Connections — maybe it's all about the yarn

This post will be a departure for me - in that it has capital letters. I wrote it first over on Substack, but decided I wanted to have it here, where I keep such writing. And I don't have time to undo all the capital letters. Maybe now we'll have a mix here on MPC, or maybe it's the start of something new. 

So much going on at the moment. Lots of separate projects coming together. And I’m starting to see how they all fit. And even though there have been moments when none of it seemed like it was headed that way, they DO all fit. The work ones, I knew would eventually fit. It’s the way that the more personal projects are coming together, or blending into the work that is more of a pleasant surprise. It makes me realize that my life is more holistic than I thought. What a revelation. 

And weirdly (or not), it all comes down to yarn.

Our local creative group, CreaGive, chose Fifty-fifty as the theme for our yearly exhibition. The only requirement is that the work you bring must measure 50cm x 50cm. It can also be 50cm x 50cm x 50cm, or a cube. I spent a lot of time thinking of ways to break the rules while still technically not breaking the rules. (Hello, that’s who I am.) But I’ve ended up making a cube that does indeed measure 50x50x50. (Probably also, admittedly, who I am.) 

I received some wool yarn, left over from industrial carpet production, from a weaver in town who is moving and so she wanted to give away all her weaving supplies (lucky me!). So it was natural to use that. We still have some of the sticks from Syrian artist Nisrine Boukhari’s The Wind’s Home, an ephemeral work that she created near Vejle Fjord in connection with a project for Trapholt Museum, back in 2017. They became the base of the cube.

And speaking of Trapholt, I was part of Astrid Skibsted’s Dataspejlet art project at Trapholt back in 2022. I both embroidered my data (from Facebook, of all places) and wove a section of the weaving done by my weaving group in Randbøldal. It’s when I learned about Astrid’s vikleprøver. And my cube is basically a giant vikleprøve (yarn winding).

So, you might say the cube I’m creating for the Fifty-fifty exhibition has been many years in the making. We are constantly taking in inspiration — through conversations, our eyes, our ears, the things we listen to. And I genuinely think we never know exactly how they will manifest when they become something. But our brains are working on it all in the background and all these impulses ARE becoming something. It’s just a matter of letting it come out.

I don’t really know what it is yet - is it a stool? or a table? a sculpture of sorts? But I will figure that out. Ideally, with enough time (and yarn), I will fully fill it out on all six sides. But for the exhibition, time (and work and other projects) allows only one side of it. But perhaps like life, it takes time to develop into something fully formed and filled out on all sides, connected and whole. I’m loving it as it is right now, but I also can’t wait to see where it’s headed.

I’m also working on a tea towel project. Taking a little break from my self-imposed assignment of weaving Taylor Swift’s albums as tea towels to do some for work. We have this cool drawer-insert contraption that helps you organize your kitchen drawers, but we don’t have proper photos of it. It will perfectly fit 15 tea towels and so I’m working on those. I created a warp that’s mostly white with black edges and stripes and one colorful stripe. I’m going to make it my own by weaving in with colors to make a rainbow of sorts.

I’m also going to change out the red stripe in the warp along the way. That sounds like a crazy idea, but I want to do something challenging and new in every set of tea towels I make. I need to LEARN something here! But really, who changes the warp along the way? And I intend to change it FOUR times!

Turns out I do! And it has worked! I’m happy there’s a four day weekend ahead so I can make lots of headway. I’ve woven the whole first towel since the change from red to orangey-yellow. Two to go before we change it again. I’m so happy to have Emmy, my personal weaving teacher and previous owner of my loom to help me with all of her wisdom and knowledge.

My loom, which is also much more experienced than I am, is also my friend in this project. Sitting at it, weaving these tea towels, the latest in a long line of creative, strong women to sit there, is such a privilege. The threads I’m working with, connecting me to them with every pass of the shuttle. The connections we weave to make up our lives take my breath away. Maybe it really does all come down to yarn.

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what a way to spend the easter holiday

signs of spring. tulips in the window. snowdrops and crocus in the garden. a little warmer weather would be welcome. i've got one of those change-of-season colds — a head full of snot, ears all plugged, sore throat and an annoying cough. 

i started this four days ago. i think now it's more than a cold. i think i have the cicada variant of covid. this, despite actually being vaccinated back in november because i volunteered to be part of a study. i can't get my hands on a test to find out for sure, but it's been quite a bit more than just the cold i thought i had at first. i've had industrial quantities of snot coming out of my head. i seriously have wondered how it was even possible. my stomach muscles are getting a workout from all the coughing. i keep spiking a fever. and i wake myself up coughing. my left ear is completely plugged. i made indian food for dinner tonight (butter chicken & saag aloo) and could scarcely taste a thing. the family thought it was good. it feels like a waste of a perfectly good easter holiday. 

husband is off to ukraine on a short trip

husband and a good friend left this morning to deliver these two vehicles to lviv. this trip will be quick and less nerve-wracking than the last one. they'll drop the cars off and then take a bus to warsaw and fly back home on monday. the cars have been donated by the danish geodatastyrelsen. they were used to drive around denmark, mapping everything and had been phased out of use. but they still have a lot of km in them. they're stuffed to the gills with all kinds of things - i saw heaters and pet food and more. i love and admire husband so much for doing this. 

i'm hanging out with my molly bestie (yes, that minnesota kitty we brought home back in 2012), indulging my new obsession with making beaded rings - i bought one in portugal and came home and bought beads and watched a youtube tutorial and learned to make them. 

he just called and they have stopped for the night in katowice, poland. he sounded tired. he said the hotel was really nice and they were about to go find some dinner. this trip definitely feels like it's lighter for both of us. no trip all the way east looming ahead. just popping to lviv and then heading home. 

since i was up early to see them off, i spent most of my day doing much-needed tidying up around here. i took everything off what we call the pirate shelf - our first piece of furniture that we bought together - and thoroughly dusted and washed everything, vacuumed up the spider webs and enjoyed putting it all back and thinking about each item. weird moment of enjoying cleaning. 

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i genuinely can't decide if this is terrifying or reassuring - the philosopher who is training claude. 

gatherings and random thoughts

i shared before that i did a little ritual to celebrate the solstice. this was the intention that was left at the end of 12 days of burning intentions. "have people over at least once a month." i'll admit, i was a little disappointed at first. but interestingly, since this became my intention, the notion of gathering people together keeps popping up everywhere. like in this really wonderful episode of ezra klein's podcast. 

so, what have i done to fulfill this intention so far? in january, i hosted a board meeting of our little creative group, creagive, at my house. i made ramen for everyone and we ate together and had our meeting. most of the members had to google what ramen was, but they left with full bellies and their horizons expanded. and i had some nice company in the middle of husband's trip to ukraine, which i really needed to distract me from worrying about him. a couple of days later, i had some old colleagues who have become friends over for the same meal. so i hosted twice in january. make that three times - we also invited a neighbor who is moving over for fastelavnsboller and to see my weaving studio one sunday afternoon. 

tomorrow, i'm hosting three good friends for a little galentine's celebration in the afternoon. just really good coffee and small chocolate lava cakes, which i will make for the first time. i was so happy to be planning this, that i decided to make a small handmade valentine for each of them - a little stitched heart-shaped brooch for each. it was lovely to spend a couple of evenings crafting these, one for each of my friends, thinking about what they might like and seeing where my supply stash and creativity would take me. a little burst of creativity that was a surprising side-effect of my resolution to have people over. 

i'm pondering the party we're going to have in the summer to celebrate my citizenship, husband's 61st birthday, my 59th and our 27th wedding anniversary. it bugs me that people only do a big celebration on the "big" numbers - we "should" have done one for our 60th or for our 25th anniversary, but i resist the tyranny of convention and so why not celebrate 61 and 59 or 27 years? 

my friend said she had been thinking of themes for the party - something i hadn't considered. and now i can't stop thinking about it. what if everyone had to come in a blow-up costume like my beloved t-rex? my friend suggested taylor swift albums, but husband wasn't so keen on that. husband and i discussed maybe a james bond theme last evening, that would fit us both. 

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an insane amount of questions regarding the new citizenship law from one (racist?) member of the committee who happens to be a member of dansk folkeparti? 

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funny how he got parked in strange corners all over the company and never made VP, despite being there for 39 years...just seems a little weird, don't you think? 

and yes, i'm still a little bit bitter.

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ugh, the knitting community on social media is a pretty toxic place. i wouldn't even know about this, since it's happening on instagram, but knittok is talking about it as well. why are women so nasty to one another? and why do people think knitting designers owe them something?

my brain is buzzing

full credit to my sister for this photo. it's early morning purple aurora skies over the old barn from the back steps of our childhood home, which is now her home. purple has always been one of my favorite colors and though i go away from it, i always come back. i recently bought a purple sweater and some very cool purple and gold brocade pants, so it's back in my life. it often figures in the mild synesthesia i have in certain situations - i see swirls of purple and pink, quite like this photo, actually. though sometimes it's purple and peach or purple and green. i think purple comforts me.

my brain is buzzing. i haven't slept well since sometime last week. i might have mentioned that husband is currently driving around in ukraine, delivering all kinds of humanitarian aid. he visited an animal shelter today and delivered a lot of pet food and other supplies. a kind woman has taken in cats and dogs that people had to leave behind as they fled. he said they had 23 dogs and 48 cats and it was immaculate. i'm certain the food he delivered was much appreciated. i get tears in my eyes just writing this. but dang, it's keeping me from getting a good nights' sleep. 

i feel like i'm absorbing all of the anxiety of the world. or channeling it. or something that's hard to describe. it's rather unpleasant. and it isn't conducive to proper sleep or firing on all cylinders at work. maybe i'll feel normal again when husband is home. but maybe i won't. maybe trump will have invaded greenland. maybe that bill to do away with dual citizenship in the US will pass. if it does, i know which i will choose, if only i would get the letter to say it's official. 

the healing energy of a cube

i'm not generally a worrier. i can take things as they come as a general rule, but this time, with husband in ukraine, i'm having some anxiety. it's probably the world in general. the country of my birth is about to attack and take a territory of my chosen country by force, starting ww3, so it's no wonder. there's a shit ton of anxiety in the air, so i guess it's not rocket science that i'm feeling it more acutely this time.

i stopped by my friend emmy's to drop off some weaving supplies last evening after work and she offered to make a simple dinner of creamy mushrooms on toast and a lovely winter salad. i gratefully accepted. while she cooked, i sat on the cube that she got when we visited weaver hanne vedel's studio last year. i closed my eyes and felt the energy from this beautifully woven work flow into me. it felt like a comforting, warm blanket settling over me. 

emmy put on p8 jazz and i sat there and felt the hum of positive, calming energy coming from the cube and the whole atmosphere. i felt in touch with the calm, warm, powerful energy that hanne must have had as she wove the cloth that became this cube.  breathing in the delicious fragrance of the creamy mushrooms simmering, i closed my eyes and listened to the music. colors began to dance in front of my eyes and i could feel the anxiety fade. it wasn't gone, but it became manageable. it was just what i needed. 

aurora borealis

like most things, the sun is going a little bit crazy at the moment. there's a major solar storm going on. it was clear and cold here and i couldn't sleep anyway. i was worried about whether husband had made it to poltava and whether he was safe and i hadn't heard from him. i'm not normally one to worry, but these are anxious times and his trip is something to concretely worry about, rather than the general sense of worry and embarrassment caused by the spray-tanned satan on the daily. so it means i'm not sleeping all that well while he's away. i found myself awake a little before 2 a.m. and a text rolled in from my sister. she follows the antics of the sun and she messaged that we were ripe for auroras. so, since i was awake anyway, i went outside. and these are what i saw. right here in my own back yard. i'm almost hoping for another restless night tonight.