Just because it's free...

Doesn't mean you should make it. Or that it will necessarily look good. Or, more to the point, that it won't make you run screaming with your eyes bleeding from its hideousness. Just sayin'.

I should note here that I have absolutely nothing against free patterns. I'm all for 'em. I've made more than one free pattern from knitty, and I've even made two of the loopy 'n' luscious (and will probably make still more for this upcoming holiday season). Hey, if I can save money anywhere in the knitting process (like by not paying for a pattern) without feeling I've caused some poor designer to fall into poverty from lack of royalties, I'm gonna do it. But that is not the same thing as making something just because the pattern is free.

I'm still pre-coffee this morning and it's Monday, so I don't have much more to say at this point (except this: all I have left to do on the darn sideways knit baby sweater is sew on the buttons). I just felt that you should all be reminded that all that glitters is not gold (knitters' translation: all free patterns are not necessarily knit-worthy). You have been warned.

Let evening come

My father just sent me this poem, and it seemed so appropriate for this time of year, and for knitting, and for so many things, I just had to share it:

LET EVENING COME
by Jane Kenyon

Let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn, moving
up the bales as the sun moves down.

Let the cricket take up chafing
as a woman takes up her needles
and her yarn. Let evening come.

Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned
in long grass. Let the stars appear
and the moon disclose her silver horn.

Let the fox go back to its sandy den.
Let the wind die down. Let the shed
go black inside. Let evening come.

To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop
in the oats, to the air in the lung
let evening come.

Let it come, as it will, and don't
be afraid. God does not leave us
comfortless, so let evening come.

Anuncio/Announcement

Para mis amigos hispanohablantes (que tal vez sepan un poco de inglés y tal vez no, pero quienes de todas maneras prefieren leer en español), tengo el placer de anunciar el inicio del Resúmen Bi-semanal (o quizás mensual, si estoy muy ocupada o con mucha flojera). No traduciré cada palabra de cada entrada del blog, ni tampoco volveré a publicar las fotos, pero sí les contaré los detalles más importantes. Cuando sea posible, también les daré los enlaces a páginas en español parecidos a los enlaces que hay en inglés en las entradas originales. Y tal vez ponga una cosita éxtra sólo para Uds. :) Yo sé que esto no es tan bueno como un blog aparte en español, pero para mi en este momento, sería demasiado tratar de mantener dos blogs. La primera edición del resúmen viene abajo, después de la explicación en inglés.

For my Spanish-speaking friends (who perhaps know some English and perhaps not, but who in any case prefer to read in Spanish), it is my pleasure to announce the start of the Bi-Weekly Summary (or maybe monthly, if I'm very busy or lazy). I won't translate every word of every blog entry, nor will I re-publish the photos, but I will tell you the most important details. When possible, I'll also give you links to pages in Spanish that are similar to the links in the original entries. And I might put in a little something extra just for you. :) I know this isn't as good as a separate blog in Spanish, but right now it would just be too much for me to try and maintain two blogs. The first edition of the summary is below.

Después de presentarme al mundo en la primera entrada, publiqué unas fotos de mis gatos, Ivy y Ben. A pesar de que se supone que este blog habla de libros y del tejido, no es ilógico hablar de mis gatos, porque ellos me ayudan con mi lectura al empujar los libros al suelo y con mi tejido al jugar con la lana y tratar de masticar las agujas de bambú. Si quieres ver un álbum entero de fotos de ellos, haz click aquí.

De mis proyectos actuales que estoy tejiendo, primero hablé del chalequito que le estoy haciendo para el(la) sobrino(a) del Taz (no es su nombre verdadero, pero me refiero a mi pololo). Como no se sabe si va a ser hombre o mujer, decidí hacerlo de color naranja. Las mangas me dieron bastantes horas de estrés, pero ya están terminadas y estoy tratando de armar el chaleco. El único problema es que uno de los cuatro hoyos para los botones es muy chico para los botones que compré. Ya veremos que hago para solucionar eso. El otro proyecto que me esta exigiendo mucha atención es un chaleco (para mí) de una lana delgadísima. El diseño es bastante simple, pero los puntos son muchos, y a veces se me olvida aumentar en el lugar indicado, lo cual significa tener que deshacer parte del chaleco para corregir el error. Algún día antes de morirme espero terminar con los aumentos. Estos dos proyectos me han hecho aplazar el inicio de un proyecto muy bonito: mi amiga Jessie me pidió calienta-muñecas y las voy a hacer con una lana de alpaca suavísima. Espero poder comenzar con eso antes del final del fin de semana...

En el mundo de la lectura, acabo de terminar un libro muy bien escrito y bastante conmovedor llamado Resistance (Resistencia) por Barry Lopez. No se si se ha publicado en castellano, pero lo recomiendo. Ahora estoy metida en Blink (Pestañeo) por Malcolm Gladwell, que habla sobre el poder de la intutición y de las ventajas de poder tomar decisiones rápidas sin pasar por todo un proceso analítico. Muy interesante.

Y los amigos: Me despedí de una amiga que dejó su trabajo aquí para ir a Sevilla a estudiar flamenco por un año. La había ayudado con varios proyectos de tejido, y nos habíamos juntado varias veces después del trabajo, y la voy a echar de menos más de lo que ella sabe. También el martes me junté a almorzar con un amigo muy antiguo (lo conozco desde el sexto grado, cuando fue mi pololo, a pesar de que ahora él prefiere tener pololos), y lo pasamos super bien. Hablamos de los wombats y del Totoro y de muchas otras cosas. Siempre me río mucho cuando estoy con él, y me siento renovada después de pasar tiempo juntos. De los amigos chilenos y otros hispanohablantes no tengo mucho que contar porque me tienen triste y abandonada (con la excepción de la Jessy, que me habla por MSN varias veces a la semana).

También, como parte de un juego, tuve que hacer una lista de cinco de mis idiosincrácias, y puse que: me gusta dormir con los ojos tapados, incluso cuando estoy en un lugar completamente oscuro; cuando veo ciertos programas en la tele, los personajes hacen cosas tan tontas que no aguanto mirar y tengo que caminar por la casa hasta que la situación se resuelve; no me gusta el maní pero sí la mantequilla de maní y cosas así, pero con las nueces y otras frutas secas es al revés--me gustan solitos pero no metidos en pasteles y cosas así; prefiero lavar la loza o limpiar el baño antes de pasar la aspiradora o planchar; y nunca me meto las camisas en el pantalón porque me incomoda y da la impresión de no tener cintura, solo pecho. Si quieres compartir conmigo tus propios costumbres raros, lo puedes por e-mail o abajo en la sección de Comments.

Enlaces relevantes (o irrelevantes, como sea):
Wombat
Totoro
Maní
Faro del Sur (blog en castellano sobre libros y tejido)
Ivy y Ben

Wom wom!

Today I had lunch with my dear sweet friend Zoms. We've known each other since sixth grade and he's even dearer to me now than he was then. He gets a kick out of seeing people's reactions when he tells them he's meeting his sixth grade girlfriend, since most people who know him now have never known him to have any, um, girlfriends. Anyway, when we were younger, we heard about wombats* in some science class or PBS program or other, and became fascinated with them. We tried to guess what kind of noise they might make, and we decided that they went "Wom wom!" Over the years, it's become a sort of greeting for us. And you thought I was odd after reading that post about my idiosyncrasies. Honey, I'm just gettin' started!

Anyway, we had a wonderfully renewing and laugh-filled lunch. Highlights included Zoms hitting on our waitress (though really he was doing it for a friend who wasn't present but had had a crush on this waitress years ago, but as usual, I digress); the gifting (to him) and subsequent naming of a second Totoro change purse (the first was from his brother and the second one from mine--too cool to be a mere coincidence--and yes, both change purses have names, why wouldn't they?); bonding over the need for more contemplative and creative time; a discussion of the reasons why blogs are good; and the planning of an evening picnic in the near future.

On the bus to and from our East Village rendezvous, I continued to work on un-knitting several rows of the merino lace cardi. Un-knitting, you say? Yes. In fact, I was going to write a post entitled "Chicken in hell" as in, I'm in hell because I'm too chicken to rip back, lest I drop stitches or forget where my stitch markers went. So instead I am painstakingly un-knitting each and every stitch of going on five rows. I swear, if this isn't the row with the mistake in it, someone's going to get hurt. Probably me, from banging my head against the wall. (I was going to show you a picture of the massive pile of kinky yarn I have going because of this process, but alas, both of the digital cameras in the house seem to be feeling especially uncooperative today. One will only take solid white pictures, and the other will only take solid black. I'm hoping it's just the tides or something).

If I don't resolve my issues with the cardi and the baby sweater soon, you may see me breaking my own vow (some silly thing about not starting anything new until the baby sweater is done) and casting on for those luscious alpaca wrist warmers...

*Note: This wombat photo is copyright 2001-2004, courtesy of Womland. Sorry I haven't yet figured out how to do captions. :)

Tag! I'm it!

Thanks a lot, Zarzuela, for tagging me! Now I have to come up with 5 weird idiosyncrasies of mine that I care to share with the world. The world in this case being the approximately 10 people who I'm pretty sure regularly read my blog (so far). All of whom I know personally anyway. But hey, who am I to put a halt to a friendly game of cyber-tag? So here goes:

1. Ever since living with a night owl roommate my first two years of college, I find it easier to fall asleep if I have something covering my eyes. Even if the room is pitch black. I guess the feeling of something covering my eyelids is just comforting, I dunno.

2. With almost every sit-com, there comes a point for me where the characters are just being so foolish that I can't bear to watch, and I have to get up and pace around the room until the situation is resolved. This happens to me sometimes with drama shows too (in which case it's the authentic tension that gets to me), but most often with sit-coms. Taz always tries to hold my hand right before the point when he knows I'll want to get up, so that he can try and keep me in my seat, but it rarely works.

3. I don't really like peanuts (no matter what these people might think about that). However, I love peanut butter and other peanut flavored things. It's the exact opposite with other nuts. I love walnuts and pecans by themselves, but I hate them in brownies and other baked goods (aside from Angel Bars in the Joy of Cooking, which are the best dessert ever). One possible exception are pistachios, since I love both plain pistachios and pistachio ice cream (as well as all those Indian desserts made with pistachios).

4. Most people really hate all the messiest and dirtiest household chores. Not me. I'll wash dishes 'til the cows come home. I'll clean bathrooms all day long. But please please pleeeease don't make me vacuum or iron anything!!! Maybe it has something to do with the dirty tasks giving me a greater feeling of accomplishment?

5. I never tuck in my shirts. I can't stand the feeling of all that bulk in my pants (this is where Beavis and Butthead start going "Huh huh. She said..."). Not to mention that a tucked-in shirt makes me look like I'm all boobs from neck to waist. My mother firmly believes that there are some shirts that demand to be tucked in. I don't wear those shirts. Or if I do, I don't surrender to their demands.

OK, so there's probably a lot more weird stuff about me that those who comment on this post will undoubtedly share with everyone, but that's all I can think of for now. I guess I should only tag other people with blogs, so that kind of limits my choices. But I can still tag Mishmish, Eklectika, and Felty. Oh, the heck with it: even though they don't have blogs (or at least, I don't know the url's for them), I'm also going to tag Taz, Conker, Sakura, Jessie, and Bebe. Becuase I know you all have plenty of weirdness to share. :)

Oh, the softness!

My fellow SnB-er Sami took this somewhat embarrassing photo of me in a moment of yarn ecstasy recently. It wasn't even my yarn, but it was soooo soft! I was only going to touch it for a moment, but before I knew it, I had fallen into a reverie, and stayed that way long enough to be caught on camera. Anyway, it was with softness on the brain that I went into a newly relocated LYS this Saturday to look for yarn for the wrist warmers I'm making for Jessie. I was planning on being all practical and getting something fairly cheap and machine washable, but then I found two little skeins of alpaca, and practicality went out the window. She had asked for something "very very soft" and this stuff was beyond soft. I have an alpaca sweater I got when I was in Peru, and though it's softer than sheep's wool, it's still a little scratchy, so I never realized alpaca could be as pettable and comfy as this stuff. Jessie will just have to forgive me for giving her non-machine-washable wrist warmers, but I don't think that will be an issue when she feels them. I promise a pic once they're started. It's just too bad you won't be able to feel them through the screen...

Progress has been mixed on the rest of my knitting projects. The merino lace cardi is getting on my nerves. I'm supposed to increase right before and two stitches after each marker on the knit rows, but for some reason, I almost forget to do the second increase almost every time. So yesterday I counted my stitches, and realized that I have done either one too many increases in one section, or one too few in another. So now I get to rip back until the proportion of stitches is once again correct. Ugh. Like I wasn't sick of this increasing already! But I think (hope) it's only a few rows, so with any luck I'll be back on track (and much more vigilant) soon. At least I finally figured out what I was doing wrong with the spit splicing--I was rolling it between my fingers, rather than my hands, which meant not enough heat or friction.

The baby sweater has one shoulder sewn together and the neckband done, and now awaits sleeve attachment and side seaming. That will all be just fine. The problem is with the buttons (or the buttonholes, depending on your point of view). I bought the buttons to fit the outer three buttonholes on the shoulder, all of which were yo/k2 tog style, done in garter stitch rows. But the neckband also has one last buttonhole, and it's done the same way, but in stockinette rows on smaller needles. Yes, you guessed it, the fourth buttonhole is about half the size of the others, even though I tried to knit that part loosely. (I'll try to post a picture later). So, what to do? Do I use the buttons I have, and just expect the innermost button never to be closed? Do I find smaller buttons (which might slip out of the larger holes)? Do I find one smaller button, even though it won't match the other three? Any thoughts or comments on this dilemma are more than welcome!

Some Sadness, Some Spitting

This (Merino Lace Cardigan) is what I was working on as I rode the train home after I stayed late in the city tonight to visit Bebe and help her get started on her poncho. She's making "That Seventies Poncho" from Stitch 'N Bitch Nation, but with a few twists. First, she's using only two colors. Second, she's using different yarn and different size needles. So one could say the pattern is really more of a suggestion than a strict set of rules. Lucky for her she's learning that early on--it took me years to have that little epiphany. This will be a project full of firsts for her. Among the new-for-her things she'll be doing: using circular needles, doing yarn overs, using stitch markers, increasing, changing yarn colors, and making an i-cord. No one can say she's not brave! (Not that anyone who knows her would say that, especially considering she just quit her job and is leaving tomorrow to go study flamenco in Spain, but I digress). Anyway, for those of you who make a general habit of avoiding and ridiculing any poncho-like garments, I should note that Bebe has a great figure and is one of the few people I know who really has no need for this pledge that I learned about from Zarzuela.

All in all, she seemed excited, and I hope she keeps me updated on both the poncho progress and the flamenco study. I hugged her goodbye cheerfully when I left, but I was slightly surprised to find myself getting weepy as I waited for the elevator in the hall outside her place. I am deeply happy for her and her adventure, but selfishly a year feels like an awful long time not to be able to meet someone for lunch and the occasional girls' night out (or in, if we feel like knitting instead of drinking--not that the two are mutually exclusive).

So, back to the cardigan. While I was on the train, I finally got to the end of the first skein. Since Sami had mentioned to me more than once how easy this yarn is to spit splice, I wasn't too worried about having enough length to finish an entire row (which, with the most exasperating logic, just keep getting longer and longer as I increase!) However, I don't know if my spit is chemically imbalanced, or if I simply lack skill, but I could not get the stuff to stick together. I plan on having one more go at it after reviewing all the hints and reading material I can find about spit splicing. If it still doesn't work, then tomorrow on the train (after my morning dose of Barry Lopez) I will simply have to undo the 1/3 of a row I had knit and have a very loooong end to weave in later. Grrr. Still, on the bright side, that first skein went a lot further than I thought it would, which is encouraging given that I have to knit the largest size.

So, that was basically my day in knitting. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I was very flattered that Jessie commissioned me (her words) to knit her some wristwarmers she saw somewhere. She's sending me a picture. They would be my first non-scarf item knit totally without a pattern, but I think I can manage at this point. She also asked me to try to get Mishmish to stop wearing ponchos, but I think that's a much bigger challenge.

A Pattern of Grace

There's something about Mondays that puts me in a pensive mood. Maybe it's getting up so early, or perhaps it's the quiet time on the train with the dawning world rolling by. Whatever the reason, it's a time when I am somehow especially open to the little bits of beauty the world offers up. I began the day with my first foray into Barry Lopez's amazing book Resistance as the train flowed past the wetlands of Milford. Within two pages, I was utterly absorbed. The language is lyrical and it alone is reason enough to drink deeply from this book. But what is said is arguably even more incredible than how (if the two can actually be thought of separately). I was so grateful I got to begin my day with words like this: "We are not twelve or twenty, but numerous as the motes of dust lining the early morning shafts of city light. We are stark and unquenchable in the same moment that we are ordinary. We incorporate damage and compassion, exaltation and weariness-to-the-bone." (p. 18) and "We cannot, finally, be imprisoned or killed, because we remember and speak." (p.18) I felt thirsty, like I had been craving these words without even knowing.

Then I got to work and read this piece from today's New York Times and felt once again I had been reminded that life is so much more than Metro North and e-mail. Yet at the same time, those things are just as much life as the beautiful late-afternoon light from the top of a New Hampshire cliff. It's all in how I let it in, how I let myself into it. So, no manic Monday for me today. Just a deep feeling of gratitude, serenity, energy, thirst. Refreshing!

Orange madness

What you see to the right here has been the bane of my existence for the past several weeks. Yes, they're just little sleeves. Little baby sweater sleeves. But they're sideways knit with a smaller gauge on the cuff, which means I have to use two different sized needles for every row. And since I thought I would be smart and do both sleeves at once, that means three needle changes with every complete pass. Ugh. I only have one inch to go on these before I can start decreasing them (with bind-offs) again, but it seems like forever. I was so sure I was going to finish them this weekend and finally be able to start assembling the whole sweater, but I just couldn't bring myself to knit more than a couple of rows on the sleeves. I don't know what's wrong with me. Perhaps part of it is that most of my knitting happens on the train to and from work, but this little octopus is a bit too ungainly at this point to survive in my bag or on the train.

If I can ever get it together to finish the sleeves, this is what they'll be attached to. On the left is the back of the sweater, and on the right is the front. One shoulder will have four buttons (not shown). I originally planned to get cute little yellow duck buttons, but they were either too small, too big, or had too many pointy bits to get caught on the sides of the buttonholes, so I ended up opting for simpler round, smooth-edged buttons. But they're still colorful! I sure hope that Taz's soon-to-be-born niece or nephew will like this and wear it a lot. If I have enough leftover yarn, maybe I'll make a little matching hat, too. We'll see how I'm holding up by the time I finish it all.

I promise that as soon as I can, I'll get up more pictures of my works-in-progress, as well as a link to my finished objects album. Meanwhile, if anyone has any motivational tips to get me to buckle down and finish these darn sleeves, I'm all ears.

Meet Ben and Ivy

This is Ben. He's the younger of our two cats, and he's all energy. He'll make friends with anyone, and he's so aggressive with his affection that he's been known more than once to bite me and Taz on the hand or chin if we're ignoring him or if we stop petting him before he's had enough. Why write about cats in a blog about knitting and reading? Because, as anyone with cats will tell you, they are an essential part of any knitting project. His hairs get in all my knitted projects, and he plays with the yarn too, though he doesn't seem to share Ivy's taste for needles. Ben also seems to appreciate good literature because whenever I'm reading something especially engrossing, he decides he needs to give the corners of the book a few good strong nudges so that I drop it and lose my place. So you'll have to understand if it takes me a while to get through a good book and comment on it here.

And here we have Ivy, our little calico manx cat, a year older than Ben. She's sweet, but a little shy around new people. When she's feeling especially affectionate, she likes to lick my fingers or my ankles. Ivy helps me with my knitting by chewing on the ends of my bamboo needles and batting at any loose bits of yarn she can see. As you can tell, she already has a penchant for socks (especially when they're full of catnip, like the one in the picture) And of course there are all the little bits of her hair that inevitably find their way into any finished object, even after washing and blocking. Heaven help the first violently allergic person I knit something for!

But all that said, my life would simply have no lustre if they were not in it. They greet me at the door, they sleep on my face, and they fill our house with hair. They refuse to let me take myself (or my knitting projects) too seriously, and they always know when I need a good play session, or when I just need a little warmth and softness.

Edit: At the gentle urging of Taz, I removed the strange picture of Ben sticking out his oh-so-long tongue, and instead put in this sweet picture of him squinting. If you really really want to see the funny tongue picture, it's in this album along with a lot of other cute ones of both of them.

Hello my name is...

Well, I have finally succumbed and started my own blog. Between seeing so many of my knitting friends' cool blogs, and Taz encouraging me to learn new skills, and this general feeling of wanting a space to babble about knitting, books, nature, and the meaning of life, I decided it was Time.

You'll have to bear with me over the next few weeks as I fine-tune my layout, dig through my photo albums to find images worthy of sharing with the world, and get back into the groove of writing on a regular basis.

This is just a brief inital entry, but I promise to write more very very soon so that those of you who know me can find out what's been happening in this brain of mine lately, and those of you who don't can start to get a sense of some of the things that make me tick.

Welcome!