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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.

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.

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.

hooray for dads.

| Betsy

Feeding the geese in Greenville, South Carolina near my grandparents house in 1979.

Over the years, he’s worn the hat of coach, teacher, boss, chauffeur, traveling buddy, accountant, protector and “official peptalk giver.” And that’s just the short list.

Among other things, he’s taught me how to shoot a lay-up, change a tire, find laughter on the crappy days, never give up, and how it’s always okay to make breakfast for dinner.

Thanks, Dad, for everything.

Completely unrelated craftiness:
*What people write when they think punk is best circa 1977**
*Some awesome UK knitters make almost 3,000 hats for Tibetan babies in need
*Knitters make and send scarves to Israeli survivors of terror attacks
*Some really amazing 3rd graders knit gifts for women with cancer
*Great things are done a step at a time…especially when it comes to creativity
*Lovely interview with Faythe Levine about Handmade Nation over on Poppytalk

**A quote from the first link: “The sickening truth is that knitting is hip – and Western youth culture is knitting its own death shroud.” The even sicker truth is that when people don’t realize that the punk ethos is about living your life they way you want to, not the way you think Johnny Rotten wants you, they look completely clueless.

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.