Is it Monday?

It has been a funny old weekend. The predicted poor weather hit us eventually, though later than expected. It was good to have an excuse to light a fire and to dine by the fireside. Pud turned out very well indeed –  I had made the brown sugar meringues to go with the fruit and ice cream. We had an excellent bottle of wine.

We were glad that we had lit the fire, as when we woke up on Sunday we had no electricity. We tickled the fire into life and spent the day in the sitting room, with a pile of books and the Guardian’s Bank Holiday crossword. It was a little too gloomy for knitting… but at least I got my At Home With Faber book finished. What a waste of part of my life that was! I do hope that the next one is better.

There was enough of the vegetable stew leftover to simply reheat on the camp stove for a quick and easy dinner, and  little other to do than to take life easy. The power company people told us that they had been unable to get a crew out on the boat due to high seas but they were going to try and get a plane out around 5pm. Seemingly, they did – as  the power returned  around a quarter past six.

This was just after I had repaired to the bedroom, where the light would be better for knitting.

It did not seem worth getting up again, so we spent the evening variously watching Torchwood and DS9; reading, doing the crossword, and knitting.

I started the edging on the Hap shawl. That’s all, though – just began it. I actually did only the one peak.

Today we have been repairing the roof, baking bread, making beer… and trying to get a hold of the idea that it is actually Monday and not Sunday. It feels a little as though a whole day went missing this weekend.

I am in the mood for some free-form knitting and I am feeling like rummaging in the stash for some inspiration and then going off-piste with it. These moods come – and then they go again. I have no idea whether I shall follow my mood or not this time, but the feeling is quite strong… and I have been stalking Ravelry freeform projects.

Today’s Monday Muse is Jane Thornley. I have often wondered whether her extravagances would look hideous on my over-generous form… but look what she has to say in her blog:

…It’s time to redefine perfection: whatever you look like now is perfect, thank you.

So, here’s to our collective bodies, the ones that gave birth to children, savoured a multitude of cheesecake, laughed, cried and danced. Here’s to the faces that show signs of laughter liberally applied and who wear their experience with pride. We are the new perfection. Celebrate!

from Truth in Knitwearing, Jane Thornley 26/08/2011

She has captured my attention and my mood. Who knows what will happen now?

I am not sure which of her inspirations I shall be following (if indeed I do) and I shall be guided by The Stash into making whatever I have the suitable resources for… if I get around to it. Today it is a nice idea, a little inspiration… but not a full-on driven impulse. We shall have to see if the voice of this muse grows in me over the coming days and weeks, or if my magpie attention is grabbed by some other bauble.

The interesting point to me is that when I was knitting my Hap border, I began to be interested in the feather and fan — a stitch that has previously elicited no more from me than a bored yawn — and was thinking about rummaging in The Stash to make some wild-coloured throws… where the stitches play second fiddle to the colour. I am very much liking the interplay of the colours and simple stitches in the Hap.

Jane is big on feather-and-fan…

…and on throwing stash together to make wonderful colour compositions.

There is clearly something at work in my subconscious — something that prompted me to go and explore her  work again at this point.

Yes. I think that we have a Muse in the room. Somewhere.

The thing is, with all else that is going on, shall I have the time and the energy to follow her where she would lead?