Unencumbered Woman breathes life into 2015

  Alas, the weight of it all brings the most active of us down to our knees.  Although I don't try to wash this blog with upbeat truisms, I do try to utilize my own adventurous spirit in designing tales about working at the process of making life a bit lighter in it's experience (ok, blah blah blah).  So I  try to take wacky times, sometimes awesome times, and inspired creations, and document as time blasts forward.

So what happens when the Unencumbered Woman literally takes to bed and plays sick for a month?  Although I've been tempted, blogging about my bedroom is almost (OK, not really) but almost off limits.  How many photos of myself doing crosswords in my PJ's can the world sustain, let alone this quiet little blog of liberation and freedom.  So, I put the brainstorms on the back burner and stuck to some of the domestic arts for which I have achieved little to modest amounts of notoriety for.  

Getting back in the saddle must require some application of the basic principles of the site, and so, I offer this, a study in the adventures and dreams that we find in our own comfortable home, while nursing illness, fear of cold and ice, and the inertia and ineptitude that only the greyest of Chicagoland winters can deliver.

James Garner in Rockford Files

So let us begin at the very beginning.  The very beginning, oh children of the 1970's, is Jim Rockford  (James Garner 1928-2014).  I spent so many weekends as a child stuck in a mobile home in the misty rainforest of the Oregon Coast.  We had one or two channels at our weekend getaway, and I always had some nifty craft or jigsaw puzzle to pore over.  Rockford was one of the higher quality standards that you could find on TV ca. 1980.

Rockford's home/office

And what's an Unencumbered care for?  It's just amazing, to think how far we've come in the intervening years.  Here's the lead character, always playing fair, never carrying a gun, tolerating pushy clients, living in a quiet trailer, parked right on the shore of the Pacific in Southern CA.  Look at how ratty the trailer is!  This, of course, was a symbol of his liberation.  The guy had served time, and now was in companionship, mainly, with his father, eats hotdogs at a stand by the water, and quietly pursues a life as a self-employed PI, "two hundred a day, plus expenses."

 For those of us who dare, or try to experiment with alternate life paths, trying to balance, family, health, values, interests, sleep and circumstances, Rockford's story is all too compelling.  To quote Sarah Silverman, "How do you even make money??"(on In Bed with Joan, episode 1).  The more I think about this question, the more often the response is, "live cheap."  What's cheaper than Rockford's setup? I'm also obsessed with all of the quickly LA ladies he works along side and with as clients.

defense lawyer friend, Beth, played by Gretchen Corbett

 It's easy to find sexism in this dated show, but looking at the "lady lawyer" "lady hippy" "rich lady murderess/theif" the range of characters that we were exposed to seems deep in a fashion that is often missing in TV programming today.  One gal has the full on crochet poncho and fringe boots.
And so, in a roundabout fashion I tell a tale of January 2015 as sitting watching marathons of Netflix programming while crafting and plotting creations (and a hefty dose of NYT Crossword Puzzle).  And, fellow athletes, I've discovered, happily, that, as long as you have an obsessive activity, exercise is NOT absolutely necessary to fulfill obsessive desires.  Bonus?  Skip the workout, and you get more crafting done!!!!!

Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Uhura

Today we discuss the beloved Uhura Dress, #2.  Hot off the hook and I'm thrilled with the results.  It's one of the more difficult pieces I've worked, following the pattern designed by Crochet Goddess Doris Chan, but as this is the second time I attempted the piece, it was a little more free-flowing.  I skimped on the yarn, so ended up with a product a lot closer to the length of Nichelle Nichol's original Star Trek dress.

100% Bamboo Yarn, Southwest Trading Co.

So, in the name of indoor activities and adventures to be had while nursing illness and down-times. We celebrate with a photo shoot in teen-bedroom.  Willing teen photographer is a bonus, so, here we go!

These are the eyes of an adoring mother. No less than thirty minutes before a Driving Lesson(!)

See, kids!!! This is fun!!!! We have fun, even in January, we make things and do things!

We're sort of lucky that the teen allowed us into her room for the photo shoot, and it's not altogether obvious that we were soon rushed out.  But that's life with a teen.  You take whatever little bit you get, whenever you can.  It's nothing like those younger years when they hang on your every word and action.  But this, friend, is the cycle of life and I'm preparing myself for the inevitable.  In this much, I'm sure that spending more time around the home is a good thing.  With college and beyond around the corner, if there was ever a time I wanted to see my kids at breakfast and dinner it is now.

If you must know, this quiver stitch is a magnificent creation requiring great concentration.

Proud Crochet Goddess

Make Something Every Day.

That's my current motto.  No matter how crummy things feel, start or finish some project that unites sense of self with reality.  Some project that captures an energy whatever that energy is.  In my case, I'm in the house, again, in what's become a perfectly rational refuge.  The season is brilliant and sunny, the news is raining down on us, and here I am, waffling between angst and whimsy.

Josey Baker goodness.

In answer to angst, I'm baking bread.  Working my way through Josey Baker's ridiculously straightforward bread making book.  I wanted to hate him, being all young and friendly-n-all, but he's absolutely spot-on with instructions, great photos, great bread.  I'm a convert.







And then on to this.  I have been avoiding completion of the so-called, "Thickly Invented Cool Season Skirt" for a few reasons.  First, I started it last Spring when I was thinking about doing more on-demand crochet and wanted a super fast work-up skirt to make for other folks.  Since then, I've been doing too much of my own thing and not really worrying about who might want to buy my crochet…after all, I need to dress myself, first!  Second, it's been warm for, well, forever, and there's no need to think about winter when it's not here (no-brainer--this is why we crochet rather than knit….More Fun!).  Third, my mind has been occupied by these massive projects that took over hooking time (afghan? please).

2014-11-07 10.01.48 from karen steward-nolan on Vimeo.

But earlier this week, we found a nip in the air and I started eyeing the full-length down coats at Macy's…hmmm, that could be fun (and expensive)….and then I remembered, just put a chunky wool number on my behind and stick to the cast-off-indestructible Patagonia waist-coat that will last,

practically, forever.  And so I resumed work on this Chartreuse, Coral, Grey skirt that, upon finishing, will do me good.

And not a minute too early for either cool weather, or a roll around the kitchen on my old roller-skates, inspired by friend and neighbor, Jenny, who wants to check out the local Roller Rink.  OK, then, this gal is going to work on some of her old moves….

It would probably not surprise many dear readers that The Unencumbered Woman was quite the roller gal in her day (late eighties).  In fact, when in the San Francisco area, for quite some time, the best thing that somebody could do on a Sunday Morning in Golden Gate Park was grab some quad skates, loosen the trucks waaaay up, and dance with the whole crowd, in a cordoned off, with giant stereos playing, smiles, dancing, fun in the sun.  What memories.  In fact, this is a little what the scene looks like today, still fun after all these years!

And so we soldier on.  Happy to be inspired by the act of creation, happy to be home, happy to be here with family and friends.  Happy to remember exciting times in other places, and happy to cherish food, beauty, and the good sense to continue thinking, breathing, building, for as long and as hard as we can, because sometimes, we can't…and there are a lot of others, who can't, and whole couldn't.  Forget those who wouldn't, since we can't do much about that.  I love this bread.  And I love this skirt.  I love making something, every day.