mollylouhoo

Femivore

2011-06-21T08:56:00.001-04:00

I have a pen pal who is also a regular pal named Laura. You will remember her from such adventures as Pop-Culture Potluck and Steel Magnolias. She was reading recently about Femivores - feminist ladies who embrace and celebrate all those traditional activities associated with our fairer sex - gardening, knitting, sewing, cooking - the usual. I also thought it sounded like a lady zombie that specializes in eating the brains of feminists, but I liken most things to zombies.
My latest Femivore activity has been gardening. I started with the small raised garden box above and had crazy success with lettuce and cilantro. The onions are poking along too. So after Dave and I built the fence he suggested I put in another bed with the leftover wood from the fence posts.
Now I have tomato plants, jalapenos, squash, zucchini, strawberries, basil, chives, more lettuce, and oregano from Cath. Once I start something it is usually on in a big way. The bonus is that I always considered myself a sh*tty gardener. It turns out that I am kind of awesome at it...at least the cilantro, basil, and lettuce are delish - it is still pretty early in the season for everything else.
Our yard is pretty fantastic now too. Fencing it in made all the difference. It is a low fence (Ellie is a small dog) but it still adds a bit of privacy and seclusion. Now I need to get back to some of my other Femivore activities like all the projects that are piling up in my sewing room...

I have not blogged in months. Today I blog.

2011-06-15T20:23:00.005-04:00

I was not sure how to come back to blogging after taking such a hiatus. I was not sure if I would come back. After spending so much time not doing something it is difficult to consider the why and how of returning. What should the post be? Do I have to explain myself? All that I have been doing? How busy life has been? Work, wedding planning, life...

I am in Cincinnati this week for work. My colleague and I were walking to the Cincinnati Museum Center this morning to meet our group for a day of touring it's Art Deco architecture and museum collections. We passed this:This is a statue of William Henry Harrison, the first of Ohio's eight presidents. His horse is wearing some hand knit half stockings provided by a local group of knit bombers and it seemed so right! Like they did it just for me - combined knitting and craft and Ohio History. I thought, "I need to blog that!"
So here it is! We are having an amazing week here in Cincinnati touring and exploring the history just under the surface.

New Year!

2011-01-02T10:40:00.005-05:00

Wow! 2010 was an amazing year! Both happy and sad but much more happy than sad. We bought a house and adopted a puppy. We said goodbye to dear Chloe and have been helping Ronan through some health problems. Work was exciting and stressful and satisfying. We started planning our wedding and realized that wedding planning kind of sucks. So how did I do on my resolutions for 2010?

Read at least 12 books that are related to my new job. I accumulate a lot of reading and it is hard to get through it all so I am going to supplement this resolution with one to watch less TV. (gasp!)

I knocked this one out of the park! I finished the books by the end of November and even had time to read some historical fiction and John Waters' autobiography, Role Models (it was fantastic).

Eat at least one fruit or vegetable a day. I am amazed that I make it through most of my days without any fruit or veggies! This morning I had a big glass of V8 Fruit Fusions. So I am already on my way. I am supplementing this resolution with water - at least two water bottles of water a day. My bottle is about 24 oz. So that works out to six glasses a day.

I did pretty well on this one. I would say at least six out of seven days I managed to eat fresh fruit and/or veggies. Drinking water was less successful. The best part of this resolution is that it is now a habit of mind. I think about how I am going to get that piece of fruit or veggie and make sure it happens.

Finish sewing projects. I have a stack of sewing projects in the studio that need some love and attention. I think the count is up to 2 skirts, 2 shirts, and 4 quilts. I am going to finish all of them!

FAIL! I finished NO sewing projects. I didn't even get to unpack my sewing machine until July! Big fat greasy fail.

So where does that leave me for 2011? I have been going back and forth trying to decide how I want to challenge myself this year. This is what I have come up with:

Crafting Resolutions: Finish ONE quilt - the one that is on the loom. No more foolish, over ambitious plans for sewing projects, some of which I may not even want anymore. I also want to knit one-two hats a month. Lovey wants hats and hats he shall have! I would also like some hats.
Professional Resolutions: I need to work on being positive and not letting things get under my skin. I have a hard time with people who can't seem to get their professional lives together and I need to remember that I don't have to take on their problems or take personal offense when they are inconsiderate. So I am going to start letting that stuff go. I am still working on a strategy for that.
Personal Resolutions: I am going to exercise outside more! Last year was a bitterly cold winter and a suffocatingly hot summer. The combination seriously cut down on running and bike riding. This year I want biking, running, hiking, puppy walking, all of it! I am also going to tackle that water drinking thing.

So there they are! Somewhat modest but that is okay. We have a wedding to plan, a basement to refinish, and possibly a yard to fence. So I don't want to set myself up for failure. Happy New Year!

Needle Storage

2010-12-20T21:56:00.003-05:00

Circular and double pointed needle storage has been an ongoing challenge for me since I started knitting eight years ago. The circulars get tangled, neither usually have size numbers on them, and the double pointed all look the same. Not to mention I also have sets of interchangeable needles to throw into the mix. I was never satisfied with the myriad solutions I have tried, but I have finally found an answer thanks to Office Max! They have a new line of binder supplies called [IN]PLACE and it is perfect for needles!There are large slide closer pockets for the circulars and double pointed needles. I did one for each size from size US 2 up to US 9.They also have smaller pockets that are two layered with a larger space in the front and three smaller compartments in the back. I used these for sock double pointed needles and the pieces for my interchangeable needles.I finished the whole thing off with some stylish Avery Note Tabs for size labels. I bought a 2-inch, hot pink binder at Target and might need to upgrade the binder size at some point. It is pretty packed right now. I used my student discount at our local Office Max and managed to get most of the supplies at a discount too. I think the whole set up was under $30 when all was said and done. My only complaint is that the pouches come with labels on them that are not very easy to peel. I spent a long time scraping sticky label paper off the surface. The overall solution though is totally organized and satisfying!

Bed Bugs

2010-12-06T16:55:00.004-05:00

This is a collection item too good not to share. One of my groups of teachers came to OHS for an archive day. The gave me some general topics of interest and I pulled collection items for them to peruse in hopes that they would find some materials to use in their classrooms. This particular piece doesn't really fit with any of the pre-determined topics but it did fit with our lunch time conversation about the recent bed bug infestation. Apparently both Columbus and Cincinnati are lousy with them and it isn't a new phenomenon. One of the teachers found this poem by Levi Buttles in a collection of assorted papers. Buttles was a prominent resident of Worthington, Ohio in the 1800s. I can't tell what year the poem was written. Part of me thinks it might be a poem written for school as it has pencil corrections to the spelling in another hand. The important thing is that Columbus was lousy with bed bugs back then too and young Buttles had VERY strong opinions about it.

Bed bug Day

A drum was heard; a note of attack

As to the assault we hurried;

The students scratching their itching backs

Whence the bugs, their blood had carried.

The day was dark, the sun not bright;

When the beds with our hands turning

By the struggling sun beams’ misty light.

We saw them slowly crawling.

In useless cavities they made their nests

In sheets and in clothes we found them;

Where they lay - like warriors taking their rest.

With their martial friends around them

Few and short were the curses we said,

And we spoke not a word of sorrow:

But we steadfastly [^ wished] they were all dead.

And we gladly thought of the morrow-

We thought as we mashed them in our narrow beds

And shook them from our lone pillow -

How we their foes would sleep o’er their dead,

As sweetly and soundly as if we were mellow!

Lightly we’ll talk of the spirits that are gone.

And o’er their cold ashes upbraid them;

But nothing we’ll seek, if they’ll sleep on

In the graves where the students have laid them.

And when our heavy task was done,

When the bell toll’d the hour of rest,

We knew that [^ Death, who the] work has begun,

Had now, rid us of a very great pest

Slowley but joyfully we laid us down.

From the field of our slaughter fresh and gory!

We felt not a bite, we felt not a bug,

But we slept alone - in our glory

Levi Buttles

First Snow!

2010-12-01T08:33:00.004-05:00

How fitting that December 1st would bring the first snow of the year. Ellie thought snow was something you could sniff and was disappointed, I think, when it was cold and not very smelly.
We have been decorating and decorating to get the house to the level of Christmas cheer appropriate for a first Christmas in a new home. This meant new stocking for the animals. I made a classic green and red stripe stocking for Ellie. I still have to line it with fabric before it can go up on the mantle. Ronan already had a stocking but it was meant to match Chloe's stocking. It didn't feel right putting up one without the other. So I knit her a new one that is unique. Somehow it ended up huge! I don't really check gauge on these types of projects...but something serious happened. I am going to wash it before I line it and see if that helps at all. Although I don't think she would mind an over large stocking as it might mean extra toys and treats. She has staked out this soft and cozy spot on the tree skirt and seems pretty content to avoid all the holiday craziness. Although she did sit in may lap last night and watch the Grinch and Shrek Christmas specials. It really doesn't get any better than that.

Pumpkin Pie, Assorted

2010-11-24T13:52:00.005-05:00

I asked my mom via Facebook today how to keep pumpkin pie crust from burning but still cook the pie all the way through. Apparently everyone know this except me because I received a deluge of advice, all the same. Tin foil. It also prompted a retelling of my co-worker Betsy's experience of trying to bake her first pumpkin pie. She asked her mom for her recipe.

Mom says, okay, go get a pencil and paper.
Betsy does this.
Mom says, ready?
Betsy says yes.
Mom says, go to the store. Get a can of Libby's pumpkin...got that?
Betsy says yes.
Mom says, read the directions on the can.
Betsy says, yes?
Mom says, that's it.

So I have been thinking about this issue of knowledge passed down from mother to daughter. I have helped my mom make a bajillion pies over the years. She makes her crust from scratch, I have peeled so many granny smith apples with a paring knife, and I am aware of the tried and true Libby's pumpkin. But this little detail about the foil? Either I knew it and forgot it or never made the connection...

Anyhoo, I found this image of Thanksgiving cards on the New York Public Library's Digital Gallery.
It is titled: Thanksgiving cards with turkeys celebrating Thanksgiving, eating a baby in a pie; cards depicting flowers.

Here is the pie-based card of note:Happy Thanksgiving!

Adam Bede

2010-11-08T20:25:00.004-05:00

Part of my job description requires me to make CD rom-type resources for our teachers. It is a tedious process of cutting and pasting text, inserting images, building links, and checking links. To keep my brain from turning into mush I like to listen to recorded books on Librivox.com. Currently I am listening to Adam Bede by George Eliot.

Image from the British Museum

I adore Eliot. I have read Silas Marner and Middlemarch and found both to be so complex and multi-layered. She creates amazing characters and is able to weave in themes of class and status. She also manages to imbue her stories with romance without sending them over the top - a rare trait in a Victorian author. I especially enjoy the way she uses knitting. Women in her books are always knitting. Her women are practical - needles clicking, contemplating their households and trying to determine how best to hold that household together. Complicated women knit while "less" complicated women are much more idle. Knitting seems to equate to thoughtfulness. This is very different from Madam Defarge's conniving knitting or Jane Austen's embroidering girls. These are salt of the earth women and they are rarely without their worsted and pins. Her books aren't easy - they are long and she often writes dialogue in dialect. They are worth the effort, though, and they certainly cut the tedium of making CDs.

T-shirt Quilting

2010-10-26T16:32:00.003-04:00

T-shirt quilts are a mixed bag. They sew-up pretty quickly because the pieces are large. They are challenging because I am challenged at sewing jersey. I find it rolls, stretches, and wanders under the sewing machine foot. This project is for the girlfriend of a friend. The friend recently made her girlfriend downsize the number of t-shirts in her wardrobe. There was some reluctance in parting with these t-shirts, which I totally understand. I have t-shirts that are ten years old and two in particular that are older than me. T-shirts have the rare ability to cross over from clothing to second skin. You wash them enough and they take on a tissue-like quality - there is nothing softer or more comforting. So rather than send these t-shirts off to Goodwill my friend sought me out to give them a second life as a quilt. These two lovely ladies will be moving in together soon (I think they have been together two-ish years?) So it is a very exciting time in the relationship and I love the idea of them snuggling up to watch movies under this quilt.So in that respect it is worth the challenge. I hope the final product lasts for many more washes, is mended and packed and unpacked, tossed on couches, used on guest beds, goes on picnics, and has a long and useful second life.

Rip Van Winkle

2010-10-19T10:37:00.003-04:00

I woke up the other morning and it was fall. It was also October. I am not quite sure how all of this happened, but here we are.I have been busy. Like I can barely take a breath or gather my thoughts and when I have a moment to myself I just want to sit very still and perhaps knit a few rows. I am not very excited about much right now but really just trying to get through to the middle of November. I feel like things will be quieter and more manageable then.
I had the day off yesterday. It was nice to take a break and spend some time with kitty and puppy. I could use a few more of those days in a row.

Is it stealing?

2010-09-19T17:16:00.005-04:00

I took a trip to Jo Ann Fabrics the other day. This is not a shocking fact. I needed a pile of Lion Brand Wool-Ease for a massive Christmas knit. This is also not shocking. For some reason I like a giant challenging Christmas project each year. I feel it keeps me sharp. I also really like Lion Brand Wool Ease. It is inexpensive and comes in a lot of stylish colors. I am knitting Trilobite hats for my co-workers. We work at the Ohio Historical Society and the Trilobite is Ohio's state fossil - it is really too perfect. My initial estimates put the hat count at about 24. It takes me about 6 hours to knit a hat...
This trip to Jo Ann Fabrics was unlike other trips. They had recently trimmed quite a few of their home decor fabrics for swatches. When people come into Jo Ann's looking for the ideal accent fabric for curtains, chairs covers, pillows, what have you, they will often ask for a swatch to be sure that fabric aligns with existing decor decisions. Eventually the raw edge of the bolt can start looking a little chewed-up (I know all this because I worked at the cutting counter VERY briefly). So they trim those edges down and turn them into sample swatches. These sample swatches are stored in the plastic pocket with the brand and price info and you are welcome to take them. So my issue is - I have no intention of using any of the swatches in this pile to make home decor decisions. I plan to work them into a quilt. I also plan to go back and skulk around the home decor section collecting more swatches. I have justified this questionable behavior by thinking about the large quantities of hard-earned money I have spent at Jo Ann's over the years...I feel that the shame of walking up to the register with my purchases and a conspicuous wad of "cell phone" in my hip pocket is punishment enough...right?

Mill Hollow

2010-09-19T16:38:00.004-04:00

Over Labor Day weekend we took Ellie to Mill Hollow near Vermilion, Ohio. Lovey and his buddies used to ride their bikes there when they were kids. It is a beautiful area. The park is nice and there are some walking trails, but the highlight is the gully. The area is carved out by the Vermilion River and littered with rocks - shale, slate, sandstone, limestone - we gathered some to bring home for the garden we are attempting to create in our back yard.It was a perfect late summer, early fall day. It was chilly and sunny - cool enough for sweatshirts and flannels......but warm enough that I could take my shoes off to cross the creek.You can take the girl out of Appalachia...

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Mill Hollow is near Gore Orphanage Road and the former sight of the Swift Mansion and, later, the Light of Hope Orphanage. Elements of the foundation of both are still out on a little wedge of land (a "gore") in another park on the river south of Mill Hollow. Apparently it is quite haunted.

After Mill Hollow we drove up to the lake. The water was wild from the wind and there was quite a bit of spray. Lovey told me they used to swim in water like this in the summer. He and his friends used to go out on this pier on windier days and the waves were high enough to crash over them.When I was in grade school learning about the Great Lakes, I found it incomprehensible that there was such a thing as a lake you could not swim across let alone see across! The ocean is one thing. I had seen the ocean every summer and that made perfect sense to me. My experience with lakes was much more limited. I was and still am amazed by giant lakes. I still get very excited when we visit Lake Erie. Before I die I want to visit Lake Baikal, the world's oldest and deepest lake.

Button Me Up

2010-09-07T08:40:00.003-04:00

From time to time I borrow the button maker at my brother-in-law's store What the Rock?! and we make small batches of pin-back buttons at work for events and conferences. These are always fun times and usually result in one or two hilarious buttons featuring celebrity crushes, fabulous unicorns, or Conway Twitty. Last night I ventured into a new realm of button making.I have been wanting to make fabric covered buttons for a while and finally sat down with Ellie to figure it out. It is incredibly easy.I read on a couple websites and forums that you don't have to buy the kit, that you can wrap a regular button in fabric and sew off the back.The kit and some refills cost a couple dollars and, for my money at least, was worth every penny! It is quite satisfying to feel the little snap of the back popping onto the front. It is even more satisfying to pop the button out of the mold.Love it. Now I need to re-evaluate my wardrobe. I feel most of my clothing is woefully lacking in fabric covered buttons.

Polar Bear in the Jungle

2010-08-24T20:18:00.004-04:00

I bought this beautiful yarn this past spring. I had to. I am a Lost fan and it is Dharma yarn from Sheepy Time Knits and it is called Polar Bear in the Jungle...trust me. Say what you will about Lost and how it ended, it was six years of my life and I will always love it.But I have a had a series of false starts with this yarn in my attempts to find the best sock pattern. First I tried a toe-up sock. Cath and I had grand plans to finally break our cuff down commitment and attempt some toe-up. It was an abject disaster. We both made it past the toe. That's where Cath stopped. I made it to the heel flap and that was it for me. It could have been the pattern...but it will be a little while before I try that experiment again. So then I cast on a few different attempts - a mint leaf pattern, a standard stockinette, something with yarn overs - and frogged every one. It was like a little toe-up induced purgatory. It was something about the pattern, something about the shape, but mostly it was the tricky colorway. The white kept clustering in one area rather than striping.As you can see, I have too much polar bear in this area when I really need polar bear all over the jungle. I needed a pattern that was the equivalent of a tasty fish biscuit. If you were a Lost fan you would be so with me right now! So I went back to my Ravelry queue to give it another try.
We have a winner! This is Hourglass by Bev Elicerio from Knitty Fall 2008. And here is the thing - it has 70 stitches rather than the 60-65 I am used to working with in sock patterns. Apparently that extra ten stitches was just the ticket because the yarn is giving me an awesome stripe! The pattern is strong too so it isn't lost in all that foliage or chomped up by all that polar bear. I am loving this sock pattern and yarn combination.Mmmmmm, fish biscuit!

From under a rock

2010-08-18T16:06:00.003-04:00

I feel like I have just crawled out into the world for the first time in a while. I expect the cabin fever of winter, I even enjoy it from time to time. There is, however, something especially cruel about cabin fever in the summer. Summer is a time to play outside and enjoy the warm weather. Here in Ohio we have had a summer of 90+ degree heat for days and weeks on end. It has been too hot for anything.The past view days, though have been a welcome break in the trend. Monday and Tuesday I rode my bike around the city taking in the fresh and breathable air and I feel like a million bucks! It is amazing what a little outside time can do for one's constitution. The end is fast approaching though and the temperature is creeping back into the unbearable range. Tonight I will be walking Ellie and getting some outside time while it is still an option.

Lucky in Furniture

2010-08-02T08:29:00.003-04:00

I have an insatiable desire for quirky, livable, beautiful furniture. I lust for it. I spend hours at antique stores, second hand shops, and flea markets searching. I pick trash, I comb sale fliers, I am, at heart, a nest-er. So this weekend ranks pretty high on the scale of success. Lovey and I went to a tried and true favorite antique store, Eclectiques Antique Mall. We have been in the market for a dining room set and I have been disappointed with everything at furniture stores and found nothing to spark my interest on craigslist. I find that Eclectiques delivers every time. I got these Lane end tables there recently. We didn't find a table but we did find this church pew. It is a little worse for wear, but with a good stripping, sanding, and staining (like I haven't been stripping enough paint lately) it will be really sharp. Plus, the shabbiness reflected in the price - always a bonus. I should explain that I have always wanted a church pew by my front door. I saw it somewhere when I was little and the idea planted itself deep in my brain. Which actually serves as a wonderful transition. After we bought the pew we went to see the movie Inception. I really enjoyed it. It demands a lot of the viewer. After the movie we decided to hit one more place before calling it a day. We went to Flower Child - a new antique store to add to our repertoire - and found this:This is one of the best things I have ever found. Now, I have to be a little impolite for a moment and talk about prices. This set was $550. It was on sale for $275. The dealer had skipped out on his lease so the store was trying to recoup some of the lost rent by unloading his stuff. Lovey didn't even blink before he said, "Sold." We he went to pick it up yesterday there were three additional leaves we didn't know about. It is an amazing find. We did get some different fabric for the chair seats. The fabric on there is nice but it doesn't match anything in our house. I also got the fabric on sale...

Lazy Bones

2010-07-15T21:24:00.006-04:00

I am tired! I feel like I am in recovery - home improvement recovery. I have been spending a lot of quality time on this new sofa with this adorable puppy. She helped me with my kitchner stitch on this sock.My top down construction on this cotton sweater...And my color combination on this hand towel.I did take a break from my self-imposed rest for some social knitting. Cath and I knit together for the first time in a while. Both of us have been traveling and working. Finally, we had a small break. I also finally let her see the house. Her home is always so welcoming and comfy. I didn't want her to see mine until it could feel welcoming and comfy too. She brought me a lovely late birthday gift! I love the late ones because it stretches the birthday out - a little extra birthday to cap off a pretty fantastic week. In addition to these knitting related items, she also got me My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira. It is a historical fiction about a young midwife at the outset of the Civil War. I can't put it down! It's quite good and engaging. That Cath sure knows me! Thanks, Cath!

Sweet Relief

2010-07-13T09:12:00.003-04:00

For the first time in five and a half months Lovey and I are happy to walk into our house. There is no more goopy paint remover, brick dust, or trash. There are no more nails, strange carpet smells, or random power tools. The upstairs is utterly livable.I am most happy about having our books out and knick-knacks arranged in a pleasing fashion. It is nice to see Lovey items and my items together in our home. They were together in the apartment but having them in this house that we have patiently worked at for the better half of a year...well that is something all together different. Somehow we have a lot of Asian and Asian inspired objects. I was unaware of this until I started unpacking them.
And these Lane end tables that mom and I found at a local antique store for $40 each. They are just the epitome of mid-century cool. You can see mine already outfitted with knitting books and a project basket tucked underneath.
Finally, some picture on the wall including this embroidery by my great-grandmother.
It's strange how we become so attached to the certain small objects around us. I have had that piggy bank for as long as I can remember and the four small framed prints by Carl Larsson hung in my nursery.
So I am relieved to have all those small items that define a space as "home" around us again. I am looking forward to some peaceful dinner and knitting this evening.

Werftpfuhl, Germany

2010-07-09T09:36:00.010-04:00

In August 2008 I traveled with a group of women I have come to lovingly call "my feminists" to Germany for a conference on gender and emancipation in the diverse countries of Syria, Sudan, Germany, and the United States. It was, to say the least, a strange, unsettling experience. Though I have wrote sparingly about those thirteen days, it is something that hovers always present. Yesterday I was noodling around online looking for some WWII resources and began wondering if I could find anything related to the town in East Germany where we stayed. I kind of hit the mother-load.The building is now called the Kurt Lowenstein House and is a center for education in social justice, especially gender studies. The above picture was take by Say Carnahan, one of the women in our group. The area was originally settled by monks in the 1400s. The actual structure was built in the mid-1500s and served as part of the monastery complex. In the mid 1700s the Hirschfelde family took over the house and much of the land in the area. There is a town near by named Hirschfelde. I jogged there on my evening run on our last night in Germany. The manor house passed through the Hirschfelde family, each generation updating it and adding to it's grandeur. In the late 1700s August Wilhelm von Bismarck, Prussian Finance Minister, inherited the estate, followed in 1815 by Wilhelm Karl von Krocher, District Administrator and Regional Director of the Altmark. In 1845 the estate was passed to the Schmidt family. Otto Heinrich Schmidt was the one who took on the task of modernizing and updating the mansion. Below is an illustration by Alexander Duncker, a German publisher, artist, and writer, showing the house as it would have looked when the Schmidt family owned it.
The illustration comes from a 16 volume collection of illustrations by Duncker showing the castles and royal manor houses of Germany. The book is titled Die ländlichen Wohnsitze, Schloesser und Residenzen der ritterschaftlichen Grundbesitzer in der preussischen Monarchie... In 1904 Edouard Arnhold, a coal baron and a member of several advisory boards to the Prussian government, was appointed to the estate. He used the location as a home base for his arts patronage efforts. He added a sculpture garden and then converted the house into a girls orphanage called the Johanna House.Now here is where it starts to get exciting (at least for me). Recently I did a project at work about the movie M. The 1951 American version by Joseph Losey was banned in Ohio in 1954. This was at a turning point in our culture in regards to cinema. Studios were beginning the fight against movie censorship and the M lawsuit in Ohio served as a means to ramp-up the First Amendment rights battle. The original M was a 1931 German film directed by Fritz Lange. It was banned in Nazi Germany for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which for challenging the integrity of the government. Lange was forced to flee the country. Turns out, one of Lange's leading ladies in another film, Brigitte Helm, was a ward of the state here at Johanna House. The orphanage was dissolved in 1933 when the Arnhold fled Germany to avoid Nazi persecution.Which brings us to WWII. Let me preface this section by relating the one item I did write on my return. It was a one page essay about the embodied experience of walking the trails of what used to be the park lands of the estate. I was trying to explain the sensation one has of being in the woods, the feeling of presence and fear, anticipation and loaded silence. We all shared the experience of being watched or hunted, or constantly peeking over our shoulder. What was it? No one could quite say except one woman, a rigorous academic historian, who told me in a matter-of-fact tone, "It's haunted. There is so much blood in the ground here. The whole forest is haunted." It made perfect sense. And not in the Ghost Hunters sense of haunted with apparitions and EMF detectors. It is the deep haunting of the earth itself. The very trees are spooked and shell-shocked. They are young in some swaths, ancient in others. These are trees that have grown back after a clear-cutting. They are planted in neat rows. There were concentration camps for political prisoners a few towns over and maps from the Holocaust Museum suggest there might have been camps adjacent if not on this land - though that would take a great deal more research. Near the end of the war the Soviet army marched through this area in a show of massive force on their way to the Battle of Berlin, pushing back Nazi troops along the way. At the close of WWII this area became a part of East Germany and was under Soviet control. At this point the story gets murky but it seems it became an education center and residence in 1945. It was named for Kurt Lowenstein, a member of the Union of Radical School Reformers which had sought to socialize and equalize the education system in Germany during the years of the Wiemar Republic.So what is the conclusion to this very long blog post? Annie Price took this picture of me on our first day there. The ground had herb gardens and I was looking at some rosemary. I remember this moment both in my body and as it was to her when she took the image. I guess I am just glad to know that this bizarre collective experience has roots. I am able to place it in a context of history and feel more comfortable about how very uncomfortable we all were. It is also a jumping off point. Much of what I relate here I have gathered from poorly google-translated German web-based encyclopedias. There are resources in English that I discovered in this round about way that will enhance and round out the story, contextualize it even more. I am also pleased with the serendipitous connection to my present. As I have said before, these serendipitous moments completely delight me and remind me that life is interconnected and full of purpose.

Sources:

Kurt Lowenstein House
Germany's Past Contested: The Soviet-American Conflict in Berlin over History Curriculum Reform, 1945-48 by Gregory P. Wegner from History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Spring, 1990), pp. 1-16
Manor Hirschfelde (translated)

Big Doings

2010-07-05T09:22:00.005-04:00

Here at chez Molly and Lovey we have used our holiday weekend to it's greatest advantage. My mom and step dad are visiting and both of them have had ample experience with home ownership. Lovey and I are mere amateurs. The truth is, without them, half the stuff that needed to be done would not be done...ever! I have no business digging stumps. Joe and Lovey took it on like gladiators! Here are some of the highlights from yesterday morning as we prepared for round two.
"I am sooooo not helping. I am just going to hang out up here on this fridge and you let me know when all this madness is over."

Freedom Baby

2010-07-01T13:17:00.004-04:00

I have arrived at that age where all of my friends are having babies. There are three buns in the oven right now that need lovely hand knits as a welcome to the world.
These are items from Mason-Dixon Knitting. Out of all the pattern books I own I think I have knit the most repeated items from this one. Log-cabin afghans, ball-band dish cloths, bibs, burp cloths, mitered afghans...I really do love to knit all of those items. I also end up gifting many of those items to friends, family, and charity. So I really feel there is something magical about that particular book.These items are for a friend who is due on September 11th. I don't know how well I would take it if my baby were slated to be born on that day. I guess the chances of actually giving birth naturally on your due date are pretty slim...but still. As a result she and her man have taken to calling their baby-to-be Freedom Baby with not a little irony. I am making some bibs and burps for the little man.

Willow Work basket, c. 1760-1799

2010-06-28T14:53:00.004-04:00

Recently I wrote a post about a letter sent to Abraham Lincoln that at one time accompanied a knitted scarf. Casually I mentioned that it might be fun to find a knitting connection for each of our presidents. Of course, as with many things in my life, a fleeting thought has turned into a full blown obsession.

When it comes to presidential artifacts there are a few challenges to consider. Earlier presidents will have fewer items to access because they did not survive the years or those presidents simply had less stuff. Fortunately, when it comes to our first president there was a concerted effort to preserve the objects of his estate. He was, after all, the first and that is a big deal. So, similar to the Crown Jewels, the "stuff"of his life becomes a part of our national mythology. This particular item seems particularly precious because it would have been a part of Martha and George's daily life.The caption reads: Workbaskets were essential sewing tools for an industrious mistress like Martha Washington. This twined oval work basket may be the "basket for Mrs. W." purchased by George Washington in 1795. Mount Vernon visitor accounts often commented on Mrs. Washington's enterprising nature; one noted that she was "incessantly knitting," even as she entertained guests. Family legend suggests that Mrs. Washington particularly liked to use this large and sturdy basket to hold her husband's socks for darning.

The basket is from the collection at Mount Vernon. It is woven from willow and probably made in the United States. It is curious to me that, with all this folklore surrounding Martha Washington's avid knitting, there seems to be very few artifacts (at least digitized) to illustrate this defining feature of her life. Why? I have mulled it over and arrived at a few conclusions:

Consider your own knitting needles, specifically your double pointed sock needles. If you are anything like me, those needles are bowed nearly to the shape of your hand. While I find this utterly fascinating, the fact that the shape of Martha's hand might be forever preserved in the curve of an old steel knitting pin, I have a sneaking suspicion that I am in the minority. Most people would regard them as old bent needles. If the needles were saved (and they might not have been) they are probably stored deep in the archives rather than on display.
She gave a lot of her knitting away. She knit for soldiers, her husband, and children. Those items would have been worn and worn and worn. I wonder how many times she had to darn Georges socks? Did he wear out the heels? Perhaps his boots wore away at the instep. The point is, unless it is a fancy heirloom, the bulk of her knitting - socks, mittens, undergarments - would have been worn threadbare, repaired and eventually discarded.
She was the wife of the first president. For better or worse, her daily domestic life would have been greatly over shadowed by the accomplishments of her husband. From glancing at documents, household accounts, and letters, she didn't seem to mind one bit. They seemed to have a very easy relationship for the first American power couple. He adds postscripts to his letters sending her regards often mentioning that she is by his side as he writes. He appends little notes to clothing orders, making sure that this years shoes are not to wide or too narrow for his Mrs. W. At the same time, her letters clearly demonstrate that she has done okay for herself in the husband department. Can you blame her? Lead dentures notwithstanding - he was a war hero and not too hard on the eyes.

So while we aren't swimming in Martha Washington knitting artifacts we can still identify her as an avid knitter by the few we do have like this beautiful basket, which is more visually appealing than tarnished, bent needles, or ratty knitted under-drawers. I can envision it on her elbow, brimming with yarn and presidential stockings waiting to be mended.

Chloe Uline-Olmstead-Renner 1997(ish) - 2010

2010-06-16T13:44:00.007-04:00

After much soul searching and tears Lovey and I decided that it was time. Last night we took Chloe to the vet for a final consultation and the vet agreed. Chloe lived for fourteen years. For the nine years that I had her she had Cryptococcus - a chronic fungal infection for which she took regular medicine. Up until the last two months she never showed signs of age or infirmity. Her kidneys started to fail from age and the existing illness didn't help. I cried...a lot. But today I feel just peaceful and relieved. Here is a pile of pictures of my sweet dearly departed girl.We will miss you so much. Thank you for all the adorable, sassy years.

Mrs. H. S. Crocker to Abraham Lincoln, Monday, January 11, 1864 (Sends knitted scarf)

2010-06-15T11:07:00.004-04:00

I am on the road this week for our Summer Institutes. These are week long, fairly intensive professional development seminars where our teachers get to hear speakers (professors and historians), receive materials for the classroom, work on projects, and get hands on training in using primary sources and historical thinking in the classroom. It's a pretty fun week. The theme of this institute is The Dominion of War. Today we are focusing on the Civil War so it seems appropriate to share this piece.

From The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Series 1. General Correspondence. 1833-1916

This is a letter from Mrs. H.S. Crocker to President Lincoln thanking him for steering the nation through the Civil War up until that point. It is an eerily prophetic letter in that she writes "...I hope you may be sustained by grace and live to be our next President (no very enviable position I should judge at present however)." He does live to be the next president, sees the south surrender on April 9th, 1865, but is assassinated six days later. Here is the transcript:

From Mrs. H. S. Crocker to Abraham Lincoln, January 11, 1864

Ft Howard Jan 11th/64

Dear President Lincoln

please excuse the freedom I use in encroaching upon your time for a moment, and also accept the emblem of our Countrys [sic] Freedom which accompanies this note, from one that greatly admires the Fidelity -- Patriotism, and Wisdom, which you have manifested throughout this wicked and terible [sic] Rebellion, I send it to you with the sincere hope that our great banner may soon wave over every foot of this great republic and over a freed and happy People, and I believe you are destined through Providence to guide the great Ship of State safely through this Storm into the Harbor of peace and Freedom, therefore I hope you may be sustained by grace and live to be our next President (no very enviable position I should judge at present however).

your sincere friend

Mrs H S Crocker

PS the scarf is some of my own knitting and inventing. I tried to knit a Spread Eagle over your name but did not succeed--

H S C

I love the thought process behind this gift and her confession that it did not go as planned. This was a time of rampant knitting both in the south and north. Northern women were more organized in their efforts but on both sides of the Mason Dixon needles were clicking away on socks, hats, scarves, mittens, blankets - there was not enough yarn in the divided nation so women un-knit old clothes, to be re-knit into items. They tucked notes of encouragement into their handiwork in the hopes that it would rally which ever boy received it. This woman, in the flurry of all this knitting, did a somewhat indulgent thing in sending the president a scarf - most knitting was dedicated solely to the soldiers. She writes from Fort Howard, Wisconsin, which could indicate that she was somewhat separate from the conflict. This is not to say that she didn't have family members fighting. At the same time, this is such a personal and affectionate thing to do - sending the president a token of affection and appreciation during an extremely painful and trying time. I wonder if and when he wore it? Finally, it is a statement of her politics. She trusts in her president even after three horrific years of war. She is still patriotic and I imagine that probably meant a lot to this deeply thoughtful and sometimes melancholy man.

During the recent Obama campaign many political knitter took up their needles to both knit for and against him. Obama, himself, was featured on a knitter's blog - Stringactivity - holding the sock she had been working on during his speech. I guess the point is that knitting and presidents go way back. It makes me want to seek out examples of all our presidents interacting with my most favorite of fiber crafts...

Renno

2010-06-11T21:19:00.003-04:00

I was driving to work this morning and they were interviewing a young man on NPR. They introduced his mom and just as they were saying her name, "Dora" I passed the corner of Dora Drive and 17th Avenue. They said her name in the same instant that I looked at the sign. I logged on to the blog this evening with the intention of pitching a bitch about our disaster-area of a house and Blogger offers me the option to redesign the entire look of my blog in minutes! This is why I could never be an atheist. Some say they don't believe in fate. I don't really buy into coincidence. I live for those serendipitous moments.But my house is a pit. We have been plugging away at this fire place for months and are so close to the end. It is becoming an Einstein situation. The closer I get to the end the slower I seem to go. It's called time dilation. At the speed of light time bends. So it is with stripping the paint off a fire place.But it isn't just the fire place. There is a general lack of motivation about this squalor in which we live. In case you are wondering the pink in the lower left corner is a pair of under-drawers the puppy dragged out of the hamper and into the living room a few days ago. I haven't done a blessed thing about them.The saddest thing is that I just stood in the center of the room and rotated taking a picture at each cardinal direction. It's closing in from every direction.So I've done the only sensible thing I could think to do and cast on a pair of socks. They are the Dancing Bamboo Socks from Pints and Purls.

1917

2010-06-03T18:48:00.005-04:00

Junior Red Cross, Company B, children and adults, knitting at tables set up outdoors in Wilmette

All of these images are from the Chicago Daily News and are dated 1917. They are all of groups of people knitting:

Junior Red Cross Guards, Company B, boys knitting, sitting outdoors in Wilmette

Portrait of Ethel Forgan siting in a director's chair on a brick patio, knitting with Miss Sarah Farewell, partially obscured, in Chicago, Illinois

Women knitting as they are sitting outdoors on wooden chairs

Female employees of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad freight office sitting on chairs and tables knitting

Women's War Relief Association members, posing with their handiwork

This last image sums it up. During World War I there was a tremendous surge in charitable knitting for the soldiers overseas. Women, men, and children knit sweaters, balaclavas, scarfs, vests, helmet liners, wrist warmers, mittens, and socks, socks, socks, socks! The boys in the trenches were always desperate for wool socks. Wool naturally repels water because of it's fiber structure and lanolin content. A pair of handknit socks was a comfort to someone standing in dank mud and water for days at a time. Meanwhile, on the home front, knitting was all the rage. It was actually considered to be in poor taste to knit personal items. One's knitting time should be totally committed to the war effort and people knit everywhere. Schools set aside knitting time every day for boys and girls, women gathered during the day and in the evening to knit and share in the experience of having a loved one at war. Men who could not fight because of age or medical status also knit for the war effort. Women schlepped their knitting bags everywhere pulling projects out at any moment of downtime. Organizations like the Red Cross provided yarn and official patterns approved by the army and then collected items for shipping and distribution.

Wartime knitting is a longtime tradition. Martha Washington knit with the other army wives at Valley Forge, both the South and the North knit during the Civil War and several examples of women sending knitted gifts to Abraham Lincoln. During World War II the Red Cross stepped in again to organize another massive knitting movement for soldiers and refuges. Presently people knit socks for soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. We don't need to knit for soldiers any more. It is cheap and easy to produce socks, we have fibers that are lightweight, yet insulating, anti-microbial, etc. But we still feel the need to protect the feet of our fighting men and women with our own hands. It is a natural and ancient need for humans to comfort one another in times of strife. This includes the social act of knitting itself and the comfort shared in spending time with someone experiencing a similar anxiety.

For more information about wartime knitting check out these two great books:

No Idle Hands by Anne Macdonald
Knitting America by Susan M. Strawn

Neither nor

2010-05-26T20:31:00.002-04:00

So the answer to my question of what to knit next ended up being "none of the above." I tend to ruminate a good long while on potential projects. I have been wanting to use some of the Knit Picks CotLin in my stash and had been contemplating what that project should be. Yesterday evening I was going back and forth between making dinner with Lovey in the kitchen and clandestinely looking at patterns online in the studio. I was perusing my queue and it hit me like a ton o' bricks. I wanted to knit Marigold from the most recent Interweave Knits. I wanted to knit it so bad that I was almost willing to forgo dinner. I had the itch. The pattern is the easiest lace pattern that also miraculously looks complex.I have also been attempting to return to my sewing. I love to embroider. I actually embroider better than I draw. I've always hated drawing and struggled mightily at it in art class and then at college. I was never much of a painter either. I labored at it and the results were always okay but never exceptional. Then I began making pictures with thread and needle and that made worlds of sense and was completely enjoyable.This is a quilt piece for a quilt of embroidered plant panels. The images are based on plates I found at an antique shop. After a great deal of sleuthing I discovered they were from this series of books, English Botany... by John Edward Sowerby. The plan is to do all the panels and then connect them with some squares I found on yet another antiquing excursion. I have a very general and nebulous idea of how the finished product will look...I am assuming sensational.

Full-Weight Balls

2010-05-19T12:56:00.005-04:00

Alright, I apologize ahead of time, but this image is irresistibly hilarious. I know I should be more mature, this is history after all, but how can anyone look at this photograph and not have a riotous laugh!?!?This image is from the Library of Congress, American Memory digital collections. It is a part of the R. C. Maxwell Company Collection in the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University. The photograph was taken in 1918. This image represents early outdoor advertising in the United States. I did a basic search for "knitting" just see what I would come up with. Researching this image ended up touching on so many of my research interests! Knitting (of course), the arts, settlement houses, early advertising... it is a smorgasbord!

Advertising is ubiquitous. There are very few moments in our lives when someone is not trying to sell us something. I have even dreamed advertisements! Me vacuuming the s-h-*-t out of my apartment with a Dyson while that British designer provided the voice over in my head. I woke up really disappointed that I would have vacuum with my little cheapy sweeper like the rest of the masses.

There was a time when advertising was not the constant. One could find advertisements on packaging, in newspapers, and in stores. Many of these advertisements were gorgeous, graphic, lithographic illustrations that are highly sought after by collectors today (I have a few delightful Singer sewing machine ads from the 50s). Starting in the late 1800s and early 1900s advertising began to appear on the sides of buildings and along the highways and railways. Circus posters are a great example. In 1900 billboards were given a standard size and the industry took off!

R.C. Maxwell Company of Trenton, New Jersey, was one of the earliest outdoor advertising companies. It was founded in 1894 just before billboard standardization by Robert Chester Maxwell (1873-1954), a 21-year-old sign painter. The company lasted over 100 years until is was bought out in 2000. With the commercial development of the incandescent bulb after World War I, the company began creating electric advertising signs. This is one of many that the company owned in Atlantic City.

Fleisher's was a classic worsted wool yarn. The company was founded by two sons of German-Jewish immigrants in Philadelphia, PA. The family was deeply involved in Philadelphia philanthropy including settlement houses. Samuel, the primary founder of the company founded the Graphic Sketch Club, which offered free art classes to underprivileged children. Now known as the Fleisher Art Memorial, it still provides art classes to adults and children tuition-free.

So, it seems the company comes by those full-weight balls honestly! It was not an easy thing at the turn of the century to buck the trend of unscrupulous labor practices. However, Samuel and his four siblings were committed to education and social reformation. I just love that they managed to fund their charitable efforts with yarn!

Puppy Sunday

2010-05-17T12:01:00.006-04:00

Yesterday was a Puppy Sunday. Lovey and I packed up Eleanor, got some coffee and doughnuts and went to the park. Bummer.But Ellie didn't mind. She was content with the paved walkways and picnic areas. Lovey found a stick for her to carry.And she ran with her momma (that's me).And then attacked!So she could walk herself.She scouted a mountain pass...
And crossed it with Lovey.
Climbed a tree.Went flyingGot some kisses when she landed.And finally looked for some fish in the pond.
It was a long and exciting day. So she napped in the car on the way home.
So sleepy in Lovey's lap.
Happy Puppy Sunday!

Missing

2010-05-14T18:49:00.006-04:00

Our new house is swell. But it doesn't have a full length mirror. Our apartment had an awesome full length mirror in my closet. I didn't miss this feature until today when I had finished sweaters to photograph and realized I would have to climb onto the edge of the bathtub and strike a pose in front of the bathroom mirror.This is the Ingenue by Wendy Bernard knit in Cascade 220 Superwash. I love the way this sweater turned out! I have never been disappointed with a Wendy Bernard pattern. Her style and shaping are just perfect.This is the Heather Hoodie Vest by Debbie O'Neill. I am also a huge fan of this sweater. I busted out the button collection to give it a little something extra. The best part about finishing sweaters is the feeling of entitlement I get about casting on new projects. Here are my top three:

Uhura by Connie Chinchio

Lily by Marnie MacLean

Aquitaine Pullover by Deborah Newton

I can't decide which one to start but all of them seem somewhat summery and I have yarn in the stash that could work for each. Of course, I might just start some socks instead.

Knitting for the Soldier by Hattie M. Sanford

2010-05-06T13:59:00.005-04:00

I came across this poem while compiling a set of sources on the dominion of war. This was a Civil War related source called Knitting for the Soldier Poem by Hattie M. Sanford. The poem is in the collection at the Ohio Historical Society but not online yet. Sanford was from Northeastern Ohio and attended the Ohio Female College in College Hill, Ohio.
The poem is a part the larger journal she kept while she was there (Collection Number and Title: VOL 1263 - Hattie M. Sanford Journal). It is dated 1862 and about knitting socks for Union soldiers. I have a soft spot for this source for two reasons.

First, I had to transcribe it. When you take the time to transcribe something handwritten you find yourself imagining the inner monologue of the author, the sound of her voice, ambient noises around her... In the poem she describes her surroundings and as I was trying to decipher the handwriting I could imagine myself there listening to our needles click in time with the clock as we discuss our classes and our patriotism.

Second, I discovered a new word in the process of transcribing this item - Secesh - a nickname (sometimes derogatory) for southern soldiers. It was a word that seemed to be written very clearly but was still completely illegible to me. So I typed it into Google on a whim to see if there was something I was missing. Sure enough, the word was defined on a forum about Civil War reenactments and research. Someone had the same problem I did. She was trying to decipher some family letters of the era and kept coming across this strange word.

We recently had a seminar about slave culture and resistance. The speaker, Dr. Walter Rucker, was discussion his own primary document research and said he kept coming across the word gaol and could not figure out what it meant. Finally he said the word out loud and realized it was jail. Suddenly all the pieces fell into place and his pile of documents made sense. That is why transcribing is so fascinating! So here it is with my added transcription after each page.

[page 1]
Knitting for the Soldier.
Sitting by my hearth stone at the evening hour
Yielding to the magic of gentle memory’s power –
I’m knitting for the ones we call so “brave and true” –
Knitting for a soldier – a “sock” – of deepest blue.
How the needles glisten in the warm fire light
Making all around me cheery and more bright!
How the flames leap higher in a crimson tide
Causing the old chimney to appear less wide!
And while many weird fancier in the door may come
Mingling and com-mingling with “the atmosphere of home.”
The Low and gentle music of the ancient clock
Marks the many stitches in the soldier’s “sock.”
Soon it will be finished – the toe is almost knit –
I cannot help but wonder whether it will “fit” –
But there – ‘tis not much matter – the “boy” may have no shoes
And even socks to large he cannot well refuse.
We must not talk of symmetry in such dread times as these
When “killed” – or “wounded badly” is borne on every breeze –
Thinking of the loyal – ^good and brave and true
We must bid to trifling – a long – a last Adieu.
[page 2]
But I cannot help but wonder if in a wild foray
They should send with greatest speed our gallant “Co. A”
Who leaving all behind – should tread the beaten track
And leaving come find out they “better and – go back.”
If then. Secesh* should get this precious sock of blue.
Oh! dear. I’d be so angry I can’t tell what I’d do
Perhaps I’d go to see him – more likely write a letter
And teach the haughty Southern the way to do much better!
I’ll drop a stitch right here – to let the air pass through
And give to Secesh feet a cold and frozen hue.
Oh! so I won’t do that! it wouldn’t look just right
And so I’ll knit the whole – secure, and strong and tight.
And knitting I will pray that He who dwell afore
Will guard the absent ever, with tenderness and love
That in the camp – “on duty” – or marshaled for the fight
Our soldiers may be faithful – and loyal to ^the Right. –
That music in their souls may have a sweeter strain
Than that which throbs so wildly in [illegible] and heart’s brain.
I listen to the pleasant ‘click’ of needles moving fast
And think it is the [illegible] that they hand by me [illegible]
I make! and find ‘tis but a dream – that I am all alone.
And nought to break the silence save the clocks continual drone.[page 3]
How long I have been dreaming! the fire is burning low
The pictures on the wall – only come and go.
The clock proclaims – “’tis midnight’s holy hour.”
And I’ve been subject to Memory’s potent power. My knitting work is finished – the “socks” are now complete
All ready for the entrance of any Soldier’s Federal feet.
And trusting they will warm some Soldier Federal boy’s toes
My muse to fairy land in indignation goes.

The Thing About Cats

2010-04-29T16:49:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I went shopping for a new dog bed for Miss Ellie. The first bed we bought her was puppy sized but not puppy proof. In the first week she had chewed through the top, pulled out the stuffing, and sealed the deal by peeing right in the middle of it. No prissy little puppy beds for this dog. So I brought home this giant puffy weather resistant heavy duty dog bed.It took Chloe twenty minutes to decide it was for her and stake it out in sassy cat style.That is Ellie curled up on the floor amid the video game cords in the upper right corner of this image while miss feline thang takes in a little sun.
Finally, after much patient waiting, Chloe got up to use the litter box and have a sip of water in the kitchen. Ellie tentatively moved onto the bed. In the above picture she is staring down Chloe who returned to find that she had forgot to call seat check.After a few heated moments Ellie won the stand off (mostly because Chloe couldn't be bothered) and did a little sprawling of her own. For the most part, however, the bed has been a Chloe zone. Meow.

Rainy Monday

2010-04-26T11:03:00.004-04:00

It is a dreary, chilly, rainy spring day in Columbus. I am on vacation this week and it seems like a damp start. I had master plans of lying in the sun to get my yearly burn while Lovey stood on the porch in a Lifeguard outfit making ocean sounds. At 50 degrees it is a little brisk for such shenanigans. Maybe later in the week I'll have better luck. In the meantime it's housework and lazy time. Ellie and I are watching Monsterquest on the History Channel and working on the fireplace.
I have been thinking about my stash lately. It has diminished and as it has diminished I have replaced some stash yarn with better stash yarn - high quality stuff, dank tweeds and sticky-icky sock yarn. And not just higher quality but more of it. So rather than just buying single skeins of something that sparks my interest, I try to buy a sweater or vest sized quantity. I see this as a mark of knitting maturity. I am not just ravenous for yarn in any form. I want yarn that I can envision as a finished product on my body or the body of a loved one. I am also more aware of how that yarn fits into my lifestyle. I buy a lot of superwash now because I am willing to pay extra not to hand wash...I really dislike hand washing.
I see this maturity translating into my existing knits. I have been frogging some items I don't wear. Just like I would donate a piece of clothing I haven't worn, it seems silly to have all that yardage knit up in sweater I don't like. This yarn is from the Clover Cardi I knit a little while ago. I really liked that cardigan when I first knit it but I haven't worn it in a very long time. Something changed in my attitude towards the fit. Then I saw this pattern from Drops:
and got to frogging. I plan to cast this on sometime during this vacation week. If the weather won't comply with my request for bright, warm sun, at least my knitting will.

A part of the Uintah and Ouray Indian Red Cross Auxiliary, Fort Duchesne, Utah

2010-04-22T15:54:00.006-04:00

A large portion of my work involves researching American History topics and preparing seminars and activities for those topics as professional development for teachers. For those of you who have followed the blog, my thesis project, or have simply spent 5 minutes in my presence, it should be no surprise that this job and I go together like peanut butter and jam, hamburgers and bacon, vanilla ice cream and strawberries, coffee and doughnuts...it has been a foody week.

I am often coming across images and items to do with craftwork - knitting, sewing, quilting, embroidery, etc. But do not always have the opportunity to share them or use them for a seminar. So I had the thought today, whilst riding the bike to work, that I could share them here. Perhaps it could be a Thursday lunch break thing. We'll see how well I am able to stick to that schedule.

So here is my first installment. I came across this image while researching primary sources for a seminar about Native Americans. In this case I was able to use this image in an activity.The image is from the Library of Congress American Memory Website, which hosts a staggering number of digital scans of manuscripts, photographs, letters, broadsides, artworks, etc. This particular image is from History of the American West, 1860-1920: Photographs from the Collection of the Denver Public Library and shows a portrait of part of the Uintah and Ouray Indian Red Cross Auxiliary at Fort Duchesne, Utah in 1918. The five women are knitting in their Red Cross Capes with a little girl who looks like she might be holding yarn. I love this image for several reasons. First, each of the women has a different posture and expression though the image is probably posed (the two women on the left look like they have been sitting a while and are annoyed). I wonder how the photographer set up the shot. I imagine he wanted them to all hold their knitting but to not actually knit. I think he probably took too long to take the picture and the two ladies on the right end got board and decided to continue their projects. Second, I wonder what they are knitting. 1918 is the end of WWI. Maybe some last minute items for recovering soldiers, or maybe some items for those living at the fort and it's reservation? Third, I want to BE there. Looking at this image I can feel the sun on my face and the slight chill in the air that has the ladies in their capes. Maybe it's autumn and I can smell crisp air and see the leaves starting to turn. Finally, I want to know what those ladies are chat about once the photographer leaves. Do they analyze the goings-on at the Fort? Do they discuss Red Cross business? Do they discuss political issues like the war, their rights as women, as Native Americans? Do they listen to the little girl ramble about all the wonderful, mystical happenings of little girl life? There is just so much to dig about this image!

Bricks

2010-04-19T19:55:00.003-04:00

I just cannot express enough how wrong it is to paint brick. It is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Brick deserves better. It is formed and fired earth, just beautiful on it's own. I've spent most of my day working on the fire place. I apply SoyGel, a soy-based solvent, and let it do it's business for about four hours. Then I scrape. And scrape. And scrape. That gets the first layer and some of the second layer. Then I apply the SoyGel again. Again with the scraping. Then I hit it with a wire brush and some dish detergent and water, wet it down and scrub. Then I soak it down again and wipe and scrub the brick with a scrubby towel. By this point I can see some brick. I let the whole mess dry. After it dries I get out the power sander and sand off the remaining haze of paint.This shows the various stages of paint stripping. The brick farthest to the left has been sanded and is almost to the point of satisfaction. They are progressively less cleaned as they go to the right. It is exhausting work and not a little discouraging. "Let's buy the house with the big fireplace!" we said. "We'll just strip the paint of the brick and it will be beautiful!" we said.These bricks are much less stressful. I LOVE a good ball band dish cloth. I have knit this pattern more than any other pattern and I always love it. It is making me feel much better about the fireplace. Just...don't ever paint the brick. I'm not suggesting you ever would...just don't. Brick never threatened to paint anyone. If you feel the urge knit this instead. You can knit it in any color you want, it will look like bricks, and spare the other earthen brick in your life.

Lovely Things

2010-04-12T21:00:00.004-04:00

Lovey picked out this orchid for our anniversary about a month ago. I just thought I'd snap a picture of it today because it struck me as especially pretty this afternoon. In keeping with the theme of flowers, we mowed our lawn for the first time last Sunday. By the end of the day on Monday both the front yard and back yard had these wild sprays of little purple and blue flowers. The larger ones are violets, but I'm not sure what the blue ones are. I know it doesn't represent the best lawn care or the most handsomely suburban lawn, but they make me smile.So does this lovely Dharma Initiative inspired sock yarn came from Sheepy Time Knits. I am one of those hardcore Lost fans that loves to theorize ad nauseam about Lost. I have several revolving theories on what the island represents and Tuesday night is a little like evening mass in out house. There is no talking during Lost. There is copious talking after Lost. So when fellow Lost fanatic Stacia sent me this link on the Facebook I took a few moments to decide between Smoke Monster and Polar Bear in the Jungle (if you don't watch Lost those colorway names should give you a fair idea of what we're dealing with) and then send off my order. This is Polar Bear in the Jungle.
I also finally finished my Slinky Ribs. The knitting has actually been done for a while. It was sewing on the GD buttons that was holding it back from finished object status. I went with the shorter sleeve and over all this sweater fits like a glove in only the way a Wendy Bernard can. Puppy agrees...And seems to think that my hands are dinner.

Socks and Paws

2010-04-07T22:03:00.002-04:00

New animals make knitting difficult. When we first brought kitten home she used to zoom around the apartment bouncing between Lovey and me. Now we have Ellie Mae and between her and the kitties and the house there isn't a lot of time for doing nothing. I did finish my Nutkins socks.
This is a nice, mindless knit that looks complicated. The pattern is actually quite easy to memorize. I also finished my Barn Raising Quilt.This has been a long term commitment knit and I am really pleased with the results. I actually knit the squares together rather than sew the seams. I had an inkling that would be faster and it also created graphic raised seams between the squares. The final result is lap blanket size with a great combination of colors, textures, and fibers. I used the left over yarn from all the socks I made last year for sock-a-month so each square reminds me of those socks and their respective month. It's my sock scrap book.

Menagerie

2010-03-24T21:19:00.003-04:00

Lovey and I have added to out family! We had wanted a pup for a long time and we were going to wait a little longer - until summer? We weren't sure but we were going to wait. But then we were at the movies waiting for Crazies to start and I fired up the iPet Finder app on the old iPod touch and there she was. We went straight to Pets without Parents and within 24 hours...Eleanor. Or Ellie Mae. She is a two (almost three) month old black and tan coon hound. Maybe a coon hound mix. She is a pound puppy after all.The kitties are mostly unimpressed. She has a little growing up to do before they are willing to entertain her.We tried to remind kitten that she used to be a wild and crazy baby too. She harumpfed and went back to her Aunty Cath toy. I think in the end the three of them will be best buds, taking naps and snuggling together.Meanwhile she is an excellent pup. After only a week she asks to go out, sleeps through the night (albeit right between us), has stopped some of those bad puppy habits like nipping, and knows "sit" and "come" and almost knows "stay." "Lat down" is proving to be a challenge.

House Proud

2010-03-14T23:09:00.004-04:00

I am up and would rather not be. It's 11:17 on a Sunday night and I am tuckered out. It was anniversary weekend and Lovey and I had a fine time. We picked out an orchid for the house, he took me to Wonderknit and got some yarn, saw a movie (that Timothy Olyphant is a handsome man), and ate some yummy food. But rather than being snuggled in next to him I am sitting up waiting for a plumber. Our water heater is gasping its last breath and leaking all over the basement floor.But I'm not upset. I am surprisingly not upset. I am just sleepy. I have this thing about houses. I feel like houses deserve to be loved and cared for and if that means waiting up to deal with a spewing water heater then fine.
I visited two remarkable houses yesterday. This house (and the two images above) is the Rankin House in Ripley, Ohio. It was owned by Reverend John Rankin and served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. It's a small little house perched high on a hill surrounded by farm land and trees. It is due for a renovation - the wall boards are flaking away in places - but it has been cared for by the local historical society, Ripley Heritage Inc., and the Ohio Historical Society though no one lives in it now.The other house is the John Parker House. He was a freed black man and also a conductor on the Underground Railroad. During his time as a slave he learn the blacksmith's trade. The house used to have a foundry attached. After he died he wanted the house sold. He had sent all his children to college and did not want them working as blacksmiths. The house passed through several hands and eventually became rental property.This is what it looked like a few years ago. Again, the local historical society, John P. Parker Historical Society, stepped in and rescued it. I do a lot of driving around Ohio - there are only a few parts of the state I haven't seen - and every time I see a house in rough shape like this my chest tightens a little. It's not that every house was home to someone remarkable or played a role in an historical movement, but houses are these living things full of memory. They stand around us and let us grow up safe from the elements.
And I think they beg to be lived in and cared for. People can live in a house and only do minimal upkeep and still the house fares better then if it is left alone. Above is a view of the Rankin House from the Parker House. I imagine it must have been something to stand down on the banks of the Ohio River in the pitch black and maybe see up on that hill the lantern in the window. You would see that house almost like a person looking out for you.

Ennui

2010-03-04T19:09:00.002-05:00

I hate all my knitting projects right now. They are dragging on with no end or satisfaction in sight and I want to cast off a million other things instead. I get this way around this time of year. Spring is on the horizon - I can almost smell that earthy, muddy, sunny smell - but it's not here yet. I am acutely aware of the fact that it is not here yet. I have been gazing longingly at my bike, my running shoes, my hiking boots...but it is still cold and there is still snow on the ground.Today, though, the sun was out. It was above freezing and it improved my mood and while I am still feeling blase toward my knitting...it didn't stop me from buying yarn after work. It was on sale and sort of on the way home. It is Queensland Collection Rustic Tweed. I've been in the market for an affordable tweed worsted weight yarn. This definitely fits the bill.

This cheered me up too.

Bathroom

2010-02-16T19:05:00.005-05:00

It snowed. So much so that I had to take the day off and hunker down to wait out the level 2 snow emergency. We are down to a level 1. I am having a difficult time determining the difference. Yesterday (Presidents Day) and today I spent some quality time in the bathroom. Unfortunately it wasn't in a bubble bath with scented candles but rather painting, grouting, updating. It was quite the educational experience:

Lesson One:
Grouting sucks. There is no way around it. It's dusty, dries out your skin, smells weird, requires exceptional forearm strength, and causes cancer in California.

Lesson Two:
Wallpaper makes baby Jesus cry. I apologize if you love wallpaper or if you've heard on HGTV that new designer wallpaper is all the rage of high style. Baby J and I discussed it at length and he is not a fan. This may come as a shock but he and I agreed it's best we get this out in the open before the rapture. We don't want any of you mad paper pasters to have a nasty surprise on the day of reckoning.

Lesson Three:
This was, apparently, a load-bearing toilet paper dispenser. It was built into the wall will much ceramic and caulking. But it was also ugly. So despite the fact that it seemed somehow integral to the structure of the house I ripped the f-er out.

Lesson Four:
One must be exceedingly limber to paint behind the toilet. Be sure to stretch ahead of time.

Lesson Five:
Cinder Fox - the name is cool, the paint chip seemed urban and industrial. Unfortunately it was an abject failure on the wall.

Lesson Six:
Paint in the cuticles and under the nails does not a French manicure make. Bummer.

Lesson Seven:
Ignore the bad patch job beneath my antique Art Nouveu toilet paper dispenser and enjoy the results! I am going to take a hot shower.

Home Sweet

2010-02-04T21:38:00.005-05:00

Whoa, nelly, Lovey and I own a house! And it finally has internet so I can post about it. My world has been house buying the last few weeks and now that we've bought it my world is making it a home. Lovey has been painting, pulling up carpet, containing the chaos, and doing an overall fantastic job. I come home each evening and feel a little more comfortable, a little more settled. I've been researching inexpensive, DIY ways to get it all done. I feel a little left out of the actual work part because I've been working while he's had the week off - I like painting and fixing thing. He has had some help...And I have this coming weekend off to help. I am tackling the spare room and turning it into a studio space for sewing and crafting, which will be something of a dream-come-true! So far, my favorite change actually doesn't look like much.Yesterday Lovey had Waterworks come in and take out the 60 year old plumbing in the shower. For the past five days we have been standing in ankle deep water, huddled under a hand held shower head with no water pressure and touchy hot and cold. Lovey even had to wash my hair in the kitchen sink one morning. This is our new plumbing. I took a 45 minute shower.

I have had a few really great showers in my life, usually following trips abroad. I went to Thailand when I was fourteen. We used communal showers, rarely had hot water, and sometimes shared the shower with lizards. I went to the Bahamas on a marine biology trip when I was in high school. We stayed in cabins on the beach, the showers were sandy and cold, and there was only one for eight of us. I would go swimming in the freshwater blue holes and call it a day to avoid the issue. While I was in Germany the showers were damp, cold, dirty, and perpetually occupied. My grandmother in New Hampshire limits showers to five minutes. Once you cross the five minute time frame she stands outside the door "reminding" you that time is up. You have to make these sacrifices in personal hygiene for the fantastic experience! Who cares if I haven't shaved in a week, smell a little funky, have greasy hair - I'm in the Bahamas, I just saw the Reclining Buddha, the Berlin Wall, spent the day hiking in New England...

Still, showering in my own home after each of these trips was really good.

And yet ... last night's shower was the best.

Special Needs

2010-01-16T09:20:00.003-05:00

Lovey and I have a special needs kitty. She has a chronic fungal infection called Cryptococcus. The condition appeared about a year after I adopted her in 2003. She lost weight and hair and developed sores. No one knew what it was. I eventually ended up at the OSU's veterinary dermatology division. The condition is really rare in cats and they used her as a teaching case. I think the lead vet may have published a paper on her.
Since that time Chloe needs to have medicine every other week to keep the sickies away. She's gotten wise to the trick of hiding it in her food so we have to wrap her up and give it to her the hard way. The only consolation for us is that it's adorable. The consolation for her is that new super expensive appetizers cat food from Fancy Feast. She is bonkers for that cat food.
Totally unrelated, I spent some of my Amazon.com Christmas gift card money on yarn. Yes, you can do that. I am pretty sure this is going to become Ingenue from Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard.

Lazy Saturday Heaven

2010-01-09T10:39:00.004-05:00

The mid-west has done it again dumping snow and bringing Columbus to a resigned halt. We are watching from the relative warmth of our apartment. Today is an inside day.
I love snow. I really love it - I think it is beautiful and exciting and it reminds me of when I was a kid in Pennsylvania. We would get CRAZY snow in PA. Feet, not inches. At that age I was really into the wilderness books like Julie of the Wolves, My Side of the Mountain, The Hatchet, so I would bundle up, take the dog out, and imagine us as explorers fending for ourselves in the wilds of the north. Pink snowsuit? Nah. Furs and buckskin. Dad used to take us hiking in the snow too. The trails would be relatively clear and he would pack eggs and bacon. We'd get to the little camping area and he would make us a "lumberjack breakfast". Because he is an old school Yankee this usually involved apple pie and sharp cheddar cheese too.I do still like a good winter hike. Nothing tuckers me out like hiking in the cold. I feel like I've really accomplished something. But now I am just as likely to curl up near the window just watching that snow with coffee, with knitting, with a book. Why? Because that is a little slice of heaven - lazy Saturday heaven.This is my latest obsession and I don't know why, but even though it is hot pink it feels wintry to me. It is the cover pattern from Knitted Lace of Estonia - perhaps it is the connection to the Baltic Sea - and it is a treat to knit.It is difficult and textured and pretty and I love it! I am almost done with the section that is nupp after nupp. These little guys are fun but they really slow down progress. It is basically a bobble but a little more complicated. They add that fun texture but also make for slow going. Today I am going to bust past those nupps and move on to the center square and then maybe take a snowy walk to celebrate.

Christmas Highlights Part Two

2010-01-03T21:55:00.004-05:00

So, I hinted at it in the last post. Lovey and I have been together almost six years - intertwining our lives, raising two kitties, and trying to be loving and decent to each other regardless of how crazy and frustrating the word around us becomes. Christmas morning, we had finished opening presents. The aforementioned kitties were wild and woolly from Auntie Cath's legendary catnip. Lovey got up to go to the bathroom and I started picking up paper and ribbons. Suddenly, the kitten came racing into the living room with a big ribbon around her neck and a little bag tied to that ribbon.We had to catch her because she was out of her mind on nip and went flying under the bed. Lovey got her out from under the bed and I got the little bag off her neck.
Laughing and crying - both of us - I, of course, said yes. Can you stand it?!?!?! And the ring is pretty gorgeous too (I hope it's not tacky to put a picture of your engagement ring on your blog). So now, after six years in 850 square feet or less, we are taking our relationship to the next level in living space too. We are in contract on this sweet little house in Clintonville.
I feel like this picture kind of sums up the aesthetic of this goofy little ranch house. We are definitely going to try to strip the fireplace. The brick is a warm red and really deserves a second chance. The whole house does. It is dated and needs some care and love, but the foundation and bones are good and Lovey, kitties, and I are more than qualified to give love and care and make this little home a member of our family.

2009

2010-01-01T15:19:00.003-05:00

Despite the stress of finishing school and trying to find a job I am counting 2009 as a rousing success. It was a long and loaded year. Now, on the first day of 2010 I am celebrating a Masters Degree, full-time job, an accepted offer on a house, and a Christmas engagement (!) by watching a Law and Order marathon with a couch full of kitties and some intermittent light cleaning. I also might go to the gym. I certainly don't feel the need to over extend myself.
But what about resolutions? Last year I resolved to run outside more, get a grown-up job, and knit one pair of socks for each month of the year. The only item I am slightly disappointed with is outside running. I love it so much but it rattles my joints so I tend to use the elliptical machine much more. Still, I averaged about one outside run a week and that's not too shabby.
As for the job and the socks? Killed it! I rocked those resolutions hard! Now I need to set some equally fun and fulfilling resolutions for 2010.
So, after much deliberation I have decided on the following goals:

Read at least 12 books that are related to my new job. I accumulate a lot of reading and it is hard to get through it all so I am going to supplement this resolution with one to watch less TV. (gasp!)
Eat at least one fruit or vegetable a day. I am amazed that I make it through most of my days without any fruit or veggies! This morning I had a big glass of V8 Fruit Fusions. So I am already on my way. I am supplementing this resolution with water - at least two water bottles of water a day. My bottle is about 24 oz. So that works out to six glasses a day.
Finish sewing projects. I have a stack of sewing projects in the studio that need some love and attention. I think the count is up to 2 skirts, 2 shirts, and 4 quilts. I am going to finish all of them!

So that is the big three for 2010. Wish me luck!

Christmas Highlights Part One

2009-12-26T19:19:00.003-05:00

Even though Lovey and I didn't get to make the annual trip to San Diego we still had a pretty fantastic Christmas. Mom sent along a big box of little treats like clothes, candy, and catnip toys. Here are two of my favorite treasures from the box.First, another round of Elsebeth Lavold yarn. This time it is Silky Wool and there are seven skeins of it! Definitely enough for a long sleeved sweater. The color is a really subtle, tweedy pink. This might be my all time favorite yarn. I have made two sweaters, a scarf, and I am currently working on a beret with some leftovers in the stash.

This second item is something my mom found in a box at my gram's when they were packing up her house.I have been obsessed with it since she showed it to me. One of my relatives was a snake-oil salesman in West Lake. It is a cure-all remedy treating everything from stiff neck to dysentery, tonsillitis to whooping cough, blood poisoning, sore throat, diphtheria, and gout. These remedies were composed mostly of laudanum or morphine. So whether you were actually cured or not you certainly felt a lot better. I plan to get the advertisement framed because I think it is such a fantastic little gem of family history.

Pre-Game

2009-12-22T18:43:00.004-05:00

It is finally starting to feel more like Christmas around here. Yesterday I got a gift from Cath of - what else - YARN! Friends who are knitters make for easy gift buying. The answer is always yarn. You know when you're really close friends when the yarn is somehow linked to your personality through color, fiber, weight, etc. Cath knows me pretty well - spring green, baby llama, Elsebeth Lavold yarn. Thanks, Cath!!!!She also got me a book be our friendly neighborhood yarnies - the ladies of WonderKnit, Libby Bruce and Karida Collins. This book is packed with patterns - deceptively so because it's so small and compact.
Finally, we got a big 'ole box from San Diego and it was loaded with presents from mom and Joe. Now the tree looks ready for the big day!

Big Cities, Little Neighborhoods, and Christmas Balls

2009-12-14T11:58:00.011-05:00

Recently I feel like life is doing its thing and I am just along for the ride. It is a pretty sweet ride with a lot to see and experience. Last week I was in Washington D.C. for a conference. There is nothing like D.C. for art and history. It is one of my all time favorite cities along with Portland, Oregon, New York City, Chicago, and Baltimore. I love museums (big surprise) and tend to choose favorites based on cultural offerings. I think my favorite part of the trip was visiting the National Gallery. We used to visit at least once a year when we lived in Pennsylvania and I haven't been back since we moved to Ohio in 1996. It was like visiting old friends and not just any old friends, but the friends who set me on my life path - my mentors and teachers. I was especially excited to see the Jackson Pollock painting I ever-so-lightly touched when I was little. That was quite a scene. I just wanted to know what all the fuss was about and to be honest, I still want to know. Sorry Pollock. I'm just not blown away.

Then I came home on Friday and was back out the door on Saturday. Lovey and I are house hunting in Clintonville. It is a hoot! Seeing how people live, wandering around old empty houses, trying to get a feel for a place. We haven't found the one yet but we have around five that are pretty close and 10 more still to see.

Finally, I have been knitting balls. Christmas balls. This pattern is crazy easy with a lot of room for personal flair. The balls are for my co-workers for our holiday party tomorrow so I am frantically stitching, stuffing, and sewing to get them ready to go.

Slowly But Surely

2009-12-07T11:22:00.003-05:00

Christmas is on. I have been plugging away, trying to get the house cleaned and the Christmas on display. It has been no small task.I finished the tree skirt and then sat under it for the better part of the evening because it is warm and snuggly and I was so tired.It looks really great too even if are tree is a little on the Charlie Brown side this year.Now I am knitting ornaments. My poor other projects have been terribly neglected thanks to the Christmas projects. Oh well! There will be plenty of time in the New Year.

Christmas Challenge 2009

2009-11-29T19:18:00.003-05:00

Usually Lovey and I get our tree the week before Thanksgiving. We love Christmas and we go out of town a week before Christmas, so it makes sense to get it early as we always take it down early. This year we aren't going to San Diego so Thanksgiving has come and gone and we are still tree-less. I am feeling the pang this weekend. We went to see a Christmas Carol last night at the Palace Theatre. It was a really lovely play - the costumes and sets were very fun and Scrooge was a stitch! We agreed afterward that we prefer the creepier, more ghost-y version with less singing and more speaking, but it was still really fun and wanting a Christmas tree. However, this year there is a caveat. After many years of saying I was going to knit a tree skirt, this fall I decided to get down to business and make it happen.Lovey didn't believe I could finish it in time to get a tree, which he told me in a way that turned the whole ordeal into a legitimate throw-down. This skirt has been my world for about a week now. I have two and a half sections of the eleven sections left. One section seems to take me a few hours. The hour of glory is upon me.

Ready, Steady, Go

2009-11-22T15:56:00.002-05:00

Eleven down, one to go. Get ready, Cath, we have Rivendells to knit tomorrow!

Still Knitting

2009-11-19T20:26:00.003-05:00

I have been very busy. But there is always time for a little knitting. Unfortunately if you look too closely you will note that there has been not been time to vacuum the rug. I started two new projects. The first is a bulky knit hoodie from Knitscene. I haven't gotten very far but I have looked at all the finished ones on Ravelry and this project looks great on everyone!I am knitting it in the yarn I have left from knitting Owls, Knit Picks Swish Bulky in adobe. I started this tonight. It's been in my queue for a good long while and tonight I thought, "Why not?" The office, like most offices in the world, is too cold for my delicate constitution. So I am knitting a lap blanket for my cubicle. The pattern in Flying Geese from the first Mason-Dixon Knitting and the yarn is some Red Heart Sport I've had in the stash forever.Finally, I have been knitting my bum off to finish my Sunshine Socks by Monday. Cath is jonesing to knit the Rivendell Socks together and she wants to start them on Monday. I think I am up to the challenge.

Hopewell

2009-11-15T18:08:00.002-05:00

My first two days of work were exhausting! So much to learn, so many people to meet, so exciting. Plus this week was Lovey's birthday, plus my mom is in town, but it all seems to be working out just fine. Saturday I took mom to the Hopewell Earthworks in Chillicothe. I love visiting the mounds and earthworks because they are strange, peaceful, spiritual, even fanciful, like a fairytale landscape. Chillicothe has a wealth of mound sites as it is located on the Scioto River, but we just visited this one - the Hopeton Earthworks, which is considered a national park.
The collection includes some lower and taller mounds, a large eliptical mound, and a recreation of post holes from a ceremonial lodge enclosed by a square-ish earth wall. It was a gorgeous day, almost like summer, and the grassy enclosure was warm and sunny.
The area is wrapped by a nature trail. There is a small enclosure that features this section from the canals. It is a nice reminder that all of us humans gravitate and intersect at the water, seeking out rivers, streams, and lakes, navigating in from and out to the sea.
So, the job is wonderful because it keeps me in touch with this history and provides an opportunity for me to apply all my art experience to a new field. At the same time I keep imagining myself chomping along trying to devour and digest all the new information and skills coming my way like a hungry hungry hippo!

New Toy

2009-11-10T15:52:00.003-05:00

This has been a big week for me. I...got...a...job... :) That's right, I am a bona fide adult member of society contributing to the education of our youth and bettering our world. I have been floating around since last Wednesday when I got the word basking in the good news, meditating on my thankfulness, and trying not to go nuts waiting for my first day on Thursday the 12th. I feel like a little kid two days before Christmas. No, seriously, can I start now? I really want to start now. One whole month without work or school has proved to be too much! In the meantime I bought the gift I promised myself back at the beginning of this process. A PVC floor quilter's frame. And despite how dorky Lovey says I look whilst bent over it, stitching away, I am still in love. With him and the frame. So here is a big fat thank you, the first of many, to all of you who have been so supportive and encouraging during this most recent stretch of crazy.

Tough Decisions

2009-11-04T12:49:00.004-05:00

I have been kicking this idea around for a while now. I really struggle with having objects in the house that I don't like, cannot see a future purpose for, or that just seem to take up space. It really weighs on my mind, probably more than it should. I only like to keep clothing and shoes that are loved, books I enjoy reading and might read again, furniture that is used, and crafting supplies that will be used. Which gets me to the crux of the issue. I really don't like novelty yarn. I really, really don't like novelty yarn. It's not about the way it looks. I think really cute items are born of novelty yarn - hedgies, gnomes, cat toys, cat beds - the issue is not the yarn itself. Basically, in this post I am breaking-up with novelty yarn and saying, "it's not you, it's me." I just don't like knitting with novelty yarn. I get vexed when the eyelash yarn snarls on itself and I am frustrated by the way it catches on my skin and nails and needles. I'm sorry novelty yarn, but, it's over. You will be much happier at Goodwill where some enterprising knitter who loves everything squiggly, ribbon-y, and nylon-y can snap you up at a price well below your value (because you are really cute) and turn you into something wonderful, give you the life you deserve, help you to fulfill your promise as yarn.

Drying Rack Cloth the 3rd: The First Big Girl Apartment Edition

2009-11-03T22:45:00.006-05:00

There are some patterns that I return to over and over and over. They are the faithful, all-purpose, workhorse patterns, and they never bore me. The infamous Ball Band Dishcloth always gives me so much joy! I have made three in the classic size and today I started my third large and in charge version. This one is meant to go under a drying rack by the sink. I cast off 93 stitches and then knit to pattern. I have two for our kitchen that we rotate. This one is for my sister who just moved into her first big girl apartment! I LOVED my first big girl apartment. It was a DUMP! But I loved it. Hers is much nicer then mine was, certainly less infested and dangerous. But that is the difference between living just off one of the largest college campuses in the nation and living in a small town up the street from an elementary school. My nasty little one bedroom backed right up to a campus parking lot and I shared it with roaches and mice. I remember the first time I found a mouse. I was cleaning and I lifted a little crate with school papers onto the bed and the mouse came flying out of it and ran across my lap. I flipped for a moment as Chloe, cool as a cucumber, watched it run into the other room. "Fine," I thought, "this is not a big deal....I'll just....call mom." The conversation went like this:

"Mom! A mouse just ran over my lap! Should I catch it and put it outside? Should I get traps? Chloe didn't even budge!"

"DO NOT put it outside. You catch it, kill it, and feed it to Chloe so she learns to love the taste of mouse! Otherwise those little f-ers will just keep coming back inside and sh*tting in your kitchen cabinets!"

"......"

"I'm serious! Are you there?"

"So I should get traps?"

Mom used to live in a trailer near a swamp (no, seriously) with dad just before I was born. In the war against all the critters that thought they could share that trailer she learned some mercenary, green beret, kung-fu style moves against slugs, mice, rats, and snakes. So I set traps. But Chloe, apparently already had experience with the delicate flesh of the common house mouse. It showed up very dead and very stinky behind a shelf a few days later. Now we have Ronan too and we are set. When our neighbor to the left had spiders we didn't because Ro eats them. When our upstairs neighbor had mice we didn't because...well...We don't have roaches here (thank heavens) and hopefully I never will again. Someday I'll share those horror stories, but not tonight.

Rudderless

2009-10-29T10:58:00.004-04:00

Today I feel aimless but anxious. There are things I could be doing (should be doing) but it seems like no amount of coffee is going to bust through my ennui (incidentally, one of my favorite words). It is so dreary out and has been for the last few days. This wants to be fed and to be given copious attention.As does this...And this pile could use some work too. But I am so spaced out! The issue is - I am that particular type of personality that needs scheduled and copious responsibility. When I was in grade school my homework planner was my happy place. I would map out my week with mechanical pencil, neatly jotting and noting and planning. Now the behavior is more digital though I do carry around little notebooks all the time for flashes of genius or the passing need to fill a blank page with my handwriting. Some habits die hard. Even when I vacation I like activities. I bring books to read, I map out museums and historical sites, I plan. I am more than happy to let those plans dissolve as long as I get to engage in the act of planning. Without pending due dates I feel like a zombie. A fidgety, cranky zombie. This has made me a little cast-y on-y over the past few days.I started this yesterday in a fit. It is Rosamund's Cardigan from this winter's Interweave Knits. So far I love it! It calls for bulky weight yarn but I am using Mission Falls 1824 from the stash, an aran or heavy worsted, and it's just fine.I also have grand plans for this today. I see socks - chunky man socks in its future. Now if I could just get motivated. I think I will have another cup of coffee.

Chloe

2009-10-26T18:42:00.005-04:00

Chloe is not a lap kitty like certain other kitties (named Ronan). She is very no-nonsense, hangs out on the edge of the bed rather than under the covers, doesn't roll around and show off her belly, doesn't end up in bizarre places, or settle herself on top of us. A few nights ago Lovey came home from poker and she was in his chair. So he just picked her up and put her in his lap. Usually this only lasts a moment but she snuggled right in for the long haul.
And it was adorable.

Copy Cat(h)

2009-10-23T10:19:00.001-04:00

Drum roll, please...Slinky Ribs by Wendy Bernard. I am already beyond excited about this project. The yarn is a dream and the pattern is a Wendy Bernard so unique construction with minimal finishing is on the horizon. I also began my November socks a few days early because I finished October a few days early and couldn't help myself.First, these are the October socks. The pattern is Cross Country Socks by Ingrid Hiddessen. The yarn is Knit Picks Essentials, which I understand is now Stroll. How very rock 'n roll, undergoing a name change. November's pattern is Sunshine from the illustrious Cookie A.This pattern is in Sock Innovations and so far, like so many of her other patterns, is a blast! Part of that is due to the fact that I am using Malabrigo Sock yarn. I bought this yarn in San Diego last year and it is just... If you have not knit with this yarn yet drop everything and go find some. I don't care what it takes! None of my efforts to describe it will do it justice - yes it is sproingy, soft, saturated, shiny, malabrigo - but does that really get it? No. No it doesn't. And now for the post title. Cath is all over this post and I am a big 'ole fat copycat. My desire to knit both Sunshine and Slinky Ribs is Cath inspired (she bought me the Sock Innovations book!) and I can't wait to show them off to her on Monday.

Metamorphosis

2009-10-21T12:14:00.003-04:00

Last night this - Became this - It took me an hour and a half to wind it. Seriously. I started at 8:00 pm and finished at 9:30 pm. There were a few moments when I thought I might not finish. My arm was tired and Lovey was sitting next to me on the couch with that look in his eye - like he was planning something evil and juvenile...

"What would you do if I held the end and threw it across the floor?"

To which I replied without hesitation, "I would punch you in the mouth - closed fist - hard."

Now, the real dilemma, what should it become next? I have a few ideas. Right now my favorite is Slinky Ribs by Wendy Bernard. Cath knit this pattern and it looks amazing on her. I also considered Riding to Avalon by Connie Chang. I think I might be a little to busty for this pattern though. I feel like it isn't going to flatter the gals and for this yarn I want the resulting sweater to be amazing. I am going to examine all my options and hopefully have a winning pattern by the end of the day.

Making Friends

2009-10-18T18:08:00.003-04:00

Lovey and I drove to the Scioto Park on Riverside Drive today. The park is on Riverside Drive just north of the 161 intersection. It's known for the Leatherlips Monument. This ended up being the least exciting part of the trip.
We got some food to eat down by the river and soon had some company.Nope, I am not using the zoom, she is actually that close to me. You will notice that she has some crumbs on her beak.Those are from eating out of my hand! Every time she would take a piece of bread she would shake her booty feathers. It reminded me of going to the duck pond when I was little. Mom would buy us a loaf of bread for the feathered friends. I have never encountered one that was so friendly...or hungry.

A dreary and chill day

2009-10-15T14:54:00.004-04:00

Autumn is here with and not without a small threat of winter. Today it is rainy and cold outside, but our apartment is warm and snug and smells like cinnamon and butter. Lovey requested cookies last night and today I made snickerdoodles and oatmeal breakfast cookies. The oatmeal cookies have achieved cult status among friends and family. I can't remember if I've shared this recipe before but if I have it bears repeating. If the cards are difficult to read you can click on them to make them larger.Snickerdoodles are an old standby, especially for someone like myself who grew up in central PA. We used to get these at the Pennsylvania Dutch farmer's market and at fairs and church bake sales all the time. They were also my favorite to make with mom because I got to play in the dough and role it around in the cinnamon and sugar. Very interactive.The recipe I use is from the Fannie Farmer Baking Book. This is a funny book and some of the recipes are bizarre by my standards. However, mom says the pie crust recipe is good, many of the cookie recipes have been good to me, and there are some quality quickbread and muffin recipes. I am not much of a bake-from-scratch person when it comes to cake, much more of a bake-from-the-box, so I can't speak to that section. The gingerbread recipe is not great - but I have been searching for the ideal gingerbread recipe most of my life with no success. I am never satisfied with a gingerbread recipe. I try a new one every year. It's kind of an obsession. Speaking of obsessions (gotta love those transitions) I started a new lace project a few days ago.
It begs the question - how many scarves does one woman need? I have always been the type of gal who commits to articles of clothing with impressive fidelity. I wore the same Doc Martins nearly everyday for five or six years before I finally retired them for a lighter pair of shoes. I then wore those until the sole fell off. I am currently on my fifth year with a pair of Dansko clogs. They rock my world. Scarves were no different. I had a grey scarf from before the knitting times that I wore until it started raveling from both ends and I couldn't wash out the cigarette smell. Now that I knit there are infinite scarf patterns available and I want to make most of them. I give a lot of them away - which begs the question - how many scarves do my friends need? The answer to both questions, I have ultimately decided, is A LOT. This one is from Knitted Lace of Estonia. It is fast becoming a favorite despite the p7tog that occurs every twelve rows. It is just so GD pretty! I am using three random balls of pinkish yarns that have been rolling around in my stash - Classic Elite Yarns Premiere cotton and tencel, Karabella Breeze cashmere and silk, and Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca. I imagine it will be like wearing baby bunnies, lambs, and kittens around my neck.

Walking Home from the Gym

2009-10-13T17:20:00.004-04:00

I was walking home from the gym just now and had one of those wandering mind moments of clarity that I believe comes from a combination of post work-out endorphins and crispy autumn air. My sophomore year of college I was living in the dorms. I had a few different running routes that I would take through campus, Victorian Village, or Harrison West (for those of you not in Columbus, the last two are really pretty neighborhoods that abut south campus). Victorian Village was may favorite because this neighborhood is just lovely and the route ended up at Goodale Park, also lovely. I was in the middle of one of these runs one afternoon and decided to do a loop around the park before heading home. I was coming down Buttles Avenue at a good clip when the toe of my shoe caught on a lip in the sidewalk and I went flying. I hit the ground hard, bounced, and rolled for a few feet ending up in the middle of the sidewalk, flat on my back, my knees, toe, and shoulder burning. I had stowed the toe when I tripped, tore open my knees when I landed the first time, and skinned my shoulder when hit the second time. It took me a minute to catch my breath and when I did I started crying - from pain, from shock, from embarrassment (there were a lot of people around) - and I laid there a minute just crying like a little kid. As I sat up I realized that if anyone had seen me fall they were respectfully ignoring me. So I got up, examined my wounds, which required not a little dislodging of gravel and wiping of blood, and began the two mile limp home.This is one of those strange snapshots of my life that sometimes feels like it didn't happen to me. The pain has faded, there are no scars or lasting injuries though at the time my knee was very swollen, my foot was very sore and bruised, and the toe of my running shoe was nearly torn open. This is one of those stories that I love to meditate upon because it is so simple. I fell down - hard - I had to get up all by myself - I had to find my way home even though I was in pain and upset. No one did it to me, I did it to myself and because of that I was embarrassed. But still, I made it home, I took a shower, I bandaged and iced myself and I healed. Now when I think about myself rolling those few yards and flopping to a stop I always smile if not laugh out loud. I have fallen down before, I have fallen since, though never as catastrophically (one time I rolled to a stop, sat up, and started laughing alone in the middle of the street like a crazy person) and I always gets up and jog home a little worse for wear. It sounds cliche, but I guess that is why it comforts me, this falling down and getting up over and over. We all do it and hopefully we are all better for it.

Assorted

2009-10-12T12:16:00.003-04:00

First. Friday Brea and I went to Wonder Knit to get some yarn for a baby blanket she's been slogging away at. I am to the point now where I can't walk in there without getting some Neighborhood Fiber by Karida. She has her studio in the basement of the store and it is really beautiful yarn. Friday's fix was sock yarn - Studio Sock - 100% superwash merino, 435 yards, colorway Columbus Circle. It is very smooshy and my toes are very excited.Now I am going to switch crafting gears. I have had the idea of making a quilt for Lovey out of old boxer shorts for some time now. I have been collecting them with the other old clothes I don't throw away because they have a neat pattern or are just too much yardage to ethically part with (junior prom dress - and before you freak out it's blue calico, not satin and taffeta, although I would be hard pressed to part with that much satin and taffeta too...)Recently, Lovey went through his closet like a force of nature and it the wake I ended up with some old tee-shirts (future rag balls) and a pile of woven cotton boxer shorts. Apparently Lovey has decided that he will accept nothing but jersey cotton from here on out. Can you blame him? So I spent most of yesterday deconstructing.So far this is my favorite - little elephants in top hats! The finished product will be supplemented with some other fabric and I am thinking about backing it with flannel. He is a big fan of other quilt I made for him which was mostly flannel. The catch is I am going to try to teach him how to tie it so I can have some help...we shall see...

Chris Warmer

2009-10-09T17:39:00.010-04:00

I've been contemplating this pattern for a month or so and this week I finally knit a second version, did all the measurements and wrote it down. My friend Chris was moving to Chicago where he planned to become a bike messenger. In order to help him stay warm and keep the wind off his neck I knit him this cowl. Scarves can be difficult to maintain whilst biking and are not as easy to get on and off and stash away in your bag as a neat little neck warmer. So the Chris Warmer was inspired. I used the waffle stitch pattern from Laura Chau’s Thermal sweater in Knitty’s 2006 winter issue. This might be my most favorite sweater ever, so the stitch pattern, though simple, is very near and dear to my heart. This is also a fairly quick knit and can be whipped up over a couple evenings.The Specs

Sizing: One Size; 15 inches un-stretched around top ribbing, 22 inches stretched around top ribbing and bottom thermal portion. You can add or subtract multiples of four stitches to adjust the circumference more if you like – four stitches will adjust the pattern by about ¾ of an inch. The length of the cowl is easily adjusted and customizable as noted in the pattern.

Yarn: Any worsted weight wool or wool blend – 1 skein of about 200 yards. I recommend wool because it should be a little stiff and able to stand up around the neck. The purple version on Brea is made with Vermont Organic Fiber Company O-Wool Classic and the green version on Chris is made with Cascade Yarns 220 Superwash.

Needles & Notions: US 5 circular needle, 24” or smaller or size needed to obtain gauge; 1 tapestry needle to weave in ends; 1 stitch marker

Gauge: 19 sts x 28 rows – 4 inches in St st. The gauge is close – the idea is that the resulting fabric be on the stiff side with no gaps to let in the elements.

Stitch Patterns:

Thermal

Worked over a multiple of four sts

Rounds 1 & 2: K2, p2 to end

Round 3: K all stitches

Round 4: P all stitches

2 x 2 Rib
All rounds K2, p2 to end.

The Pattern

CO 104 sts Place marker and join for knitting in the round being careful not to twist.

Work in 2 x 2 rib for 2.5 inches or the length from the middle of the bridge of your nose to the middle of your chin.

Change to Thermal Pattern and continue for about 6 ½ inches or until desired length. This length is easily adjusted by adding or subtracting pattern repeats. You will know it is long enough when you try it on and you can pull the top ribbed portion over your nose and the bottom rests on your collar bone.

Switch to reverse St st (purl every round) and work four rounds.

BO and weave in ends.

(Copyright 2009 Molly Uline-Olmstead – All rights reserved – This pattern and the resulting knit items are for personal use, not for sale.)

We've all done things in life we might not be proud of...

2009-10-08T23:08:00.004-04:00

...this is not one of those things.
I am, in fact, quite proud of the fact that I put Ronan in a dog sweater and took a picture. I actually think she was a little pleased with the situation. She didn't flip out, she just sat there and enjoyed the warmth. She even let me rub her belly a little.This sweater is for someone else. But I think I see one in her future. Maybe a Christmas present? Maybe with a matching cat nip mouse?Oh! I think that's a yes! The pattern is here.

Nina

2009-10-07T11:40:00.002-04:00

There are some finished objects that are more satisfying than others. This is a fact of nature. I have been working on this one for nearly a year. I started it on October 13, 2008 and finished last night on October 6, 2009.
It is for Nina who called me in early October of 2008 to tell me she was engaged! We were absolute girls, chattering and squealing three octaves above our normal voices.

"So when is the wedding?"

"December."

"Oh, nice, December 2009. That gives you plenty of time-"

"No, this December."

My voice dropped perceptibly.

"Oh...you realize that's really...er...soon..."

"Yeah."

Joke was on me because the wedding was freaking beautiful!
So in the meantime I have been knitting like a fool to finish this blanket before their one year anniversary, as etiquette dictates and last night I wove in the very last end. (see first picture)
The pattern is Olive's Afghan from Knitalong. I used good 'ole Wool-Ease. Left to right the colors are: strip #1 - paprika, mushroom, chocolate; strip #2 - mushroom, chocolate; strip #3 - butter, gold, mushroom; strip #4 - gold, paprika; strip #5 - paprika, sea spray; strip #6 - avocado, sea spray, denim; strip #7 -mushroom, avocado.
Ah, blanket.

Sunday Drive

2009-10-05T18:56:00.005-04:00

Sunday was a beautiful day for an adventure. My dear artsy friend Rachel and I took a drive through wild and rural Ohio. Basically, if you hop on rt. 33 and start driving, you can take just about any exit or even just stay on the highway, and see some of the most beautiful country, strange little small towns, and delightful road side attractions the mid-west has to offer. We started with New Straitsville, Ohio, famous for its Moonshine Festival and 200 year old mine fire. Rachel and I are both from central PA and grew up hearing about and visiting Centralia - perhaps one of the most famous mine fires in the country (the movie adaptation of Silent Hill is based on Centralia). We didn't see any actual fire or smoke, but we did get some grub at this little diner... And we saw the cave where the fire was deliberately started by mine workers as an act of rebellion during a labor dispute in the 1884. You can see the vein of coal along the back of the cave. Authorities thought the fire had burned itself out but a forest ranger recently discovered a gap in Wayne Nation Forest that was venting gas and smoke.We hiked a little ways into the woods and you can see coal and slag right on the surface of the trail.After New Straitsville we took a quick detour to Shawnee, Ohio.
This place is as ghost town as it gets. People still live here but if this image of Main Street is any indication, they are few and far between. We then did a little stomping around the countryside near Athens, Ohio. We were looking for an historic cemetery - Athens is famous for it's old and beautiful cemeteries - but all we found was large, disgruntled toad.I can't say I was disappointed - he is a lovely toad. Finally we ended up at The Ridges in Athens. This former asylum is now owned by Ohio University.It is used as artist studios and the main administration building has been converted into a beautiful art gallery, The Kennedy Museum of Art. The building itself, though in various state of disrepair, is beautiful. It is considered a star example of traditional Kirkbridge design. I always appreciate it when an institution makes an effort to reclaim and renovate an historical building rather than tearing it down to build something new. The trip was fantastic. My only regret is that we drove through Haydenville and I didn't get the chance to snap a few pictures. The houses in this little town are built with some of the most fascinating brick I've ever seen. Some are even inlaid with decorative clay pipes to highlight the industry of the area. No worries, I just have an excuse to go back because the town deserves a whole afternoon of exploration. To see more pictures from this adventure click here.

Inspiration

2009-10-02T00:48:00.003-04:00

I was lamenting to Cath this Monday that I was not as into knitting recently. I had finished a bunch of projects and was feeling a certain ennui, if you will. Basically, so many queued objects, my future knitting projects seemed so prescribed. But then I had an epiphany. I have been meaning to knit this project for about four years. Every year the idea comes around and every year I put it off. This is the year of the tree skirt. And today......the yarn arrived!It seems so completely indulgent. A big box packed with smooshy, bulky yarn. Each was two dollars so the actual expense was fairly low...but still...I don't even want to unpack it, I just want to luxuriate in it.This is the pattern in question. I am way ahead on Christmas presents this year so I feel entitled.By the way - this book has quite a few unique patterns in it including the infamous step-dad sweater of 2006 - er - 2007... which is entirely too big for him but he still wears like a champ every time Lovey and I visit for Christmas despite the often balmy San Diego weather. He has to cuff the sleeves.

Knitting, ah, knitting.

2009-09-24T10:42:00.003-04:00

The love affair is strong this morning between me and that favorite hobby. I stayed up late last night to do some finishing and the results are most satisfactory. First, I finished up my Jubilee scarf. I was going to do four skeins of Elsebeth Lavold, but it turns out that three is a good length so rather than labor the issue I bound it off.While that was nice, it wasn't nearly as satisfying as this:Aren't they adorable! I love these socks - like, really love them a lot. Like, I want to marry them. I don't know why I am so enamored with this pattern - they do feel autumnal, they do remind me of Gettysburg and Appalachia - but there is a real deep attachment here.The yarn is Happy Feet by Plymouth Yarn that I bought in New Hampshire. For the button tabs I used random brownish buttons from the stash.That Lee button in the center cracks me up! It came out of one of the jars of antique buttons and probably fell off a jean jacket or a denim shirt. I'm just tickled by it. So - to wrap up, I love these socks and it needs to get chilly so I can wear them everyday...I leave you with some sweet yarn - lovin': Knit Picks Shadow in Spring Green.

Rainy Monday

2009-09-21T11:25:00.005-04:00

Alright. Here are the facts:

It is pouring - real cats and dogs type weather
The house is a pit - laundry to be folded, laundry to be washed, floors to be vacuumed
I have two cover letters I need to write by the end of the week
I am nearly finished with an afghan but for the seaming and weaving in of ends

I want nothing more than to crawl back into bed, pretend I don't have to work tomorrow, and read the Ohio ghost story books I have recently become obsessed with. They are my version of the trashy romance novel with the added professional benefits of Ohio oral history and listing all the out of the way, lesser known house museums, ghost towns, and parks...or so I tell myself. They have me hanging out at used book stores looking for old copies of Ohio history books that discuss all of the strange phenomenon of Ohio's past - swamps, canals, mine fires, oil fields, asylums, malaria, ship wrecks, towns swallowed by cities, the Ohio river, or just time...On on such excursion I wandered over to the crafting section (big surprise) and didn't find anything particularly interesting until I simply shifted a book about astrology and uncovered this:The Complete Book of Progressive Knitting by Ida Riley Duncan. I haven't done much research yet but so far the only copies I can find online are these 1970's editions. This one is from 1943.One of the more interesting features is that most of the illustrations are drawings. My favorite is this very stylish woman in what appears to be a mohair sweater:She reminds me of Peggy from Mad Men with her folio of copy writing.

Hoot Hoot

2009-09-17T22:39:00.003-04:00

I love knitting all the time but tonight I love knitting because this sweater fits like a glove. I am amazed because the yarn is bulky but the shaping is so precise that my figure looks anything but! The shaping is in the back, which makes the front and side smooth and gives the back a neat nipped-in appearance. The sleeves are also very slim.And then there are the owls with their adorable button eyes. Here are the specs:

Pattern: Owls by Kate Davies
Yarn: Swish Bulky by Knit Picks
Buttons: Stash, great-grandmother's sewing box

Thanks Betty B!

2009-09-16T12:34:00.004-04:00

Yesterday Betty B sent me a note on Ravelry to let me know that "my art" was in the Columbus Dispatch. I naturally went tearing through the papers we have at work and sure enough there was a picture of WonderKnit on the front of the Life & Arts section and in the background is the Knitted Flower Project. The article,about male knitters, is on the Dispatch website here. So cool!

Steph-O and the Big Chunk

2009-09-14T14:28:00.005-04:00

One of my co-workers, Stephanie, is jetting off to Germany for about three months to study design, drink fabulous beer, and eat schnitzel. I have been giving her my best Germany advice - don't pack too heavily, try to purchase items like travel passes ahead of time, wear comfortable shoes, don't drink too much bubbly wine and sprain your ankle on the cobble stones...not that I would know anything about that...I also made her a scarf that I am calling the Big Chunk. It is a short and sweet little scarf with some big antique buttons meant to wrap once and button to the side.I used this yarn:Mom got it in Ithaca, New York for my birthday. I only had about 72 yards or so - perfect for a small, quick gift. I still cannot find a website for this spinner - Sky Path Design! His/her yarn is lovely, though.

Ohio

2009-09-10T13:49:00.004-04:00

I have been a wee bit obsessed with Ohio history and landmarks lately. So as with every obsession in my life, Lovey has been dragged into the latest madness.See - he's thrilled! We went to Fort Hill, which is a Hopewell Culture earthworks site. The hike was pretty intense - a 400 foot ascent - and the weather was pretty steamy and buggy. Lovey was very concerned that he might die hot and itchy.But we survived. Incidentally, Fort Hill doesn't have a fort. This was a minor disappointment. It does have a mound that encricles the top of the hill but it is very difficult to determine what is natural and what is manmade. My favorite part was this tree:It had been struck by lightening and the entire inside was charred. It was lying across the trail, busted open and black all the way through. On our way home I took this picture on Route 23.You can see the curtain of rain waiting for us. And then we were in it.And then we passed through it and the sun was shining again.

Run Away!

2009-09-09T11:22:00.003-04:00

My dear friend Nicole is having a time of stress and uncertainty in her life right now. I turned to my answer to everything - handknits. She had expressed interest in this pattern a while ago - both as a movie buff and a bunny mom and it seemed just about perfect.I think it was. She kept him next to her keyboard all day and I caught her petting him absentmindedly at one point while editing some copy. I used some left over Lion Brand Baby Soft and sharpie marker for the blood and insides of the ears. Nicole is also in charge of our book club at work, which I am shamelessly going to plug. It is open to the public and guaranteed to introduce you to something quirky and new. We spent some of the day yesterday agonizing over titles and calling all our go-to literary folks for advice. Here is the most recent email:

"Our first official book club meeting is coming up quickly on September 30th at noon. Our opening selection is a play by Tom Stoppard called Arcadia. This quick 97-page comedy plays between two centuries in a single setting, discussing science, society, and love - "the attraction which Newton left out." Feel free to bring your lunch to the discussion; we'll provide coffee. As discussed at our initial planning meeting, we have selected autobiography/memoir as the next genre to explore. I have selected one of the suggestions from our planning meeting, This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff for our gathering on October 28th at noon. In this 300-page memoir, Wolff details his adolescence as he travels across the United States with his mother in the 1950s.
Heading into November, I have chosen Paul Newman's In Pursuit of the Common Good: Twenty-Five Years of Improving the World, One Bottle of Salad Dressing at a Time, to represent the club's interest in inspirational reading. In this book Newman and business partner A.E. Hotchner discuss the creation of Newman's Own. This meeting will be on November 18th at noon. Please note that this is the third Wednesday in the month since the OSU Urban Arts will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. Up-coming genres the book club will explore later this year and next are: December - Ohio History, January - Science Fiction, February - Philosophy, March - Contemporary American. Do you have a book title you'd like to suggest to the club? Great! Please, submit suggestions, questions, and comments to my attention via email: uas@osu.edu. Thanks and keep reading!"

Everyone is welcome to join and attend either the live meetings or discuss on the blog. I am especially excited about the Paul Newman book.

Socks

2009-09-06T12:47:00.003-04:00

Before I launch into this discussion of socks let me explain that I am watching Project Runway in the bedroom so Lovey can play Call of Duty in the living room. Somehow I manged to spill an ENTIRE twenty-four ounce plastic cup of water on the bed and floor. It is a mystery to me - my hand caught the edge of it on the night stand and all hell broke loose. So, the background to these pictures is our bare mattress, which fortunately did not absorb any water. The sheets and mattress pad received the worst of it. I don't entirely know how it happened...I do know I am an epic klutz.I finished August - blew right by them, actually, and didn't take the time to appreciate the finished product.I wasn't sure about the garter stitch heels and toes but they are actually spongy soft and crazy comfortable! And the scalloped pattern is divine. Now, the reason I became distracted and did not give these the credit they are due is this pattern.I know it doesn't look like much right now and is not completely finished but I am mesmerized by this pattern! Army Inspired Socks by Valeria Kerkkä. Why? When I saw the pictures they made me think of autumn in Gettysburg, PA. I grew up in Pennsylvania in Cumberland Valley and Civil and Revolutionary War history are really present and important there.They are tall socks, so I ran out of the orange Happy Feet. No problem - I also have some green so they have a little green toe cap and the tabs will also be green. Picking out the buttons might be the best part because I have so many options!

Blogging

2009-09-04T22:07:00.003-04:00

I just watched Julie and Julia at the Drexel East (incidentally, just the place to watch such a movie). I loved it and I especially loved the way it looked at blogging. I started this blog just over four years ago to share very dear aspects of my life - art making, crafting, and my home - and to seek out people who might appreciate a quick break from their daily life to read a snippet about someone else. Even better if that snippet focuses on something joyful like creating, crafting, cooking...I had turned to other people's blogs for just that while working in a cubicle not unlike Julie's in the movie. It was also like casting a net to see if I could catch...opinions? readers? I don't really know, but cubicles have a funny way of making people feel totally expendable and replaceable. And it worked in it's small way. I was recently at a friend's birthday party and I gave her a scarf. When she opened it another friend laughed and said she remembered the post about it. I knew she read every so often but I was so delighted! Someone other than my mom reads my blog! P.S. - thanks, mom, for reading my blog. But mostly the movie championed the need to do what you love and not just do it but work at it, become good at it, become the person people turn to when they have questions about it. I have been very fortunate to have that in my life - things I am good at, that people turn to me for, and most importantly that I never become complacent about. I can never learn enough about art and craft and though I am good at them, both making and teaching, I know I can always be better. Rather than intimidating, I find the thought exhilarating! There is always more history to read, another painting to research, another technique to try, and another person with which to share. And my home? Lovey, me, and the cats are a constant work in progress - a weird little family in flux. The blog is a place where I can take all the mess of doing, learning, living (see the picture above - the disaster area of my "studio") and reflect on all the best but also mundane and funny parts and then put them out there for others who might need 15 minutes away from their phone, spreadsheet, email, co-workers (god forbid), for some pictures and a story. So much has happened in four years I can only imagine what is next!

Southern Ohio Adventure

2009-08-31T11:46:00.005-04:00

I love a good adventure. This weekend Lovey was on an adventure of his own - playing poker with the guys in West Virginia. So, not to be out done, I planned a very full day for myself on Saturday. First, I went to the Cincinnati Art Museum. I had not visited this museum since high school and didn't remember much of it. Their permanent exhibits were so lovely. I especially loved one room of arts and crafts furniture made in Cincinnati. The museum really goes out of it's way to celebrate Cincinnati artists and crafts persons - women crafts persons too! and I think that is exciting. They also had an amazing special exhibition of contemporary glass, wood, and ceramic called Outside the Ordinary. I am a little burned out on glass art, but I still really enjoyed it. I snapped pictures of my two favorite paintings:This is Edward Hopper. I love Edward Hopper. He is probably the reason I decided to really pursue painting and attend art school. His paintings are absolutely mesmerizing and transport me. Even as I look at it now on the computer screen I am at a loss to describe exactly how... The other painting was right next to this one:This is The Old Folks (Mother and Father) by John Steuart Curry painted in 1929. I enjoy this one for obvious reasons. After the art museum I hopped on the Appalachian Highway and drove east for about an hour to The Great Serpent Mound. I have lived in Ohio for thirteen years and never visited the mound. It was smaller than I expected but no less powerful and beautiful. The image above is actually one of the burial mounds near the serpent mound. There are three on the outskirts of the serpent which is an effigy mound - not a burial mound.I took this image of the mound from the observation tower, which reminded me of those old towers at Gettysburg. Once I was level with the mound, each step revealed a new, interesting angle or view. I took a lot of pictures.I don't know that I felt especially spiritual here - but I did feel revived and relaxed. It was also a stunning day - blue skies, breezy, mid-70's - one of those rare late summer mid-western days.
As a museum person I found this sign hilarious! We are in a constant battle in museums, galleries, parks, monuments, between sharing beautiful objects and preserving those objects to share with future visitors. The impulse to touch is mesmerizing - I know! But we can't. We have to honor and respect the integrity of those objects. I tell the kids that visit the gallery - you wouldn't want someone touching you all the time - that would make you dirty and tired. Imagine how the artworks would feel.
Finally, I drove home through Amish country. The day was so beautiful that I didn't want to waste it on the highway. So I turned the music up and went cruising through the hills and hollers on route 41. I am amazed I got this picture because I just pointed my camera out the passenger window without looking. At the vanishing point are three young Mennonite girls on their bicycles also soaking in the sun and breeze.

Things other than knitting

2009-08-26T11:37:00.003-04:00

Oh, sewing. You are so patient with my knitting. I am at the very beginning of a new quilt that is proving to be very fun. I have been collecting the elements of this quilt for a little while now not realizing that I was actually collecting elements. I tend to accumulate bits and pieces of fabric, imagery, sketches, ideas, and then I find the critical missing bit that pulls them all together. Sometimes it becomes an artwork, in this case it is becoming a quilt.I found these weird botanical prints at an antique shop in Lithopolis, Ohio. My mom, sister, and I were cruising through the one street in this little town after taking our recently passed family dog, Sydney's ashes to a local park where she and I used to go running together when I was in high school. She was a very good dog. Anyway, I was driving and the decision to go through Lithopolis was strategic. I want to go to an antique store.I paid to much for them - 25 cents each - because they are completely water damaged. I didn't want them as prints, though. I wanted them as patterns.I had been hanging onto them for a while when Cath and I went on our antiquing adventure. I found this tucked away in a five dollar fancy cigar box.Pre-cut squares for what looks like a doll quilt. Hello future quilt! I have been wanting to do an embroidery based quilt for a while so I am pretty excited about this one. It is going to take a VERY long time. But each panel will be really different so that will help to keep it interesting.

I got nothing...

2009-08-24T13:21:00.002-04:00

...but cat pictures.
This is three of about 60 that I found on my camera after kitten and Lovey had a few photo shoots over the weekend.

"It's too hot to have a cold"

2009-08-17T11:39:00.003-04:00

...is what Lovey's sister said via Facebook. She is right but I am still sniffling, coughing, and popping Dayquil and Nyquil like it's going out of style. Saturday, in the worst haze of it, I actually had a mini tantrum as Lovey and I were leaving to go grocery shopping. I have a gift certificate from my dear friend Nina. Nina and I go way back and she is one of those people that just makes you smile no matter what. She got me $20 at Wonder Knit for my birthday, which actually led to a very funny exchange with shop owner Libby. I imagine it went something like this.

Nina - I can't decide what to get my friend for her birthday. Libby - We have gift certificates now, why don't you do that? Nina - Okay, great. This is going to sound strange, but the friend I am buying this for is an artist and that artwork over there looks like something she would make. Her name is Molly. (letting Libby know so she can fill out the gift certificate) Libby - That is what Molly was doing. That's her artwork. Nina - Oh!

And that is what I mean when I say Nina is guaranteed smiles. She was so delighted to tell me this story and it was a perfect story - just as good as the gift certificate, actually. So back to Saturday and me sick and self-important. Lovey did not want to go to the yarn store even though he was going out that evening and I was going to be home, sick, cranky, and bored. I actually stomped my foot and said, "give me the keys, I am going to get me gift certificate and we are going to the yarn store because I am sick and I want to!" I am not very proud but he did acquiesce and we went to the yarn store. And now, what this glorious adventure has been building towards...MaisonetteI brought home this amazing handspun and dyed lace weight made by Karida of Neighborhood Fiber Co. She is actually setting up shop in Wonder Knit - spinning and dying in the basement. It is all very exciting to me, to have a yarn store commit to a yarn maker like that - and the yarn is a little slice of heaven. Unfortunately it can not cure the common cold. However, I hold out hope that someday yarn, with all it's spiritual healing properties, will do just that.

Knitter's Denial

2009-08-14T10:01:00.003-04:00

I have been pretty fussy about not starting new projects until one of my marathon pieces is finished...but this weekend I backslid. I cast something on. I am not proud. These things just happen.It is Leaf T-shirt by Melissa LaBarre. This pattern is delightful. Shaping and lace happen on alternate rows and after the raglan increases are done there is only lace on every other row. So there is lace to look forward too but not so much lace that I can't zone out and knit on auto pilot. I am using some serious bottom of the pile stash yarn, which is why things look a little wonky. I am lazy about prewashing reclaimed yarn. Someday I will have catastrophic issues with this and I will learn my lesson (gauge, reading the pattern all the way through, magic loop...) but until that day I will continue to knit directly from one piece to another. The yarn is Omega Sinfonia - a random kind of mercerized cotton that I found at Hobby Lobby. It seems like it's the only place it exists. I bought it a few years ago to make a sweater for my mom but the sweater - which was supposed to be a lacy gauzy garment - ended up weighing as much as a baby elephant. So I frogged it and knit her a zip up cardigan (again, knitting directly from my frogging) and that was vastly more successful. But I still had a ton of this stuff left over, still in quasi sweater form, stuffed in a bag with other random bits of cotton.I think I have enough to get most of the way through and then I have another color of the yarn to finish off the bottom. I am hoping it will look mod and hip instead of - "oh, poor girl, she must have run out of yarn."

Quilts

2009-08-10T11:04:00.003-04:00

Not to be down on knitting - I would never be down on knitting - but I had an incredibly satisfying finished object experience this weekend and no knitting was involved. I started this quilt in late 2007 and have been working away at it for a year and a half. The piecing is machine sewed but the top stitching and finishing is hand sewed. This is the first full size quilt I have hand stitched and it feels like a pretty amazing achievement. Unlike knitting, which I started a few years ago, I have been sewing longer than I can remember. I always had my own little sewing basket and collection of bits of fabric to stitch together. This did not prevent me from raiding mom's sewing basket but it did keep me busy on too hot or too rainy days in the summer. I would camp out in front of Nickelodeon and sew little bags to carry library books.And here is the thing - mom was not an old fashioned mom. She was a working mom, a feminist, a scholar, and she loved to sew. My gram was likewise, a bit of a ball buster, and she loved to sew. And I am what I am - tattooed and pierced with all my opinions and love of obscure movies, art, and music and I freaking love to sew! So sewing, for me, has always been an example of the best kind of womanhood in that it belongs to all kinds of women. I have written an entire thesis (200 +) pages on this very phenomenon and yet it is still magical to me. Women make this beautiful objects for the care of those they love. We spend so many hours creating so many stitches and all those little in significant stitches creating fabric and then holding that fabric together.And then we give it away. We teach the skills, we gift the objects, we share it. So I am proud that I finished my quilt and I am already working on two more. But I am proud to be one of a group that makes quilts - that makes objects to make life more livable and loving.

August

2009-08-06T23:03:00.004-04:00

When I was little, August = the beach. My gram lived in Middletown, Rhode Island, which is near Newport, and every August the family, sometimes all four of us and sometimes just mom, sissy, and I, would pile into the car and drive up to spend a week or two with her. We visited the beach, toured Green Animals Topiary Garden, took evening drives by the Newport mansions on the water, shopped the consignment stores for back-to-school cloths, one summer we rode out Hurricane Bob, and another summer I went night swimming with a guy I met working at a coffee shop in Newport and his girlfriend. The water was so still and the night so clear, that water and sky melted into each other and I felt like I was swimming through stars. Gram passed a few years ago and I really miss her and spending time with her in the summer. I have so many vivid memories of her house, her neighborhood, and all those classic grandmotherly things, like telling the same stories over and over, whipping out the Polaroid any time my sister or I sneezed, fussing, fussing, fussing, but mostly smiling all the time about everything.So for August I wanted to knit some socks that reminded me of Gram and the ocean. I chose another pattern from Sock Innovation and I am using the yarn Cath got me for my graduation present - Knit Picks Kettle Dyed Essentials. It reminds me of the ocean on a bright, blue, sunny day when the wind is up a little and there are waves.The stitch pattern reminds me of scallop shells or water ripples.So these are for my Gram and for the summer. Now my mom lives on the west coast on the other beach. Lovey and I probably won't drive out there for summer vacations, perhaps fly, and Lovey has mentioned that when we have kids he wants to take the train. I wonder how those memories will look in sock form...

Marathon

2009-08-02T00:06:00.003-04:00

Sometimes finishing a project is exhausting. I have been knitting all day. I woke up at 9:00 determined that I would finish this project today. I was knitting by 9:30. I broke for lunch, a run, and dinner. I had a few potty breaks. But mostly I knit. I knit and knit and knit. My hands are sore, my eyes are dry, I have a mild headache, and I have watched entirely too much TV (probably the source of the headache) in trying to finish this project. I finished the project at 11:30 pm. The frustrating part about it is that I can't show a completed image because it is a gift for someone who has been known to occasionaly peruse the blog. So all I can give you are these close-up teaser images and a Ravelry link. This person is not a knitter and will hopefully be barred at the Ravelry gates.I can also tell you that it is made of Lily Sugar 'n Cream, Bernat Handicrafter Cotton Colonial Colors, and Pisgah Yarn & Dyeing Co., Inc Peaches & Creme Solids. Now I am going to take an advil and go to sleep.

Belated Birthday Bash

2009-07-29T09:40:00.004-04:00

My wonderful friend Laura and I had a joint belated birthday party (her birthday is in February and mine was earlier this month). The theme was pop-culture potluck and people brought creative pop-culture themed dishes for everyone to try. Some of the highlights were:

The Salsa Shark from Clerks
My Big Fat Greek Wedding Pasta Salad
Sunny D and a pregnancy test from Juno
Red Red Wine from the UB40 song
Strawberry Fields Forever from the Beatles (basically a giant cookie covered with cool whip and fresh strawberries)
Key Lime Pie from Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist's Quest to Discover If Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, or Why Pie Is Not the Answer
Soylent Green (made of chicken, not people)
Brain Candy from Kids in the Hall - a brain shaped bowl full of candy
Frozen Bananas from Arrested Development
Cookies from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
Green Brownies (not actually) from Transformers II

I know I am missing some, but it gives you an idea of the creativity and love of food shared by our friends. For the record, I sampled everything and it was all delicious! Here are some random pictures of the party people.

The menfolk.Brea and ErinAnnie and MattLaura showing off her most recent moves from her hip-hop classThe ladiesAnd these are the winners of pop-culture and culinary themed prizes - of course with the proof of our eating left in the foreground.

Lace

2009-07-24T10:17:00.000-04:00

I am experiencing a love affair with lace in all its various forms - so much so that I now see lace everywhere. I think that is why lace is so appealing to me, because the inspiration for stitches and patterns, so often, comes from the natural world. For example, the other day I was riding my bike to work and I saw this cloud pattern.
The sweeps of cloud reminded me of traveling lines of decreased stitches while the lighter areas looked like yarn-over holes. It made me think of the Kai-Mei socks I have been making for July. Cookie A is a goddess.And Handmaiden Yarns are worth every penny. This Casbah is about the most perfect yarn I have ever knit with.I have also been working on this Twinings Pattern by Anne Hanson (also a goddess) and had another moment on the bike path that reminded me both of the pattern and the yarn by Yarntopia Treasures.
This scattered bed of thistles and other wild flowers and plants was so much like my lace pre-blocking.
I am trying to power through this lace project because I want to knit more lace...at the same time I don't want it to end because it is so lovely and challenging. Ah, lace.