144 Inches of I-Cord

On intellectual property and plagiarism

2012-09-17T20:46:00.003-05:00

I got a very nice email this week that got me thinking.

Almost six years ago, I published a free sock pattern for socks with arch shaping that, because it's knit on the bias, hugs your foot in an amazing way.

I figured out the pattern myself, inspired by a stranded-knitting sock pattern I didn't own and didn't know anything about. I think Grumperina knitted those. Or maybe it was Lene. Whatever; I saw the pictures, I made my sock. I started out wanting to knit a stranded, arched sock in Fall 2006 Vogue Knitting. The pattern was such a mess I gave up after several attempts and made my own pattern (you can read the history of my struggles on this blog). I pulled math out from between my toes and put together a sock that was initially very ugly.

I bugged my friends to test-knit, I went to forums and friends to have it tech edited. People loved it. I gave it away. It was translated into German and a couple of other languages, and the whole thing made me very, very happy. People found mistakes and helped me correct them. The hundreds of people out there who have made my socks could not make me any more grateful to them.

Enter the email this week...someone telling me about a pattern, for sale, that is more or less a copy of mine.

Here's what got me thinking: intellectual property is a serious thing. The fact that someone is selling something i give away for free? Not cool. It's entirely possible the person came up the pattern on their own...but looking at the pictures, it's doubtful. It's much more likely that someone simply stole from me.

I don't have time or resources to do anything about it, but I hope if you are knitting socks with arch shaping you'll use my free pattern before you'll pay for someone else's.

And I'm glad, down deep in my heart, that someone cared enough to tell me, even though I am all but absent from the knitting community these days.

Knitters, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support, community, and goodness. I appreciate your care and concern so much, and like the email said, "we all know you are the author of this pattern." I miss you all and I miss my yarn and needles.

Love you. xo

Introducing Henry

2011-09-16T13:06:00.000-05:00

Well, I've gone and gotten a kitten.

I wasn't planning on getting another cat, but the more time passed with Fee as an Only Cat, the more I realized she was lonely and bored.

Fee would like me to tell you she is really not-sure about this small creature made of springs and teeth. His kitty manners are particularly lacking. He has an annoying habit of smacking her in the back of the head when he walks by. He tries to eat her food. He's taken over some of her favorite spots. She has worn herself out hissing at him; it's the only way she has to tell him what he can and can't do.

Then again, he's warm, happy, funny, and very entertaining to watch. He seems to be...getting bigger. Maybe he is not going to stay a kitten for much longer? Maybe he will learn some kitty manners? She is not so easily annoyed with him anymore. The house seems warmer and happier. It is good to have a friend.

She is no longer bored. Was she ever able to jump that high? How can he be in such an incessantly good mood?

This is Henry. Henry is about six months old now and has lived with us since July. He was left in a flower-pot at a tile store, rescued, and is quite happy with his new home.

Christmas knitting

2011-01-04T10:00:00.002-06:00

Technically, this is birthday knitting, but since my stepmom's birthday is December 25...

here is her present, agonizingly kept secret through a massive test of the my will, when all I wanted to do is shout from the rooftops "I DID A LACE PROJECT AND IT TURNED OUT!!!" But I had to wait until it was delivered and opened, you know. Then I got a cold and -

!!!

My history with lace is a long and frustrating one, and it seems that the last couple of projects have got me over the hump. I am not going to tackle a cobweb shawl any time soon, but I am sure a lot less afraid of it than I was.

This is the Autumn Leaves Stole by the wonderfully talented Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed. (I'm linking to his blog instead of Ravelry because I love his narrative about the pattern. His pattern writing is really clear, just detailed enough, and utterly awesome.

Here it is all bundled up after blocking and finishing. This is really the true color of the yarn:

Here's a shot of about a quarter of it. At the bottom you can see the row of leaves with no stems...that's the seam row.

followed by a close up of the small leaves (up near the neck)

and the larger leaves (down near the edges).

And one more pretty picture just for the sake of prettiness. Don't you think life should just plain have more pretty in it? I do!

I used Cascade 220 in a lovely emeraldy-teal color (chosen rather competently by my dad, GO DAD!). The color literally looked different in every shot I took of it. It took a week to knit each half and a few tense hours on a Sunday afternoon to kitchener stitch the two halves together. A quick soak, a lot of pinning - this thing is 19" x 72"- a little supervision by my kitty Fee (she kept monitoring it to make sure it was all right I guess) and there it was.

Not bad for two and a half weeks, and my last knit project of 2010. I'm one of those people who couldn't wait to see 2010 leave and 2011 come in. Except for this. Hope you all like it. My stepmom does & I'm so glad. Happy birthday, Donna! You are completely awesome.

Stunned at my sudden bravery

2010-11-24T11:04:00.002-06:00

Apparently knitting the Great Gray Thing has given me courage like no other knitting project. I'm midway through a lovely worsted-weight lace project, which you can see more about over at Ravelry, but not here (yet); I cast on for a sock with only an approximation of what I was going to do with it (and it's worked); and I've a sudden urge to knit something from Rowan.

Yes, you heard me. Rowan. Which, aside from knitting a Debbie Bliss pattern in black yarn on 2mm needles is the kind of thing I'm most afraid of when it comes to knitting. The idea of knitting a Rowan sweater normally sounds to me like 1800 yards of pure torture. But for some reason it sounds like the perfect winter knitting.

First I need to finish the lace and the sock, and then I'm going to buzz through a giant garter-stitch scarf (because I've decided that a 14 or 15" wide scarf makes the garter stitch new again), and THEN I'm going to get my grubby, lanolin-covered paws on the Rowan PureLife Autumn brochure, and make a large cabled sweater.

I am not a sweater-knitter. We'll see if I actually do it.

In the meantime, in addition to everything else in my life, I'm thankful for warm wool socks and that I have all the yarn I can knit. Happy Thanksgiving to you, knitters. :)

In Which The Great Gray Thing Is Finished

2010-11-16T10:32:00.002-06:00

Knitters, this is my first-ever Elizabeth Zimmerman project.

(crickets chirping)

Yes. Yes it is. I don't know how in the world I've managed to be a borderline-obsessive knitter for the past six years and not complete a single one of her patterns. I *love* Elizabeth's writing. I *love* it when I see someone's finished project. Why haven't I done one of my own? I have no idea.

But I have now.

This...THIS is the Great Gray Thing.

This is five skeins of 220 Tweed wool, knit with #10 needles through fall football games and movies, through a few episodes of Lie To Me and The Walking Dead, through reading several books on my iPad's Kindle app.

This is 39,000 stitches. This, dearies, is the July (Pi) Shawl, where I increased up to 576 stitches with a faux-increase round every 6 rows, then added five repeats of gullwing lace, then did EZ's sideways 8-stitch applied i-cord-ish border. For most of October and November, my stitches were bunched up on the biggest Addi circular I had, and I knit blindly, having absolutely no idea what the finished product was going to be.

This is it stretched out.

This is the reason I knit.

Soup

2010-11-03T09:10:00.003-05:00

I've been sniffly, sneezy, sleepy, and a little bit achy lately, so last night it was time to make a pot of soup. The recipe is mellow, flavorful, comforting, and good enough to share; it owes a nod to this recipe (Deborah Madison, not Julia Child).

Potato Leek Soup With Chicken
makes about 6 good-sized bowls

1.5 pounds potatoes - either Yukon Gold or red potatoes will work
1.5 pounds leeks (remember to figure in that you won't be using the stalks...this is about 3 good-sized leeks)
1 rotisserie chicken, skinned and shredded
2 medium carrots
2 quarts organic free-range chicken broth (because I said so)
2 tbsp organic butter
a bit of heavy cream
2 bay leaves
black pepper
salt

Rinse and slice the leeks and potatoes into 1/4" pieces (cut the leeks lengthwise, then slice them up, and cut a 3" potato into quarters, then slice). Peel and slice the carrots into 1/4" slices. If you're not familiar with leeks, you can use anything that's light green or white. The dark bits tend toward bitterness.

In a 6 qt dutch oven or other heavy pan suitable for soup, melt 2 tbsp butter on medium heat. Add the leeks and potatoes (this will look like a lot, but don't worry!), stir with a wooden spoon, and cover. Leave them alone for 10 minutes while you shred the chicken.

Remove the skin from the chicken, take the meat off the bones, and shred it with a fork. Use all of the white meat and add a bit of the thigh if you want for some more flavor (about 2-3 cups of shredded chicken). Save the drumsticks for a snack later. Once it's shredded, give it a rough chop with a kitchen knife to make manageable pieces. Set aside.

Stir your leeks and potatoes. Some sort of carmelizey happiness will be happening in the pot, just stir it up. Add the broth and scrub a little at the bottom of the pot with your spoon to sort of faux-deglaze it. Add 2 tsp pepper and 2 tsp salt (this recipe takes a lot of salt, and you'll probably salt it again). Cover the pot again, leave the heat on medium, and go away for 10 minutes.

Give the pot another stir, add the chicken and bay leaves, turn the heat to low, and cook for 45 minutes. Then fish out the bay leaves and add more salt and pepper if needed.

Serve it up and stir in a little bit of cream if you want - it's good both ways.

A Cautionary (Knitting) Tale

2010-10-22T13:50:00.003-05:00

I seem to be doing a rather fantastic job lately of messing things up. At some point around a year ago, I went to the yarn shop on a Thursday night and bought two lovely skeins of ShiBui Sock. I started knitting some socks with it, and remembered writing myself some notes on gauge and needle size in the book. I finished the first sock, let the knitting drop...and when I went back to knit the second, I couldn't remember the name of the pattern, the book it was in, or if I had even used a pattern. (This is why you should always start a Ravelry project page for your new projects!)

A few months later, I found my Favorite Socks book (in my knitting bag, ugh) and guess what? It was right there, covered with some sort of half-intelligible sticky notes with a few directions to myself and...so I started the second. Finished the second. And this lovely pair of socks...

...don't match. Everything is the same except I didn't go down far enough in needle size for the second, so I got an ugly pool of blue instead of a nice stripey sock.

That's not an elephant modeling the socks, by the way. That's just a bad camera angle.

I should have realized when I was running out of yarn (the ball is from the first, smaller sock, and the few little pieces are from the second, pooly, bigger sock).

These are the Diagonal Cross-Rib Socks from Favorite Socks. Please, if you make them, use the pattern journal (or make two at a time).

Fee says meh. She thinks they are fine. I agree. What do you think?

Little Cat-Powered Rocket Ships

2010-10-20T10:31:00.004-05:00

I think I have neglected knitting and this blog for so long I probably don't have any readers left. But if this post should pop up in your RSS feed and you stop by...welcome. I don't know what happened, or why I took such a long break, or why I suddenly can't stop knitting. I am dreaming in wool lately, y'all. So here are a few things that happened.

In January, my cat Grady had a serious problem with breathing, which led to an echocardiogram, which confirmed a diagnosis of advanced hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. (That's a common heart disease in cats...think of it as thickening of the heart muscle. It's progressive and there's no cure.) He seemed to do very well on medicine, just a little slower. In July, he stopped eating and things got a lot worse. (By worse I mean, no matter how much I tempted him with all his favorite food and treats, I still mostly had to shove food down his throat and hope he'd get better.) He lost 5 pounds. On September 30, I took him to the animal hospital to be boarded for a few days while I was in Michigan. He died in his sleep while I was away. While not totally unexpected, it was a bit of a surprise. He'd been outside to walk around with me every day for the last week or two and easily gone a hundred yards at one go. He seemed interested in life, and happy. The vet said his heart just stopped. He found him sitting with his nose touching the ground, his head tipped forward like he was resting.

Here is a picture of Grady as I remember him best.

Do you grieve the loss of a pet? Yes. You think you aren't going to, but then you see him everywhere. You accidentally call his name when you're looking for the other cat, the one who doesn't really know what happened and seems a little down herself. It's an odd feeling to know this little critter, who was cuddly and funny and mostly a big old grump, is just gone. He's not out there waiting for me to pick him up. He's just...not there.

I'm sure I've told enough crazy cat stories on this blog. My first knitting post in ages actually does have something to do with him, though. I decided to make these super-easy, totally awesome slippers back in August. I wasn't sure if I was going to like knitting again, so I went to JoAnn and spent as little as possible on some wool - some yarn by Debbie Stoller called Full O'Sheep. Turns out this stuff is a cat magnet.

All week long that week, I worked on those slippers. Whenever I set my knitting down, Grady got up from wherever he was and sat on it. Just those slippers - not the sock I had picked up again. I knitted the first big L and just let it sit so he could lay on it whenever he wanted. I ripped out the short side of the L and thought about making him a blanket, then decided to leave it since he liked it how it was. I was a little short of yarn, and decided not to finish them as long as he wanted to lay on them.

For two months, Grady sat on those almost-completed-but-not-felted slippers. When I dropped him off that day at the vet, I debated bringing them with me for him to lay on. Here is a very bad picture of Grady laying on the slippers.

Last weekend, I sewed the slippers up and felted them. I feel they have a sufficient amount of Grady fur in them to make them more than just a pair of slippers, but I won't go as far as to say I'd knit with cat hair. The slippers are so comfortable and thick, like a pair of felted socks. I absolutely love them. They look like little rocket ships (for future pairs I might choose more subdued colors). Yes, I could have done a better job sewing them. But they are just fine as they are.

And that is the story of my Schmady Slippers.

it's been a YEAR?

2010-09-01T10:07:00.003-05:00

Where have I BEEN?

Nowhere, really. I'm still making granny squares and also hexagons and knitting socks but I am not talking about knitting so much anymore. I did recently start reading knit blogs again, so...we'll see.

But I did order a copy of the Knitter's Almanac: Commemorative Edition and I'm very excited about that.

long lost

2009-09-16T22:56:00.003-05:00

Been crocheting like mad. Knit "Heelless Sleeping Socks" for my Gran from Knitting Vintage Socks. Seriously contemplating making a Babette blanket in Fisherman's Wool (maybe even all one colour).

Confession: I'm a Twitter addict. I'd love to say I had more to say than 140 characters, but mostly I just tweet.

But I miss my blog. Tonight I read over at Ravelry that 282 people have made my Arch-Shaped sock pattern. That is just wow.

I love all of you. :) If you love yarn, you are my friend.

Dear Everyone

2009-04-20T15:04:00.002-05:00

Dear Everyone,

I have just now realized that I ***must*** make granny squares. LOTS of granny squares. How should I channel all this ambition?

I think I need to place an order with KnitPicks. This week I also bought a new bag from Swell, a cat tree, and it's only Monday.

Can someone come over and hide my wallet for me? Thx.

xo,
me

American Idol Bingo, week 4 (first finals week)

2009-03-11T12:26:00.002-05:00

I put this together every year at work, and decided to share 'em this year online too.

Enjoy.

Where have I been?

2009-02-13T09:44:00.001-06:00

Mostly microblogging on Twitter - or whatever you call it. I keep up a pretty steady stream there all day and send my recent tweets to the blog sidebar. Just don't have much knitting to talk about or much to say knitwise. Sorry for that, but now at least you know where to find me. I'm @jenshow. :) Will probably start blogging American Idol soon.

Happy Valentine's Day! xo - jen

Back at it!

2009-01-15T09:26:00.003-06:00

I'm almost done with a sock! I've been working on a lovely yellow Reversi sock in Louet Gems sock yarn:

(Yes, I took that pic with my iPhone and then used the 1974 filter in Camera Bag.)

I love knitting. I have taken so long off that I'm not anywhere near what I used to be - can't knit for hours at a time - but what I'm doing, I love. :) Happy Thursday!

Memo

2009-01-12T15:44:00.002-06:00

In response to PETA's latest publicity stunt (calling fish "sea-kittens" in the hopes it will make people stop eating them), Grady and Fee request that you now refer to them as The Land Fish.

An Asthmatic's Guide to Natural Oven Cleaning, and No, It Didn't Take All Night

2009-01-09T21:06:00.005-06:00

We've done the carpet, darlings, and I've shared a bit of my wisdom for natural cleaning. Now it's time to move on to the hard stuff. If you have a self-cleaning oven, this post isn't for you.

I admit to you that before tonight, I've never cleaned the oven in this apartment. I've lived here for 8 1/2 years. I cleaned the oven at the last apartment I lived in using Easy-Off or some other foul cleaner. And honestly? Don't do it. Don't use those chemicals. They're vile and they stink and you'll get light-headed and sick from them even if you don't have asthma. And as I found out then, I'd rather have a dirty oven for 8 years than brave a chemical oven cleaner again. My lungs just plain can't take it.

So tonight, newly inspired by Kim & Aggie, I decided to look online for a natural oven-cleaning method. I went to a couple sites and some form of baking soda and vinegar was indicated. I made this up as I went keeping in mind what I know works for cleaning. Here's what I did; it got the oven relatively clean. It didn't get off some kind of burnt-into-the-enamel stain that probably got there the first time I cooked. Five solid minutes of scratching with steel wool didn't even mark it. But overall, it did an awfully darn good job of cleaning it up.

Time: about 20 min.

You'll need: a broom and dustpan, white vinegar, baking soda, dish washing liquid, tinfoil, a plastic dish for mixing, a tablespoon measure, a nylon scrubber, and steel wool (if you're so inclined). And some paper towels.

To begin, slide out your oven drawer and put it away from where you'll be working. You might want to put a flattened trash bag or newspapers underneath the door so that if crumbs fall out, they won't get in the drawer or on the floor. Get the pets and kids out of the room just for safety's sake - it is an electric appliance, after all, and stoves are very top-heavy. Make sure the thing is off, cool, and unplug it if you can (once the drawer is out it's not actually very heavy to move a stove). Otherwise work very carefully.

Next, you're going to need to clear out all the bits of burnt food that are hibernating in the bottom. (There was a black - no exaggeration - black tortilla chip in the bottom of my oven!) Fold a big piece of tinfoil in half and crumple it in a ball. Use it to scratch away at all the burnt food, which will shred up nicely. Sweep it into the dustpan with the broom. Your oven will look more or less like this:

Now, measure out 7 T of baking soda and three drops of dish liquid into your container:

And add 3 or 4 T of vinegar. You're looking to make a paste, so add accordingly.

This mixture will foam at first - baking soda and vinegar is the original scrubbing bubbles duo. That's just carbon dioxide gas being released, and won't hurt you or your lungs.

Stir into a fairly goopy paste, and then smear it on the bottom of the oven (you can also do the sides and back but I didn't need to):

Take your nylon scrubber or another ball of tinfoil and go to work. You're looking to scratch up any burnt-on food, and you'll be able to easily tell when you've hit enamel. Don't be afraid to scrub. The enamel can take it. Keep your knees bent and the small of your back straight while you do this.

Next, I dribbled a bit more vinegar onto the mix wherever it was too dry and pasty, and kept scrubbing. This is where you start to see a vile brown liquid full of stuff that was once coating your oven. Ick!

(The crumbs on the bottom of the door came off the tinfoil, which is why I decided to add more vinegar.)

Use paper towels to wipe up the mess and check yourself - is it still dirty? Keep working with the foil or scrubber, or switch to steel wool.

Then you'll use wet paper towels to get all the residue up. It will take a few swipes, but just keep going. And pretty soon, your oven will look like this:

Which is not half bad for no chemicals, at all! I'm very pleased with it.

Now, honestly: If your husband wants to get you a self-cleaning oven sometime for your birthday, anniversary, or Valentine's Day, TAKE IT. TAKE IT AND DO NOT COMPLAIN. Think of all the years you'll save 20 minutes of elbow-grease. Think of being an old lady and trying to stoop and scrub. Think of how much time your beloved will save you from working.

And take the dang thing. It *is* romantic - flowers die, but a good oven will last 20 years. 20 years of no oven-cleaning. That is my idea of romance. :o)

Just...do it.

2009-01-09T07:05:00.001-06:00

Seriously.

10 Ways to Winterize Your Life

2009-01-08T08:39:00.009-06:00

This is a post I've been meaning to do for quite some time - we all know that everybody looks different in summer and winter, and summer beauty/makeup/fashion is usually a lot more effortless than winter. (Personally, I much, much prefer fall and winter in nearly every way.) Most people also feel different in winter than summer. So how do you winterize your life?

I'll begin with some ground rules, for anyone not already familiar with my sensibilities. The first is to put your expectations in keeping with the real world. Photos lie. Professional stylists and makeup artists are paid $75-$125 an hour here in Nashville to handle a person's clothing and makeup. During the typical album cover photo shoot, you will have at the very minimum a makeup and hair person, a stylist, an art director, a photographer, several assistants, a hospitality manager, and various other people. Every single one of them is skilled - highly skilled, as in chosen profession - of making Faith or Brad or whoever look like the recognizable celebrity you know (it's harder than you think) and creating absolute perfection in an image.

Photos are fantasy. Get that out of the way. Chances are you will never be able to achieve that level of fantasy yourself. Chances are also good that no matter how thin you are you will never even begin to approach the way a fashion model is built. So leave that behind. We are going to make the best YOU we can make - not make you into a fantasy.

Your house has to be lived in, and won't be showroom-perfect or even immaculate most of the time. But you can freshen it up, even when it's cold, snowy and miserable outside.

So without further ado...

1. Winterize your body by winterizing your diet. This is a no-brainer you hear all the time, but it's true - you need fresh fruit and veg, fiber, nuts, unprocessed food and water to be healthy. These foods do the job of getting crud out of your system and repairing cell damage. Look for brightly colored fresh food. Winter or summer veg are fine, just be in the habit of eating them every day. It will show on your face and in your body. Don't neglect good fats, either - sunflower seeds, for example, contain essential fatty acids that help your body process bad fats. They will do more than you can imagine to make you feel healthy.

2. Winterize your skin. It's possible you may need a heavier moisturizer. Don't be afraid of moisturizer with oils, just don't use any kind of "moisture" on your skin that contains mineral oil. Mineral oil has a tendency to dry your skin out over the long term. My personal favorite is Hope In A Jar (Philosophy). It's a bit pricey but very nice, not too thick or clingy and contains lots of goodies for your skin. If you're more of a drugstore-product gal, it's worth the money to buy Oil of Olay. As far as I have been able to tell, their Regenerist line is one of the few skin care lines proven to do what it actually says. Don't waste your money on La Mer. Don't shower in super-hot water, either.

3. Winterize your hands. Hands are one of the first places winter weather begins to take its toll, and once they start cracking and bleeding it can be very hard to heal them. Make sure you have a good hand cream on hand (ha ha) - I like Neutrogena's Hand Cream and Aveda Hand Repair - both stay on through repeated washings. Next, you'll need liquid soap, about a half cup of table sugar, and some olive oil. Suds up your hands with the soap and scoop up a big handful of sugar. Wash your hands normally - not too hard. The mixture will turn white. Rinse with warm water. Your hands will feel very smooth. If they're exceedingly dry, a few drops of olive oil worked in will do wonders. If not, use the lotion, and reapply it anytime throughout the day that your hands feel dry. Knitters, now is the time to pull out some lanolin-rich wool and work the lanolin into your hands...they will thank you. I would do the sugar scrub no more than twice a week.

4. Winterize your hair. The best advice I can give you in this department is do not wash your hair every day. (In fact, I'd only ever advise washing your hair every day if it's summer and you're outside exercising hard.) Every other day is absolutely fine for most people. If you're scared of looking or smelling manky, fill a spray bottle with five ounces of water, a tablespoon of witch hazel, and about 15 drops of lavender essential oil. (Or use Bumble & Bumble Prep.) Tip your head over and spray the underside of your hair. Stand back up and do the top. Now DO NOTHING for the next twenty minutes. Don't brush it - it will kill your existing style. Once it's dry, you can restyle your hair. You can wet your hair down and restyle - no shampoo. Just don't use the old high-school baby powder trick. Do you really want your hair smelling like a baby's bum? I didn't think so.

5. Winterize your hair colour. Last summer you loved your colour - now it's January and you're feeling washed out. This is all down to what's called contrast level. Your hair is one colour, and your skin is another. The difference between the tones in your hair and skin is the contrast level. Dark hair and pale skin = high contrast. Blonde hair and golden skin = low contrast. Chances are, your contrast level changed because your skin lightened up a little. You might feel the urge to make your hair lighter to compensate - but don't! You should actually go a shade or two darker. Increasing your contrast level will help you look better in your winter clothes - usually neutral - and will help you handle the darker makeup you're wearing. You can darken your lipstick and play a bit more with dramatic eye colour in winter. Generally speaking, highlights in the wintertime aren't a good idea. First, you'll indicate to everyone around you that your hair is dyed. Second, most people don't need a light-boosting lift in the winter. That's a summertime trick. If you don't colour your hair, now might be a good time to experiment with henna. It's messy and you have to do it right, but it can be a lot of fun. Check out Les Cacas over at Lush.com. Blondes might want to go a little blonder in winter - bringing their skin and hair colour closer together. If you are a porcelain girl - blond hair and the palest white skin, like a certain actress named Nicole - then you might carefully go from blond to gold or blond to strawberry blond. But if you go up too much it will be horrid. Be careful.

6. Winterize your...eyes. Ladies, wear your sunglasses in winter. It isn't just the risk of going snow-blind (a sunburn on your retinas caused by sunlight on reflected snow). UV damage to your eyes in winter can be just as bad as in the summer. Also, you don't need to squint. It won't help your look or your skin care regimen.

7. Winterize your makeup. It's a good idea to have your foundation tested to find your shade. I also seem to always change concealer shade in the winter. Look for a yellow-based foundation (yes, even you Asian girls! Pink skin never helped ANYBODY). If you are doing your own test, buy or test the two or three colors you think will work best on you. Using your finger, apply a strip of it vertically to the side of your face. Blend. The one that disappears WHEN YOU ARE IN DAYLIGHT is your colour. Do not test makeup under fluorescent, halogen, or other artificial light. If it looks good in daylight, it will not fail you under any other light. Keep your makeup more on the classic side in the winter. And use some type of bronzer - not a ton, just a bit - whether it's Warmth or a Shimmer Brick compact or even the great, great bronzers Sonia Kashuk has. It will really keep your look going. Darkening your hair will keep you from having to change makeup colours.

8. Winterize your wardrobe. I don't even really need to say much about this. Do try on unexpected colours. I never thought a gray wool coat would work on me, so a couple of years ago I got a really nice camel one. This year, I tried on and bought gray. It's amazing how much better it looks on me than the camel.

9. Winterize your exercise plan. I'm an outdoor girl - I don't like gyms and I'm happiest when sweating outside. But with a 17-degree wind chill, I'm just not going to go do the actual work. So I have some indoor tapes (a Kathy Smith indoor walking DVD) and an Indo Board balance trainer. And I can go to the workout room at my apartment complex. Not saying you have to join a gym or buy your own machines - just have a backup plan. The trick is to plan. Exercise is good for you on so many levels and it's the easiest way there is to take really good care of yourself physically. Just go for a walk. And having a cold is no excuse - recent research says that exercising during a cold does not prolong your cold or make you feel worse.

10. Winterize your household routines. I know - this one is kind of dumb. But it seems like every winter I am taking apart the oven to clean it, scrubbing behind doors I haven't thought of in months, and that my apartment is perpetually dirty. Watch Kim & Aggie on the BBC for some great cleaning tips. Buy a box of baking soda, a bottle of witch hazel, corn starch, some non-concentrated, natural dish soap, a box of Tide, a bottle of bleach, and a gallon of white vinegar. You can clean everything in your house including the toilet with these. (How did Granny get the house sparkling with no Scrubbing Bubbles? There's your hint.) All this stuff is dirt cheap and with the exception of the Tide and bleach, it's all-natural. Storing messy chemicals under your sink isn't good for breathing. Mix baking soda and vinegar for a sink-scrubbing foamy cleaner. Use baking soda where you'd use scouring powder. Put vinegar in your dishwater to make your sink and stainless shine. Mix up a dab of cornstarch in hot water, spray down the windows and mirrors, rub with a cloth and polish. You'll never buy windex again. And - the horror - get a dedicated sponge for cleaning the toilet. Put in a bit of Tide, a glug of bleach, and let it sit. Then scrub your toilet. No need to bother with cruddy toilet brushes. Flush it all down and you'll be amazed at how clean your potty is. Then use Tide and water to scrub the outside. Use rubber gloves.

Witch hazel cuts grease; cornstarch absorbs it; baking soda freshens and acts as natural scouring powder; dish soap is good for everything, from washing the sink to cleaning out the litter box; and vinegar or lemon juice works to cut the greasiest grease. You really don't need to spend money on cleaners. The one exception I'd make is countertop wipes. They are quick and easy, and they do the trick.

There's my monster article - hope you like! Happy winter!

The Pony

2009-01-06T21:43:00.002-06:00

My aunt Ester had big blond hair and bright blue eyes and a gap in her teeth. She laughed all the time. She was Norwegian, my grandma's sister, and she and her husband had A SHEEP FARM right under my nose in Hart, MI. (She died last year at 95 and I am positive she was laughing and twinkling when she went.) At Aunt Ester's farm they had a pony. WHICH THEY LET ME RIDE.

Did it make me happy? YOU BETCHA!

Mom's looking quite smart, isn't she?

:)

Dear AnnLanders,

2009-01-03T16:17:00.000-06:00

Please advise me at what point I need to go to Dyson Users Anonymous. I've vacuumed three times in four days and feel I might be losing control.

Signed,
Embarrassed in Nashville

My new Dyson

2008-12-31T12:41:00.008-06:00

Or, An Asthmatic's Review of Dyson Vacuums (and Zorb carpet cleaner).

For anyone who doesn't know this and is cruising in after a Google search, I have asthma. It's well-controlled with Singulair and Proventil; I drink POM juice every day for the quercetin, and I have two air cleaners going all the time. My asthma bothers me most in spring and fall - it's allergic, seasonal asthma. I have two cats I am not allergic to, but I bathe them every 3 weeks just in case.

So, I got some Christmas money and some gift cards at Best Buy and there was a sale, I bought one, and now I'm the happy owner of a Dyson DC-14 "all floors" vacuum.

If you're wondering about the models, the basic idea is that all models within a particular number series (14, 17, etc.) are the same vacuum, but you can find different attachments included in each bundle. The Asthma bundle has an attachment for cleaning mattresses, and the Animal vacuum has an attachment with a beater brush for cleaning upholstery. I plan to add on attachments as I go, so I got the basic model. It comes with three attachments - crevice, dust, and small areas - to use with the hose.

I also bought a bag of Dyson brand Zorb carpet cleaner. This is supposed to grab dirt from within your carpet and help the vacuum pick it up.

The first thing I did was tweet about getting a Dyson. My tweeps gave me a lot of good advice about what to do with it - vacuum a room five times, go slowly, take pictures, etc. Here's my experience with it!

(Let me just say my asthma has been bad this week.)

I vacuumed with it last night just to try it out. It seemed to pick up a pretty normal amount of dust and dirt, but I just went quickly, didn't move anything, and didn't really do a thorough job. I've had a Hoover for about two years and it died on me, but it was also a bagless and I saw a lot of junk, cat hair and dust picked up with it. So it seemed at least even last night. But today, I decided to do the go-slow-five-times route. And I took pictures! Here is the collection bin after five passes in my 10x14 foot fully carpeted dining room. I moved all the furniture and cat toys and stuff, btw.

And here is the carpet after those five passes:

While there isn't THAT much cat hair in the bin, I am absolutely astonished at the amount of cat litter, dust, and other smaller particles the Dyson picked up. Remember, this is ONE ROOM.

As for the asthma, the air expelled from the Dyson doesn't smell dusty, musty, or bother me in any way. It smells as clean as what comes out of my air cleaners.

Now for the fun part. Zorb carpet cleaner comes in a big bag and is kind of like a three-way cross between sawdust, brown sugar, and Captain Crunch. You'll sprinkle it all over your carpet, rub it in with a broom, let it set for 30 minutes, and then vacuum thoroughly. I'd recommend banishing your pets for this part of the process. (While the bag does not say it's toxic, anything animals step or lay in, they tend to lick off their fur later. I didn't want my cats ingesting this powder.)

So obviously, you'll need:

A bag of Zorb, something to scoop it out and sprinkle with (I used a measuring cup) and a kitchen broom.

Sprinkle it on the carpet:

And rub it in with the broom.

Once you have done that, set your timer for thirty minutes and go relax. (I actually sprinkled my living room, but that only took 15 minutes.)

Vacuum. It smells really good and fresh and did not make me wheeze at all.

After Zorb, it looks MUCH cleaner, particularly in high-traffic areas like near the patio door:

And the bin? You can see what's Zorb. I'm amazed at how much other junk is in there, too!

Remember, I emptied the "five times" dirt. Still so much cat hair, Jen hair, and dust! Way whole lotta dust.

I did the living room, too. Results were the same, except I have some stains to get out. For this, I'm going to try Dyson Dyzolv, and I've got to go to Target for that.

But it still looks very clean. This carpet is 8 years old, btw.

Cats came out of quarantine and didn't seem bothered by the scent or feel at all. I think it smells great, and I have not had any asthma problems with it at all.

Next I used the hose (cleverly stored in the handle and very easy to use once you get the hang of it) to clean all six sets of mini blinds in my living room and dining room. It got them spotless. I used the crevice tool around the baseboards to get up the odd bits of cat litter and junk that congregate there. And I used the flat attachment to clean the couch. For the ottoman in my living room, I just picked up the whole vacuum and put it on top. It was fine.

If you have delicate carpet, set the floor adjustment to bare floors or the beater brush may make it fuzz. If you vacuum throw rugs or other carpets that aren't securely attached to floor, it will pick them up and make an awful noise. This thing has major suction. Don't use it on animals, either. (Grady loves to be vacuumed, but he does NOT love the Dyson.) And I used the duster tool to do my computer keyboard, which was pretty manky - and is now spotless.

I didn't find any problems with it. Of course, your mileage may vary. I read a lot of reviews beforehand (woot is particularly good) and it pretty much did everything I expected it to do. Assembly is very easy out of the box (there is a really well-designed instruction manual that tells you everything). The only thing I wish it did that it doesn't do? I wish it made me pancakes.

I'd highly recommend a Dyson, as a pet owner, a person with carpet and fairly long hair (which gets everywhere) and asthmatic.

Dear Blog

2008-12-13T22:47:00.002-06:00

Dear Blog,

I miss you. I miss our chats. I miss you listening patiently to my rants.

I admit I've been cheating on you with Twitter.

I admit I haven't knitted anything - not one stitch - since Thanksgiving weekend, though I am still dreaming nightly of wearing my Bird in Hand mitts.

I admit they aren't going to finish themselves.

Bloggy, I hope we get together more often than we have been. I think everybody (including me) got bored with the normal-life stuff.

See, there's something I haven't told them...that is, that last winter I had a book offer from a publisher. For what? they may ask. Well, for an idea. Truth is, there was no book. Only idea.

But the more we talked, the more we realized that our ideas of the book differed, and the book was not going to happen. We parted ways and breathed a sigh of relief.

It felt weird to blog and not be able to talk about the whole process - how much I struggled with being a writer, how my ideas for other parts of it were just completely excited and happy and ... fell flat when I talked about them.

Thing is, I'm not actually disappointed, other than having an idea in my mind of how it could have been. You know? When you have a vision for something and it doesn't catch, it's not going to work. So there's no point in wishing it was different.

But I think it killed my relationship to you, Blog, or at least made it hibernate for a while. Suddenly I was faced with being much more public and probably having to be a lot more serious and together than I usually am, and I worried all the time about saying the right thing. I didn't pick up my needles, and I stopped carrying my knitting around with me. I started thinking it sure made my living room cluttered.

But I have been away from Knitting for a while now, and I miss it. I want it back. For me, not as a source of worry, work or pressure (all self-induced, the publisher could literally not have been nicer to work with than they were), but just because I like to do it, I'm fairly good at it, and that is enough.

I don't want to give you any more details, blog, but I do want to tell you stories and laugh and keep a journal of my knitting on you, if that's okay. If you don't totally hate me. I have been negligent.

It took me two months to figure out how to say this. The saddest part of the whole thing was that knitting and blogging fell by the wayside. I do not want that to be true anymore.

Love,
MG

Achoo!

2008-11-19T09:27:00.000-06:00

So where have I been? Well, I've been designing book covers. Part of my assignment for the next year is doing 4 books for teen girls. It's a good stretch for me but requiring a level of obsession that is not sustainable with regular blogging. Basically I have to completely dive into it.

I have a cold. I think. I am sneezy and used my neti pot and Zicam this morning and am feeling at least slightly better. But not sure if I'm truly sick or it's just the weather.

So anyway. Back soon. I will try to think of something interesting to say.

VOTE.

2008-11-04T08:57:00.003-06:00

Go vote.

Don't listen to the media, who pretend this election has already been decided by the small minority of people who participate in polling.

Don't listen to the people who are saying one candidate already has things wrapped up. He doesn't, and the flurry of activity coming out of his campaign says he doesn't.

Don't stay home thinking your vote doesn't matter. You have a say in who rules over this country for the next four years.

Go vote. Don't stay home today. Elections are decided by people, not polls.

Go vote.

Sunday best

2008-11-02T16:41:00.004-06:00

Y'all know I love for you to hit up new blogs with me - this one is really cool. My friend Tifany - my awesome, darling, trustworthy, wise, fabulous & beautiful friend Tifany - is one of those people I really secretly want to strangle sometimes because she is SO gifted at thrifting -

- and I am not. I go to a Goodwill and see walls full of junk. She walks out with a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer for 8 bucks.

So really, I am not going to strangle my friend! But I am so happy to tell you that she started a blog to share her thrifty finds and home improvement projects with us. She's also a wife, mom of 2 and homeschools her kids so no saying you don't have time!

Check out her blog here: Savvy Suburban Supermom. Her latest bookshelf project? Fabulous!

It pained me too much to tell y'all last week, but I finished my first Knotty or Knice sock - and it's too tight across my ankle. It was fiddly and drove me crazy, and though the result is beautiful, my heart is just not in knitting the second sock. So I started another pair, because I have so much yellow Gems Opal sock yarn from my failed TDF project - this time a pair of Reversi. (In my sidebar.)

However, I strongly believe this yarn is jinxed for me right now and I am not sure I will ever finish it. So I am thinking of digging through the sock yarn to find something else, and just putting the yellow yarn aside.

(PS: GAP is having a sale on winter coats, I got a gray 60s-looking short trench wool coat for 30% off...)