You do what?

One of the things that frustrated me last year was the reason I was turned down for a grant: "we don't consider knitting and bookbinding as valid forms of 'visual art'."

As a knitter, I'm not unfamiliar with that attitude -- over the years, I've lost track of how many times I've had strangers ask what I'm doing, and have the overwhelming majority of the women disclaim "well, I would never do anything so domestic."

But I was surprised to hear that bookbinding didn't "count" and haven't figured out why, although that attitude hasn't stopped me from working on a few projects with impending deadlines.

That doesn't mean I've quit doing anything else though.

Taking inspiration from a large bag of coniferous cones I collected last weekend and some of my earliest handspun that I found while reorganizing my fibre stash, I created a cone cosy, and then decided I needed an outdoor adventure.

What a better way to play with art than to let my little clothed gymnosperm pal go visit his relatives in the great outdoors? One encounter is documented above.

Although it wasn't the nicest day -- flat light, for starters -- it did have the desired effect: I came home charged up creatively, hungry to experiment with more textures, and with a powerful need for a hot chocolate.