Thursday, August 28, 2008
#
.jpg)
It's a poncho, wrap, capelet, scarf-cum-schmata
Ponchos are so 2004, but I reach for this little garment again and again. Though it began life as a poncho, it "reads" as a wrap. Bunch it around your neck as a dramatic scarf or cover your shoulders when the early fall air begins to chill.
The Un-Poncho
Yarn: Fiesta Yarns Rayon Boucle in Onyx
Amount: 2 skeins
Needles: Size 9 US
Instructions:
CO loosely 56 sts.
Proceed in k3, p1 ribbing for 34 ins.
BO loosely.
Finishing:
Weave in ends. Bring short end of rectangle over to meet top of long side of rectangle and seam. (If your neck edge seems floppy, pick up stitches around neckline and bind off loosely for a more finished, tighter look.)
Wear with flair and an air of mystery.
***
To customize your garment, follow this formula:
Measure from your neckline to your wrist. That's the width of your rectangle. To figure the length, divide the width by 4. Multiply that result by 9.
Example: you want the neck to wrist measurement to be 15". Divide that by 4 (3.75"). Multiply that by 9 (33.75") Make 1 rectangle 15"X34".
Plug in your stitch gauge and your row gauge.
With the Un-Poncho, the beautiful Fiesta Yarn does all the work!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
#
My photos of today's pattern reeked. And, if I don't crank out some copy today, my name's "mud."
So, tomorrow...
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
#
In 1972 at the age of 12 and at my own behest, my mother drove me to a local gathering of Republicans so I could stuff envelopes for my personal hero--Richard M. Nixon.
Of course I was reflecting my family's choice of president, but I also saw him as the man most likely to end the Vietnam War.
If memory serves, media coverage of the Vietnam war was much grittier than today's embedded reports from Iraq. I remember news casts filled with explosions and images of jungle warfare, bloody faces and flag-draped coffins. I remember the relentless body count and the horrible waste of it all. At night, I laid awake, praying for the war to end.
I was thrilled when Nixon visited China and when he cracked the ice of the Cold War by going to Russia. I saw him as a peacemaker. I thought Mr. Nixon was the man to get the job done.
Of course, now I know Mr. Nixon was a complicated man, visionary, but paranoid, socially magnanimous to some extent, but also imperious and controlling. Under his leadership there was the bombing of Cambodia and the tragedy of Kent State and the Watergate coverup. But I still have a soft spot for this difficult executive. Watergate was egregious, but I would contend that the Iran-Contra scandal under Reagan and this administration's outing of Valerie Plame and its abuses of the Geneva Convention are worse crimes. Nixon opened the world. He wanted to pass universal health care. During the energy crisis, he didn't pander to oil companies, he dropped the national speed limit.
Somewhere in the development of my political consciousness something changed. Me or the Republican Party or both. I have never voted for a Republican for president, though I did vote for John Anderson in 1980. I have also never voted for a presidential candidate I really liked (though I had high hopes for Gary Hart in 1988, darn it).
Last night, though, I felt proud of my party and prouder still of my city, all shiny and welcoming and emblematic of an independent West. When Jesse Jackson, Jr. invoked Martin Luther King, Jr., saying, "Forty-five years to the day after a young preacher called out, 'Let freedom ring,' let history show in this fourth week of August in this Mile-High City, freedom in America has never rung from a higher mountaintop than it does here today," I felt the spirit of possibility like never before; that this great nation, this wild, immature hybrid of people, cultures and faiths might shed the darkness of the last eight years and instead embrace a vision that acknowledges the needs of real people, not just the rich, and the need for real resources, not just Big Oil. That, finally, this horrible war that has taken so many lives might see its end. That we are about to elect a leader--one less scarred than Nixon--who looks like America, who can get the job done.
Monday, August 25, 2008
#
Corrugated ribbing
Yesterday I was faced with having to execute my first corrugated ribbing in the truck. Hurtling down a highway at 70 mph. (Rest easy. I wasn't driving.)
Before we left the ranch, I "googled" corrugated ribbing for a quick tutorial only to discover that Wendy, the doyenne of all-things-interesting-and-difficult-to-execute, hates corrugated ribbing. This did not bode well, but still I was happy to learn that corrugated ribbing is nothing more than knit one color, purl another. Fiddly. Annoying. But not undoable.
I decided to do it two-handed. Mom will be proud. She's been trying to get me to knit two colors with two hands for years. She'll be gratified to know I finally listened. Since I was planning a k2,p2 rib, I didn't need to mess with all the toggling and weaving involved in two-handed Fair Isle, I just had to knit with two colors in the truck without having a seizure.
I decided to knit left-handed Continental-style and purl English-style (purling Continental-style is like executing a reverse 2.5 pike). This made for limited ball tangling, but given I was using two circs required resetting the hands every half-round. Very fiddly. Very annoying.
But it all went off swimmingly and it makes for a very flashy edge.
Friday, August 22, 2008
#
Over the last few weeks, I've been trying to wrangle Nake-id Knits into some semblance of order, an exercise akin to cleaning a cramped, long-ignored closet. Or coralling a messy mind (a lifelong battle that one).
Mondays I'm reserving for knitting info. Tuesdays for a political rant or two. Wednesday for free patterns (like I said, we'll see how long this lasts). Thursdays for recipes that give you time to knit or crochet. And Fridays for other people's stuff (and de rigueur cat blogging).
A few things have come over the electronic transom this week, so thought I'd share:
1. Cheri and her partner Kathy will be sellling their soft-as-a-kitten Goosebumps Yarn at the Alpaca Market next weekend, Aug. 30-31 at the Estes Park Fairgrounds. Goosebumps is Royal Baby Alpaca, Colorado grown and dyed and quite remarkable.
2. Our friend Rabbi Levi Brackman's book is out, Jewish Wisdom for Business Success. In it Levi and his writing partner Sam Jaffe apply lessons from the Torah to contemporary business situations. Levi is a Kabbalah expert and one of the most learned guys we know. This is his first book and we suspect there will be many more. Mazel tov, Levi!
3. Another writing buddy, Vonalda Utterback is launching a teleseminar series that begins next week. The first one, Solve Your Insomnia, Drug Free runs Wed., Aug. 27, 7 p.m. (MST) and features two internationally renowned holistic health experts.
4. In case you haven't heard, A Knitted Peace is having its big sale this Saturday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sale yarns are 30-50 percent off. And all sock yarn is going for 15 percent off.
5. More knitting jewelry! Spied this lovely cable needle necklace on Wendy's blog.
By Leslie Wind
And, now, for what you've been waiting for...
The unbearable cuteness of being
Good Shabbos, y'all.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
#
In the continuing quest to expedite dinner and get on with the knitting, I've been experimenting in the kitchen. Because we are the beneficiaries of a bumper crop of yellow squash (we are awash in squash, crowded by cucurbits, gorged by gourds and generally at our wits end as to how to process these saffron-colored beauties), much of what I've been cooking lately features the oh-so-common yellow crookneck.
Happily Mitch is not one of those fellows who's averse to a vegetarian dish now and again. And he doesn't get all squeamish and fussy when presented with an unusual spice or food stuff. Let's give him a round of applause, shall we?
What follows is not a traditional curry, but a lady-with-stuff-on-hand curry. Note: You may need to adjust the amount of curry based on your own preferences and the heat-factor of your spices.
We both enjoyed the above rendering of the latest harvest, a quick vegan curry with homegrown tomatoes.
1 large yellow crookneck squash, cubed
2 tomatoes, cubed
1 Tbs fresh ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 Tbs of your favorite yellow curry spice (I used the Medium Yellow Curry from the Savory Spice Shop) mixed into a paste with an equal amount of water
1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs soy sauce
Crushed peanuts, raisins and chopped fresh cilantro for garnish
Saute garlic and ginger in olive oil until soft. Incorporate curry paste. Add squash and cook until tender, then add tomatoes and cook until hot. Season with soy sauce. And garnish with crushed peanuts, raisins and cilantro.
Achieve samadhi. Go knit.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
#
Meet Le Poodle. This quick-to-knit pulli is a cuddly, reasonably priced project using two strands of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride. Though I chose to go with a bold black-and-white tweed effect, it would be darling in two shades of brown, in pink and grey, or go completely wild and knit a Poodle in eggplant and lime!
Unfortunately, I can't offer this pattern here. It accompanies an essay I wrote that's anthologized in The Knitter's Gift, edited by Bernadette Murphy. (Some used copies are available for the cost of shipping.)
Here's another photo featuring the lovely Le Poodle modeled by the even-lovelier cousin Stephanie:
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
#
Take Flat Barack to your next party!
Explore the question, "Is the senator from Illinois really an empty suit?" with the Obama Paper Doll Set. Get tangible proof that this self-made millionaire, former president of the Harvard Law Review, author of two books, a professor at the University of Chicago, the third African American to be elected to the United States Senate, and the architect of the campaign which upended the Clinton juggernaut, really is an emperor with no clothes.
Monday, August 18, 2008
#
Do you ever dream about your knitting?
Last night I dreamt about knitters. In the dream, Kay, one of our knitter buddies, talked my mother into skydiving (which is about as likely as convincing George Bush to put on a tutu and tights for his farewell to the nation).
Anyway. In my dream, Mom went skydiving, loved it and convinced my husband to do it. Mitch goes up with a group of about 30 and they all get t-shirts. I'm at home (in the dream) having apoplexy. Eventually all the skydivers return, except for eight, who are missing, including Mitch. I try calling his cell phone (which makes perfect sense. If you were jumping out of an airplane, you'd answer your cell phone, right?)
Anyway. Mitch turns up. His parachute didn't open until he was just about to land, but it all worked out because he landed in the ocean (you know, the ocean near Denver?).
"Weren't you scared?" I asked.
"Nah," he said. "I just figured that was it."
They found all the other skydivers in Mitch's party except for two.
Now, it's my turn to go. I select a blue t-shirt, and get ready to go. I'm freaking out, thinking that an 8 percent smash ratio isn't so great.
Then I wake up. Extremely relieved that I'm not spending the morning in an aircraft.
Anyway. Somehow, in my mind, this dream was about knitting.
Any dream analyzers out there?
Friday, August 15, 2008
#
While waisting time researching knitting jewelry, I ran across an unfamiliar term: chatelaine. Always game to add a new word to the armamentarium, I went surfing. Turns out, a chatelaine is the mistress of a castle or "fashionable house." It also refers to a clip of long chains women in the 18th and 19th centuries wore at their waists from which they hung essentials such as keys, magnifying glasses, pencils, notebooks and sewing items. Many were quite elaborate and they clearly signaled a woman's social position.
This is a pretty antique chatelaine available from Morning Glory Jewelry.
Crewel Jewels sells beaded necklace chatelaines to needleworkers. (Thanks to Leslie for the Crewel Jewels tip.) You'll also find neato do-dads like filigree needle cages, fancy scissors, thimble cases and scissor fobs.
For a cool scissor chatelaine (necklace type) check out Shibori Dragon Knits.
Treasured finds has some lovely pin-type chatelaines, like this one.
Antique chatelaines apparently sell for a pretty penney and are quite collectible.
Anyway, I'm off to be the mistress of my castle. Here's what I'm managing today:
"Even with an expensive chatelaine, she can't handle me."