the south

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.

muted.

| Betsy

Some days photographs are easier to manufacture than words.

Some nights down here in the American southeast it’s too hot to sleep, even though you can practically taste your dreams you’re so tired.

So we toss and tumble at night trying to think of snow and cool breezes as the temperature creeps up so much that time seems to stop.

All the while knowing that the next day will be just as hot and sticky, leaving you searching for tiny respites in glasses of iced tea and the freedom of flip flops.

But luckily, as if to spite the consistency of the heat and tendency to wall up inside with the air conditioning on, each day still brings the smallest of surprises.