Y Is For… Yarn! or, The Joy of Stash

A Catherine Noon

I know, this is a topic one might think would be more suited to the Knoontime Knitting side of my website.  But yarn is an integral part of me, and I adore it so much, that it spills out into the rest of my life.  I also like the double entendre of yarn = story.  I’m an equal opportunity textile addict.

Yes, It Really Is All About the Yarn

Yes, It Really Is All About the Yarn

When we moved into our bigger flat, I had the opportunity to set up an office (which, if you have the chance to do it, take it: it’s heaven).  This, of course, meant that I had to move all the bits and pieces of my stash from one place to another.  I did have it somewhat organized, but I wanted to take the opportunity to make it Martha Stewart organized.

Best-laid plans, and all that.

I discovered something that surprised me.  I’m a right-brained thinker, which wasn’t the surprising part.  Because of that, I found that too much organization killed the fun of having the stash.  I no longer could wander into my mess and find something at random on which to work.  Now it felt like a duty:  finish this project, and then this one, and that one.

What to do?

I went to Big Lots and bought myself a three-drawer storage cart on wheels.  This now lives next to my spot on the couch and I can hide all my in-process mess in there if I need to.  The rule is strict:  no organization whatsoever in the drawers.  They’re clear plastic, so I can see what’s in them, but the drawers keep them dust and fur-free.  It’s the best of both worlds – I can have my mess, and hide it, too.

What about you, Dear Reader?
How do you organize your hobbies?

Y Is For… Yarn! – Of course!

A Catherine Noon

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I love yarn, (which is probably obvious, since I wrote about the joys of a yarn stash on my main blog today, too).  But I do love the stuff – I adore digging my hands into it, squeezing it, feeling it reflect the heat of my hands back to me.  I relax when I feel yarn – it’s a very tactile sense of calm.  Sometimes, when I’m working on a new design project and don’t yet see the pattern in my mind, I will walk around the house holding a ball or skein of the yarn.  Doing that lets me meditate with it, commune with it, and let it speak to me.

I know that probably sounds a little wooly-bully (or, let’s face it, a little nuts), but it’s true.  Designing for me is a very tactile process.  I think it has to do with the fact that I don’t translate 2D to 3D in my head, so my design process is physical and not conceptual.  By holding the yarn, I literally “get a feel for it” and am able to see what kind of textile I want to create with it.  Is it light and airy?  Do I want to make something lacy?  Is it heavy and chunky, with a strong body?  Cables might be more the ticket.  This particular yarn in the picture is a Merino wool and alpaca blend with a little bit of silk I think, if memory serves.  It doesn’t have a whole lot of bounce to it, so it’s not very springy; but it’s very soft.  The shine that it has, which isn’t all that visible in this picture due to the lighting, says “sparkle” to me – and I plan to use beads in the lace.

What about you, Dear Reader?
Do you think in words, images, sensations, or something else?

X Is For… X Marks the Spot, or, Maps!

A Catherine Noon
Map Drawn by A. Catherine Noon and Rachel Wilder. Copyright 2012; All Rights Reserved.

Map Drawn by A. Catherine Noon and Rachel Wilder.
Copyright 2012; All Rights Reserved.

Maps are a helpful way to orient oneself in a physical place.  We use them in all sorts of ways:  when driving from one place to another, when finding a new-to-us store or restaurant, even wandering around a mall or airport.  Now, maps are electronic – GPS, or Global Positioning Systems, are as ubiquitous as cell phones.  But how many of us have been steered wrong by their GPS and ended up in another place entirely (Google maps, I’m looking at you, kthnxbi).  For that reason, I’m still old-school and like my paper sheet-maps and guidebooks.  They don’t send me into Muskegon Heights and the police station/mental asylum parking lot.

When worldbuilding, I’ve found maps to be invaluable – not least because I have a tendency to put stuff where I need it in story,  not necessarily where it actually is.  Aside from driving my coauthor and our editors up a tree, it’s useful to know where said tree is – last time, it was on the front of the property, now it’s in the back yard?  Well, yeah, maybe it’s a walking tree like those the ents manage in LOTR?  No?  Oh, fine, I’ll draw a map.

And that’s how the map of Persis, shown above, was born.  We needed to know, for example, how long it takes to get from Reghdad to Kotek City.  Is it a straight shot?  What kind of conveyance can one use to get there?  What’s the terrain like?  What are the hazards of the journey?  And, most importantly, when editing Emerald Keep, we realized that the two Seekers we had written into the scene, who were from Cyrus and Darius respectively, could not have traveled to Reghdad “just like that,” and certainly not during the Daymonth.  Uhps.

See?  Maps are important.  Take that, GPS.

What about you, Dear Reader?
Are you a proponent of the newfangled or like yours old-school?

X Is For… X-Stitch!

A Catherine Noon

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Cross-stitch is one of the easiest needle arts to learn.  It’s just making little “x’s” all over the fabric, using different colors to create a design.  This particular one is from a book called Hand-Stitched Boxes by Meg Evans.  The box is remarkably easy to make, and I’ve done several designs, but this is the pattern that’s in the book and I’m sharing it here because it has cross-stitch motifs.  I made a miscalculation on the canvas, and my design is a little modified because of it, but that’s the beauty of cross-stitch – it’s very easy to modify it and come up with things that you like better.

One hint when working cross-stitch:  decide which direction your “X’s” face.  Either have all the bottom stitches going right and the top left, or vice-versa, but keep it consistent throughout the pattern.  This is how you get the characteristic sheen that’s one of the hallmarks of good cross-stitch.  Also, keep your stitches on the back as neat as possible and don’t use knots to secure the thread.  Just sew over the tails.

What about you, Dear Reader?
What would you put in a box like this?

W Is For… Writing

A Catherine Noon

 

Writing by hand is magical.  There’s something special in it, visceral.  Yes, computers can reproduce calligraphy.  But they cannot create.  They are not people and therefore, they cannot make what we can.  The sad thing about the ease with which typesetting can be done is that people’s eye is no longer educated to the beauty of the handwritten form.  They now no longer teach handwriting in grammar school, either.

This is an awful state of affairs.  Handwriting has been the hallmark of education for generations.  Moving away from that is a bad idea.  Writing by hand can unlock our minds in ways that we cannot do with a computer.  For one thing, you can write a question with your non-dominant hand and answer it with your dominant hand, and thereby discover things buried in your subconscious mind.

What about you, Dear Reader?
What’s your favorite thing about handwriting?

W Is For… Weaving!

A Catherine Noon

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Weaving is one of the oldest textile arts in the world. The most complicated looms, like the huge one featured in the movie Wanted, are the same in principle to the simple back looms used in the mountains of Peru for centuries.  The idea is you use something to put the warp under tension.  Shown above is my simple Cricket Loom, with the warp threaded and some of the weft worked.

The thing I find interesting about weaving is that it’s more complex, at least to my brain, than knitting.  I have to make peace with winding on the warp, and with the mechanics of the loom itself.  The process of actually weaving, meaning putting the shuttle back and forth, is relatively straightforward.  But, as my weaving teacher Natalie Boyett of the Chicago Weaving School pointed out, half of weaving is winding on the warp.  Accepting that, embracing it, helps one enjoy the process of weaving even more.

What about you, Dear Reader?
What unexpected thing has your crafting taught you?

V Is For… Vanuatu!

A Catherine Noon

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Vanuatu.  An archipelago halfway between Hawaii and Australia, it’s been under many outside colonial jurisdictions in its history.  In researching for my post today, I couldn’t think of a “V” to feature so I asked the internet.  It gave me the country.

Then, I found out some sad news.  The country was hard-hit by Cyclone Pam.  Officials are asking for aid from other countries.  International activists are calling on others to provide help to this small nation.  The Guardian has a detailed timeline of what’s been happening there.

V Is For… Vinegar!

A Catherine Noon

VI love vinegar. I use it in salad with fruit instead of dressing; I splash it on vegetables when I steam them; and I use it as part of the seasoning when cooking chicken. I particularly like flavored vinegar.

Making flavored vinegars isn’t difficult.  You cook the vinegar with the additives, either before you let it steep or after, depending on whether it’s fruit or herbs.  Then you let it steep for a few weeks in a dark, cool place and voila, flavored vinegar.

I’ve got plans for a vinegar book that talks about how to do it, but until I write it, you can find some amazing vinegars at a shop in Grand Haven, Michigan, USA called Grand Haven Vinegar and Oil.  Their dark chocolate balsamic vinegar is worth sipping on its own and their fruit vinegars will make you want to find the nearest spinach merchant.  Lovely stuff, vinegar.

What about you, Dear Reader?
What’s your favorite condiment?

U Is For… Umbrella!

A Catherine Noon

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I always carry an umbrella. I live in Chicago, which is called “The Windy City,” but should be called, “The City of Unpredictable Weather.”  When I arrived here over a decade and a half ago, I believed in the power of the weather reporters to predict the weather.

I have since realized they cannot do so, at least it doesn’t seem they can here in Chicago.  I remember going for a job interview, wearing a fine wool suit.  When I left home, the sun shone brightly and I got on the train to downtown.

When I arrived, the skies opened.  To say it “poured” is an understatement:  in under two minutes, I looked like a drowned rat and smelled like a wet sheep.

Since then, I’ve kept a portable umbrella with me at all times in my satchel.

What about you, Dear Reader?
What items do you carry for preparedness?

U Is For… Upholstery!

A Catherine Noon

2015-04-24 Pic 1Yes, I know. It’s an ugly chair.  I, however, happen to like it.  It belonged to my great-grandfather and is in serious need of re-upholstering, but because of its construction that’s not inexpensive.  For one thing, the pegs that hold the armrest in place are broken and the glue holding them in place is congealed and hardened.  Never fear, I have the missing piece in a safe space.

What you can’t see is that when I inherited the chair, my cat at the time took a serious dislike to it – I can’t see why; what’s not to love about brown and yellow plaid? – and scratched the back left side to bits.  I finally got him to stop but the damage was done.

When we moved, my husband and partner both said, get rid of the Ugli Chair.  But I can’t.  I love it.  It wants to be loved, it wants to make people happy.  It wants a place in the home.  And it’s damnably comfortable.  And let’s face it – when you’re sitting IN the Ugli Chair, you can’t SEE the Ugli Chair anymore.  Problem solved, right?

And in the meantime, until it can be refinished into a less… baby shit brown and pancake sort of color scheme, we’re plotting to design a soft, brown, washable afghan that can be draped artfully over it so it at least looks intentional in the library and not like a “Dear God, what is that?”

What about you, Dear Reader?
What furniture do you have that you can’t bear to part with, even if it’s no longer the height of fashion?