In the rain

Yesterday, I left my keys at home when I went to work. I only realized this when I was almost at the door to our apartment block. As P was between work and home, all I could do was wait in the doorway (it was way too rainy to sit on the new bench). And of course while waiting I untangled the yarn some more. It was a good way to pass the time, though I think I must've looked a bit odd. Maybe very odd.

Things that put me off buscrafting

Odd altercation between other passengers at the bus stop

Feeling motion sick (this may have been due to a mild illness)

Comment about my hobby being un-economical (which is true)

Stressed by all the other stuff I want to do (even though it isn't a lot)

Not finding any new craft ideas (I'm avoiding knitting; a colleague at the office mentioned making Innocent bobble hats for Age Concern in only 10 minutes, but I think it would take me ages)

Still untangling the yarn!

To beanie or not to beanie

I think it's a Buddhist thing, that the
root of unhappiness is desire, meaning if you didn't want something,
you wouldn't be upset about not having it (or maybe I have that backwards). This is something I struggle
with, not so much with wanting things, but wanting to make things, even
things I don't particularly want.

 

For example, after reading Sharon B's
post on the Alice Springs Beanie Festival and seeing the pattern link, I started to
think about yarn and knitting needles and bobbles and ear flaps and all
sorts. Then I felt frustrated, because I couldn't instantly start
knitting a beanie.

Now, I don't wear hats of any sort very often, and I
have remembered that I do have a cute beanie already (red on black,
venom lack, and also matches my walking coat). But somehow, I felt like
my life would be incomplete if I didn't knit a beanie, and soon!

 

The arguments against making a beanie are good: I don't need one, would hardly wear it, I don't enjoy knitting
for its own sake. But I still want to make a beanie, which is a bit
annoying. So I want to knit a beanie, but I also want to not want to
knit a beanie. I don't know which I want more.

 

On a real world note, I enjoyed
untangling the yarn this morning- touching the string felt nice after a
weekend break. So I'm more optimistic about finishing that task, and
maybe wanting to crochet the flowers after all.

Patience

The tangled thread is giving me a lot of frustration now. I often read
how a hobby crafter should do what they love. I'm just not loving the
untangling. And it's putting me off the idea of crochet roses.

 

I thought, maybe I should give myself a deadline for finishing the
untangling, to make me work faster. My motivation being to just have
the task done with. But setting deadlines has never worked for me. In
fact, I think it de-motivates me.

 

So now I'm thinking I need to cultivate some patience. Just
continue working, at the pace I can, and so long as I do finish
untangling the yarn and don't just give up on it, it will be fine.

Dilemma

Here’s the short version of a story that really isn’t mine to tell: Today a woman at the office was telling us how she and her partner stopped a man from jumping off a bridge this weekend. They had grabbed him as he stepped over the railing, but couldn’t lift him back onto the bridge. She tried to flag down any passing motorists to get help, but most drove past, including a bus. She’s certain some people on the bus noticed her, but said the driver probably hadn’t. One driver and a pedestrian family did help out, and the situation was resolved successfully.

My dilemma is this: If I’m concentrating on crafting, I know I genuinely would not have noticed her waving her arms and trying to get some help. I don’t think I’m a “bad person” or that crafting on the bus is a “bad thing”, but in the hypothetical situation of me being on that passing bus, it would have a negative impact.

Even if I were watching the world rather than crafting, I may not have registered the drama on the bridge, or understood what was going on. And I may have thought that someone else would surely stop and so I wouldn’t need to. But if I were crafting, there would have been no chance that I would have helped.

So a dilemma to ponder. Coming home from work, I did just work on the tangle. It is shrinking.

On a different note, back in what I call “normality”, I’m thinking about having a break from yarn when the untangling is done, and trying some writing. I tried a bit on the train to Liverpool to see La Princesse (my weekend was good!) and I think it would work. I’ve got little ring binders and plenty of scrap paper all ready to commute with me.

missing my stop

A "good thing/bad thing" about crafting on the bus is that I'm often so into what I am doing, that I miss my bus stop on the way home. It's not a big deal, because the next stop is where route ends, at Piccadilly Gardens, and it's a nicer walk back to the flat when I get off there.

Yesterday, an additional bonus of missing my stop was that it provided the perfect reminder to go see the Caravan Gallery. I knew it was at Piccadilly Gardens because I saw it on Flickr. So since I was nearly there already, I braved the rain and had I really nice visit.

They had been at the excellent Garden of Earthly Delights a couple of years ago, and their take on documenting real life in Britain is just so cool. The artists, Jan Williams and Chris Teasdale, basically present what they see, and they do see all sorts.

The Caravan Gallery had been invited to a festival in Castlefield this weekend, but they couldn't make that, so instead have been at Piccadilly Gardens this week. This is a different sort of setting and different clientele for them. The artists mentioned that quite a few down and outs had stopped in. This surprised me, as I don't see as many in Piccadilly as used to be there. But we thought maybe it had to do with everyone else (shoppers and workers) being in too much of a hurry to view the gallery.

While I was there, another punter just popped his head in to say pictures of "urban decay" wouldn't be popular with the locals, but I suspect that he is in the minority with that opinion. (He is entitled to it- I doubt the artists are trying to please everyone!) Another guy had seen the gallery earlier and was bringing his son to see it, too.

And as for the crafting, that tangle is still huge! But I'm working at it.

BusCraft beginings

How exciting! My first blog post:

I take the bus to and from work, most every weekday. My commute is scheduled at 30 minutes each way. That adds up to a lot of time. Time to do what?

Watching the world go by is great, but I'm trying to use the time a bit more productively. I'd like to work more on several different hobbies, and while I can't see myself painting with watercolours on my way to work, there's plenty of other activities that would work well.

The BusCraft blog will hopefully help me keep track of what I'm up to, and let me make notes on how it is going. And help me plan what I'd like to do next.


My current project is to untangle the mass of crochet thread in the picture. Last week, hook and notes in hand, I was ready to try out the flower pattern from the Gipsy Quilt blog. But I pulled on the wrong thread, and instantly my yarn was a tangle rather than a skein. So, a few more days untangling and rewinding, then I'll pull out the crochet hook again. That's the (revised) plan.