reading.

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

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?

weekend odds n’ sods.

| Betsy

If you’ve never had the pleasure of spending time in the American Southeast during the summer, you’ve never seen the world slow down right before your eyes. Drink water with ice that melts in what seems like seconds, put on flip-flops, slather on sunscreen, close the door don’t let the air conditioned air out, squint your eyes to meet the hothot sun.





1. My first glimpse at my baby tomatoes!
2. New curry and coriander plants, old pots
3. Olive’s 2nd birthday (no, she didn’t actually eat the cupcake)
4. My “bedshelf” continues to grow out of control, newly added to the stack:

*The Culture of Make Believe, Derrick Jensen
*Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
*The Knife Man: The Extraordinary Life and Times of John Hunter, Father of Modern Surgery, Wendy Moore




Other things of note (fairly) recently:

*The work of Gretchen Elsner
*Nina Katchadourian’s Mended Spiderwebs
*WSJ Opinion column, Gay Marriage is Good for America
*Flying Mayan burrito recipe (Sweet potatoes and black beans, who knew?)
*In the Middle of the Worldwind (Thanks to the Journal of Aesthetics & Protest!)
*Rob Walker’s Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are (Listen to him talk with Diane Rehm here.)

On repeat on the stereo, Santogold’s self-titled album. Holy hell, she is awesome.

book review: ‘i will not be broken’

| Betsy

This post may not seem very crafty, and, it’s not. It is my belief that craft and creativity can help us work through hard times in our lives. Sometimes, however, we might need a little helping hand in order to get to where we feel like creating. Over the years I’ve worked with survivors of myriad causes in different capacities, and their fighting spirits never cease to amaze me. The most memorable individuals I’ve worked with have been refugees from countries at war, and it is with their resilience and fire that I wanted to mention this book. There are have also been times when I could have benefited from this book, too, as my acts of creativity are often acts of strength and fighting back.

Along with living with an open heart, I think that another thing people must strive for is refusing to be broken. But then again, I guess you don’t need to refuse anything if you’ve never needed to be fixed. But, if you have found yourself muddled and angry and frightened and screaming and running and alone and tired and hurting and lost all at the same time, you might know what I’m talking about.

Sometimes I get sent things in the post to have a look at, and when the book I Will Not Be Broken: 5 Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis appeared on my doorstep, I wasn’t sure what was in store for me. It’s a new book written by Jerry White, co-founder of the Landmine Survivors Network, which is now known as Survivor Corps. Over the next few nights, I read the book before going to sleep, finishing it in just a few days.

According to White, the 5 steps towards healing after disaster are: face facts, choose life, reach out, get moving and give back. The 5 points work from inside out, from facing yourself to giving back to others. As he does a much better job than I would at explaining them, the chapters are online in PDF version here.

As White elucidates on these 5 steps via personal stories, almost each page was met with someone else’s story of genocide, war, illness, abuse and so forth. The first few chapters were sometimes hard, but as the book continued on, I started to remember all the fighters I know who’ve wrestled their demons and won. Some of them took years before they took the steps needed, while others started fighting from the start. All of them won, not because they were extraordinary, but because we’re stronger than we think.

I Will Not Be Broken, may not be for everyone, but for those who might need a little forward momentum in tough times, it may help generate some steps in the right direction. In refusing to be broken, we recognize that small voice of hope and love and kindness that still exists despite where misfortune or horror may have taken us. Sometimes that voice seems impossible to find and laughable to think of, but it’s there. Some of us take longer to find that voice than others. But it will be found, cared for, loved and nurtured. It just may take a little time, a little patience, and a lot of love.

a book is a book is a book. or is it?

| Betsy



Ever since I can remember, books have always been my frequent companions. As a kid, books would tuck me in bed late at night and I would devour their pages until I couldn’t hold my eyes open…many times I would wake up in the middle of the night with a book on my chest having fallen asleep while trying to finish a chapter. As a matter of fact, this is one ritual I’ve never ceased, even when camping and I have to share the light with any and every moth in a three-mile radius.

Even now, I always have a book on hand in case I have a few spare minutes and my hands are tired from needlework. Some people escape in books and forget about the rest of the beat of the world, but I always have seen books as a way to obtain closer intimacy with others. By understanding the words of someone else you’re subtly asked to think as someone else, and it forever allows for new points of understanding and questioning and deepens our compassion for when we close the book and come back to the so-called “real world.”

When I was little I figured I would either work with animals or write, falling in love early with the life of James Herriot. As I got older and the sciences turned out to be my academic nemesis, I wondered what I was to do.

Decades later, I’m still not entirely sure…having at one time or another called myself a sign painter, barista, consultant, secretary, knitter for hire, feeder of sheep, housesitter, bookseller, cake deliverer….and that’s just the highly abridged list. I guess I never really stopped asking questions once I picked my nose out of a book after all.

As I look at turning 33 in two months, I wonder what’s to become of us seekers and searchers and travelers in this world of taxes and health insurance and mortgages. Maybe we’re a dying breed, maybe we just need to unionize, maybe we’re meant to ask and seek and create each day anew looking for others who see the world the same. I’m sure you know the type, or maybe you even are the type….if you are, do
let me know what you think the best course of action for us searchers is…

Above is the cover of my first book, Knitting for Good!, to be out later on this year. Many thanks to the good people at Shambhala, who helped edit and tease out the words when I was too close to them. Using knitting as both an example and as a metaphor, the book was written to help people engage with their creativity in different and new ways by using their creative interests to better themselves, their community and this world.

It is my greatest hope that some night, maybe some night soon, someone reads my own words and uses them to help better figure out how to navigate their days or rethink their own sense of compassion or just read them and understand. Whether at bedtime, or by flashlight in the wilderness, or for a few minutes on the bus, or sitting with a cup of tea, it is my greatest hope that you, too, will find wisdom in books… and then use them as a guide instead of escape.


Currently on my bedside table (there is always a massive stack which I pull from depending…):

Kiss and Tell
Creating a Life Worth Living
Regarding the Pain of Others
Mindfulness in Plain English
The Corporate Rebel’s Productivity Guide
Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash
The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper- Case Closed

Here’s to happy reading, and hoping my cat doesn’t decide to knock my tower of books over on me as I sleep.

public transportation, summer reading.

| Betsy

Public transportation is a joy to me (when I manage to get up early enough to catch the bus to work) as not only does it allow me the luxury of traveling and knitting but we’re also lucky enough to have a free local bus system! There’s something lovely about industrial/institutional design that grabs me. Around here, the interior of buses are either blue or orange, in those blocky clunky colors of my 70s childhood.

One of my current challenges is to get myself out of the habit of looking at my hands as I knit, so I’m back to taking my knitting with me wherever I go again. Usually I’m such in a rush that I don’t have time to enjoy just sitting and knitting- I’m always working on a project with a deadline or fighting off sleep! While selling zines this past weekend at a local craft fair, I was reminded of how much I enjoy knitting simple squares for afghans or scarves in public and the dialogue it never fails to envelop me in. I hope I never stop adoring the conversations with children, the elderly and everyone in between that occur when I bring out my craftwork, as it is one of craft’s most magical qualities.

untitled.bmp

As work slows down for the summer here at the university, that means a bit more time for online reading. (Unlike the bus, the coffeeshop or the bars, I can’t knit at my desk!)

Recently, I have been enamoured by the likes of:

Craft Culture (esp. this by Tanya Harrod)
Collective
Craftresearch.blogspot
Graffiti Archaeology
MAKE zine
Radical Craft Conference (so sad I wasn’t there!)
Studio Incite

Not to mention daydreaming about the knitting images here.

And for more on the definition of craftivism, here’s a link to a recent piece I wrote for Knitchicks.