Jelisava

Wrought in the stitches

My “glory cloak” in-progress; regular increases and decreases form the triangulating pattern / New Jersey / Jan. 2010

“There are many ancient stories of knitting, and there are even some that tell of knitting as a magic charm — spells that can be wrought in the stitches of sweaters, blankets, and socks for purposes known only to the knitter.” 

~ Stephanie Pearl-McPhee in At Knit's End

Necessity being the mother of invention

Lightweight but warm — my last-minute legwarmers took less than a minute to make (luckily I already had a felted sweater in the closet) / New Jersey / Dec. 2009

How to Make a Great Pair of Legwarmers

1. Take an old wool sweater, with long sleeves, and wash it in hot water to felt it so the ends won't fray.
2. Cut the sleeves off at the shoulders.
3. Slide the sleeves onto your legs (I slid them on so that the smaller cuff part was around my ankle). Done!

They can be worn over stockings (kept my legs extremely warm as I walked through a blizzard), over pants like a pair of gaiters (were great when the snow was almost two feet high), or under pants to keep the cold air from blowing up your legs (if they slouch down too much on bare legs, wear the cuff at the top).

I simply leave this mark of blue

What a delight to knit with a yarn that changes colors and forms a kind of rhythm as you knit — I disregarded the pattern and kept knitting until I ran out of yarn to form a big collar; and what fun to finish a sweater in time to wear it for Christmas Eve / New Jersey / Dec. 2009

“Assuming I am a pleasant companion
with rhythm and a voice
and I depart

my hands having been
placed upon your
walls,
my fingerprints
upon your glass.

I simply leave this mark of blue

blue print.”

~ Blue Print by New Jersey poet Yictove (former host of the New York City Knitting Factory Series; his given name was Eugene Melvin Turk; his adopted name "Yictove" means "He will write")

Dear Readers: I hope I have been a pleasant companion this past year as I struggle to find my rhythm and voice. Thank you for stopping to place your hands and eyes upon my wall. With love and wishes for delightful new rhythms in the new year, Jelisava

Still life

Still life in mid-morning sun (flower pot soaked in glue and fabric scraps) / New Jersey / Dec. 2009

“Life batters and shapes us in all sorts of ways before it's done, but those original selves which we were born with and which I believe we continue in some measure to be, no matter what, are selves which still echo with the holiness of their origin. I believe that what Genesis suggests is that this original self, with the print of God's thumb still upon it, is the most essential part of who we are and is buried deep in all of us as a source of wisdom and strength and healing which we can draw upon or, with our terrible freedom, not draw upon as we choose. I think that among other things all real art comes from that deepest self — painting, writing, music, dance, all of it that in some way nourishes the spirit and enriches the understanding. I think that our truest prayers that can rise out of the lives of unbelievers as well as believers whether they recognize prayers or not. And I think that from there also come our best dreams and our times of gladdest playing and taking it easy and all those moments when we find ourselves being better or stronger or braver or wiser than we are.”

~ Frederick Buechner (and thanks to Mitza for giving me this bit of wisdom to read)

Fortified with ribbons

Wrap me in ribbons / Philadelphia, PA / Nov. 2009

How wonderful to walk down a busy city street on a gray day and find the “Ribbon Vault on Arch Street” by the artist and sculptor Robert Chambers (see another of Chambers' ribbon creations here). An entire storefront, filled with ribbon spools hung on the walls, with the ribbon spilling and coiling down and out into the display windows. Repeating a theme is such a powerful statement. One uncoiled ribbon looks like something left behind by mistake. A bulging window of ribbons of various colors and widths is a celebration. Chambers says: “My work very often references a sense of experimental playfulness” and “I find myself constantly toying with visual connections between science and art, forcing them into a realm of senselessness and chaos.” I wish I had a vault of ribbons.

Macabre

The colorful scarf I've been working on; piecing together a collection of woven fabrics / New Jersey / Oct. 2009

The spiders have been busy in my house. I keep coming across tiny cobwebs, spun like the finest of silk in odd places, usually only when the light happens to hit them right. A cobweb is really a masterpiece of design and weaving — a network of fine threads spun by a spider. I think of some of the beautiful fabrics that I have been working with — all designed then woven, too. At this time of year some people decorate their houses with fake cobwebs. It occurs to me that perhaps my delicate, woven cobwebs are not a sign of insufficient housekeeping, but rather they are “seasonal decoration” not to mention works of art and design. I resolve to leave them undisturbed. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Need to be at ease

The ease of the backyard garden and the deep brilliance of spring blooms / New Jersey / May 2009

When you're at the top of your game, it's because you've surrounded yourself with stimuli that make you feel peaceful and comfortable. Other people may work well under pressure and accomplish most when they're driven by stress, but you usually need to be at ease in order to access your deep brilliance.

~ Rob Brezsney puts me at ease by describing me

The pattern of my life

Notorious Non-cooperative Knitting / bag before felting / Feb. 2006

“After a dead serious consideration of the effects of this committee's work and of my relation to it, I find that for the following reasons I must refuse to cooperate with this body.

... as a poet I must refuse to cooperate with the committee on what I can only call esthetic* grounds. The view of life which we receive through the great works of art is a privileged one — it is a view of life according to probability or necessity, not subject to the chance and accident of our real world and therefore in a sense truer than the life we see lived all around us. I believe that one of the things required of us is to try to give life an esthetic ground, to give it some of the pattern and beauty of art. I have tried as best I can to do this with my own life, and while I do not claim any very great success, it would be anti-climactic, destructive of the pattern of my life, if I were to cooperate with the committee. Then too, poets have been notorious non-cooperators where committees of this sort are concerned. As a traditionalist, I would prefer to take my stand with Marvell, Blake, Shelley and Garcia Lorca rather than with innovators like Mr. Jackson. I do not wish to bring dishonor upon my tribe.”

~ Thomas McGrath's Statement to the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC)

* esthetic: a philosophical theory as to what is beautiful

Throw open the storm door

Fabric panels on my front door provide an ever-changing art gallery / New Jersey / Jan. 2009

“A genius is the one most like himself.”

~ jazz musician Thelonious Monk

There's something really wise and powerful in that statement and I'm trying to live it.

Salvoes of good wishes

Hand-made Christmas presents from old jeans, fabric scraps, bells / Dec. 2008

"And we danced and sang and larked, until we could no more. And finally we chanted a song of ceremony, and separated; ending the day as we had commenced it, with salvoes of good wishes."

~ The Feast of St. Friend

Merry Christmas!