Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Website Wednesday

http://www.freakonomics.com/blog/ 

Some back story: I'm sitting inside the Kumon waiting room yesterday while the boy is in the classroom working on math. Now, usually I sit in the car because the boy is very tall and really doesn't appreciate any parental units tagging along to classes. However, it was beastly hot yesterday and someone would have definitely called PETA if they had seen me sitting in the car for an extended period - even with the windows cracked.

So there I am, with the same parents I saw the last time I was there over 6 months ago and I'm listening to them talk about the Kumon program. Then they start praising the John Hopkins math program, which, as I listen, I discover is eerily similar to the University of Chicago math program our school system disastrously uses. I'm hearing stuff like: Oh, he really likes that program because one week they do negative numbers and the next it's fractions so he never gets bored......... And I'm thinking: Oh boy, that's our math program and it's the worst math curriculum for elementary school kids. That type of math program is the reason we're here at Kumon because one week the boy would get tessellation (yeah, I know, every 5th grader needs to learn that) and then LCM or GCD, negative numbers, graphs, mean, median, and mode... and by the end of a marking period he may not be bored but he didn't learn basic math either. (You really can't discover LCM without basic math skills.)

Unfortunately, there are certain basic skills you must practice and practice and practice. Kumon works that way: every student is taken back to the beginnings, basic addition, and then progressively released into the next learning area when the previous one is absolutely mastered. For years, I worked with the boy on multiplication and never got a fast response to questions like: 8 x 6 or 9 x 7. In 9 months of Kumon, he's moved way beyond multiplication mastery, is at least at his grade level in math and now, even after if he makes a math mistake, he can look at the question quickly and see his error. For me, the prevailing meme that "Ivy" programs are the best, is completely disproved by our experience (and many other in the school system) with Kumon. But, I also know, the meme bests the truth every time.

Thus ends the back story. All of which brings me back to my website pick today. I first came across Freakonomics as a 2010 documentary which gave you examples of current socioeconomic thinking and showed if it were true and if it worked. For example, Freakonomics explored the practice of paying under-performing students and asked the question: Can a money incentive lead to better grades? They also depicted a sumo wrestling scandal and how the industry dealt with the corruption (Move over, Wall Street.) Watching the documentary, I can imagine them tackling: Ivy League math programs sold to school systems: great results or the lure of prestige names.

On its About page, Freakonomics asks and answers questions. I like this one:

Q: Does everyone like your books?
A: Ha! Not by a long shot. Here is an early catalog of people who hated Freakonomics. In the U.S. alone, there are probably enough Freakonomics haters to fill up the Rose Bowl. Which is why you’ll never find us walking past the Rose Bowl without an armed guard, at least not at night. Also, our global-warming chapter in SuperFreakonomics caused downright apoplexy among a certain quadrant of environmentalists.

You may not agree with everything you read at Freakonomics but they're doing some "out of the box" thinking and they are holding a mirror up to some of society's most sacred cows.

A current article, Are Voters Just Rooting for Clothes?, starts with the unhappiness with Obama among the uber-rich, moves on to discuss the color of jerseys as a factor in the like/dislike of sports players, swirls into scientific studies and concludes some pretty obvious facts about the herd mentality. What's an added bonus for me is the intelligent comments which follow this article. (Note to self: Stop reading the comments in the Huffington Post, so many have descended into FOX News scurrilousness.)

So I recommend you bookmark Freakonomics and keep visiting it, especially in these times when the media is gushing over the emperor's new clothes but we all know better.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Movie Monday - The Shock Doctrine

On Memorial Day and as a pacifist, I should begin by saying: All wars are wrong.  And, of course, with that statement, a part of the web world that may be reading this posting is saying: What a jerk! Because people can always find the one war, the one conflict, which, after they assure you they too are anti-war, should have been fought or should be fought in the future. So they'll dismiss me as the idealist, as the dewy-eyed idealist, or in past times, as a commie-pinko idealist, shake their collective head and go about their business.

Well, I guess I'd rather be labelled the idealist and side with those proverbial, peace-loving angels I don't believe in. I know it would be a tremendously long haul to reach a peaceful world; perhaps even, ironically, a blood-filled long haul but to repeat the quote attributed to Robert Kennedy:

There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not.

And now, in keeping with these deep thoughts, the movie I'm reviewing this week is The Shock Doctrine. The Shock Doctrine to me was like a difficult school assignment because I watched it during a very rare daytime, alone, free time.But The Shock Doctrine was not a school assignment just because I got to watch it during the day. It was a school assignment because I had to will myself to keep watching and not grab my running shoes and try to jog down my rapidly rising blood pressure.

This movie, based on Naomi Klein's book of the same name,  is a documentary. We see Klein giving a speech at Hamilton College in NY and as we hear and see her speaking, we watch the proof of her thesis being played out on the screen using appropriate documentary footage.

The movie visualizes Klein's thesis that nations and corporation powers "shock" the population into the behavior they desire. She says: A state of shock is something that happens to us not only when something bad happens. It's what happens to us when we lose our narrative, when we lose our story, when we become disoriented. A modern example of this disorientation is the 2003 US invasion of Iraq after George W. Bush and his minions blatantly lied and sold the story to the US (and much of the world for a while) that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that they were involved in 9/11.

Klein's speech and the movie, however, stretches back into US modern history to show how economist Milton Friedman, the great economic trickle-downer, convinced politicians (who can forget Saint Ronnie Reagan or Iron Lady Thatcher?) that a wise economic policy is hands-off the rich since their increased wealth always trickles down (you know, like pee.) In the US, willing and greedy Republicans and Democrats (who should have known better) bought into this wacky economic theory. Then throughout the documentary, Klein shows us how so much better this theory works when corporations and the US government spread disorder and conflict throughout the world first. We get to see examples of its success in South America, etc. (I still shudder when I read/see about the disappeared of Argentina.)

This economic theory has been sold successfully to a great segment of the US populace: Make it as easy as possible for the rich to make and keep their money because this always helps the less fortunate. So successfully, that even Obama who rode to victory in 2008 on a platform of "hope and change" has been reluctant to fire more than timid scatter shots at the bastions of wealth in the US. Further, the acceptance of this theory has led to a confused US voting public who has so lost its way (the disorientation mentioned above) that it may very well vote in a US presidential candidate in 2012 who is resolved to destroy the very programs (Social Security, Medicare, "Obamacare") which are keeping it from sinking into poverty.

(For me, the willingness of the US to accept the Orwellian: WAR IS PEACE; FREEDOM IS SLAVERY; IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH "truths" started when capitalism, which is only another economic modality, became the American way of life and it got up there with the Constitution, the flag, apple pie and god as ideas which must be defended to the death.)

 The Shock Doctrine doesn't have a Hollywood ending. You're not going to come away thinking: Maybe things will change. However, I have to believe, as a teacher, that change for the better can happen. Like Brad and Janet in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, I have to believe: There’s a light...in the darkness of everybody’s life.

But whatever happens with our futures, this is Memorial Day, a day of memories, and The Shock Doctrine gives us disturbing memories we have to watch and we should not forget.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

 

Knitting Friday - using shawl pins with cardigans

 

I'm at an older, slower computer today. In fact, things take so long to load that I knit a row of 64 stitches while I wait. But I want to talk briefly about cardigans today. I want to talk about an "Eureka" moment I had I regard to them, just recently.

 

First of all, I don't make a lot of cardigans because I look dumpy in the ones made from DK weight (I consider DK weight just below bulky; I know there are a lot of definitions for DK weight.) However, the ones I look good in are those fine fingering weight ones which would take me ages to hand knit. So, I wear thin yarn, finely machine knitted cardigans but I don't knit them.

 

OK, having said that; I have to say I lied because I have knitted DK weight cardigans in the past. Many are for winter; long sleeved and fully buttoned. Those I usually wear as a pullover and that works. Some are for winter and long sleeved but only meeting at the neckband for one button closure. 

 

And then there are the useless summer/spring cardigans which are made out of cotton and really nice looking but their one button closure has always looked tacking. The button stretches the yarn and many times as I go to unbutton it, I have to play: Button, Button, Where the hell are you?  

wooden shawl pin

nice bottom hem

So until about a week ago, I was ready to Goodwill all my cotton summer cardigans. But that's when I read somewhere in blog heaven: "I use a shawl pin to close my cardigans." Bells went off, the heavens opened and I grabbed a scissors and removed single buttons from 7 cardigans. Talk about getting a new wardrobe and not leaving your home! The picture on the right is a light beige cotton sleeveless cardigan and you can see the small wooden shawl pin (another blog tip: these are wooden cable needles [3 for $4.99] from Knit Picks and similar in color to their Harmony needles.) In the picture on the left, you can see the bottom hem which I really liked so it was a disappointment not to wear this sweater.

 

I really think that these shawl pins give these sweaters the punch they were always missing.

 

OK, got to go. This computer is so slow and glitchy; with my luck, it'll crash, but it will probably be a slow crash.

 

Next week: I'm designing a very easy, only two threads of yarn to weave in, shrug. Unfortunately, my prototype is in black cotton which is "bleeding" all over my hands. If this works, I'll post the pattern next week. Happy knitting.

 

 

 

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Website Wednesday

Gorgeous, long legs

I always feel the guilt when I miss a posting but I really, really feel the guilt when I had a topic. And Monday, I had a movie to review. However, newsletter deadlines (yes, that's plural now) and the dentist (the DDS was a piece of cake compared with the deadlines) intervened. I'll keep the movie review till next Monday and "make it up" by presenting a picture of Miss L at 6 months.

Miss L is a sweetheart with a coat like sable. Someone who knows labs says he's never seen a coat so supple She is just about getting too big for me to control her if she decides to sprint. Remember, these dogs are not to be taught to heel so she's pretty much a free spirit, though very obedient to commands like "Sit."

On to my website pick, with an small intro: Have you been reading that the US Congress now talks on the level of 10th graders which is down 7 grades from Founding Fathers' time when the Constitution was written at 17th grade level? (I was pleasantly surprised to learn that these grade levels are measured using, my favorite, the Flesch-Kincaid scale.) 

So in the spirit of trying to smarten up the world and especially the US Congress, my pick is: 

http://www.edge.org/

Edge is a series of written and video essays which says about itself:

Edge is a Conversation: Edge is different from the Algonquin Roundtable or Bloomsbury Group, but it offers the same quality of intellectual adventure. Closer resemblances are the early seventeenth-century Invisible College, a precursor to the Royal Society. Its members consisted of scientists such as Robert Boyle, John Wallis, and Robert Hooke. The Society's common theme was to acquire knowledge through experimental investigation. Another inspiration is The Lunar Society of Birmingham, an informal club of the leading cultural figures of the new industrial age — James Watt, Erasmus Darwin, Josiah Wedgewood, Joseph Priestly, and Benjamin Franklin.
The online salon at Edge.org is a living document of millions of words charting the Edge conversation over the past fifteen years wherever it has gone. It is available, gratis, to the general public. (Flesch Kincaid level of grade 11.1)

We really have moved beyond (or below) conversation in daily life. Oh, we talk at one another, usually trading gossip bites but I wonder, outside a structured learning experience, how many of us exchange and explore ideas.  I like this from Edge's About page:

Edge.org encourages people who can take the materials of the culture in the arts, literature, and science and put them together in their own way. We live in a mass-produced culture where many people, even many established cultural arbiters limit themselves to secondhand ideas, thoughts, and opinions. Edge.org consists of individuals who create their own reality and do not accept an ersatz, appropriated reality. The Edge community consists of people who are out there doing it rather than talking about and analyzing the people who are doing it.

Currently, Edge has written and video essays on Essentialism, Testosterone On My Mind And In My Brain, and A Cultural History of Physics. These are not fast 15 minute reads; these are ideas to get you thinking further.

A minor quibble for me is the fact that of the 20+ pictures accompanying the topics only two are women; (one being a favorite of mine, Elaine Pagels ) but while I'd like to see more women, a good idea should be sexless.

I am interested watching Steven Pinker's lecture on "A History of Violence" which he begins with:  

Believe it or not—and I know most people do not—violence has been in decline over long stretches of time, and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species' existence. The decline of violence, to be sure, has not been steady; it has not brought violence down to zero (to put it mildly); and it is not guaranteed to continue. But I hope to convince you that it's a persistent historical development... 

And, I have to read about John Brockman who is touted as "the man who runs the smartest website."

I like the fact that videos accompany the essays at Edge because there are so many times my ears have more free time than my eyes. So let's all dust off our "thinking caps" for a while and take a stroll  on the Edge. I don't think we'll be disappointed.

 

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Knitting Friday - On hems

I find that sweater hems are the bane of my existence, possibly because, if done poorly, they call attention to themselves and the area the cover - the dreaded mid hip. Here are some of the things I've learned from my hem mistakes:

1. Always make the hem last. Which follows my first commandment of knitting: make the sweater a top-down knit whenever possible. However, if the top has to be made in pieces starting at the bottom, eliminate the hem directions and cast on provisionally. This way you can add the hem last, which is usually never a problem unless the hem is directional. (That fix I'll leave for another week.) The reason for rule 1? Because this way, when you botch up the hem, as I often do, it's only a few inches of tinking that's needed for the fix; not 21" of sweater.

Ribbed hem

2. Always use smaller needles/hooks on the hem. Most directions say this, but some don't and, even with those that do, the smaller needles may have to be much smaller than what's listed. For example: seed stitch on US 8 needles is thick giving a chunky appearance. Also, with a US 10 knit sweater top, the US 8 seed hem could give you the same width as the sweater for an unwanted boxy look. Look at the cotton top on the right. Cotton is always problematic since it lacks elasticity but you can see that the K1,P1 rib hem curves in from the body. It was knit tightly on 2 needle sizes down from those used in the top.

3. If you can crochet, crochet your hem. OK, that might sound like heresy to knitters but if ever crocheting shines for its versatility it's in making hems. Below left, I worked two rows of single crochet and then the crab stitch. (Note: this picture is just after washing.) What I like about adding a crocheted hem also is that it's much easier trying on the garment for fit (no pesky needles.)

A re-done hem

You can see on the right (cotton top, again) where I pulled out the hem to make it smaller. In fact, make this picture larger and you can see the dreaded underarm hole (right side) that I talked about last week.

SC & crab st hem

4. Unless the hem is a design feature, try to make the hem as inconspicuous as possible. Because unless a hem can be worked into the garment, its design can become a focal point, drawing the eye there and not to all the knitting you did in the top itself. That's why I like the "no hem" approach. This won't work in straight stockinette (see the ribbed hem pic above) because without a substantial hem, stockinette will curl. (In fact, even with a substantial hem, stockinette likes to curl.)

Crab st hem

On the right, is my typical top: 2 rows: K; 1 row: *YO, K2tog.* This one was done in a cotton with a sheen and it was the weight of chain mail as I knitted it. Finished, the top had no bottom curl so I just did a row of reverse single crochet for the hem.

5. You don't have to use the number of hem stitches as listed in the pattern. If you see that the hem is too boxy, decrease your stitches. In knitting, you can start by picking up the listed number of stitches and on the next row work in your decreases. In crocheting, you can work one row of single crochet and on the next row, work some of them together for decreases. The reason I suggest making the decreases on the second row is that decreasing on the first hem row may create its own design including spaces which are not attractive.

The dreaded curl!

6. And finally, before ripping out a hem, be sure to try on the top, look at it on, front and back, and walk and sit in it. Look at the mess on the left. This is an acyclic mill end which I fell in love with. So I made a stockinette stitch top with a crab stitch hem - surely a recipe for curling as the picture shows and against everything I know about the properties of stockinette.  But just before I pulled the hem out, I tried on the top. Now, I call it the "miracle" top because when worn, there is no curling. I looked at it front and back, I sat in it, I walked in it. No curling.

So these are my well-used tips on making garment hems. Sorry, that I only shot cotton garment pictures but I think you get the idea. And remember, almost any answer you need re: any question in knitting is only a web search away.

Happy knitting.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Website Wednesday

I used to teach ESL (English as a Second Language) and ABR (Adult Basic Reading.) In fact, one year my ABR student was named "Student of the Year" for which I was very pleased and one year in ABR, I was named "Teacher of the Year" for which I was very shocked. ESL is much easier to teach that ABR, at least for me, because my ESL students were educated Asian women who just needed to learn the idiomatic and other language customs of English. However, ABR was so much different. Here, I was working with men and women who were functionally illiterate, trying to finally learn reading and comprehension skills but in a time frame which in most cases was just too late since other time commitments and faulty learning habits had intervened.

ESL was like teaching in a private school. We just sat around and they learned (I hope) from casual conversation. I had only two forest fires to handle in all the time I was with them: one was helping to get enrichment for the obviously immensely gifted 5-year old of one of the women (she brought in music he had composed, his drawings, his writings - it was astounding; but his K grade teacher was not responsive) and the other was lessening the tension between the majority of Korean women and the two brave Japanese women who joined us (do not believe the scars of WWII have not been inherited by younger generations.)

But the majority of time was spent explaining idiom, like the time one woman told us the story about her husband and his boyfriend. Other Korean women joined me as I explained to her that was probably not the best way to describe their social relationship.

Which brings me to my website picks:

I started with:

http://www.takeourword.com/

when I was checking out the idiom "costing an arm and a leg" but I stayed because this is a great site for explanations of idioms. It hasn't been updated since 2010; probably because the blog accompanying the site was hacked sometime in the last decade (bummer!) However, if you enjoy words and phrases and their origins you can't go wrong here. This is definitely a site dedicated to reading, a lot of reading for clicking links to words will take you to the section of the page where the word is but it won't be highlighted. But, hey, reading is good for you!

But my travels had only just begun with Take Our Word because after I got to their post-hacking blog (last updated in 2009), I clicked on Interesting Links and was taken to:

http://marthabarnette.com/ 

where a click on A Way with Words took me to a current radio show with Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett: (Talk about taking a web trip!)

 http://www.waywordradio.org/

And finally, I was home. This site has zillions of links you can click and then listen to Martha and Grant talk about words. They are both so listenable. Plus, if you also like to hear and read, each episode site has a page of accompanying information with even more links.

As you can see, my search for a website pick this week was more of a journey than a fast choice. But you can't go wrong clicking any of these sites; but you will be missing a lot if you don't listen to Martha and Grant's radio programs. Enjoy.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Movie Monday

Even I couldn't watch the only new movie in my movie package this week, Winnie the Pooh. The 209th viewing of The Sorcerer's Apprentice would be more bearable than that movie. However, I do have an unexpected guest reviewer this week, my husband, who watched all of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind while I slept (hey, it was a tough weekend.) 

His mini review: a very watchable movie. Moved along swiftly and reminded him of Slaughterhouse-Five with the protagonist traveling between worlds as is typical in sci-fi. Except in Confessions, protagonist (Chuck Barris, TV game show host by day and supposed CIA agent by night) does not travel to the distant planet, Tralfamadore, but perhaps to an invented world where he works as a secret agent.

Some slight background: Chuck Barris' claim to fame was as the host of the annoying amateur talent TV show, The Gong Show, The Dating Game, and also as promoter of similar ilk shows. But the real shocker in his life was the claim in his autobiography, titled same as the movie, that he was a CIA agent in the 1960s. This is a claim the CIA has always refuted and, with Barris' life as a promoter, one can't tell if this is reality or just another promotional gimmick.

Whatever the truth here (and when did truth ever matter in Hollywood?), the movie on Barris' double life was made into a 2002 movie with a great cast headed by Sam Rockwell. Rockwell is more your character actor than flashy star but if  you want to see good performances, you can't go wrong by watching a Rockwell movie. Beside Rockwell as Barris, this is one of the zanier cast ever assembled  with Matt Damon and and Brad Pitt as Bachelor # 1 and 2. And, let's not forget George Clooney, Drew Barrymore and Julia Roberts.

Clicking on the typical viewer reviews (as opposed to paid critics) in IMDb, I was surprised to see the sharp contrast between effusive praise for the movie and then utter condemnation which has convinced me I've got to watch this film and see for myself.

Finally, some short observations: I saw the second in the PBS Sherlock series, The Hounds of the Baskervilles last night. Not as good as last week's A Scandal in Belgravia (but then Lara Pulver ate the scenery in that one) but so much more professionally done than the much touted Starz' A Magic City. What is wrong with AMC?  It comes across as a bad soap opera and for all the crime, mayhem and suspense, I'm bored. As I said in an earlier blog, it reminds me of the shot of Charlie Chan walking out of a building. Dull. When I really examine Sherlock, I see the same "dull" transitional shots (all drama has to have some) but perhaps it's the accompanying music, or camera cuts or witty dialogue which pushes their potential dullness down. But AMC reminding me of one long Charlie Chan walk. Which is amazing because Miami (the magic city of the title) in the late 1950s and early 1960s was historically a rich drama laying there for the picking. After watching all the promotional mini-documentaries on A Magic City regarding the costumes, the cars, the music, I think they got mired into the minutiae and mistakenly thought that the trees were the forest.

 

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

 

Knitting Friday

 

The devil came to see me yesterday. He reads my blog, so he says, and started the conversation this way:

Devil: I read you're going to discuss hems tomorrow.

Me: Yes, I am.

De: (feeling the pink textured top I'm working on): Do you think you're ready for that? Do you think you gave enough of an explanation of binding off/casting on underarm stitches?

Me: (thinking) Think so.

De: But don't you think that casting on these stitches without getting holes needs a very good explanation? After all, this is a big "Help Me, Please" topic on Ravelry.

De: (continues because I'm thinking): You know this top you're working on would be a great teaching prop. Your yoke is lace but at the armhole you changed to stockinette. Showing how to remove holes in stockinette is pretty easy.

Me: (finished thinking and having an answer, I hold up the top) Yeah, but look, I'm five inches past the underarm. I'm not going to rip back to the underarm just to have a lesson!

OK, now the Devil is thinking, silently, and for some strange reason I start to detect whiffs of fire and brimstone.

De:  Hmmm. I guess you're right. Tinking back is a pain. OK, got to go....... Oh wait, what's that long thread where you bound off for the upper arm? It looks like you missed a stitch and it's unravelling. Gotta go. See 'ya.

 

And then I looked down and saw that for the first time in making over 50 of these tops, I had missed a stitch at the top of the armhole bind off and I was looking at a mess which was not going to be a simple fix.

 

So today, we are not going to have our hem demonstration  but a preventing-holes-at-the-armhole demonstration. And, I can honestly say, the devil made me do this!

 

Yoke ready for armholes

In the picture of the left, you see my typical top ready for armholes. I cast on 80 sts. then join and work about 1.5" in seed. Next row: *K front & back each st* across (160 sts) Change to US 10.5 and work about 5" in Row 1: *K* Row 2: *YO, K2tog*

 

On most of my tops, I would just continue in the above pattern after I work the armholes but I'm trying something different here. I'm going to start in straight stockinette for the body right after I bind off/cast on for the underarm. 

 

Now, as the devil just said, the armholes get tricky because, try as you might, you almost always create two holes. You don't get the holes when you bind off for the top of the armhole but, on the next row, when you cast on your underarm stitches. I have no pictures for the top bind off because that's pretty typical unless you pull your stitches too tightly. Bad idea.

Cast on for underarm

 

Here's how I do my underarm cast on row. I've already done the row where I work across the back (50 sts), bind off for one armhole (30 sts), work across the front (50), and bind off for the second armhole (30). I've just started the next row by working across the back stitches (50) and I've reached the first armhole gap. Here's what I do next (see picture right). 1. Flip the top to the wrong side. 2. Mark the first stitch on the needle (for counting purposes.) 3. Insert a crochet hook between the first and second stitch on the needle, pull through a loop (see r. pic above) and put that loop on my needle. 3. Pulling the first loop and the last loop tightly when I place them on the needle, I work #3 for the number of stitches I need. 4. Then I count my cast on stitches.

Some stitches cast on

All stitches cast on

On the left, you see my marker and a few of the stitches cast on.

On the right, you see the marker and all the stitches cast on. The armhole, except for the holes, is good to go.

Left below, you can see the dreaded hole. Now, while the yoke pattern has holes, you can see in this picture that I've already worked one body row in stockinette stitch and this hole (marked by the hook) is part of the underarm cast on stitches, not the yoke pattern. It doesn't belong!

The hole!

There are different ways to correct these holes and the most difficult is on an open pattern stitch since you don't want the hole fix to wonk-out the pattern. In that case, it may be best to find the loose hole stitches on the wrong side and gently, from the WS, pull them as taut as possible. You'll have a loop of yarn on the WS now which you can tack down with the same color sewing thread on that side.

 

Pin marks hole-fix new stitch

But the stockinette stitch is more forgiving.  Looking at this hole, above left, you can see a small horizontal bar just below the hole (and the hook.) Also, on the left side of the hole you can see three twisted stitches. What I did: 1. Using the crochet hook, I picked up the horizontal bar. 2. I separated the twisted stitch on the left and pulled the bar through one of them in stockinette fashion. 3. Then I put this new stitch on my needle. (This is  all easier if you work one row before you start the fix. It helps you see the hole and gives you more stitches to work with.)

 

Above right, you can see this new stitch marked with a pin. While there is a hole below the pin to the right, it's a yoke pattern hole. "The hole!" is gone. 

 

Keep that extra stitch marked so when you come across it on the next row, you would treat it as one with the next stitch and work them together (here I just K2tog) so your correct stitch count returns.

No more hole

And finally at the left is the top after working a few rows. You can see the hole is gone. Happy days!

Postscript: Well, not quite happy days. After working a few body rows in stockinette, I realized that you can't work a lace yoke and the stockinette body with the same size needles since the lace is so much looser. So, as I type, the pink top lays here tinked back to the neckband. I'm going to work it again with the lace yoke in US 9 and the body in US 10.5.

Next week: I've already started taking pictures of hems on sweaters. See you then. Happy knitting.

 

 

 

 

 

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

   

Website Wednesday

Just a few random U.S. political questions before I move on to some random website picks.

1. Will Mitt "the Mormon" Romney bring in the essential Republican Southern Baptist vote?

2. Can the Republicans achieve enough voter suppression (need to have I.D. to vote, etc.) in key states so that question #1 won't matter?

3. Has the Obama presidential strategy of "reaching across the aisle" widen his voter support base?

4. Since youth were energized for Obama in 2008 and if you consider drug legalization a youth issue, how will Obama's unrelenting pursuit of "illegal" drug enforcement (even banning medical marijuana) affect this support?

5. And finally, if exercise really does prolong life (see Huffington Post today) which means so many more years of dealing with Yahoos, should I just abandon hope and make the couch my home? 

Let's move on to my random picks today and, considering question #5, I'll start with this one:


http://swole.me/

where you plug in the calorie intake you want for the day and it gives you a menu with an option button (Generator Options, right side) for more menu choices. This menu can be divided into one to nine meals (though with "diet" calories, more than 4 meals seems useless) and each meal lists its nutritional value. You will not believe the horror I faced when I plugged in 1200 calories and, outside of plain veggies, fruit and cottage cheese, I got a cup of plain whole wheat pasta and 1/4 pound of sausage (1 link; and really not a good meat product.) So, after finding that out, I'm having a dish of plain fruit, a power bar (300 calories but 30 grams of protein) for breakfast, and a cup of no-fat plain Greek yogurt (140 calories and 22 grams of protein) over a thin layer of fresh peanut butter (100 calories?) on a popper (15 calories) for dinner. How depressing!

But this is a very good site, easy to use, informational, educational, and depressing (but in a good way!)

This site, I bookmarked for the girl:

http://webdemo.visionobjects.com/equation.html?locale=default

You write (and I mean "mouse" write not keyboard write) in an equation in the ample space provided and within seconds you get an answer with interesting facts about the answer. I see it as a two-fer. Math help and handwriting practice. Go take a look and bring your math book.

Finally, I'm really going off the reservation with this one:

http://gongtats.com/

and giving you a site which represents my soul - No, that's a "liar, liar pants on fire" statement but Ainars games is where I go to relax. A tiny bit of background: When the kids were newborn, I used to play Doom before dawn to relax. Now, for the infrequent times I'm alone in the car, I blast Credence Clearwater Revival. Hey, everyone has to relax; this is my yoga.

Ainars games are not the most challenging games out there (I like to play their Room Escape variety), those would be the mathematically-based Japanese language games. But with Ainars games, it's like opening the door and seeing a dear friend. I know the drill: you find the code papers, turn the switches, get the screwdriver for the hidden panels, the hammer for the cracks in the wall, the brush for the messages behind the dirt.......... OK, truth-time, even with such game familiarity, I still need the walk-through at times.

So, do take a look at my three picks today and be sure to play some games if you have the time. Which reminds me, Ainars has a new feature on its site today: a list of over 200 games, many of them room escape. Gotta go! Enjoy.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

 

Movie Monday

 

 This is newsletter prep day. We're getting so good at this that it took us 10 minutes to stuff the envelopes. But obviously those 10 minutes dulled my mind because I just realized I hadn't posted for Monday.

 

Before a movie review, a quick political observation. On Saturday, I heard, not saw, Obama's kick-off speech. I was about 30 feet away at the computer so I heard his cadence and determination, and the expected cheers but the words, not so much. The fervor, so similar to the 2008 Hope and Change  campaign made me think: Just what has happened in the almost 4-year Obama presidency? Or more specifically: Just what accomplishments can he run on? And I ran through a list, eliminated almost all as not being  liberal/progressive accomplishments (for example, national heath care without a public option is really business as usual) and came up with the one accomplishment he can definitely run on: Obama saved capitalism. As a liberal/progressive, that accomplishment fills me with no joy. But it did raise another question: Will he get any traction with this? And I think this, to quote the bard, is "the rub." Because I don't he will pick up one conservative vote with this accomplishment but I do think he may cause a substantial number of 2008 "true believers" to sit out the 2012 election. More thoughts on this another day.

 

Knockaround Guys was made in 2002 and stars Barry Pepper, Vin Diesel, Dennis Hopper, Seth Green, John Malkovich and others. It's part of my Verizon movie package (a slightly better package since last week because a new month kicked in) but it was a box office dud in 2002 with a total gross of less than $14M and a budget of $15M. It's a "guy" film; in fact, it was my husband who started watching it one late night but with all its violence and with its lack of CGI (a plus), there's still definitely something worth watching in this movie.

 

You have a typical crime family, dad, his trusted bookkeeper, his henchmen and a son who is kept out of the family business. Kept out of the family business but also out of every sort of business because his family name closes the door for him with any job he's applying for. Finally, dad gives him a simple task of retrieving some money, which, of course, develops into the movie plot; a plot which twists, turns and then with an unexpected death near the climax makes you realize that this movie has still more paths to take you down. 

 

The movie runs for 92 minutes and its brevity and excellent editing keep your interest. Writers/directors Brian Koppelman and David Levien skillfully add a moral twist to what, in lesser hands, would only be a superficial plot of blood, gore and guns.

I don't mean to sound evasive in my review but this movie should just be seen not verbiaged to death. This one was a surprise to me. See what you think.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

 

Knitting Friday - thinking out of the box

 

First of all, I want to thank everyone who reads my blog. It's so neat now that I can see the number of hits I get. It makes me want to be "better." It least it makes me want to improve my spelling and try to always write coherent sentences. Which is not always possible. You can't believe some of the stuff I edit (at least I hope I edit it correctly) before I post. I read somewhere that typing causes people to make some wacky wrong word choices while handwriting doesn't.That gives me some comfort.

 

Lately,  there has been a lot of trolling on Ravelry. Not political trolling but curmudgeon trolling; mean spirited personal attacks. We've had this on Ravely for a while. In fact, I think I have the distinction of closing down a forum. (A forum is a broad topic posting area like Knitting Supplies; a thread is a topic on a forum like Interchangeable Needles.) The OP (original poster) had asked if we had any experiences with autism and MMR and I thought: What the hell! I have had a real life experience. I'll post. The replies to this posting got so bad I was just about to post that I was no longer going to reply to this thread, I'd just read it when the moderator sent a posting that the thread and the entire forum (I think it was called something like Random Topics) was going to be closed.

 

I get that autism and MMRs is a hot-button topic, but now Ravelers just seem to take a dislike to pretty banal posting and lash into the poster. I think I've read more posting from  the moderators to behave in the last month than I have in the 4 years Ravelry has existed. (I do chuckle when a poster lauds a product because it's made in America. JHC! We're a world-wide group; Made in America is not a universal plus.)

 

I want to talk about "thinking out of the box" in knitting today. I really do try to do that but I'm pretty wimpy with my knitting designs. It's like I'm eating good quality ice cream but always in vanilla.  However, there was a period when I would take 20 different colors and meticulously work them into a sweater pattern. Now, I'm too lazy for that but I do want to share something I just started.

A little background: on the right is the afghan I was gifted by a neighbor. Her deceased sister hadn't finished it and she nor any of her family did needlecraft, so she told me to keep it or donate it as I wished. However, the minute I spread this out, I realized the professional work the sister had done and I knew it had to be returned to the family. I only had about 7 rows to complete (fortunately the sister left the pattern, yarn and hook with the afghan) which took me about a day to master and finish. In appreciation, my neighbor gave me a lot of her sister's needlecraft supplies. I now have dozens of needles and knitting supplies. Plus a very big counted cross stitch canvas. Also, I got over 50 skeins of embroidery thread; a lot of green and blue and a load of various shades. That last gift, the threads, had me stumped. People buy this thread for projects. If I donated to Goodwill it would probably sit in someone's house, never completely used or perhaps never used at all.

And that's when my little brain thought: I make summer shawls from fine crochet thread. Can I work the same with embroidery thread?

Embroidery Thread Shawl

 On the left, is what I've done so far. I'm making a simple: Make a  loop *Ch 5, 1 dc in loop* with 2 loops in each end loop each side, every row for increases with a D hook. I started only using hues of green but the "fox got in the hen house" because when you work late at night, blue can look like a shade of green (middle left.) So I'm making this a green/blue shawl. I'm thinking a big long shawl which I'll wear as a large scarf since there is no way to splice cotton and there is always a thickness where I joined the different skeins.

Tying the ends

Here's how I did my joining: Take the ends of the old and the new skein and put them together. At about 3" down from the ends make a knot. The picture on the right shows the knot on the left and the two skeins going off to the right.

Ends ready for crocheting

You can't work with the ends as they're pictured on the right so I wet them and then bring them down together (left picture) so they are part of one color (either the old or the new skein.) While the area is wet I try to "connect" all three threads so they lay flat when I work with them. Making my stitches a little looser (to accommodate three threads), I work the pattern as usual. If there are any stray threads, I use a sharp scissors to cut them. 

 

In many ways, I look at this as MacGyver project  (that is, using unusual objects to get desired results), but MacGyver's goal was always to save the world. My goal is really to add another not-that-necessary project to my knitting bag.

 

But I wanted to share because I think knitting/crocheting can develop such creative talent. You may be able to "run" with this prototype and get amazing results. Enjoy.

 

Next week: Sweater hems: boon or bane