Inspiration
Small Joy
Dear Kay,
I keep thinking about Suzan Colon’s post yesterday, “Glimmering.”
What a gift it is.
In recent weeks and months I’ve tried all sorts of things to keep my wits about me. I’m sure you have, too. For some people it’s meditation. Or keeping a journal. Or yoga. Or prayer. Or volunteering. Or sitting in a bathtub with a vanilla-scented candle. Or running or walking or stretching. Or digging a hole and planting something.
All good, all good. But this idea of looking for small moments of goodness, those glimmers? The utter simplicity of this is what has my attention.
It’s available at any moment during the day. It requires nothing except our attention. It’s endlessly possible to find glimmers. I think it has a lot to do with opening our eyes, our minds, our hearts. Looking up, not down. Slowing down, just for a second. Not stopping, not embarking on some new big thing.
I can’t see myself running a 5K race anytime soon, but I can surely watch five robins cavorting in the birdbath. That works.
It works to find glimmers in my knitting. I’ve been chugging away on this Autumn Garden Stole, one of Dee Hardwicke’s designs in Field Guide No. 25: Botanica. I really love it.
I had to set it aside for a bit—the gnome thing was all consuming and I’ve stopped only because I ran through all 27 miniskeins, resulting in 16 gnomes. I call that a good start …
So a return to this big piece of colorwork is certainly a joy.
The feel of this Atlas yarn. The ease of this colorwork pattern. The way it’s getting heavy in my lap as I near the end. It’s all right here, waiting for me to notice.
There are glimmers galore to be found in the Lounge, where the Botanica knitalong continues. Seeing somebody’s knitting can be such a lift.
Love,
Ann
PS The Atlas yarn bundle for the Autumn Garden Stole is moving along pretty quickly, so if you’re in the mood, you’ll find it here.
If you’re a Field Guides subscriber, you’ll save $21 when you use your November subscriber coupon code.
Dee’s original colorway is the height of cool and calm. Just love this.
Love your garden stole! What a glimmer watching your knitted creation grow to completion. It is so much fun seeing different color combos. I’ll bet looking at your cluster of gnomes makes you smile too. Beautiful work Ann!
Just to let you know that the link to the Atlas bundle is connecting to the lounge.
Thank you for the heads up—tidied up now!
Your Autumn Garden Stole is just lovely! I’ve had the Field Guide No. 25: Botanica since it came out but have not been knitting because of various reasons but the stole that you are making really spoke to me. I know the yarn is Atlas but would it be possible to share the colors that are being used? It really does glimmer!
Thank you for the inspiration!!
Lapis, Shale and Black; original post about it all is here.
Love your glimmers. They are examples of how we can fill our lives with light.
Beautiful knitting.
Hey, I think those are my robins cavorting in your bird bath! I miss them. Watching birds while knitting is extra glimmer!
I am still pondering the Autumn Garden Stole pattern as a nice nice border on NellKnits Shakerag Skirt, maybe 2/3 repeats. Think Atlas would work?
Wow that’s a sweet idea. I do have a concern about Atlas as the yarn for a skirt–it would quite possibly felt in the sit-upon zone, which would not be a great situation. I do wonder about the ambitious-yet-not-impossible effort to do it in the yarn Nell Ziroli likes for that skirt, Rowan Creative Linen. Colorwork in a nonwool fiber? Could be either a) beautiful or b) not great. Worth a swatch to see how stranded colorwork would behave with Creative Linen–I can’t quite envision it.
OMG! Back in the 1980s, I had a loud store-bought sweater in (almost) the same colors as your shawl! The gray was paler, which made the blue, um, really stand out…like a Great Dane among corgis and dachsunds. (PS: Robins in a birdbath? Kermit probably thinks of that as “bird soup”.)
Bird soup, heh heh. My Louie would agree.
Beautiful! But I want to see your gnomes, too…
Yes, I’m very curious now about the gnomes….
Beautifully said! The “Glimmer” thing has really hit home for me, too. I constantly find glimmers in my knitting!
Looks good
Looks good and hope to learn the sock directions
Want to be a great knitter