Monthly Archives: July 2008

>Senior Moments on Parade

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>Lately I’ve been tempted to offer that sorry-a** excuse for not being able to remember stuff. You know… groan …. Senior Moment. But that’s not always strictly the case when I am unable to pull language, facts and memories out of my brain. It has to do with capacity.

I have reached maximum occupancy. If I want to upload more information into the storage device then I have to kick data outta there. I was at CGOA Chain Link in Manchester for eight days/seven nights and I met (and re-met!) a great many wonderful people in the course of the event. In order for me to record for today and recall at some conference in the future all those faces, names, amusing and/or embarrassing incidents, I’d be forced to forget other faces, names, amusing and/or embarrassing incidents already floating around in my head.

Case in point. A friendly and incredibly familiar face approached me to sign her book. Tripledogdangit if I could not remember her name even though I had not only met her several times before, but am an honorary member of her CGOA Guild Chapter and have twice done demos at chapter meetings. I tried to sneak a sideways look at her name badge so I could avoid the utter shame of having to ask. YIKES! She wasn’t wearing her badge, at least not where I could see it.

In hindsight I can now rationalize having forgotten her name because I had just met a dozen new faces and had to make room. But at the time I had only one option. I smiled very sweetly in my best puppy-dog way, book flap open and Ultrafine point Sharpie poised, and asked how she spelled her name. Just so I got it spelled correctly. Yeah, right. That has to be the lamest thing to say, but what was I to do? Occasionally that’s a superior ploy because some people have unusual names or spellings. HA! Imagine my chagrin when she reminds me that she is Grace. Simply Grace. Remember? HHCC Grace? Terrific Grace? All the refreshments you can eat at her chapter meetings Grace? DUH!

The totally horrifying part is that you don’t get to choose which information goes or stays. I do not understand why I still remember all the lyrics to one of my favorite recordings, “Our Day Will Come” by Ruby and the Romantics, AND I remember that the single was number one on the charts in the spring of 1963. But I couldn’t for the life of me call up that name. I’d gladly have relinquished any currently stored knowledge about meerkats or kumquats or Lamborghinis, just to have experienced the satisfaction of remembering lovely Grace.

There might be a way to de-fragment or re-shuffle the drive to squeeze out a bit more space. It might involve wine. If I figure out the process in time for the CGOA Regional in Portland I’ll let you know. If I remember.

>CHRYSANTHEMUM TEA SKIRT

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>Dang it! I forgot to jump on here and post this pattern extra while I was at CGOA Chain Link in Manchester. Yeah, right. I was having too much fun, as you can see from the image in Dee’s blog post from Thursday night. Gotta say, the wine flowed like… well… WINE. And we all got rather silly. But according to RULE #17: What happens in Manchester, stays in Manchester. Except all the bits that got sneakily preserved in photography.

Anyway, you’ll see that I am wearing this skirt. It’s the perfect wine-imbibing ensemble. Stretchy and comfortable. 😀

In order to crochet this skirt you must already have the pattern for the Chrysanthemum Tea Shawl, one of the designs from my book Amazing Crochet Lace. The instructions here will refer to specific rounds and pages from the book.

To reconfigure the shawl as a skirt, it is a simple matter of leaving out the mesh center and beginning the lace stitch on a large foundation ring. To get a better, modified circle shape to the skirt I also threw in extra rounds for length and finished the bottom with a less ruffled edge than I applied to the shawl. Being vertically challenged, I finished my skirt at 21”, but it is easy enough to adjust for your perfect length.

SKILL LEVEL Easy
SIZE S (M, L, XL, 2XL); length 21”; finished circumference: waistband 30 (33, 37, 41, 44)”, high hip 32 (36, 40, 44, 48)”, low hip 48 (54, 62, 70, 76)”, bottom 80 (90, 100, 110, 120)”
Skirt is seriously stretchy
MATERIALS
Tahki Cotton Classic; 100% mercerized cotton; 1.75 oz (50 g)/108 yd (100 m)
6 (7, 8, 8, 9) hanks in #3003 Natural
I used 9 oz for the sample skirt; feel free to substitute approx 600 (675, 750, 825, 900) yd of any sturdy DK weight yarn of your choice; more yarn required for longer skirt
Size I-9 (5.5 mm) crochet hook
Yarn needle
GAUGE
13 Fsc= 4”
In Lace pattern, Rnd 3 one repeat= 4”, Rnd 10 one repeat= 6”, last rnd one repeat= 10”
5 rnds dc= 3 1/2” (blocked)
Don’t be alarmed if the skirt seems very short right off your hook. The lace should grow and lengthen when blocked.
STITCHES
Same as Shawl, pg 24 except the BASE CH/SC is now called Fsc. When I wrote my books there was not yet a standardized name for this stitch. Today there is general agreement that it should be called Fsc (foundation single crochet). So I’m going along on this.
INSTRUCTIONS
Skirt is made with RS always facing, with some rounds the same as Shawl (page 25).
Fsc 96 (108, 120, 132, 144), sl st in beg sc to form a ring, careful not to twist stitches; begin work across “sc” side of foundation.
RND 1: Ch 1, sc in first sc, [ch 5, sk next 3 sc, sc in next sc] 23 (26, 29, 32, 35) times, ch 2, dc in beg sc for last ch-sp –24 (27, 30, 33, 36) ch-sp
RND 2: Ch 3 (counts as dc), 3 dc in beg ch-sp, *7 dc in next ch-5 sp, 4 dc in next ch-5 sp, ch 2, 4 dc in next ch-5 sp*; repeat from * to * 7 (8, 9, 10 11) times, except omit last 4 dc, instead end with sl st in top of beg ch – 8 (9, 10, 11, 12) lace repeats
RND 3: Ch 3, sk first dc, dc in each of next 3 dc, *ch 4, sk next 3 dc, V in next dc, ch 4, sk next 3 dc, dc in each of next 4 dc, ch 2, dc in each of next 4 dc*; repeat from * to * around, except omit last 4 dc, instead end with sl st in top of beg ch.
RND 4-5: Same as Shawl Rnd 11 for 8 (9, 10, 11, 12) lace repeats
RND 6-7: Same as Shawl Rnd 12
RND 8-9: Same as Shawl Rnd 13 (or repeat for length desired before creating the lower flare)
RND 10-20: Same as Shawl Rnds 14-24 – 80 (90, 100, 110, 120) ch-3 sp
RND 21: Ch 1, sc in beg ch-sp, *[tr3tog, ch 3, tr3tog, ch 3, tr3tog] in next ch-sp (at tip of leaf), sc in next ch-sp, [ch 5, sc in next ch-sp] 3 times*; repeat from * to * around, except omit last ch 5 and sc, instead end with ch 2, dc in beg sc.
RND 22: Same as Shawl Rnd 26 – 80 (90, 100, 110, 120) ch-5 sp
RND 23: Ch 1, [2 sc, ch 3, 2 sc] in each ch-5 sp around, sl st in beg sc, fasten off.
WAISTBAND
RS facing, join with sl st in any ch of foundation.
RND 1: Ch 1, sc in each ch of foundation, sl st in beg sc – 96 (108, 120, 132, 144) sc
RND 2: Ch 4 (counts as dc, ch 1), sk same sc, sk next sc, [dc3tog in next sc, ch 1, sk next sc, dc in next sc, ch 1, sk next sc] around, end with sl st in 3rd ch of beg ch.
RND 3: Ch 1, 2 sc in each ch-1 sp around, end with sl st in beg sc, fasten off.
Weave ends, block skirt before threading following string through spaces in waistband, going behind the dc3tog clusters and in front of the dc.
STRING
Ch 2, sc in 2nd ch from hook, [ch 1, without turning, insert hook from top to bottom through front loop of sc just made, sc], repeat for desired length of string, approx waist measurement plus 24”, fasten off. Weave ends, tie knot in each end of string.

Wine not included.

>PATTERN EXTRAS: Chrysanthemum Tea Skirt

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>Occasionally there are lace patterns that I am compelled to revisit. I can’t help not wanting to let go of a good thing, know what I’m saying? If you don’t recognize this stitch, it is the leafy part of the Chrysanthemum Tea Shawl, the design on the cover of my first book, Amazing Crochet Lace. I had always thought it would make a cute skirt. With a few minor adjustments, I did this in a couple of days, using a natural shade of Tahki Cotton Classic.


The redesign practically crocheted itself. But the patterning will take me a while in order to extrapolate a few more sizes. I hope to knock this out before I leave for 2008 CGOA Chain Link in Manchester next week. If you want to check back in a few days, you may find that I have auto-post the pattern extra details while I am away from my desk. Stay tuned!

>Song of Summer

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>I did not deliberately refrain from writing about the inspirations for some of the names I chose for designs in my books. I simply ran out of space. What, ME, write too much? But I should not have worried about the severity of the editing because many readers have made the connections on their own without my interference.

From Amazing Crochet Lace, the chapter called Under the Boardwalk was my nod to summer; the design names are taken from song titles. If you want, go back and leaf through that chapter while reading the following piece and you’ll have a sense of where I was hoping to take you.

UNDER THE BOARDWALK
The battery-powered transistor radio changed the way young Americans listened to music. Without the encumbrance of tubes and the tether of an electric plug, the radio shrank to portable dimensions and could go anywhere, including inside a stuffed animal. The first transistor radio I owned was imbedded in a flop-eared hound. It seems stupid now, but this was a very big thing at the dawn of the 60’s, the radio dog.

I was enchanted by the pop music coming from deep within my radio dog. My mother says I could sing many of the hits of the day, often at inappropriate moments, even though neither she nor I understood the lyrics. One such song, played over and over on the air, was a folk song about a guy who kills a girl and gets hanged, “Tom Dooley” by the Kingston Trio. What was up with THAT? The hits on my radio were so different from the Patti Page, Doris Day, Frank Sinatra and Johnny Mathis records my folks had. (Incidentally, I was never told this, but I learned from my mother not long after my dad died that I had been named after Doris Day… by him.) Not that my mom didn’t appreciate rock and roll. After all, she adored Elvis, too. But I began to hear a beat that separated my music from their music.

These were to be my last carefree summers. Too soon I would be tall enough to see over the counter at the laundry, capable enough to make change at the cash register, old enough to help at my family’s business weekends and school vacations. It wasn’t grim, hard or forced labor in any way; just a half-day and not every day. It was often fun, and besides it made me feel so grown up and I loved being with my dad.

Here’s a photo from September 1964 of my dad and my little brother. Sadly there are no pictures of me and my dad behind the counter because my mom was afraid to touch the camera, so if there were any photo ops it was either Dad or me behind the lens.

I learned a lot about work and life standing next to him at that counter, but the thing that made my dad the proudest and amazed everyone the most was the way I learned to make change. Our NCR cash register was modern at the time, but it resembled a huge adding machine more than the computerized techno registers today, some of which don’t even accept cash! This one simply printed the prices you typed in, opened the cash drawer with a happy little ringing sound, and kept a running total of the day’s receipts. If my customer didn’t have the exact amount to pay, I had to figure out what coins and bills to give back as change. At this task I was a whiz, leading my father to believe, erroneously, that I might find future success in business.

I also learned a few things from the customers, not always nice things. All these years I have been nursing the sting of certain insults, real and imagined, that I suffered in the presence of certain customers. I will now vent.

— Never pull my sticky-outy pigtails or pinch my chubby cheeks. It’s not my fault that you find them cute.

— Do not assume that I don’t understand English just because I work in a Chinese laundry and my parents speak broken English. Resist the urge to speak in your own version of broken English. “No tickee, no starchee” is as much gibberish to me as it is to you.

— Rid yourselves of the habit of talking louder, in the belief that increased volume fosters increased understanding. I am Chinese-American, not deaf.

— Realize that it is useless to distract or confuse me while I am making change. My dad taught me to lay your bills on top of the cash register in plain sight while I scoop out the change. That way, when you try to claim you gave me a twenty, I can show you (most politely) that it was a ten.

And the single most important thing I learned about business… the customer is always right. Occasionally you have to finesse the customer into believing what you know is right is the same as what they think is right.

My dad kept a radio in the back of the store that he could listen to while he pressed shirts. Funny thing, though, his radio only got baseball games. During those summers in the 60’s I had to wait until I got home to hear my music. By then Beatlemania was sweeping the nation and I bought into the whole deal. If you weren’t there you can’t know how fresh, appealing and sing-along-able those Beatles tunes were to a kid. The Beach Boys, the Supremes and Petula Clark were other favorites. But there was one song that captured the essence of summer and that was the Drifters’ 1964 hit “Under the Boardwalk”.

Mind you, I’d never been on a boardwalk, much less under one. My partner, John, loves to tell the tales of how he spent every summer of his childhood at the Jersey shore. Long before it turned into a trashy mecca for gamblers, the boardwalk in Atlantic City was a vacation destination for families fleeing the heat and humidity of Philadelphia streets. John speaks often of the gangs of kids he used to hang with, playing football on the beach, combing the beach for, not shells, but discarded soda bottles to return for pocket money. John actually witnessed the Diving Horse at the Steel Pier, enjoyed the pinball, games and rides at the Million Dollar Pier and cavorted in the ocean surf. To this day he needs only the merest whiff of salt air to be awash with memories of his childhood summers.

Now that I’ve experienced boardwalks for myself, I’ve decided I don’t like them. They are hot and crowded. Sand gets everywhere, in everything. The ocean has all manner of stuff, non-human stuff, floating, crawling and swimming around in it. The only aspect of the boardwalk I did like was the food. I’d go there in a heartbeat and endure any amount of sand in my shoes for the saltwater taffy and the funnel cake. You can get either of those treats away from the boardwalk, but it’s never the same.

Funny how that happens. How all the longing and romance of a summer song from my childhood can be, forty years later, distilled into the three-minute act of eating a funnel cake while strolling the boards, the ocean breeze kicking up sand and powdered sugar, the cacophony from the mob of gulls circling overhead warning me that one cheeky gull is ready to swoop down and snatch the treat from my fingers if I don’t hurry up and finish.

>An Auction Where Everybody Wins

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>CGOA Chain Link 2008 draws near and among my fiberazzi friends the anticipation is palpable. It’s altogether possible that most aren’t even reading this because they are in the throes of the Chain Link Crunch: the last minute crocheting of things to wear/bring to the event. Happy, joy, I am done with the crocheting. It’s the packing that concerns me now.

Packing for Chain Link isn’t like anything a person would do in normal life. Don’t laugh, but I was so relieved to discover from my friends that I am not the only one who is worrying about underwear. Bringing the right underwear. Having enough underwear. It has taken five years of camaraderie to get to the point where my peeps feel comfortable enough to mention this. Hey, it’s not a subject that comes up in casual conversation, you know. Stop laughing.

Don’t think that it helps if you can remember what clothes, shoes, yarns, tools and paraphernalia you brought the previous years and avoid repeating your mistakes. You’ll just go on to make new mistakes this year.

So, I am standing hip-deep in a heap of stuff that will eventually get sorted into two heaps: What I’d Like To Bring In An Ideal World, and What Will Fit Into My Suitcase. I found a sweater that I did not recognize at first. Then it hit me. I had the pleasure of modeling it last year.

It is a design that appeared on the cover of summer 2007 CastOn, the official publication of our sister organization the Knitting Guild Association (TKGA). Yes, it is (gasp) knitted. In retrospect this must have been confusing to many attendees who got the impression that I designed the piece. Nope. The Cowl Neck Sampler Pullover was designed by Esther Yun-Mancini, a brilliant and fashion savvy art director/stylist at Tahki Stacy Charles. And she’s not a bad crocheter, either. (BTW, if you’re ever lucky enough to meet Esther’s husband at one of these events, try not to drool!) Sweater looks pretty good, huh? I made sure I took home a copy of that CastOn issue thinking I’d brush up my knitting skills and make one. Yeah, right. Never gonna happen.

So what is it doing in my heap, you ask? I didn’t abscond with it, if that’s where you’re going. A couple of months later this garment came up for auction and I bid on it…. and WON! The Rwanda Knits auction in October is an opportunity to get your hands on some of the fabulous design samples you’ve seen in magazines, catalogs and online and help this life-changing cause at the same time. Cari Clement, the driving force behind the organization, just leaked to me that at least two garment samples that I crocheted are going on the block during this year’s auction: the rose-colored Lacy Duster and the blue Lacy Jacket. How cool is that? I’ll remind you about the Rwanda Knits Auction closer to the event in October, so keep your eyeballs peeled and your bidding skills honed.

Meanwhile, who’s gonna sit on this suitcase so it will shut?