The warmth of winter...

(Photo from The Woolery)

Well, hello there.

I hope you are enjoying your winter time, though it feels more like spring around here! I have been doing a lot of knitting, and have finally begun the task of learning to spin my own yarn. I have used a drop spindle at various points in the past, but I never found it an enjoyable experience. I have had a couple of lessons on spinning wheels owned by other people, but did not have one of my own - until now.

I was recently gifted a beautiful used Ashford Joy single treadle, and I am overjoyed! I need a lot of practice, and so far have not been successful at creating any useable yarn, but it is just a matter of getting the tension correct, and getting my two hands and one foot to each do independent tasks in unison in just the right rhythm.

I am a whiz at treaaling because my grandmother had an old treadle Singer sewing machine that I loved to play with when I was a child.

When I have something worthwhile come off my spindle, I will share a photo or two.

Happy winter,

Winter Knitting

I have been knitting knitting knitting this season. I am always in search of new patterns to try, and new yarns to use. I was recently gifted the book, Natural Knits for Babies and Moms, and have been trying a few of the patterns for the Outreach to Appalachia this month.

I have several projects on the needles at this time, and some of them have been sitting on needles for a year or more. My next search will be for time to complete some of these.

It makes me happy to see the results of the work of my hands. It is also very satisfying to give that work away.

Odd Occurrences and Natural Disasters in 2012

I wanted to begin this year on a positive note, so I began with the overarching idea for the year of "seeking." Unfortunately, life is not always positive, and there is also a need to seek change. There is a need to seek answers. There is a need to seek to help others.

The years 2010 and 2011 were years that saw increasing occurrences of natural disasters and odd phenomenon. Perhaps there are no "answers" for WHY these things have occurred. At least, perhaps no answers that are readily available. The one potential exception to this is the BP oil spill. There are answers there, but we may never know them. For those to be known, there is a need to seek way down deep in the bowels of a corporate monster for the Truth.

However, there is no denying that odd and catastrophic things are occurring at a more alarming rate, and that means that there are more people who may need help from others. I will attempt to help when and where I am able, and that usually means sending knitted objects to help those who are in need of warmth.

2012 has dawned no different in some ways than 2010 and 2011. This year has also begun with dead birds dropping out of the sky for no apparent reason, dead fish washing ashore and then disappearing with the tide, and a large magnitude earthquake off the coast of the still crippled Japan.

There were so many things going on in 2011 that I lost count. So this year, I am going to attempt to keep a list on my sidebar. To seek to live an aware existence means that one must not ignore what is happening in the world. One must seek to make connections where possible in an effort to draw conclusions about what might be done to alleviate the impact. For example, many people do not know that the Fukushima plant is still not completely under control from the earthquake and the following Tsunami in March of 2011. Radioactive cesium has spread over much of Japan and a full shutdown had still not been accomplished as of November, 2011. A report says that Japan was "unprepared" for the disaster, but TEPCO said there could have been "no way to prepare fora 9-0 magnitude quake..."

That may be the closest to the truth that any story has yet reached. THERE IS NO WAY TO PREPARE a nuclear power plant to withstand a 9.0 or higher earthquake. So, if we seek the most logical conclusion, all nuclear plants on this entire planet should be shuttered for good. We do not need them when the potential risk is so high. I do not think enough people are seeking the answers or drawing safe conclusions.

Since I cannot unilaterally decide for the world that all nuclear power should be abandoned, I will seek to help those whom I can after these disasters strike. I will attempt to find some fragment of hope for the deliverance of innocent people from the maniacal greed of companies seeking to further and bigger the use of nuclear power the world over.

I will pray that I have no more than the three entries already existing on my 2012 list by the end of the year.
I will continue on my journey...

To Seek Happiness in the New Year

Happy New Year!

I have taken some time to reflect and to determine my blogging goals (or if there even were any such goals), and have decided to continue on in 2012. My direction for the year was almost to explore the word "identity" and all that it entails, but I realized that my quest this year (and every year of my life) is much deeper than I could delve into with a mere noun.

I decided that this year, I am going to explore all the possibilities that lie in the simple verb "seek."

In the end, isn't that what we all do here on this earth? We seek. Even when we don't know it, we are in search of something. Even at the most fundamental level, we are always required to seek - food. We seek warmth. We seek love, happiness, friendship, fulfillment. The tragedy lies in giving up the search.

And so I begin...

Definition of SEEK

transitive verb

1: to resort to : go to

2a : to go in search of : look for b : to try to discover

3: to ask for : request <seeks advice>

4: to try to acquire or gain : aim at <seek fame>

5: to make an attemptWhat do you seek?