Creative exploration,

textile tour in Yorkshire, Cumbria & the Lake District, and a breakfast recipe that might change your morning routine

Dear readers—

A few months ago I announced that I would be retiring from teaching. I’m teaching for the last time in San Diego next week—I am looking forward to having the last opportunity to share what I know and love about color and knitting!

The bigger question for me was: What next? All I knew was that I needed some space: temporal and psychological. But what did I need that space for??? I began brainstorming in my bullet journal and I thought you might enjoy seeing how this process unfolds.

Like many people drawn to Fair Isle knitting I love working with grids and playing with symmetry. So I consciously try to keep my brainstorming pages loose! I wrote down people and ideas that were capturing my attention—nothing calculated or thought out, just allowing my brain to be powered by my child-like emotions.

I started this page in August. No need to rush! I’ve wandered bookstores to see what grabs my attention, I’ve bookmarked blogs and Instagram posts, visited museums, taken tons of photographs, read poetry…

• “There’s a good time to impose a deadline. That time is not at the beginning of the process.” Rick Rubin, The Creative Act.

This free-floating process is layered—I keep returning to my journal and adding things as they come to mind.

A theme seems to be emerging, but I don’t want to try to make conclusions yet. I think of every entry in the main page as a hyperlink—now I’m going to explore them in more depth. I’ll show you these pages in the next newsletter. I welcome any questions you might have!

Every human is a universe. I hope you have the space to do some exploration, too!

love,
Janine

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Textile Travels: Yorkshire, Cumbria, and the Lake District

May 7-16th, 2024

I’ve been talking about this for ages—but now I can give you the details! Handspinning expert Jillian Moreno and I have put together an exciting itinerary covering as many wooly experiences in northern England as we possibly could—plus some! We will be visiting sheep farms and yarn shops, learning from Susan Crawford and Ann Kingstone and Alice Fox (and Jillian and me). Zoe Fletcher and Maria Benjamin will talk about British sheep breeds.

A full day at a castle—with birds of prey!!! We couldn’t pass up visits to Beatrix Potter’s Hill Top Farm and the Brontë Parsonage. And a boat ride on Windermere Lake for a classic Lake District experience. And more, of course, because if you’ve traveled with us before you know that we nothing short of enthusiastic and energetic!

We begin and end in Manchester and loop through the lovely scenery of Yorkshire, Cumbria, and the Lake District. We will be staying in lovely hotels and eating great food. Please see the complete itinerary for more details. You can find the registration form here.

Photo by James Genchi on Unsplash

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Things I’ve Been Thinking About

• Recent houseguests have asked for the recipe for my special 2-minute egg and potato breakfast! I’m unreasonably proud of this dish—a non-sweet, fast, protein-heavy breakfast that doesn’t dirty up any pans? Of course I’m proud! Bajus Breakfast Special Recipe

• “Something that seems like a closed, door, as soon as it’s leant against becomes the door that opens to a larger, more inviting and generous experience of ourselves.” David Whyte

• Curious about my bullet journal? I took the incomparable Felicity Ford’s Bullet Journaling video class a few years ago, and it has made a huge difference in my practical and creative life! I can’t recommend it highly enough for anyone who feels like that can’t keep track of all the different calendars and slips of paper and journals that they are using now.

• A meme that has been cropping up a lot on my timelines resonates deeply:
  ”We do this not because it is easy, but because we thought it would be easy.” No better description of my extensive collection of WIPs exists. 🤓