Pointing

The Lion Brand window is finished (they are making some changes to suit their needs, but if there was ever a time for the phrase "let it go" it is now). I have been having moments of near panic when I think I should be working on something: quick! the deadline is near! Then I realize, no, I have no deadline, I can knit whatever I want. Hell, I could even spin! Talk about wild naked partying - yesterday I got out my handpainted merino/tencel blend and really let loose. And you know nothing spells "lost weekend of sensuous pleasures" like merino. Whoa!

But this is a G-rated blog, so I will only say that you gots to spin it thin, baby, or not at all. Make it last.

Yet, there was a another potential deadline looming. The Martha Stewart Show people had been discussing with me the possibility of knitting a piece for an upcoming show that will be all about knitting. It had come down to knitting some covers for palm trees that will bracket a fashion show of knitwear. I would get a mention, be invited to sit in the audience and a link would be made to my website on their website.

A person far wiser than me said recently, just point yourself in the direction you want to go and see what happens. These have been my guiding words lately. And the more I thought about this whole Martha thing, the more I thought that it was not pointing me in the direction I want to go. I understood that it was, in some ways, the chance of a lifetime to open doors and connect and create avenues of work and income. I knew it and they surely knew it. But was it pointing in the right direction? Again and again, I kept coming up with the answer, "no".

Nothing against Martha! She is, in many ways, amazing. I admire her resiliency and I give the woman credit for promoting a handmade lifestyle. It is that I don't want more work covering things in knitting. I have done that. I think I have quite fully explored that. I love my past projects but the key word here is past. I am looking at other ideas now and I want time to explore them. Knitting, and all handwork, will likely always have a strong presence in my work because it is how I think about the world, but I want to be free to not use them as well. Even if it means be less sought-after or not sought-after at all.

Pointed in the direction I want to go...