weaving-a new article!

Exciting news!  I've just had an article come out in Digits & Threads magazine on the tradition of weaving tallitot (Jewish prayer shawls) in Winnipeg.  It was a tradition in my family in Virginia too...shown here is a photo of my dad, weaving my youngest brother's tallit for his bar mitzvah. Also-clear proof of my family's maker/DIY history: this black and white photo was likely developed in my dad's dark room, and the Winnie the Pooh play room curtains behind my father were sewn by my mom. In later years, (cough cough) I ...may...have cut up some of that Winnie the Pooh fabric to make myself a pair of shorts--Which I then wore out and about in junior high and high school. Yes, I have always had a quirky fashion sense, excluding my handwoven tallit, of course! 

Treading water

I wrote this on Instagram a few days ago:
I am propelled by #coffee lately. Such important #protest and scary virus news in the world...but I am still #homeschooling, cooking a lot and managing kids and dogs. Even managing our household is a lot right now. I am lucky and safe but still very tired...

But I wanted to update the blog.  And I wanted to tell you about our garden, which is growing so well just now.  (much farther along than this one photo we took a few weeks ago...)  I also wanted to offer up a couple links to articles that have run recently.  This ran in the Vancouver Jewish Independent:
Rabbinic planting advice

This second link is not really about Shabbat specifically, more about how to keep ourselves and our old dog eating and alive and propel everybody forward during this hard time:

Jewish surety in Shabbat ritual

There have been a lot of afternoons like this one though, where our world has been small, we played in the yard, and focused on how grateful we are for what we have.  It's more than enough.

For those who have followed me a while, you may know that I've written about social justice issues for a long time, too.  Here are a couple links on that...one from this blog in January, 2019.  Sadly, none of the injustices taking place are new.  It's been happening for a long time.

An instagram post about how justice is long overdue.

Everybody, WASH!

Nearly two weeks ago, I wrote this piece, which appeared in the Vancouver Jewish Independent newspaper on Friday:
Be sure to wash your hands 

A quick summary?  Handwashing and social distancing are ancient ways of preventing the spread of disease.  Hoarding's not new either.  You can find it all spelled out in the Torah.

That said, here is a particularly funny memory I had (and mentioned in the article) --of Sesame Street.  You can see that this skit was done long ago, when Mr. Hooper was still alive.  The news, about washing, isn't new...but this skit? Well worth seeing it again!

I hope you are healthy, washing your hands, and practicing social distancing. 
Wishing you all good things,
Joanne

Put down the Duckie (or the cell phone)

The Jewish Independent has just published my article, "Put down "the ducky" in shul.
(Shul is a Yiddish word for synagogue, it's a place where we learn so the word also means 'school.')

This article is about how we sometimes have to put away our cell phones/social media in order to be part of a real life community.  And, you know, I cannot help myself, I'm referring to Sesame Street and using social media to make my point. :)

Enjoy the video, if you don't already know this fabulous Top Ten hit...  As someone who used to play saxophone, I can't recommend it enough!

Goats and vulnerability

Here is my latest article from the Jewish Independent.  It's called:

Goats out in the wilderness
I wrote it just before the synagogue shooting in Poway, but with only a couple of edits, it was sadly still relevant.  It's about people, goats like Azazel --and vulnerability.

The piece surprisingly, owes a lot to the research I did for Fiber Gathering, where I met a lot of goatherds, fibre goats, and learned a lot about how they raised them.

The first two photos here are from Crete, where people raise many goats in somewhat free range conditions.  At bottom, there's a photo of me making friends with a goat at a festival.  My husband, the professor, caught me talking to the goat and took my photo...about 12 years ago now!

Plugging along

 For a while now, I had this cotton white and green ticking sitting on top of my sewing machine.  When I worked at the computer, I looked at it, and thought about making more napkins for our household.

Then I realized, well, it won't get done this way, and I like doing this...so I scraped together enough time to make one napkin at a time.  This resulted in--2 napkins, done after I'd gotten work done...in between other writing and household jobs.
On Wednesday, I felt a big need to make and do something for myself, for the household, something tangible and real.  I did 2 napkins.  All done, a set of four (all the matching fabric I had!) is complete.  These napkins have already been used, well decorated with chocolate, blueberries and bread pudding (we're messy eaters!) and washed once.

Meanwhile, I've been trying to boost my work productivity when I can.  One article was rejected this week, several more are being considered, and...it turns out two were published when I wasn't looking!
Here are a couple from the Vancouver Jewish Independent:
1) Complexity and Perspective: This one is about the challenges of loving friends with serious illness and --along the way--acknowledging that Jewish tradition has always taught that we can respect, love and care about others who may not be "like us." (They may not share religious traditions, customs, physical characteristics, etc.)

2) Some things better in person--This piece is about the recent decision to close Kutz Camp, a Jewish summer camp for teenagers with international reach in Warwick, NY.  While technology has allowed us to make many more connections online and closer to home, sometimes it is worth travelling to see new ideas, people and geography....  The image, borrowed from onehappycampernj.org,  captures only some of the magic this place had for me as a young adult.

Finally, I am home with a sick kid (this is what January is for, right?  It's -40 windchill, why not stay home?) and while he sniffles through his virus, I've been reading some interesting articles online about race and religious identity. Even though Jewish people come from all over the world and some are very definitely People of Color, I was recently asked, during a discussion about inclusion and diversity, to "check my white privilege" by another person who says she is of "Jewish extraction."  It forced me to realize that no matter how often I try to be an ally, to do tikkun olam (efforts to fix the world) make connections with other minorities--to some, I will never have tried hard enough.

Yet, being Jews these days is pretty fraught--there is a lot of hate out there.  There was hate on the streets in Anacostia when I did my year of student teaching in inner-city DC.  There was hate and a swastika on the playground here just after the killings in Pittsburgh.  There was hate in my classrooms as a kid, and when someone shot at the windows of my childhood synagogue and vandalized it. There's a lot of hate to go around.

 Here are pieces from the Atlantic, The American Prospect, The Yale Daily News and Slate.com.  There's more out there.  What did I google?  "Are Jews white?" 

This person told me it wasn't "time" for me to bring up Jewish issues when discussing issues for Black and Indigenous People of Color.  I told her my Jewish community members, friends and family who were Black or Indigenous might think otherwise.  Anyway, I was reminded--January 27th is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.  That seems as good a time as any to think about hate, prejudice, discrimination, and race.  

This is stuff I think about... you know, while making napkins.

CBC-Parents article has gone live!

Here's a new article I wrote about observing Yom Kippur with kids--
Check it out on CBC-Parents!

We just finished Rosh Hashanah last night, and it was a pretty decent holiday.  We had gorgeous weather, walked to a family service and back, and big meals at home.  Mostly enjoyed each other's company, too....(mostly had peace between twins, which was great!) Sadie the dog went to a dog daycare both mornings so she could manage while we were away for an extended period.  I think she ran a few dog marathons while wrestling the other dogs, so she is beat this morning.  (She's on the left in this funny photo)

Coping with loss

This article I wrote came out on Friday in the Jewish Independent in Vancouver. It's about helping kids learn about death, and leaning on religious rituals to deal with it.
 It's titled:
Rituals can help us with loss


I'm also in the middle of updating some patterns with new yarn selections over at Loveknitting.com.  If you'd like to buy a pattern and yarn at the same time, this is a convenient way to do it!

We're having a busy time around here as the Professor is off doing some field research. Sadie is making great progress in training and the exercise and warmer weather is doing us all a lot of good.  By warm, I mean highs in the 60s (18C tops) but to us it feels like a heatwave about now!  We're still occasionally hoping over icy piles of snow on our walks to the park.  I hope they finally melt soon!

Hanukah, 2017

 On Tuesday night, Hanukah started around here.  We have been very busy--every afternoon after the twins get off the school bus, there is a mad rush.  We have to choose the candles, Mommy!  We have to help make latkes, Mommy! (that was a huge mess, but sort of fun, too)  We have to read books about the holiday, Mommy!  We have to play dreidl and discuss what our friends have gotten as presents, Mommy!  (and onward.)

This is a pretty exhausting whirlwind, since we have to fit in all the celebrations and parties around school and work.... which is still happening every day. The reactions have been funny, too.  Each night, the kids get gifts.  Most nights, the gifts are small.  Last night, we got one story book, some colored pencils, coloring books, and wool socks.  This is, in the scheme of things, not a big ticket present, and cost is totally irrelevant to enjoyment, we find.  I had two boys busy coloring non-stop, and they were thrilled by new warm socks.  The book went into a pile; they would "read it later, Mommy!" 

My guys are at an age where counting the candles and putting them into the menorah is a fun math project.  Singing the songs they learned at school is fun.  Eating one piece of chocolate gelt per night is great, too.

One of my guys has scarcely unwrapped his gift before he wonders what he will be receiving the next night.  The other twin is very worried--what if there are too many great presents?  It might make his first night gift, a parrot stuffed animal that he really wanted, seem not as great? " Mommy," he says, "hold off on all the presents.  That is not what this is about."

All these photos are from old Hanukah posts on this blog!  Click here to read a fun (random) collection of stories from Hanukahs in years past.  (When I did not have twins yet, and when we threw big parties for 14 students from the Professor's lab, for instance...)

I hope you're having lots of fun celebrating, whatever you celebrate! 

Two new articles

A picture is worth a thousand words.  (Good thing I write a lot, then?!)

This opinion piece ran on the CBC-Manitoba site this past weekend.  I'd written something much longer that talked about how "the system" doesn't work in several ways--but an editor pared it way down.  Through careful editing, it became sharper-more relevant.

I was doubtful about some of the editing. Then I got an email from someone who founded a non-profit organization to strengthen legislation against domestic violence.  She felt the article was just right.  There you go then, good editing wins.

The system is broken- but it's not fair to ask victims to fix it

About a week ago, another piece came out in Vancouver, for the Jewish Independent:

Lifelong Jewish Relationships

---oh wait!  I do have a picture.  Last week, I launched Woolly. 
This is my first ever published kid's sweater design...after 15 or so years of writing knitting patterns.  If you're a knitter (or even if you aren't!), please go check it out on Ravelry or on Loveknitting.com.  I'd be grateful for a "favorite" or two... what's not to like about sheep with horns?

 

a super review!

The Jewish Independent in Vancouver just ran this review of my book, From the Outside In.  I am so pleased and honored by it.  People are so busy-- thanks for your interest in the book!
Here is a link to the review:

Trying to Foster Community

to be hospitable

Here's my latest piece for the Jewish Independent in Vancouver:

Obligation to be hospitable

Note: If you're in Winnipeg, the version that will come out here on Wednesday is a little different, but the point is the same. :)

Picture explanation:  This is my twins' version of a tent, built in the living room this winter. --It's spring now, but it is snowing here today, so still relevant!  If you read this article, you'll get the tent reference.  It's about being hospitable and welcoming people in...(if you can fit in this one!)

It's live! A new eBook!

It's available now!  New!  Finally!  Remember my 'special project' in July?

Here it is.  It's taken a while.  This collection is a year and a half of my newspaper columns.  It’s a first-person essay that runs twice a month, covering community building, holidays, family life, Jewish learning, and other issues. It focuses particularly on my local community, but my understanding is that it may be useful in a broader context.

This has been a very steep learning curve. :) However, a very kind woman (who does a lot for our community) came to me after services one week, pulled me aside, and told me she was clipping all my columns and saving them in a file folder. This was such a surprise---and it seemed like a very good reason to put a year and a half of these articles in the same place. It’s about Winnipeg, and about our city’s Jewish community, but from the feedback I’ve gotten so far, it’s probably a little bit about where you live, too.


The eBook is available in a variety of places for $3.99US.  (The price of a big cup of joe)

Kindle:
From the Outside In: Jewish News & Post Columns, 2015-2016

and through this universal link, you can connect with it on iBooks, Kobo, Nook, and Scribd, as well as a pile of other platforms.

The official "launch" date is December 16th, but in some cases, it is available now.  If you pre-order it, the file should magically appear on your e-reader tomorrow.

The paperbook will be available on Amazon soon, but it's not quite ready for the big time.  In the meanwhile, I was too excited to keep this news to myself. :)

If you're a knitter and you visit my blog for knitting info and designs, Please use the coupon code:
Launch
and get 20% off my Ravelry patterns until midnight (CT) on December 29th.  Help me celebrate!

What I did this summer...

What I did this summer...
by Joanne Seiff

Among other things, I spent hours outside in our front yard as my boys dug in the sandbox, in the dirt, in the garden, played and argued.  Usually, I knit or spin on a spindle to keep from killing anybody, due to unnecessary sibling arguments or sheer boredom...I need to be close by in case of disasters.

This year, I tried something new and attempted a big project.  I wound 2 plies of handspun alpaca-silk singles (yarn) and 1 ply of handspun merino wool together into a ball on my nostepinde.  (that long black wooden thing in the photo)  I then used the nostepinde as a distaff, by tucking it under one arm.  (usually my left, mainly by using my armpit)  Then, I used that turkish spindle in the photo, and starting and stopping all summer, I made a big ball of three ply yarn.  I skeined it up and measured it recently.  It's about 110 yards of three-ply...all spun on a spindle.

I also knit a new sample for my Turkish Lace Camisole pattern.  I used Rowan Pure Linen, and I suspect I'll get good use out of this version!  Of course, I finished it right before Labor Day, and it is already beginning to get cool here...there's always next year.

I spent many hours on adventures with my twins, who told me firmly that their favorite parts of summer were spending time at the wading pool and with Mommy and Daddy.  So, this summer, we went on lots of trips..including to the Aviation museum, the Firetruck Museum, the Railway museum, the zoo, the Assiniboine Park Conservatory, the gardens, the Forks, and of course, several different city wading pools and their adjacent sandboxes.

Finally, while I dangled my feet in the wading pool a fair bit, I also continued writing, creating knitting designs, and freelancing where I could by staying up late, writing through naptime, and using PBS on occasion.  (we love some Curious George, Sesame Street and Clifford around here...)

  (I'm SO looking forward to getting back to work in the new year!)

Also, we're celebrating the start of preschool.  Hurray!  I have had 3 full days off of twin duty so far, and it has been nothing short of miraculous.

However, the high holidays are coming...and with them, many interrupted weeks of school so we can celebrate them.  I looked at the preschool calendar, and my guys will not have a full 5 day week of school until after Canadian Thanksgiving, in mid-October.  Right.  So, I spent part of this week cooking and getting ready... here's a shot from my baking session.  I made 4 round challahs, two plain, and two with raisin.  Here are two explanations on why a round challah is traditional for Rosh HaShanah.  (A note about the links in that last sentence...the first one is short and sweet, the second is more detailed, and finally, the last one is about the whole holiday and not just baked goods!)

Wishing you and your loved ones a happy, sweet, fulfilling, healthy and prosperous 5766.  May we see more peace in the year to come.

L'Shanah Tovah U'metukah!

A happy and sweet new year!

thoughts for organizational continuity

I'm a bit behind on linking to my articles!  Here's a link to my newest Jewish Post & News article:

Everyone has a responsibility: Re-visioning the Synagogue

I had a really great chance to hear Rabbi Sid Schwarz speak this past weekend.  Although he was lecturing or teaching 8 different times over the weekend (8!  This man has stamina!) I was only able to catch one Shabbat service and a late night lecture.  I found it amazing that I could even stay up to hear something that started at 9pm, but I guess caffeine and interest really work. :)

The most interesting thing he spoke about was something that I felt went way beyond the Jewish community.  He talked about 4 big trends in "younger generation" Jews--but I think this speaks to Gen X, Y and Millennial folk in general.   He said we were interested in creating covenantal communities...in a religious context, but I think it applies more broadly to organizations who are aging and not engaging with our age groups. 
I'm cutting out the Hebrew vocabulary here just so it makes this more accessible, but here's the gist of his points:

1) Wisdom--we want actual texts, content, and real learning from our institutions.  No 'learning lite" programming.  (Yup)

2) Social Justice--we want to help make change.  We think about where our food comes from, how to reach out to the less fortunate, and how to make a difference.  Not talking, but doing.

3) Community--we want to build connections between people.  That is, we want to have warm, in person relationships where we can help and support our friends, relatives, and strangers.  This speaks to some of the articles I've written on creating "helping hand" committees, helping new moms, newcomers to the community, etc.

4) Holiness--we need to feel a deeper sense of spirituality or meaning.  While this is speaking from the religious context, I think it is true in a broader sense.  We need to sense an authenticity and honesty that speaks to us on a deep gut level.  The world is full of ads and frauds and phoneys, as Holden Caulfield would say.  It's great when things feel real and meaningful.

My understanding is that he has more to say in his book, which I have already ordered:
Jewish Megatrends: Charting the Course of the American Jewish Future

but I guess upon reflection, I found his points right on and valid in a bigger context.  If clubs, organizations, religious congregations, etc. want people who are 45 and under to belong and take ownership, these are very useful guiding principles for planning and involving us.

It's so rare these days that I get to attend a lecture or other learning event that I figured reprising it here might be useful.  In any case, I am just as inspired by these ideas now as I was by this Rabbi's congregation, back in 1995, when I taught religious school there.

spinning-one day at a time

Yesterday I taught my first 'intro to hand spinning workshop with a drop spindle' since 2011.  It was a blast!  The weather outside was so cold (-45 windchill) that the Professor's car wouldn't start.  (It started later, after we'd plugged the block heater in for a good long time...it was just too cold.)

Our boys were suited up in snow pants, boots, lots of layers under the parka and more just to go to their dance class, so they took my car. After the dance class, we did a quick shuffle.  Boys were rushed inside to have a hot lunch.  I rushed outside with all my gear to the car that would start to teach my class.

Luckily, we all made it on time.  Every single one of my registered students showed up, even the one from Brandon, 2 hours away. Every class is different; this one was full of experienced fiber arts folks, who basically started spinning and kept on like they had been born to it.  It was a delight!

Also this week, my essay Reading the Whole Megillah came out in the Jewish Post & News. 

Surprisingly, there is a thread that ties all of this together.  These days, if I want to be prepared to teach a class, I have to start days in advance.  My work time is limited...and always has to be flexible.  So, for instance, last Thursday, I had a medical appointment with a specialist.  That morning, one of the boys woke up a bit under the weather, and his brother decided he wanted to stay home from preschool to keep him company.  Since I had this doctor's appointment, the Professor cancelled his workday to stay home with twins.  I maneuvered the cold weather and got myself to the appointment and made it home.  (Also got a local and 4 stitches while there, but all is well for now and nothing to worry about.)  Between the kids missing school, the mom who needed to rest after her appointment, and the cold, the whole day was just shot.  I had to budget every hour and every moment between Friday and Sunday to be sure my teaching supplies were ready to go.

I've learned from this "having twins experience" to take it one moment at a time.  The essay on Purim is about that too, in some ways.  In Jewish tradition, we read (or don't read!) the same sacred texts every year.  Over the years, we read different things in the same texts.  One time I read the Book of Esther on the floor in a crowded airport when my plane was delayed due to bad weather...other years, I heard it in other ways.  Maturity, life changes, different surroundings--these all cause us to read a text differently, whether it is a novel or a part of a religious tradition.

Finally, these photos:  When the boys were babies, perhaps in the fall of 2011?  or fall 2012?  A business named Rovings in our area that specialized in importing Polwarth wool from Australia and processing it for handspinners began to downsize and had a big sale.  The professor's father was visiting and they decided to help me get to the sale.  It was a bright sunny day and the babies mostly napped in the car while I went inside.

I bought a lot of yarn, a raw fleece (still unopened!) and a 'dyed in the locks' fleece that had won a prize.  The colors were amazing.  I rarely buy dyed fiber like this, but I loved the colors.  When the boys were about 18 months or 2 years old, I moved a spinning wheel down to our basement playroom space.  I started spinning this Polwarth wool, one lock at a time, whenever I had a moment.

Recently, I finally finished spinning up all the wool (maybe 2 lbs total) and I have now plied most of it for a total spinning process time of roughly 2 years.  I am doing a 3 ply, approximately worsted weight and this is what the first batch of washed skeins looks like.  I love it. 

In the old days, before twins, I could spin a pound of clean wool in a week, and still get lots of other things done.  Now, I guess it takes years...but I can still do it.  Little by little.  Bird by bird.    I am reminded of Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.  I'll finish with a quote from that, and you'll see what I mean.

"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was  ten years old at the time, was trying to get a  report on birds written that he'd had three months to  write. It was due the next day. We were out at our  family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen  table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper  and pencils and unopened books on birds,  immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my  father sat down beside him, put his arm around my  brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy.  Just take it bird by bird.'"