An update

Greetings!  It's been too long since I updated this blog...I've had a hard time keeping up.  Here are some details about things that I've done, umm, in the last few months!  The Manitoba Craft Museum and Library has put the Accessibility for Pattern Makers and Users event online for anyone who might be interested in viewing it. (Bonus, you can knit or spin or whatever while watching the talk!)  I've been doing some occasional blog posts for Winnipeg Sews, too.  This is a great local sewing studio where both my kids have had successful sewing lessons...culminating in making pj bottoms. I'm continuing to write for the Vancouver Jewish Independent as well as doing occasional pieces elsewhere.  I wrote a piece on dyslexia, Fight for the Right to Read, for the Winnipeg Free Press in October.

I'm participating, again, the Fasten Off Yarn Along this year.  This is a great opportunity to get knitting and crochet patterns at a discount, as well as to socialize and knit/crochet along with others in an accessible environment.  All my patterns on Payhip and Ravelry are on sale for 25% off through December 8th at midnight with this coupon code: FO2023

(This is a pretty darn good deal and a fun event.)

What am I making/knitting/spinning these days?  Well, I've finally admitted to myself that I was just too overwhelmed with the household renovation and other obligations to turn out patterns this past year.  I decided 'sabbatical' might be the best term for what I've been on.  I've been at this for about 20 years, more or less, in terms of writing fiber publications and designs, it is ok to take breaks.  So I am knitting but using up stash and turning out things like this funny Snail Hat (A classic Elizabeth Zimmerman design) instead.

We've also finished up the renovations 'to paste our house back together' for now.  Does this mean it is all fixed?  Not really...but things are finally stable, the plumbing and electricity work, the holes are plugged up.  It means we'll save up and take time off for now. 

It may seem small, but part of 'getting back to normal' means emptying more boxes. Some of our moving boxes have not been emptied due to all the construction, some furniture needs to be moved.. and after a year, it's time.  I do a little every day, when I can manage, and twins and the Professor help on weekends.  Last weekend, I put our nice dishes away in our breakfront for the third time. (Yes, I tried twice before, but had to move them each time due to construction.)  I also managed to unpack some family china.  This box had been packed for our move from Kentucky to Canada in 2009 and now, it has a safe place and it's all finally out of the box...and the enormous china box is no longer in the living room. This is both a frivolous thing and also, well, a reassuring step towards making order in our house again.  

 

Remember the sale! Please check it out if you're interested.  There's still time to download a pattern.  Join in and make something with your hands during a stressful time.

Wishing you everything good.

Catching up

Since the day I started this blog, long ago, I have never let it sit so many months without updates...but it felt like I could never quite get enough time to come back and visit. Everyday things I love fell by the wayside over the last few months, and I am only now getting them back.  The first big news is that by the end of February, we finally had our new kitchen.  The one where we had to gut the old kitchen entirely, put in a structural beam, get a lot of plumbing and frozen pipes fixed, etc.  This bread would be unremarkable, except we went many months without homemade bread...everyone in our house is so "used" to having it that going from November until end of February without bread was a long wait.  (Of course now, Passover is almost here too, so no more homemade bread, but at least there is a kitchen to cook and eat in again!)

Literally the moment the cookbooks got taken out of the boxes, we were looking at recipes again, discussing what to make next, and getting excited about future meals again.

When the kitchen was finished, we could move the stained glass from the old house and hang it in the new one. Everyone felt relieved at the move.  We bought this stained glass when our twins were infants, and recently the artist who has helped us with the glass in this "new" old house told us that this window stained glass was likely from the late 1800s or early 1900s, and by the way, many of the types of glass in it were no longer available.  All the more reason to treat it with caution.

Getting through this time with no real kitchen, managing two mortgages (until the old house sold), a part-time job plus my freelance work, and of course, managing our household, twins and dog--has been complicated.  We spent a lot of time outside and I have found access to winter time activities  and exercise like an outdoor rink in walking distance and the (frozen) river trail--have been a great gift.

Walking the dog out on the river trail among art displays, skaters, skiers, kicksleds...it's an amazing opportunity, like having a new provincial park at the end of the block.  When the trail closed, the dog and I were both sad!

I've also been sewing, knitting and spinning when I can fit it in, although not with as much regularity as I managed before.  This winter, we managed to have twins signed up to three extracurricular activities in January and February.  (Chess club, sewing studio and piano lessons) In March, we continued with piano, tried out kick sledding--with and without the dog, and also kids had an intro to racquetball.  Later in April, we're starting again with chess and sewing, but at least there will be fewer snowstorms and -30C evenings to contend with while driving around.

Each bit of renovation that happens is a triumph.  When our contractor brothers opened up this back door area and renovated it, it was like a doorway to the past.  My professor husband has been slowly getting windows fixed one at a time, rehanging the window weights, and we have so far opened up 4 windows and two doorways.  (2 more windows to go, I think.)  Whoever decided to close off windows and doors in a long-ago renovation...maybe in the 1980s or maybe much earlier...really wasn't the brightest bulb.

Here's the re-opened back door area.  Below are two high up windows in our new kitchen...both were blocked off but one of them had actually been left open, behind cupboards and walls, to vent a half-bath for perhaps 40 or more years.  No wonder why the area was cold and the pipes froze in winter!

We also finally have a working dishwasher, which is a huge deal when feeding a family all winter.  We were not surviving on take out or eating out during this time...but we did choose to use paper plates during the kitchen renovation.  It was probably the most paper plates we adults have ever used in our lifetimes.  It was worth it though, there are limits to what one family can manage...even an eco-conscious one.  It's also the first time in 20 some years when we haven't composted at all--because our dog got skunked in September right after we started composting.  So you know, we decided to stop composting until we figured out how NOT to attract skunks to the yard.  If you have tips on that, let me know in the comments!

Knitting continued as kids keep growing and needing new woollies!  This is another version of my "Stripe Freestyle" Sweater- slightly upsized as my kids are now a little bigger than the pattern I published.  The yarn for this one was my handspun Cotswold and silk singles.  I dyed it as well, the yellow was dyed with marigolds and the red came from a nice dye packet.  I wrote about spinning and dyeing this yarn on the blog in 2006.  Some yarns just need time to marinate in the stash!  In this case, I obviously had to give birth to twins first and then wait 11 years.

Here's another fun photo of kids enjoying the art installations this year--this one was taken at the Forks. This sail turned in the wind while you stood on it...but it also served as a much needed windbreak on a very chilly day.

I'm now on to knitting yet another "Stripe Freestyle" sweater for the other kid and the fuschia yarn in the background will likely be a sweater for me, someday.  (It's on hold while I knit more for kids.)  It never fails to surprise me which knitting patterns sell lots of copies and which don't.  The Stripe Freestyle pattern is a slam dunk in my household, but doesn't sell many copies on Ravelry, Payhip or Lovecrafts.  No idea why.  In any event, it's been a mainstay in these twins' wardrobes for years.

 Finally, I'm adding a much overdue photo of the lovely birthday celebration we had back in January- I had a big birthday, in the midst of all of this. We were stressed out and it went by quietly.  However, now that we're "down" to owning only one house, things are somewhat calmer.  Still lots of renovations to go and some ends to tie up, but I'm hoping for warmer weather and more time for writing, designing and playing ahead.  

End of year summary…

Our end of year has alternated between shoveling huge amounts of snow and resting and playing a lot indoors. There's a big COVID surge in Manitoba so we're doing a lot of hibernating and no one seems to mind. I am thrilled by the snowfall as we are in a drought and every bit of moisture matters.  Still it requires a lot of work to shovel out several houses and that's most of what we've been doing these days.  (It was maybe 10" or 25 cm of snow or maybe 12"/30 cm, and we helped out some 80 year old family friends, too.) Needless to say, we all like a rest afterwards, as you can see from Sadie the dog's photo.

We seem to also take part in a lot of toy sorting and match box car demolition derby.

I've also been doing some occasional making, spinning, knitting and sewing.  I've just washed all these skeins of handspun and tucked them away for the future.

I got an email from Yarncanada asking me to let people know about a charity knitting project giveaway. 

Here's an opportunity to get yarn for free to make things for charity.  Please apply soon if you're interested!

I'm continuing efforts to improve my "me made wardrobe."  This is a wool tweed tunic, based on the 100 acts of sewing dress no. 1.  It's a great warm layer with pockets, which is always good. I got this fabric for $4 as part of the MB fibre festival fibre trail and Costume Museum's sale in September. It's an amazing tweed, it looks very serious at a distance but up close, is full of bits of very bright colour.  Hot pink, neon yellow and green, electric blue.  Very cheerful, and of course, only very special people are allowed "up close" these days.  (Basically, the professor, twins, and a dog!)  

I'm continuing to spin up some well-aged brown Polwarth wool on my Quebec wheel, and I'm also working on a simple sewing project...but a sweet housewarming project.  Six napkins in a linen/cotton fabric - the gorgeous pattern matches the new owners' future dining room to a tee.  I could not resist the fabric when I saw it, and I'm rooting for things to go smoothly so that these napkins end up in use on a dining room table soon.

I've also been working (as I can) behind the scenes. I've had op-ed articles run in the Winnipeg Free Press and the Vancouver Independent.  Another article ran in PLY magazine, and I'm still very proud of that Winter 21/22 Vogue Knitting article that ran on moths and how to avoid them.  It's not been world's best year in terms of my freelance life, but considering how complicated the pandemic has been, remote schooling, not seeing family, and construction disruptions to our home life, well, I'll take what I can get. In just a few moments, I'll be bundling up twins.  It's -14F (-26C) right now, and that's the warmest it's been all day!  I'm looking forward to getting out in it so we can walk over to a medical clinic to go get their second vaccine dose, and I couldn't be happier or more relieved to have access to this opportunity.  Thank you, science.

Wishing you a peaceful, healthy, and happy 2022. 

waving from home

I've been teaching my kids since there's no school now.  Yesterday, twins learned to sew on a button for the first time.

The good news is that everyone here at our house is fine, we have food, shelter, and good company.  We're all trying hard to work together.  My professor husband is managing his class online, and working in between helping with twins.  I have done a bit of writing when I can stay up late enough, or fit it in.

The rest of the time, I've been homeschooling two eight year olds, cooking, trying to keep things even remotely clean (hard with twins, two bird dogs, an old house and a spring melt), and keep everyone afloat.  And Passover is coming, and we need to get ready for that, too.

For me, it's not that different than usual, because I usually work from home.  However, I now have a lot less time to do it, and very little time to do it alone.  (Right now, twins are out bike riding with their dad helping them maneuver their way through all the snow melt puddles...)

The bad news is that I appear to have lost one of my writing gigs.  Today I received my copy of the Winnipeg Jewish Post & News and to my surprise, my column wasn't in it.  I contacted the editor to ask what had happened.  Apparently, my column didn't run--it was an oversight, but oh, by the way...from now on, he would no longer be paying columnists.  So, if I wanted to write for free, he would still put my columns on the website. Things change fast during a pandemic.

I'll be direct.  I was paid $75 an issue to write for this publication, which is not very much, but I wanted to support the Winnipeg Jewish community, so I did anyway...but I didn't write for free.  (Freelancing is, after all, my job and not my hobby.)  The editor did hook me up with the editor of the Vancouver Jewish paper, and for a while, both papers would publish my column and I would get paid more.  But now, due to the current crisis, I'm unsure of if and when my column will run again.  No more publication = no money from that gig.

Again, we are lucky, we have food, shelter, heat and health. (for now.)  I am grateful for what I have...but just now, I'm really sad and surprised to lose this-- I'll no longer be writing a column every other week for the Winnipeg Jewish community.

If you're sad about this too, contact the Jewish Post & News.  Show them your support.  Maybe somebody could help sponsor the column and help keep the newspaper afloat during this hard time...cause writers deserve to sometimes earn money to eat, too. 

Here comes 2020!

In 2019, I designed and published 4 knitting patterns: worrybear, strippymcstrippit, deirhart and thestayputkippah.

 I also wrote and had published more than 65 articles, helped edit a diabetes health book, and returned to sewing—since October, I have made myself 4 dresses, 1 pair of pants, a vest, some dish towels and a summer tunic! Whoa. My boss is reasonably satisfied with my output....
(I am a freelancer.  The boss is me!)

To celebrate 2020 and my upcoming birthday, I am offering 20% off all my Ravelry patterns (including Three Ply, which was featured in Vogue Knitting Magazine this fall!). This ends January 5th at midnight, CT. Thanks for celebrating with me! Have a wonderful new year!
Use this 20% off coupon code on Ravelry:
2020


Psst!  I sent a new pattern off to the tech editor...Stay tuned!  Here's something new for 2020...I can't wait to share it with you!

winter break

Every day, I've been finding time to do a little knitting or spinning...(and sometimes watching other folks checking out my patterns!)

 A friend gave me this fabulous chestnut cream, so I turned it into icing for chocolate zucchini cupcakes and a little brioche shaped cake. I sent the professor and one twin (the healthy one) off in the snow to deliver a brioche shaped chocolate cake, iced with chestnut cream and topped with raspberries, to the friend who gave us the jar.  (ok, the cake was not as well cooked in the middle as it should have been.  I tried hard!)

Sadie the dog went to play at dog daycare on December 24th and ran and played her heart out.  They took this great photo of her. Today (Boxing Day), Sadie and I had a date to a pet shop where we bought her a new crate on sale.  We're hoping this one (her third!) works like a charm. She broke out of her first kennel, her secondhand second one was not in great shape...but she could use it, and we've gotten up to about 2.5 hours in the kennel at a time... so we went for this new hard-sided plastic one, on sale.  Here's hoping it works out!  (she counter surfs when left alone and loose in the house....)

Every day, one (very sniffly kid with a cold) has been practicing his hand writing.  He chooses a sentence or two to practice each day.  Click on the photo to see his work. I promise, I did not tell him to write these! (but I did make chocolate cupcakes with chestnut icing.  A bribe?!) 

I hope you're enjoying warm and cozy days off!

Tellin' it like it is

When I was a kid, I was sometimes reprimanded by my elders because I was not the most subtle or thoughtful.  If somebody asked me something, I occasionally responded without the right "polite" filter.  So, sometimes I maybe said mean things inadvertently, without thinking, or I was way too honest when asked my opinion.
" No, Auntie So and So, you don't look good in that color.  I don't like your new dress..."  
You get the picture?  Those comments did not go down so well.

  However, there's something to be said for telling it like it is.  My mother-in-law (may she rest in peace) was very good at this, and now I get it...often people encourage girls to be nice, act nicely and be polite...don't make waves.  Yet?  There's some serious feminist power in speaking my piece.

Even so, I am sometimes too kind due to this childhood "girly" training.  I try to excuse people by saying  things like "I'm not entirely sure what they were doing" (when I knew, in this case they were definitely pirating ebooks) and making excuses like "I was really sleep deprived.  Maybe I missed something."  The truth is, heck no, I did not miss anything.  As individuals, we often see people doing wrong.  If I were not so tired that day, maybe I would have called out those people who were stealing digital content, but in truth, I wasn't up to doing it.  I should have.  I should have even been more direct about it in this essay I wrote.  Oh well.

What am I talking about?  I just had a piece published on the CBC about intellectual property piracy:
Time to assess the true cost of digital piracy

Some of the comments posted in response may have their points.  However, some are downright mean and petty.  The professor pointed out to me that I should read all the comments through this lens:  Why are they commenting?  Do they feel defensive because they are guilty of stealing someone's intellectual property/content without paying for it?

If so, we can chalk it up to this: some people say inadvisable or unkind things when they feel guilty and defensive. Oops. :)

Even further...why do these trolls comment on articles all the time in this way?  Why not write your own opinion piece?  Why not speak out about your point of view instead?!  Are you willing to put your writing out there for publication and be open to the critique?

I mentioned this new article on a forum for knitwear designers, and got a lot of kind support, but the best one was someone who posted a link to this comic.  The comic is about EXPOSURE.  How creative people aren't doing their work for the money, but instead, for exposure.  (Warning, there is one well-placed bad word in this comic.)

This comic gave me a laugh, and it reminded me too of how far I've come in my work life.  When I first started writing for publication, I was very sensitive about every comment, criticism and critique.  It all hurt.  Now, I know that nothing I ever write is perfect, but that it's ok to write what I know...and sometimes it gets accepted for publication...anyway.

When I see the article go live, part of me is proud it was published for its own sake.  Another part of me is going: Grocery money!  Preschool fees!  Maybe we can afford take-out now and again!   

Cause the Canadian dollar is low these days, and groceries cost more and more.  It's a fine thing to be able to put my education and experience to work, and earn money for that work.  Some folks might not agree with me.  Oh well.  I can live with that, particularly if I still get to earn money for my writing, and it pays some of the bills.  It's a feminist thing: getting paid fairly for my work.

That's saying it like it is.

Spindle article in Spin-Off!

This issue of Spin-Off Magazine, the Summer 2015, has my article about spindling in it!  It's called 'Slow Spindles?  7 tips for making more yarn.'

 Here are some outtakes--photos that the Professor shot that did not make it into the article.  He took these in the dead of winter.  It was so cold that his camera would freeze up and stop working...Meanwhile, the editor asked if we could catch some shots of me spinning outside!  (Not on your life.  At -20C or below, I require double mitts, and you can bet I am not spinning outside!)

If you have a copy of the magazine, you will see one shot with a spindle on a white background.
That is snow.

Luckily it is warm and green here now.  Whew.  Just when I thought winter would never end...

This is a "spindle" basket, ready to go: I put it over my arm, loaded with fiber, and wander around spinning.  Works very well while watching twins or helping at the Manitoba Fibre festival!

A book and its cover

I took my time reading One Man's Meat... E. B. White's essays are engrossing. In fact, if I had to describe this experience, I might call it "chewy." That is, when you really have to chew your food, think it over, and get back to it later. Sometimes I had to ponder the historical context of his words, think on his perspectives in context, and appreciate his reflections on war and history in an age when media was NOT omnipresent the way it is today.

Some of the essays were incredibly straightforward and relevant today. Written 70 years ago, the points they make about our automobile society, the changes in regional language from one state to another (New York to Maine, in White's case) or even his insanely stressful "to do" list, called "Memorandum" are all still relevant. His clear competence as a professional--both as a writer and his adaptation to life on a farm were all well-worth reflecting on because he combined two things I often think are well-suited to one another. (The professor keeps steering us towards buying houses "in town" because he thinks I'd acquire an awful lot of sheep, llamas, goats, etc. in a hurry if I had a house in the country. My imagined garden and orchard would also be enormous. It's enough to scare a person into buying houses near lots of bus routes, I suspect.)

White's essay, "Memorandum" reminded me of my most scattered, stressed-out "to do" list and how much there is always left to get done at the end. I read that one before bed and you can bet I didn't sleep much afterwards!

I also felt stimulated by this book in a way that I haven't been lately. I admit that I've lately been guilty of reading lightweight British mysteries and other novels that pass the time without too much thought required. In part, I figured I was giving myself a brain break while my body works overtime. In part, I was just being lazy during a time when I do have plenty of time to read..and think. Reading these essays required me to do research as I went along, reading more about E.B. White, his life, his family members and his times.

I was reminded, this past summer, by the heavyweight books that our resident student took on as her leisure time reading. I too read depressing/intellectual/inspiring/well-written/classics (etc) for fun when I was 20, and she did too. Recently when I spoke to her on the phone, I heard from her that her favorite book of the summer was The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera.

Really? I asked her. Did you buy that here or bring it with you from home? Or did you borrow it from our shelves?

Oh, she said, I borrowed it....

and I laughed, because the copy she'd read was perfect for a knitter. I'd read it so many times (at about her age) that the spine was perfectly cracked, the book lay flat, and any knitter could read it slowly, while knitting, over and over again. It was also one of my favorites at that time of life. These days, I don't push myself as often to read books about big ideas, and I should.

Reflecting on these essays made me ponder a few things.
1) Some writers are lifelong companions. Charlotte's Web was one of my favorite books as a kid. My mother studied that book in her children's literature class in college. My father cried as he read it to me, and I've read it over and over. I'm still distraught that I seem to have misplaced my mother's copy of The Elements of Style. In any case, I bought another, as it is a reference book I can't teach writing without...and well, you get my point.

2) While I write lots of different things, I think at heart I am most fond of the essay. The problem with this is that being an essayist is no longer so profitable. I think the closest I come to getting to write essays all the time is on the blog--and I don't earn anything here. I've thought over that one long and hard and have yet to find good solutions to that. I'm hoping that some day I'll make the big time with an essay I sell, but so far, at $100 or less for most of the ones I sell, I'll have to stick to other kinds of writing to make my way in the world.

3) I am still very fond of books. That is, actual books rather than electronic ones. I don't have an e-reader of any kind and have debated long and hard over whether I need one. The gadgetry of it is tempting but they are quite pricey for someone who reads as much as I do. Usually, I conclude it's safer NOT to have one when I spill tea at breakfast while reading, or when I notice one of the dogs sidling up and licking a book on the coffee table. Neither would be ideal for an e-reader, I'd imagine.

However, it would also keep me from learning about the history of the actual book in my hands. (Check out the photos to see these details) My copy of One Man's Meat was purchased in 1963 for the Owensboro, Kentucky High School Library. I found this book to be fairly sophisticated, so while I am sure that somebody enjoyed it while it spent 35 years there, I was surprised to see it spent so long in a high school library! I might have read it in high school but I'm not sure what I would have gotten out of it at that time...

It was discarded in November of 1998 (a few months after the professor and I got married). It next turned up at a Bowling Green, Kentucky public library book sale sometime between 2003 and 2009, since I must have bought it sometime in there. I suspect I bought it sometime in the range of 2007-2009 but hadn't yet gotten to reading it. I moved it to Canada with me...and finally enjoyed its well-cracked spine and soft paper over the past few months.

That's just a few thoughts on this wonderful essay collection. I'm sure I'll think back on it over and over again over the coming months or years. I may have to read it again. If I teach a writing class where it's relevant, I might have to use one of these essays--each one is a gem from which I (and my students) could learn a great deal.

If you're a reader and you like essays, do check it out. It's well worth it!

ECC

I don't usually read the sports news, but this article caught my eye. Why? I taught 5 class sections (2 of Freshman Composition and 3 Remedial Writing) at Erie Community College on the North and City campuses in Buffalo, New York back in 2003. I'm proud to see the college in the news--plus, what a wonderful name this student has....really, go read the article. It's kind of neat.

I'll be back with photos of the Professor's trip to Edmonton when I have a bit more time. In the meanwhile, I hope you're enjoying summer!

creativity and the slog

It seems like a good time of year to talk about creation...what with springtime and all its attendant holidays, etc. That, and a friend who reads my blog sometimes said, "You wrote that whole post about the socks and never described HOW you explained that you design stuff!"

Hmm. Well, if it were always easy to explain and I had a check list on how I did it, well then, anybody could do it, right?

No, I think I just didn't do an effective job of explaining it to that engineer friend. I'm still struggling. Here are some thoughts.

Sometimes, I am inspired by something I see. For instance, a detail I see in a building's design, or in nature, or even a person's sweater in an airport. The photos in this post are from a trip to Ireland, about 4 years ago, I think. I shot lots of photos of these buildings--something in the curlicues, circles and lines really attracted me.

Other times, I get my hands on a really delicious sort of fiber or yarn, and it just calls to me. I swatch and experiment and think about it until I can come up with something to design it into. Swatching sometimes indicates what needle size I'd prefer, what stitch pattern looks best, and how the yarn behaves. These are all essential to creating something that is actually useful later, after knitting.

The things I've mentioned, above, often require a bit of day dreaming to get it right. Play, experimentation and brainstorming are all a part of this process at times. This is true for some of my writing projects as well. Taking walks, dreaming, and knitting, spinning or weaving meditatively will often give me the ideas and the solutions to problems I'm thinking about.

This is the point where I should mention that I'm not short on ideas. That's not the problem. The problem is getting the ideas to a point where I can sell them (as a design, article, book, etc.) to someone else. That part can be, well, a slog...but more on that in a bit.

Another option is when someone asks me to design a specific garment or project. I then work from what the finished project will look like. I choose the right colors of yarn, textures, styles, and crunch the numbers for the design based on a swatch I've knitted.

I think the difference between a professional designer/writer and an occasional innovator has a lot to do with the "slog" part of things. Yes, a professional sells things, and the hobbyist might not, but that is not necessarily the definition I think about on my own. After all, Van Gogh was a pretty fine painter and his work didn't sell all that well. I'd still call him a professional!

The slog (at least for me) involves getting down every bit of the technical writing of a design. It involves creating attractive photos and good schematics. It means manipulating graphs into charts that knitters can work from. It's creating a satisfying layout for a pdf and making sure I can hire a technical editor and afford to pay her, too.

Sometimes, the slog is even just knitting up a design sample that I find boring to knit...and perhaps it's something I'd never wear in a color I don't like...because occasionally, selling a design means using a color I'd never choose and a style that wouldn't ever be flattering for me. That's when it can be a slog and not a joy.

When I write, I find some things are fun to do from beginning to end, and other assignments are more of a slog. This doesn't correlate to how technical it is, or how long the article is, or even the subject matter.

It might that this part is where the muse comes in. The creativity part is hard to describe, and while I can get into the technical bits, I find that nothing there is inspiring. It's when a day flies by with lots to write about, or when a design just flows out of me without any set backs. It's like the muse dropped by that day, and better yet, she knew what I'd need.

Then, the muse leaves and I'm back to the slog. It means finding ways to sell my work, market it, and actually try to earn something from it. That's the not fun part for me.

I think sometimes that creativity isn't the problem. It's funding and supporting things that make creativity happen.
For instance, qiviut (or musk ox fiber) is a very rare, very warm and luxurious fiber. It's hard to get your hands on this stuff, but when you do, it is well worth it. This qiviut has inspired generations of Alaskan knitters who create amazing, lacy warm works of art with it. (To learn more about this story, check out Arctic Lace by Donna Druchunas--it's a great book...a real inspiration!)

50 years ago, a man named John Teal, Jr. started the first musk ox farm in Alaska, where these amazing beasts were cared for and bred in captivity. This man had a dream, and his creativity and love for these animals created an amazing resource for Alaskans.

Here's the slog part. Here's what's happening today:
I am the Granddaughter of John Teal Jr, the man who domesticated the Musk Oxen and started a market for its amazing and exotic wool, Qiviut.

Our non-profit farm in Palmer Alaska is in great danger of being sold and dissolved, and I am doing everything in my power to keep it going as a sustainable and viable operation.

But I need help. I have to raise funds to prevent the sale, to keep the grazing land of our herd of 55 Musk Oxen, and to prove to the board that our project is valuable to the greater community. The knitting and fiber community is an important part of our support network.

Any amount will make a difference.

Thank you!

Quill Teal-Sullivan
Granddaughter of John Teal Jr

Not everybody is an artist, and maybe the muse didn't drop by every day... but we all can enjoy those occasional bursts of creativity and dreaming, in ourselves and in others. Some people can help maintain the materials that inspire us all towards becoming creative in our own way.

Want to help support musk oxen? Visit the Musk Ox Farm link and maybe you can lend a hand.