Month: January 2018

Spinning Out Of Control

~ pamela penney ~ 1 Comment

I have been spending a lot of time at my spinning wheel recently.  It is a perfect way to spend a cold afternoon.  And here in Chicago we have been having a string of super cold days.  Right now the temperature is 16 degrees F and that is up several degrees from this morning.   I have also needed the quiet meditation I get while spinning.  As I shared here earlier this week, I usually choose a topic or situation to think about or meditate upon while I am spinning.  It is a bit like an extended prayer.  As I add the energy into the fibers I add the energy of my blessings out into the world to spin a yarn….

Yesterday the news cycle was filled with the vile hateful words of our current U.S. president.  He spoke of the immigrants from “shit-hole countries”.  Haiti, Africa and in the past he has referred to Mexico and Puerto Rico among other places and their people in this demeaning and nasty manner.  This is our leadership here.  This is our “role-model in charge”.

I had stepped away from this blog for a while this past year.  Not wanting to add to the noise of the dissent against this administration.  Not wanting to add anything to the negative energy around our current situation.  Not feeling it was going to make any difference anyway.  But, I can be silent no more.

So, as I sat at the spinning wheel yesterday  I questioned how will “They” (his supporters) spin his words?  Because you know they will.  They always do.  And it disgusts me. Especially this weekend as we honor Martin Luther King, Jr. who once said, “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”

King also once said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”  So, to honor Dr. King on the weekend we remember as a nation to honor his wisdom and work, I will be silent no more.

 

This is my yarn spun yesterday and titled, “Spinning Out of Control”.  I spun a merino single from a roving that I had dyed a long time ago in shades of teal blue with small areas of a deep purplish.  I then plied it with a cotton in that same shade of purple as a core-spun.  I added coils and “twisted-lashes” with the wool.  Our current President is spinning out of control.  And those who have the power, access and authority to act sit back and do nothing, while our country suffers.  I will PERSIST. I will continue to work to create the change I want to see in the world.  I will no longer remain silent….unless silent meditation is the best action I can take in the moment.  And sometimes it is the only thing I can do.

 

Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?

~ pamela penney ~ 1 Comment

For the last nine months or so, I have been focusing my time on spinning yarn (and spells, I am the Stitch Witch, you know!)  I took up spinning yarn as a way to meditate, relax and create in a new way.  For me spinning is somewhat of a metaphor for uniting the past and the future to create the NOW.  When I hand-spin yarn at the wheel I pull out bits of fiber (this to me represents material from the PAST which includes the creation, the nutrition, the experiences, the skills, knowledge, talents and qualities inherit in the fiber and in life) . I then add energy to that fiber through the treadling and spinning of the wheel to draw in the twist.  The fiber goes from being loose, weak and ephemeral to being strong and functional.  It moves from the draft (the NOW) unto the bobbin as a “potential” (the FUTURE).  What it is to become is still just a dream.  It is complete in the now and yet holds the possibility of becoming something so much greater through the art of knitting, crochet or weaving.  Spinning keeps me focused and in the moment.  I also like to put forth prayers (spells) as I spin.  Yesterday I reflected on this question….

As we enter 2018 I wonder “why can’t we all just get along?” as Rodney King asked back in 1992, it still seems to be as relevant a question as ever.   The Republicans and Democrats becoming so extreme on both ends of the spectrum hold no hope of finding middle ground.  The #metoo movement has left men and women wondering if they can ever find the trust needed to heal the wounds of past abuses.  Even in my everyday relationships I’ve experienced disharmony when there is a lack of listening in a spirit of cooperation and a teamwork approach.

And so yesterday I spun a spell.  Lavender, like the pink and blue of divine feminine and masculine coming together in Divine Unity.  Like bi-partisan red and blue joining forces to become purple.  Like a soft fine merino wool coiled around a strong core of cotton.  Soft and strong coming together to make something much more functional, beautiful and lasting.  When I spin with a core I let one of the “singles” ply loosely around the other.  For this yarn I also added in coils (the bumps in the yarn where the coil is “bundled”) which took advantage of the thick/thin wool single that I had spun previously.  The core cotton single was a yarn from my stash.

Lavender like a pale version of the Pantone Color of 2018:  Ultra-violet.  Coincidence?  No, more like synchronicity!

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If you would like to follow more of my spinning adventures, follow pamelapenneytextiles on Instagram.  I will also be adding my hand-spun yarns to my Etsy Shop very soon…..go HERE!