The Road To Braj is Strewn With Thorns

2014-03-09T13:56:00.000-04:00

Power was out at the house almost two days. I ended up spending another night at work. I had to go home though and get my medicine. I was finally able to sleep after 42 hours.

Two trees hit the house and more came down. One wiped out my Granny Smith apple. I guess it's okay. I had planned to take it out.

I forgot the pill splitter so I got a double dose. I probably needed it but I have been groggy all day. This morning my pressure was dropping every time i stood up. That took about 3 hours to pass. It made for a long day.

I will just be happy to go lay on my own bed. I'm really hoping i dont have to do this again any more this year.

In Like A Lion

2014-03-07T19:06:00.002-05:00

Third time this year I am having to stay at work due to the weather. This one was unplanned. Not a big deal except I have no medications thus there will be no sleep at all tonight. I can do without a lot of stuff but I cannot sleep without intervention. I'll be pretty in the morning for sure. Thankfully no one I'd like to look good for will be around.

Speaking of looking good I am given to understand that I look good in my orange Aquaman shirt. Who knew? I bought it because I saw Sheldon wear it on BBT and I thought it had an Art Nouveau vibe (it does). Anyway I have added a whole bunch more orange Aquaman shirts to my wish list as a result.

So not a whole lot else to say. My phone is not the best interface for Blogger so by necessity this will be short.

Spring is supposed to be in two weeks. I shall believe when I see.

Return of the Prodigal

2014-03-05T09:30:00.000-05:00

So it's been a hell of a long time since I've written. There hasn't been much to report. Things are still stable, everything has been status quo. I'm about to put that to a huge test in May as the Sadhusanga festival is coming to NC and I couldn't under any circumstances short of death miss such a thing. This is going to be a serious test; it is going to be the biggest kirtan festival on the continent (really). About 1300 people will be there and I plan to be on the kitchen seva team where hopefully it will be a little less mindblowing. I will actually be heading to Boone from Burnsville, NC, having just spent the greater part of the week at a timeshare that I (quite impulsively) bought in November when we were there. Anyway, it's going to be a big, big deal, and all I can do is see how I do with it.

In December I noticed that I was gaining quite a bit of weight and so I made the unilateral decision to make a huge decrease in my medication (with a resultant decrease in weight back to baseline). My doctor was okay with it and so far it seems like it has been okay. I have had some minor blips on the meter for a day or two, low-amplitude stuff, nothing major and always traceable to some kind of precipitant. So, for the moment I'm staying with what I'm doing. We will see how May works out and go from there.

This winter has been awful. One day it's 70 and literally 24 hours later we're in a winter storm warning with ice and snow. I'm not sure how anyone can still deny the whole climate change thing; I'm not capable of that amount of cognitive dissonance. New York has gotten like 60 inches of snow and we've even had several snowfalls and two major events, the last one the day before yesterday. In the first one we got NINE INCHES of snow and I ended up staying at work for 2.5 days. This was a bad situation as I didn't have the foresight to pack with consideration for my gut. You never know how well you eat until you don't. Almost 3 days of processed, prepackaged garbage sent my system into an armed rebellion and I ended up spending the better part of 12 hours getting the rabble settled. This second situation only had me at work one night, but I packed fresh vegetables, fruit, rice chex, herbal tea and string cheese, with predictable happy results. I was glad I only had to stay the one night but it was a good test; I was all-around (mentally, physically) in a better place based on simply the food choices I made. Of course, being away from home in a noisy place (even with the sound machine, another fantastic choice) I didn't get more than 2-3 hours sleep, but everyone knows I'm good with that.

I am still knitting away like a fiend. I designed and knit three ganseys for gifts and then decided to move into colorwork. The first things I tried were Latvian mittens (Lizbeth Upitis's patterns) which are pretty fascinating. I finished one except for the thumb and got half way through a different one (only making one? when you're learning it's not a bad idea) when I made the huge decision for the first big storm to go ahead and try to do this Sanquhar glove that started the whole thing off.

The pattern I'm working from was printed in Scotland in the 50's and is all written out vs. charted. Eventually I found I needed to chart it and that made everything much easier. It actually turns out that this is an easier thing to knit than the Latvian mittens; the patterns are small and symmetrical both vertically and horizontally so they make perfect logical sense. It's not something you can do half asleep, and there are a couple of mistakes in the pattern, which made me a little crazy, but so far it's working out fine. I have got the thumb gusset done and those stitches on holders, and I'm working my way up to where the fingers will begin. Even though the needles are ridiculously small (2mm) and it's 80something stitches to a round it seems like it goes very fast. For someone inexperienced the hardest part would be keeping the floats in even tension, but everything I've learned in the last year is really paying off.

I am still precepting nursing students. This year I opted to skip the second-rotation one because I was finding that when I did two back to back I was tired, stressed because their schedule is funny with holidays, and it really wasn't fun. I'm hoping that I can do the third rotation if there is one. I just think it goes better this way. There really isn't much I can teach them to 'do' in our environment, so I focus on critical thinking and things like that, and I do feel like I have something (however small) worthwhile to say, so I hope they keep coming. I got a couple of books on experiential learning and the Toyota Way (which is something like nursing process in Japanese) to try to help me work out ways to get my point across. I actually started working on The Book, but that's been spotty since a huge effort at beginning.... so typical.

So I am hoping to sort of get back into a rhythm with the blog. I've let it sit largely because things are really kind of status quo boring and because Facebook (yeah, I know) has taken up a lot of the slack. But I do love to write and this is the best place for me to work out more complicated thoughts, so I'm thinking it's time to get back on it. In practice? We'll see how it works out.

The Plan

2013-06-06T17:21:00.000-04:00

So I went to see the Crusader.. it's been around six weeks since this last medication adjustment and all available input sources uniformly report that I Am Doing Very Well. I kind of have mixed feelings on it all... yes, work is going well, yes, I feel very stable, yes, I can blow off things that previously would have sent me completely off the chain, yes, everyone in my life is totally happy with how things are going, yes, I am finally at a point where I'm stable enough to try to work on my sadhana (spiritual life). On the other hand (there is always another hand), life just isn't quite as.. colorful as it used to be. This is the new paradigm I guess, I have to get used to a New Normal and is it worth it? I suppose objectively yes, I would be stupid to say otherwise, but I do miss the Technicolor just a little bit. Maybe after a while I'll become more emotionally attached to being emotionally stable.

That being said, we talked today about The Future. This is a progressive thing, no doubt, and no matter WHAT we do it's going to get worse, but maybe we can slow it down a little bit. This is definitely a step in the right direction. So we came up with A Plan. I've been averaging 3-4 episodes a year for as long as we've been tracking this stuff. We've definitely discerned that the traveling thing sets me off, sometimes for several months at a time, and so we talked all around it and about it and decided that traveling by myself to these high-stim environments (like Texas or temples during festivals) is verboten until I've been stable for a year. In other words, if I can make it through the rest of this year still stable, I'm (possibly) going to try a short experimental trip by myself, maybe for a weekend somewhere. But no big trippage, no Texas, no Sadhusanga, no major festivalling until we can be sure it's not going to make me crazy for five months afterwards.

I feel pretty good about this decision. I feel like it's realistic. It's going to take some time for me to get some confidence, to sort of learn to trust the stability (after all it's only been six weeks), to get a feel for how I am. I like the idea of testing the waters with short trips if things go well through the end of the year. Of course, it goes without saying that if I suddenly veer off into Manic Menagerie all the bets are off and we start again. But I'm not really sitting here panicking over that. I feel like this has all got some merit and that it's a smart, reality based way to go.

I feel pretty good. I feel well. I AM well.

The Fair Isle Chronicles #8

2013-04-16T20:37:00.002-04:00

Sri Sri Radha Krsna

2013-04-12T09:03:00.002-04:00

I AM GOING!

2013-04-09T20:29:00.002-04:00

OPENING ACT:

MEGADETH!!!!

My two favorite bands in one show!!!!!!!!!... OK, Dave Mustaine has gone the way of Uncle Ted since he got born again, but there's no denying that he's written some GREAT SONGS... all I can do is hope they play a lot of the old stuff.

The Fair Isle Chronicles #7

2013-04-05T07:37:00.001-04:00

So after ripping out and redoing about 4500 stitches I was able to get things straight. But it was so frustrating to me to have to do that I decided to do a couple of other projects to clear my head. This resulted in my Darcy hat and also in this shawl.

The pattern called for this to be made in wool, but I chose a fairly heavy cotton, which changed everything. It was a more or less boring affair but a bit brainless (not totally) and I took it with me on my recent trip to keep myself busy. The picot edging was absolutely tedious. Anyway, it doesn't make a very good shawl (too small) but it does make a fairly nice scarf. Being of a heavier weight it actually does have some warmth to it.

At any rate I'm back to the gansey. I have another little project planned to start possibly today, a pair of socks I would like to make with some yarn I picked up during my trip. I like this plan of buying yarn when I'm on vacation; knitting it up brings memories and then whatever I've made also carries the memory of the trip with it. Plus, it's an opportunity to get something a little fancier than usual. Yarn shops and nice fibers in general are crazy expensive, though, and I always end up choosing something from the clearance pile. No matter, it's all right.

Is this what normal feels like?

2013-04-02T16:40:00.001-04:00

Do people actually feel like this every single day?

It's so..... nice.

On the road again...

2013-03-25T08:48:00.000-04:00

In an hour or so I'm leaving to go to the Banks. I'll be taking 64 out to Manteo and staying in Kill Devil Hills. Usually we go out 158 because that runs actually right through Roxboro but there's some construction going on and that brings you to the North Banks anyway. The weather is awful and I really don't care. My plan for Tuesday will be to go down to Ocracoke (my favorite spot in the universe). This entails a drive, a ferry, and another drive and I'm just hoping it's not pouring down the whole time (though that isn't going to stop me). I can't tell you how many years it's been since I've been there. Wednesday I'm not going to go quite so far; it'll be to Hatteras and Buxton (my second favorite spot in the universe). I have a Secret Plan to have us someday live in a little tiny house in Buxton.. maybe even just a travel trailer that I can drag inland when something's about to happen. It's a nothing place, kind of beat down (the South Banks are not quite as fancyass as the North, and not so much as Ocracoke either) and local, a little bit redneck, a lot of singlewides but a few nice places too. I don't know, I just like it, I feel comfortable there. They have a lovely bookshop. Then on Thursday I'm going to check out early, head out through Manteo and then down to Bayview (I added this huge map so you could check it all out, so figure take 32 south from 64 and head all the way down) where I'll catch the ferry to Aurora and FINALLY get to go to the Museum. I have wanted to go for YEARS but it's like in one of those entirely inconvenient places that there's no real easy way to get to. Given that I live in a place exactly like that it's not hard to see why I haven't been able to get the logistics worked out. Anyway, I'm going to go there and visit, then take the ferry back over and head on home (it's actually easier than going around through Chocowinity and Washington. And while I do all these other fun things I plan on doing a lot of chanting, a lot of knitting, a lot of walking on the beach (I am bringing a ridiculous amount of clothes) and a lot of adjusting my medication. So enjoy the map (I love maps) and I'm bringing the computer with me, so I can post updates if anything thrilling happens.

The Jacked Up Redneck Knitting Belt

2013-03-22T18:50:00.002-04:00

I experimented with anchoring my right needle on a hat I was working on last week. I liked the way it was working so I decided to see if I could rig up a knitting belt to try out without the huge investment that one of the nice leather ones entails. This was made for under $5 in under 1 hour and hopefully will give me a reasonable facsimile of what it is to use an actual knitting belt. Then I may decide that the investment is worth it-or I might find that mine works so well I don’t need anything else!

WHAT YOU NEED:
-a detachable shoulder strap from a messenger bag or other type of shoulder bag
-a piece of burlap or other openweave material (I used an empty bag used for packaging 10 pounds of Indian rice)
-something to stuff the belt with (I used old-clean!-socks)
-super strength tape (I used Gorilla tape, $5)
NICE BUT NOT NECESSARY: a Sharpie pen

WHAT YOU DO:

Lay your belt out on top of the fabric you’re going to use.
If you have a Sharpie you can make an outline on the fabric following the contours but with approximately 1” extra all around. I eyeballed it but if you’re a precise kind of person that might be disturbing. The reason you need the extra allowance is because you’re going to fill that space with stuffing.
Fold ONE edge of the fabric down onto the edge of the belt to the tune of about 1/2”. Secure it with strips of tape. Tuck in and cut/pleat as needed to get it secure. DO NOT tape the whole thing down right now! You have to stuff it first!
Get your stuffing ready. You can use whatever you want. I used old socks that I cut into ribbons. You can stuff it to whatever density you want. I left some room in there so that I can wiggle the needles the way I want them.
Start stuffing.
As you stuff, gently wrap the edges over and tape them down as you go. Be sure the stuffing is distributed evenly. Check and make sure you have as much as you want in there as you go along. Add or remove as necessary.

7. Once you’re stuffed and the entire edge of the fabric is taped down, go back over and cover the back of the belt completely with the tape. Add extra tape around the edges and ends where the straps begin. Cut the tape as necessary to tuck and pleat it. You can be as obsessively neat about this as you like.

Get to knitting!

Saying Uncle

2013-03-20T12:09:00.003-04:00

So we need to make an adjustment in my medication for the umpteenth time.

This is a big one and he really did recommend me getting out of work for a while to manage it.

That's just not an option.

So I started working on it the other night and I discovered that I just can't do it and actually function reasonably or competently enough to do things like actually have a life.

All I wanted to do was eat and sleep; on my day off I did sleep a tremendous amount but I couldn't shake it the next day and I had a terrible time at work.. sort of like having to work in a plastic bag. (I realize that analogy makes little obvious sense.)

So I had to admit defeat and let it go for the moment. I do have some time off coming up; I'm going to OBX for a couple of days and then I have some time off after that (since my trip to PA got cancelled) so I really have no choice but to do it then.

Would it be better to do it in the hospital? Undoubtedly. Will I do it at home myself? Assuredly.

Meanwhile today I'm feeling better (went back to my usual dose last night) and actually doing a couple of things around the house, even. I'm still a little uncomfortable and the realization that this is something I wasn't able to accomplish at will (as it were) is additionally uncomfortable. But it's all a progression, isn't it? And so we carry on.

The Fair Isle Chronicles #6

2013-03-18T10:01:00.000-04:00

So I was having a lot of trouble with the gansey; I had issues starting up the gussets which caused me to have to rip back several rows, started again and found I had problems, ripped again, started a third time and found yet another problem and at that point 'stick a needle in my eye' was sounding like a viable option so I decided that it would be best to put it down for a little bit.

It seemed to me like I had slid into a negative and anxious mindset and I needed something to reset myself. I actually *can* knit; I'm no expert but I consider myself competent enough to be able to at least attempt anything I might want to even though it might be difficult (see first paragraph). Even recently I've tried new things.... witness The Entrelac Hat:

I bought this yarn in Black Mountain, NC while we were on vacation. It's called Noro Kureyon and is Japanese handpainted wool. It's so nice (and expensive) that I was kind of afraid to work with it. The lady at the yarn shop had given me a pattern for an entrelac hat but it still took me several months to get up the guts to try it.

I finally decided no guts no glory and after doing a practice entrelac swatch with some scrap yarn I gave it a shot. Now, it will be an evidence that I do know what I'm doing that I discovered that when she printed the pattern it missed a (very important) line. I was briefly all screwed up, and then I was able to find a complete copy of the pattern online and finished the hat.

The point is that I'm not totally terrible. An interesting end-note to this is while the hat came out really nice, I didn't enjoy doing the entrelac and probably will never do it again.

So, at this point, having put down the gansey, I wanted to reset my mind with a simple, rewarding project that would build my confidence back up and get my groove back.

It's traditional for nursing students to get a gift for the unit where they do clinicals when they finish out their rotation. In my case it was a gift for me, since we were working one on one, and my last student got me a gift certificate to an online knitting store. I used it to buy some very interesting yarn (I always use gift certificates to buy things I wouldn't otherwise buy) made of a mixture of cotton and kelp (yes, seaweed).

I wanted a fast project because I don't want to lose momentum on the gansey. So I went and joined Ravelry, which is an online knitting/crafting community (totally amazing!). I created a notebook, blah blah, put in projects, blah blah, the point is that I found a pattern I thought would go well with the yarn, that was quick and basically a step below my skill level.

Since it wasn't a difficult project I was also able to try out a new technique; using a knitting belt. I'm not going to get into all that right now, you can look it up (also known as maakin belt) if it interests you. I didn't buy a real one, didn't even attempt to make an actual facsimile, just found a way to anchor that right needle. I will say that even though my belt was totally rigged and entirely inadequate that it made a huge difference in the tension and evenness of the stitches and I do plan on trying this technique out in more detail. I doubt I'd be putting out $70 for a leather one handmade in Scotland, but surely I can figure out something that might work.

Long story short: this is my Darcy hat. The yarn is called Fibra Natura. I think the colorway is discontinued but it's called Sunflower and as you can see is variegated. It knit up very nicely with a good feel.

The pattern was accurate; if I had it to do again I would use a second size smaller needles for the ribbing. As it is it's cute. I used two and a quarter skeins for the project. The remainder of the third skein I'm using to make a matching scarf (no written pattern, just using a combination of flat knitting and the YO lace rows seen here) just so that it gets used up.

A few minutes after I got these pictures taken I went back to the gansey. I finished ripping out the stitches that needed to come out and have started once again. I'm still a little anxious but hopeful that this time I can get through it. I'm going to go a little slower and try to only work on it when it's quiet and with no distractions. TV, yes, if it's in a language I don't understand (Mandarin is the best bet; Cantonese is a good second). Speaking of which, I would love to get some Godzilla movies with Japanese soundtracks.

That's where I'm at. Updates as we go, probably once I get successfully through these five rows.

The wonderful thing

2013-03-14T16:55:00.002-04:00

about not sleeping is that the longer I go the better I feel... and then I wish I could just never, ever sleep again...

it never ends

2013-03-06T16:14:00.001-05:00

The Fair Isle Chronicles #5

2013-03-05T09:32:00.002-05:00

So I'm about at the point where I'm going to begin the underarm gussets. This will hopefully make the sweater better wearing and more comfortable. I included the measure this time because I was thinking that there really isn't any reference point in any of these pictures and I wanted something to highlight the gauge. It really is pretty fine. Each vertical inch covers ten rows and each horizontal inch is eight stitches. The O ring down there to the left is the marker at 192. I sort of knitted it in by accident and decided to not worry about it. It's going to have to come out because I have to recalculate the exact halfway point. You really, really, really want to get that right, otherwise your armholes will be skewed and the sweater unwearable.

I've decided that once I get this finished and properly blocked it will be going to the State Fair come October. I'm waiting for the needles to arrive from Hong Kong for my Sanquhar gloves, and once they do, I'm going to get into that, and if I can get them done, they'll go in too. I certainly don't expect to be winning with projects that for me are first-tries and learning experiences, but on the other hand, I kind of get a kick out of the thought of showing off my stuff.

Anyway, moving right along.

Enough said.

2013-03-05T08:03:00.002-05:00

I'm not really sure how anyone can watch this and feel like it's okay, or continue to support a Republican Party that spends most of its time telling you that this really IS okay.

The Name Game

2013-03-01T01:36:00.000-05:00

This is how you write my name in Devanagari script.

Satyavati
सात्यावती
devi
डेवी
dasi
डसी

What does my name mean? It has four parts to it, and then you read it backwards.

Satya: truth
vati: abode of/place of
devi: goddess
dasi: (female) servant

Satyavati devi dasi means 'servant of the Goddess Who is the abode of truth (Srimati Radharani)

The Fair Isle Chronicles #4

2013-02-22T08:58:00.001-05:00

After an error that forced me to rip out and redo 384 stitches, I did some intense kaizen and came up with some new approaches.

First, I went off to Dollar Tree and got myself some of those $1 magnifying reading glasses. I got the most powerful ones I could find (3.50), which basically means they make my eyes look like saucers and I can't see anything beyond 6" from my face when I have them on. It's okay; it's not about sex appeal.

I also changed up my lighting. I got a couple of little $1 (don't you love Dollar Tree?) LED clip on book lights, but actually, once I got the glasses on I found that the lighting I had been using before was much better. This is because without the big around-your-neck magnifier, I don't have the issues with shadows. So the light I had suddenly became more efficient.

The biggest change I decided to make involves how I was graphing. It takes a bit of time to work out the pattern repeats. I like to make sure I don't have any sorts of repetitive visual movement and stuff and of course I'm not repeating any pattern at all through the whole thing. Anyway, because the actual graph part takes so much time I was kind of doing a scaled down version that only ran about 4" wide. I decided it would be better to go ahead and graph a whole sheet at a time. Right now it all has to be a lot about how easily can I see what I need to see and how idiotproof I can make it (tip: do not attempt to conversate or, actually, even sing. My last error, which I thankfully caught about 30 stitches on, was made while I was singing along with a cartoon.) Distractions have to be really minimized. Cartoons are on, but no singing along.

So, just about 16,000 stitches into this thing, I am finally finding some fine motor skills. In the beginning I couldn't manage anything. I got a knitting thimble to help me out, and it did, but really, this morning I tried working without it, and I find that if I strand the black yarn (top float) over my first finger and the white yarn (bottom float) under my first finger then I seem to be able to control both tensions independently (I use a finger on my right hand to nudge the yarn when I need to slack it a little). I don't think I'm ever going to be seriously efficient and I am almost positive I'll never be one of these Cornish production knitters I read about (or the Scottish lady I saw on youtube) who get something in the realm of 200 stitches a minute. But at the same time I'm fairly certain that by the time I get this done it will all feel more natural than it did when I started. And I'm also fairly certain I'll be knitting everything in the round (versus flat) from now on. It has gotten a little bit faster and a little bit more in the flow. Some of it depends on how frequently I have to go back and forth between yarns. The hardest part for me so far has been having to strand the black on the plain rows.

And yeah, it's pretty much become an obsession at this point.

The Fair Isle Chronicles #3

2013-02-16T22:44:00.001-05:00

This is the first four inches of the gansey. I'm halfway through the first of ten repeats. It's going quicker and easier, but it still takes a lot of time and concentration and it's hard on the eyes. Having to rip out stitches is a pretty commonplace occurrence; I usually discover that the pattern's not working right and then I have to go backwards until I find either a dropped stitch or something I've knit in where I shouldn't have. Part of that I think is that the needle I'm using is a very dark wood; most of my errors are with the dark yarn; but besides that, I really have to have like excellent lighting coming from the right angle.

I made a small pattern adjustment. The leftways arrows were originally up and down arrows but I felt like I was already seeing a lot of that kind of movement in what I had, so instead I went for something different. It works better in my opinion; I'm back on what was preplanned on the graph.

The fabric that's resulting is very nice. It's very soft, thin and lightweight but I can see it's going to be warm. I may need to order a second cone of the natural; I'm not sure yet.

The Fair Isle Chronicles #2

2013-02-11T21:21:00.000-05:00

This is graph #1, outlining the pattern for the first three inches of the gansey. Graphs are read right to left, bottom to top. The numbers on the left side are the number of rows each pattern takes. That helps me figure out how many repeats to get where I want to go.

Discussion of the Ramifications of North Dakota's Proposed Constitutional Amendment Initiative

2013-02-08T13:01:00.001-05:00

North Dakota lawmakers passed a Personhood Constitutional Amendment initiative on Thursday that would amend the state's constitution to give legal rights and protections to human embryos. If the ballot initiative passes the House, North Dakota voters will decide on it during the 2014 elections.

Now, because there's a chance that the liberal reporters who posted this story might have biased it, I went to North Dakota's state government website and researched the actual text of the actual bill. This way, there can't be any argument about what's actually going on.

Here's the exact text of the amendment.

The inalienable right to life of every human being at any stage of development must be

recognized and protected.

This bill, therefore, defines a human being as the conjunction of a spermatozoon and an ovum.

Because this bill is centered around the human being at any stage of development, I will continue to maintain the focus on that individual by using the phrase 'carrier of the human being' to indicate the human being in which the human being referred to in the law is carried and developed.

Now, when we think about this rationally and calmly using both basic physiological knowledge and common sense, we can begin to understand the implications of such a definition.

The body of a normal healthy woman will, between menarche and menopause, in response to hormonal cues in the body, release one ovum per menstrual cycle. If this ovum is not fertilized, it will leave the body naturally and the uterine lining will be shed during menses.

If the ovum is fertilized, ie, is conjoined with a spermatozoon, by definition at that moment it becomes a human being, recognized and protected.

At this point suddenly arise multiple variables that affect the immediate future of said human being. The human being may fail to implant in the uterine lining. The lining may be inadequate, hypertrophic or otherwise unreceptive to the implantation. Under other circumstances, the human being may implant in an extrauterine location, causing an ectopic pregnancy. An ectopic pregnancy is not viable, which would, since it would result in the death of the human being, raise the potential charge of unintentional manslaughter against the carrier of the human being. Additionally, an undetected ectopic pregnancy will result in potentially fatal complications for the carrier of the human being.

Assuming the human being does successfully implant in the uterine lining, it still has a staggering number of variables to contend with. The carrier of the human being may have disease processes such as diabetes, hormonal irregularities such as those associated with polycystic ovarian disease, abnormal structures such as fibroid tumors or adenomyosis, or an Rh factor incompatible with that of the human being. Medications or medical treatments (such as radiation and chemotherapy) taken by the carrier of the human being may affect it. Deficiencies in the nutrition of the carrier of the human being will adversely affect the human being. Factors in the environment of the carrier of the human being, such as toxic chemicals in air or water supplies, can adversely affect the human being. Further variables exist, some of which are dependent on the stage of the human being's development.

The carrier of the human being will not know that a human being has implanted (whether in the uterine lining or in an extrauterine location) for several weeks following the implantation. During that time the carrier of the human being may potentially engage in activities harmful to the implanted human being (such as taking medication or medical treatments, above) which result in the failure of the human being to remain implanted. As this would result in the death of the human being, the charge of unintentional manslaughter could again be raised.

Once the carrier of the human being is aware that a human being has implanted itself, all actions of the carrier would have to be evaluated in light of the implanted human being. If the carrier has a condition that requires medication or treatment, if that medication or treatment is potentially dangerous to the human being, the carrier would be facing a charge of manslaughter at least if the human being failed to be carried to term and could potentially be charged with other crimes if the medication or treatment resulted in disability or defect in the human being. Conversely, a carrier who is unable to afford medical care could be assessed a charge of negligence if the lack of medical care (including treatment for the carrier for things such as diabetes, clotting disorders, Rh incompatibility, etc) resulted in harm to the human being. The failure of the carrier to obtain optimal nutritional support could, if it resulted in disability or defect in the human being, also be subject to charges. Any behavior on the part of the carrier that involved a potential risk to the human being (such as certain physical activities or airplane travel) could, if any harm resulted to the human being, be assessed as a charge against the carrier. Complicated decisions may need to be made by the carrier; does the risk of rubella, which, if contracted by the carrier, will result in a defect to the human being, outweigh the risk of vaccination, which could also potentially result in harm to the human being?

The delivery of the human being raises an interesting question. If the movement of the human being out of the carrier results in harm to the carrier, can charges be assessed against the human being? For example, a breech presentation or other irregularity (such as the human being too large to be physically accommodated) that causes a C-section that ultimately resulted in a negative outcome for the carrier, or a vaginal rupture or tear that resulted in a serious infection.

The failure of any human being at any time to come to delivery would necessitate an investigation into all the facts and variables affecting the carrier in order to determine whether charges could be raised and what those charges would be. Additional investigation would be needed to determine whether any actions on the part of the carrier were deliberate or premeditated.

Other interesting legal questions arise.

According to the above definition, a barrier contraceptive such as a diaphragm or condom would be permitted since it would physically prevent the conjunction of spermatozoon and ovum. A contraceptive that prevents implantation would not and its deliberate use could be considered homicide. This would include hormonal contraceptives and physical contraceptives such as the IUD. It would at that point become clear that the use of medications (such as oral hormonal contraception) for purposes other than contraception would have to be banned, as their use would necessarily result in the non-implantation of the human being, resulting in manslaughter. A tubal ligation or vasectomy would be permitted; however, if either failed and there was an ovum and spermatozoon that conjoined, that human being would be recognized and protected. (Informed consent would prevent the physician that performed the ligation/vasectomy from being implicated or liable.)

Is the carrier of the human being, once aware that the human being has successfully implanted, able to declare that human being as a dependent for tax determination and benefits eligibility? If the human being fails to come to delivery, will the carrier be responsible for the repayment of any refunds or benefits? Will the human being be counted on census rolls, which are often used to allocate funding based on population? If the human being is harmed while the carrier is out of state or country, can they be charged on their return home? Will the carrier be able to obtain life and/or AD&D insurance for the human being at any stage in their development? At what point does the human being be considered to have a 'pre-existing condition'?

It is vitally important to understand that none of the preceding discussion involves abortion. In fact I will not have abortion brought into this discussion. It is a controversial, divisive and intensely emotional issue that does not belong in this discussion. I would like it to remain as neutral, as unbiased and as rational as possible in order to explore what the legal ramifications are of the above proposed amendment.

Anxiously awaiting discussion.

The Fair Isle Chronicles #1

2013-02-07T17:53:00.001-05:00

First you have to get some inspiration and some practical advice. This is where both of mine came from. This is an amazing book that researches the history of Fair Isle knitting, and basically gives you what you need (without a single set of stitch-by-stitch instructions) to design and build your own gansey.

Which is what I plan to do.

So this is my page of initial calculations. Virtually all these numbers became ultimately unusable, because I was figuring things out based on a gauge I wasn't sure I had.

It does, however, give you some inkling of the higher mathematics involved, and how hard I struggle with such things.

Next was to choose a yarn. I needed something that would give me the right gauge.. about 8 stitches per horizontal inch and (so I thought) 8 rows per vertical inch. Either way you end up with what's called 'fingering weight' yarn. You can see how fine it actually is. This is Lion Brand LB 1878. It is 100% wool because there's no point in making a sweater that involves this much work unless you're going to do it right. It comes in 1 pound cones that average about 2300 yards.

From here you have to start going through patterns and picking out what's going to fit both vertically and horizontally into your dimensions. This sweater is going to be 48" in circumference, which works out to 384 stitches, and I will need about 210 pattern rows to get my finished length.

So I photocopied pages and counted out repeats to figure out what would fit. These are nine row 'border' patterns.

These are called 'peerie' patterns. 'Peerie' is the Scottish word for 'small' and you can see these are 1-3 row patterns. I have these marked out with horizontal repeats as well.

It's the combination of peerie, border, pattern and plain rows that make up the gansey.

This is what the first few rows look like. I'm knitting it on a very nice 32" size 3 (US) laminated birch circular needle. This is called 'corrugated ribbing' and is made of 2 knit stitches in color 1, 2 purl stitches in color 2. You can also see the back of the knitting here with the strands (floats). This effectively doubles the finished fabric and makes it warmer than a single layer of knitting.

You can see a small rubber O ring in the knitting. That's marking the beginning of each round. The gansey is seamless because of being knitted in the round; so you have to mark the beginning, otherwise you don't know where you are. Once I'm through with the ribbing I will also mark at the 192nd stitch, which would be the location of the other underarm seam (if it had seams). I'll put in two false seams (made of purl stitches) just for decorative purposes.

I have ten months to complete this sweater. I always have more than one project going at once but I will be putting in at least 30 minutes a day on this one and I will post on it once a week or sooner if something exciting happens.

2013-01-31T12:40:00.001-05:00

I am not well.

And then

2013-01-03T00:42:00.004-05:00

First, everything becomes very easy, very clear, very simple...

...and then...