Happy Happy

One of my favorite things in the world is when I figure out how to do something I want to do but have no idea *how* to do. I did that this week, and I'm a happy camper. Plus I'm full of ideas for other things, because figuring out one thing emboldens you to try to figure out other stuff, and even if you then have some that don't work out quite so swell, you have that initial success under your belt.

I'm not talking rocket science here. I didn't find a cure for the common cold. I didn't even figure out how to make my hair stay permanently orange, so I'm a little grouchy that I had to color it this week--such a messy, smelly experience.

But never mind that. What's cool is this:

[OK, so this is backwards. I'm still having issues with how to think about getting it right.

I draw the symbol on paper. I trace it onto the back side of fusible webbing--the release paper. That flips it once, and then it gets flipped again when I iron it on. So two flips puts it back the way it was, right? But no. Sigh. For some reason, I can't think this through--it makes my brain skitter. I don't know why, as this kind of spatial thinking is easy for me. It's just this process. Which is, by the way: trace the drawing onto the release paper on the back of fusible webbing, iron that onto the wrong side of your fabric. Cut it out, then peel off the release paper and iron in place with a hot iron and a damp press cloth. Cool. You'll want to secure with stitching if it's going to be laundered.]

Another yoolie, of course. (Will I ever get tired of making these? I sure hope so, cos, man! I have so many other things I want to do, and these are taking up all my time. But, as always, I'm just the tiniest bit obsessed. (Yes, that was me snorting, that sound you just heard.))

It's a big, thick sweater. Or it WAS. Now it's a thick yoolie, and I wanted to do something else besides the hearts and X's that I've been putting on for embellishment. Whatever I put on needs to be simple--bold and graphic, without a lot of little tedious parts. These yoolies are functional, and right now I like them, but who knows whether I'll get tired of them by next year and never wear them again--they're not a Tried, Tested & True Wardrobe Staple yet, so I don't want to spend a ton of time on whatever I sew on. Plus I have no idea how this felted wool--the stuff I'm using as appliqués--will hold up through the laundry. Cos y'all know these aren't going to be delicately hand washed. Nope. Not in this house.

I don't have an arsenal of Meaningful Personal Symbols. In fact, I can't think of a lot of meaningful symbols. I'm sure other people have them--I love Jesse Reno's (go here, click on the link to his book, Contemporary Primitive Abstract Narratives, and scroll to the bottom for a key to some of the symbols he uses) --but when I tried to think of some, I draw a blank. Literally--after reading Jesse's note, I tried to come up with some of my own I could use on garments, and, well, dang. No luck.

But the other day when I was getting ready to cut out something--anything; probably another off-kilter heart--I suddenly remembered this thing I used to put under my name all the time in high school. I printed my name in lower-case letters (usually in purple ink. Duh.) and then put this underneath (my BFFHS did the same with her name but used a heart with a peace sign inside, something I think I'll probably appropriate at some point, since I'm pretty sure she long ago outgrew using that, although who knows?). I think (and of course I can't really remember) that it started out as a sort of swirl thing and then became this when the swirl alone felt incomplete--the two lines and the dots serve as a lock, securing everything in place, and I don't even want to know what that says about the 15-year-old me who came up with it. But I still like it, and that's all that matters: something besides a heart! Something not quite so cliche! O, frabjous day!

True to my nature, though, I couldn't--COULD NOT--leave well enough alone, and now I'm BEADING the damn thing. Yes, beading it. Why? Am I now sure it's going to hold up through the wash? No. Am I totally in love with it? No. Am I lacking in other, more sensible beading projects, perhaps ones that I've been working on for months, off and on? Oh, no, no, no. I am not.

But there you go. I'm beading it. I hope to be finished soon. Like, today. That would be nice. I've got a couple other yoolies to finish up, and then I want to move on. I kind of love that I get obsessed about things and make them in multiples, but I kind of hate it, too: there's so much else I want to work on, and if I'm compelled to keep making these, that means there's something else I'm NOT making. A lot of something else's. The other pile grows taller and taller. So today I'm donating back a couple henleys, and I'm going to use two others--one that's too small and one that's severely stained--to experiment with wristlets. Arm warmers. Whatever they're called.

OK. Back to beading. It's trying to snow here. I'm waiting on The EGE to return from The Dreaded Wal-Mart so we can run some errands and then go walk around the mall, which is fun these last days before everything pauses for Christmas. He always sees lots of people he knows, which is fun for him, and I get to see what people are wearing, which would be a LOT more fun for me if they'd just make more of an effort to have fun with their clothes. Yeah, yeah, I know: why should bother with their outfits just to entertain me, right? Pshaw. It would make their lives ever-so-much more fun. Truly.