A Creative Soul or The Frustrated Engineer

Hello. I’m a thirty something who some of you may know as Ree Comyn and others as Triskellion. I write, I knit, I paint, and oddly enough I’m an engineer. (Yeah, it doesn’t all go together very well, sometimes even in my own head.) I love to create, or even just to color, but I don’t often have the time or energy. Well, more the energy than the time. I just switched to a new engineering firm where I’m diving all over Southern California to get to the office and the time in the car is just draining me. I don’t know how the people who commute for hours every day do it. I really don’t.

Okay, now for something you all will be more interested in. I was raised in a crafty household. My mother loved to make things, music included. She had a pottery wheel and a kiln downstairs, and would teach me hand crafts by the hearth every winter (we lived in Maryland and it did get rather cold in December). I remember crochet and knitting and needlepoint. Or rather, I remember that she taught me. I can’t make heads or tails of crochet to this day. And I only know how to knit because my (then boyfriend) husband taught me (he attended a rather odd elementary school that taught some non-standard skills). Needlepoint I retained, though I rarely do it anymore. Gripping that little needle and holding the canvas makes my hands hurt, probably due to too  much time at the computer over the years.

I unfortunately can’t find any of my needlepoint or knitting projects. My husband I moved last year and, despite how long it has been since we moved in,  a lot of our lives are still in a box somewhere. However, visiting my father last month we discovered not only my great-grandmother’s crochet blanket but my mother’s shawl.

Let me make it clear how much this shawl means to me. My mother died of cancer when I was 9. She made this shawl to comfort her when she was sick with chemo. And after she died, it was one of my favorite things. It was on my bed off and on through high school and I often wore it as part of costumes (it’s huge and made a great cloak). But after I went to college, it vanished. I was horrified. I didn’t know what I did, where I lost it. Well almost 20 years later, Dad and I are looking for a few more things to pass over (and get out of the house), and we find it with the blanket in the ceder chest. He didn’t remember putting it there, so maybe my stepmother tucked it away. Probably to protect it from the cats. I made a shawl once I learned to knit again, several actually, because I wanted to replace the feeling of comfort this shawl used to give me. None of them worked. And that’s okay, because I finally found the one I wanted. Now I just need to air it out so it doesn’t smell like cat fur and ceder anymore (my husband is horrifically allergic to cats. sigh).

Okay, for something that is actually mine I have my first serious painting project. I really need to try this again on a normal surface. This was my entry into the pumpkin decorating contest at work last year. After seeing one painted pink with a yarn mane and a sparkly horn, I went “I can do better than that.” My coworkers didn’t much agree, but what do you think? It’s acrylic paints on a plastic pumpkin.

I also found two pieces of pottery, one my mother’s and one mine from high school (I took a pottery class one year). Someday I’d love to get back into this.

I threw the bottom photos in because, a) mine is awful and b) I totally stole the way Mom marked her pottery. (Yes, my real name starts with an H).

Okay, that’s all for crafts. These days I spend more time on writing than anything else (craft wise). I’m finishing up the second draft of my first novel:

Yeah, it’s a bit long still. I’m probably going to have to find a very understanding publisher. But fingers crossed. I do have a few shorts out there, two as Lee Comyn that are out of publication and one as Julianna Comyn which is still going in Fae Love (I also recommend the story by Jessamin Gardiner, both because she’s a friend and because I think it’s really good). And plenty of fanfiction on AO3 as Triskellion. One of these days I might finish some projects there.

Well, thanks to Karin for letting me poke my nose in here and ramble.