Value each other--a Valentine

Valentine's Day is a chance to show how much we value each other.

Today, my article about kidnapping, human trafficking and MMIWG (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls) went live here, on the Jewish Independent website:

When Joseph went missing

This is a serious issue, and it's not just something that happens to "other" people or other communities. Moms, daughters--our family members, people we value--are going missing.

Valentine's Day also made me think about how my household makes stuff to show we care about each other. This morning, one of my kids gave me a handmade beaded bracelet and a lot of art he's made me.  I've hung up the art!  I am wearing my "mom" bracelet!

In the last few years, I've focused on designing things and offering special releases and sales for Valentine's Day.  This year, there's no new design and no 'special' sale. Why?

I've spent a lot of time reformatting older patterns lately so that they are now Low Vision Accessible.  This is a long process...I'm not done. This means knitters with vision challenges can use a pattern with easier to read, larger fonts, single column formatting, no italics, and photo descriptions.  It takes time to redo each pattern, but --I am doing it because I value all of us, and it would be great if all knitters could find patterns that they can read.

Reformatting these patterns also helped me to see that many of my patterns haven't sold a lot of copies, and perhaps they have only sold when they were on sale.  I try not to make my patterns expensive...so without a sale, they are accessible.  However, the message sometimes seems to be that only things 'on sale' or 'free' are good.  That message doesn't value me or my time or efforts, either.

My choice for Valentine's Day this year is to be proud of my knitwear design work, to keep trying to improve it, and also, to stop 'de-valuing' it, too.  So, no sale today.  Does this mean fewer patterns sold overall?  Maybe.  Does it mean I earn less income from patterns?  Yes...I'll need to find a way to make up that loss elsewhere in my freelance work.  At roughly $5US a pattern, it is not an easy way to earn income, even without a sale.

However, we, as people, have great value. Everyone is important.  I'm trying not to let financial issues get in the way of recognizing that...no matter who we are or what we create.   Each person has value and is a gift.

 All of these knitwear patterns, including "Deir Hart" and the "Thump Thump Mittens"--are available
on Ravelry and on Lovecrafts.


More importantly, let's value each other every day...not just Valentine's Day!

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.

Handmade life

You may be wondering where I've been.  (So have I!)  Things have continued with a whirlwind pace. This week my kids have had two separate medical appointments (this is usual, things are ok, generally). The temperature has dropped here fast, and as we've gotten out the warm clothes, we've found plenty to mend and repair.

When I haven't been running around, working, or fixing things?  We've been out in the sukkah.  (When it isn't raining, of course.  It's currently pouring and in the 40s (F). Celsius, it is maybe in the 5 to 9 degrees range....

On the web, folks have been talking about 'slow fashion' October and other trendy ideas in the "maker" world.  I sometimes berate myself for not being enough of a joiner.  Then it occurs to me, oh, yeah.  I am making things all the time.  There's the sukkah. I make dinner.  I serve it in the sukkah...when it's not raining.

There's lunch. (leftover salad from dinner, topped with cheese, walnuts, and roasted chickpeas, a balsamic mustard dressing, spelt bread from the bakery, cantaloupe on the side.)

There's one of many emergency mending projects.  Here is the sweater with 9 lives. (or 15, at this point.) I picked this up off the floor to put it away. Note: our twins are supposed to put away their sweaters, but gravity seems to win out quite often at age 7....
I found this scary raveling on one of the cuffs.

The professor started doing some important bedtime reading with the guys. We're currently addicted to these fairy stories, in case you were curious.  I picked up the stitches with a spare double pointed needle.

I carefully knit up the stitches I could with the remaining yarn, and then used a bit of leftover yarn to fix the cuff itself.

All fixed!  Mommy saves the day (and the sweater!)….Hurray!