Å Strikke

Popped!

2009-07-01T16:17:00.002-04:00

So, a few weeks ago I finally warped the new loom, wove almost 10 inches, and...got the first contraction. Four hours later, Papoose was born. She's huge, abundantly healthy, and we're all doing great. Birthday was June 13. No idea when I'm going to finish weaving that first scarf, but the prospects for knitting while breastfeeding look pretty good!

Ready to pop

2009-05-28T21:04:00.006-04:00

Hello all!! Thanks so much to every one of you for the lovely comments last time - so wonderful to know I'm not posting into a void here, despite my hiatus! I missed you all while I was gone!

My FO parade is definitely slowing...for which I blame both end-of-semester grading and my increasingly enormous girth and weight (I've gained 35 lbs and it's ALL in front!) But I did finish two more items recently:

The Little Sister Dress:

The Violet Sacque from Vintage Baby Knits:

This may be it for my pre-baby knitting, except maybe for another cap or toy and maybe some burp cloths. My mojo has nearly dropped again to first trimester levels, and I've been busy as a bee with last-minute errands, checkups, shopping plus the grading pile, which never seems to get any smaller no matter how much I work on it. But there's another reason. Next time I have a moment for crafting (after making the much-needed curtains and swaddle cloths) I'm going to WEAVE!!

See my new loom????

It's a Schacht Flip-n-Fold, from Beth's shop. I luuuurve it, though I haven't actually woven anything yet. In bits and pieces of time I've been educating myself and digging out some appropriate stash to experiment with, but I haven't yet had the time and space available to warp it, which is the first step and not something I want to interrupt, at least the first time I do it. I hope to be able to do that before the little one arrives!

Announcement: said little one will henceforth be known on this blog by one of the two nicknames she's going by most often right now: Papoose, or Junebug. So you know.

The Junebug is BIG and the midwives have told her she can come whenever she pleases as of now:

And now before I go...some EXTREMELY belated pictures from last August! Apologies for not posting these in an even remotely timely manner, but now that I've dug them up again, I didn't want to let them go unseen. We had such a wonderful time at the Allegan Fiber Festival and stash-building at Beth's shop in Howell! And I managed to talk my college friend K into coming with us to the fiber festival and guess what, she learned to spin while there! ha. She was a crocheter already from way back, so I knew she'd be "hooked" pretty easily, har har.

Here's me and Kari at the fiber festival, being awed by soft yummy fluff (was I ever that flat-bellied??!):

Then Hubbus drove me over to Howell for some serious stash-building at Beth's shop, the Spinning Loft. You may recall how I posted last time that Beth had to give me one of those gigantic ziplocs to hold it all? Ahem...

Here's Beth demonstrating that it really will fit in the suitcase:

I may have mentioned before that my friend Beth is a very dangerous temptress? I can't recommend her wonderful shop enough, but - beware! It's a dangerous place. Here she is with her bouquet of spindles.

Also, remember last time I showed the Maggie batts I had spun up, from batts made by Beth's daughter Maggie? Here's what they looked like originally:

Now take a closer look at those tags:

Too adorable to resist, even if the batts weren't beautiful in themselves, which they certainly are:

Through all this fiber diving, Hubbus waited more or less patiently, since Beth let him use her laptop to check the news (this was last August, during the Russian-Georgian conflict)

What a very sweet Hubbus! He attended the fiber festival, too, as he did the year before. Of course, he got promised a handspun sweater in return...that was August, and I still haven't started that spinning!

Yes, I'm still alive!

2009-04-26T16:09:00.003-04:00

Actually, I'm not only still alive, but I've gone and created Life! With some help from Hubbus. Yep, we're preggo:

Aaaaaand...that's not my only excuse for having let the blog hibernate for months and months! I also started my new job in the fall, and then over the winter break we moved to Queens! It's been a bit busy around here - so much so that there was more than a month when I didn't even login to Ravelry! !!! My keeping up with other blogs has also been decidedly spotty - I try to catch up every couple months or so. Not sure I can say what the future of this blog will be - frankly, once this kid comes, I have NO IDEA what will happen with ANYTHING. But if anyone is still out there reading (??) I thought you all deserved to know where I went.

Also, there's a possibility the blog may actually pick up in a whole new way in the fall. You see, I'm planning to teach a new course called "Women's Work" on the history of textiles. Mind you, this will not at all be a technical history of textiles themselves, or even very much about the making of textiles, but rather a standard upper-level undergrad discussion course incorporating gender, technology, and commerce over a huge range of time and the whole world, using women's textile work as the case study, sort of. Anyway, I'm very excited about it. If you know the wonderful book Women's Work by Elizabeth Wayland Barber, that will be one of our main texts and our starting point. I plan to teach the most basic rudiments of spinning, weaving, and knitting so that students can understand some of the technical details required to evaluate the literature we'll be reading, etc.

To that end, I need to learn to weave! Ha! Because you know I needed an excuse to finally take the final fiber arts plunge! So I'm shopping for a small, folding loom. I also want to try to teach myself naalbinding. I figure all that might very well bring me back to the blog pretty regularly - but we'll see.

In other news:

My new job is awesome and I love it.

It also takes up a crazy amount of time, so far.

This was not unexpected, but an adjustment all the same.

I got preggo rather soon after starting the new job.

The first trimester, on top of the first semester, totally kicked my ass.

I didn't knit.

Or spin.

Seriously.

I don't think I did anything but write lectures, sleep, deliver lectures, and sleep, for weeks and weeks.

I certainly didn't eat!

Once I finally made it to the second trimester and winter break (almost simultaneously) things improved drastically.

So, naturally, we promptly moved to Queens, a process which ate up every moment of time and every iota of energy from Christmas to after the first day of classes in the new semester.

We originally intended to buy, and spent weeks on that process before it all fell through at the last minute.

At that point, our lease was almost up so we started over with the rental market.

We almost got a really affordable 3BR 2 bath with a VIEW, but lost it at the last moment due to a stupid realtor. GRRRR.

We ended up in a nice 2BR, big enough (just) and in a nice neighborhood, for the same amount we were paying for a 1BR in a crappy building in a crappy neighborhood in Manhattan.

One month after moving in, rents plummeted. Sigh.

We're using our extra room as a guest room, aka "project room" where lives my stash, my knitting books, my spinning wheel, and Hubbus' various toys.

This room gets floods of morning light and we LURVE it.

The baby, if you're wondering, will live (for her first couple years at least) in our largeish and delightfully clutter-free bedroom.

She's going to be a she.

So far, so good with the pregnancy - no serious issues, no terrible complaints.

I can't get more than a few hours of sleep in a row, though, so I haven't been able to do much other than work and knit since we moved in (the moving took up all of that much-hyped 2nd trimester "energy spurt").

I'm at 33 weeks now - she's due in the middle of June.

In theory; babies in my family are always really late.

My knitting and spinning mojo came back with a vengeance as soon as the nausea and the 3-naps-a-day period ended along with the first trimester.

That said, all the projects I was working on before getting knocked up are still pretty much where they were in my last post of many moons ago (the first-handspun cardigan, the handspun vest for Hubbus, the seafoam scarf).

Instead, I've been popping out baby FOs like nobody's business. Here's hoping the kid comes out as easily! (ha!)

We can't say what the kid's name is going to be because of Russian superstition (that, and we haven't definitely decided between 2 good possibilities), so for the moment we're calling her, variously: Turkey, Princess Butterball, Papoose, Parasite, etc; my mom is calling her Pukala, which apparently means something like "little girl" or "doll" in Dutch.

Unfortunately, in Russian "Pukala" means "she farted."

No doubt, this will be appropriate too, and maybe already is, but we can't tell while she's still inside.

She kicks, wiggles, punches, stretches, and readjusts her position constantly.

In turn, our new hobby involves poking and prodding her constantly, just to watch her react.

I can now spend serious amounts of time just staring at my (gigantic) belly.

Who needs to see toes? Toes don't do anything interesting.

I probably wouldn't have even gotten around to posting this, or finally updating my projects on Ravelry, except that I overdid it walking around during these last two days of nice weather, and I pulled something, and/or aggravated my shin splints, which is so not fun while carrying around 22 extra pounds. So I'm spending the day prone with my feet up.

One of my awesome adventures before overdoing it was stopping by Purl Soho for a book signing by Kristen Rengren, aka Retroknit on Ravelry, author of Vintage Baby Knits which came out with SUCH perfect timing for me! It was a blast to meet Kristen and also sinsofthedove from Ravelry

Just a few weeks earlier, I went to Knitty City for Franklin Habit's visit. I couldn't make it in time for the main event, but I still got to meet Franklin and several other awesome RavFriends, like KnittingFiddler and Jesh and the TsockTsarina. We had ourselves a blast!

All this has made me SO anxious to finally get to Rhinebeck this year. Hoping, hoping, hoping.

With a 4-month-old, of course...

Parade of current FOs and WIPs (further details, if any, on the linked Ravelry project page):

Miss Dashwood:

Feather and Fan Bonnet:

Tomten jacket:

Heart hat:

Brittany Jumper:

Garter baby blanket:

Soaker:

Topaz dress:

Little Sister Dress:

Violet Sacque (first of many projects in the queue from the new book, Vintage Baby Knits):

But don't worry - I haven't forgotten my spinning! There was a long break over the move when the wheel stayed packed up, and there have been some frustrating experiments, but some things I'm really proud of. Most notably:

Maggie batts (made by Beth's daughter Maggie, of The Spinning Loft in "Playtime" and "Berry Swirl":

Chamelon Colorworks BFL in "Peacock" (also from The Spinning Loft):

A colorway called "Beth's Curse" of I-forget-what, also from the Spinning Loft:

Noticing a pattern here?

Yes, I didn't even get a chance to blog about my last great fiber adventure, last August, before I immediately got sucked up into the abyss of the school year. I went to the Allegan Fiber Festival for the second time, and far more excitingly, I visited Beth's shop in Howell, MI for the second time. I went with a mission to get a bit of, well, practically every kind of fiber there is, to supply me for spinning adventures for many months to come. Many months later, I'm still doing really well. :-) Beth, and her shop, were as amazing as ever. She had to give me one of these GIANT XXL ziplocs to hold it all, and it took up a whole suitcase on the way home. And now Beth is doing all kinds of exciting things like writing articles and hobnobbing with famous people! Not at all surprising given that Beth is about the nicest, most generous, and most talented fiber person I know (and that's really saying something!) What had been becoming an annual pilgrimage to Allegan and the Spinning Loft may not happen this year because of the tiny new arrival in June, but I'm hoping we might make it in winter, at least. By then I'm sure I'll be working on my weaving stash!

Adding to the Fiber Stash

2008-07-26T16:23:00.006-04:00

It’s getting boring to start every post with an apology for how long it’s been since my last post, so I’ll just not.

I’ll just show you some super-pretty wool instead, okay?

‘Cause yesterday I got another box from The Spinning Loft (yep, you can order online now). I know, I’m going there in August so why couldn’t I wait? Because I had to make sure I finally got my paws on some Abby batts, that’s why! They go fast. (They’re made by this Abby.) And then, Beth mentioned that she had a lot of BFL. And I’m now a complete sucker for BFL. And she had some in oatmeal. Oatmeal. Like it wasn’t good enough to eat already.

So looky at the box that came, complete with pretty tissue-paper:

Please note presence of delicious Abby batts.

That’s orchid sock – specially blended for sock knitting. It’s superwash/romney/falkland/merino/tussah silk. I’m trying to remember I’m still on a budget, so I got a modest pair of wee all-too-cupcake-like bits. I’ve been wanting to try getting singles nice enough to actually knit with as singles, so that’s my plan for this, and I’m hoping to have enough for footies.

Meanwhile, apparently the Abby batts I picked out were a tad light, so Beth being Beth, she threw in “a little something extra.” This “little” something was:

4oz of kettle-dyed BFL. MMMMMmmmm. I know, you wanted to wrap the roving around your neck and wear it as-is, don’t you? I do, too. And I just might. Although the other possibility is to spin it up and make the morning surf scarf from the cover of the summer Spin-Off. I’m actually already making one of these scarves, in a yarn I spun from one of my birthday fibers that my dad bought for me when we were in New Hampshire, which turns out to be very much like the fiber/yarn that the designer used. However, if you’ve seen this issue, you’ll know that they show a whole lot of variations of the scarf in lots and lots of different handspun yarns. And every single one is luscious. (The yarns totally make the pattern – which is actually very simple, so much so as to be obvious, but a heaven-sent perfect match for handspun). So I found myself wanting every last one of them, maybe especially the one from kettle-dyed fiber (yes, the one in the magazine is red, but I swear that’s not the only reason I especially love it). So now I’m thinking I could make a second scarf in this new kettle-dyed BFL, and if I’m really generous I might let my mom have it for christmas. Maybe.

In the meantime, while I’m on the topic, here’s the morning surf scarf that I already started, from 4oz of merino/silk from the Fiber Studio in New Hampshire:

I think that this may be the best spinning I’ve done to date (I had to put one bobbin through the wheel twice to get enough twist in to ply it, but otherwise smooth sailing on the fast flyer) – it’s the most recent except for the sweater-size project that’s on bobbins right now (she says mysteriously, saving that project for another post) – and it makes me feel ready to tackle the merino and (separate) silk already awaiting me in the stash and – now – the Abby batts, all of which have been scaring me. Until now. Yay!

But back to yesterday’s box-o-yumminess. There was that whole pound of undyed BFL, too! Half white and half oatmeal:

I’ll probably dye the white in some fun way, but the oatmeal must remain in its delicious undyed state. Not sure yet what I’ll make with either one, I’m just enjoying touching and sniffing them for now!

In other news, I’ve been working on this cardigan from my first three whole, finished, non-experimental wheel-spun yarns:

It’s a made-up non-pattern based roughly on EZ’s methods, with the stripes meant to compensate for spinning ineptitude and the ribbing meant to give a fitted shape to what is essentially a mindless knit. I wanted a cardigan to leave at my (new! first ever!) office, since I don’t really own a decent cardigan, so it’s practical, too. The red dyed Corriedale is the first real skein from the wheel, and it looks it, as it’s under-plied and quite uneven. Then there are two other skeins, both from the white BFL I got in the box from Beth that arrived the same time as the wheel. I dyed those with kool-aid in two batches, pretty much randomly. You saw bits and pieces of this stuff in my previous three posts. I’m really happy and kind of amazed by how it’s coming out!

The really cool thing, though, is to compare that red Corriedale to this skein of brown dyed Corriedale that I spun up just a week or so (but many, many hours of spinning) later than the red. The original fibers were identical, both from that initial box from Beth:

The brown one is hardly flawless, but way better than the red skein. To go with it, I dyed some white falkland/corriedale that I got as part of the birthday-present fiber, with kool-aid and tea and coffee. The idea was to roughly replicate the colors in this amazing Brooklyn Tweed vest, which Hubbus would very much like to have for himself. His favorite colors are browns, orange, and blues. I would have liked to get a rich royal blue for this, but couldn’t make it happen with the kool-aid, so I settled for a denim blue. I also couldn't replicate that wonderful oatmealy color that Jared got (which, for the record, was his found yarn, not the hand-dyed handspun), so this my resulting variation:

I’m pretty happy with the spinning, but not so sure about the dye-job. Verdict is still out until I actually try knitting it up in 2-by-2-row stripes.

And oh, did I forget to show you the lama fleece Beth sent me “to play with”??

It’s the thing I was whining about not knowing what to do with in my last post. I’m starting to feel ready to figure it out. And I bought pet combs and brushes to help me! More on that experiment as events proceed. And I’ll show you the two cool new-to-me spinning-related tricks I unvented (which may well be known to everyone else, but I was excited nonetheless). And I’ll show you what happened when I solar-dyed merino and tussah silk! Although I might wait to show until I’ve spun some up…I’m hoping it will look better when spun, although it’s no tragedy, because if it doesn’t I’ll just dye it again.

Yeah – that’s the truth of it. I’ve been having too much fun with fiber to even blog about it. :-)

P.S. I had to get two new bins for the craft closet, to hold the new fiber stash and the new yarns I’ve acquired/made in the past year. Here’s a shot of them, including the spinning wheel bag, where the wheel could sit, safely stowed away, if I were ever crazy enough to actually pack it away, which I probably won’t.

Pretty Pretty

2008-06-01T22:29:00.005-04:00

A few observations:

1. BFL is incredibly soft. Given its relative cheapness, it's incredibly soft. I could spin for the rest of my life with BFL and be happy. That is, I would if I didn't know about how shiny Wensleydale is. And about the even softer softness and pretty natural colors of alpaca. And the amazing way silk looks beautiful no matter what stupid things you do to it. Sigh. You see how easily this spinning thing can become an obsession.

2. Plying on a wheel is so easy and fast that it's dangerous. Wow. And my super-duper jumbo flyer comes with a big bobbin, which holds twice as much as the regular bobbin. So I can 2-ply two bobbins full of singles and lickety-split end up with about 600 yards of yummy continuous yarn. Love, love, love. The only problem is that it goes so fast I totally forget about moving the yarn from one flyer-hook to another and make really messy bobbins.

3. My dad had been saving his birthday present to me until I got here for a visit, and on a whim on our way back from seeing the new Indiana Jones movie the other day, we followed a sign that said "Fiber Studio" on it. This turned out to be a very glorious place. A huge room full of incredible yarns, plus a really big selection of nice beads, and a wall for fiber and a number of wheels and looms. The fiber/spinning section wasn't nearly as big as what Beth has in Michigan, but the yarn and bead section were truly remarkable. Still, I'm not in the market for yarn or beads at the moment. So I got: 1.5 lbs Coopworth in natural browns. Half a pound of Jacob. A pound of merino (so I'll stop being scared of merino, so Beth will stop making fun of me for being scared of merino) and a pretty batt of merino silk, since Beth was out of Abby batts for the moment (waaaah). In other words, I'm building myself up a pretty little fiber stash even before I get into Beth's shop in person in August, a stash-acquisition trip I've been planning on since before I got the wheel (since there are no spinning shops in NYC that I know of, and no shop I know of anywhere matches Beth's selection). Will have to contemplate storage issues soon!

4. Then again, at the rate I've been spinning, maybe not. I'm on the last half of the kool-aid dyed BFL from Beth, which is going to be knitted up with the red Corriedale, which you've also already seen, into a cardigan. Oh yes, I have big plans. I also tried out my fast flyer and experimented with spinning as thin a thread as I could get. It seemed to go well until the bobbin got kind of full, then suddenly the treadles became harder to push, and I couldn't figure out how to fix it. I played with the driveband tension and the scotch tension and just made things worse. So then I tried Navajo-plying what I had, and it broke every two seconds, so I think I underspun the whole thing. Next plan is to run it all through the wheel again and add more twist. Still don't understand the mystery of why it suddenly became difficult toward the end of the initial spinning, but when I went back to the regular flyer and the BFL, it was back to easy-peasy spinning, so I'm ignoring the problem for now.

5. Beth: So I pulled out all the llama fleece and....what the heck do I do with this stuff now??? So far I've only spun from fiber that was already arranged in a more or less long-lengthy-thingy that is not yet string but clearly doesn't have that far to go to become string. Do. Not. Get. The. Llama. What do I do?? Other than smell it and fondle it and making everyone I know touch it and admire it (of course). Help!

6. You're all really bad at suggesting names for spinning wheels, guys. Really. But you can do better, I know you can. Pretty please?

7. No, I haven't forgotten about knitting. I'm working on a cabled cardigan from my brown Soviet yarn, which I started in Moscow. I'm on the last third of the second sleeve (but haven't started the body yet). Sadly, it doesn't photograph well at all - it just kind of looks like the beginning of a hairshirt. You'll have to trust me that it's much better in person:

Some pictures and a meme

2008-05-28T23:37:00.004-04:00

Beth continues to prod me to blog even though I'm really much too busy spinning, and occasionally dyeing fiber. So here's a quick meme and some pictures before I get back to spinning. I can't stop! It's way too much fun! (To prove to you that I really am completely obsessed with the
spinning, I'll confess that I've barely even logged on to Ravelry lately. I know, it's crazy. But that's how much fun spinning is, I tell you.)

“The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.”

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

May of 1998. That would be towards the end of my free school-year between graduating from college and going to Russia for the first time. I lived in a studio apartment on the north side of Chicago, commuted back down to Hyde Park for the same library job I’d had during my senior year (preservation department – I prepared and processed books that were being preserved on microfilm; it was my first civilized job and the highest paying to that date, at I think $7.50 an hour, if I recall correctly). I was mostly saving money and applying for various fellowships that I wasn’t actually eligible for (because I’d graduated but not yet started grad school). Also applied to Ph.D programs that spring.

My studio apartment was partially subsidized by my parents because my dad needed a place to house a whole lot of digital video equipment he was experimenting with at the time. That summer, the two of us made his first, experimental longish video – a history of my paternal grandmother’s family. I’m still proud of how well it came out, and incredibly glad we did it then, because a lot of the people we interviewed didn’t live much longer.

That August 17, the ruble crashed and the Russian “Financial Crisis” began. I arrived in St. Petersburg on Sept 1. As I recall, there was also a major airline strike and my flight almost got cancelled indefinitely. But I arrived alright – all funding plans fell through because of the crisis – the first of many visa crises ensued – lived on kasha for a while – got a job (first teaching job ever, liked it, to my surprise!) – found out I got into grad school with funding – fell madly in love with the city of St. Petersburg. Returned to a road trip around the western US with one of my best friends from college for the whole summer before grad school. Those were good times. Funny how remote it seems from the other side of the long, dark tunnel known as Grad School.

15 years ago: May, 1993: I was VERY much looking forward to starting college. Couldn’t have been more excited/delighted/ready for it, and that feeling actually lasted right up to graduation, at which point I suddenly felt totally ready to move on. The college years were charmed.

20 years ago: May, 1988: The end of 7th grade. Heading into the nadir of my life: 8th grade. I had thick glasses, braces, and a bad perm. I absolutely despised nearly everyone I knew. School was a soul-destroying joke.

25 years ago: May, 1983: I was eight. I was already a serious Knitter and general crafter.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

Well, it’s almost midnight as I write this, but today I dyed 8 oz of BFL, knitted bit, spun a bit, and watched a movie with my dad and his wife. Petted the doggie. Tomorrow I need to get my act together a bit more and take care of some email, start putting together the materials I’ve been gathering for my class in the fall, and start pounding out the lectures. Oh, and I need to pay bills and make a dent in the vast pile of mail waiting for me. Not fun.

3. Snacks I enjoy:

Chocolate
Pirate Booty
Potato chips
Fruit
Toast, with chocolate peanut butter or cinnamon & sugar

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Pay off all of mine, Hubbus’ and my parents’ various loans.

Buy us a nice pretty house with lilac bushes somewhere in New England, plus a decent apartment in NYC

Invest enough capital, safely, to be able to live comfortably off the interest for the rest of our lives, plus a travel fund

Go to SOAR and Meg Swansen’s Knitting Camp and Rhinebeck and Maryland S&W and every other major knitting event. Every friggin’ year, dude!

Establish some sort of self-sustaining educational charity fund – would take quite a bit of work to find out how to do that most effectively, but I’d want to help add to the sort of funding pools that got me through a PhD.

Funnily enough, I don’t think I’d have any desire to quit my job (now that I have one) – I think I’d still want to do it just as badly. But I wouldn’t worry as much about tenure, and I would definitely take some more time off for travel and fun!

5. Places I have lived:

Holland, Michigan
Ottestad, Norway
Chicago, Illinois
St. Petersburg, Russia
New York City
Moscow, Russia
Ivanovo, Russia

6. Peeps I want to know more about:

I never do this – not so much out of any high-minded distaste for bothering people, as I really don’t think there’s much to be bothered by in a link – it’s not as if one is forced to fill out a meme if one doesn’t want to – but mainly because I find it impossible to narrow down who I want to hear from most. I love to read other people’s memes, and I’d love to hear more from any of the bloggers I know. So if you feel like a meme, consider yourself hereby tagged.

Pictures

First: I improved the tension on my built-in Lazy Kate. This works quite well for me:

This is the wool and silk hankies you saw in the last post, plied (it looks like candy - I love it):

The dyed Corriedale:

Then I dyed my BFL with kool-aid and food coloring, in two batches, one last week and one today. Here's last week's batch, from dye to the two bobbins of singles, waiting to be plied.

I have one more picture from today's second batch, which I offer with an apology for all the many flash-illuminated pictures above, also - I've had a lot of trouble getting remotely acceptable lighting conditions, which is part of why I didn't blog earlier. But now that I've actually loaded these up and looked at them on the big screen, I see that the colors are fairly accurate, even though the pictures themselves aren't pretty, so I'll just let it go at that. Because I have more spinning to do!

Kromski Sonata (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

2008-05-19T15:12:00.003-04:00

Um.....okay, I haven't posted in a long time, and I kind of have a hell of a lot to tell you all, most of which won't get told. Because I need to get back to my spinning. On my brand-new Kromski Sonata spinning wheel.

Yeah, you read that right. I had to go home sooner than expected (visa issues, again) and as a reward I got my spinning wheel early.

Sorry for just one bad picture from the whole receiving-opening-assembling exciting initial stage, but it turned out I had to charge my camera battery, and I wasn't about to wait to open it! This picture is from the moment the battery finished charging, by which time I'd been spinning all afternoon and the light was gone....

First yarn!

Beauty shots.

First yarn (undyed wool) on the left, kool-aid dyed silk hankies on the right, to be plied together for socks.

Dyed corriedale, and the first official bobbin of for-real-intended-to-be-good-yarn fiber (the previous bobbins being from more or less scrap fiber, but surprisingly very nice after the first few yards).

All this - wheel and fiber (and you ain't seen the half of the fiber yet) is from Beth's awesome year-round-fiber-festival shop (which has a spiffy new web site and is now open for online orders!). I had to call Beth about setting up the Scotch tension, but otherwise the whole assembly and getting started business was completely easy and effortless, thanks in large part to the early spinning training I got from Beth and Erika when I was in Michigan last summer, and my subsequent obsessive research on the internet since then.

Did you know that Beth is my new Favorite Person in the World?

So now it's official: I'm A Spinner.

The only thing missing for the wheel is a name....

...thoughts?

FO: Boring Vest

2008-04-18T02:34:00.003-04:00

Alright, just because Beth insisted, here I am posting.

At least I have something to show for myself!

A vest!

Sorry the picture sucks - it's 6 degrees celsius and drizzling outside (snow yesterday!) and I had to take it quickly while Hubbus was on his way out the door this morning.

The vest is made out of the same 50% wool / 50% alpaca "Alpafina" yarn I used for the body of the Fair Isle 101, which I had loads of leftover of. Now I have about 20 yards left, at most. Score! (Yes, those last few inches of knitting were nerve-wracking.) Those of you keeping score will note that Hubbus has gotten more than his allotted one sweater per year this year. I think it was the idea of not having to bother with sleeves that got me. I don't wear vests myself, so I'd never thought to make one, but when he mentioned (100 or so times) that he'd really really like a hand-knitted vest, it finally sunk in that this would mean I wouldn't have to make sleeves. Awesome. So I did it. It went remarkably fast, though on US#2 needles - I did almost all of it either while walking by the river last weekend during a warm spell, or while reading a certain now-infamous thread in the Ravelry forums about the MCY scandal (I hope none of you have bought anything from Mystical Creations Yarns in the last year or so? If you have, you might want to read that).

I had browsed Ravelry for a pattern, and didn't come across anything with the very simple shape that Hubbus requested, so I ended up winging it (only to find, literally while the vest was busy blocking, this pattern which is almost exactly what I ended up doing). I made EZ phoney seams for the first time ever, and quite like them. There was miraculously little problem with the knitting - I didn't have to frog a thing!

And since then I've already finished the first sleeve for a cabled cardigan for myself out of the brown Russian wool that I got as a gift from my in-laws when I first arrived. I'm making this one up, too, since even if I could find a satisfactory pattern online, it'd be a pain in the butt to print it, and I was too lazy. It's fun making up the cable patterns - let's hope it doesn't end up being hideous....

FO: Fair Isle 101

2008-04-04T05:23:00.003-04:00

I finished it!

Actually, I finished it three full weeks ago, and have been dying to try it on and show it off but couldn't until now. What's my excuse this time, you ask? Actually, for once I have a good one: I got a hideous case of food poisoning AND strep throat at the same time and was completely out of commission until a few days ago, and even now I'm still not eating regular food (chicken broth, baby!).

The good news is I lost about 15 pounds and by the time I could finally try the sweater on, the weather had gotten nice enough to actually take pictures of it outside!

Look - spring!

The down side of the illness - aside from the pain, wretchedness, immobility, nasty medicines and boredom of course - was that I almost completely missed my absolute FAVORITE time of year to be eating in Russia. My illness almost exactly coincided with Velikii post, or the Great Fast on the Orthodox calendar. The stores fill with delicious vegetarian foods - after a winter of kolbasa, potatoes and carrots, I live for Velikii post. There are beet pancakes. Stuffed peppers. Lentil cutlets wrapped in eggplant. It's heaven on earth...and this year I missed it. Well, okay, I've been sneaking bites of all these things in the last day or two, along with the chicken broth, and not paying too heavy a price. But...how completely unfair! I could have been stuffing myself with vegetarian deliciousness for almost a month! My birthday also happened in the middle of all this, and on the first genuinely warm day of the year, and I couldn't even get myself out of bed, much less outside. Very sad. However, don't feel too sorry for me - I figure, karma-wise, I was in for a period of bad luck after the absolutely phenomenal luck I had in every way this fall on the job market - in the balance of things I still come out way lucky, so oh well.

Anyway, until a few days ago I was even too sick to knit (gasp), but I had literally just blocked the Fair Isle 101 sweater as the fever and..um...other symptoms first hit me three weeks ago. Here's the Ravelry link for the project. I modified it to such a degree that really only the colorwork chart and the general inspiration are really from the IK pattern. The rest is an Elizabeth Zimmermann EPS raglan in a completely different gauge (fingering weight yarn), with my own personalized measurements for the sleeves (the EPS numbers always seem a little big to me) and short-row bust shaping and waist shaping (above and below the colorwork, so it didn't interfere with the chart). The Alpafina 50/50 wool/alpaca yarn actually ended up blending very nicely with the leftover KnitPicks Palette sampler yarn I used for the colorwork. The sweater is light and thin but very warm. My only dissatisfaction is that the rounded-squarish neckline was supposed to be much lower - that was part of what I liked about the design - but I was so neurotic about where it should go that I overcompensated and it ended up too high. Since I was being equally neurotic about where the bust shaping should land and actually got that part exactly right, overall I'm happy - it could have been worse! And it still sits nicely over a button-down collared shirt, as I intended.

More pictures:

Meanwhile, in the last few days since I've been feeling better, I figured out that I could spin from a near prone position with a supported spindle. Good to know.

I finished the last of the Navajo plying with the mystery fiber I was experimenting on. You saw this before, but now there's more of it!

I've also finished spinning, but not quite finished plying, some of the grab-bag wool I got at the Allegan fiber festival, which is destined to go into the handspun socks I'm working on for Hubbus

I also started another pair of plain vanilla Hubbus socks, out of fitful boredom, using in-house cashmere from School Products, which there isn't much of, so these will be bedsocks.

In a separate and only slightly less random fit, I also started a pair of migraine socks for myself.

What the heck are migraine socks, you ask? It's something I've been thinking about for a long time - I think I bought the yarn at least a couple of years ago. When I have a migraine coming on, my fingers and especially my toes get icy cold - it's some kind of circulation thing. When it's warm out, though, it's uncomfortable to wear heavy wool socks when it's just my toes that are icy and the rest of me is hot. So I've fantasized for a long time about socks that have very warm toes and very breezy everything else. The sample pack from Lanaknits Designs inspired the rest of the plan - I have a mini-skein of wool/hemp yarn (warm wool, hemp helps keep the warmth in) and a mini-skein of 100% hemp (wicks away moisture and heat). The wool blend is for the toes (I may do a double layer; haven't decided yet) and the pure hemp is for the rest in a very open YO, k2tog pattern (except for the heel which will be short row stockinette). I love hemp.

Finally - a news bulletin: I have trained my mother to buy me fiber! This is truly extraordinary, because she knows nothing about knitting, spinning or fiber, doesn't really want to know, and has hitherto expressed only fear and uncertainty when I mention that yarn is really all I want, because she things she doesn't know what to buy. I'm not really ungrateful that this was the case for so long, since she's a genius at buying me really nice clothes and I'd be walking around looking like a bum if it weren't for her. However. Look what she sent me for christmas (yeah, it just got here now):

You're looking at some yummalicious pure alpaca right there. Even mom admitted it was pretty enough to eat. She got it through a work friend who knew somebody who he'd heard had some alpacas. Neither mom nor her friend had any clue what they were buying, but they sure did alright, didn't they!

Addendum

2008-03-04T08:52:00.005-05:00

Sorry to continue with yet more politics, and yet more apologizing for politics, but I want to put here my answer to a very good question that Beth posed in the comments on the last post. You are forewarned to skip along (again) if the whole reason you're reading knitting blogs is to avoid politics. (It's getting harder every day, isn't it? Sorry!)

Although - quick! - before you leave, I want to announce that I just got to the raglan decreases on my fair isle 101 sweater! yay! It's finally going fast. Okay - you can go now.

Before getting to Beth's question, here's a bit of funny - remember I mentioned the lunatic-zombie-undead candidate in the Russian elections, Zhirinovsky? For those who don't know what he's like, this is him:

Okay, so, in the comments on the last post, Beth asked this:

I talked to my sister about my waffling and she said she was kind of getting used to the idea of Obama being president until she saw him in Somali dress. She is quite angry about it. She was in the military and a photographer at the time of the huge war. She went in and had to photograph the dead Red Cross Workers who the Somalis killed. She told me that blew it for him. If he would have chosen any other tribe or African ethnic dress she wouldn't have been so offended...but she is so mad she was yelling at me.
Any comments?
You know I just want more links, right?

Excellent question. Far better than the simple-minded "but he looks like a muslim! maybe it's a secret conspiracy!" crap that the media is running with like a bunch of hamsters. But I have to say that I know almost nothing about Kenyan/African politics. I do know that Obama's father was Kenyan, and he has family there today, and since I trust him, I also trust him to know more about the realities there than I do, but that's not really a good enough answer for anyone who doesn't already have reasons to trust Obama, obviously. So I'll do the best I can to explain his reasoning about other cases that resemble the Somali issue (which is what makes me trust his judgment), and hope that it's useful. I emailed this to Beth, then realized that it might be useful to others, so here it is.

He talks to bad guys. He believes in talking to bad guys. He does it for a purpose, and it's not to show support in any way for guys who do bad things. It's because he believes that, in some cases, talking and making small gestures toward the bad guys can be just what's needed to put us in the position we need to be where we can STOP them. If you just say, "you're evil (or the "Axis of Evil") and I won't have anything to do with you," your opponent then has no reason to do anything at all other than to say, effectively "f--- you back" - you have just removed any incentive they had to even pretend to play nice. We go from dealing with someone who may be basically evil, but who is trying to be taken seriously, to dealing with someone who has nothing left to lose. See what I mean? If, on the other hand, you make a very small gesture of actually talking to, and getting to know, "the enemy" - even trying on their outfits for example - you put that enemy in the position of owing you something. Of owing you respect, and favors in return. Of simply having to listen to what you have to say. And it's all done on a public platform, with public accountability. Sure, they may renege on the deal, but if so you're in no worse a position than you were before, except that you also understand them better, and knowledge is power. The other strategy (which is Bush's, and McCain's), leaves you *certainly* in a worse strategic position than you were before, and without any more knowledge than you had going in. Logically speaking, it's a no-brainer.

Also, there's nothing inherently evil about Somali dress. Or even Somalis as a people, though many of them have done irredeemably evil things. To me, it's like the Serbs, about whom I know a lot more. As far as I'm concerned, there were a lot of Serbs who essentially acted like Nazis, and I have zero, I mean zero, sympathy for the evil bastards. My blood pressure goes up just hearing the word "Serb." But I know there's more to is, because of my field of study and having a lot of friends who work specifically in former Yugoslavia, I know some context about that situation that tells me the Serbs are, despite my feelings, worth talking to. First, Milosovic was, personally, the puppet-master behind most of the evil. I think pretty much anyone is capable of evil acts if they are truly desperate enough, if they have absolutely nothing to lose, and if someone is evil enough to whip them into a fury with lies and misdirection. Declaring all those "little" people who carried out the deeds evil - while true - doesn't change the situation (and doesn't change the fact that not all Serbs, by any stretch of the imagination, did these things, to the degree that calling the perpetrators "Serbs" just isn't right). What *does* change the situation is removing the evil leader with his lies and misdirection *and* altering conditions on the ground so that the regular people carrying out this evil do have other choices, and do have something to lose (for example, the new boundaries being drawn now are really not fair to Serbs, and not helping the situation), and so that regular people who have *not* become part of the evil don't get forced into a corner where joining in or supporting the evil is the only option they have left, because they're being treated as though they already have joined in. That's Obama's strategy for these kinds of situations in a nutshell, as I understand it. But the other part of it is that, if we're going to make Serbs (or Somalis) stop doing evil things, we have to stop saying "you're evil people - so evil I won't wear your traditional dress." We have to make intelligent distinctions between superficialities associated with evil, and actual evil. The act of killing, of raping, is evil. Clothing and non-violent, peaceful tribal traditions are not. If you lump it all together and say it's all evil, you give those people no choices, no alternatives, and nothing to lose (and every emotional reason to hit back at you, since you've just dismissed a people and their entire history wholesale based on the discrete actions of some of them). If you say, "you are a good people, with good traditions, but some of you have nonetheless chosen to do something evil, here in this time and place, and that choice is unacceptable" then you give them space in which to back up, and change. And you give the people within that population who are not supporting the worst acts an incentive and the political opportunity to take the lead.

A lot of Obama's thinking on this is in common with that of Sergio Vieira de Mello, a man with an incredible track record, through the UN, of actually making a positive difference in places where no one else could. Samantha Power, one of Obama's foreign policy advisors, wrote a biography of him (he was killed in Iraq). I put these links in a previous post, too, but there's an article about her and her book here. And extended interviews where she explains exactly the policy thinking I summarized above, here.

I can explain the thinking another way, in domestic policy terms. Obama was in the Illinois legislature when that whole death penalty debacle happened. You probably remember, when DNA tests showed that 13 people on death row were innocent, and the governor put a moratorium on executions. What to do? The stalemate between equally uncompromising pro- and anti-death penalty people has been going on forever without changing a thing. The Chicago police absolutely refused to admit to any fault in their methods, and were adamant that anything that hindered their ability to do their jobs meant making people less safe. We want to be safe, and we certainly are dependent on the police. But none of us wants to see innocent people put to death by mistake, obviously. What Obama did was (a) recognize that the police had a point - that both sides had a point, and (b) talk to the cops. He literally went and smoked cigars and played poker with the cops (similar, in my mind, to trying on the Somali outfit), and listened, really listened, to their concerns. And, eventually, he explained to them his concerns. And he changed their minds. By acknowledging that they had a real need (to have their work respected and not essentially hindered), and by not treating them like monsters (even though I'm pretty sure a few of them probably did some monstrous things if that many innocent people did end up on death row), he was able to give them space in which they could honorably and confidently make the rational choice. He introduced a bill to have all interrogations in capital cases videotaped, and it passed UNANIMOUSLY.

His policy towards the situation in Kosovo is similar -- he knows damn well what the Serbians have done. But he also knows that life has become so desperate in many parts of former Yugoslavia that it's pretty much dog-eat-dog, and standing up and saying "you're a bunch of dogs! I won't talk to you anymore" isn't going to help. Instead, he's advocating doing what we can to improve conditions for everybody (offering a better alternative than violence), while insisting on independence for Kosovo* and international inspections (to minimize the practical opportunities for violence). He's giving the evildoers space in which to act differently, instead of just calling them evil, slapping them, and hoping they'll change, or go away.

To be honest, I get incredibly frustrated with the superficiality of judging someone's policy based on something like what they're wearing (whether a tribal outfit, or a lapel pin). You have to judge the reasoning of real actions, and policy, and to do that, you have to acquire some knowledge of the context. And you have to make meaningful distinctions instead of generalizations, qualifications instead of leaping to conclusions. For example: yes, patriotism is good, and presidential candidates should both feel it and exhibit those feelings openly. BUT - is a lapel pin the best or only way of exhibiting those feelings? How about actually living, moment to moment and word for word, the values of our Constitution? How about hammering out legislation and getting support for legislation that makes life better and safer for Americans instead of lining one's own pockets? Yes, you can do all that and wear a lapel pin too. But what if you see people wearing lapel pins yet denigrating our Constitution and lining their pockets at the expense of the safety of Americans? Isn't, in that case, the most patriotic thing to do to make a statement to the effect that patriotism should run a lot deeper than a lapel pin? Sometimes choosing not to wear a lapel pin can be a *statement of patriotism* (also a matter of practicality - do we honestly expect people to walk around with a flag, a yellow ribbon, a red ribbon, and a pink ribbon, all at the same time? If someone doesn't walk around with all of that, do we assume they're not only unpatriotic, but also troop-hating, pro-HIV, and pro-breast cancer??)

Of course, all of us regular people have real jobs and real lives and we don't normally have time to investigate every one of these issues. That's why there's this profession called journalism - those people are paid to do this for us, so we can be reliably informed by taking only an hour or two of our day to catch up on news. But they're not doing it. They're transcribing whatever they've been told without questioning it, they're reporting what sells instead of what's important, they're deliberately simplifying difficult issues so that we think we're getting more than we're really getting. It's unconscionable. But until it changes, my only strategy is to avoid the mainstream media outlets and get as much information from people who cite their sources and explain their reasoning at length as we possibly can. That's what I do, but I'm lucky that I have the time for it right now.

*Personally, I have very mixed feelings about independence for Kosovo. I think Kosovo needs international recognition and support, but I don't think constantly re-drawing borders helps. It's BS. It's always been BS. Eastern European history is a nightmare because of this idea that re-drawing borders can somehow resolve substantive conflict. But, right now, there doesn't seem to be another political option. I'm hopeful that Obama in the White House might have the power to explore other, more productive strategies, but it's all unknowable at this point. Except that with any *other* US President, nothing will change in our policy at all.

THIS JUST IN: I don't understand why this is apparently being reported only on Canadian TV, not in the US, and why it all happened right on the eve of the Ohio primary. But watch here to see how the whole Canada-NAFTA thing was manufactured out of thin air to make Obama look bad so that Hillary can take Ohio and stay in the race. I'm sure it'll get cleared up - but too late to make a difference in Ohio. As far as who's behind the lovely timing - take your pick. Funny how well Hillary's working with the Republicans lately.

Untangled

2008-03-03T02:46:00.002-05:00

I Navajo-plied on my turnip spindle:

Contrary to expectation, I did not end up forever tangled in hopelessly screwy singles as a result of this experiment. I actually ended up with yarn. Hunh.

And now for some more political linky-linky (which is very different from "hanky-panky" thankyouverymuch):

If anyone was wondering precisely why I stopped reading the serious, topical Ravelry forums (in favor of the non-stop silliness at CPaA and LSG, the spinning groups, and, oh yes, the two groups I mod, all of which I still enjoy immensely): today someone said very effectively what I was too frustrated, hurt, disappointed, and (possibly) polite to say.

Have you met Derrick Ashong yet? I totally have a crush on this guy: watch this, then this, then this.

(News to Bill Maher: it's not that "young people don't vote." As if they're some sort of alternate species that lacks the voting gene. It's that young people haven't been voting. Because there hasn't been a candidate that moved them. Until now. They voted when it was JFK. Many of them (us) voted for Bill, though some of us had to hold our noses a bit because he was just a little too much like our parents, or our parents' friends. And we're voting for Obama because, unlike Bill Maher, either Clinton, and many others of that generation, he's actually living in the present.)

Here's a nice summary of this week's events in Obama world.

Info for those who plan to canvass (if you haven't been canvassed and want to be, just read that).

Because character does matter.

To my great joy, Obama and Neil Gaiman met, figuratively, here. (Wondering what Neil Gaiman thinks about his words being used in a political campaign? He explains here.)

Lisa Ling is cool.

And because we could all use some laughs this season, here's some of the funny I've been collecting:
- Jack
- Chess
- Meep meep
- "He's got Will Smith's ears and a beltway booty" Or is it "boogie"??
- Many thought the best part of this video was the end, but I actually thought it didn't need to go over the top like that.
- Again, a little harsh, but ouch, there's a lot of truth here.
- Did I mention that the candidate himself has a sense of humor? Very refreshing. (I'd love to include his appearance on Conan before he was running, when Conan asked if he used his famous oratory on his kids at home, and Barack immediately deadpanned, with arms raised, "My fellow Obamas!" But sadly the network took the clip off YouTube.)
- Bush weighs in
- Snape, Snape, Sev-er-us Snape. (Wait, that had nothing to do with the elections. Sorry.)

And in other news. Yesterday was the day of the Russian Presidential election. And it turns out Mr. Medvedev won by a landslide of about 70%. I'm shocked - shocked. {Note dripping sarcasm please - you may want to wipe your monitor} With a "record" turnout of over 69%. Zyuganov, the Communist candidate, did rather surprisingly well with almost 18%. That's kind of frightening, but I guess when the "protest vote" options are limited to one...all the protest vote goes to him. Although there was one other guy on the ballot, of course, ~~the undying lunatic zombie candidate~~ Zhirinovsky, who got the same 10% he always gets in every election. Nice to know exactly how many certifiable crazies there are in the country, you know?

There had been two reasonably rational, democratic candidates, but they both ended up off the ballot for reasons best left to one's imagination. They wouldn't have gotten many votes anyway, possibly even if the election had really been done properly, and possibly even if the media weren't controlled by the kremlin (which we are precisely 4km away from, I recently learned).

I read a poll that said most Russians assume democratic candidates are pro-Western/Westernized. This is not good for a candidate in Russia. Many Americans don't realize this, but Russian "man on the street" attitudes toward America pretty much did a 180 in the course of the 1990s (from almost delirious pro-America love right after regime collapse in 1991 to...well...no need to spell it out). There are two main reasons for this, which are connected enough to be maybe one reason.

The first half of the reason: Harvard economists. A bunch of them came here in the early 90s to create a market democracy, according to their own pet theories. The result: utter failure, chaos, severe hardship for regular people, out-of-control corruption, and a slide into increasingly "authoritarian" politics. Not that this was all the fault of the Harvard guys - a lot of it probably would have happened anyway, and they couldn't foresee everything. Actually, that last part was maybe their only real mistake - they thought they could foresee everything, and they couldn't.

The other half of the reason is that the pro-Western, pro-democratic guys in power at the time (Yeltsin and his crew) invited these Harvard guys in, and helped to make all these mistakes (it should be noted that a lot of this crowd of Russian politicians had actually been educated in the West).

I think it's all summed up by "Bush legs." In 1990 and 1991, the Moscow and Petersburg markets were flooded with Tyson chicken. Bush^1 did this - it was part of our oh-so-generous charity package to poor little Russia. Tyson got rid of surplus, and got huge tax breaks, and the Russian markets got chicken. A good thing, right? Not so much.

First, the chicken never made it out of Moscow and Petersburg (this was presumably the fault of Russian corruption and/or distribution problems), and it wasn't needed there, ever. Second, the chicken was mostly old and nasty. I saw it, still in the markets, in 1998, by which point it had become a very old joke - always referred to as "Bush legs" because it was usually packages of chicken legs only. There'd be a nice, fat, perfectly acceptable local chicken sitting there at the deli counter, and next to it a forlorn package of Tyson chicken, already aged when it arrived, and priced considerably higher than the local one.

This is what most Russians I know think of when they hear about "Western aid." Not that that's all the aid amounted to, and not that the corruption of Russian officials wasn't really the worst obstacle in getting basic needs met for most people in the 1990s, but nevertheless, many people here think of "Western aid" as "Bush legs."

If democratic candidates ever hope to make their way into parliament, never mind the presidency, here, they'll have to do it by distancing themselves from the West, while also - of course - not completely alienating the West, since that of course could have some unpleasant consequences of a different kind. So, if you were wondering why Putin won in a landslide...it's true the elections weren't fair, it's true that the media is state-controlled...but it's also probably true that Putin's guy would have won in a landslide anyway.

It's depressing enough to make you go back to the American elections with relief, isn't it? At least we've got Beltway booty.

Beats Dobby the House-elf any day.

Bah!

2008-02-26T03:27:00.007-05:00

Politics again. I can't help myself. Skip it if that's how you roll.

I haven't been in the mood to say much lately. (I know - shocker!) I've been getting a lot of work done at the historical library (yay!) and some spinning (yay!) and also spending way too much time following election coverage and figuring out ways I can support the Obama campaign from afar (can't wait to get back home and get involved up-close and personal, but that's still a little ways off). I've also just been on such an emotional rollercoaster.

On the one hand, I think I'm seeing one of the most wonderful things ever to happen to American politics in Barack Obama's slow, careful, steady, brilliant climb to the nomination and then the Presidency. It's happening. It's not only exactly what we need, but the only thing, I think, that can save us. Not because of who we're going to elect (though that's im por ta nt), but because of how we're electing him. People are getting excited about politics, about progressive change, about literally, personally, doing something to help. People are getting involved. For the first time ever, in many cases (like mine - though I toyed with democratic politics in my teens and 20s, it was a cyclical exercise in disappointment and disillusion until I finally gave up on it when I went to grad school). What's so special about the Obama campaign is that he's winning not because he's the least of any evils, but because he actually represents exactly what so many of us want, and it's us, the supporters, who are making it happen. Obama doesn't take money from lobbyists or PACs - his money, which is a lot, has come in very small increments from almost 1 million people. It's unprecedented, and many are saying that this alone will change the way future campaigns are run.

How many of us said, as recently as a few months ago, that political campaigns suck but how can it ever be changed?

Then there's the other hand. Two people whom I have deeply admired, with reservations but sincerely, throughout my adult life, two people who have done an enormous amount of good in the world in their careers (along with some very questionable stuff, too, but undoubtedly there's a lot of good there)...these two people have horrified me over and over and over in the weeks since it began in South Carolina. And the worst part is that it's all utterly pointless, and they're plenty smart enough to have seen that. But they're doing it anyway. They achieve nothing, and the price we all pay for their blundering is a more difficult battle in November, and the loss from the future political landscape of two figures who could have continued to do so much more good, and to be a part of real, positive, grassroots, popular change for the better. But who have, instead, chosen to commit unnecessary political suicide while taking down as many innocent bystanders as possible on their way to an ugly flame-out.

But the worst part, really, is this.

This is the one factor that makes it unforgivable. This is the part that has been burning me up inside for weeks, that made me pretty much stop hanging out in the Ravelry forums (still love the Rav! just needing a break from some of the forums.) There are no excuses, and there is nothing left to be said (except maybe this), as far as I'm concerned.

While watching all this from afar, there's been one particular issue that I've followed with obsessive closeness. Since it's one that's not considered particularly big by other Americans, and which I have some (limited) expertise on, I also wanted to mention it here. It's about how Kosovo declared independence recently, how the US and most other major countries recognized their independence, while Russia and China were pissed off. Why should this matter? Well, for several reasons. First and arguably most important is that Russia and China should matter to us in general. Both countries have the potential to be very, very threatening to US security interests in the not terribly distant future. We ought to learn from past mistakes and pay attention before it's too late. Part of doing that is to notice when and how we piss off these people, and above all, why. Not because we need to pander our foreign policy to their wants, but because we live in a world with others, and a smart way to handle that is to find ways we can all live here without anybody getting so pissed off or desperate that they start blowing up other people. Another reason we should care about this latest kerfluffle is that the issue of independence in Kosovo intersects with just about every issue that makes the world scary right now: terrorism, ethnic/religious conflict, stability in developing countries, and separatism. Accurately understanding and responding to what is happening in Kosovo is a microcosm for what has to be done world-wide in the coming years. Finally, the Kosovo issue, because of its importance as a touchstone for the greatest security concerns of the coming decade, is one more way to help us decide whom we want to put in the White House. (One might also add that there's an argument for why foreign policy is a better means of comparing Presidential candidates than domestic policy anyway.) Here's an analysis of the statements made by Obama and Clinton in response to Kosovo. I don't claim to be an expert on Kosovo or on current US-Russian relations, but I do pay a lot of attention and, obviously, I'm accredited to teach, at the college level, the history of US-Russian relations (among other things). The analysis I just linked to NAILS IT. I link because I could not possibly say it better myself. I've been enthusiastic about Obama since '04 for many reasons, but even I was blown away by the brains and poise and diplomacy with which Obama and his advisors are thinking about Kosovo, and Russia. Blown AWAY. What Clinton said was not terrible[footnote] - it was merely utterly unsurprising and typical of how every American President has looked at Russia - there's been very little partisan difference in US foreign policy overall, really, and certainly not as relates to Russia. I never expected to see any, but I did hope that Obama would at least be seen and talked to differently by others - by foreign statesmen - because of his uniquely un-cowboy-like and un-insular background. Now I'm seeing so very much more than that.

Where does this amazing vision come from, btw? One of the things I like about Obama is that he recognizes talent when he sees it, and knows how to inspire that talent to want to work with him. One of the people on his foreign policy team is this really brilliant and knowledgeable woman. You can get to know her better through her extensive interviews on Charlie Rose.

(BTW, I recognize that at this point in the proceedings we should really be comparing Obama to McCain, not to Clinton. All I have to say there, relating to Kosovo, is that here's what McCain's party has managed so far, and McCain himself is so irredeemably and irrationally hawkish in all matters - and he seems to think there really isn't any difference from one international issue to another - that the prospect of his Presidency literally makes me want to build an underground bomb shelter. Literally.)

[Footnote: What Hillary Clinton said about Russia that is "terrible" is this. Putin's response is here. I am not remotely a fan of Putin - in fact, that's kind of my point here - but he is right in that a President sure as heck ought to be smarter than that. Honestly, that comment was so out-of-whack, uncharacteristically stupid, and pointless that I get this weird, creepy feeling that Karl Rove figured out how to possess Hillary Clinton's mind and body with George W. Bush's soul (to speak of souls). There's really no other way to explain it. In fact, that theory would explain quite a lot of things lately. UPDATE: another "terrible" note and still more evidence that Hillary Clinton has been possessed by the soul of George W. Bush: watch this clip from the most recent debate, in which Clinton utterly fails to remember the name of Russia's next President (Medvedev) and seems to be confusing him with Lebedev. And she's supposed to be the hard-working, wonky one who knows every detail? WTF? It was embarrassing in 2004 when John Kerry called Lubyanka Square in Moscow (headquarters of the KGB and site of a prison where many political prisoners were tortured in the 1930s, especially) with "Treblinka Square" (there is no such thing, but Treblinka was a WWII concentration camp). But that's nothing compared to this flub. Hillary expects to be President in 2008 and doesn't know the NAME of the Russian President she'd have to deal with? Honestly, this is a W moment, and I couldn't believe my eyes. Yes, it's true, Putin will continue to pull the strings, but Medvedev is no stooge (he's intelligent, competent, and entirely capable of going on his own if he decided to - Putin seems to have chosen him because he trusts him to be loyal, not because he's an idiot who wouldn't know how to be otherwise), and the fact that Clinton doesn't remotely have a clue even what his name is and clearly hasn't bothered to learn anything else is deeply disturbing. If we can all use Wikipedia, why can't she? Finally, because I can't resist, this made me laugh out loud. Put it all together and: what a bloody embarrassing way to destroy a legacy.]

Now, so that the post is not all politics, I'm officially going to try inserting a video for the very first time. This was taken this morning, when the snow was blowing so hard that we not only couldn't see the University building, but hardly anything else, either.

Here's hoping you're all warm and snuggly and surrounded by wool (unless you're allergic, in which case I hear bamboo, silk, tencel, hemp, and cotton are also nice).

EDITED: one last time (sorry) to add two important links: this blog post about the grassroots aspect of Obama's campaign and how he's offering real tools for collective action, not just rhetoric (though let's all remember that rhetoric is vastly important in politics and that there's no universe in which Hillary Clinton could have done any better than Gore or Kerry before her (and probably worse, since half the country violently hated her even before this campaign) because she just doesn't have the charisma and rhetoric that moves people to vote), that post references this very important article about the nature of Obama's fundraising. Also, to those of you who liked my links - yay! It makes my swollen bookmarks folder worthwhile. If you want more, there's always the "shared items" in the Google Reader box in my sidebar. I read a lot of Obama and Leftist blogs every morning, and share the best posts there. Also, there's a link in the sidebar to my del.icio.us bookmarks - click on "politics" there and you'll get more than you bargained for. With a slant, of course! I'm going to try to go back to just knitting and spinning in future posts here, really!

Fair Isle and Food

2008-02-18T04:27:00.004-05:00

I've been knitting and knitting and finally I have something other than a black blob to show you:

It's my modified Fair Isle 101 pullover and it's actually pretty far along - the sleeves are already done. I did most of the colorwork part yesterday, during what ~~Hubbster~~ Hubbus and I declared our "khoziaistvennyi den'" or designated day for not leaving the house, instead doing things like laundry, cleaning the stove, and resting. This was partly because it was -22C with windchill yesterday. Brrr. Saturday we'd been out in the burbs with Hubbus' family and while it was a really nice time, I think we're still not quite warmed up from that long wait for the bus in the freezing wind. So, between laundry loads, I knitted fair isle and listened to history podcasts. Very satisfying.

Also satisfying has been my recent trips to the historical library. It's so much more pleasant a place to work than the archives, let me tell you. I positively like the babushki who work there - it's a miracle. Oh, and I've been finding really good material, too. I'm starting to hit that phase where I'm no longer obsessing about procedures and whether anything they're offering in the buffet (pronounced "boo-FYET") is edible, and instead panicking about how I'm going to copy everything I need before it's time to leave. Oh, plus I'm supposed to be writing an article and co-organizing a conference and revising the diss and making up syllabi for the fall and...oh, crap.

Before I leave you for today, though, I offer a few more "travel" pictures that I've had saved up here for a while.

One of my professors once said that she "likes everything about Russia except for the government and the food." I actually kind of like the food. The trick with Russian food is to not eat it in restaurants. If you're going out in Russia, you have to have Caucasian or Central Asian food, which is ubiquitous and delightful. But for Russian food, it should be homemade. We just had an awesome feast on my in-laws' yesterday, with golubtsy and fried potatoes and my two favorite salaty (salads) - vinagret and oliv'e (see below). You haven't really tried any of these dishes until you've had them homemade.

Most of what we eat here is really simple, because we're usually too tired to deal with cooking, because the oven has to be lit with a match and it scares us a little, because our budget is very tight this year, and because while you can get just about anything in Moscow, there's not all that much variety in what we can get easily and affordably in our neighborhood. But while I do miss the variety of relatively cheap ethnic restaurants we have in NYC and while I did have a dream about peanut butter one memorable night, for the most part I really like these temporary periods of eating almost exclusively simple Russian food while I'm here for research trips. Here are a few things we've had lately:

This is the vinegret salat I mentioned. Beets. I love beets.

This is Oliv'e, or Olivier. Probably presumed to be based on some French salad, but somehow it doesn't say "French" to me. It's tasty, though, I have to admit. Here's a recipe - it's the third one down. The last recipe on that list is also a favorite of mine.)

One simply doesn't go without one's kolbasa around here. At least, not if one is married to Hubbus, who can't go three hours without some kolbasa. He has to go to the fancy store to get it, too, even though there's perfectly good kolbasa sold everywhere (but then I'm an American cretin who can't tell one kolbasa from another).

Okay, so chocolate cheese spread is not a Russian food, but...who wants to take bets on whether this stuff will turn up in a dream or two when I'm back in NYC, like the peanut butter does now?

You can't get more Russian than bliny with red caviar.

Just as Russian but not as famous: syrniki, made from tvorog (farmer's cheese), with sweetened condensed milk on top. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, breakfast.

This is not Russian at all, but I made it up while here, out of readily available ingredients, and we've been having it at least once a week, so I suppose it counts. It's basically a ham and bean soup. A small chunk of smoked ham which is sold everywhere here ("sheika"), with lentils, frozen green beans and mushrooms, red beans, onions. Mmm. The Russian word for soup is the same as the English, but when you really like your soup, and it's cold outside so you're feeling even more affectionate about it than usual, you call it "supchik." This is supchik.

Speaking of Russian strategies for battling the cold. Food is not the only one. This is a balzamchik of which we have become particularly fond. It's similar to this famous one, but slightly different in spices and a lot cheaper. There are actually many, many different kinds of balzam, all of them delightful and dangerous.

Especially when combined with drop spindling.

And this Wednesday, we're off to the 17th annual All-Russian Honey Fair at an exhibition hall right next to the kremlin. The fair is also held outdoors in the fall, and I've been to that one twice, but we weren't here for it this year, so we're going to this indoor, downtown one instead. The honey fair is one of my favorite things to do in Moscow - you try a little plastic spoonful of each kind of honey until you're sick to your stomach and a little dizzy, and then you lug home enough to last you the next year. Except it never actually lasts more than a few months. Which is my theory as to why there's an annual fair every fall, and then again every winter.

Finally, here's my recommendation for an English-language Russian cookbook. And a Georgian one, too, because...well. Much as I like Russian food...have you tried Georgian??

Today is Super Tuesday

2008-02-05T02:12:00.000-05:00

And I'm so excited I can't sit still.

I can't even knit.

This is all I have to show you, in all the time since I last posted (or the time before that, and before that, when I think I last showed any knitting):

On the left is the soy yarn I found here. 100% soy. It's cute. Thinking I might make socklets. Or something. Don't really know. On the right is the hem of the Fair Isle 101 - I got a replacement needle, then realized I could possibly fix the KnitPicks one. The cord simply pulled out of the tip, and once I got it free of the knitting, I put it back in and it stayed. I have to be veddy careful, though.

Anyway.

As I think this picture suggests, I haven't really been knitting much. I have been doing a *little* work, and lots of errands, but mostly I've been *excited*.

About the most exciting election of my life (and I'm a political junkie who likes to follow these things even when they're depressing), and the first candidate ever who I am completely, unreservedly *behind* in every possible way. The whole thing has this weird *fate* vibe about it, to be honest.

I don't like the idea of trying to tell anyone how to vote. Too much like proselytism to me. But I'm a really, really big fan of voting, in general, and I know that everyone can use a timely reminder and maybe a little information/inspiration. So I hope everyone can take this post in that vein, and if it squicks you out in any way, please just move on - I'll be back to regularly scheduled programming soon.

If you don't know whether you're supposed to be voting today, check here for the list of state with primaries/caucuses. Check your candidate's web site (like this one) for reference details - they are usually very anxious to help. :-) Party organizations and campaigns usually have people on call to offer rides, even, as well as directions and details on what you need to bring with you for ID, etc.

Why vote for Obama? The image above kind of represents everything for me. So does this one:

But you might want some more information, if you're still deciding.

First, yes, I'm a feminist, and yes, I was thrilled to see a woman - any woman - win New Hampshire for the first time. But I'm also in favor of human rights, in general, and I'm every bit as thrilled to see a black man about to win the Democratic nomination. But more than anything else, I believe in voting for the right human for the job, and that their genitals and skin color are irrelevant. I also believe that a responsible vote is not for the candidate who most resembles me, but for the candidate who I believe can best represent and serve everyone.

It's not a matter of who they are, it's how they see others.

But I understand that many of my fellow feminists have waited all their lives for a woman Presidential candidate, and they're having trouble voting for anyone other than Hillary. I understand, and I've been a strong Hillary supporter since 1992. Personally, though, I think that - for reasons beyond Senator Clinton's control - her candidacy would actually set back that cause by many years (sad, but true). I think a successful Obama Presidency is actually the best possible recipe for opening up the field for future diversity in candidates. I've been convinced for a decade that the first woman President would come in my lifetime, and that she would be from a generation following the boomers. I still think that's true.

Still hesitating? This Ravelry post by the Kitchener Bitch does an excellent job of summarizing a whole lot more reasons, more concrete ones, with good links, too.

If you'd like still more information, there are two threads in Ravelry that discuss at length the differences between Hillary and Barack. This one, in the "Stitching Liberally" group, and this one in the "Knitters for Obama" group. There's also the introduction thread in the Obama group, where I and others explained at length why we're supporting him.

Worried about disturbing rumors you've heard about the candidates? Check out the facts at Snopes.com or FactCheck.org. Both are independent organizations. (Hint: don't believe everything that arrives in your inbox =] )

I've come across some other Obama-supporting posts in the knitblogosphere that I'd also like to recommend. Here's Go Knit in Your Hat and Welcome to My Closet, Here's a Black Dress. (Both blogs well worth checking out for the knitting content, btw, if you don't already subscribe.)

And, of course, there's the Raffle (prize list and details on Ravelry, here). I've donated money to the Obama campaign, which marks the very first time ever that I've given money to any political entity. I wasn't able to give much - we're driving on fumes until my new job starts in the fall - but every bit helps. Unlike Hillary, Obama didn't take any money from lobbyists. Unlike {cough} others, he's not a personal billionaire. Obama's campaign has been financed by people like me and you (okay, and a few movie stars! =] ). It's a real, old-fashioned grass-roots campaign, and it's *working*.

I know that for many Americans of my generation, it sort of feels like nothing really ever changes, except for the worse. That has been our experience. But I'm also a historian - my profession is the study of change over time. And it's always interested me to pay attention to how *good* change comes about. I think there are two ways. The first happens gradually - the slow change of attitudes and mentalities - and the mechanism for that is the dissemination of information and experience. Education. The second kind of change for good can happen overnight, or at any rate quickly. What brings that kind of change? It's a tricky combination of leadership - which can come in different forms - and *collective action*. Collective action with no driving force tends to disintegrate. Leadership without the tiny contributions of many, many people who make the effort can't accomplish a thing. It's the combination of the two that can accomplish just about anything.

It's the combination of the two that brought us all the rights and privileges that we mostly take for granted today: democracy, political independence, civil rights for all adult humans, the social safety net that (increasingly less frequently) allows old folks to die with dignity and cancer victims to not go bankrupt and laid-off workers to survive through the few months it takes to get a new job.

We have more resources than any other country on earth, which should make it easy to do these kinds of (much cheaper) things for our collective good without even hurting our pocket books. If we can afford Iraq, we can afford *productive* campaigns to actually help our own people instead of obliterating other people.

We have some problems facing us right now that require major, progressive change. And the sooner the better. The environment. Our dependence on oil which is crippling us politically, economically, and environmentally. A healthcare system that profits insurance company executives and screws over *everybody else* - all non-executive employees, medical professionals at all levels, and above all, every one of us who could, at any moment, need medical care that the insurance company might lose money on. And let's not forget our tanking economy, the middle class that is slipping rapidly into financial no-man's land, the thousands dying in Iraq for no reason whatsoever and the thousands of future terrorists being generated in the Middle East every day by this irrational, destructive and pointless war.

I think it's safe to say that there is more at stake in this election than there has been in any other except Lincoln's, in the middle of civil war, and FDR's, in the midst of Depression. Both of those times, Americans chose the person who we now know to have been uniquely capable of bringing us out of crisis. Big parts of the reason we are so often arrogant in our patriotism, now (or were, until the current administration) is because of the great, difficult choices made by these two Presidents. In both of those elections, the choice was incredibly difficult to make and both candidates were very unpopular with the political establishments of the time.

I would also add that both Lincoln and FDR had less experience in public service than Barack Obama has now, and when they took office, Lincoln was 51, FDR was 50, and Obama will be 49 (Bill Clinton was 46 when he took office, and Teddy Roosevelt was 42).

Barack is ready. And we need him.

Back to knitting, next time. Promise.

Edited to add: Here are a couple of fine assessments of where Obama is right now in the race and what we should expect from the results today.

Edited to add (2): Okay, if you watch nothing else, watch this video by Lawrence Lessig.

A Raffle and Some Hose

2008-01-30T04:56:00.000-05:00

You guys are awesome! Huge, public thanks to those who volunteered to read The Brick! I hope it isn't too painful.

In other news, I wanted to tell you about a couple of cool things.

~~Warning: slight political content ahead: ignore at will~~

You may have noticed that I'm an Obama supporter. The man rocks my world, and I'm very enthusiastic. I've posted all about it all over Ravelry, so if you want to know why you can find out there (here's a starting point), but my point here is just to let any interested parties know that a group of Ravelry Obama supporters are behind a raffle to raise funds for the Obama campaign. The big prize is a hand-knitted Obama afghan, and there are lots of other yarny prizes. Every $5 you donate gets you one raffle ticket. You can donate here, and find out more details about the raffle and the prizes here on Ravelry. After you donate, you should send a confirmation email to obamaknitters [AT] gmail [DOT] com, saying how much you donated, and if you want specifying which prize you want to be in the drawing for (list here). Any unspecified tickets are in the drawing for the afghan.

You don't have to be on Ravelry to donate or win a prize; but for the detailed inside dope on prizes, that's the place to go. The Raffle itself will take place on April 1. Tell your non-knitting friends. As long as they donate on that site, they'll get a raffle ticket for the afghan for every $5 donated.

In other news, I found yarn here. Soy yarn. Not pricey at all. Int-er-est-ing. Will tell you more soon, when I have pictures.

Also, if you're like me, when you see the obligatory picture of woven, seamed hose in books on historical knitting, you think "gak! thank god for knitted socks!" and wonder how anyone could ever have wanted woven hose. And then maybe you read that woven hose continued to be worn for a long time after knitting developed, and wonder...why? Erika over at Historic Stitcher has posted a magnificent exploration of this issue! Go check it out.

That is all. More later!

Dissertation is out there!

2008-01-28T04:42:00.000-05:00

No knitting content today. :-( Because I haven't been knitting - my US#3 KP needle broke in the middle of knitting the hem for my FairIsle 101 sweater. Argh!

I was tickled today to find that my dissertation, which was deposited in September, finally made it up onto the Dissertation Abstracts database at UMI. Then suddenly seized by the realization that it's now totally exposed to the possibility of public ridicule. If, that is, anyone ever even looks at it, which now that I think about it is actually quite unlikely.

Meanwhile, I've been thinking about the fact that a few of you mentioned in comments on earlier posts that you would want to read the diss (or at least the parts about knitting! of which there are very few). Is it okay if I ask to exploit a few of you? The thing is, one of the tasks I'm working on right now is revising the diss for publication as a book. I was very (very) lucky to end up with sources that are remarkably fun. The task for me is to actually convey that fun-ness to a reader (while still doing all those academic-y things I'm also supposed to be doing). Frankly, for the diss, I didn't really have time to think much about readability beyond making sure it made sense in a basic way. I was writing to the committee of professors who were its only readers at that time. Now, I want to revise it for any and all readers.

And I find I have no idea how to do that. I mean, I know what kinds of books I like that I would like it to resemble (here are some), and I can even break down what I like about those other books into some principles. But applying those principles to my particular content is...daunting. I find myself continually wanting to ask a handful of questions of the Reader about what they want.

Would a few of you be willing to be Reader? I want to make *very* clear that this does not mean you have to actually read all of it. Actually, the most important question I want to ask is *where* you stop reading. It would be very helpful, actually, if all you could do was scroll through it and tell me which parts fall under the heading of "okay, gotcha, that's neat" and which fall under, "what are you yammering on about and/or why should I care?"

And I only want volunteers who, if they saw a book like this laying around at Barnes & Noble, would genuinely pick it up and at least look at it, out of interest. My clumsy summary of what it's about is in this old post. If you think you would be interested, email me at aastrikke [AT] gmail [punctuation] com and let me know whether I can email you the whole PDF file of the thing (it's big, 9M - dbl or single-spaced, your choice!). I'd also send you a one-page list of questions, a sort of survey, and even if you could only half fill it out after briefly browsing through the thing, that would be helpful!

The main thing is just to help me look at the whole project from the point of view of a general reader rather than the point of view of my academic advisors. I want to know what the important/interesting bits are to someone who *isn't* a historian of Russia. This will help me not only to revise, but also help me to figure out how to propose it to a publisher. I'm so close to it at this point that I just can't see it clearly anymore at all.

I'll be very grateful!

Valenki (Russian Felt Boots/Slippers)

2008-01-18T05:49:00.000-05:00

There was a really exciting exhibit here that I'm really excited to be able to tell you about. We had actually tried to go to it twice - first, we came down with that ~~cold~~plague, then we did actually go there, walking quite a distance in -18C cold, only to find out that an exhibit that was set up for only 6 weeks had decided to close for more than 2 weeks in the middle of that time. Such is life.

The key point is that we finally made it there again, and they were open this time!

So what the heck am I talking about?

Valenki!

What the heck are valenki?

Traditional Russian felted boots (or slippers). These are truly felt, not fulling - they're not knitted, then shrunk. Raw wool is felted directly onto a foot-shaped mold using soap, water, and apparently a wooden washboard type thingy for agitation. Also (and this was news to me) the word can also be used for the kind of footwear made when wool is pressed into flat felt and then sewn together to form boots or slippers.

The wool in question is *very* rough - much rougher than any of the wool we would use for knitting. It feels like rug wool or perhaps rougher. It's very thick - the finished felt I saw was thicker than a quarter inch, but slightly less than a full centimeter (of course I measured - wouldn't you?).

The exhibit was put on by the "Museum of Russian Valenki" which has a website here (Russian language only, but there's an online gallery here). The exhibit I saw was in a different location than what is apparently their physical museum, and was very low on explanatory information, but at least they were really nice about letting me take pictures! And the one display showing tools was sufficient to confirm what little I did know about methods:

(as always, click for bigger)

There was also not a whole lot of actual old, "traditional" valenki. We were told that very few examples survive thanks to moths, etc. I should point out that Russian curators and archivists, in my experience, have a different idea of what's worth displaying and what isn't. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they had a ton of old valenki that were fascinating for their structure or for the techniques used, which they would never consider displaying either because they have a few moth holes or because they're not particularly heavily decorated. Sigh. Anyway. Here are the only examples of "old" valenki from the exhibit (no dates were offered):

This one appears to have been decorated with red yarn - my guess is that the boot itself was made through felting (not fulling) like the others, then the design was sewn/embroidered on with red yarn, then they were felted a little further. But I'm just guess from looking at it closely.

These are a cool idea!

The rest of the exhibit consisted of perfectly new valenki that were decorated in a variety of ways. I'll be honest - I thought nearly every single pair was hideously ugly. However, the techniques used to make or decorate them are fascinating. Take the basic idea of felting rough raw wool into a foot shape or fabric as common to all, on top of that base nearly every fiber technique I can think of was used in one way or another to elaborate on or decorate that basic idea:

In addition (actually it was probably the point of the exhibit), they had some other valenki available for sale. These were made at factories in other towns, and I absolutely plan on visiting those factory stores at some point (though it probably won't be soon). The ones they had here were very pricey, especially the (much prettier) handmade ones, and we just couldn't afford them right now. Maybe next time. Here are a pair of the very beautiful handmade ones:

We did buy a pair of the cheapest kind, which are machine-made and not as pretty, but the two very thick, hard, solid layers of felt for the soles are impressively sturdy and warm:

I'm obsessed with the search for ever thicker layers of wool to put between the soles of my feet and the cold floors of our apartment. I've been wearing these non-stop since we bought them, and I've very satisfied!

I'm out of gas now (after an afternoon of wrestling with the camera, photos, etc), but just wanted to say - thank you all for your wonderful comments and congratulations! There were various questions which I'm not ignoring (or rather, not planning to ignore forever) - will try to address some of those next time, along with some other fun things I have in mind....Anyway, you guys are the best, thank you!

3 FOs and a JOB!

2008-01-10T03:34:00.001-05:00

How's that for accomplishment? Okay, it helps that I've been waiting huge amounts of time between posts, and yes, of course two of the FOs had been languishers that I just finished up, but...3 FOs and a job! And pictures! (we finally got a few sunny days in a row...we paid the price of -18C temps, but it was worth it)

So - first things first. The sweaters.

No, okay, I'm kidding. As enamored as I am of the sweaters, I want to tell you about the job first!

I got one! That's the most significant, shocking, unbelievably fact at the moment. Now, I know several of you are poised to go comment something really sweet about how I shouldn't be shocked, I worked hard, etc, but the academic job market is really arbitrary and I know many incredibly talented and hard-working people who end up sh@t out of luck year after year, stuck in cycles of incredibly low-paying adjuncting or whatever. I fully expected to put my time in with this, and see whether it would eventually lead to a tenure-track job or to leaving academia after about 5 years or so. But, I've been very, unexpectedly lucky. I'm in a relatively tiny field - though there are many more jobs for Americanists, for example, there's also way more Americanists than there are jobs. Not as many colleges have even one Russianist in their departments, but then again there are only a tiny handful of PhD Programs producing Russianists, and there have been fewer and fewer going through that system since 1992ish. Meanwhile, apparently that magical moment when the professoriate hired in the early 60s retires has finally hit (10-15 years later than expected) and trickled down - there were an unprecedented number of openings in my field this year. Like, several times more than last year, which had been a good year. So I got 5 preliminary interviews, which is awesome, but not completely out of the question since there are probably 25-30 Russianists applying at most (more likely less), as opposed to the 250 who apply for most Europeanist positions.

One of the schools that offered me an interview actually bypasses a large part of the usual process (usual being two levels of interviewing: preliminary conference interviews and intense on-campus visits), and gave me an on-campus interview in mid-December. I just found out that they've offered me a tenure-track job, even before learning whether I even made it as a finalist for the others. Luckily, as it happens, it was a really easy decision to just accept it and be done. This school solves all kinds of practical (geographic) problems for us, since we can stay in NYC where Hubbster is committed for another year, and is a good school that impressed the heck out of me on my visit, with some really lovely people whom I genuinely liked. Again - more tremendous luck.

Oh, but you wanted to hear about the sweaters? Here are the sweaters (all photos, click for slightly bigger):

Hubbster's Dutch Fisherman's Sweater. Here's the Ravelry page on it. (If you're not on Ravelry yet and you care about knitting enough to read this blog at all, you should sign up right now - these days they're moving through the waiting list very quickly and it only takes 1-2 weeks.)

After leaving it untouched through all the crazy traveling and stress of last summer and fall, I finally got back to it in these last couple of weeks while I was suffering from ~~cold/flu~~ plague and had lots of time sitting in a chair because if I had lain down I would have choked to death on my own phlegm.

This is the only outdoor picture, sadly, because it was -18C.

The color - KnitPicks WotA Sapphire Heather - never ceases to fascinate me. Gorgeous. Feels sturdy and durable but soft enough for comfort over just a t-shirt (I did it on US5, so it's fairly dense). Hubbster assures me that the color and feel strike an appropriate balance between attractiveness and manliness (Hubbster would also like to hereby be known as "Hubbus" as he thinks this is more manly sounding than Hubbster but I'm not sure I'll remember).

The knitting of it was easily the smoothest and most trouble-free of my sweater career. I did mis-calculate the frequency of increases on the first sleeve (inevitable) but practice at this particular mistake made me catch it quickly. For once the collar came out just right on the first try. The pattern was very easy - it looks more complicated than it is, but each row-pattern is easy to memorize and predictable. I made the first sleeve too short at first, but instead of ripping all of it I snipped one row in the plain stockinette portion at the top, added the necessary 5 extra rows, then grafted it back together. Doesn't show a bit. After blocking I added a few rows to each cuff, also - it was hard to predict how much it would flatten out, but luckily this was as much adjusting as I needed to do. The drop sleeves have surprisingly little extraneous bulk. My favorite detail is the I-cord CO/BO on the hem and cuffs. I saw something like that in the historical pics in the book, though it's not mentioned in the actual pattern (not sure if the original was I-cord or just rolled reverse stockinette, though).

The next sweater is not as much of an unmitigated joy, but I'm sure happy it's done!

It's the KnitPicks Palette Sample Cardigan, at long, long last. Here's the Ravelry page. It had sat in my knitting bag awaiting the cutting of the front and collar steeks for an embarrassingly long time. Beth had even volunteered to do it for me over the summer, but I stupidly forgot to bring it with me to the Allegan Fiber Festival. The truth is, I was both terrified of cutting (the collar, specifically, since the steek was sloped - the sleeve experience had made me a little more sanguine about straight steeks) and had also lost some of my love for the sweater after realizing that switching needles on the second sleeve had made it slightly larger than the other. And with all those tiny bits of different colored yarns, I wasn't about to frog. No way, Dude. So I pretty much resigned myself to having a very beautiful only-around-the-house sweater and I just wasn't that pumped about it anymore.

But, in the euphoria over finishing the Dutch Fisherman's Sweater, I did it. The cutting wasn't that bad, as advertised - actually kind of fun once I'd decided I wasn't that happy with how the sweater was turning out anyway! And I'm not totally unhappy, either - this project was meant to be a learning experience, and I did learn from it everything I'd intended to learn. And, I have a delicious sweater for wearing at home, which I actually needed. I seldom knit cardigans (have I ever, before? I don't think so, actually), but they're really the only kind of sweaters I want to wear indoors. And the Palette yarn is astonishingly soft and pleasant to the touch. And I have oodles of lovely leftovers to play with.

Notice how I have cleverly staged these photos to keep you from noticing how severely the sleeve dimensions don't actually match? Actually, after blocking, that's the least of my problems with the sleeves. What I like least is the hugeness of them both at the top - which was strictly according to the pattern. I know it's a drop-sleeve design, but this is out of control. Now I know to always modify this (I think I already knew that, but I ignored the Little Voice). It's also a little too short, which was my fault, but I'm glad that it ended with my favorite motif - the one with the three graduated shades of green - at the top of the body and sleeves, where they're prominent.

While the sweaters blocked, I quickly whipped up a tea cozy to match the Garter Mug Cozies I made from the IK pattern in the holiday special issue that I picked up while I was in NYC for my interview.

Simply because our tea was getting cold. Problem solved, with modest aesthetic pleasure as pure bonus. I used my own handspun (!!) - it was the roving I bought together with my PeaceFleece spindle from an LYS on Long Island, because the other fiber I had collected at that point was still out of reach in my suitcase in NYC. It's Corriedale/Romney and I love the dye job - absolutely delicious - but I wasn't happy with the condition of the fiber once I actually got into spinning it. It had lots of little pills in it, as if it had been handled too much or badly or something. I don't know enough to say why, but I do know that it led to much bumpier and less fun spinning than other fibers I was spinning at the same time. Compared to the awesome, shiny, blissfully pleasant spinning experience and final product of the Wensleydale that Beth sent me (and which I dyed myself with kool-aid) - well. Let's just say, I vow to always, always listen to Beth about all things fibery and not stray again any time soon no matter what. I also vow to go back to Beth's shop this coming summer and buy myself a fiber stash so that I'm never in such dire straits again - hey, I'll be employed by then! And while I'm there, if I take the opportunity to try out all the spinning wheels...well, who could possibly blame me?

As if this post isn't long enough already, I don't want to leave without sharing some of the pictures I've been assiduously taking.

First there's the pretty:

(From a monastery located right in the middle of the city, within walking distance from us)

And then there's the more neighborhoody sort of sights:

(stray dogs)

(can you guess what year this playground was built?)

(Sadly, much of our snow melted after I took these pictures, then we hit this cold snap, and all it did was freeze the dog pee on the sidewalks.)

(I don't really know the purpose of this thing, but there are several of them around the playgrounds in the neighborhood, each one striving to be cuter than the next.)

("New Years" decorations at the nearby baked goods kiosk)

(These relief portraits are on a local school. My first thought was that the guy on the far right was Stalin. Which seemed strange, but I thought the guy at middle left could be Marx. Which leaves, of course, Lenin and Engels, but that would mean the artist was singularly untalented. A closer look made it clear - from L to R they're: Pushkin, Tolstoy, Mayakovsky and Gorky. That's more like it!)

I thought I had a picture of the cars triple-parked all over the sidewalks, but I can't find it, so that'll have to end our tour for today. Hope you enjoyed!

How Did I Get So Lucky with My In-Laws?

2007-12-04T04:45:00.000-05:00

We went to visit Hubbster's grandparents and aunt in a suburb this past weekend. They got me a present in honor of my successful dissertation defense.

Yarn.

Are they awesome in-laws, or are they awesome in-laws? They bought me *yarn*!!!

Let's look a little more closely at the yarn (click for slightly bigger).

It's 100% wool, 2-ply, approximately a worsted weight at a guess. 9 balls at 151 meters per ball.

The biggest letters on the label say, "Yarn." And it says it's made in...the RSFSR. That stands for the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic (er, or something like that...I may have mixed up the S's?).

Actually we think the yarn is probably not that old, just the labels are, but it's super-cool nonetheless. I thought I'd completely lost my chance to see the old-style labels. Not that the new ones are all that much more informative, but this one is just nutty. Here's a direct translation:

YARN
Purewool
For sale to the population [presumably as opposed to factory use?]
Length of thread in the ball calculated at 151 m.
Weight of ball in conditions of 18.25% humidity, 100 gr +/-6
Do not wash yarn in the ball.
RSFSR "MosSherst'" ["MosWool"]
Moscow Industrial Cloth Union
Moscow Order of the Worker's Red Sign [I've never been able to properly translate Soviet official babble of this type]
Cloth Factory "Wool-Cloth"
105023 Moscow, Medovyi pereulok ["Honey alley"], 5

It's also stamped with a price of 12 rubles. Since that would have been way, way too high back in the old days, we're assuming that's the current price (we forgot to ask Hubbster's aunt to find out for sure). That's about 50 cents.

The yarn has a delicious lamb-y smell and isn't particularly scratchy at all (it's not butter-soft, but I would say it's comparable to KnitPick's Wool of the Andes - a basic wool).

In further news of my in-laws' thoughtfulness, I've been dying to show you all my new knitting/spinning nook.

This is the nook (again, click for slightly bigger).

A - the Dutch Fisherman's sweater in progress. I'm about 3 inches above the point where I separated the front and back for the sleeves.

B - Random remaindered spinning wool of indeterminate derivation which I got dirt cheap while on Long Island. Like, less than $1. I'm using it to practice Navajo plying.

C - Beautiful old wooden box I'm using for tools - calculator, measuring tape, scissors, etc.

D - Ugly plastic toolbox I bought at Walmart in Michigan before I left, to hold my spinning stuff. I think it's going to have to get hidden somewhere because it's so ugly. (NB: if you're looking for plastic organizers at Walmart, look in the "men's" sections like tools, cars, and fishing. Same crap as in the "women's" crafts sections but half the price!)

E - Large vase in which I've stored spindles and long knitting needles. Also a secret new spinning tool that I'll tell you about in another post. My PVC niddy-noddy is behind the vase, leaning against the cabinet.

F - Little glass vase (not visible) in which I've put crochet hooks and two little spindles.

G - Bookstand holding my pattern for the Dutch Fisherman's sweater.

H - Mp3 player containing the audiobook of "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" by Suzanne Clark, which I got free through the NYPL. *Highly* recommended.

I - Beautiful, beautiful wooden box containing my fiber stash. Yes, it all easily fits in there. So far. >:->

J - Drawers emptied by Hubbster's aunt so I could use them for knitting stuff. I'm keeping the sock in progress and some more spinning in progress in those.

K - Very bright lamp conveniently placed for maximum effect.

L - Clock stolen from the kitchen so I can tell how much time has passed while I've been knitting if I really want to know, but conveniently placed *behind* me so I can not know if I don't want to.

M - Funky Soviet wallpaper. Just so you know - there often wasn't a whole lot of choice in wallpaper, furniture style, etc.

When sitting in the knitting chair, this is the view to my left - it's the edge of the desk (where Hubbster is usually sitting while I'm knitting), which has a convenient shelf on the side for some more of my knitting paraphernalia.

This is the cupboard on the other side of the room, which houses the stash (yes, of course I already have a stash here, why do you ask?) I haven't yet put the new yarn in there - lucky there's room!

And finally, I continue to gradually catch up on pictures of FOs from the fall. Here's what I made out of that blueish merino handspun I showed you last time:

It's a neckwarmer and matching wristwarmers. First it was going to be just a neckwarmer. Then as there was a surprising amount of yarn left, I started wristwarmers. I kept going and going...and the yarn just wouldn't end. Lucky I have really long hands/fingers!

Pictures - A Start

2007-11-29T05:05:00.000-05:00

I know, I know.

I'm a total blog failure lately.

And it's not really because I'm preparing for a campus job interview (yahoo!) which means writing a presentation/lecture, researching the school, and trying not to worry myself to death. It's really all about spending too much time on Ravelry.

My alpaca leg-warmers. This is what I ended up doing with that KnitPicks Decadence I didn't know what to do with. Very handy here.

Some spinning:

The blue-ish stuff is the gradation-dyed merino I got at the Allegan Fiber Festival. When I bought it the seller warned me that the dye could make it difficult to draft. It's true - I really needed two hands to do it. So, with the help of this video (and all those weeks of practice with the supported spindling), I finally learned to successfully use a drop spindle!!

More soon, I promise!

Tagged

2007-10-29T18:00:00.000-04:00

So, Beth tagged me for an 8 random things meme. This finally woke me out of my stupor, so I'm going to post 8 random reasons I haven't been updating my blog. (Those aren't actually the official rules of the meme.) The official rules are:

8 Very Random Things

Once tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Then post the rules before your list, and list 8 random things about yourself. At the end of the post, you must tag and link to 8 other people, visit their sites, and leave a comment letting them know they’ve been tagged.

1. I've been sucked into the great time warp that is the Ravelry "Big Issues Debate" group forum. If you don't already know what this is, don't ask. And no, don't get antsy because you're still on the ravelry waiting list - I mean, no, get antsy, 'cause Ravelry rocks, but not because you're missing out on this one particular forum, because either you won't care or it will eat up all your time, so no need to get there any sooner than necessary. For those who've been there, I only need to say three words: pinny porn, and pie.

2. While I was out in Long Island (where I was headed last you heard on this blog), my wireless card for my laptop suddenly decided not to work anymore. So I was limited on internet time on a public computer, and I had to spend every moment I had on job search stuff. It sucked!

3. I was totally buried for the first week or so after getting back to NYC in visa stuff. The good news is, my visa will be here on the 2nd!!!! yahoo!!!! And trust me, you do NOT want to know how much insanity, time and money was involved in finally getting it. Suffice to say it wasn't pretty, and I wasn't in a good place from which to post. (btw, the less than great news is that the earliest flight I could get after that was the 8th, but at least I'm finally going!!)

4. Since the visa thing got more or less under control I had to frantically bury myself in the job search thing as there were a bunch of deadlines right around now. I'm still busy, but it's under control as of late last night after I pulled a 12-hour stint in the campus computer lab to finish getting the last bits together.

5. I haven't been knitting or even spinning. Not one single bit since I got back to NYC. Too much other crap going on, and lots of exhaustion, and not much space. I did do some cool stuff while on Long Island and even have pics sitting on my camera, but I can't use my laptop at all where I'm staying at the moment, and it's a pain to bring to the campus computer, and yadda yadda. Sorry. Will catch up when I can.

6. I haven't properly read a blog in a while either, for all the reasons already mentioned. I hadn't realized before quite how much you all inspire me all the time. I can't wait to get back into it!

7. I have a crick in my shoulder from too much web browsing. Seriously - it's the mouse clicky-clicky action, as opposed to typing. And it's not all Ravelry's fault - the job search stuff is at least half of that.

8. I think I'm out of random reasons. Much less good reasons.

I'm too lazy to tag properly, but here are 8 blogs I've discovered thanks to Ravelry (not that there are only 8 that I've discovered there - ha! - a far cry, but the number works with the meme and I have my shoulder to think of. Maybe I'll add more later, and/or there's my nifty new blogroll in the sidebar, which somebody on ravelry showed me how to do.)

Recent Ravelry-Related Finds:

Knit Exploits
Femiknitzi*
The Knit Mongrel
Everybody Else Is
SwayKnits
Lori's Knitting Blog
The Missing Link (a podcast on the history of science, medicine and technology by a Ravelrer)
Worm Spit (by a guy who spins silk and has incredibly awesome videos about it...)

*Off-topic, but if you're open to the idea of a Harry Potter fanfic, she's writing one that kicks total popka, so you might want to introduce yourself to her and ask her where to find it.

Spin Out!

2007-10-01T13:31:00.000-04:00

So I managed to attend Spin-Out! Well...sort of. Actually, it went like this. I was going there with two friends, and we planned to eat lunch in the park, enjoy the spin-out for a couple hours, and then I'd go straight to the bus (a mere 20 blocks away) which would take me to Long Island. Sounds like a great plan, right? Except for the part about dragging all my stuff with me during this whole outing, including the 20 blocks of half-running to make the bus on time. And we started out late. And got delayed again picking up food at Fairway (why do I always think this will be a matter of only a few minutes' delay??).

Here I am trying to coordinate with friend Meg who was also late, though for different reasons, and surrounded by my stuff (half of which you can't see, but note the KIPer bag on lap). (Also note that all photos in this post were taken by friend Aline, because I was too lazy to take my camera out of my bag. Also because Aline is a better photographer than I am - you'll notice.)

That was in Strawberry Fields, about an hour later than when we'd intended to get there. I was already totally exhausted from dragging stuff at this point, and one leg was going a bit numb for some reason. Not good. All this, and I wasn't even carrying a spinning wheel (unlike, it seemed, everyone else in the park).

Moments later, we had finally made it to Spin-Out:

At first all we could do was plop ourselves on an open patch of ground and breathe. Then stare at the pretty view. Then ravenously devour our lunch. That taken care of, I suddenly realized that Nishanna was right nearby with her lovely Ashford Traveler wheel (look at the bobbin go!):

You guys remember Nishanna from the first Yarn Harlot event I went to, in Brooklyn? It was great to see her again - it's amazing to feel like I have old friends when I go to a thing like this. And just as soon as I'd spotted Nishanna, Spinning Spider Jenny appeared! I met her at the same Yarn Harlot event. She was spinning silk on a tiny tiny spindle at the time, and I couldn't take my eyes off it. Afterwards, I started reading her blog and found out she's a famous spinning teacher. For months I read her blog, not comprehending most of it but totally in awe of spinning. Then I finally learned, and went back to her archives and read through it all again with constant waves of "a-ha!...now I get it!" washing over me...and here she was again, in the flesh!

Of course, just as all this is happening and I haven't even yet stood up and actually seen the rest of what was going on (and just when friend Meg had arrived, with whom we were supposed to be lunching and whom I probably won't see again until next spring...) I realize that I have all of 20 minutes before I have to move to make that bus. Damnit!

So Aline and I, the ones who had at least eaten, took a quick turn around the spin-out to ogle the wheels and rovings and talented spinners:

It was such an amazing sight! And everyone there was so *great*. One woman (in the bottom picture, above) was spinning a "core yarn," i.e. a boucle made by spinning a commercial yarn with mohair locks held perpendicularly so that they wrap around the core in little twirls and bobbles. I also got to see nearly every type of wheel that I've been surreptitiously researching online in recent weeks (don't tell Hubbster). The hitchhiker is really cute. Okay, they're all really, really cute, but the hitchhiker is affordable and cute. I also recognized Cara and Kay but was too shy and star-struck to approach them. It was just surreal to be surrounded my buzzing conversation from which words like "etsy" and "blog" and "setting the twist" float up over and over...I'm used to those words usually coming up in real live conversation in the context of me explaining what they are to someone who clearly thinks I'm nuts.

And then...I had to run. With all my stuff.

Here are some pictures Aline took after I left, which accurately reflect the glorious day in the park that I ran through on my way out:

I did manage to make it to the bus stop on time, sweaty and sore but otherwise fine. And I made it safely to Long Island, where for the next few weeks I get to enjoy this:

Life is not so bad, really.

A Recommendation

2007-09-25T11:08:00.001-04:00

I'm afraid I still don't have my camera cord, so no pictures yet, and this post also won't contain any knitting, but I do have something quite special to tell you all about.

My dad has started blogging!!

I've been pushing him to blog for a while now, and for a long time before that I was pushing him to write a book (the blog is intended to be a sort of trial before getting into larger-scale writing).

No, it's not about knitting.

But I think some of you might be interested anyway, and I personally know it's going to be fascinating and great because I've been the audience for these ideas for many years, and it's exciting stuff.

Some of you might remember some nostalgic posts I've written about my childhood, in which I mentioned that my parents, though very young and on a tight budget, were (are) absolutely brilliant parents. My dad is also a brilliant teacher, recently retired from a career in the public schools in Michigan. I tried recently to sum up, in very few words (and you know how hard it is for me to use few words), the influence my dad has had on me. This summary was for the dedication in my newly finished dissertation. I'll quote it here, but first I have to explain that it contains a Russian word that's of central importance in the dissertation: vospitanie. The word is untranslatable because it refers both to education and to moral upbringing: it is the process through which a child becomes a knowledgeable, mature, moral, civil and generally well-rounded adult. (My dissertation is a microhistory about a single Russian gentry family in the mid-nineteenth century, and focuses on gender and ideas, especially vospitanie). Here's the dedication:

This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, who set me on this road and have been unfailingly supportive throughout. In particular, I thank my mother for teaching me to be always alert to how gender affects experience and ideas. And I thank my father for engaging me in discussions of education and history nearly as soon as I could talk, and continuously ever since. I could not have asked for a better vospitanie.

That's the best explanation I can give for why you should check out my dad's new blog, which will be a way for him to record, explore, and reflect on what he's learned in his several decades as a father and teacher. Help him get going by asking him questions! Join the discussion!

Teaching Our Children Well

A Good Cause (and good prizes...)

2007-09-23T12:07:00.000-04:00

I just donated my little bit to Heifer International as part of the Spin-Out charity drive. You can do it too, even if you can't make it to the actual Spin-Out in Central Park, NYC on Saturday.

By the way, Heifer International is this really cool thing - not only did it teach me how to spell "heifer," not only is it a really good cause, but the way it's set up just tickles me. Cara from January One started a Spin-Out "registry" - and it works exactly like a gift registry. Imagine the Spin-Out event is a wedding. All the guests want to bring gifts, so they go to the store where the couple are registered. In this case, Heifer International. There you can shop for all the wonderful, useful things that people need in the world (including sheep and warm woolies!). There are items in all kinds of price ranges, and what you buy is gifted to someone who needs it desperately. Nice, isn't it?

Oh, and you should see the link to the Spin-Out page above to see the prizes on offer. Every $10 you donate gets you one entry in the raffle. There are tons of prizes and they are AMAZING - including at least two spinning wheels!!! There's also yarn, so if you don't spin and you win, I bet Cara could arrange that you get yarn instead of fiber or spinning tools.

And I should be digging up my camera cord soon, so I can go back to regular posting!

Thanks, guys!

2007-09-15T14:11:00.000-04:00

Wow!! That's certainly a record number of comments on my previous post!! Thanks so much, to all of you, for all your support - this blog definitely played no small part in helping me to finish, by getting my popka in front of the computer every day and putting me in a good mood for the day's writing. And it has been wonderful beyond words to get so many lovely messages of congratulation from so many people!!

PS - oh, and did you see the new knitty? First, I'm just so glad there's *one* knitting magazine that isn't being forwarded somewhere I'm not this year! Knitty is always right there where you want it. Isn't muir totally going to be the next It pattern? I want to make it, anyway...(Beth & Erika, don't you think the Briar Rose would be perfect??) For the record, I also love neiman and cinderella, and am impressed as hell with henry (because of the finishing details) and Q (Hubbster will probably make me make henry and I'll die of boredom but it will be worth it in the end: a prediction). And I love love *love* back to basics. Will certainly be making that one, too.

First Ph.D. in the family!

2007-09-07T12:26:00.001-04:00

I just passed my dissertation defense - with distinction! It was great - way better than I even let myself hope, I feel great, everything is great, I'm going off to drink champagne. More soon!!

Review: Gossamer Webs and Richard Rutt

2007-08-30T20:51:00.000-04:00

(you thought I'd never really get around to posting this after promising it for so long, didn't you?)

Actually, first I just wanted to say to those of you who are reading on Bloglines or some other reader to totally go check out the comments on the last post. The discussion of the terms "flax" and "linen" continues, and there's lots of cool new information there. You guys rock! Also, goodies from Beth came in the mail today, and I spent the whole day dyeing with kool-aid. Details to come! Also possibly that video of the sheepdogs from the fiber festival, since blogger has conveniently just added a button for inserting videos. That'll have to wait till I have wireless access for the upload, though. Onward!

Okay, I'm finally ready to give you a full review of the wonderful Gossamer Webs: the History and Techniques of Orenburg Lace Shawls by Galina Khmeleva and Carol R. Noble (available from your usual sources or from Galina herself at Skaska Designs). I'll also explain what's in the companion book, The Gossamer Webs Design Collection and then go into a rant about Richard Rutt's A History of Handknitting (Interweave Press, 1987).

Wait - what? an unrelated book from 1987? Yeah, I know - trust me, they're connected, I'll get to it.

First, Galina's book. As you know if you've been reading this blog, I just took lessons with Galina Khmeleva on Orenburg lace spinning and knitting, but I got the first book, Gossamer Webs, before taking the lessons. I bought the Design Collection book after taking the lessons, and I'll explain why below.

Those of you who have been reading will also know that I've been getting more picky about knitting books of late, and that the ones I really feel are worth investing my money in these days are books that provide not just patterns and pretty pictures (both of which I use largely for inspiration, as I follow patterns straight from books fairly rarely), but books that provide solid, detailed, well-researched information that isn't available elsewhere (i.e., for free on the internet). That is to say that I'm no longer content with generalized run-downs of basic principles, and I'm completely out of patience with the sort of book that is 1/3 how-to-knit and 2/3 very unoriginal patterns in expensive yarns. I've given you some examples before of the kind of knitting book I want and love (Big Girl Knits, No Sheep for You, Victorian Lace Today, etc), and I'm happy to see that the knitting book market does seem to be shifting in this direction as the huge numbers of people who started or re-started knitting have acquired a vast range of new skills very quickly with the help of the internet. All good stuff, which makes me so excited sometimes that I tie myself up in knots of excitement and joy.

Gossamer Webs, though not at all a new book (1998!), is a perfect example - perhaps even the apotheosis - of what I now look for in a knitting book.

(Oh, I know, I'm totally a sucker for anything historical and anything Russian and anything about knitting, and this is a book about historical Russian knitting. But really, I'm about to explain why it's a really great book for other people, too.)

First, Galina really did her research. She is a native-born Russian whose career has always been in textiles, and who has been researching Orenburg lace knitting, specifically, since before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 (and the subsequent closing of the Orenburg lace cooperative in 1995). She has spent a considerable time in Orenburg, getting to know the knitters and earning their trust. In the years since then she has painstakingly interpreted, recorded and disseminated the techniques that have been taught orally in Orenburg for centuries, so that they will never be entirely lost even if the original Orenburg lace tradition is unable to continue (though at the moment the knitters are still hanging on, with the help of those like Galina who bring attention to their work and, to the small degree that is possible, bring the authentic Orenburg shawls to Western buyers, as Galina does when she travels for teaching and fiber festivals).

Gossamer Webs is an extraordinarily comprehensive book, admirably covering the historical, social and economic aspects of the Orenburg lace tradition as well as the technical details of spinning and knitting the shawls while sharing throughout a palpable sense of who these knitters were and are.

In order, the chapters cover:

a brief overview of the history of the Orenburg region - this will easily and comfortably orient readers who don't have any previous background on Russia;

a history of the Orenburg shawls in particular, with a somewhat mythical account of where they began (because nobody knows) and a very well-documented and fascinating narrative of their popularity in the Victorian period (one shawl hangs in the Victoria & Albert museum) and the ups and downs of the industry after the 1917 revolution;

profiles of muligenerational current Orenburg knitters, whose stories themselves serve as a history of their region in the - shall we say "eventful" - 20th century, as well as of the evolving tradition of the shawls, including the circumstances in which they were and are created;

a translation of an excerpt from a Russian-language book on the shawls which offers a lively account of how shawls are sold by the knitters in the Orenburg market;

a brief account of Galina and Carol Noble's own "shawl-buying party" in Orenburg;

a chapter on the goats and their special down (it's not cashmere because Orenburg didn't join the cashmere association -- it's goat down of a quality equal to or better than "cashmere," depending of course on the goat and how it's been processed);

a chapter on spinning, on unique Russian spindles (this might be enough information for a very experienced spindle spinner to replicate it, but the rest of us really need to take the lessons);

a chapter on shawl design explaining the traditional motifs and structures and how they are manipulated by individual knitters;

instructions for a swatch shawl that teaches basic construction (again, there's enough info here for an experienced lace knitter to make a beautiful Orenburg-style shawl, but if your ambition is to make it just the way they make them there, including the same grafting and corner techniques, etc, you should take Galina's classes);

a stitch and border dictionary (Orenburg shawls are designed as permutations of a small set of basic motifs, so this is a dictionary of those motifs, which you could re-arrange in infinitely varied patterns in your own shawls);

instructions and charts for one large medallion shawl (it's very big);

and finally some reference material, including sources for recommended alternative fibers available to Western spinners and knitters, a bibliography, and two pages of photos showing an imaginative variety of ways to wear the shawls.

In short, it's meaty, comprehensive, unique, and inspiring. Here are a few things that get me particularly excited about it:

I love hearing about the knitters, in detail and often in their own words. These are not superficial, "oh, I've been knitting for 50 years and I love it" kinds of profiles, but rather really gripping stories about women of different ages, ethnicities, different levels of education, different careers and different life experiences who all share a lifetime of Orenburg lace knitting, and the profiles taken together offer a substantive, if open-ended, discussion of what that shared tradition means, to the knitters and to their community.

The knitting is presented in context: not only is there history here, but we also learn about the goats, and how they are tended, and how their fleeces are processed (by the whole family), and how the women first spin the yarn they need, and then how the finished shawls are blocked, worn, used, and marketed, both within the Soviet-era cooperative and through what was once a black market and is now an open and unregulated market (with the advantages and disadvantages of the change fully covered in all their ambiguity).

I love these pictures:

If a girl of this age can do all this so confidently, surely I can too?

As a book about a particular regional tradition, it's important to me that the region in question is not simplified, sentimentalized, idealized, or demonized - as western "popular" works on non-western regions sometimes are. This book takes its subject seriously, covers it in depth and without prejudice (more on this below). Since I've been studying Russian language, literature and history (going on 15 years now) and living in Russia (a total of about 2.5 years now, and I'm off for another year in a few weeks) my family and friends are often puzzled by my very mixed feelings about Russia. Western accounts of Things Russian are often either very rosy (i.e., rhapsodizing about the culture and art while closing all eyes to the more complex economic and social context) or very, very demonizing (i.e., it's an Evil Empire, or more recently a third-world backwater, and everything there must be shoddy, or shady, or both, etc). The thing is, it's a complicated place, and it's history is complicated and it's hard to talk about any of it fairly in a western context because what little information Americans have about Russia is limited, at best, and totally wrong at worst. Of course, this can be said about any place, and there are certainly countries with even more frought histories (and presents). But because of the Cold War and the capitalism-communism clash of ideologies, Americans and Russians in particular sometimes have more than the usual difficulty in seeing each other clearly.

I very rarely see an English-language, popular, non-scholarly work of any kind or any length about Russia that does not make me want to puke, strangle the author, or at the very least shake my fist pointlessly and spew bad language.

Galina's book, however, does a simply stunning job of letting the ambiguities be ambiguities without sacrificing clarity for an audience that has not been to Russia and that has gotten its information hitherto from pretty poor sources. Of course, you might expect this from a book written by a Russian who has lived a long time in the U.S., but it's more rare than you might expect - the emigre experience carries its own baggage, and it's just plain not easy to maintain any kind of balanced perspective while being clear at the same time.

So, in other words, this book doesn't pander to a Western audience by making us feel all warm and fuzzy and cleverer than some backward peoples who let their traditions almost die for lack of political sense ('cause god knows Americans are full of sound political sense...r i g h t...? er, sorry). It also doesn't pander to Russian sensibilities or nationalism by inflating the Orenburg tradition to make it the greatest, most innovative and complex lace tradition ever (again, see below), or by pretending that the Soviet-era lace cooperative (and modernity in general!) didn't play a significant role in bringing on changes that were ultimately destructive to the lace tradition and to the knitters. In reality, the book shows through its historical narrative and the profiles of the knitters how the 20th century, with its official state-run cooperative, brought with it social and economic security for knitters during difficult times and a means of reinvigorating lace design (i.e., one knitter who worked for the cooperative invented a system of charting to help teach other knitters and to streamline the knitting of more shawls) even while, at the same time, the same cooperative brought on other steamlining methods that reduced the quality of the fiber and robbed the knitters of important means of control over their livelihoods. Even more stark, though, is the change brought on by the collapse of the Soviet government and the mis-managed transition to quasi-"capitalism" in the 1990s - in reality, it's a free market run by robber barons in which the little people like Orenburg knitters are left with unprecedented freedom to knit as they like, sell where they like...but no security, no access to most markets, and increasingly expensive raw materials, leaving them prey to unscrupulous middlemen with an interest in quick profits for low-quality goods.

This tells us a great deal about much more than Orenburg lace knitting, and in my humble opinion as an academic historian of the region and an occasional American traveler in Russia, it's a masterful book.

Okay, now for a quick break I'll tell you about the companion book before going into rant mode:

Theoretically, Gossamer Webs contains everything an experienced knitter and spinner would need to know to create an authentic shawl on their own. Between the swatch, the stitch dictionary and the one sample pattern, I thought at first that I could do this (although, strangely, I wasn't anxious to start right away). Then I got really lucky, and had the opportunity to take Galina's classes. The classes gave me the confidence to know that I could, indeed, make an Orenburg shawl of my own (though perhaps not from handspun just yet), and all the skills I needed to make it the way it's done in Orenburg down to the smallest detail. However, seeing as how I don't really enjoy frustration and confusion that much, I ultimately decided to also invest in the Design Collection book as well. This book re-prints the swatch instructions and the stitch and border dictionary that are in the main book, but also has detailed, text-and-chart instructions for three finished shawl designs: a triangle, a palatine rectangular 'scarf' (stole, really), and a medallion square of the same type, but different design, than the one in the Gossamer Webs book. Sure, I could probably come up with a pretty combination of the motifs from the stitch dictionary on my own, and I could probably work them into the triangle shape with some effort (I thought at first that I wanted a rectangle not a triangle, but then I learned how big these suckers are), and I could probably more or less maintain concentration while knitting both the border pattern and the interior pattern along with the new techniques for shaping corners and edges and everything...but then I could also probably be a brain surgeon if I really tried hard enough. But since I faint at the sight of blood and have no hand-eye coordination, it would really be better for everyone if I didn't, ya know? I feel that way about designing my own Orenburg, too. I think I'm going to make a couple from instructions first, then start playing with designing. So I bought the design collection, so I can follow the charts for a basic, traditional triangle pattern and have the written instructions to fall back on when I forget the details of what I learned in class about how to deal with corners and how to join the border on the long side. So...I wouldn't say that either the classes or the Design Collection are essential, if you're experienced and confident and intrepid. But your loved ones might really appreciate it if you did indulge in just a little extra information to fall back on.

Okay, now what does all this have to do with Richard Rutt's classic book, A History of Handknitting?

Rutt's book is to date the only one that attempts a comprehensive history of handknitting, and it is indeed an useful compendium of the technical historical details known at the time it was written. For that, I really do appreciate it very much. If nothing else, there's a great deal there to serve as a starting point for other writers who, I hope, will someday synthesize the huge amount of material on ethnic knitting traditions that has been compiled in the last couple of decades together with emerging social histories of textiles and other information to someday write a true comprehensive history of handknitting. However, Rutt's book, with the exception of only a few pages, is actually only a history of British knitting, and possibly just of Shetland knitting - its attempts to treat other traditions are appallingly inadequate and sometimes downright offensive (for some reason such sections almost always conclude in an unfavorable comparison to the Shetland tradition with which the author was clearly much more familiar than any other).

I know that publishers usually choose titles, and they usually push to make books as general as possible in order to garner a wider audience. So I don't entirely blame Rutt. But there's also a rather long history of what I call "British armchair historians." It's not that I have anything against amateur historians. There's no reason a person can't train themselves in the habits, methods, sources and literature required to write reliable, rigorous history. Having myself taken the traditional route of the PhD program, I can and have ranted at length about how many important skills formal training doesn't give you. So, when I toss off the term "British armchair historians" I'm not talking about amateur historians - I know of several good amateur historians who I rank among the best historians generally, British and not. Rather, I made up that term to describe a particular type of historian (with or without a degree), who is recognizable according to the following characteristics:

They write history for popular consumption, but instead of interpreting this kind of writing (as I would) as requiring the same accuracy and rigor as academic writing but greater clarity, larger context, and better style, they instead interpret popular history as being free of the constraints of accuracy, fairness, respect for intellectual property, and sometimes rationality while being rather inconsistent as regards clarity and style.

While sometimes telling a good story, they usually dispense with an explicit argument. This may sound like a point in their favor at first, because arguments are usually set out so clumsily in academic prose. But they don't need to be clumsy, and the truth is that a story without an argument is a story without a word as to what the story means. This may be okay. What is not okay is that in practice there's almost always something in there - even if it's between the lines - as to what the story means, and if it's not explicit, it's implicit. An implicit argument is insidious, because it affects the way the author presents the story without telling you how and to what degree. A particular perspective has been employed in selecting which parts to tell and how, but the reader has no idea what the assumptions were. The reader is being told to believe a tale that is purported to be "real" without having any sense of what the tale is based on or what was left out.

They are unduly prone to think of England as the center of the universe and the rest of the world as a series of quaint little backwaters either ripe for the plucking, in need of civilizing (i.e., Anglicizing), or both. I assume this is a legacy of the Empire, but it's disgusting. (And yes, I know the English are not the only ones to take on this attitude by a long shot - I live in NYC after all! But even New Yorkers, when they write a history of NYC, call it "a history of NYC," not "a history of the world")

The implication of my term, then, is not that the historian in question is an amateur, but that the historian, metaphorically speaking, never leaves his or her comfortable armchair.

Sadly, Richard Rutt is a classic example of a British armchair historian, most especially as regards the third characteristic.

But here's my particular beef, which brings me to the connection with Gossamer Webs. Rutt's book contains a little over two columns of one page of text on knitting in Russia, which makes it one of the most extensive sources on the subject available in English. Some of this text is useful, but you should be aware that the author's unwarranted assumption that knitting probably did not "flourish" in Russia before Catherine the Great's "Volga German" immigrants brought it with them in the eighteenth century is simply false, and actually rather offensive, too (obviously, he doesn't think people as barbarian (read: Eastern [cf. Edward Said on Orientalism {ooh, flashback to freshman lit, sorry}]) as Russians could possibly come up with knitting without some help from a few nice Germans. Oh, lord preserve me from the British. (Except when I'm in an anglophilic mood - I do love my Jane Austen!)

Later research into knitting traditions around the world has firmly established that handknitting has a long, complex, and fascinating parallel history nearly everywhere on the planet, and Russia was not excluded.

Rutt mentions the tradition of shawl-knitting from the Orenburg province of Russia, adding little other than that such shawls feature "uncomplicated patterns." For those who have not yet been privileged to see a traditional Orenburg shawl in person, I recommend that you take a look at Galina's book next time you see it in a store or the library, and then think about what Rutt said (and mind you, he must have been able to see an original shawl in the Victoria and Albert museum). Here's my theory as to what made him say this (never mind that the statement is utterly gratuitous and could simply have been left out if he just didn't know anything). Having read Rutt and Victorian Lace Today and various other works on lace from an Anglo-American perspective, I know that historians trace a development in English - usually Shetland - lace knitting from patterns with only unidirectional decreases to those with matched decreases. Now, one of the very first things historical training is meant to teach you is to watch out for the word "development." Before the professionalization of history and many other changes in 20th-century scholarship, people (mostly privileged, white, Anglo-American people, but also a lot of others) tended to see "development" as a movement upwards and onwards, from something less 'good' to something more 'good,' rather than as simply movement...along...but not particularly directional. So, an armchair historian of this school who knows the history of Shetland lace and knows how to identify the age of a shawl design by whether it has unidirectional decreases (older) or matched descreases (newer), might look at a shawl from another part of the world and, seeing only unidirectional decreases, that armchair historian might conclude that the shawl in question is of a type less developed, and therefore less 'complicated', than shawls that feature matched decreases.

Does this sound like shoddy logic to you? Like laziness? Like not ever leaving your mental armchair?

How about this instead:

Anglo-American lace is marvelously complicated because the matched decreases, not to mention other techniques, like 3-into1 and 3-into-2 decreases, stockinette versus garter backgrounds and other variations culled from many foreign influences, make it possible to do just about anything a designer could wish. It's particularly lovely for mirror-image small motifs and is very easily (not to say necessarily) adapted to charting.

Orenburg lace is superficially simple in that it's always done on a garter ground, the borders are always edged with 5-hole teeth, and the decreases are unidirectional. Designs are almost always permutations of only about 10 basic elements, themselves made up exclusively of YO and k2tog. However, just as knitting itself is the act of infinitely varying only two basic stitches (or one stitch and its reverse) the mathematical simplicity of Orenburg lace principles forms the groundwork for infinite variation. Because there are only YOs and k2togs you can count by holes rather than stitches and rows. Because there are only 10 easily memorizable basic elements, you can (with experience) design on the fly, almost painting in lace as you move up a shawl, improvising combinations and recombinations of elements, because you are thinking, knitting and counting in elements rather than in stitches and rows. Because the elements are so simple, just like the knit and purl stitches themselves, you can combine them into any kind of pattern: representational, geometric, organic, etc. Because all borders are reducible to the mathematically perfect 5 holes (with the 5th hole of one tooth as the first hole of the next), the knitter can vary the width and complexity of the border design adjoining the teeth to an infinite degree, on the fly, without affecting the structure of the shawl or the method of turning corners.

Oh, and because Orenburg is so bloody cold, Orenburg goat down is among the warmest and softest fiber in the world.

And because Russia has long been a much poorer country than, say, England, traditional Orenburg techniques and tools are marvels of efficiency.

Sure, Shetland lace knitting is amazing. I can't wait to do more of it.

But it ain't all there is in the world, folks.

The following is a short bibliography of good books on knitting history. It's not at all complete - these are just the ones I've actually read. Most of them I own and love well.

International Knitting History

The best and most up-to-date supplement to Richard Rutt's work are the many books published in that last two decades on various ethnic knitting traditions. Each offers a different perspective on the history of handknitting that, though particular to a given region in each case, when taken together constitute a substantive narrative of how handknitting and its particular techniques have evolved around the globe (I know there are many others not mentioned here like Arctic Lace and the works of Nancy Bush, but I haven't added them because I haven't had a chance to look at them yet. There's also the wonderful Victorian Lace Today, which, though covering roughly the same ground with less detail than the Rutt book as far as historical information goes, is a much better book on every level, not even including the incredibly gorgeous patterns!).

Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, Knitting in the Old Way: Designs and Techniques from Ethnic Sweaters, Nomad Press, 2005.

Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, Ethnic Socks & Stockings: A Compendium of Eastern Design & Technique, XRX Books, 1995.

Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, Salish Indian Sweaters: A Pacific Northwest Tradition, Dos Tejedoras, 1991.

Lizbeth Upitis, Latvian Mittens: Traditional Designs & Techniques, Schoolhouse Press, 1997.

Galina Khmeleva and Carol R. Noble, Gossamer Webs: The History and Techniques of Orenburg Lace Shawls, Interweave Press, 1998.

Annemor Sundbø, Everyday Knitting: Treasures from a Ragpile, Torridals Tweed, 2001.

Ingrid Gottfridsson, The Mitten Book (also published as The Swedish Mitten Book: Traditional Patterns from Gotland), Lark Books, 1992.

Henriette Van Der Klift-Tellegen, Knitting from the Netherlands, Traditional Dutch Fishermen's Sweaters, Lark Books, 1985.

Beth Brown-Reinsel, Knitting Ganseys, Interweave Press, 1993.

Knitting in America

Anne L Macdonald, No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting, Ballantine Books,1988.

This is an engaging history written by a professional historian with scholarly rigor and intentions (yet without sacrificing readability). It places handknitting within the tapestry of American social history in the nineteenth century, focusing on how and why Americans have chosen to knit or have used their knitting for charitable and other purposes, rather than on techniques or technical history. It provides wonderful historical context for the upsurge in knitting we are seeing today.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth, Vintage, 2001.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812, Alfred A. Knopf, 1990.

Catherine Clinton, The Plantation Mistress: Woman's World in the Old South, Pantheon Books, 1982.

Jane Carson, Plantation Housekeeping in Colonial Virginia, Colonial Williamsburg, 1975.

Jane C. Nylander, Our Own Snug Fireside: Images of the New England Home, 1760-1860, Alfred A. Knopf, 1993.

These books are all scholarly works that contain knitting content only in passing, usually in the context of arguments about women's work and the place of textiles and needlecrafts in early American economics and society. You may have to search a bit to find the knitting content, but all of these books are rich in references, if only oblique ones, to fiber crafts of many kinds and do an excellent job of analyzing how colonial and early American life were deeply interwoven (pun intended!) with all the fiber arts.

I can ply!

2007-08-30T20:28:00.000-04:00

Are you sensing a pattern here?

Yes, indeedy, practice makes perfect, or nearly so. Look at this!

This could actually be some really rather nice sock yarn! That I made all by myself (and with the help, advice, and instruction of friends!)

I realized after blocking the two hanks of the grey Hampshire/mohair, with which I learned to draft, that I was plying much too loosely. I was trying to ply the way Galina taught us, but (a) I was doing it with much thicker singles and overloading the plying spindle and (b) the cool Orenburg way of plying requires rather more coordination and control than I presently have. So this next time around I instead left the singles in two wound balls, then plied them onto the turnip spindle slowly, checking how twisted each arm-length was before winding it onto the spindle (checking it by holding it loosely and seeing what it did when left to its own devices - nothing so anal as counting twists per inch or anything). Having noticed with the two grey hanks that I had spun and finished first that my overspun singles seemed alright in the finished yarn and that those hanks had seemed much more loosely plied after finishing than before, I deliberately continued to overspin a bit and this time also slightly over-plied these new hanks (of red alpaca/mixed wool - when hanging loosely, they twisted back on themselves just a wee little bit). Then I panicked and ran to Beth to see if I was crazy and whether this had been a bad idea - she reassured me that indeed you lose about 30% of the twist from the singles when you ply, and a bit of the twist from the plying when you finish the yarn. Yay! You always know you're getting somewhere when learning a new skill when you can accurately identify what's going on. This made me feel about 10 times more confident than I'd been moments before reading Beth's email. Phew.

And so the yarn is lovely, and I'm so, so psyched! Now to try the last and final chunk of mixed grab bag roving, and then tackle the merino top Beth gave me. If I can make the latter into a semi-respectable and knittable yarn, I'm going to declare myself Much More Coordinated Than I Thought. And maybe even A Spinner in the Making.

Someday, I want to spin and knit a whole gansey like the Yarn Harlot (thank god Hubbster is not nearly so huge as her Joe, though).

Meanwhile, I had to draw ya'll's attention to a fascinating discussion from the comments on my previous post. I mentioned that it's totally weird of the English language to call flax flax, then change its name to linen after it's spun, while in Russian they sensibly call it the same thing no matter what form it's in - "lyon." Specs, expert in Old English and Norse literature, stepped in on the etymology of "linen":

"I know it shows up in Old English and is probably from an old German(ic) word, but beyond that I'm stuck. Although it is curious -- to me, anyway, it's probably completely wrong-- that the word for "rope, cable, or line" is "line" (pronounced lin-ay). Could be that "linen" comes from that?

Anyway, I couldn't help looking up some other OE words about linen and found some really cool sounding ones:

linenhraegl: linen cloth
linhaewen: flax-colored
linwyrt: flax
linland: "land in flax" (what the heck does that mean?)

(1) I'm TOTALLY using the word "linwyrt" instead of flax from now on: sensible, and entertaining! That's how language should be.

(2) Is "linland" a field full of ~~flax~~ linwyrt? I have no idea, but it reminds me of something kinda cool and kinda sad: when we were driving around random backwater corners of central Russia three years ago, looking for the villages formerly owned by the subjects of my dissertation, we saw many, many fields covered in ~~flax~~ linwyrt. That region had been a major textile center since the 18th century, and ~~flax~~ linwyrt. was by far the biggest crop (there were also a lot of sheep), but since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, what little agriculture was still going on out there has ceased. There are very few young people left in villages at all, since most went to cities for education and work, and there's little to no living to be had off Russian textiles in that region since the textile factories of Ivanovo have all closed to be replaced by garish and horrible shopping malls selling imported goods at inflated prices (even though there's wonderful linen goods to be had in Russia even now (from other regions) and there used to be much, much more - sob!). Anyway, so there's still ~~flax~~ linwyrt. growing in the ~~fields~~ linlands here and there...but nobody's doing anything with it. The ~~fields~~ linlands are abandoned.

(3) Erika, aka historicstitcher, aka an expert on historical textiles, added this note:

old ropes, cables, and lines, at least those used on sailing vessels, were all made from tow, the shorter, rougher flax fibers not used for clothing. Could be that the words derived congruently, coming from the same source, but used differently?

So, it seems, the word linen may have come from some Germanic root and be associated with ropes, lines, hence thread, yarn and cloth. Perhaps it just meant rope/line, but because this was made from flax, the words became associated. Interestingly, the Russian word lyon sounds close enough to maybe derive from the same root, or possibly be a later borrowing from a German(ic) word (Russian has significant borrowings from German, Dutch, French as well as Central Asian languages). So the real question seems to be...where the heck does the word "flax" come from?

You know how English has different words for an animal (e.g., cow) and the food that comes from that animal (beef)? And how usually the coarser word is Germanic(ku, kuh - or is that Norwegian?), while the almost euphemistic word we use when we don't want to think about the animal we're eating is Franco-Latin ("boeuf")? I was always taught that this was because of the waves of influence from different languages, with German(ic) coming first, and therefore being retained in the simpler words. So what if the linen/flax thing is analagous? Except wouldn't it make more sense for flax to be the German word and linen a Franco/Latin thing?

I dunno, but if Specs were to do some more playing with the OED and wherever else she's looking these things up, that'd be cool. (hint, hint)

And I'll leave you with a pic of this beauteous beach towel made from linenhraegl that I bought in Moscow - it's perfect for lying on the beach because it wicks away moisture and stays cool in the sun!

PS - Beth - I need to see that book!!! Greet - thanks for mentioning it!!

I Can Draft!

2007-08-27T15:03:00.000-04:00

(and for once I'm not talking about revising anything, least of all the diss, thank god)

Since my last post, I have been to my first fiber festival ever, and I learned how to draft with my new supported spindle. I haven't gotten much progress made on my WIPs, but I can only take so much excitement at one time!

First, the Allegan Fiber Festival. I first heard about this last year, when I just missed it, even though it takes place every year just a half-hour drive from my dear mother's home and even though she knew about it (but didn't mention it, not imagining that I was that into livestock and not realizing there might be anything else there). Soon after that devastating moment of realization almost one year ago, I discovered Beth's blog, because she posted about having been to the Allegan festival, and all the lovely things she bought there.

She reacted well to my jealous rampage in her comments, and we've been friends ever since. And now, just one year later, I've been to the festival myself, with Beth, and I brought home my own goody bag(s) full of - among other things - fiber to spin, which I never thought I'd ever be bringing home since I didn't think I'd ever be able to spin it.

(BTW, yes, now I'm lusting after a spinning wheel. I thought the one advantage to not being able to spin was that I wouldn't have to long sighingly for spinning wheels, but so much for that...)

The festival was much bigger than I expected (of course, I haven't seen Rhinebeck or Maryland). Lots of vendors (over 100 according to the directory), lots of sheepies and goats and alpacas and bunnies.

Hubbster and I ran into Galina's booth right away, and not long after converged there with Beth and one of her spinning students, Becky (in the photo below, I'm on the left in desperate need of a haircut, Becky's in the middle, Beth's on the right. Husbands and children are hovering off-camera, trying not to be embarrassed by the weird knit bloggers and their strange habits).

Beth helped me pick out yarn to make Galina's Orenburg-style shawl, Lily of the Valley (from Knitters, Summer '04). Beth has already made a prize-winning version, and I'm going to use the same yarn, an angora/silk blend.

The shawl is for my Grandma, and it's got to be done by her birthday in May. Hmm!

Beth also brought me some goodies I'd asked for from her shop - my first Addi Lace needle (I hope not to be the last - it's great!) enough pink Jaggerspun Zephyr for an Orenburg shawl for myself (which I'm going to do first, so I can work out the kinks; it's already started).

Also some tweedy-pink Jaggerspun 100% wool fingering weight, which I had thought was also Zephyr but wasn't. It's awfully pretty, though, isn't it? I'm thinking I have way too many shawls in the hopper and should use this to make some Nancy Bush socks I've been thinking about.

Then we proceeded to explore...Beth introduced me to some of the fleeces she bought (still being carried around by the animals that produced them). Here she is picking out still another fleece:

And we had lots of fun petting adorable sheep and goats with Beth's even more adorable kids, Ryan and Maggie. Here's me and Ryan and a goat exactly Ryan's age (and same height, too!):

(Whenever Ryan wants to show you something, he grabs your hand and says, "Come here, I need you." Is there anything cuter than that?)

Here are some of our other new friends (you'll have to ask Beth to know what they all are - all I can tell is that they're cute and their fleeces are lovely to pet, which is enough for me):

Throughout most of our wanderings, Hubbster was following me around, reading his detective novel and holding onto my sleeve so as not to get lost and accidentally end up going home with some other knitter:

However, he admitted later that he actually really enjoyed himself. He loved touching and smelling all the undyed fleeces and admiring the beautifully carved spinning wheels, looms, combs, etc. Most of all he liked the animals, and especially the sheepdogs, whom he watched demonstrating their prowess with the sheep while I was off in a barn making purchases (I'd post a little video of the dogs if I knew how to do that kind of thing).

He was equally amused by all the other husbands, most of whom looked as awkward and out of place as I would at an airshow. I made a point of calling his attention to several males who were spinning or learning to spin, and he admitted that this was very cool, though not necessarily as "masculine" as could be desired. (Someday, I'm going to spin flax, and let him beat the raw flax for me [see below]; this has been pronounced a suitable activity).

I was most amazed by the Briar Rose booth - so much gloriousness in one small space! There was beautiful fiber everywhere, of course, and lots of beautiful examples of masterly hand-dyeing, but I thought the Briar Rose stuff really stood out. Beth pointed out that people tend to think Briar Rose is based in Wales because it's a sponsor of Cast-On, but actually the founder is here in Michigan.

One of the most special things for me about the festival was the lady demonstrating flax spinning. I'm uncommonly interested in this process due to having spent the last several years of my life studying the 19th-century diary of a Russian gentrywoman who spent a great deal of her time spinning (mostly flax, some wool), supervising serf weavers who made the flax into cloth, and knitting (it's not clear whether she ever knit the flax, or just wool). She left out, of course, all the details that she took for granted like what kinds of tools she used, what garments she made (other than stockings and sometimes scarves). Mostly she wrote "I spun all evening" or "I knitted a stocking." But often she wrote "the women beat the flax" or "the women scraped the flax," and sometimes "So-and-so warped 3 spools; more than yesterday!" I didn't know the process involved in preparing flax for spinning, and had quite a bit of trouble translating terms from Russian to English when neither I nor the dictionaries and various people I consulted on the Russian terms really understood the process.

Now, most of the terms have suddenly been made clear, and very real, to me:

(the tough outer part of the flax stalk is beaten, then scraped off with a blunt wooden knife, so the inner stringy part can be combed for spinning)

And of course after it's been spun its name changes to 'linen' in English, god knows why (it's called "lyon" in both forms in Russian)

All this thanks to Virginia Handy of Flax Craft. I love that someone out there is keeping these skills alive. And yes, I'm totally going to look for spinning wheels, and flax, as well as wool when I'm in Russia!

At this point we'd seen just about everything, and eaten our elephant ears, and said goodbye to Beth and her family, and it was time to get back home for dinner with mom.

But wait. Could I leave without buying more?

Of course I had to buy more. I'm learning to spin - I need fiber!

I lucked out, and on one last quick run through the vendor stalls found some really pretty grab-bags of very inexpensive mixed wools, perfect for playing with (from Orchard Hill Fleece Farm). I got three chunks of roving, one labeled Hampshire and mohair, another red alpaca / mixed wool, and the third cream alpaca / black border leichester / white mohair.

Um, and then, just on my way out, I was seized by this:

It's merino, it was only $6, and can't wait to play with those colors.

Oh, and I begged Beth to send me undyed silk hankies, so I can play with kool-aid dying and spin more hankies, since up to that point that was my favorite thing to spin.

But things have changed.

As soon as I got home from the festival I got out my turnip spindle and tried to spin the Hampshire/mohair roving from my grab bag. I was going along just like I did with the merino top that Beth gave me, which was working pretty well as you saw, and then all of a sudden the tension of my arm holding out the yarn as the twist was going in accidently drafted the fiber out into a really nice, smooth, nearly perfect single. I couldn't believe my eyes. It did it all by itself! This blend just seems to want to be spun into just that size yarn, and it will do it almost no matter how hard I try to screw it up. Now that I've been playing with it awhile, I can even get it to draft properly with my left hand before I let the twist get into it (though I still can't possibly get both hands on the fiber without stopping and holding the spindle against my leg; if I lift up my right hand while it's spinning the spindle immediately drops sideways and the fiber breaks)

The main thing is, I think I finally get the concept of drafting. That is, I still don't have very good control, but I can see and feel how it's supposed to happen. It felt like a light-bulb turning on, really!

The first hank of Hampshire/mohair is on the right above, the second, last, and much-improved hank is on the left. I'm going to try to apply these newfound skills to the other grab-bag fiber now before going back to the beautiful merino top, as now I've become more ambitious and am hoping to make a reasonably decent usable sock yarn from the merino!

Meanwhile, I've started some legwarmers which I forgot to photograph, and a quick little scarf in broken rib out of the silk yarn Beth gave me, which my mom has laid claim to because it's her color. I have to admit it looks much better against her skin than mine, so I will give it to her (see, Beth, I'm not a totally selfish knitter!)

I Can Spin!

2007-08-09T22:35:00.000-04:00

Ahem:

I spent last weekend taking lessons on Orenburg Lace spinning and knitting from Galina Khmeleva herself, while also partying with my knit-sibs, Beth and Erika.

Wow. Take a deep breath, and let that sink in. It doesn't get much cooler than that, does it? Okay, it does, let me add some details:

-I slept all night in a spinning shop. Surrounded by luxurious fibers. Surrounded, also, by Galina's enormous and breathtaking collection of real Orenburg shawls and all the materials to make them. I was sleeping in the same room with qiviut!!! Never mind the buffalo, the cashgora, the organic cotton, the Briar Rose, the silks and wools and flaxes (oops, the flax got left at Beth's house for some reason relating to our organizational skills being way behind Erika's). You get the idea.

-Beth gave me and Erika goody bags for no earthly reason other than that Beth is the world's greatest person EVER. Goody bags included merino top that I didn't believe I would ever know how to spin when I opened it but that I am now spinning, as well as Debbie Bliss Pure Silk:

And sleeping goggles (see Beth's post for what those are) and luxury tea and...a true embarrassment of riches (except I'm not at all embarrassed. Just grateful). Beth knows how to spoil a girl. Abundantly, and repeatedly.

-Beth also has extremely adorable offspring, and a remarkably compliant husband who doesn't even blink when she brings home giggly girls who want to make her sleep in the shop and eat 16 bars of chocolate. And her children are remarkably unembarrassed and polite when total strangers accost them and tell them they know them well from their mom's blog....

These are my self-inflicted photos of us giggling over Beth's bloglines the first night:

For some reason I really like the blurry one.

Let me tell you about Beth. Beth is extraordinarily generous, serenely laid-back, and oodles of fun. I would describe her as deeply silly, and those are terms that I do not throw around easily or deprecatingly. It's a special, wonderful art to be deeply silly and an adult at the same time, and all the people I love best are deeply silly. Of course, Beth and I already knew we had a sense of humor in common (how could we not when we have TMBG in common?), not to mention fiberlust, but now we think we were triplets separated at birth. Triplets, you ask? Oh, I know neither Beth nor I are known for our mastery of maths, but you see Erika makes three. Let me tell you about Erika. Erika is my age, but somehow has lived several whole, eventful lifetimes while I was sitting around doing I know not what - you might ask her about the modeling, or about deconstructing chemical weapons, but personally I'm most amazed by her past as a professional seamstress of historical costumes, and her incredible body of knowledge about historical clothing. Holy crap, and her degree is in geology! Besides, Erika and I spent the weekend having bizarre "what - you too??" moments every time we discovered another quirk we had in common. Positively spooky.

I've been reading both their blogs for a while now - have you? You should! Also, help me pressure Erika to write her book, and Beth to write her article and her book. It doesn't matter that you don't know yet what they'll be about - trust me, you'll want them.

-During the spinning lesson fiber and spindle flew in many directions. This part was expected. What was not expected was that I also ended up with yarn.

This is my first yarn (it's plied with commercial-spun silk, and made up of bits of pygora, cashgora, stretch merino, buffalo, and a teeny little tidbit of qiviut).

Oh shuddup.

I tried a drop spindle several times at home and nothing but curse words and a few extra dents in the floor were the result. This time, I got recognizable yarn. I was prepped ahead of time with a little pre-lesson at Beth's house, when I got to watch both Erika and Beth spinning on their wheels (I'd never seen wheel-spinning in action before and hadn't really gotten how it works at all). Then Erika heroically let me mess up a section of what was otherwise gorgeous yarn by letting me spin a little in the middle of her work. Once I figured out that I was doing everything with the wrong hand, it started to get a lot easier.

Then there was 6 hours of instruction in traditional Russian Orenburg spinning with Galina. Erika and Beth have pictures (but really, I only have bad posture, bad hair and a weird nose when I'm concentrating. I swear). Galina is a genius, and tells a great story, and is a brilliant, ruthlessly honest teacher. Can I tell you how much I LOVE the supported spindle??? It changes everything. My biggest problem was drafting and letting go of the spindle without letting the fiber break and the spindle drop to the floor. With the spindle supported in a little bowl, it doesn't have to drop at all, and the fiber breaks much less often. Huge improvement right there. Also, all you have to do to make it twist is give the top a little flick. When I tried rolling a drop spindle along my thigh then dropping it, I got a wildly flailing spindle and then a gouged floor for my trouble. The Russian spindle spins evenly and almost effortlessly, like a little dervish (this is partly an art in choosing the most balanced spindle, at which Erika excels, and luckily she's a generous girl) . Now, Erika is such a generous girl that she wrote on her blog that I was "getting the hang" of drafting. Ha! Actually, I failed miserably at it during the class and am continuing to fail miserably (but, yes guys, I am continuing to try every once in a while). However, Galina started us on pencil roving, which worked beautifully right from the start, so upon applying to Erika as to whether I couldn't just "make pencil roving" and then spin it without drafting, she told me sure, but to call it "pre-drafting." Poof: my life changed in the blink of an eye. I can spin now. :-)

The spinning class was followed by a meet-n-greet with Galina and her very sweet husband, George. Erika and Beth and I were privileged to hang out with them through all of this, chatting casually with one of our personal heroes, not to mention pawing through her shawl, fiber and yarn collections while "helping" to display them. How incredibly cool is that?

It would be pretty hard to top that. But we managed: first, by deciding to spend the night on the floor of Beth's shop. Someone (was it Obsidian Kitten?) said that Beth's shop is like a fiber festival that's going on all the time, and that's exactly the right description. Can you imagine spending the night in the middle of Rhinebeck? That's how cool this was. No - cooler, because Beth and Erika were there. We practiced our spinning some more that evening while gossiping and eating ice cream. Beth unwisely told me which of her ceramic, hand-made supported spindles was the best spinner and, yes folks, I had to have it:

Behold, my turnip. That's the merino top Beth gave me on it. I'm thinking of knitting the singles into some fuzzy feet, which I'll dye with kool-aid while felting (as per Erika's suggestion). While I was doing this, Beth was expertly combing and spinning some delicious cashmere into laceweight, while Erika was moving by leaps and bounds from our experiments with buffalo in class to a perfect laceweight buffalo single on the Russian spindle by the end of that night. Ask her to show you her pretty new acorn spindle too, though. (Don't worry - we didn't completely clean Beth's shop out of her best spindles. Not for lack of trying. )

We conked out pretty early, though, despite the ice cream, because it had been a very full day and we knew we had 6 more hours of lace knitting ahead of us bright and early the next day.

"Bright and early...."

In a separate, long-promised post I'm going to tell you all about why Galina's book on Orenburg lace is so incredible, and I'm going to rant about how Richard Rutt's book doesn't get anything right, but for now just a few peeks at what we were up to:

This is our first swatch, playing with some basic elements of Orenburg lace design. I needed to go down a couple needle sizes from what you see here. Galina gave us Jaggerspun Zephyr to play with - this was my first exposure, and I'm hooked. Lovely stuff. I also played with the new Addi lace needles, and am hooked on those as well.

Here's the next swatch, where we learned the traditional border basics, plus really nifty corner construction and a mind-bendingly awesome grafting technique.

I just finished this swatch last night, and am so please with it, and so anxious to start a full-size triangular shawl with some tweedy-pink Zephyr that Beth's going to bring me. Yummy, yummy, yummy.

How about some more pictures?

Here's Galina teaching lace, and me listening raptly.

Here's Galina signing my copies of her books. In Russian! And no, it's not you, that does appear to be a little bit of Ott-Lite [tm] coming out of my nose.

Here's Beth, Erika, and me standing behind Galina the Great (she calls herself "Galina the Terrible" but that's accurate only in the sense that "terrible" was originally used to describe the old tsars - meaning great, powerful, and awe-inspiring!)

So, um, yeah, we did kind of leave Beth's shop with more loot than we'd necessarily intended to pick up...

Can you say, "Briar Rose"??? wine-red alpaca laceweight no less....??? I'm thinking Print o' the Wave, maybe?

Shetland laceweight...I'm sorely tempted by the pattern Erika used in her alpaca shawl.....

This is my first try at spinning silk. So far it's delightful, and actually easier than the wool. I'm using the leftover bits of dyed silk hankies that Beth gave us to play with the night we slept over at the shop. I've been wanting to play with silk hankies ever since Amy Singer first did it, but trust me, it's even more fun than it looks. Want. Some. More. And they're not even very expensive! I'm officially a silk addict now. The hankies are so easy to turn into something string-shaped that they warm my little pre-drafting soul, and the silk sticks to itself much more than I thought it would. So easy!

Oh, and before I leave my wireless connection for who knows how long again, some catch-up pictures from earlier:

One Wildflower Sock done. It's a bit tight around the ankle, and I had to do a tubular BO because everything else made it too tight to get around my heel. Lovely once it's on, though!

These are the felted slippers from Knit2Together, using Knit Picks' Wool of the Andes.

And these are some post-blocking shots of the invisibility shawl. Apologies for modeling it over shorts and a tank top; we completely forgot to take pictures on Release Party Night when I was all dressed up with a cute, fluffy black skirt and black top. You'll just have to take my word for it that it looked good.

Oh - and speaking of Russian mystery yarn (which the Invisibility Shawl was made out of). One of my mystery yarns (not that one) was labeled "Orenburg Down" but seemed very greasy, smelled more sheepy than goaty, and was generally too cheap to have been real. Galina inspected it and declared it real but sub-par Orenburg down. Made from the leftover and damaged bits that remain after collecting the good stuff, it's what they make the cheap, fake-Orenburg shawls out of for the tourist market.* Galina said that they use tons of emulsifier to make it spinnable, but that once you wash that out it should be soft and nice and suitable for mittens or socks, though not shawls. Interesting!

*NB to those who read Piecework magazine: remember that crazy "article" that made the cover of the last issue about somebody who bought an $11 shawl on a night train in Russia? (a) that person bought a fake, crappy shawl like thousands of other tourists do every day because they don't know better, (b) that was not enough substance for any kind of article, never mind the cover, (c) contrary to what that article seems to want the reader to believe, Russia is not a barbaric, ignorant country ripe for the plucking by bargain-hunting Western tourists, (d) you can't get a real Orenburg for anything below three digits, (e) the difference between real and fake is ginormous - if you can catch one of Galina's classes or find her at a fiber festival she can show you and let you touch and, (f) the number of hours that go into the spinning and knitting of a real Orenburg would make it a steal at 10 times the prices they're sold for, and (g) just because most Russians are poor doesn't mean it's okay to cheat them (nor that they don't know when they're being cheated, nor that they don't do good work with good materials, etc). Not that any of you would do that, but sometimes it's really hard to know what the deal is when there's so little information available, and I hate to see a major magazine like Piecework disseminating BS.

So as not to end on an icky note, here are a couple more pictures to show you how we've been spending our time while not wrestling with dialup or gallivanting across the state for knitting lessons:

This is Hubbster, kayaking on Willard Pond in NH (in answer to queries - I'm not from there, I'm from Michigan originally, but my dad moved to the Hancock area a few years ago).

And this is my mom's cocker-poo, whom we love dearly. Awww.

Next up: The Allegan Fiber Festival on the 18th. I'm going to meet Beth there, and possibly Erika, and Galina will be there too. If you're also coming, be sure to accost me and say hi!

Alive and Kicking

2007-07-23T15:19:00.000-04:00

Hey guys! You're so sweet! I'm sorry I disappeared...here's what happened.

Arrival in beautiful New Hampshire. Lovely hiking, kayaking. Dog- and cat-sitting for a couple of critters who make up in trouble for what they lack in size. Huge bathtub. Harry Potter. Half a suitcase full of yarn. TiVo. Slow internet connection, and a weird unfamiliar firewall that's blocking all kinds of things.

The upshot is, I've been resting so very effectively that I just couldn't be bothered to get to the computer, and when I did it was so frustrating that I gave up quickly and knit instead.

I'm taking my vitamins and eating local, organic, homemade food, and either hiking or kayaking every day that it doesn't rain. I found two lovely, wonderful, exciting yarn shops. I made two pairs of felted slippers, an Invisibility Shawl, half a wedding present, finished a sock and a steek. Life is good.

But I've been neglecting this blog horribly, and also haven't been keeping up with my bloglines or Ravelry, which make me sad. :-( And I'm afraid it'll get worse before it gets better: we're leaving NH for MI in a few days, and I'll have even less access to the internet there (mom lives in the stone age). But I'll be taking those awesome lace classes with Galina Khmeleva, visiting Beth's shop and having an awesome knitters-only slumber party which you will no doubt hear about, possibly in real time??

In the meantime, a few catch-up updates:

1. I feel terrible I didn't get back to you all about the historical knitting event at the Merchant House Museum. Turned out it's on hiatus for the summer because they don't have AC, but will continue once a week in the fall, and I plan to try to be there at least once. The event also turns out to be more of a knitting group than any kind of instructional event. But it does take place in the museum, and we were told that several of the people who go are very knowledgeable about 19th-century knitting. People bring vintage patterns and projects, but others just bring whatever they're working on. It's a great little museum that I might not ever have seen otherwise.

I started a stocking on US 000 needles for that trip (the US0 needles with the red Wildflower sock above are there for scale), but it turned out the lace yarn I was using was way too thick. Sooo.....

2. When Aline and I consoled ourselves for missing the historical knitting group by taking a trip to Habu Textiles....I bought a remnant skein of extremely thin wool thread to use for the experimental 19th-c stocking (which I don't plan to finish, but to use for demonstrations whenever I teach the industrial revolution...)

I also bought enough cobweb weight 100% silk for a lace shawl. I'm terrified of it.

If you haven't been to Habu and can get to NYC - GO! I can't believe I lived there for so long without going. It's incredible. There was a yard of stainless steel/silk woven fabric hanging on the wall, which looked very steely and felt exactly like water I kid you not. Aline took pictures - I'll try to post more about it/them when I can.

3. I knitted the Invisibility Shawl from Charmed Knits and wore it to the release party at the Toadstool Bookstore in Peterborough, NH. I meant to take a picture of me wearing the shawl there at the bookstore, but we got so distracted by our own excitement that before we knew it 24 hours had passed, we'd read the book, and the shawl was forgotten in a corner. Here's some unmodeled pictures:

4. I also knitted up two pairs of the felted slippers from Knit2Together in NO time. They're awesome. They're exactly halfway between FuzzyFeet and the Galeskas felted slippers in terms of time and yarn investment. The pattern is simplicity itself, and I think I already have it memorized. They're sturdier than FuzzyFeet because of the tripled yarn and garter sole, and slip on quickly (though, obviously, not as toasty warm since they only cover the toes and soles). The soles flap up when you walk down stairs in them. It's a flaw I can live with. Pictures to come soon - we put them on our feet right out of the washer and haven't taken them off when we're in the house except to sleep and bathe.

5. A place called Harrisville Designs is just one town over from my dad's house. HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS BEFORE???!! This place is INCREDIBLE! It's housed in a gorgeous old building over a dam, and it's full of luscious, luscious fibers. I touched malabrigo for the first time. I saw many, many lovely spinning and weaving tools made of wood that made me want to move in and live there forever. These are the people who make New England Shetland yarn, and there's a gigantic sale barrel. I bought some pink shetland for hiking socks for myself, and some charcoal and forest green for Hubbster. If money were not an object, I would have just handed them my credit card and check book, put my sleeping bag in the corner, and never left. Honestly.

6. I also checked out an LYS in Keene, NH, since we happened to pass it: it was the lovely little Knitting Knook. I found the debut issue of Interweave Felt there, and the store also happens to be particularly well-stocked with felting yarns. Incredibly nice staff, too. Oh, and I touched malabrigo, for the second time. Ahhhh.

7. I think I may have also finally found the time, light and mental space to do the final steeks on the Palette Sampler cardigan (wha? You forgot? This one). I already crocheted the second side of the front collar, and both side down the front. All that's left is to cut, and pick up the sts for the edges. Cut. Hmm.

Book Reviews

2007-06-24T13:00:00.000-04:00

Between the Amazon sale and my CC gift certificates (yay, airplane tickets!), I've gotten some new knitting books lately. So I thought it'd be fun to tell you about them here. It's not really fair to call them 'reviews' as I don't plan to be all that terribly professional about it, and because I wouldn't have said anything at all about them if I didn't like them. Also noted: I got Victorian Lace Today not that long ago, too, but haven't said anything much because my feelings precisely coincide with grumperina's: awesome book, see her reasons why (plus, of course, the awesome historical content). I'm also going to save talking about Galina Khmeleva's Gossamer Webs for another post, as I love it so very much and have so much to say about it that it deserves a post of its own. So that leaves: Knit2Together, Charmed Knits, and No Sheep for You.

Knit2Together: Since I got this on Amazon for $5, there's pretty much no way on earth it wouldn't be worth it, unless it turned out to not be about knitting or something. But I think I would have been pretty happy with it even if I'd bought it at full price, although with the caveat that I'm getting pickier about my knitting books (as my shelves groan with the books already collected), and this one has enough in common with other books I already own to make it inessential. What makes it inessential to me? (1) the technical information and hints are all things I've already gotten from other sources (although they're presented really nicely and would be great for any knitter who hasn't already scoured practically everything out there), (2) the fun chatty stuff also feels familiar, like I've read it several times before in other forms, but for all that it's still cozy and nice - it's not a bad thing, it's just not something I would buy the book for, having already bought a lot of other books with a similar vibe, and (3) only one of the patterns is already itching to jump off the page and onto my needles (that would be the felted house slippers, 'cause I can always use another pattern for those, can't make it up myself as I have proven by trial and major error [cf: Frankenstein slippers, scroll down], and these ones are among the cutest out there). That said, I still love the book and am glad I bought it. While I'm enumerating, here are the reasons I love it:

1. Tracey Ullman. How can you not love Tracey Ullman? I feel like I grew up loving Tracey Ullman, my love has never wavered, and now I find out she loves knitting the same way I love knitting. What's not to love? (PS: Favorite Tracey Ullman movie? I Love You to Death)
2. Until I read this book, it never entered my head that "ullman" means "wool man" in Norwegian even though, it's true, my Norwegian is not SO rusty that I forgot either of those words.
3. The patterns are designed by Mel Clark, whose aesthetic I mostly really like, even though just at this moment I'm not sure what besides the house slippers would be practical for me to make and wear right now. I absolutely adore the Ponsonby Suit, and can probably see myself knitting it eventually, though right now my patience and time are not at that level. The Tropical Garden Vest is seriously cute, though I'm not sure what the effect of it would be on my decidedly curvier shape. Would be awesome to knit for a girl of about 13 or 14, but right now I don't know any such. I simply worship the Pimlico Shrug and, oh lordy lordy, the Lacy Hug-Me-Tight, and I might at least knit the latter no matter what, but I can't honestly see myself wearing either except at home for dress-up. I can see other people wearing them and looking fab - just not me. I don't have the je ne sais quoi (sp??) to pull it off. The ginormous Doctor's Bag is gorgeous and would be lovely to own, but if the boring knitting didn't kill me, the finishing definitely would. The Witches Britches are adorable and would be an easy, relatively quick knit, but again, I really wouldn't wear them outside the house, and I already own lots of comfy house-pants that didn't require weeks of my time to make. I also love the Gym Slip Dress, but also think it would require some fairly major mods to work on me, and at the moment the inspiration isn't there for that (though it may come). Finally, the Rowena Cardigan is lovely - and it's just a plain, simple cardigan with one brilliant twist, which I could pretty easily reproduce at some point, though probably not right away.
4. Along with the gorgeous-but-not-immediately-practical(-for-me), there are also a few quickies in here that, while less exciting, are more likely to actually get made. A lacy, ruffly tea cozy, picture frames (which, yes, I might have thought of myself, but not gotten around to thinking through), the super-cute mouse family with clothes, Daphne's Baby Cape (a very EZ-type affair), a pretty table skirt for which I need only a table, and - folks! - a floppy "Lady Detective Hat" which will definitely get made! The Novella Socks and Pea Pod Cardigan are also both cute, and fall into the category of things that I'd love to have, but probably won't get around to knitting because other projects will continually get in the way.

All around, that's a good amount of knitting inspiration for one book, and I'm satisfied.

Charmed Knits: As this is a book of Harry-Potter-related knitting patterns, obviously you have to be a Harry Potter fan to get into it. Since I'm a very rabid HP fan currently in the throes of waiting for the last book to come out (26 days!), and determined to keep any future children I may someday have clothed in exactly the type of adorable, classic, Brit-knit style sweaters that fill the movies and the books, this book was of course a must for me. Though I'm still dying for a pattern for the sweater Ginny wore at the Quidditch World Cup in the movie, all the other essential HP patterns are in here, plus a few extra things I hadn't seen or thought of: an "invisibility shawl" and a blanket based on the idea of Mrs. Weasley's clock. The wand cozies, I must say, cracked me up in kind of the wrong way, but whatever. I also think the wizard robes and hats are kind of pushing it - these are definitely things that should be sewn, not knit, but it doesn't matter because the sweaters, hats, scarves and mittens are perfect and that's the key thing. While I think I could have unvented the accessories myself, the book is really helpful in providing affordable yarn choices in all the right colors. On the one brief occasion when I flirted with the idea of making a Gryffindor scarf (before remembering how much I hate making long, repetitive scarves), I couldn't find the right color combination, and started to lose my ability to remember what the true movie colors look like in the face of all the not-quite-right colors in the LYS. This books gives you a solid handful of alternatives, and that's really nice. And I'm totally making an invisibility shawl! (Since my favorite thing to be at parties is invisible, this should be perfect!)

No Sheep for You: So, remember how I said just a little bit above that I'm getting pickier about my knitting books? This book, along with Amy's Big Girl Knits (which is next on my list to get) are exactly what I want in knitting books now. What I love, love, love about both of them is that they are packed with hard-core, well-researched, well-presented technical information that is not available in this form elsewhere. I'm neither allergic to animal fibers (thank god!) nor (quite) beyond the usual size-range of standard knitting patterns, but I think these two books are the two most useful knitting books for me in a long time. I've been reading the major magazines, almost all the mainstream current books and a few oldies, and been fairly well entrenched in the online knitting world for several years now, and the information Amy gives in No Sheep for You on non-animal fibers is a revelation to me. I've seen profiles of some of the new yarns and fibers elsewhere, and I've read many a general survey of all the various fibers, but nothing has come close to this much information, all of it immediately applicable to my knitting. To be honest I've avoided using any of these materials, except for cotton and that only for dishcloths and bathmats, because the few items I've tried in the past have not worked out so well. Now I know that that's because I had no clue what I was doing - it was not the poor fibers' fault (well, there was some guilty acrylic...), but user error. Most wools are pretty easy to just pick up and knit and end up in a garment that will be usable, but the fact is that you can't throw hemp or silk into a pattern intended for wool and expect everything to work out. I had probably gotten as far as this realization in previous experiments, and concluded that I just didn't know what to do with those fibers, and maybe that I couldn't do much with them beyond put them into scarves. Amy's book takes the next step and shows how truly dazzling all these kinds of yarns can be in just about any type of FO if you do it right, and then shows you how to do it right.

The patterns are lovely. I want to make Tomato, and Hubbster has already registered his desire for the hemp "Manly Maze" sweater (actually, he'd been asking for a hemp sweater for ages, but I hadn't known what to do about it...) The intensely cabled and delicate Morrigan makes me go all wobbly. The Tuscany shawl is a must, and I'm going to dedicate to it the first skein of sea silk I can get my grubby little paws on. In fact, every single pattern in here is very desirable to me, though the others I haven't mentioned yet may be too ambitious, too expensive, or too fussy for me at the moment (which is not to say I won't get there eventually...). And they're all very timeless, more so than most books I can think of, which suggests that even if it takes me 10 years to be ready and able to make Morrigan or Sweet Indulgence, it'll look just as good then as it would now.

There you have it, folks. Next time: a long disquisition on the wondrousness of Galina Khmeleva (who I'm going to MEET in August!!! while also having a slumber party at Beth's!!! And seeing her spinning store!!! Aiiieeeee......)

Also of note: There's an event in NYC on Monday that I'm dropping everything to get to: 19th Century Knitting and Needlework in the park!!! I don't know any more than what's on that link, but my friend Aline and I are going, I'm bringing the set of US 000 DPNs I'm afraid of and some laceweight to see if I can experiment with what stocking knitting felt like 150 years ago. If you're in NYC and can go, drop me a line so we can find each other there!

FO Parade

2007-06-21T19:35:00.000-04:00

I slipped off to Augusta, GA for a week to see the in-laws, and I got a bit of knitting done there. Enough for a "parade of FOs" though I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that they're all small items, and not all of them were even among the WIPs when I left! Oh well, it's vacation. With no further ado...

A second pair of twinkle toes, this time for a friend who's a ballet lover and has a birthday coming up (and, blessedly, very small feet):

(the following is a terrible picture, but just to prove I did finish both of them...)

I was also inspired to try a pair of pocketbook slippers for the same friend. I've finished the first one. The yarn is a mystery yarn from Russia, mostly wool with a bit of silk and mohair. I'm hoping there's enough silk to keep them from felting too badly...

Just before I left I finally finished the melon scarf. I was just this close to being sick of it (NB: it's not yet blocked, and I had to white-out the background of the modeled picture because it was too weird and ugly):

Did I tell you guys that my dad got me an mp3 player for my birthday?? It arrived only after the diss work was done, and so timely it was. It's totally changed my life. I had no idea how behind I'd gotten, for one thing, on knitting podcasts - I'm nowhere near caught up even on the ones I used to listen to before the Dark Time of Diss Finishing began, never mind all the news ones! Then there's audiobooks....Not to mention, of course, the suddenly dire need for a knitted mp3 player cozy. I used leftovers of one of my all-time Favorites Yarns in Life, Himalayan recycled silk/wool in red. I made up the shaping as I went along, and inserted a little elastic and some buttons after the fact to keep things tidy. Then I also made a plain pouch to hold the headphones, so that I can throw both in my KIPer bag without worrying about tangling or damage (they fit really nicely into one of the inside side pockets).

Finally, just to prove I have been putting some work into a bigger project, here's a progress shot of the fisherman's sweater (I'm just a few rows away from splitting it up for the armholes):

Meanwhile, in Georgia, I stopped at a Michael's and picked myself up some Paton's SWS. I was a little irrational with no specific project in mind and craft-store-fumes and all, so the number and variety of skeins I bought really makes no sense, but boy are they pretty, and boy do I like staring at them while I try to think of what to make. What went through my head at the time was that I wanted a Lady Eleanor but didn't know how much I needed, and I also wanted felted slippers like these, except maybe instead of fuzzy feet I'd try the new pattern from the new book I just got...and the result was that I bought yarn that doesn't really work for any of these. I'm thinking of making two pairs of fuzzy feet and a neck warmer in entrelac a la Lady Eleanor instead. But I might still be so tipsy from the yarn that that doesn't make sense either.

Georgia was nice (though hot, and/or stormy), but now were back and in full packing/sorting mode. Very tiring and kind of blah. Can't wait to move on to NH at the end of the month: 1) no plane to get there, 2) good weather, 3) we get to stay put for a while, 4) fresh air, trees, hiking.

My Head Is Full of Yarn

2007-06-08T18:46:00.000-04:00

So, as I was drifting off to sleep the other night, I noticed that when I closed my eyes, images of beautiful knitting continued to float in front of my mind's eye. This was, no doubt, the result of two full days of playing on Ravelry almost non-stop. Half-way down the road to being asleep as I was, I tried to explain what was going on to Hubbster. Somehow, the most coherent thing I could muster was "My head is full of yarn."

What did Hubbster say?

"I know."

It was as if I'd said, "It's hot in here."

On a related note - you know the random sort of stuff that you think about before you fall asleep that calms down your brain enough to let you drift off? In my family we call them "mental screen-savers." Counting sheep is a mental screen-saver, though a pretty boring one unless you're really into their fleeces or something (which would be only natural, after all). My mental screen-saver lately has been imagining, in lots of detail, my dream knitting room. That is, neither money nor space (or perhaps even physics) are objects to putting together this perfect space. I like to think of all the lovely tools (sewing machine and serger, blocking wires, blocking board, large flat surfaces) that would be there, and the pretty storage solutions (a wall of cedar cubbies, hand-dyed hanks hanging from the ceiling...), and the full-spectrum lamp and comfy armchair...and of course a computer for blogging and browsing and pattern/yarn reference.

I find that most mental screen-savers get boring after a while. Somehow, I think I can revel in this one for quite a long time....

What would your dream knitting room be like?

Anticipation for Ravelry

2007-06-07T01:16:00.000-04:00

People are getting so excited about Ravelry, it seems, that they can hardly contain themselves. This was me 3 days ago, and I know it's still most of you (though they're inviting people from the waiting list in large numbers daily...). Since I've been in and seen it, I thought I could say a few more things about what to expect for those of you chomping at the bit. I also posted this to a Flickr discussion group where people are getting mighty anxious:

What it is: think of it as a combination of MySpace and a vast fiber arts database that's created by users (a la Wikipedia). The possibilities of how this can be used are pretty much endless, but for starters it allows you to (1) organize your projects, stash, needles and books (2) browse other people's stuff (3) find patterns and yarns and instantly see how they've been used by lots of other people (4) find people with similar fiber interests and tastes (5) projects can be linked to blog posts, so it's also a good way to stumble onto new blogs that you're likely to enjoy (i.e., it's better than a random search), (6) there are forums for everything fiber-related that can potentially become *the* central forums for online fiber enthusiasts. One of the most exciting things about Ravelry, I think, is that it's like a Grand Central Station for online fiber people. It doesn't replace anything that exists already, but it can organize, connect, and provide a central gateway for all of it.

What you can do now: You can take your waiting time now to get everything ready to put on your "notebook" in Ravelry as soon as your invite comes in (which could be any moment now). Photograph all your projects and every yarn in your stash if you want to be that thorough (and you will want to be once you get in there and see everybody else's). Upload all these pics to Flickr (eventually they say you'll be able to import pics from other image storage sites, but right now it's just Flickr). Lay out all your needles and make a note of everything you've got on a single sheet of paper so you can enter it more easily in the Ravelry chart (see screen shot linked to above, to know what it will look like). Enter all your knitting books into LibraryThing.com - you'll be able to import knitting books only directly from LibraryThing into Ravelry.

That should keep you busy in the short time remaining until you join up!

For those of you who listen to Cast On - you probably are among the first to have heard about it, because Brenda mentioned it quite early, and it is (in my opinion) the answer to many of the questions Brenda raised in her last series about the online knitting community - or at least, it has the potential to be. And Jess and Casey are incredible people, doing an incredible job very fast, out of nothing but generosity and enthusiasm! Let's all channel those same feelings, which are so common among knitters, and put it into making this database as vast and magnificent as it can possibly be!

WIP: Lace Sampler

2007-06-05T23:54:00.001-04:00

Edited to Add: there are a few other knitting books on sale at Amazon right now. Look also for Knitting for Peace, or just search under "knitting," in "books" and look at the first few pages. I noticed that one book that was $5 yesterday (Greeting from the Knit Cafe) is back to normal price.

I feel guilty. Like maybe I've been neglecting my wonderful, old, more-than-a-year-old bloggy-woggy (not to mention Bloglines) in favor of that hot little tart, Ravelry. Does this make me a blog harlot? Something like that. Anyway. Hubbster came home with the camera, at last, but there was only about a half hour of daylight left. So here's the best I could do:

Of course it looks like cat barf right now, but I love it anyway. As pointed out by the Purloined Letter, lace is incredibly good therapy for deeply bruised nerves and brain, or at least so I'm finding out. The only example of extended lace knitting (or knitted lace - whatever) that I did before (Icarus) was in the middle of a deep procastination phase, and it also served me well by absorbing me completely at a moment when I needed to get away (and ended in a very quickly finished shawl!). Now, I feel like I'm getting something different out of it, something less like escape and more like meditation. For this the sampler idea is perfect, and especially from a great book like Victorian Lace Today. The author adds little tidbits next to each chart, noting things like "it's an in-between stage in the development of lace - reverse stockinette is used to add definition, but decreases are still unidirectional." I feel like I'm both learning and practicing a little bit of the history of lace by moving through these charts, and the excellent presentation in this book really helps me to pay attention and take in the nuances of the patterns as I go. And, of course, the yarn is beautiful, the needles (KnitPicks Classic Circ US3) are perfect, and I'd love it even if it wasn't going to block into breathtaking beautifulness.

Oh - and Amazon put some knitting books on super-sale. This morning I got Knit 2 Together for $5, and since there's no point in not getting free shipping, I also took this little opportunity to totally cheat on my book diet and also order Galina Khmeleva's Gossamer Webs. I justify this because I'm going to take her class at Beth's spinning shop in August!!!!!!! (btw, Beth, while I'm thinking about it, in answer to your question: I still don't know, need to talk to mom and sort out transport question, which is increasingly complicated...are there buses in Michigan??)

Dudes!

2007-06-05T13:39:00.000-04:00

Look look look!

So even if your number hasn't yet been called, start photographing your stash now! Jeepers, how have three days passed and I've done...nothing but play with Ravelry. Haven't caught up on emails. Haven't knitted, hardly. Haven't blogged. Sure as hell haven't done the dishes or the laundry. Did get some quick groceries, but only to fuel more play time. This is d a n g e r o u s stuff, here, folks. And probably the only reason I'm posting this now is that Hubbster took the camera to the library and so I can't photograph my stash right now, or even get a picture of my new sampler lace project (which was going along nicely before Ravelry and will surely continue to progress soon). How kick-ass will it be to have pictures and accurate data of everything - yarn, needles, books, projects??

Oh, and another thing. I completely missed my blogiversary. Blew right by me. Will have to think of some other excuse for a contest at some point soon. And then think of a contest. Workin' on it.

Should probably go forage for food, or bathe, or something.

Ravelry!!

2007-06-03T11:59:00.001-04:00

Guess what?!!!! I finally got my invite to Ravelry Beta!!! I'm not one of the privileged who were solicited, of course, but I did sign up on the waiting list, so I don't know if they're just gradually adding the waiting list people but not yet generally up and running, or what. But oh my god I'm so excited!!!! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go check it out, or catch up on your podcasts (as I have just started to do myself...) - everybody's talking about it! And with good reason. It's *incredible*. Makes me really wish I hadn't lost my old database of stash, needles and projects (when my laptop got stolen years ago), as that would have made it super-easy to actually get everything up on Ravelry really fast, but oh well. This is an incredible resource, guys, and I'm so excited I can't sit still.

Important: if you read this blog (lurker or not), please be my friend on Ravelry! As soon as you join, find me in the list of people and click "invite friend." I'd love to know who you all are and see your blogs! I try to go look at the blogs of commenters as much as possible, but for obvious reasons I've been way behind lately.

Can you imagine if I'd been able to join this a few weeks ago? I might not be getting that PhD after all!

Phew!

Meme Season?

2007-05-31T22:33:00.000-04:00

It must be the sultriness of the weather, but memes seem to be filling the air, and I for one am too lethargic for much else just at the moment. Besides, I was tagged by Laura an embarrassingly long time ago, before even getting tagged for the 5 random things (see below). Since there are an endless supply of random things floating around my life, here goes:

7 Random Things

1. I wrote my first story when I was about 6. I can’t remember what it was about, except that it involved a secret door into an imaginary universe, that the secret door was based on an actual door in my grandparents’ old farmhouse that didn’t seem to go anywhere (in retrospect, I believe it provided access to the plumbing), and that I got really frustrated with the story’s lack of originality, and didn’t finish it.

2. A couple years later I won a “young authors” prize for a different story, one about a robot. I didn’t like it at all – I shamelessly wrote what I thought the teachers wanted to see and would consider precocious, and it worked. I never really fully respected teachers after that. I also gave up writing fiction at that point.

3. I have a morbid fear of spiders. Seriously – I flip out if I get too close to one, and feel like something’s crawling on me for hours afterwards. However, bees and wasps don’t scare me in the least.

4. The first time I dyed my hair was when I was 16, while staying in a youth hostel in Lido de Jesolo, Italy with 40 other exchange students. I dyed it “plum,” and it’s been various shades between auburn and blue-black on and off ever since.

5. I walked for the first time at 9 months, but started talking very, very late. However, when I did start talking I immediately used 3-syllable words and full, grammatically correct sentences. My mother attributes this to the fact that she took me to college with her in a front pack from my earliest days. We also think the early walking may account for my inability to coordinate hands and feet – not enough practice at crawling.

6. When I was little, my best friend and I painted pictures on rocks and pieces of wood and sold them to the neighbors. It didn’t occur to me until years later that people bought them because we were cute (and only charging 10 cents), not because they needed paperweights.

7. I had braces for more than 6 years, and my bite still isn’t quite lined up right. My teeth were straight to begin with, and I wish they’d never been messed with. I think it’s annoying how braces give everyone the exact same unnaturally perfect teeth.

Knitting Experience Meme

2007-05-28T15:31:00.000-04:00

Edited: to fix mistakes from posting too fast and to (hopefully) fix the little problem of bold and italics not showing up in bloglines and making it look like I've never knit stockinette stitch! (thanks Specs!)

I found this via Eve and Kate.

Instructions: Mark with bold the things you have knit (or are knitting), with italics the ones you plan to do sometime, and leave the rest.

Eve introduced an extra bit: link to pages if they’ve been documented!

Afghan (will be a long time coming)
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn (I’ve done llama…)
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk (not 100% yet, though…)
Moebius band knitting (band?)
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn (dude!)
Domino knitting
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting (huh??)
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book (probably not, alas, but knitting did get mentioned in my diss…)
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit (have taught only adults so far, strangely)
American/English knitting
Knitting to make money
Buttonholes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colours
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on one or two circulars
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Knitting two socks on ~~two~~one circulars simultaneously
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener stitch (finally have it memorized!)
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting (my aunt has a machine and let me try it once years ago; unfortunately we no longer live near each other…:-( )
Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegated yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves(thinking of starting some soon, as you know)
Intarsia (have been avoiding this like the plague...but for no good reason)
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting (have the yarn and the plan ready…)
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho (I’ve got a bolero in mind, I like shrugs, but NOT ponchos!)
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

Post Scripts

2007-05-28T11:49:00.001-04:00

1. The bookshelves - Ikea's "Billy." As cheap as it gets. The secret is twofold: first, glass doors, which I found in their remainder room for $40 for the pair, and second, colorful books (helps to study Russian history - lots of red covers!)

2. Huge thanks to Sara (blogless?) for referring me to a diagnosis that explains everything. An excerpt: "In the terminal phase, dissertation dementia, the patient may become incoherent, demonstrate catatonic behaviors and/or flat affect, and report hallucinations and delusions....A tendency to ruminative, vague, and circumstantial speech is common, as are odd beliefs and peculiar behavior patterns. Research indicates that university professors are particularly prone to these patterns."

3. Plans for Decadence: I think I'm going to take Ayla's advice and make Miss Dashwood but skipping all the frills and furbelows, and also take Paula's advice and make the Cherry Garcia neckwarmer from Hello Yarn - I think I should have enough yarn for both. Thanks guys!

4. I've also started yet another WIP for which I have no justification at all: a lace sampler stole, based on the one in Victorian Lace Today, using my pink Alpaca Cloud from KnitPicks. I'm starting the fourth chart already and loving it!

Decadence

2007-05-26T13:01:00.000-04:00

First, don't worry, I'm not going to spend a whole post punning on the word "decadence."

But only because my Russian studies institute recently hosted a "Decadence Conference" and I'm so over that now.

Instead I'm going to talk about the yarn. Knit Picks' Decadence. How many of you, like me, happened to do one of your periodic checks of the KP web site a while ago only to discover a one-week-only sale on luxury yarns a mere 24 hours before it ended??? How many of you, like me, temporarily lost their minds?? Hubbster wasn't home, I was alone and defenceless. It's not my fault.

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I got two hanks of Decadence (100% superfine alpaca) in "winter rose," bulky weight, and three of Ambrosia (80% baby alpaca, 20% cashmere), sport weight in "mulled wine." They match, although that wasn't my intention. They were marked down from $5.99 to $3.99.

I decided that the Ambrosia was meant to be the gloves I've been procrastinating about knitting gloves almost since I learned to knit. I've never ever been able to find a pair of commercial gloves that remotely fit me - the largest women's gloves tend to reach the crook between fingers at my lowest knuckle, while men's gloves are wide enough on me to fit two hands inside. So here I am a Knitter - I should be swimming in hand-knitted, perfect-fitting gloves, shouldn't I? Alas, no. One of my only knitting phobias is gloves...and it's not really a phobia so much as an aversion. I know I can do it, and it won't even take that long...but I really hate knitting small tubes. Socks and sleeves are only marginally okay, and then I prefer smaller gauges to make it "worth it" by giving me a lot of stitches to enjoy between the fussing at each end - and I've absolutely minimized fussing by religiously using Magic Loop. So the idea of ten tiny tubes makes me a bit queasy. When I do it - and now that I've got this Ambrosia burning a hole in my basket I've got to do it - I want to make them the Meg Swanson way, using I-cord for each finger, but leaving a bit of slack at every turn that can be crochet-hooked up to form one more stitch and thus a tube big enough for a finger. But I'm still very nervous about getting just the right amount of slack....

Then there's the Decadence. What to do with the Decadence? I picked the color because I felt guilty about how much deep-red yarn I already own, so I picked my second favorite color, deep rose. But since I did the same thing with the Ambrosia and they match, I'm thinking I need to make something that will go well with the Ambrosia gloves. I'm kind of sick of scarves at the moment and I own more of them than I can wear, so I was thinking of a hat. Standard hats look awful on me. I already made a beret. I'm saving the cupcake hat concept for my PeaceFleece, because I think that's a good match of yarn and pattern. The Decadance is so soft and drapey, it made me think a floppy hat of some sort would be a good idea. My grandmother had crocheted a lovely floppy hat (with matching scarf and mittens) in bulky ivory unspun wool for my mom when she went away to college in 1970, that I later inherited but didn't fully appreciate in the 80s, that I thought might make a good model. Grandma's hat was great, but a little stiff (crochet) and the ivory color had never worked as well on me as on my mom. Hence: Rose Decadence + floppy hat = Perfection. But I didn't feel up to winging the pattern - I still feel woozy from the Diss and don't trust myself. Then it hit me - Miss Dashwood! Why not make the largest kid pattern provided, but in bulky yarn? It should be perfect! Indeed, I even swatched, and it was just right! The Knitting Gods have spoken! The pattern starts at the outside edge of the brim, so I knitted in to a few rows past the decreases for the crown, and realized now was a good time to try it on.

That spectacularly beautiful pattern, ladies and gentlemen, should be reserved for angelic babies.

Way, way too many bobbles for adult faces.

I was so horrified by my reflection that I frogged it all before I thought to take a picture for the blog. What you see above is all there is.

Leaving me with the question: know any good PLAIN floppy-hat patterns? Or should I give up and do something else instead? I think I need something virtually fool-proof, as this is fairly delicate yarn and, as you can see if you look closely at the picture above, the frogging has already worn it out a bit. I don't want to subject it to any more of that. Does that mean I'm stuck with a scarf...?

Meanwhile, I've been tagged. Like most people I don't like chain-letter type thingies, but on the other hand I discovered a lovely new blog by being tagged, I was highly entertained by Lauren's answers to the meme, and so why the hell not?

Here are the rules:

Each person tagged gives 5 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs 5 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag 5 others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog.

Now, this is not required by the meme, but since I liked the kinds of things Lauren included among her 5 facts, I'm going to do a few similar ones...

1. Celebrities I've met or seen close up and in-person (and not just from the audience):

Bill Murray (on the sidewalk in Morningside Heights, NYC - I recognized him by his grin)
Woody and Soon-Yi (holding hands on Park Ave, NYC - I felt like I'd suddenly stepped away from reality and onto the pages of People)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (in Tea & Sympathy, NYC - he looked annoyed at being stared at, understandably)
Naomi Watts (at The Container Store, NYC - she looked extremely glamorous in that environment, but then I'd imagine she'd look pretty glamorous anywhere)
NYC former mayor David Dinkins (shared an elevator in the CU Int'l Affairs bldg)
Keanu Reeves (bumped into him, literally, while being an extra on Chain Reaction - he was very nice, considering)
David Schwimmer (bumped into him, literally, at a premier at the Steppenwolf theater in Chicago - he was very nice, considering)
Gary Sinise and Laurie Metcalf (they were in said play premier and party afterwards; didn't actually talk to them and managed not to bump into either of them also)
John Linnell and John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants (on the sidewalk in Peoria, IL)
James Carville (he guest lectured for a class my brother was TA-ing - a very nice guy)
George Stephanopoulis and an unidentified Kennedy (at a party - didn't actually talk to either)
Ted Kennedy (at a fundraiser - he shook my hand and called me "the future of America")
Robert Redford (at a screening - his skin looked awful up close. So did Ted Kennedy's)
The Yarn Harlot (at her signing in Brooklyn; only saw her from the audience at the Represent event)
Amy Singer (at The Point in NYC)

2. Celebrities that I'd like to meet:

Meg Swansen
Kay and Ann of Mason-Dixon
Brenda Dayne
Lime & Violet
Annie Modesitt
Elsabeth Lavold
Priscilla Gibson-Roberts
Franklin Habit
Grumperina
Annemor Sundbø
…you get the idea

3. I wasn't on Romper Room, like Lauren was, but I was on some short-run kids' show when I was little. I don't actually remember it. I was also seen knitting - briefly in the background - on the news in Moscow on Election Night 2004 when I watched the returns at the Embassy along with a bunch of other expats. I was knitting my archive gloves and didn't look happy. As for my stint as an extra in the amazing hit film Chain Reaction - I was in the balcony during a lecture hall scene that's shown over the opening credits of the movie, but I never actually got onscreen. It was a fun time though - Keanu Reeves was playing a U of Chicago student, and a real U of C professor (from the theater dept) had a bit part as the lecturer in that scene. One of my best friends went to the bathroom during what she thought was a break from filming, only to run into the entire film crew at the bathroom. She works in the movies now, but not because of that incident!

4. My mother used to call me (and sometimes still does) "D.C." with the emphasis on the D, not the C. Apparently this evolved from my name this way: Katie -> Kay-dee -> Dee-dee -> Dee-see. My brother was "foo."

5. Also when I was little, I used to hum tunelessly, without realizing I was doing it. Kind of like Scout in the opening of the To Kill a Mockingbird movie. Apparently I grew out of it by about 7 or 8.

I'm going to break the rules by not tagging anyone specifically - consider yourself tagged if you want to be. I need to back off from the computer and pick up some pointy sticks....

FO - First Skirt Ever!

2007-05-21T17:03:00.001-04:00

...but it won't be my last. I'm already planning another in charcoal alpaca, this time actually using the pattern from Blue Sky Alpacas. The one shown below I made up, using 50-50% wool/cotton that I bought in Russia. The yarn is rather stiff (it's the kind that's made like a teeny-tiny tube of I-cord), and I knit it at a tight gauge so that it keeps its shape well. It's quite a bit shorter than I'd intended, but I ran out of yarn, and Hubbster approved! With no further ado, some uncropped and unadjusted pictures (because I'm posting from work):

Meanwhile, I've been adding a little bit to several other WIPs, but not yet enough to make for interesting pictures. I've also been returning library books and throwing out piles of early drafts:

Hurrah!!

I also want to say a gigantic THANK YOU to everyone who's written and commented to support me through this dissertation hell, and just in general - although I've been absolutely terrible about responding to anything, I delight in every one of your comments and emails. I look forward to checking for comments as a special treat, and every single one makes me grin (while quite a few make me laugh out loud with joy). Please don't ever think that if I don't write back it's because I'm ignoring you - not at all! Actually, I always have a response in my head...but in recent ~~weeks~~ ~~months~~ years(??) the response has not always made its way from my head to my fingers and the keyboard. But it's not because I don't care! It's because I've been barely keeping myself together to get the minimum necessary done. But now it IS done...and I finally have time and (more importantly) mental energy to eat right, exercise, take my vitamins, sleep, knit, and get myself in order generally. That's what I'm working on now, and it feels great. I'm even going to the doctor to check up on all my psycho-somatic dissertation-induced illnesses (because I did one of those online diagnose-me things, and it turned up with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and adrenal dysfunction! I think they don't have "dissertation" as an official diagnosis, though, and from what I hear they're all pretty equatable).

Still Here!

2007-05-15T17:34:00.000-04:00

Do you know how much 333 pages weighs? Now multiply that by 5, for the five members of my committee.

I'm going to be spending tomorrow afternoon getting some weight off my back.

And then there's just a little bit of catching up to do - sleep, laundry, cleaning, etc.

But I'll be back soon! and with no more posts ever again that are labeled only "non-knitting content, diss"!!!!!!!!!!!

CotLin Review and 2 FOs!

2007-05-05T15:35:00.000-04:00

Edited to Add: Actually, as it turns out, I'm less picky than the Harlot, too. Those unmatched ribs wouldn't bother me at all - in fact, I've probably done that inadvertently and not even noticed. Though I suppose it depends on how the sweater is supposed to hang (ribs stretched apart, or bunching up). Good to have these things sorted out. And good to know that cool technique from Veronik Avery - just in case...

Funny how you think you're "practically done" and will suddenly have more time...and your immune system kicks you in the ass and reminds you that, actually, you have to pay for all those months of poor diet and no exercise and stress....blaech. Anyway.

I finished a bath scrubby made out of my new KnitPicks CotLin!

This took only a very small part of the skein, so I'm going to make one more scrubby and maybe also something else.

Before I attempt any kind of review, a few caveats: I'm not a picky knitter. More Harlot than Grumperina, you know? And I've never had any trouble knitting with even something as rough as kitchen cotton (in three strands even!), though I also don't knit with cotton more than once in a blue moon. I'm also not exactly meticulous about...anything. So I'm maybe not the best reviewer in the world. But, I'm happy to share what I've noticed from playing with CotLin so far.

As you can see, the stitches are even and balanced. It has no noticeable elasticity, but wonderful drape. Check out the CO edge of the scrubby - I did 2 or 3 rows of stock st, then a row of k1, p1, another row of plain knit, then p1, k1 across, and continued in stock st. Not the slightest little hint of a roll - I think I could have left it in plain stockinette and it would have been flat enough for my purposes. The hand is similar to other non-mercerized cottons - it's soft in that cotton-y way. But it's also very light, and smoother than kitchen cotton. I personally very much enjoyed knitting with it, but like I said, I'm kind of insensitive to the hand-cramping others seem to get from knitting with inelastic yarns.

There are quite a few bits of very small, light plant matter throughout the skein. I started taking them out and then decided it was probably a good thing for a scrubby and left it in - you can see it in this picture. You can also see the slight, fuzzy halo from the cotton. It's less fuzzy than kitchen cotton, but not as sleek as linen (nevermind the shine of mercerized cotton. It's definitely something I would make a garment out of, but only a summery, casual, drapey sort of garment.

I haven't yet tried washing it or using it as a scrubby, since I decided to send this one off to Mom, with her new socks (see below) for mother's day, but I'm making the second one for me and will let you know if it does anything funny in the wash.

As for color - these pictures are accurate on my monitor. I love the light sport-weight gauge, allowing you to knit lighter or finer pieces than kitchen cotton.

Verdict? I've already ordered more, now that they've got the natural linen color in stock. I'm going to make some dishcloths, and I have a feeling I'm going to need to make still more in a variety of colors. I think this yarn fills a wonderful niche - between kitchen cotton and mercerized cottons and the more expensive and stiffer 100% linens and hemps - and I'm delighted to have it available, even though it's fairly limited, in my mind, to tanks or light summer tops, and washclothe/towel-type things. But maybe I'm just not using my imagination enough?

I also finished the Avocado socks for mom for mother's day. They look much less funny on the feet.

And, I've been knitting blue. Yummy.

Skip Spring and Go Straight to Summer - Updated with Captions and Rambles

2007-04-21T18:14:00.000-04:00

Edited to Add: Captions to the photos!

I've been working all week on the last huge events for the year at this regional studies institute where I work, so there hasn't been too much knitting and no picture-taking since last time, but I've got a free afternoon today and I can at least add the info to go with the pictures from last time. Scroll down - new text is in bold.

Heya! I feel like I've been away for ages. I miss you guys!

We're apparently not getting a spring this year, but have gone straight into summer at warp speed. Loving it. Totally oxygen-drunk.

On that note, I'm taking my cue from Specs and finishing the post in pictures. Details and things to follow: once the initial shock of being practically finished started to wear off, I quickly became flooded with ideas for the blog. I'm still too exhausted to actually execute them, but I'm recovering fast (not to mention, the days are getting longer and sunnier!!)

CotLin - In response to demand, I will certainly post a review asap. I'm about a third of the way through a simple bath scrubby right now, and will review as soon as it's done and shower-tested. I got this one skein to try out the new yarn. All I can say now is that I can't wait until the "natural" color is available (early May), so I can order a bunch of it and make hand towels a la Mason-Dixon! And, yes, I hope they're going to add a LOT more colors to that line soon!

These are all Knit Picks' Wool of the Andes (100% Peruvian wool) in worsted weight. I got two balls each of Avocado, Black Cherry Heather, and Forest Heather, and many more balls of Sapphire Heather for a Dutch fisherman's sweater for Hubbster. The other colors are destined to be bed socks, inspired by Laura's. The Avocado is for my mom for mother's day - she wears almost entirely black with the occasional red, but likes to have small touches of wild colors every once in a while - like avocado. But what amazed me when the yarns all came and I threw them in a basket with all the WIPs is how avocado looked amazingly beautiful with everything, and also seemed to make all the other colors look better. I don't get it, but I can't stop staring at my yarn basket! I have to say that I also love the color selection of the worsted Peruvian wool in general, much more so than the fingering-weight Palette (I have the palette sampler, and while I love having a ball of every color and playing with them, I love them mainly as a collection - I adore almost all the colors of the worsted set more for themselves, if you know what I mean). This surprised me because the first three balls I bought of worsted WoA was Firecracker Heather, and I don't really like the color (though the yarn itself is great and will make nice socks anyway). It's too much yellow/gold for me, which I didn't see on my monitor, but should have guessed based on the name, probably. By contrast, all four colors I just ordered this time looked much more beautiful than I expected. The Sapphire Heather, in particular, is spectacular. I think WoA will be my new felting yarn of choice (someday, when I can justify spending again...went a little overboard this time!)

One finished EZ bootie (though ends still loose, as you can see). All the new goodies arrived shortly after finishing this, so who knows when I'll get to the second one. It's Arucania wool, leftover from the Baby Surprise Jacket from awhile back.

Orchids for my birthday! Also a little oil lamp which, when lit, reflects the tree shape onto the wall. Very cool.

Yes indeedy, folks, it's my new but already much beloved KnitPicks Options needle set. The basic set was my birthday gift from mom, which then somehow legitmated my going back to KnitPicks to buy the 3 biggest needle tips, plus extra cords and two sets of size markers because of my large numbers of WIPs, plus a couple extra sleeves to hold it all. When I first got the set, I was mildly annoyed that the case was so big - taking up valuable space in the knitting bag. Now, it's exactly, precisely full. Not dangerously overstuffed, but just holding every possible needle-related tool I might ever need. Yay!! I love the idea of being able to grab this and go anywhere, knowing that I have every possible needle combination I might ever need. I know one complaint has been that the needles aren't labeled for size - this is annoying, though my other needles that were labeled have all seen their labels wear off, except of course the Denise ones where it's gouged into the needle itself - can't do that with metal! I'm glad, though, that they didn't label the sleeves in the case, because this way I get to choose how to organize them. I chose to use the round plastic size markers they sell separately to mark which size is in which sleeve. That is, I store the size markers alongside the same size needle tip, and it also serves to tell me what size the needle tip is at a glance. As for the performance of the needles themselves...well, we all have our biases. My needle preferences are very strongly for: circs only (magic loop for small knitting in the round), fast nickle-plating, pointy tips to cut down on the cursing and dropped stitches and split yarn during complicated stitch maneuvers, super-thin-super-flexible cords, smooth joins, long enough needle tips that the end of my large hands don't rest right on the join, and some reasonable amount of heft. Although I know almost everyone prefers the lightest possible needles, I actually don't. I can't even knit with plastic circs, because they're so light I feel like I lose some measure of control. I think it's partly because my hands are relatively large and rest on the needles themselves, so I need needles sturdy enough to take that, but I also seem to somehow use the pull of gravity on slightly heavier needles in order to manipulate them comfortably. I'm not sure I could explain it any better than that and I haven't figured out how to embed a video on blogger, so you'll just have to trust me. Anyway, as you can conclude from this, I feel like the new KnitPicks line is made for me. My favorites before were Addis, and I will try their new lace needles as soon as I can afford a pair - I have a hunch I might prefer them for lace, but that the price difference would keep me loyal to KnitPicks at least until I get a real job. In any case, having made my first and so far only lace shawl on the old Addis, I no longer really fear the sleekness of nickle plating in any project (tho, again, if I had the money I would welcome a collection of the new Addis that are specially coated for lace, in addition to the good cords and tips). The only time I use straights or wooden needles is when I'm doing something small and very process-oriented and just feel like knitting the way my ancestors would have to specifically to enjoy the feel of the wood. I do this pretty often, actually, but with things like dishcloths or a scarf - not ever with a large or fussy project. My needle collection is really large partly because half of them are aluminum (the noise they make feels like nails on a chalkboard to me) or plastic - those were the kinds of needles I was taught on, that the people who taught me used, and that were available for me to buy in the years before knitting caught on but when I built up my initial collection of tools. Those have been increasingly gathering dust as I've gathered the kinds of needles I really like. But until I got this extended Options set, there was always a size (US13) or a length (16") or something that forced me to use icky needles that drove me crazy. And even my favorites, the Addis, that I had in the most commonly used sizes, were annoying for the dull tips, and the wonderfully interchangeable Denise set cords drove me insane almost daily, even while I really adored being able to leave knitting where it was while adjusting needle size or cord length as much as I wanted. Now I've got everything I could possibly want, and it's portable and organized, too! Yahoo! I really feel like this set has changed my knitting life in a huge way. Can you list the moments when you discovered something that transformed the way you think about knitting or the way you knit? Here's my top ten (in chronological order):

1. Seeing Norwegians knit complex, colorful, wool sweaters as though it's as natural an act as breathing.

2. Seeing a copy of Montse Stanley's handbook for the first time and realizing that there are dozens of ways (at least) to do anything in knitting, and they all have different advantages.

3. Walking into a local, American yarn store that contained no acrylic.

4. The premier issue of knitty.com - written in my own language, featuring patterns designed by people like me, for garments that I would actually wear (at least 50% of the time and often closer to 80%, as opposed to the .05% of every print magazine I'd seen before that, and the circa 30% of even my favorite print magazine now). This discovery is closely related in my mind to the period of time when I found out where to buy yarn online that didn't break the bank but didn't force me to compromise on natural fibers, either.

5. Discovering Elizabeth Zimmermann. I think she was/is my first real hero or idol, as much for the way she lived her life as for her awesome knitting genius and marvelously entertaining writing.

6. Reading the Yarn Harlot blog the first time and recognizing its author as the same "Stephanie Pearl" who posted hilarious stories to the KnitList ages back (I had saved every one of her posts because her genuis was already then very obvious, but unfortunately they got lost when my laptop was stolen - I hope the thief likes knitting). I think that was the first time I recognized the possibility of a knitting community -- by which I mean something that transcended the exchange of tips, or even inspiration or occasional company -- I mean, in short, exactly what Stephanie writes about in her new book (only I wasn't able to articulate it until she did it for us)

7. Seeing Eunny's knitting for the first time and recognizing how much there is to aim for no matter how "advanced" you thought you were. And how cool and diverse and inspiring and essential knitting blogs are (I started by reading her list of blogs to read, and expanded outward from there). (BTW, do you have any idea how excited I am about the new editor of what was already my favorite knitting print magazine?)

8. Getting my first comment from a total stranger (whom I now feel like I know, through her blog) on my then-new knitting blog, and learning over time that blogging actually makes me work (on non-knitting things) better rather than worse, while also inspiring my knitting and making me feel part of a community of people whom I respect enormously as people, far beyond the fact that we have a hobby in common!

9. Learning, on Aija's blog, how to weave in ends easily while knitting, and then discovering soon after from Meg Swansen that this is the same way you're supposed to strand a second color over large sections of FairIsle (this somehow fell through the gaps of my Norwegian knitting education and played a big role in my not going back to FairIsle for a while)

10. KnitPicks Options and Classic Circulars.

Because it was my birthday and the end of eight years of grad school, I also indulged in a chart keeper - the kind of arguably superfluous tool that I don't ever normally allow myself (I have a ball winder and swift because Hubbster bought them for me back when he was still a lawyer - I gasped at the cost and the unnecessaryness of it, and felt guilty about actually enjoying them for a while...until he pointed out that they cost less than any one of the dinners he had taken me to [oh, the good old days]) Anyway, I'm delighted with my chart keeper. It's surprisingly heavy - a definite down-side, but not a dealbreaker for me - and I'm sure I could have MacGyvered some kind of alternative for less than 10 bucks, but boy is it nice to just order the thing and have it, all beautiful and matching my other stuff and sturdy and handy. To date I have usually knitted only from very small charts that I memorize by the second rep, but that was largely because I couldn't find a comfortable way to use more complex charts. I hope this holder will make me take on some bigger challenges. In the meantime, it's awesome for holding my knitting cheatsheet - using the magnets to mark my place is at least as important with type this small as in chart knitting.

KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud in Peppermint. I wasn't sure I liked this color from the picture on the web - I was afraid it might be more red-and-white than pink - but I was in a "what the hell" mood with this purchase, and I tried it. It's beautiful and, as you can see, definitely pink. I have two skeins, and I'm going to make something from Victorian Lace Today in it, though I haven't decided what yet. Maybe a sampler stole, perhaps inspired by the one in that book and the one in A Gathering of Lace, but modified somehow or other. I'd also like to try an Orenburg shawl, but I don't yet have the book, and have kind of been thinking of waiting to try that until I'm in Russia next year (that seems to make sense...) Any other ideas?

This is KnitPicks Bare in Merino/Silk. I'm going to make these stockings. I'll have to modify all the specs in the pattern to actually fit me - my feet and legs being nowhere near "average" in any dimension - but all my recent sock experimentation, with the help of Charlene Schurch, are making me feel pretty confident, and I think it's time to try stockings. The yarn feels like butter, I must add.

Anastasia socks progressing, progressing! I never tire of staring deeply into handspun. So much so that I actually pulled out my spindling starter kit again one evening...and ended the experiment, hours later, just like all previous such forays: tired, frustrated, and very, very depressed that I just can't spin. The only useful thing that came out of that session was that I think I definitely isolated the problem - I just can't coordinate one hand and the other - it's just like tapping my head and rubbing my belly at the same time (actually, I think I'm better at the latter than at spindling). So I'm hoping that you spinners out there are right, that I might have better luck with a wheel. Trying one (much less buying one) isn't on the horizon right now, but I have to maintain some glimmer of hope that someday I'll be able to spin for myself (Hubbster is proving unresponsive to my hints that he should try it...). I'm going to be in Michigan in August, though, and I'm very much hoping to visit Beth's spinning shop for further inspiration.

The skirt is almost done. I couldn't get the whole thing in one shot without it looking like a blob, so this shot just shows how the shaping turned out. I ran out of yarn just a few inches short on the bind off, so I ripped out a few rows of the ribbing at the top, enough to finish the BO at the hem and then do a tubular BO on the ribbing at the waist. I kind of ran out of gas at the moment, though.

Wildflower sock is getting there! I'm increasing for the gusset. Very pretty.

More flowers for my birthday!

My tart burner, given to me by the amazing Wendy of Dame Candle Company. I love it, love it, love it. We burn it every single evening and while we're working during the day, too, if we're at home. Lovely. Looks very pretty on our coffeetable, too, now that I've cleared off all my stacks of drafts and Hubbster's orals books, etc, etc.

This is the KP Avocado wool on its way to becoming bed socks for me mom (holy Freudian slip, batman!). These are also at the increases for the gussets, but at least they're both on the needles at the same time - they'll be done soon!

Close-up of the orchids. This has been a very rough winter, and I don't think I've ever enjoyed spring (summer?) blooms as much as I do right now....

Catching Up

2007-04-09T13:21:00.000-04:00

I have a very exciting announcement:

I got the KnitPicks Options set for my birthday from my mom.

Oh, and I also turned in the "final" draft to my advisor yesterday afternoon.

Does it seem like I'm not sure which thing to be more excited about? It's not that, exactly, so much as the perfect symbiosis of the two major events happening at once.

I've been wanting those Options since the day they came out. Actually, I'd been wanting them long before, I just didn't know what they were going to be called yet.

I've been writing this "draft" for about 18 months, and during the last few months of that time I've hardly been able to knit at all, and during the entire time I could not justify spending money on anything beyond food, shelter and birthdays, and not even the latter occasion could justify even half what the Options set cost (this was my last (!) year of grad school when the usual fellowship had already run out, so I was living on bits and pieces of fellowship and temp work here and there)

So, my birthday passed a few weeks ago with only good wishes and some flowers - which was lovely - while I was still frantically revising, and neither capable of taking time off to buy or play with new toys or even to think about such things. Then, on Saturday, amidst Nervous Breakdown No. 3496 re: the stubborn non-linearity of Chapter Five, the postman came with a package from mom AND a package from Amazon paid for by our credit card-related gift certificate and graciously given over to my exclusive use by my loving Hubbster.

At the time I was only able to emit an ear-piercing SQUEEEEE (ask Hubbster!), and turn back to the computer.

But, by mid-day on Sunday I was proof-reading the last round of changes, and then off to the computer lab to double-space it and print it out. Delivered it to professor's doorman. Came home. Shaken. In shock. Exhausted in a way I never thought was possible (and I've done lots of stupid, exhausting things before, like go to the U of chicago for undergrad and hand-copy 150-year-old Russian handwriting during every available hour non-stop for 9 months, etc). More than anything else, I had NO IDEA what to do with myself. Every waking and sleeping hour for the past 18 months I've either been working on this diss, or thinking it or dreading it. And of course there's still a lot to do - not least, I need to finish the footnotes and bibliography while the prof is reading, and as soon as he's done he's sure to ask for more changes even in the BEST case scenario.

But.

For the first time in 18 months, there is an introduction, 7 chapters all containing thesis statements, intros, conclusions, and nothing bracketed or half-finished in between, and a there's a conclusion for the whole thing. And, on Sunday night and again tonight and maybe even for one or two more days after that...I don't have to do anything related to the dissertation. I have to temp (that's where I am now), but when I'm done here at 7:30 I don't have to make myself stay until 11 so as not to lose the caffeine rush I've got going. I can go home.

And play with my new Options needle set.

and the Harlot's new book.

and the yarn - YARN - that Hubbster strongly suggested needed to be purchased to go along with the new needles. (Good Hubbster! So good that the yarn I've ordered is going to be a sweater for him...see how smart he is at getting what he wants?)

Life has suddenly become very good indeed.

I actually knitted for several dazed hours last night, but don't have much to show for it since I just added a few rows to every one of my many, many WIPs (where did all these things come from??? Have no memory of starting most of them...)

In the meantime, though, I have some extremely crappy pictures (taken indoors and on location, so to speak) of a few FOs from waaaaaay back that I've been promising pictures of for ages. Here you go:

The peacock sock for Hubbster, which caused me a bit of a dilemma, because I'd made the gussets so monstrously huge for his very wide, flat feet that I ran out of yarn. After much helpful input, in the end I ripped back the first toe, and finished off both socks in Paton's Kroy. I've been wanting to get a modeled shot of them in ages, but Hubbster wasn't ready to wear them yet. It always takes him a while to get over his initial awe of a new handknit made just for him and actually expose it, ever so delicately, to the elements by wearing it.

The second afghan square for Warm Up America, made with the rest of the Paton's SWS that we were given at the Represent event. The colors are a little off here, but obviously it's supposed to be the same as the other square (which, oddly enough, photographed better even though I took that one on my lap in a crowded semi-dark auditorium).

This one's been absent for so long even I forgot about it. It's a felted tea cozy that I made over xmas break while we were in Georgia. It somehow found its way under the bed and therefore didn't get packed. My mother-in-law finally found it and mailed it to us. It's made from leftovers and the size/shape was a total guess, but it's actually a perfect fit for the teapot. I chose the colors of tea - green, brown, and red, because rooibos is my favorite tea (and everything that can have red in it should, anyway)!

Ignore the canister of scary-looking "Ultra Hair [tm]" shake mix. Mom-in-law sent it because she's a biologist and really obsessed with reading ingredient lists - and she decided that this stuff was so packed with important vitamins (for lots of things besides hair) that we needed it to get through the diss (in my case) and oral exams (in Hubbster's). Don't say anything, but...it tastes so awful we couldn't make ourselves drink any no matter how miserably unhealthy we feel...

Will be back soon...with new knitting to show you, and lots of happy ravings about my new book and new needles (suffice to say for now that I'm VERY happy with both!!)

Who Can't Use a Vacuum Cleaner?

2007-04-03T18:59:00.000-04:00

Okay, I have to link to this contest, because I want to win a Dyson vacuum cleaner. Who wouldn't? In fact - you know you want one too, don't you? Like me, perhaps, you've wondered all your life why vacuum cleaners don't work very well. Or whatever happened to the old Rainbow vacuum from the early 80s, that trapped dust in water and worked quite well indeed (but weighed a ton and had a bazillion parts). Actually, my parents' Rainbow is still working. Miraculously. Heroically. But, it's in Michigan and I'm in New York, and there's a lot of dust in New York.

Enough said. And yes, I know my prose style has deteriorated. It's very sad. But at least the sentences are getting shorter. Always a silver lining.

Anyway, I'm really here to say thank you - to all the wonderful commenters who came sending encouragement and good thoughts my way! I wish I could respond to every one (actually, the temptation to procrastinate by this means is overwhelming - I can't tell you how painful it is when the urge to procrastinate gets ever stronger and you can't give in. The moral of the story? A little procrastination is good for the soul, and dissertation-writing is soul-deadening. You can also see what it's done for my reasoning faculties, yes?) but I can at least say here - THANK YOU!! It really means SO much to me to hear that little ping from the mail window in the background and go see some lovely little piece of encouragment, wisdom, and generosity directed right at me. It's incredible. I swear, if I get through this, it will be due in large part to you guys!!

PS - obligatory knitting content: while rummaging in "my" office at my temp job for forks, I found...a basket full of knitting. Stuffed in a corner, on top of a file cabinet. Have no idea if the person I'm temporarily replacing is a closet knitter, but must definitely ask when she gets back...

And, yes, I was strongly tempted to add a few rows. Restrained myself, though, as the professors and students and speakers and VIPs who are constantly popping in unexpectedly might wonder why I'm not frantically finishing whatever it is they asked me to do...

Thunk

2007-03-31T23:06:00.000-04:00

(that's the sound of my head hitting the desk -- exhaustion)

I did finish the second afghan square.

It's beautiful.

No time to photograph.

Been working very hard.

It's gets harder with every passing moment.

Must turn in final revision this week.

Terrified.

Can't formulate sentences anymore.

Trying to also put together pictures for appendix.

Found lots of beautiful pictures that almost make me interested in this subject again, but they won't fit in the diss.

So here are some of them.

View of the countryside surrounding Vladimir, Russia.

Inside the fortress at Rostov-the-Great.

A hidden nook of the Rostov fortress.

The sign names the village that was once owned by the family I'm writing about. The name could mean "dear place." Or it could also mean "by the road."

From a reconstructed peasant house, now a museum, near Suzdal'.

Looks like wool to me...

Represented

2007-03-23T14:22:00.000-04:00

Um, okay, wow - where to begin. The Yarn Harlot's "Represent" book launch / "Woodstock of our people" (to quote Amy Singer) was one of the most amazing events I've ever been to. In fact, I can't think of anything like it I've ever experienced (but then, I haven't been to Rhinebeck yet!) And needless to say it was EXACTLY what I needed in my life lately. First, a caveat - I only took a few pictures and they're crappy, because I couldn't find a seat along the aisle and as it was I made this very nice couple who had a violin and several bags with them (not to mention their knitting) get up twice to let me by, so I just couldn't get up and run around taking pictures.

Luckily, the awesome candle goddess and incredibly cool person and great friend Wendy turned out to be seated just across the aisle from me, and I saw that she was taking lots of pictures with what looked like a much better camera than mine. Indeed! Go look at her account of the event now! We had been hoping to see each other there, and when I first walked in I looked around for some minutes trying to spot Wendy or anyone else I might 'know'. Funnily enough, I must have been standing right next to her when I was 'looking around', so that when I gave up and sat down in the nearest empty seat, then looked up again a minute later, there was Wendy! Did you see that I got to have my picture taken with Amy Singer for the second time? This was great fun, and Wendy is brilliant. (For the record, it was a nice size 17 wooden needle).

Okay, back up, I need to start from the beginning. I missed the Central Park sock picture, which was really unfortunate. I had my sock with me just in case (still just that toe...), but my meeting with the prof ran to 1pm and the meetup was at noon. Bummer. Now, I had scheduled this day very tightly. As my first "day out" for anything but groceries or other necessary errands in a really long time, and likely the last one for another long time, I wanted to pack it with many things. I also wanted to make sure my mind would be fully occupied until bedtime, so I wouldn't have a chance to think about the meeting with the prof until it had already receded a bit (it wasn't that awful, but there were still a number of insanely infuriating moments which I'm trying not to recall even now). So once I realized I'd missed the sock photo-op in the park, I called up a very good friend of mine who I haven't been seeing enough of (who also finished her diss last spring in similarly awful circumstances), and we did some much-needed shopping (had no jeans left) and even more needed whining and bitching over lunch. I just barely had time to run over to the 1 train uptown to FIT in time for the talk (I should point out that by this time I was carrying three heavily annotated chapter drafts, the camera, the sock, two new pairs of jeans, the icarus, a sweater, a coat, and a bottle of water in my over-loaded arms because the temperature had gone up from the 40 degrees it was when I set out to a very balmy, humid, almost-hot 70-something - to the people who sat next to me, I apologize for the smell).

I arrived at FIT hot, sweaty, but delirious with anticipation. As I walked up 27th looking for the C-building, I heard several women behind me speaking with a certain familiar degree of that bouncy, joyous glow that can only come from having just bought yarn and looking forward to hearing what Stephanie Pearl-McPhee has to say. I knew I was in the right place.

The place was HUGE. And PACKED. Since my current temp job is event planning for a regional studies institute, I can tell you that a major Russian author on his first-ever trip to the US cannot hope to command even a third this many people, even while there's an important literary event happening the same week (but not conflicting) to draw people from out of town.

There were people there to see the Harlot from Switzerland. From London. From Texas (which I sometimes think must be even farther away). Unlike the book-signing I went to before, a lot of people seemed to have brought their SOs to this event. And since they had put a ball of yarn and needles on every seat so you could knit an afghan square for charity during the event, all the SOs I saw in my vicinity were dutifully at least making the attempt to learn to knit. It was lovely to watch. Also, it was soon revealed that I was sitting next to the Sock Tsarina! I got to see her blue stocking sock up close! The woman who dyed the yarn for it (link to come, I hope) was also sitting right next to me! I so need to make a pair of those socks...not only have I always identified with the good old nineteenth-century bluestockings, but they'd be perfect for the KnitBlue KAL!

While everyone was getting seated, there was a slide-show on the stage featuring some very familiar (and some not so familiar) photos of Stephanie's socks in various locations:

Just that fact that 750 (or was it more like 800?) people were sitting in a room looking at pictures of half-finished socks traveling around the country almost made me teary-eyed. Seriously. Okay, maybe I was a little overwrought, but this was the best vibe I've ever encountered in any group anywhere, and all without benefit of mind-altering substances (unless you count newly-purchased sock yarn as a mind-altering substance?)

The roar that came when the Harlot stepped on to the stage was incredible:

Not that we don't love our Harlot, but SHE WAS WEARING THE BOHUS!!!! So, yes, a large percentage of the roar was for the sweater. So, since you can imagine how much 750 knitters can roar for their Harlot, add the Bohus, and you'll see what kind of response it was. Poor Stephanie did look of rather small stature up on that big stage, but her hair looked terrific (which is a lot more than I could say in that humidity!), so did her pants, and the sweater was glowing perfection of fit and design.

And then...guess what? JOE WAS THERE!!!! In a total surprise to Stephanie, Joe was planted in the front row. Her reaction was incredibly endearing to watch, though I worried a little bit for poor Joe, finding himself in a room full of 750 knitters who 'feel like they know him'! He seemed to handle it very well though. (On that note, I was able to wave madly at Wendy's SO, Marty, from across the aisle. I think he must have thought I was insane, but it was still fun after hearing so many great things about him on Wendy's blog. Oh - and Wendy's birthday-present necklace from Marty was gorgeous - I did notice!)

So, the talk. Hilarious, of course. Heartwarming and not a little bit political, too. All in a way that was so inclusive, constructive, and good-humored. I couldn't help thinking that in this terrible, terrible era in US and (to a lesser but real extent) world history, THIS is what we all need. Knitting, Harry Potter, and a Yarn Harlot to occasionally remind us what it all means and how important it is. And make us laugh.

Magnificent Juno was there to collect money for Knitters without Borders and hand out pins (I got my pin!). I can't tell you how awesome it was watching her walk up the aisles, unable to even know where to turn amidst the "Juno! Over here!" calls coming from every direction, along with arms waving money, sometimes with knitting in the same hand. And then to see Juno dance past Stephanie at the stage, waving her jar and saying, "look at all the money!"

Meanwhile, we were all knitting our afghan squares. The donated yarn - brace yourselves, people - was Paton's SWS!!!! All natural fibers, wool and soy. The yarn I have been most dying to try lately (thanks to Laura at Affiknitty!). I got the "Natural Earth" colorway, which is exactly what I would have chosen given a choice. I LOVED working with it and am now even more anxious to go out and get some for myself. I managed to finish a square just as Stephanie reached the end of her talk:

The pamphlet that came with it from Warm Up America listed several patterns, so I picked one that I hadn't done before, "shadow triangles" or something like that. I figured I should let the newbie SOs in the room do garter stitch. On the other hand, my ability to concentrate on stitches amidst all this excitement and hilarity - or even to read the pattern, actually - was zilch, so I have no idea what I actually did, but it looks pretty (thanks to the yarn!) and at least it's rectilinear.

While we're talking about kindness and good deeds. Wendy came with a present for me. A present! For me! Out of nowhere, she handed me a bag containing a beautiful porcelein tart burner and a variety pack of her soy tarts. The incredible random acts of kindness I have benefited from since becoming involved in the knitting community just blows my mind. No other people anywhere are like knitters, really. Wendy knew I'd really been wanting to try her tarts, because a little while ago, not being able to justify buying them for myself, I got them for my mom for her birthday. I'd sent her one of Wendy's candles for christmas and she'd really loved it. She used to burn the run-of-the-mill Target-type scented candles (being blessed by no headaches), but she told me after she tried Wendy's "tranquility" candle that she had no idea what she'd been missing. No more Target for Mom. So I figured a tart burner was a good idea for her, and that way I could send her new tarts every once in a while and try out all the scents vicariously through her (or just bring a whole bucketful when I visit!). She absolutely loved the burner and all the scents. The weird thing is that so did her dog. Honestly, the dog was completely indifferent to any other candles (which of course are always kept well above her reach), but kept hanging out under the counter where the tart burner was sitting, clearly enjoying the atmosphere there. Really funny. So now I have a tart burner of my very own thanks to Wendy!! I'm burning my first tart, "wild spruce" right now. It really fills the room, which is amazing considering that it's a big open living/dining/kitchen and entry way. The tarts definitely seem to reach further than a single candle, plus I like having the option of inexpensively trying out lots of different scents. Each one lasts for hours and hours and hours. We've had wild spruce going all morning, and Hubbster loves it as much as I do.

Have you ever tried organic raw sugar or organic eggs, exclusively, for some period of time, and then gone back to the regular commercial white sugar or eggs again? And realized that by comparison they taste like solid chemical waste? That's what it's like with Wendy's candles. They smell like the real thing. You can't go back.

So, after Stephanie finished her planned talk, she opened the floor for questions. There were wonderful, hilarious comments and questions from the audience, and Stephanie's responses had us all rolling...but, sadly, I didn't get to stay to hear all of it. Have no idea how long it went on, actually - I wouldn't be surprised if it was hours! But, according to my plan to pack the day as fully as possible, I had arranged to meet Hubbster later for a movie he really wanted to see. By the time the Q&A was underway, he'd already been standing outside the theater for half an hour. I was so torn - and you know how very much I adore my Hubbster, so it's really saying something that I lingered and lingered and felt really really torn about going to rescue poor Hubbster (as I soon found out, it was also raining by this time!). But in the end, knowing that the only book he'd brought with him was for his oral exams and that he doesn't knit, I decided I needed to be merciful and go to him. So, I dropped off my afghan square and sprinted to the movie theater a few blocks downtown, making it just in time to slip into seats as the movie was starting.

Um. First I'd better explain something about Hubbster. He loves, loves, loves ancient history and so he can't resist seeing any movie set in any time or place more than 500 years ago, even though he has yet to see even one that meets his high standards, and even though the vast majority of such movies are total crap. Since meeting Hubbster I've seen a lot of movies that I would never have gone to otherwise. Last night, we saw 300. A greater contrast between that sick, bloody propaganda-fest and the Yarn Harlot event there could not be. Seriously, it was like intellectual whiplash. While it was possible to sit through 300 and kind of enjoy it by giggling at all the unintentional humor and waiting to see whether it was really going to break out and turn into the gay porn flick it was so clearly dying to be, by the end I could only be surprised that it didn't have a little "Paid for by the Coalition for America" tagline at the bottom of the screen. Seriously. It was pretty to look at (very pretty) and the Persians had some hot, hot, hot piercings which I admired, but everything else had the quality, nuance, and message of a Republican campaign ad. Afterwards Hubbster agreed to three things: 1. Next time the Harlot is in town, he's coming with me. 2. I get to choose the movies we see from now on. And 3. All the world should learn to knit.

If you want to see a good movie, see The Curse of the Golden Flower. A lot of people look at the promos and assume it's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon all over again, but it's not. This time the whole formula came together and it's done right. It has all the grandeur and terrible inevitability of a Shakespeare tragedy, but the beauty comes from the visuals and the acting instead of the language. Everything fits, and I think for what it does it's perfect. (Don't ask me about Apocalypto. Please. Sitting through it was enough.)

I have enough SWS yarn left for a second square, and last night after we got home I got halfway through it -- plain, with a cable in the middle. These squares will probably be my first and only FOs of this terrible dissertation-finishing season. That feels right.

Representing on Thursday

2007-03-21T12:08:00.000-04:00

Hey guys. Just a quick note to say I'm planning to attend the Yarn Harlot's "Represent" event tomorrow. I have a meeting with one of my advisors (the out-of-town, not-quite-as-bad-as-the-other one) that day, so I decided that it was not only legitimate, but required that I go to the Harlot talk, because it may be the only thing powerful enough to shake me out of my stupor of misery so I can work productively again. So I just wanted to let you all know to look for me if you're there too - I'll try to remember to wear my red Icarus so you'll know who I am. Sadly, I won't be able to be part of the Central Park sock picture or take part in any of the other events, but at least I'll make it to the talk! I'll bring my camera and report back in full, I promise (though maybe not immediately as I do need to work all weekend).

In the meantime, go visit Ayla and say hi - she was going to go to the Harlot talk too, but had to cancel because she lost her job. :-(

Yarnival and (Gasp) Some Knitting

2007-03-19T11:43:00.000-04:00

First, a new Yarnival came out while I wasn't looking. I totally missed it, until I received a comment from someone who found me there! So I went and looked, and indeed there's a new and wonderful Yarnival over at NotScarlett. Check it out!

NotScarlett chose to include my post about the Stages of Diss Writing and Knitting. I think I'm now ready to add Stage Eight:

Writing: Wha? It's all crap. Hate it. Looking at the damn thing makes me literally sick to my stomach. Even the names of my advisors, never mind anything they actually say, can put me instantly in a state of prostration and/or hysteria. Yet, somehow, I keep slogging through it. Remember how I was once looking forward to the revision stage? I've always loved this part. The problem is entirely the profs who don't read anything but on whom everything depends. How do they sleep at night? Probably like babies, I know. [BTW - huge thank you to whoever it was who recommended PhD Comics to me (sorry, I can't seem to find you again...) - VERY therapeutic stuff!]

Knitting: For the most part I have been completely unable to do anything but play computer solitaire in the hour or so before giving up on the self-torture known as "revising" and falling asleep. Note that I'm not even playing regular computer solitaire (it's too challenging and makes me want to cry), but "spider solitaire," because it's almost impossible to lose. Note also that this hour before collapse each night takes place between around 2:30 and 3:30 am. And then I toss and turn all night, dreaming of professorial firing squads and tangled yarn. What is this doing under the heading "knitting" you ask? Well, last night I achieved two more rows on this sock, and consider it a major emotional triumph:

That's the wildflower pattern from f.pea. I think the effect is probably better with more wildly-colored yarn, but it's a fun technique. I wouldn't try it with needles any less pointy than Knit Picks', though.

Also in the last few days, I tried starting some EZ garter-stitch booties to match the BSJ, since I have plenty of leftover yarn.

I got that far in one evening's work, and haven't been able to get back to it.

And then, one day I had a fit of temporary insanity (this happens to me regularly lately) while taking a quickie mental-health break to look at my bloglines. I came across this amazing pattern. First, I love that you can memorize the entire pattern in about 30 seconds, even in a state of mind like mine. Second, I love that it fits on my knitting cheat sheet in 2 lines. Third, I love the idea of wearable, interesting, cute slippers that I can make in no time at all out of almost any yarn. Fourth, I absolutely adore the lime green ones I came across on someone's blog that led me to the pattern in the first place (except, sadly, I can't remember which blog it was or find it on google - sorry!). So, revisions forgotten, I ran to my stash to see what I had that would work. No lime green, and nothing woolly that was both appropriate for this project and not already earmarked for something else. I wanted something random, that I didn't have much of anyway, so that I wouldn't be taking yarn away from a more complicated or bigger project. I found some crazy pink cotton from Russia that's too wild to wear on anything but the feet, and has the double advantage of being soft and sturdy. So, still in the initial frenzy, I got this far:

I got as far as just the first two rows of ribbing. And then I realized that of course ribbing in cotton won't contract and make it look all cute like a miniature purse when it's not on the foot. And I did the increases in YOs, thinking it was pretty, which it is, without thinking about how I'd have to do matching YOs with all the decreases on the other side, which will get to be a major pain (literally) with bulky cotton yarn at this gauge. So, all at once, I ran out of gas, dropped the slipper, and got back to my revisions. I think I'll probably frog it and do it again in some more sensible yarn.