Vibrant Celebration

As summer begins its gradual fade toward softer autumn days, I look back at the vibrant splashes of color that have punctuated this season of my life. My days have been filled with working remotely as a professional writing consultant for a community college, which I love tremendously. In the deepest part of our isolation due to the Covid pandemic I never felt alone. Though that took place last winter, it bears mentioning because it's an integral component to my color explosive summer. 

My workdays consist of hour-long writing consultations with students in which we are "live". The faces and voices of students fill my days with purpose, satisfaction, and comfort. The tongues of many nations often surround me as I work with students from all over the world. A bittersweet feeling always sweeps over me at the end of each semester. I must say goodbye to some I have worked with who are moving on, but I celebrate their academic achievements and am thankful to have been a small part of their journey. 

As the fall semester begins next week, I will remain in the online environment. While tidying my workspace and mentally preparing for a new semester, it occurred to me that my home is overflowing with joyful color. I attribute this to God's faithfulness in an unprecedented time; a time when the world turned upside down, yet I faired well. It has dawned on me that the profusion of color is my celebration of the resilience of the human spirit. Given the work that I do, I have been allowed a unique glimpse at just how strong we are individually and collectively. My soul overflowed and burst into colorful testaments throughout my house that will forever be a reminder to me that we are survivors. 

My kitchen drawer soon began to burst once I discovered this pattern for the Farmhouse Dishtowel and Farmhouse Dishcloth. It is addictive to crochet because the pattern is easily memorized with a simple two-row repeat. I found it self-soothing, and loved the customizable aspect of the pattern as I recently purchased a new double oven. For those of you who have one, you know that a standard length towel hangs down over the handle of the lower oven. You can crochet these with any worsted cotton and hooks you prefer. I used Knit Picks Dishie and Tulip Etimo Rose Crochet Hooks. The Dishie yarn holds up longer than other brands of worsted cotton and these hooks are worth the investment for those who have issues with hand or wrist pain.

There have been serene moments of colorwork on the porch swing, as I soaked up the freshness and promise that green life fortifies the spirit with. This cheery Giant Granny Square blanket is a free pattern that Sandra from Cherry Heart has offered for ages. The photo at the top is Sandra's Painted Roses Blanket in the vintage colors option. After longing to indulge in the crocheted splendor of both of these patterns for some time, I decided this was the right season of my life. The same soft Stylecraft Special DK yarn is used in both blankets. Typically having a preference for natural fibers and an aversion to acrylic yarn, I must admit that I love this yarn. I messaged back-and-forth with Sandra for reassurance on this fiber. Now that it is settling itself into my house, I believe it's here to stay. The overgrown granny square is nearly finished, but the blocks for the painted roses will be a work in progress for the unforeseeable future. 

I kicked the season off early with a smattering of embroidery. The floral piece in the round frame is a kit I purchased from the Crewel Ghoul. You can find the frame at Modern Hoopla.

The pieces above and below are both kits purchased from Nicki Franklin at the Stitchery Studio Shop.

When you look at her website you'll notice I added extra floss here and there to both of my pieces. That's not because the kit doesn't supply enough, it's because I have hoards of embroidery floss and don't know when to stop. The lovely wreath with the nest and blackbird is the Seasons Spring Wreath kit. I decided the overall roundness of the work would be enhanced by a square frame. I found this one at our local shop The Quilt Corner. It's safe to say I enjoyed stitching this more than any embroidery piece I have ever done in my life. 

Since pink trees have always made me stop and gasp for breath out of sheer delight that God would create such a wondrous thing, I knew I had to stitch this one! The lighting in the embroidery photos does not do the pieces justice, but they really are lovely sprinkled throughout my home. This sweet little tree is the Mini Embroidery Kit - Spring Blossom Tree. The darling frame and stand came as a set. As mentioned before, I went crazy with an abundance of French knots. I do love it though! 

My life is lived in and shaped by words, so many words. The words of others; written words and spoken words. It is also formed by my own words as I offer guidance, share stories, write essays for classes in which I am the academic student, and write poetry in which I am the continual student of life. In between it all, my days are filled with moments snatched at random and filled with a celebration of color because, above all else, the spirit within must always give thanks.

"Every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works."

Virginia Woolf

In the Midst of Greatness

As August arrives, ushered in by the age-old love song of cicadas, I feel myself emerging from a dreamlike world. The golden summer sun sets ever-so-softer and sooner than it did mere moments ago, or so it seems to me. Only yesterday it was early June when I began summer classes and stepped into the pages of fabulous books, causing the world to dim around the edges, as I found myself in the midst of greatness.

My days were spent with dead poets, writers, dancers, artists, and men and women who fought to make our world and our nation a better place. I read non-stop, well into the wee hours. Oftentimes reading books I would not have chosen to read and yet I enjoyed every book I read. A particular favorite was Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Shelley. 

The language is beautiful, lyrical and almost poetic. It offers exquisite details of landscapes throughout the story. Mary Shelley wrote this classic when she was only eighteen years old. Within its pages are the opportunity for deep moral contemplation on several levels. For those who love works written in the romantic style I highly recommend it, especially in this version so you get the back story. I loved it so much that I chose to write a long essay about it for one of my classes.

When I wasn't reading, and reading some more, I was writing essays. Lots and lots of essays. I discovered that I have the ability to dissect and critique a book and all of its characters down to the final word and to within a hair's breadth of their fictional lives. I also really enjoyed researching and learning as much as I could about all of the real people that I wrote about.

I know quite a bit more about Ernest Hemingway than I did before and I learned so much about Picasso, Martha Graham, Virginia Woolf, Grace Hartigan, and Betty Friedan, just to name a few. Although summer classes ended, on a very high note for me, on July 25, the voices of these remarkable people still whisper to me all night long. I cannot lay them to rest just yet. I'm still conversing with them and telling their stories the minute I fall asleep every night. 

Maybe they will slowly, gradually fade into the background as the Fall semester starts for me. Unbelievably that's just around the corner on August 19. I have a feeling some of them will linger on with me for some time yet. Especially because I may embark on another new adventure soon that will, most likely, involve a few of them.

One of my professor's sent me an email during my summer classes and asked if I would be interested in working as a Writing Consultant in the Writing Studio at the Illinois Central College East Peoria  campus. I decided I would very much like to do that. So, while I continue to take classes, I will, hopefully, work a few hours a week helping other students with their writing. The professor sent an email of recommendation and I was already contacted by the director. I have a couple of days of training to attend next week. I'm pretty excited to be given this opportunity.

Though I have an odd sense of summer having somewhat passed me by, like it's been all around me, and yet slightly out of focus and just beyond my reach, I wouldn't change a thing. My typical, languid days, usually spent knitting on my front porch, found me with a book in hand or a computer on my lap on that same swing instead. It was an adjustment, especially in the beginning. But I got the hang of it. I have always loved to read and write; so total immersion was pure ecstasy. As far as knitting goes, I do have a finished shawl that needs blocking. I'll tell the specter's who whisper in my mind to hush for a time so I can block it and possibly capture a beautiful daughter in a field of wildflowers soon for a photo shoot. Although I won't be surprised if we see a faint shadow of the late, great artist, Grace Hartigan, standing in the background painting a picture, because she refuses to be silenced.

"A work of art is the trace of a magnificent struggle."

Grace Hartigan

(1922-2008)