And as something of an aside, I really appreciate your reflections on knitting as devotional work.
*half-grin* It's not an aside to me...besides, in my own person I'm not one to wear shawls. Making them as devotional projects lets me make them, look at them, and waft them about without having to recoil from the way-too-girlyness to which I might otherwise succumb.
It's something I've thought about and that's all so far (I'd say I'm still at 'learning craft' stage and not quite at the point where the craft becomes art as well).
When trying to broach this to a skeptical crowd, I start by explaining that this isn't wholly unlike advertising.
No, wait, stay with me.
If a devotional object is for a particular wight, that wight will have likes and dislikes and, in some cases, whole lists from which one might pick and choose. Take, for example, Freyja. I could make things that call to mind sunlight-dappled forest paths, dark tangled thickets, golden abundance, war-lust and seið-magic, on and on.
But, of course, most obvious of these would be a falcon-cloak.
For Freyja, I would want to go with a palette reminiscent of many raptors, but when I made that, I had in mind specifically the red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Buteo_jamaicensis), especially when I found an ombre colorway named red tail hawk.
I found two good colors in DK weight and doubled them while knitting a simple feather-and-fan pattern I nicked out of Folk Shawls because it seemed to me to look like outspread wings: a broadening isoceles triangle.
For a very occasional accent, I would knit a row tripled with an eyelash yarn that was gold with gold metallic.
I knit that shawl all across our Southwest, which is desert of many ways and means. I knit it, and, if not with every stitch certainly with most of them, I thought about Freyja, and falcons, and everything connected with them, and sang little songs, and all of that.
Advertising. I sought out things that reminded me and others of Freyja, and while putting them together I did so mindfully, thinking Freyja thoughts and doing Freyja things, and sure enough I came out with a fairly well-haunted falcon cloak, which I then gave to walkyrja on the occasion of her dedication.
(I had knitted it for me, but found out it wasn't for me halfway through. Bah! However, I know what the Freyja shawl I get to keep is, so that is all right.)
That's all it is. Picking projects and materials aforethought, working mindfully, and going on.
Perhaps something on this would be good for the article too, along with the historical and academic detail.
I daresay I will--but nothing too loud, that sort of thing can startle folks. ;)
(As a sidebar, Frigga also has a falcon-cloak, but as her home is on a marsh (Fensalir, "Fen hall"), I would go with an osprey theme instead if making one for her: white, pale cream, and dark brown, with the occasional flicker of pale blue.)
Hm, now, have I overrun my space yet? Let's press the button and find out:
Devotional Knitbabble
*half-grin* It's not an aside to me...besides, in my own person I'm not one to wear shawls. Making them as devotional projects lets me make them, look at them, and waft them about without having to recoil from the way-too-girlyness to which I might otherwise succumb.
It's something I've thought about and that's all so far (I'd say I'm still at 'learning craft' stage and not quite at the point where the craft becomes art as well).
When trying to broach this to a skeptical crowd, I start by explaining that this isn't wholly unlike advertising.
No, wait, stay with me.
If a devotional object is for a particular wight, that wight will have likes and dislikes and, in some cases, whole lists from which one might pick and choose. Take, for example, Freyja. I could make things that call to mind sunlight-dappled forest paths, dark tangled thickets, golden abundance, war-lust and seið-magic, on and on.
But, of course, most obvious of these would be a falcon-cloak.
For Freyja, I would want to go with a palette reminiscent of many raptors, but when I made that, I had in mind specifically the red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Buteo_jamaicensis), especially when I found an ombre colorway named red tail hawk.
I found two good colors in DK weight and doubled them while knitting a simple feather-and-fan pattern I nicked out of Folk Shawls because it seemed to me to look like outspread wings: a broadening isoceles triangle.
For a very occasional accent, I would knit a row tripled with an eyelash yarn that was gold with gold metallic.
I knit that shawl all across our Southwest, which is desert of many ways and means. I knit it, and, if not with every stitch certainly with most of them, I thought about Freyja, and falcons, and everything connected with them, and sang little songs, and all of that.
Advertising. I sought out things that reminded me and others of Freyja, and while putting them together I did so mindfully, thinking Freyja thoughts and doing Freyja things, and sure enough I came out with a fairly well-haunted falcon cloak, which I then gave to
(I had knitted it for me, but found out it wasn't for me halfway through. Bah! However, I know what the Freyja shawl I get to keep is, so that is all right.)
That's all it is. Picking projects and materials aforethought, working mindfully, and going on.
Perhaps something on this would be good for the article too, along with the historical and academic detail.
I daresay I will--but nothing too loud, that sort of thing can startle folks. ;)
(As a sidebar, Frigga also has a falcon-cloak, but as her home is on a marsh (Fensalir, "Fen hall"), I would go with an osprey theme instead if making one for her: white, pale cream, and dark brown, with the occasional flicker of pale blue.)
Hm, now, have I overrun my space yet? Let's press the button and find out:
-- Lorrie