I should not be writing this post

This morning at 5:30 a.m. when in the grips of an insomnia so irritating as to actually get me out of my warm bed, I decided that I would swear off the internet forever.  I was going to delete every vestige of all my online accounts, and erase every bit of me in the ether!

I think it goes without saying that I am not very at all rational in the early morning before noon. I’m still not really sure why I thought this was a good idea, other than that I was exhausted, grumpy and needed a nice hot shower and a cuppa joe.

I’m not yet over conference-malaise, and I should just go to bed, and that’s not really too far off.  I just want to go to bed late enough that I can sleep for a good 11 hours tonight straight through.

So in this week’s now-typical style, I present various things running through my head:

1)  Remember that picture I showed you of the woman knitting socks in the SXSW panel? Well, I posted that picture to Flickr, and lo and behold she left a comment!  It’s Julia aka Yarn Maven from Bastrop, Texas.  I didn’t get a chance to get her name in the panel because I got caught up talking to the two founders of BurdaStyle, but I’m so glad to meet her.

2)  I do yammer on sometimes about advocating buying handmade stuff.  But it’s only because I really like it.  Fun thing about buying things I might make myself - still useful, but this way I get to enjoy others’ design aesthetics as well.  Here’s my latest purchases.

On the left is the orange Bouquet wall clock for Jeff’s study from Decoy Lab.  He’s been on an orange thing recently, looking for accessories.  Orange is a great accent.  As seen on February’s Poppytalk selections.

On the right is a sewing case I bought for taking embroidery stuff along with me.  It’s from Blue Banana Shop in Singapore, whose stuff is very bright and cheery.

Pay no attention to my strange collection of books there.  I just realized what those were.  This is part of my collection of academic books on the old Testament.  The one on the far left, Paul the Convert, was written by a professor for whom I was a teaching assistant, my favorite professor from grad school, the inimitable Alan Segal.

Last Week’s Inspiring Things …

Still with the flu (argh) but on the bright side I’ve almost caught up with my RSS reader!  I consider this an accomplishment. Problem with the blogs I read is that I do love all that stuff - after years + months of reading, I’m still inspired by all the things people come up with and do.  Sometimes it’s overwhelming, and I want to just delete my whole blog list.

After I get through the list I wish - yet again! - that I could remove the “by night” part of my name and have time to do all the things that I get inspired to do, or would do if I had the time. But this is not possible, and in any case I like my job, but still … oh, what I could do with more time! All I can do is try to manage my time well. Can you crochet on a treadmill? ‘Cause I’m thinking multi-tasking might be the way to go …

Here’s some of what I found inspiring last week …

One.

Katy Horan does art she describes as long lost folk art from an imaginary world. I really love that concept - it speaks to me as a reader of books that explore imaginary worlds and because I really love folk tales and art. Her art looks to me as though it’s inspired by native SW American symbolism and imagery because of costuming, color and animal choices. It’s quite striking artwork, very bold in its choices. Much of it reminds me of the graphic effect piecework and applique, and a combination of elements like collagework. I don’t have a picture because I don’t want to infringeon any copyright, but it’s really something great to check out if you think my description interesting.

Two.

I’m quite taken with this book artwork by Jennifer Khoshbin . It feels to me very much how I think of books, as something to delve into, with simple covers concealing a wealth of information and experience. The art depicted here is from Book Project 1 (there’s also a Book Project 2 in process) and uses illustration and carved books to convey concepts, something she calls the “sculptural use of books” that creates a “depth of thought.” Ashes and Building Bridges are my favorite. The thumbnail to the right is a detail of Orbit.

Three.

I am quite taken by these collections of little pots from Etsy seller JMN Pottery. I suppose you could use them for something if you wished, but I’d rather just have a collection of small, beautiful pots in a tray. Many of her designs have something of a whimsical nature, for example, poison skull mugs and “grouchy pots” and spiked ceramics. Her descriptions seem to indicate that she very much creates her pieces spontaneously with what appeals to her as she works.

Four.

I was interested in this Queen Anne scarf design from mk carroll - well, to be more precise I was interested in her interest in experimenting with fibers. Usually you just get a few product placement-ey shots of a pattern unless you go search for people who’ve used the pattern. But in this case, the creator made the pattern in several fibers, and the differences are really interesting. I actually found this on flickr first, where she has a set of 63 photos of the Anne in various stages, fibers and drapes. I do believe I like it best in a less bulky cotton, and as soon as I get done with some other projects I might just do this. I do love crochet lace.

A few fun things from last week …

Transparent desktops on Flickr (via NY Apartment Therapy) are pretty cool, and took a lot of time and effort, and who has the time to do these things, anyway? Puts me in mind of this for some reason, also a lot of Photoshop work.

Pictures (above) from a Swedish blog of an unbelievable craft space. If I had that many tools to work with, I’d be happy forever. Well, probably I’d just want even more, but that’s a personal issue I need to work on.

The most unusual Scarf I’ve seen this week from “mmm fiber” (I didn’t make that name up) … a series of interlocking rings in sunshiny colors. (right) I can just see myself trying to make this, getting horribly tangled in rings and yarn.

The Underground Quilt Controversy? Interesting article from the Quilting and Patchwork blog on whether or not the underground railroad used messages encoded into quilts. Never heard of this before, how intriguing!

This crochet lace bowl is completely awesome, so awesome I might want to investigate how they managed to make it stay in that shape. Aparently salt crystals make doilies do this?

And finally, some Nerd Craft from Becky Schaefer- Lara Croft (guns and all!) in a lovely pastoral setting … all done in needlepoint. Bet Ms. Croft loves her some needlepoint. And barns! That’s hysterical. I love the little birdie there right by her knee. (Via, via this, which is via this)