daffodil land

Greetings from daffodil land!

It’s a bit wild and unpredictable here. One minute the sky is brilliant blue, full of glorious sunshine and we’re wearing tee-shirts, and the very next it’s dark, wild and windy, and the rain pounding down on the roof is deafening. Dress in layers, pack a spare pair of socks, and don’t forget to wear sunscreen.

On Wednesday, ahead of the forecast rainstorm, I grabbed Bren and got him to take a bunch of pictures of me in my finally finished Bracken sweater.

Over my 13 years of blogging my family have become pretty good at, and pretty used to, modelling for me. Occasionally I’ve had to use a bribe to convince them to play along, but once I’ve got them where I need them to be, it’s generally pretty straightforward.

I, on the other hand, am officially the most awkward model in the entire world.

With no kids at home and with my mum having been struck down with covid, unfortunately this time it just had to be me. Poor Bren. He was so good at encouraging me: loosen up a bit, move your legs around, pick that purple flower off the ground and put your arms in the air…but as you can see, I’m just better behind the camera than in front.

It feels so good to actually finish something in winter though.

I’ve popped all the pattern details on Ravelry here. I highly recommend this pattern, it is well written, easy to follow and unlike almost every other sweater I’ve knitted to date, it fits beautifully and I know I’ll actually wear it all the time. In fact I think I might knit another one now in charcoal with a light pattern. I think it’ll look lovely and be so handy for muddy farm-life.

This is the photo I took when I was playing with the camera settings, right before we swapped and Bren started shooting me. It made me laugh looking at how comfortable and natural he is when he’s posing. Maybe I should have tried the sweater on him.

Three weeks into the creative experiment I wrote about back here, I’m pleased to report that things are progressing beautifully. Most days I’ve been spending time with clay on the wheel, and while there are definitely times when I feel stuck or like I’m going backwards, overall I’m definitely improving. I’m wedging balls of 500 gram weight, I’m centering the clay quickly, I’m pulling up cylinders in three or four pulls, and when I do form bowls or vases, I have been really happy with their shapes.

One of the most wonderful outcomes of putting my ceramics story out into the world, is how generous my ceramicist friends have been with their encouragement and advice. It’s so heartening that these long term makers and professionals have the time and kindness for an absolute beginner. Warms my heart.

Last Saturday my friend Steph told me that when she was at uni, her tutor made the class cut their first 100 pots in half to check their technique. I love that concept and it makes so much more sense to me to cut my pots in half and learn what’s inside them and then squash them back into a ball, than to make and then squash, make and then squash.

Yesterday I only had a really short amount of time to play and I worried that I would feel rushed and wouldn’t be able to make anything, but somehow the limited time focused me, and each shape I pulled up looked and felt centred, and even aesthetically pleasing. The last thing I made before I packed up was the bowl above, and then the cut-in-half bowl above.

Although I am only officially half way through the time I gave myself for practising creativity without an end goal focus, I have to admit that a bit of an internal struggle has begun. While I believe wholeheartedly in the practice and play, sometimes the shapes I pull up feel so good to me that I want to keep them. I want to start collecting shelves of them. And firing them. And eating porridge out of them. Am I really going to get that much better? Isn’t it time to start making a small collection? I don’t know the answer. Maybe I just have to keep making and squishing until every single pot, every single time, is fire-worthy, and only then allow myself to consider it.

I do have to report though that this whole creative project has had exactly the result I had hoped for on my life. I am starting to really feel like a creative person again. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I’m giving myself permission to create every single day, or if it’s the practice, or fact that my clothes are constantly covered in splatters of white clay, but something’s working. And I’m thrilled!

My mind feels open to new paths and opportunities. I want to dig deep and collect my influences and discover my own style. I feel like I have more energy, and I feel inspired, and want to try everything. And I’m more aware of shapes, and textures, and surfaces, and colours, and techniques.

I really need to start a journal, and get back on Pinterest (thanks Nic), and make a pinboard.

And I guess that while I’ve been babbling on about the practicalities and fantasies of my creative journey over the past few weeks, some part of what I was saying or experiencing made sense to Bren and he began his own practice removing the goal focus and instead working on his technique. Although it’s a bit more of an ordeal for him to cut a sweet little bowl in half, I think the process is doing him good as well.

(Sorry about the phone photos - my camera battery died yesterday when I wanted to capture this moment.)

Other than all of that we’ve been spending our time walking through the forest, thinking about the coming growing season, exercising, watching House of The Dragon and listening to the accompanying podcast, WhatsApping our kids, I’m reading Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart and feeling both devastated and loving it, driving, making food, discussing how much we slept, and doing the laundry, and sweeping up all the cat hair, and counting the days until the school holidays start next week.

How about you? What was the last project you finished? Are you more comfortable in front of the camera or behind? Is your garden showing signs of the new season’s growth or is your season coming to a close? Are you watching/listening to/reading anything you’d recommend?

Until next time, wishing you a lovely week!

Love, Kate x