Craaaaaaazy Yarn

Back on Chinese New Year, I was involved in some nutty spinning at Linda's shop. Please do check out the full description, complete with pictures, here at Mary Ellen's blog.

Basically, we all brought 3 oz of ready to spin fiber with us, not knowing what exactly would happen to it, only knowing Linda would provide another 3 for each of us so that we went home with 6. I had some idea that I would blend what I brought together with something of Linda's and bring the results home. boy are my ideas simple!

Instead, we combined all of it. Yes, ALL. We started layering our fiber (mostly dyed wool) across a big table. Once that was spread around, out came the surprise, a bag of the craziest items you ever did or didn't think to include in yarn. Stuff like silk waste, dyed cotton balls, angelina fiber, very fine wire, feathers, strips of fabric, bits of yarn--craziness. After that was spread around, we would add another layer of the more conventional wool and dyed locks, then another layer of "spinny bits" as Donna called the crazy stuff, then more wool, etc, until it looked more or less like this:At which point we had to get it off the table.
We rolled it up like a jelly roll, and then sliced the jelly roll into rounds, one for each spinner. The rounds didn't particularly hold together, not like a roving or anything so mundane, so I carried home a big paper bag of assorted fluff and nonsense, ready to figure out how to spin it. I spun by pulling handfuls out of the bag. I found it best to alternate between drafting what was between my hands and then letting go with my forward hand, so that the twist would travel back into the fiber supply, then draft again from there. Yes, I let the twist into the fiber supply. You've been told not to do that, haven't you? So have I. I usually don't. But I found it much more helpful to let the twist select the next combination of fibers to pull into the yarn. When I tried to draft more consistently (and conventionally) I was constantly pulling apart the unrelated bits of fluff in my hands and then having to join them back on to the yarn. It's not easy to join a piece of fabric, a bit of yarn, some wool, and a feather onto the already formed yarn while treadling and trying not to drop the rest of what's in your fiber supply hand. Since the actual roving was the easiest thing to join on, I kept grabbing more of it and not getting much of the other stuff in. That's when I realized that letting the twist travel up to grab it's own next batch of stuff, similar to a long draw, would best keep my yarn together and evenly select a bit of everything from the fiber in my hand. Spinning this stuff was not about making thin yarn, or making even yarn, it was back to that first day I learned to spin, it was just about making yarn: fiber that held together with twist. Holding together, that first and foremost goal, was my only goal. I ended up with this:
I had 6-8 oz. Too much for a hat, not nearly enough for a sweater, and frankly, I wasn't sure if I would ever wear it. I mean, I like color, and am not afraid to combine colors, but I do still like it if the finished piece has a describe-able palette. And I count "rainbow" as a palette.
I'm pleased just knowing that the yarn held up to being knitted. The finished project is a mobius scarf--the kind you knit on a circular needle starting in the middle and working toward the edge.* (Yes, not only does a mobius have only one side, it also has only one edge.) Mind boggling, but after making one like this, watching it form, I have an even deeper understanding of how the things work. (For those of you who didn't grow up with a science teacher father who encouraged you to play with mobius strips instead of toys there is a good explanation here and a video including some of the things Dad showed my brother and I that one could do with mobius strips here. Yes, we were raised to be dorks. I only wish I had thought to make the video. Dork!)
If I were to make this kind of yarn again (and it's intriguing enough and surprising enough that I probably will) there are a few thing I would do differently.
#1 I would start with some sort of a color pallet, however broad.
#2 I would ply it. I spun this one as a singles because it would have looked terrible plied, but it would have been much stronger if I had plied it against something else. Next time I'll try to ply against a sewing thread, so that the thread acts as a binder to stabilize the whole thing without losing the look of the singles.
#3 I felt that some of the "spinny bits" didn't add anything to the finished yarn, and/or were too difficult to work with to be worth using again. I loved the way the silk waste looked, and the angelina, and the wool locks, along with all the spinnable fibers we blended with, but I felt like the fabric and yarn bits didn't add anything and actually weakened the yarn in places. The cotton balls were just a pain without adding anything discernible to the texture. The feathers and metal are uncomfortable in the scarf and sometimes poke me.

I hear a rumor of an upcoming workshop to do the same thing, but only in natural fiber colors. I hope I'm in town for that workshop, it could make for some really beautiful yarn!

* The procedure was printed in a magazine a few years ago. I don't remember which one, and am away from my back issues at the moment, but I'm pretty sure it was either Spin Off or Interweave Knits.

**The cardigan I am wearing in Mary Ellen's process pictures is the one that had tea spilled on it during my flight and was then shat on by a bird during my first walk in DC. It came clean, no problem, and has been safe from calamity since then. Too bad I appear (at least from those pictures) to be outgrowing it.

Happy Easter!

Photo taken by my Dad on Rusty's 1st Easter--2004.

Drink Thief

This is what happens to unattended drinks at our house.

The little thief just had 3 more teeth pulled today. All he has left now is 4 incisors, 2 peg teeth, and one molar. The molar will be the last to go. Good thing Rusty's so tough--he recovers well.

Ups and Downs

Here is one more article about the situation at Studio Arena. I am not holding my breath.

In more pleasant news, I am enjoying my time at the Shakespeare here in DC. It's interesting whenever I get to a new place, to think through the pros and cons of life there. Of course, no city or situation is perfect, or perfectly horrible, so it's interesting to figure out which aspects of it's particular life are pluses, and which are minuses, especially compared to my home, or where I last came from.

I came here without my truck, having been told that there is no parking. So far, I don't miss the truck at all (and Rusty can really use all the bunny litter in the back that I've been using for extra weight in the snow). I'm in temporary housing until Wednesday, so right now, I have a 15-20 minute metro ride to work. The metro ride has afforded me almost an extra hour of knitting time every day. I am about to start the toe of the sock I cast on a week ago on the plane! I may not have packed enough knitting--only 3 more projects after this one. So metro knitting, definitely a plus. Not having a digital camera here (I've been using Chris's or my scanner) is a downer. How will I post pictures of the finished socks?!?!

Also on the plus side, there is a knitting store down the street from my costume shop. Minus--after a week of unemployment, I still have 2 weeks before getting my first paycheck, so I have not even touched the door of said yarn shop and only slightly fogged up their window.

The down side of using the metro is that fare cards are not perfect. My fare card, still with $10 credit, decided to crap out, which meant mailing it away for an alleged replacement and buying yet another one with dwindling unemployment money.

Also on the negative side, on the flight out here, after getting through security with a ticket bearing the wrong name (there's a reason they give you that marriage certificate!) I managed to dump a hot cup of tea all down the left side of myself, and the right side of the guy next to me. He looked displeased. Luckily, his smaller tea spots were on sort of tea colored pants, and had dried invisibly by the time we landed. After being driven to my current housing, I walked to the metro and rode it to the shop (to be sure I could find my way) and while walking a bird shat all down the right side of my poor, tea covered cardigan.*

Finally, the item that is both positive and negative--I am currently in temporary housing. I will have to move on Wednesday. Bad--living out of suitcases and trying not to buy too much food. There will probably be no Internet where I am moving too, which makes communication and audio book downloading difficult. Good--the new place is reputed to have a washer and dryer and the new place is 3 blocks from work, so no more paying for the metro on weekdays. Of course, that could also be bad, as I'll lose the metro knitting time.

So let's review:

Good
extra knitting time on the metro
knitting store down the street
washer and dryer in apartment
moving closer to work
free museums
gainfully employed

Bad
paying extra for busted metro card
no camera to photograph knitting
spilled tea
bird shit
soon no internet

And really, in another month to month and a half, I'll have to add cherry blossoms to the good side. Too bad I don't have a camera so I can post the pictures. Maybe after that first paycheck...

*Did I mention it was a hand washed, hand dyed, hand combed, hand spun, hand knit cardigan? Thank goodness my little travel bottle of shampoo washed out all of it's Monday adventures.

In Our Nation's Capitol

I've tried to contact friends and family, but for anyone who does not yet know, I have shuffled off from Buffalo and am spending the next two months in Washington DC.

I'm here because I'm out of work. How did this happen? There have been lots of rumors flying, but the straight story is this, on Tuesday February 12, the board of directors of Studio Arena Theatre voted to cancel the remainder of the season. After their meeting, the entire staff were informed and given letters stating that we had been "indefinitely terminated."* My last day was that Friday, February 15th. Others were terminated on the 18th, so that they could finish running the current show and strike it. Shamefully, the board of directors did not announce the cancellation to the ticket holders or the general public until February 25th, 13 days (nearly 2 weeks) later. The poor box office staff were told that if anyone asked for tickets to one of the last 2 shows, they should make an excuse, like a computer error, for why they couldn't sell those tickets at the moment. The articles that the Buffalo News have printed about all of this have been spotty at best. The News staff does not include anyone with a theatre education or a clear knowledge of professional theatre, and of course the Board has kept them in the dark as much as possible. There is a very good article in playbill that I would encourage you to read. It gives the current situation and a fairly accurate description of any future possibilities.

I am, of course, incredibly upset, not just at losing my job, but also because my home town has lost its only professional theatre. Most of Buffalo didn't know that was a possibility until it was too late. No one even had a chance to help. Most of Buffalo also has not idea what a regional theatre is, or why the other semi-professional, non-LORT theatres in town are, in fact, not professional theatres, no matter how good their shows are.

With no other professional theatre in town, there is no other draping job in Buffalo, so after a week of unemployment I started a temporary job at The Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC. Boy is it nice to be at a theatre that hasn't been failing for the past decade! I work in a spacious, well supplied shop with about 30 other people. We are building costumes for Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra, which will be performed in rep on one of their two stages. Both productions will use the same stage, and any characters that occur in both plays will be played by the same actor. There area also a number of minor characters, like senators and soldiers, who will be seen in both, so that the two plays almost function as act I and II of the same play.

Also here at the Shakespeare Theatre (which does more than just Shakespeare) is Mary Zimmerman's Argonautica, which I saw last night. I feel incredibly lucky to have the chance to see this production in one of the few theatres in the country at which it's playing. This is the benefit of being at a healthy theatre in a healthy city. Not only was it a great play, but my friend Lisa was the scenic charge artist who painted this set when the show began it's run at Berkley Rep where she works. She has some great pictures in this blog post. And some more about making the set here.

Please do click on the links and look at the really cool pictures of this version of the famous Argonaut story. Here's a quick photo to pique your interest.


I miss Chris, Christopher, and Rusty terribly, but I am having a good time here, and trying to really appreciate everything this theatre has to offer. I plan to get out and do some letterboxing tomorrow, and on Sunday attend my first Reconciling in Christ* Lutheran Church and accompany a couple of coworkers to some of the many museums this town has to offer. Oh, and did I mention that not only do I already have 2 good friends in the costume shop but have worked with 2 others at other theatres, and my friend Tessa will also be coming up from Buffalo to join us!

*I find nothing "indefinite" about termination.

**an affiliation among Lutheran churches designating full welcome to gay members, guests and clergy

Bunny Yawn!

Rabbit yawns are cute and highly difficult to capture on film. This is the only recording we have of one of Rusty's huge tiny yawns.

(Click on the arrow in the middle of the image to play this short video)

I Made Pasties

...both kinds. The edible one is a cheese pasty, a very tasty English pastry filled with cheese and very English sorts of veggies like turnips.

The wearable ones were made under the tutelage of a friend who has worn them professionally.

There's more to making them than one would have guessed. They're quite structural. I hand tatted the lace you see around the circumference of each.

Nostepinne: Fiber and Woodworking

I've done a little woodworking here and there, but none in a long while. I learned in my stagecraft class in college, as well as from my Dad, and do actually own a few pieced of furniture I've made none of which have fallen apart, even after more than ten years for some. My favorite tool from college is the lathe. My friend Matt makes lovely bowls and other objects with his, and my friend and co-worker Scott makes pretty much everything possible with the one in the scene shop at work. Scott gave me a much needed refresher course (much better than what I had learned in college, in fact) and helped me with my first bit of woodworking in a long time--a nostepinne.

When Scott asked what I wanted to make, the first explanation I gave him was "a fancy stick." An apt description, yes? This is an ingenious and very old Scandinavian tool for winding a perfect center pull ball of yarn. Mine is made out of tulip wood and includes my addition of a yarn gauge at the end of the handle.
It's hard to tell from the photo I snapped quickly at work, but that is a perfect little ball of yarn that looks like it came off a ball winder. and look at the beautiful grain on that wood! I have enough wood for a second nostepinne, so I am refining my design and will start another, maybe in January.

Does This Make My Ass Look Big?

Now and then, I get paid to make someone look fat. Contrary to what a few actresses may claim, that is not normally my goal, but about once a year I make some sort of padding for a show. Earlier this year I built a Pan costume with padded out haunches, and last year I got to pad men to look like corseted Victorian women for The Mystery of Irma Vep. This time around we're doing a Christmas show by A. R. Gurny called Indian Blood. One actress plays 3 of the minor characters, one of whom is described as "a Polish woman of ample proportion." The play is set in the 1940's, so I set out with the intention of creating a different and larger body for her that would give the impression of a large woman wearing a fairly firm foundation garment.

The right side of the photo will give you some sense of the size and shape of the actress before padding.

I started with a muslin base fitted to the actress, and then built onto it with filter foam (used in AC, air purification systems, etc). Because the filter foam is very open, it will dry quickly after washing.
I try to form padding in sections, partially to best mimic how flesh sits on the body, and partially to allow the padding to move with the wearer's body--so that they don't just look like they've stuffed pillows down their shirt!
I covered the padding with another layer of muslin, so it's a simple unit, easy to clean and wear, with a zipper up the back. In most cases I would make this cover in spandex to be smooth and skin-like, but in this case I wanted a firm woven cover to mimic a hearty undergarment. We did add spandex sleeves with a little padding to add just a little waddle to her otherwise too thin arm.

Finally I draped the actually costume over the padding. They are two pieces for the sake of laundry, but go on as one for the sake of the dresser. The actress, by the way, was thrilled to wear it! So gratifying for us, as some actresses have been made so insecure by years of auditions and agents that they might refuse to go on stage in a fat pad, or insist that the program note that they are padded and not actually fat. Hooray for the secure actresses!

Wedding Photos

The long awaited wedding photos are finally on Flickr. Six months after the wedding, we have picked out the photos of which we'd like prints, and have ordered them from the photographer. It was a big job to pick out just a few from so many. Maybe in a few more years we'll actually get a wedding album put together. Maybe I should go buy a wedding album as some sort of start towards that.

Anyway, here they are! These are a few of our favorites, but to see the whole batch, click here. I suggest using the "view slide show" option in the upper right if you want to view all of them.
This seems to be the best view of the infamous bunny stole.
Thank you to everyone who was able to come share our wedding day with us, especially folks who had to travel or rearrange their schedules to be there. We both really appreciated it.

Free Watch Cap Hat Pattern

I'm also posting this on Ravelry, but since not everyone is on it yet, here's a free hat pattern for the whole internet to enjoy. I try to do some charity knitting every year. From what I observed in my old guild and elsewhere, most charity knitting tends to be colorful and sized for small children. Some of the organizations that the knitting was donated to actually requested plain black hats for their male clients. So since nothing is worse than looking like you're wearing a charity hat, I present a pattern for a good warm charity hat that doesn't look like a charity hat, and can be worn by an adult man without embarrassment.

Charity Watch Cap by Erica Fire

Knit in the round in brioche stitch with 2 strands of superwash yarn held together. Having walked to work in Buffalo the past 3 winters, I can attest to wool being way warmer than acrylic, and given the circumstances many charity knitting recipients are in, machine washable is much more practical than expecting a single mom to hand wash all her kids' hats and mittens, or a man in a boarding house to find a sink to handwash in.

Yarn: knit holding 2 strands together of a good superwash wool. I've used lambspride super wash, Cleckheaton Country 8 ply, or Classic Elite's superwash. Use 3 balls.

Needles: size 8 16" circular needles and size 8 double point needles.

Gauge: 3 3/4 sts per inch in stockinette on size 8 needles, or size needed to obtain gauge. Be sure to check your gauge--I knit loose!

Sizing: small to fit head size 20 to 21 1/2. medium to fit head size 21 1/2 to 22 1/2. large to fit head size 22 1/2 to 24

Pattern Stitch:
Round 1: *p1, yo, sl 1 pwise wyib, rep from *.
Round 2: *yo, sl1 pwise wyib, k2 tog, rep from *
Round 3: *p2 tog, yo, sl1 pwise wyib, rep from *
Round 4: * yo, sl 1 pwise wyib, k2tog, rep from *
repeat rounds 3 & 4 for the rest of the piece.

*note As you get the hang of knitting brioche stitch you'll find that you can make the yarn over and the slip one immediately after it in one movement. You'll also find that knitting or purling these two together can be done in basically one movement. After a few rows, brioche becomes a fairly fast and easy stitch to knit.

Pattern: For s (m, l)
Cast on 52 (54, 56) sts. Join, being careful not to twist. Knit in pattern until hat measures 9-9 1/2 inches long. End after completing a round 4. Remember that you only knit rounds 1 and 2 after the cast on, and knit the rest of the piece alternating rounds 3 and 4.

Once hat is 9 -9 1/2" long (depending on how deep you'd like the turn up) begin decrease rounds after completing round 4.

Dec Round 1: *p2tog, k1, rep from * around.
round 2: *p1, k1 rep from * around

rounds 3-5: continue in p1, k1 rib
round 6: *p3 tog, k1, rep from * End p3 tog, k1 ([p1, k1], [p3 tog, k1])
(switch to dpn's when there are too few stitches to comfortably fit around circular needle.)
rounds 7-8: continue in p1, k1 rib
round 9: *p3 tog, k1, rep from * End p1, k1 ([p3 tog, k1], [p3 tog, k1])
round 10: continue in p1, k1 rib
round 11: *p3 tog, k1, rep from * End p1, k1 (all sizes)
round 12: cut yarn to about 12" long, thread through yarn needle, run through remaining sts on needles twice, draw them together, run yarn to inside, knot off and weave in end. Weave in beginning end and any other ends in hat. Wash, block lightly without flattening stitches, and wear or donate.

California Bird Rescue

My friend Lisa live is the San Francisco Bay area, and is a bird lover. She had volunteered at an area bird rescue organization a few years ago. She has been an amazing asset to them in the recent oil spill. She has been one of many volunteers making it possible to re-release cleaned and stabilized birds back into the wild. You can read about what she's been doing over the past week in her posts at her blog.

Fleece Study: The Long Wools and Novelty Locks

Remembering way back...I've been working on a fleece study over the past year where we use samples of wool from different breeds of sheep to learn about how they differ and how best to use each. We did the fine wools first, and now I've just finished the long wools. I started out spinning them all "plain vanilla" like I did with the fines. This was a fine approach for fine wools, as that's how I'm most likely to use them, but I got bored of spinning evenly and consistently and Navajo plying each sample. Luckily I remembered that many long wools are uniquely suited to making boucle. Why not use a sample as a chance to also learn new spinning techniques?

I found conflicting information among my books (and one video) on how to make a boucle. I tried at least two before it worked. The sample on the left shows my first rather awkward efforts. On the right is a much more successful sample of boucle. I spun a few of the long wools as boucle, but couldn't take it any more. Man is boucle a pain to make! The first plying step, where you make the loops, is very time consuming as you carefully push up one ply to make all those little loops. Now I know I'll probably never spin enough boucle for a sweater, although it would be a nice accent, maybe as collar and cuff. After a few boucles I took a class at the finger lakes fiber festival. It was on spinning dyed locks, which are usually either long wools or mohair. Perfect! My favorite technique learned was to incorporate a lock at a time into a two ply yarn by placing it between the strands while plying and letting the twist lock it in. I love the look of this yarn. Here's what I did in class:I'll be interested to see how something like this knits up, with a few thick fuzzy stitches every so often. I did a few study fleeces this way too, but they aren't as visually interesting because they're all one color. My favorite of the boucles, and possibly of all the long wools was the Wensleydale x Cotswold.
It's long and shiny and soft, but still has the right texture to curl into boucle. This I might make enough of for a little something, maybe a scarf. Also, I've been meaning to show my exciting new tool. I found this in Delhi, south of Cooperstown, when I was out there this summer.
It's a squirrel cage swift--like any swift it holds your skein of yarn while you wind it into a ball. The skein is held vertically and the cages turn while you unwind. It's so smooth, and it's beautiful to look at, and I got it for a song. Hooray! Makes me want to do nothing but wind balls of yarn, but I'll have a new tool for winding yarn balls to show off soon.

A Bit About Work

We've been going through stock recently and I came back across this dress. It was built for the character Mrs. Alving in Ibsen's ghosts, and is based on various dresses and research from 1880. As I do for most period costumes I build for the stage, this one started with the appropriate undergarments.

The design is by Ann Emo. Look at those gorgeous fabrics and how they work together.
I did the patterning and fitting. Both of us researched the time period, Ann from a visual and cultural point of view, me from a pattern and structural point of view.

I'm very pleased with the results.

In Praise of EggSalad

Here's what I know about computers: they are rectangular, or made of rectangular components, light comes from their screens, and they do not come with instruction books.

When there is a problem, I have no idea how to solve it. Let's face it, most of us pass computer troubleshooting information the same way we pass diet information: we tend to talk earnestly about what worked best for our hairdresser's nephew, or what Aunt Mary swears by. My computer has been getting slower and slower since I bought it, for no discernible reason. I talked with friends and got all kinds of theories, but none seemed to apply. Now, I realize that being 5 years old, this computer is extinct, but even so, I'm only using half the memory and just starting up, without running any programs, was taking forever. Honestly, my spinning wheel went faster.

Luckily for me, one of Chris's closest friends, let's call him EggSalad, is a generous soul with a doctorate in computer science. His suspicion was that I had some sort of malicious software like spyware, and his advice was to do a full system restore. Actually, his advice was to bring it to him to do a full system restore. I am thankful and relieved that he did because
a) it was nerve-wracking as all get out because it involved wiping everything off the computer, and then starting over with re-installing windows, and
b) it took long enough to wipe and reinstall everything (like all those bloody windows updates) that I had enough time to knit the foot of this sock:and we all went for sushi while it loaded stuff. EggSalad is now my hero. He wanted no money for this, and even offered to pay for our dinner because we had travelled an hour and a half to do this and it was my birthday. We didn't let him. Anyone else with his qualifications would have charged us approximately my week's pay.

Because of EggSalad, now when I start my computer it's like this

I can't believe the difference, it's like having a new computer. In a fit of excess, I also bought more RAM (not the intact male sheep, the kind of computer memory) so it's really really fast. Web pages now start loading with pictures, not 5 minutes before the pictures deign to show up. Now, every time I start the computer, that weird kid shows up and whispers, "zoom zoom."

Thanks EggSalad, you know who you are!

Fiber Festival!!!!!!!

This past weekend was my favorite of the year: The Finger Lakes Fiber Festival in Hemlock, New York. Stuff a girl needs to travel to a fiber fest?

1) Map

2) Audio book

3) Gift Certificate for one of the participating yarn shops. (Hooray for bridal shower gifts from astute friends!)

4) Knitting

5) Newly finished and first time worn woolen sweater, because Saturday was 10 degrees colder than any day in the previous or subsequent week.

This festival has everything, some of it twice, and all of it nice. Lots of beautiful yarn and equipment:

Winderwood Farm had lots of beautiful wooden equipment including wheels. Up on the shelf in back you can see a yarn reel and some lovely lazy kates.*

Goldings were there with their amazing carved wheels and spindles. Those are relief sheep's heads circling around that wheel and on the back of the chair.

The Bosworths were selling their ingenious book charkas and journey wheels. Incidental, I'm trying to convince Andras that he needs a charka. No, he doesn't spin, but he is a Buddhist, and recently purchased a ukulele, and somehow a charka just fits perfectly with that.

I saw and knitted on the current attempt to break the world's record for largest sock. The sock, like everyone else, has it's own blog.

Our fiber fest has the best fair food in the world. Tacos, salt potatoes, fresh squeezed lemonade, kettle corn, and the Artichokes French stand, which has 2 styles of artichokes and beans and greens. Their motto is that good food is neither fast or cheap, but it is good, and boy are they right.


There were great hooked rugs at some of the booths. I love that this sheep is swirly. I find the color choice in hooked rugs really compelling, as well as the way the color of the background often swirls around the foreground objects.

And best of all there were bunnies. This is a not yet full grown giant angora on the lap of the woman who created the breed. We had a great talk about bunnies and specifics of angora grooming, plus I got to pet all of her rabbits. Maybe Rusty needs a friend?

*Kate like Susan, was ingenious, which is never lazy.

A Great Loss for Beer Lovers

Michael Jackson (no not the pop singing freak) died on Thursday. Mr. Jackson was an expert on beers from around the world, especially traditional Belgian styles. He wrote the introduction to The Joy of Home Brewing as well as several of his own books. He helped bring about an interest in traditional beers from around the world in the 1970's that then spawned the American micro-brew movement and the reemergence of home brewing in the U.S. at the same time. He is indirectly responsible for my burning desire to go to Belgium. You can read one of many obituaries for Michael Jackson here.

Happy Birthday Ray Bradbury, You Old Goat!

Today is Ray Bradbury's 87th birthday. I've loved everything I've read by him, and Mr. Bradbury has the special distinction of having begun my love for audio books.

Several years ago Chris and I lived an hour and a half apart. We visited each other most weekends. One particular Friday night I was driving out to visit Chris and was especially tired of the NY State Thruway, especially the bit between exits 47 and 50. I was driving rather fast to get the trip over with as quickly as possible, which didn't work, since State Troopers like to really take their time when giving out speeding tickets. I'm pretty sure that's intentional.

I decided that the best way to take the same old trip more slowly was to make the trip itself more enjoyable, or at least interesting. Thus entered my first book on tape borrowed from the Rochester Public Library: a collection of Bradbury short stories. I had always sneered at books on tape as being "not really reading" and got a short story collection because it was just for the car, and just for 3 hours. What a great collection! Bradbury read it himself, and it was so compelling that what I didn't finish on the ride I brought into the house with me to finish reading right away--I couldn't wait until the next trip to finish it.

Of course I realize now that audio books are still reading. I'm still using my imagination, and the language centers of my brain, I'm just taking in the information auditorially instead of visually. If I was blind I would read either auditorially or through touch--both still count as reading. Also, I'm now back to reading two books a week, whereas previously in my post-college adult life it was more like 2 books a year. Now some nice person reads me a story while I cook, drive, clean, or the like, and I don't even need to make them a cup of tea.

More recently, my friend Bruce introduced me to an excellent science fiction pod cast: Escape Pod. Every week I download the podcast for free and again, some nice person reads me a short story and doesn't even ask for a sandwich in return. Escape pod is created and run completely by one guy who manages to post a story, complete with well thought out intro, every Thursday. I've been really impressed with the quality of the stories especially two recent ones by Nancy Kress*. There are very few I don't enjoy or get some good thought or mental stimulation from. Only a very small portion of those I don't care for could really be called bad stories. I think that's partially because a good short story has to have a good idea, no copping out on just following around a few well written characters for 200 pages. When it can be read in 30 minutes, there has to be a good idea and a decent plot, you can't get by on charm alone. Also, good science fiction or good speculative fiction has to have a strong underlying idea to work. Short science fiction is the best of both worlds.

I'm a little afraid that other short fiction pod casts won't measure up. Does anyone out there have others to suggest? I tried a few knitting pod casts and they almost killed me. I know that other folks like them, but the ones I tried were either so boring they reminded me of the Saturday night live episodes that spoof NPR, or they were frustrating because I had to listen to two people talk about their knitting that I couldn't see. Plus I don't like to listen to cackling on headphones.

So a huge thank you to Ray Bradbury for his excellent fiction. Something Wicked This Way Comes is one of the best discussions of good and evil I've ever read. I think he's put his finger on something that one of my other literary heroes, C. S. Lewis unfortunately missed when writing his Space trilogy: if you attempt to fight evil, evil has already won. That's what makes the ending of Jedi so great. Also, go out and get a hold of the animated Halloween special "The Halloween Tree," written by Ray Bradbury. It's sort of a "true meaning of Halloween" story that my pagan friends would love.

* Nancy Kress was sort of the terminal guest of honor at a science fiction convention that used to happen annually in Niagara Falls. I hadn't read any of her writing at the time, and was sort of negative about it being "oh, her again," every year, not realizing that she is a really great science fiction author who happens to live outside of Rochester. My apologize for my young ignorance, Nancy--I hope to run into you in the grocery store some day.

I Finished!

I've been home for a week and finally finished the last Harry Potter book today. People have been really good about not giving away anything in public and so on, so it was a real shock when Voldemort told Harry he was his father.

The Best and yet another Jayne hat

I had been warned that weddings can be stressful. Had been warned about the things that can go wrong, funny and not so funny. For Chris and I, this wasn't a big worry. Our goal was the same, our tastes are similar, and neither one of us can work ourselves up over the color of napkins, even if we tried. However, there were still loads of phone calls and schedules and logistics to get through, plus orchestrating the very specific ceremonies that happen around the actual wedding day. Early on (within a week of the proposal) we got to choose 2 people to keep track of us on that day. Two witnesses to the vows we made who will be more than willing to remind us what we promised, should we ever need reminding. I just finished reading an English novel in which they were referred to as "best man" and "best woman." I wish I had found that wording a few months ago before the bulletins were printed, as it's a better description than "maid of honor."

Lots of women choose a maid of honor who's good at throwing parties, or picking out clothes, or running down the groom. I picked the best woman who I wanted at my side on that day, who would keep me in the right mindset and keep me calm as we finished making table favors and ran around to rehearsals and such. She did not disappoint. For instance, getting to the rehearsal in rush hour traffic and going the wrong way on the highway (I was the driver) meant that I was half an hour late for my own wedding rehearsal. As we pulled in and I was freaking out over that fact, Lisa turned to me and said, "a bride is never late, nor is she early, she arrives precisely when she means to."
She also got me into the dress, explained the laws of crinolines to Aaron, packed the emergency kit, and wore something with a pocket in which she stowed a handkerchief that I believe the entire wedding party used. And she sent me a morbid bunny as a shower present.

Our best man was Chris's best friend from college. He was by far the best choice to make a speech at our wedding. I was really moved by what he said about us and our relationship. That all left me feeling really pleased that Chris had talked me into knitting him a thank you gift. Behold, yet another Jayne hat (from the too soon cancelled Firefly series) on the internet. There are several patterns already out there on the web, and Chris and I re watched the full episode, pausing every time the hat was on screen. Man, these new-fangled DVD thingys pause mighty purty. Too bad the show has dramatic moody lighting or we could have counted the stitches.
The hat was mailed to the roughest character on the ship, the one who may mutiny in any episode, by his mother, and no one has the nerve to tell him how silly it looks. It was a bit of a challenge in that it's intentionally made badly, so I had to copy the bad knitting. Not being able to help myself, I still did a "jogless join" where the stripe color changes, which is a good thing since I accidentally put the join in front when I added on the ear flaps. Andras loved it so much he brought it to the wedding and made it part of his speech. Phil loved it so much that he keeps trying to take it from Andras.

Chris packed the hat as it was packed in the episode, complete with a copy of the letter from Jayne's mother laying on top. Here it is in a still from the actual show, you can judge how close we got.

Thank you to both of our best!

Wedding Origami

No, there were no homicides on the honeymoon--we've just been a bit busy/out of touch. Chris is busy moving into our new apartment, and I started my summer job in Cooperstown immediately after our honeymoon. Since I don't have Internet access at my housing (or cell reception for that matter) I am out of touch as far as blogging goes. Now that I have battled the fancy new technology of an mp3 player, and come to some sort of truce, I can spend part of my once a week computer time on updating the blog. I loaded a bunch of pictures onto my computer a few days before the wedding, so the summer's posts from me are likely to be in the past tense.

Chris is still planning to post wedding photos, or a link to them, here on the blog when he gets a chance.

One of my contributions to the wedding was origami. I learned origami from my Dad as a kid. He did stuff like take apart the paper airplanes his students threw at him to figure out how they were folded. He also taught me the "water bomb" which he may have learned the same way. At some point my Aunt Stephanie gave me an origami book for Christmas. I loved it, but was too young to understand the directions, so when I wanted to fold something from it, Dad would follow the directions and fold it first, then teach me. I would fold it a few times to memorize it, since I could not yet read origami directions.

The wedding origami began with flowers. At least one of these is in the original origami book. I've collected a few more books and most of a calendar since then.


At this point I got concerned that the bouquet didn't look like much, and would just look like we cheaped-out on flowers. I also started to remember that flower arranging is not necessarily one of my skills. All that concern, however, was unfounded. I split these into two groups, my bouquet and my maid of dishonor's bouquet, and then began to spread them out and intersperse them with "leaves" cut from banana leaf paper.
As it turned out, less is more, which I should have realized when it comes to anything Japanese. I mean, that is their aesthetic, right? A week before the wedding, I remembered that the guys usually have boutonnieres, and a few days after that some memory of Mother's having corsages started poking in around the corners of my brain. By then I had help folding from Lisa, who was a great maid of dishonor who can pinch hit on stuff like origami flowers. She and Aaron and Derrick are all really good at tying up candied almonds in net squares, too.

Also seen at the wedding were this warren of rabbits, standing in for table favors:

See that little brown guy in the lower right? He had quite the adventure that night. I think the bright green guy on the left ended up a little sloshed too. They were on each table to declare that we decided a donation to the House Rabbit Society was way better than table favors. Rusty agreed.

Knitted Bust Dart Details

I am a big proponent of using visual information to describe something visual. Like if you need to communicate to a director what the costumes for his/her show are going to look like, a sketch is much more helpful than a verbal description, and will cause fewer tears and arguments at dress rehearsal.

Having somehow forgotten that, my last post went on and on about the bust dart I add to close fitting sweaters without ever showing you what it actually looks like. The idea took me a while to get my head around, as a sewn bust dart is subtractive, but the knitted dart is additive. In the interest of full disclosure and clarity, here, finally, are some pictures.

The dart is added by using short rows. beginning at the side seam, I knit across the front to the opposite side seam, wrap, and turn (when knitting in the round there isn't a seam, just a friendly neighborhood stitch marker). I continue knitting back and forth across the front, making each wrap and turn before I reach the last wrap and turn on that side. It's a little like a "common heal flap" in that way. You keep turning before you've gotten to the end of the row. The last pass goes only from bust point to bust point, after which I knit back across the whole row, knitting each wrap together with the stitch it wraps around, and continue knitting around the sweater as I had been doing before the dart.

In the diagram, the short rows are represented by the shaded area. The red line show the bust point to bust point distance, which would be between 7 and 9 inches for many women.
For me, a 1 inch high dart is perfect. Of course, how many rows this works out to depends on your gauge. The cotton top was knit at a fine gauge, so I worked the dart over 12 rows.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I only need to add this dart in close fitting sweaters. It's also not necessitated by bust size as much as by posture. I discovered that I might need to figure out how to knit a sweater with more distance down the front than the back after knitting my first close fitting sweater "blouse" from a pattern in one of my late 1940's knitting books. I put the finished sweater on and it looked like this: Note the bloop. When the deep waist level ribbing sat level just below my waist, there was extra fabric left in the back that blooped out rather unattractively all across the back until it petered out below the bust. I had to block the everliving crap out of the sweater to force the extra length to shrink up in the back and not poke out. Not the most elegant solution.

So how do you know if you might benefit from modifying your sweater pattern to include a bust dart? And how deep do you make it? Well, if you have the problem pictured above, you can gently pin out the bloop across the back, and then measure the depth of what you pinned out. That's the depth you need to add in front. If you'd like to figure this out without first knitting an entire sweater that doesn't fit, you can measure yourself as pictured below.

Tie a bit of yarn (preferably acrylic that you've had since childhood or was given to you as a well meaning but misguided gift--this is not a job on which to waste cashmere) around your waist. This is represented by the red line. Your waist is the smallest part of your trunk, and is probably much higher than you are currently wearing your pants, especially if you are under 30. The yarn should go there on it's own when you tie it. If not, adjust it. This is usually an inch or so above your navel.

Now that you've discovered your waist, stand as you normally stand, and have someone measure from the top of your shoulder where the sweater's shoulder seam would be, down over your bust to the waist yarn. (Which is also waste yarn.) Then have them measure from the same point on your shoulder down your back to the waist yarn. The blue line shows these measurements; the notch at the top is your starting point for each. If these measurements are less than an inch different, you're probably fine and don't need to add a dart. If the front measurement is an inch or more longer than the back, you may want to add a dart that is as deep as the front is longer than the back. If you get a difference of more than two inches, and would not consider yourself buxom, you may want to remeasure and make sure that you are really at the top of your shoulder, and not shifted back slightly.

Luckily for all of us, knitting is stretchy and therefore a much less exact science than sewing. When all else fails, knitting can almost always be unravelled, refigured, and reknit. Feel free to experiment with this dart and let me know if you do and how it comes out--I'll use your findings when I write out the pattern some time in the next few months.