International Women's Day

Today is International Women's Day, the day we celebrate women's achievements throughout history and around the world.  This year, Gender Across Borders and CARE are asking bloggers to describe a particular organization, person, group or moment in history that helped to inspire a positive future and impact the minds and aspirations for girls.

Last week I bought a box of Girl Scout cookies from a troop outside the grocery store near my house.  I stopped to talk to them and mentioned that I was a Girl Scout, too.  One of the moms asked, "How long have you been a Girl Scout?"  Before I could stop myself, I opened my mouth and spat out a gleeful, "20 years!"

The girls looked at me like I had suddenly become Methuselah.  Like, is anything on earth that old?  Like, how could you possibly be interested in something so long?

I skittered off before they could ask if I had ever met George Washington, or Moses, or Eve but not without first having flashbacks to most of my childhood with Girl Scouts.

The Girl Scouts have gotten accused of some ridiculous things lately (like supposedly being the "tactical arm" of Planned Parenthood).  My favorite slander ever, though, is the accusation that they are promoting the feminist agenda.  You know what, detractors?  You are right. 

Girl Scouts taught me the following things:

• mountain climbing
• which fork to use at a fancy dinner
• evidence-based, age-appropriate sex education
• basic car maintenance
• to make a camp fire and pitch a tent
• to cook
• to make new friends and keep the old
• about different countries and cultures
• entrepreneurialism
• creativity
• to make a lanyard key chain
• to shoot a rifle and a bow
• to speak confidently
• to support other women

If teaching a girl to do all that isn't feminism, I don't know what is.

I can't stop thinking of things that the Girl Scouts taught me.   I can't stop being thankful for an organization that cares enough about girls to take them seriously, teach them things, and help them achieve.  I can't stop being thankful that the Girl Scouts are a feminist organization because they have made me who I am today.

Happy International Women's Day!

Eureka!

I wanted to tell you about this really cool project my friends over at American University are doing for Women's History Month called "The Eureka Moment."

It's a place where people can submit pictures and text about when they knew they were a feminist.  This was my submission:

Please consider adding your voice to this project.  It makes me super happy to see the diversity of the stories.

Knit Along?

I am not much of a joiner.  Or rather, I like to do my knitting alone so no one can know what terrible TV I watch while crafting.  But lately I've been trying to make my knitting a more social activity.  I've started going to a weekly knitting group hosted by the Emory law librarians.*  I try to teach other people to knit when they let me.

And now I am going to do this knit along with Canadian Living Craft Blog.

No, I don't usually read Canadian Living.  I just happen to really like the pattern they are making and have a sweater's worth of purple Cascade 220 stuffed under my bed just screaming for a purpose. 

The pattern is the Classic Raglan Pull-Over by Jane Richmond.  Doesn't it look like a favorite sweater just waiting to happen?

Joining a knit-along will help me with any trouble I run into and will hopefully give me the motivation I need to get it done.  They've given themselves six weeks to do it.  A sweater in six weeks?  I can do that, right?**

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*For some reason knitting and books just seem to go well together).
**Answer: Probably not.  My current knitting project has been on the needles since last June....

Why I Haven't Been Doing My Homework

So, you're like, JoAnna hasn't been here for a while, so she must just be studying a lot lately, right?

You would be incorrect.  Instead I have been watching all of Downton Abbey and knitting this:

Wippoorwill Shawl by Carina Spencer

I would just like to say that, if for no other reason, I am pleased I went to law school just so that when Downton Abbey talks for an entire season about how terrible a fee entail is, I can turn smugly to the person sitting next to me on the bus and say, "let me drop a hot piece of info on you I learned in my property class" and give them the explanation of inheritability of estates they have been craving for the last week (because, you see, they were like me and hadn't discovered Downton Abbey on Netflix until last week and then spent ALL of their free time since catching up).

But I digress.

You really can't see how nice this shawl looks from so far away.  But I am including these pictures anyway because who doesn't want a solid picture of their booty up on the internet? 

Am I right?

For the knitters out there, the shawl really is symmetrical, it is just inexplicably.  off center in this pic.  This is a size medium.  There are way too many "make ones" in the pattern to make it a total joy to knit, but overall, pretty fun.  The yarn is all from local yarn shops from two different sides of the country.  The black is Star Castle Fiber Mill Alpaca Sock Yarn from So Much Yarn in Seattle, Washington.  Apparently the alpacas that donated their fleece to this skein were named Jengo and Gabrietta.  I am very grateful to them for making this shawl possible.  The orange is Starcroft Nash Island Fog Yarn in Lobster Bake colorway brought to me from Maine by someone who knows what kind of souvenirs I like best.

Ok, back to "How I Met Your Mother."

Socks, socks, sock-socks, sock-socks.

I currently have that terrible LMFAO song stuck in my head, only I'm pretty sure it would appeal to more people if it were actually about knitting.  Because I'm making....

Socks, socks, sock-socks, sock-socks...EVERY BODY!!

I've never made socks before.  Can you tell I'm excited?  And this yarn is super amusing.  See how the stripes just grow on their own accord?

Magic!

FO: An Annoying Hat

You should not take the following as complaint.  The pattern was easy enough (TBL's Lotus Hat: clear instructions, nice charts), I like the color of the yarn, Cascade 220 is nice to knit with.  Should have been a snap.

But no matter how closely I followed the pattern, I kept ending up with the wrong number of stitches.  No matter how many times I counted my stitches, I kept ending up with two or three extra little buggers at the end of every row (not that I let that stop me....I just fudged it and pretended like the pattern covered my laziness).  Not only that, I did an extra repeat of the pattern and it STILL ended up looking like an itty-bitty elf hat.

So instead of trekking to the North Pole to find a potential wearer, I ripped it back and tried again.

Success!

A hat.  This is right when I finished, before blocking.

This is after I gave it a bath.  Isn't it cool how different it looks?  How much prettier and well-organized?

Sent it off to its new owner last week.  Hopefully she likes the color blue...

Happy Anniversary

Taking a break from knitting for a moment.  Today I am blogging in support of NARAL's Blog For Choice Day, answering the question:

What will you do to help elect pro-choice candidates in 2012?

Today is the 39th Anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade that affirmed women's right to have an abortion.  As a doula, it means more to me than just that.  It's the anniversary of the affirmation that women can be trusted to make decisions about their own reproductive health, including when, how, and if they have kids.

In 2008, I worked for EMILY's List helping to elect pro-choice, Democratic women in Iowa.  I was on the ground talking to voters and other candidates and supporting EMILY's List candidates and President Obama.  I learned that electing pro-choice candidates is one of the best ways to ensure our right to make the reproductive health decisions that are right for us.  Elected officials are the people who introduce and enact legislation that make it so rape victims don't have to pay for their own rape kits (that law JUST passed in GA this year....jeesh), who ensure insurance coverage for women for contraception and maternity care, who grant federal funds to clinics that provide family planning services to low income women, and who stop the violence against health care providers who provide services that women and their families want and need.

This year it is just as important to me to elect pro-choice candidates.  More and more states are considering "personhood amendments" which would give rights to a fetus at conception.  That would put certain birth control options that stop implantation but not fertilization (like the IUD or emergency contraception), as well as in vitro fertilization, at risk and make it difficult for women who are trying to prevent pregnancy as well as those who really want kids to access health care.  "Conscience clauses" allow providers to refuse routine medical services to women because they have moral objections to the choices made by women, their families and their physicians.  My clients are facing C-sections and inductions they don't want because of policies that are outdated and not based on science.

This stuff makes me mad and sad and sick and makes me want to do something about it.

So, I am working at the Feminist Women's Health Center and participating in their Voice Beyond Choice Advocacy Days at the GA State Capital.  I will get to learn about what my Reps think about pro-choice legislation and to let them know that I will not vote for someone who doesn't care about the rights of the 1 in 3 US women who will seek an abortion in their lifetimes.

I will be making donations to the candidates that do support reproductive rights and speaking out against those that do not.

And I will be talking to my friends and family about what being pro-choice and electing pro-choice candidates means to me.

If you want more information, I encourage you to check out these organizations and to get involved in the 2012 election cycle:

EMILY's List
NARAL Pro-Choice America
Planned Parenthood Action Center