Tag Archives: acatherinenoon

Makers Monday – Progress Report on the Chakra Wall

Knoontime Knitting

The Chakra Wall is coming into focus. I’ve been hanging the ojos (which means “eye” in Spanish) from a specific central spot and coming out of it to the right as though expanding from that origin point.

This is the wall I’m using. It’s late in the year here, when I took this shot; November is mostly rain and getting cold. It seemed like a good day to start the project so I came out and swept down the spiderwebs.

Seattle actually has something called, “Spider Season.” I’m not sure if this is a scientific thing or just something the locals say, but man. Those little girls like to weave themselves some web.

My husband, who is not an arachnophobe like me, Dear Reader, told me that most spiders we see are female. The males are smaller and don’t live nearly as long. I like referring to them as “she,” because it makes them less terrifying.

The reason that’s relevant is down on the bottom right of the image are some cardboard boxes used for landscaping (you put them down as weed barrier and put dirt on top of them); we have a truly epic-sized black spider living there. So brushing down the spiders with a broom is a life skill here – particularly if you want to create an art project outside in their demesnes.

I set the ojos down so I could see the ones I had completed so far. The ones on the bottom with the reds are for the Root Chakra. I have one orange one for Sacral, one with yellows (more goldenrod, really) for Solar Plexus, and a green one for Heart.

I originally wanted them to go up, but realized that physics is a thing. The porch only goes to the right just past the glass doors, and I’m not great with heights. So for now, I’m going out as far as I can reach from the ground, and later as I finish more ojos I’ll involve the husband to help me with the ladder and a hammer.

Next up are the next three chakras: Throat (light blue); Third Eye (indigos), and Crown (violets, white, and silver).

Keep Making, my friends!

Makers Monday – Ojos de Dios and the Chakras – What Is a Chakra?

Knoontime Knitting

I thought I’d take a moment and discuss Chakras, so this project makes a little more sense.

Chakras are an ancient concept from India that were developed 1500 to 500 BCE (Before Current Era). They are conceived as wheels, and are seen to be located in the human body. In general, there are seven chakras in the body:

  • The Root Chakra  – grounding, connection to the earth
  • The Sacral Chakra – primal relationships, sexuality, creativity
  • The Solar Plexus Chakra – will, intent, personal power
  • The Heart Chakra – relationships, love, friendship
  • The Throat Chakra – speaking our truth
  • The Third Eye Chakra – clear sight, vision, intuition
  • The Crown Chakra – connection to the divine, collective consciousness

The seven chakras have all sorts of things that are representative – sounds, colors, concepts, etc. For our purposes, the colors are the most relevant:

  • The Root Chakra – reds
  • The Sacral Chakra – oranges
  • The Solar Plexus Chakra – yellows
  • The Heart Chakra – greens
  • The Throat Chakra – light blues
  • The Third Eye Chakra – indigos
  • The Crown Chakra – violets, whites, silvers

I’ll show you next week how some of these are coming together in practice, and how they look on the wall with each other.

Makers Monday – Ojos de Dios and the Chakras

Knoontime Knitting

I’ve talked about ojos de Dios, or eyes of G*d, before. I enjoy making them, because they’re relatively simple to weave and they adapt to many different uses. They can be made for prayers and spells, protection, to commemorate new projects or milestones, and for art.

I had a dream recently, where I saw a series of ojos on the side of the house. When I woke up, it was as though I could still see it. It felt so vivid and real, I walked outside to look.

I had to laugh. The place where I’d seen them has two big windows right in the middle of it.

Hmm.

But there’s a large wall on the back of my house that would totally work…

And thus, a project was born.

I thought I’d share some progress pictures. It feels so good to start making things again. I look back and my pictures and it’s not that I haven’t made things; but I’ve definitely felt stuck for a long while. It’s been so fun working on a larger project that will take some time to complete.

This one is for the Throat Chakra, also called the Fifth Chakra. It’s about using our voice and finding our power.

I picked a luminous black filament with blues and pinks for the center. It’s not coming through very well on the camera, but it’s eye-catching.

I also varied the weave; that part toward the edges by wrapping around the arm of the ojo without weaving across. This presented more of a gap in the weaving.

I forgot to weave the hangar like I normally do, since I didn’t want to use the center black yarn. It’s too springy and also a very thin filament, not robust for hanging in weather.

I tied the last two yarns to make the hangar, which is something I don’t usually do but I like how it came out. I used an overhand knot at the end to make it hangable.

Next Monday, come back and I’ll share the wall and the beginning of the Chakra wall.

Cheers!

~Noony

The Flora and Fauna Report – Progress This Week

Knoontime Knitting

The idea of the Flora and Fauna Report came from Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way. She describes getting letters from a relative that she described as a ‘flora and fauna report,’ because they were about all the goings on in and out of her life. I loved the idea, because all it asks of us is to show up as we are. Kind of like meditation. 🙂

Today is a very cold and clear, sunny day in the Pacific Northwest. I am working on a chakra ojos de dios project, which I’ll be sharing more about in subsequent posts; but today, I wanted to share a little of our goings on.

The cell booster is up! Man, that was an ordeal. We needed this part, and that part, and the other part; we thought we had everything and needed… two bolts.

That’s it. Two little bolts. No big deal, unless you don’t have it, and then it’s a big deal.

I added two more ojos to the project (the ones on the right); the lower one is for Voice and the upper right is for Third Eye.

I’ll have more in a series on this project, so stay tuned!

Saturday Craft Circle

Knoontime Knitting

I got some new yarn from KnitPIcks called “Oceana” in the “Spirulina” colorway. It’s worsted weight, 54% superfine alpaca and a new fiber, 46% SEAQUAL (R) YARN, which is reclaimed plastic from the ocean. It’s got a nice loft and halo. I tried several needle sizes (4 was way too small and 9 was way too big); size 7 seems to do the trick.

Here’s the detail of the “Vertical Lace Trellis” stitch from Barbara Walker’s stitch guide, volume 1 (the one with the blue cover). I really like how it is coming out. It’s got a great drape, and the halo makes it soften.

Here’s the completed swatch. I’m thinking of making a top-down cape or poncho, haven’t decided yet. We shall see.

A Is For… The A to Z Challenge, of Course!

Knoontime Knitting

Welcome to the A to Z Challenge! I’m getting started a little later than I intended, as I’m writing this on the 2nd of April, but I figure, leap, and the net will appear.

This image is from a series that I did a while back as an inspiration deck. I used the seven chakra colors plus brown. It was a fun project to think about, to come up with images that represented the color to me if not the chakra itself.

This month, for the A to Z Challenge, I will walk through my studio as I see it, not necessarily as I would show it to a visitor. I’m naturally a right-brained thinker, but since I have to live and work in the left-dominated neurotypical world I’ve learned to adapt. This month, I decided to try something different, and just post what I felt called to post for myself.

This blog, if you haven’t visited before, came about because I realized that I seem to have a learning difference in translating things from 2D to 3D. I’m hyperverbal (and thus a novelist), but I wasn’t always that way. I’ve always been a storyteller, but being raised in an abusive household I learned to hide my natural mode and survive as a left-brained thinker. I got very good at it, to the point that I now make a living in an analytical field and have an MBA in Finance.

In 2016, with the American election and the kickoff of what we now know is a strong Christofascist movement in our country, I started to feel seriously overwhelmed by everything. I didn’t realize at the time what was happening. The writing was the first to go, then the knitting, design work, and eventually, my weaving. I have done a few pieces here and there but nothing approaching my previous “normal.”

It’s been a journey but I’m finding myself closer to my “old me” than I’ve been in a long while, and I decided to take the opportunity of the A to Z challenge to challenge myself – to write, to show up at the keyboard daily, and to think about things that make me passionate.

And today, that’s craft: Knoontime Knitting: One Writer’s Journey Into 3-D. We changed it when we did a blog redesign, to “Where We Let the Squirrels Play,” and that fits too. Ultimately, it’s a philosophical discussion about craft as practice and a showcase, for myself if no one else, of what I did really do. A witnessing of my own process; midwifing my own creativity.

I hope you’ll join me, and that herein you will find some small inspiration for your own art, whatever that is.

Welcome.

Here are the rest of the images from the series:

Orange

Yellow

Green

Blue

Indigo

Violet

Brown

Knitting Notes For Saturday

Knoontime Knitting

I realized that I hadn’t been posting about the projects I’m working on, so I took some pictures last evening to get caught up. A few years ago, I started a course on Craftsy called “Wee Ones,” by Susan B. Anderson; making little stuffed elephant toys, and then set it aside. I picked it up a few weeks ago and finished this little guy.

Nadya was sitting next to me and wanted to see too.

Maybe not THAT close…

She decided to sniff it a couple times.

The eyes are made with some antique buttons from my grandmother’s button collection.

Here’s a close-up. It’s a cute little design.

And in other news, I decided to try making a koi fish. Susan B. Anderson has a little fish pattern and I used this to adapt the pattern and make it bigger.

This will be the face. I stuffed it too much at first and then realized I’m not making a sock, I’m making a fish, and it needs to be flatter.

This end will be the tail. It’s made in similar fashion to socks.

The tail is made on two needles, but still knitting in the round. I’ll post pics when it’s done.

I’m thinking I’m going to try another one with a lace pattern to simulate scale. And also one with overlaid fins. We’ll see; still playing around with it.

Playing With My Pin Loom

Knoontime Knitting

Today I took some time for Sunday crafting while I was watching and participating in the BotanicWise Allies for Plants and People Symposium. This year, the Pin Loom Weaving Support Group held a Weavealong hosted by TexasGabbi of Turtle Looms. The weavelong ran for six weeks and, though I did not finish on time due to the stress of the global pandemic, I’m still plugging away at it. I made all the weavies called for in the weavealong, but I used to be intimidated by sewing the weavies together – part of the weavealong instructions.

I’m happy to say that I no longer am intimidated by this process! I’ve successfully sewn Week 1, Week 2a, and Week 2b weavies together. And today, I worked on the extra project for Week 2, embroidering a weavie.

This caused me some consternation, because my very first textile art was embroidery. I could not settle on a design I liked. I dithered and hemmed and hawed, and overthought, and finally, today, decided I’d had it: JUST DO IT, as Nike says. Right? Right.

Only problem was, when I started to embroider on a finished weavie, I couldn’t get it under tension. It was flopping all over the place because the weavies are such loose-weave fabric, and I don’t have a small enough embroidery hoop. A friend suggested putting the weavie back on the Zoom Loom, and thereby under tension. I tried that, but fabric off a loom settles and it’s next to impossible to get it back to its former state.

Then it hit me: why not make a new weavie?

Voila.

This time, I switched back to my main color, a lovely charcoal grey marino wool blend. Then I used my CC3 color (contrast color #3), which is a light grey variegated color, also a marino blend. I used a detail of a pattern from Alice Starmore’s book, Celtic Needlepoint (if you haven’t checked out her work before, you owe it to yourself to visit her site that she shares with her talented daughter Jade Starmore, Virtual Yarns). I added the year and then took it off the loom. I’m really pleased with the final look of it. When it came off the loom, the threads relaxed and came together, so the needlepoint really pops.

Next time, I’ll share some of my herbal adventures. I have some lemon mint infusion steeping on my counter overnight and tomorrow, I plan to make a mint syrup.

What about you, Dear Reader? What are you making?

Slow Craft

Knoontime Knitting

Image of pin loom woven squares.

Fast. 5G. Upload speeds. Download speeds. Streaming. Faster cell service. 24/7 news cycle. Always-on. Technostress is stress induced by computer use. “Its symptoms include aggravation, hostility toward humans, impatience, and fatigue. According to experts, humans working continuously with computers come to expect other humans and human institutions to behave like computers, providing instant responses, attentiveness, and an absence of emotion.” (1)

I don’t know about you, but I find that all exhausting. I use technology and have done since I was a teenager. But I find myself called to slow down in my craft pursuits. Take weaving, for instance. I enjoy pin loom weaving, which is what the picture above features. Popular in the 1920’s through the 1940’s, pin looms can be used to make clothing, housewares, toys, and other useful items. The standard size is a four inch square, though makers have created pin looms in a variety of sizes to satisfy inquisitive weavers.

What is it about slow craft that’s calling to us? There are now craft revolutions all over the U.S. and around the world, such as Seattle’s Urban Craft Uprising. Makerspaces are independent and now even part of public libraries. People are merging craft with technology, bringing new ways to old.

And for many of us, slow craft is the antidote to fast culture. We sit and chat, or watch streaming shows or listen to audiobooks. We meditate using fiber or wood. We dream on the canvas or with words on the page. We journal and take pictures with our smartphones. There are even classes on how to be a better photographer using your cell phone. All of which is designed to help us to slow down, stop running, and be in the moment.

The act of creation is a radical act. It’s saying to the world, this didn’t exist before but I’ve made it so. It is rule-breaking, not rule-following. It’s not necessarily rebellious, it’s simply outside the known. Sometimes it comments on the known and sometimes it finds the known irrelevant.

During pandemic, I’ve found myself returning to my pin loom. It calms me in ways that even my knitting can’t – it turns out I can’t count during times of high stress. I don’t have to count to weave a pin loom square. My pin loom group is on Facebook (fast technology meets slow craft) and hosted a Mystery Weavealong that went for seven weeks. It was such a relief to get off work, wander over to my nest on the lounger, and weave squares. Not because I had to, or because I had something in mind – the mystery part of the weavealong meant that I literally didn’t know what I was weaving until the very end – but because the act of making squares settled my mind and let me feel productive but not pushed to finish any particular project. Just make a square. Which color? The instructions told me. And through that practice, my mind calmed.

 

Resources

(1) Laudon, Kenneth C and Jane P Laudon: Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm, c2007, Chapter 4, pg 156.