little note

My brain works overtime in my sleep - rarely, the results are useful in some regard. Last night was one of those rare moments. I dreamt last night of Esme standing by the door wearing a 'Norwegian' type sweater with a brown collar and sleeves and blue, white and lighter brown colorwork all around the bodice and shoulder area. I was, in reality, working on a really simple sweater shirt for myself yesterday (the blue and white thing in a previous post laying on the porch), and was thinking if it needed any colorwork at the top of the shoulders, and if it needed a collar or not... so I guess that transferred over to my main crafting focus, clothes for little girl :)

This is something like what I saw... but I've altered the picture quite a bit because I don't have the time to whip one up. The one in my dream did not have a turtleneck, just a round ribbed neck.



I do have a LOT of brown Palette yarn, and all of those other colors in my workbasket, left over from when Esme was born. The blue and white yarn I am using now is something bought quite a while ago, as well. Also in the dream I told myself to Fels Naptha the garden laundry and my pillowcases from this week and also to do math on the two sides I have been knitting to get the number of stitches the back needs to be. Find out how many inches the back is, and how many inches the side is. The side is 45 stitches and compare the ratio to know how many to cast on for the back.

Just making myself notes before I run off to work and forget everything my brain worked so hard on while it was asleep ;) I did do the laundry part as soon as I woke up.

Crafting365; day ten: Revisiting Dream bags or I play with string again

Green dream bag

This is a little narrower than MY dream bag I finished earlier last year. This one is for the shop. I really enjoy the process of my dream bag. I hope to share that process with others who would be open to the idea of trying to use their dreams as a tool to better self-awareness. Many cultures believe in the power of dreams. It was one of the things I was fascinated by in my anthropology courses (I was an Anth minor ).

The process of dreaming:

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Dreams are often not just nonsense. Some of the symbols that appear, especially recurring ones, are there for a reason. They just need to be understood and then used to translate what the rest of the dream is saying. Once we understand what a dream is saying it can be directed and used as a reflecting tool for our waking lives.

Often a nagging problem can be solved in dreams because our dream self is not restricted by physics and time - we can go anywhere, do almost anything, if only we become aware we are dreaming. This is called 'lucid dreaming.' Realizing you are aware and able to direct things in a dream is an awesome feeling, even though it is often short-lived and the inexperienced dreamer can easliy wake themselves up as soon as they realize things 'aren't real.'

So, what are dream bags?

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Dream bags are put under your pillow, or on your bedside table. The bag itself is slightly symbolic in colors and materials, but is mostly about durability and being a pretty object :)

What is inside a dream bag is the most important part of the process. A favorite piece of jewelry (perhaps from a loved one?), a special token or totem symbol, gemstones or semi-precious stones symbolizing the things you wish to dream about and other objects that have special meaning to you. These items are placed in the bag in a hope to direct your subconscious thoughts into dreaming about the ideas they represent. A dream bag is very personal, and the contents will be different for every person.

It is good to often take everything out of your dream bag, sort through it, remind yourself of why it is in there and put back only the things that still have meaning and purpose. This is a good time to redirect what you hope to dream for and put in new objects as well as take out old.

Dream bag is finished

I started this weaving in February and it is finally done. The old one is now in a box, and it's contents are in this one. I also asked a pottery artist I love on Etsy to make a new ceramic rabbit tile for me. If I decide not to use it as a replacement for my current tile I can save it for our little girl.

Overall I'm really happy with this bag. It was looking very uneven on the loom, and making me wonder how it would work out. It sewed up with just a little bit of strangeness on one side, and that isn't really distracting to me. The two sides have very different looks, while the old one was the same pattern front and back.




Materials: cotton warp, mercerized cotton embroidery thread for the weft in purple, blue and white.

KnitOwl in Progress

Piece of 02/08 drawing (5 pm)
I really like the symbol on the rabbit's shoulder (gold figure).
It is a combination of 'universe', 'life', 'motion/turning', 'thoughts' and both the female and male indicators that usually appear on the heads of other creatures/figures.


Wool yarn that came in the mail
same colours as my dream bags, oddly...


A little knitting in between computer reboots


More progress on the dream bag weaving
I 'turned back' early, perhaps the front of the bag will have top to bottom symmetry and the back will be a different pattern altogether? A lot of things are different in my life now, so thinking that the symmetry of my dream bag can be what it wants to be as well...
Had a strange dream early this morning.. saw
'UNTIMEDNESS *NCOUNTERS THE TIMEDNESS'
written on some old stones in a wall before entering a hidden tunnel. The * was a missing/broken area - not sure if that word means 'uncounters' or 'encounters.' My subconscious doesn't spell very well (or use proper grammar, apparently.. untimedness? *heh*) - and actual written words appearing in dreams are rare for me. There was also a bad part in the dream, a warning, about my brother -- called my mom to get more information. He is still holding off an important doctor's appointment and subconsciously I'm worried about it enough to scare myself.

I've started a few other projects as well - redrawing my softie patterns from scratch, and the last alien order. Thanks for the suggestions on the name for the skeleton - any more? Maybe one will 'stick' to him - well... not much is sticking to him now at all ;o)