The Traveling Nest

Minutes turn into hours and hours into days and days into weeks, then months….

SO here I am wondering if I should fill in the gaps or just leap forward.

Amidst the days, I filled pages in my mind.  Something would be going on and I would think to myself, “ I would  REALLY like to write about this…” and then the memory of it would  escape me, being too tired or  too busy to take time to write.  But too much time has passed already and so … I will just jump in with one of those thoughts and then proceed with more current thinking and happenings around the shop..

and so we shall tell the tale of...

The Traveling Nest

(Or How can I be everywhere and do everything I want to get done all at the same time and still feel home…when going a million directions at once...)

Have  projects, will travel.  If  I had my druthers, I would be nestled in a cozy spot, curled up in a ball with feet tucked beneath, fire in the wood stove, flowers in a vase,  needle in hand, blanket on lap, teacup by my side, with some delicious homemade sweet on a little handpainted china plate close  beside me.

I held  this thought in my mind this fall as I tried to keep up with my husband's traveling binges while operating the shop long distance.  Instead of the cozy couch,  I attempted to find comfort in an airplane seat with needle in hand and my carryon and suitcase compressed  to its maximum capacity with handcraft projects and shop paperwork.  In all my travels over the years I have found a simple principle to be true.

My “Home”, as in my "Nest",  is to be found when my needlework  is close at hand. 

Stitching settles my heart and soul and  provides me that quiet place of calm and repose as the world spins by, or in this case, as I  frantically spin like a whirlwind past the world.  As a traveler, it is my nesting place, even if it be in the caverns and corners of my mind.

And so,  filled to the brim with every kind of project imaginable (lest I be caught empty handed and projectless, nothing worse...) , I laughed to myself as I wondered what the TSA agent thought of my featherweight Singer sewing machine tucked into my rollerbag so I could quilt along the way.  This little traveling nest in a suitcase gave me time each day to feel the home I was longing for far from my brick and mortar structure.  I could watch the linen be filled with color as I cross stitched, the patchwork pieces come together for my son's already late college quilt,  and the periwinkle silk and alpaca knit Christmas cowl  for my mother grow in length. And, in the midst of all the stitching,  I could feel the presence of my nest, even if it be in a migratory state.  In regards to missing the shop, the folders of paperwork and computer helped me to stay closely connected, and  I generally find a visit a to local yarn shop does wonders as well, and I always feel a little closer to home surrounded by cubbies of yarn in rainbow order...

The truth be told, I am a drifter.  It is the nature of how my life has unfolded, but as long as I can have my traveling needlework nest, I will be at home.  I have stitched around the planet, filled in with bits and pieces bought along the way as needed.  It is what grounds me  at 10000 feet in the air. I have so many thoughts, so many dreams, so many ideas, so much to do all the time running the shop, running businesses, planning for the weavings in and weavings out of my grown kids, projects, husband, etc etc. etc...    In my head I am everywhere at once planning and doing everything at the same time.  As I stitch it slows me down,  and reminds me what the shop is all about.  “Blessed are the works of our hands”  We put them to work to do things, to make a brighter and better life. We make things for those we love and if we take these projects along with us, it is as though our loved ones are right there alongside us wherever we may be as we work away with needle and thread, yarn, paper, paint, buttons, floss, or scissors in hand.  It is what cares and nurtures  my frayed constantly uprooted life and the raw threads that dangle constantly from the act of living a migratory lifestyle and having a family that is so spread apart. 

    I thought about all of  this as I calmly completed a cross stitch that I had worked on amidst the latest bout of travels.  It had visited old college friends of my husbands, couches of his cousins, his childhood neighborhoods,  long drives with autumn leaves on New Jersey backroads, a New York subway,  and  later a wedding in Montana.  As I glimpsed over at my mother as she sat listening to the bustle of family chatter following the wedding of my niece,  I noticed that we share this traveling nest of needlework. I think of her travels and all the needlework that has followed her around as well. What a wonderful kindred spirit she is and grateful for this legacy she has shared with me.   Always armed with a stash of needlework, we stitch away as life goes by wherever we may be...

And so, as the upcoming season of sharing and potential travel approaches, may your days be filled with the joys of needlework, friends and family. Wherever YOU may be my kindred spirits, may YOU find that wonderful "nesting place" of calm and repose often found with needles, hook or needle in hand whether it be hither or yon...

          "Bless the work or our hands".

with love to you from 

The Net Loft 

 & me...Dotty