Introspective

The twisted looping labyrinths of my mind and life.

I became interested in labyrinths several years ago. I read about them. I learned how to draw a seven circuit labyrinth. I used different artist materials to create labyrinths. I walked labyrinths when I could find them. I used chalk on my patio to make a labyrinth my children and I could walk at home. It was fun, it was mathmatical, it was introspective and mindful.

I find fiber pursuits fun, introspective and mindful too. I spin wool, cotton, and silk into yarn. I knit and even weave sometimes. I especially find spinning it is zen like, meditative.

A labyrinth is a mirror of life, with all it's twists and turns. Luckily in a labyrinth there are no dead ends, life sometimes hauls you to a blank wall where you have to back up and start over.
Knitting a lace pattern is like that for me, lose your concentration and you have to tink back or the pattern doesn't work.

Lately I have been knitting a mystery lace shawl. I signed up for a group paid a few dollars and downloaded the pattern every Friday for 5 weeks. I of course didn't finish each installment in a weeks time. In fact it has been over 2 months and I'm still in the middle of pattern section 4. The yarn is a wonderful hand dyed lace weight in blue, teal, gray and black. My friend Anita commented that I probably should have used a larger needle as my shawl still looks fairly small, even with over 500 stitches and lots of lace work. Well yes, perhaps I should have taken into account that life would request stress relief by pulling my stitches tight. I'm not starting over, I'll just do a few more repeats of section 4. Blocking will pull it out into a bigger size than one would think possible as well.

Lets hope that starting a blog will not be as stress inducing as my life lately. If it is I'll just delete because I don't know if I can stand much more troubling excitement. I'll not give a run down, I'm sure it will pop up later.

Viki