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Diane Wolf, USA
Here are two images from a group project of tapestry weavers from all over the world who responded to the events six years ago. Monique Lehman coordinated this project, and you can see all the tapestries here.
Katarzyna Kordyasz, Poland
>It’s been an odd day. It’s that sad anniversary, and this is the first year it falls again on a Tuesday. I’ve tried not to think too much about it, but I did stay home today and avoid any radio and tv exposure. My own memories and thoughts are enough for the occasion. For several weeks it felt like my whole town was holding its breath, waiting for some good news about loved ones. Then came weeks when I’d see funeral processions almost every day, and public grief…women meeting each other in the street or in the market and sobbing together. It was traumatic. In six years, not one day goes by where I don’t notice the change in our view of Manhattan. I wonder if I’ll ever get used to it. Well, it will just take more time….
This photo doesn’t look like my typical view of Manhattan at all, even though supposedly it was taken right near me. I can’t believe no one has ever posted a photo of our great view from Rte. 17, or Craig Dr., or Overlook….I guess I’ll have to do it myself sometime. I see Manhattan MUCH closer, with the Empire State Building right in the center, larger than life, despite it being 25 miles away, and the WTC used to be to the right . It’s still odd not to see them.
I wanted to do something useful today, so I worked on photographing some of my scarves to list on Etsy. While I photographed them I took one of Buddha. As you can see I’ve been working, though it’s been almost two weeks since I’ve touched him. 
We’ve been sailing again, this time to P-town and back, with stops at Bassett Island (lovely!) and various other nice spots. I hope to have pictures soon. Most of the week was breezy and cool, definitely a touch of autumn in the air. Now that we’re back, it’s hot, humid, and raining. I’m glad we are home this week!
Pictures of P-town, as promised. Our boat is just to the right of the steeple.
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Will I ever finish this piece? I’m beginning to think NOT, and it’s frustrating me. Quite some time ago I found a wonderful picture of a stone Buddha on the fridge at a friend’s house. Yes, it was a photo posted on a refrigerator!….yet it was the most beautiful face I’ve ever seen, and I asked my friend right then and there if I could make a copy of it. She gave it to me. I’m not doing anything artistic with it, I’m just copying it. I blew it up to the size I wanted, and I took a lot of time deciding how to convey a sense of the pitted stone in yarn. I’m happy with the mouth and nose. I’m actually quite a bit further along in the weaving than this photo shows. Yesterday I started the left eye. Well, I guess it’s really his right eye, but as I work on it it’s the eye to my left. I’ve woven it three times now, and it’s still not right. I love everything about this face! He has a beautiful mouth, and a perfectly shaped nose, but his eyes are truly moving. I can’t get the right expression. I’m trying not to feel like a failure, but I really do. I’m just a weaver, and if I could figure out how to portray this beautiful face I could weave it without much trouble. It’s portraying his amazing expression that’s going to defeat me…..
Okay, here he is in the photo. I wasn’t going to post this, but he’s too beautiful to leave out. How many times have I written that word, beautiful, in this post? I think I’m obsessed with his beauty!
(The colors I’m using are closer to the real photo than this photo would suggest. He’s much greener, like he’s seen years of moss and algae, and not at all golden as he looks here.)
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I’ve been awakened several consecutive nights by this owl. If you click on both the “A” sound and the “B” sound you’ll hear what wakens me! It’s a soothing sound, and I find it is bringing up some very old memories of sleepless nights full of teenage angst when I would be lulled to sleep by a whippoorwill. If you’ve never heard a whippoorwill I truly hope someday you will. It’s an indescribable experience that is heightened by occurring in the depths of night.
I doubt if I’ll ever get to see this owl, so hearing its call is quite intriguing. I’m imagining him (although possibly her) sitting in a spot like this photo, in a tree somewhere nearby, maybe even in my yard. I have heard him for several years now, in the summer when our windows are open. While the voice of a whippoorwill will always bring back details from my bedroom from the mid-70s, now the sound of an Eastern screech owl will be the voice of my menopausal, empter nester years when I don’t often sleep through the night.
Recently, during my late evening walks I’ve been hearing what might be a Great Horned Owl. I’m not completely sure about this as the owl in my neighborhood has a much lower pitched call. All I know for certain is that it is not the same owl as the one that awakens me later in the night. It’s interesting to realize that there is such bird life in my suburban town, although my town is rather undeveloped, so less manicured than most ‘burbs.
I’m not a “birder,” so it’s not as if I’m on the lookout for them, and this means I’m sometimes pleasantly surprised by my surroundings. Waking and drifting back to sleep to the sounds of owls (or whippoorwills!) is quite a good experience, something I highly recommend!
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Two years ago I started a knitting ministry group in my area. It was not about religion per se, but about the power of knitting to heal us and others. I think the act of making anything by hand and wearing it or giving to someone to wear or use is a powerful totem for good health and protection against bad things. There just has t be a lot of good karma in something that you’ve made stitch by stitch for yourself or for someone you know. I’ve made it a point for many years now to wear something handmade everyday. I was surprised at how easy it is to wear some little something made by real hands, mine or others, each day.
So, I figured there were plenty of people in my community who would want to learn to knit now that knitting is so hip and there are so many LYSs (local yarn shops) cropping up again, and so many mega craft stores carrying yarn. I also figured there were plenty of past knitters out there who wanted to start again and just needed a little impetus. So I decided to offer knitting lessons for free and to focus on knitting for others. I was happily surprised at the number of people who have joined, and very pleased at how they each help each other. Even the new knitters now help others. I’m awed by what they do!
Most of the group knits shawls since fit is not an issue and since they don’t require any complicated shaping. Some people have moved on to interesting stitch patterns and/or triangular shawls, and some have just continued to knit, knit, knit! Some of the members have learned to make socks, and some have rekindled their talents at making sweaters. Everyone has felt the healing power of just going through the motions of knitting.
So here’s one of the shawls for which I’ve written a pattern. It’s not complicated; it’s based on the traditional Faeroese triangular shape that starts at the neck edge rather than the bottom point, and makes a shape that stays nicely poised on one’s shoulders. Hopefully later today I’ll have the PDF!
