handstories

dang!

    Returning from spring break today, the first words out of many of their mouths..."are we knitting today?"

    As soon as each assignment was finished...."can I knit?"

    One boy, talking to a friend..."reading used to be my favorite thing, now it's knitting."

    An email from another's dad...

    "... I have to tell you one of the funniest things I've ever heard from either of my children. We were at grandma's this weekend for Easter/his 9th birthday celebration, and he was coming up the stairs and said, "Dang, I forgot my knitting".  The family couldn't believe that he was knitting, and how much he loves it."    

    (Fortunately, grandma had some knitting she'd started to learn on a few years ago that he was able to practice on.)

    Warning:  Posts for the near future may centered on 3rd grade...I'm back to full-time (my co-maternity-leave sub is out with an injury).  

island day

yesterday, we boarded the "mystic sea" and sailed off for a day on the beach...
  stitching... and sand in my toes...

there was strolling and collecting... 

boys throwing rocks...

 some knitting...

and a big blue warm sky with bald eagles soaring...  

... just what the therapist called for.

boy hearts

 

...stuck fabric in a jar with some simmered onion skins (inspired by deanna)...

layered bits of blue and green on top with jude's invisible basting...

added another layer of onion, tea and who-knows-what dyed on top.

asked my boys (including the grown-up one) to draw some hearts.  

started stitching, cutting away... 

being with these hearts.

today's yarn

Half-way done with the "chocolate bunny" batts from hobbledehoy.  

Practicing my patience with plying.

 

 

 

strange spring

First of all.....hello, grace! and everyone else who's run into what appeared to be a foreign language here.  So, so, sorry.

On the corner...looks like the usual neighborhood dandelions...look closely...

that's one fat stem, with eleven, I think, flowers on top.  The stem is hollow on the inside, all the way through, just like a regular single flower.  I've never seen the like.

Then, if you look kitty-corner, near the fire hydrant....

ducks are hanging out!  There is a tiny pond a few blocks away, across a busy street, in the middle of Seattle.  They must have needed a new view?  

What next?!?

 

progress? (or at least movement)

    Continuing on, inspired by the work of jude hill and clothmates at SEW.

    The eye is done.  Yesterday was full of clouds, and I added some here, but think the one on the right is too bright.  

    Will add more heartdrops, some more stitches and it needs a background cloth.

Maybe more trees?
    

    On another note...I'm trying the upgrade which means that anyone can comment without signing up for typepad and I think I've figured out how to make a proper link, who knows what I'll learn tomorrow?!

    ps. grace, can you hear me now?

empty spaces

still at this.

there's that too wide open space in the middle,

other gaps, an unfinished unfocused eye,

and hearts that need help, mended, secured

and not just on cloth.

happiness all around

Third graders learning to knit.

    They've been waiting....

    I'd told them my knitting stories...

    Learning in 3rd grade at bluebirds, making the potholder with variegated red, blue, yellow & green Red Heart polyester (L. calls it "Bert & Ernie") yarn.

    Keeping (not using) the needles.  They sat on my dresser for a decade.

    Took them to college.  Used them...to toast marshmallows for s'mores in L.'s & my dorm room (after dismantling the smoke detector).

    A few years later, L. was pregnant, "I should make something for the baby..."  Found the needles...and began again...I was back to stay.

    And now today ...they were so excited...I've never had a group express such joy about it...before, during AND AFTER!  All of them.  

    We chanted..."Mama gets a baby,  Get a worm, Feed the baby, Fly off the branch!"  

    Other helpful comments:  "Remember the mama needle goes in your right hand, Mama's always right!" (yes, she is!)  "Not from the head!  You pick babies up from their bottoms"  "Don't forget to push the worm down the throat & swallow it"  "You've got extra birds, you've got to send some home, there's only enough worms for 20".

    Not too much panicking, lots of patience, 4 knitters to help (one 3rd grader, 3 grown-ups), a few songs, and 45 minutes later....14 new knitters!

    "I'm so glad you love to knit!" and many "Can we do it again tomorrow?  PLEASE?"'s.

    It doesn't get much better than this.

 

"miles to go before i sleep..."

       Spins from wonderful "woodland" batts and a build-a-batt from laila.

    Using these in another pillow, like the muppet one.  Some mindless knitting and cloth weaving during these delirious couple of days with mr. moon (who is on week 3 of strep, on his 3rd antibiotic, who was up much of the night scratching the allergic reaction to the 2nd antibiotic, who is still chipper...how? how?!)  Time for another round of board games...sometimes the sweetest times we have together are during illnesses...why is that?

she is her son's mother (see "don't tell" 3/28)

Here are the photos from the Mandy Greer (see last post) workshop....

The workshop description:

    "Seattle Art Museum Creates: Extraordinary Ensembles” Join Seattle-based artist Mandy Greer for a hands-on workshop for adults, to create a wearable works of art inspired by Nick Cave's Soundsuits using paper mâché and found materials......Nick Cave's wildly improbable beings are made from unusual materials that don't often get a second life: potholders, spinning tops, sequins, buttons and thrift store sweaters...."

 works in progress...

my friend, j, and me (so much for my secret identity!)

building the base  

adding treasures, including beaded necklaces that the boys made for me when they were small (I knew they'd come in handy some day) 

a bunch of us...

Mixed media is not my usual thing (unless all the media is fiber related) and paper mâché gives me the willies, but this was great fun, being with creative spirits who were letting loose in all kinds of directions.  Other than the occasional yelps from glue gun burns (many of them mine), all of the sounds were happy, oh!-ing, and scurrying, as we couldn't work fast enough to keep up with all of the ideas bursting out.  

mandygreer.wordpress.com