went out to take photographs before it got too hot, and as usual, I was enchanted by its beauty and Spanish moss. Like all places of history, the South evokes it’s own individual memories in the way it takes you back through time making you crave lemonade, riding on horseback and hoop skirts.

This type of magic is infinite, and it holds with it a special kind of freedom. It holds a freedom where your creativity can move and writhe and grow and dream. I think this freedom is given to us by the past and the way in which it frees us from worrying if what we’re doing is cool or hip or meaningful or if our peers or families or friends will like it. It frees us from the “will it be enoughs?” by reminding us that we are on a continuum. That what we do today will always be eclipsed by something flashier or hipper tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean it still won’t stand to the test of time.

This type of magic gives us freedom to go forth without fear and create without the status quo in mind, allowing us to listen to our hearts and dreams instead of what’s on the front pages. It allows us to realize that we are okay and good and valuable just as we are right now, in the midst of all the dreams and hopes and creations of our ancestors. The past is truly our permission giver instead of our peers, as it knows that what you are thinking and doing and making will have been done in some sense before, you are just paying homage. I’ll take that magic over a good card trick any day.

The rest of the cemetery photos are here.

Studium. Punctum. Magic.

| Betsy

I love how some books, days, people, experiences can seem to almost alter your DNA, seem to change you forever. Like they snuck in when you weren’t looking and scrambled things into a better working format. I love that sense of lightness that pops up when you’re growing and don’t know it yet.

In looking through my photographs from the past 3 years, I came across 6 distinct photos from 6 different moments that hit me to the core. From top, left to right: Visiting a bus a new friend was converting to a living space in the country outside San Francisco, watching the sunset on Cadillac Mountain in Maine, a loved one’s hospital gown before major surgery, a Swoon piece in San Francisco’s Mission District, visiting inquisitive lambs in upstate New York and peppers hanging on the street in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

I love how in looking back each one of those photos denotes a specific place and state of being where I was in the process of growing and learning something important, but had no idea of how much until months later. When I look at them through the eyes of Roland Barthes when he was writing Camera Lucida, their punctum leaves me reminded of their individual importance.

From the Camera Lucida entry on Wikipedia: The book develops the twin concepts of studium and punctum: studium denoting the cultural, linguistic, and political interpretation of a photograph, punctum denoting the wounding, personally touching detail which establishes a direct relationship with the object or person within it.

When you find old photographs or even look again at photos that have been on the fridge for years, do you really see where you’ve come since then? Can you pinpoint the studium and the punctum and be taken back to that very moment?

I love that there is magic in revisiting, relooking and remembering.

3 Photos, 1 Quote.

| Betsy

On my recent trip out to Portland, Oregon, I found myself in awe of the view below me for a good bit of the flight. The sun vs the clouds, the clouds vs earth, water vs land. I uploaded the photos the other day and was awed again at the wide variations in color and texture. The quote below is from Finding Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. It’s a little smudgy now, but it’s been written in blue on the tiny chalkboard on the wall in my room near the door for months now.


“Within an evolutionary framework we can focus consciousness on the tasks of everyday life in the knowledge that when we act in the fullness of the flow experience we are also building a bridge to the future of our universe.”

If you’re up for it, take this as a tiny PSA to look around your environment today and keep your eyes out for tapestries that may be hiding in the form of banality. Oh, and happy Saturday.


A few things I’ve been loving or found interesting lately:
*Bags 4 Darfur
*Kala Raksha Preservation of Traditional Arts
*Stitches on the Bridge Project (link via Kim)
*An older post over at Show Your Workings on Craftivism
*Linda’s wonderful tutorial: How to Make a Reversible Swiffer Sock
*Simon Hoegsberg’s “We’re All Gonna Die: 100 Metres of Existence
*Haifa Zangana’s City of Widows: An Iraqi Woman’s Account of War and Resistance
*The honest and frustrating account of journalist Leila El-Haddad’s attempt to get home to see her parents in Gaza (This one actually breaks my heart as to the state of things)

The Art Of Missing.

| Betsy

The art of missing is a mysterious and fine craft. It comes from nowhere with no warning until you’re dizzy with remembrances when just a second before you were wondering what to have for lunch. I find myself in a missing state today even though I’m not really sure how I got there.

Old memories and kindnesses pop up and explode like confetti raining lightly and tickling my arms and eyelashes. They come without warning and disappear in a flash leaving you wondering if it all was just a dream instead. It went as quickly as it came, but its presence was nice and kind.

The older we get the more these tiny moments of buried nostalgia trigger a smile or a wink or perhaps just a feeling of joy. And today I was visited by one in particular like it was brought in by the wind at random. All I can say is that it was a nice visit and remembrance of softness and smiles and surprises. It was nice.

Finding these photos was a nice surprise, too. I was there just a few days ago on the West Coast and am now here way over on the East. Strange how travel, like little remembrances, can remind you that life is happy, unexpected and often beautiful.

Beautiful like this past weekend when I went to Oregon for the first time! Yay! This past weekend I went to the Portland, Oregon premiere of Handmade Nation where I was on a panel with Garth Johnson, Jill Bliss, Faythe Levine, Kate Bingaman-Burt and Susan Beal, who was my lovely hostess! Being on a panel with your friends just may be one of the best things ever, and how crazy is it that we all met online?

I also got to meet some other crafty internet people in person which was so exciting! People like: Diane Gilleland, Kim Werker, Josh and Sarah of Sewer-Sewist.com, Jennifer Worick, Heather Mann, Lee Meredith, Teresa Sullivan, Rachel Hobson, Michaela Murphy, Kathy Pitters, Torie Nguyen and Amanda Siska. I also got to meet Susan’s wee little daughter, Pearl, for the first time!! She is absolutely beautiful and such a little rockstar!

For a complete round-up of the weekend, please check out Lee’s amazing write-up, Susan’s super craft roundup and Diane’s Post #1 and Post #2!

And there is a Flickr pool of everyone’s photos here! One of the best things about the weekends was that there were so many photographers I didn’t have to worry about not capturing anything!

So go and make beautiful things, laugh too loud and savor those moments when the past comes back to you and you shiver and giggle in the bittersweet deliciousness of it all. x

The photos above are from the Flickr pool as my camera is still sadly lost somewhere in my suitcase. The first is by Kim of Rachel showing off their amazing Craftgasm (our group Lee made for all of us!The second is by Diane of Knittn’ Kitten.