My First Prop Sermon
I am always having garden thoughts ok!!!
We used to joke about ‘prop sermons’ at church, where the minister would make some kind of improbable metaphorical leap to make point about the bible feel more relatable:
‘Marriage is like WD40…’ or
‘If you think about it, the Trinity is a lot like a ham sandwich…’ or
’I saw something on The Office last night that reminded me of faith…’
I have to say this newsletter opener feels a little like one of these and I can only apologise for the intrinsic cringe, but I really hope there is a nugget of hope to be taken from it! I am finding the garden as a metaphor to be really reassuring right now.
Listen, I’m a total dweeb, but I learn and process thoughts better through narrative!
My biggest lesson from my first summer of gardening was that things want to grow. I don’t know why, but I had assumed it would be a battle. The resilience and persistence of these silly little plants was a bit of a revelation to me! The second biggest lesson was the fact that weeds in general are just indigenous or self-seeding plants growing where we don’t want them to be - it’s not really much deeper than that. It’s kind of horrifying to recognise how far-reaching and insidious the grasp of colonial perspectives can be on our view of literally anything. Fear-driven gardening - fear of sharing the land, control-driven gardening - the expectation that we even could control the land. Gardening that expects failure or frames different outcomes as failure, when the outcome is always growth! What an absolutely dire approach. Mushrooms, moss, or the full tummy of a slug are not inherent failure!
I told my friend about some pansies my kid had planted in 2023. In the shadow of the lush cucumber vines and dense carrot tops they had failed to thrive the first time around. But this spring, in one of the raised beds, they have miraculously self-seeded and are flourishing around the weeds. ‘Nature has a lot to teach us!’ she remarked. In a culture where the way we live is so intentional about creating and defining ‘nature’ and our separation from it, it’s quite beautiful to be reminded of this.
The first half of this year has been extremely challenging for me. There’s been a lot of upheaval- expected and unexpected, and I’m trying to recognise the space for growth. Some things I had really invested in haven’t panned out, some I thought would bring one outcome have brought something entirely different. Personally, nationally, and internationally, there is a feeling of lack of control right now that can be really challenging for my little autistic brain! I find the little lessons of the garden this week have been really anchoring in a time where I feel very unmoored. It feels so important to remember that at the root of growth and flourishing, it is necessary to recognise colonial and capitalist mindsets. Personal soothing, healing, comfort, and care come hand in hand with resistance!
On that note, outside of your personal life, I want to encourage you to take an action or two, I’ve suggested a few below that I feel are concrete ways to engage in anti colonial practice:
Studio Updates
The Curious Crop test is coming to a close in 2 weeks, and I’m so excited to report that it’s honestly been the most successful test we have ever had! How cute is my hairdresser (below) in her size 3 sample? I would say the two biggest things that have helped with this were the change to Slack as the host for the test group rather than Instagram messaging, and the addition of a proof-reading step to our process. Now after the tech-edit is complete, we pass the pattern to a proof-reader before we send it to testers, and it’s really cut down on silly mistakes and confusion! Would highly recommend this step to any other pattern writers!
We have a few other wee patterns brewing, but I need to hold myself back from sharing too much too soon hehe! I’ve also started trying to write a book! 🤓 (not a knitting one, sorry) so my brain is a bit elsewhere.
Yet Another Book Rec!
The Fall of Kelvin Walker by Alasdair Gray is so so fun! It’s missing a lot of the darkness and magic I love in some of his other work, BUT it’s SO funny so I forgive it. I kept reading it at a cafe while I was waiting for my kid to finish drama and having to stop myself from laughing out loud! It’s quite short and readable- a really good character study. Worth a read :)
Okay that’s all from me today!
Love
From
Lydia