Category: Newsworthy things

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Winter Delights…

Hello, my dears! I know, it’s been a little while since I posted anything here. Mostly I was enjoying a quiet break here at Chez Cohen with my sweet fellow, my sweet cats, and my growing pile of things to make. I’ve been kept very busy with little projects (and big projects) of all kinds, and I’m absurdly gratified by all the kind friendship and out-and-enthusiam when I present something new. Because of all of these people, I’ve been able to not just bring in a little money but also to keep my spirits up. December was rough for everybody this year. It was cold and dark, lonely and seemingly never-ending. We were away from our friends and family and loved ones, and trying like hell not to get sick. More and more of us have lost friends or family or colleagues to Covid, and we’re all still attempting to navigate this world now so full of obstacles.  So the things that have been getting us all through are sometimes small, quiet moments of fun…

What counts as those moments for me? Well, there are the usual bits. I have new paints to try out and appreciate and make a mess with. The cupboard is well stocked with tea from Society du The’ and Mrs Kelly’s Tea. I’ve been trying to read to Matt before bed, since it helps us both wind down and sleep. (The book at the moment? “Sense and Sensibility and Seamonsters”. ) Besides scouring Netflix for distractions, I’ve also been avidly hunting down Youtube channels and stumbling onto wonderful, rare gems worth sharing. Pinsent Tailoring, Dominic Noble, Rachel Maksy, Cathy Hay and the Banner siblings (Bernadette and Dani banner) have really made my days brighter, and taught me so much. Cinema Therapy is a great Youtube series, walking us through all kinds of relationship woes using movies. When I need a lift, I go play something from Gunship’s youtube channel, and their videos are an 80’s nostalgia joy. On Spotify I search for all the 80’s Goth channels when I need to get out of my head and into a mopier time where I wore a *lot* more eyeliner than I do now…

Recently I’ve been trying out online crafting days with friends, which has gone enormously well. There’s a whole lot of lockdown still going on out there, and a lot of crafting supplies to use up. It’s just really nice to have that company, catching up with everyone and seeing what they’re working on in real time.

And now that it’s January? I feel like we have things we can hope for. There’s more vaccines out there. Spring is coming. (Not soon, not exactly. But stil! Spring!) I’ve been wallowing in seed catalogs, trying to imagine what the back yard could look like this year. I just had a birthday, and turned 50. Fifty!! It blows my mind that I’ve made it this far, especially after this last year. And today I watched the swearing in of Joe Biden and Kamela Harris, which made me so very, very happy. Better days are coming for us all. We just have to keep going on, finding our joys and cradling the things we love to us…

A drawing I did recently was of Arachne, one of the patron spirits of spinners, weavers and anyone who loves the fiber arts. She became a spider, after contesting with Athena at weaving, but has learned to appreciate small beautiful webs in quiet corners, away from chaos and unfairness and grief. Not a bad lesson for the rest of us, as least for a little while…

 

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The turning of the year…

This autumn has been and continues to be…interesting. In the classic, “May you live in interesting times” kind of way, for all of us. I’m writing this on Election day, where all of us here in the US are trying to hang onto the hope of something better, something sane. What we will actually get? There are so many possibilities, not all of them comforting. So what do you do?…

You hang on to all the good things you can. You eat Halloween candy, visit with friends, check in on far away loved ones. You do the needful things that keep the days going, no matter what else fills them. You vote. You wear a damn mask and wash your hands and try to stay safe. You try like crazy to sleep. You remember all the people who can’t be with you, and you miss them. You take your temperature and inventory any new blips in your health or the health of a loved one. You make crazy little pumpkins for the neighbor kids. You try not to let the news scare you more than it has to. You try to prepare for the worst, and try not to think about how bad that worst can actually be. You carry on…

In my case, I keep making things to help calm my worrier, anxiety filled brain. It helps to open the door to this soft, dark, quiet world full of odd embroideries and paintings, knitted things and yarn waiting to be touched. It gratifies me that so many of you want to share that world with me. We all want that comfort and love, that bit of unearthly oddity and funny things and practical goodness. And I find you all to be very good company in everything we’ve gone through so far. We all deserve medals. Big, shiny medals with sayings like, “Wore a Mask” or “Adulted My Guts Out” or “Gave a Crap About Others”.

Whatever comes, we’re still here together. Hang onto that when things get weird.  And I will too…

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Are you ready, boots? Start walkin’…

I’ve had some strange, interesting news these days that I haven’t really been talking about much. My husband is recovering nicely at home, but his health will be on the frail side for the forseeable future. And my FMLA leave is winding to a close. And with a job that deals with the public as much as mine does, it’s a real risk every day for a long exposure to Covid-19. So Matt and I talked it over, and we decided it would be the smart move for me to resign my job and stay home over the winter, helping out and making more art. So, that’s the plan. My coworkers miss me, and I miss them too, but I can’t risk bringing home something horrible for Matt. I already do every time I come home from an errand. Me. I’m the horrible thing. Heh…

So I’ve started stuffing this webpage with buyable delights, as many as I can make. The response so far has been really gratifying, and I’m so happy to see it. Also, Matt and I have added a link to Redbubble so people who wanted prints or merchandise with my artwork can have it. I’m happy about that too; as a kid in middle school my dream was to have my work on a spiral notebook, Lisa-Frank style. That dream has come true!!

Sadly, the original’s sold, but you can get prints now! This house was made for walkin’. It’s what it’s gonna do…

But even with the happy distraction of making new things and seeing them fly out the door here at home, I have worries. The same ones every tiny business has, along with the pandemic worries. I just hope that my attempt to keep my tiny family safer is the right thing to do. I feel like it is. And let’s face it, sometimes the world isn’t exactly subtle with what is and isn’t a good idea anymore. Sometimes you just have to run with whatever you have and make it work as best you can. And I promise to do that…

Love you all. Stay safe. Stay well. And hey, who wants a cool spiral notebook?

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The new normal. And a new, new normal…

So this is the new normal. While we’re still very much in the throes of the pandemic things are (sorta) opening back up, which honestly frightens me on a deep and visceral level. We are now seeing levels of violence and levels of social commitment that are new, defining moments for our country.  My hometown is at the same time a memorial to a horrible act of police brutality, shellshocked ruins of places that are trying to rebuild and large and small acts of incredible kindness to try to pull us all through.

And right in the middle of all of this–the middle of the protests, the tear gas, the riots and the strange arsons in my neighborhood–my husband had a stroke.  There’s never a good time for a major health emergency, but this was an extra layer of worry and suffering for us both. For a few days my husband’s hospital had the National Guard  surrounding it, to keep it from burning to the ground. He was allowed no visitors, which was the hardest part for both of us. And I held the fort at the house, alone with a bunch of fire extinguishers and my phone for the Neighborhood Watch updates. There was nothing better in the world than when I could see and hug my sweet husband again.

And now that he’s home, I’m on leave from my job for a while so I can take care of him. He’s recovering nicely, but still needs help here and there, and I’m glad I’m home to be there in case of a stumble. And while I’m home helping Matt out, I’ve started embroidering. It started out simply enough, with little flags that said, “Tea, and Maybe Poison!” But the more I tried things, the more I liked it, and after I had tried out some cobwebs on a black fabric background, I knew I had something else to offer in the shop…

Cobwebs are always fun. Always!
My spider was clearly quite sozzled when she wove this web…

Sometimes it really is some of the little things that pulls us through the bad stuff. Like sitting in the back yard. Appreciating the grape vine taking over the fence and anticipating grape jelly.  Being happy Matt and I can sit out there together, after all that time apart. I’m so grateful to have him back.  And I’m hopeful that we can get through the rest of the year together too…

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Vintage skills, modern needs…

Skulls and flowers, Pandemic edition…

Hello, my dears, and I hope you and yours are staying safe and feeling well.  These days our strategies for this are all over the map, from being able to shelter in place to having to navigate a potential dangerous landscape daily in order to keep body and soul together. I hope whatever you have to do to stay safe is working out okay, and I hope we all can keep it up until better days come…

For myself, I’m kind of a mixed bag. I still report to my workplace, but far less frequently, and I’m kept abreast of things more and more by online communications. When I’m physically at The Jade Mines I channel my inner Howard Hughes with disinfecting, washing, masking and gloving. Everything I touch gets wiped down, or I wash myself, or both. I never talk to another coworker without a mask on, and most of them have masks too. A few days a week we have fun online lectures about art in the galleries, newsletters from our director and our personal department, and a handful of coworkers keep reaching out to me to see how I’m doing, and vice versa. Eventually we’ll reopen, and I’m still trying to picture what that’s going to look like for us. I try not to let the uncertainty and fear get the upper hand, but I won’t lie, there are bad days. I worry about my friends, my family members, strangers I admire, and everybody still out there holding things together as best they can. And I’m going to keep worrying as long as this goes on, because that’s how I’m wired…

So what do I do when I’m not at the Jade mines? I’m trying hard to keep busy. There’s a lot of new yarns to put up in the shop now, and I’m so grateful for the kind folks who have stopped by for a look. I’ve been making embroideries too, and am surprised both by their happy receptions and by how fun they are to make. (So far all the ones I’ve finished are spoken for, but there’s a few ideas for embroideries to offer in the shop soon.) I’ve been painting a bit, and sketching a bit, here and there. And like just about everybody else, I’ve been baking. One thing I’ve expanded this spring is my garden–I have a large garden trough to keep tasty plants away from ravenous wild beasties, and I’ve been growing little scraps of veggies and fruiting plants in the kitchen…

Tiny green onions in a skull shotglass make me so happy!

I’ve also been hand sewing things, with helpful Youtube tutorials from loads of helpful people, and hypnotizing my friends with short videos of my spinning on a support spindle…

You are getting sleeeeeepy…because spinning is preeeeetttyyyy…

All these activities, besides being soothing and interesting, are actively helpful right now. All those handsewing tutorials helped me make masks for myself and for my family and friends. (Also I can now whip up a decent skirt and repair my clothes when I need to.. Thanks, Bernadette Banner!) The baking has it’s own rewards. (Lemon pound cake? Yes, please!) The spinning wheels help with my exercise routine as well as help me plow through my fiber stash, The embroideries lift my mood and help fine tune my fingers. The gardening comforts me and feeds me a little. (Right now it’s a very, very little. It’s still chilly here in Minnesota. But I’m looking forward to salad and eggplants, hot peppers and lots and lots of onions in the garden.) and I’m also glad to see other people doing the same thing I am; trying out older skills and fine-tuning them to help get through an increasingly worrisome modern world.

I hope we all get through okay to the other side of everything. And I’m taking everything I’ve been learning with me to the world on the other side of the pandemic, whatever that will look like. I hope you will too. Stay safe and be well…

 

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Quarantine…

I’m at home, mostly. By mostly I mean that here and there I’m at the museum where I usually work, keeping the lights on and the doors locked. The rest of the time I’m here, trying to deal with my own brand of Covid-19 anxiety by attacking projects. I’m one sleeve away from finishing a sweater. I’ve been embroidering something for a coworker. and I’ve been making lots and lots and lots and LOTS of yarn. I moved my favorite spinning wheel, Hester Hestia, down to the living room, and I’ve been watching movies, Youtube tutorials, and various friends playing music live while I spin. It’s comforting to still have my friends, even at a distance.

A few pretty, pretty yarns to while away the hours…

Otherwise? Social distancing, baby. Delivered groceries, verrrrry cautious walks around the neighborhood. I’ve been trying my hand at fabric masks, with a bit of frustration.  And I won’t lie; the times I go in to work I have terrible panic attacks before and after I go there. I have asthma, so I have lots of worries about contracting the virus. I’m just really grateful the museum is trying really hard to take care of it’s employees in real, practical ways. And I’m grateful I live in Minnesota, with a lot of people trying really hard to do the right thing, whatever that needs to be.

At the moment we’re under Shelter-in-place, so I’ve put the website on vacation mode until I feel it’s safer for me to mail out yarns. I’m also closing down the Etsy site for a variety of reasons. But if you need yarns soon and want something special from me, just shoot me a message and I’ll see what I can manage for you. Just stay safe, and hang in there, and I will too…

 

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A Few New Things…

Hello again, my dears! My website has had a little work done recently, so I have some nice additions! Like… *deep breath*… a little shop. Right here. Where you can buy pretty yarns, knitwear and weird things I make! I wanted to step away a little bit from the Etsy site and have something a bit more personal. And here it is! It’s still in it’s early, humble stages, but I’m very excited about this step, and as always your comments and opinions are welcome and treasured…

Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to add new skills to my fiber interests. I bought a rigid heddle loom, and have been experimenting with big, drapey shawls. Also, I’ve been playing with embroidery. (In this case, to cheer up a sad friend, but I enjoyed it enough to try to make a few things for sale. Stabbing things over and over in pretty ways is oddly soothing.)

I finished up the Krueger sweater and it’s new owner is very pleased by it. I’m a bit torn between offering the pattern I developed in a pdf or just writing it down on a piece of torn, weathered parchment with some very suspect stains all over it and sending it off in the mail to would-be knitters. Honestly, I think it has to be the second way. Besides, it’s so much fun getting odd things in the mail!! Also, since I have some leftover yarn from the project I should whip up a hat and mitt set for this October. As always, I have too many projects and not enough hands…

Also, I want to thank my sweet husband, Matthew Cohen, for setting up the new site and for his generosity, patience and kindness. None of this would be remotely possible without his help, and I’m lucky beyond words…

So, watch this space for new things to pique your interest!!


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Ms Mausi and the Inherited Stash…

Inheritance

Greetings, fellow knitty-fiends! I realize it’s been a while since I put something up in this space, but I’ve been busy, in ways I didn’t intend to be. Quite a few things happened over the summer, but what really took up a lot of head space for me was losing my mother. She died in June, and I spent (and spend) a lot of time processing her death.

The hardest part is going through all of her things. Like me, she was artistic, and I’ve been going through her paints and projects, many unfinished. It’s the unfinished ones that really hurt the most to find.  Some of it’s glorious, some of it’s awful, and it takes time to really sort everything out. There’s also huge tubs full of movies. so many movies. And mostly, except for the odd animated film, the kind of wonderfully grody, cheapy-budget horror films we both loved so much. I now have every Saw movie, however many they made so far.  And other great movies I’m looking forward to watching, like, “Doll Graveyard” and “My Mom Was a Werewolf.” There’s also loads of books, also mostly scary horror or weirdo mystery or funky things Nostradamus said.

But the unfinished projects are the saddest.

At one point I couldn’t look at the unfinished crocheted farmer couple she had been working on any more, and busted out some of her yarns to crochet tentacles for the lady’s unfinished legs. Oddly enough, not only did it make me feel a little better, but the couple looked much more…interesting…

And while I have a photo to share of the couple, It’s not loading right at the moment, and the dolls themselves are in a huge stack of boxes by the china hutch… Yes people, we’re moving! To a larger house with a very nice attic space that will become my new craftroom. It’s a very bright spot after some very dark times.

But there’s still lots of packing to get through first. Le siiiigh…

 

 

Inheritance
Crochet needles, Acrylic yarn and Bad, bad super-bad horror movies. That’s how my mom rolled…,

 

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Tarot of the Yarns…

Knitting Tarot Spread

There’s been quite the dust storm kicked up on Etsy recently, concerning purveyors of magical supplies and readings and such. While I’m very glad to see the obvious fakes and predators kicked off the site, sadly some of my friends have also gotten their items booted off–candles and herbs and such; actual items used for religious purposes instead of the amusingly priced “Call a Sexy Vampire” rings and necklaces. And mainstream religious items seem to be selling just fine. It’s more than a bit confusing for everybody involved, I think…

And how does that have anything to do with me? I’m glad you asked. I’ve always loved Tarot decks and readings, and have been collecting them for years. A while back for last Halloween I ran in my shop among the woolens and yarns a Tarot reading for knitters. For the princely sum of 3 dollars, I would do a three-card spread about a knitting project someone had problems with and give them helpful advice. I labeled it as Entertainment Only, but added the caveat that any reading I did would also be bolstered with solid knitting advice.

Knitting Tarot Spread
A Knitting Tarot Spread…3 cards to help the knitterly-challenged.

People seemed to like it a lot, but alas, I had no takers. I took it down right before the new changes took effect. Would Etsy have kicked it to the curb? I’m really not sure. Very probably, even with the amusing premise. Ah well. I suspect my time is better spent with the spinning wheel…

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Welcome!

Welcome to the first posting for my new page! I’m so very glad to see you. For years and years I did my blogging on Livejournal, and as time went by I decided I needed something I could personalize a bit more. So with a great deal of help, fine tuning, last-minute tweaking and and my going, “Nono, more like this! No, wait, how about that? Oh dear, tech support guys again?” I am proud to present MsFledermaus’s Completely New and Extremely Fancy Blogging Experience…now with more pictures, videos, and yet still chock-full of Mausi-style spooky-stuff. Hurray!

I should mention, this blog will mostly be about making art-yarns, from start to finish. There will be wool-washing, dyeing, carding, spinning, knitting, and flouncing around covered in yarn…including the occasional tutorial. This may not be your thing. That’s okay.  And there will also be crazily-painted dollhouses, odd tea parties, odder art projects, and other amusing miscellany. Even if these things may not be your cup of tea, I hope to at least be entertaining…

Meanwhile, here’s a cheerful photo of Shamu the Bunny, because rabbits make blogging more fun. It’s a fact…

Shamu the Bunny