I like to think that my creative genius has the form of a frothy, flowering lilac; preferably a well-rooted, towering specimen. Although I had little notion of it when I purchased this domain all those years ago, I’m fairly sure that this plant will remain an enduring symbol for me throughout my life, as it has done for painters & poets for centuries.

The Lilac is an ancient shrub
But ancienter than that
The Firmamental Lilac
Upon the Hill tonight –
The Sun subsiding on his Course
Bequeaths this final Plant
To Contemplation — not to Touch –
The Flower of Occident.
Of one Corolla is the West –
The Calyx is the Earth –
The Capsules burnished Seeds the Stars
The Scientist of Faith
His research has but just begun –
Above his synthesis
The Flora unimpeachable
To Time’s Analysis –
“Eye hath not seen” may possibly
Be current with the Blind
But let not Revelation
By theses be detained –

- Emily Dickinson

How about you? Do you have a mascot, floral or otherwise?

Have you read?

1. In Lilac-time
2. First Experiments in Logo Design

I never watch TV, but I do sometimes watch films or Youtube videos if I’m knitting something easy like, say… a Minty? Otherwise I almost always either put on an audiobook, or tune in to BBC Radio4. In Our Time is one of my favourites, and now that they have such a generous archive on the web, I often listen to old episodes I missed. Here’s one on tea, for example!

I do occasionally read while knitting, if the knitting is simple & the book is obliging. At the moment I’m reading Aurora Floyd by Mary E. Braddon.

I usually knit on my own, but of course, I’m never lonely. ;) I mentioned that I recently started a knitting group & that’s been great fun. Even if none of my friends are around, I do sometimes take my knitting to a café, just for a change of scene. That’s one great thing about city-living.

I’m certainly not very ceremonious about knitting. I wake up, put the kettle on, sit down, and start. Especially if I’m excited about a project, this poses no problem. Throughout the day, the knitting is interspersed with a million other activities so that I never get bored (being a Gemini, this is essential): checking Ravelry, answering correspondence (usually tardily, oh dear! :( ), paying attention to my parents, writing, tinkering with the site, going to Ancient Greek class, messing about in Inkscape, writing up, charting, laying out, and proofreading patterns, taking photos, etc. etc.

I also love listening to music, and probably spend at least 30mins every day doing nothing else. (And having two consecutive blog posts with lyrics for titles is nothing to me!) I admire people who can write an essay while listening to rap. If I’m writing up a pattern and listening to anything with words, I will start writing the words. My favourite music commands all my attention. If you want a boost of energy or motivation for the new week, I recommend you turn off the lights, put in your earphones & listen to this:

Thanks for reading, dear knitters! I hope you’ve enjoyed my posts for Knitting & Crochet Blog Week 2011. It’s been a great opportunity for me to reflect & to discover amazing new blogs. Thanks, Eskimimi, for organdising such a Great Online Event! Now I’m ready to start all over again!

Here’s a list of my week’s posts (or click here to read them all):

Monday: A Tale of Two Yarns
Tuesday: Swallow Your Pride
Wednesday: Room for More
Thursday: The Lost Patterns File
Friday: The Lonely Knitter’s Companion
Saturday: Her Ribbons & Her Bows
Sunday: If I Was Bored

Did you knit outside over the weekend? I cast on a few stitches on the balcony during the rain & was just about to move outside when it started hailing very hard & the front of our apartment turned into a square lake. I tied a few knitting needles together and vaulted across anyway. The weather’s been so much like Wales recently, it’s almost uncanny. Sunday’s weather was so nice that record numbers joined in the Eurasia Marathon in Istanbul. As the runners were crossing the Bosphorus Bridge, in a scenario similar to the Milennium Bridge, it went into resonance and started swaying wildly. You can watch a clip here. Yikes!

I picked up a copy of Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running on the way back from work today. I love Murakami, running, and writing, so I was highly delighted that the bookstore had this (especially as I had only 5 minutes to get up to the 4th floor of D&R, remember what I was looking for, find it, walk all the way down, and pay); it isn’t all that easy to find English books in Ankara, though it’s certainly way way easier than it used to be. I was a huge bookworm when I was little, but cross country was the bane of my life. I mean, PE was bad enough, but once every semestre, when the teachers decided I ought to be able to suddenly, magically jog up a steep hill and around the barren countryside, I really really wanted nasty things to happen to them, Matilda-style (note that they never came running with us). So I was really surprised last autumn in England when I discovered the Couch to 5K program and realised that running could be enjoyable. In hindsight, it seems like a silly time to start running, but somehow I found the motivation to run through drizzle, downpours and snowstorms. I even got chilblains for the first time in my life.

What kept me going wasn’t some external reward, it was that the challenge was just crazy enough to make me want to do it really bad, for myself. November, of course, is also the highlight of the Novelling Season.

“What’s crucial is whether your writing attains the standards you’ve set for yourself. Failure to reach that bar is not something you can easily explain away. When it comes to other people, you can always come up with a reasonable explanation, but you can’t fool yourself. In this sense, writing novels and running full marathons are very much alike. Basically a writer has a quiet, inner motivation and doesn’t seek validation in the outwardly visible.”

What I love about both Nanowrimo and C25K is that they’re personal challenges that are built on actions you take “day after day”, that help “raise the bar.” Whether it’s running for an hour, writing 1667 words, knitting 20 rows, whatever. NaNo takes 30 days, C25K takes 9 weeks. Deciding to step outside your comfort zone, outside your door, into the rain, takes only one moment. You might get a cold, or you might just feel profoundly alive and aware.

I haven’t been running regularly since I moved back in with my parents (too many people about), but my circuit takes me near my old school, and I’m just glad those PE teacher don’t work there anymore…

Have you read?

1. If I Was Bored
2. 101 Reasons Why I Love Knitting

Ghost Stories of M.R. James (UK | US)
No winter can go by without a few ghost stories, and M.R. James is my most favouritest ghost story writer. His stories are understated, and often not fully resolved, as I think is only proper for a ghost story. Some of them are also amazingly simple, but once you read one, you just can’t get enough! If you can find the old BFI films of ‘A Warning to the Curious’ and ‘Whistle and I’ll Come to You’, they’ll make perfect Christmas entertainment too.

In a Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu (UK | US)
Le Fanu is M.R. James’s literary predecessor. His stories tend to be longer, but still as uncanny. I particularly recommend ‘Carmilla’.

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (UK | US)
The classic sensationalist novel. This is a brilliant page-turner. I think The Woman in White has the best villain, and The Moonstone has the best detective.

Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (UK | US)
If you’re into Victorian sensational fiction, this is another one for you. I don’t know why it isn’t better known. There’s a film with Stephen Mackintosh too, but I’ve never been able to get hold of it.

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (UK | US)
I haven’t actually read the book, but the film was wonderfully terrifying, full of fog and apparitions. If you can get hold of it, I highly recommend watching it on Christmas Eve. Otherwise, I’m sure the book is quite as excellently chilling (if not more so).

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman (UK | US)
My favourite books in the world. Ever. I’m completely potty about this trilogy. I re-read the books every winter, and listen to the audiobooks whenever I can’t sleep, or need a bit of comforting. The unabridged audiobooks narrated by Philip Pullman are perfect, but don’t bother with the Radio 4 adaptation.

Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez (UK | US)
I’ve just started this book, though it’s been on my reading list for years. Admittedly, my interest in this is greatly stoked by my obsession with HDM, but it’s a seminal work on the Arctic, and an engaging piece of nature writing in itself.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this list. Leave your own recommendations in the comments if you like! :)

Have you read?

1. Mary Thomas & The Knitting Bargain of the Century
2. Knitting & Marriage

shh… I’m working very hard! Really!

Have you read?

1. wordless wednesday
2. Wordless Wednesday
3. Wordless Wednesday