Tag: acatherinenoon

  • Make Something Monday – The Emerald Keep Scarf

    Make Something Monday – The Emerald Keep Scarf

    Now that I\’ve sorted out the design and simplified it, the Emerald Keep Scarf is coming along very nicely.  Last week, I talked about the difficulties I was having with it and how the design process was coming – or, as it turns out, not coming.  This weekend I got almost 18 inches done.  At this rate, I\’ll be done by the end of next weekend or the middle of the week following, well in advance of the start of the Keepsake Book Tour.

    The stitch is a simple pattern from Barbara Walker\’s A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns called Two-Color Star Stitch.  I find her books invaluable in designing projects because she puts the knitter in the driver\’s seat.  Through teaching how the fabric works inherently, to how geometric designs are created by the yearn, a knitter can go from a basic student of the subject to a designer in very short order.  I have a long way to go before I\’m a master knitter, but I am a lot closer to the goal because of her books.  I highly recommend them.

    I\’ve made this stitch pattern a couple times before, and I like its simple beauty.  This time, I selected an emerald green dark tone for the main color and a light mint for the accent.

    The more I work with this pattern, I find that I like the reverse of the fabric just as much as the front.  It ends up looking almost beaded in texture, with neat edges on each side.

    I cast on 30 stitches, since it\’s multiples of 3; on size 7 needles the fabric is quite wide.  There\’s a lot of horizontal stretch to it and it will curl (which is why I had such difficulty with edging it).  I don\’t mind the curl in the finished design, it has its own beauty; I\’ll still play around with some possibilities for edgings in future projects but since I needed this done for the book tour, I didn\’t have the time.

    I did have an interesting breakthrough as I was working it.  It finally it me that the colors are tied to the stitch order; meaning that row 2 is always Color A and row 4 is Color B.  I don\’t need to keep track of the row count because I know which pattern row to work based on the color on the needle.  All wrong side rows are purled, so it\’s an easy pattern to memorize – even for me, with the difficulty I have with 2D to 3D translation.

    Keep your eyes peeled for the Keepsake Tour; it starts March 8th.  Emerald Keep is out on April 8th.

    What are you making this Monday?  Please tell me in the comments; I\’d love to know.
  • Sunday Box Talk

    Sunday Box Talk

    I get asked, \”Why do you do all that?\”  The person asking is usually looking at my crafts or my writing when they ask the question, and I answer with some variant of, \”This is my passion and I make time for it.\”

    What I really want to ask is, \”Why aren\’t you?\”

    The boxes of life that Richard Nelson Bolles talks about in his book The Three Boxes of Life and How to Get Out of Them are arbitrary.  We create them, collectively, and we accept them, individually.  But when we take a step back and stop to reconsider where we\’re headed, we can get out of them.

    Stephen Covey said once that you fight and claw your way up the ladder of success, only to find the ladder is on the wrong wall.  I use that anecdote liberally in my essays and when I teach and am continually puzzled that its message doesn\’t fill others with the same dread it fills me.  Why wouldn\’t we care that we are wasting the days given to us?  Why wouldn\’t we make changes?

    Because we feel disempowered and blocked, not to put too fine a point on it.  We don\’t do all that, because we believe we can\’t do all that – we don\’t have the time, the talent, or the permission.

    This breaks my heart.

    So what I\’m really saying in these Sunday essays is this:  take up your pen, Dear Reader,  or the paint brush, tap shoes, clay, or whatever is in your heart to do, and do it.

    Beginning has grace and power in it.  Goethe was right.

    “Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it.”
    Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  • Stash Sunday

    Stash Sunday

    I am working on the Emerald Keep scarf for the Keepsake Tour, which of course means that I instantly want to play with something from my stash. Doesn\’t that always happen?

    So here\’s what\’s on my desk right now, that\’s not the Keepsake scarf:

    Top left is my character binder for the novels currently in progress, (Sealed by Duty and Sapphire Dream, in case you\’re curious).  Under that is my Franklin Planner.  On its side is some pretty Caron Simply Soft Paints yarn, which I bought when I bought the yarn for the Emerald Keep scarf but am not using in it.

    Which begs the question, what shall I make with it?  ~rubs hands together~

    Next is my keys.  This is important.  Hard to get into the house without them.

    Don\’t ask me how I know that.  I don\’t want to talk about it.

    Moving right along, we come to the Caron ball band for the light green yarn in the Emerald Keep scarf.  The glue failed and it fell off, so I brought it in here to make sure I have it up on Ravelry before I discard it.

    The grey is for a possible pair of Quill\’s Socks, which were featured in Emerald Fire and remarked upon by every editor who worked on it as well as several fans.  Yes, Teeka finished the socks, yes, Quill liked them, and yes, I\’ll feature a pattern for them when the website redesign goes live – and I might even make a pair of them to give away at some point.  Though, in all honesty, I probably won\’t have time to make them for this Keepsake Tour.

    Next is the yarn I bought to make Rachel a pair of fingerless mitts she can use in the hot climate of the Nevada desert.  I\’ll use some kind of lace pattern on them, probably but right now I\’m just sketching with it.

    I realized I caught the edge of my little post-it note with Rule #11 from NCIS:  \”When the job is done, walk away.\”

    On the right of my desk, I have two needlework kits that I\’m looking forward to starting.  One is a ladybug which is in honor of the fictiious Ladybug Bed and Breakfast.  The other is a lovely peacock I bought while visiting Rachel last month – I adore peacocks.

    What\’s in your stash?

  • Work In Progress Wednesday

    Work In Progress Wednesday

    Attempt the First

    It\’s Wednesday.  I figured I\’d share what I\’ve been crafting around with.

    My first item to share is the Emerald Keep Scarf, which will be a giveaway in the forthcoming Keepsake Tour starting March 8th, to celebrate the release of Book 2 in the Persis Chronicles, Emerald Keep.

    It didn\’t work.

    I mean, yeah, it\’s fabric, and it\’s knitted.  But that\’s about it. For one thing, the stitch said WS (wrong side) for both pieces, but either I misread it or it\’s a typo because clearly, it\’s incorrect – the edge stitches clearly are backward from the main lace stitches.

    Attempt the First, Backside

    This is a view where you can see the edge stitches are right-side up, while the lace is wrong side.

    Grr.

    Attempt the Second, Front and Frustration Both Start with F.
    So does my favorite swear word.
    Jus\’ sayin\’.

    Started over.

    And… I don\’t like my idea of the border.  You can\’t really see it well in this shot, but the edges pull in too much and make it look sloppy.  The reason I wanted a border to begin with is that this stitch has quite a bit of bias curl; however, the edging I picked (mistake-stitch rib) isn\’t working.

    I think either I\’ll throw an extra yarn over in to create a sort of gutter, or eliminate the edges entirely.

    Mancooking.
    Why move stuff outta the way when you can stand over it?

    I mentioned to a friend that we made candles last weekend and realized I neglected to take photos.  I planned to take pics of the cold pots, but we have to cook in our kitchen so they had to come off the stove.

    And, apparently, my kid thinks it\’s no big deal to stand over them rather than move them out of the way.  He\’s cooking a very lovely taco salad at the moment, (well, cooking the sausage that will go in the taco salad).  Yum.

    Soap! Curing!

    Our batch of soap that we made a couple weeks ago is curing very well.  It\’s a lovely creamy ivory color now.  We cut it this weekend to allow each of the bars exposure to air, so they can continue the curing process.

    In case you\’re wondering, curing is letting the chemical reaction between the fat and lye to finish.

    This is raw soap and not milled soap, so it\’s not made in a mold.  You can use it as is, once it\’s cured, or mill it again and then pour it into pretty molds for a nice appearance.

    Candles, Dipped 2015

    I only made a half-dozen this year so far; I may fire up the pots once more before I put everything away.  I like the way these came out; they are nice and uniform.  They\’re also really long, which is my favorite (I have four different heights I can make).

    Basket-o-Candles, Bad Lighting.

    This isn\’t a very good shot, but it\’s of my candle stock.  I\’ll see if I can get a better one for you one of these days – but for now, it\’s off to eat dinnah.

    Yum.

    What are you making?

  • Walking In This World

    Walking In This World

    Red Rock Canyon, Nevada
    ©2015 A. Catherine Noon 

    I love the title of Julia Cameron\’s second book in her acclaimed Artist\’s Way trilogy, Walking In This World.  

    When I first did the material in the book, I mis-read the title as Walking In The World, a telling distinction.  I don\’t easily inhabit my body or this plane, having evolved a very deep intellectual capacity as a way of avoiding abuse when I was a child.  I felt that my misunderstanding of the title signaled this separation – that, to me, the world is not concrete and one but ethereal and infinite.  While it makes me an effective writer, because I have a well-developed imagination, it\’s crap for helping me do stuff like, oh, laundry and balancing my checkbook.
    As I take an opportunity to look back on the week and reflect, this week of walking in this world has been filled with a lot of abundance and good things.  Rachel and I finished Sealed by Magic and sent it off to our editor for consideration; we finished the first and second rounds of edits on Emerald Keep; we made a deal for the third book of the Chicagoland Shifters which will come out this summer; and we started work on the keepsakes we will feature in the blog book tour for Emerald Keep.
    It\’s becoming a normal experience for me to have more difficulty the more positive things occur.  I\’m much better in times of crisis, because they are so familiar to me.  I\’m told this is a function of PTSD and of abuse survivors, because we become so accustomed to the chaos and unpleasantness that we don\’t know what to do when it\’s subsided.  So my goal is to become so good at enjoying when things are going well that I make that a habit, instead.  Sounds much more positive to me, doesn\’t it to you?
    I will say this to those of you who have suffered abuse at others\’ hands: there is hope.  Get help, be gentle, and write.  Trust your own memories and not those you are told to have.  You can find your own voice, and you can heal.  It will take time and it will be challenging.  But you can do it.
    Write on!
  • Tue Cent Twosday: Bird, a Poem

    Tue Cent Twosday: Bird, a Poem

    Image from Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons free license.

    Bird.
    I see you, bird. Black feathers. Shiny.
    Beak. Black beak like jet, hard and grooved along the length.
    It’s longer than I expected. Long and sharp.
    “Once there was food here.” Tatiana Tolstaya.
    The forest. Mass graves, running for miles, between trees.
    I like trees. I don’t feel death when I’m in the trees.
    Death is probably there, I mean, it has to be.
    Death is everywhere. That’s the whole point.
    But in trees, the sense of life overwhelms all that.
    I think that’s why I liked hiking so much.
    Outside the reach of her voice.
    Stay where you can hear me.
    God, that used to piss me off.
    I’d push at it, silently, in my stomach.
    The ulcers are a reaction to using magic, I think.
    Maybe it’s improper grounding. I wonder.
    But birds are hard to find in trees.
    My father said he’d piss off the other people in the Sierra Club.
    He’d find the birds faster than anyone else.
    He was smug about it, too, which I think is part of the problem.
    If not all of the problem.
    Meat hook on your face, bird. Weapon. Knife.
    Are you carnivorous? You’d have to be, with that beak.
    We didn’t have crows in that forest.
    Stellar jays. Nasty birds, steal other birds’ nests.
    But no crows. Maybe ravens, though I don’t remember them.
    I saw a crow at the zoo. He was enormous. Pretty, but huge.
    Not a wimpy bird.
    Birds in England sound different than birds here.
    How many different varieties of crows are there?
  • Lines of Lights – A Poem

    Lines of Lights – A Poem

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    Lines of Lights

    Moving at speed past the window, reverse parallax.

    Facing backward on the train, the lights receded.

    Facing backward on the train is a title.

    A good title for a memory, even.

    Metaphoric.

    Like Benjamin Button, living backwards to get forwards.

    When everyone is walking in the other direction, sit down and get still

    Follow the still, small voice insight and listen.

    What does it say?

    I don’t know, I’m still listening.

    What about now?

    Shh. You can hear it too.

    Listen.

    Rhythm.

  • Wednesday Walking In This World

    Wednesday Walking In This World

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    Evening Snow at Kanbara, Edo period (1615–1868), 1834
    Ando Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797–1858)
    Woodblock print; ink and color on paper; 8 7/8 x 13 3/4 in. (22.5 x 34.9 cm)
    The Howard Mansfield Collection, Purchase, Rogers Fund, 1936 (JP2492)

    Julia Cameron\’s second book in her Artist\’s Way trilogy is entitled Walking In This World.  For many years, I mis-read this title as Walking In The World, and the difference is notable.  \”The\” world is inspecific, whereas \”This\” world is particular.  By focusing on this reality, this moment, we focus on the now.  It is in the now that our power resides, where we access our own inner strength and wisdom.

    Cameron uses images in her work of Japanese woodblock prints.  These are fascinating pieces of art, because they\’re carved into wood in a negative image and then stamped onto paper as a positive image, colored from there.  I found the image, above, while doing an internet search, but am most familiar with the collection at the Art Institute of Chicago.  They have a large collection of works by Hokusai, who is one of the more commonly known woodblock artists.

    Katsushika Hokusai
    Japanese, 1760-1849
    Dawn at Isawa in Kai Province (Koshu Isawa no akatsuki), from the series \”Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei)\”, c. 1830/33

    Not all of their collection is on display, such as this image, but you can page through their website and view an extensive archive of material.  Hokusai focused on images found in nature, particularly mountains and especially Mount Fuji.  He also has some haunting images of ghosts from Japanese folklore.

    What museum near you might you visit this month?
    What kind of art calls to your senses?

  • A Writer In Her Library – The Shape of the Whole

    A Writer In Her Library – The Shape of the Whole

    The Library at Chez Noony
    Or, The Ladybug Bed and Breakfast Dining Room and Reading Nook

    I spent much of December and all of New Year\’s Day organizing my library.  I put everything in order by topic, and then alphabetical by author.  As I did so, I started to realize something:  my library is a clue to myself.  As I am exploring new diary techniques and autobiographical writing, organizing my possessions, and more particularly my books, has been a window that looks into the world about which I\’m writing.

    I can trace my own development as an adult through my books.  There are the ones I have from my first university degree; Russian, philosophy, metaphysics, Wicca, and astronomy.  Then there are my travel books and books about hiking – how to do it and where to explore.  I have a startling number of personal productivity books – Covey and Smith, of course, but lesser-known authors as well.  Personal finance features largely even before my MBA books, and I had a blast of nostalgia when I found my macroeconomics book, the first course I had to take as a prerequisite when I started my MBA.

    There\’s also the material I collected when working on my unfinished master herbalist coursework, aromatherapy science, and cooking.  I have a huge home section, and not just on decorating the home – how to buy it, what to do when things go wrong, how stuff works in it, how to remodel it, and even how to entertain in it – and more than one entertaining book, too.  I even have a book on how to be a blonde (don\’t ask, it was at a used book sale and made me laugh, which was worth it for the dollar it cost to buy).

    As I explore my own mind, and give myself permission to tell my own story and not the ones that were handed to me to cover the facts, I find that my library is a comfort to me.  I enjoy sitting in the Ugli Chair and looking around at the books.  I imagine staying in there for days, leaving only to use the restroom or get food and water, and that image is one that\’s exciting.  A retreat from the world to think and contemplate and read and write?  What could be more fun?

    Excuse me, but I think I\’ll go sit in there for a while before I go to bed.  But before I go, I have a question for you, Dear Reader:

    What are your favorite topics about which to read?
  • Make Something Monday – Bryce Canyon Hat I

    Make Something Monday – Bryce Canyon Hat I

    Bryce Canyon Hat, all done!

    I finished the hat late Sunday night.  I used a sewing needle bind off so that the edge is nice and loose.  It\’s very warm; reflects heat back against my head.

    Top View

    I love the way the top came out with swirls.  One thought I had is to continue the swirls down the body of the hat using decreases after each yarn over.

    Bryce Canyon Hat, Almost There

    Here\’s a shot of the rib stitch.  My next one, I want to do something more interesting on the body of the hat.  The ribbing is boring; I\’d like to try something more fun – maybe even patterned.

    In process, large enough to go on the double-pointed needles.

    It looks like a little bag at this stage.

    Top View, in process

    Here\’s the top before drawing all the stitches up.  A pom pom might look cute here, or even a bauble.

  • Sunday Box Talk – Questions and Answers

    Sunday Box Talk – Questions and Answers

    Morning Pages In the Garden With Coffee
    Image © 2013, A. Catherine Noon

    I\’m sure I\’m not alone during this time of year in wondering what new beginnings are occurring and what things to leave behind in the old year.

    There are years that ask questions and years that answer.
    Zora Neale Hurston

    I think it\’s important to not be so quick to demand answers.  Finding the right questions is important, particularly if we are to get to the answers that will help us.  Our society has become impatient with not knowing; we assume the answer is always on the internet.  It\’s become common to say, \”Just google it,\” and the company name has become synonymous with finding answers.

    The important questions aren\’t so easily remedied.  Take \”Who am I?\” for example.  That\’s not something one can google.  It\’s also not something we can easily answer with a pat recitation of our name, birth date and serial number.  Sometimes the answer can take a lifetime, and sometimes we can live for decades without knowing that we don\’t, in fact, know the answer and haven\’t yet really asked the question.

  • Friday Funnies

    Friday Funnies

    Did you hear about the truck driver that got pulled over for knitting while driving?

    The police officer yelled, \”Pull over!\”

    The truck driver held up his knitting and said, \”No, cardigan!\”