mamacate

The Most Incredible Thing I Saw At Rhinebeck

So Rhinebeck is a pretty incredible experience.  There's wool, there's chocolate, there's fried artichoke hearts, there's Maine-grown cashmere.  It is a place of many wonders, at least for those of us afflicted in a certain way.  But there was this one thing I saw at Rhinebeck that trumps it all.  I wasn't the only one who saw it.  There are witnesses; photographic evidence, even.  This alone proves to me that it was real.

It was Jenni.

And her shawl.

(No, really, do you see how....diaphanous that thing is?  See it fluttering in the breeze?  See?  See?  I mean...)

I know, there's a lot of lace at Rhinebeck.  There were some amazing, impossibly talented lace knitters around those parts, but people, Jenni can make some lace.  And really, the most important part of Jenni's lace shawl?  That's the fact that Jenni spun this yarn herself.  Now I've spun me some lace shawls, but this?  This was a whole nother thing.  I'm telling you, frog hair would be insulting this yarn.  To call it even and perfect would be an act of ridiculous understatement.

It was just too beautiful for words.  There was genuflecting.  Seriously, you would have too.

And the scary part?  Girlfriend was in line for a *fleece*.  I can scarcely imagine what's next.

(ETA: Jenni has updated her blog with the story of the shawl as of 10/31 evening.  Can you believe she's not finished with it?  Wow.)

Small World

A couple of weeks ago, still reeling from the preschool thing, I went back and read some of my blog archives.  I was sort of going back, looking to see how it used to be, and what had changed, I suppose.  And it was striking: life is very different than it used to be, more than I think we've even acknowledged.  We're cramped, we're hemmed in, we're off-balance. 

So I talked to Rhys about it.  I told her I'd been reading my archives and that it seemed like our lives now were so...and there I was grasping for words.  She finished my sentence for me: "small," she said.  Small.  That's it.  Our lives have become very small.

And it's true.  We're living in a tiny space.  We have minimal child care, so we don't go out.  We go to work, we rush home, we shepherd people through rituals to bed, we watch TV, we discuss paint colors, we sleep.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  I suppose some of that is just grownup life, but it feels so very small right now.  Things could be oh so much worse--life is good in many ways--but right now, it's small.  Just that simple.  It has been a while that I've been living in tight quarters--I was ready to take a break and go somewhere a little bit bigger, if only for a very short time.  And Rhinebeck was it.

Rhinebeck is a big event for our small knitblog world.  I like the way Laurie thinks about it--our motley tribe gathering at market to ally and trade and stock winter stores.  I had 36 hours in which to participate.  It wasn't enough.  I was so starved for an outlet, a certain number of glasses of red wine caused me to burst into sudden tears and then to stay up until two hours before I had to get up and go home.  It wasn't smart.  But then again, I wouldn't have traded a single minute of it.  There were too many people I barely saw for a moment (more than I can link in a single clause); a few I got to spend good time with and a few I connected with, but there wasn't enough time with anyone. (I missed too many people with those links: forgive me.)

Sunday morning was Not Good as I sat woozily at the breakfast table and tried to make coffee and yogurt signal my body that it wasn't two hours past bedtime.  I was hopeless and useless and without a single prayer of any sort of adult functioning.  And suddenly, in contrast to, I don't know, most of my life, there were people around me who were taking care of me.  There was Marcy who was ready to drive me home on my schedule, even though she could have stayed.  There was Kristen who went and got the fleece out of her car and brought it to me so I didn't have to make more movements than were absolutely necessary.  (Kristen also had Excedrin.  I love Kristen.)  There was Cassie in the lobby with quiet words and a warm goodbye.

I have a kind and loving partner who takes wonderful care of me, it's true.  But we have twins and jobs and a house renovation and someone needs to take care of her too, and I'm all too rarely up to the task.  I didn't grow up expecting that if I was lagging, I'd have people there to lift me up.  But Sunday morning, and Saturday night too, it just felt like there was this net of kindness below me; like there were people who were concerned about me, who wanted to help, who had stories and hope and warmth to share and who were funny and kind and real. 

So if you saw me weeping in the inappropriate setting of a cocktail party, that's why.  It's the support when you don't quite expect it, the kind words that come out of left field and the friend who tells you they admire how you do something you don't think you did very well at all, but maybe it's not so terrible.  It's the surprising disclosures of personal sorrows, and the remembering of so many heartbreaks tucked into pockets and folds and brought tenderly and quietly into the light to show someone else she might not be completely alone.  It's the sitting in a room making jokes and then with some shift of the air our humanity is uncovered and it's breathtaking and beautiful and deeply sad at the same time.

I feel like I've said all this before, and I have.  It's just that it's gathering time again, and I'm storing up stocks for the winter.

Interoffice Mail

Here is the contents of this morning's mail.

--IRB approval for a study I'm managing
--The Chronicle of Higher Education
--this poem:

Petals in the Dirt
Ellen Dore Watson

Your words circle, mine batter.  You're a ramp, I have
no wheels.  The kid who gets the brunt
of our love asks us not to bicker.  Think
of all the people who have lost their right
hands!  The friend who says: Hug me twice,
it could be a while till the next body
I can touch.  Then there's the man who claims he wants
steady, needs steady, but each woman's a lake
he's big enough to swallow.  How will hunger like that
ever learn to use a napkin?  When you bring me
tenderness, it looks like one more thing
I don't have time for.  Maybe when it comes
to love, the happily long-married are the biggest
fools.  I'm fervent but off-and-on about my roses
--how many of us are delirious when the twenty-sixth
blossom does its gorgeous thing?  I wonder
if when I get home those petals will still be
luminous and melting in the dirt.  I'm thinking
maybe I need them.  I'm saying what would I do
without your mouth?

--from This Sharpening

In between the bureaucratic and the informational, a reminder to live.  More workplaces should have a poetry center to send random beauty through interoffice mail, even if it results in 9 am weeping at administrative desks.

Do you think we could have a knitblog delegation?

Hey, exactly how does one get in on this whole NATO deal, anyway?  I mean, we don't have weapons of mass destruction, but we do have DPNs.

Read here and here; also here.

Hard to imagine George and Condi really appreciating a pair of Latvian Mittens, you know?

More reasons for secession, I'm just saying.

In Which Shannon Okey Gets a Toaster

Happy Friday, and welcome to my Spin to Knit blog tour interview with Shannon Okey--random blatherings will return next time I have a minute.

mama: So Shannon, first of all, I must say, this book really fills a void out there for someone who is just learning to spin and wants a good resource to feed the obsession learn technique.  Having a good book out there is a great benefit to the enabling community, and I believe that in one fell swoop, there, you've won yourself a toaster.  At one point, there was this idea with a t-shirt and such for enablers.  It never got off the ground, but you'd certainly be a member. I figure a toaster is even better...

Shannon: Oooooooh. Sign me UP!

mama: One of the things that I like best about this book is that it's a great overview for a new spinner.  In my enabling travels, I am sometimes asked for book recommendations for new spinners, and there hasn't been a lot out there until this.  What is your best advice for new spinners?

Shannon: Unless you're allergic, start with wool, and unless you've got an elbow or arm problem like me, start on a spindle. If you can spindle, the wheel will be a snap. But it's not a hard and fast rule -- I learned on a wheel before the spindle. (Talk about do as I say, not as I do!) Go somewhere you can experiment, such as a yarn store that stocks fiber equipment or a local guild, and try all different kinds of fiber and equipment. I guarantee something will click!

mama: You present both a detailed overview of spinning technique and then provide knitting patterns for handspun yarn.  What issues are new spinners likely to encounter when knitting with handspun?  Why do you think some spinners avoid knitting with their yarn for a long time?

Shannon: I've watched a lot of new spinners learn... sometimes they don't want to knit with their own yarn right away because they don't think its good enough. While I was taking photos of a Lynne Vogel class for the book, I overheard Lynne and Sandy Sitzman telling a brand-new spinner that one, she wouldn't ever be able to spin that way again (so enjoy it while you can) and two, it's not bad yarn, it's "designer yarn." That was so encouraging and kind... now I call all first efforts "designer yarn," and I suggest you save yourself a small hank to remember just what it was like. Because once you've been practicing for a bit, you'll never be able to spin that way again!

mama: I love the way you incorporate knitting with singles into your book, both because I'm always open to an opportunity to do 1/3 the work (only one strand, no plying), and because it's cool.  Can you talk a little about knitting with energized singles?

Shannon: Like almost all my favorite techniques (dishwasher dyeing comes to mind), it started as sheer laziness on my part. I'd spun the most beautiful colored roving and I wanted to get started right that very second. You know -- MUST KNIT NOW. I hadn't read much about the other artists who are known for using them in their work at that point (Kathryn Alexander, Lynne Vogel), so I didn't know quite what to expect...but once I watched what the singles could do even with the plainest of stitches, I was hooked. The way the stitches bias to the side especially lends itself to circular knitting, which is what I like best.

mama: I think we may be kindred spirits in the sense of doing something the very most labor-intensive way possible (hand-spinning and hand-knitting), and then looking for shortcuts and neat inventions that will speed up the process.  (Now I want to know if you're an ENTP too.) But anyway, you describe your inventions of a drinking straw spindle kate and a dishwasher dyeing technique in the book.  Have you come up with any other crazy (in a good way) ideas?  Anything in the works?

Shannon: Well, according to http://www.personalitytest.net, I'm an ENFP... close but no cigar. I am actually working on some (top secret for now) fiber tools -- my dad will probably get drafted into helping with the prototypes. One of my favorite cheats if I'm dyeing just a little bit of fiber or I need to wash some yarn is to put it in the salad spinner and zap out the excess liquid. I learned that one from Lynne.

mama: Finally, as I mentioned before, this book is a masterpiece of enabling.  A sort of assimilation by printed matter.  You deserve a toaster. And while much of this book covers the basics of spinning, I think it's a great book for an intermediate or advanced spinner who's looking for some great knitting projects designed for handspun, and who, um, might need a reference for the new spinners she's enabling.  There's ample evidence of your enabling handiwork around the net at the moment (Jenna?  Wilson?  SPINNING?). What advice do you have for spinners who are ready to enable the next crop of spinners?  Rhinebeck is coming up, after all...

Shannon: She sprung physics questions on me, so I put the real-world application in front of her... fair's fair. Though to be truthful, can you imagine Jenna spinning full time? What, like the brilliance of Rogue wasn't enough? We'd all be eating her wheel dust.

If you're enabling the next generation, your keyword is fiber fiber fiber. Find the softest, brightest, most amazing fiber you can...the fiber that just IS the person you're trying to teach. They'll want to do it so badly, they'll figure it out... people work best when they've got a goal in mind!

Go see more of Shannon on her next tour stops:

Sat. Oct. 7       
              January One      
                januaryone.com/

            

Mon. Oct. 9      
              Lolly Knitting Around      
                lollygirl.com/blog

            

Tues. Oct. 10   
              Crafty Chica Podcast and   Blog
              www.craftychica.com/blogs/diary/

            

Wed. Oct. 11   
              Booga J/ Whip   Up
              www.boogaj.com

            

Thurs. Oct. 12   
              The Hook and I 
              hookandi.blogspot.com/

In Which There Are Pictures, Significantly More of a House, a Kid-Induced Bad Hair Day, Some Reasonable Outrage, and News of a Coming Toaster Award

The house is starting to look real.  I sort of believe it might someday be finished.  I mean, not counting on anything, but it does appear that there may, in fact, be at point at which I'm not sleeping in my dining room.

Also,

J (aka Jerry Poppins aka Governor aka the new male in-home day caregiver) and I were able to talk a bit because we were having our hair done by a pair of short hairdressers.  It was really hard to get the full sense from a photo (truly, it had to bee seen to be believed), but here's the best photo of it I have (with the artist in the picture--Henry did J's hair).

Truly, there's rather a lot of hair bling in there.  Anyway, it was a good talk, and we're happy, he's happy, and the kids are happy, and man, I'm just hoping the wind doesn't change.

Now for the outrage.  (For those not tuned in to the US news cycle and its cynical horrors, look here if you can stand it.)  I mean, it's horrifying that the hypocritical republicans let this go on.  But now they're trying to turn it on us truly boring gay people.  I mean, we're the ones whom you're trying to write out of the constitution just want to be able to get married.  You know, to be, um, monogamously committed to one (adult, consenting, power-equal) person.  Some of us don't even need the piece of paper to maintain our extreme boringosity.  The idea that you can claim a gay cabal in the republican house of representatives, and then blame this on gay people?  I...I....I mean...I just...what can you say?  How do you respond to something like this?  Excuse me while I scream now.

Before all this happened, however, I was doing something a bit more constructive than screaming.  I've been making calls for get-out-the-vote efforts in key races across the country.  It's easy to do and you can do it from home, and truly, most people are very nice and those that aren't just hang up.  So if you feel like it, I gather they need people to call in Foley's former district.  Go here to sign up.  Also, I've contributed to the exciting Mass. governor's race.  You can too if you like, here.  And then I think all we can do is keep screaming, because it seems like a pretty reasonable thing at this point.  And calling and contributing and volunteering, and...whatever you can, I guess.

Oh, and go me, I've biked to work every day this week.  I have a new bike on order, delayed with a shipping mixup--I'll tell you all about it when I get it, but i'm psyched.  I've got to get totally in the habit before the bad weather and really early nightfalls come.  I'm on my way.  And seriously, Riin, thanks for the inspiration.

As for toaster, master enabler Shannon Okey will be stopping by here tomorrow morning (hopefully fully recovered from her tête-à-tête with Dolores) with tips for the enabler and the enablee.  I love her new book: she gets a toaster for the thousands of new spinners she will no doubt create through it.  See you tomorrow!

 

Weekend Update

So it's really, really great to have the old job project over.  There's some small chance that the project will get some press, at least in a small way, so I'll link if it does.  My name will almost certainly not be mentioned, so no worries there.  There were a bit more than 5 pages in total, over the four years, grin.

But I think things should be better than they feel at the moment.  The whole kid crisis thing continues, and probably will for a while.  We have good days and bad days.  Saturday this weekend was a good day: we went to the Big E with the kids' godfather (we like to pronounce it "god fathaaaaah".  The kids rode another mini-coaster with Rhys (yes, she's actually holding her arms up).

And they danced:

It was fun.

We woke up this morning to torrential rain, and had, well, a heck of a day.  It always seems to work that way--if we have a fun, big day one day, the next day is pretty hellish.  The rain and our need to run errands and the lack of any actual place to play in our house didn't help.  Tomorrow will be a better day.  RIGHT?

My friend the drywall guy was here all weekend, bless his heart.  Like, including today.  We have sheetrock everywhere, it's kind of cool, though things look smaller with the drywall up.  It's okay, though, it's progress.  The dust is pretty major (and they haven't even sanded yet) but it's all completely contained in the construction zone, so the paltry furniture not in storage is safe.  From dust, at least.  It's a little--lived in--let's say.

But I took a couple of photos before drywall (and even a little siding, till they got rained out) went on.  Here's one of the outside of the house.  Look, windows!  A chimney!  A roof!

Elizabeth continues to blah.  I had this whole idea of how the weekend would go that involved finishing the front.  The knit goddess guffaws.  Oh well.