Author: BeverlyArmyWilliams

Do or Dye

Img_0790 "Wound Too Tight" is the name of this bright and black yarn.  Scout showed me how to use the warp board, then set me to it.  I apparently have tension issues (her Superboy can tell you about ISSUES–trust me!) even when winding a warp board–one of the screw thingies popped out from my winding so tight!  I went a little nutty with color; next time I want to try a more monochrome colorway.

Img_0792 I’m calling this one "Institution" because it reminds me of the colorways I’ve seen in schools and hospitals.  Maybe not complimentary, but hey, a girl has to get a laugh somehow, right?

My favorite TN LYS owner Sheila had a raucous good time with Kay and Ann at the Mason Dixon book signing last night.  Be sure to look at the pictures–looks like there is some Euroflax in Threaded Bliss’s future!  And as if I didn’t already adore Sheila enough, she’s won my heart even more; she’s sending me a leftover Whoopie pie.  Ok, let’s see who else adores whoopie pies: Cari?  Liz?  I assume they’re a regional food, the way Fluff (which, by the way, is amazing as a hot chocolate topper) is, hard to find outside of New England…kind of how it’s going to be impossible for me to find green chile once I leave NM. Ok.  I just got sad. 

I’ll finish with a happy note.  Neal, while walking to his car in Hartford, ran into Hilton Armstrong (isn’t he adorable?).  He reports that Hilton has a good grip (they shook hands), that Hilton’s hands are calloused, that he’s REALLY tall and his head looks just as tiny as it does on tv, and that Hilton remarked "Cool, man" when Neal told him that his girlfriend (me!) was from Peekskill.  Now, if I could manage to meet Charlie…

Practically Perfect Friday Night

I love wireless Internet.  Among the many things I’ve learned from Scout is how to use the wireless capability on Phineas.  Here’s how the night has shaped up for me:  I hunkered down under my covers in bed at about 9:30, skipping the homework and housecleaning I ought to have done.  I used my wireless Internet to search yet again for different sock heel instructions.  Since I’m sort of winging my Sockapaloooza socks, I’ve had a time of it deciding what heel to use.  I’ve decided on the Eye of the Partridge heel.  Since I cast on 44 stitches for each sock, here’s the pattern:

Row 1:Sl 1 purlwise, *k1, sl1 knitwise; repeat* until last stitch, k1

Row 2:  Sl1 purlwise, p19,k1    

Row3: Sl2 purlwise, *k1, sl1 knitwise; repeat* until last 2 stitches,k2 

Row 4: Sl1 purlwise, p19,k1

I’ll have another challenge when it comes time to turn the heel and work the gusset, but I won’t think about it now.  Any tips?  I’d love to hear whatever advice you have.

Part of what is making this such a lovely night (besides actually being in bed before midnight) are podcasts.  I’m listening to a brand new one, Craftlit, created by Heather from Croton-on-Hudson, New York, one of my old stomping grounds (Oh, how I miss you Black Cow).  Here is a list of all the Podcasts I suscribe to–let me know if there are others I shouldn’t miss, ok?   Cast-on, Craft Borg, Craft Lit, It’s a Purl, Man, KnitCast, NPR: All Songs Considered, and Stitch Cast.   

I’ve been knitting and listening to Brenda and Heather share their thoughts and some music.  And through Heather, I discovered this great free audio books site.  Once I’m settled in CT, I’m going to volunteer for them.  I love to read out loud, so why not share the pleasure of books and knitting?

I got an e-mail from Sooz that a special project she’s been working on for me is almost ready.  It’s going to be dam good to get it.  That’s a hint. 

Tomorrow I’ll post pictures of the yarn I dyed at Scout’s house on Monday.  I wanted to learn because I’ve joined Dye-o-rama.  Did you?

Yup, almost a perfect night.  Just need Neal and the mutts nearby to make it just right.

                     

I am a Witness

My dear friend Linda Jean Fisher is a visual artist working in Peekskill, New York, where I also lived before I moved to NM.  Linda Jean (or LJO–Linda Jean Oppenheimer) works on volume projects of late; for a period, I had the delight of receiving an image of her Daily Bread in my e-mail almost every day. There are other volume projects, but one in particular that makes me proud to be LJO’s friend and witness.

Not too long ago, LJO began a new volume project, one that I have waited until Easter Sunday to talk about, one that I think is a testament to the effect that an individual can have–a positive effect.  LJO is, in her very special, very labor-intensive way, commemorating the lives lost in the Holocaust.   Here is the story of how she first thought of the project, in her words:

“On Saturday, 25 June 2005 I was working at my job as a custom picture framer.  After I eat a meal, I must thoroughly clean my teeth because of conditions that exist in my mouth that are conducive to accelerated tooth decay.  During this nine-minute forty-second process, I may think about various art projects I’m working on or come up with ideas for new ones. On this particular afternoon, I asked myself the following three questions:  “What is enough?  Will I ever feel like I’ve done enough work?  What is too much?  Within seconds this inquiry brought back a brief conversation from the year 2001.  I was on my way to see a performance by the singer/songwriter Dan Bern with my friends Beverly and Fred.  We were all discussing the prophetic content of Dan Bern’s lyrics.  Beverly added, “He’s even referenced the number six million in several songs” and cited this verse from “Ballerina”:   

Every day I seem to fire

Three more people

And every time I do

Eleven more show up

I can’t fire ’em fast enough

If right now I fired every one I knew

I’d have 6 million employees by Christmas

Six million. 

I asked "Why does Dan Bern single out the number six million?”  When she told me what story in history was behind this figure, I felt ashamed that I was thirty-six years old and didn’t know how many Jews were killed during The Holocaust.  The recollection of this experience answered my third question.  The six million Jews killed during The Holocaust define too much. 

With that, a work of art began moving from the back of my mind to the front.  If I could represent each person with “a something,” what would that be?  I thought for a moment and recalled the time I spent in Hull, Massachusetts visiting my Uncle Joe in 1997.  He had been a reconnaissance photographer during World War II and was one of the soldiers who liberated Dachau concentration camp near Munich.  It was an experience that he had never talked about, so I was hearing his account for the first time.  He said that after the troops penetrated the gates, he frantically moved from building to building, taking pictures, and collecting documents.  Then he showed me a palm-sized identification card for an Italian seamstress.  He gently put it into my hand and I carefully examined it.  It included her photo, personal information, and a single fingerprint.  At that instant I got the answer I was looking for:  I would represent the six million Jews killed during The Holocaust with six million fingerprints.”

Right_forefinger_dated_4_10_06_and_4_13_ Stop.  Reread that if you need to.  Let the chill pass through you.  There are so many things in this world that need a witness, and I’m proud to be one for Linda Jean Fisher, along with a group of selected friends, people LJO trusts to look, each time we get our e-mail from her with the record, to pray, too.  My prayer is for the souls of those sacrificed to an idea.  I also pray for LJO’s right index finger, Superhero, that she may survive without too much damage. 

LJO wants the viewer to remember the value of numbers over one.  Simple enough, but when you think of the number of Jews killed during World War II, the number of humans killed in Vietnam, the number of people killed in our War on Terror, does the number register?  Sometimes for me, those numbers do not.  Thank God for artists, thank God for Linda Jean Fisher, for Dan Bern, for Jackson Pollack, for Charles Dickens.  Thank God for every person who has decided that the very least he or she can do is to be a witness.  To struggle to find a way to communicate what is being

witnessed, to make sure that there is a record, an effort to change things, even if it by heightening awareness.  Sometimes that is all that can be done.  Or maybe sometimes that is what an individual is able to do best.

Here is the most recent statistic of the number of fingerprints LJO has imprinted onto the grids that she designed for the project:

16 April 2006

459-473

15 Grids

1800 Fingerprints

360 + 1440 + 1800 = 3600

53040 + 3600 = 56640 Fingerprints

"father, son, holy spirit, re-ink

Notes to Self…

1.  When you join groups such as Use What You Have, avoid going to Village Wools where you will inevitably buy more stuff to have in order to use.

2.  Koigu and Silky Wool are two great yarns that add up to a desire for the Shadow Shawl.  Especially when influenced by evil temptresses.

2.  Two Socks on Two Circs are made easier when Laurie is around to fix your mistakes.

3.  Also easier when using Addis.  Better joins means smoother knitting.

4.  Marking both ends of one of the Addis makes it easier to know what needle to pick up for knitting.

5.  Nailpolish is the perfect marking medium on Addis. 

April is National Poetry Month

You probably know that.  I thought I’d share a poem I like quite a lot.  Seems that people are divided about D.H. Lawrence.  I was once given a scholarship by an elderly wealthy New York gentleman who was horrified when I told him that not only was I reading Lawrence, but I was enjoying him!  It took me a while to warm up to Lawrence, but now, I’ll be frank, all that swooning makes me want to swoon.  Here is "Snake" and some pictures from the Ranch in Taos.Img_0396 

 Img_0398_1Img_0399

Vertical Look at My Birthday

One of the ways I’ve learned to look at writing, at stories, is to imagine them as both horizontal and vertical.  Personal essays, for instance, tend to the vertical–an examination of a subject from a variety of levels up and down along a plane.  So when I saw this meme on Creative Little Daisy, I thought, yes, that suits me right now.   Here’s the deal.  Go to Wikipedia and do a search for your birthday, month and day, sans year.  Pick three events, three births, three deaths, and list them.  Consider yourself tagged if you read PoMo Golightly!  Here are a few tidbits from 9 February:

Events:

1775 – American Revolutionary War: British Parliament declares Massachusetts in rebellion.

1964 – The Beatles make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show

1969 – First test flight of the Boeing 747

Births:

1404 – Constantine XI, last Byzantine Emperor (d. 1453)

1960 – Holly Johnson, British singer (Frankie Goes To Hollywood)

1952 – Mookie Wilson, baseball player (and fellow alum of my alma mater)

Deaths

1450 – Agnès Sorel, mistress of King Charles VII of France (b. 1421)

1881 – Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist (b. 1821)

1955 – Albert Einstein, American, Swiss physicist, (b. 1879)

Scout in the House

My girly Scout is on one of my favorite sites.  I’ve learned more from reading Whip Up than almost any other online source.  If you’ve been thinking about making your own yarn colorways, you won’t want to miss her tutorial or the warp board directions (I’ve sent the link to Neal.  I hope he’s in the basement getting busy with my warp board!).

Right after I posted yesterday I saw that the Spring Knitty is up.  I spent some time admiring everything, and now I’ll share my faves with you.  Only if you promise to tell me what yours are.  Ok.  Cross your heart?  Let’s go, then.  Knitty_pedi_socks

Even though I only get about one pedicure a season, I adore these pedicure socks. I may make them for holiday gifts, I like them that much. 

Knitty_shrug  The Convertible reminds me a lot of a pattern I got for free at my favorite TN LYS.  I made two feather and fan convertible shrugs for gifts last year, and I had a hard time giving them up. I do like the closures better on this pattern, though, so I will probably give it a try at some point.  Maybe for me.

You promised you’d tell me what you want to make out of Knitty…or at least what you like best.  I’m waiting.

Lotsa Color and 2 x 2 Rocks My World

Which do you want first: knitting or yarn p*rn.  Yeah, I thought so. 

Img_0783 Two skeins from Brooklyn Handspun yarns in Forest Floor (r) and the ever-popular Chocolate Covered Cherries(l).  Aren’t the colors great?  One is a gifty, but the other will join my ever-expanding sock yarn stash.

Img_0785 Some Mama-E goodness.  From left, PoMo (SO pretty, but hey, I might be a little biased), Mermaids (preppy spring goodness), and the skein I won in Mama’s contest, Lollygirl, named after the lovely founder of Project Spectrum.  I just checked, and there are six spaces left in the Mama-E Project Spectrum Club.  Did you get a load of May’s yarn?

I was a little sad yesterday as I was supposed to be taking a mini-vacation today, but had to cancel due to too much schoolwork.  Getting pretty yarn in the mail helped to cheer me up.  And I’ve worked hard all day and made good progress on said schoolwork.  So even though it stinks, I’m glad I stayed home.

Now for a little knitting content.  I hosted Crafty Friday earlier in the weekend.  Yeah, it was on Friday.  You get the picture.  And lucky for me, Laurie was there to help me get my two socks on two circulars going.  She’d helped me to cast on at SnB on Tuesday, but I was pretty tangled up until Img_0787_3 Friday. I can’t tell you how proud I am to be knitting 2×2!  These are my Sockapaloooza socks, for which I’ve changed yarn and patterns way more times than I ought to have.  I’m settled now on something I think will look nice and that I can finish in the next few weeks.  To sweeten the deal, I’m going to send the yarn I had thought of using to my Sockee.  She knits beautiful socks, and I’m excited to see what she makes from the Chlorphyll yarn I bought from Celia.

In other Crafty Friday news, Chad came and worked on his quilt (when he wasn’t playing Napoleon Dynamite), Dana worked on her cross stitch baby blanket, Jennifer (who learned to knit at the first Crafty Friday) is cooking on her scarf.  Her stitches are perfect!  Liz is making the gauntlets from Alterknits–beautiful in a pale pink Manos, and her charming husband Trevor taught himself stranded knitting (I think I have the right name for it) and had lots of thoughts about felting and how to play with colors.  Lauren finished up handmitts (which fit me PERFECTLY, but I gave them back), Cari cooked on her cotton Hourglass Sweater from LMKG.  Carmela worked on a new scarf on HUGE needles, and I’m not sure what Jeannie worked on…she seemed to spend a lot of time helping the rest of us out!  Noelle, ever the generous sweetie, had a wonderful orange roving that she spun, and that she let everyone who wanted to do so, spin.  Then, as she left, she handed me the bobbin and gifted the yarn to me.  I forgot to take a picture, but it goes well with the yarn that I purchased for the Loop-d-loop paisley bag. 

Yesterday I returned a boatload a cone of pink mohair to Village Wools.  I bought it with a project in mind, but that project wants a different (black) yarn. Yes, I want to make that wrap, and as Cari noted, I will get kicked out of the East Coast if I wear anything other than black. While there, I saw Scout and her dyeing board.  Go look at her blog to see the cool stuff she’s doing.  She’s not selling it, so don’t get your hopes up (but try to change her mind, ok?).  I was tickled when she introduced me as "PoMo" to one of her friends.  Don’t you just love having another identity, bloggers?

Time to get back to the grindstone, the grindstone that has prevented me from being in a tub with friends, under the stars, content with a mini vacation.  I’m not bitter, I promise!

It’s That Time of the Month

Crazy Aunt Purl’s horoscopes are back, and here is mine:

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 – Feb. 18)
A couple of years ago a friend and I worked at a company where we were both miserably unhappy. We had no idea what the buckwild crazy management could possibly want from their shackled and browbeaten employees. The requirements seemed to change from day to day, minute to minute. Eventually we entertained ourselves with devising a resume for the perfect employee at Insanity, Inc. Skills included "Will bend over backwards … and forwards….." "Proficient in ass-kissing, ego manipulation and general sucking-up" and "Able to blurt 50 flattering words a minute!" "Can multitask: ability to both move and bury bodies." This month you have that little red Mars in your work house, and your days will be busier than they have been in months. The good news, though, is that you will not at any time be required to bury a dead body. Kissing up, however, is totally optional.

Yeah, my days are busier than they have been in months.  Would you like to join the pity party for a moment?  It’s BYOB.  Get a load of what’s lurking all around me:

1.  Gotta sell my place.  Have a Craigslist ad, have some responses.  Hopeful.  But this will hang over me like a big dark New Mexican cloud until it’s a done deal.  And really, it’s out of my control.  Like so much else. 

2.  Mid-term due on Thursday.  In Discourse Analysis.  I’ve developed three five-question heuristics with which to examine two drafts (the original short-short and the current 30 pp drafts) of my story "Queen of the Tobacco Field."  ETA: finished, 12:02 a.m., Thursday.

3.  Comprehensive exam bibliography due to my chair on Friday. ETA finished 12:30 p.m., Friday

4.  Thirty-three paragraphs about my character’s life due on Thursday. ETA: finished 11:12 a.m., Thursday.

5.  The random lesson plan. ETA: finished for a few days at least…

6.  Revision of my newest essay, "labyrinth" (yes, that’s the one about the demise of my marriage) due on Tuesday. 

And…I’m trying to get my darn Sockapaloooza socks knit, all while finishing up a super secret gifty for someone.  Ok, pity party is over.  I won’t wallow here for long.  No time for it.

I am looking forward to Crafty Friday this week.  If you live in the Albuquerque area and would like to join us at my place for a festive evening of crafts, food, and drink, leave your e-mail, and I’ll send you directions.

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