I might call these tea towels 'perfect' except I know the rocky road I travelled to get them to the wet finished state. And not all the 'imperfections' were fixed. If you leave them on purpose they aren't mistakes?
I've been weaving with this linen as weft for several months, now. I've used it at various densities, in various weave structures. And this latest iteration feels...right...to my hands.
Most of the 'mistakes' are fairly minor, as in hardly anyone will know they are there. But *I* do. But I have reconciled myself to being 'not perfect', and learning how to accept the, well, acceptable.
The next warps will be the experiments, and once again, I will FAFO, taking notes, observing what happens, and if I'm happy with the results. Or not.
I have never made any secret of the fact that I'm not 'perfect' and that frequently things go awry. But every time they do, the experience gets filed away so that I can remember what I did and if I ever want to do it again. Or not.
The end of 2024 and beginning of 2025 have been as challenging as ever, but one thing I am doing more of, is reading.
And what I am reading has been a mixed bag - some pure entertainment, yes, but some of it educational. Some of the educational stuff has been...difficult...reading as I try to get a grip on what we are currently going through. Even though I have lived through huge changes in our society, it's always a good idea to remind oneself how we got here. And to listen to different voices.
The voices I choose are more liberal, shall we say? I've read enough of the lies the alt right have been flooding social media with. Now I need to listen to voices that are more akin to my own values and standards.
I bought a memoir by Bruce Cockburn a number of years ago, but then covid hit and I found it difficult to read much of anything and it languished on my hearth with the 3 dozen or so other books I had collected, thinking once I retired I would have plenty of time to read. Instead we got plunged into the scramble to try and stop the pandemic, and mourning people who didn't make it through. And worrying about how I was going to manage once the pandemic was declared it was over (even it was far from over), given my compromised immune system.
But now we have far greater things to worry about, and I needed to start looking for, not answers, but perhaps other points of view, some guidance.
When I found myself without a library book (no due date), I rummaged through my own books, and my hand was drawn to Bruce Cockburn's.
I've followed his career - superficially - over the years. I enjoyed his music/lyrics and have several of his CDs in my collection, and play one or other of them from time to time. But his book includes the lyrics of his songs, and I've been reading them, in part because I want to understand his viewpoint better.
The past few days I've dug some of his CDs out and have been listening, now that I am learning the back story to some of them.
If you are interested, take a look on You Tube. Like most musicians there are quite a few of his songs on there. I shared one on Facebook the other day "If I had a Rocket Launcher". When it first came out I related to it. Even though I'm a proponent of peace, try NOT to wish ill on anyone, there are times. And I sense that same frustration in him. I think after that came out in the 1980s I paid more attention to him.
I was reminded of another song this morning and will share the link to that one here. It's called "The Trouble with Normal (is that it only gets worse). And it pretty much sums up what I feel we are going through right now. Our 'normal' standards are being shredded. And in the end, will get worse if we don't pay attention to what our politicians are *really* saying.
In the past few weeks I have become aware of a Canadian politician who is speaking out, loudly, about what is happening in politics. He is also a musician. And now I feel like I need to find some of his music, too. What I have done is get a library book written by him called Dangerous Memory. I will read that next as he *also* talks about how we got where we are now, but Charlie Angus has also served in parliament and I am interested in his perspective too.
As citizens, we all need to be paying attention. And voting.
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