Where have I been? Here of course. I've been doing many things, things seemingly scattered and unconnected, but, when I think about it, this is not really the case. I've been busy living and crafting, and just doing the things that make life fulfilling and meaningful for me. I've been busy but not too busy. Most of all, I have let the unfolding of each day determine the schedule of what needs doing, or not doing, whichever the case may be. I have come to the conclusion that this is the beauty of retirement. I have a roof over my head. I have clothes to cover my body and a bed to sleep in. I have food. Yes, time is required, sometimes more than other, to the acts of preparing, procuring and maintaining, but generally I have reached the enviable place where I need march to no one's drummer but my own.
One thing I have been doing is sitting.
I pulled together this little seating area last week, and I've found myself here often since, coffee, or water, or wine in hand, enjoying a summer breeze and surveying my garden. This came together on a whim. I had gone to Cost Plus World Market to pick up something where I encountered these little chairs on sale. An idea was born.
Previously there had been planters in this corner, planters I kept filled with flowers in the spring, but which had died during the course of my travels in late May. The options are limited as there is little sun, and little access to rainwater. I grew bored with constantly watering the planters considering all they did was sit there, waiting to be noticed whenever I walked too or from the garage. The planters, which I did not like anyway but felt I must use because I had them, have been banished. And now I have a lovely shady place to sit and survey my gardens, and the progress I have made in beating back the jungle of weeds that was threatening to take over after a very wet June and July, and a chief gardener (me), who refused to work outside when the air was filled with smoke or excess humidity.
It is a good place to be.
But surely that is not all. Oh there have been the normal things. I've been cooking. Another sweater is almost finished. There was another baptismal towel for my church, a small amount of progress on needlepoint, some garment mending and alterations. A dress is half-made and another is ready to be cut out.
Mostly however, the organizational bug has bitten, and I have fallen into its clutches.
My friend Marjorie visited and she inspired me to return to the studio, Hence the dress, and a renewed interest in sewing, but also in finally unpacking the yarn stash and finishing up the studio organization. Somehow that manifested itself with the urge to tackle the knitting library and knitting pattern stash. Part of the problem is that I would unpack some yarn that was packaged with some cryptic note like "Anny Blast Sweater #1". But which sweater #1, from which Anny Blast book? I subscribed to them for years. Some of them were cut up and scanned into my computer when I moved here from NY. I did have a database but the program that I used has since been abandoned by the manufacturer and I can't access most of it. It is possible I don't want to make whatever it was anyway, but even so, it would be good to know what pattern options I already own suitable for x yarn of y gauge.
I started with Ravelry's library feature, which I have admittedly underutilized. If I had realized its power, it might have made packing easier even when I moved to Tennessee from New York 12 years ago. But regret only drags the mind through the mire. And having a powerful database already at hand has helped. I still have had to go through my dropbox full of pdf files, and find the appropriate references in Ravelry but it remains faster and easier than building a database from scratch. But I do own books and patterns that are not in Ravelry's index, so I still have to build a supplemental database as well. My Ravelry library currently lists 3287 patterns, and my database, which I am building on Tap Forms, currently contains another 411 patterns. And I am not done. There is a collection of Rowan Magazines and Vogue Knitting Magazines which I have only just begun to index. And yes, I probably could edit some things out. Patterns I have already knit are included. I will not knit thousands of items in the years remaining in my life. But I see no point in eliminating potential ideas until I also unpack ad sort the yarn stash, although admittedly a handful of patterns have been tossed.
Life is a process. I had previously cataloged fabric, and patterns, and the yarn I have already unpacked. These files have already proven their usefulness. This is a big job I have been putting off for years, and it is proving, thanks to Ravelry, to be not quite as onerous as I had feared. As I look at patterns, as I venture into my yarn closet to find my next project, my mind is filled with exciting ideas.
I may be in the latter third of my life (no denying that) but excitement and new beginnings are ongoing.
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