Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Website Wednesday 

Until an hour ago, PSE&G (our electricity provider) was the center of my darkest thoughts. Then an hour ago, power was restored after 30+ hours and PSE&G is my BFF. 

OK, I've had worse hardships such as both flooding and no power. But this one pissed me off. We're a 14,000 home community and some houses got back on line after a few hours. I must not have been the only one shouting: Not Fair! because the police sent an e-mail saying all of the township was without power, even the police station, except for a few homes. That made us all feel so much better. Not!

But no more grousing because we dodged the bullet with flooding while some homes in NJ did have biblical-type damage done to them.

Which doesn't mean I'm not going to grouse about our inability in this country to get our infrastructure modernized so that such natural disasters are far less damaging. For example, DH was watching a show on Europe where the narrator said much of western Europe has no above ground electric wires. Then he went to a remote village in France via Google maps and sure enough there was a lonely road near a farm house touting a lit street lamp with no above ground wires going to it.

And here in the USA, the best country, ever, ever, ever, to grace a map, I could knit a scarf long enough to wrap the globe with all the above ground wiring we have. Above ground wiring which of course loves to crack and snap when hit with high winds and falling branches.

Wow! A long term government sponsored project to help prevent more billions of lost dollars when future natural disasters strike. (And strike they will.)  What a new idea, you say? Just travel around this country and look at some of the projects like the Hoover Dam, Lincoln Tunnel and Overseas Highway built as government public works during the 1930s Great Depression.

The NJ Gov, Chris Christie, is praising President Obama for his promise of federal help to our state. Which may be just good manners (Obama has really been "on top" of this disaster) or great political instincts. Romney didn't choose Christie for VP. If he had, Christie might eye the top job - Prez - in 8 years. As it stands now, if Romney gets in (No!, No!, NO!), Christie is looking at perhaps 16 years to fulfill his ambition (8 years of Romney; 8 years of Ryan -  No!, No!, NO!) However, if Obama wins, Christie has a chance in 2016, only 4 years away.

OK, on to websites: http://triggerpit.com/

The first one is pictures because I just can't help myself. The above page will take you to some fabulous pictures of natural scenes, beautiful horses, etc. And then go to Bansky's art:

http://triggerpit.com/2011/06/27/banksy-guerilla-art-wrapped-in-mystery-and-controversy-35-pic/

for some very worthwhile, thought-provoking graffiti art.

Triggerpit says of itself: Triggerpit.com is the result of our passion for photography and events that makes us go WOW. We will try to cover all that we find and consider grandiose, fascinating, uplifting or even sad. We will do our best to make you think “this is nuts” or “I didn’t know that”. We will also try and cover stories not so easily attained. Like give backstage imagery on moviemaking, concert preparation and other similar events. Among the areas we cover you’ll find: Science, Space Exploration, Nature, Environment, Urban, Urban Decay, Religious Events, Exotic Places, Entertainment and much more.

What's not to like? 

http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/ 

Shakespeare. But I'm a math and science person myself, you might say. (As the girl would say as she plods through world history.) But as I understand it, all you math and science geeks usually need at least one humanities course in both high school and college.

I'm not saying that you must scurry into a course on Shakespeare but take a long look at this site and you'll get a valuable understanding of how to read his sonnets, and more than that, you'll get an insight into how poems work.

I've lost track of all the times as an English major that I had to read, re-read, and then re-read again aloud to get any understanding of some poems. Don't get me started on the romantic poets!

This site will not be an easy read for many but do take a look. To quote Sam as he entreats Frodo to hold on above the boiling lava: Stretch!

See you next week.

Final note: Remember that $100 bet DH and I had on the hurricane? Well, we finally agreed on terms: I would win if the two town trees weathered the storm. Only one did so I see this as I owe him $50. However right now, I'm keeping a very low profile.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich 

Movie Monday - Lions for Lambs, the message movie

I bet DH $100 that Hurricane Sandy will not be as bad as predicted. Now we're trying to figure out just what we mean by "not as bad." I'm thinking that to mean NJ, or where we are in NJ, will not experience serious flooding or a long power outage. Of course, he's very forgetful because I don't think I pay up on these bets. Then, I don't think he does either, so we seem to break even.

I had my first storm mishap since DH also said: Be sure we have enough coffee if the power goes off. In the middle of the night (2 am) I awakened and got the coffee all ready to go so that when I awakened at 4 am all I had to do was push the switch............. and walk back into the kitchen area five minutes later to see coffee dripping down the sides of the pot onto the floor. Which made me think the filter had clogged as infrequently happens. But it was only my own stupidity since I had forgotten that when I shook the carafe at 2 am, I felt at least other cup still in it. Which, of course, was now dripping and pooling on the floor. Oh well!

I'm hoping no one gets seriously damaged during Sandy but shit happens with hurricanes, unfortunately.

The message movie. If you want to watch a refreshing, witty, message movie you can travel back to 1941 and watch Sullivan's Travels starring two competent, but lightweight actors, Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake who assisted by the direction and a screenplay by Preston Sturges, to use that hackneyed sport's metaphor: hits one right out of the park.

Sturges is known for his humorously witty satire, (Hail the Conquering Hero), but, in many of his classics, he's sending you his message, just not with a sledgehammer. 

Sullivan's Travels best shows this with the plot concerning a successful Hollywood director of fluff who wants to finally make his message film.  It's his travels that the title refers to and it ultimately becomes a philosophic journey of his soul. How dull does that sound? But it isn't. It has a Southern labor camp, a black pastor's church, a conniving ex-wife, Hollywood lackeys, and Mickey Mouse! And all the time you're watching, sharp dialogue is zinging past you.

Sullivan's Travels has an 8.2 rating out of 10 on IMDb and on Rotten Tomatoes its 100% approval with professional critics and 90% approval among us, mere mortals. So it looks like message films, done right, can be critically successful.

Which brings me to Lions for Lambs. Director and star, Robert Redford, was going for a response to the build-up to our illegal invasion of Iraq and our subsequent foray into Afghanistan. He minimalistically lays out three scenarios for the viewer and says: Well, what do you think?

These disparate, yet connected plots, in no order, are: Part I: Two poli-sci students in an elite college take their professor's urge to get committed to their world much too literally and enlist in the Army and are sent to Afghanistan for an ill-fated mission. Part II: A Republican senator, Tom Cruise, gives a long interview to an aging, but respected  reporter, Meryl Streep. because he wants her to favorably report on his new "war plan" which will probably propel him into the White House. Part III: The same professor from Part I, Robert Redford, is trying to inspire a brilliant, but lazy student (Andrew Garfield) to recommit to society. (Here, the story from the Part I is discussed.)

OK, so basically you have a movie about decisions, good and bad ones. The two students in Plot I are inspired by their professor (take a look at the 1930 All's Quiet on the Western Front for another professor who inspires his students into battle) to take an active role in society but you can see that Redford is appalled at the decision they make. Plot II with the Senator and the reporter, would have been a very good take on the fourth estate being pressed into carrying water for politicians' ambitions but I felt Streep was weak against the character Cruise plays so well: brash, assured, cocky. (In such a role, no one can out-Cruise, Cruise.) Streep plays a 57 year old reporter with a paper (or is it a TV show, can't remember, don't care) which is part of a conglomerate so the ratings Cruise's support will bring in for them are more important than journalistic integrity (she knows she's being used.) And finally, Plot III with Redford, Garfield and flashbacks. Why did I get the deja vu feeling of Redford and Brad Pitt in Spy Game? Possibly because Redford was playing the same mentor role, this time with Garfield.

 If you look back at the last paragraph, you can see a lot of promise there; but it just doesn't work. It doesn't work with message and it doesn't work with plot. Taking plot first; the movie just ends. It made me think: Wow! Now, I'm falling asleep without knowing it. A a quick internet search told me I didn't fall asleep; the movie does just end. So, I guess the director wanted to lay out the thematic points and then, treating us like adults, stepped back so we could mull them over.

And that's where you get into trouble with message movies because it's very tough to find the balance between message and tune-out boredom in such movies. It's easier with the written medium since there you can read, walk away, then come back to re-read and re-interpret. Not so with movies since the majority of them are one-shot viewings. You have to engage your audience from the get-go; no backsies.

Perhaps this task was just too large for Redford. He's a competent but rather pedestrian  director. Take a look at his directorial credits. They're solid films with good casts but never innovative, cutting edge. Even his directorial Oscar was for a good, "steady" film, Ordinary People, which probably got the hype more for Mary Tyler Moore playing against type than anything else.

But don't give up on message movies. Take a look at ones such as Sullivan's Travels, All's Quiet on the Western Front, Fail Safe, Dogville, Manderlay and Melancholia by von Trier, A History of Violence and Eastern Promises by Cronenberg, even The Americanization of Emily. This list is off the top of my head and I'm sure you can add to it.

Lions for Lambs has so much good material there. It just doesn't work. Of course, it brought in double its budget according to Box Office Mojo with the usual 75+% of this coming from foreign markets. Which to me is unusual this time since Lions for Lambs is basically a talking, non-action film and it's trying to hold the mirror of American policy up for Americans to evaluate; but it's other countries which are most  interested.

That's it for today. I hope I'll be blogging on Website Wednesday but Hurricane Sandy is holding all the cards right now. Back soon.........I hope. 

Postscript: Just before I could post this, our electricity went out two times. The storm is not even here; not even close. This could be a very long haul. 

  

 

 

 

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Knitting Friday

If the US Republicans keep spouting doctrines for the suppression of women (rape pregnancies are part of god's plan) I may implode/explode like Rumpelstiltskin of that, yet another, "women aren't worth much" fairy tale. If you remember, that queen who had to guess Rumpy's name or lose her first born to him, started her palace life as a poor girl who was placed in a room full of straw and told to spin it into gold by morning or else death awaited her.

So it's pretty natural in my present political state of mind, as I was rushing to finish a vest so I could take a picture for today, that I thought of that other suppressed woman fairy tale, The Swan Princess. As I remember it, an evil sorcerer turned her 12 brothers into swans and she had to knit 12 sweaters for them (probably out of magic thread) before they could become men again. The catch being, she couldn't talk while she did this. Of course, her beauty catches the eye of the king but his evil adviser poisons his mind against her by convincing him that with her silence, she must be a witch. (Notice the trend in the treatment of women? Helpless in the world of men. Truth be told, I never really thought about that when I read these tales but now...)

Anyway, she is led to the stake to be burned as a witch, still frantically knitting, when the 12 swans fly over and she throws the sweaters at them (This, I never understood.) so they are changed back to men and save her. And, the king decides he can marry her. Unfortunately, she didn't get to finish the last sleeve so her youngest brother kept one swan arm. I think he was pissed. The End.

And that's what I was thinking about yesterday, as I worked frantically on this:

#1 look at the bottom vest

Now, I never intended to work on this vest when I left you last Friday. In fact, I promised a shawl using different types of crochet stitches but that was a bust. I don't even remember how I came across the Birch vest:

 Pdf Birch Vest Kristin Omdahl - Knitting Daily

(I hope this link works since I can't link directly to a pdf. It's an Knitting Daily TV pdf freebie but a $5.50 purchase from Interweave. If you can't use the link, just google Birch Vest and scroll down a little to the url you see above.)

You may remember that I am on an eternal search for a V-neck, top-down top which needs no pick-up work for the V at the end. The Birch vest seems to be an answer. As you can see from my examples (the top cranberry one was my swatch) and from the original pattern, the yoke is crocheted. The original pattern continues on with crocheted lace for the body but I switched to knitted lace.

What I did was: After the last crocheted row (which includes the chaining for the underarm), I put the loop on the hook onto US 10 needles and picked up one stitch for every double crochet in the row, making sure the edges were straight by picking up a stitch in the ending chain 3 loop. At this point, the WS was facing me so I worked Row 1 of the pattern by purling across** decreasing 7 stitches evenly as I went for 100 stitches (this vest isn't supposed to meet in the body). Then I just kept working in pattern.

(** Always start and end each row with: Start: Slip 1 purl, K4 and End: K5. This is not in the pattern below.)

Row 1 and 3 WS: Purl

Row 2: *YO, K2tog*

Row 4: *K2tog, YO*

A couple of thoughts on the crocheted top. The pattern calls for double knit yarn which I consider one up from sport in weight but the yarn examples with the pattern on Ravelry show more fingering and sport weight. They recommend a G hook.

I used my concept of DK weight (one up from sport) and an I hook. I tried with a G hook but no way was this baby going to fit around my neck. In both the vests shown, I chained 42 to start. The only difference between the two is that on the bottom vest, I worked one row less of DC (Row 5) than I did on the top vest. As you can see, the bottom one is less wide.

Comments on Ravelry were pretty unanimous that it was tough to get stitch and row gauge on this vest. I didn't find that to be a problem but then I only worked two repeats of Row 5 (for my size, you were supposed to work 8 repeats of Row 5) so on the bottom vest, I only had 96 stitches on my last row when the pattern calls for 252 sts in my size. (That would have been huge!)

Of course, the beauty of crocheting is that ripping out stitches is a breeze. If you decide to change to knitting for the body as I did, be sure to work the row where you chain the stitches for the underarm. (called "Next row" after Row 5) because by doing this you will have no pesky underarm holes you get in knitting. (I chained 6 for this and then picked 6 stitches from them on the next row.)

Since I posted the brown vest above (which is in horrible feeling virgin wool - that sheep was no virgin!) I've decided to rip back to the crocheted section and join the body to make a pullover vest. I'm really unhappy with the wool and I want something better looking for a vest to wear over tops. I'm thinking Paton Classic Wool for this. For some reason, this vest is taking a long time to knit but I'll try to post a picture next week.

#2 A new stitch for me

As you know, I love to experiment with new stitches and on the left is my latest. It's only on Ravelry so I have to link this way: 

http://www.ravelry.com/

Then click Patterns and type in The Pearl Tower. It's free.

(If you don't belong to Ravelry, it really is time to join. If only to get the "Helpful Notes" under their many thousands of free patterns.)

I don't want to make the Pearl Tower scarf but I like the stitch which is a combination of adding extra loops to the needle before you knit into a stitch and then on the next row, dropping these extra stitches (you use groups of 4 stitches at a time) and then reworking the now-long stitches again to get the look above. I'm thinking about using this stitch for a yoke. More later.

Next week: I really didn't forget my promise to discuss what is working for me on my diet but then I remembered those fairy tales........... But next week, I promise.

Also, I'm exploring two possibilities for a) a short summer shawl which covers my shoulders and b) a circular vest which will do the same. I'll post those patterns next week.

Happy knitting till then.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Website Wednesday 

A friend of a friend went to a family bar mitzvah over the past weekend and disappointingly discovered that support for Obama isn't there this election because of the feeling that he is not a supporter of Israel. Needless to say, she is facing an angst-filled 13 days to the election. Hand holding will be needed.

But it's wrong to say that Obama is not a supporter of Israel since this support is pretty de facto in the US for every politician. However, it's probably true that there is no love lost between him and hard line neocon, Netanyahu.

Well, in less than two weeks we'll learn if the trend she observed is isolated or if the Democrats are going to lose a good portion of this traditional voting bloc. And, if other coalitions, like Hispanics, can fill any support void.

Silly me! I thought Obama acing two debates and Romney being shown up as an ignorant, dangerous fat cat would convince the American voter what choice they had to make.

Let's go here first today: 

http://twistedsifter.com/2012/10/top-75-pictures-of-the-day-for-2012/ 

What's not to like with a site which says of itself: The Sifter has two goals: 1. To be your trusted source for entertainment, education and wonder 2. Use big pictures whenever possible 

Every year, they post the 100 best pictures and this page shows 3/4 of them for 2012. No captions, just big pictures. There is sure is a lot of wonder here tough.

After you cruise all the pictures, be use to click along the top bar and don't miss The Shirk Report. What a neat compilation of pictures and articles. You won't be disappointed.

OK, just one more today because this one isn't a lightweight but it does start with a wacky homepage: 

http://englishhistory.net/ 

You have no problem reading this url and expecting something about English history.  But first you get a picture of "Valentino Rossi who is celebrating his win at Qatar (at) the first race of the 2010 MotoGP season." 

2010? Probably not a current website but then it doesn't have to be because just under Rossi's picture are links to two great English Romantic poets, Byron and Keats and a history of Tudor England. Now, these topics  are really "blasts from the past."

Full disclosure: Keats and Byron are not two poets on the top of my "must read" list (Edna St. Vincent Millay is there.) However, this site offers such a rich look into their lives (contemporary biographies, quotes from other greats, critical articles, their poems) that it should be read. If you have never studied this way before, you will get a glimpse of what was/is called a classical education. You don't have to like it, but this is a painless portal for you.

Both these sites are a labor of love for Marilee Hanson and she has done a great job. Who would not agree with Keats' assessment of poetry: 'The great beauty of Poetry is, that it makes every thing every place interesting ." 

But it was not the poets which interested me initially in this website; it was the history of Tudor England. Once again, the information was prepared by Marilee and she's done another excellent job. 

Unfortunately, in my teaching of history and now with the girl's assessment of her very difficult advanced World History course, I have always heard: I hate history. Which always makes me sad because I think the study of history is one of the more vibrant subjects to learn and teach.

Even it you are among the 99.999999% percent of the US population (I hope this only occurs in the US.) who despise learning history, take a look at this history of Tudor England. For starters, click on Questions but then move around for a fascinating read. You're get to see the rise of the powerful nation state as Henry VIII does the unthinkable  and breaks with the church of Rome. (He had been called the Defender of the Faith by the pope.) You'll read about the first, unsuccessful English queen, Mary I (who was the first queen by right, not marriage) and her wildly successful half-sister who followed her, Elizabeth I. (During her reign, the Spain was destroyed as a powerhouse.)

Too much history, you say? Well, then stick around for the soap opera of the six wives of Henry VIII. He divorced two, beheaded two, had one die on him and himself died on the watch of number six.  And don't miss clicking on the Tudor images. Be sure to take a look at the portraits of Anne Boleyn. Is that the same woman?

While this site is being updated and redesigned, so much is up for you to see now. OK, I'm going to say it: It's a treasure trove! 

Enjoy. See you next Wednesday.

(Final note: On the Tudor England Contents page, if you scroll down you will see: Visit the following sites. Only Tudorhistory.org is an active site here. Of the other three, two are defunct and one will try and give you a Trojan horse. However, Tudorhistory.org makes up for the problems with the other three.)

 

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

 

Movie Monday

 

I got sidetracked this morning because I started to crochet a winter hat. Which is probably a good idea, since last winter I knitted/crocheted the mother lode of warm hats and the winter was mild. And while I love cold winter weather, I worry about those who have to travel in it. I am such a worrier. My mom used to say I got my nightmares ready before I went to bed.

 

Which brings me to the US presidential election. This a real spooky one. I think I'm going to have trouble looking at many of my neighbors if Romney gets in without seeing them as uncaring bigots because the argument that Republicans are good for the economy doesn't wash this time since Obama's greatest achievement over the last four years is that he has saved American capitalism. I really only see this election as another four years in the decline of the country with Romney assuring us that our "fall from grace" will have a hard landing while under Obama, the landing would be softer.

 

However, I also believe that if the Republicans get in we will lose any hope of meaningful change for social and economic equality forever. Period. Never again. Nada. After this election, as the kids say in game playing, there will be no "do over."

 

On Friday, I was listening to NPR interview a NASCAR attendee. NPR informed us that while the NASCAR community is definitely going to vote Republican, they are not in love with Romney. And then a NASCAR interviewee said: Who creates jobs except the rich? Did you ever see a poor man create jobs? Why wouldn't I vote for someone who creates jobs?

 

And I thought: Wow, I'm listening to a medieval serf talking. Because those were probably serf thoughts as they tilled the lands outside the castle in order to garner some food for their families after they gave the bulk of it in payment to the lord of the manor. Thinking erroneously, as historians tell us, that when the barbarian hordes appeared over the hill, their feudal master would open the castle gates and give them protection.

 

Let's talk stage set talking movies this Monday because that's all I've got. As you know, I have been bemoaning the contents of my movie package for sooooo long. (We will be getting the dog of John Carter soon which made $30M more than its $250M production budget [Box Office MoJo] with 75% of that coming from foreign sales.)

 

Stage set talking movies have been around for a long time. In fact, that's how Hollywood started with speaking pictures, by taking stage stars and stage plays, putting usually rich people in rooms, adding some outside scenery and action and just filming. The plays of Noel Coward (Easy Living, Bittersweet, Private Lives, Design for Living, etc.) which became films are examples. 

 

It's a tough genre since with the wrong actors it can sound stagey and phony fast. That's what happens in Carnage (2011) where two sets of parents meet to discuss a violent incident concerning their sons (one bashed the other with a stick.) From the very beginning, I felt like someone was whispering in my ear: Wait for it. Wait for it. You knew from the get-go that these sophisticated parents were going to descend into feral behavior fast.  

 

You need very natural actors to handle talking scenes and scenes of talking do work. In fact, the talking scenes in A Dangerous Method were much better than the "action" ones. But stage set movies are tough on actors and while I liked Jodie Foster in The Silence of the Lamb, in Carnage she weighed down an already shallow plot. 

 

In varying degrees of unbelievability, I watched Kate Winslet, Christopher Waltz, Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly read their lines and hit their mark. Granted they didn't have much in plot or character development. Was director Polanski trying to revisit Who's Afraid of  Virginia Woolf? WAoVW came from an Edward Albee play, had real bite, two famous stars (Taylor and Burton) playing seriously against type, revelation and resolution. Not so with Carnage.

 

At IMDb, Carnage rated 7.2 but user critics there and professional critics at Rotten Tomatoes (those who gave it a rotten tomato) honed in on the fact that it just wasn't real. (Also, at IMDb, there was a long discussion of: "wanted to see this until i saw polanski directed", which is a topic for another day.)

 

If you like to watch and listen to people talking, grab My Dinner with Andre.  

 

See you next Monday. 

 

10,000 page views exactly!!!
 
Thank You! 

Thank You!

Thank You!

When I started this blog 4 years ago, I didn't know if I would even have one reader but I loved the concept of blogging. And then, I hit on the idea of website picks, movie reviews and knitting. Heaven!

Thanks for coming along for the ride.

See you again on Monday.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

 

Knitting Friday

 

A quick update on my diet: It's working. I'm in my second month now and I see results. I joke with my dentist that I'm going to publish a diet book to pay for my dental work (no insurance.) Maybe next Friday I'm get all my diet thoughts today and tell you what's working for me since I know I'm always interested in what's working for others.

 

I don't think that people awaken some mornings and mutter: I think I'll be a jerk today. But I must have yesterday. Pushkin, in The Queen of Spades ends his tale with main character, Hermann, (I can't call him a hero) betting on cards he only imagines he has in his hand. (He sees an ace, but it isn't there.)

 

#1 The imaginary mistake

I did the same yesterday with this sweater. You can see that it's lacking needles. That's because I had just counted the middle band of stockinette (just under the armhole) and found 6 rows instead of 5.  So I tinked back to there, removed one row of stockinette, started the lace section and discovered I now had only 4 rows of stockinette. Like Hermann, I had seen something that wasn't there.

 

Right now, my progress matches the picture again. It just took me all evening to get there. What a jerk!

 

Here's the pattern I'm using if you're interested. I'll just give you what I did for my size but, if you've been following Knitting Friday, you'll know how to modify for your size.

 

A Slight Variation on My Ubiquitous Top

US 8 needles and DK yarn (It's Paton Classic Wool, 2 skeins - 400+ yards)

1. CO 70 sts, join and work 1.5" in seed st. 

2. Next row: Double your stitches by Kfb each stitch across.Change to US 10.5 needles.

3. Start your pattern of two sections. 

Section 1: 

Row 1: *YO, K2tog*  

Row 2: *K* 

Work for 9 rows so you will be ending after a Row 1.

Section 2: 

Row 1 - 5: K

4. Continue working the pattern sections. You want to reach the bind-off row for the armhole just after Row 9 of Section 1 (*YO, K2tog*). So you may want to modify the number of rows in each section. Just be sure, Section 1 (the lace) is larger than Section 2.

4. At armhole: Using an elastic bind off (see KF, 9/21/12), work Row 1 of Section 2 by knitting across 40 front stitches, binding off 30 stitches for the underarm, knitting across 40 back stitches and binding off 30 stitches for the underarm.

5. On the next row, K across and at each armhole: CO 12 stitches. (104 stitches for the body)

6. Be sure to fix any holes you find at the underarms. (See KF from 9/21/12 for hints.)

7. Continue to work in pattern to length minus your bottom hem.

8, For the hem: you can bind off after Row 9 of Section 1 and add a crocheted hem. Or, change to US 8 needles and work a hem of twisted rib: *K1 back loop, P1* across.

That's it. Easy Peasy. Oh, and use a row counter in spite of the fact that this is a very easy pattern to count from the wrong side. Easy, that is, to everyone but me.

 

Not much else on the knitting front since I have four sweater works-in-progress (WIP) and, while new frontiers are calling, I do want to finish them.

 

One new frontier which is calling is: 

 

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/flared-shoulder-wrap 

 

It's a crocheted Flared Shoulder Wrap which starts a row with single crochet and you work across the row in different stitches. I'm very excited about this pattern and see a lot of variations. I'll report my progress (if any) next Friday.

 

Before I go for today, a housekeeping note: I use different computers when I write this blog and if you scroll through the postings you'll see that the font size changes, and changes, and changes........even though I use the same size font each time. So that a Normal font on this computer is a teeny-tiny one or a large font on another computer. This is not a WYSIWYG.

 

Hope this is not inconvenient for you to read. I really don't know how to fix this and, as you know, I shudder to make changes after a posting since everything else gets so wonky. Ah, the mysteries of the internet!

See you next Friday. Happy Knitting.