Beautiful Things

Just about to run out for the first day of installing the squares!  But before I do, I know you all have been asking yourselves...so, Robyn, have you changed your opinion about dotorimuk (jellied acorn paste)?

The answer is YES!

My host family was a little surprised, and I suspect a little dismayed, to learn that I am a vegetarian because much of Korean food includes a meat component.  I knew this, and being a vegetarian who does not like to impose on anyone offering me food, my plan was to eat whatever I was given.  But then, someone asked me...and word was out.  The solution was dotorimuk!

We went to a restaurant that specializes in it and it was totally different from my first experience of it.

Here it is as squares.

Flattened and cooked (?) like a pancake.  This one was extra yummy.

And finally, as noodles with lots of sprouts and veggies and, I think, peanuts.  Mixed with hot sauce.  Oh yes.  Sorry chipmunks, I take it back.  I wants your acorns after all.

Enough with the acorns already.  Here are all 700+ or - squares organized by colour.

And five hours later, organized by how I plan on installing them (minus two boxes I packed up).  I left these out because a television crew will be there this morning to tape some footage about the project and they need some visuals.  I pulled a few squares out that seemed to have special stories attached, including one made from 40 grocery bags and two from the blogless Janine who made her squares from wool from her very own sheep that she sheared, scoured, carded, spun and then knit.

But if one thing became clear to me yesterday as I handled and considered each square, it was that there are not really any "special" ones.  Every single one represents care and time and energy that someone gave freely to this project.  I was really feeling that generosity coming off of every single square - it was a beautiful thing.  

I hope you feel my love in return....

Music: Meaning and Matching

 
From the get-go, one idea I have had about The Avenue of Trees project is that the colour patterning would have some relationship to music. I did not want to just hang up the squares in a rainbow transitioning pattern, although that is actually a lot harder to avoid that you might think. So, I set to looking for (and listening to) music that might be an inspiration.  Not so much like red squares = a C note, but more in creating a sense of flow that might be inspiring to colour pattern.

People who know me will know this is like me saying one day that I wish to fly and heading over to the nearest cliff to try my luck. It is just about as likely that I will fly as I will be able to work directly with music.  That is to say, I am an amusical person. I think I may have just invented that word but to me it is like being asexual....I just ain't got it in either direction. Those places in the brain where music happens...well, they dried up ages ago.   It is a very quiet place in that corner of the old noggin for me.

What better idea, then, to take up music in a very public way, not to mention a way that is highly abstract and complicated. Hey - if you are gonna play, play.

Not surprisingly I found myself coming up blank when I imagined what possible music I could use. It isn't like I have a repetoire or even a CD collection to draw upon. Plus, it felt like I needed to have a connection to this place, specifically. If I know little or nothing about music from a North American perspective, then my knowledge of Korean music is even less.  Yet, total ignorance has never stopped me before.

Off the cliff I plunged!

Here are some of the notes I took as I did some research:

Eric Satie....too sad and slow. Shall We Dance? (The official title of my project is The Avenue of Trees/Shall We Art?, which was decided upon by the organizing committee for the Biennale). NO! Korean classical music: Shin Kwe Dong, Chung Mori.  Classical fusion - Byul Ma Ru.  Sinawi - ritual music that originated in Cheongju.

Now we were getting somewhere!  Traditional music that had its roots in this very place.  Even better, there is an Australian drummer named Simon Barker, who has embraced traditional Korean music and brought it to international audiences.  The video above is his version of Sinawi.  Music that is specifically from Cheongju but with a twist by someone from away.

Yes.  I like it.

And now for something...

Spent all day waiting to hear about my packages, but alas, they did not arrive.  They will definitely be in tomorrow afternoon, so the work begins in ernest then.

In the meantime, I want to share this lovely video with you.  Some of my favourite people on this great earth are in it!

Uniforms: Zen Buddhist Monk from StyleLikeU on Vimeo.

So Far (In Pictures, Some Words)

Duksoon's interpretation of the project.  It does rather sum it up nicely (but I think we will go further than only one km).

Each of the 400 squares collected locally had a form stapled to it.  A form stapled with heavy duty staples such as you might stretch a canvas with or, perhaps, erect a house.

I would like to have a little conversation with Buddy and his staple gun.

Yesterday a trend emerged.  A whole group of squares with colourful flowers attached, each clearly made from a different hand.  Somebody started something!

This square melted my heart.  It has all sorts of things happening - strange ties and knots, odd bumps and row changes and even a bit of crochet around only two sides.  I don't know who made this one but let's just say, I can relate.

A number of the squares have been made in this acrylic faux fur yarn.  And when I say acrylic here, I mean just short of straight up plastic.  I can not imagine what it felt like to crochet it but my sympathies go out to those who used it.  It can not have been fun.

A closer look....shudder.

Here is our collection so far - about 500.  We have almost 200 more coming today (fingers crossed).

Another trend - people made fancy ties on each corner.  

Such an amazing amount of work on display here.  It is impossible not to be moved by it.

It is shaping up.

PS.  Inside joke for Dan....

....just as well we never took over the little hotdog shack on Rte. 2 in Pawcatuck.  Looks like someone else got hold of that idea and ran with it.

Busy, Like Beaver

Yesterday morning I received an email from my contact at the Biennale that I should come right over because tomorrow they will be busy unpacking 1000 works to be installed over the next few days.  It was sink or swim time!  I grabbed my map that Ji-young drew up and made my way to the bus stop - something that was surprisingly complicated because I realized that, for me, the result of jet lag is to lose my ability to retain any new information so that I could barely recognize the streets that we had walked only two days before.  After a bit of confused wandering, I asked a young man who was very helpful and with his additional directions, suddenly everything came back to me.  Now, I am not one to turn my nose up at a bit of confused wandering, but suddenly I had a purpose, a direction, a place to be.

And so I went.

This is Duksoon Chung, who has been my email contact for these many months.  It felt like greeting an old friend.  She did not get to eat bibimbap and see Planet of the Apes yesterday.  She was working.  Hard.  She is here holding one of 300 squares she collected from local residents.  Yes, it is true - they made about 400 squares in a very, very short amount of time (another 100 are coming, perhaps today).  I have now touched most of them and they are real.

We sorted the squares into piles based very generally on color.  The squares shipped from New York have not yet arrived, although I am hoping they do soon because the boxes also contain yarn with which I could be making more squares.  Also yarn that I don't really want to ship back to New York.

Our goal this morning is to visit The Avenue of Trees with the director of the textiles component and make some decisions about the installation.  It appears that I will be installing this all by my lonesome....which should be interesting.  I knew I should have brought along Finn and Lucy!

The Chipmunks Have It!

The plane did not go down over the water (or land for that matter).  Instead, it landed like a gentle giant at Incheon Airport and I found my way to the bus to Cheongju, where the bus delivered me and my host family collected me.  The bus went down the Avenue of Trees to get to the bus station so I got a quick glimpse of it right off the bat, even if it was a dark and rainy night.  Hint:  The Avenue of Trees is a busy road and the median strip is very narrow in places.  I like an art project with a little danger....

But my dangerous liason with some sycamore trees will have to wait just a bit.  I arrived just in time for Chusuk, one of the biggest holidays in Korea and sort of the equivalent to Thanksgiving.  Everything is shut down while families gather to eat.  And eat and eat.  

I have the great privilege to be staying with a family in Cheongju who have volunteered to put me up (and put up with me) while I am here.  They have been very generous and open, so I was able to experience the holiday in the best way possible.

Here is the view of Cheongju from their apartment.  Green roofing has come to Korea?

After a very large breakfast (which is basically the same as every other meal - rice, kimchee, etc..), we went to the family's temple on a hillside in Cheongju.  Absolutely gorgeous.

My host family were very curious about my religion, especially when I said I was a student of Zen.  When I told them that I had been to my temple in Brooklyn the morning I left for Korea, they asked if it looked like this one.  Um....not exactly.

Here I am with Ji-young, who is an English major at University and very lovely young lady.  She has already patiently translated numerous signs, cultural differences and political positions for me.  The fact that I am almost as old as her mother has not made her uncomfortable or formal around me so I feel more like a friend of her generation than someone of her parents' generation.  Or perhaps I am just really immature, which is a realization that continued to dawn on me as the day went on and I saw how responsible and mature Ji-young's parents are in their daily life.  

Setting aside frivolity, lunch for Chusuk was bibimbap and dotorimuk.  Bibimbap is very famous but dotorimuk is less common.  It is a jelly paste made from ground acorns.  Ji-young assured me that, yes, it was acorns from oak trees when I questioned if the word was correct.  "Like the chipmunks like to eat!" she said.  It wasn't the flavour so much as the texture that caused a slight wrinkle to my brow.  Let the chipmunks keep their acorns, I say.

But where is the art?  It is coming...tomorrow.  Chusuk is a three-day holiday so there is nothing to be done (except continue to make granny squares and eat heavily) until tomorrow, when I must brave the Cheongju bus system without my translator.  

More pictures to follow.

Packing and Prana

Nearly 200 squares (and another art project titled Memorials/The Doughboy that will be part of another exhibition at the Biennale titled Here and Now) were packed up and taken away on Tuesday.  The photo above was my attempt to do a bit of pre-sorting of colours.

My contact person in Korea sent me a note today saying that she will collect 300 squares locally tomorrow.  How is this even possible?  We have been working (pretty hard, I might add!) for weeks to produce the nearly 250 squares that we produced and they have managed to create 300 in a matter of a week or so?  These are people I have to meet!

Apparently it will be the beginning of a Thanksgiving-like holiday when I arrive so I will have a couple of days to adjust before diving into work.  I have some ideas about how the squares will be laid out and installed but nothing that can be confirmed until I am actually standing there among the trees.  

Amazingly, I am almost all packed and I think I have tied up most of the loose ends regarding Finn and Lucy's fall schedule, my project for the Stitch 'n Pitch, and the other 10,000 things that need to be attended to before setting off.  There almost was a disaster when I discovered this afternoon that my flight reservation had been canceled by the internet service that booked it (long, boring story of miscommunication).  After a brief moment where I thought it might be a message from the universe that I was not meant to go after all, everything was quickly arranged and I was re-booked on the same flights back and forth.  

Did you know that air travel is, statistically, the safest way to travel?  That you would have to fly everyday for 19,000 years to die in a plane crash?  That the chances of dying a plane crash are something like one in 13 million?  Also, that deep breathing exercises are helpful when calming fears?  If only I knew of some strategies for minding the breath and uniting the mind and body through breathing techniques like pranayama!

Oh...wait...

See you in Cheongju!

Thoughts Three Days Out From Boarding A Plane to Seoul

Four large boxes stand ready to be picked up later today - in the end, the pile numbered over 175 squares strong. An amazing effort! I packed several skeins of yarn in with the squares so I should have plenty of material to work with during the two weeks before the opening day.

What will the citizens of Cheongju think of the freakishly tall, foreign woman attaching knitwear to their trees on a median strip? We shall find out!

Now that the squares are all packed up and the Mets project is just about finished, I turn my attention to everything else that needs doing before the plane takes off on Friday.

Oh my - my hands started sweating just writing those words: it will be fourteen hours on the plane to Seoul. It seems unimaginable but somehow I will do it.

Many times my teacher has said, "No one is going to save you."

Not Jesus. Not your soon-to-be ex-husband. Not your neighbor's cat.

No one is going to save me.

If no one is going to save me, then I will just have to do it myself. Really, it is a lovely, optimistic thought.

Fourteen hours of breathing in and out.

I can do this.

168

My Cup Runneth Over

Here is what Dan brought over from his office this morning. I have to say, it makes me want to cry with gratitude. Ok, I am crying, not just wanting to cry. Why do people so generously give of their time, talent and yarn stash for a project halfway across the world that is, as Helen has said, really just for the sake of beauty? I don't know why!  Yet, you do it.  I offer you my deep bows of gratitude.

See those two big boxes? Those are from Patti. She and Gillian were matching each other, double crochet for double crochet. I know Patti has suffered from crochet-induced carpal tunnel syndrome, so I was more than a little worried that I would be responsible for further injury. She hasn't mentioned it, so I am sighing a little sigh of relief now that she had stopped. I would like to be able to look her in the eye in the future.

Since arriving in NYC, I have received packages from Molli, Michelle, Martie, Melaine, Amy, Sonya, Lynnett, Ruth, Patti, Karen, Pauline, Rosemarie, Barbara and Janine. I think that is everyone...if you don't see your name here and you sent a package to either my house or Dan's office address, please leave a comment and I will double check.  I am keeping a list of everyone who has contributed and I would hate to leave anyone off!

So, that's the scene in our living room.  For about two seconds after we arrived back, it was tidy.  But to me, it is a beautiful mess.  The best kind of mess.  I love this mess.

Stacked

Let's see, where were we? Ah yes - the package was sent and a quick look at the tracking says that it is currently in the hands of Korean customs. I hope they don't think it is some crazy kind of crochet terrorism. Although, it kind of is if you think about it.

Despite sending off that box, I still had a nice, hefty stack of squares in Gillams. It was increased by some arrivals through the mail, via the bus from St. John's, and at our last knit night. A huge thank you to everyone, with a special shout-out to Gillian who must have topped 50 in her total contribution. Awe-inspiring, I think that is the only word to describe her efforts. Here we see Minky as she realizes the full potential of a stack of granny squares.

Those squares were safely stowed in the backseat of our car, along with a small amount of personal belongings and a large amount of Vanna's Choice. When we arrived at the ferry, we had to have our car inspected for agricultural products that aren't allowed to leave the island. As bags of Vanna's smiling face slipped out the back when we opened the door, the inspector said in what must be the understatement of the year, "I see you likes your wool."
Lucy added three squares to the stack during the trip and my mom made two more. It was a gratifying sight to return from Tim Hortons with life sustaining cups of tea and find the two of them working away in the car. The family that crochets together, stays together. Later, my mom gave me 16 more squares that she urged out of her knitting friends, and so the pile has risen each step of the way. I will dispatch this one on Tuesday after the holiday weekend. And now to finish up that Mets project...I know I packed it somewhere.

Exhale and Then....

Here is my box of squares ready to go. A guesstimated 20 pounds of crochet and knitting. I actually had to leave out about 18 squares because the box was too small. It isn't worth creating a second box because, according to the Canada Post website, a box weighing six pounds costs the same to ship as one weighing 20. Go figure. The extra squares (and those skeins of yarn) will enjoy the ferry ride and a delightful trip across two provinces and four states to NYC before taking an airplane to Korea. They will be world travelers but they don't seem at all impressed.


For now, however, I have to return the remaining inherited yarn to Barb, who will share it with her students this year (she teaches all her students to knit, bless her heart). May they use it well.

Each item gets ticked off the list of things to do before we leave, once again, for the mainland. This year I truly have no idea how things will be when we return next year. I have truly no idea when we will return, for that matter. There is a broad openness ahead.

As someone recently said to me, every moment, every breath is a new beginning. So, let's begin!

That Kind of Day

New Yorkers braced for Hurricane Irene, but in mellow, sultry Newfoundland things were different.


Maybe they should call this place The Big Easy but I heard that it was taken.


Fresh air and sunshine, that's what we're all about.


Viewing the beauty of the day from the front porch, I made a new design for crochet, screwed it up massively and had to rip out my second day's work.

To my dear crochet loving friends,

I may have to do something far less impressive on the crochet side, not out of disrespect for your fine craft but because the truth may have to be told: I suck at crochet.

Sincerely,

Robyn

Impossible

When the organizers of the Biennale put up the page about The Avenue of Trees project, I was amused and only slightly alarmed to notice that they had upped the number of squares from 1500 to 2000. Such an easy thing to type, isn't it?


The piles are getting higher, but I am not so sure I could nonchalantly add 500 squares to the projected total at this point. These squares are soon to be boxed up and send off with fingers crossed for swift efficiency from Canada Post. Did I hear a derisive snort and see some eye rolling? Now, now, have a positive attitude. I am sure Canada Post won't let me down. And if I just keep saying that...


Here is all of my progress from yesterday on the Stitch 'n Pitch project. Yup, all wound back onto the skein - an entire day's work. Today's a new day, dawning bright. And if I just keep saying that...


Speaking of doing the impossible, here is a photograph of some telephone wires. It also is a photograph of a boat pulling a shed down the bay from McIvers to Meadows. Apparently it took six hours to get the shed about ten kilometers. But they did it! So, if a couple of guys with a boat can move a shed across a large body of water, I can crochet a three-colour Mets logo and whip up 500 extra squares.

A positive attitude, I tell you.

Shall We Check Out A New Blog?

Here is where I sit making granny squares while Lucy practices her crawl and breaststroke.

I am thrilled to be able to link to a blog for the Avenue of Trees project. Check it out. The project is titled "Shall We Art" in Korean, so don't be alarmed.

Enjoy!

Keeping the Options Open

Lucy and her friend, Jamie, hosted Knit Night at our house last night. They each baked up something delicious: Lucy made the world's best chocolate cake and Jamie made something called Butterscotch Tea Buns, which are essentially cinnamon buns - really good cinnamon buns. Then, together, they made chocolate fudge. They were going to make chocolate chip cookies too but decided to go swimming instead. Wise choice, girls!

After a quick supper, they cleaned up the kitchen and set out their delicacies.


I even broke out my super fabulous pink crocheted table cloth, purchased for a pittance in Bonavista a fews back. That time, I did lecture that young woman behind the counter about underselling handwork. Heaven help me, I am such a bore! In any case, the pink crocheted table cloth is only used on the most special of special occasions, and this was clearly that.

Once their table was set and the knitters began to arrive, the girls decided their hosting duties were over and went off to swim again. It strikes me that, once again, their wisdom goes beyond their years. I was deputized "co-host" and left to fulfill my duties solo.


In life, as in all things, ice cream is optional.

Accomplishment 'n Progress

Well, this feels like an accomplishment but of what kind, I can't really say.

There was a dark moment when I realized, two-hours of knitting in, that I had been knitting the pattern backwards. This would be perfect as long as the Stitch 'n Pitch goodie bags include mirrors! Alas, not the case, I had to tear it out, do an hour of yoga, have a cup of tea, eat a biscuit, read a chapter of book, and then start again.

This was, by far, the trickiest part so now I can just have fun with stripes 'n stuff (in the spirit of the event, I am trying to include lots of 'n kind of phrases). I need to make a seat cover in crochet as well but I am not sure my skills are up to doing this pattern in crochet. Is it even possible to do this kind of colour work with crochet?

Maybe just some giant granny squares in Mets colours? I'm serious!


Check out those monster floats! When designing for inanimate objects, it is possible to throw technique to the wind...

Do Not Stand Between A Woman and Her Dream

A glorious day yesterday. Sunny, very windy, not too warm, not too cold. We headed to Gros Morne with some friends who also homeschool (a rare thing in these parts so we delight in the very fact that we even know each other).


The kids had a great time picnicking and playing on the beach. The mom, Jennifer, has four. I am down to one.


This wicked cool shelter was discovered on the beach and was the source of hours of fun.


As moms are want to do, we sat on the sidelines and chatted, doling out snacks and soothing the inevitable boo-boo's that come from the combination of kids and rocks. But it wasn't all apple slices and tips on reading, writing and arithmetic. Jennifer is a woman of vision. As such, when said vision appears, she can not be stopped.

She recently took up spinning and, discovering a natural talent for it, she has enthusiastically embraced it. She also is an accomplished competitive athlete and outdoors person. Her vision involved hiking to a scenic spot and spinning, surrounded by beautiful landscape.

We told her that the name for that was "spindle" but her vision did not involve a spindle.

Please, do not stand in the way of a woman and her dream for you will find it a useless waste of energy.


A vision realized.

We Have A Winnah!

Over at the ravelry group for The Avenue of Trees project, I ran a contest for everyone who is making squares - a teeny, tiny attempt to say thank you for such generosity of time, energy and talent (not to mention, yarn).


For every photograph of a square posted to the group, I put the maker's name in a basket.


Some people had one name entered. One person had 21!


And the winner is....Gillian!

Congratulations Gillian! She wins a skein of Wee Ball Yarns handspun in the colour of her choice, to be spun in October.

Truly, the biggest winner is me. I am deeply grateful for the way that people have taken up my request for help. Gillian is the person who has made 21 squares - almost as many as I have made. Additionally, she has organized a table at the Art Marathon at the Eastern Edge Gallery in St. John's this weekend. She will be there, crocheting squares and recruiting others to do the same. If you are in St. John's, why not wander over and say hello to Gillian, congratulate her on her win, and then pick up a hook and some yarn and make a square!

PS. There is another contest for another skein of WBY beginning today and ending at midnight on August 29th. Join us, post your pictures and win, win, win!