Spirals, Spirals, Spirals.

Winter feels like it never quite arrived here on my little acre, yet here we are, mere weeks to the vernal rebirth. So saved seeds are inventoried, several are started, some planted, and still more ordered to honor the spiraling return of annual activities of nurturance, sustenance, legacy and honor.

I finished this, one of several recent Creative journeys. A return to portals and a sweet reminder of the spiral and value of journey over destination, on so many levels.

 I made this recipe:

Banana Cacao Finger Cakes
4.5 cups unbleached flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
.5 teaspoon salt
1.75 cups sugar
1 cup butter
4 bananas, mashed
4 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 cup cacao nibs

Measure and blend the first three dry ingredients. Set aside.
Cream the sugar and butter, blend in the mashed bananas, blend in the eggs and vanilla.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet in two waves, mixing well at each, mixing in the cacao nibs before the second wave. Know what I mean?
Spoon onto a cookie sheet (I lay down unbleached parchment), bake at 400F for about 11 minutes. Cool on a rack and enJOY! That's how I did it, anyway. And they came out quite good.
And baking - anything Food - invokes more spiraling.

And my winter finger spun fiber project has yielded 6 balls of upcycled cotton "yarn." I'm not sure of the linear measure that was produced, but I do know that, once the fabric was ripped and tidied, it took an hour to create 3 linear yards of "yarn." This Creative journey also yielded a nice, rough callus on my right thumb and forefinger, the fingers that work the spiraling fibers.

So that's what I've been up to: Spiraling. Spiraling. Spiraling. Back to the vernal verve of spring.

Peace.

A New Obsession

Yesterday I attended day-one of this weekend's Fiber Festival at The Phoenix Rising Center in Thomaston, CT. I taught a morning workshop on spinning Spirit Cords and was available all day to demonstrate how to up-cycle old, worn, discarded, and otherwise unused fabric to create "yarn" for making all sorts of things. I brought along my handmade drop spindle that The Boy made for me a few years back when I gifted some sheep's wool. I never felt like I was doing it "right." So I took a workshop at the Fest and it turns out I had the hang of it after all. Gotta dig validation.

I purchased several ounces of merino wool roving in a rainbow of colors to play with and now I find myself obsessed with the process. I really do love pushing through the challenges in order to learn new skills.

I'm already looking forward to spinning enough yarn to spin myself a Spirit Cord. This will be a Spirit Cord dedicated to my inner Magician, that part of me that loves gathering tools, materials and doing my best to master new abilities that nourish and sustain me.

I have a feeling that I'll want to spin like crazy, some natural alpaca, methinks, to make enough yarn to create a shawl or poncho. But right now, that's a dream. In the meantime I'm focused on the joy of the process, on learning, and on that first Spirit Cord to honor my Magician.

That's what I made today.

Peace.