a little red hen

She Turns 40...

Rachel, Oberlin, Ohio, 1968... today's her 40th birthday.

Ron and I send a long distance toast to her in Portland, Oregon. We are very proud of our first child who survived many family adventures in her early years including the arrival of a little brother before she was two.

Energetic, athletic, competitive, and loving, she has put it all together.  Rachel continues the family traditions.  She asks hard questions.  Her commitment to social justice flows through her personal and business life.

For a special present, besides a contribution to a cause she supports, we thought to send her and husband to a fancy hotel for a weekend alone.  Turned out, we learned from her spouse, she'd rather go camping-- and take the two kids.

Here's to you, Rachel, our feminist daughter, always true to yourself. 

Hats Off to Women's History Month

March, once again, is Women's History Month.  The link goes to the "official" place.  Mine is personal and the personal is always political.  Ron Bloom, spinning spouse, and I stayed up a bit too late Tuesday night to watch Hillary Clinton make another unexpected return from what many thought might be defeat.  He knits a hat from his spun yarn, or spins.

What kicks off latelife creativity in men?  Observing women is my modest theory.  He thinks, "She seems to do this so easily.  Is there something here for me, something more in tune with things from an earlier life, when I tinkered with machines?"  The wheel.  He began to spin.

Enjoyed that till woman suggests he needs an end product:  using the wool he has spun.  Here was the creative struggle:  learning to knit.  After he'd tried, stopped, something clicked.  Made a scarf and hat for his grandson.  We went to a Maine knitting retreat and he fell under the spell of Bill Huntington of Hope Spinnery.  And Bill's "Button Hat" which he's adapted to his own yarn, topped with vintage buttons from my own obsessive collecting in Baltimore.  Lately he mixes in an ounce or two of yarn from my stash.  The beat goes on.

Always documenting, I try to take photos as he gives them away.  This is our neighbor, Lee; the two of them are co-chairs of our apartment building.

Marian, clay artist who runs the pottery studio here, lives in another of the six buildings at Morningside Gardens.

Mike McMahon, General Manager, of the Gardens who is in awe of Ron's knitting--as one should be!

Pearl Chin of Knitty City,** like Marian, was asked to choose between two of his most recent permutations on the original.

When we traveled to Portland, Oregon last December, Ron carried HATS for friends there--Lee, Olivia, Carl, hat-maker with closed eyes, and Moira.

With this group, we had conversation that added to my  thoughts about a woman running for President.  But that's another post.  Hats off to my spouse of 42 years, a guy comfortable knitting in public.  Here's to the spirit of Mary Wollstonecraft who believed in living one's theories..

[Check out "This Opportunity Has Been Brought to You by Feminism" by Marie Wilson at the Huffington Post.]

**Sunday, March 22, "Knit a Hat with Ron," new class at Knitty City.

You Got a Problem with CONDOMS?

Rejection.  Not good with it.    

Rejected... as a winner in PDX.

Rejected as an "original" knitter in a One-Skein Knit Contest.

The envelope came in the mail today from Portland, Oregon's Yarn Garden.  Not that I expected to win first prize--or second.  Maybe a "Thanks for the thought" consolation greeting.

But nothing?  And they enclosed everything in my return envelope--

OSU (Oregon State University) amulet, carefully knit in school's colors,

New York City's 2007 condom (good through 2011),

Female condom (you don't see these every day),

How-to instructions (see above), and

#15 of my handmade, bright yellow zine (hey, pass it along to a local woman--with the condoms).

No note.  Not even a printed form, "We had so many entries..."

How about a message of sisterhood in the struggle for Safe Sex.  Nada.  You think they're telling me something: SAFE SEX not appropriate for knit competition?

Guess I'll have to tell my grandson that Grandma is too edgy for the yarn store in his neighborhood-- and I pull my hood up when we walk by.  Tell my knitting buddies at www.KnitaCondomAmulet.com.  And Pearl Chin at KnittKnitty City.

And I'll have to go public in the Knit/Crochet a Condom Amulet group on RAVELRY, the 6,000 member online group.  (By the time you read this probably up to 7,000.) 

[Enlarge the amulet image to read the pattern.  I'll be posting on Ravelry soon.  If your're a member, find me there as aLittleRedHen.]

Knitting Grandparents, Here & There

This sweater, just finished and sent off to our 5 year old grandson in Portland, could be described as a SDS...that's shaggy-dog sweater.   That would mean one with a very long story.

Since Zach, the recipient, is sensitive to wool, the challenge was finding a fiber that would have body and be "...soft, Grandma."  First I asked his mother to buy something that seemed right for him at Yarn Garden near her home in Portland.  Since she is not a fiber person, that purchase had to be exchanged on our next trip there.   But I went to work too quickly-- the size was too small.  Ripped, began again.

Yarn is GOA from GGH (Germany), 50 % cotton, 50% wool.  Very nice feel.  My only innovation, twisted rib at bottom and cuffs.  Very useful input from Maxine and Betty at Knitty City rescued me from a what was touted as a basic pattern in "The Pattern Companion Knitting." Guess that was why it was on sale at a non-knitting store. 

Ron, the other knitter here, was asked for one of his wool hats while we were in Portland last month.  Zach was not sure if that would work work for him until he learned they're partially lined to eliminate scrachiness.  "The whole thing, Grandpa," he advised.  Even the tiny space at the very top was lined.

Produced everyone's favorite photo of the two of them in Ron-made hats.  Wonderful to look at as we think about our far-away grandchildren on Valentine's Day.

Grandson Packs His Bag & A Little Yarn

Before our recent trip to Portland, Zach, our 5 year-old grandson, had talked about staying overnight with us.  Would it happen?  Here he is, bag packed by himself, shopping bag filled with crayons.

The first visit was on a weekend; the second, a school day.  We delivered him to kindergarten--with the 30 other kids.  Sunnyside, such a 1930s name, is a block away from his home, newly reformulated as an environmental school. 

Afterschool we met up with his mother and sister Zoe (note the green rain boots)  at the "Sunnyside Indoor Play Space and Swap Shop" in a nearby Methodist church.

This comfortable setting-- rooms for all ages of children, arts and crafts, and a stage-- meets a need especially acute in rainy Portland.  It was developed over the past summer by 90 families and is open to families outside the neighborhood.  A co-op, it has a small monthly fee, and every family member takes on a job to keep the space running well.

Once I sat down to knit, this young woman came over to for advice on her purl stitch. A member-mom has been teaching beginning knitting; there's donated yarn and needles in one of the rooms.  My daughter surprised me by picking it up again!

Even without the wetness issue, I cannot imagine a community that would not enjoy something similar.  It would have been wonderful when our children were young.  These kinds of community-developed were going on in Baltimore in the 1970s though only among at-home moms.

There's a mix of working mothers plus mothers and fathers who work at home--many in the tech industry--even nannies.  All enjoy the generous hours-- Monday through Saturday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.  Here's the darling website, with more details, to share with someone you know in Portland.

Blogging for CHOICE Needs a Condom Amulet!

Not one of you told me about this... Blog for Choice Day is today, the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.  My source is the Canadian blog for Shamless magazine.  It was a link  at  Diary of a Sticker Sister, the California artist who designs girl-positive stuff--pencils, shoelaces, band-aids, tees--that I've sent my Oregon granddaughter.  She often comments on young women's issues.  Took me a moment to recover from two ads she posted from the city of Milwaukee. Photoshopped pictures of boys with distended stomachs, the campaign was meant to discourage sexually-active teens from getting pregnant, quite strange.   

Later I was further weirded out by men commenting on a thoughtful post at the feminist blog, Pandagon-- "Abortion is a First Amendment Issue."  They carried on about cell zygotes.  Or how important it was to talk about the issue so the "undecideds" might be drawn in.   Oh, please!  Made me long for the old days of  illegal abortion when the absence of CHOICE meant it was always a black and white issue, thank you.

Get these clueless male commenters and Milwaukee boys knitting, I say!  When I was recently in Portland's YARN GARDEN, I noticed a little paper banner stuck in a ball of yarn at the counter.  "OSU," it read--Oregon State University.  Were these their colors?  "Yes," a tall customer near me answered, "I go to school there."  Synchronicity.  Just before I'd left New York, the class schedule from the store (I've been going there since Rachel moved to Portland) had announced a one skein contest. 

An aha! moment for another Condom Amulet in my college series.  Bought the on-sale ball of yarn ("Arica" from Gedifra, mostly wool, #8 needles) worked on it over the next week or so, turned it in--with instructions and a return envelope--the day before I left.  Win or not, they can keep the NYC and female condoms.  Go Beavers!

A note to women readers like myself who are post-fertility on why we need to care about CHOICE.  If "they" can decide about pregnant bodies, what next?  Think of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and the old dystopian TV series, Logan's Run, where life's limit was quite short.    Have you noticed how invisible and unregarded aging issues are among the presidential candidates?  Correct me, please, if I'm wrong.

One Toe in Another City

My first visit to Portland, Oregon, I was alone, had gone to help out when my daughter and her spouse moved there.  That was ten years ago. Both the city and my view of it have changed.

Though widely touted for its mass transit system, my only connection with that has been trolley rides with our grandson.  For him, a ride on trains or buses are special; his everyday travel is by car.  It appears you have to live in the right spot for the system to work well.  I recall long, long waits at bus stops when traveling from Rachel's apartment.  As a New Yorker, I'm spoiled by our mass transit system. 

Did we know then about Powell's, The City of Books?  Odd we did not but it was a distance from their place.  Somehow I'm sure my son-in-law, the once-librarian, knew but his work was in the opposite direction.  Opened in 1971 by Walter Powell, a newbie to book-selling, in the warehouse building to the left (at night), it was situated in the neighborhood of a disappearing beer-brewing industry.

Now discoverd by us and the rest of America, Powell's has branches all around Portland and is known internationally.  More of its history is on this site of the union that organized its employees back in 1998.  It is a complex, not pretty story from a city without a union tradition. 

Before they bought a house in the southeast, they had another apartment downtown near the Portland Art Museum, which impressed me with its lack of pretension.  Over the decade, however, it became grander, brought in high-profile exhibitions with costly tickets.  Glitz happens--and with more speed all the time.  That's certainly the case in New York.

One growth area that would be wonderful to import to Manhattan is the middle-range  restaurant.  Portland has become a mecca for young chefs.  Last summer we had dinner at Nutshell, a new vegetarian place in the northeast, Alberta--a neighborhood in flux.  I have never had veggies and grains prepared with so much care.  Aside from an excess of salt, yes, salt choices, it was a fabulous and unpretentious meal.

This trip I longed to take home pastry from  Pearl Bakery, a short walk from Powell's.   We discovered this very small place maybe eight years ago.  Then it was a singular good-coffee spot in the early development of the "Pearl District."  Now the Pearl is filled with glamorous high-rises--and cranes putting up more.

Rachel surprised us by saying, though she bought their bread where she lives, that this was her first visit.  They have that has a few tables, serve excellent sandwiches, the three of us lunched there.  One of Portland's most appealing characteristics is how open people usually are.  Another time we shared a table here with a man who was glad to tell us about local challenges for businesses, "Taxes too high; companies are moving to Seatttle."

Oh! is the name of his new company producing "sexy healthy heels,"  made in Brazil.  He's a great salesman and I had high hopes.  But these high heels would not work for me; you can check them out for yourself here.

Only ones that tie or have Velcro closures will make my feet happy, so I am the owner of a blue shoes by Keen.  Rachel swears by them, they're locally produced and very popular in Portland. 

My new shoes look similar to my granddaughter Roxie's latest.  Maybe that's the answer for old lady comfort:  design shoes like the little kids wear!

Knitting Cats for Portland Kids: A Scarf & A Toy

CAT WRAP is the title of this very pink kid scarf from Morehouse Farm--a kit including the two yello pieces of felt for the eyes.  Knit for Zoe in Portland and finished there, I've only seen it on Rachel, her Mom, who humored me by modeling for this photo.

Because she likes cats--and there is a new one in her home--this seemed good idea.  However, what I should knit or craft for her is a large change purse.  Probably experienced grandmas like M.E., blogs at Xtreme English, could have told me that 2-year-olds get more from emptying change and returning coins than trying on knit things.

Knitting this involved an odd process for the striped body:  two weights of yarn, alternating #13 needles (for merino bulky) with #6 worsted) every 2 rows!  Leftover purple yarn worked well for suggested hat.  (Morehouse used world's briefest instructions...pet peeve with yarn outfits that abbreviate text to get everything on one page).

Ron knit the hat, for ribbing used yarn he'd brought along for his ongoing hat obsession...more later.   Synchronicity, that pretty stuff came from the 2005 Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival--small size, homey event.  We met the sheep's owner and the sheep whose fleece produced the roving Ron would spin.  That was a September visit for Zoe's birth.

"Hattie" is the name Zach gave his new knit kitty, a name evocative of the old South for me, completely outside my known sphere till I "met" the resident at Mother Pie.

Before we left New York, I saw this free pattern online at Knitting Daily.  Found gray Australian yarn in my stash, "Superfine 8-ply Crepe Supersoft," is on label.  Directions were good, #5 needles, unknown dark yarn for stripes.  Chose red for nose, mouth, whiskers to brighten it up, pink for inside ears. 

Zach was pleased, brought it along to his overnight with us.  It's in his suitcase, along with very special "Piglet."  The white paper shopping bag holds his crayon collection, a couple of books.

And here is the enormously patient "Sparky," who seems comfortable with much picking up and other close encounters from Zoe and Zach.

 

Rain in Spain No Match for Portland

Every day a new storm off the Pacific.  Visitors like us can be heard throughout the city, "Look, a blue sky.  Oh, it's gone!"  No matter.  Great times with our 5 year old grandson--two sleepovers with us--many stories. 

Knitting FOs include two kinds of cats...Condom Amulet entered in local one-skein competition.  Images and more after January 13.

Who are Democratic Women in Iowa?

This morning in reporting from Women's E News.--

Ramona Oliver, communications director of Washington-based EMILY's List, says 80 percent of registered Democratic Iowa women didn't vote in the 2004 caucuses. So EMILY's List--which supports pro-choice Democratic women and endorsed Clinton the day she announced her campaign--is focused on turning out women. In an online poll, the organization gauged Clinton's support among Iowa women, and their likelihood to caucus on a 1-to-10 scale.

Puzzled?  I am.  So much media attention has been directed to the outcome of Iowa.  But article report reveals many non-participants among those I'd expect would have been actively involved.  Super Tuesday, primaries in states with largest populations, could tell us more.  Not hearing much about that day, February 5, here in New York City.

An old lady feminist, I hope that women who made early commitments to Clinton's candidacy, like NOW, the National Organization for Women,  will continue to direct their energy to the Democratic ticket even if she is not the "winner."  By the way, the link goes to a thoughtful essay on "gender politics" by NOW's president, Kim Gandy.

Women's E News is a place I'm looking for in-depth coverage of the coming election.  [Link to their website has been added in column to the left.]  Ronni Bennett's take on the issue at Time Goes By would have been important.  However, now that she has left the room, it's up to Kay's Thinking Pad in Ohio, Along the Way in California, Xtreme English in Washington, D.C., and many others from the TGB blogroll to connect us with other Elderblog voices.

"Actually," as my grandson Zach in Portland says, I'm looking forward to reading the comics with him again.

Here we are in one of my favorite black/white photos Ron took last summer.  Looking forward with much anticipation to Portland trip at the end of the month.