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It is almost over!!!
As the year winds down, we all get so tired of everybody else’s kids and I am sure they are tired of us too, the feeling is mutual. So we send them all home to their parents who are looking forward to spending time with their kids. By the end of the summer, their parents are all tired of them and can’t wait for school to start. And the feeling is mutual for the kids, so they send them all back to us.This school year started off pretty rough for me, losing my mom in July. It never let up. A kid had a stroke at school. Another had a fatal heart attack at his group home about 2 hours after the close of the school day. That was first semester. I told my husband and son that there were only two other things that have yet to happen to me, and that after 35 years of this line of work, when they happen, it is a sure sign that I need to retire.The first—having to take care of someone injured on campus by an act of violence, either a stabbing or a gunshot. About two weeks after I said this, it happened. Technically, the kid had just exited the school property when he was jumped, beat up, and stabbed. He was able to walk though and Security brought him to me to assess and refer. Next thing I knew my office was filled with police officers who were part of the Gang Squad. The kid was stabbed in the head which produces a lot of blood and he looked like a mess. It about 20 staples to close his wound. I count this as an act of violence on campus.The second thing that will trigger my retirement–the only thing left now- is someone having a baby in my office. That is the final trigger. Hasn’t happened yet, but you just never know.In the meantime, I get to be around people like Zairah, who penned the note above. People like her keep me going. Thank you Zairah! I will miss you when you graduate next week, but it has been an honor having you in my office. Congratulations Class of 2011!One response to “It is almost over!!!”
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wow! sounds like a challenging year. we should all remember to thank those in whom we place our trust to look after our kids.
thanks from afar!
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Knitting Retreat in Friday Harbor!
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Originally uploaded by knitteratiThose of you who know where I am know who this is—-noted knitting designer, author and teacher demonstrates a new heel technique! Really!I started Saturday in Seattle, took the ferry to Bainbridge Island. I visited this store–Churchmouse Yarns and Teas. It is the ONLY store you EVER need to visit–seriously, I have been in a lot of yarn stores and this one is the best, for selection, assistance, friendliness, everything! Churchmouse is awesome!
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Cat’s Gift Kitting Retreat
I am waiting at the Burbank airport for my flight. I leave at 2 for San Francisco, change planes then on to Seattle. I spend the night there, and Saturday it’s over to Bainbridge Island to visit Churchmouse Yarns and Tea. Just possibly the best yarn shop in the world! That afternoon I crawl up the coast from Seattle, visiting Great Yarns in Everett and Wildfibers in Mt. Vernon. Sunday morning, it’s the ferry from Anacortes over to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island for a week of gift knitting with Cat Bordhi. I know that I still haven’t finished by cruise postings, but I will later. I will try to be diligent at blogging as it happens on this trip. The retreat is Monday through Friday. I return to Seattle Friday and flly back to Burbank Saturday. Come join me on this adventure!
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Berlin
MMmmmmmmmmmmmm………….Berlin and Bratwurst. This was an extremely hot day. Over 100, no AC anywhere, it seemed. As you know from my earlier post, I defected from the group, going rogue in Berlin with my new iPhone to lead me around. It was great–I found Freitag then ate at this place that was definitely not a tourist spot. The best bratwurst and German potato salad you could ever hope for!
I forgot to put this in earlier. This photo shows the queue waiting to board in Copenhagen. The lady in the middle casting on is Chris Bylsma. She is an author, designer, and one of the teachers on the cruise. She was casting on a new design and counting. A lady walked up and told her that she could teach her a much easier and faster way to cast on. Chris kept counting and smiled. See the couple behind her, just off of her right shoulder? See how they are staring? This is kind of how everyone looked at us during the cruise. Even thought there were only about 25 of us, we became a noted group. People in the elevator would say “Oh-you are one of the knitters. Exactly what are you doing?” We noticed that some of the other cruisers (appx. 2, 480 to guesstimate) would follow us when we went ashore because they knew that this cruise was one gigantic Baltic yarn crawl.
This is the Freitag Messenger bag I bought for Carson, being modeled by the lovely Monkey and Cat. Freitag uses the tarps that European trucks use for the sides and tops of their trailers. They cut them up and make all kinds of cool recycled totes, bags, backpacks, you name it. The strap is made of old seat belts. The trim on the flap is from old inner tubes. Their products are indestructible, their customer service unbelievable. I order a backpack for him at Christmas. Ordered it online on a Wednesday night, received it on the following Tuesday. And it came from Zurich. That would be Zurich, SWITZERLAND. Via UPS. check them out at http://www.freitag.ch
These are the new Birkenstocks I bought for my mom. She never got to wear them, not in this life, but she has them on now, along with two pair of handknitted socks, one of them my hand-dyes. I miss her a lot, every day.Coming up next: a day at sea, a class with Chrissie Day, and looking for inspiration in your knitting. You will see some photos like this :
and some like this:
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More from the Baltics.
I really must finish my trip for you!I spent time tonight organizing my photos in folders so hopefully I can blog a little each day. My last post was from Copenhagen. We boarded and headed for Warnemunde(I think, or was it Rostock?) which is a port in Germany about and hour or so outside of Berlin. It was really hot this day and we were glad to have a bus take us in to Berlin rather than the train. I have been to Berlin a couple of times and done the touristy thing–Checkpoint Charlie, the Holocaust Museum (HIGHLY recommended), The Brandenberg Gates, the Bundestadt, etc. So this time, we had a date at a yarn shop and were met by Horst Schultz. After a bit of shopping (insert gratuitous yarn photo here)
After a bit, Herr Schultz took us on the train to his apartment, which is an awesome thing to do. Our tour may have been the last that he did this with. I took a 2 day class with him at Stitches West a few years back, so I politely detoured at one of the train changes. I was on a mission to find the Freitag store……………………
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Coming up next–more of Berlin, the adventures of Monkey, Cat, and a Bratwurst on a hot summer day…..Tallin, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm, yarn, food, knitting inspiration and new friends!
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Copenhagen, Part 2
This is where Monkey met up with Cat, oddly enough in a pair of Camper shoes that I bought for Carson. They became fast friends in this world of yarn.Monkey shows off enough Isager laceweight for two shawls. They will be a fun knit, especially if I can remember which yarn I picked out for which pattern.They had some cools shawl pins here. Those that look like safety pins are made from horn, as well as one of the long ones. Not sure what the black is, it feels like horn. The one in the back reminds me of one of those little connecters that you use when you attach lures to your fishing pole. It caught me for sure, I brought it home with me.Ahhhh, Copenhagen knitting swag. Here is the world of Summerfuglen, which I believe is Danish for butterfly. Don’t exactly know what butterflies have to do with knitting, but it doesn’t matter when yo step into this shop. A little bit of everthing and best of all, they ship to the States. So you have to get a box full to make it worthwhile, right? This is where we all gathered for the first time to meet each other. What a great place to come together. I visited it, bought yarn, ate lunch, went back and bought some more yarn since there was room in my box:) I know you understand.
These are Zauberball-the one on the left is Zauberball Crazy, it is a 2 ply. The left is regular single ply. If you haven’t knitted with it yet, you have to try it. Makes awesome shawls with the long color repeats. Not a native yarn for Copenhagen,you can find it in the states, but you never find much of it because it flies off the shelves. You take it whenever and where ever you find it.These next two photos are kits that I bought–both Scandinavian designers, the scarf/shawl is actually felted. The Hanne Falkenberg kit is a vest in denim colors, a wool-cotton blend. She is known for unusual construction and her garments have great drape and a nice hand.Upcoming: Berlin, Tallin, Helsinki, St. Petersberg, Stockholm. Stay tuned!
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Copenhagen, part 1
Copenhagen was beautiful! Clean, friendly, very nice. I would go there again in a heart beat. They all ride bikes there. Unfortunately I didn’t get any photos, but they have very clever ways of building boxes onto the front (mostly) of their bikes to hold their children who are too young to ride. I saw one bike with a rather large box that had 4 little ones in it, ranging in age from about 1.5 to 5 years old. There were a few with the little trailers that hook onto the back of the bike, but most of them fashion these front box-type arrangements. I also learned that if you hear the tinkle of a bike bell, you had better stop because you are in the way of a biker and they are about to swerve around you. Better to stop because they have already seen you and are dodging around you. The foot traffic is heavy and so is the bike traffic. I found out too late that our hotel has bikes you can borrow from them–most places over there do.
Monkey met a friend to accompany him on his journey. Meet Cat. He looks remarkably like Tang, who is staying in LA with Carson while I am on my cruise.One of the stores I have on my list for this trip was Camper shoes. With the help of the GPS on my iPhone, I was led right to it. I asked for their most comfortable shoes and these were the two that they recommended. They both have gel insoles. When I tried them on my feet said ahhhhhhhh…………..so I bought both of them. And a pair for Carson that you will see in my next post.Camper shoes are hard to find the USA. They only have stores in big cities–LA, Boston–I think the one in LA closed.The yarn shop crawl across the Baltic starts with the next post. See you then!
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Blogstipation
It has been a long time since I last blogged. The holidays are rapidly approaching, they will definitely suck this year, so I decided it was time to tell of my knitting cruise this past summer. Something that was positive, fun, and completely knitting infused that will take my mind off of why these holidays this year will be really hard for me. So keep watching, because Ringo the Party Monkey will take you to the Lands of the Baltic Sea. You will see yummy yarn, new friends, and lots of knitting. Ringo is holding the toe of my Rare Gem toe-up Monkey sock that was cast on when we pushed away from the gate at LAX on British Airways.Some of you voted for the pattern and the colorway. Keep watching! Copenhagen comes next!(more obligatory Monkey photos to come too)Leave a comment
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The Gifting of the Socks.
Ever since I picked out the clothes for my mom to wear, I wrestled with the idea about how I would deal with the remaining 19 pair of handknitted socks I had made for her. This idea popped into my head sometime during the night before her services. After the service, family and close friends would be gathering at Robbie and Blanca’s house. What better time to gift them than this afternoon when everyone was gathered together in remembrance of my mom? I picked the socks up at my mom’s house. In the living room at Robbie and Blanca’s, I spread them out on the floor, sorted by method of construction. Top-down heel flap and traditional gussets, then toe-up Personal Footprints. I sorted each section according to fiber content—100% merino superwash, 75-25 blends, cotton-lycra blends. For those who know sock yarns, you can see lots of Blue Moon Fiber Arts STR, a couple of Regia, one Mini-Mochi, one Colinette Jitterbug, and some Opal. As I sorted them, I told the story of each sock. It was stroll through my life and my sock-knitting life starting in 2002.In the journey that is life, my knitting marks where I was, what I was doing, and what I was thinking at that point. I remember I started with the self-striping yarn from Opal, I discovered it when I helped Carson move for his first semester at Brown. From Opal, I moved into Jitterbug and Brown Sheep hand dye, played around with Cascade Fixation, and fell totally under the spell of the Blue Moon. I was constantly in search of the perfect sock and my mom was a more than willing participant in my quest.My mom loved these socks. She told me once, about 2 weeks before Christmas, that the only socks she could wear were the ones I knitted for her, all others hurt her feet. At that time, I had 2 pair finished, one about halfway done, and another pair that I had just cast on. I turned up the knitting to high speed and I think I gave her 3 pair with the 4th on the needles.
In the telling of the stories, more and more of the giftees became entranced with the socks and how they played into the life of my mom and I. Each one had its own history, when it was knitted, where the yarn came from, why some of them were worn more than others. What kinds of shoes she worn them with. What her likes and dislikes were as far as fit and color. She loved to wear denim, so many of them were blues. Differences in construction, heel flap and gussets as opposed to personal footprints. Monkeys, Jaywalkers, purl when you feel like it, hand dyed, self patterning, toe up, top down, Rare Gems, Socks That Rock, and on and on. My mom loved them and I could think of nothing better than for each of them to have a part of something she really loved. One of the asked if I was going to give them out, I told her no, I wanted them to each pick a pair- first come, first served. It was a shark-feeding frenzy that ensued! While listening to the story of the socks, unbeknown to me, they were all eyeing them and had located the ones they wanted. When given the go ahead they pounced on them and claimed a pair. I am sure my mom would approve. After a while, we gathered for a photo session. After everyone picked out their socks, I was asked several times “please tell me the story of my socks again, what is the name of my sock? what is the name of color of my sock? Where did my sock come from?” It was therapeutic and it turned a task that would truly paralyze me into a wonderful thing to share, The Gifting of the Socks.
4 responses to “The Gifting of the Socks.”
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What a great idea! Everyone looks pleased with their choice, too….
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that's great! truly amazing actually.
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I love this! Thanks so much for sharing!
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Only too perfect! Love what you did and what a great way to share with friends through all the knitterly love you shared with your mom and can now be passed on.
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