New blogger friend

This week I’ve met Megan from Australia who has a blog about calligraphy, illumination, and historical embroidery. Do go visit her. She features a wealth of resources, having done a lot of research and stitching of her own. Especially don’t miss her book cover posts.

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Why am I not stitching?

Because I’m obsessed with William Blake. When I decided to return to studying Blake in October, I expected to spend a few weeks at it. When I found in January that I was not making much progress, I decided to take a time out from blogging so that I could put that energy into the Blake study. Since then I’ve been reading and taking notes about two hours a day and I can’t seem to stop!

In preparation for writing the essay, I’ve re-read Blake’s major Prophetic Books–The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Milton, Jerusalem, and parts of The Four Zoas, reading all the introductions and notes and studying the illuminations. I’ve re-read Northrop Frye’s Fearful Symmetry and I’m now re-reading parts of it again. Frye sent me back to Harold Bloom’s Blake’s Apocalypse for another reading. I couldn’t resist re-reading June Singer’s The Unholy Bible, a Jungian analysis of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Minna Doskow’s in-depth study, William Blake’s Jerusalem. In the notes to Jerusalem, I was intrigued by a quote from a more recent book, Madness and Blake’s Myth by Paul Youngquist, so I got that book and read it. Fascinating!

I have started to write the essay, but I can’t stop reading Blake. I keep getting more and more out of his works and the works of his commentators. I’m feeling the way I felt when I first met Blake in 1963–exhilarated and overwhelmed.

But I’m also feeling frustrated. I want to get back to stitching. I’m not even sure I can put into words what I get from Blake. I’ve got to get a grip on myself and finish the damn essay! I’m sorry there’s no needle art to show you. I certainly did not intend to spend so much time on this project.

Wish me well in getting this done.

You can see a splendid exhibit of Blake’s art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. By the way, Blake created designs for a friend’s needlework.

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Blake study

It is surprising to me how many people have read my post about William Blake. I wonder why that is. I didn’t expect many people to know about his work. It’s been two weeks since I’ve been able to work on my Blake study. Before Caleb and Lauryth’s visit I was resting more than usual and going through all my photographs since 1983 to pull out the pictures of Caleb to show them. Since their visit, I’ve been resting more to recover from the exertion of socializing.

Surprisingly, I haven’t felt very bad, despite 12 hours of visiting during their three days here. Nevertheless, I’m being cautious. When I read a few pages of Blake on Monday, my eyes began to burn and my vision became filmy, always a sign that more symptoms are about to flare, so I went to bed instead. But yesterday I was able to read more without symptoms, so maybe I can get back to work on Blake.

At present I’m studying his great and longest epic poem, Jerusalem. It is an illuminated book with gorgeous full-page images. This is the title page as it appears on the book jacket of the facsimile edition I have.

Here we see the theme of this great work–human beings woefully unconscious but capable of soaring freely once they have awakened. Every one of us experiences, or can experience, both states–unconsciously sleepwalking through our ordinary, conventional, everyday lives or awakened, consciously realizing our potential to live joyful, imaginative, creative lives. Blake says, “Wake up!”
This project is taking much more time than I anticipated. I have not begun to write the essay. I’m still re-reading Blake and books on Blake and taking notes and thinking. And now I’m missing stitching. For some weeks I’ve had a piece in mind that I want to design and stitch, and I’ve done some thumbnail colored pencil experiments; but first I must write my Blake essay.

This is just an up-date to let you know why there haven’t been posts on stitching. After all, I said that this blog was going to be about my life in stitches. Well, I will be back with more needleart to show. Some time.

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Time out

When I am not being productive, not creating something, not working, I feel dissatisfied. That’s the way I’ve been feeling for a few weeks. The only stitching I’ve done has been utilitarian–making potholders (which I did embroider, very simply), and doing alterations and mending. I’ve made little progress in my Blake study. Things have come up–papers from grandchildren to be read and commented on, other odds and ends.

But mostly, I think I’ve just been spending too much time socializing–more than I ever have in my life! Socializing online, I mean. TAST, Sumptuous Surfaces, and blogging–reading, writing comments, and posting myself, have brought me new friends and contacts. It has been very enjoyable, getting to know some of you through comments and correspondence. However, since I can be active only about five hours a day, if I’m socializing for two or three hours, there’s no time left for making things. To me, being productive is more important, more necessary for my well-being.

I have to choose. I can’t do both at the same time. So I have decided to take a time out from blogging and chatting to finish my Blake essay. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone from here, but I will be back. So watch your RSS reader. And thanks so much for your company.

My Blake shelf:

Now, here are two quotes from William Blake on the subject of joy.

It is right it should be so:
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know
Through the world we safely go.
Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine.
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.

“He who binds to himself a joy

Does the winged life destroy;

But he who kisses the joy as it flies

Lives in eternity’s sun rise.” –

— William Blake

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You make my day

 

Thank you, Allie, for including me in your list of bloggers whom you enjoy. Immediately I began making my own list:

Allie, Vero, ElizabethM, Sharonb, Kay, Marty, Annie, MaureenB, Maureen, Ruth, Karen, Neki, RachelM, Mary, Conni, Pat, Nancilynn, Barbara….

But then I thought about how long it would take me to choose ten (because I could list even more), then link to all of them, and let them know. Please forgive me, Allie, and all my blogging friends, for not participating properly. I decided instead to use the time to write about Dorothy (below).

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Blogging and commenting

Last week Sharon initiated a most useful conversation by writing about and then asking about why people don’t leave comments at blogs they read. This week she has categorized the responses she has received, commenting on each category and providing lots of food for thought about this topic. I intend to write my thoughts here and I encourage you to go read Sharon’s post and the comments on it.

Before taking Sharon’s classes and participating in her TAST challenge, I had no interest in either reading or writing blogs. The few I had seen were not well written and not interesting to me. Through the classes and TAST, I discovered the blogs of other fiber artists.

I got into blogging after leaving lots of comments on Flickr and other people’s blogs which motivated other people to encourage me to blog. I leave comments because I think most people appreciate feedback, and I like to support and encourage others. It is also a way of starting a conversation with someone with whom I share interests. Some bloggers respond to my comments by email.

Usually I respond to comments by email. WordPress makes that easy by delivering comments to my inbox, with the commenter’s email address. Even if it’s just “thank you”, I like to let people know that their comments are appreciated.

I definitely welcome comments.

As for what I write about: I thought quite a bit about that before starting to blog. I wrote myself a statement of purpose. Because I so enjoy seeing the work of other fiber artists, I wanted to show my work and write about it. I also wanted  to share the other main interests in my life–reading and food, and to educate people about ME/CFS. There is so little understanding of this devastating condition that takes away most of one’s life. This blog also allows me to publish my essays and get them out into the light of day. I’ve written quite a lot over the years that may be of interest to others. By blogging, I have met people who share my interests and who have become friends.

Since I am almost completely housebound, blogging and giving and receiving comments has greatly enhanced my social life.

Thanks for all the good wishes about my computer situation.

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Visitor locations

If you scroll down to the ClustrMap in the sidebar, you can see where my visitors live. What fun! Thanks, everybody, for stopping by. I’ll be back with pictures later today.

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Benefits of blogging

Though I’ve had this blog only six weeks, I’ve made several new friends online from around the world, through their comments and e-mail messages. This is a great way to meet people who share my interests. But to my surprise, a neighbor here at Charlestown found my blog and sent me a note asking if she could come see some of my work. She also does needlework of several kinds.

Last Friday Kathy came round and we had a delightful 50-minute show-and-tell. She brought some of her beautiful work and I showed her some of my pieces. Besides knitting, hand embroidery, and machine embroidery, she has done a lot of fabric painting and experimenting with materials such as Tyvek and Timtex. I enjoyed seeing her samples and she was enthusiastic about mine. Now we’ve traded some of my Lutradur for some of her Timtex. Our interests in needleart are similar. And to think, she’s a near neighbor whom I otherwise would not have met. Yes, to blogging.

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Others’ work

When I see the quality and quantity of work produced by other needleartists such as Allie, Annie, Debra, Beth, Elizabeth, Kay, Vero, Nancilyn, Acey, Sequana/Annie, Mary, and so many others, I get discouraged and dissatisfied with my own work. I have come to needlework so late in life and I am so slow. Partly, it’s because of ME-CFS, which prevents me from working more than an hour or so a day, and sometimes from working at all. But partly it’s because my process is so slow. I spend days thinking about a design, trying out alternative ideas, playing with various materials, and working practice cloths before I even start to stitch on a project. I wish I could be more productive. I wish I could develop skills more quickly.

When I’m actually working on something, though, I don’t think at all about what other people are doing. I just enjoy stitching! At the moment, I’m between projects and undecided what to do next. I envy people who just pick up needle and thread and go at it.

Much as I enjoy seeing other people’s work, maybe I should not spend so much time looking at their blogs! (I have 66 stitchers’ blogs in my Google Reader and the number keeps growing.)

I’m making slow progress toward recovery from the flare caused by being hit by three trucks in the past two weeks. Still resting four hours during the day instead of the usual three. Feeling better, I should be able to get back to work.

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Giving credit

In my haste to post about this card I made for Marge,

I neglected to give credit to Micki for her demonstration of the piece she  made with Lutradur and lace. Although I had read Carol McFee’s article in Fibre & Stitch, and I had seen other work using Lutradur, it was Micki’s blog that inspired me to experiment with it. Thanks, Micki. I had a lot of fun with it.

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