a little red hen

Slow Knitting: ten months for a blue vest

If you really, really were my friend (my 7 year old granddaughter has learned bff* from her more sophisticated peers), you'd say in a very supportive way, 

"How wonderful that you spent less than a year to knit the vest you talked about on your blog last June."

You would be lying in a kind way to an old lady with a habit. It went with me to New York last September. One day I decided to look up the "errata" for the pattern on the Vogue Knitting site.  I had finished the back. Turned out there was an error in the directions in the very first row!

[What follows is geeky knitting talk.]  It was not something crucial, so I let it go.  Other things were:  how to follow the directions for the special style of the edging around the armholes.  Especially a challenge on the second armhole when, in true current pattern mode, "reverse what you did on previous side" appeared rather than written out instructions.  Even challenged Adrienne, my helper at Close Knit, who had the wit to decode it for me.

Much as I like this distinctive look, I doubt that it's something doable on my own another time.

Then it was too big to carry around.  I began to knit another, more colorful vest with better instructions. Got caught up in knit toys--too many little pieces.  I'm about to return to them.  

Realized I needed to add seed stitch gussets at each side for a better fit.  Finally the knitting was done. For the 5 buttonholes, I used five different vintage buttons in the same family.  Nope. Sewed up bottom buttonhole and removed three buttons.  Usually my style is to wear the front open.

Way too much angst for a vest--maybe for an elaborately figured Nordic sweater but not a one-color vest. Looked pretty good after blocking.  I've worn it often, works well for our uncertain spring weather.  I have noticed that the surface pills.  Still wish there were more choices in yarn of this weight and mostly cotton to use with #7 needles--even #8.

*best friend forever

Beads from my son...

Somehow it had moved.  The old cream bottle filled with beads, all from Florence when our son was in Italy.  He brought back a great selection of them and more on a necklace. I'd never take it apart, only wear. It was the 1980s; all dates escape me more and more. I spill them out to look again--it's been a long time.

We'd arranged that I'd give him $100 to buy beads for the jewelry I was making then.  People ask, on the few occasions I wear one of my Ceremonial Neckpieces, the collection of weathered shells, hardware, beads--below with a coin from Bhutan--why don't you do this now?  Why would I?  There's not enough room to keep the ones I have; not interested in selling them; each required intensity, better vision.  

On our recent visit to northern California, on our first day in San Francisco, we threw ourselves into Chinatown walking and looking. We felt at home again, each of us connecting to our early histories. 

Mine as a child in the 1930s, Manhattan's Chinatown entirely different, more crowded, fewer tourists. Eating in tiny restaurants with my father who would later try to teach himself Chines.  Ron's first high school teaching was at Seward Park on the lower east side, near Chinatown.  Many of his students--in the 1960s-- were recent immigrants from southern China. Much was familiar from the Chinatowns in Manhattan, and the newer ones in Queens, and Brooklyn.

Primary-colored cords in a shop window drew us in. This one is silk, adjustable.  Would not require a closing or stringing of beads.  If I'd simply wire on some shells as in this picture.

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Once in a while the idea of making more another neckpiece, far less labor-intensive than what I did 20 years ago.  I still have so many beautiful beads and shells.  Maybe.

 

HAPPY CUP COFFEE..."Mom Marketing" moves on

Outside my political concerns, there's my "job" of promoting our daughter's new company, Happy Cup Coffee, batch roasted in Portland by people with potential who are  clients at Full Life.  There have been a couple of developments since the roaster was visited on a morning TV show in February. 

HAPPY CUP has added to its signature tee-shirt and coffee cup a large canvas tote bag (only available in Portland with purchase of two bags of coffee).  Of course, I want a smaller one for knitting.

All their roasts, including an espresso blend are on the shelves at the five Whole Foods Markets here. We were excited when the little brown bags went on the shelves at the first one, the Fremont store in the Northeast.

"Our" Whole Foods, below, is in the Pearl district, close to where we live.

Then there's the hands-on contest, "Roaster for a Day," described here on the blog,  Caffeinated PDX:

"If you live in Portland for very long, the city’s culture starts growing on you. Whether you start to feel the urge to “put a bird on” everything, or to raise chickens in your back yard, spending time in Portland gives you a new perspective on life...Happy Cup, a new Portland coffee company, is holding a contest that sits at the intersection of Portland’s coffee culture and its DIY culture....

"The prize for the contest is a free class on how to roast your own coffee. Mr. Green Beans, a.k.a Trevin Miller (who currently does the roasting for Happy Cup), will hold a private roasting class for you and three of your friends. During the class, Miller works with you to create a signature blend customized to your own taste preferences. You will spend up to half a day with him, learning how to select the right beans and how to roast them to just the right point for full flavor."

And go home with 52 bags of coffee!  Portlanders can enter at the Happy Cup Facebook page.

HAPPY CUP has been selected as a wholesale coffee provider by several local non-profits, including our own favorite, Planned Parenthood.

MOM MARKETING continues to be my distribution method for giving out samples of Happy Cup Coffee beans. Kathryn LaSusa Yeomans is the talented chef we met two years ago on our first visit to Saturday Portland Farmers Market, in the Park Blocks on the Portland State campus.

She cooks up hot specials, most using mushrooms from Roger Konka's Springwater Farms next door.  We usually overindulge; her egg and mushroom sandwich is hard to resist.  In these photos the Market is at its Winter location, a few blocks south at Shemanski Park.  Though a smaller venue, there are still a wide selection of locally grown raised vegetables.  Ron and I have become serious kale eaters.

Kathy has printed recipe hand outs for dishes prepared.  After eating Hungarian Mushroom Soup, we tried it at home.  Terrific.  Here's the menu for that day on her website, The Farmer's Feast, always on my blogroll. 

 

 

Mormon feminists + LDS Church: blog marriage

Thanks to Hattie's Web for inadvertently creating this post mash-up.  She mourned how feminists might respond to women followers of Ladies against Feminism, a Christian blog "under the oversight" of a male minister. Not content with its misleading title, its true spirit hides by only using the initials LAF in its banner.  Yes, pretty funny--and sad.

The War against Women has been alive and well while some too many women think otherwise.  Why the nasty turn in the public space of Congress without complicity by women?  A Facebook friend of Feminema wants us to use our inside voices about anti-abortion efforts: 

 “I don’t like to use hyperbole like ‘war on women, “I just don’t think liberals should respond with the same overwrought language as conservatives use.”

"Battered Barbie," commentary and image,** appeared in last week's Portland State student publication.  I was about to write about it when I read Hattie's post.   Unknown to those of us outside academe (because it had not been reported), a local community college experienced a creative effort to raise awareness about domestic abuse.  According to the article, Becca Ellenbecker, a student,

"...admitted she was looking to shock and awe her audience..by using abused Barbies and dispersing them throughout the campus."

Guestbooks for student and staff responses accompanied the Barbies.  The reaction at Rock Creek Community College was "the display was going too far.”  Becca was very courageous.  The Portland State Women's Resource Center could not give the columnist a "concrete answer" about doing something similar on the PSU campus.  What images will work?

This has been my own challenge.  Unlike Becca, my choices are not dark, they're quirky--like this Bra Condom Amulet from my other blog, Knit a Condom Amulet. Does it matter, does the content skew the attention of our hoped-for audience more than the style used to craft our images? I'd once considered offering the PSU Women's Center a workshop on how to KNIT A CONDOM AMULET. The amulets started as my way to get conversation going around a difficult topic:  HIV in women over 50. Of course, the notion works for all ages.  Start with Princetonian from College Series, move on to regional

 

OSU (Oregon State U.) Condom Amulet from 2008, the one returned without comment when I entered it in a local yarn shop competition.   Or update the old Condom Amulet Zine.  Invent another for U of U (Utah).

"Mormon Feminists, LDS Church Unite"  is a headline from last week's  Salt Lake City Tribune.  And I was reminded of another case of the "F" word being applied to women with no clue to the goals promoted by second wave and first wave Feminism.  The story tells how Tresa Edmunds, "Mormon writer, activist and blogger" decided to engage the followers of the blog, Feminist Mormon Housewives, to raise money.  To help a divorced Mormon mother of three finish her final term of college.  She'd been abandoned by her LDS church's support--ended one presumes because her marriage did also.

"Terrific" you think.  Have you ever read FMH?  Few years ago I discovered it in the statistics for Knit a Condom Amulet.  They seemed interested in these.  Great.  But when I read the blog, it was unclear why. Same as reading the Tribune story is confusing about how the LDS Church supports the fund-raising for a woman whose divorce it could not condone. Made my head spin. Similar to LAF, Feminist Mornons Housewives, an apparently well-educated group, live in some universe very far away.  Tell me if you undertand the post, "13 Articles of Healthy Chastity." 

There's also a blog called Feminist Ryan Gosling:  more girls wasting time IMHO.  How will we get your attention about the War on Women unless you give up your focus on men for a minute or two?  

___________________

**"Battered Barbie," PSU Vanguard, written by Emily Lakehomer, illustration by Elizabeth Thompson.  

 

 

Chinese New Year greetings: John Fu & Warren Buffett

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning's email brought a dramatic, red, Chinese New Year greeting from John Fu in Copenhagen.  He was a college student when we met in Xian, China eleven years ago.  Determined to get his next degree in the English-speaking world (he was a proficient translator in 2000),  he got his MBA in Denmark where he now lives and works as a business consultant.  We had hilarious experiences with Chinese government officials he helped me to interview in Xian.  I wanted to know how they were dealing with garbage issues. Did they have a problem?  Mayo, as they say in Chinese.

As we sat in a cab on our way to Xian officialdom,  John asked what was in my backpack.  Unzipping the green bag, I pulled out the world's smallest kitchen composter and a red knit worm to explain my kitchen composting mission.  "Oh, so this is your religion," was his insightful reply.*

Dedicated capitalist that he is, John will surely be delighted to be headlined with Warren Buffett performing at a charity fund-raiser.  If you can read Mandarin, let me know how the translation works.  When I went to YouTube for the embed code, I found such ugly, racist comments!  Opened another window on why the U.S. is in deep stuff politically and socially.  Of course, you already knew everything about that from at weeks of the Republican side-show that dominates every TV news program. 

But I digress.  Busha Full of Grace raised my consciousness about the Year of the Dragon.  Currently this spunky, knitting Grandma is nanny to a Chinese family. To expand her knowledge of the celebration, her search led to the ten important facts she posted.   "No sitting in a bedroom" knocked me out;  Number 10, "Songbirds are Good," was more expected.

                                                         ****************************************

*To honor my "religion," John Fu had a chop mark made  with "compost"  in Mandarin.    For "This Dirt Museum: The Ladies' Room," my 2001 installation, I  enlarged the image,  added the word in Spanish. It had a prominent spot in the show and still hangs in our apartment.  Shown here with a few of the 150 red worm interpretations I knit for the exhibition.  [You too can have a chop; order here.]

Though amused by the idea that my intense practice of transforming  kitchen green waste into a useful, earth-enhancing amendment might be considered highly spiritual, perhaps a "religion," John's response has grown on me.

When we moved to our retirement community, a woman in the mail room invited me to join the Green Team.  What a vintage designation my NYC self thought.  Not that at all I discovered.

 We now live in Portland, Oregon, sustainability-intense city where you never forget your reusable grocery bag.  [See latest "Portlandia" episode.]  Once again we kitchen compost.  I am very involved in encouraging neighbors to do likewise.  No longer do red wigglers in our living room transform the stuff, but the intention is the same.

 

Knit elephant & sheep photo have something in common?

They give me a jump to posting again.  The yarn in the elephant's body came from Foster Sheep Farm in upstate New York--Schuylerville.  The sheep pictured here too.

Its maker, Carole Foster, brought it to the Columbia Greenmarket near where we lived on the upper west side of Manhattan.  She had a unique way of demonstrating how to spin which is captured on the link back in wintry 2009 in the City.  I'd admired a hat she'd knit from worsted Greenspun from her own natural colored flock.  Purchase the purple/gray yarn and she gave me her hand written recipe.  Something in it proved elusive, so....

This Danger Crafts pattern for an elephant seemed a good way to use it otherwise.  Easy to follow the thoroughly color-illustrated instructions.  Except for the end:  putting pieces together always a major challenge.

I'm trying to use yarn in my stash, of which there is far too much. With vintage black buttons for eyes, it's ready to mail for Roxie's fifth birthday next week.  Today Carole's newsletter arrived and the odd sheep view came from I know not where--in today's email.  That's my story and here is unnamed as yet doll from the rear also.

 

Roxie herself saw the elephant the other day on Skype.  She is reluctant to appear this way; her father says there is something confusing about the appearance of people she knows on a screen.

I hope the knit doll makes as big a hit as the chocolate-covered strawberries sent for our son's birthday earlier in the month.  Now those were a big hit, it's reported.  Everyone else seems to be about Edible Arrangements except me!  And I only found them by chance; was about to do something ordinary like flowers.  Great gift for the difficult-to-gift--like my over thirty son who loves fruit as well as chocolate.   Do you agree the baskets are kind of funky, like cartoons of the actual thing--fruit as interpreted by Disney?

Foster Sheep Farm is part of the 3 Bags Full Campaign in  Saratoga County, New York.  It is a land trust and advocate for smart growth, working to preserve a range of things important to hold dear--trails, small woodland parks.  Knitters and fiber artists are working to raise $15,00 to conserve the farm for future generations.  Great idea, makes me wonder if there are similar projects in other states.

INFORMATIONAL UPDATE FROM NYC..............

 January 5 (the brithday approaches) and Roxie has named elephant:  Snorty.

 

Condom Amulets Startle Knitters!

Knitters, concerned and good-natured women with a sense of the humor, contributed to an the idea I had pre-Portland, when I lived in New York.  When I finish this post, I'll contact them with the surprisng proof it worked: use provocative knitting  to raise awareness about HIV.  Like this one, The Princetonian, the first of my college amulet series.**

Knit a Condom Amulet,  the title I'd been using for a little paper zine give-away, became my second blog -- 7 amulets by 5 knitters.  It was beautifully designed by a woman in New Jersey I only knew online and the phone.

The debut post featured my friend Annette's hand adorned with Lisa Daehlin's copper wire Condom Amulet Bracelet.  It appeared Decemer One, 2007, to highlight that year's    World AIDS Day. 

 

The image at left is a screen shot of the statisitics for the blog that I check once in a while to see if it still has visitors all these years later.  After the initial outing, viewership has been low.  Once a very kinky crowd, definitely not fiber folks, were entranced by some of the content.

A couple of the amulets ---Man Thong, Bra & Breast Pouch (pink one here by Lisa Daehlin) -- are especially so.  Comments on the blog are closed; simply out there hoping to be discovered.

October 13, 2011, was the all-time big bump of  2,356 visitors, October 14 another 564, October 15, 223, the next day, 296.  And another 192 for the finale.  Five days, close to 3,000 hits on a blog that usually has 20-30 daily visitors!  Turns out this time it was by our target  group--knitters.  These were from Knitting Paradise^SM - Knitting and Crochet Forum whose membership is in the thousands.  [We also started a group on  Ravelry, an even larger online knit and crochet community.]

It began with "Deb," an active Forum member.  She linked to our site and noted, "No, I'm not kidding. Hey, someone might want one of these!"  And then the deluge.

Culturally the Forum knitters appear different from those on Ravelry but, without a rigorous study, who knows?   Judging from their photos, they are generally older women than most on Ravelry.  Many were shocked:  should this even be happening?  Some, amused.  Others thought it just might be a way to "...begin talking with my granddaughter..."  That's it, ladies!  Referring to Michelle Edwards' beaded amulets from corn silk yarn, one poster was ambivalent:

  first amulet is very pretty & COULD be used for something else...but someone might recognize it from this site. LOL   

I plan to  join Knitting Paradise (could use some extra magic with current projects on the needles) to thank "Deb" for introducing our site to her fiber friends.  Forum member "Jenna" the Ball Band Condom Amulet (Kay Gardiner design)  would be just the thing for people she knew,  "Christmas gifts  for single girlfriends,  holds at least three condoms."

In the past, when I've heard from an knit amulet enthusiast, the knitter wants   to find out if their creations could be sent to me:

"I work for the AIDS Resource Group in Evansville, IN and love your idea... inspired by  patterns and made a few amulets for the "environmentally concious" condom user out of "plarn" (plastic bags made into yarn). Is there an address that I could send them to?" 

My response is that we hoped the person's own circle would provide ideal recipients, that the primary idea behind our project was more personal:  gift someone close to you--like "Deb" and "Jenna."  You know, the personal is always political, as we used to say back in the day.

** College series includes:  Oberlin, Columbia & Oregon State Universities, send in yours for posting here.

UPDATE...On December One, 2011, an email arrived with a reminder.  Here's a poster you might copy to your own blog and a plea you can sign from The Feminist Majority.

Ask President Obama and Congress to fight AIDS with science and medicine, not ideology. Condoms must not be an afterthought.  Click on the link below to sign.

Ask US Leaders to Stop Abstinence Only Programs

 

Man Knits Hats Unstoppably

Who would have thought he would become unstoppable?  Ron Bloom, retired guy (just put that on his card), knits far more than I, his leader into the craft.  It's awesome.

Though every now and then he's been talked into branching out into other knitting, he is really comfortable with his "button hats."  He likes to give them away to people he meets and is always puzzled by women in cold climates who go hatless.

Two of them were just sent to "Warm Hats, Warm Hearts," a new fiber energy begun after the east coast's Hurricane Irene which may be one the costliest catastropes in the country's history much of its costs not covered by insurance.    Our family in Tarytown, New York, had only partial electricity for several days.  Could run a space heater but had to walk up to their sixth floor apartment.  We're told that Roxie saw it as an adventure.

Warm Hats, Warm Hearts probably came my way while browsing the amazing Ravelry site.  (If you're a knitter and want to see what others are doing, find a pattern for the yarn you bought--or vice versa--easy to join at the link.)

India, a knitter in Vermont, explained the needs in this message:

Although my town was spared the worst, many towns throughout the state suffered devastating flooding. My husband’s brother, sister, and mother narrowly escaped the rising waters of the Mad River, which inundated their home and their village, soaking everything in its path, taking out roads and bridges, and leaving behind inches of muck and piles of debris.

My family was lucky. Many of their things, including their clothing, are salvageable. But many others are not so fortunate. Though it is still quite warm here, we all know that soon the weather will turn much colder, and people will reach for that favorite sweater or scarf, only to remember that it’s gone.

I’m collecting donations of handknit hats, scarves, mittens, sweaters, socks, blankets, baby items, and knitted toys, items for anyone from babies through adults, to distribute to flood survivors in Vermont and upstate New York.

If you are not on Ravelry, contact India Tresselt, at warmhearts2@gmail.com. An update:

Pretty much everything I receive from now on will go to the Upper Valley Haven in White River Junction, which serves about 1000 families per month, many of whom live in towns devastated by the flooding.

On a personal note, my family in Moretown is recovering and rebuilding. After nearly two months with us, my mother-in-law was able to return to her home a couple of weeks ago, and my sister- and brother-in-law are determined to have their side of the family home ready for Thanksgiving. It will be a very meaningful holiday for my entire family.

I want you all to know how much your kindness means to the people of Vermont, New York, and New Hampshire.  I wish each of you a happy Thanksgiving!

So far I have distributed nearly 100 hats, 50 scarves, 30 pairs of mittens, 2 shawls, 4 stoles, and assorted neckwarmers, cowls, and headbands, as well as some children’s sweaters, plus baby items. The current collection deadline is January 15, 2012.

Early Autumn in New York with Roxie

It was mid-September when we reached New York--weather as unpredictable as Portland.  But not our Roxie: darling as on Skype with her newly cut long hair-- and our last realtime encounter in December.  And more verbal, "Look, Daddy, Grandma made me a shrug!" 

She shared her preferences with us.   Lunch in Tarrytown required the companion doll, one of those awful pink princess objects all the rage with contemporary little girls on both coasts and in between.  The Disney triumph.

Pink shoes too.  Roxie does include purple in her color range.   As the 1970s Mom who hyper-consciously did not dress my daughter and son in "those colors," even as babies, all the pinkness makes me sad.  Is this what is meant by "be careful what you wish for"?  Or proof once again that advertising and commerce rule in America and tiny social movements like the one by women change some things but resist who controls how clothes designers regard women and girls.

Along with our own dinner-for-the-flight, we'd brought along Ron's rooftop "portrait tomato" the one that elicited a wonderful range of blog commenters recently.  As we were describing it to her parents, Roxie declared, "I love tomatoes!" and transformed it into an ordinary tomato.

Here's the consequence of  her vegetable enthusiasm.  Because we saw a similar tomato from another home garden in Portland (New Seasons would never put one like this on their shelves), I speculate it is a Northwest phenomenon.  Have you spotted them elsewhere outside the PDX "keeping it weird" area?

Roxie also is a careful observer of the natural world.  She called our attention to  the glorious sunsets over the Hudson River from their balcony. Hard to resist taking photos.  At 4.5 years our New York granddaughter has already learned to do the same from her mother whose own mother was an accomplished photographer.

Our Zoe, six years old and off to kindergarten

  Earlier in September, our granddaughter Zoe was very focused on only one event.  With Ron as he ran several errands, she announced to all:

"My birthday is next week and my Grandpa will not be there!"

She thoughtfully changed the wording to include "Grandma" when she was with me.  Very significant.  My daughter sent this photo today as she went off to her second day of kindergarten.  And wore the shrug I'd knitted and gave her at her birthday party.

The chocolate sourdough cake, large enough to  serve many, found online at Cooks.com, is  same recipe that had its first baking for my final PSU Street Art class in the spring.  The vintage cake carrier is something I long ago purchased for its fit into an imaginary, alternative life I'd never had where people used these--maybe early 20th century.   Now I can feel it is slightly integrated into my own life!

The shrug was the third one knitted from the same pattern.  Used Mission Falls 1824 Cotton on both, lovely stuff, went out of business earlier this year though some still available through diligent searches.  Earlier, made one for her three year old sister's birthday in August.  Eliana (at left in photo) immediately threw it on the floor so it is in a kind of limbo life at the moment.  Then there's the one for Roxie that we will take to New York.