Evil Eye

It’s a nice slow moving Saturday afternoon.  The little man kept me up much of the night, so he and Scott let me sleep in this morning.  When I finally emerged from under the covers coffee was ready, and I settled down on my much improved (although still in need of reupholstering) couch for a hot cup o’ joe and a windmill cookie.  Yum!

I picked up the windmill cookies at the local health food store (Bonne Sante in Hyde Park) after getting a much needed haircut.  I had been putting the haircut off since I didn’t know what I wanted.  Finally, I decided I just felt too shaggy and unkempt, so I asked my Mother-in-Law to come and stay with Victor while I went out.  I still didn’t know what I wanted, and was seeing a new hair-dresser.  I took a leap of faith and just gave her some guidelines, we chatted, and now I have a nice hair cut, a new hair-dresser, and I had an afternoon out without any worries, which was more relaxing than I had anticipated.  I have a great family that supports me, for which I am eternally grateful, even when I don’t take advantage of it.  I did take advantage of it this last week, and now I have a couch that no longer sags, a new super cool bookcase,

thanks to my talented Father-in-law and Scott, and a nifty new haircut thanks to my Mother-in-Law, and a little more sleep thanks to Scott.

Even on a slow Saturday afternoon, I am aware of how quickly time passes by.  Victor is already over 4 months old.  At this time last year, Scott and I were discussing how to best share the news that I was pregnant with our family.  Now we have a baby who is growing at an amazing pace, who since Thanksgiving has learned how to laugh and roll over from his stomach onto his back.  Watching him figure out… everything, it fills me with wonder.  While he naps (he’s falling asleep on my lap right now), I get little odds and ends done, like knitting, rarely blogging, frequently reading blogs, and slowly adding inventory to the new store web page.  My mind and notepad are filled with plans for new creations, and in time they will realized in wax and metal, little by little.  While Victor quickly learns new skills, I am slowly learning patience.

We are finally getting ready to unveil the new Evil Eye website, so things might get a little weird for a bit.  The new site will launch on Friday, and there will be a link to the blog on the main page.  You will not be able to use the current url for this blog as of Friday, but http://www.evil-eye-emporium.com/ will get you to the main page as always. If any of you RSS this blog (and if you do, thanks!) you might need to update it a couple of times before it settles down, but I will keep you posted.
I am busy updating inventory which was a collosal pain on my old site, but much improved now.  The look of the page may evolve as I get handier with Zencart, but it’s not too shabby.

The website is not the only thing I have been crafting, I’ve actually been spinning a little bit too, as well as knitting.  I can’t show you the knitting, gifts, you know.  But I can show you the spinning.

I dyed this corriedale at Yarn School in April:

And have spun it into these singles, which I am going to ply:

I am curious to see how it plies up.  The colors are muted, but nicer than I thought they would be when I first started spinning it up.  The corriedale is dreamy to spin, so soft and squishy.  I started spinning the single on that bobbin before Victor was born.  I don’t get much time to spin, but even a few minutes a day is nice.  I set him in his play pen where he can see me, and encourage him to play with his toys while I spin.  He almost rolled over yesterday!  Good times for both of us.

I’m looking forward  to some holiday crafting and decorating too, we’ll see how it goes.

So, I’m confused about the blue bins.  I saw the truck full of them out front, heard lots of racket from them, they spent lots of time out front.  We got notices about the program (again) a week or so ago.  But, no extra bin, which is good, we have our bin.  But, what was going on yesterday morning?  Confusing.

We tried something new with our gigantic baby last night.  For the first time I nursed him to sleep (that part is not new, I do that every night), turned on the baby monitor and left the room.  Normally, I nurse him to sleep, and go to sleep too, but I want to get him to fall asleep earlier than he has been.  It worked pretty well, he did wake up to nurse again at 11pm, but only briefly, and fell asleep again.  I was a big ball of tension leaving him in the room alone.  I know I was just downstairs, he was fine, but man, I was ready to leap at the first sound.  But, it was the first time, and it will get easier each time.  I guess I was worried that he would wake up, find himself alone and freak out.  He freaked out last week when I had the bright idea to take him to the American Indian Center Pow-wow.  For years I’ve seen people bring their babies, there were other babies there.  Victor was fine until the amplification started, and then it was over, he lost it.  He cried and screamed all the way home, and he cried on and off until he fell asleep for the night.  Sigh.  He was his happy, goofy self the next morning.  It was horrible to see (and hear!) him in such distress.

But, hey, when that’s the worst thing that has happened, things must be pretty good.  We’ll see how it goes tomorrow at the DIY Trunk Show!

I couldn’t think of a title, so I’ll plug the DIY Trunk Show, which I’m honored to be at again this year.  It’s on Saturday at the beautiful Pulaski Park Fieldhouse from 10am to 5pm.  It has been a challenge to get ready this year, but thanks to a supportive husband, I have managed to pull it off.

Yesterday Victor and I went hunting for historical figures.  I just finished reading Sin in the Second City, and recently remembered that Big Jim Colosimo, a Chicago gangster who was a major player in the Levee, the Red Light district in Chicago at the turn of the last century, is buried at Oak Woods Cemetery.  So, off we went to find him.  I had seen the grave before, but didn’t know anything about him, so I didn’t think much of it at the time.

We also found someone along the way I hadn’t expected to see, James R. Mann, the author of the Mann Act, or the White Slave Traffic Act.  It was “drafted to prevent interstate commerce to facilitate prostitution or concubinage, or other forms of immorality.”*

When I saw it, I thought it would be funny if Colosimo were nearby.  See the dark gray mausoleum in the background, to the right?  Yup, that’s Colosimo.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mann_Act#History,

More about the Mann Act: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88104308

More interesting people at Oak Woods Cemetery: http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=cem&FScemeteryid=173554

Yesterday Victor and I went for a walk in the local cemetery.  It just so happens that our local cemetery, Oak Woods, is Chicago’s oldest, and has all kinds of interesting people buried there.  Yesterday we went to look at the restored monument on the Cornell family plot.  Cornell* like the college?  Well, yes in fact, but that has nothing to do with its importance to this area (Woodlawn/ Hyde Park).  Paul Cornell founded the Hyde Park Township, which was annexed by the City of Chicago in 1889.

We had never seen the monument, which was off site being restored.  Last month when Victor and I went for a walk at Oak Woods I noticed it was back, but I was already heading back home, so I didn’t take s much time to look at it as I would have liked.

Not only is it the marker for the founder of this area, and of the first railroad suburb, it is also significant because it is made of white bronze, not a common statuary metal.  You can tell right away it looks different for some reason, it is just not a color one is used to seeing in statues and monuments.

Cornell’s monument is of white bronze (zinc), and, at about fifteen feet tall, is the largest of this material to be found in the Chicago area. The lowest step is buckling from the weight, its sides visibly bulging outward.**

I should contact them so they can update their page, the monument looks as good as new.

A few shots of our walk yesterday:

It was a beautiful day to be out and about, see the fall colors, both in the cemetery and across the street from my house.

I find that if I have a camera handy, I am much more observant of my surroundings, of course.  Yesterday I noticed that a stone block I have been walking past for four years has writing on the side.

If only I could salvage that block.  I don’t know what I would do with it, other than put it in my yard and sit on it, but I like it.

*Cornell was founded by Paul Cornell’s cousin, Ezra.

** http://www.graveyards.com/IL/Cook/oakwoods/cornell.html

It happens every year as the weather gets cooler (and yes, I know we are expecting a high of 80F today,) I start to plan new crafty projects in my head.  I see new knitting patterns, I start revisiting old ideas (cigar box dioramas, I haven’t forgotten you), or I see pictures on Flickr and blogs and get excited about entirely new ideas.  I am like a crafty squirrel (yes, I know they are cute rats, I am a pack rat, it works,) I want to start gathering supplies, preparing my space so I am ready to hunker down all winter and make stuff.  Other than a few consumable supplies, I have no reason to gather supplies, I have all kinds of crafty goods in the house.  I need to learn to wait to start a project, and then see if I need anything, and get just those supplies.  Besides, I am still learning to balance those activites with caring for a newborn.

I have learned to knit while nursing Victor, and yesterday I even made pie (not while nursing!)  So, some amount of craftiness has returned to my life.

It is amazing how quickly these last 10 weeks have gone.  I was so impatient at first for him to get bigger and more predictable so I could go back to doing some of the things I enjoy.  Now, I am beginning to understand that this all works itself out in time, and that these days of cuddling with Victor on the couch while knitting and blogging will not last for too long, and that this has become one of the things I enjoy.

Now, I think I will look at crafty things online and enjoy my dreaming.

I always enjoy reading the lists bloggers make, so I thought I would compile a popular one, 10 favorite things right now (in no particular order).

1.  YarnCon is on Saturday!  Please come and check it out*.

2. The poster my brother, Alex Uribe, created for YarnCon (and will be for sale at YarnCon.)

3. My baby curled up on my lap (or asleep in his sling).

4. Pumpkins!  I love pumpkin soup, pancakes, bread, roasted in the oven, and carved on front porches.

5. Scott spending time with Victor so I can spend time here:

6. Wool weather (yeay for knitting!)

7. Learning to knit while nursing.

8. Getting more sleep.

9. Sin in the Second City.

10. Listening to Public Radio streaming on my computer.

*We could use a couple more volunteers, please email me at info (at) yarnygoodness (dot) com if you are interested in helping.

We’re back from a wonderful weekend spent in the woods with our dear friends.  It was much easier to camp with an infant than I had expected, but I am sure that is in part because I had so much support from Scott and any number of people who couldn’t wait to hold Victor.  We were very cozy in our new tent, which felt huge to me, but gave us plenty of room for sleeping and changing the baby.

Victor, freshly changed, rocking his Ramones onsie.

As usual, the time went far too quickly, and I am already thinking about going back in the Spring, and how different Victor will be by then.

We’ll we’re off for our semi-annual camping trip, this time it’s 3 of us.  Victor and I have been getting out more, and now we’re going on a road trip, amazing.  We went with Sara to stop by Pulaski Park Fieldhouse and visit the new Loopy Yarns this week, and it is fabulous.  The yarn is arranged by weight, there is a room just for sock yarn!

In more knitting related news, I finished Victor’s hat.

He looks thrilled, eh?  We hope you have a lovely weekend, and we’ll be back with tales of our grand adventure.

Victor took a long enough nap yesterday for me to start knitting a hat for him.  I got a couple of inches done, yeay!

His feeding frenzy seems to be slowing down a bit, maybe we are almost through this growth spurt.

Want to enter a raffle for amazing knitterly goods, and support the Chicago AIDS Foundation at the same time?  Head over to kristyland.com to see how to do both, and see the great prizes.

A belated happy 80th birthday to Maurice Sendak.  I just heard some old interviews with him on Fresh Air.  He is one of my favorite illustrators and children’s book authors, and it was a pleasure to hear him interviewed.