Thursday, November 10, 2011

Home Again. Every exploration leaves me changed

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It's six am, my usual time to greet the world each morning and today a harvest moon rides low in the sky over the river, cool, misty, and mysterious. Just weeks ago, I stood atop  a landing outside a 15th century Greek home where I had just slept and gazed out over another moon-illuminated landscape, this one rising with tall, conical, rock formations where ancient people once made their home. Daphne, one of our group, said  "It's humbling." And it is.

So, what have I brought away from this exploration? Plenty, and I'm not just referring to textiles I couldn't resist, some of which are hanging on my wall as well as my neck. While much of what I've absorbed has yet to seep into the niches of my mind, my last Turkish travel created the 'Small Investments' design, two scarves inspired by the colors of Turkey. This year that design became the project since it was small, portable, and not too demanding. I didn't even pretend to do any teaching. This trip was about explortation with our knitting a bit of respite amid the touring. Here Phoebe Kaplan shopws off her completed Pasha investment and I loved it so much I had to share. It's made with specially dyed HandMaiden pure silk in the colors that evoke Turkish textiles.

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Phoebe wears her Pasha

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In the land of textiles, every lesson is eagerly absorbed