Jean’s Magic Circle
This photo of my grumpy, little girl modeling my friend’s mother’s creation is an heirloom of a different sort. It is a framed page from a book on hats (100 Hats To Knit and Crochet by Jean Leinhauser and Rita Weiss, 2005). While the hat she wears is knit, I like the imagery of a “magic circle”, used when starting a crochet project. The stitches are cast on in a loop, and from there the hat grows as stitches are added. This story all started with one creative woman in 1972, ending with my daughter’s photograph years later. It is a yarn of kismet, knit together through connections of people, businesses, friendships and houses over 30 years. And so, we cast on:
In 2005 I took my daughter to California to visit my dear college friend and her baby daughter. We all stayed with her parents, and one day her mother, Rita, took us to a photography studio. Rita needed models for a needle arts book she was producing about hats. Our daughters spent hours being photographed wearing many hats, and as the day wore on, my daughter became less cooperative. This photo was included in the book, and I adore the fact the book was published with her grumpy face glaring out among all the smiling ones.
That evening, I mentioned a needle arts company had resided in my property in Illinois during the 1970s, though I did not know many details. Rita was curious as she recalled her dear friend and partner, Jean, had worked in the Chicago area. She called Jean, and asked after the history of her prior business. It turns out, Jean was working in Chicago in the early 1970s, starting a needlework publishing company, Leisure Arts, with Ron Klein. As the business needed more room, she found a large property for rent in Libertyville with two houses, 7 fireplaces and multiple barns. While she couldn’t recall the street, the description made it clear it was our current home, 30 years earlier! I met with Jean, and heard wonderful stories of her experience on our property in the 1970s. She said Ron and his wife and daughter moved into the main house, and his brother lived in the cottage, handling all the shipping out of the large barn. She commuted to Libertyville each day, working in Ron’s office which is now my sewing room! Jean was bought out of the business, and moved to New York in the mid 1970s, eventually creating a new needle arts publishing company, American School of Needlework, with my friend’s mother, Rita.
Astonishingly enough, in 2019 our doorbell rang one day, and Libby Klein Rapier introduced herself. She was visiting Libertyville, and was curious to see her childhood home. I invited her in, and she was thrilled to see the place. She lived at the house from 1972 to 1980, and remembered Jean from that time. She shared with me numerous photos, including one from 1976 of her posing in front of the distinctive fireplace in our house. She sent me copies of artwork by her mother and photos of the property taken before they moved away.
I am continually amazed at the creativity of life to build circles of connections. How was I to know that a special friendship, started in 1982 in college, was the middle of this story? The property my husband and I purchased in Illinois in 1999 was yet another round added to the tale. And then, with our daughters, my close friend and I drew all those stitches together in a silly hat in California in 2005. Our friendship and her mother Rita’s friendship with Jean – both treasured connections – united us in a circle of yarn.