Sometimes I pray when I weave. Sometimes I sing. Sometimes I hold weird, random conversations with myself. Like this…

Today I started weaving the purple Star of Bethlehem stole. It seems appropriate on this day to weave in the color of prayer and penitence.

We have something of a St. Patrick's Day ritual at home. I make Bruce's favorite dinner - which happens to be corned beef and cabbage - and then we watch "The Quiet Man" …

For some time now, I've been thinking about creativity, and the process of making things. Lots of people have been. I've even been writing about it a bit. Lots of people have been. I think it's in the air, or water, or something.

But then Liz Gilbert wrote this…

So, Moses is up on the mountain with God. He’s been there for forty days. This is when he gets the stone tablets with the ten commandments. But in addition, God gives Moses some very specific instructions on the construction of a place of worship - the Tabernacle.

This is where the story gets truly exciting - if you’re a weaver.

Where does the creative process begin? For me, I find it can come from either a thought, or a thing.

My New Year's Day tradition includes roses. Not a Rose Parade - many years living close to the parade route in Pasadena kind of finished that off for me. No, New Year's Day is the day I traditionally prune my roses.

So try this. Some cool, clear evening, gather around a fire, outside, under the stars, with friends. Find someone who is a really good story teller, and have him - or her - tell the story of Genesis, from chapter 1, verse 1 through chapter 2, verse 2. Resist the temptation to read it silently, or aloud in stentorian, scriptural tones. This is a story that is meant to be “told.”

Sometimes I demonstrate spinning in public places. It might be part of an historical reenactment, or a craft fair or some other public event.

When I do, inevitably at least one child will come up and ask “can I try?”

I have to admit, I’m not really sure about this “Maker Movement” business (and it really has become big business, which is ironic, considering its origins). All of a sudden I’m hearing the word “maker” everywhere, and reading about “maker fairs” - and I’m like “making what?” So I Google the term, and I get this…

It’s been hot this summer. Really, really hot. And muggy. It’s this El Nino condition that’s doing it, but it doesn’t really matter why. What does matter Is the utter lack of ambition that accompanies this condition. But then it doesn’t matter - and that’s “ennui.”

I have a love/hate relationship with the word “stash.” It has a dirty, illicit connotation - in fact, the Oxford English Dictionary tells us that it is derived from thieves’ cant. Most of the definitions I’ve found include the word “secret” - as if we should be ashamed …

For me this journey started over 25 years ago. I had just taken my first weaving class, and was at a fiber play date at a friend’s house. An experienced weaver was there, and she brought the handwoven Christmas gifts she’d made for her family - she had a stack of beautiful shawls and throws…

When you get a group of weavers or spinners together, eventually the talk turns to the merits - and quirks! - of various types of looms and spinning wheels. Inevitably, someone will ask "how many do you have?"

Like millions of other people, I've lost a hero from my youth. And although at one point he insisted that he was “Not Spock,” things that I’ve read by Leonard Nimoy himself and others tells me that much we feel drawn to in the character of Spock was informed by Nimoy’s own experience and understanding.

Once upon a time, not that long ago as the ages are reckoned, I was more than a little intimidated by color. Not being trained as an artist, I knew very little of color theory beyond "mix blue and yellow, get green." The concepts of value and hue, tints and shades, meant nothing to me.

When working with my technical dyes, I try to treat them with respect. I like the the consistency of the results, but I am well aware that they contain potentially dangerous chemicals and certain procedures need to be followed.

Did you ever pick out paint, and the color looked great on that little swatch card in the hardware store, but when you put it on a whole wall it was all too much "more"? That same thing happens with yarn.