a little red hen

Condom Amulets Startle Knitters!

Knitters, concerned and good-natured women with a sense of the humor, contributed to an the idea I had pre-Portland, when I lived in New York.  When I finish this post, I'll contact them with the surprisng proof it worked: use provocative knitting  to raise awareness about HIV.  Like this one, The Princetonian, the first of my college amulet series.**

Knit a Condom Amulet,  the title I'd been using for a little paper zine give-away, became my second blog -- 7 amulets by 5 knitters.  It was beautifully designed by a woman in New Jersey I only knew online and the phone.

The debut post featured my friend Annette's hand adorned with Lisa Daehlin's copper wire Condom Amulet Bracelet.  It appeared Decemer One, 2007, to highlight that year's    World AIDS Day. 

 

The image at left is a screen shot of the statisitics for the blog that I check once in a while to see if it still has visitors all these years later.  After the initial outing, viewership has been low.  Once a very kinky crowd, definitely not fiber folks, were entranced by some of the content.

A couple of the amulets ---Man Thong, Bra & Breast Pouch (pink one here by Lisa Daehlin) -- are especially so.  Comments on the blog are closed; simply out there hoping to be discovered.

October 13, 2011, was the all-time big bump of  2,356 visitors, October 14 another 564, October 15, 223, the next day, 296.  And another 192 for the finale.  Five days, close to 3,000 hits on a blog that usually has 20-30 daily visitors!  Turns out this time it was by our target  group--knitters.  These were from Knitting Paradise^SM - Knitting and Crochet Forum whose membership is in the thousands.  [We also started a group on  Ravelry, an even larger online knit and crochet community.]

It began with "Deb," an active Forum member.  She linked to our site and noted, "No, I'm not kidding. Hey, someone might want one of these!"  And then the deluge.

Culturally the Forum knitters appear different from those on Ravelry but, without a rigorous study, who knows?   Judging from their photos, they are generally older women than most on Ravelry.  Many were shocked:  should this even be happening?  Some, amused.  Others thought it just might be a way to "...begin talking with my granddaughter..."  That's it, ladies!  Referring to Michelle Edwards' beaded amulets from corn silk yarn, one poster was ambivalent:

  first amulet is very pretty & COULD be used for something else...but someone might recognize it from this site. LOL   

I plan to  join Knitting Paradise (could use some extra magic with current projects on the needles) to thank "Deb" for introducing our site to her fiber friends.  Forum member "Jenna" the Ball Band Condom Amulet (Kay Gardiner design)  would be just the thing for people she knew,  "Christmas gifts  for single girlfriends,  holds at least three condoms."

In the past, when I've heard from an knit amulet enthusiast, the knitter wants   to find out if their creations could be sent to me:

"I work for the AIDS Resource Group in Evansville, IN and love your idea... inspired by  patterns and made a few amulets for the "environmentally concious" condom user out of "plarn" (plastic bags made into yarn). Is there an address that I could send them to?" 

My response is that we hoped the person's own circle would provide ideal recipients, that the primary idea behind our project was more personal:  gift someone close to you--like "Deb" and "Jenna."  You know, the personal is always political, as we used to say back in the day.

** College series includes:  Oberlin, Columbia & Oregon State Universities, send in yours for posting here.

UPDATE...On December One, 2011, an email arrived with a reminder.  Here's a poster you might copy to your own blog and a plea you can sign from The Feminist Majority.

Ask President Obama and Congress to fight AIDS with science and medicine, not ideology. Condoms must not be an afterthought.  Click on the link below to sign.

Ask US Leaders to Stop Abstinence Only Programs

 

"A Knitter's Home Companion," my snowy day read

In the last couple of days, we've experienced snow-panic in Portland.  We're too new here to know how to assess the weather.  Yesterday, when many spoke of snow coming, the sky was so pretty in the late afternoon.  Why did Bob's Red Mill cancel our Cooking with Kamut class for today?

Because it was snowing early this morning.  Just enough to be picture-worthy.  Then we heard about people living north of us who'd had to wait hours for buses struggling with serious accumulation.  By 11 a.m., what appears in the photo at the right (from my window) was gone.

But wait...early afternoon and here it comes again.  As I write, snow and sun, nothing seems to stick on the roads.  But who can tell?  A good day to think about cooking and knitting and talk about my friend's new book, "A Knitter's Home Companion: a heartwarming collection of stories, patterns, and recipes." [*updated link shows color photos not in review copy]

Michelle Edwards and I met (in the internet sense) via her knitting essays for Lion Brand's online newsletter.  Her thoughtfulness and her rounded, engaging illustrations, both evident at that link, led me to write her.  A conversation began and took several turns over the past six years.  I discovered her childrens' books, favorites of my grandchildren now, and she joined a project of mine.

But back to her new book.  When Michelle first talked to me about what she planned to write, I was intrigued--yarn and food.  But how to bring it off?  She has taken her time and produced a small book I'm glad to own and would be pleased to give as gift to another knitter--or someone who wants a recipe for potato latkes or roasted root vegetables.

When the book first arrived, I was struck by its difference from  most contemporary knitting books.  It's a bit old-fashioned,  takes time to lead the reader along the paths of Michelle's life from upstate New York to kibbutz to wife and mother of three mostly grown children in Iowa City.  Reading along, trying to be disciplined and go page by page, I was distracted by the "Good Karma Slippers."  She wrote the pattern to problem-solve for a friend who wanted to duplicate knit ones  bought in India.

Did she know I wanted something lightweight, other than bedroom slippers, to wear indoors?   Turkish cast-on and knitting in the round on two needles are new challenges.  Time to go to my local yarn place because I want these; maybe  other knitters will want to knit them too.

In one of our earliest exchanges, Michelle shared her concern about her children's learning about safe sex.  Soon after, I asked her if she would add a pattern to the Knit a Condom Amulet project.  She surprised me with her yarn,  100% Corn Silk from Iowa.  Instructions for all seven are in the blog.

If I were still living in New York, I could finally meet Michelle Edwards on March 10 at her book signing in Lion Brand Yarn Studio on West 15th Street. It's a beautiful store opened three years ago by this 130 year old company known for its community-minded owners. I'll be with her in spirit with memories of generous people in the yarn world we share connections with--Melanie Falick, publisher of "A Knitter's Home Companion," whose interest generated enthusiasm about my Knit One Red Worm and David Bluementhal of Lion Brand who gave me many skeins of red chenille for that project.

Tomorrow--snow's melted again--I'm off to get cotton bamboo for those slippers.

 

 

 

 

Legal abortion to disappear in U.S.

YOU have been sleeping, yes, snoring away as women's bodies have been commodified and contained by the dominant culture.  I'm speaking to younger women who say, "I'm not a feminist!" and celebrate fashion over substance.  It is difficult to know what to say to you as in South Dakota, in Congress, in some nearby Catholic Church the frenzy grows to control women's bodies.

Perhaps you live in Florida. 

Maybe South Dakota.

Do you really believe that your Mommies and your Grandmas will make it all better for you?  Are you so busy with your jobs that there is NO TIME to preserve what so many fought so hard to obtain?

What about your own daughters' futures?

We who have so many, many memories of that brief time when we believed our efforts could bring about permanent change were naive:  why did we think it was possible that Roe v. Wade would last.

Fran, my far less militant friend, surprised me, "The fight will never end for us."  Hearing her say what I have not allowed myself to think was a shock.  My anger has been  replaced by sadness at the futility of our efforts.

It's time for young women to prepare for the return of Jane, the underground railroad for women seeking abortions.   I could support that. 

 

 

 

Corvallis Peace Vigil reminds us...

That would be Ron and me.  Driving to Philomath, Oregon for dinner on a farm, with extra time before our 7 p.m. reservation, we made a slight detour  to visit Corvallis, home of OSU (Oregon State University).  Another new Oregon city for us; we noticed a large bookstore still open after five.

Parked the car  in front of  a beautiful courthouse** and immediately saw a station wagon filled with NO WAR signs.   We had chosen the right time--five to six every evening  different community members stand tall for a peace vigil. 

 Every day for the past nine years. 

People in cars waved, honked in a friendly way.  Were the students at OSU active in anti-war efforts?  No, we were told they are a conservative group.

As usual, we fit in age-wise: most of  us gray hairs.  Except this young engineering grad student from Saudi Arabia.  He brought a sign made for the vigilers to show support in another language.  Often they are joined by the local Veterans for Peace chapter.

One of the women had moved to Corvallis from Queens, New York, a few years ago.  She agreed that nothing like this could take place back east, especially in front of a government building like the Benton County Courthouse.  Unlike the Corvallis group who do not have to get police permission for their vigils, in NYC the smallest street gathering with a sign (not to include any holder more rigid than a cardboard tube)  requires a permit.

We talked about Grandmothers Against the War HERE and HERE with whom I had vigiled at Rockefeller Center.  Recalled with the former-Queens grandmother how each of us had stood on the steps of the 42nd Street Library with Women in Black some time in the 1990s.  I told her that their behavior code was too militant for me.  Called me out for speaking to my neighbor.  Violated their rules:  wear black, do not talk. Wearing all black was a stretch for me, not talking even more so.  As in the familiar, often misquoted (see link)  Emma Goldman sentiment, If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution.

  I hung out with the women, a couple of them knitters who were surprised to learn about the prevalence of HIV in women over 50 and my other blog about the   Condom Amulets project.    Later I realized that they would have appreciated that there was an OSU amulet in the school's colors that proved too political (?) for a Portland yarn shop.

Ron stayed with the men  near the station wagon.  He learned about their rocky times as former professors at OSU.  We both did sign-hoisting and were grateful to the group for the opportunity to relieve a bit of our current-events-in-America angst on September 10. 

** Calvin Beale Senior demographer at USDA photo, one of a series of courthouses around the U.S.  

"ella," lower case contraceptive pill, tip toes here

How far did I have to go to find this picture?  To the UK where ella, the new "You have five days to take care of your unprotected sex encounter" pill    is now available.  Approved this week by the FDA as available by prescription in the U.S., none of the stories about it showed what its packaging looked like.

Call me paranoid, but this seems just another symptom of how frightened officials here are about making this breakthrough contraceptive pill available.  If you don't see it, will it go away?  Please.

In a braver time for women who demanded control over our own bodies, there's  this heartbreaking pin in my jewelry box.  Every now and then it appears on my shirt.  Probably has no meaning for women with no memory of time before Roe v. Wade.   Each time I look at it, I feel the sadness of my own experience and exasperation about the unwon battle for reproductive justice.  A recent find of a hangar slipcover left from our son's wedding in New Orleans (the year before Katrina) moved me to think about writing a post, "Meditation on a Hangar." But celebrating ella is more upbeat and hopeful for the future of my grandchildren.

My English friend Gillian who lived downstairs in my 4th apartment in Manhattan in two-year span and the one I returned to after my own illegal 1957 abortion, would  entertain as she described the dime store wedding band almost slipping off her ring finger during her visit to the NYC Planned Parenthood (link not historical indicates the ongoing struggle).  Why were we laughing?  We had cried so many times.

That was New York City in the 1950s when the only way a woman could get a diaphragm was visit to a gynecologist for a prescription.  Expensive.  The cheaper alternative was PP.  Gillian developed a complicated story for the doctor there.  At the time, the gyn would ask the patient supplicant to see if she could use the device properly.  And so the ring began to slip.  Her story became more hilarious when she returned to PP for a new diaphragm the following year and saw the same woman doctor who remembered her.  Gillian was seriously challenged to update her marital story.

All this to say, I wish the organizations that support CHOICE would spend some of our support bucks on powerful imagery.  Then get a couple of those "girls" on the TV show "Mad Men" to appear in national advertising with one on their breasts. From what I can see here of the ella pill, that would be a fine design, surrounded by the message, "Five days to Choice."  Sure, you can think up a better one but will the orgs listen to old ladies?

UPDATE:  The one place that gets my money in this never-ending struggle is the Center for Reproductive Rights.  Check their site for all their important legal work that could use your support .

Emma Goldman-- reassurance, 1917... a question, 1919

 

Keep the spark of liberty alive,

the night cannot last forever.

A bookmark from The Emma Goldman Papers, University of California, Berkeley.  On the reverse side, a contemporary message about the importance of remembering our history of struggle,  "Stirring the embers of the past to inspire the future. 

Emma Goldman (1869-1940) and Alexander Berkman in a "Farewell, [to] Friends and Comrades," wrote this line before serving almost two years in prison for opposing the conscription of young men into the First World War.

Partial to her feisty spirit, I once bought a 1916 issue of Emma's publication, Mother Earth News.  It includes a reminder of the upcoming "Mother Earth Ball" to celebrate the publication's 11th anniversary (Admission 35 cents, Hat Check, 15 cents). Somewhere in my photos, there's one of me standing in front of a brownstone where she lived near Union Square in New York City. 

In the Portland Red Guide, I learn she came here in 1915 to speak, was arrested for distributing birth control information. A Portland Circuit Judge dismissed the case with the words, "There is too much tendency to prudery nowadays."  She also spoke at the Portland Public Library on "The Sham of Culture." A local blogger last year named her Portland's Fairy Godmother. Her spirit lives on!

A few years ago, the bookmark on the right arrived in the mail.  I've saved it for its message and its different, gentler view of Emma--feminist, anarchist, immigrant--to share among ourselves.  In these days when it often feels as if the forces of evil have taken over reasonableness, I offer her words to recall that we have survived narrowness of thought in earlier times.  Her message, as always, is pertinent to 2010.

"Sooner or later the American people are going to wake up.  --Emma Goldman, Detroit, Michigan, 11/26/1919, on deportation to Russia" reads a cup (mug)  on my kitchen counter.  Make sure you click on this image from her  1901 arrest, a frequent happening.

Celebrate her birthday on June 27, with a contribution to the Papers so you too can be a part of the ongoing effort to write women back into history.

Super Bawl* Sunday: Ads a Feminist Could Support

Much chatter* about this year's TV ads accompanying today's football event, the yearly display of testosterone with accompanying rise in spouse abuse.  Women's Media Center has coordinated shout-outs to  CBS to dump the ad.  And been ignored.  Everything more you'd want to know appears in the blog,  The Reclusive Leftist.  She rightly nails patriarchy as the true source of the problem.

For image, I offer one  saved on my desktop for a couple of years--a poster on bus kiosk around New York City.   I'd support variations on it year round.  Living closer to the ground, so to speak, these days in Portland, Oregon,  I now start the day with the  local Oregonian delivered to my door in contrast to the national NY Times (read later when picked up at the front desk of my retirement community).

Locally Portland would seem to harbour more women abusers than back east (I doubt this) because the "small" incidents here are reported by the media.   In NYC only prominent men receive notice by journalists.  Coast to coast, however, they are always lightly punished. 

Writing to promote the "Geezers' Crusade" , David Brooks on the Op-Ed page of the Times, wants us to do more on behalf of younger people.  Would he support a movement by older people that demands  more visible signs of respect for women in every American city--bold ones like this poster? 

Could it happen in  your city?

Women's Health Still Hostage to Healthcare Reform, but...

They checked their Blackberries last night, my daughter and spouse.  They'd gone out for a walk as we stayed with the kids.

"Nothing yet," was the 10 p.m. (PST) verdict.  No, our foot-dragging, drama-loving Congress would make us stay up late to find out would they/wouldn't they.

Earlier, when the House Republicans used women's bodies to stall the healthcare bill, I was angry--once again.  More frequent Elderbloggers Darlene and Ronni posted timely rants.  Amanda Maracotte* at RH Reality Check posted a stronger response  in line with my own feelings on the relationship of Stupak amendment to men's wish to control women and their bodies as result of their "deepset fear of women's agency."

My family tried to calm me with reminders that reform was so crucial, that the abortion restrictions would never last, that we needed to support this shaky bill.  Made an effort to let go of disappointment but had less heart in sending more emails, small donations to the "good guys" in Congress.

While we waited, surprising new guidelines were issued by the U.S. Prevenive Services Task Force on mammogram testing.  As an old lady who has had two "false positives," one at 52, the other at 64 which led to a biopsy, I take this very personally.  Who of us does not? 

[Aside:  Is  Politics Daily, not a feminist blog, the only one to picture the mammo machine?  Did any of the mainstream media stories show that dreadful invention, now marginally improved since my first one in the 1970s?  I have a couple of paper  "gowns" saved from these visits--blue, pink.  These combined with the eerie sounds of the X-ray machine have always seemed ready-made for a dance performance or a scene in a play I'd write.]

This morning I had a little relief with the post at Our Bodies Ourselves, New Mammogram Guidelines Are Causing Confusion, But Here's Why They Make Sense. It is a long, thoughtful post that acknowledges the complexity of  technology that gives us information but has the potential for harm.  The comments with reactions from women, researchers, doctors are worth reading too.

 Occurred to me that we need a younger women's consciousness to focus on useful health education in middle and high schools.  All the controversy around "sex ed" may have left us with nothing!  Bring back those plaster human bodies we cringed at in my freshman college gym class, the ones that come apart to reveal our insides. Young people need to learn more about how it all works--and more about ways to evaluate health info that comes toward us.

*Maracotte has another post, "Less boob squishing seems like a value add to me" on her own Pandagon blog.

Slow Knitting in the City of Roses

Yes, yes, I am way behind on details of our many good experiences, educational and environmental, in the place from which we are now voting--Portland, Oregon.  [NYC friends ask, "How you doing with the rain?"  What rain; it's been gloriously sunny.] 

Most immediate issue (after more and more

emails to our new congresspeople about single payer/public option health care legislation) is yarn.  How to store it and where it fits in my life.  Will I make something from this 50/50 wool and hemp?  Bought at some fiber fair a few years back, no memory of my plan.  Sunday we return to OFFF (Oregon Flock & Fiber Fest) in Canby. 

Will the PDX Knitters respond to the idea of Slow Knitting as a new category in fiberland?  Last year, they were  quite good-natured about modeling the Couverle Condom Amulet (a newsboy kind of cap.)  "So how is it different?" a knitter I met yesterday at the OSHER program (more on that later) asked me.

Needlecrafts have become explosively popular among younger knitters, I answered, so different from the days when one was simply "a knitter."  One example is the "Sock Summit" held at the Convention Center here August 5-7.  Someone needs to tell me whether the number who attended from around the world was 7,000 or 17,000; these women, and a few men, are intense and constantly producing.  That's fine but just one pair of booties is a big project for me.  Feels vintage to say to an enthusiastic foot-coverer, "I knit my last socks in the 1950s."

We all know that I definitely am vintage and have the incipient arthritis to prove it!  So Ron and I have had one of those talks about our visit to OFFF.  He will check out  fiber for potential additions to his spinning stash.  My own plan: locate other Slow Knitters.  But no new yarn purchases--would love to hear  ideas for  small things to make for family and friends-- with what's already on hand--like the 8-inch stuffed animal almost finished for youngest granddaughter. 

Speaking of Knitting Small...in  public ways to save the world as we know it--Oberlin College, my alma mater, has published a lovely piece about The Oberlin Condom Amulet in their current issue. Thanks to Google, the Alumni magazine editor called, then made the immodest proposal to the powers-that-be.

Rachel Walden of Women's Health News, an alum from a later decade, has mentioned it but there has not been a stampede yet from startled women over 50 gasping "...I never heard of that..."

By the way,  check out Rachel's post at Our Bodies Our Blog about a recent study  connecting  HRT and lung cancer...may raise more questions than it answers.

Elderblogging 2.0 Begins in PDX Retirement Community

Ten days into our altered lifestyle in the northwest.  Besides the physical part of getting settled, accepting that we really did not reduce our possessions enough, there's much to experience--in addition to our family.  Last week we went to  orientation for SSI, Senior Studies Initiative,  sponsored by the local community college.  We'd enjoyed a couple of their "Current Events" meetings last winter on our "deciding" visit.   There are six sites around town, only one close by. 

It took place in Lake Oswego, very leafy with big houses; I wondered how people get there without a car.  Intrigued that one of the groups has a presentation scheduled on Emma Goldman.  Looking forward to that.  Today, after a trip to an ENT doctor (nose-bleeding is my dramatic response to the move), I mentioned to Ron that our time so far has felt very suburban.  Must get out of the car soon, take mass transit buses and light rail which are very available from our place.

Saturday we stopped by the Belmont Street Fair, an annual explosion of  hippie-dom plus eviro and neighborhood consciousness.  Not the only one, of course; the city is filled this time of year with celebration, fruit festivals.  Young people come to several parts of Portland for the lifestyle of music and tatoos, live alongside young families who sort of like that atmosphere.  This is the world we know from visiting our daughter in a nearby neighborhood. 

Yesterday I went to the Terwilliger Users Group (TUG to insiders) and was amazed by how many people were there.  Must have been forty, men and women.  A woman gave a talk about Facebook which I was pleased to hear.  Each of our children, different as they are from one another, is now on it.  When I had dinner in New York before we left with Lisa Daehlin, the soprano/knitter, she told me I ought to consider it for the Condom Amulet project.  It's thanks to her that there's a group for it on Ravelry but Facebook does have some perks not available there. 

The staff tech person (how cool is that?) for Terwilliger Plaza had mentioned there were a couple of other folks with blogs living here, so I asked if the internal website might list them.  It's going to happen.  This is very different from New York City where I never met another blogger near my advanced age.

Tonight another Plaza activity, "Victory for Woman Suffrage in Oregon," a talk with great slides by Dr. Kimberly Jensen of Western Oregon University.  I have been too east-coast-centric about women's studies; was surprised by many western states voted to give women the vote ahead of the opposite coast.  Portland was a leader in moving the Oregon legistlature to do in 1912--on the sixth try and pioneered less ladylike approaches with mass advertising and public displays.  In  her recent book, Minerva, Mobilizing Women in the First World War,  Jensen has written about Dr. Esther Lovejoy, a Portland physician and local leader in women's rights, who was an Army doctor. 

For the coming 2012 centennial of woman suffrage in Oregon, here's a link to an active committee gathering ideas and material--particularly interested in finding photos and letters from the period. 

Zoe, our granddaughter, on a brief visit to our apartment, announced in her four-year-old way (birthday party last Saturday), "What a mess!"  One day we hope to present a better model to our descendants. If we can only figure out where to hang all the pictures, stow the books.