Nostalgia

 

This somewhat out of focus photo is of my craft fair booth from one of the shows I used to do every year.

I confess I am somewhat nostalgic right now because the big craft fair here is happening this weekend.  And I miss seeing the people that would come by to look at what I had made and - potentially - buy something.

But this year, more than ever, I am grateful that I didn't have to load up everything, drag it to the hall, then stand all day making 'nice'.  It would have been impossible with the brain bleed and how little energy I have.

So, I am grateful my things will be there, but as part of the fibre arts guild booth.  Truth be told, I still have lots, but I cannot take over the guild booth - they must display the work of ALL the guild members, not just one or two.

The guild members have been making things all year and they will have a nice full display - this I know without actually going down there.  The local guild members are enthusiastic and talented.  I'm happy they will take my things, too.

But I need to keep selling things.  So, once the show is over, I guess I will have to go through my stuff and start posting things to my ko-fi shop.  My rate of production is way lower, compared to even my 'retirement' weaving rate before the bleed.  But my body is recovering and I'm able to pick up the pace a bit.  

Not to mention I still have ideas I want to explore, and yarn that needs weaving up.  But as I look around my store room, there are actual spaces on the shelves, and I've put some things that were on the floor up on the shelves.  I have wider and fewer 'goat trails' through the studio.  Still too much stuff, but when I remember what my studio looked like in November 2019, I have done a good job of weaving down the yarn.

One of the hardest things to do selling online is to get good colour representation.  Especially during the winter and the string of grey dreary days we get now, as climate change ramps up.  But maybe next week after the appointments with the cancer clinic (please, please, please, let the cancer continue to be in remission!) and the eye doctor, I'll be feeling well enough to start dealing with trying to upload more items to my ko-fi shop.

My daily list is very short these days because I have so little energy.  Everyone tells me all my energy is going into recovery, and after talking to the surgeon, I am now realizing how lucky I am and how I need to let my body take all the energy it needs so that I will recover (more).  The surgeon said the biggest rate of recovery will happen in the 12 months after the injury, and then it will slow for about another 12 months.  After that, what I have and where I am, is what I will live with.  And that level may be less than where I was when I fell.  In the meantime, I need to work at recovery as my priority.

So I rest, even when I'd rather be doing *something*, because I need my body to heal as much as it can.  And now I have been officially been told it will be about 24 months, I need to learn to be patient (ha!) and let my body do what it needs to do.  Because this injury isn't the only thing I need to factor into my life, it's just the sauce on top of what I was already dealing with.

I'm hoping to write more - in part because I have a good support person who will help me - and it seems I still have things I want to say.  And writing is the best way for me to say them.

With that, I'm going to start my day and go weave for 20 minutes.  I'm up to two 20 minute sessions a day (unless I have too many appointments), hoping to hit 45 minutes a session by the end of the year.  I'm going slowly, trying not to rush or push.  And hoping 2025 will be a better year than the past few have been.