Little Warriors: 100 Days (28)

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Day 28: On Which I Invoke the Warriors

One of the awakenings brought about by the Epstein/Trump Files is the certainty that it takes a village to protect a predator. It takes people like the Chomskys, who claim they were innocently naive, despite Noam Chomsky’s deeply thoughtful critical analysis of social movements and philosophical ideas. Opportunists like the former Prince Andrew and the United States President and other wealthy and privileged men, predators themselves, who counted on the circles of secrecy to keep them undetected. Winkers and nudgers like Deepak Chopra, who clearly knew what was happening, and enabled the predator, kept his secrets, considered themselves and him to be outside the bounds of social convention. Women who groomed the girls. All the staff at all the properties. People who suspected but turned a blind eye. A flagrantly unlawful DOJ. Senators and Congresspeople afraid of what they might discover. Shame on the village that guards the secrets of predators.

I outfitted three of the Little Protectors today. They will be warriors, feral and fierce. A definite Do Not Mess With Me energy here.

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Bless Your Seeds: 100 Days (27)

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Day 27:

Joyful Spring Equinox to you! 

The seeds of ideas and plans we brought into the light in the season of Brigit are ready to sprout. How will we nurture them in the coming season? 

May your seeds sprout, your sprouts flourish, your flowers bloom and bear magnificent fruit.

The Little Protector Dolls I made today will carry some of that bright hopeful energy of spring’s awakening, along with the fierce energy of the times.

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What I Want from Men: 100 Days (26)

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Day 26:

Here is what I want from my beloved male allies right now:

1. Listen to women. When you feel an urge to explain or contextualize men’s speech and actions, just don’t.

2. Amplify women’s voices. In your speaking, and on your social media.

3. Know that, no matter our own histories—from boundary-crossing to harassment to coercion and violence—the stories are hitting us hard right now. The ground of the narrative today is our bodies. We might be feeling vulnerable, fierce, invisible, endangered, dangerous.

4. We don’t really want to deal with your feelings about it all right now. Do your own emotional labor.

5. Speak up, dammit. Call your brothers to account, for their sexist jokes, their boorish behavior, their silence.

6. Stand up for trans and nonbinary folks. They take so much of the weight of gender hatred perpetrated by men.

*****

I spent some time today organizing some scrap fabrics, cutting pieces for the 20 little dolls, and braiding up a couple little people. I’m also playing with free-form crochet on a neck-piece. 

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Little Protectors: 100 Days (25)

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Day 25:

One quarter of the way through the project today.

Starting on a new project today, getting another set of Little Protectors Dolls ready for Radiance. On my initial project list, I gave myself the goal of twenty. I have pieces cut for seven bodies right now, and I can get fabric laid out to cut another fifteen or so in the next couple of days. I braided one doll this evening, just so I could say I had done something other than just organize materials.

What magic shall I call upon for this batch of feisty protectors? Little Girl Dragon Energy. Old Woman Rising Energy. Fierce Mother Bears Energy. Ancestor Rescue Energy. Waving Goodbye to the Patriarchy Energy.

What magic are you calling upon for yourself in these days of turmoil and uproar?

#The100DayProject

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Whimsy and Strangeness: 100 Days (24)

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Day 24:

Finished!

I forgot to post last night. It’s one big honking heavy sweater. I’m going to wear it as my coat today.

It is whimsical and colorful and wonky and strange and I love it.

I’m glad to be done and on to other things!

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Second Sleeve: 100 Days (23)

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Day 23:

Me: I’m about to finish the second sleeve!
Him: So you’re only making two?

Second (and final) sleeve on left

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Spell: 100 Days (22)

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Day 22:

Magic Spell/Prayer to Turn the Files into Trials

Take Wool or Yarn or String
Fiber is magical
Spin, knit, crochet, weave, braid, or just make knots

Sing:
Somebody is hurting my sisters
and it’s gone on far too long,
it’s gone on far too long,
it’s gone on far too long.
Somebody is hurting my sisters,
and it’s gone on far too long,
and I won’t be silent anymore.

When you cut your threads, imagine the girls and women breaking free from cycles of abuse. When you knot or twist a thread, imagine the abusers getting caught in the web of accountability.

To activate the spell: Don’t be silent anymore. Speak up.

#The100DayProject

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Yarn Music: 100 Days 21

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Day 21:

Beginning the second fifth of #The100DayProject today. First, I organized my yarn stash, which—after some unravelling of a couple knotty skeins— currently fits into one very large bin and two big baskets. I do not, as the hip-hop song I posted with yesterday’s reel about the project, “Need More Yarn.”

I Need More Yarn
by Yarnie On Da Hook

“I got 57 skeins and I still ain’t calm.”
I need more yarn, don’t ask why,
Cart full of skeins and I still might cry.
Bought a whole stash, said “this the last,”
Then saw a sale and spent it fast.
I need more yarn, like now, no cap,
Got bins on bins and a color map.
Yarn store clerk know me by name,
Swipe that card, I feel no shame.
I got worsted, DK, jumbo too,
Color so fine, had to cop that blue.
Said no more yarn? That’s cute — you tried,
But I see a gradient, and all bets slide.
Midnight scrollin’, eyes real wide,
“Limited stock” — now I’m outside.
UPS man just shook his head,
Dropped off a box, it’s full of thread.
I crochet slow, but I buy like zoom,
Got yarn in the closet, yarn in the room.
Yarn in the car, yarn in my bag,
Yarn in a basket my cat tryna snag.
I need more yarn, don’t ask why,
Cart full of skeins and I still might cry.
Bought a whole stash, said “this the last,”
Then saw a sale and spent it fast.
I need more yarn, like now, no cap,
Got bins on bins and a color map.
Yarn store clerk know me by name,
Swipe that card, I feel no shame.
I got 3 WIPs and 10 more planned,
A half-done shrug and a ghosted headband.
Y’all out clubbin’ — I’m at Joann’s,
Stackin’ coupons in both my hands.
It’s a fiber frenzy, a textured trap,
One more skein and I’ll fill this gap.
I said I’d chill — that was a lie,
New colorway just dropped? Goodbye.
I need therapy, or maybe a tote,
To carry all this soft lil’ hope.
Crochet got me in a bind,
But I like my yarn like I like my mind — twisted.
You ever buy so much yarn you start hiding it in the oven?
Under the couch? Behind shampoo bottles?
If loving yarn is wrong… I don’t wanna be right.
I need more yarn, I said what I said,
Yarn in the fridge and yarn in the bed.
Custom life, I stitch, I slay —
But I’ll risk rent for that merino gray.
I need more yarn, don’t make me choose,
I got 8 pinks and I need more hues.
Stash so big, might start a farm…
One more skein won’t do no harm.
Yarn therapy…
That’s a real diagnosis.
Catch me outside — with a hook and a haul.
(Yarn gang 4 life.)

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The First Sleeve: 100 Days (20)

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Day 20:

I finished the first sleeve. I was afraid it might not look right when I attached it, so I crocheted it on before making the second. I am tired of unraveling, and I am very much in love with the painterliness of this sleeve, so I was really hoping it would work, and I think I have finally got it! One more sleeve, then stitch up the sides, and decide whether to do some finishing at the neck and waist, or leave the rolls, and then I am done.

I thought when I began this project that I might just whip through my projects to get as many finished as possible, but instead I am unraveling when I don’t absolutely love what I’ve made, and enjoying playing with color. I think I’ll finish this in the next week or so.  

I have learned so much from this project. I’m learning to let go and remake something if I am not satisfied with it. Unraveling, like all grief-work, is a sacred process.

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Gratitude: 100 Days (19)

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Tying Up Loose Ends

Day 19:  
Progress: Yesterday (inset) to today.

Gratitude List:
1. Reading Shakespeare out loud with teenagers
2. Aconite, crocus, anemone
3. Raven, goose, swan, vulture
4. Sun, sun, sun, sun!
5. Morphology, webs of words and their connections

May we walk in Beauty!

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