Medicare For All
I was watching a PBS show on Dalton Trumbo, the blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter who was able to find work by having friends front for him. (Watch The Front with Woody Allen if you don’t understand what this means.)
It was a rather well-done show although I’m not a fan of actors recreating scenes. Here, however, they just read Trumbo’s words.
What struck me was a letter Trumbo had written during the witch-hunts of the 1950s (and if you don’t know about these witch hunts - no actual burning of witches here though a lot of actual destruction of people’s ability to find employment- you should find out about them also) where he is discussing that famous rant of right-wing Congressmen during the HUAC hearings: Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?
Trumbo mused in this letter that perhaps one day the question would be: Are you or have you ever been a member of the Democratic Party?
OK, we’re not quite there; but we’re close. Watch the vitriol with which word like “liberal” or “socialistic” spew from mouths of anti-health care reform advocates. Most of them are just in lock-step repeating what conservative media talking heads say and don’t even understand what the terms mean. However, so many of them are just bat-shit crazy bigots or racists. And all of them are bat-shit scary. Unfortunately, we really haven’t moved that far from Joe McCarthy and J. Parnell Thomas. (And be sure to google these “Princes” of Congress also.)
Knitting Friday
Wow! Have I accomplished a lot this week. I tried on all my winter/fall shawls (yes, the weather has turned colder) and frogged my two largest ones. The large beige ball of frogged wool I now have is the remains of a huge rectangular beige shawl which I wore perhaps once. That yarn is still usable for sweaters so I don’t think its next life is going to be as a shawl.
The white frogged wool (picture below) however had experienced wear so I pulled out my trusty Trinity stitch pattern for that and now it’s being reincarnated into a triangular shawl.
Here is the original pattern:
http://web.archive.org/web/20080105015253/http://www.cs.oswego.edu/~ebozak/knit/esb-patterns/shawl.html
Don’t get spooked by all the directions. It’s really very simple with the (K1, P1) in the first stitch and the (P1, K1) in the last stitch which make the increases for the shawl. All the rest, the P3tog and (KPK) in one stitch is just even work (no increases) which gives you the popcorn effect. As long as a P3tog goes over the previous row’s (KPK) and vica versa, you’ll be OK. As you can see, Esther posted this pattern awhile ago but its still a “go-to” pattern for me.
I noticed that I have a hand-written copy of the basics of this pattern and I added “For a rectangular shawl: At width, P2tog at the end of the odd row. (That is, Row 5.) At length, P2tog at the beginning and end of all odd rows.
I know my variation works because I’ve made this shawl as a rectangle but each time I look at those instructions I think: This can’t work. But it does.
Take a look at the Trinity Stitch Shawl I’m working on now. I don’t think you can tell that this a recycled wool. That’s why I love this pattern.
Both the beige and natural wools are Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool before it went to the “dark” side. Although, I don’t think the difference will show up in a photo, holding the old and the new Fisherman’s Wool in my hand, I would say the new wool is 1/16 less wide than the old wool. Of course, the weight is the same but I will be interested to see if I get a thinner garment when I finally knit with a newer skein.
Finally, a non-shawl item: Red Heart Plush Raglan Pullover. As I said last week, this pattern came from an ancient Spinnovations 4 book I picked up at a garage sale. You know, one of those books which is no longer printed and has directions for all types of yarns, all types of sizes. Basically, I just used the CO amount for the neck edge. I think my directions were CO 63 sts. I didn’t work the neck band but started right in on the sweater body after joining. Once I had my markers in place, I just knitted plain to my armhole adding the increases for each section.
Knitting Fool, a fantastic we
b site, offers a program where you plug in the yarn type, needle size, your bust size, and stitch and row gauge and it spews out a free top down raglan pattern.
It’s at: http://www.knittingfool.com/pages/topdown.guest.cfm
I plugged in the numbers and I was told to CO 64 stitches so my pullover should be right on the mark. As you can see from the picture, I’m finishing up the hem (seed stitch) and ready to start the sleeves on DPNs. Right now, it’s going to spend its life as a sweater over a long-sleeved tee. However, if I surprise myself with the neck band, this may become a wear-alone pullover.
There is one more shawl I worked on this week. It’s a crochet in thread yarn from a typical Lion Brand free pattern. I started it because I could not stand making another ch-3, 3 dc cluster shawl so I didn’t have high hopes for this. But...... I love it. It’s a foulard without the endless garter knitting. This one is very open but I could see a smaller hook with thread yarn for a completing different look.
OK, I’ll leave you with this teaser until next week. I think it will be worth the wait. Happy knitting.
It was a rather well-done show although I’m not a fan of actors recreating scenes. Here, however, they just read Trumbo’s words.
What struck me was a letter Trumbo had written during the witch-hunts of the 1950s (and if you don’t know about these witch hunts - no actual burning of witches here though a lot of actual destruction of people’s ability to find employment- you should find out about them also) where he is discussing that famous rant of right-wing Congressmen during the HUAC hearings: Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?
Trumbo mused in this letter that perhaps one day the question would be: Are you or have you ever been a member of the Democratic Party?
OK, we’re not quite there; but we’re close. Watch the vitriol with which word like “liberal” or “socialistic” spew from mouths of anti-health care reform advocates. Most of them are just in lock-step repeating what conservative media talking heads say and don’t even understand what the terms mean. However, so many of them are just bat-shit crazy bigots or racists. And all of them are bat-shit scary. Unfortunately, we really haven’t moved that far from Joe McCarthy and J. Parnell Thomas. (And be sure to google these “Princes” of Congress also.)
Knitting Friday
Wow! Have I accomplished a lot this week. I tried on all my winter/fall shawls (yes, the weather has turned colder) and frogged my two largest ones. The large beige ball of frogged wool I now have is the remains of a huge rectangular beige shawl which I wore perhaps once. That yarn is still usable for sweaters so I don’t think its next life is going to be as a shawl.
The white frogged wool (picture below) however had experienced wear so I pulled out my trusty Trinity stitch pattern for that and now it’s being reincarnated into a triangular shawl.
Here is the original pattern:
http://web.archive.org/web/20080105015253/http://www.cs.oswego.edu/~ebozak/knit/esb-patterns/shawl.html
Don’t get spooked by all the directions. It’s really very simple with the (K1, P1) in the first stitch and the (P1, K1) in the last stitch which make the increases for the shawl. All the rest, the P3tog and (KPK) in one stitch is just even work (no increases) which gives you the popcorn effect. As long as a P3tog goes over the previous row’s (KPK) and vica versa, you’ll be OK. As you can see, Esther posted this pattern awhile ago but its still a “go-to” pattern for me.
I noticed that I have a hand-written copy of the basics of this pattern and I added “For a rectangular shawl: At width, P2tog at the end of the odd row. (That is, Row 5.) At length, P2tog at the beginning and end of all odd rows.
I know my variation works because I’ve made this shawl as a rectangle but each time I look at those instructions I think: This can’t work. But it does.
Take a look at the Trinity Stitch Shawl I’m working on now. I don’t think you can tell that this a recycled wool. That’s why I love this pattern.
Both the beige and natural wools are Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool before it went to the “dark” side. Although, I don’t think the difference will show up in a photo, holding the old and the new Fisherman’s Wool in my hand, I would say the new wool is 1/16 less wide than the old wool. Of course, the weight is the same but I will be interested to see if I get a thinner garment when I finally knit with a newer skein.
Finally, a non-shawl item: Red Heart Plush Raglan Pullover. As I said last week, this pattern came from an ancient Spinnovations 4 book I picked up at a garage sale. You know, one of those books which is no longer printed and has directions for all types of yarns, all types of sizes. Basically, I just used the CO amount for the neck edge. I think my directions were CO 63 sts. I didn’t work the neck band but started right in on the sweater body after joining. Once I had my markers in place, I just knitted plain to my armhole adding the increases for each section.
Knitting Fool, a fantastic we
b site, offers a program where you plug in the yarn type, needle size, your bust size, and stitch and row gauge and it spews out a free top down raglan pattern.It’s at: http://www.knittingfool.com/pages/topdown.guest.cfm
I plugged in the numbers and I was told to CO 64 stitches so my pullover should be right on the mark. As you can see from the picture, I’m finishing up the hem (seed stitch) and ready to start the sleeves on DPNs. Right now, it’s going to spend its life as a sweater over a long-sleeved tee. However, if I surprise myself with the neck band, this may become a wear-alone pullover.
There is one more shawl I worked on this week. It’s a crochet in thread yarn from a typical Lion Brand free pattern. I started it because I could not stand making another ch-3, 3 dc cluster shawl so I didn’t have high hopes for this. But...... I love it. It’s a foulard without the endless garter knitting. This one is very open but I could see a smaller hook with thread yarn for a completing different look.
OK, I’ll leave you with this teaser until next week. I think it will be worth the wait. Happy knitting.
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