Ms. Crochet-y

Here are some recent crochet projects:

	I made this poncho for Julia last winter. I was adapting a baby pattern and I’m not good at gauging how much yarn I need, thus the changing yarn colors.
As a warm up to the poncho, because I hadn’t crocheted in a long time, I made some winter doll-wear for Uniqua.

Walking down John Street on my way back from lunch, I saw a strange kid-on-a-leash situaton. The kid was a boy five or six years old; his leash was cutified to look like an animal backpack. His mom was pulling him one way, while he held onto the leash with both hands and was pulling the other way.

Ever see a dog do that??

Last night I was watering the garden, and a woman on the sidewalk smoking started talking with me about what I had planted. She gave me many compliments about my choice of stuff, how varied it was, etc. She kind of followed me, planter by planter, commenting on how healthy and happy each planting was.  I’ve seen her before around the same time, and figure she either lives or works on the block and doesn’t or can’t smoke inside. I asked if she had a garden where she lived now, and she said “no, not at this time.” She spoke very carefully and formally, like that.

Having a corner street-level “garden” - big planters between my building and an iron fence - is both great and challenging. One street is residential, the other is commercial, made up mostly of bars and restaurants at the street level. Last night I realized when I work on the 5th ave. side (commercial) I get many compliments and thank-you’s, although that side also gets the trash and cigarette butts chucked in. Last night’s gifts were half a bagel, which the ants were enjoying, and a wad of gum stuck to a flower leaf.

Here’s some shots of my garden, and a link to the saga of my stolen plants:

Julia fulfilled a lifelong (five year old) dream and got to be a flower girl today. She was a last-minute substitute for the real flower girl, two years old, who slept on her mothers’ lap through the entire wedding.  Luckily the dress we bought for Julia to wear was red; we had no idea that the bridesmaids and groomsmen would wear red also.  She looked perfect!

A major concern for Julia was the fact that she had only dropped about half of her rose petals out of the basket when the ceremony started.  She obsessed about it through the whole thing, wanting to finish immediately.  She kept asking me “When? When can I finish?”  Finally after the ceremony, once the bride and groom had safely processed by, she walked over to the altar, turned her basket upside down, and dumped the contents on the floor.  A job well done!

Went out without an umbrella into a really strange day, very windy, rain then no rain, cold, etc. to grab lunch and pick up dry cleaning. I didn’t have an umbrella, and it started to rain pretty heavily as I waited to cross 2nd Street, juggling my long dress in the dry cleaning bag, and my lunch. A young woman waited next to me, and we both turned our heads to look for oncoming cars, then turned back. As I looked at her she spontaneously moved her umbrella to hold it over both of us, instead of just over her. It was amazingly nice.

Twenty years in New York City and no one has ever done this for me. I’ve never done this for anyone! I do offer cough drops to people having coughing fits on the subway; that’s about as far as I go.

This morning at breakfast, Chris read us an email about his friend’s new daughter being born. “Her name is Arielle,” he told us.

“You mean like the mermaid??” Julia said, shocked.

Although I hastened to explain that the name Arielle has been around a lot longer than the mermaid, sadly I am sure that there are many little Ariels, Jasmines, Belles and Mulans in the world.  I played Dean Friedman’s Ariel for her, to prove my point, and later played it several times in a row, just to enjoy it.