friday dispatch v4.0

Ok so the temp thing is not working out at the moment, so I’m still jobless. Although I’ve been dreaming about life back in the cubicle, and gone on weird part-time interviews, I’m going to have to step up the job search next week. In the meantime, however, here are some links to keep you awake in your own special 2’x3′ office space where you rule supreme:

*Quiet Resonance makes me happy.

*Go check out the goodness that is Lady Luck Rules OK– fashion goodies from London. In case you’ve been living in a cave, you’ll know that accessories are everything, m’dear.

*Toothpaste for Dinner is funny. Sometimes his little comics make me laugh out loud.

*Everyone could know more about Susan Sontag, RIP, who kicked ass.

*Art-for-a-change will make you think. In a good way.

*Whenever I read Mason-Dixon Knitting I get warm fuzzies about the south (grits! iced tea!)…and the north (snow! more snow!).

*Teva Durham creates really cool knitted things.

*And Ana Voog crochets the most amazing hats i’ve ever seen.

*Radical Graphics is way cooler than clipart.

*This guy is documenting everything in his house. I can’t decide if it’s genius or just weird.

Listening to Happy Supply always secretly makes me want to move to Chicago.

it’s always time for cartwheels.

Earlier this week, the following quote was brought to my attention:

“How would it look, do you think, if everyone, old and young, would sit down together to knit for a while? Laughter and merriment and riddles and questions and folktales and anecdotes from each person’s life would blend together in the stitches. Then later, when you recalled these events that have gone through your own fingers stitch by stitch, they would speak their own quiet language: Do you remember? Do you remember?” -Hermanna Stengard

It’s taken from the Introduction to Meg Swansen’s A Gathering of Lace, originally found in a 1925 book on mittens.

Yesterday I had a part-time job interview. While the job was pretty non-descript and involved the office triumvirate of cubicle, phone and computer, I enjoyed the interview immensely nonetheless.

The most recent job on my CV actually says “knitting instructor/organizer,” from when I was doing such last year. It’s inclusion on that otherwise ridiculous document not only makes me happy, but goes to prove how needlecraft has entered the cultural conscience.

After the formalities (introductions, job summary, schedule) were skimmed over, the topic turned to textiles. I was talking with two women, one from the southern United States, the other from Spain.

The woman from the U.S. was around my age (late 20s, early 30s) and talked of how knitting is no longer becoming something your ‘grandmother does’ and how surprised she has been recently to see her friends knitting. While I could have gone at length in response to this attitude, I kept quiet.

Then the woman from Spain, who was in her 40s, and had been completely reticent up until this point, sprang to life. Suddenly her entire face lit up and her hands danced as she spoke of all the women knitting everywhere in her native country, how it was just something ‘that everyone does’ and she grinned broadly describing the delicate lace shawls she used to watch women knitting in the park.

And the fluorescently-lit office grew new radiance as the topic changed from ‘insurance’ and ‘deductible’ to needlecraft. It this knowledge that needlecraft lies deep within our beings that inspires me and keeps me curious. Because stories such as these are everywhere, lying in wait from our childhoods, discarded in a pile at the local thrift, held in itchy ancient hands too arthritic now to grasp needles.

It is the way that these stories continually cross economic, political, cultural and language barriers that warm my heart to no end. The hardest part is starting the dialogue, but once you discover its perpetuity it’s just a matter of changing the conversation from the banal to the heartfelt.

Summer is the time for listening to The Reindeer Section.

summer volunteering PSA

As you may or may not know, Chapel Hill is a very dog friendly town. They go where people go, except for restaurants with no outdoor seating and grocery stores. It’s nice.

Most of my friends have dogs, and somehow I end up at the dog park with them atleast once a week. Last Friday, however, I did feel like a dork when a woman with a golden retriever sauntered up to me and asked,’ Which dog is yours?’ All I could reply was, ‘I’m a friend of that dog over there,’ turning bright red and deferring to my friend whose dog we were watching romp around. The women got quiet after that, I guess because it seemed wierd to play Auntie Mame to my friend’s 4-legged companions?

After realising that I wanted to try and get my PhD, and that if accepted it would most likely mean living in various locations for a number of years (doing research in various places), I’ve been looking into fostering dogs. Even if I am not granted a place on a course for 2005 (or 2006!), I move great distances with such frequency that for the time being, owning a dog is not the best option for me- or a dog.

I grew up with dogs and after I went away to college did some sporadic volunteering in various animal shelters in order to still be around puppy love. There are few things more heartwarming that spending a little extra time with a dog or a cat who is desperately craving attention. I still get warm fuzzies everytime I think of the time I entered a shelter enclosure in Boone full of month-old puppies, and giggle at the thought of their squirmy, unfettered joy of human contact. A few were trying to untie my shoes, one was peeing with excitement on my sock, several were trying to lick my face, and the remaining puppies just vying for TLC.

The other day I was hanging out with my friends’ Australian shepherd mix, Nestle

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and was thinking about how it never ceases to amaze me just how much pets enrich our lives.

In recent local news, there was the Sanford puppy mill bust, which is simply abominable.

So I’ve decided to try my hand at fostering as a way to not only help socialise animals who need a little extra attention, but also as a way to keep animals in my life. There are some possibilities in the works now, but if they fail, then I will be signing up for shifts at the local shelter.

Happily, my move uncovered several charity blankets I made last winter for a local animal shelter and then promptly lost in the shuffle. This website will help you find a shelter who could use your knitting/crocheting/sewing prowess by creating warm blankets for lost and lonely dogs and cats. The site holds a wealth of information, including appropriate patterns and blanket sizes.

But if needlework isn’t up your alley, this post is a little reminder that it’s almost summer and the time to be outdoors taking in the sunshine. And what would be a better way to spend a few free weekend hours than volunteering at your local shelter? Because even if you can’t currently own a pet, that doesn’t mean you can’t help one.

friday dispatch v3.0

Even though I woke up with the Blue Oyster Cult song, “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” in my head, I am going to continue on with thinking positive thoughts for today. Because after all, it’s Friday now, isn’t it?

Time for the 3rd of my 12-week installment of “how to waste time (and learn something, too) in your rather unfulfilling office job!”

*Go read The Endless Scarf by Blythe Toll.

*Get your craft on at M & J Trimming (or atleast just have fun daydreaming about what you would create if you had the cash!)

*Herd some virtual sheep here (No, really.)

*Once you’ve mastered the game above, learn more than you ever thought possible about sheep (and other livestock) in the largest livestock database. Ever. (I think my new favorite animal is the Racka.)

*If you’re still feeling nerdy, here are more links than you ever thought possible about owls. (Owls are cool!)

*Read No Good For Me and then as a direct result, start dressing better.

*Go check out the ethical library at Downbound Yay!

*Not sure what to make for dinner tonight? Go have a look at Cooking By Numbers, cooking made easy!

*I heart No Media Kings.

*I met Pil and Galia Kollectiv in London, and am constantly inspired by their work.

It’s raining in North Carolina today, therefore, I can’t stop listening to Joy Zipper. BOC be damned!

what you get when stuff adds up.

So I’m all moved into my new summer digs.* I am happy to report that, yes, my next door neighbor is a drum teacher. Even though it’s loud, tiny children trying to play drums sounds cute reverberating through the walls. I’m trying to repress the memory of not being chosen to play the drums in 5th grade, I was told I had no rhythm and was assigned to the cello.

I’ve probably never told you, but I was classically trained in voice (10+ years), piano (10 years), and -the everhip- handbells (5 years?). Despite being all music all the time from 5-18, the only time I ever really play anything is when I come across a piano…but only when no one’s listening. I also sing a lot in the car, this has been in my repertoire a lot recently since I’ve been travelling so much…which brings back me to the recent move.

One good thing about this move is that it has forced me to limit my supplies for the summer months. Instead of having myriad craft projects to choose from, now I just have a small drawer. Instead of annoying me to no end, I’m pretty excited about the fact that this summer I will be forced to finish projects that more often than not just get rotated around and around as I float from project to project.

The once mighty craft supply area has been downsized to the tiniest it’s ever been (I’m also trying to come to terms with acrylic…)

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This summer I am aiming to deal with my own materialism and excess, facing my inner packrat and breaking that unnecessary bond I have with useless things. While I was moving yesterday I went through all of the things I was bringing to the new apartment and reassessed if I really needed it, if I really was going to use it.

The bizarre thing about downsizing is that now that I’ve stored all of my non-necessary crap, I’ve been looking for gifts for other people on my frequent thrift store trips. It’s almost as if, in getting rid of all my own excess, now I just want to make all of my friends and loved ones laden as well.

Even though ebay has taken over the world, there’s nothing quite so thrilling as coming across an amazing dress or clock or painting or necklace in the dizzying racks at your local thrift store. Throughout the past decade, my wardrobe has always been augmented by charity shop/yard sale/stoop finds. While it began in the height of grunge in the early 90s, now I can’t imagine not incorporating second-hand clothes into my closet.

Although people often eschew thrift shop clothes as inferior, they often forget the most important aspects of secondhand clothes: that with a little effort you can find incredible handmade one-off pieces for next to nothing, and by supporting such shops not only are you more often than not giving back to the community but you are also recycling goods as well.

For a recent bridal shower gift, I combined a Home Ec textbook from 1951, Family Meals and Hospitality, that I found at the local Value Village bookshelf with some handknitted drawer sachets filled with lavender from an aromatherapy pillow that had long gone ignored:

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This summer, I am a turtle, with all my belongings fitting in a small 4-door car. And I think I like it, becoming unfettered by boxes of unread papers and photographs of individuals whose names escape me. For the next 12 weeks, as long as my car air-conditioning works and all the windows are rolled up so I can singsingsing til my heart’s content- I’ll be good to go.

*Moving makes me grumpy. Luckily, I discovered scrawled on the side of one of my boxes by my friend Anna, Throw Rocks At Boys, written at a London post office while in a queue to mail boxes back to Chapel Hill in September. While I’m not an advocate for violence, this game was especially cathartic. Try it, you’ll see.

Also making things better is listening to SNMNMNM. But then accordions never fail to make me feel better, especially when paired with adorable lyrics.