Hat Bags

Just had to share my hat bags for recently made hats. Maybe I'll include lavendar sachets in them. Heck, I don't even know what I'll do with them yet, but I like all the marketing details.

More on Grandparenting

Stress may be a pejorative word, but in yin/yang terms it's absence does not serve us well as creatures on this earth. Coping keeps us our brains healthy, our adaptive skills tuned up and our youthfulness zipping along. In decades past, I have fantasized about leading a relaxing life, doing what I want without the stress of meeting unpleasant and unwanted demands. Naive. I'm a slow learner.

What I'm accepting more in my sixties is the beauty of such demands. In my retirement, I have fewer things to cope with than ever. Back when I was a youngster, a mother with two small children, I observed a young woman during the summer, reading in a bikini under an umbrella to her heart's content. I looked wistfully at her, remembering my pre-child-rearing days, and thought how nice it would be to sit and read peacefully. Oooh, Heaven.

Fast forward many decades and I have had the time to resume this heavenly activity. But guess what? It hasn't been nearly as satisfying as I thought it would be back when I didn't have that leisure time. In fact, there are new nagging discontents that have seeped into my old brain.

My friend, Audrey, told me about her audiologist whom she respects greatly. He said when the time comes, he plans to live in a group situation with others his age. Seeing many patients he has observed that the folks who live alone/with a partner seem to deteriorate mentally faster than the people who are forced to interact with others regularly, forced to negotiate, compromise, problem solve.

We get a great deal of pleasure from our grandchildren...and they exhaust us. One day while caring for the two boys aged five and three, I was overwhelmed with sleepiness. Dexter was napping but Zach was wide awake. I told Z that I was going to rest for a minute on the couch. When I awoke only moments later he was gone. When I found him he had gotten into wet paint and was trying to remove it from his clothes and body. He was covered. A midday bath cured all, but it was clear that resting was not an activity to partake of when the boys are awake.

Grandchildren and grandparents are a perfect match. We don't like being rushed and we have endless time to learn together. If we can keep up, I think this is a great way to combine leisure time and a good amount of stress. No wonder extended families have worked so well over the centuries.

Hats, hats, hats

It took a bit of effort to get all the materials back out without Susy here. I couldn't justify using our living space either, when I have such a fine workshop. But it was easier to spread out over three tables when Susy and I were working together. It's almost as if my workroom is only good for storage as I hardly work there lately.




Indigo blue is Susy's current favorite color and she was dying to cut into the sweater that came closest to that. She made a headband for one thing and a mohawk for a tomato red hat for another. I used it for a sort of cloche, shown here. I love a bit of lime green with so many other colors.


This all white hat feels like a sleeping cap. It's long and drapey and ultra soft. I added some sparkles to make it like a wintry day with sun on the snow.


Joyce was a really good sport to do some modeling with me. She didn't need any help deciding how to wear this almost military shape.
I sewed shiny beads on the snake character between buttons from a child's sweater.
Really this is my favorite of all because of the densely soft, matted heather green panel with attached saffron mini prayer rug.
For our local library's fund raising silent auction, I fashioned these two Wayne Maine hats, male and female. We'll see if there are any bidders.

Nature Weekend

Over this past weekend, I spent a fair amount of time with the grandkids in the Blue Hills Conservation land next to their house. It's fabulous that the kids get to spend so much time on the pond. Sophia told me very seriously, "Gramily, I LOVE nature," and sure enough she does. We spent long enough on Moritz Pond to see a giant bull frog right at our fingertips, a mother goose with her two teenage goslings napping under her on a small rock in the pond, and a rather large water snake in the stream feeding into the pond. Best of all was Sophia's comfort level with the snake. She was wading in the stream when she spotted it, and merely said, "Look, Gramily, a snake!" She stayed in the water with it for a good time and then came out and I photographed him quickly before he shot into the culvert to the pond.





























Can anyone identify this snake? It's silver head is at the far right.

Cashmere Workshop

Susy Pilgrim-Waters came to visit and we had a massive cashmere workshop. I brought out my stash of Goodwill cashmere sweaters and we had at it. For close to twenty hours we cut and sewed and folded and rolled. It's amazing how much more productive and creative two women are together than alone. At least that's true for me; Susy is productive every day. This isn't the end of it. We still need to put finishing touches on the hats (three for me and nine for her) and clearly this was just Part One of a series.

Made by Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster and Me

Although I begin each knitting project with enthusiasm, I soon get quite bored. It goes soooo slowly. There is a certain soothing and therapeutic quality to the process, but it doesn't outweigh the restlessness I feel having to sit still for so long.

I wanted to knit my cousin Charlie a pair of socks, however, as he has been so kind to me in so many ways. A pair of woolen socks seemed like a great gift as he had admired the Fire Dragon mittens I made for Dexter in January.

Finally a technique developed to help the socks along their way. MOVIES! I have found in the early evenings I can get a fair amount of knitting done while watching a 1 1/2 to 2 hour movie if it's a fairly good film. Charlie's socks were knit while watching Nell with Jodie Foster and Liam Neeson and Adaptations with Meryl Streep and Nicholas Cage (playing twins!). I also watched a documentary called Bobby Fisther Against the World on the new HBO documentary film series on Monday night.

I don't think this technique will hold me for long, but it did produce a fine pair of socks! Charlie visited today to bring me my beautifully repaired framed antique photo of Japan during cherry blossom time. He did a magnificent job, though I was told by two frame shops that "it couldn't be done." HE DID IT!

I was glad to have finished the last few rows of his socks as he sat across from me.

Humble me. again.

Every summer turtles cross our road where stream meets lake, after laying their eggs up on the sand. I'm happy to report I haven't seen a smashed one yet in the years that I've lived here. Last year when I encountered one on Cape Cod, a passerby warned me that helping it cross the road or touching it was against environmental laws. After all, we can't assume to know where they're going. I was curious as to whether this one was a snapper or box turtle. She allowed me close inspection and a photo without flash. Then we both went on our ways. I felt a kinship with her.

I'm pretty slow these days, slow in thought, word and deed. I'd like to think I'm more careful before speaking or doing, but I'm afraid that probably isn't so. I'm just slower witted, making different mistakes, not fewer.

This week I was in a minor collision in a parking lot. I thought I had hit a vehicle as I backed out of my spot, and once aware of that, hopped out of my car to see the damage and apologize. The owner of the other vehicle was quick to place blame and I was quick to assume it. I worried that it would have been horrible had it been a pedestrian instead of a car.

Two witnesses stepped forward to say they had seen the whole thing, that we had BOTH backed out while looking over our shoulders and missed seeing the other one. Bad timing and bad technique. But both witnesses were adamant that it was No Fault. One witness stayed to report to the police who came to the scene. He wanted to give his account and name.

Still, it is alarming to me how slow I was to take in the information that the witnesses provided. I was too emotionally distraught to allow my mind to function properly. Not till I was home replaying the whole event, did I realize the witnesses were seeing what I couldn't see, eager to report on my behalf. I'm left feeling not only naive but unsure if I would handle it any differently in the future. How much of my mind do I control?