Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Everything is new.
I have seriously fallen off the postaday bandwagon recently. Not much into writing as I’ve been immersed in making and gardening on the home front – enough new skills to have me completely distracted most of the time. Over at Among the Weeds I have been posting the fruits of my labours, and within the next day I should have a completed shawl to add to the list of crochet. Very exciting! Because after a few years of basic sewing – making bags, quilts and the like – I’ve decided that I would love to start making some of my own clothes.
Now, this prospect has always daunted me – I am not a precision sewist after all, and I basically flunked home ec in high school. But there are so many great sewing blogs on the Internet these days – I find myself excited and inspired by the idea of making dresses that actually fit me. In particular Mena Trott over at Sew Weekly – with her goal of one dress a week (since 2010) – pretty much blows me away with her lovely outfits. She uses lots of retro patterns and a variety of fabrics to create clothes to suit her – and throws down a challenge once a week for her followers (this week is the perfect summer dress).
Now I’m not quite ready for dresses, but I did purchase a skirt pattern and some fabric last week – and I’ve ordered some black yarn in order to crochet this cardigan pattern from Interweave (to finish off an outfit I started putting together with a modified skirt turned dress which I need a shrug/sweater to go with).I’ve also picked out a few other simple patterns to try once I’ve worked on the skirts a little bit – and I would really love to work myself up a crocheted car-coat for the fall if I can get my skills up to it in time.
I think this making-things craze is ticking right alongside the other new ventures I’m embarking on at the moment – looking for work, grad school in the fall….. Shrugging off some of the winter and stepping into new horizons. It’s funny how one change can prompt others – as though realizing that I can get into grad school has also pointed to the realization I can try other new things too.
It’s ridiculous really because I’ve got so many things to do coming up – holidays, grant projects, getting my brain prepped by doing a lot of reading…. but that’s just the way I roll. It’s always more than one project at a time as long as it’s new!
Yesterday gardening.
I have no garden pictures to share at the moment, because by the time we finished yesterday I just couldn’t be bothered to run all the way upstairs, get the camera and come back down. Pictures later this week, I promise.
But for the record what’s going on in the garden right now? Well I’ll tell you that:
- My woodland plants – hostas, bleeding hearts, ferns, anemones, wild geraniums, periwinkle and others are all coming in like gangbusters right not. In particular, the bleeding heart is spectacular and in full flower.
- My asparagus, planted in the fall in a shady spot, has just poked up in two spots. I’m still waiting for the third patch to appear, but for now I’m just happy that some of it seems to have taken.
- The berries are all flowering right now – and the blueberries in particular are going crazy.
- My garlic looks positively mouthwatering. For all the crap cold winter, I’m thinking it’s going to be a good garlic summer.
- All the vines are budding and/or coming into the leaf – the trumpet flower (budding), the jasmine, the red ivy (currently green), the evergreen clematis, the elderflower (technically a shrub/tree – but behaving like a vine at the moment).
- The veggie garden is growing little by little, though the shady-side box is barely making it at the moment. I took a gamble this weekend and put in squash and beans even though it might be a bit early due to the poor weather this year. I’ve put plastic covers over some of it in hopes of spurring germination. If these seeds don’t sprout, I’m fully prepared to plant more in a month. I also just planted beets and carrots, which I have been holding off on because of the endless rain. And more potatoes. All the potatoes planted last month are doing quite well at the moment.
- In the front, we cardboarded and mulched more of the lawn around the new pond, and I planted some veggies and impatiens in the raised box – this is a bit of an experiment into what might grow in the variegated light we get there. Plus we got rocks and made a path that will eventually be mulched all around. This area is starting to look really tied together. We are still in need of more plants to round the whole area out, but I think I’ve got some ready to divide so that should help out in the meantime.
All in all, I’m happy with what we got accomplished yesterday – but disappointed in the veggie garden due to the cold and wet weather this spring. The nighttime temperatures are going up right now, but not nearly fast enough for my liking. I’m thinking this year all my tomatoes will be purchased since my starts aren’t doing so great and it’s going to be a short tomato season otherwise.
And that’s the garden right now!
If winter never ends……
It will be awhile before anyone is wearing my latest crochet creation – given that we are heading into summer (I hope – please Vancouver weather, time to co-operate!) – but I’m putting this one away either for myself or as a gift since finishing on the weekend. May I introduce to you my own design in a continuous scarf:
See, the other day I was looking for a new project, and I walked into Baaad Anna’s (Not your mother’s yarn store) near my house and Anna pointed out to me the Debbie Bliss Como near the front door. Lots of colour choices, and so soft! I wasn’t really planning on picking something this chunky, but I got a couple of balls and went out.
Well! Three and a half balls of the blue later (and half a ball of pink), I ended up with this lovely creation. Designed as I crocheted on the bus to and from work, I wasn’t paying so much attention to the length when I started and ended up with something a bit longer than the average scarf. Remember, I only learned to crochet a month ago, so I’m not really on it like a pro yet. Over the weekend I was thinking about how best to wear a scarf so long when it came to me that if I joined the ends and made it continuous, a whole different look would ensue. Am I ever glad I went in that direction! Trying this on Sunday afternoon (recovering from a Saturday night cocktail party), I was so impressed with the look and feel of this piece, I can hardly wait for the weather to go cool again.
Now, I did make this as a gift so I’m thinking I might make a second one for myself, or make a different piece for the giftee. This always happens to me – when I make something for someone – I immediately want one for myself too (see yesterday’s book bags post). We’ll see. I’m starting a raw wool scarf for B. next and then I’ll decide if I want to go back and make a second version of the same thing. The como isn’t particularly cheap, but it has such an incredible touch!
Book bags for grad school girls
I’ve been quiet on here lately, but not for lack of doing. Problem is, when you are making gifts, you can’t post them until they have been given! So here I present one of my recent projects – dreamed up for my friend Jill who is leaving for Toronto shortly to attend grad school. I made a copy for myself at the same time to celebrate my own return to school in the fall!
Fabrics used:
Jane Dixon Desert Stripe in Clay (main bag)
Alexander Henry, Matisse collection – Vie En Rose (pockets)
Robert Kaufman Kona Eggshell (bag lining
Amy Butler Love Cypress Paisley Wine (pocket lining)
Suicide watch.
What a strange thing: I helped save a life yesterday. Online. Via Facebook. Of someone I haven’t seen in probably ten years. Thus the oddity of the Internet, the incoherent patterns of how we appear and disappear to one another.
Four months ago G. friended me on Facebook – another face from the past to add to the trading card deck we call Friends on the Internet. He wasn’t someone I knew well, but had always liked for his calm and strength and kindness. And so I responded affirmatively to his request. We had a quick chat or two where he filled me in on the difficult details of his recent life (and also his lemurs) and I noted that he seemed to update his status from his worst places of frustration.
When he posted two months ago that he was at the end of his rope due to a Workers Compensation Board claim that had been denied, I put him in touch with my union and asked our WCB specialist to talk to him. I wasn’t sure if we could do anything, but all the time I see workers without advocates who are stymied by the system and most union reps I know will do for the unorganized what they do for paid members. As far as I heard afterwards, G’s case was in a stage where there was nothing for my rep to do at that time but he was told that we could support him on appeal. Not much help, but something. I was glad to offer him something.
But of course it’s not just WCB frustration going on here, but the chronic pain that has arisen from his workplace accident in the first place. There seems to be a certain amount of disbelief on the part of his doctor since they don’t know what exactly is wrong – but the G. I know is as scrupulous as they come – and when he tells the world he is suffering, that is no lie. So yesterday morning he walked into his Doctor’s office crying from his physical and psychic pain, and instead of a mental health intervention, he was given another morphine prescription.
I suspect there might have been some drinking to follow in order to build up his courage for what he did next – which was to take (by his count) 100 morphine tablets and then post that he had done so to his Facebook status. Earlier in the day I had posted in response to a note that alluded to his desire to self-harm – so I was watching out for his updates just in case….. And another friend noticed at the same time.
Of course neither of us had a phone number or address for G. and I got on Facebook and coaxed him to talk to me and give it up or call 911 himself. While I talked to G. my friend tracked down his address and called emergency services. My goal was simply to keep him conscious until they could arrive because once someone passes out in an overdose the system can really shut down fast but despite all of that he went silent about five minutes after the call was made.
And then we waited. I didn’t know if A. had got the right address or if the paramedics had gotten there in time. I didn’t know if G. had done something to further self-harm or had taken the pills earlier than he indicated. When I walked out the door of my office and into the sunshine at 4 o clock yesterday I had no idea whether I had helped G. or merely been the last person he would ever talk to. Either way, it was pretty heavy to contemplate.
I totally get suicide and what drives people to it, as sad as it makes me to think of the people in my life who have left it that way. And I really believe people have the right to end their lives if they feel that deep need. But I couldn’t ever watch it without trying to help – and even though I felt angry about it in the moment yesterday afternoon (why am I in the middle of this anyway?) – I put it in the perspective I always do later: grateful to have been called on to help someone in need.
In any case, G. was reached and taken to the hospital in time and now I see lots of people on his FB wall reaching out to him. I hope that he can find the support he needs to recover and live a better life – even with chronic pain. And I also hope that my friend who called 911 knows that she did the real miracle of saving G’s life while I merely witnessed.
Red Cedar 