Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings
Tax the Rich

Website Wednesday

I get the true meaning of "bone tired" now and it's not a good bone tired like "Oh, I'm bone tired but did I get a lot accomplished today." but more like: "My bones ache getting into bed at night and still ache the next morning." But I am finding a lot of ways to make pasta so life still has some meaning. Putting Movie Monday on hiatus for a while is helping time-wise and I have been watching snip-its of Scoop (later Woody Allen) when I can, so all is not lost.

What is most surprising me is that for some wacky reason, I have no desire to write about politics. In fact, the crazy, greedy antics of so many of my species just bemuse me lately. I can't believe I have moved beyond the indignation towards the self-destructive, hypocritical nature of man. Maybe that's also only on hiatus, like Movie Monday. We'll see.

OK, maybe the indignation is not dead because you have to take a look at this:

http://www.castlesphotos.com/2013/02/the-hearst-castle/ 

This is San Simeon, the once private residence of William Randolph Heart (the Citizen Kane of that famous Welles movie) which is now part of the CA park system. What an unspeakable obscenity! As that late-great Ozymandias once intoned: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!

But there is joy in the world and nothing proclaims it like pictures of animals:

http://onebigphoto.com/category/animal-photography/page/2/

Be sure to click on individual animals for full screen pictures. 

I can't believe that I haven't linked to One Big Photo before; it's a treasure trove. And don't forget to go to its main site:

http://onebigphoto.com/ 

and scroll through all the Categories listed there.

And now for some "light" reading at Classic Reader:

http://www.classicreader.com/browse/1/title/ 

Well, I lied about the "light" part but this is an excellent site to bookmark. It contains scores of public domain books from assorted categories (how can categories not be assorted?), though I think the Young Readers choices may just draw hoots of laughter today. While there are many public domain book sites on the web, this one is special because the font is very readable and the books are divided into chapters, making for easy "pick up and put down" reading. I'm even thinking about starting Adam Bede by Eliot which is kind of spooky. You get your best selections in Fiction and Young Readers and the site hasn't been active since 2010. But, hey, public domain books have been "dead" a long time and they're still worth the read, or re-read. Take a look.

That's for today. See you next week.

 

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings
Tax the Rich 

Knitting Friday 

When I searched my soul for a reason to buy that alpaca lace (which was on sale, of course), I came up with the ridiculously great price reason, of course, but also I promised myself that I would start using all the lace wool I had and thus remove it from the yarn museum I was creating. Well, I first kept my promise with the claret-colored Shimmer Mesh shawl I made (pictures last Friday) but I discovered that this was really only on the edges of keeping my promise since Lion Brand lace is more light fingering and probably could have been used in a sweater. (Have more, so one can still be made.) But this week, I did start working with real lace; you know that fine yarn which is a bear to knit because of the patience, time and curse words it takes. I took out some Knit Picks blue-hued lace and thought I would start this project:

http://www.knitca.com/lace18 

which is a very pretty lace and you really don't have to use a cable needle for the 4-stitches right cable. However, reason intervened and I remembered I didn't have the two lifetimes needed to work up a knit lace shawl. So here's what I chose instead:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lacy-feather-and-fan-pattern

It's a crocheted feather and fan, very light and lacy. I only cast on 57, not the 76 stitches recommended (19x.) At 76 stitches, it looked too wide. The only "watch point" is the beginning and end of the single crochet rows. At the beginning of the row, you must be sure to recognize the first stitch from the previous row which you are skipping and, at the end, you must find the top of the chain you're going to need to make your last single crochet. Pictures and more on this next Friday. 

And now, on to some reading. Below is a Wikipedia website discussing the boyfriend sweater curse with some interesting theories as to why it “works.” The curse is: if you knit a sweater for your b-friend, the romance is doomed. You know the old cause and effect conundrum: I walked down the street of the bank and it got robbed right afterwards……… One explanation of the sweater curse which might have merit: you know the romance isn’t going well and you try to “cement” it with a handcrafted gift.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweater_curse

#2 Cotton sweater, underarm

#1 Cotton sweater, front view

As for knitting this week, my biggest knitting achievement was getting past the armholes on the black cotton sweater I’ve been knitting. It’s only a 2xs stitches + 1 pattern but you have to add stitches for the underarm so the lace pattern can’t be off even by one stitch. On the left is the front view and on the right is an armhole view of the sweater. I wound up creating a page of handwritten instructions on how to cast on the stitches at the armhole. Overkill, you say? Well yes, but I have missed lining up these simple patterns after the armhole cast-on so many times that time spent writing out instructions is worth it. Now, I just have to get up the energy to finish the thing. Summer is fast approaching.

Here’s the pattern I'm using again:

http://us.schachenmayr.com/patterns/short-sleeve-sweater-ajour-pattern

#3 The Rainbow Shawl

And finally: the Rainbow Shawl. Someone suggested that I  was knitting it for LGBT unity. That's not why I picked the yarn but it's as good a reason as any for wearing it. This is made from No. 10 crochet cotton and you can see the second ball of thread on the left so it's going to be a nice summer-sized shawl. Since it's not done yet so I won't post the pattern today. The inspiration came from Critron:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/critron

which I lamely started and posted last Friday (look at pics #1 and #2 there.) As you know, I decided to "abandon ship" on this project and cast on 78 stitches instead. What you see in pic #3 is a crescent shaped shawl which started with a chain of 78. I didn't know you could do that! I'm enjoying the colors in this project but the thread is slightly rough.

That's it for today. My goal next week is to finish at least one project. This will probably be the Rainbow Shawl or the black sweater. See you next Friday. Happy knitting.

 

 

  

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Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings
Tax the Rich

Website Wednesday

I'm finding that my days are getting into a routine and, although routine is a word I try to walk away from, the advantage is a lot of pockets of time for knitting. and reading Robert Caro's first volume of LBJ's biography, The Path to Power.  As you know, I hate the modern bio slant of "You Are There" with something like: Washington awakened to a cloudy, cold morning as he gazed across the river......... Caro replaces that phoney touch with "let me explain to you what it was like for the people in this biography to be in this certain place/time." (and I'll use primary sources as references.) He draws you into the story and the setting without that folksiness I so dislike. I've always enjoyed listening to Caro during his hours-long interviews on CSPAN; his writing does not disappoint either.

Off the wall, wacky, eclectic? I think my picks are different this week. You decide.

http://www.houseofturquoise.com/

The House of Turquoise! You must be thinking: Has this woman gone mad? But blogger, Erin, is obsessed with turquoise and I admire people with passions. It's an interior design site with the emphasis on all things in the turquoise-related color family. I used to tell the kids to look for the red in all paintings because almost all the time, you'll find it. Erin looks for the turquoise. I didn't realize that this color makes for "popping" accent pieces. I also didn't realize that I have a turquoise side chair in my house. A lot of pictures of pretty interiors, chatty posts and some pictures of dogs.

If you have a quirky or creative spin to your personality, take a look at:

http://dornob.com/

because you won't see a "flat-packed urinal composing straw bales for outdoor events" everyday. Be sure to look around this site for  many furnishings, household objects, and interior designs which will have you saying: Wow! or What a neat idea! I can do that.

Now, if you want to test your geography skills, go to:

 http://www.minijuegosgratis.com/juegos/hwdykyworld/hwdykyworld.html?c4e6=5d3c

The first test is easy: World Cities. You get to click on the area of the globe where you think the city is and they get to tell you how wrong you are.  When I failed this test (I was 1801km from Sydney, Australia) I hit "Done" and worked my way to this site:

http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/slideshow 

You can create your own trip slide show for this site or just click on the zillion of slideshows presented here for views from around the world without leaving the comforts of home and, no packing necessary.

OK, just fun at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/sheep/ 

You try to hit five sheep with tranquillizer darts before they escape. My score was Ambling Armadillo, not great. 

And finally:

http://gizmodo.com/

A lot of reading with Gizmodo but it's worth the time. Here are some examples of their topics: Texting People Who Leave Their Numbers Public Is Awful and Great and Cities Are the Future of Human Evolution. You won't be bored and, they have pictures.

That's it for today. See you next week.

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings
Tax the Rich 

Knitting Friday 

I'm really typing fast today because I started a crochet project (this might also work in knit but I haven't tried it yet) that is so exciting I can't wait to get back to it.

Some background: Remember my generic top pattern (I'll repost it again soon)? Well, that was inspired by the Mohair minimialist top:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mohair-minimalist-top

where, for the first time, I encountered a top which was knit top down without raglan shaping. For me, it was a "bells and whistles, penny-finally-falls-in-the-slot moment." Once I had that piece of the puzzle there was no stopping me and I wrote up my generic top-down top which I have been using ever since. (Oh, I am such a lazy knitter!)

I hope, the same inspiration is going to come from the Critron shawl, which is the crocheted version of the knitted Citron shawl first posted in Knitty.

Critron:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/critron

Citron:

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter09/PATTcitron.php

I started out thinking I would crochet a summer Critron shawl in crochet thread since the pattern's yarn choice was lace.  Here's my first attempt at the Critron (#1). 

#1 Criton, pretty lame

The only difference from the original pattern is that I used crochet thread, a J hook and I added a few more "resting" (no increases) rows. However, I got a bell shaped 5" X 6" blob which looks nothing like the top of a crescent shawl.

For my second attempt, I used double crochet (not the pattern's single crochet) and a J hook but that sample only looked bigger, not better. (#2)

#2 Critron, big and still lame

Then my brain got mad and I thought: What if I eliminate the entire set-up part before Section 1 and just start with the number of stitches on Row 7, 30? So I chained 30 stitches on an L hook, switched back to my J hook and worked one row of single crochet. Then I started working from Set-Up, Row 8. Very soon I got a nice curved shape but very soon I realized that 30 stitches were not going to fit around my neck. Then I cast on 54 stitches (Section 1, R1) and I came closer to my wrap-around-the-neck goal but not quite. At the moment, the project is in the frog pond but I'm going to start again with a chain of 78 stitches (Section 1, R. 15) and then work up my own pattern.

Like the Mohair minimalist pattern, I'm hoping that the Critron will be my starting point inspiration. As with MM, I learned something new from my Critron mistakes: You can chain just the right amount of stitches in crochet cotton thread to make the curved top shape of a crescent shawl. I don't think the Critron pattern meant to teach me this but that's the whole serendipitous nature of inspiration. The only problem right now is to discover just what number of stitches I have to cast on and just how I'm going to make the increases through the body of the shawl. More on this another Friday, I'm sure.

It took me almost a week but I finally broke down and used Lion Brand's free (over $35) shipping and half-price wool cone yarn sale to buy these (#3):

#3 What I needed, more wool

The picture on the LB website of the creme-colored wool (left in #3) is horrible. It was really a leap of faith with that purchase since the pic made it look like it had flecks of gray/black running through it. It doesn't. The cone on the right is charcoal gray.

But I really can't be blamed for being drawn to LB light fingering cone wool since I just finished this (#4):

#4 Shawl in LB cone wool

Which is a Lion Brand pattern done in claret colored LB cone wool. It was a dream working with this wool and I only stopped the shawl (or very wide scarf) because I got so bored with the simple 2-row pattern. Now, my decision is: Should I make the edging around the entire shawl? Here's a picture of the side and bottom edges (#5).

#5 Ends of the shawl

I'm favoring doing nothing. I think there's enough design throughout the body of the shawl that I don't need more icing on this cake. For any crocheters out there, here's the pattern I used again:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/shimmer-mesh-shawl-and-bag 

Scroll down for the shawl pattern. I don't know if I mentioned this last Friday, but all through the pattern I never remembered the beginnings and endings for these two rows. It was wacky because I always had to look at my cheat sheet to remember them. Talk about no retentive memory!

#6 Ajour ss sweater

The only other project on fire right now is the Anjour sweater pictured on the left (#6). Here's the link:

http://us.schachenmayr.com/patterns/short-sleeve-sweater-ajour-pattern     

I'm just using the lace design (not the sweater design) which has purls between the lace row and not knits. It gives you a raised design which I'm liking. 

That's it for today. The pictures took so long to load today that I managed to write this blog and chain 78 for my crescent shawl.

See you next week. Happy knitting.     

  

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings
Tax the Rich

 

Website Wednesday

 

I think I'll be suspending my Movie Mondays for a while since I really don't have the blocks of time needed to watch modern movies. I could probably get an hour of "sit down, quiet time" but the only feature films that run in that time frame are the 1930s and 1940s Hollywood B mysteries. You know, like the later Charlie Chans and the Warner Baxter Crime Doctor series (which really aren't that bad for their type.) I don't like to dismiss these old-time B mysteries because they were the mainstay of many actors on their way up and then on their way down. In the future, in quieter times, I would like to explore this early movie mystery craze. It doesn't exist anymore. (Nor does the movie western craze, but I'll leave that phenomena to a hardier soul.)

 

Things are settling into routinely hectic around here and everyone's schedule has been ever so slightly tweaked except mine; which has been spun 180 degrees. But you do what you have to do.

 

My first pick today carries on the adorable favorite possessions (toys) of children around the world theme from last week:

 

 http://www.foodmatters.tv/articles-1/what-the-world-eats-shocking-photos

 

You get to see food and the families which eat it from around the world. The explanation of the pictures is: Their portraits (from the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluision) feature pictures of each family with a week's worth of food purchases. We soon learn that diet is determined by largely uncontrollable forces like poverty, conflict and globalization, which can bring change with startling speed.

 

I wouldn't put such editorializing into this pictures (the url even mentions "shocking photos") but I would just learn from these photos what may be the ingredients for many countries' food lifestyle. Some really happy people are pictured here along with some interesting food. 

 

And now on to a more personal choice:

 

http://www.poemhunter.com/ 

 

In times of stress, I've always found solace in poetry. Not the "laugh and the world laughs with you" stuff but lines from people who must have walked the walk and have the words to communicate the pain. Poem Hunters has the usual molasses (one of the "hot poems" right now is If by Kipling. "if you can keep your head when all about you/Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;..... " but you also get Bukowski, Zephaniah, Dunbar, Millay, Rilke, Neruda (read "My Dog Has Died") and so many more. Well worth a bookmark and return visits.

 

I hear stirrings so just one more:

 

http://www.slightlywarped.com/crapfactory/curiosities/2013/march/rare_historical_photos.htm 

 

I think we may have seen a lot of these photos before in a previous pick but they're worth a revisit. And be sure to go to Slightly Warped's home page:

 

 http://www.slightlywarped.com/

 

There's a lot of good stuff here, including a tribute to Roger Ebert though I can't promise that everything here is safe for work.

 

Gotta run. See you next week.