Jenny Doh

GUERILLA KNITTING • GARTER-STITCHED BAND ON PRIUS

Mission accomplished. As you know, I've been exploring the world of Guerilla Knitting and getting advice from people with experience. Well, this morning, I executed my first installment. It was a thrill.

After my husband Gerardo washed his car, he was on the phone with his mom. This is when I went out to his car and attached the small garter-stitched band that I had knitted the night before, in preparation for this moment. 

After he got off the phone, he said "I need to go to Target" and went outside. As I peered through the kitchen window, I noticed that he started his car and as he was about to back out, I could see his face starting to crack up. He stopped the car and came back into the house and said while laughing, "Do you have a pair of scissors? I have to cut something off my car." Of course he didn't do it. I hope he'll never cut it off and see how it will evolve with time. But no worries. Even if he cuts this one off, I have more yarn. I'll just knit on his car again. I will prevail.

HEALTH THROUGH LAUGHTER

Science has proven that there are health benefits that we can gain through laughter. Laughter relaxes the whole body. Laughter boosts the immune system. Laughter triggers the release of endorphins. Laughter protects the heart. Here I am with Amy Hanna, who always knows how to make me laugh.

Other people who regularly make me roar with laughter:

1 My friend Maurine (about our past)

2 My husband Gerardo (about the family)

3 My friend Cynthia (about knitting & crafting)

4 My children Monica & Andrew (about the family)

5 My colleague Bruce, the Accidental Crafter (about the office)

6 My neighbor, Linda (about our neighborhood)

7 My friend Mike (about our past)

What about you? Who cracks you up?

JULIE PRICHARD & GUERILLA KNITTING

For those of you who don't know what Julie Prichard and I are talking about, stay tuned to future posts. The following video brought to you by the Knit Council of America.

FLIPPIN' TABLES • FRICKIN' HILARIOUS

So here we are: Me, Amy Hanna, Christen Olivarez and Johanna Love. PROFESSIONALS all the way, right? Together at Stampington headquarters workin' hard to shoot Amy's beautiful jewelry for an upcoming article for Belle Armoire Jewelry. HA.

So the shoot was super PROFESSIONAL at first ... just check out how serious Amy and Johanna look ...

But as the shoot continued, silliness started to emerge ... because the thing about Amy Hanna is that she is frickin' hilarious.

Toward the end of the shoot, we all decided that we all needed to pay homage to The Desparate The Real Housewives of New Jersey by flipping a table. Check out how much Johanna looks like Popeye the Sailor.

And here's Johanna not looking like Popeye anymore but I'm about to pee my pants from laughing so hard. 

The thing that's also a crack-up is that neither Johanna or Christen had seen what Amy and I had seen, which is hands down one of the most all-time outrageous moments in TV history — when Teresa from the Housewives of New Jersey recently flipped a table when she got mad during dinner. Of course it's totally outrageous but kind of awesome to think about but probably never appropriate to do unless you're from Jersey and you're on a reality TV show. Totally NOT PROFESSIONAL.

STRAWBERRY SOUP FOREVER

The highlight of my time at Dutch Flat was enjoying a delicious and beautiful tea with these women and staying at the historic Dutch Flat Hotel and enjoying the hospitality of Sussy ... the hotel's owner (and also the town's mayor).

Here is a peek at what the tea looked like ... with scrumptious sandwiches and strawberry soup!

After the tea, we were able to share some special visiting time around the fire, as we admired aprons from the past.

One of the special guests during the event was Diva Danielle, hostess of the Diva Craft Lounge Radio Show, which is the largest online radio program about the arts & crafts industry. She was completely hilarious and adorable.

Also in attendance was Lead Fiskateer Extraordinaire Angela Daniels (the one donning all the orange), and Dori Barrett (local Dutch Flat artist who was SO welcoming and SO fun to hang with). After the tea, we ended up staying up until the wee hours of the night crafting and cracking ourselves up with MANY laugh-out-loud moments. With Dori's help, I was able to finish altering my apron (which you can see partly in this photo). To create this apron, we channeled the muse of Rebecca Sower ... asking ourselves every step of the way ... "What would Rebecca do?"

Many thanks to Angela who helped all of us gain greater awareness on the awesomeness of all things Fiskars ... including these stylin' scissors which not only cut great, but make the user look mighty cute while making the cut. 

The next day, we all gathered together to join these lovely women to put on an apron fashion show to share aprons from the past and and present.

I had such great fun developing new friendships with all of these terrific women. Many thanks to Miss Vicky for everything.

I (HEART) THE OFFICE

In our family, The Office gets a thumbs up all around ... but probably Monica is the biggest fan of this hilarious show. But what's more hilarious is that she announced some weeks ago that at school, she joined the I (Heart) The Office club. (Her very first club as a junior higher.)

Since joining, the club has met about 5 times. And each time, the members enter a room, say nothing to one another and just watch an episode together. I keep asking her if there are any announcements or any plans for a fundraiser or election of officers ... and she always looks at me with this puzzled look ... like I'm totally out of line or something. We'll see how the rest of the year rolls out ... I just think it's weird and rather hilarious that a club would meet without talking or planning or announcing anything. But then again, it's a bunch of adolescent fans of The Office.

THAT'S GUM!

It took me a few years to figure it out. For the longest time, Gerardo and I had this sort of passive dialogue going on about gum. Whenever I'd bring home a new type of gum, he'd chew it and immediately say, "I LOVE this gum!" And then after a few minutes, he'd spit it out and declare, "I HATE that gum!"

For the longest time, I thought he was just a super finicky gum connoisseur. But then it dawned on me ... and one day, when he spat out yet another type of gum saying how much he hated that particular gum, I explained to him that it's not necessarily THAT particular gum that he hates ... rather, he doesn't understand gum. Because the thing is ... gum starts with flavor and then stops with flavor. And eventually you spit it out. No need to hate it. No need to love it. You just chew it and then spit it out. That's gum!

PS: My favorite gum is Big Red. Even when the flavor is gone, it's not really gone. (Gerardo disagrees.)

SOCKS AND THE CITY

Check it out. I finally received 100% of my belated birthday gift from Cynthia. Black-and-white knitted polka dot socks. Are they not the cutest thing ever? I think they were from a pattern from Rowan or something like that. Can't remember.

"They were a labor of love," says Cynthia. Which I believe ... because if you've ever knitted a pattern that involves carrying the yarn over, you'll understand the potential madness of having to carry the yarn over a zillion times to make the polka dot pattern. A tangled mess is what usually happens when there's too much yarn-overs going on. To give you a clue about the madness, check out how the sock looks on the reverse ...

Patterns such as these could impede a knitter's success. You could end up with tragedies, really ... for example, after 8 months of sweating it with an awesome sweater pattern to reach what you think is the finish line, only to realize that you've knit the front and back of a sweater in large and the sleeves in medium. Or after spending $200 on 8 skeins of cashmere to make the perfect wrap and realizing that you need a 9th skein to finish and there are no more skeins left in your dye lot. Those are true knitting tragedies. But as Stephanie Pearl-McPhee says in one of her essays, tragedy needs only the added ingredient of time to yield comedy. 

Well, no matter. I have my socks. They did not end in tragedy nor comedy. Just super toasty in my favorite color palette delivered in this way cool hand embroidered bag with the title of one of my favorite songs. Because whether a knitted gift is perfect or ever so slightly flawed, it matters most that the endeavor was done through love. Cause without love, you ain't nothing.

PS: Many thanks to all you knitters and crocheters and tatters and embroiderers, and rug hookers who have contacted me with ideas for our new publication launch titled All Things String as explained here. Projects involving string and stories about artistic tragedies and comedies are welcome ... by hook or crook, no later than December 1, 2009. Original designs, artistic objects, or patterns that are audaciously modified are what I'm looking for. Still have questions? Shoot me an e-mail at jdoh@stampington.com. :)

 

FOOTAGE OF LAUGHTER & TEARS

Speaking of all things string ... there is no one who shares my passion/madness for knitting more than Cynthia. What is it about our love of yarn? It's hard to explain. I just wish you could see footage of the two of us over the years ... on the floor, laughing with tears coming down our face at the ridiculous mishaps we've had with our various projects. Here we are this past weekend at The Dragonfly Shops & Gardens in Old Town Orange, after enjoying a fabulous belated birthday lunch ...

And here's Cynthia's latest pair of socks. Adorable, don't you think? For my birthday? No. This pair will be making its way to an artist who inspires so many of us to find ways to do good with our art ...

 

It will be accompanied by the pair I've been working on which is just about finished ...

I tell ya ... the technique of knitting them both up at the same time by working off both ends of a skein really helped me out. Just a toe to close and then I'll be done!

The socks that are for my birthday aren't done yet! They're totally fabulous but so far, it's one sock down and another to go. Cynthia actually presented me with 50% of my gift so I can remain wanting ... when/if I ever get the the full pair, I'll be sure to show you just how fabulous they are. 

(PS: She obviously was not utilizing my technique of knitting both socks at once on one skein.)

(Another PS: Lots of ideas brewing with The Dragonfly! More in a future post!)

HOT SHOES • HOT SOCKS • HOT STAFF

With hot shoes ...

and hot socks ...

This hot staff has been having lots of fun ...

Laughing, prancing, and singing (yes, singing) around the office ...