making (twos-04b)

When I was little, I read a story about some poor kids in a post-war/depression era setting. I remember very little of the story but this: they were trying to make a gift for someone's infant and had scavenged for materials. They found a discarded, worn vest and unraveled it for the wool. Then, knitted a sweater for the baby. Because the yarn was worn, there were thin parts on the sweater which they hid by embroidering flowers from other yarn scraps onto the fabric.

This is probably the most boring part of the story for most kids but for me--this was the beginning of a lifetime love affair with creativity. The idea that you could look around and take the castoffs of the world and spin them into something beautiful was mesmerizing.

Of course, this applies to almost anything you want to make. My favorite kind of cooking is looking at the odds and ends in the pantry and refrigerator and putting together a delicious meal. Some of the most wonderful dishes have been created by people who had little and figured out how to use whatever they had.

I am not poor anymore and I don't have to scavenge for materials but the idea of transformation still motivates me. The metamorphosis of a hunk of wood into a table or skeins of yarn into a sweater is magical.

My current project is making a Halloween costume for my sweet grandchild, Asteroid. Their parents have suggested that Asteroid be a tiny chef. I think this is a fantastic idea. I will deconstruct and resize a small (but not small enough) chef's coat and make the toque and apron. Imagining the little munchkin in their chef's outfit is my inspiration.

Another project is making window coverings. Partly because they are ridiculously expensive and partly because I love the challenge of making them myself. Roman curtains are a pain in the ass to make but tedious in a meditative way, if that makes sense. Once I get the process started, it will be repetitious and easy.

I also have a stained glass project that I will have to attack in the fall. It's too hot in the garage to work right now and there is no way to bring that glass shard mess into the house safely. This project will replace the three panels currently in our front door.

There's a shower curtain and bedspread on the list as well as figuring out a knitting project (shawl) that I got stuck on and haven't been able to figure out what went wrong with the pattern. I would love to do that without unraveling the entire thing and starting over. Which is what I usually end up doing.

The biggest challenge is not getting discouraged by visualizing what the final product will be. 

Having time to create things has been the driving force towards retirement for many years. It feels like a I'm a kid in a candy store--planning and making all these things. But it also feels like a put up or shut up kind of thing. Which is all about the fear of failure. Part of the lesson about accepting failure as one of the most powerful parts of the learning process is publishing these words. They are not polished or streamlined. They are a work in progress...