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).