a little red hen

HEADLESS MANNEQUIN Flees NYC Apartment

She had her time here since we met outside Baltimore--huge vintage store in Ellicott City--um, 20 years ago.  Never dignified with her own name, she appeared at a couple of my shows, but had less respect as time went on and she was a neck to hang stuff--compost and other neckpieces.  Nothing really glamorous like the old days.

"Can I borrow her?  I'm doing a graduation dress for my niece,"  my neighbor Annette explained.  An opportunity to downsize gave the answer, "Take her!  Keep her!"

Sally Stitch, Push Button Dress Form, could morph through a range of sizes.   The idea of her actually being used thrills me; she has moved on, just across the street, into a better place, one of industry and value.  She joins another taking-up-space memory, one with no function at all.

Woven stainless steel wire cloth.  Purchased around the same time as Sally Stitch when I was entranced by everything woven and not cloth. Copper wirecloth, blue plastic from Mexico, green, black windown screen (made Condom Amulet from this)--all had their moment.  But the stainless steel was this artist's conceit.  A curved piece, 2 by 4 feet, should have been included in my house sale in Baltimore.  But no, all 20 pounds came to Harlem. 

Thanks to a visiting crochet artist, Laurie Anne Sims, it too has now fled to another life. Laurie came and stayed overnight--she was helping Nan Kennedy who'd brought her Sea Colors Yarn to Knitty City a few weeks ago.  Because Laurie too is drawn to stuff like wirecloth, I asked if she'd take the piece home to Brunswick, Maine.  "Oh, sure!"  She got it-- with the tag attached.  Fortunately there was room in their very full-of-yarn van.  And now it's lighter here.

With Yarn from Her Sheep: Nan Kennedy Comes to Knitty City

"Baby You Look Beautiful in Wool" by Paddy Mills is the background music for this post.  I just learned about the song, on my way to talk about the imminent arrival in New York City of Nanney Kennedy, Maine shepherd, yarn producer, designer. 

The last time I saw Nan was at Rhinebeck, the New York Sheep and Wool Festival.  She was surrounded as always by her beautiful yarn--what you'll see when you click on the song link.  My photo here is my own small collection of her Seacolor yarns from the past three years.  For some reason I keep looking at them, changing ideas.  This fall I think it will become a vest--designed in Nanney's kind of style--dark purple will be one side of a front, green the other and the blue green at the left, the back.  Maybe pink for trim and pockets.

For beautiful pictures of her yarn and her farm, Meadowcroft, her farm there is a brand new book, SHEAR SPIRIT. It marks a departure in yarn books with its focus on farms and the people who live the rural life--raise sheep-- from Maine to Oregon. The photos are by Gale Zucker, text, Joan Tapper.  Yes, it does have patterns.

It is not quite the same as being with Nanney who comes to my local and favorite yarn store, Knitty City next Monday, May 5, direct from showing her wares at America's biggest yarn event,  Maryland Sheep and Wool.  There, wandering around while Ron was taking a spinning class, is where I first encountered Nanney.   She was unlike many of the vendors.  Her yarns were arranged more artfullyand her signature "sea and sun-washed yarns" drew me in.   And there was her extra-large personality and sense of humor.   She thought the Condom Amulets would benefit from photos of women wearing them in unexpected settings.  The result:  Nanney modeling Lisa Daehlin's Knit Wire Bracelet surrounded by her beautiful fibers.

She is also the person connected to Ron's hat-knitting.  In 2006, Nan introduced us to Medomak Camp in Washington, Maine where Ron fell under the design spell of Bill Huntington who teaches there again this year.  While at the Knit Retreat, we visited Nan's farm and sheep--did some natural dyeing with her.

If you're in the City next week, please join Nan and her yarn at Knitty City, 208 West 79th Street, from 5 to 7 p.m. Gale Zucker's coming too to tell about how she selected those 20 fiber farms in the book.   Ron and I will be there, Lisa Daehlin, and Kay Gardiner of Mason-Dixon Knitting--among others.  More to come...

Sex Ed in the Big City...just in case

An urgent letter from a Health Educator with New York City's Planned Parenthood: 

Did you know that NYC public schools do not require
sex education at all? And when we don't tell kids the facts, this is what they tell each other.

You can stop yourself from getting pregnant if you:

- Jump up and down after sex
- Take a bath in Epsom salts
- Drink a Tropical Fantasy (a Brooklyn-based soda) or hot Malta
(a carbonated malt beverage)

If you are as appalled as I am that these kinds of misconceptions are alive and well among middle and high school students, please remind our Chancellor of Education that our students need comprehensive sex education.  We have the distinction of one of the highest teenage pregnancy and STD rates in the U.S.

If you live in New York City, add your voice to mine.  Knitting Condom Amulets is helpful but not enough.  The goal is 20,000 letters to be hand-delivered by May 1st.   Here's the link to a letter prepared by NYC Planned Parenthood.

["MAW, Most Arresting Woman and Hen Pink Conspire" illustration contributed by blogger M.E. Carew of  Xtreme English]

UPDATE 4/25/08:  Rachel at Women's Health News has a good summary of the goings-on at this week's hearing in Congres--House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform-- on the subject that is none of their business, "Abstinence-Only and Sex Education." 

Visitors from Baltimore and Beyond

Judy Lombardi called one night from Baltimore, "We're coming in this weekend.  Can we see you Sunday brunch?  My friend Heidi from London--I've told you about her--I'd like to bring along, maybe her kids will be with her.  Talk to Carol about people she wants to invite."

Talking with Carol I learn that a couple she knows are making a move to New York similar to ours twelve years ago.  Except he's already retired, spouse still working.

Sunday morning, Judy on cell phone.  "In Soho, on the way.  Where should we get food?"  Judy and Carol had never been to Zabar's, definitely the place.  Always a treat to have Judy in the kitchen.  I remember her making spaghetti and sauce at our house in Baltimore.  The tomatoes used were ones she and Ron grew--twenty-eight plants?--in the backyard.

Heidi brought the cerise-colored tulips behind Judy's head and her two children.  I thought they were going to be little, but was wrong.  They were amazingly mature post-teens.   Because she used to do work about HIV/AIDS, Heidi was interested in the Condom Amulets.  I showed them the ones still with me and not lounging on the wall at Knitty City.  Gave the three of them New York City's 2007 condoms.  I have to move theses along because they are dated; the 2008 model has a musical video

Carol is a dedicated bird-watcher and as she looked out our window was rewarded by a visit from a sparrow hawk who enjoys the plentiful community of pidgeons in the neighborhood.  She has been a longtime vigiler in Baltimore with Women in Black, a worldwide peace network.  We spoke about our frustration, how we were once in the minority.  But even with the majority of Americans  believing the U.S. should be out of Iraq nothing changes the administration's position.

Susan and Jamie, the recent NYC arrivals, brought a delicious flan she had made.  One of my favorite desserts.  We talked about how joining The Transition Network and one of its peer groups might be a useful way to get integrated into the City.  As she began to look at Clara Parkes' The Knitter's Book of Yarn sitting on the coffee table, we found a pattern we both liked.  "Baby Soft Cardigan" is the one I'd like to make for Zoe in Portland from bright green yarn Ron has spun.

All in all  a perfect afternoon for us semi-homebounds and covered all the bases of our concerns.  I told Judy how her advice to get a Canon digital camera like hers (SD850) has been a fine addtion to my life in images.  Ron even spoke Yiddish with Heidi who  originally migrated to England from Germany.  Her children, also fluent in German, could understand him but were surprised by the relationship of the languages.

Harlem Knit Circle Rocks--Lacewise

Saturday, March 17, a sunny morning brought out an overflow crowd  to the first session of "High Tea in Lace," free class at the popular HARLEM KNITTING CIRCLE.

Lisa Daehlin, left, knitter/opera singer, famous for lacy designs in Vogue and Interweave magazines (check out the knit wire bracelets on her left arm), and HKC regular, had High Tea notion.

Njoya, right, dynamo who began HKC a few years ago, thought it would work--but was amazed by the crowd--59 women, one man. Like Lisa, she is full of ideas for stretching fibers' boundaries.  The  week before, Njoya arranged HKC participation in an environmental crochet extraganza to raise awareness about endangered coral reefs... article HERE in New York Times.

Click on images below for overview beginning with a knitter who has shared expertise with me in the past and is pleased with her lace skills, Adeline from Big Apple Knit Guild, token male...

 

Mysteries of symbols used on charted knit patterns, guy answering crocheter's question, books to browse...

Unusual Njoya moment-- she takes time to sit and knit.  Many are intrigued by the way Lisa stashes yarn while teaching--a signature style that led to design of her Breast Pouch Condom Amulet.  Her new website is http://www.delisa.us/.

Did I mention that New York's new Governor, David Paterson, is from Harlem?  Get acquainted...come to uptown Manhattan and knit or crochet with Njoya's friendly group (Saturdays weekly around the corner from me at the George Bruce branch of the New York Public Library, West 125th).  Session II of "High Tea in Lace" is March 29.  Please bring a little food to share...and plan a visit to the Harlem Studio Museum a few blocks east on 125th Street.

My symbol for post written one-handed.  Fell down a short flight stairs just before High Tea.  Took photos, then visited the local ER.  Left hand awaits  verdict of orthopedic surgeon on March 19....same day is 5th anniversary of invasion of Iraq.  Met a woman at High Tea who said she will knit at protest by Grandmothers Against the War.

The Crone Spoke...to Me!

Yes, she did.  On February 29, she placed a little red hen on her list of blogs awarded the big E for excellence.  She does some serious writing over there at The Crone Speaks about national and local politics in Tennessee, so this was a particular honor.  Thanks, Crone.

Part of my responsibility as an awardee is to select ten other Excellent blogs, who then select 10 others.  Most are on my blogroll.

Birmingham Blues  CBreaux Speaks    First 50 Words

Gooseflesh    Blogging in Paris      Xtreme English  Our Bodies Our Blog

Busha Full of Grace   Sistah Craft

This kind of made up for not winning a spot among the top five in Mason-Dixon Knitting's Teeny Project Runway Contest.  The idea was to fix up a knitted animal with a knit outfit.  I was up against some heavy competition.

"A Little Red Hen Goes Out on the Town" was my offering--simple necklace-style Condom Amulet.  No match for my own favorite entry, "Babs the Sock Monkey," entirely knit by a serious competitor--monkey, dress, hat, accessories, and shoes!  Go look; it's an experience not to be missed.

Kay in NYC and Ann in Nashville are  Mason-Dixon.  They  have the best time and some very clever followers.  Their contest led me to adorn and photograph little red with all the amulets still around the apartment. Most are on the mannequins and walls at Knitty City.

It's not every day that I take time out to simply play.  Something to think about.  Do you?

 

Barbara Seaman (1935-2008): My Feminist Friend Who Changed Women's Lives

Reading of Barbara's death on Wednesday at Women's Voices for Change, was personally unsettling.  We had not connected for a while.  So many years away from our 1952 encounter in the stacks of the Oberlin College library.  "Naomi?  Joe Glass [a Socialist lawyer friend of my father] told me to look you up.  I'm Barbara Rosner."  My memory holds the image of an intense, very-Manhattan girl whose collegiate crowd was literary and sophisticated.    She was a serious poet; my interests were more social--with some social justice mixed in. 

And her voice.  We lost touch when I left New York in the 1960s.  Four years ago, back in the City, I waited for a Vivian Gornick lecture to begin, I recognized her odd, gravelly voice. I turned around and saw again the Barbara I'd known as a college student:  her piercing gaze, dark circles around her eyes.  As we became re-aquainted, I also recalled her sweetness and her strong opinions about right and wrong. 

Her judgmental nature led to her being, in her own words, "a muckracker," a term she preferred to "medical journalist."  In picture at left Barbara holds aloft a birth-control cervical cap at a 1980 news conference.  Photo by Bettye Lane.

Gloria Steinem described her most accurately as "the first prophet of the women's health movement."

I was back in Oberlin as a faculty wife, when Barbara's best known book appeared in 1969, "The Doctor's Case Against the Pill."  An explosive indictment of doctors and drug companies, its impact led to Senate hearings.  Barbara herself describes HERE how her convictions were fueled by her own life experiences.  It was the loss of an aunt who'd been taking estrogen for many years and conflict with doctors when her first child became very sick that led to her "...obsession with informed consent." 

The Barbara who admonished me our first year out of college, "... you must use your god-given talent to do more work in theatre, " a reaction to my saying that earning a living was more pressing, the same woman who forty years later was impatient when I declined going to a book party to meet Steinem and talk to her about my condom amulet project ( a cold and icy evening), she was too young to die at 72--two years younger than me.

In tributes to Barbara on feminist blogs, she had pushed herself as she was dying of lung cancer to complete two more books.  In the years ahead she would have given us more to consider, to question about conventional thinking on women's health care.  And mentor others; she was a great connecter.  Jennifer Baumgardner writes at Feministing about her generous mentoring to young women like herself.  Other mentees like Leora Tanebaum at The Huffington Post have written of her true feminist spirit in taking time for others starting out in the women's health field.

But her generosity reached out to all in her sphere like the young male scholar  she invited to the preview of the 2004 movie about abortion, Vera Drake.  Once more Barbara, who'd arranged our invitations, made sure we were introduced to well known feminists and Imelda Staunton, the remarkable star of the film. 

The photo above was featured in a respectful obit in Friday's Washington Post.  How unregarded significant women like her continue to be is apparent in Saturday's New York Times obituary.  First, I'd have expected that it would have been written by someone who knew her work, not someone from the obit staff.  Most of the week after Barbara's death had been taken up in the Times with paens to the conservative writer, William Buckley who charmed many in the media.  Barbara did not charm.  Was this the reason the Times focused on details of her personal life rather than her contining role as a muckraker, still writing about the dangers of estrogen all these years later. 

At Wikipedia there's  an unsourced comment reflecting her sense of humor, an important aspect of Barbara that rarely came through in her public appearances.

"Condoms should be marketed in 3 sizes, jumbo, colossal, and super colossal, so that men do not have to go ask for the small."

In homage to the many sides of Barbara Seaman, I offer my latest Condom Amulet, "Rubber for a Rubber," crocheted rubber cord, Chinese beads, plastic cord, and condom.  She would have laughed in her gaspy way--and instructed, "Write it up, send it to MS magazine--tell them I told you to."

UPDATE:  In WomensENews, Historian Louise Berkinow's tribute describes Barbara's continued commitment to the women's health movement as she worked "in a frenzy" in her final days to complete her new book about menopause.

The Vagina Monologues and MACBETH

Lisa Daehlin, the exceptional knitter/crocheter/singer, and I were the over-twenty-somethings at last Saturday night's "The Vagina Monologues" at Columbia University.  Though 2008 marks the tenth anniversary of Eve Ensler's "organized response against violence against women," it was a first-time for each of us.

We both were impressed by how much has changed for college students.  The auditorium, on the second of three nights, was mostly women plus a representative number of men.  We joined their enthusiasm, were touched by the openness about their concerns. Lisa was an undergraduate twenty years ago-- nothing like this in Minneapolis, her home base.  And we know what a desert it was in the 1950s, my era.

Original monologues were a first at this year's presentation.  Performed with great fervor, they were less "polished" than the VM script itself and very powerful.  The six performers were talking for themselves about eating disorder, about gender identity.  Very funny one about visiting a therapist.  The only review online is HERE from an undergrad magazine at Columbia.  None in "The Spectator," semi-official daily emanating from the School of Journalism.  Because Barnard College is the source?  I've always been puzzled by the relationship of Columbia to this women's college.

At intermission I talked with two Barnard women at a table in the lobby to promote this year's "Take Back the Night" events in April.  That energy began in 1976 in Belgium with marches through dark streets by women who wanted to feel safer in the public space.  These were happening more generally throughout the U.S. in the 1980s.  I'll have to dig up a photo from one in Baltimore--and that red tee-shirt.  Currently it is college campuses that keep the flame alive on this issue-- as crucial as ever.  I'd like to see this year's efforts draw in the community around Columbia, my community--a concept that's always a challenge.

Oh yes, Macbeth with Patrick Stewart.  Ron and I saw that the next day at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.  Talk about culture disjuncture!  Again, it was via another that we happened to be there.  A friend could not attend, asked if we'd buy her tickets.  Okay--and who was Patrick Stewart?  Do I hear a gasp from readers younger?  We were very busy in the day of "Star Trek."  Seeing clients at night, raising kids by day.  All the pyrotechnics that worked for last year's "The Coast of Utopia", Tom Stoppard trilogy, were mostly annoying for me in this production.

Flashing light shows?  We had not done discos either; amazing how culturally disadvantaged we can feel.  [Aside:  This is why much on TV, stuff in the entertainment section of NY Times does not speak to us pre-boomers.]  My very least engaged moment, enjoyed by Ron and NY Times, was this one.  Stewart walks to refrigerator (Macbeth reimagined as 1950s Russia, see review above), takes out plate, slices bread and deli meat (symbolic?), makes sandwich and eats it while speaking.  Somewhere in Second Act. 

Patrick Stewart is a fine actor; we could feel that beyond the distractions.  I would love to see him in something more about the play, less about the production.  We came back to ourselves with a Middle Eastern meal at a modest place on Atlantic Avenue--Bedouin Tent, no website.

 

A Day Late, but Always Timely

Many thanks to Marrtha Knits, knitting friend in Brooklyn.  She wondered if I'd seen this candy heart and message from Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood. 

Nope...my contributions go to local PPs rather than National (we all make choices)--especially with more and more clinics and providers around the country under seige.  It was Alabama this past summer where a massive effort by anti-choicers once again threatened staff in Birmingham. 

Last week, another alert from the Feminist Majority about intensifed attacks  on women and the privacy of our medical records--in Kansas:

... subpoenas follow the grand jury’s demands for the medical records of some 2,000 women from Dr. George Tiller’s Wichita clinic. Dr. Tiller’s attorneys appealed to the Kansas Supreme Court, arguing that turning over the records would violate patients’ privacy. The Kansas Supreme Court temporarily blocked the subpoena while it reviews the case. 

Well, some of us do know what's the matter with Kansas, where you-know-who won Republican seal of approval in the recent primary.  I hasten to add that all is not as it should be right here in New York City, blue-state's center (?). I might be arrested--at least shooed off, by the N.Y. Police Department if I attempted to distribute free condoms in front of a high school.  (But not at Columbia University as we did last May.)

I'd be interested in hearing from readers about how you make decisions about giving dollars for choice and related issues of Safe Sex.   Requests from organizations, a friend's plea, a memory?

In honor of National Condom Week, a close-up of my newly-knitted Condom Amulet, "Old Stockings 'R Us,"  (vintage buttons, pantyhouse, 2 stockings).

Photo by Kay Gardiner, Mason-Dixon Knitting as we plotted Knitty City exhibit. Her iconic Condom Amulet creation, "Ballband Key Chain" appears HERE and on Ravelry, new and growing knit and crochet community site.

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.