Field Notes: The Things We Carry

I emptied my project bag the other day.

Three cakes of yarn. Two crochet hooks. My Copper Crow notebook and a pen. Hand lotion. Little scissors, finishing needles, and stitch markers.

Nothing particularly remarkable.

And yet, laid out together, it looked a little like a record of how I make.

The yarn and hooks are there for the obvious reason. The little scissors and needles have earned their places by being needed often enough that I no longer think about packing them. The hand lotion somehow belongs there too.

And then there's the notebook.

Making seems to gather things around itself.

Tools, certainly, but also ideas and habits and little necessities. Things get tucked into pockets because we might need them later. Something catches our attention and comes along. Eventually, without ever deciding to build a collection, we have.

Maybe that's one of the reasons I've always liked crows.

They have a reputation for noticing things, for gathering what catches their attention and carrying it away.

Makers aren't so different.

We gather colors. Tools. Scraps. Ideas. Useful things. Beautiful things. Things whose purpose hasn't quite revealed itself yet.

And we need somewhere to carry them.

The Copper Crow Maker's Totes grew from that familiar habit. They're sturdy canvas bags made for works in progress, library books, market mornings, unexpected finds—and whatever else quietly finds its way in.

Mine, apparently, includes hand lotion.

I think I'll keep it there.

Crow Note

Gather what delights you.