Tag: writing101

Travel knitting hacks

On By aftheadIn Uncategorized2 Comments

I always take knitting when I travel, especially if there is going to be lots of car or train time.  This trip we are driving all over Wisconsin to visit new baby cousins, so the obvious project to bring is more baby hats!  This time the babies are boys though, so no fun poof and bow toppers.  

 
The downside of travel knitting is that I always forget something.  I’ve solved the “pattern forgetting” issue by taking a picture of the pattern.  If I have my phone I have the pattern.  Fingernail clippers work wonders for snipping yarn when you don’t have scissors.  There are apps on my Kindle and iPhone for measuring.  I haven’t figured out the darning needle replacement yet, but this may be the trip I have to get creative there. (I’m afraid it is in my backpack with my laptop, kindle, snacks, and “just in case I get puked on” spare clothes, which is sitting in my living room.  That story is my next blog post.)

My daughter’s favored travel craft solved my most frequent issue: no stitch markers.  It never fails that I cast on, start knitting in the round and ugh!  No way to mark the beginning of the round.  I can tie little yarn markers, but unless I have scissors or nail clippers I cannot cut my yarn.  I usually don’t have those on the plane.  Cue the tiny rubber band craft!  My daughter loves traveling with a huge bag of them.  She uses her fingers or a 4 prong loom to make huge ropes of rubber band weavings.  Now the bands are not ideal markers.  They are too sticky and can get trapped under stitches, but they are way better than nothing.  The best thing about knitting baby hats is that they are done in no time.  Off to start hat #2, once I find a darning needle hack.  I don’t think 10 month olds should wear hats attached to pointy sticks.   Anyone have an idea to help? 

(I’m really digging the stitch detail in these pictures.  I may do all my knitting photography in the plane from now on.  The lighting is fantastic!)

Tiny Cat

On By aftheadIn Uncategorized7 Comments

Why yes, the new tiny cat is settling in to the Afthead household.  Thanks for asking!  Tomorrow she goes to the vet for her well kitten exam, and then we go on vacation.  Tiny cat will not like either of those situations.

Oh yes.  She has a real name, not just tiny cat:  Adventure.  Sweet dreams.  

The First Thanksgiving

On By aftheadIn Uncategorized8 Comments

My first Thanksgiving at what would become my in-laws house.  I didn’t know it at the time, but their son would become my husband and I would give birth to their first grandchild.  Early family dinners are filled with such tension.  I wanted to impress them.  I wanted them to like me.

When I sat down, there was a marvel at my place.  A soup bowl filled with mashed potatoes.  At my home we serve our potatoes in a huge bowl that barely contains the almost 10 pounds of buttery mashed goodness, yet there is always bickering because everyone wants their fair share for the meal, and leftovers.  A curse on whoever leaves potatoes on their plate Thanksgiving day.  This pre-portioning solves all the problems.  My in-laws are geniuses!

We pass the food and fill our plates.  I take my fork and dip it into my potatoes.  Not as good as my parents, but edible.  I try another forkful.  My future husband leans over and whispers, “Those are for everyone.”

I have double dipped my fork in the soup bowl of potatoes meant to be shared with seven people.  Meekly I take a smidgen and pass to my left.  Then I get the “gravy” which looks like pan drippings with giblets floating in it.  I pass it on without dampening my dollop of potatoes.

It’s a wonder I stayed with him after that meal.  It’s a wonder I ever went back for another Thanksgiving.

Ostriching

On By aftheadIn Uncategorized3 Comments

Sometimes when tragedy strikes far away, I can’t help but turn off my TV, avoid the internet, and limit my exposure to the horrors.  We are not a family that watches the news every day, and where I am very open and honest with my child about the day to day tragedies that happen to people we know and love, I have a hard time explaining coordinated suicide/murders in a city she only knows from watching cyclists race through at the Tour de France.  There is nothing in her worldview to help me explain what happened in Paris.

That said, this evening Facebook provided me with a quote from Fred Rogers that at least gives me a starting point.  He says:

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of “disaster,” I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.”

– Fred Rogers

I love this.  It takes the focus away from the terrorists and the death and puts the focus on the people who are forced to be heroic when horrible things happen.  Those are the images I remember from tragedies like 9/11, Katrina, the Nepal Earthquake this past year, and the Boston Marathon bombings.  I remember the helpers.  With that context, I might be able to turn on the TV tomorrow and instead of focusing on the hopelessness of violence, I can focus on looking for the helpers, and I can help my daughter focus on the helpers too.  I can’t promise her that I will keep her safe.  I can’t promise that bad things will never happen to her, but I can tell her that “she will always find people who are helping,” and I can remind her that sometimes even we get to be those helpers.  That gives me hope, which will allow me to pull my head out of the sand, but not until tomorrow.

Knitworthy

On By aftheadIn Knitting3 Comments

A friend of mine coined a phrase that has stuck with me.  She said that in order to hand-knit something for a friend or acquaintance they had to be knitworthy. Knitworthy is not an overall measure of the quality of a person, but a judgement on their ability to appreciate handmade gifts.  Gifts that usually cost more to make, in materials alone, than it would cost to buy similar objects.  Gifts that take your time and effort to produce.  Gifts, to be fair, that are sometimes lopsided and funny looking but come with all kinds of personality built in.

Lots of wonderful people are not knitworthy.  Let me provide a parallel example.  I am not foodworthy.  Inviting me over for a fancy four-course meal is an utter waste of your effort.  I am a simple eater and cannot tell the difference between a meal that takes 4 hours of sauteing, braising, and chopping and a crock pot meal.  Do not waste your culinary wizardry on me.  Invite over another friend.  Oh, and if you are serving fancy wine, just pour me some water and enjoy it yourself.  $15 and $50 bottles of wine are the same to me.  I am a nice, good, lovely person who does not have the palette to appreciate fancy food.

Knitworthy means that the person you are giving your knitted item to will gush over it.  They will treasure it.  They will pay attention when you give them washing instructions.  They will take pictures of themselves, their children, or their spouses wearing your knit item and send those pictures to you.  They will brag to their friends that “Someone made this for me.”  They will treasure baby hats and pass them on to other babies that they love.  They will tell you that the blankie you knit is their child’s absolute favorite and they hope you have more yarn like that in case it ever gets a hole.  When they accidentally miss the washing instructions and their beloved hat shrinks into a fuzzy ball and they will beg you to make another, “just like it, but maybe in green this time.”

Today, I presented one of my dearest knitworthy friends with three hats for her kiddos.  When baby number one was born she got a teeny sweater.  When baby number two was born the new baby and her sister got coordinating hats.  Now that baby three is here, the only option was to make all three girls hats.

They were so fun to make and give.  I loved thinking about each girl and customizing the colors and the topper for her individual hat.  I loved giving them to my friend the day after the first big snowfall of the year and knowing her girls heads will be warm all winter.  I love that she slipped the teeny one on her baby’s head before they went outside, so she wore it home.  She is totally knitworthy.  Spending my time and energy making her kiddos stuff makes me so happy, makes her happy and makes her kids happy.  I can’t wait until they are teenagers and she and I can torture them with “another batch of hats from auntie Johanna”.  I think then I’ll make sure they are really itchy too.  She and I will then appreciate how my knitting skills can be used for good and evil.  Hmmm, I should start learning about GPS trackers too.  I could embed them into the hat so we can see what trouble her girls are getting into.

Signs of less than the apocolypse

On By aftheadIn Tickles my afthead4 Comments

It’s been a rough few days at the Afthead house, so today I bring you my favorite sign from a local water park, so we can share a laugh.  Every time I see it I want to jump in the pool and stay under as long as I can, swim a lap without coming up for air, or just stand in front of the sign and hold my breath like a petulant child.  That’s the kind of scofflaw I am.

Now, let’s all just take a deep breath …and hold it.

Bittersweeter

On By aftheadIn stories28 Comments

Dear Sneaker Squeaker,

Today I got a terrible, but not unexpected phone call.  It was the shelter letting me know that your heart murmur wasn’t just a murmur, but heart failure.  When they took your chest x-ray, nothing was right.  Your heart wasn’t right.  Your lungs were full of fluid.  At 3 months old you had reached the end of your life.

I always thought that something wasn’t right with you.  Your meow was strangled and squeaky, thus your name.  You panted at odd times.  Your eyes never quite opened.  I had hoped it wasn’t a terminal “not right,” but it was.  The news was a blow to my already bruised and battered heart.

When we took you from the shelter you were so tiny and so sick.  I would work on the computer with you in my jacket close to my heart.  I was committed to you even though I wanted to keep my distance.  I didn’t think you’d make it through the first week.  I ran steaming water in the shower and sat with you in the kitten spa to try to make you well, and it worked.  Yesterday you weighed enough and were healthy enough to go in and get adopted, or so thought my untrained eye.

I knew when I saw messages from the shelter that you were sick.  I hoped it was a “we need you to foster him a few more weeks” sick, but it wasn’t.  When I called and they told me the horrible news, I wept.  When they asked if I wanted to come in and say goodbye I paused, and then said “No.”  I had said my goodbyes the day before.  I had kissed your soft fur and told you I loved you.  I couldn’t do any better than that.

I loved your brown and black stripes that had started to grow down your back like a monochromatic skunk.  I love the trusting way you flopped down when you sat on anyone’s lap, certain that they would support you wherever you landed.  I loved how you would play with your sister and the big cat.  I loved your sweet purr, a whisper of your sisters big engine.  Because no relationship is perfect, I need to acknowledge that I didn’t love how you peed all over the house, but that flaw wasn’t enough to keep me from loving you completely.

I had hopes for your forever home, but it turns out I was your forever home.  Your forever was 13 short weeks.  I loved having you here, and I know you loved being here.  Thank you for sharing your life with us.  I hope you and your three siblings are somewhere sharing a sunbeam together.  Know that part of my heart is still with you.

With deepest affection,

Johanna

P.S.  I do want you to know that when I heard you were dying I adopted your sister.  I hope you don’t mind, but I needed some joy after so much loss.  The sadness was overwhelming.  Her whole name is now Adventure Sneaker-Squeaker Blackie Tiny No-Name as a tribute to you and your brothers and sisters.  It’s a big name for her, but I think she can carry it.  We love you always!

IMG_9391

Bittersweet

On By aftheadIn Uncategorized5 Comments

Today was a hard day, but a good day.

The Afthead family foster kittens went back to the shelter to get adopted after two months in our home.  It is sad and quiet now, but there is joy in the fact that they survived and now have a chance to find their permanent home.

Last night, when my daughter and I talked about the kittens going back she said, “Do you know what word describes this feeling?  Bittersweet.”

“That is the perfect word, sweetie.  Where did you learn it?”  I asked, giving her a hug.

“My teacher taught me.”

Today, I sent my kiddo to school with a note to her teacher that said:

Our kittens have finally gained enough weight so they can go back to the shelter.  Little Afthead wanted you to know in case she is sad.  This is a bittersweet day, and we thank you for giving us the word to describe how we feel.

After reading the note my daughter’s teacher made the word of the day “bittersweet” and asked if she could read our note to the class.  My daughter said “Yes,” and was so proud to share her foster story with her class.

Today is bittersweet.