Hagley Museum - March 2011

Gray stone, red brick arch, and yellow boxcar.





Went up to Wilmington DE to see Hagley Museum in early spring – March is one of the nicest times to go because it isn’t crowded, even though very little is in bloom.

Managed to catch Hagley on a “Dollar Day” – admission was $1 instead of the normal $11.00. This was appreciated because the tolls between Maryland and Del\aware are $11.00 now - $2.00 at the Baltimore Tunnel, and two toll stops in Delaware that are $5.00 and $4.00 – I don’t have the EZ Pass, and the cash lines are so long on a weekend that I’m really starting to think I ought to get one.

Hagley is the most intimate of the DuPont museums - the guidebooks mention this, and the authors are right. It’s a lovely place to wander around, although there is some pressure to stay on the shuttle bus (which is exactly where you don’t want to be on a weekend with a whole bunch of screaming kids and a group of moms who have pretty much given up). The grounds are so peaceful – stone ruins and water everywhere, cogs and drills everywhere at the machinist shop, more wheels and a piston at the Steamroom, pipes and spinning water wheels scattered on the property – it lulls the visitor into forgetting how many working men died on this site.
Duck swimming along in a canal - the peacefulness of this place is the first thing the visitor notices.

Hagley has a great organic cafe/restaurant which serves a very reasonably priced lunch - a bowl of turkey chili, a pasta entree, and dessert cost me only $13.00. The other DuPont museums don't have anything organic. This is definitely the best museum at which to buy lunch on-site.

Docents at Hagley and also at Winterthur are enthusiastic and highly knowledgeable. It is considered an honor to be chosen as a volunteer docent, and they go out of their way to make it a good experience for visitors.

The house is nice – it is the least spectacular of the DuPont homes because the owners were actually engaged in running operations when they lived here,and not just hugely wealthy trust-funders who sat on corporate boards but were better known for conserving the entire history of American interior design ( which is what the visitor sees at Winterthur). A lot of DuPont wealth still influences this region, but the families now have various other names. For example, the Carpenter family who owned a major sports team in Philadelphia is actually a DuPont family under a different name.

Brief recap on the history – this is the oldest of the DuPont properties, and the place where the family really started to make a fortune during the Civil War. They made a “black-powder” for use in the gun that every 19th century rural man owned. The DuPont paterfamilias was the son of watch-makers who managed to persuade his parents to pay for an engineering education before the French Revolution.


Beautifully constructed doors and windows on a stone barn addition.

By the time of the French Revolution, he had apprenticed his own son to Antoine Lavoisier, the famous chemist, and had already become a very wealthy man in France. DuPont figured the Jacobins would have his head, so he took his own money, raised a lot more money, and left France.

Blackpowder was a highly explosive mixture of saltpeter, potassium nitrate, and charcoal developed by medieval Chinese alchemists who were probably trying to develop an elixir of youth but ended up with a mixture that could kill people instead. Prior to the Civil War, hunters and soldiers encountered huge problem with shot that misfired or didn’t fire at all. This was the only business the DuPonts made any money on during the 19th century, but they made so much money that their other business failures are largely forgotten.



A reminder that "steampunk" was cogs and gears long before it turned into jewelry on etsy.com.




Blackpowder production came at a huge price – some 2000 explosions were recorded on the property, and the deaths or severe injuries of working men are associated with many of the incidents. The city of Wilmington would no longer allow the DuPonts to transport blackpowder within the city limits after a huge explosion rocked the city, setting off many small fires.


Trunk of a 350 year old osage orange tree, the second largest of its species in the U.S. Hagley has some famous old trees that the DuPonts consciously preserved, even though the working portion of the estate was denuded because blackpowder explosions could set off forest fires.

As a result, the DuPonts built a road around Wilmington so that blackpowder could be transported to the Atlantic – 19th century trains would not transport blackpowder, for obvious reasons. The DuPonts were also among the first American companies to establish a "widow and orphans" fund.





Gorgeous stone construction on the side of a barn, with red brick portholes along the bottom. Right from the beginning, there was a big interest in home design, and these barons had a lot of skilled help who could make the vision a reality.

Speaking of Wilmington – it reminded me of a small-scale version of Philidelphia – very working-class and pretty rough. You can see its past splendor in the museums and the restored Opera House (gorgeous exterior) and the 19th century churches scattered all over the city – but the city is poor and looks it. Downtown reminded me of a Cincinnati without hills, but Cincinnati has more money than Wilmington. There’s a strong Jersey Shore influence, too – you can see it in the appearance of some white folks, and hear the accent in their voices.

Wilmington is home to a lot of people that have lived in the city their whole lives and never lived anywhere else.It’s insular, with strong working-class values. I drove through on the weekend before St. Patrick’s Day, and watched a whole group of young adults all decked out in green (top hats, face paint, the works) on their way to the pub for some early drinking. Two of them were pushing baby strollers – I kid you not – I don’t know whether the bar was providing baby care for tipsy parents, or what.



This is the simple house that the foreman and his family lived in, yet it was one of the nicest houses for a working man on the property.



<Stove in the foreman's home.






My friend Joan actually lives in Wilmington, and I got to see her on this little weekend getaway. She acknowledges the sleaze factor in her adopted city, but she also points out that the phamaceutical companies attract a lot of well-educated outsiders who move to Wilmington for jobs in the labs. These folks add a cosmopolitan mix to the city - she says it is more of a balancing factor in Wilmington than in nearby Philadelphia.


This is the machinist and blacksmith workspace - the heart of the operation.

Things I Love About Cincinnati

Jenn Berning, the mother of my god-daughter

THINGS I LOVE ABOUT CINCINNATI

They get plenty of snow out here during the winter. We had snow on the night of Christmas Eve, and more snow on Christmas Day. Yet, Cincinnati manages to keep its streets clear. The streets may have more potholes than what we are used to back in Maryland. But Midwesterners know how to keep them clear of snow, damn it.

There are a lot of churches in West Cincinnati where Jenn lives, and many of the play Christmas songs through their bells during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. St. Dominic’s is a mile or so down the road from Jenn’s house, and the Christmas songs were clearly audible when I went outside in the cold morning air. There’s a sense of it being a Christian city in many of the neighborhoods.

JENN’S HOUSE

The energy level in this house is pretty low (something I’ve also noticed at my brother’s house in FL). I got a lot of reading and knitting done, and I watched a ton of TV (way more than I ever watch at home). But I didn’t have the energy to go outside much at all.

Jenn exposed me to a lot of new TV Shows (Matchmaker Millionaire, Kimora’s reality TV show and her Baby Phat clothing line, Jerseylicious, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Jesse Ventura’s Conspiracy Theory, Jerry Springer’s Baggage) and to books by Sylvia Browne (Life on the Other Side, Phenomenon). She is my TV guru, and I loved sitting around and watching shows with her and then yakking about them together.

I didn’t do as much cooking this time, which worked out well for Jenn and for me. She didn’t have as much stress about cleaning up. I got to relax a lot more, and although we didn’t eat or drink quite as well as we did the last time I visited, we still made out okay. Jenn also did more cooking, making classic Midwestern casseroles from recipes handed down by her mom.

BON BONNERIE

I didn’t bake at all this time. Baking really is a lot of work. Jenn went to Bon Bonnerie instead. Bon Bonnerie is a Cincinnati institution, and it is such an amazing bakery (better quality than anything I have encountered in the Washington DC area) that it does take the incentive out of making home-made cookies, even around the holidays, I’m afraid. Anyone who has a day out in Cincinnati should make a visit to Bon Bonnerie – a visitor doesn’t grasp the soul of this city who hasn’t been there. Most visitors to Ohio are aware that Skyline Chili is thick on the ground in Cincinnati, but few know about Bon Bonnerie, which has got to be one of the best wedding cake bakeries in the United States. Their afternoon tea is wonderful, too.

KNITTING

I did knit while I was out here, and got closed to finishing the blue and red pair of fingerless mitts. My second pair is probably going in hibernation. The truth is that I am getting a little tired of knitting.

There is too much dissatisfaction built into it knitting for me right now. The Eunny Yang pattern really takes longer than one would like for fingerless mitts (which should be something one can knit fast in three weeks). I’ve been working on this pair for two months.

There are still a lot of new holes forming in the afghan. I’m getting tired of doing constant repairs on it. I have to drag it out of the car and into the house and try to repair it before I leave Cincinnati, and the whole thing is getting pretty annoying. The afghan only fits a full-size bed, BTW. It isn’t even going to stretch wide enough for a queen-size bed.

Knitting also takes away from exercise time. I am getting really irritated with myself about the weight I have put on in the last two years since I started knitting. Many of the women that I knit with on Friday night are also overweight, particularly the ones who are my age and older. The truth is that knitting keeps me sedentary during my free time, and I would really need to be on a constant diet to compensate for the reduced physical activity.

Then there’s the fact that projects often do not turn out perfectly, or as well as one might have hoped. And there is constant mending of hand-knitted or hand-crocheted items, which you simply don’t have to do with machine knits. During an average workday, knitting fills a lot of time while I substitute teach. Once I stop subbing, I’m probably going to be down to one project a year.

Nonetheless, there was one nice bonus to knitting over the holidays. My two year old god-daughter was fascinated with my knitting.











ENVY NAIL SALON

Just thought I’d pass this nugget along. In the course of my travels, I hit upon a wonderful little nail salon at the corner of Backlick Rd. and Braddock Rd. in Annandale, VA, after being tipped off by a teacher at one of the schools I substitute teach at. Envy Nail Salon charges low California prices for manicures and pedicures, which tend to be more expensive almost anywhere else in the DC metro area. A basic manicure is $12.00, a French manicure is $15.00, and a mani/pedi is $32.00. These prices aren’t quite as good as what you can get in most of coastal California, where the sheer number of Asian operated nail shops keeps the price down. But they are pretty darn good compared to what I expect to pay in Rockville, Bethesda, or Frederick, MD. The only drawback is that they seem to expect higher tips because they know they’re prices are lower than market. I gave an 18% tip just before Xmas, and I could tell the lady was disappointed. If I go back, I will probably have to tip 20% to 22%.

MY GOD-DAUGHTER


Sarah is two years old, and such a little doll. My name for her is “Alf, Alf”, because it’s something she says quite a lot. She is saying distinct words in between a lot of babbling at this point. She says “thank you” a lot. “Down” is another favorite, but she also threw in high-octane words like “knitting” and “vacuum”…such a little mother’s helper (lots of Capricorn planets). Throw in a helping of independent streak (a couple of Aquarius planets) and gentleness alternating with total diva (a couple of Pisces planets), and you have a pretty good picture of Sarah @ "Terrible Two".

Here she is in the bathtub. I’m thinking of updating the profile photo on Jenn’s FB page with this picture.


Or maybe I'll update FB with this one...





















Here she is wearing the beautiful tiger’s eye beads that Jenn gave me as an early birthday present.










Here she is on my laptop. She knows she isn't supposed to be doing this, so watch how she pours on the charm in the next shot.





















Here she is standing on daddy’s foot, with her back to the camera and her beautiful Barbie-like hair.











Sarah has a “thing” for cameras.











Little photographer.














Tongue shot...











AT AUNT DEBBIE’s

We also went up to Mason, OH, between Cincinnati and Dayton, to visit Jenn’s sister, Debbie, and her little girl, Lila.









Debbie and her husband own a nursery in the Mason, OH area. My own sister lives not too far from here, but unfortunately, I have not seen her in years.

It was great seeing Debbie, who is funny, smart, and very on-the ball.


















Her husband, Terry, shared a rather interesting theory on how we might potentially have jump-started the economy by spending the stimulus money to radically restructure the housing industry. Ohio is largely a conservative state outside of Cleveland, and his views did not surprise me.


GOD, THIS VACATION JUST FLEW BY…

I had two weeks off, but it isn’t enough, and I am well aware that a lot of folks don’t even get that. I never thought I would look back fondly on last summer, because I spent most of it on crutches with a broken foot, and going out was such a pain in the ass because it was brutally hot for weeks at a time. But last summer was the only time I had to read and write and knit and crochet and do cross-stitch embroidery and not have to worry about anything but resting and healing up. This year is going to all work and very little relaxation, and this isn’t exactly a mood-booster.

So exhausted from XMAS...and it hasn't started yet.

I'll just post a few photos of my completed afghan, and see if I can link them up with ravelry. This was about nine months of work, done simultaneously with other projects.




This is 90 octagons and 72 connecting diamonds. I was finally able to get these photos up because I replaced my six year old digital camera with a Sony Panasonic Lumix. It has a 25mm wide angle Leica lens, and was $199.00 at Best Buy. Very good deal, very nice camera for the price.














Went to a little cookie swap at Eleganza Yarn yesterday. I've been so busy with the side gig that I didn't even get a chance to bake for it. It was a small turn-out - other folks were feeling overscheduled as well, I have a feeling. Still, it was really nice. Here are the photos.

The lady below is wearing a beautiful orange shawl, and we all ooohhhed and ahhhhed over it. On my list of things to knit this year is to tackle a shawl project - I already have a beautiful purple yarn with silver sparkles that I bought online - I just have to find the right pattern at Kristi's shop (Eleganza Yarns in Frederick, MD).

13 Days Until The Christmas Carols Start Playing On The Radio

Finished crocheting my 90 octagon afghan, and it is gorgeous. What I didn’t expect was how tension on the sock weight yarn would cause it to pop – this is what happens in a heavy blanket. I am now stuck sewing a center circle back up as invisibly as possible every time it pops. Every day for a week now, I’m noticing damage that occurred during the night before when the afghan was in use. I couldn’t have extended this afghan past 90 octagons even if I had wanted to – the heavier it gets, the more stress is placed on the weakest, thinnest yarn. It fits well on a queen-size bed. My original dream of having a king-size afghan to fit a king-size bed that I have always wanted is not going to happen.

Substitute teaching is a lot more stressful this year than it was last year. Wednesdays in Fairfax County are turning into a highly stressful experience, because the switchboard is staffed with people who are far less professional than the ones working on it last year. They refuse to answer the phones as early as 6:15 am, citing the need to manage an orientation that doesn’t begin until 8:00 am. It’s an utter disaster.

Other than this, I love Fairfax County, which has so far proved to be my favorite county as far as teaching in the Washington DC area goes.

The problem on Wednesdays was a big part of my motivation to enroll in some other counties to substitute teach. I decided on Frederick County, but my feelings on that end are pretty mixed. It’s nice to have a back-up, but Frederick County doesn’t have jobs every day, and it doesn’t have a switchboard (which is a virtual guarantee that the early-rising substitute teacher will get the worm, except at the very end of the year). My first and only job so far up in Frederick County was a total disaster – the school deleted me, I had to deal with a reproving phone call from the head of HR, Nancy Dietz, and my opinion of the school is…there is no nice way to put this…that the place is another Columbine waiting to happen. I say this in spite of the fact that there are a lot of wonderful, well-motivated students at this school who are eager to learn, and who do not deserve such a smear on their reputations. I can only hope that my experience at other Frederick County schools turns out better.

I got through much of the paperwork and an all-day orientation at Alexandria City – this was supposed to be my other back-up. Unfortunately, as we are now heading into the holiday season, my budget is so tight that I simply do not have room for another $44.00 fingerprint fee, and another lost day of work to go in there and do the fingerprints. They are the only school system I have ever encountered that does not do fingerprinting at the time of orientation – in fact, the hiring process at Alexandria City is the most distinctly un-streamlined I have ever experienced, and I can’t help but wonder if this doesn’t help justify certain jobs.

I’m hoping to do an Ohio Christmas this year – I haven’t seen my little god-daughter since she was four months old, and she’s two now. The thing is that travelling for the holidays involves so much advance planning and extra organization that I start stressing early. Everything has to turn a dime with substitute teaching, and nothing can go wrong. No days can be “lost” because it puts a lot of stress on the budget when one is planning a trip on top of ordinary expenses. November was my low point in earnings this year for a variety of factors, and this puts on even more pressure. No wonder I rarely blog anymore.

I hope and pray its going to be a good Christmas/Yule, for me and others I care about. As we near the end of the year, I'm trying not to think about all the things I hoped I would accomplish this year, and didn't. It hasn't been an easy year. May there be a little hidden sweetness toward the end of it...that's all I ask.

Franzen at Lisner Auditorium...

I really enjoyed it. Even though he did his "withholding" thing with the audience - Franzen really didn't want to give anything away. When asked directly, "What is this story about?", he wouldn't answer the question. But it didn't annoy me - his talk was free. An author can play any game he pleases when I'm not paying to hear him speak. They only get my wrath when they keep that game up after I've paid to hear them.

He said his favorite character was a Republican. From that, we were supposed to infer Joey. Well sure, a young Republican with a sex slave for a wife who makes a fortune off the Gulf War while still in college. What guy wouldn't love a character like that?

But hey, this is anything but a feminist age. Can you blame Franzen for tapping the backlash with some great writing and making money off it?

Methinks he enjoyed toying with the audience a wee bit too much - they schlepped in 90 degree heat to hear him read. In his defense, he was exhausted. He was on the last day of a three week book tour, he said. And at least the questions weren't as bad as the ones he encountered the night before in Philadelphia.

There was a lot more of this sly humor. Call it "cynical" only if you're in a bad mood. When accused, Frazen pointed out that "cynical" is something that folks love to call OTHER PEOPLE. If you're in a good mood, that's a witty guy.

What I've Been Reading Lately...

Why is there a bird on the cover of the literature?, September 18, 2010




This review is from: Freedom: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club) (Hardcover)
Freedom is very easy on the brain. From the beginning, the reader can sit back and enjoy the cynicism, and the unexpected passages that shock without warning. It's easy to get into the story, and it flows fast without obstacles. Franzen does a great portrait of a discontented, bored suburbanite in his protagonist, Patty Berglund.

What I liked was Franzen's choice of a theme that we don't see too much of in recent literature - the exploration of a relationship that I would call "blood brothers" - two men who are not related, and not homosexual, but whose personalities are so meshed that they are closer than actual brothers. He does a good job of showing how both men benefit from competing with each other as much as they love each other...and really shows us the envy underlying the love. The author also shows us how the "blood brother" relationship can destroy the life of a woman trapped in the middle of it, while also making Patty fully responsible for her own problems. If anything, "Freedom" is a potent argument against poly-amory.

The character who really fascinates me isn't Patty, however. It's Connie. She is absolutely driven by a single goal in life, to get married to a guy that she identifies as a "winner", one whom she has formed a soul-mate relationship with by the time she is ten, and one who she will convince to love her in return, no matter what the cost or how many years it takes.

Whenever Connie is reintroduced to the narrative, it picks up tempo. The psychic bondage and domination in the relationship between Connie and Joey is the perfect counter-weight to the feminism of an earlier era that Patty benefits from and Walter promises to uphold. At the end of the story, when Patty says that her overachieving daughter Jessica is a working dog to Joey's show dog, we have no doubt by how much the submissive, underachieving Connie has left Jessica behind in the dust by marrying the "show dog". Tolstoy was no feminist, and in this story, Franzen isn't much of one either.

Patty says there is something "not right" about Connie that makes her hair stand on end, and this reaction is shared by the reader. Yet I knew a few "Connies" when I lived in the Midwest - the straight-A students who followed their boyfriends from high school to college. They had the grades to go anywhere after college, but they made sure to get accepted to the grad school where the boyfriend was, and then dropped out as soon as the boyfriend graduated. A year or so after grad school they got the prize, after committing more than a decade of their lives without a "solid guarantee". Of course, it helps that this Connie had a $50,000 trust fund to seal the deal, but even without it, Franzen captures a particular type of Midwestern girl perfectly. He also shows how her mother Carol colludes with Connie's ambition - another true-to-life scenario based on my own experience.

Surprisingly, the argument about "Freedom" is a conservative one. Franzen may mock the evil of mountaintop removal, and indulge repeatedly in his pet liberal passions of zero population growth and "bad" outdoor cats vs. helpless birds, but he really seems to be criticizing the freedom with which we so easily follow our emotions if it feels good. Anyone who doubts that this is the heart of the conservative argument should check out the essay on Jane Austen in "10 Books Every Conservative Must Read" by Benjamin Wiker.

Sometimes the author's craft is a little weak. It is obvious Walter sold his morals out long before he got involved with Vin Haven and the Cerulean Mountain Trust, but the reader doesn't get to see this happen. There is no sense of real dollar amounts underlying what is otherwise a realistic story - the author has Patty starting over on her own with a job that doesn't pay the rent and a $75,000 inheritance that wouldn't last more than two years, yet wants us to believe that she "holds out" against Walter without one word for six years. Franzen is no Balzac either.

Yet the wonderfully subversive quality of this story is what makes it a winner, as well as the good writing. Does the story advocate for what is precious to liberals? Does it show the ultimate failure of feminism? Does it show how conservatives misuse freedom to do whatever they want, or does it show how liberals do the same damn thing? You be the judge. Why is there a bird on the cover of the literature? When Walter tells us, the subversive laughter lets the reader "have cake and eat it too".

***

The other thing I really liked didn't make it into the above amazon.com review. Franzen captured the ambivalence of partially Jewish characters perfectly. Patty is the daughter of a Jewish mother, but otherwise unobservant. Her son Joey is half-Jewish and skeptical about whether our involvement in Iraq is justified if it benefits Israel (something I can relate to). Joey isn't aware of his Jewish heritage because he knows almost nothing about his Jewish family (something I can also relate to). Here's a wonderful conversation between Joey and his mother, when he questions why she never shared her heritage with him.

“A house full of Jews! How interesting for you.”

You’re a Jew yourself. And that makes me a Jew, too.”

“No, that’s only if you’ve been drinking the Kool-Aid…I think, when it comes to religion, you’re only what you say you are. No one else can say it for you.”

“But you don’t have any religion.”

“Exactly my point….Although apparently my sister disagrees with me…”

“Which sister?”

“Your aunt Abigail. She’s apparently deep into the Kabbalah and rediscovering her Jewish roots, such as they are…”

“I don’t even know what the Kabbalah is.”

“Oh, I’m sure she’d be happy to tell you about it, if you ever want to be in touch with her. It’s very Important and Mystical – I think Madonna’s into it, which pretty much tells you all you need to know right there.”

“Madonna’s Jewish?”

“Yah, Joey, hence her name.” His mother laughed at him.

***
Franzen “gets” the ambivalence of his partially Jewish characters. (I totally enjoyed the above dialogue.) Unfortunately, his portrait of Jonathan’s fully Jewish, hawk-on-Iraq father got a little ugly. A scene with an Orthodox Jewish jewelry store owner was inaccurate. If Franzen doesn’t get the Pulitzer for this book, the backlash may have something to do with it…which is a shame, because the writing is worth the Pulitzer. I wish Franzen hadn’t shot himself in the foot this way.

The Waitress...

AUTHOR’S NOTE:
It’s been so long since I’ve done any creative writing, and I was just itching to create a character in under a thousand words. Here they are…both of them.

She’s a pretty blonde in a vague way, with a compact body, small-built, a sweet, round face with tastefully chosen light-colored eye shadow and a light shade of pink lipstick. So many girls who waitress look the same – pretty blondes who aren’t gorgeous, and who don’t stand out in a crowd, but the customers think they’re cute, and not just the male customers. They have nice bodies in their form-fitting white blouses and tight black pants, but you can tell they’ll get fat as soon as they’ve had their second kid. This girl looked just like that.

She’s smart – she wants to go to Berkeley Law School when she’s finished with college – I heard her on the phone while she was getting a cigarette in. She attends a local college, and just got back from the beach where she had money to spend on a condo, groceries, and parties with older guys who are now doctors and lawyers. Dumped her boyfriend while she was at the beach – he had to stay home and work, and he accused her of being unfaithful while she was there. She couldn’t take the jealousy. He came to the restaurant and cried, so now everyone at work knows, and he went to her house and told her mom that the female friend she went to the beach with was a bad influence. Now she is on the phone to a guy she hasn’t seen in months, actively trying to make a lunch date between classes this week, because she needs a new boyfriend – she’s the type who can’t be without one. First, she tells him about getting promoted from hostess to server, and how much extra money this means for her, and then she says she hasn’t seen him in ages, and then informs him that she has just broken up with her boyfriend.

She talks about her job. She is making so much money now - $100 in tips for working a Friday lunch, $180 for working a Saturday lunch – she is the type that always gets hired for the well-paid jobs in the cliquey restaurants. She makes $3.25 an hour in wages, but it all just goes to taxes. She makes $450 a week just working weekends and one weekday, and she doesn’t even get the dinner shifts yet.

Just got back from the beach, but she is going to Pennsylvania next month, heading to New York with a girlfriend in October, and going back out to California in November. Waitressing pays for all of it – she certainly doesn’t have to pay her school tuition with her hard-earned money. And she’s on the five year plan, so there will be fewer classes to take each semester, with a more flexible schedule for waitressing. Once she gets the evening shifts, she’ll make more money each week than I make as a nurse.

It takes some work. The guy on the other end of the line keeps making excuses for why he can’t fit her into his class schedule. Then there is her class and work schedule to maneuver around. But by the end of the conversation she has got a tentative breakfast date on campus, and in another week or so, if all goes well, she’ll be able to say she has a new boyfriend.

She’s good at manipulating, but she’s still a team-player who is good with the customers – you can tell. These girls are all alike. Aggressive, ambitious, and hard-working – they get hired in the right restaurant by the time they’re 19 and they’ll be making $50,000 a year mostly under the table by the time they’re 21. They’ve got plenty of friends, plus a steady stream of boyfriends while they look for “The One”, a search that takes years. Most of them end up in law school; some of them get MBA’s.

I was never like her - neither as confident, superficial, or articulate. For me, love actually meant something special, and I couldn’t get it easily if I lost it – there was no way I could go from boyfriend to boyfriend at the drop of a hat. I was a waitress, too, but I couldn’t get hired at the cliquey restaurants because I didn’t have the right look.

Yet watching her, I felt amused instead of threatened. She’s cute, I thought, and fun to eavesdrop on. I am so much older than she is now that I no longer have to compete with her and her clones in any category that matters. So I guess I have reached my angle of repose, from which I can recline and watch the aggressive, smart-talkers who are destined to become so much more successful than I ever will be.

Thoughts On Cross-Stitch...

God, what an old-fashioned art this is. While knitting has kept up with the times, with new-fangled needles and super-pricey yarns, cross-stitch has really gone out of style among younger women. This is a problem, because older women who wear bifocals claim it is too difficult to do. They’re right – the holes in the fabric are tiny, the holes in embroidery needles are tiny, and the fanciest stitches (like the French Knot) are so delicate that you need a magnifier to see them properly. This means that the art has to be passed to women still young enough to master it. No wonder cross-stitch is dying out.

When I was a kid, I did a cross-stitch that was specially designed for kids. It had a pre-stamped fabric, and larger holes, so I could just follow along as if I was doing a paint-by-numbers, with a larger needle that a child could handle. These kits aren’t sold in the craft stores anymore – there is no market for them. They may be available online – I haven’t researched it.

The thread is cheap. It frays frequently. It is hard to separate without knotting it up. And I’m still very much a beginner. I spend more time putting a knot in the base of a new thread, threading the tiny needle, and doing ten trial-by-error stabs through the fabric as I just try to pinpoint the correct tiny hole than I actually do sewing.

Still, there is something incredibly meditative about cross-stitch. It can be the yoga of needlecraft. It’s a great way to waste hours at a time, and you can throw away a week on a small 5x7 picture without even thinking about it. The tale of Ichabod Crane comes to mind. Cross-stitch is a rabbit hole straight into Sleepy Hollow if there ever was one.

The wonderful thing about cross-stitch, though, is that it can be personalized in a way that few other crafts can be, once you get the hang of the lettering. Some one I know has a simple one hanging by her front door that depicts a woman with a broom and reads, “You think this place looks bad now? You should have seen it BEFORE I cleaned it up!” Who wouldn’t want a unique, framed piece like that? Framed cross-stitch pieces from kits end up in yard sales all the time, particularly in the Midwest, but I have noticed that these highly personalized pieces almost never get tossed at a public sale.

A lot of old-fashioned things are coming back in this recession era, from DIY gardens to hand-cut pasta, but cross-stitch conflicts with a need for daily exercise. It is an invitation to sit for hours at a time and get fat, and we already have computers for that. So I’m not predicting a renaissance…I’m just a stubborn hold-out who wonders if I can train a little pair of hands before she gets old enough to dump me and the needlework for a treadmill and a future smart phone that texts when you think at it.

UPDATE: THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 2010
Cross-stitch was not as meditative as I hoped it would be. The end result is still beautiful, don't get me wrong. But I got so tired of the thread knotting up or fraying for no reason - the thread that comes with the kits is very cheap. The thread is constantly dropping out of the needle so that the needle needs to be re-threaded, which is a challenge when the needle has a tiny eye. And then, I swear, the needle seems to want to stab my finger without warning or reason.

After working on this project for a week, I switched back to knitting and was amazed at how much easier and less stressful it is to knit.

Beads and Quilts For The Bored, Cross-Stitch For the Poor

This is the signature piece of one of my favorite “quilt” artists, Judy Wickersham Schauerman






GOD, WHAT A LONG SLOW SUMMER...
It’s amazing what a broken foot won’t do (yeah, there’s a pun). It ruins a summer. I keep trying to think of different, more positive ways to look at it. Mixed feelings about how well that is working.

WHAT'S THE HARDEST THING ABOUT THIS SUMMER?
Between the sprained knee this past winter, and the broken foot this summer, I have put on so much weight...

Here I am at Wonder Books in Frederick, MD, where I have just spent $3.29 for a copy of Gods and Myths of Northern Europe by H.R. Ellis Davidson, originally published in 1964.

I never even realized the author was a woman – that name is deliberately deceptive. And given the fact that the quote on the header photo of this blog is from one of the Scandinavian sagas, you would think I would have read this classic in the field before now, but somehow I never got around to it. It was wonderful, BTW. I ate this book up.


WHAT SHOULD HAVE I BEEN DOING?
I should have been studying chemistry…so that I’ll know it if I get a chance to teach it. Well, I have done a little of that.

WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING TOO MUCH OF?
Sitting on my butt. More than halfway through a summer afghan that I really didn't need to finish for another couple of summers.

LOOKED INTO QUILTING…


I went to the library and Borders and looked at quilt books. In a book called, “Once Upon a Quilt: A Scrapbook of Quilting Past and Present”, I found a Japanese lantern quilt made in Pennsylvania around 1920, 25 cotton blocks, (sorry, no photo available). Simple white background, rich blue calico diamonds bordered b y solid red stripes for the lantern, red embroidery thread (I’m guessing) for the lantern handle, and the blocks are all set in a grid of solid lavender pieces, with a thin red border around the outside of the quilt. Perfect quilt for a beginner with some sewing knowledge…

But it will be years before I tackle something like this. Quilting classes are pricey, and necessary for a beginner, unless your female relatives still remember how to do it and can help you. Buying enough quilting fabric for a large quilt is ridiculously expensive now…you don’t save any money making a first quilt – in fact, an experienced quilter with access to wholesale fabric can probably make it for half of what it costs the beginning hobbyist. Quilt kits are popular for a reason…but then you can’t innovate as you go. And then there’s the time factor – no craft genre is more time-consuming than quilting. It’s a dream of mine to hang one beautiful display quilt at home someday, and be able to say that I made it. The fact remains that I will need to pay myself a six-month sabbatical to be able to do it.

Let me grow lovely,
growing old
So many fine things to do;
Knitting lace, darning holes, and forging gold.

LOOKED INTO BEADING…
This was interesting. Looked at all the books, got a feel for designs that I like, looked at the magazines, noticed ads for the bead shows and the big Bead Fest in Philadelphia in August. There’s a small shop in Frederick that has a necklace on display that I just loved – the designer who taught a class on how to make it is “on travel” all summer, so I may try to catch her in the fall.

MY “FIRST” IMPRESSION OF BEADING
There’s an awful lot of ugly jewelry out there, and you really have to sift the slush-pile for classic designs. Once you find what you like, the reasonably priced classes are out in the sticks (in Maryland -Frederick and beyond). There are a lot of techniques to learn – it takes a lot longer to become proficient in jewelry making than it does in say, knitting or crocheting.

You buy a lot of tools in the beginning. You take classes on things that you can learn for free at a knitting circle or from a friendly knit shop owner – beading is A LOT MORE of a business. Every stay-at-home mommy and their mother is doing jewelry shows out of their house, it seems. People who are attracted to beading want an opportunity to MAKE SOME CASH ON THE SIDE.

This is a big contrast to knitting, where the community has a long-standing tradition of knitting things and just giving them away. With knitting, there is constant pressure to be knitting something for somebody else. Nobody EVER asks a beader, “So, who are you beading that for?”

The other thing I've noticed is that the beading crowd has more than its fair share of folks with more money to spend than taste. I'm not sure if this is because a lot of techniques need to be learned before you can make something pretty (meaning that beginners get "stuck" making ugly jewelry in order to learn to the ropes). But I don't think that's it. I've seen some very simple jewelry look elegant, and it looks like "beginner jewelry" to me.

LOOKED INTO CROSS-STITCH EMBROIDERY KITS…
I kid you not. This is how bored I am. I haven’t done one of these since I was a very young child, and I had my mom and grandma helping me back then.
This is one of the cheapest crafts you can get started on – I found this little kit in the half-price bin at Michael’s for $4.25.

You need an embroidery hoop, and a couple of extra embroidery needles, and you probably need more thread than the kit is going to give you. But the whole project costs $25.00 tops, excluding the cost of framing it when you’re done.

This is important to me, because I'll be lucky if I pull in $1000.00 this month.

Let me be honest and say that I’m not sure when I’m actually going to start this project – I have all the pieces for a lace blouse and a retro black dress cut out and sitting in the trunk of my car – it’s been there over a year now. Plus, this is a grown-up embroidery kit – the pattern isn’t stamped directly on the fabric – and that’s the only kind I did as a kid. So this is going to be more of a challenge.

But I just love the theme “It’s All About The Journey”, and it’s 5 X 7 inches, so it’s totally portable. Portability is a big factor for me on crafts - this is why so many of my projects end up in my car. I knit at lunch. I crochet at teachers’ meetings when I can get away with it. If I can’t take it with me, I think twice about investing money on it.

WILL I MAKE IT THROUGH ANOTHER MONTH OF THIS?
I ask myself this all the time now. I'm off to half-price happy hour to get my mind off it.

Long Summer Days

Derain, Andre Arbres-a-Collioure 1905

This painting is what summer means to me.

I was in a lot of pain the first three weeks after I fell and broke my foot – chronic, low-grade pain that never went away except when I slept. About a week ago, that pain finally dried up, and I immediately gave up the crutches the moment I could. Now I am limping everywhere, with my foot in a surgical shoe, but no ace bandage (God, is that thing hot in one hundred degree heat). I’m keeping my fingers crossed for August 20 (the six week mark) but I’m mentally trying to prepare for Sept 6 (I’m a slow healer.)

A month after I fell and broke my foot, I’m still trying to decide whether I was better off having this happen. There’s a lot of confusion in my mind over whether this was a blessing in disguise, or a total pain-in-the-ass misfortune - the real meaning of Jupiter/Chiron/Neptune on my MC in this year’s Solar Return, I suppose.

I had planned to work this summer, put some money in savings, upgrade my museum-piece cell phone, replace the digital camera that has been broken now for nine months, and pay off some bills. That didn’t happen. The economy is such a disaster here that it is impossible to find a job just for the summer that will accommodate the disability – I decided I would be better off reviewing chemistry, so that I can get ready to apply to public school teaching fellowships in the fall as a chemistry teacher. Still, there is a part of me that would really like a job, a part-time job, just to help me stay focused. But it’s a full time job to find a part-time job, so…maybe after I’ve gotten some other things done.

There’s been oodles of time on my hands this summer. Time to read – Maile Meloy’s short story collection, “Both Ways Is The Only Way I Want It”, which was wonderful. Time to read “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert - she’s a good writer, and it was an interesting book. She is also an annoying, one-hit-wonder kind of writer. She trashed Bali for everyone who has to go there after she did – Lonely Planet Bali even did a boxed inset titled, “That Damn Book”, in their section on Ubud.

She appears to have done the same thing with “Committed”, the book she published after her blockbuster. “Committed” is 250+ pages of her trashing marriage after she just got remarried herself. (Let me be the one to admit that I only skimmed it briefly, and didn’t want to devote the time to read it.) But at least I had the time to read whatever “struck me fancy” while hanging out at the Border Books in Frederick, MD (where I have spent an inordinate amount of time since breaking my foot). Like that would have happened if I had been working this summer.

There’s been time to daydream. I liked the section on Italy in Elizabeth Gilbert’s book a lot. If I can get the job I want in the Emirates a couple of years from now, and if the dollar stays reasonably strong against the Euro,I could totally see myself spending a month or more in Italy during my first free summer. I’ll have the money to do it – it’s a short, convenient flight from the Emirates. I started reading guidebooks, and planning a grown-up vacation (in fact, my first real grown-up vacation someplace outside the U.S.), instead of the backpacker kind I did the last time I was in Italy as a college student twenty years ago, (and I was only there for a week, nowhere near enough time for Italy).

Of course, July and August are high season in Italy, and the place would be overrun with tourists. I’d have to reserve everything far in advance. I’d have to put up with a lot of aggravation. And while I would hop flights from northern to southern Italy to save time (something I could not afford when I was younger), I would still be using trains to get around, because I don’t want to have to drive there – it’s the parking nightmare that boils my blood pressure, and not the steep, twisty roads.

I’ve always dreamed of going to Sicily – my grandmother’s parents were from there. The guidebooks inform me that Sicily will be a tourist madhouse in July or August, and the heat could be about as bad as it is in the Emirates.So maybe I could swing it, and maybe I couldn’t. But at least I could get as far south as Naples, with its amazing pizza and gelato, and not have to worry about my weight at all – I can eat whatever I want with a net loss when I ditch the car for a month or so. And maybe I could just relax on some of those little islands off the coast of Naples if I didn’t have the energy to make it all the way to Sicily.

When I was in Rome twenty years ago, I arrived on New Year’s Eve, and had everything stolen on the platform as soon as I got off the train (Rome was awful on crime twenty years ago – I understand things have really changed). My money was in a money belt underneath my padded plaid jacket, but I had nothing else left. I made my way to the American embassy, only to find out that it would be closed for several days over New Year’s. Outside the embassy, I remember standing there and crying, and this priest who spoke good English came along and felt sorry for me. He let me stay for free in his monastery some place near the church with the statue of St. Teresa of Avila for the long weekend – twenty years later, the only thing I remember is that he took me to see St. Teresa of Avila, and I stood there, like, forever - absolutely bowled over by it. [Just googled it, it is the Bernini statue and the church is Santa Maria della Vittoria - wish I could remember the monastery, it was right nearby].

But I digress…ah yes, Italy is on the brain. I’ve been multi-tasking as I write this blog, and checking out the agricultural B&B’s online at the same time. This is the one I really like,Casa del Grivio . It is in Friuli, that forgotten northeast corner of Italy on the border of Austria and Slovenia. The owners have a sweet, non-native way of expressing themselves in English that is charming (or else I’m a sucker for it). They seem like really nice people. I’m going to remember this one, particularly since tourists don't bother much with Friuli.

I came to Border’s to do chemistry today. But I haven’t spoken with the mother of my god-daughter in awhile, so maybe today would be a good day to call her. I still have to learn that short rows technique for the sweater I am trying to finish, which means I should call Christy and find a convenient time to go hang out in her shop a little while. Man, I love summer, and I love having it to myself without having to work an extra job. There’s no way I would be a teacher if I didn’t get my two months of summer vacation – I’ve got no problem admitting it either.

Summer Solstice 2010

So, it’s the Summer Solstice, the first official day of summer, as if we haven’t been having a vicious heat wave in this area now for over a month.
Still, I love this time of year. You can feel the summer peaking in energy, and I love to go out and pour wine on the growing corn, and give thanks, and just soak up the beauty of the season.

The painting above is from a mural at a Fairfax County school in Falls Church, VA where I worked during this past school year. It has a summer-paradise feel to it, and I loved the snake in the tree.

HERE’S THE PLAN FOR THE SUMMER:
I need to get some sort of temp job in July. In August, I’m hoping to take part of the month off and study for the chemistry Praxis exam which I will take some time in September or October. I’m doing it in high school chemistry because it is one of the few areas where the demand for inner city teaching gigs still exists. The economy is so bad right now that it’s nearly impossible to get a spot in these teaching residencies these days. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that chemistry is going to open a door.

It’s inorganic chemistry, which I haven’t done in years, but I should be able to get it all down in August. These Praxis exams are a joke compared to the pre-med curriculum that I first learned chemistry in.

Then I’ll start another round of applying to teaching residency programs in the fall (Baltimore Teaching Residency, Prince George’s County if their program is open, Teach for America). If I can get one of them to pick me up for the 2011-2012 school year, I’m set.

Detail from a different mural at the same school as the one above.

Note the silhouette map of Africa and the Middle East, the gold key, and the peace symbols(often associated with Peace Corps).

WHAT ELSE AM I DOING THIS SUMMER?

The only thing I can afford to do is my Master Gardener certification. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for years, and this would be a really good summer to do it since I am going to have August off, hopefully. Frederick County has offered the only summer certification course in Maryland in previous years – I’m hoping they’re doing it again this year, and that there will still be open spaces in the program. It will be very last-minute if I do sign up for it. Typically, the class starts right after the 4th of July.

I’M SO GLAD THE SCHOOL YEAR IS OVER ON WEDNESDAY

Substitute teaching was a mixed blessing this year. Doing it in Montgomery County was a losing proposition – I lost more money than I made (for reasons that were partially my own fault and partially weather-related), and I feel like the whole thing was an exercise in charity. Plus some of the schools that I worked in were way too demanding, considering what I was getting paid to be there every day.

Fairfax County is a lot easier in some ways. Substitute teaching at the middle school and high school level there is no where near as demanding as it is in Montgomery County. Much of Fairfax County is a truly suburban system, and the students are simply easier to deal with. Montgomery County Public Schools tend to have jaded students in the wealthier part of the county, and large numbers of ghetto and semi-ghetto students in Gaithersburg, upper Montgomery County, and along the P.G. border. You work harder as a substitute teacher in this environment, and get no thanks for it.

Fairfax County elementary schools are roughly comparable to Montgomery County – I didn’t see a real difference there. The more I worked in elementary schools this year, though, the less I had the patience for it. Too much of it was babysitting, and I just didn’t care for it. Also, elementary school teachers and administrators create a hencoop dynamic a little too easily for my taste unless the school is well-run by a competent principal. In an elementary school where the principal is part of the problem rather than at the center of the solution, things go downhill very fast.

Ultimately, I look forward to working in Fairfax County again next year, but I'm going to stick to middle schools and high schools as much as I can.

Maryland Sheep & Wool - May 1, 2010

Maryland Sheep & Wool was sweaty hot and totally crowded, but I was a good girl and I didn’t spend any money. Next year, though, I think I’m going to go back and do some damage.

Actually, I was more interested in buying hand-made baskets than I was in buying yarn. Baskets used to be ridiculously priced a few years ago. The better ones still aren’t cheap, but a creative, well-made small-to-medium sized basket can now be had for $55.00 to $60.00.

Maryland Sheep & Wool is a Maryland institution. It is held at the Howard County Fairground every May 1st over both days of a weekend, and it brings in people from all over the country.It is the largest sheep & wool festival in the United States.
Hand-made brooms and potted plants are also big sellers.

There was plenty of beautiful yarn there, don’t get me wrong. But the crowds are overwhelming by 10:30 am on Saturday. If you are going, go early and get there at 8:00 am. The Boy Scouts and their leaders do a great job of getting everyone parked. There are great lamb dogs and shish kabobs and basically any kind of lamb product you could want for lunch. The homemade soda merchant is on hand for an old-fashioned soda (although they were sold out of sasparilla by the time I got to the head of the queue). There is a line for EVERYTHING by 10:30 am on Saturday, be warned.

The girl on the left is my friend Cinnamon. The lady in the center is holding a bag of just sheared wool. It was full of lanolin, and very oily to the touch. Folks in the sheep industry euphemistically refer to this as a “buttery” texture – yeah, its buttery all right.



The sheep motif is used on everything sold at the festival – it is overdone and gets annoying, but there are some very cute things available, like these beeswax candles made to look like a flock of sheep.





This is a view of the entrance around 8:00 am, before it starts to get crazy. You’ll see some women wearing old-fashioned dresses here. The whole vibe is very Slow Foods, until it gets going, at which time it shifts to a vibe more like WalMart on Black Friday.





This prize-winning afghan caught my eye because the whole thing is patchwork pieces -much like the summer octagon afghan I am working on. The level of skill is far more sophisticated on this piece, but I was able to learn a few things by looking at it.

Frederick Wine Trail

Cameo view of Black Ankle Vineyard on a chilly spring day.

Frederick Wine Trail – its so close to DC, and so unknown.

I did four of their vineyards today, and the whole thing cost $50.00 (and this includes one purchase of a $20 bottle). This is up-and-coming wine. It isn’t as established as Virginia wine country, and there isn’t as much to choose from. But I’m all about supporting a local industry. Let’s hope all this wine is good for my heart! Look on frederickwinetrail.com for descriptions and directions.

BERRYWINE Plantation/LINGANOIRE Cellar

This is the granddaddy of the bunch. Its pretty close to Frederick, and its been around the longest . This is the only place where the wine tastings are free. I paid $8.00 to have them pair it up with Irish cheeses and desserts. The estate bottled Chambourcin was very good, and a good value at $20.00. I bought a bottle.

This is THE place to try and buy weird exotics, like dandelion wine (wonderful toasted nutty aftertaste) and Ethiopian tej (a mead with a very strong olive aftertaste – I’ve never tried anything quite like this. Definitely for the adventurous wine drinker, and a bit of an acquired taste for anyone else.)

LOEW’S VINEYARDS

Very small, total mom-and-pop operation. $2 to taste half a dozen wines. This is the only under-capitalized vineyard in the whole bunch, and I always make a point to support the underdog. I didn’t find anything to buy here, but that’s okay.

BLACK ANKLE VINEYARDS
Chickens who think they own the road with the Black Ankle Vineyard Tasting Room tucked away in the background.

California chic meets Maryland farm county. Overpriced wine, but people who like Napa wines are going to like this place. They are the newest on the trail, having just opened in 2008. This place is all about faux redwood and thick adobe-like walls in the bathrooms. The prettiest vineyard of the bunch.

$10.00 to taste six wines (three regular wines and three reserve wines) Even California vineyards typically taste eight wines for $10.00, but none of these vineyards can yet produce what a California vineyard can in terms of volume, so consider it a donation… The reserve wines are very good, but they are running $45.00 a bottle. Out of my price range – I didn’t bite.

There is a cozy little tasting room, and the view from the private events room is stunning. The owners live in Silver Spring, and commute out here. This is the only vineyard on the Frederick Wine Trail that grows and bottles everything they sell on the estate. Purists will love this pedigree.

ELK RUN VINEYARDS
The vines are empty on Palm Sunday at Elk Run Vineyard in Mt. Airy, MD.

There is some very good Cab Sauvignon and Cab Franc being made here. The owners were sitting around the table drinking when I walked in - I felt like I had to apologize in person when I didn’t buy anything (I was really trying to stick to a $50.00 budget, otherwise I would have.)

They had a Cold Friday Vineyard Reserve merlot that was yummy, but they weren’t tasting the Liberty Tavern Vineyard Cab Sauvignon that I really had my eye on (just as well, it was $50.00 a pop). I paid $8.00 to taste six wines of my choice, and the wine chief threw in an extra because I was curious. Not bad.

SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN

This is the closest vineyard to Washington, DC, and the only one on the trail that I didn’t get to, but I have tasted the acclaimed 2006 Comus. It’s a very nice wine that runs $30.00 a bottle. Wine isn’t cheap anymore. I remember when a very fancy bottle cost $25.00 to $30.00, and fancy bottles start at $50.00 these days. Oh well, prices go up, and then you die. What are you gonna do?

***
You get to drive some very pretty Maryland countryside as you go from vineyard to vineyard. My new GPS took care of me out here. Sometimes you’ll see a house with sleeping porches, or a true Appalachian style house with a two story front porch, and there aren't that many of these left. I went on Palm Sunday, when it was rainy and miserable. Not too crowded – I loved it.

More of the Stacy Pullover, and a New Project in the Works

CABLE KNITTING


This pattern is the Stacy Pullover from the book, Big Girl Knits.

Well, I guess I can see the attraction of cable knitting after all. Its kind of cool to watch the cable grow row by row. Honeycomb is easy, because you're only doing the cable one row out of four. But this hasn't stopped me from screwing it up. There has been er...um...a rather steep learning curve, to say the least.

I'm about halfway up the back, and the right side looks like a honeycomb, while the left side looks like a diamond lattice. I can't decide which one I like better yet, but this isn't the point. I thought I was following the C3B, C3F to a "T", but clearly I wasn't.

I updated Ravelry.com with this sweater today. My name on there is "aishamonique". It is necessary to be a member to follow posts on there. Membership is usually granted a couple of days after you apply.

NEW CROCHET PROJECT - ONE BIG GRANNY AFGHAN COMING UP

I've always wanted a big colorful octogon granny square afghan that would cover a queen-size or a king-size bed. A classic pattern for a "rainbow" afghan was recently published in Crochet Today magazine. I went to Moore's, and bought just enough yarn to get started today.

I bought a mix of Bernat Softee Baby yarn, and a little of the yarn the pattern uses, Red Heart Designer Sport. Red Heart has the colors, but I don't care for the texture of this yarn. Bernat is much softer, but I'm probably not going to find all my colors in one season unless I purchase on-line. All the stores are carrying spring pastels in sport weight yarn now, and that's about it.

I probably won't start this project until next month. I have to brush up on the crochet hook - I haven't crocheted in years. But this afghan should be fast, cheap, and easy - it doesn't get any better than that in the yarn world.

So pretty soon, I'll have one knitting and one crocheting project going. Get tired of one, and I'll be able to switch to another one. This should be enough to keep me busy for this year. Two projects is plenty, and three's a crowd...so I better not get tempted to add a third one.

ONE MORE THING

I love it that the Sabian Symbol for the new Moon (today) is Pisces 26: A New Moon Reveals That It's Time For People To Go Ahead With Their Different Projects.