On American Idol eliminating Kristy Lee Cook seemed weird. Even the judges thought she sang pretty well this week. Heck, Dial Idol even showed her safe - not just highly unlikely to go but actually safe. As I've said a million times, either the voting is at least slightly rigged or the voters are so more whimsical than predictable.

The Clinton-Obama debate on Wednesday was ho-hum and just served to continue the ridiculousness of this year's election cycle. Lost almost entirely are the actual words and meaning being spoken, as the commentators and follow-up analyses jump right on the bandwagons of whatever preconceived notions they either already have or want to perpetrate. It's very frustrating because we voters are such total losers in all this. What Obama actually means dissolved into the ephemera, as often happens, as nuances are simply ignored.

On both Wednesday and Thursday this week, I attended a dinner and two knitting classes taught by Lucy Neatby, a knitting teacher about whom I waxed ecstatically rhapsodic here after last summer's classes. The subjects were intarsia, edge bands and buttonholes. Her techniques are marvelous for the specific subjects and she also conveys tricks and tips that apply to knitting in general. And somehow one even gleans life lessons from Lucy's classes.

Finished Five Days which I wrote about here. Some people were disappointed with the ending and I think what they meant is that the solution was less psychologically bizarre than the build up would have led you to expect. On the other hand, it was a more true-to-life ending than many shows would use, and that was refreshing although much more disturbing than the extreme endings would have been because they'd have been less likely in one's own life. The real impact of the story is realizing the life-altering and shattering effect on so many (not necessarily obviously connected) people of a quick, unthinking reaction to an almost unnoticeable moment. Brilliant.

Labels: 2008 election, a.i., a.i.7, knitting, politics, reflections

Just discovered a new (to me) knitting blog and videos that show how to do cables without a cable needle. The blog is Grumperina and the videos are accessible there and here. I just learned to cable without a cable needle and it's like discovering water. It's smooth, easy (despite how it looks) and makes you feel as if you're being nicer to the yarn because there's no yanking and tugging at all. Plus, I think the cables look calmer and better too! Give it a try if you haven't already. Let me know what you think.

Labels: about me, knitting

I've never successfully done intarsia and I'm yearning to do it. As if I didn't want to badly enough already, the current issue of Knit Simple has a pattern for a sheep afghan with sheep and sheepdogs that is incredibly charming and I want to make it! I guess I really need to learn the technique now! If any CRRs have any suggestions for how to smoothly and effectively do that twist that locks the changing yarns so there's no hole, I'd be really grateful!

Labels: about me, children, knitting

There are a bunch of new yarns out there, and extraordinary patterns, so the only word I can think of that's appropriate is "ravishing." When I learned to knit - in prehistoric days - there was only acrylic yarn in most stores (Coats & Clark, notably). You could find wool if you were willing to spend lots of money and go to out-of-the-way places or knew a farm and a store. Nowadays, it's almost hard to find yarn that's not lovely. The general consumer stores (Michael's, Joann's, A.C.Moore, for example) have plenty of inexpensive yarn that's perfectly nice to the touch and knits up just fine. Lion Brand has a wide range of yarn, too. For some purposes, the inexpensive stuff is best, as a matter of fact, like a blanket for a baby who may spit up on it and whose parents may want to be able to throw it in the wash without worrying about cold or warm water, or air drying. (Which isn't to say that an heirloom doesn't have its place, of course!) Many available yarns these days are cashmere or alpaca or buffalo (honestly!) and it's so nice to know yarn can come from anything with fur, without having to damage the animal. One of my favorite stops at October's annual NYS Sheep & Wool festival is the angora rabbits who sit demurely on an owner's lap while their fur is coaxed and stroked off of their backs directly onto a spinning wheel. Anyway, it's all just ravishing!!

Labels: about me, knitting

I'm not sure I could deal with wearing or working with it, but doesn't this look as if it feels wonderful?

Labels: knitting

I decided that it's high time I caught up with my alphabetic knit-a-long since it's almost the two-year anniversary of beginning the whole thing. Apologies for taking so long, but better late than never. Also, I learned from this and from trying to keep my "good things" blog that there is something about requiring something very specific that makes me toss it to the four winds. Bad me, but there it is.

Labels: about me, knitting, writing

Which seems too easy and too predictable, but that's just too bad. That's definitely what "k" is for!

Labels: about me, knitting

My father's sister was born in 1904. She would be 103 years old which is what I kind of thought she was, when I was little. She was very short, probably less than 4 feet tall, and petite although not slender. She was a professional textile designer, creating knitted and crocheted garments and accessories for the then-major yarn companies and 57th Street boutiques in New York City. She kept a scrapbook for two years in the early fifties, so I do have a record of some of the extraordinary things she made, but unfortunately most of what she did is lost to posterity and memory. She made angora sweaters and shawls, hats of all kinds, dresses with striped patterns that looked elegant and sophisticated, capes, gloves, shrugs, etc. Her work was definitely a harbinger of today's textile fervor. She would have been thrilled to see the burgeoning popularity of all of it.

Judith taught me how to knit when I was 4 or 5. She taught me the "throw" method for some reason even though she used continental and went at two hundred miles an hour. I remember that there were times you truly could not see the needles moving. Plus, she far preferred smaller needles to larger, so she made entire dresses and sweater sets on size 1 or 2 needles. She always had a project with her and always sat on one side or the other of our sofa, of an evening, knitting or crocheting while chatting and being part of whatever was going on. It sometimes seemed odd, to a young girl (me) but the end results were amazing. Nowadays, after a ten year hiatus somewhere along the way, I seem to be channeling her. I inherited her needles and some dreadful Coats & Clark yarn when she died fifteen or twenty years ago (how she would have loved the new yarns!) and that kicked me back into gear so that now I'm the one who always has a project I can concentrate on. Soon I'll get to teach t2cgitw. What fun!!

Labels: about me, family, knitting, reflections

This past Saturday and Sunday I took two knitting classes led by Lucy Neatby of Tradewind Knitwear Designs. It turned out to be one of those times when something perfectly pleasant although not noticeably earth-shattering at the time completely changes your consciousness. I know that sounds melodramatic and overstated, but it's true. The classes were held at the always wonderful Cornwall Yarn Shop and since nearly everyone I've encountered there is encouraging and friendly, and given that Gail (the owner) had been even more than usually enthusiastic about Lucy, I expected to have a good time and probably learn some good things. But it was so much more.

Lucy considers knitting an art, and knitters as both technicians and artists. She would seem to be on a mission to help knitters who are willing, to move toward understanding its potential and realizing their (our) own.

To begin with, her designs and work are amazing -- full of colors that knock you out (the photos are clues to that), patterns and humor that are amazing. She loves "playing around with yarn and other ingredients," as she says on her website, and, indeed, her designs, her instructions, her comments, her guidance all have a wonderful sense of play. But she also is a meticulous technician and her instructions are geared toward passing on some of her fantastic techniques.

Theoretically the classes were about socks and two-sided knitting, but there was so much more. We learned how stitches are built and why they work or don't work as we want them to. We learned to "read" knitting and why we should treat stitches well. We learned innovative ways to cast-on effectively and bind off efficiently and attractively. We learned a positively revolutionary way to begin a 4-dpn project such as a sock or mitten. We learned how to insert heels so socks fit feet snugly and comfortably. We learned double (two-sided) knitting in a way that makes me wonder why we don't everything that way. We learned techniques for casting on and knitting two-sided projects like pillows and bags, and for working with two colors on two sides at the same time. She made us feel as if it's perfectly reasonable and possible to produce work like the diagonal socks shown here. She made us believers that we can and will have patience with our work rather than try to strong-arm it into submission. Sure enough, then and there in class, pockets sprouted from our samples and one-piece/two-sided bags displayed alternate color schemes on each side. And why not?! It's all clever and logical and fun.

And it's all informed by her philosophy is that "it doesn't matter how you get there, it is the outcome that is important" even though careful and precise techniques are involved. She avoids and dislikes words like "wrong" and "better" and "worse" and teaches with an unusual and startling mix of things that don't often come together in crafts or artistic endeavors: enormous calm, quiet encouragement and great excitement. That's probably why I'm already partway through the short-row-wedges-with-picot-edges-twisty-turny scarf. And can't wait to do more.

If you want to, check out her website and her patterns, and read the interview that Veronica Avery conducted and was kind enough to print on her blog -- although neither the patterns nor she come across as vibrantly onscreen as they do in person. It is, however, better than not experiencing her at all.

All I can say is that if you have a chance to take a class with Lucy, or are willing to jump into learning via DVD, you are in for many treats and many new skills, and (perhaps most important of all) a leap in your awareness about your work as well as a sense of accomplishment and joy.

Labels: knitting, reflections

I spent most of yesterday knitting on a baby afghan for a friend who's due in mid-June. Therefore the tv was on, because I seem to prefer marathon knitting with tv accompaniment instead of silence or even music. (Three senses need to be occupied, I guess, probably a left-over from doing homework as a teenager (ha).) Anyway, a friend recommended Shear Genius so I watched several episodes and LOVED it. I don't like all reality shows but I do like the ones where producing a result is the point. Furthermore, these judges are far less smug and dismissive than any of the others. It's a good time and really fun to watch.

I also watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding which got such wildly positive reviews. The cast is terrific (for example, John Corbett (who was once a hairstylist!!) is the non-Greek boyfriend, Gia Carides (Anthony LaPaglia's wife) is the cousin, Lainie Kazan (who is awesome) is the mother, etc., etc.). But the whole thing made me cringe, more and more as time went on. The pile-up of stereotypes was unbelievable, from the ridiculous father who doesn't listen to anyone to the mother who seems deferential but really runs everything to the brother beloved by the father but is really a skirt-chasing jerk to the drab girl who suddenly figures out how to use make-up and dress cutely and (lo and behold) attracts the best looking guy in town. Not to mention the shenanigans about the family refusing to accept the non-Greek boyfriend and working that through lots of fights and then accepting him and then . . . surprise . . . everyone lives happily ever after. Granted that there are only a few story lines and that everything is re-told over and over, but the ones that work have to offer something unique and charming. I was surprised but thought this was poorly-wrought.

Labels: knitting, movies, tv

Festivals, outings, weekend and week-long retreats, cruises, excursions, etc. - all listed here. It's on Knitter's Review which is great anyway, but this list is really fantastic.

Labels: events, knitting

One of my brothers is getting married this spring. One happy result that I'm very much looking forward to is becoming and gaining a sister-in-law. One distressful effect is that I need three nice outfits for the various get-togethers. Since I'm neither size 2 nor young and sylph-like, and I don't like 'ordinary' clothes, buying them is unpleasant under the best of circumstances and torture when it matters. If anyone has unusual stores to recommend, especially online, I would be eternally grateful.

The other stressful thing that I'm anxious about is their gift. Since they're both successful adults and have pretty much everything they want, and since I really really want it to be special and really really appreciated, I'm at a loss to know what to make. Big, small, elegant, casual, comfy, fancy, colorful, sophisticated, personal, . . . the choices are too many and overwhelming. I knit and crochet and therefore want to make them something special, probably for their house. Hey, if I carry on long enough, it'll be too late for me to make anything and I'll have to just go throw money at something instead. Dumb, knowing how this could play out and still freaking out over it.

Labels: about me, family, knitting, reflections, whining

Do you finish things without any problem? I'm told some people do and boyoboy do I envy them. I can do things, lots of things, without any difficulty and often with enthusiasm and interest. But once I hit that moment of adding a collar or putting the last period at the end of a sentence. Interestingly, Bookworm apparently has the same problem at least as far as laundry, as she mentions in her list of things we may not know about her ("I hate folding laundry and hate, even more, putting it away. I have no problem getting it into the washer and the dryer. . . . It's just that, once the laundry is clean, I'm done with it. I don't want to go through the final steps associated with good laundry management.") I'm thrilled to know I'm not alone in this, but I'd sure like to know what it's really about and I'd really really like to get over it. Then I could put away all the holiday decorations and finish seams and sleeves. Got any (a) suggestions about how to get over this or (b) stories about finishing things??

Labels: blogs (others'), knitting

A peek at a section of the reversible scarf I'm making in a fabulous variegated Lorna's Lace yarn. I love the curvy edge because of doing cables on both outside edges every 22 rows (with a center cable in between). It's 2x2 ribbing, by the way, therefore it's identical on each side. And the yarn is yummy. This is a very nice time in the history of textiles. BTW, the pattern is a combination with slight alterations of the cinnabar scarf and the d-made cable scarf, the former found at Knitting Pattern Central which is a terrific resource for Lion Brand and other free patterns.

Labels: knitting

Yahoo front page has a plug for knitting! Aside from talking about what a pleasant pasttime knitting is, the story links to some of the best sites, not just the usual suspects. I guess this proves lots of people are interested - as if the zillions of physical and online stores weren't a clue.

Labels: knitting

Very exciting moment, knitting tonight. I'm making a cable scarf and, as usual, was dreading coming to the end of the first skein because I loathe weaving ends in since they never disappear the way I want them to. So I decided to try the wet-splice method I've read about. First I made sure both ends were the same place in the variegated color sequence, then I unspun a couple of inches on both ends. Then I dampened the six pieces of each strand. Then I overlapped them and gently twisted. It looked pretty good but the test was in the knitting, done a bit gingerly. And it worked like a total charm. Yet another reason to be a wool purist, right?! It's a terrific technique and if you haven't tried it, you should.

Labels: knitting

Diane (whose blog is listed as Fall of the Empire but which I cannot find and hope she will enlighten me blogs are Diane's Stuff and Dead Guy on the Sidebar, both delightful places to visit) commented at my post about The Swimming Pool that she watches Court TV when knitting. Which made me think to ask what other people like to watch when they're knitting - or do you prefer knitting in silence and/or with music? I'll update it as people tell me their choices:

music, radio, movies (British comedies, British films, French films (no languages where I absolutely have to read subtitles, though), anything with a decent story line but not tooooo absorbing), current TV shows (e.g., The Unit, Criminal Minds, Numbers, NCIS, Shark, reruns of Becker and Sex in the City), Court TV, . . .

Labels: blogs (others'), france, knitting, things to do, tv

If you, dear rare reader, are also a knitter, can you help me find two or three skeins of Happy (by Idena) in dark green (their #575)? I've put one on a border of a present, assuming I'd easily find more online. But there seems only one store online with that yarn in that color. I just know there are others. Help!!!

Labels: knitting