March 2007 Archives
This doily had some interesting stitches to accomplish. The lateral, almost sideways stitches in the center and outer center rings required working behind a stitch and doing some kind of prestidigitation to get it to come out as it should. The effect is truly genius, though it does require hook and thread dexterity.
I'm thinking that I'll enter this doily in one my local fairs this year. I may give the Puyallup Fair another chance, since I work less than half a mile away from the fairgrounds, I may as well enter something. However, I'm more tempted to give the Evergreen State Fair a try to see how their judge scores my work. I'm secretly and silently hoping that the Puyallup Fair judge has been replaced!
Module 5 came in like a lion and out like a lamb. I was there last week spending 5 days of my life with my fellow comrades in training. On Thursday of Module was "Dress as Your Shadow" Day. The idea comes from Jung in that we all have a "shadow self', the dark part of our soul or personality that we keep hidden; the part of ourselves we are ashamed of, the piece we repress and seldom let out to the world for fear we'll be rejected, shamed, humiliated, and more.
I came to discover who my shadow self is at Module 4. In our first session of I-Group, after a day of lecture on the topic of affairs, I processed repressed feelings about my mother's infidelity in her marriage and I realized that I, too, could be an adulteress just like her. I identified myself as being like the maligned Hester Prynne from Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Hester was a typical woman of her times, but she got lonely with her husband being unvailable, and she fell prey to the "Florence Nightingale" syndrome of falling in love with the man whom you nurse back to health. Making it worse is the fact she had sex with a man of God, the Rev. Dimmsdale.
Hester gave birth to their love-child, Pearl. Since her sin was very obvious, Hester had to wear a scarlet "A". She would not name the good reverend as her accomplice for she loved him and wanted to protect him. However, his guilt caused a "A" to appear on his chest, perhaps by Divine means.
That's Hester's story. My story is much more mundane. A picture or two was taken of me in my Hester outfit. I modernized her a great deal. Think of Hester Gone Goth. I made a very fancy felt scarlet "A" for myself and wore it. I was clad in a black corset and long, black flowing skirt. The outfit is something I'd wear if going out to a fancy dinner or semi-formal occasion. But that scarlet "A" really made the difference.
All I know is that some of the men at module looked me over for more than a couple of seconds, giving me a second look. Even some of the women gave me a double-take. Apparently my reputation is to dress comfortably which means of course I am non-sexy in my daily appearance. I dress to be warm and for 12 hours of comfort. Wearing a skirt and corset all day is neither warm nor very comfortable, or appropriate for classroom activities.
The irony of it all is that one of the first-year students, a man, came dressed as a reverend (or clergyman)! I so wanted to get our picture together and recruit someone to be our love-child for the photo-op! However, we never did get that Kodak moment. We did briefly see each other's costumes and we had a couple of laughs. I suggested later in the evening we could sell stones at $5 a pop, but only those without sin could use their stones. No refunds given. By stones at your own risk.
Hopefully my classmate with the camera, John, will have the photos taken of me in a little while. I hope my eyes aren't closed in the picture. I photographed with two other classmates who were also dressed up very spiffy.
It was a fun day to be my shadow. People looked upon me differently, not becuase of the adulteress theme, but because I revealed my inner femininity, my sexual being, and I'm assuming people liked what they saw because I noticed a lot of smiles on peoples' faces.
This is Elemental Achievement from Patricia Kristoffersen's Ultimate Doilies. It is made with size 40 Olympus thread in a wonderfully rich blue color. The thread was gifted to me by my Secret Pal 9, Mistress Annie.
I'm not sure what the diameter is for this doily. I should measure it, but then I'm too lazy to do so. I'm sure it is less than 12 inches. It's very dainty!
At my internship I've gotten in touch with my Swedish ancestry through a fellow intern, Stan (aka Sven). He can claim 50% Swedish ancestry whereas I'm only 25% Swede. However, this is enough to engage us in discussing Swedish culture and comparing notes on Swedish culinary creations above and beyond the Swedish meatball.
He mentioned one day a cookie his grandmother would make and how no one bothered to master the recipe. Grandma didn't write anything down so the actual recipe is lost. Nothing is ever truly lost, so I said I could probably track down a variant recipe of this long-lost cookie and see if I could replicate it.
After endless detailed questions on my part, and Sven going so far as to consult a cousin who supposedly assisted grandmother in making the cookies, I came up with the above treat. They are called "kringla" and I flavored these with a hefty amount of cardamom and gave them a light sugar glaze.
What is interesting about these cookies is how they are more like a cake, almost a cinnamon roll. In some variations from the Norwegians the cookie is transformed into a roll and is made into a spiral instead of a pretzel shape. Some recipes call to shape the cookie not as a pretzel but as a figure-8. Some recipes use buttermilk while others use sour cream. There are about 2-3 unique variations on this cookie recipe and I shall experiment to see which one I think works best. My next attempt will be to use the sour cream recipe.
There is also another variation on this where the cookie is more crisp. This is no ordinary cookie, having each Scandinavian culture and region do its own adaptation of it.
I fondly recall my dear friend Pibb with another cookie story. She was raised by a non-biological grandmother who was Swedish. She said at the holidays her grandma would make a special Swedish cookie and that she'd give me the recipe. I was so excited to finally get in touch with my Swedish heritage, to experience something truly "ethnic". When I got the recipe and read through the ingredients list and saw how the cookies were prepared, I started laughing. I had known the recipe all of my life, just by a different name, and assumed it wasn't Swedish at all since no one had ever indicated it as such. Small world syndrome strikes again.
Now I shall fill this very special box with very special things! Like all of my funky stationery in which I write Shrone Ro silly letters!
Good Mail from my Unknown SP
I have been remiss in touting the goodness of my Unknown SP from Crochetville! She's been above par in sending me e-cards, wonderful e-mails, and has been a pleasure to get to "secretly" know! I adore that she has created a secret persona for herself of Melanie Rosenbaum (which apparently has something to do with the TV show Smallville).
She recently sent me a little handmade notecard with a crocheted bookmark inside. It's so delicate and finely stitched that I think of it as being from another time.
From Melanie I've learned about having a Dance Party! I think it is such a great idea that I've been holding it in my mind and I know I will eventually host one with my clients when it becomes evident that we need to DANCE!
I'm thrilled with being able to have a truly Unknown SP this round! Anna matched me up very well! I can hardly wait to find out who Melanie really is, because I'm sure there will even more we can talk about—as if thread crochet isn't enough to talk about already! LOL!
I awoke this morning to March Snow. What is different about March Snow? Well, because in all of my years of living in Washington (the state) I've never seen March Snow before. Even Mr. Doo looked out onto the snow with vile contempt. Did someone send a pitiful, grant-me-a-wish letter to the Freeze Miser asking for this winter weather? Did my letter to the Heat Miser get intercepted by Homeland Security because of its suspicious nature? (I knew I shouldn't have made it obvious that the enveloped contained large amount of unmarked bills.) There are 19 more days until the vernal equinox. *Sigh*
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My creativity for a one-themed list has suffered significantly since becoming a therapist intern. All of my brain cells are focusing in on learning as much as possible how to be a good therapist without screaming at the parents I work with. The joys of being a child therapist is that I get to play and do work at the same time. Lucky me!
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