24 December 08
Tvåändsstickning
Which is to say, the Swedish way of knitting from two ends of the same yarn, making a think double stitch and solid fabric on which it is possible to construct raised designs with clever positioning of the two strands.
Bit like burning the candle at both ends, though in theory you get something at the end of it (unless you have to rip it apart, no longer able to deny to yourself that if you were to continue to knit these gloves, they’d be three sizes too large).
It’s all a bit like my life, really.
I have many holiday cards left unwritten, unsent — forgive me if you’re one of the recipients, at this point it may make it as a new year’s card; the stacks of things to do around here don’t seem to diminish on their own. And tomorrow I leave to see a dear internet-free friend for a few days, leaving the cats in the capable hands of Numenius, who looks set to do a scary amount of radio.
But a wonderful surprise, today: picking up a copy of George Johnson’s sumptuously designed new book, The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments, I found four illustrations of mine I’d done for him, last year, following my trip to the Santa Fe Science Writers Workshop. I know. It wasn’t writing, but it’s science…
Jennifer: I think this is pronounced tvo-end-stickning?
29 November 08
Second Pair of Socks
I’m getting the hang of turning a heel. I have now taught myself continental knitting, and purling (!), demonstrated to an accomplished continental knitter who said “you’re doing it.” Look out.
Ravelry (still in Beta!) continues to astonish and amaze. Over 200,000 participants, it’s a much larger community than Daily Kos. There are sub-groups (I now belong to, in no particular order, the ham radio Knitters, the thrifty knitters [why buy yarn when you can get a great sweater at the thrift store and frog it, or rip it up and knit it again?], the Terry Pratchett knitters, the birding knitters, composting knitters, the Patrick O’Brian knitters, the Continental knitters, plus the defaults I’m not sure whether to get rid of yet. There isn’t just one Linux knitting group: there’s general Linux and Ubuntu. There are numerous baseball knitting groups (the Red Sox one is predictably huge; the Giants one less so). There are no doubt hundreds of groups of fans of TV shows I’ve never heard of. No shortage of cat groups.
I’ve started entering my stash and needles and future projects (one of which is taking shape now, some fingerless bike commuting gloves for Numenius).
Jeez. I mean, who knew?
18 November 08
Ravelling
In other news, the warm weather we’re having is giving me lots of hope for the yellow beet seeds I put in on Sunday. I have no such hope for the carrot seeds I put in at the same time. Carrots are a bust. I found what grew out of the packet of seeds I dropped sometime over the summer — arugula? — and have put it next to the beet hopefuls.
We have bought a food mill and put a hopperful of cherry tomatoes through it. What emerged was pulp from one bit and seeds and skins from another. I made a slow-cooked tomato sauce, started in the solar cooker and reduced down on the stove. Yum.
20 October 08
A Day in San Francisco
As Numenius said, I had a wonderful day in San Francisco yesterday, hitting Open Studios, a cooking supply place in Japantown, Chloe’s cafe for lunch (see sketch), and the unbelievably fabulous Imagiknit in the Castro. An Irish customer in the shop explained to her friend she had spent months exploring all the yarn stores in San Francisco, and this was by far the best one, she should have started here; mostly, she said, because they were so helpful. (But also, I should add, because the place is like a dream palace of color and texture; it left me speechless.)
Yes, they were helpful. I haven’t done any knitting for over 20 years and I’ve never knit socks, but I have had the WORST hankering to do this. Kurt-the-helpful organized me with a beginner’s pattern and took me over to the fingering yarns. Then he sat me down to do a tension gauge. Hmm, he said. You were taught to knit by a Spanish person… (You have to picture this because I don’t have, and am not likely to provide, a photo: needle under my right arm, balanced on my right boob, and yes, my hands remembered what to do… fast. It’s a fast way to knit).
I ended up with some small bamboo needles for the socks. I can’t fit them under my arm and over my boob, alas. But I’ll just have to draw on my memory of English knitting (thumb under, rather than over, the needle). It’s slower for me but not excruciating, and the needles are lovely. The cats agree. Oh dear.