What's in a name?

So...  should I call this the Pansy Flower Hexagon or the Double Shamrock?

When Life is Interrupted

Here's The Beeb and his wife,
"Aunt Elaine from Spain" at
a family brunch last summer.

Bored Beeb with Elainey

My mother and her sister were very close, and consequently, my sister and I and our two cousins are very close.  We were raised almost like a brother and three sisters. I consider my cousins' children to be my nephews.  Our boy cousin (or as I used to refer to him, our big-boy cousin) is the second oldest of the four.  We grew up calling him "Beebo," or "The Beeb."  To this day, if he leaves a message on my phone, it begins, "Hi Auntie Juju, it's The Beeb." 

The Beeb and Elainey showing off their Chanukah
gifts I knitted for them last year.

My nephews in their Chanukah hats.

This past Tuesday, The Beeb took a fall and is now in ICU.  Life slowed to a crawl.  I've spent hour upon hour in the hospital watching him lay there in an induced coma.  As the medication levels were reduced and the coma receded, he began to attempt to get out of bed.  He'd try to rip the cast off of his broken arm.  It was good that he was moving around, but we didn't want him to move around too much, thus pulling all his tubes and monitors out.  He hasn't said a word, but a couple days ago, he began to open his eyes when the nurse would shout his name in his face.  

During this time, I've sat, with his wife and his parents, his sister and his friends, and watched.  I've kept his wife company.  I've brought an iPod with speakers so we could play music he likes.  We've tried to make conversation, about each other's health, work, the weather, politics.  Once, a nurse shouted his name in his face and he opened his eyes with such an expression of annoyance on his face that we all had to laugh.  His son, imitating what he must be thinking, said "Why would you do that?  I was sound asleep!"  We all cracked up.  The Beeb groaned.  Silence.

Lots of times, I'd be there alone with him.  Sometimes I'd try to hold his hand or put a cool cloth on his forehead.  I tried to think of things to say.

"If you think this means you're not going to see Siegel Schwall with me in September, you can forget it.  You're going."

"Look, Beebo, my family has gotten small enough in the past few years.  I can't spare anyone else.  You'd just better recover."

Beyond that, I sat and crocheted.  I've been working on coming up with some new and original motifs. I want to be part of that great wave of granny squares sweeping the nation.  Sitting there watching my cousin, wondering if he's really in there somewhere or if we've lost him for good, my hook has been going a-mile-a-minute.  Chain chain chain, connect with sl st.  Hmm let's see.  I'll try this, then that.... and before I knew it, I had what I've decided to call the Chrysanthemum Hexagon.

And then yesterday, a miracle happened.  Elaine's brother and wife, having come in from out of town, were sitting at his bedside when I walked in.  I whispered, "Beebo?  It's Jilly."  He opened his eyes and looked right at me, and then reached up his arms for me.  I kissed him and held his hands.  The nurse snapped at me that by touching him, I was making him more agitated.  I started to pull away, and he wrapped his arms around my arm.  So I sat there with him, rubbing his shoulder and telling him I knew how annoying this must be, but he had to try to lie still.  The nurse told me he didn't know what he was doing and didn't know it was I sitting there.  Later, his brother-in-law (a doctor) said "He absolutely knew it was you.  You're so good with him.  It's amazing."

I don't know if he'll come all the way back.  But I do know he's in there.  And I know what I saw.  He responded to the voice of someone who loves him.  Maybe he didn't know it was I; but he knew someone was there who loved him, and he held on to that.  So at least we have that.  That and the Chrysanthemum Hexagon.

Who knows, maybe today he'll sit up and talk.........and I'll have designed a dress!

Post Script:  Visited again today.  Told him we'd had pizza at Lou Malnati's.  He whispered, "I hate you."  I could have wept for joy.  He's back!

I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover

These Granny motifs were made as part of my submission for the
CGOA Master of Advanced Stitches and Techniques Certification.

One of the staples of crochet is the granny square.  In my beginner classes, the second project we do is based on the standard, traditional granny square.  Crocheters like the granny square so much that we seem to compete to come up with new and different motifs.

There are untold numbers of books:  A Bazillion and One Granny Squares, 5000 New Granny Square Designs, Women Who Make Too Many Granny Squares, Granny Squares and the Women who Love Them, Flower Granny Squares, Solid Granny Squares, Lacy Granny Squares, Mitered Granny Squares.... and don't even get me started about all the other crochet motifs, triangles, hexagons, pentagons, octagons, rounds, flowers, leaves............  

For years I've been trying to dream up a granny square motif that no one else had done.  Now, I'm not saying I've been successful.  I'm sure somewhere on the planet, someone has or is coming up with my design at this very moment.  But I will say that I don't recall ever having seen this particular granny square motif in any book, pamphlet, magazine or on-line.  

But first, allow me to share a story with you.  You know those little plastic adapters we used to use to fit 45 RPM records on the spindles of our record players?  We used to call them spiders, remember? Well, if you're a baby-boomer, you remember.

Once upon a time, I had this great idea of having a jeweler cast one of those little plastic adapters in silver or gold.  I thought to myself, "Self," I thought, "wouldn't that be a cute idea for a pendant or even earrings?"  The Adapter Pendant, I thought I'd call it.  Maybe I'd even have the word, "adapt" engraved on one of the arms.  Every baby-boomer would want one.  I'd be rich and famous.  I'd be hawking my new jewelry design on QVC or some other television shopping channel.  I'd probably be awarded the Congressional Medal of Freedom, the Pulitzer, or a Grammy.

The very next day after this idea popped into my head, I turned on the TV to watch the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame inductions, and there was Smokey Robinson, wearing a sterling spider pendant on a chain around his neck!  And the next thing I knew, this humble, utilitarian little object was popping up in jewelry designs everywhere I turned.

Now I love love love Smokey Robinson.  And that love was probably my only consolation for having my  million-dollar jewelry design idea "stolen."

But what, you  might be asking yourself, does this little anecdote, charming though it is, have to do with crochet granny squares?  Funny you should ask.  So, though I'm still drafting the pattern for my new granny square, and still working on one or two variations of the design, and though I only have one rather fuzzy photo of the motif at the moment, I really don't want to open next month's Crochet! magazine to find that Smokey Robinson has taken up crochet and has designed this new motif.

Therefore, without further delay, Yarnover Chicago proudly announces (drum roll please):

the Four-Leaf-Clover Granny Square.

Four Leaf Clover Square by Yarnover Chicago

Check back here or on Ravelry for some variations on this motif, and for patterns and yarn suggestions.

Post Script:  Okay, I confess.  I do own the earrings.

The Favorite Grandchild

Crochet connects women through the generations (and men too).  We all have memories of family members who crocheted or knit or did needlepoint.  I didn't come from a family that did a lot of crafting.  What could be made by hand was better if purchased in a store.  I came from a reading family, an opinionated family, an animal-loving family, but definitely not a DIY family.  But even in my decidedly non-DIY family, I still feel connected to earlier generations through crochet.

My grandmother and I didn’t always get along.  I felt, rightly or wrongly, that I was her least favorite of her four grandchildren.  It may just have been that I took her criticism more to heart than my cousins did.  Nonetheless, toward the end of her days, when my sister and I would visit her in that stiflingly hot condo in Hallandale, FL, my grandmother and I finally bonded. 

Often she didn’t quite remember who I was, though she knew we were related.  She definitely remembered the faults she found in me (didn’t I think I could stand to lose a few lbs., was I dating anyone), and was sure to mention them at every opportunity, but still, I’d sit with her and crochet while she watched TV. 

And then one day she asked, “what kind of shell stitch is that?”  I described the repeat: 2 double crochets, 2 chains and 1sc.  She looked at me for a moment.  I wrote it on a piece of paper:

“Oh, and you work that into each 2-chain space in the row before?” she asked, and took the baby blanket I was making out of my hands.  I moved closer to her and watched as she stitched a couple rows. 

“This is an easier way to hold the yarn.  It won’t hurt your hands as much and you’ll get a more even stitch.” 

Though she didn’t say it, I knew that she was happy we had something to share.  It was something special because neither of her daughters nor any of her other grandchildren crocheted, knit, or did any kind of needlework.  Before that day, I hadn’t even known that she’d been a crocheter.  She wasn’t one of those grandmas who made little slippers and hats for everyone.  But for whatever reason, she’d learned crochet at some point in her life and the muscle memory remained.

So it was that crochet became the catalyst that created a bond between my grandmother and me; a bond that could not be extended to include any other grandchild.  And during those few hours we spent together amidst hooks and yarn, I was, at last, the favorite grandchild.

It's Hip to Crochet

Check out this sign board I saw in front of Akira Chicago , an edgy shoe store and fashion boutique on Clark Street in Chicago's Andersonville 'hood:

Toms Shoes is well known for its One for One program.  For every pair of shoes purchased, Toms donates a free pair to a child in need.  Check out Toms Shoes website to learn more about this wonderful program.

Still haven't hopped on the crochet bandwagon?  C'mon knitters.  Crochet has never been hotter.  Sign up for a beginning crochet class at your local yarn store.  Make yourself some fun summer accessories.  Before you know it, you'll be.................wait for it................HOOKED!

(sorry, couldn't resist)

Alas, Barnabas......

With the frenzy surrounding the delicious Johnny Depp's recreation of Barnabas Collins, I decided to take a trip down memory lane and watch the videos of the original series.  If you're old enough, you probably remember racing home after school to watch it.

There are so many comparisons to be made between the movie and the series: chief among them being who's the dreamier of the two Barnabeaux?

The beautiful, though often ridiculously attired Johnny Depp?

Or the smoldering, yet generally more conventionally attired Jonathan Frid?

Really, it's difficult to say.  Each man makes one's heart throb in his own way. Certainly the original series was darker and more engrossing than the movie.  The movie is rather a send-up of the series, and doesn't take itself particularly seriously.  It won't be winning any Oscars, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and loved all the '70s references thrown in.  Of course in the movie, the production values are much better, and there are no scenes in which we can see people wandering around backstage.  But the series has its own special charm, and like all soap operas, reveals the story one tiny glimpse at a time.  I love Jonathan Frid as the original Barnabas.  But I can't help thinking that even in a more serious recreation of the original Dark Shadows, Johnny Depp would have been even better than he was in the present Tim Burton vehicle.  And why, you might ask, am I obsessing about Dark Shadows in a blog that's supposed to be about crochet?

Well --- here's my reason (read that:  excuse).   I bet you can't guess what really caught my eye as I watched episode after episode of the original series these past few weeks.  Well, here's a hint:  in almost every room at Collinwood, at "the old house," even at Maggie's house...........

beautiful, traditional granny square afghans appear on every bed and every sofa.  It was a lovely touch.  It gave the spooky old house a warm, homey feeling, don't you think?

And I might have imagined it, but in a couple episodes, I thought I also saw this sort of thing:

So - for those of you Dark Shadows fans out there in blog-land, take a step back in time to revisit Collinwood.  How many examples of crochet can you spot?  Think of the people who made these items.  Were they made just for the show or were they borrowed?  Who decided to include these beautiful pieces in the prop list?  If you feel like it, leave me a comment on this post - tell me how many crocheted items you've found.

Your guess is as good as mine, but it warms my heart to see them.  And now if you'll excuse me, it's almost sunrise.  I must get some sleep.

Oh, Barnabas...........

Single, Double / Toil and Trouble

Imagine, if you will, you’re browsing through the magazine racks at your favorite bookstore, and you come across Inside Crochet, Great Britain’s only all crochet magazine.  The magazine is beautiful and one or two of the patterns really catch your attention.  So you do what any of us would do:  you buy the magazine and then head straight to a yarn store to purchase yarn for at least one of the projects featured.

Several weeks later, after you’ve finished, say three of the twelve partially completed projects you’ve been working on, you decide to start that new project that you found in that wonderful magazine you picked up the other day.  You rummage around your yarn room (or for some of us – your yarn house) until you find the bag containing the magazine and the yarn you bought.  It takes you a few minutes to figure out which of the designs you’d chosen, but finally, you’re sitting in your favorite chair, pattern, yarn, hook, stitch markers, light and other supplies laid out just the way you like them, your movie (or audio book) ready to play, and then it’s the magic moment:  embarking on a new crochet project.  Is there anything more delicious?

You begin the gauge swatch.  Using the hook recommended, you get the correct number of stitches per inch, but your row count is way off.  You try several different hooks, and finally, you even choose a yarn from your stash instead of using the yarn you bought for the project.  But no matter how many times you try, you cannot get the right row count.  Finally, you decide it must be a mistake in the pattern.  You go back to your original yarn and hook, and begin the project.  After all, your stitch count is correct, right?  

You pop the movie in and begin.

As you’re working, you begin to sense that something is wrong.  Your work doesn’t look anything like the photos in the magazine.  Your piece is much longer than it should be.  Let’s say you’re making a short-sleeved shrug.  If this keeps up, it will look more like a long-sleeved cardigan when you’re done.

Bubble bubble toil and trouble.

What do the Brits mean when they say double?

An excellent question, Grasshopper.   Following is a table that provides a glimpse into these two ways of describing crochet.  For some commonly used crochet stitches, this table provides the international crochet symbol, the American abbreviation and name for the stitch, the British abbreviation and name for the stitch, and a description of the stitch.

So, why all the confusion?  Why the difference?  Why is life so complicated?  Why can’t I fit into last summer’s jeans?  Why do I always run into my ex when I look my worst?

It seems to me that, putting aside the slip stitch and the chain stitch, Americans regard “yarnover and pull up a loop,” and everything that comes before that step, as preparation for the actual stitch.  Everything that comes after “yarnover and pull up a loop” is the actual stitch.  So, if I’m working a single crochet, for example, I insert my hook into the stitch; I yarnover and pull up a loop; and then I’m ready to work the stitch, which comprises one yarnover and pulling through both loops on hook.  One yarnover = one SINGLE crochet. 

Brits, on the other hand, begin counting with the initial “yarnover and pull up a loop.”  So what Americans consider a SINGLE Crochet becomes a DOUBLE crochet, because first one must yarnover and pull up a loop (one yarnover), and then yarnover and pull through both loops on hook (two yarnovers).

In my classes, some students find that the British terminology makes much more sense, because, they reason, it includes all the yarnovers.  But I prefer the American terminology, and here’s why:

British terms do not take into account the yarnovers that come BEFORE the “yarnover and pull up a loop” step.  It’s easy enough to see how single crochet becomes double crochet in Brit-world.  There are two yarnovers, so it’s a double.  But what about a double crochet?  To work a double crochet, you yarnover (one), insert hook into stitch, yarnover (two) and pull up a loop, yarnover (three) and pull through two loops, and finally yarnover (four) and pull through last two loops.  That’s four, count ‘em, four yarnovers in total.  So shouldn’t it be called a Quadruple Crochet?  It seems rather arbitrary to me to begin counting with the yarnover and pull up a loop step.

If, however, I’d learned to crochet in, say, Liverpool, while watching Johnny and the Quarrymen morph into the Fab Four, I’d probably think it’s arbitrary to begin counting after the yarnover and pull up a loop step.  It would probably feel natural to me to start counting at the yarnover and pull up a loop step.  All in all, it’s simply a matter of what one sees as preparation for the stitch and what one sees as working the actual stitch.

The important thing to remember is that there are many lovely patterns written in the British style, and many in the American style.  It’s really not that difficult to translate one to the other, so whichever terminology you’re using, don’t let the fact that a pattern is written in the other terminology intimidate you.  If you like a pattern you find in Inside Crochet – go for it!