KniTerrorism, or Art Happens

It all started a little over a year ago. Elections were coming, and as these things usually go before elections, all sorts of improvements were sprouting all over Beer Sheva, to prove that the present administration was worthy of another term in office.

While the mayor eventually lost, to his protege, no less, we had gained a lot of urban art. I was most partial to these guys, who were populating traffic islands all over town.

While I found them charming, the thought crossed my mind what with desert nights being really cold starting October or so, that the poor things must be freezing. Something had to be done. I knew right away.

Now, I knew right away, but I have this thing called My Life, and it tends to get in the way of many of my lovely ideas. So it took time, and a lot of stitching in between other things, but I finally went ahead with it last night.

The lovely lovely members of my Stitch ‘n Bitch group, Shani, Revital, Rotem, Adi, and Omer enlisted their services to my vision of warmer statues in our quiet desert town. Some of these scarves were knit by many hands, others were patched together from bagfuls of granny squares that were languishing in my crap room (and some of those are particularly fugly). One I even finger knit, using the fingers of the arm I broke this past summer as loom prongs. And so on, so forth.

So we set out armed with hooks and needles, with a trunkful of scarves, and high spirits. I instructed everybody to take our work seriously and dress in dark colors, as true guerilla warriors would for extra stealth. And we hit the streets.

It was truly one of the most fun times out I can recall. Turns out we’re a really fun bunch, even when it’s ridiculously cold. Maybe especially so…

And they looked so COOL with the scarves on. It’s like it was meant to be.

What next? My most optimistic vision for this work is for the scarves to start disappearing, being collected by the city’s less fortunate, or just cold, for that bit of warmth that was missing so far. This just so happens to be the first week of this autumn in which the nights are really drastically colder than the days. Tal has prepared me for the scenario that the same single crackhead will collect them all and sell them off for more dope. Either way, at least the statues were warmer for a little while, right?

When I went out for my round this morning, all but one scarf were still in place.

At any rate, if this has any kind of positive response, I will be trying to go for another couple of rounds of attack. There are several other such clusters of statues I’ve had to neglect this time, for lack of scarves and stamina. And they all deserve a bit of warmth.

It’s been a month

A whole month of good health chez yberry. Well, you know, what with the war and all we were too busy to be sick.

But I am currently writing this post with a snot-nosed little monkey named Yiftah climbing all over me. Luckily for him, he is adorable and gorgeous as ever on ibuprofen, so I am more able to accept not being able to do anything except being his mommy today.

Though I guess it’s all ok. I don’t really have any pressing work to do, the shipment from the supermarket is annoyingly late so I can’t even glance yearningly at the kitchen wishing I were cooking, and even the fiber workshop I was supposed to prepare a dyeing class for was canceled (or postponed indefinitely, as I would like to believe). So I can just sit here and bask in Yiftah’s glorious adorability. He is definitely da shit.

Hmm. I just noticed that I used an unusual amount of adverbs in this post, or am I just usually a little weak in that department? Well, Yiftah is destroying Pocahontas, so I better go do something about it.

Let’s just all have a good week, mkay?

Peace, fleeting

Yeah. There’s been a war going on here.

Contrary to other parties involved, we had it pretty easy, as far as wars go. The kids were at home because daycare was closed part of the time. There was the discomfort of having to head to the bomb shelter when the sirens went off. There was the stress of knowing that the sirens were not necessarily going to go off before missiles fall. There were the occasional missiles falling quite close to home. But all in all, we had it pretty easy.

The ceasefire was announced on Saturday. Saturday night, I heard a series of booms, and several minutes later it turned out that several missiles fell nearby without any warning. Still, it’s been quiet since. Quite a few missiles were fired yesterday to other areas, until the Hamas decided that they agree to cease fire as well.

Everybody has been quick to declare themselves the winners. Quite frankly though, I think you don’t have to be particularly bright to realize that we are all losers. What we did to the civilians living in Gaza is just a tragedy. Granted, this tragedy could have probably been averted if the Hamas government was not using its constituents as human shields for terrorist activity against civilian targets in Israel, but it is a tragedy, nonetheless.

Another stark reality is that this ceasefire is quite evidently temporary. It will last several weeks, several months, maybe even several years. But it will be tense and fragile, and it will end and we will go back to being ducks at a firing range, and feel very justified in inflicting further horrors on the unfortunate innocents living in the Gaza Strip, because terrorists have chosen to live among them.

On the news last night, they interviewed a Palestinian refugee living in Jordan. When asked how this was going to all be resolved, he said that for the time being we are going to make peace and live side by side, but that eventually they were going to kill all of us Jews. That’s it. This was not any terrorist or political activist talking. Just your average Joe (well, Ahmed). For many people, at least on the other side, that is the only visible solution. And it doesn’t mean that they hate us as individuals. It’s just that in their eyes we do not belong here, and that will eventually have to be corrected, at any cost.

And isn’t that really what it all boils down to? Do we belong anywhere? The future of the State of Israel is not obvious to me. I love this place and cannot see myself living anywhere else, but what chance to we have at any kind of sustainable existence if we are surrounded by people who are willing to wait patiently but believe eradicating us is the only way to go? And if that is the case, what future do the Jewish people as a whole have? Either being ethnically cleansed or being completely assimilated into other cultures?

I do so terribly want a peaceful existence. Peace with other nations, peace with the environment, peace with myself. The only thing I really seem to have any kind of control over is the “myself” part, and that is quite limited. But it seems that any choice I make, even simply being alive, is causing irreparable damage and disruption. And if that is the case, how can I even be at peace with myself?

Oy, I’m getting myself into a corner here. Though I guess that is just keeping with how we’ve all been feeling here these past few weeks. Cornered.

Discover swiedebie on Etsy

I don’t know if it is terribly wise of me to be introducing someone who can be considered competition, at least in part, but I have the most terrible weakness for all things cute and plush, and swiedebie’s shop is just adorable.

Take this guy, for instance. He’s freaking adorable. I can’t say to a certainty that if he were mine I would share him with my kids, even though he is safe for kids over two. He just looks like he fits perfectly into hugging position with a sleeping toddler. Do I sound like an informercial? I don’t care. I luuuuuuuurve this little dude and if I see him around etsy for much longer, I am probably going to end up snatching him up for myself.

If you are looking for something smaller that you can write off as being functional for the discerning individual, how about this?

If I weren’t so pathetic at keeping things in one piece, I would use this dude as a cell-phone dangler (even though I have been alerted that this is something only Israelis do, I don’t care – I’m Israeli, proud of it, and whoever has a problem can fire a missile at me at watch me go neener-neener from my yarn-insulated bomb shelter), to give my cell phone that extra bit of character.

The store also has adorable felt pincushions and mascots, and a wide selection of sock monsters, some of which are baby safe. I think nothing can beat handcrafted items for babies. It’s such an expression of care, on so many levels. This might be wishy-washy idealistic of me, but I think that a child who grows up knowing that toys, clothes, etc. can and are made by actual people will come to have more respect for their things and where they came from.

Anyway, a quick look through the shop reveals quirky, creative, and functional toys that are just full of charm and cheer. Once I get over being jealous that I’m not the one who made it all, I will be able to wholeheartedly endorse it.

Peace, momentary, part II

DSC00157

Originally uploaded by garbubba

It’s moments like these that put it all in perspective, and remind me what’s really important.

Peace, momentary, part I

DSC00158

Originally uploaded by garbubba

On the way home from an overnight breather in Tel Aviv, away from the rockets.

Peace, washable

P1020018

Originally uploaded by garbubba

We made it nice and big so it knows where to land.

*le sigh*

Let’s ring in ‘09 in style!

Ok, to be perfectly honest, I don’t give a rat’s ass about New Year’s. It’s another date. Got plenty of those.

And yet you must admit that being under Hamas fire is a helluva way to celebrate. All in all, we’re doing quite well. The house is well stocked, the weather is too cold to go out anyway, and the bomb shelter has wifi. It’s just plain surreal.

Monday, at about 2am, my neighbor was called off for emergency reserve duty somewhere near the Gaza strip. About 8 hours later, his wife was hospitalized for labor induction about a month early, due to low levels of amniotic fluid. Last night at 9pm, as she was pushing their third child into the world, with him by her side, though still in fatigues and fully armed, their older two kids got to spend five minutes in the bomb shelter facing ours, with their grandpa as babysitter. Totally surreal.

Enough kvetching about our situation here, though. There are people in the world who have it much worse. There are people 30 minutes away from me who have it much worse.

February 1st will mark a year for the brilliant conception of LSG – Lazy, Stupid, and Godless, a ravelry group that has become so much more for so many people. For the occasion, I want to do something fun, and all you yarncrafters out there are welcome to join me.

I hereby present the first-ever WTF?!-along. I’ve been wanting to do a sort of homage to the late and great You Knit What?? for some time now, and in conjunction with LSG festivities, it seems perfect.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to complete some sort of yarncrafted project over the month of January. This project must be of the kind that makes people go “WTF?!”, and must be fugly as hell. On February first (well, actually the 48 hours it takes that date to sweep the entire planet Earth), we are going to test the human race’s capacity for conceptual art gone muppet-puke, and auction off the fruits of our ridiculous labor on ebay or the like. I’m all for artists actually living off their art, so you can keep some for yourself, but if you make any money on it, at least 50% of the proceeds should be pledged to the charity of your choice. What you actually do will have to rely on the honor system, but I have faith in us crafty folk to do good where we can.

I will be unveiling badges for the participants as the month progresses. If you become so attached to your fruit of fug to let it go, keep it for yourself, but still please do make a humble donation. Let’s try to make our own little scratch in the world, ok?

To join, just comment your pledge here. Progress reports can be emailed to me: yberry AT netvision DOT co DOT il (if you are not a spambot you will know what to do with that address, right?), and will be posted here for the world to see.

I’m going to start by pledging my donation to חיבוק ראשון (“First Hug”) – an Israeli organization whose volunteers spend their time touching, hugging, and caressing abandoned infants in neonatal wards across the country.

* Please note that if you are planning to make something that might have copyright issues, please do obtain permission from copyright holders and make sure that you are completely clear on what can be done with revenues in advance.

And I will raise a glass of nog to life, friendship, and all things fibery, with the hope that ‘09 only improves on ‘08.

Discover an Etsy shop – Arc En Ciel Creations

My explorations on Etsy led me to this lovely shop, which specializes in nuno felted scarves, for all seasons.

The gorgeous felted creations in this shop make me kind of wish I was past the point in life at which anything that is not decidedly machine washable get ruled out for lack of functionality. The colors make me want to hug someone.

You may or may not have noticed that I have a thing for rich, deeply saturated colors. A lovely palette like the one above can very well make me somewhat teary-eyed. Colors excite me. Ridiculously so. I’m talking the ability to spend a good hour or so just examining a box of Crayola crayons. It’s like the intensity of my emotions somehow finds an outlet in color, and I honestly feel better for it afterwards. Cheaper than therapy?

Now, I know that the holiday shopping rush has passed. Thank heavens we always have birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, etc. And not to pressure anyone, but I will be turning 30 in May, and maybe by then will have the occasional opportunity to get away with not having anything smeared on my clothes for an entire evening. Not that I’m trying to push anyone to spend money in these trying times.

But, gosh, aren’t they pretty?

And in case you were wondering

perfectday

Originally uploaded by garbubba

Yes.

I, too, have been aspinnerated. Resistance is futile. Even though I initially took the Yarn Harlot’s cue and declared that Tuesdays are for spinning, I’ve been doing upwards of one ounce a day on non-Tuesdays. And yes, I know that makes me sound like a drug fiend.
What can I say?
It’s the truth.