Tag: Rachel Wilder

  • A to Z Challenge, Day 22: V Is For Victory

    A to Z Challenge, Day 22: V Is For Victory

    \”Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one\’s definition of your life; define yourself.\”

    Harvey Fierstein

    It is all too easy to succumb to the desire to be liked.  Loneliness is a powerful motivator and causes us to lose our nerve, not confront our fear of being ostracized, and thus we step back into the shadows, mute.

    If this is you, take heart.  The victories that count are the ones that we win with ourselves, that enable us to be more fully the person we are inside and not the one that our parents, our peers, or society want us to be.  It is a lonely road, this road to self actualization.  But it is worth it.

    That is the victory worth having.  At the end of our days, when we sit in silence with ourselves and the Beloved, it is not the games we played that will bring us peace.  It is the self we shepherded into being, the self born of Spirit and nurtured in Love.

    \”If one is a greyhound, why try to look like a Pekingese?\”
    Dame Edith Sitwell

  • A to Z Challenge, Day 21: U Is For Umbrella

    Those of you who have been with me a while know that I\’m superstitious about carrying my umbrella everywhere.  It hasn\’t rained in a while, because our winter was too flippin\’ cold for rain, but this week we got our rain forecast.  Sure enough, Monday evening it was supposed to rain.  Started early, too; around 5:30 instead of 8 like they said on the news (thereby proving my point that the weatherperples don\’t know what the buzz they\’re talking about, but that\’s a different post).

    ANYway, so I carry my umbrella, right?  Yup.  In my backpack with a cute little cover.  Glad I had it Monday, on account of it was, you know, raining.  For the first time in weeks.

    I left the house yesterday, which for you math whizzes means yesterday, and guess what?

    I forgotted my umbrellaz!  Oh noes!

    Just goes to show you.  You break your own rules, you end up riding a bike with a baby seat turned upside down on your head.  Srsly.

    What important piece of equipment do you make sure you carry with you everywhere?

  • A to Z Challenge, Day 20: T Is For Tailor

    We\’re almost to the end of the A-Z Challenge!  You still with me?  Drink some coffee, walk around the block, jump up and down a bit to get the blood flowing.

    There.  Better?  Thought so.

    Today is T for Tailor.  I find sewing a fascinating hobby.  I read once in a Vogue Sewing Book from 1968 (or was it 86? I can\’t remember, to be honest) that it\’s like sculpting with fabric.  The description stuck with me.

    Of course, the word tailor always reminds me of the song, The House of the Rising Sun:

    Why am I bringing this up now?  My husband is a photographer and is starting a studio, Wolfshead Photography.  He\’s been sewing costumes for his models, anything from Victorian lingerie to full gowns.  I don\’t have pictures at the moment, though you can wander through his galleries on the link I gave you.  I just wanted to give a shout-out to those of us who can sew and enjoy it.  We\’d look a lot less cool without clothes and we\’d sure be a lot more cold.

    What craft do you admire, even if you can\’t (yet) do it yourself?

  • A to Z Challenge, Day 19: S Is For Station

    Pumping Station: One is a hackerspace located here in Chicago.  Part of a growing movement of makerspaces and tech labs, the defining characteristic of a hackerspace isn\’t the stuff in it, it\’s the community and culture that create it.  Simply put, it\’s a collaborative community-run workshop where the membership gets to decide the tools, resources, and whatever else is available.  PS1 is 250+ individuals committed to the open pursuit of knowledge, as well as the sharing of ideas and resources.

    What community are you part of, and why?  
    I\’d love to know!
  • A to Z Challenge, Day 18: R Is For Rachel

    A to Z Challenge, Day 18: R Is For Rachel

    Rachel.  My muse, my boss, and my taskmistress.  She dragged my ass all over Goose Island, wandering up and down every street twice – but not the Division Street bridge (because that went off the island, see).  When I finally did go across the bridge she looked at me, puzzled.  \”Did you just go over this bridge so you could see where it went?\”

    Duh.  The map might be wrong.

    I LOFF MAH WRAY WRAY!

    To whom would you shout out a loud \”Thank you, you\’re awesome\”?  Please, tell me in the comments and share the love!
  • A to Z Challenge, Day 17: Q Is For Quesquemitl

    A to Z Challenge, Day 17: Q Is For Quesquemitl

    In my weaving class, I am making a quesquemitl, a type of poncho that is made from a continuous piece of fabric – and, thus, a popular choice for handweavers.  The photo above is from Wikipedia, of a garment on view at the Museo Popular in Mexico: \”Large shawl called a quechquemitl by Margarita Roberta Lucas Garcia from Tenango de Doria, Hidalgo as part of a temporary exhibit of crafts from Hidalgo at the Museo de Arte Popular, Mexico City.\”

    I love the yarn that I got to use.  It\’s a rayon with many different colors, as you can see from the spool here; however, from a distance it looks blue.

    I haven\’t yet sewn the piece, which means that will be my next project.  I\’m finishing the hand-sewn edge and then will baseball stitch the pieces together.

    I don\’t know how to baseball stitch yet.

    Guess I have my work cut out for me.

    What do you want to learn this year?
  • A to Z Challenge, Day 16: P Is For Postal Mail

    A to Z Challenge, Day 16: P Is For Postal Mail

    I adore non-bill mail.  I started sending cards to friends and now we have a little network that sends each other actual cards in, you know, the mailbox.

    Pretty awesome.

    What do you think of postal mail?
  • A to Z Challenge, Day 15: O Is For Optimism

    A to Z Challenge, Day 15: O Is For Optimism

    I find, that of all the choices we make each day, the choice to be an optimist is the most underrated.  It\’s considered by some to be naive, even.

    But consider this:  if we didn\’t try, if we didn\’t do something that we haven\’t done before, then what?  We just stay the same as we are and do not grow.  That\’s not brave.  That\’s the opposite of brave.

    What things are you happy about today?  This week?  Right now?

  • A to Z Challenge, Day 14: N Is For Noonhour

    This is my favorite Noonhour episode.  I read one of the pieces I wrote for the March FADness competition, which was a new prompt each day in the month of March.  That month I wrote 31 different flash fiction pieces along with two Flash Fiction Carnival pieces – it was a great month.  I had a ball, wrote a ton of new material, and now have a body of work from which I can create more podcasts.  Win-win.  🙂

    Of all the things you\’ve done creatively, what makes you nostalgic?  What are you glad to have made?
  • A to Z Challenge, Day 13: M Is For Money

    A to Z Challenge, Day 13: M Is For Money

    Money.  la la la  (Think Pink Floyd.)  (If you don\’t know who they are, then I give up.)  ANYway, where was I?  Money!  la la la…

    Today, in the States, it\’s Tax Day – time to pay the tax man or time to get money back from the tax man.  (I hope you\’re in the former and not the latter group.  If you are, I\’m with you – we owed this year. Poop.)

    Money\’s pretty fascinating stuff.  There are three things that make money, money.  The IMF (International Monetary Fund) has them on their site:

    In short, money can be anything that can serve as a
    • store of value, which means people can save it and use it later—smoothing their purchases over time;
    • unit of account, that is, provide a common base for prices; or
    • medium of exchange, something that people can use to buy and sell from one another.
    From \”Back to Basics: What Is Money?\”

    I came across an awesome article by Glyn Davies called \”A History of Money From Ancient Times to the Present Day\” that\’s worth checking out – and after you read it, think hard about bit coins and whether an unregulated currency is really such a good idea.

    What\’s your favorite thing about money?
  • A to Z Challenge, Day 12: L Is For Llama

    A to Z Challenge, Day 12: L Is For Llama

    Yum.  Llama fiber.  Soft, warm, and easy to knit.  I prefer alpaca because there\’s a wider range of colors and alpaca are more friendly, but I can\’t deny the gorgeous sheen of the fibers of llama.  Vicuña is a related fiber that\’s quite luxurious but harder to find because the vicuña are very shy and much harder to cultivate than either llama or alpaca.

    Think that alpaca is only the purview of knitters and other textile artists?  The famous designer Loro Piana cornered the market on the stuff in 2010 and last year announced a 60% stake in an alpaca ranch.  I\’ve seen quotes of the alpaca fiber suits of his that go for $20,000 USD.  No, that\’s not a typo.  $20k.  That\’s enough for a down payment on a house.  Yikes.

    Why is the fiber so desirable?  It\’s lighter than wool and warmer.  The natural colors are quite wide and alpaca has the only naturally-occurring black animal fiber – black sheep are actually only black on the tips of the fiber, not at the root.

    I could go on, but I won\’t bore you with fibernautics.  But I will ask you this:

    What\’s your favorite fiber to wear?  Wool? Cotton? Fur?  Microfiber?  
  • A to Z Challenge, Day 11: K Is For Knitting

    A to Z Challenge, Day 11: K Is For Knitting

    You had to see this coming!  OF COURSE K IS FOR KNITTING!  What else could it POSSIBLY be for?  Really now.

    I took my first knitting class in 2000, after a friend at work recommended Sharon Shoji as an excellent instructor.  In my first class, Sharon taught us to knit plain knitting all the way through ribbing.  After an initial struggle with the ribbing, I got the hang of it.  We progressed through textured knitting to cables and lace and from there, I was totally and completely hooked.

    In 2008, I started this blog.  Shortly after, I decided to start Knoontime Knitting, where I focus on the crafts that make me totally bonzo:  knitting, of course, but also needlepoint and embroidery (my first textile art, in fact), weaving, calligraphy, and pysanky.  I love to make things with my hands but didn\’t allow myself to do much of it until I took my classes with Sharon.

    What I have learned informs my writing process as much as my textile arts.  See, it\’s like this:

    1. If you keep going, you\’ll end up with enough knit and purl stitches to make a scarf, or a sweater, or an afghan. 
    2. Dropped stitches don\’t always mean the piece is ruined.  Sometimes you just need to undo a little bit.
    3. Some mistakes make the piece more beautiful and unique.
    4. If you let it, knitting will soothe you the way flowing water does.
    5. Learning new techniques keeps it interesting.  Always be a beginner.  Zen mind, beginner\’s mind.
    What has your hobby taught you about life?