Full service LYS

Today I had some time to myself so it was time to hustle by my favorite local yarn store, Knot Just Knits.  I'm looking to refashion a denim skirt and halter with a pretty funky afghan pattern. I forgot one item, and here Elizabeth is, delivering it to me at a swim meet in downtown Chicago....that's a great shopping experience!!!! Check it out, downtown Oak Park!!!

Take that, Mama!

This is what i got in response for asking the one to get a shovel out on friday afternoon.

Can I go ahead of you, ma? I'm too fast!

Glorious winter continues! Finally! A storm  that keeps us under the covers for sufficient days on end! This is what we truly need in order to get ready for everything that comes next.  So how do we celebrate at the land of un-encumbered-ness? Well, as I've alluded, we're now living with an adolescent, so the gloves are off.  Whatever tricks Peter and I had devised up until now to get our kids to behave the way we see fit, well, those tricks are coming around in full circle.  We have a glimpse of what we're looking at for the next quite a few years, and it might be rough going.  So how do we deal with this stress and still remain unencumbered?  Laugh out loud, talk, and go skiing!!!! Yes dog!!! Look at little one on the skis! We're ready for the next phase, no problem.

Get this girl some outdoor sports, hills, and fun!!!!

Happy.

 A girl after my very own heart. I went to pick her up after two hours on the sledding hill (yes, we have a hill here in OP), and as soon as we got home, there was a voice mail waiting from another friend. Does she want to go the the sledding hill (again?). Yes...of course!!!! She ate a plate full of rice fried with egg and mushroom, a nice looking orange, and poof!  Swept away for more fun outdoors (not to mention the tough two hour pool workout this morning).
I've always said, "This kid shouldn't have ever left Vermont."..but here she is. The only reason I bothered to bring the camera was that sinking feeling that there are only so many more times that she's going to go to the sledding hill, say, as a kid.  After all, with this year's growth spurt she barely fits the snowboarding pants we bought last year, and she's very nearly my height.  Where is the time going?

Obviously, it's a human-built hill, but it's steep and icy, all
that's necessary.

Maybe that's why I'm so nostalgic for Vermont these days.  Those first three years were truly magical, and we had so much time ahead of us, so we thought.  I have to be careful what I say around here about LBA (Life Before Ashby).  Ashby , ever the articulator of human emotions and relationships, reminds me that it is hurtful for her to hear about how idyllic it was when we lived in our ranch house in Burlington and biked with the burley and etc...so...shh... here are a few shots of my "baby", who, for the moment, doesn't mind yet that I photograph her.

Church Street, Burlington (no cars!!!!!)

Shelburne Triathlon 2002

Did we survive the holidays?

OK, it's not as if I spent all of the holiday season crocheting, but the time away from usual routine does allow a gal to complete some long standing projects.  Shawl #2, finished and blocked this morning.  Something about this shawl, I must admit, says: "beware of seriously skilled hooker".  Take, for instance, the lace work, the fine yarn (that would be LACE weight, or otherwise known as ZERO) the fastidious adherence to pattern, and, well, the seriousness of it all.  In fact, I threw the thing on today and had to take off all the regular clothes that I wear (oversized flannel shirt, thick brown crochet skirt, scarf, and hat.  So what does this mean?

Photo credit: Peter

Yes...it needs cropping, but look at our fantastic new shelf!!!

I'm trying to take it all in stride, lest I veer down the "wrong" crochet path.  Take, for instance, the very magazine that I found this pattern in.  Sometimes I look at the photos of yarn, patterns, models, the whole nine yards, and I feel the consumptive pull that is the very thing that I was trying to get away from when I resumed my yarn work.  Well. Duh.  Just like triathlon, cooking, parenting, music appreciation, house-improving, and every single other thing that touches our modern lives, there's somebody out there better, faster, more beautiful, more clever, and probably posing on a mountainside with a long flowing head of not gray hair with a really nice looking frock that could be modeled in the sundance catalog or garnet hill or wherever we want to be when we grow up and finish the work of accumulating the things that we think we want.  

This is more like it....I am learning that we're supposed to take pictures of handwork that enable the viewer to actually see the product.

So I'll go ahead and say it: it's January 2nd at it's time to assess or look forward or whatever it is we want to do when we turn the page.  I want to make every kind of crochet that ever existed. I don't want to be the best, and I don't even want to do one sort of crochet really well, but the other day when I read about crochet socks from Tajikstan, I thought to myself: "I have to make me one of those socks!".  So that's it, pretty simple. It's that simple desire, like reading all of Cormac or Joyce Carol Oates or like working one's way all the way through Prime Suspect or The Wire or whatever show ever mattered to us.  So, in the coming years, I can expect to keep on plowing through projects, and try not to get too bogged down in that afghan that can cover soldier field (remember the sweater that ate Oakland?), but we'll get there....or at least die trying.

The World's Largest Granny Square, Part 3

Well, loyal follower, I've promised at least twice that I am trying to crochet the largest granny square.  Here's the update.  I haven't given the subject much thought lately, what with holidays, and so forth, but a great article appeared in the New Yorker a few weeks ago which profiles Ashrita Furman, one of the greatest world record holders in a number of categories.  The article got me thinking about my granny square, which is currently sitting on a sofa in Ellison Bay, Wisconsin.  So I decided to do a bit more serious investigation on the topic, only to find that there is no World's Largest Granny Square, most likely because when we are seeking something that is the largest in it's category we must be able to clearly define the category.  Granny Square, unfortunately, is not an entirely clear category given to the whims of the craftsperson and the designer and even the yarn.  There is, however, a record held by an American woman, Daphne O'Connor, which is the record for the largest crochet blanket.  When I read about the object, I must admit that my interest was piqued, but only kinda-sorta.  This woman, (who also holds a record the largest quilt), spent the better part of Two Years working on this ginormous object, measuring 24.68 by 11.58 meters (that's 81 feet long, friends).  While I love the idea, given the stack of multiple yarn art projects I've got sitting around at any one time, this one most likely won't happen...there are just too many great little ideas for me to focus on one giant task.  One thing that I learned from the New Yorker article, which doesn't really surprise me, is that there are very few world records that don't involve some incredible training and/or endurance to complete.  You aren't just gonna sit down on the beach one summer and crochet the biggest darn blanket, but heck, a gal can dream, huh?

I just love this picture!!!! Granny square, granny square!!! Me & Dad.

Couldn't I ride this while crocheting a chain?

So there you have it. Will I add on to my beloved Granny Square next summer on a cool evening?  Probably not. But the topic has led to other slightly absurd dreams.  I did find a great link that led me to a description of multiple crochet-related records.

One that is particularly interesting is the "crochet while marathoning" record.  Susie Hewer holds this record, set in 2010 in the London Marathon.  What about Crochet while doing an Ironman?  Has anyone attempted to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 and then do a marathon while crocheting?  NOW we're talking, huh?  I better start training, ha ha!


And so it goes...just a few more days before the 2012 season starts and I start holding myself to ridiculous training schedules and demands. For now, it's one workout a day and dreams of silliness and fun.  So, who knows?  One day I'm gonna wake up and just keep being silly, after all, life is too short and there are some great projects waiting for me to start!

Yokohama Mama Shawl

I Finally took a sick day yesterday, after running a fever all night Tuesday.  It was a giant relief to be able to stay on the couch all day. In fact, I was able to finish one of the multitudes of yarn projects that I am working on.  Not a minute too soon for holiday snug wear, it's the Yokohama Mama crochet shawl designed by Doris Chan.  It's based on a patterned that Doris'  mother used to crochet a spectacular doily for her post-war trousseau.

Doris wrote, in Piecework, My/June 2011:
...Everyone knows about Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the war, but few remember the Great Yokohama Air Raid that occurred a few months before. On May 29, 1945, American B-29s firebombed Yokohama and in just over an hour killed an estimated 8,000 people and destroyed nearly half the city. It was like rain, she (Doris' mother) remembers, like terrible rain that burned everything. Her parents had sent her away from the city before the bombing to stay with Older Sister and her husband, to shelter underground at the foot of the mountain. To keep busy during those long weeks, she had learned to crochet by watching and listening to Older Sister.  ....She's copied the lacy table doily in her hands from pictures in one of Older sister's books. She can't know that half a century later this doily, the only piece of her crochet that survives, will be cherished lovingly by the baby she expecting (Doris).

Doris goes on to say that her mother married a US serviceman who, like many other US servicemen was sent to Japan after the end of the war.  She soon moved to the United States, leaving home and family. 

Here's a link to what Doris said about the original doily in her own blog post: backstory.

Photo courtesy of Ashby

Photo courtesy of Ashby

Photo: Ashby

So my unveiling for the faculty party was just perfect. Cathy, bless her heart, called me Joyce Carol Oates when I walked in with my glasses and big flowy red shawl.  Nan and Ashby were oohing and aching all over the place.  According to Ashby, I need to make her a shawl...probably true, but it's quite medicating for me to be able to create almost exclusively for myself.

Forget shopping!!!!!!

Life is far too short and they already have too much stuff.  Went for a walk in the forest preserve & here, in the trailside museum, which I usually find too depressing, is this gorgeous coyote that I immediately fell in love with. The holidays can be hard, especially for sensitive people like me who need time, home, and quiet. I'm going to visit tomorrow and tomorrow's tomorrow. Take care of yourself, just in case you need that little bit extra.