I read a story this morning about a guy who was on his honeymoon in 2001 and discovered an 8-inch long swimming centipede. This was a big discovery in the world of people who study centipedes, apparently, because they thought all centipedes tried to avoid water. The guy said he always looks under rocks when he is out close to home or traveling and he was so excited to see the centipede racing into the water to hide when the guy lifted the rock it was hiding under. He captured it in a bottle or something and brought it back to London. I was chuckling to myself but I also was fascinated by the story. I love reading/hearing about how people make new discoveries, explore new ideas, engage in their particular brand of creativity, and find ways to follow their bliss. Several years ago Bill and I were both working for a small museum in a small town in south central Oregon and we did a life story project with 10 local artists. I interviewed them and had a wonderful time conversing with them about their creative lives. It was valuable for them too, because a few of them told me afterwards that they learned stuff about themselves while we were talking.
I was chuckling because my own travel souvenirs do not run to centipedes--swimming or non-swimming. Books--yes, please. If we are in the right sort of spot I will gather some rocks--I traveled back home to Fairbanks from Norway years ago with rocks in my suitcase. And of course, yarn and/or thread have often come home from my travels with me. Last week when we did a quick trip to Sligo I came home with some
variegated thread.
The centipede guy must've been prepared with his bottle, wasting no time in hauling his catch out of the water and securing it for travel. I also go places prepared and will take far longer to decide on which books and stitching to take than which clothes to bring. E-readers have made this a little easier because I can carry hundreds of books on a small device, but I always feel I need a small paperback as back-up, in the event of a failing battery. With the stitching I always consider portability and size, along with complexity and materials required. Tatting is usually a good choice because it does not require very much--a bit of thread, the needle, and some scissors. It also takes more time to do than knitting or crocheting and does not need the same quality of light as cross-stitching which can sometimes be hard for me to see. Since I have a large ongoing tatting project, that is what I brought with me last week.
I envisioned it as a shawl. There is a long way to go yet, but I am enjoying working on it. I finished off a row of motifs last night after doing another round on the large circular crocheted lace shawl I am making. It took me over two hours to do one round on that--I have 8 or 10 rounds to go, I think.
This is half of it.
It is cool enough today that I might decide to work on it again--having the pile of wool on my lap gets warm, so I do not work on it when it is not cool. On the other hand, I am in the mood for some more tatting. Guess I will see what I feel like later, but for now, I am off on a quick dash to the library to pick up a book that came in.
Happy Friday! Hope you get to spend some time following your bliss today.
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