stitch marker

scavengers

This is why we end up staying so closed. Because when you open yourself up to the world, there are so many little hurts. People are not nice. You run joyfully and bonk your head.

Let me go back a bit. We had a long, fun day yesterday, taking pictures everywhere. Sarah had Monroe on her back, Sebastian rode in his stroller, and both boys were model scavenger hunt helpers, either sleeping or moving right along as needed. We asked strangers to hold our knitting and pose (most were willing and even seem happy in the pictures.) A man on the bus turned out to be a former knitter: he used to do it when he was a logger, for fun in the off hours. The food vendor was on the phone (“I’m now holding my third piece of yarn,” he reported to the person on the line.) The wind-up toy vendor at Finnegan’s knew the rules better than we did, having seen a dozen knitters already, and he helped us get an extra point. We walked and talked about our children, our car-free lives and what good shape we're in from busing and carrying.

We were damp and mentally tired by the time we boarded the final MAX train to the Forestry Center to see the Yarn Harlot and report on our pictures.

Sebastian played on the life-sized logging train at the entrance. He was cute but tired too and he did fall and bonk his head really hard, twice. We probably should have stayed outside, but I went in to see Tina, find my friends Heather and Rodger, find my mom who took the MAX out there to meet us, and to have a sense of completion, that we'd walked around all day opening ourselves up to people and we had prevailed.

I sat down and immediately I knew Sebastian was going to make noise, so we moved to the back of the room, then out to the lobby. At one point during Stephanie’s presentation we had to come back in for a diaper. That was when a very angry, twisted, pinch-faced woman snarled at me. Really, she was an animal. I said, “Excuse me,” and she said “You’re damn right Excuse You!”

(Huh?)

“You don't bring children to things like this,” she hissed, her face a mask of nastiness.

(I am being kind here. Her meanness was really shocking.) I instinctively hissed back, actually managing to punctuate my reply with a pointed diaper, “You bring children everywhere!” Then I went to the lobby and cried a bit because she really hurt me, being so mean after my nice day, mean about my beautiful sweet son who brings up the deepest feelings of pride and protection in me.

Interestingly, there was another mom with a little boy outside crying because someone else had asked her to leave. Her son was really quiet and good.

There were probably a dozen more children of all ages around the back of the house and in the lobby with parents. I knew that Tina, the host, and Stephanie, the speaker, both love children. I was outraged, but of course had to let it go, which obviously I have not.

It was a joyful celebration of knitting, coming together around something we loved, sharing our long and happy day of picture taking (Sarah won a prize!). And at least two people were so wound up that they could not share it with every kind of person, even those of us who traveled difficultly and with children carried on our very backs, because we wanted to be there, and we happen to have chosen to forward the human race have children and have been lucky and blessed enough to have them (edited because a couple people pointed out the above phrase was not entirely nice or accurate.) I believe that the way you socialize children is to bring them places and have them meet other people.

I am so sorry Sebastian met her.
 

we are so tender

requiring fires for warmth

roofs against the rain

 

 

(haiku by martin)

good morning

The designated sock is relaxing with some coffee before the big adventure. I could not find a flickr group for our city, so I made one. Here!

we have bus passes, an ergo, a plan

Photo by Sarah Gilbert.

Sarah and I are planning to do the sock scavenger hunt tomorrow with no cars, and with at least two boys. We're working on an efficient map/plan, but out of necessity excluding several of the far-off sites that can only be done with access to a vehicle that darts a bit more and lumbers considerably less than those we have access to. Y'know, something that weighs less than 39,000 pounds.

We can only hope the sky will be so blue, and the plastic horses plentiful.

destash garage sale TODAY

Small quantities, oddballs and such, of high end yarns, from the stashes of me and Sarah. Not a ton, but some good stuff for very cheap if you make hats or small projects. At Sarah's house - 4211 SE 39th - and it starts at 10 AM.

all systems normal

So says the MRI. This is wonderful news, just in time for party season, so I can go out and have a great time knowing I'm not dying. I can't tell you how much this means to me, being an Olympic worrier, especially on the topic of disease and dying.

Thank you all for suffering through the MRI preparations with me. It's all for the best! And another great letter has been put in my file from the doctor. This one says I have "no brain abnormalities" but I do have "extensive sinus disease" that needs to be dealt with. I knew that. The pressing, wrenching, pulsating headache each afternoon was my daily reminder, but I was waiting to deal with one illness at a time.

Now I will be completely well! And I'll know, for a brief time with great certainty, that I'm not dying of an aneurysm. I'll feel free for a good long while.

That yarn there is part of my new lease on life. It's Abundant Yarn & Dyeworks sock yarn in the Heather's Baby colorway, and I'm swatching with it for abotanicity. (Some of the people who work at Abundant Yarn will be making this, too, so I'll have some friendly pushing along.) Heather is the owner of the store, and one of the dyers, and she has a beautiful little girl who is Sebastian's friend. Heather and I have become friends also, and it's so nice to go there every week and have such loving people around me. What a sweet store.

And I'll have half a sweater to honor it. Just kidding, maybe I will really finish it.

recycling

Y'know how sometimes you think things are settlted, and are going to be one way? And then you spend the night in the ER with an IV full of Atavan? Exactly! I had four seizures last night between 5 pm and 9 pm, after having had none for over two months. It's even more alarming, somehow, when the medicine has been working and suddenly it doesn't and no one knows why. (The doctor implied that my 3-week-plus cold may have something to do with this but didn't really say so. It would be nice to have an explanation. Yeah, for everything in life, right?)

It was sad because Sebastian and I were having the nicest day. We sat at Tandem and he played with a TON of kids while I knit a square for mason dixon's afghan. (I met several knitting mommies I'd never known before. Nice.) Then we had incredible bus luck, a nice walk home collecting leaves and rocks and berries, and he got into bed and (gasp) took a nap. It was like a fairy tale of a mommy and little boy having a nice morning.

I had time to work on my recycled stuff for the SCRAP holiday bazaar on December 8. Sarah and I got in! It was a juried process to select vendors, and we'd been in last year. As I recall it was a really fun bazaar, but Sarah was pregnant, sick, and couldn't eat any of the sandwiches and treats from pix. This year she'll have Monroe in a sling and I'm sure she'll be eating plenty.

I'm determined to not upset myself and make everything last minute. So here are my first items. Gauntlets. $15? $20? Here's another view. And the front. I also started several hats out of that same sweater, and a pair of pulse warmers. It feels so industrious and pure to get five projects out of one cast-off sweater I found in the bins. It'll feel even better if someone pays me for them at SCRAP so I'll have extra Christmas money. ;-)

Anyhow, I got started on these projects, then Sebastian woke up and we loaded up the buggy to go to the playground. On the way there I found myself lying on the floor of the woods, looking up at pretty trees, with Ellie and Sebastian strapped in and just sort of waiting silently for me. I called Martin and my mom to come meet me at the park, and while walking home I had another seizure, this time on pavement so my head hurts. A third at home in bed, and fourth at the hospital round out my special Tuesday night. I didn't even get to put Sebastian to bed. He was already sleeping when I got home. It made me feel, for the nth time, like an invalid. A mommy who's always in bed or at the hospital or on the floor. I know that's not true, but I hope he doesn't remember me as always sleeping. :(

I guess, overall I am doing a lot better with this than I was a few months ago. But as I feel I'm living with it, it comes back again to do something, like poke me in the ribs and say "Not so fast, lady, I'm still here." Well...so am I.

goings on

Okay, for the people in my neighborhood these may be old news, because I'm tremendously slow with this sort of thing. But:

• Saint Cupcake on SE Belmont? Across from Zupan's? They now sell individual cupcakes (not just the $14 boxes). And they have day old cupcakes for $1.50!
• Powell's on SE Hawthorne, the 'books for cooks' & crafty Powell's, has soak for half price in their clearance area at the back of the store. But not the Aquae flavor. I got the flora one for $8.50 a bottle. Woohoo. Goodbye smelly dirty sweaters.

Also, Friday 10:30 playgroup at Abundant Yarn gets more and more fun. Sebastian is totally in love with Rodger. Starting on Thursday he starts to talk about how we'll take two buses and then Rodger will be there. And Rodger will give him pink milk. And it's all true.

Also, I'm on my second front of the drops cardigan. (I took a break to make a calorimetry for cold running ears and to start a Noro scarf no less than 5 times and still I'm going to rip it again.) I'm knitting the cardigan on size 8 needles that Mama Urchin sent me as a gift (thank you, lady!). I love using gift needles. It sounds cloying, but it really does make the knitting more fun somehow.

When I finished the first half of the cardi, shown up there, I laid it out for this picture and Sebastian said, "Mommy knitted a driveway!"

up to my eyes

In everything, and yet I did, yes, cast on for the Drops Cardigan 103-1. It seemed like such an innocent and good thing to do. I'm using this Debbie Bliss Donegal Aran Tweed in black. It's a Halloweeny yarn, and I'm using size 8 needles and doing the smaller gauge of the two offered in the pattern.

It's cold fall now. Wettish to wet, and really chilly. It's time for such a sweater, a dark and warm thing. Today Martin and I went downtown to Spella, a little coffee cart in the midst of corporate lunch hubub, and ordered poured machiattos. The Spella man is careful making his espresso, and he serves the drinks in ceramic cups. We stood with our tiny drinks and shivered, under some graffiti that said BONUS. It was so nice to have a break together, even a tiny huddled one. As usual we are up to here in work, child, laundry, yard intentions, unfinished quilts, unfunded car dreams.

And now I add another project. But hey, I like it. And speaking of my eyes, as my late Nanny would say I'm going to "rune" them by knitting with black.

the boots that shall not be removed

This month Portland is saying goodbye to one of our many wonderful and varied yarn shops. We have oh, about 20, and seriously each one is so different. A few of them are sweet little gems, others are supermarkets when that's just what you need.

Lint has always been relatively far from my neighborhood--a 20-minute drive, which, with so many yarn shops in town was considered a special trip. Deeply colorful, with some luxury yarns that were not sold nearer to me.  A great sock yarn collection, and lots of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride in all weights. I took photos there for my first article in knitty. I sat on the floor with the owner and talked about how people buy yarn, and how they follow patterns, when I was working on designing for our book.

Lint is closing, and today their clear-out sale begins. So in the bittersweet way we say goodbye to yarn shops--by gleefully ransacking them and whipping out our credit cards when it's really too late to help but is still helpful so they don't have to take all that yarn home or something--it's time to bid Lint farewell. See you there?

onto something

Something else from Fitted Knits - the Two Toned Shrug. It's going lightning fast and it's soft and lovely. I'm knitting mine in Malabrigo worsted in Pearl, and I'm thinking about Glazed Carrot for the edging. I love the combination, I'm just wondering if I'll want to wear it when I finish it, or if it will be too cool for me to pull off. Maybe I should stick with some other colors I have? Simply taube. Black forest. Marron oscuro. But the carrot is so vibrant and thick.

We had fun birthdays here, mine as well as Sebatian's. I got to go to the farmers' market with my whole family and then out to dinner with girlfriends for delicious buttery mushrooms, goat cheese laden beet salad, red velvet cake, and watermelon sorbet with cracked pepper and cloves.

I'm getting fully into running training, and I'm timing myself running from my house to the top of Mt. Tabor and touching the statue. I'm up to 26 minutes 19 seconds, but I'd love to get to 20 minutes flat.

I have 4 donors for the Run for Congo Women - thank you thank you thank you! It is a hard thing to write and think about, and no doubt hard to be faced with on a blog that you come to for knitting. It's been probably my least popular blog entry ever, as in very little feedback either way. I  appreciate those of you who commented and donated.

And in fact, I should make that 5 donors, because I asked Harrison down the street who is about 6 years old and whom we've sponsored for Run for the Arts before.  I asked him for $2 and after his head about exploding at the thought of him sponsoring me he said yes to the 2 bucks and then added "Maybe I'll do more." Like, We'll just wait and see  how you do, Missy. Hilarious.

making hay

When the sun shines in February in Portland, you have to stop what you're doing and take your craft pictures. And so I did, and by the time I was loading them into flickr it was pouring rain again. I'm so glad I got out there for just a minute!

I've been ruminating about a crochet ripple afghan for months. Then some people around the world started making some that got me even more bothered by the idea. I started realizing it was a physical yearning, to make those motions with my hands that I had not made for probably 25 years or more, realizing that I would just automatically remember how.

The other day I hung out with Alicia for a couple hours, and I think just being near her a spark was passed along. Suddenly the urge to start my blanket (even before I had finished my deadline knitting) was too great to resist.

The details of my blanket - yarn, hook, etc - are here. You should make one! It feels good.

the nicest people

Abundant Yarn & Dyeworks people are the nicest people. Yesterday I was completely fried. It was one of those days where I woke up already exhausted and there was no coffee in the house. By 10 am I was snapping at the family as I hauled their *sses to various locations before I could be alone and work. Then I got to Abundant Yarn in Sellwood and stuck my feet in the hot foot spa and sipped tea from the cafe. Ahhhhhh.

It made me so relaxed, I nearly fell asleep at my computer (yarn, free wifi that works, cafe with good food and Stumptown coffee, and a free foot spa and handy towels, yes, all in the same store).

After hours of slogging, like 5 or 6, I finally realized I was getting next to nothing written so I gathered up my junk and virtually crawled in a tired daze to my car. Drove all the way home (about 20 minutes). Grabbed my stuff to take in the house. Hmmm, my backpack seems so light... Oh look, my computer isn't in there...Oh, it's on the table at the cafe.

Abundant Yarn people are such that I had not one second of panic. Not at all. I called and said duh etc., and they put my laptop behind the counter. I'm back here today working. They are so kind. And today - while a double ponytail* and sweats kind of day - is a lot better than yesterday workwise.

* Any of you who were pre-teens in the '8os, did you ever wear the vertical double ponytails? One above the other in the back? Was that just New Jersey?

no one's going anywhere

In Portland today. (Well, except maybe this guy.)

The news of snow is going nonstop on the big flatscreen TV at our neighborhood coffee shop, and I'm holed up here at the bar. I got stuck here partway to work this morning and I'm still here now at 2 pm. An hour into my normally-30-minute commute, having found myself no further than 8 blocks from my house, I stopped and ordered hot chocolate and turned on my computer and whipped out a scarf project. There are soooooooo many people here today at Cooper's Coffee. Lovely cabled hats and woolly scarves and arm warmers as far as the eye can see.

Today is a great day to knit a square, no?

Just note, please, that I've changed the size specs over at knitalong.net.

oh dear

We're up to our noses in auction event preparations. Here's a phone pic of my mom doing auction duty on her very first day in Portland.

We went to the farmers market and the nice man at Kenyon Farm gave us all these dried berries, sunflowers, and hydrangea(s?) for 10 bucks and said we could bring his bucket back next week. I also bought some of these gorgeous soaps for the auction, from the most zen man who has no computer and no debts and just grows his herbs and makes soaps.

I've been knitting, klaralund and a lot of swatches for the book. Over the next two weeks I'm going to be looking for knitters who want to knit along on book projects. Anyone interested in knitting for a book?

last bits of summer

Even though people around town have been blogging about a change, I just wasn't ready for it.

But this weekend I camped at the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival and had the most blissful day in the sun just knitting and looking at yarn and being with my people.

When I got home Martin & I cleared weeds from our garden and pulled up this year's lupines. I picked Sebastian up from babysitting and hugged him hard. We ate outside wearing sweaters. And somehow, I'm ready now. Ready for colder weather, rain pattering on my windowsills, fires in the fireplace, hot chocolate after dinner, my mom arriving to live here in Oregon in a few weeks, and all the fun things we'll do together, getting pumpkins and maybe even making jam, celebrating Halloween, and holing up in my new craft room to design a lot of patterns for our book.

Oh, and joining too many things. This week I joined Zimmermania. It kicked off yesterday while I was sitting around photographing sheep and ogling the new Blue Moon colorways for fall. So I'm already behind, but excited. What Zimmerman creation will it be for me? Something cozy. After all, I no longer have "fall refusal."

calling all aprons

UPDATE:
We are at 17% 30% of the needed aprons. We would love several more people to pledge to make them, so please let me know if you're willing and/or post on your blog about the apron drive. Thank you so much to Julia, Mariko, Mandy, Sarah, Bekka, Heather, Jamie, and Natalie for signing up already.

Today Binx & I took a fun trip to Fabric Depot (but without the usual stop at Burgerville on the way home. We were too tired for Burgerville, if you can believe that).

Usually it's a wander through the outdoor sale, and a sweep of the various 50% off areas of the store (manager's specials, remnants, clearance). But today we were on a mission to get stuff for aprons, and a pattern to study to see how the heck Amy Butler makes them fall so nicely.

You see, I'm seeking aprons. I need about 40 of them. I'm co-chairing the fundraising auction for Cafe au Play on November 4, and I had this big brainstorm when I was in the shower that all the volunteers should wear jeans and white shirts and handmade cafe aprons, and then they could wear signs that say "Bid on my apron" and we could make money off the aprons. Etc.

As Sarah said about some brilliant idea of hers the other day, "It usually starts when I get out of the shower and email somebody." And that's just how it went down for me and the aprons.

Now I need to make - and beg you dear readers to make - 30 to 40 cafe aprons (waist-down, any kind of fabrics) by November 4. Mariko has already agreed to make one, and to invite some friends of hers who are really excellent crafters to also help.

Is anyone else feeling charitable and apronish today?

happy birthday, sarah super mama

Monday is Sarah's birthday (seen here in her hot mama leather pants with three babies crowded round). She wrote recently about all her various causes this month, and I wanted to draw your attention to one of them. From today until September 15th, we're launching a little mini-campaign to raise funds for Cafe au Play - in honor of Sarah's birthday.

If you can spare a few dollars, or $50, or $100 we'll have Cafe au Play up, running, and serving delicious coffee to parents and grandparents - and steamers and healthy food to children - perhaps even before the season of fleece and rain boots is past. We must raise $70,000 to make it happen, and we are at about $5,100 right now.

If you want to make a tax deductible donation in honor of Sarah's birthday, just click the button below. And if you'd like to put the button on your blog or website please leave a comment and I'll send the code to you.

Yay for us bloggers! We can change the world, right? Oh, and make cute pants. I'll post some pictures of some very cute pants next time.

for portlanders with too much baby & kid gear

This Saturday, Cafe au Play (Portland's up-and-coming nonprofit family and community coffee house and playspace) is having a fundraiser swap meet. You can bring anything baby or kid related stuff you want to get rid of, and you pay a set fee to get in and take as much as you can carry of other people's crap delightful, gently used treasures. This is a totally volunteer run effort and 100% of your entry fee supports Cafe au Play.

There will also be homebaked treats for those who dare enter the baby/kid swap. I know that Sarah, board member Lisa, and I are all making some yummy things.

Rather than repeat all the details, I'll point you here if you want more.

[Photo by Sarah Gilbert. She takes all the really good ones you see me borrow for this here blog.]