Aeval

I, too, have been experiencing the 'no way in hell winter is over for YOU my little kitten in MAINE' blahs. You could insert any state across the Northern US or Canada instead of Maine. We've all had to try to dig out of the grunge of dirty piles of snow, of the promise of nights snuggling romanitcally by a fire drinking brandy that really turned into freezing our asses off and just trying to steal MOST of the blankets - you get my drift. It is a good time to go 'within' - to break out some of that stash and get busy tying lots of knots - an ancient art of meditation. Or, for the truly frigid in mind and on the brink of raging insanity (the voice of experience doth make a louder sound) the spinning wheel might be a better place to find some peace or just sit there thinking dirty, mean, evil (not too far from Aeval - which, when pronounced in its Irish dialect, I believe, should sound like EE-VAHL) thoughts and no one will ever know. I'm bursting to tell you about my new heroine, Aeval, but I don't want to get ahead of myself so let me slow down and astound you with my ongoing project - woo my beloved teenager into thinking I am the best mom alive by overloading her with birthday presents. She prefers handmade things so I usually try to make her a great deal of spring/summer stuff. This lovely orange skirt was a simple gathered skirt that I copied from a skirt she wore last year but cannot fit into this year (shut up, I am bathing my feet in the river of Egypt and I don't want you to point out that she no longer looks 13 - but jumped right on to 20). I bought the fabric after I found her admiring it one day. What about the wooden buttons? Are they going to look right? On that, you are welcome to tell me the truth. The second skirt is just me letting my freak flag fly and reminding myself that I love that gypsy/hippie courdoroy and patchwork look. It has grand sentimental value as well. The brown is a pair of pants she loved but also grew out of and I promised to make her something with it. The rest of the fabric was just what happens when my sewing machine is dying and I go up in the studio loft with a beer (or 30) and try to sound like I'm just waiting for someone to need me (they tend to leave you alone more - must take some of the fun out of calling you downstairs to have you solve any number of trivial disputes). The brown vest (I told you I knit) is done and will not be blocked as the ribbing will stretch when she wears it.


Spin-Offarrived yesterday and I was blown away. Not just because I walked into the bedroom last night and found hubster reading an article and looking so cute that I felt shame - but because of all the fabulouse ideas they inspired. A feather yoked hanspun cape? A many-generations totally cool crocheted shawl? A tall, dark, handsome man....oops, not going there They are looking for pictures of puppets from the summer issue with that great article on, well, puppets. . Hmm, thinking about the puppets and where my unfinished 'ms. bunny-without-a-face' might be and that reminded me of where I put those danged buttons for thing 1's skirt. I have been looking for them for a week. I keep hoping the spring cleaning (of the house-cleaning nature) will hit me soon but it turns out I will engage in almost any act to avoid that fate. So, Ms. bunny no face who has a friend not pictured here because he is 'shy'. Maybe I'll finish her and take respectable pics of them. Of course, non-respectable pics might do well for the magazine - you just never know.

Onto Aeval (EEvahl). OF course, she is a goddess. But just wait there. At the Yule time, I gifted Thing 2 with a 'book of all books' about Pirates - his favorite topic and I never discourage it because I like to see Captn. Jack Sparrow as much as I can. He's been reading it well. I decided to ask him how it was going. See, reading for Thing 2 was a real challenge at first. He's fine, now, but I like to let him know that he still can ask for help.
ME: Uh, how do you like that Pirate book?
HIM: Turns REAL red.
ME: Is it BAD (mom gestures with her eyes in a churchmouse way )?
HIM: Not really, but one part I read was just disgusting.
Now, just disgusting to an eleven year old boy could be as simple as a kiss or a hug.
ME: What did it say?
HIM: Well, there was this 'girl' pirate, named Mary Read. She dressed as a boy to gain passage on a ship and then seize it. Only, to show her victims she was a 'girl', she would wound them, then open her shirt and show her, well, you know, her 'girl-ness' to them before they died.

I didn't quite know how to explain that, one day, his dying wish might be to see just that! I left it alone. This is my ‘poor kid’ kid. If there is one to be hurt in a freak accident, it will likely be him. If one is to be embarrassed beyond all reason totally undeservedly, it will be him. Still, you have to let them live and learn. But, thumbing through a book on goddesses and gods, I found Aeval. She is celebrated every spring in Celtic traditions. I would come up with something witty to say, but the following description in the book is just too much to risk messing up:
"Aeval - A fairy queen of Munster, the southwestern quarter of Ireland, Aeval judged a debate on whether the men in her district were satisfying the women’s sexual needs. It took all night to give evidence at Aeval’s “midnight court,” but when the queen had heard both sides, she determined that the men were guilty. Their sentence: they were ordered to overcome their prudishness and accede to the women’s wishes.

You heard it here. Now I'm off to flirt shamelessly with hubster, an innocent man.