Wild Thing, I think you're groovy

As I said earlier this month, I wanted to try making a felted King of the Wild Things crown, but I was having trouble getting the recommended pattern gauge. But I decided to just wing it. I used Lopi, which is bulkier than called for, but I liked the colors best. And I'm thrilled with how it turned out.



It's more snug than I expected -- I thought it would be bigger, but after two trips through the washer, it felted down to the recommended horizontal gauge. A bit too tight for Logan, so I've been trying to make a bigger one, with mixed success.



On the right is a "medium" sized crown, knit with Heilo from Dalegarn. I tried to make longer points, with dubious success. Anyway, this felted down very small. On the left is another try, this time with Cascade 220, knitting the "extra large" size. Better circumference -- I think this one might actually fit! -- although you can really see that my vertical gauge is off.

Tagging

It was on a visit to Chicago in 1988 that I first saw the spiky signatures scrawled across the wall. They were beautiful and mysterious, like some powerful message in a language I could almost understand. A few years later tagging finally made it to Columbus, and I had to show an i.d. to buy a big black marker. I developed a brief academic interest in these intersections of crime and art, and they sparked my imagination as well. I would see the tags on signs and buildings, and I thought of them as runes, their makers writing spells of influence on the city. I even entertained a story idea that germinated in my head: a teenage boy doodling in a notebook, trying to design his own tag, manages to write a glyph that he has a magical link to.

I am thinking about tags this week for a couple reasons. Primarily, it is because of this story in the Houston Press about crafty knitting taggers. But also because Santa is on his way to our house with an iPod Shuffle for Mike. How will we know which is his and which is mine? I think a little graffiti tag of my own might look quite nice on the bare white plastic Shuffle.

Dan Savage on 'The Commitment'

Dan Savage on 'The Commitment'

One day way back in November, while listening to NPR's "All Things Considered" during my drive home from work, I heard a teaser for an interview that would be broadcast the next morning: Dan Savage talking about the realization that his 7-year-old son DJ was hearing his fathers' relationship discussed as "a threat to all things decent and good." I didn't hear the interview, and for the next few days some glitch at NPR.org kept me from hearing the story online. Knowing the problem would be fixed eventually, I stuck the link in a blog post, saved it as a draft, and promptly forgot about it.

This morning I ran across the unposted draft, and finally followed the working link to listen to the story. The highlight for me was Savage saying, "All kids understand a promise," and DJ coming to realize that marriage is a promise people make to stay related. Which is why when DJ is picking the rings Dan and Terry will use in their marriage ceremony, he chooses rings with skulls on them, saying, "Dad, don't you understand you're going to get married? That means you have to stay together till you die."

(If listening doesn't work for you, the transcript is available in EBSCOhost Newspaper Source. Search for "dan savage" and enter "morning edition" as the newspaper name).

Insanity (updated)

OK, I freely admit this is insane. But I couldn't resist trying the "Magic Loop" circular knitting technique to make the joining loops in a knitted chain.



I will say this: the flexible cord of the circular needles is very easy to pull through the knitted chain links as you move the links around ahead of your working stitches. But all in all, I think doing this with short, double-pointed needles is easiest of all.

It's possible that this insanity will extend to partnering with my fabulous friend Mary to make knitted versions of her beautiful chainmail creations.

---

Update December 17:

The chain felted up very nicely. It's about 6 feet long, and while it probably won't be very functional as a neck warmer, it looks pretty sharp as a decorative accessory.



In the end, I kept up with the Magic Loop experiment; it got easier as I went along.

Quick hat

Going to visit my friend Beth for the first time since she had her baby this fall, and it suddenly occurred to me that knitters are not allowed to meet new babies without bringing a hat.



Hope it fits. I have so much trouble getting baby clothes to fit right. 

Adventures in Felting

Last week, my mom sent me the link for a felted crown inspired by Where the Wild Things Are. I couldn't wait to get started, but all the yarns I've tried have failed to give me the correct gauge. See all these rectangles?



They're supposed to be squares. The pattern designer has been great though, even willing to customize the instructions for whatever gauge I'm getting. I think I'm just going to wing it, however, recognizing that I will need to make my crown a little bigger around and a little shorter than the instructions call for.

But seeking some mindless knitting -- you know, something I don't have to make fit? -- I tried the "Marley's Ghost" felted chain pattern in the latest issue of Knitty. Now this is some fun.

Heel replacement

I was up late on Xmas Eve last year finishing some festive socks for my mom.



But this morning I noticed that the heel was unraveling on one of them.



Supposedly, the big advantage of the short-row heel is how easy it is to replace. We'll see.

I was pleased with these socks. They're not identical: the stripe patterns are reversed. From the toe on one (and the cuff on the other) they follow the striping pattern I created based on the Copenhagen cathedral chimes.

A Sock Yarn Spree

I spent last week in Maine, and it seems I couldn't leave a yarn store without picking up some sock yarn.



Most purchases were from Quiltessentials in Auburn, a quilt store with a small but stellar inventory of yarns. Because I couldn't wait until I got home, I went back to the store the next day to pick up some extra needles and get this skein wound into a ball:



This is Done Roving, and I love it. It's not obvious from the picture, but the colors are really unusual: shades of turquoise and red clay (the colorway is called "Southwestern"). And what do you know...these socks I'm knitting up are sized to fit me.

Gift Season

[Updated December 18]
Miss Manners has always disdained wish lists. That's nice in theory, but when you've got a birthday in December, it's just rude not to help out the people who want to get you something.

I've kept an Amazon.com Wish List since they first started offering them, and that has been great. But if someone doesn't want to buy me books or media, it's hard to let them know what I want.

Last year, I created a Froogle Wish List. Not quite as convenient as Amazon, but it does have a wider range.

This year, I'm discovering that I want stuff from Cafe Press. I haven't had much luck getting Cafe Press stuff to appear on a Froogle list, so here's my Cafe Press wish list:

• Guerrilla Stitcher hoodie. (Although I wear a large shirt, the hoodie should probably be extra large).
• Spiral Pi t-shirt.
• "wtfwjd?"mug.
  

I'll add more as things catch my eye.

Hybrid

A survey by Harris Interactive found that GLBTQ people are more likely than heterosexuals to buy a hybrid car. So I fit the profile. But they also found that gay men are more likely than straight men to have satellite radios (don't have that), and that we prefer luxury cars to economy cars.

I'm eager for the day when having a hybrid isn't a "statement." See, I think there are Rules of Taste for messages on the back of cars: the tasteful driver can have one message and one parking sticker. If you have to have two parking stickers, then you sacrifice a message, but you can't put on two bumper stickers just because you lack a parking sticker. A message can be a license plate frame, an alumni window sticker, a bumper sticker, or a magnet. Vanity plates can, on occasion, be given exemptions on a case-by-case basis, but they usually constitute a message.

Currently, I have no extra message: no HRC icon or rainbow flag, no Darwin fish or Brights emblem, no political messages. The indication that my Civic is a hybrid seems to constitute a message all its own.

[From Wired's Autopia blog]

A new character for Unshelved

A new character has been introduced to the library-themed comic strip "Unshelved": a cataloger. As our hero Dewey descends into the basement (of course) with a stack of graphic novels for recataloging, he encounters the new character, who is knitting.

Kids' Hats

My hands still seemed to want to play with the Peace Fleece, so I whipped up something from a hat pattern I like, the Ireland Mists Hat. (The pattern used to be free on the web, but I get a "Forbidden" message when I go there now. It's still available from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.

I had in mind my friend Beth's new baby Faith when I started the hat, but it's too big.



The pumpkin hat is for David, the boy my friends Will and Tiffany adopted last month. I'll give it to them tonight at Game Night.

Wrist Warmers

My mom recently made a poncho for my sister, using a pattern she'd first used in the 70's. She had a few skeins of Peace Fleece left over, and gave them to me. There wasn't enough for a kitty bed (those take a surprising amount of yarn), but I thought that maybe some wrist warmers to match the poncho might be nice. I've just started the second, but here's the first of the pair.



This was loosely adapted from the cable pattern on the poncho. I used two patterns -- Jo Ellyn Wheeler's "Cabled Wristers" from the Fall 2004 (4:3) Twists and Turns and Bonne Marie Burns's "Voodoo Wrist Warmers" from Winter 2002 Knitty -- for inspiration.

Cast 40 stitches onto two size 7 circular needles, joining into round. First round: *k1, p2, k9, p2, k1, p5; repeat once from *.

Beginning with round 2 of the four round pattern below, knit until piece measures about 7 inches. The pattern repeats once each round.

1. K1, p2, k9, p2, k1, p1, k3tog, p1, k3tog, p1
2. K1, p2, k9, p2, k1, p5
3. K1, p2, cross 4 right (instructions below), k1, cross 4 left, p2, k1, p1, increase 3 (k1, p1, k1 in same stitch), p1, increase 3, p1
4. K1, p2, k9, p2, k1, p9

To make thumb hole:

• K1, p2, k1, bind off 7 stitches, continue in pattern to end (round 4)
• K1, p2, k1, cast on 7 stitches, continue in pattern to end (round 1)

Continue knitting until the piece is 9 inches or desired length. Bind off.

I'm generally pleased with the result. I actually think a thumb gusset would be desirable, but I don't really have the gumption to figure that out.

Crossing instructions are from http://www.knitting-crochet.com/terms.html

Cross 4 Left: Slip next st onto cable needle and leave at front of work, knit next 3 sts from left-hand needle then knit st from cable needle.

Cross 4 Right: Slip next 3 sts onto cable needle and leave at back of work, knit next st from left-hand needle then knit sts from cable needle.

Here is my attempt to chart the pattern. Click on the picture to see a larger version.

Sudoku obsession could ruin my life

I'd been hearing about the wild popularity of Sudoku, the number placement puzzle. I finally tried it this week, and suddenly I'm obsessed. Web Sudoku is a good place to try it, because the "How am I doing?" button lets you know when you've made a mistake.

It reminds me a bit of Minesweeper; the logic involved in figuring out where a number must go because of where it can't go appeals to me. As my eyes scan over the grid hunting for certain numbers, I'm reminded of those Mah Jongg tile solitaire games like Shanghai.

The trouble? Sudoku takes attention. Unlike knitting, I can't do Sudoku and watch TV, carry on a conversation, or read. I obviously can't do Sudoku and knit. And if I keep trying to do Sudoku puzzles while Mike wants to play along with Lingo or What's My Line, then my relationship will be on the rocks.

My only hope is to get him hooked too.

A happy ending

You know, I really don't want this blog to be filled with stupid pictures of the cat, but Mike snapped this photo today, and I couldn't resist.



At last, Dodger seems to have abandoned the plastic bag and taken to the felted cat bed.

Larger bottle cozy

So here's a cozy I whipped up for a liter-size bottle.



And as promised, a pattern (of sorts)

I used Sugar 'n' Cream cotton, knitting in the round on two 24 inch size US5 (3.75 mm) needles. But the pattern is adaptable to your preferred yarn and needles.

• Cast on 8 stitches. Join and knit one round.
• (YO, K1) around
• Knit
  
• (YO, K2) around
• Knit
• (YO, K3) around
• Knit

Keep increasing (8 yarnovers every other row) until your disk is the size of the bottom of your preferred bottle. In the picture above, I increased until I reached 48 stitches around.

Knit plain for 8 rounds or so (about an inch, or as long as looks good to you).

The "body" of the bottle cozy can be any stitch pattern you want. I've been experimenting with lacy stitches. Above, I used:

1. (YO, K2tog) around
2. Knit
3. (K2tog, YO) around
4. Knit

Nice effect, but not snug enough for my bottle. Next time, I'll decrease by 8 stitches or so before beginning the lace. Because the lace was too big, I went back to knitting plain rounds and added some ribbing. The moral? Experiment.

End with an inch or so of ribbing and bind off loosely.

Bottle cozies

A few years before I learned to knit, I went through a "waxed linen jewelry" phase, making little charm pouches and pen basket necklaces out of waxed linen. Around that time, my mom began freezing bottles of water to take to work. I used the same looping technique for the charm pouch to make a cotton pouch for the water bottle. I made a couple of these, stopped doing it because it was tedious, learned to knit for real, and forgot about it all.

My sister called this weekend to say her water bottle cozies have now fallen apart. She wants new ones. So I thought I might see what I could do with knitting needles. These are the fruits of my experiments over the past couple days.



Both of these are from worsted weight Sugar 'N' Cream cotton. I made the one on the right first, following this Water Bottle Tote pattern. The one on the left is my attempt at pattern refinements: a flatter bottom and less annoying stitch pattern (using Turkish Stitch instead of Purse Stitch). Both of them are a bit too small; they won't fit around a liter-sized bottle, but they'll work for smaller bottles.



I want to try again, then I'll post my own pattern here.

Let there be natural selection

I remember in 4th grade, learning about how stars and planets form out of nebulae; I was the kid who said, "But I thought God made the earth." My teacher muttered about this happening every year, and said, "Sure, but scientists are just trying to figure out how He did it." OK, so at the age of 10 I was taught science with an intelligent design slant. I still wound up an atheist.

The New York Times today reports on the survey results from the Pew Research Center, highlighting that 64% of respondents say that Creationism should be taught in schools.

I guess I could get behind this if it made the whole thing go away. "Class, the 'theory' of Intelligent Design is that God or the aliens made life happen on earth by magic. This will not be on the test. What will be on the test is how adaptation and competition for resources within ecological niches have helped shape the evolution of species over millions and millions of years. You'll also be called upon to properly define a 'theory.'"

Where is the intellectually rigorous religious thought? Aren't there Deists anymore? I could respect someone who said, "A creator set up the forces of physics that define and shape the observable universe." On the first day, God created math.

Leftovers Again

I still had some leftover Lamb's Pride and thought it might work with a fuzzy pink accent yarn. I'm not overjoyed with the result, but it's OK.

Hallowig

A fun little project for the weekend.



Mom asked me to knit one of these hallowigs for someone she works with (something about a "Lollipop Guild" routine). Frankly, I think this looks more like Oompa Loompa hair, or like something out of anime. I wonder if one of the Elvis wigs might be more appropriate?

Leftover Pi

Despite Dodger's indifference, I started another cat bed, this one out of leftover Lamb's Pride. (I have lots of this stuff, due to past obsessions with felted clogs and jester's hats). The color scheme isn't great, but heck...it's a cat bed. Whoever gets it can put it in the basement or something.



As a benefit, knitting this thing destroyed my size 13 circular needle.



Seriously, it's a benefit. I love Addi's, but the connecting tubes on the larger sizes are horrid: the yarn sticks to them rather than sliding smoothly (the cause of the breakage, I'm sure). Still, they're so expensive that I couldn't really justify replacing it with something better until it broke. I was thrilled to see that now the size 13's have the normal thin Addi connector.

Imaginary playmate named principal

My mom called yesterday with this news item: my imaginary playmate has been named principal of Danville High School. "Roxie" was, in real life, a friend of my aunt.

I wonder if the students at Danville know that once upon a time their principal was invisible and lived inside a red vinyl Beatles change purse?

Yes, my imaginary playmate was named "Roxie." Further evidence that sexual orientation (or at least fabulousness) is something you're born with.

Three reading recommendations

In the past week, I've finished three books I can recommend. Arthur Phillips' The Egyptologist is a great summer read. Told in journals, letters and cables, it is the story of a man, Ralph Trilipush, who is trying to excavate a tomb at the same time Howard Carter is uncovering the tomb of Tutankhamen. Interposed are the letters, written decades later, from a private detective who is on a case that leads him on a collision with Trilipush. I thought the story got a little bogged down in the middle, but the unreliable narrators give this novel unexpected energy and humor.

One of my favorite books this year is Kenneth Oppel's Airborn. Engaging (if uncomplicated) characters, swash-buckling situations (with pirates even), glorious settings beautifully described. The plot hinges maybe a bit too much on coincidence, but this story of an airship cabin boy and the granddaughter of an explorer who find a new species (sort of a flying panther) cries out to be made into a movie. I could see something that uses the same film-making techniques as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. (Hint to anyone writing a book report on this: discuss the multiple meanings of "airborn/airborne" in the novel).

And finally, check out Jeff Parker's The Interman, a graphic novel with echoes of The Bourne Identity and The Pretender. Van Meach is the product of a Cold War experiment that makes him almost endlessly adaptable, able to grow gills underwater, to shrug off poisons, and survive temperature extremes. OK, so I'm easily charmed by stories of men who can breath under water.

I told you he'd ignore it

Despite my suspicion that he wouldn't care, I went ahead and knitted Dodger a Kitty Pi this weekend. How could I not? This is where he was sleeping while it was in the washer being felted.



Maybe when it gets a little cooler, he'll care. But for the time being he seems to prefer the comfort of a plastic bag.

Dodger inspects

Dodger walked into the frame just as I was snapping this picture. I made these one at a time, "magic loop" style on a single circular needle (rather than both at the same time on two circs, my usual preference). I also tried out a tighter gauge; these are made on size 1 (2.25 mm) instead of 2 (2.5 mm).

Thankfully, Dodger doesn't often show an interest in my knitting. The only work-in-progress he's ever taken out of the basket and played with was a cashmere scarf I was knitting in the Matthew Shepard pattern. I think he likes yarn with goat hair. I've contemplated making him one of the felted kitty beds, but I suspect he'd just ignore it.

When do I get to vote for this man?

Senator Obama was the "Not My Job" guest this week on Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me. Smart, funny, charismatic. I can't wait to vote for him someday.

I never listen to the radio outside my car, but it has become a weekend ritual for me to listen to shows from the "Wait Wait" archive and knit.

Obey the Intarsia Giant

I couldn't resist this scarf from Knitty, even though I hate intarsia. And when my work looked like this...



...I was doubting how much I really wanted to go on. Nevertheless, I had 19 hours of Sweet Valley Hogwarts to listen to, so I went ahead and made two intarsia face panels.



I wasn't happy with them -- they were sloppy, even after blocking. Then I remembered a discussion on GLB-Knit about doing the Peace Blanket in double knitting: one side would be a negative, mirror image of the other. Something new to learn! After a few false starts, I got that going, and I'm much happier with the results. Here's the reverse:



Now it's just plain, boring circular knitting for 4 feet or so, then the "OBEY" panel.

Koigu, part two.

I finished those "Vine Lace Socks" in Koigu.



It was a nice change of pace, but I don't think I need to go out of my way to get this yarn. And I'll probably never make a habit of lacy socks, top-down construction, or this type of heel.

What do software patents have to do with knitting?

Not much activity here. My blogging energy has been spent
elsewhere.

I'm sure Randall Stross's article in today's New York Times will get plenty of play in tech blogs, but the knitters probably don't care. But knitters have an understanding of copyright that supports Stross's point. He argues in Why Bill Gates Wants 3,000 New Patents (registration required) that software patents should be abolished, and software makers should be protected by copyright alone. Microsoft should only be able to copyright Word and Excel; they should never be given patents on word processing or spreadsheets. (Simplistic example, obviously, but analogous to some of the concepts Microsoft has filed patents for this summer).

As knitters, we enjoy a great deal of design freedom because an individual cannot copyright a technique or method: only the words describing the method. Imagine if someone filed for and was given a patent for a technique: no one else would be able to use that concept in their own patterns. Obviously, no patent is ever going to be granted for knitting concepts (cabling, ribbing, intarsia) or techniques (picking, throwing) -- even for innovations like "magic loop."

Knitting: the Open Source Craft.

Koigu

I've heard a lot about this yarn, so I got a couple skeins off eBay. Seems to work well with the "Magic Loop" technique.



Unusual for me: I'm knitting from the top down. I thought this yarn might be good for Kathleen Hubbard's Aran-Braid Socks, but the subtle color pattern was obscuring the braid. So I ripped it out and am trying the "Vine Lace Socks" from Socks Socks Socks. I've been getting a lot of mileage out of that book recently.

Scarf Update

I am in a severely boring knitting phase. I realized this when I dropped in on the Stonewall Union Stitch 'N Bitch this week. I probably post pictures of only half the socks I knit. Nevertheless, I have exciting news: I've finished the gorgeous baby camel hair scarf!



For a better detail of the pattern, check out my very first blog posting.

The scarf momentum carries over into the "Here and There Cables" scarf made from leftover Bearfoot.



I'm concerned that the scarf will be "unbalanced," starting with two really vivid colors that are no longer available. I'm giving some thought to unraveling some of that big red section and reknitting it later in the scarf.

I wonder if my aunt likes lace?

I've been getting a little bored with K2P2, so I thought I'd try branching out a bit, try something a little different. Here is an experiment with Vivienne Shen's "Gull Wings" pattern from Socks Socks Socks (XRX, 1999).



In "Thunderhead" from Bearfoot, the overall color is nice but the yarn is too dark for the wing pattern to show. But that's not my biggest concern: I don't know if anyone I knit socks for would want lacy patterns on their feet.

Unexpected bonus of knitting lacy socks: that hole that sometimes appears where the heel meets the instep? Not a problem. Blends in with the other holes.

Months of socks

Am I the worst blogger ever? So yeah, I taught the class in March. Here are the socks I worked on as teaching aids. First, my "Slytherin Sock," to match the Slytherin house colors. (Personally, I think I'm a Ravenclaw, but these colors are better).

The color changes were an experiment with the Golden Ratio. Not the greatest. I like how the "wire hanger sock blocker" turned out, though.

More snake-like, however, is this pair, which I call the "Nafferton Chimes Socks."

They're made from black, green, and yellow Frog Tree alpaca, and the color pattern is based on the three bell chiming pattern of the Nafferton Church in Sheffield. Basing stripes on chime patterns is an idea I lifted from Jacqueline Fee's The Sweater Workshop, a fantastic book. I like these, but I make it a point not to keep -- or give to people I love -- socks that have to be treated so delicately as alpaca, so I'm selling them for charity.

The Birth of Perfect Socks

Found this old picture when moving files to a new computer. It was my first skein of Bearfoot, and the birth of my new "Perfect Sock" pattern. If anyone is signed up, I start teaching the class next week.

Knitting as sculpture

As I was working on these fingerless gloves, I thought about the Michelangelo quote: "When I look at a block of marble, I see the sculpture inside it. All I have to do is remove what doesn't belong." Knitting (especially in the round) seems to be similar: I imagine the finished garment, invisible in the air, and I try to fill in the space with yarn. Easier said than done, really, but it gets at what I think is so damn cool about knitting: you take a piece of string, loop it around itself so it holds together in the shape of a sock or a hat or a sweater. Or gloves.



These are the gloves requested by Anna, who used her sewing skills to help make my enormous green Aran sweater fit.

The wonderful camel scarf is getting longer (no need to post a new picture, really). Making progress up the sleeves of Mike's purple sweater:

What's My Line?

What do I spend most of my time doing? Watching recorded episodes of What's My Line. Tonight we saw the October 17, 1954, episode with Merle Oberon as the Mystery Guest. Robert Q. Lewis identifies her by learning that she had just appeared on the Best of Broadway in a production of "The Man Who Came to Dinner." These Best of Broadway episodes must have been great. I'd love it if they came out on DVD. Failing that, Mike and I may have to take a vacation to the Museum of Television and Radio to see some of these shows.

Perfect Sock Pattern Wiki

I created a page at SeedWiki to help me build the Perfect Sock Pattern. Next month, I'll be teaching again a class I taught in November, and my instructions and lesson plan need help. Feel free to help by making comments, suggestions, or even changes to the page.

Here and There Cables

I got Scarf Style (Interweave, 2004) for Xmas, and thought that Norah Gaughan's "Here and There Cables" would make a perfect pattern for leftover Bearfoot sock yarn. See for yourself:



I love that because the pattern has an odd number of rows the cabling happens on both sides of the scarf, making it reversible. Here's a closeup:



Too many works in progress, really. It will be in the dead of summer before I get all these scarves finished.

Progress on the purple sweater

I started the purple "Wondrous Woven Cables" sweater from Arans & Celtics (XRX, 2003) for Mike in early November, and got the lower body done pretty quickly.



I spent December doing socks, and started the sweater sleeves on January 1. Got this far in a few days...



...then put them aside for a month. Now I have no idea where I am. "Round 22," whatever that means. I'd rather leave it all in a tangled heap and keep working on the lovely gray baby camel scarf, but before I get too lost, I should get back on track with the sweater.

Too many WIPs.

You have to be carefully taught

Initially, I was just irritated when I read that PBS had caved to Dept of Ed pressure to pull an episode of Postcards from Buster that contained children with lesbian parents. But as I wrote the following note to WOSU to tell them I hoped they would show it, I got pissed.

Hello--

I do not see the "Sugartime" episode of _Postcards
from Buster_ listed in your schedule. I do hope that
you intend to air the program. My decision of how
much my household will support WOSU stations this
year will depend on your choice.

From what I've read, there is no romantic contact
pictured between the mother and stepmother of the
girl Buster meets. The words "lesbian" or "gay" are
never used. The subject of gay marriage or civil union
is not relevant to this show about tapping trees for
maple sugar, and the subject is not raised.

To censor this episode is an attempt to ostracize and
inflict shame on the children -- children in this very
community -- who live in families headed by same sex
couples. I find it despicable that the Dept. of
Education has put PBS and its affiliates in this
position, and I dearly hope that you do the right thing
for children in central Ohio.

Unsurprisingly, WOSU will not be airing the "Sugartime" episode, feeling that it is important for parents to "have the option of addressing elements of this episode with their young children at a time and manner of their own choosing." Yep, you need to make sure that kids feel the appropriate revulsion and hatred of those maple sugar manufacturers.

First official post

I decided it's time to turn this into an actual blog, rather than just updating a single post every other day. So here's my favorite WIP: a scarf knit from Blithe baby camel yarn that I bought in Arbella Yarns in Salem, MA. The pattern is from Simply Beautiful Sweaters for Men (Martingale, 2001).

January Overview

On the needles -- what I'm making

• Toe-up "Simple Sock" in Bearfoot Lupine (pattern to be posted here soon)
• Toe-up "Simple Sock" in denim blue Encore DK
  
• Gaughan's "Here and There Cables" from Scarf Style in Bearfoot yarn leftover from socks
• Marchant's "Wondrous Woven Cables" sweater from Arans & Celtics in Blueberry Jo Sharp DK Wool Tweed for Mike
• Up next: gloves for Anna, scarf in baby camel hair, bed for Dodger

Next to the bed -- what I'm reading

• The Final Solution by Michael Chabon
  
• What's the Matter with Kansas? by Thomas Frank
• Best American Science & Nature Writing 2004 by Steven Pinker (editor)
• Gifts by Ursula K. Le Guin
  
• Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalpyse by Robert Rankin
• Witches of Chiswick by Robert Rankin
• America: the book by Jon Stewart and the Daily Show writers
• Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

In the car -- what I'm listening to

• So Far by Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young
• 101 by Depeche Mode
  
• Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris (read by the author)
• Wicked (Original Cast Recording)

On the screen -- movies I've just watched

• I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958) [DVD]
  
• House of Flying Daggers (2004) [Theater]
  
• Elektra (2005) [Theater]
  
• Gone with the Wind (1939) [DVD Commentary Track]
• Blue Sub No. 6 (1998) [Adult Swim On Demand]
  
• Closer (2004) [Theater]

In my head -- obsessions

• Annoying Song: "Popular" from Wicked