Yarn

I've been reading a lot of craft blogs lately and looking through tumblrs that all seem to revolve around a return to a woman's strength and creativity through sewing: an interesting concept considering how much women of the 20th century did to pull us away from the idea of a domestic sphere.  Even so there is a new edge to these crafty yarn-obsessed women with their knitted hats and their pillow stitching and scarf making.  They impress me and I'm not sure why.  Personally, I hate sewing.  I have very little patience for the detail-oriented process and I never learned to knit despite several attempts on my mom's part to teach me when I was little.  I've been thinking hard about this new (or at least new to me) trend.  At first I found myself resisting this idea of arts and crafts because I didn't think it was art that made a statement.  I thought it was simply an attempt to be "vintage" which is the new edgy it seems.  (And I really can't stand when people make/wear/buy vintage simply because it's vintage and currently "in").  Maybe it is.  However, the more I looked them over, the more I realized these are new thoughts and new ideas and while personally, I don't and probably won't ever identify myself with the "crafty" sorts of arts, I have a new appreciation for the women who dedicate themselves to this idea.  Here are some pictures from a blog I frequent called A Beautiful Mess .  This woman is the height of modern craft and while I find her dolls in homemade snow hats to be ridiculously creepy, I've begun to at least understand the work and dedication behind the process.

(this is a pic of her studio, which partly inspired the short fiction mentioned below)

I'm even making yarn an important "character" in the short story I'm currently writing.  We'll see how it turns out, but I like it so far.

Though I generally consider myself to be an open-minded person these craft blogs helped remind me that creativity comes in all shapes and sizes were a reminder to keep an open-mind even if it's not something I'm personally in to.  I think we all can use reminders like that now and then.

More true to my interest in art, I joined a reading group for Joyce's Ulysses.  I'm really excited about being able to read such a difficult novel/experiment/groundbreaking piece of literature with a group so we can talk it over!  Stream of consciousness writing absolutely fascinates me.

Have a lovely evening!  I'm finally out of holiday mode, so my posts will be much more frequent : )

Chelsea