vessels made of string

shades and strands

There hasn't been much studio activity this week.  But I have been enjoying the contradiction of muted, neutral yarns and bright, bold Pantone yellows.

buttons and holes in which buttons go through

I love buttons.  I collect them; I have hundreds.  I keep them in jars – ordered by colour, of course.  And sometimes I actually use them, but until recently they've only been used for decorative purposes. 

The buttons I have used in the past would not have gone through a buttonhole because I only just conquered my fear of making buttonholes.   

It's not a process I enjoy. I don't like the way the sewing machine dramatically hammers out the bar tacks and I hate the bit where I have to cut a hole and hope I don't rip through the wrong part of the fabric. 

 But I think I might be getting somewhere. Or at least heading in the right direction.   And my buttons may finally be able to meet their buttonhole counterparts.

when a yarn isn't a yarn

I have been thinking lately about crocheting with different materials: yarns that are not yarns. I started with some garden twine – scratchy, rough and a long way from the soft pure wools that feel luxurious and indulgent to work with.

And it wasn't easy; pulling thick twine through loops gave my arms a workout and it wasn't the relaxing experience that I often find crochet to be. That led me to think about how crocheting a doily from garden twine felt more like 'work' than making the same doily from a soft yarn. As though work could be measured in terms of physical endurance, which it can't and shouldn't. But it did make me think about the physicality of making and the ways in which we measure the validity of the making [and the maker].

 And I know I will come back to these thoughts just as I will carry on with my quest for different yarns, stranger yarns, non-yarns.