a little red hen

Back to my knitting...

RHINEBECK 2006, the sheep and wool event  Every October there's a mass exodus from New York and New Jersey, cars with yarn-specific license plates  ("I'd rather be spinning!") and tour buses filled with excited knitters and crocheters all rumbling upstate.  News flash: I purchased nothing!  This was an exercise in self-discipline, much-needed as my yarn stash  now shares space with Ron's roving.  He bought more.

Just looking at stuff and meeting up with other yarn enthusiasts was the best way to spend a beautiful fall Saturday.   Encountered a blogger known as HABETROT.  Have no idea what that means but love the site, filled with vintage photos--a particularly oddball carte de viste featured today for Halloween.  Where does she find these images?  Once again talked politics with Carolyn Partridge, Vermont State legislator (majority leaderfor Democrats), AND shepherd/spinner under the name, The Good Shepherd.              

Why is this woman smiling?  Things are looking better for Democrats nationally in November!  Ron bought roving from her at Maryland Sheep and Wool last spring. Her light yellow roving--75 wool/10 silk/15 angora--was a color unlike anything we saw that day.   Did we buy enough; I really like it.  Moving Mud was name for crafters of elegant glass buttons and closures.  Also from Vermont; very tempting but have not found a place for two glass buttons purchased in Orgeon two years ago, so....

Of the several sheep and wool events we've attended, this one  has a special place in our fiber history.  At Rhinebeck 2002, Ron contracted the spinning bug.  The under-appreciated Babe's spin wheel came into our home as a consequence.   Invented by Nels Wiberg in the 1990s, it is PVC pipe, married to a wheelchair wheel. Plastic technology meets craft.  Not pretty but it's cheap and a good way to begin.  Questions? You call the amiable Nels himself in Whitewater, Wisconsin.  Company motto:   Function Before Form for Affordability.    

We learned from another knit circle friend that excellent instruction was available from Claudia Krisniski at Countrywool, a fiber shop attached to her house in Hudson, New York.   [Claudia disappointed us by not being a vendor at Rhinebeck this year.  How come?]  Ron would put his Babe's into the car, drive two hours upstate to Hudson, deterred by blizzard once in a while.  My role was documentation.  Essay and photos appeared in "For the Love of Knitting" , a book whose publicity put me in the same paragraph with truly famous knitters and writers like Elizabeth Zimmerman and Jamaica Kincaid.

Speaking of fiber stars, a number of them were signing books at the Morehouse Farm store near Rhinebeck.  Stopped by--tempted by their their Schoolhouse Bus Scarf kit but resisted--I thanked Melanie Falick, once again, for giving a push to my collecting knit red wigglers when she was editor at Interweave Knits in 2000.  Met Betty Christiansen, from Minnesota, another essayist in "For the Love of Knitting," who recently published her own timely book, "Knitting for Peace, Make the World a Better Place One Stitch at at Time."  Would make a good gift, has patterns and links to organizations for charity knitting to meet needs in all corners of the.  Read another blogger's review HERE.

Ron got to show off his first Button Hat (photo by Tina Eis, Medomak Camp Knit Retreat 2006) to admiring crowds.  Positive promotion for men knitting.  I chose my most frivolous knit object--the retro-inspired, Vegan Fox scarf --here's the pattern; go make one!  Mine is gray to match my hair. 

Shall I wear it to The Salon tonight, Halloween eve?  Our topic is "Empowering Ourselves as We Age." 

October 29, 1966

Saturday night, 40 years ago, 137 East 28th Street, New York City.  This was Ron's rent-controlled, one-bedroom apartment, only $112 a month.  A few weeks before, I'd moved in from a $160/month studio, four blocks south.

He was a grad student at New York University.  I was Publicity Director for The Children's Aid Society, had started a Master's in Counseling.  We met at a conference; Ron presented and I asked questions from the audience.  One way to describe our years together.

Friday we met Nick and Leanne, son and daughter-in-law, to look at strollers for their baby, a little girl due in January.  Nick handed us a gorgeous bouquet of flowers from them, suggested dinner at Caliban, a bar and restaurant near where we'd lived in the 60s.  Gone, we reported. 

Googling for notable other events on today's calendar, I found Wonder Woman Day in Portland, Oregon.  That would have been fun: an auction on poster representations of this icon plus chance to have a picture taken with a "gorgeous Lynda Carter as mannequin."  With the three hour time difference, I might be able to alert our daughter Rachel to get her photo snapped.  It's only a few blocks from where she lives and benefits two important places--domestic violence shelters in Portland.

Later in 1966 NOW, the National Organization for Women was organized; this link  celebrates Kathryn F. Clarenbach, first chairwoman.  Wilma Scott Heide, another important and less known member of the original group was famous for her declaration,  "I do not refer to myself as a 'houseife' for the reason that I did not marry a house."    Busy with my own domestic life--leaving New York, having children-- it was not until three years later that I began to think of myself as a feminist--and get into trouble for it!

Looking back, I'm convinced that love plus feminism has made this marriage work.  Reader, he agrees.

Elder Absentee Voting: Could We?

Following up on Tuesday's Elderblogging Phone Con-- whether there's another manipulated election in our future, today's Time Goes By post reminds Elderbloggers to post information on absentee balloting details in their states.

New York City is caught up in a voting machine mess, thanks to the state legislature.  County election commissioners hold the key to decisions and time is short.  The Women's City Club of NY suggests contacting congressional representatives to help New York State save $50 million.  Why?  Unless Congress acts, the state wil have to repay this: the amount it was given to replace lever machines.

Using an absentee ballot  in New York City is an option for those who want to make sure there will be a paper trail of votes cast in the upcoming election.  Absentee ballot applications can be obtained by writing the Board of Elections, calling toll-free 1-866-VOTE-NYC or (212) VOTE-NYC, or by e-mailing your request to vote@boe.nyc.ny.us (please put in the subject line the borough in which you reside).

The application is short, can be mailed but must reach the Board of Elections no later than a week after the election.  If I were going to away from Manhattan on Election Day, say in Brooklyn--out of town for some of us--I'd use this approach.  Registerd voters can download the form HERE in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean.

At Mark Crispin Miller's blog, I first heard about Vermont's voting machine issues.  (Check out his book Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the Last Election...)  Also learned about a program I'd like to see--if I had the connection.  HBO will air a full-length feature film on problems with electronic voting machines on Thursday, November 2nd - just 5 days before the election! This movie focuses on problems with the optical-scan machines used in Vermont... Check out HBO's website, it will show several times, as Hacking Democracy http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/hackingdemocracy.

Though it's too close to November 7, to mobilize Elderbloggers to promote absentee balloting, my latest immodest proposal is that we consider becoming more visible through our blogs through coordinated blog posts on another topic that impacts all Americans.  Universal health care would get my vote. 

Blogging, the Possibilities

Here it is my first half year into blogging and-- on the very same day, October 24--not one, but two blog innovations come into my life.  First Ronni Bennett of TGB gets an idea that elderbloggers could have a large conference call (my description, not hers). 

She arranged it, created the button to paste on our sites (never got around to that), and nudged us to do it!  Many did.  In the hour or so that I was on, the voices came from Paris, California, from someone about to board a plane.  Politics was a big topic.  Would there be problems again with voting machines?  If we use absentee ballots (out of town on Election Day), then there'd be a paper record of your vote.  Hmmm.  Perhaps this is an idea to circulate...more later.

On the phone, I had a chance to talk about the program Adopt an Elder that supports elderly native Americans in northern Arizona and southern Colorado.  This is a group of women and men still weaving traditional rugs but unable to support themselves with this work.  Someone online lives in the area and knew about it.  I wished there had been time to ask more questions but company arrived, and  I had to leave the lively exchanges.

Later I experienced the other great idea that debuted in blogland:  Donna Druchanas' Blog Book Tour.  She has created a beautiful, many-dimensional volume about knitting lace with Quivit, wondrously soft yarn and the Oomingmak knitters of Alaska, who first used it.  The book will make the rounds of 20 knitting blogs from today through November 13.  I've only done a bit of lace knitting, so I expect to see examples of talented lacemakers who share Donna's skill with the challenge of yarnovers in complex permutations.

More to blogging than I'd imagined! 

Other People's Families, Two

Some people have a handle on particular theatre reviewers:  X likes tortured dramas, Y goes for musical revivals.  For me, it's more elusive.  Margo Jefferson, critic-at-large for the New York Times looked at productions in a way that I could depend on.  But no more.  Cureently writing and teaching, she's traveling the country to talk about her recent book on Michael Jackson.  Her refreshing take on culture can be heard in Columbus, Ohio, on November 9.

So who is Rob Kendt who wrote this review in the Times?  Just before we saw our current favorite movie, "51 Birch Street,"  we saw "Southern Comforts," this play about an older couple, 60-plus widowers, who find romance.  Why did Mr. Kendt reveal the ending in his third paragraph ?  Otherwise his assessment was accurate, "...unshowy, affectingly plain-spoken...an economical mix of incident and introspection."

Penny Fuller plays a trim southern woman who has come to visit her daughter in New Jersey.  Helping out the local church, she knocks on Larry Keith's front door.  These two actors have long histories in musical theatre; it was delightful to watch seasoned professionals.  While Ms. Fuller has no spare fat, Mr. Keith is overweight and lumpy.  Would a director cast a woman who looks like him; I don't think so.  He negotiated a challenging bit of business that required going in and out of a window while carrying a huge storm window.  As I watched anxiously--I'd seen Ron do this kind of maneuver before we abandoned Baltimore house for NYC apartment --I decided he must be in better shape than he looks!

Watching this play and the movie 51 Birch Street, I was reminded  how focused American culture is on a particular view of happiness.  Where are the stories of elders comfortable in their singleness?  Yes,  it's wonderful that each of the men found a more satisfying connection late in life than in early marriages.  But what about the widows who had good relationships and are not looking to replicate them.  Or do not choose to do do so?  They, along with never-married older women deserve to have their lives and choices celebrated on stage, in film.  With growing numbers of   women over 50 without partners, there might be an eager audience open to reflections of this reality.

That's what the producers of "Hats! A New Musical for the Rest of Your Life" are aiming for.   If you've not heard of The Red Hat Society, you're moments away from learning more than you may want to know.  The organization,   founded only eight years ago, has 1.5 million women members in 50 states, 30 countries--all over 50.  The other day I met a woman who said she'd tried to join the Society in New York, was told all the local chapters were filled, but she was welcome to begin one herself!  Their goal is to have fun period.  Wearing red  hats is a way to indicate their intention.   

Founder, Sue Ellen Cooper, "Exalted Queen Mother," began the group because many women feel invisible as they age and red hats get the attention they need.  Realizing this was a terrific market to capture, the producers of the musical convinced the Society they'd be respectful, signed Kathie Lee Gifford as one of their songwriters.    The show opened this month in Denver where it received giddy, positive reviews.  Too cute for my taste but it may open the door to other views of women as we age.  One hopes.

Other People's Families, One

Only one odd note rings in 51 Birch Street, the new documentary about a post WWII suburban family.  It's the title.  51 Birch Street does not let you know that this is a film about mom, dad, and the kids.  It could be on any street or road.  The painful couple at its center might be your parents or mine. 

Doug Block, the filmmaker, experienced unexpected and profound change when his mother died suddenly and his father renewed a relationship with a woman he'd known in his earlier work life.  At the start,  Doug was only making a visual record as his father moved out of family home to a new one with his  new wife.

The project became more complex as Doug learned more about his late mother--her discontent, unfufilled creativity.  We see her at various times--early child-raising, 50th anniversary; her husband is a distant, busy partner.  The viewer makes the journey with Doug to a different place at the end of the film from the assumptions we held at the beginnning.   

We were lucky to be there for  the final "talk-back" at the movie 's end.  Doug, his father and second wife graciously--and with great courage--answered questions.  A.O. Scott in his New York Times review , commented, "...it may take more than one viewing to recognize it as a work of art."  When you see it--and it is in general release--I'd like to know your reaction.

[Ceramic vase made by Nick Bloom, our son, in the late 1980s.  One of my favorites.]

More Moments with Visiting Grandkids

Manhattan Play Date  We're friends with Elijah (on the right), same age as our Zach, lives in our building.  Arrangements made, Ron and Naomi had the privilege of entering the playground in our complex--reserved for children accompanied by adults.   

After a bit of circling around each other, wandering off in opposite directions, they connected.  Much like two peas in a pod, these boys were found "reading" train tables, maps, brochures from toys.  The four year old nerds had met.

Zoe, who had lost much weight from a series of colds and flu back in Portland, arrived cured and ready to eat.  This time it is peas which are a lot of fun to squish, throw on the floor.  The oak high chair was purchased and refinished for her mother when we lived in Oberlin, Ohio.   Cheerios were also a favored food--and easier to collect from the floor beneath her.  I liked holding her foot on the way down to picking up.

We were surprised how our apartment accomodated such different child-centered activity.  I cleared a space on my desk for Zach to make pictures.  Within a day or two, he'd retreat to this space, begin to cut, draw. Yarn, masking tape, map, markers--he used whatever I put out.  Now we have our grandson's pictures, created in our own place as decoration on the door into the apartment.Just like lucky people who live in the same town with grandkids.

Their mother, Rachel, and her spouse, Scott, in rare reflective moments amidst the busyness of life with small children.  We did a fair amount of running about in the week they were here. Best, though, was holding them and being together as a family. Even Lulu the cat, unused to children, came out from under the bed and make friends with Zach.   

Momentary Departure for Politics...

Last night we saw the film, "Wrestling with Angels," just two days before it leaves NYC.  It is entirely about three years, 2001-04 in the life of the playwright, artist/activist Tony Kushner.  We see his work and his person as inspirational, profoundly moving, and funny.  The film's publicity sums it up, "... from his childhood home in Louisiana to his development as a writer, politically active gay man...a force for a more literate and compassionate universe."

He and I,  if one can be so bold, share a concern about the survival of the earth through doing something about it.  Kushner's tikkun olam spirit toward "repairing the world" was shaped by a more Jewish-identified family than mine.  My father and mother embodied the social justice focus typical of 1920s and 30s Jewish leftists but lacked the spirituality of religious observance and personal humanity of Kushner's parents.

In the film you can join him as he travels from his home in NYC during the 2004 election and risks arrest in Florida while helping people register to vote.  You're a guest at his marriage ceremony, with female rabbi, to the writer, Mark Harris.  Shiver in the cold of wintertime Central Park for the shooting of the teleplay of "Angels in America."  And see his 75 year old father, musician and businessman, who has come to terms gracefully with the unexpected:  a gay son.

For illustration of this post, I chose a kind of homage to Tony Kushner--a condom amulet titled "The Weekender."  The knitted sweater remnant was a gift from another talented artist, Teva Durham.  When I began this work to raise the consciousness of women over 50 about HIV, Teva had just completed her beautiful knit book, Loop-d-Loop.  In the pile of leftovers from the free-spirit styles for the book was this sweater cuff.  Perfect for wrist wear--holder of condoms, lubricant.  I like to think that Kushner would appreciate my urge to get your attention about something very important in this quirky way.

Here, by the way, is a good piece about "Wrestling with Angels" from the New York Times as the film opened; this talks about what was not in the film.  Others have commented, and I agree, that it would have benefitted from more on the bumps in the life of this extraordinary 50 year old.  Opens November in Boston.  Check out this screening schedule for other venues..west coast bloggers, Saz Secrets and Busha Full of Grace will find it Berkeley and San Francisco in December.

Distance Grandparenting Up Close

This was a first for our grandchildren who live in Portland, Oregon:  New York City.  The place where grandma and grandpa live...very far away.  We provided the best weather possible, mostly sunny and temperate.  Especially perfect for a visit to the Central Park Zoo .  Meet Zoe, one years old, lunchtime.

Climbing the rocks--Manhattan schist, the boulderlike, hard rock the City sits on--was the best for her brother, Zach, four-plus.  "He can do that ?" I worried.  "Of course!" Rachel, his mother, answered (that's her arm at the left). Like my daughter was as a child, Zach is fearless around outdoor challenges.  Rachel and her husband, Scott, chose Portland as a place to live for the skiing, mountain-climbing lifestyle it's known for. 

We saw many, many animals, sea lion feeding--awesome as they pose, dive in the water, listen to trainers--birds, no pictures, sorry.

We met up with Nick, our son who lives in the City, at the glass box on Fifth Ave, the Apple showroom (in the background when you click on the picture).  He was taking the Portland family off to his home in Kew Gardens.  Zach had a chance to indulge his train enthusiasm--subway ride to Queens, then dinner next to the Kew Gardens LIRR, Long Island Railroad, train station.

And doing art with his aunt Leanne.  We are all in awe of her expert navigation of New York subways after only three years riding them.    Here she's at our place the day the group arrived reading up on activities for children in the City.

More to come of our glorious week, overdosing on grandparenthood...

Quite A Week in Gotham

Last Sunday, a letter I wrote to the New York 'Times appeared in the  "City" section.  Totally local, it does not travel outside of New York.  This was my political moment:  I objected to a story the week before about young college alumni being encouraged to do competitive drinking as a fundraiser supporting school sports in Harlem.

I live in Harlem.  Our needs would be better served if these privileged college graduates would stay sober and tutor our children so they might have a chance to attend college too.

Tuesday, a haircut.  Wednesday, tour companion to Claude Covo-Farci of Blogging in Paris.    Earlier in the day a message arrived here from a knitter in Brussels (!) who had seen this photo of me on   Sistah Craft.  Sahara Briscoe, when I admired the cotton shell she had designed for her first commercial pattern, had asked if I'd model it.

Me?  Model?  Oh sure..took me back to a fantasy I had in my twenties, out of work, and looking for a job in New York.  A friend taught me "the walk," which I executed boldly at a couple of coat modeling companies.  But I was clearly out of my league--and not flat-chested enough.   With Sahara's soothing reassurance and the Bryant Park trees and plants in the background, it was a breeze.  No ordinary photo shoot, because my poses will be printed on the pattern for the knit shell.  It will be, in Sahara's words, "democratically sized."

Tonight the week's super highlight.  Our daughter,  son-in-law,two grandchildren fly in from Portland, Oregon.  A first visit to NYC for Zoe and Zach.  At four, he's looking forward to our "...trains, Grandma..."  Just in time to try on, we've just blocked Ron's first knitted garment beyond a hat--a vest from his own spun wool for Zach.   Quite accomplished work for a newbie knitter.  He's also joined the KIP ranks-- Knitting in Public!  And it's only Saturday afternoon....