reading.

What I’ve been reading, what you might like to read, what other people have recommended I read.

Twyla Tharp’s ‘The Creative Habit.’

| Betsy

This past week I read Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use it For Life. It was one of those books that I came across on a site or a blog or in a conversation and scribbled it down as something to read at some point. I can’t believe it took me so long to pick it up and read it! As a choreographer and dancer who has constantly pushed herself and strived for new challenges, Tharp shows us the reward that creativity can bring if you’re willing to meet it halfway.

Whether you need a kick in the ass, a reminder, a mantra or a primer on how to live your life creatively every single second, this book is a wonderfully quick read on how to do it. Tharp’s dedication to the “creative habit,” is unparalleled, as she believes (and seeing her body of work shows it works) that it is a habit, not a luxury or a birthright. Through stories using her decades of experience and exercises that help you uncover your “creative DNA,” she reminds us that taking what you love and combining it with a lot of elbow grease can bring more joy and energy than you ever thought possible. Her willingness to always push herself further and to experiment with new techniques, was a gorgeous reminder of why creativity is worth cultivating, revering and enjoying.

Repetition is a problem if it forces us to cling to our past successes. Constant reminders of the things that worked inhibit us from trying something bold and new. We lose sight of the fact that we weren’t searching for a formula when we first did something great; we were in unexplored territory, following our instincts and passions wherever they might lead us. It’s only when we look back that we see a path, and it’s only there because we blazed it. (p. 217)

Good Morning.

| Betsy

Ok, so it’s not really morning. Although it is morning, technically, being 12.48AM.

Even though I’m about to go to sleep, I feel like the first week of January is kind of like an entire week of waking up.

I’ve spent the whole week feeling kind of like my friend Max here.

A few things of note lately that you should go see:
*Sort
*Flickr set of photos of Eastern State Penitentiary
*Breena Clarke Stitches a Slavery-Era Saga (via NPR)
*International Fiber Collective (check out the current Tree Project!)
*Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche: Buddhist Advice for these “Dark Ages” (via Elephant)

Also recommended, and what is currently waking me up these days, go listen to Jaydiohead. (via Garth)

Full Circle. (Kinda Sorta)

| Betsy

I first started really thinking about knitting and its relation to community and theory when I was in graduate school at Goldsmiths College and therefore involved with the Centre for Community and Urban Research, headed by Michael Keith.

During that year I fell in love with ethnography and Walter Benjamin and felt literally as though my head was cracked open. It was the first time that I understood that I wasn’t the only one who was fascinated by the dance and beat of the city, or hell, even knew there was an almost audible tone separate to each city. Or energized by discovering how people interacted with their communities and totally infatuated with the pulse that was almost palpable on the streets of London whether it was early morning before setup at Spitalfields Market or trying to maneuver around people in Oxford Circle or lost on purpose on the streets surrounding Brick Lane.

One of the first books we read that year was The Fall of Public Man by Richard Sennett. I remember talking about the book excitedly with my friend Katherine in our favorite coffeeshop across from the college. When I started talking about my dissertation topic, on knitting, community and DIY, I was wondering if I was actually onto something or had taken one too many long walks on the Thames alone.

I was well surprised when I read that earlier this year, Sennett wrote a book about crafts, simply titled The Craftsman. And I was even more surprised when an interview I did about my craft book, Knitting for Good! was on the same radio show this week as an interview with Sennett on his craft book! The second I found out, I was immediately reminded of the day we went around the table at the Centre and told our advisor (mine was Michael Keith) about the ideas we had for our dissertation…many of them based on the theories and books we had read during the previous year. I still remember several of me peers saying, “Knitting?!? Really?!?”

Four years later, Sennett and I are interviewed about crafts on the Wisconsin Public Radio show To the Best of Our Knowledge along with Handmade Nation’s Faythe Levine and Cortney Heimerl. The show, “Reconsidering Craft,” can be listened to online here. What a strange, small world.

Rediscovered The Faint this morning. Just what I needed.

hello, happiness.

| Betsy

The amount of blog posts to read/skim/look through after not checking them for 5 days is out of control. After spending quite some time going through them, I then released that I had about 50 open windows on my computer for various things.

The photo above, from Design For Mankind, is my new favorite thing in the whole entire world. Can we say spot on? It’s just perfect and perfectly describes the perfect way to love.

The image found via Andre Jordan, who has an Ordinary Love Stories on his blog, A Beautiful Revolution. I’m smitten. To the max.



Here are some of the best in case you missed them:

*Hodge Podge Farm crochet geniuses series

*Cut Out & Keep’s decoupaged plaque instructions

*Resurrection Fern’s beautiful post entitled Don’t Waste the Miracle

*Economist’s article on Graffiti: Does it go hand-in-hand with bad behavior?

*Berlin’s Whimsy’s post, Another literary hero

*The Dead Generation via The Nervous Breakdown

*Prick Your Finger’s post about the work of Marie Paysant Leroux’s and the color of emotion

*The story behind my Keep Calm and Carry On poster from Faythe Levine

Part of 3 posters from the Gov’t of Information and “But the ‘Keep Calm’ posters were held in reserve, intended for use only in times of crisis or invasion. Although some may have found there way onto Government office walls, the poster was never officially issued and so remained virtually unseen by the public – unseen, that is, until a copy turned up more than fifty years later in a box of dusty old books bought in auction.

More from this series here.

*For a quick history lesson on DIY Craft, head on over to Anna Handmade.

Oh, and finally, I signed up for Twitter. So, if you’d like you can “follow” me over here, even though I’m still trying to figure it all out.

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