Story Hour at the Public Library

This evening I went to story hour at the library--the grownups version. It was a reading by author John Daniel for the Northwest Voices program sponsored by The Longview Public Library and Lower Columbia College.

Daniel read snippets from several essays in the just published collection The Far Corner which he carefully noted did not have the word 'essay' anywhere on the front cover or title page because the publishers say it is a death knell for a book since apparently the very word essay sends half the potential readers running for the nearest exit and the other half to sleep. Which is a shame because so much of the best American literature is of this genre. Think Mark Twain, Emerson, Thoreau, Anne Dillard, H.L. Mencken, James Thurber, James Baldwin, Gore Vidal, Adrienne Rich, Wendell Berry, Joan Didion, David James Duncan..... Oh, I could go on and on and that's just the Americans.

As far as I'm concerned a story is a story whether it is labeled fiction, essay, poem, biography, memoir, myth, play, news, expose, gospel, novel, short, romance, drama, documentary, lyric, limerick, epic, genre, literary, ...or whatever else the literature taxidermists contrive in their endless attempts to keep story in 'its place'. But story is no more containable than a tornado, no more leashable than Coyote the Amer-Indian Trickster figure referenced by Daniel in one of the essays he read from tonight. An essay musing on the meaning of place and whether loyalty to place or rootlessness is the more to be desired.

As I've said here before in other contexts and as I sometimes signature my emails and tag my blog in the social networks: Story is my joy. Which is half the meaning of the title of my blog. The other half referring to the personal journal aspects.

Story is my joy and I don't care what you label it as long as it pulls me out of myself for long breathless and weightless moments and then gives my self back to me a little more whole than it was before, a little more faceted and a little more enlarged like yeast activated dough.

So imagine how thrilled I was when Daniels launched into an essay about the Rogue River in Oregon, the river that gives its name to the valley I live in, using the extended metaphor for the river of 'story'. The river was a teller of stories of everything thing it passed between its headwaters in south eastern Oregon to its outflow into the Pacific at Gold Beach Oregon; it was a story endless and infinite in variation that could be dipped into at any one of its bends.

Whatever else John Daniel is, (poet, memoirist, nature writer) he is a storyteller. There is no higher accolade in my lexicon.

The Far Corner
Northwestern Views on Land, Life, and Literature

"These essays include meditations and arguments on becoming a writer; on old-growth forest and the practice of clearcutting; on the fluid dynamics and biotic diversity and mythic resonance of rivers; on the writers Ken Kesey and Wallace Stegner; on the literary genre of "creative nonfiction" and its kinship with fiction; on death and dying and the consolations of death and dying; on the al-Qaeda attacks of September 11, 2001; on a stint of hot-weather solitude in the Rogue River Canyon; and on my allegiances to the places and region and country I call home."

—From the introduction to The Far Corner

More about The Far Corner

Read the reviews.

Discover some of his other works.

After the readings, Daniel autographed and sold copies of his several books and I regretted that I'd spent the last of my cash at Powell's though I couldn't think of one of the three books I bought that day I regretted buying. Maybe if I'd waited on the book easel... But then I've used it more than any of the three books in the last two weeks and wouldn't want to do without it again. So I guess I wait until I get back to Phoenix and get to the library. Surely the Jackson County Library System will have copies of some of his books. And I can put in requests for them to acquire any they don't.

Tomorrow morning, actually about six hours from now as I write this paragraph, Daniel is going to be conducting a writing workshop entitled 'Finding the Necessary Story' at Lower Columbia College across the street from the library. I am yearning to go but not quite sure how to manage it. My sister said she would be able to drive me over after breakfast and then pick me up at the library after lunch. But considering that this morning, Monday, I didn't even get to sleep until nearly 8am and then woke at noon to prepare for my afternoon social engagement with my sister-friend Jamie (which I described at length in an earlier version of this post but then moved into a draft post for Thursday) and add to that the several cups of coffee I drank with Jamie at the restaurant after the reading...

Whether to go or not to go and if so whether to sleep or not to sleep first and if not whether I would be of any use to my sister and mother Tuesday afternoon and evening when my help is the most crucial.

And whether I short myself on sleep or completely deprive myself, it means yet another day of not working on the sweet pea embroidery on Mom's sweater, a project which I managed to give only two two-hour sessions since I started it a week ago tonight. I promised my sister I would finish it before leaving. And I've promised my husband I would do my utmost to return on June 21st. I'm estimating over 50 hours of stitching.

But then where do I fit in my promise to demonstrate devotion to my calling, my bliss, my joy...story. How will I feel this time tomorrow if I let this opportunity pass? Its a ninety minute free writing workshop! Surely, even if I can't find the courage to open my mouth or put marks on a page once there, I can muster enough to walk through the door and sit down.

Besides, a little sleep deprivation has always been a catalyst for word generation for me. Witness the length of this post. Quality is not as dependable as quantity at those times but then nobody can do a thing with nothing--no mortal anyway.

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Sunday Serenity #127

moar funny pictures
Today was all about hanging with my Mom while my sister went to a friend's daughter's bridal shower and then grocery shopped. Mom made an Apple Brown Betty. She had some help from her grandson and me but she was directing the show.

Mom and I spent most of the afternoon and evening vegging in front of the TV--Halmark channel Sunday Moives. I wasn't even sewing until after dinner because I kept forgetting to go after it during commercial breaks. I was that lazy.

I did crochet another bookmark this evening though. That makes two for this week but neither is truely finished.

It was a beautiful day outside and I kept telling myself I should go out on the tramp or go out and take more pics of the yard. But...like I said, lazy day. It must have been quite warm outside because the heat pump system was working the cooler pretty hard from late afternoon on.

I got to visit with my husband for half an hour by phone and learned what I was missing back home...a 93 degree day with no air conditioning. Bleh. When I left there it was snowing! That is going to be a shock to the system when I get back next month. I'm seriously spoiled by this heat pump system keeping the house between 65 and 73.

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Calling All Entrants: Winners Are...

Now you can caption videos courtesy of LOLcats. Check it out.

The winners of the three book giveaway drawings that deadlined today are as follows:

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson

canadiangiveaways
nightdweller20
thekoolaidmom
Sara
Sue W.


Made in the U.S.A. by Billie Letts

Donna M. Clark
Samantharae
Ashley
AmandaSue
ellie

Testimony by Anita Shreve

Beth
Bonnie in FL
Bingo aka mr12step
tetewa
janetfaye

Congrats to all winners and many thanks to all participants with special thanks to those who blogged, twittered or otherwise spread the word.

I usually send the email notification to the winners before posting my winner's announcement post but there was such a large turnout this time it took me soooo long to compile the lists that I'm in dire need of a break. It will be a few hours at least and possibly sometime tomorrow before I get all the emails sent. But if you recognize your name here and wish to go ahead and send me your snail mail before you get your notification that would help speed things up. Email me: joystory AT gmail DOT com

Note: Hachette must have a US or Canadian address and cannot ship to PO Boxes. Also, if you have already won a copy in another contest Hachette may not ship the duplicate copies to the same address. If you have won elsewhere and wish to pass, let me know so I can alert the runner up.

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Friday Forays In Fiction: Epic Fail

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I failed to remember it was Friday when I sat down to put up a post last night. Thus I failed to do my Friday Forays in Fiction post, a task I set myself in an attempt to hold myself accountable if only to myself for keeping my fiction writing forefront in my priorities.

The fact that I forgot it was Friday--a day indelibly associated with this task in my mind for months now--is a clue that I'd not been thinking about my fiction WIP for days. In fact probably not since last Friday for as I think back I remember Saturday as a frantic effort to prepare those twelve crocheted bookmarks for the photo I posted--a last chance to get them all in one photo as several were meant for Mother's Day gifts. Sunday was all about family with Mother's Day celebrations and family from out of town. Monday my sister and I got serious about preparing that sweater of Mom's she had damaged for me to embroider a sweat pea vine on it ...

Well you can scroll down over the past week's posts to see what each day's focus has been. Obviously it hasn't been on my fiction WIP. About the only thing I can say in my defense is that I did give some occasional thought to a charater or scene or what have you as I stitched away in silence--in the rare moments when there was silence that is, when there was no TV blaring or streaming videos or podcasts worming a phalanx of alien words through the earbuds into my thoughts.

It's that latter that is the issue--the streaming videos and podcasts that is for the TV goes off when the others go to bed and I seldom turn it back on. But ever since I started crocheting those bookmarks about a month ago I began to allow the podcasts and streaming vids encroach upon my late night work sessions, slowly turning those hours over to them as I justified it by using the time to crochet or sew.

So that is my confession this week. That I have failed to even put up a pretense of devotion to my fiction writing for an entire week.

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My String Theory

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I'm busy playing with my string.

Which tonight includes washing and drying a six-strand length of embroidery floss that my nephew's cat Bradley swallowed while I was bending over my sewing bag fishing for my scissors to cut the half yard length I'd just measured off the skein.

I worked on the sweat pea sweater discussed in previous posts for several hours this evening. Took a picture of it too and hoped to post it tonight but I'm not in the mood to mess around with the image program to prep the pics.

I've been contemplating with amazement lately just how much can be done with a few strands of thread or a long string. As a practitioner of fine needlework for decades it did not sound one bit silly to me when I first read of modern physic's String Theory. It was almost an epiphany to think of God having (crocheted, knitted, needle pointed, cross stitched and/or embroidered) the world into being with threads of light.

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Ever Had One of Those Days?

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It all started with misplacing my needle threader which I found hours later in my left pants pocket. But not before unpacking and repacking two sewing bags, shaking out blankets, sweeping swaths of carpet with a small flashlight beam and checking and re-checking and checking again the collar of the shirt where I pin it when I'm working and checking and re-checking and checking thrice more my RIGHT pants pocket.

Sigh.

I had finally raided another project for the threader assigned to it and put a few hours of work into the bookcover pictured in Thursday's post. During that time it began to seem that I used the needle threader more than I used the needle. I had to remove the needled to pull out stitches or the needle came off the end of the thread or the thread knotted.

Part of the problem was the headache that I woke up with. It wasn't a typical headache, starting just above my ears behind my temples on both sides. It wasn't until after I tried several tried and true remedies without relief that I discovered the problem while rubbing the sore spot and finding my headband in the way. The headband that I'd been wearing to keep my hair out of my eyes while I sewed yesterday and then slept in. The headband was pulling my hair. As soon as I touched it and felt that distinctive sensation of hair being pulled snug, I knew and also could ot understand why it took me so long to figure it out because that is the exact kind of headache that plagued me in elementary school and Jr High years whenever I wore headbands, ponytails or braids.

It wasn't all bad though. I finished putting in those rows of decorative silver stitches on the book cover that I targeted as the next project to finish. I still can't call it finished though as it is not yet a finished and useable product. I discussed with my Mom the best method for attatching the lining. It has to be by hand so as not to damage the needlepoint stitching. She reccommends the blind stitch. But she'll have to teach it to me--again.

I didn't work on the sweat pea sweater project again today. The headache was compromising my vision too much. Sigh. At this rate it'll be closer to Labor Day than Memorial Day before I can go home seeing as how I've promised my sister I'll finish it before I leave.

Other news is real good. On the Mom front: Mom seems to have parked her walker for daytime and is using her cane. She is going to the kitchen to make herself snacks. She asked to go down the outside stairs to the bakc yard to look it over and while there started pointing out to my sister all the things needing doing--pluck off the heads of this and pull out the extra that and tie back such and such and...and...

My sister said, 'Mom, I don't have time to play outside.'

Her interest is such a good sign we would like to encourage it but are still trying to figure out how. She would need a portable seat to sit on as she worked in her beloved flowerbeds as she can't kneel yet nor should she be doing a lot of bending over from the hip.

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Paradigm Lost

My sister recorded the season finale of Lost tonight and she and her son will be chomping at the bit to watch it. I'm behind by two episodes so if I want to watch it with them--assuming we can coordinate our so called schedules--I need to catch up. I've never been tied to the weekly air time for Lost since the fall of 2006 when we got broadband and wifi and I discovered video streaming and abc.go.com. My preference has been to let several weeks go by and catch up by watching several back to back. This season I let too many weeks go by and lost my opportunity to watch the season premier and the two or three episodes following that before ABC took them down. I debated whether to wait until they put up the whole season as they have done for the first four but then I'd be out of the loop when my sister and nephew talk about it and they'd even shut up as I entered the room as they have done so I dove in at episode 4 or 5 about six weeks ago . I really don't want to be left out of the loop when my sister and nephew start talking about the finale so I'm off to watch episodes 15 and 16...

The storyline of this series ties my brain into a pretzel. I've been trying to keep the time lines of the various characters and groups straight in my head all this time and it sometimes resembles a multi-screen movie theater playing simultaneous films behind my eyelids. Much like this YouTube vid except that the vid only covers the minutes leading up to and immediately following the crash. The still picture showing on the vid only shows three but there are times there are at least seven playing at once. It's a pretty amazing splice job. Kudos to whoever made it.

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Stitching Toward the Finish Line(s)

My sister and I did solve the issues with the sweat pea sweater project discussed in yesterday's post and I did start stitching on it tonight and I did get pictures but I didn't get them off the camera and my eyes are too fried to fuss with the image/photo application--adjusting, cropping, rotating, resizing--so I'm going to delay describing that one today. But it feels like a huge WIN to have it started since getting it finished is a prerequisite for going home.

So I will talk about the other project I worked on today while waiting for my sister to be available to 'fix' the sweater project. Pictured above is Tri-panel needlepoint bookcover which I started in the winter of 98/99. It was meant for my nieces sixteenth birthday as a Bible cover which would accommodate a notebook and pen. I had finished the yarn work by the summer of 2000 and began putting in the outline stitches with the metallic silver thread. That niece is about to turn 25 and lives with her husband of two years in Montana. I've gotten this out as her birthday or Christmas approaches at least once a year but would get discouraged when I realized I wasn't going to finish it in time for that particular occasion so I might as well relax.

Well I felt so energized by finishing those twelve bookmarks Saturday night, I decided to harness that energy and target another languishing project. This one is one of the closest to the finish line plus my niece's birthday is in July. Also my sister or Mom are available to help me with some of the finishing touches that have me flummoxed--like getting the lining stitched onto the backside and making the pocket and so forth.

When the picture was taken a few days ago, I had eleven and a half horizontal rows of the silver stitches left to put in. Today I put in five and a half of them. A full horizontal row is three times as long as what is visible in the picture as the two end panels are folded under. Each panel is just a tad smaller than a sheet of typing paper. So when it is unfolded it is over twenty inches long and just over ten inches tall. If I remember right the canvas is 12 count and the purple and blue checkerboard are stiched 8x8 to make them 3/4 inch squares.

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Sweet Pea Sweater Embroidery Project

This is the project that had most of my focus today. I did crochet another bookmark though after this project ran into a snag which my sister will have to help fix and her agenda was full today. She drew the sweat pea vine on the tissue paper and pinned it to the sweater so that two of the leaves and one of the flowers are covering spots that she accidentally bleached while working out a stain on Mom's sweater nearly two years ago.

The concept of using the tissue paper for a pattern for me to follow seemed good but the normal handling of the project is tearing the tissue paper and causing it to shift position so that the crucial flower and leaves are no longer covering the offending spots.

I suggested to her today that I could probably put in the vines and leaves by eye so it is mainly the flowers I need a guide for and possibly it would work better to have the flowers drawn on small pieces of tissue no bigger than index cards that I could pin in place as I prepared to work that flower. If we go that route she will probably cut the out the flowers from the tissue sheet shown in the picture. Except for the crucial one on the bottom middle which is torn and which she had to use whiteout on and redraw after goofing it the first time. I told her that one was confusing me as there were too many extraneous marks and I can't see the 'trellis' line on the sweater through the white-out. And that is the one covering the biggest bleached spot so it has to be positioned perfectly. All of that coupled with my visual impairment just makes it too iffy.

I've committed to finishing this before I go home so I'm going to be dedicating a lot of attention to it over the next couple of weeks and thus blogging about it. Today I chose the colors from a selection of thread given to me by a friend of my cousin who was at a baby shower my sister and Mom attended Saturday. My sister overheard her talking about these bags of thread given to her that she had just sorted and untangled but didn't really need and mentioned my interest in needlework so the lady dropped them off today. They apparently had belonged to my Mom's best friend who died in November. The same woman who took my wedding photos and whose shoes fit me so well when her daughter brought them by in early January, I kept four pair plus a pair of slippers.

So that's the second time I've scored the remnants from the sewing 'bags' of someone whose passed. Most of the crochet thread I used the last couple weeks was from my husband's Grandma's sewing bag. And my sister-in-law who received one of the bookmarks I made yesterday, asked if I'd be interested in some more remnants which I suspect came from her Grandmother who went into a nursing home awhile back and who was known for always having a crochet or knitting project with her.

Then there is my Mom's sewing and craft stuff--bushels of it that I've been going through and blogged about a few times already. Which is where I found some of the ribbon and most of the beads I used on the bookmarks Saturday.

If I'm not careful, my sister-in-law will have to use their van instead of their Prius to drive me south when the time comes.

Speaking of which...

I have been hoping I would get to go home by the end of this month but I talked to my husband today and the only day he would be able to make the drive to the truck stop half way between Portland and Medford is the Monday of Memorial Day weekend which is only two weeks and though it might be doable getting the sweater embroidered and my stuff all gathered from the umpteen corners of this house and packed and all the last minute errands and visiting all while continuing my daily duties here and daily blogging and.... Umm. I'm sure I'd have to stop work on the family photo scanning project and probaly on sleep and tramp work and showers and reading for fun and... Umm. Maybe doable but not with grace. I'm stressing just imagining it.

So the next available day he has is the Sunday of June 21 because between Memorial Day and mid to late June is when his company ships cherries which are fragile and have a short shelf life so that is always a frantic few weeks--long hours and lots of aggravation. Of course, we don't have to wait for a day he is availbable but then whoever drives me down would have a ten to twelve hour round trip.

So June 21st is my tentative return date--one week short of six full months from the day I arrived.

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Sunday Serenity #126 A Salute to Mothers

My sister with newborn son in the mid 90's

My Mom arm in arm with her Mom in the mid 60s

My Dad in his Mom's arms in the early 30s

My Mom and her twin sis in her Mother's Mother's arms.

Me in the arms of my Dad's Dad's Mom in the late 50s

Below I am recycling entire the Mother's Day tribute I posted last year.

A Mother's Day Musing
by Joy Renee

Have you ever noticed,
while flipping the pages
in a family photo album,
how often
mothers seem to not be
in the picture?

Even though we all know,
if we consider for just
one moment,
that every breath

every bite

every step

and every bright
smile

depends on her
involvement.


Maybe it's because
she was the one
taking the picture
or so busy making
stuff happen
or just
making stuff--
from matching outfits

to fully outfitted
snowmen


from flapper dresses

to wedding dresses


from birthday cakes


to wedding cakes;

picnics,

stage props,

rag curls,

curly tops,

smart bow ties

and...

matching eyes.

There needs to be,
don't you agree,
more than one day
each year when
the one who makes
it all happen,
who makes home
feel like home,
who frames all the pictures
of our earliest
memories,
is given her rightful
place
right in the middle
of the picture?

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Finished

I finished for real! With all twelve crocheted bookmarks. I put the finishing touches on eleven today--the eleven that I crocheted since last Sunday. That makes thirteen finished in less than a month. The first one (pictured alone below) took me nearly two weeks because I was learning and also because my teacher aka Mom and I had trouble coordinating our 'feeling up to it' moments. I finished that first one and mailed it to my MIL April 27 before starting another.

The second one, pictured at the far left above, tooke me most of a week and I put the finishing touches on it last week-end.

The remaining eleven, pictured in the order in which I crocheted them, were all crocheted between Sunday and Friday afternoon.

After putting myself on the dunce seat the last couple days over my issues with finishing projects, I set myself the task of finishing those eleven bookmarks before starting another one.

If I'd been content to put simple lengths of ribbon down the center or each one, I might have finished all eleven in a couple of hours. But no, I got ideas from the ones Joely posted about and pictured and raided my Mom's sewing and crafts drawers for beads and piping and my own embroidery floss for braiding.

Tomorrow I'd like to take individual pictures of each one before I start giving them away. And then maybe sometime in the next week post them and describe what I did and with what. But right now I need to try to get some sleep. The sun has been up an hour on Mother's Day already.... See, I cheated a bit and started this post with nothing but a title just before midnight and then returned to working on the bookmarks determined to get that picture to head this post.

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Friday Forays In Fiction: Finishing

I haven't touched my fiction files since Script Frenzy ended last week. And while participating in Script Frenzy during April I wasn't adding anything to any of my WIP or starting new ones as all my writing time was focused on my attempt to adapt my two already written stories to screenplay format. This week all my creative energy and free time went into those crocheted bookmarks I've been blogging about for two weeks now. I have been reporting here how I've 'finished' x number and started number y. Then in last night's post I got specific and admmitted that I'd only finished the crochet step there was still the tucking of the end threads, the threading of the ribbon and what all finishing touches necesary to have a functional item instead of another interesting conficuration of thread to cart around in a sewing bag indefinitely. Like the three items pictured above which I've been carting around for upwards of ten year--thirteen for the bookcover on the bottom left; ten for the one to the right and nine for the dolphin cross-stitch.

Today I completed the crochet step on my thirteenth bookmark and made myself not start another and instead start to truely finish them. Of the thirteen, four are now truely finished. The first one was finished before I began the second one almost two weeks ago as it was a gift and the deadline was upon me. This evening I finished three more. And all the time I worked on them today, including the crocheting of number thirteen, I contemplated my issues with finishing and how my fiction files are as full of untucked threads as my sewing bags.

I didn't come to any conclusions or make any resolutions. I just contemplated and among other things noted how useless the feelins of shame and regret that usualy accompany such contemplations actually are. They serve no useful purpose if 'useful' is defined as what brings about an outcome that is benificial to self, others, or the projects themselves. Shame and regret are leaches sucking the blood out of my muse.

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Bring Out the Pom Poms!

This was taken Tuesday evening. Mom going for a walk with her cane escorted by her grandson. I believe this was the first time she left the yard with only the cane. She is mostly using her cane around the house daytime now. She must continue using the walker at night until she has her doctor and physical therapist's clearance to stop. And she still uses the walker when away from home.

But this walk on Tuesday was a HUGE milestone. They went past the property line the other side of the neighbor's and back--that's several yards beyond the nose of that red car on the curb. I got some pics of them passing the red car but they are too small to recognize. I was wishing I'd thought of the camera sooner because I didn't have time to put shoes on and so couldn't step off the porch in my white socks to follow them.

It's been five months and two weeks since her fall => broken hip => surgery => stroke.

So HUGE. I was thinking we needed the Dallas Cowboy cheerleader squad performing to Beethoven's Ode to Joy to mark the enormity of it.

>>>>>>
BTW on an aside, I finished the crochet step of my tenth crocheted bookmark today. And yes, as I published last night's post I was still in the middle of my sixth. I still have to tuck the end strings and add the ribbons to nine of them. When Mom saw that I had five with untucked strings yesterday she chided me. She said "You'll get awfully bored if you leave too many of those to do all at once." She's probably got a point. And it is so typical of me with all my stitching projects--finishing is not my strong suit. I've got the same problem with my creative writing. How many stories have I left languishing with their threads still untucked?

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Yet More Crocheted Bookmarks (with instructions)

I set out to work on this post before noon today and was forced to take several detours--one of which involved a complete rearrangement of my laptop workstation for the third or forth time since my arrival here just before New Year's. Most frustrating in light of the hope that I'm less than three weeks from packing to go home. Sigh.

I took pics of the workstation makeover again for a possible post about it. But not this one. This is about my progress on the crocheted bookmarks and per request instructions on how to make them.

The variegated pastel with the pale green ribbon you see in the picture heading this post is the one I found in one of my Dad's books in late 2007. I asked my Mom a few weeks ago to take a look at it and see if she could teach me how to make one. But I told that story in previous posts.

To the left of it is my second finished bookmark (the first was mailed to my MIL two weeks ago for her b-day) made with a very fine thread and thus even though it has more rows it is approximately the same length as the pastel one. This was the first one that I started myself and made every stitch in.

To the right of the pastel one is my third one. Red and slated to have a black ribbon as soon as I can go shopping for it. I made it longer because the thead on the spool was getting so low I could tell it wouldn't make another twelve row one so I chose to keep going as long as the thread lasted. It has 18 rows.

Next to it is the just started forth one in a rusty brown. Also slated for a black ribbon.

Below you can see that brown one done (except for the ribbon and tucking the end threads in) with 20 rows with now better reason that I got carried away while watching TV and stopped counting.

The blue one to the right has 23 rows because the thread was getting low. (Most of the crochet thread in my collection was in my husband's grandmother's sewing basket given to me after she passed in 2007 and my first thought when finding that pastel bookmark was what a great idea for using remnants left over from other projects.) When I managed to reach 23 and a half rows though, I considered taking out back to row 11 and do a second one of 11 rows. But then I remembered that about four or five rows back there was a section of frayed thread that might not survive being reworked so I let it be at 23 rows. Because of the fragile thread though, I may keep that one for myself. It doesn't hurt that it's one of my favorite shades of my favorite color. It will have either a pale blue ribbon or a white one once I buy the white. But when I held it up to it, I liked the pale blue from the stash my cousin bought me two weeks ago when she took me shopping for the ribbon for the purple one I made my MIL.

Next to it is the start of my sixth bookmark in a slightly lighter blue. And in the top left corner is the spool of pale blue for number 7.

This probably looks like obsession and it might be. But it is also the fact that several b-days and Mother's Day are upon me and when I discovered how easy and fast it was, I thought why not see how many I can make in time for the events.

Below the picture I will close the post with instructions for how to make these crocheted bookmarks.




I don't know the lingo for crochet pattern instructions so I'm going to describe it plain English as I was taught and give you links where extra help can be found.

If you know that ubiquitous granny square stitch you know most of what you need to figure it out because, according to my Mom, it is just rows of two granny square stitches.

Begin by making a chain of twelve loops. Watch this video for a demo of a chain stitch.

After you have the chain of twelve, find the loop four back from the hook. This will be where you put the first 'granny square stitch' which is three double crochet stitches plus a single chain plus three double crochet. Watch this video for a demo on putting mutiple double crochet stitches into a single 'space'.

Don't forget that single chain stitch separating the two bunches of three double crochet as that is the 'space' you will be putting the 'granny square stitch' in on the next row.

The second 'granny square stitch' on row one goes into the loop four back from the end. Later that little tail of three loops is attached to the appropriate spot on the second row to simulate the row turn.

After you have the second 'granny square stitch' inserted into the fourth loop on row one, make three chains and then turn the work over so you are working right to left again and begin row two by making the 'granny square stitch' in the 'space' between the two bunches of three double crochet you just finished.

That is the algorithm--the series of repeatable steps-and you just repeat for as many rows as suits your fancy. Twelve rows using a medium weight thread with a ribbon sticking beyond each end about two inches is perfect for paperback books.

When you have the number of rows you desire you finish by pulling a loop through as though you are making a chain stitch but make the loop large enough you can cut the thread leaving a tail of about an inch sticking through your last loop. Pull the tail until the loop tightens down on it. Then thread the tail through the stitches.

Then at the beginning end take the tail behind that still dangling chain of three loops (it should be about an inch long as well) and thread it through the first loop of the chain of three that begins row two--just above it. This should bring the dangling three loops up around the end of row one to simulate the row turns on all other row ends. Though it won't look quite the same.

The ribbon is threaded in and out through the holes in the center between the two 'granny square stitches' on each row.

Several things influence size and look of the finished bookmark: thickness or weight of the thread, size of the hook and the tension you keep on the thread as you work. Learning to keep a steady tension from beginning to end is the only way to keep it from becoming distorted. You need to find a happy medium between too loosey-goose and too snug.

Here are a few sites with helpful aids for beginners and experts:

Annie's Attic
DMC
Needlepointers
Hass Design (where I found the videos demonstrating stitches)

All four of them have patterns, stitch charts, and of course products to sell from thread to patterns and books to classes (to videos in the last case)

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Tired Eyes

and other things...

Pictured are my perscription bi-focals and the magnifying visor and clip-ons that I use while doing close work. The clip-ons I alse use while using the computer as neither section of mybi-focals work for that particular distance--the screen is too far away for the bottom and too close for the top.

This wasn't the post I planned. I was going to post pictures of the crocheted bookmarks I've made this past week--four more since the one I mailed to my MIL the last week of April. I'm about to start my sixth. They take a couple hours now and I think I can soon get that down to one--especially for the shorter ones.

Sometime tomorrow I may be switching off crochet for some part of each day though to work on an embrodery project that has to be done before I leave here. I'm to embroder a sweat-pea vive on the front of one of Mom's favorite sweaters that my sister accidentally spoiled a couple years ago by bleaching the color out of several small spots while trying to get a stain out. My sister has drawn the vine and flowers on tissue paper and pinned it to the sweater, placing a leaf or bloom over each of the bleached out spots. I'm to embroder over the tissue paper.

I wish she could have got it prepared for me in time for me to get the stitching done in time for Mother's Day but things have just recently calmed down enough for her to add extra little projects to her already stuffed daily schedule. And I still had to make a date with her several days in advance to go over the pictures and designs of sweat pea vines that I'd downloaded over six weeks ago.

I made dinner by myself tonight so she could keep working on drawing the pattern and pinning it in place.

After dinner she went grocery shopping and I went out on my mini-tramp which is on the front porch and just the other side of the wall Mom's recliner is by so I could hear if she called or used her cane to tap the wall. My nephew was also down the hall in the office on the computer. Mom spent that hour watching TV and reading her large print Reader's Digest.

I spent over an hour on the tramp. I tried to crochet while doing the gentle warm-up movements but couldn't synchronize the two so was either making mistakes or pausing the steps. It's just as well since I then switched to reading the novel I set aside Saturday night. The warm-up and cool-down at the beginning and end and between short aeirobic sessions is when I get to do most of my fiction reading.

Earlier today Mom went for a walk down the block with her cane escorted by my nephew. I tokk pictures. Was thinking of posting them tonight instead of the ones of the bookmarks since at least they've already been taken but they are still on my camera and would need editing for posting and I'm just too tired.

Plus I've got to be up and alert earlier than usual tomorrow. It's Wednesday, the day my sister and nephew go to Vancouver, he to spend time with his best friend, the son of my sister's best friend from high school and she to spend a little time with her friend but also to do a major Costgo grocery shop. This is a weekly thing and I'm on duty with Mom for the durration. Which is usually noonish to tenish.

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Bookstand

This about jumped off the shelf to get my attention at Powell's yesterday. A stand for holding a book while I take notes by hand or keyboard or, in the case of 13oo page novels like Hungar's Brides which I was reading for the read-a-thon two weeks ago, for hands-free reading has been on my wish-list for years and I had in mind to keep my eyes open for one while at Powell's. I did consciously look the first hour I was there but later on was not thinking about it. I was on the way to checkout after over four hours of browsing when I bumped into a carosel holding book-lights which reminded me and I stopped to see whether there were other reading and desk related items in the area. And sure enough...

It's called The Bookeasel and when folded flat as in the top picture it's a tad smaller than my laptop.


You can choose one of several angles for the book to rest...


from nearly flat...


to nearly vertical.

I dithered for about fifteen minutes over the purchase because the price was about double what I had thought to spend on one but I tallied up the cost of all the lost time from fussing with jerryrigged things and all the postponed projects for lack of one and all the frustration when trying to read a book too heavy for me to hold steady at the right height and angle. I thought of Hunger's Brides which I had to send back to the library a couple weeks ago unfinished.

It all seemed to add up to a bargain even at nearly $20. Even though I had to put back one of the books I'd been heading to the check stand with in order to make room in my budget.

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Sunday Serenity #125

Powell's City of Books

The Map

A Tour

I got to spend five hours in my idea of heaven today. Powell's Books Portland OR

From their home site:

68,000 square feet packed with books.

Seriously. I want to LIVE there.

I spent five hours and I only got to about four sections of the ten or so I hoped to.

BTW the captions under the vids above are all links to something interesting on Powells.com

I'm exhausted. Got no words. Took my camera but forgot to use it. Hence the three YouTube above. The top and bottom are tours of a sort, the top being professionally done. The middle is a scan of the map one needs to get unlost after wandering aimlessly among a forest of shelves.

I also got to spend an hour or so at my brother's visiting with his family. His son made me an omelet that I swear could have been served at a fancy restaurant--it rose like a quiche all fluffy inside. My niece had a box full of two week old kittens that I could hold two at a time and let climb on my shirt--seven total. Three dogs licked my hands--two of the Black Labs my nephew is socializing for a leader dog program--I forget which one.

I'm totally babbling. I'm so tired I don't think I'm going to be able to pick up the books I bought to browse in them some moree. There are three of them. Too tired to list them because I can't do it without getting them out to verify spelling. There would have been four but I put one back in order to get a book stand for propping books up for hands-free reading, note taking and typing excerpts and quotes. Something I've been needing for years. Maybe I'll take pictures of my haul for posting later....

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May Flowers

Closeup of a flower in my Mom's yard.

Technically it's an April flower since I took this last week and it's probably one of the flowers that went into the vase my nephew put together to greet his Grandma when she arrived home from the hospital Monday. Along with probably most of those in the following two pics.

I believe this is called a Japanese Ornamental Maple. This was the view from the sidewalk last week. This week my sister has been out in the yard and weeded some and trimmed this tree.

Below is my view of the same tree from my mini-tramp on the porch. I love it's brick-red leaves. But I'm finding myself missing my view of those tangled limbs. They served as a kind of Gordian Knot for my eyes to trace and my mind to pretend to be occupied in solving their intricate puzzle.

But I'm getting used to this view after spending several hours total on the tramp since Monday. I'm actually hankering to go back out there now even though I've had a forty minute session already today but we're having a thunder storm. An April shower with a bad sense of timing.

Which means I'd probably be wise to power down my laptop. Ugh.

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Friday Forays In Fiction: Script Frenzy Wrap-up

I was so wrapped up in that crochet project yesterday I forgot to prepare my script for submission to the word-count verifier. Not that I was close to a win or anything but I did want to get an 'official' count. My rough estimate of my page count is 30-40 pages of sceenplay format. The Celtix script program I'm using says it is 64 but I know that over half of that is still untransformed from the plain text that I pasted in straight from the two short stories.

The Celtix ap allows me to highlight a paragraph and then select from a menu of formats: Action, Character, Dialog, Paranthetical, Slugline etc. After I got flummoxed by the sections of my short story that were thoughts and memories in Faye's head, I started picking through the stories for the dialog sections and transforming them to script. It is ninety percent mouse work. A page of dialog from the short story becomes approximately two pages in script. I've completed the dialog for the first story and about a sixth of the dialog from the second story. So I'm fairly sure that the two stories together would have easily made a 100 page script--the quota to win Script Frenzy.

But then there are whole paragraphs of the narrative from the stories that probably need to be cut. I left them in the script because of their info content--info that is important to plot, motive or theme that I need to figure out how to get into the script in proper format. I have to keep reminding myself that a script is not a story but instructions for how to tell a story in sound and image.

Overall I'm pleased with what I accomplished in this my first Script Frenzy. I may not have reached the quota of 100 pages but I reached my main goal which was to begin to learn the script format and get a feel for how scripts differ from narrative fiction.

Will I participate again next year?

Maybe. I still want to learn both TV series and stage play formats. So it might be worth it for that purpose. But I would have to find an alternative to Celtix for that as it is only for screenplays.

That question and answer was off the cuff and I learned as I typed them that my heart isn't really in it. The script format is not where my passion lies. But I'm willing to consider that is mostly because I'm still fumbling around in it and if I were to get fluent as it were, I might feel differently. Right now working with script format turns the editor in me on red alert and she then bullies my muse into a wimpering wolf chewing on its own leg.

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