Goodbye 2006

Hello 2007

two weeks since a post. getting further behind in capturing my quotidian life resulted in blog paralysis. In an effort to jump-start my blog mojo, here goes. In no particular order, my so called life:

I finished a Dulaan hat. Does it look too pointy? like a yurt? (unintentional.) It does look better on a head than here and it is warm. Lamb's Pride worsted (doubled) and Bulky. US8 circular and DPNs. 88 stitches. many inches of k1p1 ribbing, then a purl row then the usual every other row decreases in stockinette.








I chose my own christmas presents: A sewing machine and a new iron. A decent basic sewing machine with one key accessory suggested by Jessica --- a floating presser foot for sewing zippers in knitwear. Not that I have actually sewn a zipper on knitwear yet.

But I might soon. Cambridge Jacket is nearing completion. The pieces have been seamed, except for the sleeves. Why? Because there's too much fabric under the armpit. I seamed one and it looked terrible. I'm mulling over solutions that don't require me to knit new sleeves. I think I can seam it up tighter and neater, then machine stitch and trim the extra bulk out of the inside. Makes me not a knitting purist perhaps but so it goes. Will let you know if I succeed.






My new iron is a Rowenta. As Zach says, it's not just an iron, but an Iron Experience. So much fun I voluntarily ironed Franz's shirts and when I ran out I pressed my jeans and Zach's pajamas.

When I tried to iron in the kitchen the wondrous steam kept setting off the smoke detector.

But ironing downstairs in the family room became more entertaining because...

I surprised The Nerd with a wii. An Ironing Experience is even better when you can watch your husband and son bowl and golf. More fun perhaps while I still held the high score in bowling of 183. When husband finally figured out how to wii-bowl and scored 241, well, I cheered and I didn't.

My first (with the new machine) sewing FO was a pair of pants for Franz. Click on the nerdly link in above paragraph for photo. These have been a UFO for about 10 years. An old neighbor wore casual colorful pants while puttering around his yard. Franz desired such a pair. I started making matching pants for Franz and Zach. What happened? hellifIknow. They sat unfinished in my box of fabric. The garage sale sewing machine I was using stopped working. Fixable -- but not by me -- it was given away courtesy of craigslist. I did not finish the matching pair for Zach as they are sized for a three year old. Zach is relieved as he declared the green paisley fabric a crime against fashion.

In the let's get organized department, I spent a productive day (while the guys went skiing) organizing paperwork. Included recycling and shredding much paper. Our taxes in 1998 and 1999 were very complicated; the supporting paperwork was several inches thick. Keeping the quarter-inch thick copies of the actual returns, I shredded the rest. Statute of limitations and all that, right? I tend to be a packrat. To keep things in control, I try to picture a 60 year old Zach trying to plow through everything before settling our estate. So, I ask myself: Is this really something he will find interesting to discover then?

I felted a gauge swatch for the Tartan Jacket into a DPN organizer. Got the idea from a Berocco pattern found on The Worsted Witch blog. Of course my real-life organizer doesn't look as pretty, but it works. The only possible negative side effect was that Franz could see just how many DPNs I've accumulated in just over a year of knitting. So it goes.


I tested a recipe for Cook's Illustrated for a Rustic Plum Tart. Or, as the email from the magazine called it: A Plumb Cake. What's in a name. It was yummy and I will make it again.

I rendered some lard. Jamie and Mitch surprised me with a gift of leaf lard. Jamie and I had been talking about this hard-to-find, hip pie crust ingredient at Thanksgiving. She found it at the Madison Market from a local coolandgroovy farm. It was easier and less smelly to render than some accounts warned. Haven't made a pie crust with it yet, but will soon.

I made granola. Zach is allergic to soy products. Well, actually all legumes which pretty much changed our mostly vegetarian ways, but especially soy. This means I have to read labels carefully and cook most foods from scratch --- soy protein is added to just about everything these days. Think that's a good or even a benign thing? Think again. Granolas without soybeans are few and far between. The only one without soy that we like is a blueberry granola from the PCC. However, it has flax. Lots of flax. All that flax does not make my digestion very happy. So we attempted to create our own. Of course I planned on writing down the recipe I improvised but... Let's see if I can remember. Thick-cut oats, bulk organic rice-crispy-like granuals, sunflower seeds, brown sugar, honey, canola and a pinch of salt. tossed together and toasted at 400 degrees for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Cooled, then tossed with freeze dried blueberries and some soy-free protein powder. It's pretty good. goes really well with yogurt.

I'm still mulling over opening an etsy shop to unload offer up my handpainted yarns. Erika just made some nice socks with some. But there's so much nice yarn already in etsy stores...

And I've been mulling over the Six Weird Things About Myself meme. Almost have it narrowed down to six. Maybe next week.

Happy New Year!

I'm wrong

but not unhappy.

I predicted our power would be out til next Tuesday, Monday if we were lucky. But Friday afternoon and w00t! power! Only 15 hours of a chilly house and melting ice cream.

Seattle and environs got the windstorm as predicted last night. Power went out at midnight, I heard the smoke detectors beep as they changed from electric to battery mode, but otherwise it was no big deal. Morning was kinda chilly, but I have a gas cooktop and thus was able to boil water for drip coffee.

Franz is in CA on a business trip, so I slept downstairs away from the noise of the wind. Thus, I missed hearing this fall across the street. My neighbor's spruce used to be about 50 feet tall. Now it's about 20 feet. Anybody want a 30 foot christmas tree? The top did fall between the two houses, so probably little or no damage to L's house. Her bedroom is right at the corner of the house where it fell, so she didn't get any sleep last night. It severed next door neighbor Nancy's phone and internet connections though. Bummer, but it could have been worse.

yes, this tree is being supported by the power lines.

An FO. Reverse Bloom Washcloth from Weekend Knitting and Interweave Knits Winter 2003, wrapping a bar of Blessed Juno soap. I don't think I will knit this pattern again. It's not that special and requires 10 ends woven in. If I do make it again, I'll make it smaller, only 19 stitches per petal. And I will do the decreases differently, 5 regular double decreases from each petal join might look better than the ones in the pattern. But I'll most likely try the fancy washcloth in Mason Dixon Knits instead.

gift on a thrift

Gift buttons on a thrift aran.

Someday the perfect yarn and the perfect pattern will call out to these beautiful dyed mother-of-pearl buttons. Until then, I think they'll do just fine here.

The rest of the felted aran sweater will become...? A pillow? A purse? a blanket? time will tell.

Thanks, Nancy, for the buttons specially chosen for me.

Thanks, Katie B, for the sweater. A well-made if non-descript pattern, slightly felted and donated charity. Rescued and further felted, it will live on.

Thursday

No pictures because I am at the library. Out of the house! no more ice! woot!

After two days of school closures, today is a late start day --- allowing time for all the ice to turn to slush before getting the kiddies to school. This plays havoc with Zach's school schedule. Instead of having his three classes back to back from 8:15 to 10:55, he has two classes in the AM, 10:00 to 10:55 and his third class meets 12:30 to 1:00. So I walked with him to school and am hanging out at the library nearby. He'll meet me here and we will go have lunch somewhere. I was thinking Subway but just discovered that Top Pot sells sandwiches.

the eyes have it.

Time for new glasses. Two years ago I got my first pair of progressives. Ouch, expensive without insurance, but there you go. Gotta see. I chose a stylish pair also, something bold and unusual that shook up the husband and child. Nowadays I see similar glasses all over the place. Well that's not a reason for new specs, but my inability to see close-up was. Plus we now have vision insurance, double woot. Sure enough, my prescription changed and newer, more styling frames ordered. Unsettling though, the doctor noticed a spot on my right retina. Looks like an inflammation. He spent a long time examining it with the strong lights and magnifiers, double checked my health report, and concluded that I had no known reason to have a spot on my retina. Two weeks of telephone tag between opthamologist and retinologist, I was told that the spot is very likely nothing, I don't need to see the retinologist right away. I did schedule a follow-up with the opthamologist in a couple weeks to see if there's any change.

a costly mistake.

but not mine! While waiting for the news about the retina, I got the call my new glasses were ready. yay. So I went in to pick them up, a little nervous about having buyer's remorse on the newer styling frames. After all, I couldn't see very well when I tried them on. Imagine my surprise then when they pulled out a pair almost identical to my old glasses. Uh oh, did I do that? Good golly, if I wanted the same frames, why not put new lenses in my current frames? Turned out I did not mistakenly choose those frames. Their bad. So sorry. Will make new pair. In the meantime I get to wear the new wrong ones. They'll get to return the frames for credit, but I suppose they'll have to eat the cost of making the lenses.

geeky homeschooling excitement.

I was thinking about one of my favorite TV shows from the '80s --- hadn't thought about it in years, but being in the library made me think about trying to find it. The library does have one copy on VHS of some (but not all) of the episodes, but the creators have the videos available free over the internet. Woot! Zach and I will now be watching The Mechanical Universe from the Annenberg Foundation. (no link because I can't figure out how to do that on this machine, but is easy to google.) And there's more. I'll probably check out their series on Economics, Statistics and other topics too. would be nicer if we could lounge in the family room and view on the TV, but free and convenient watching over the computer doesn't sound that bad.

Why I am knot participating

Seriously, does anyone really think this is going to give anyone any valid information? Enough to warrant a paper? A peer-reviewed paper? With like meaningful statistics and everything?

"Most memes, I'd wager, are only superficially organic: beginning small, they acquire minor prominence among low-traffic blogs before being picked up by a high-traffic one, from which many more low-traffic blogs snatch them. Contra blog-triumphal models of memetic bootstrapping, I believe most memes are—to borrow a term from Daniel Dennett's rebuttal of punctuated equilibrium—"skyhooked" into prominence by high-traffic blogs. "

Don't you just love the social science jargon?

he wants us to disseminate this totally artificial "meme" so he can say something about organic ones? As I just said a couple days ago. Memes are not equivalent to blogging writing prompts that the blogger chooses to use or ignore. The concept of meme comes from the notion of ideas as entities that spread like viruses. Who really has the ability to choose whether or not to become infected with a virus? What makes the whole notion of meme interesting is the lack of meta-knowledge of its spreading. Blog prompts that someone chooses to participate in or are not really memes, but more like fashion trends.

Also, the researcher wistfully regrets not tracking two "memes" in which he participated (or started? not sure.) Why didn't he? Because the very nature of the viral spreading of ideas is that you do not know in advance which ones will spread and which won't.

I read a lot of blogs, too many perhaps. Mostly knitting blogs but not exclusively. And get this, I never heard of those two memes. That supports my position that the spread of this artificial one has no useful information to say about real viral spread of ideas.

Ironically enough, the path upon which I heard of this artificial meme was through someone who profuses a strong dislike to the canned writing prompts that the knit blogging community calls memes. While not immune to actual memes (imo) she has been mostly immune to these artificial ones. And yet she is participating in this one. But get this: she did not follow the rules and actually talk about the project on her blog, she just links to it vaguely. An actual carrier? (But a carrier who chooses to be one, so that's a limitation in the analogy.) That's sorta interesting. But this just proves the artificiality of this "meme" since in real life she would have been the last person to have participated in any such blog writing prompt. So in real life, I possibly never would have heard about this "meme." So for the sake of science, I choose to not participate. No technorati pinging from me.

so... am I participating or not?

Where is Eugene Miya when you need him?

gonna get cold tonight.

raccoon foot.
chicken foot.

Easy-Bake oven.

how 'bout that. A memish* thing

You.
Can.
Only.
Type.
One.
Word.

No.
Explanations.

1. Yourself: complicated
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend (spouse): geeky
3. Your hair: damp
4. Your mother: absent
5. Your father: absenter
6. Your favorite item: internet
7. Your dream last night: interrupted
8. Your favorite drink: Latte
9. Your dream car: petroleum-free
10. The room you are in: kitchen
11. Your ex: none
12. Your fear: lahars
13. What you want to be in 10 years? healthy
14. Who you hung out with last night? family
15. What you're not? diplomatic
16. Muffins: occasionally
17. One of Your Wish List Items: Singer
18. Time: afternoon
19. The last thing you did: surf
20. What you are wearing: cashmere
21. Your favorite weather: nippy
22. Your favorite book: thought-provoking
23. The last thing you ate: wing
24. Your life: content
25. Your mood: mellow
26. Your best friend: who?
27. What are you thinking about right now? parenting
28. Your car: one
29. What are you doing at the moment? thinking
30. Your summer: dry
31. Your relationship status: married
32. What is on your TV? Chibi-Robo
33. What is the weather like? Grey
34. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday

*being rather new to blogs, I am still surprised at how the definition of meme seems to have evolved into this narrow concept --- at least within this community. Memes are ideas that spread like a virus. (one example of how my husband is a geek: he told me about memes when we first met 18 years ago.) So I claim that Jaywalkers, cotton warsh-rags, Knitting Olympics, and other such ideas & practices that suddenly become very popular among knit-bloggers are just as much (if not moreso) memes as these writing prompts. Just a thought for all you folks thinking you're not meming.

the rain that raineth every day

PARTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
PARTLY CLOUDY WITH SHOWERS LIKELY.
CLOUDY WITH SHOWERS LIKELY.
RAIN BECOMING LIKELY.
RAIN LIKELY.
RAIN.
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
RAIN LIKELY.
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
PARTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS
RAIN AT TIMES.
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
RAIN LIKELY.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
PARTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS
CLOUDY WITH RAIN AT TIMES IN THE LATE MORNING AND AFTERNOON.
RAIN TURNING TO SHOWERS EARLY.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN LATE IN THE AFTERNOON.
RAIN LIKELY.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
RAIN LIKELY.
SHOWERS LIKELY.
MOSTLY CLOUDY. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS IN THE MORNING... THEN A CHANCE OF RAIN IN THE AFTERNOON.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS THIS MORNING...THEN RAIN AT TIMES THIS AFTERNOON
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN THIS MORNING...THEN RAIN LIKELY THIS AFTERNOON
RAIN DEVELOPING
RAIN...BREEZY
SHOWERS LIKELY
SHOWERS AND SUNBREAKS.
SHOWERS LIKELY.
SCATTERED SHOWERS EARLY OTHERWISE PARTLY SUNNY.
CLOUDY WITH AN INCREASING CHANCE OF RAIN.
RAIN LIKELY.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH SHOWERS LIKELY
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH SCATTERED SHOWERS.
PARTLY CLOUDY. CHANCE OF A SHOWER.
RAIN.
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
PARTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
PARTLY CLOUDY.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
RAIN.
OCCASIONAL SHOWERS.
BECOMING CLOUDY WITH A LITTLE RAIN DEVELOPING EARLY THIS AFTERNOON.
SHOWERS DEVELOPING THIS EVENING.
SHOWERS LIKELY.
RAIN.
CLOUDY WITH SCATTERED SHOWERS.
SHOWERS LIKELY.
RAIN.
MORNING RAIN...THEN MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH SCATTERED SHOWERS.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
RAIN DEVELOPING.
RAIN.
SHOWERS LIKELY.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
RAIN LIKELY.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS
SHOWERS LIKELY AND OCCASIONAL AFTERNOON SUN BREAKS


real Seattle weather forecasts accumulated last winter. Then of course there was the record breaking lack of rain over the summer. This past month it's been nothing but rain and more damned rain. We finally have something new in the forecasts. Here's the current week ahead...

TONIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS...POSSIBLE MIXED WITH SNOW ON THE HIGHER HILLS.

SATURDAY...RAIN OR SNOW LIKELY...MAINLY IN THE AFTERNOON. SNOW ACCUMULATION UP TO 1 INCH POSSIBLE ON THE HIGHER HILLS.

SATURDAY NIGHT...RAIN OR SNOW. SNOW ACCUMULATION UP TO 1 INCH.

SUNDAY...RAIN AND SNOW.

SUNDAY NIGHT...RAIN AND SNOW LIKELY.

MONDAY...SHOWERS LIKELY.

MONDAY NIGHT...SNOW SHOWERS LIKELY.

TUESDAY AND TUESDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SNOW SHOWERS.

WEDNESDAY AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN OR SNOW SHOWERS.

THURSDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS. HIGHS IN THE LOWER 40S.

THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN.

snow? bah... if any accumulates in the city the rain will turn it to slush and puddles soon enough.

Gravy stock is simmering

One of the great things about a butterflied turkey is that I can use the backbone as well as the neck and giblets to make gravy ahead of time. I toss the above mentioned turkey parts with garlic, onions, carrots, celery in some olive oil and roast til well-browned. Move it all to a large pot with water, chicken stock, white wine --- making sure to get all the juices and browned bits from the roasting pan. Simmer til reduced, strain, cool. Tomorrow I skim the fat, make the roux, finish the gravy. And, this recipe ensures lots of gravy, plenty for mashed potatoes.

The cranberry sauce is done and tonight I'll finish making the dressing. Want lots of dressing? Way more than will fit in the bird? Well I make enough to fill a large roasting pan. The flattened turkey sits on a rack on top, so the juices drip into the dressing as it cooks.

Before starting today's cooking I went in search of a zipper for Franz's Cambridge Jacket. No luck.

While driving from one fabric store that had gone out of business to another (which had also gone out of business) I passed Value Village and figured I would take a look around. Was looking for a crockpot to use for dyeing, but didn't find one. Lots of rice cookers, would they work or get too hot? I found a bread machine for $15 but I don't know anything about those machines so I couldn't tell if it was in good condition. There were several bags of yarn, but all acrylic. Off to the sweaters. A Nordstrom 100% Cashmere Sweater Set in my size for $5. A beautiful dark red (which did not photograph well) and it looks like new. I also got an angora sweater in bright fuchsia which may be a bit much, but what the heck. When else am I going to get an angora sweater? I think it's kinda cute, but that opinion was not shared by my son. The husband hasn't seen it yet.

Seven slightly felted wool sweaters that can be further felted and turned into a patchwork throw. One of the Arans was handknit. The others are all name brand. I was surprised at how many handknit sweaters I did find. Well, actually, since I didn't like any of the others enough to purchase, perhaps I am not that surprised.


And the best part: Jeans that fit! Last week I had an errand downtown and tried to buy some jeans. I tried on at least 15 different styles from 3 different stores. Sixty and Seventy Dollar Jeans. I got sticker shock but still, if anything fit I would have paid it. Why do jeans nowadays all barely cover your ass? Or if they do go up a little higher, they have no waist shaping, so you sit down and there's a gap large enough for a grapefruit or two. But today at the thrift store! Three pairs that fit perfectly! Two Eddie Bauer (shown below) and one Calvin Klein (which I am already wearing).
The cashmere, the angora, the wool sweaters, three pairs of jeans all for what I had been foolishly willing to pay last week if I could have found one pair of jeans to fit.

The turkey is in the brine.

Thanksgiving! Woo Hoo!

A smallish Thanksgiving here, Mitch & Jamie will be joining us . They'd ordinarily be celebrating with Mitch's mom Nancy who is still gallivanting around Europe. Nancy and Dan are in Prague at the moment, I believe. Hi Guys! Looking forward to seeing all the photos and hearing all the stories when you get home!

I follow the Cook's Illustrated butterflied roasted turkey recipe and for the first time I butterflied it myself. In the past I've gotten the butcher to do it but figured I'd give it a go. I waited til after dinner, all food was away, the sink and counter completely clean and clear. Anything that couldn't move was covered with a dishtowel, just in case I made a raw turkey mess. Sure enough, pulling out that plastic doo-hickey holding the legs together made juices fly. What is that thing for anyway? I cut it off the legs, but it still had enough mesh in the cavity to cause a mess. Hacking out the backbone was also challenge, but I did it inside the freshly scrubbed sink and all was well. Was glad I prepared and could clean it all up without worrying about the raw meat splashing on the satsumas or anything.

The Cambridge Jacket is knit! I had finished the shoulders with short rows leaving live stitches for a three needle bind off and it pretty much worked out. I wasn't really sure precisely how to do the short rows, so I just did a wrap & turn. What to do with the wraps during the bind off? I winged it and it looks OK, especially since there is ribbing on the shoulders which would camoflauge small bits of wonkyness. If anyone can tell me how I am supposed to do short row shoulder shaping, I'd appreciate it.

The Steek. I still don't have a sewing machine but the newest IK has an article about steeking which explains how to make a crochet reinforcement. It's taken me a couple days, but I did manage to finish crocheting the first side. Why a couple days? Well, the sweater is dark charcoal grey, the weather has been dark charcoal grey and my eyes ain't what they used to be. Now I have to find a zipper, figure out how to sew it in, then decide what to do about the collar. I like the photo in the IK (Summer 2006) with the stand up collar and the zipper going all the way up, but I know Franz would never want to wear it that way. So I plan to have the zipper only on the body and have the collar fold down.

I also did some Tartanning. The white looking contrast stripe didn't photograph well, it is actually sunshine yellow, much creamier than it looks.

How not to entice me to Tacoma

Recently I got a couple nice finds, yarn purchases, from craigslist. I expect to blog about them eventually. So I search it for yarn every few days and there was a recent entry of someone selling off the stash of a former yarn store employee. Lots of things including cashmere, the ad declares. Only problem is it's in Tacoma which is a schlepp. I called the number anyway and the guy just called me back.

guy: There's lots of yarn. probably about 8 big boxes worth, all sorts of things.
me: how about brands, can you give me an idea what brands?
guy: I don't know the brands, I'm selling this for a friend. but there's wool, cotton, acrylic, and lots of fancy stuff with metallic threads and other sort of things.
me: How about the wool, can you tell me about that?
guy: I don't know much about it. There is a large variety though, including lots of specialty yarns. Like yarn that has threads hanging off it, so when you knit it the threads would hang out. And lots of colors. Vibrant colors. I think you could make some really great wall hangings out of this.


(seriously though, if Tacoma weren't such a drive? I'd probably check it out. You never know what kind of gems might be hidden in that lot.)

gods, demigods and goddesses

I was hanging around the library yesterday, knitting and browsing through a Time Magazine article about how some evangelicals believe god wants them to be rich and prosperous in this life, eye of the needle be d*mned. No knitting magazines in the selection, but then I got the bright idea to check good old 746.4 to see what books might be available. The branch, Douglass-Truth, had recently reopened after a remodel and expansion. I was very surprised to see that the Dewey Numbers were not on the signs. Nope, the permanent-looking signs on the end of the rows said Fiction or Non-Fiction. What's with that?

I persevered and found the section nonetheless. There were about a dozen contenders, including these two gems. I've only heard of these knitting-with-color demigods through reading knitting blogs --- one more way my life has been enriched due to the internet. Flipping through the pages is a bit overwhelming, but oh so fun.

I browsed a couple more that I didn't bring home, books of sweater patterns. Both books I flipped through going eh...eh..eh... omg, this one's great! In each case where the pattern jumped out as so much more well designed than the rest the designer turned out to be either Norah Gaughan or Teva Durham the demi-goddesses of knitwear design.

While I have been narrowing down my color choices for the Tartan Jacket, I have been examining the pattern, color selection, color placement, and shaping to see if I can fully understand what all the design elements are and how they interact. Not just the color selection, but also the width of the vertical stripes, the width of the horizontal stripes, the exact placement of the horizontal stripes, the ordering of the colors (with the boldest contrast up high on the shoulders), the length of the body and the sleeves. How all elements combine to draw the eye upward, away from imperfect hips in a flattering way towards the face.

I have found a few brave souls who have finished this jacket and shown the world via the internet. Several who used the almost the same palette as Teva, but with slightly different colors because of different yarn and some with very different color choices.

here are some of them to browse yourself.



and my latest in colorway selection...

Color mania

I am having way too much fun with this. You too can design your own Tartan.

A nice dilemma we have here

that calls for all our wit.

Oh Teva, you genius, how I long for this tartan.IK Fall 2004. Thanks, Nancy, for lending my your magazine collection while you have your adventure.

Do I copy your colors? I do like them, but... All the work to make my very own jacket, I want it to be all mine, uniquely mine. Choosing my own palette is fun, frustrating, slow, exasperating, relaxing, challenging, exhilarating


replicating all the colors accurately in one shot is a challenge. The washed out white is really a creamy yellow (Sun Yellow) and the red (Spice --- the main color of pictured Jacket) is not so vibrant. most of the rest are mostly accurate. Counting from the top left, across then down the 5x3 grid, Teva's colors are 1, 5, 6, 8 and 13.

hmm... what if I looked at the whole Brown Sheep catalogue and simply ordered colors by their number? 5, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42? I get lost just thinking about it.

First you knit a square...

.... then you knit a more different square.



I drank the kool-aid and developed Log-Cabin mania last spring, but I made a tactical error and abandoned it for a while.

I first made a swatch to see how it was going to work in my yarn/needle size. Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece on US 6 addis. I liked it.

Unfortunately I liked it too much. This was supposed to be just a swatch, but I got lazy and figured why not just keep going and make this the start of the blanket.




I don't mind the wonkiness, log-cabins are supposed to be wonky. But the proportions are all wrong for a full sized blanket. This is only about 11 inches square. Making new logs much wider would look weird. I decided that I liked my logs to all have the same width. I had tried to make these all the same width, but mistakes were made. I now know how to count properly, taking the bind-off correctly into consideration.

Even if I liked the proportions of the skinny logs, as it gets bigger, the ratio of how many stitches to pick up to how much knitting can be done is discouragingly large. So, the weather got warmer, I no longer felt an urge to knit a blanket and this languished along with an embarrassingly large number of Cotton Fleece skeins (purchased all at once to make sure dye lots matched).





Forgive the increasingly bad color-balancing, but revel in the new log cabin. These square are more portable, more regular, more better.

Not wholly satisfactory, but better than nothing

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Do not call complaints will be entered into a secure online database available to civil and criminal law enforcement agencies. While the FTC does not resolve individual consumer problems, your complaint will help the agency investigate the company, and could lead to law enforcement action.


Earthlink called yesterday, I told the woman I was on the Do Not Call list and she was very apologetic. Earthlink called again today and the fellow who said he was named Eric Thompson in NJ, employee number 0205 (most likely total garbage info) said, when I said this was the second call in two days so I was going to complain said "to who, your dad?" He said he had never heard of such a Do Not Call list and then he acted like he knew what it was and wanted my "reference number." His supervisor who said his name was David Thomas was just as gruff but said he would connect me with customer service, but I was disconnected instead. I filed the complaint with the FCC, but all they ask for is the number they called (to verify it is on the DNC list), the name and number (if you have it) of the Company that called and the date and time of the call. So I didn't get a chance to express the obnoxiousness of the call.


We did have a "relationship" with mindspring which is now part of earthlink, but that has been over years ago, way way more than the 18 month window allowed by law.

Sweater Update

I've finished the back and am about halfway through the sleeves on the Cambridge Jacket, knitting sleeves flat at the same time.



I started the sleeves before the fronts as I wanted to make some decisions first. After consulting with Jessica at the Fiber Gallery, I plan to knit both fronts as a single piece and steek. Jessica suggests adding seven stitches for a steeked zipper opening and showed me her beautiful new steeked sweater.

Yes, this will make the project less portable. And adding seven stitches per row adds up to a lot of extra knitting. I just find I spend so much time being paranoid remeasuring, I figure doing both sides separately would result in too much time spent counting. The side length needs to measure the back, the armholes need to measure the back (and each other) the collar shaping and shoulder ribbing need to match each other.

I don't know what Zach will do since he is still working on the back of his sweater. He's above the armhole bindoff, so not much more to go. If he doesn't steek, he will change something in the pattern though. Ann Budd says to put a garter stitch selvedge up the fronts for a finished edge. I dunno. The bumps could recapitulate the zipper well or it could just look unpolished. We've been talking about that and I think his solution will be to create a slip stitch edge. I expect I will do the same for the collar, which will be added after the steek is cut but before the zipper sewn in.

Speaking of the garter stitch selvedges, I have done them as specified for the side seams but I am dubious. Is it really easier to seam garter edges together? Will it look polished or with the garter bumps make the seam feel lumpy on the inside?

In addition to the Cambridge Jacket, my Ribbi Cardi is coming along slowly. Body is done and one sleeve is approaching completion. Haven't started the second sleeve yet. All that ribbing was driving me nuts.



So... feeling bored with mindless ribbing and stockinette, I was itching for something a bit more challenging.

contest winnings

I have been remiss in my knit blog etiquette, as I have not yet shown my blog contest winnings and thanked the blogger who had the contest. Sorry about the delay, Birdsong, thanks for the contest and the prizes.

Birdsong is a remarkable woman. She lives in the Sierra Nevada, raises burros, teaches a variety of students including residents of a prison, teaches children to knit starting with the making of their own needles, and has the wisdom that comes from having raised children to young adulthood. She held a contest in honor of her 375th post and her move to another blog platform. I had the luck of the random number generator to win some yarn, soap and a keychain.


This is merino sock-weight dyed by Birdsong using cochineal. I love the color, the muted lavender with the subtle variations of hand-dyed yarn. The yarn cries out to me to be double stranded with something like Kidsilk Haze and turned into a scarf for me. Mistake rib or brioche.


I only have a photo of the yarn, but don't think the other gifts were not appreciated. The soap, handmade from Blessed Juno in Salt Lake City is wonderful. Many folks like lavender and Lemongrass, which this soap has, but the third scent is also one of my favorites, Clary Sage. How did she know? The keychain is an adorable miniature crocheted sweater, from a company helping women in Vietnam earn a living through crafts.

I took the photo yesterday, fully intending to write and post the blog today. Perhaps that's why I dreamt about Birdsong this morning. I dreamt that I visited her and she was very nice, with long grey hair and triplet four year old kids! I am sure she would be nice and hospitable if I could get to the Sierra, but the rest! Grey hair may be inevitable eventually, but the triplets? Perhaps grandkids? They were adorable blonds and wore cute green plaid matching outfits. (I dream in color).

one of those weird quizilla things

What Color is Your Brain?

GREEN: At work or in school: I work best by myself. I like to focus on my ideas until my desire for understanding is satisfied. I am easily bored if the subject holds no interest to me. Sometimes, it is hard for me to set priorities because so many things are of interest. With friends: I may seem reserved. Although my thoughts and feelings run deep, I am uneasy with frequent displays of emotion. I enjoy people who are interesting and of high integrity. With family: I am probably seen as a loner because I like a lot of private time to think. Sometimes, I find family activities boring and have difficulty following family rules that don't make sense to me. I show love by spending time with my family and sharing ideas and interests. Take this quiz! Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Saturday chickens

Sun Flare! and Shadows!
clues photo not from today
grey, grey shadow-free

Like my beautiful
white feathers? Want my secret?
regular dust bath.

Just you wait, I'll be
the belle of the ball. feathers
grow back radiant.

"The loss of liberty to a generous mind is worse than death"

"It is agreed upon by all men that this is a reign of liberty, and while men keep within the bounds of truth, I hope they may with safety both speak and write their sentiments of the conduct of men in power. I mean of that part of their conduct only which affects the liberty or property of the people under their administration; were this to be denied, then the the next step may make them slaves: For what notions can be entertained of slavery beyond that of suffering the greatest injuries and oppressions without the liberty of complaining; or if they do, to be destroyed, body and estate, for so doing?

It is said and insisted on by Mr. Attorney that government is a sacred thing; that it is to be supported and reverenced; it is government that protects our persons and estates; that prevents treasons, murders, robberies, riots, and all the train of evils that overturns kingdoms and states and ruins particular persons; and if those in the administration, especially the supreme magistrate, must have all their conduct censured by private men, government cannot subsist. This is called a licentiousness not to be tolerated. It is said that it brings the rulers of the people into contempt, and their authority not to be regarded, and so in the end the laws cannot be put in execution.

These I say, and such as these, are the general topics insisted upon by men in power and their advocates. But I wish it might be considered at the same time how often it has happened that the abuse of power has been the primary cause of these evils, and that it was the injustice and oppression of these great men which has commonly brought them into contempt with the people. The craft and art of such men is great, and who that is the least acquainted with history or law can be ignorant of the specious pretenses which have often been made use of by men in power to introduce arbitrary rule and destroy the liberties of a free people. "

Andrew Hamilton
New York, 1735
Full text

UpBeat

First some boring Saturday Sky. Truth is, I tried to figure out how to unlink myself to this ring without human intervention, but I failed. Guess I feel a little sheepish contacting Sandy. I'm afraid I feel a little blah about the sky photography. Like to look at other folks' skies though.



To reduce the blahs, here's list of Good Things.

• It's Fall. I have always loved this time of year, eggnog, pumpkin pie and all that. But the shortening of the days --- not so exciting. But this year, the later dawn means that I have a few more minutes to sleep before the squawking outside makes me grab my sweats and run out to free the girls from the coop/run.
  
• The car has a brand new clutch. We got 84K miles on the original clutch, good for hilly Seattle. A tribute to my driving ability! Well, partly. About half the miles are highway miles.
  
• Although a new clutch is pricy, it got installed the very minute after Visa processed the monthly statement. We won't have to pay for it til the end of November. Very good since the October Visa bill includes camseals, timing belt and water pump.
• Franz picked up his new bike today. He's bike commuted for years and put many miles on his previous bikes which have both been mountain-road hybrids. He finally got a true road bike and he's feeling the love.
  
• I won a blog contest! Yay for random numbers. Birdsong is sending me some goodies.
  
• Zach's now a First Class Scout and got 4 merit badges at the Court of Honor last week. Most of the merit badges are in the embarassingly easy category, like fingerprinting, he got the swimming merit badge. He's struggled with swimming forever and it took lots of courage and determination to fulfill the requirements for this badge.
  
• Knitting is coming along. I've even unearthed a UFO I got discouraged with and have figured out what to do with it. More on that in another post. It is probably just because I am avoiding the second sleeve of Ribby Cardi, but we won't talk about that right now.
• Remember how excited I was to find the tubular cast on? Well, I just discovered a companion cast-off! Won't post a link because the one I found is incomprehensible, but I am confident someone somewhere out there has a better tutorial.
  

Some Knitting

but knot my knitting.

This is for Nancy (Hi, Nancy!) but hey, everyone else can read it too.

Two Saturdays ago, when my guys were off bushwacking in the Cascades with the Boy Scouts, Jamie came over and we spent the afternoon knitting --- mostly swatches for Jamie's first sweater, the Tweedy Aran Cardigan from IK Winter 2001/2002. It took both of our ginormous brains to figure out that Fancy Rib pattern; but we did, and Jamie's swatches were looking good. She swatched it on at least three different needle sizes, too. An entire day spent swatching is a good thing when you want your sweater to be perfect. And ooh la la, is it turning out perfect! The pattern comes in only a few sizes, jumping from 38 to 42.5 in a single leap. 38 would be a little snug, 42.5 she would swim in. But turns out the swatch gauge she liked the best was a little bit smaller than stated gauge, so she's making the 42.5 and it will end up a little smaller, just right. (Cascade 220, US6 and US7 addis, I think)

Have to admit when Jamie first showed me the photo in the magazine and said she wanted to knit it, I was well, OK, that's an interesting sweater. But then I searched some blogs for finished ones. Wow. Looking again at the magazine, I realised it is probably a size 42.5 sweater on a size 34 model. It even looks like a clothespin might be pinching in some of the back and it still just hangs on her. Now I am jealous and I want to knit one too.

Jamie's been knitting for a few years, some scarves and socks mostly. Did I tell you this is her First Sweater! Then I showed Jamie Loop-D-Loop and now she is all obsessed enthusiatic about sweater number two, the Cabled Riding Jacket. Here's a finished one done in Lamb's Pride worsted. Jamie contacted Green Mountain Spinnery, the source of the yarn for the sweater in the book. They are sending her some samples and will custom dye the wool when she chooses the color.

Wow, her first two sweaters are destined to be classics that she will wear forever. My first sweater?

For Amelia

Ah, but not for Amelia my pet chicken. This is for Amelia Raitte, aka Anna Bell, designer of Pippa. She asked for ancestor stories, either as a comment on her blog or as an entry on our own.

In 1875, sixteen year old Mary (Mamie) Murray was staying with family friends in New York when she ran off and married much older widower Patrick Brennan --- a livery driver from Washington, DC. Her parents freaked, took her back to Louisville, Kentucky, and had the marriage annulled. There they kept her pretty much under lock and key. Three years later they relaxed enough to allow her to visit some trusted friends. The friends, however, were on Mary's side and helped her remarry Mr. Brennan. This time she was nineteen, her parents got over their shock and accepted the situation. Mamie and Patrick had 17 years together before Patrick died in 1897. They had nine (?) children, mostly girls. My grandmother Eustelle was the youngest. I've heard many stories of the Brennan girls --- they were a strong bunch. None married before they were 30, and all held jobs or ran businesses (real estate, hardware, a saloon).

The most famous of the Brennan girls were the triplets; Katharine, Anne and Frances Cleveland. The third was named after the president's young wife. Grover and Frances had married despite a 27 year difference in age. Perhaps that similarity was one reason for the namesake? Or perhaps since the Brennan's lived in DC, they admired the well-loved First Lady. Or perhaps with so many girls they had run out of names. Mrs. Cleveland heard about the triplets born to the livery driver; in 1890, triplets surviving birth were rare. She gave the girls a gift of clothes. While my great-grandmother's friends told her she should save the presidential present, she opted instead for practicality. She had three young girls to clothe, here were some clothes. That was that.


Mamie and Patrick were not wealthy enough to have professional pictures made, but having the triplets changed that. A local photography studio took regular photos of the family in exchange for letting him display photos of the triplets in his window. The studio portrait was part of this collection.


The outdoor photo is from the Library of Congress website and was taken at a Christian Endeavorers Convention in 1896. The Brennan triplets were so well known that the summary of the photos from this collection is "Includes views of the Junior Rally for young people; separate seating sections for black Endeavorers; news reporters at the convention; members of the Negro Delegation on the Department of Agriculture grounds; the Brennan triplets attending the convention. Also includes general scenes in Washington, D.C., including downtown views, and views of the Capitol." Patrick and Eustelle are the other two in the picture.

Only a mother could love

My baby sister became quite attractive, but she had a pronounced Ugly Duckling period as a preschooler. Excema left red scaly patches on her cheeks and mosquito bites she'd scratched left huge scabby welts on her arms and legs. During this time, my mother was caring for her aged parents, so Teresa spent a lot of time at our grandparents' house. One day, the excema had abated and it was probably late enough in the year that the mosquitos weren't a factor. My grandfather complimented her, said for once she looked "almost human." While I've always suspected that he meant it completely affectionately, my mother never really forgave him for that. Guess mothers are like that.


Remember Amelia? Well, it turns out that chickens molt in the Fall, creating a new warmer coat of feathers. But those new feathers push out the old ones, leaving a scraggly mess for a while. Even though Jamie told me about molting, seeing Amelia's bare neck kinda freaked me out, was she sick again? No, Jamie came over and assured both of us that there was a full complement of pin feathers erupting. She's probably molting earlier than the other birds from the stress of being sick. In a few more weeks, the new feathers should make her more gorgeous than ever, but in the meantime...























Last night Amelia was not in the coop. I got worried, searched the yard and all the trees, finally finding her roosting in the Bay tree. What to do? She'd be safer in the coop, and I had to lock up the coop to protect the other chickens. But she was really well hidden in the dense Bay. I would have needed a ladder to get her down. How she flew that high with her current feather situation I have no idea. So I locked up the coop and let her be in the tree. I worried that I wouldn't be able to sleep and although I did sleep OK, I had a dream where a dog attacked the chickens. Amelia was fine this morning though.

I love our Bay tree. Nothing is like fresh bay leaves --- dried just do not compare. If you have access to fresh leaves, try tucking a dozen bay leaves under the skin of a chicken or turkey before roasting it. Yes, a dozen. If you are in Seattle and want some, let me know. I'll cut you a branch or two. But you'll have to supply your own poultry.

Extra drumsticks?

A Pennsylvania chicken farmer (rancher?) discovered that one of his birds has 4 legs. Only two legs work; the other two drag along behind. The most telling aspect of this discovery is that the bird is 18 months old. Yup, her extra legs are just now being noticed. How did that happen? Well, this fellow has thirty six thousand chickens. I wonder how much room they each have?

My five birds have the luxury of a backyard 60'x75'. Do a lot of fancy calculations and you'll see that if those Quaker State chickens have the equivalent yardage, then that farmer would have 1.1 square miles of chicken runs. Does anyone want to bet that those 36,000 birds are free-range?

My neighbor who rents the basement apt next door came over the other day, first time she's come to my door. We've talked on the sidewalk a few times in a friendly way, waved hello, that sort of thing. First understand that her landlady is an uber gardener and there is a delightful and massive hedgerow of roses, clematis, flowering quince, rhodies, forsythia, etc between our yards. And a fence. So she came over all concerned to ask me if I had gotten chickens (why, yes) and did I realise that they were loose? Loose! Where? In my backyard of course, where they belong. Relieved that they hadn't escaped, I offered to have her meet the girls. She did, in a tentative sort of way, admitting that she's afraid of chickens. And she got all concerned that her cats might hurt them. I laughed and said that was not an issue, these birds could take care of themselves with a cat. But it got me thinking.... What if it were an issue?

I mean, here I am with my pets all securely contained in my backyard, not off pooping and killing in other folks' yards. If her free roaming cats were a danger to them, what would she expect to happen?

time for a sweater

We are having a sunny weekend --- typical nice Seattle September weather --- but the week just past! What rain! Perfect time to be knitting sweaters.


I haven't made much progress on Franz's Cambridge Jacket. The Nerd's been busy so his progess was slow. I've been sorta waiting for him to catch up. He and Franz are off on a boy scout backpack this weekend and Zach took his knitting for the car. It's about an hour to the trailhead, so I told him I would work on the Cambridge Jacket for no more than two hours.

Is all that stockinette really going to stop curling with blocking and one row of crochet? Ann Budd says it will.

Meanwhile I've been distracted with the Ribby Cardi for me. I am making the body in one piece and will knit the sleeves in the round until the armpit bind-off. Then I will probably knit the sleeves separately and flat --- unless I get inspired to attach them and work the whole thing as one piece. Given that the sleeves are a different color, that would mean working 5 balls at once. I don't hate seaming that much.

These Rowan wool-cotton colors are elusive to photograph. In person they change with every change of light also. The body is a discontinued color Mellow Yellow. It varies with the light source from creamy yellow to pale green. Swayed by the desire for a two color sweater, I found a color that works well with it. Rowan calls this color Still. Most on-line retailers call it mustard-brown and Jimmy Bean calls it dirty olive. None of their pictures rendered on my screen really capture the color.

I started the sleeve flat on the smaller needles, no sense hassling with DPNs for that. Because I am knitting this without a lot of ease, the cuff is comfortable yet snug. I may leave that little V-shaped gap as a design element instead of seaming it shut, haven't decided yet. It is helpful as it marks the beginning of the round clearly. I hate stitch markers on dpns.


Rosemary chicken, yum. (Just kidding, Jamie!)

Saturday Sky

Saturday Sky with laundry and buddleia. (and yes I know buddleias are now considered noxious plants. they weren't when we planted it. sigh. the hummingbirds like it.)