knit not war

200 cranes in spring

photo courtesy of Seann McKeel

Hey Portland-area friends and visitors, the cranes I knit almost three years ago are finally going on display in an art installation at the Ace Hotel, so check it out if you have the chance (and please send me pictures if you go!) Here are the details:

knitnotwar 1,0o0: a public art installation displaying a thousand knit cranes, celebrating the quiet logic of peace. More than a hundred artists contributed to knitting one thousand origami-style cranes which will be displayed through the weekend of June 3rd, 2010 in the lobby of the Ace Hotel at 1022 SW Stark in Portland, Oregon.

See the installation and join us for green tea and snacks in the lobby of the Ace Hotel on First Thursday, June 3rd from 7-9pm.

The origami crane is an international symbol of peace, due to the hopeful and heroic story of Sadako Sasaki. Sadako died of leukemia after exposure from US atom bombings of Hiroshima in 1945. Believing a Japanese legend that anyone who folds a thousand paper cranes will be granted a wish, Sadako hoped to get well. She completed over 1,000 folded cranes before dying on October 25, 1955 at the age of 12. Thousands of artists, children, religious groups, and other organizations commit to folding strands of a thousand cranes every year to express their commonality in belief of banning nuclear weapons-- their solidarity for peace.

happy tuesday

a rose from our yard

One Perfect Rose

by Dorothy Parker

A single flow'r he sent me, since we met.

All tenderly his messenger he chose;

Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet -

One perfect rose.

I knew the language of the floweret;

'My fragile leaves,' it said, 'his heart enclose.'

Love long has taken for his amulet

One perfect rose.

Why is it no one ever sent me yet

One perfect limousine, do you suppose?

Ah no, it's always just my luck to get

One perfect rose.