Have faith

All you get to know sometimes -- no, most of the time -- is that things will work out.

Etsy update

Many of you have been inquiring about the status of my online etsy storefront. I'm happy to report it's very close to opening. My goal is to have it officially up and running by the middle to end of next week.
Wares to be sold there: flower brooches--small medium and large:



Lace flower hats:


And scarflettes:


A couple of patterns will be available as well in the late spring for any of you interested in making the items.

Stay tuned ...

No need for rulers or yardsticks

Sometimes it doesn't make sense to measure love. The bigness of it is very easy to see ... if you are looking.

Happy

Color

“The colors you wear are so drab, so muted,” the 14-year-old girl told me last time I was there. I looked at her in that bright green and purple skirt and brown tank top and smiled. “My wardrobe may not have much color, but that maybe because all the brightness is in my head.”

With her in mind, I picked up two different colors of yarn yesterday, for two different projects, specifically for me. One for a sweater and the other a scarf. Perhaps by the time they are finished I'll be on her island teaching her how to knit in bright colors (with cotton yarn as the tropics will be too warm for wool.)

The mill, the tavern, the Caribbean-nation flag

The town where I currently live has a population of 784. Three miles south is the nearest "bigger" town with a population of 7,000. You must drive through this town to get to the nearest "city" with a grocery store. On my way there, in 7,000 population town, I pass the mill. Across from the mill is the local tavern, and adjacent, kitty corner fashion, to the tavern is a second-hand store. Hanging in the middle of the front awning of said second-hand store hangs three flags. The one in the center is the Grenadian.

If this isn't a sign I don't know what is.

Soon

"It sucks to be so far apart," he says, "Just know that I am there with you. at least my heart and spirit."

She thinks about this while staring out at the sheep and laughs. "Hmmm, well if my heart is there with you and yours is here with me, then we still are 5,000 miles apart."

"Soon soon soon is all I can say," he replies as he looks out to the Atlantic ocean view from his veranda, and she smiles before hanging up the phone.

What does one do when in a new place while waiting on new friends? You make them out of wool.

Contribution

Sometimes the contribution is small, and you have to be okay with that. Sometimes you won't be privy to see what it is you are contributing, and you have to be okay with that too.

Satchels and Dreams

I. Love. This. Bag.



This is any knitter's dream satchel. I think I shall dream of carrying it with me next time I go to the island ...

(for more great pictures and other bags, patterns, knitting accessories, visit www.jordanapaige.com)

Focus on the things which make you happy, and make plans on how to get there. Use post-it notes.

Today, this is the room I'd love to be in. All freaking day. Right down to the Penny-Farthing Pillow:

Perspective

Funny how absence puts everything into perspective. Like how nothing is more important than love. Nothing.

Returns

Flocks of birds flying too high to recognize are heading back north. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, soar above this tiny town and then are gone.

I wonder if they fly a little faster when heading north. I wonder if they are giddy with the thought of returning home. I imagine the first-year migrators a little pouty and indignant in the autumn when they have to leave all they know.

Giving away

The more you give away, the more you receive in return. I've noticed this quite a bit throughout my life thus far, but most incredibly this year.

And, because sometimes random ideas pop into our heads and we hang on to them until they become some sort of gospel, I set out in January to make and complete four items: A sweater, a wrap, a scarf inspired by anthropologie and elephants, and knee socks. I set out to make them with the sole purpose of giving them away. Two of the items have already made the journey to excellent homes. But I still have two left and I'm just not sure where they belong, or whom they belong with.
What I do know: They go to someone directly related to my life. No churches or fundraising raffles. These two things have a bit more personal specificity about them, but I can't elaborate any further because I've made it such a quandary. Perhaps there is too much alone time on this little plot of land.

Any ideas?

Mermaids and Shower Caps

1. Faculty member gives you going away gift: a journal with a cover that looks like mermaid scales.

2. Read tiny article in Feb. 2011 of O Magazine about woman with no legs who tells children she is a mermaid before jumping from her wheelchair into ocean to swim. A company eventually makes her a wet suit fitted from waist down that looks like a mermaid fin.

3. Dear dear friend tells you she knew Tuesday was going to be good when she began the morning with a swim where an 8-year-old sported pink goggles and swim cap and looked like an old woman.

There is a theme here so you think and think and think and begin a design inspired by mermaids and shower caps:

hobbies

So lately, seems I've developed two new hobbies: waiting for last-minute miracles and watching for signs.

Both past times can make you crazy. Everything, on certain afternoons, can be a sign. And if the miracles don't happen, then it's easy to convince yourself the Universe and all the holy powers in it are out to teach a lesson.

And, as with mastering any hobby, waiting and asking take finesse and decorum. Try to go through your days with ease and remember to only throw your fits in private. If someone sees the crying mess in public and asks why all the tears, the answer won't proove that hopeless as the emotion, and you may look a bit foolish.

As for signs, don't demand them. That will only make the power you are asking indignant. Only at the most desperate of times will the strongest signs present. After they do, it is your responsiblity to hang on to them and remember what they showed you.

In the meantime, if you know how to knit, make a hat or begin a sweater. If you bird-watch, go find out which species are migrating back north.

Or contact a dear friend and tell them about the signs you collected today. When all else (seemingly) fails, they will remind you of the signs, and that following intuition is always the correct choice. Always.

Add to the beauty

Move with inention, whenever possible. Add your beauty with even more and see what happens.

Some days this will be difficult. Some days creep slower than others, no matter how constant time moves, and all one can do is move through it. In these moments, we are clogged salt 'n pepper shakers, still sprinkling tiny and sporadic bits of beauty, or watching for the small specks.

Move with inention, whenever possible. Add your beauty with even more and see what happens.



And some days are huge and sunny and happy, and stories and people smiling are easy to come by. These days it is the beauty that adds to us.








"You bettter put some beauty back while you got the energy." -Ani Difranco

Don't Prop Sorrow: A True Little Love Story (excerpt)

... Knitting and traveling and writing letters become past-times for this girl, and in Alaska one year on her way to a zip line course, she meets a fellow from the Caribbean island of Grenada. They fall in love and vow to stay together, but economy makes it tough.

Five weeks ago, girl visits an Anthropologie after Grenadian leaves because her dear friend can think of nothing else to cheer this lonely one up. Friend finds sad girl staring at a papier mache elephant head. She is inspired and sees it hanging on her home in the Caribbean. If only she could do something online which allows her freedom to be with her love permanently, and to be constantly inspired by the ocean. And banana leaves. And a grandmother who slaps her elbow from under her chin and says, “Quit propping sorrow. “ Girl thinks this brilliant. As brilliant as the layout of an Anthropologie catalog.

Girl goes home after Anthropologie visit and cannot stop thinking of the elephant head. She knits a hat and scarf that remind her of said elephant.

In the meantime, she sends letters, dreams big, knits only items that inspire her, and plans for island life. Worries about how to meld a cold-weather hobby involving wool with warm, humid temperatures.