Viviana's Mad Howls

%@!&$!! Light Box

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 15:51:00 +0000

You may have just noticed that Blogger has force fed a light box feature onto all their blogs. I discovered this whilst trying to grab a couple of images from the Graphics Fairy.

So I went to the Blogger site and under the question " How do I turn off the Light Box" (or something to that effect) there is some code posted. I tried to paste it into this post but Blogger won't leave it as text, so all I can do here is advise you to go to the Blogger help section and look for the light box info.

I did paste the code into my template as directed and it worked fine. No light box for my kinky stockings!

Kinky Stockings!

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 22:42:00 +0000

Well, it’s fall. Oh, alright, technically not until 21 September, but leaves are starting to turn, die and fall off the trees (or turn, fall off the trees and die). Even here in Seattle, where it’s freaking 85 degrees and we’ve had only one day of rain since July 18th.

Those of you in the parade route of tropical storms are experiencing mid-monsoon season, from what I can gather. Hurricanes can show up through the end of, what, November? October? Nope, not gonna look it up. Sorry. But if you’re stuck at home, you might as well knit stockings.

I found these late summer stocking and sock patterns from the Australian Women’s Weekly dated 24 February 1965. (No, I’m not an idiot - their seasons are opposite of ours). The stocking patterns on page 18 are for some wonderfully lacy patterns. I haven’t knitted them - c’mon, if I waited to knit them before posting the patterns, we’d all be living in Keynes’ long run (i.e. dead). So I thought I’d post the patterns along with some other fun (!?!) stuff from that issue of AWW.

The cover shows a nice selection of stockings - none of them are actually included in the patterns to knit, but those brownish-stockings in the diamond pattern would be super-easy to make on ones own. All you need is a diamond pattern & you can make it garter or purl fabric. (Click to embiggen.)

More stocking/sock eye candy from this issue, and another diamond pattern that I like very much (Click to embiggen):

Now, I know everyone is anticipating the stocking patterns - but hold on. There’s some wonderful crap I found in this issue that I’m going to share. For example, there were labels and bookmarks for kids to put on their notebooks. Check out the first one - it has a proto lolcat photo. That cat looks like one surly drunk! The others pale in comparison to “Party Cat”. (I assume everyone understands to click on the photos to see a larger version - and you really do want to click on the next one.)

Here are some photos of the new ‘military look’ coming into fashion that year. I love the pointy plaid shoes, even though I’d never wear them. All that plaid... I don’t see anything exceptionally military by my definition, but I have no idea how the Australian military dressed in the early 1960s.

And some recipes - I love reading through old recipes. Sometimes they're almost Lovecraftian in the level of horror they can induce. This issue had a bunch of gingerbread recipes, some of them disturbing, and we all know I love to share disturbing.

The first page has some basic, decent-sounding recipes. The brandied-honey recipe sounds like a good idea and a nice thing for a chilly night.

The second has what I consider questionable entries. The coffee spice one, for example - coffee, chocolate and ginger... Or recipes that call for treacle (the Scotch gingerbread). And a pineapple upside down gingerbread - I don’t like anything pineapple upside down. Ugh.

I’m not sure about the lemon cheese pie, either - do people use gelatin in that way anymore? It’s made of hooves, you know.

Below is an interesting tale of Olde New Yorke, which sounded, well, rather like Olde New Yorke. No artisanal expensive crap in this story of the East Village. I liked the photos, too.

I love the description of the store on 14th; I always try to find stores like that. Big, sexy, rich cities like Seattle and Manhattan have done their best to eliminate those kind of businesses. Too bad - amazing treasures were to be had in that type of place.

Are you bored yet? Good. Here are the stocking patterns:

And finally, I want to make a product with the name “Dominex”. That’s a great name, whether it’s for pudding or personal ads (or both, I guess).

Seems wasted on a coat manufacturer, particularly since there are no leather straps and buckles and such.

Oh yeah, the Mary Elizabeth Braddon novel I was going to post is on Google now (in my defense, it wasn't 3 years ago when I last checked). So you can click on The Phantom Fortune if you wish to read it (this will take you to vol. 1 on Google books).

Blockage, plus inane ramblings

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 22:00:00 +0000

I finally got some stuff blocked - my friend Trixie asked me to block a shawl for her, so while I was in blocking mode I did a couple of other things:

Finally, the Hemlock Ring blanket completed in January 2009:

And I blocked December Wind by Renee Leverington (purple confuses my camera - I don't know why - so the photos are extra crappy):

My mother liked this one even before it was blocked, so I gave it to her for her birthday. The yarn was from Susan at the Spinning Bunny, and was lovely to work with. Note that this is the first time my mother has ever liked anything I've knitted.
.
And then I blocked Dover Castle, which I'd knitted up in the lightweight version of Berroco's Ultra Alpace - that stuff is also really sweet to work with:

Meh. I have no idea what was confusing my camera. They've been tearing down the building just outside my kitchen window; when I take pix of the Leviathan that's eating the building, they turn out just fucking fine:

So perhaps I should just stick with photos of heavy equipment. Or perhaps I need to display my FOs on heavy equipment. I was going to make some snide remark about "forget those tastefully displayed items in beautiful settings", but since I don't put fuck-all effort into photographing my work such sarcasm would simply make folks spit out their coffee. And I don't want that.

I got an email yesterday, along with my other classmates, offering us temporary positions again with the CIA - since I can't live on the $800/month I'm currently getting on UI, I will be working again starting the 16th of this month. So I need to get a few things posted in the next few days. I mean, I've only had 5-1/2 months to do anything.

No surprise, I spent my last Friday night of freedom in a knitting workshop with Franklin Habit. Honestly, I'd recommend taking anything from him, even if it's a workshop on making mud pies. Smart, funny, and passionate about teh knitting. The class I took was Knitting from Antique Patterns, or some such title (you really expect me to move from my seat and look up the exact title? Really? Well, I'm practicing immobility in preparation of returning to work, so there). There was a woman who brought her grandmother's notebook of knitting patterns - I wish we'd had an hour to look through those babies, although perhaps my drooling on them wouldn't have been the best thing. Oh well, I'll satisfy myself with the 1884 Sampler Books (see link on left side bar) and Nancie Wiseman's "Lace in the Attic". In fact, I've a couple of wrister experiments in the wings using several of the 1884 Sampler Book edgings. Someday they'll be completed and posted... someday....

It's only been 10 months

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 00:32:00 +0000

Finally back on the interwebz, as they used to say somewhere at some point in time.

Apologies if you experience weirdness upon visiting the blog. I've been tinkering with a pre-designed template (because I'm too lazy to master html), but it came with some crap that I didn't want, and I haven't been able to disable it all yet. And I'm not entirely pleased with what I'm getting, but hopefully this is at least legible. Let us all pray to our various deities, or wish really hard (for those who eschew the gods) that I'll find it in me to fix it for once and for all.

The main reason for the long silence was that I was employed from September 2010 until April 2011. The job was a soul-consuming madness-inducing tribulation –but nonetheless I was working my ass off, in addition to the hellish commute (most of that time the round trip from the job was 2 hrs 40 minutes), simply trying to stay employed. All for naught, of course – everyone they hired in September they laid off just over six months later.

It’s taken me a few weeks to get things sorted, and to get in the knitting groove again. So I’ll have some things to post over the next while -- I've had more time to look through Australian newspapers for lots of old crap, er vintage & Victorian knitting patterns and the like, as well as some 1930s stuff (‘cause that’s when the best designs were done if you ask me, or even if you didn’t).

'The like' consists of a novel written by Mrs Mary Elizabeth Braddon, author of "Lady Audley's Secret", one of my favorite Victorian novels, a rather lurid tale. Elizabeth Klett does a wonderful reading of it that you can access at Librivox. I know that some of the Librivox recordings are painful - in fact, some qualify as torture, but I assure you, Ms Klett does a fine job of reading this tale. It was a wonderful thing to listen to during a cold winter, knitting up shawls.

Good grief, have I digressed and in a most meandering fashion! The point is, I found an 1883 novel of Mrs Braddon's in one of the Australian newspapers, so I'll be posting it over the next few weeks. I haven't read it - it could be a real dog. If so, I'll be sharing the pain with y'all fine readers.

I have also knitted up a couple of lace patterns found in various fine down-under fish wrappers. One is from the Launceston Examiner dated 28 November 1893; it's from a ladies' column. It looks like shark fins more than anything else. Yes, yes, a variation on sawtooth edgings... but if you hold it with the points pointing upward, it looks like a line of baby shark fins.

A Young Reader: The following is an easy edging suitable for Shetland or other wool shawls. By Butterfly.

Cast on 3 sts.
Row 1: Sl 1, k 2.
Row 2 & every even row: Sl 1, knit across.
Row 3: Sl 1, yo, k2.
Row 5: Sl 1, yo, k3.
Row 7: Sl 1, yo, k4.
Row 9: Sl 1, yo, k5
Row 11: Sl 1, yo, k6
Row 13: Cast off 5, k2.

To continue in this way, do not knit a 'Row 14' but instead start again with Row 2. The instructions said to repeat from Row 2, but didn't include that last bit, so my first time around proved quite entertaining. The slipped stitches at the beginning of each row do not reduce the stretchiness of the edging - indeed, I cannot emphasize enough exactly how freaking stretchy this is. I chose to knit it in garter stitch - many olde timey edgings were, and of course that helped with the stretchy. Sample was knitted on US 6/4 mm needles with some fingering weight yarn. I blocked the bejeezus out of this edging.

The next is from the North Australian Supplement dated Saturday, 28 April 1888, and was found in the "Household" section.

Imitation English Thread Lace

Cast on 9 sts.
Row 1: K2, yo, k3, yo, k2tog, k2.
Row 2: Knit plain.
Row 3: K2, yo, k5, yo, k2tog, k1.
Row 4: Knit plain.
Row 5: K2, yo, k1, k2tog, yo x 3, sl 1, k2tog, psso, k1, yo, k2tog.
Row 6: K4, k1-p1-k1 in the 3 yos, knit plain the remaining sts.
Row 7: K1 ,k2tog, yo, k2tog, k3, k2tog, yo, k2.
Row 8: Knit plain.
Row 9: K1, k2tog, yo, k2tog, k1, i2tog, yo, k3.
Row 10: Knit plain.
Row 11: K1, k2tog, yo, sl 1, k2tog, psso, yo, k4.
Row 12: Knit plain.

Again, I worked this in garter stitch for the sample. The pattern calls for 'knit plain', which I generally take to mean stockinette, but again, since I've seen many older edgings worked in garter, I decided to start with that. Sample is worked in Knit-Cro-Sheen (probably - unmarked thread, but the same weight) on US 3/3.25 mm needles for that extra-lace look. Actually because that was the first size that came to hand....

I thought this was an interesting lace - I've seen lots with big holes, but the thread/needle combination created something fairly impressive. And I have no idea which is the 'top' and 'bottom' edge of the lace; no illustration was provided, so I chose the side with the most shape as the 'bottom' edge. I didn't try to get a straight edge on both sides; I suppose one could use it as an insertion but since the pattern is different on the two edges I chose not to try that experiment.

I've also pulled some recipes from the Launceston Examiner, and hints for a woman about to be engaged from the North Australian Supplement in case someone out there is seeking personal advice from 1888.

Woman's World (by Butterfly.) Pudding Recipe.

I am told that the pudding you require is an Austrian (...); its name is Weichzel(?) strudel. The paste is made with egg and flour, and rolled out to the thinness of paper on a clean linen cloth. Have ready cherries (stoned), and spread them on the paste; sprinkle with fine sugar, nutmeg, and a little cinnamon. Then roll as for a "roley-poley" until the roll is between 2-1/2 in and 3 in thick; bend or twist it into a coil; place on a baking-tin well buttered, and put a little butter on the roll. This is often made with apples, sliced and cut into small pieces, when cherries are not in season. {NB - the type was difficult to read at the beginning of the recipe, hence the parentheses.}

I suspect one could simply go to the grocery store and purchase some filo dough to use instead of experimenting with pastry recipes, but I haven't tried this one, so experiment at your own risk, folks!

Rice Waffles. - One cup of boiled rice, one pint milk, two eggs, butter the size of a walnut, half a teaspoonful of soda, one teaspoonful of cream of tartar, one teaspoonful of salt, flour, sufficient to make a thin batter. Bake in waffle irons.

Chocolate Cake. - Beat up 1/4 lb castor sugar with two eggs, then add very gradually the yolks of six eggs, two small cakes of chocolate grated, a little lemon peel, 1/4 lb of ground almonds, the whites of six eggs previously whisked to a stiff froth and 1 oz of flour; pour the mixture into a buttered mould, and bake.

I haven't cooked up these either - the chocolate cake recipe certainly isn't the typical modern chocolate cake; I'm certainly curious to make that one. As for the rice waffles - well, let me know how that one turns out, okay?

The advice for engaged women (jpeg on the right, bottom row) is rather long & fairly uninteresting unless you have a mind sufficiently dirty to render the phrase "with a servant behind" mildly entertaining.

Jpegs are included below in case you think I've made a typo (or in case I have made a typo).

I'll Bet This Is Highly Effective Birth Control

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 08:42:00 +0000

KNITTED RUBBER, IN COTTON.

Includes instructions if a longer rubber is needed.

(Yes, I realize this is extremely sophomoric humor.)

This makes an excellent substitute for a sponge for children, and can be so easily kept nice and free from grease and so quickly renewed that it will be a favourite manner of knitting for the nursery.

Materials : Knitting cotton No. 6 (white only), two knitting needles, No. 10.

Cast on 78 stitches and knit 4 rows of plain knitting.

—1st row of pattern. Knit 3, *, make 1 by putting the thread in front, slip 1, knit 2 together, repeat from * 23 time* more, knit 3

—2nd row. Knit plain.

—3rd row. Knit 3, *, knit 2 together, slip 1, make 1, repeat from * 23 times more, knit 3.

—4th row. Knit plain.

Repeat these 4 rows 24 times (more if requiring a longer rubber), knit 4 rows (NB - I believe this refers to a garter st border); and to form a loop for hanging up the rubber cast off 33 stitches, knit 8, turn, cast off 4, and on the remaining 4 work 16 rows, place the 4 stitches to the first 4 stitches of the remaining 37, and cast off together, cast off the remainder of the row.

From The Queenslander, January 8, 1906

ROTFLMAO!

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:25:00 +0000

Ha ha ha ha ha!

Okay, I confess, I don't get the joke, unless he's knitting them up out of steel wool, or knitting extra lumps into them...

It's from The Argus, Melbourne, Australia, 26 June 1941. Perhaps Australian humor is just different.

This cartoon, and the patterns below, are courtesy of the National Library of Australia. You can search out lovely patterns, and even correct the robotic translation if you're bored and anal. Apparently there's also some way to list these on Ravelry, but don't ask me for details. A Rarer Borealis posted in more detail about posting there. Me, I'm content to browse for myself only - but I am tagging articles "knit, knitting" in part because I tend to forget I've already looked at something.

If you're one of us obsessives who seek out patterns from any weird old newspaper, this is a real treasure trove.

I'm posting these as a sample of what I've found. They're not special in any way, really - just a sample of what you can find. These were published in the ladies' Sunday supplement. I guess it had gossip and crap like "Parade" magazine did (haven't read it in 35 years), but also nifty knitting patterns. "Parade" was never that awesome.

Meh, the print isn't quite as large on the pattern text as I'd like. I've saved the originals, which are large enough that even I can read them, so if you want them emailed to you just leave me a comment.

ETA: Of course, clicking on the images will bring up larger versions. Just not as large as I'd hoped.

I'll post more as I root around on the site.

Victorian Knitted Stocking Tops - The Sequel

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 06:04:00 +0000

From the 1887 edition of The Belding Self-Instructor in Silk Knitting, Crocheting and Embroidery. You can find the entire book at the Antique Pattern Library if you're so motivated.

Enjoy!

In Today's News

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 01:21:00 +0000

Being unemployed, I have plenty of time to comb through newspapers and look for knitting news. Today’s news included an article about needleworking truckers, including this fellow below…

And knitting terrorism in West Cape May, New Jersey, an example of which is below:

South Jersey - you need the help. Trust me - I've been there. Let the knitters alone, would you?

But you don’t really think that I was all excited about these news items, do you? After all, as an old art terrorist myself (and I have the t-shirt to prove it somewhere), I’m not shocked at knitters putting cozies on trees.

So my searches drifted further and further into the past until I landed in November 1933. so here's all the knitted news fit to print from late 1933. (There may be a bonus pattern at the end, but you have to read the electrifying news first, dear reader.)

Neulewing, Germany, Dec. 9—(AP)—Knitting two pairs of woolen socks for Adolf Hitler to wear at his Bavarian mountain retreat was the greatest joy which Frau Marie Kleeman had when she celebrated her 102d birthday recently.

A special Nazi guard of honor visited her, and a congratulatory telegram from Hitler and a costly porcelain cup and saucer from the Prussian government were among the gifts.

“Mother” Kleeman’s pride, however, centered in the socks. She mailed them to Hitler that same day and explained:

“They’ll keep Herr Hitler’s feet warm even in the coldest weather. I’m sure he’ll need them.”

Before you start complaining about the fascist centenarian, keep in mind that she might simply have been excited that she could still whip out a pair of socks at her age. However, I like to think that the last sentence was full of malice, perhaps a dire prediction of Hitler’s ultimate failures, and that the socks were a gift with bitter irony worked into each stitch.
Barring that, I hope they were at least made of the itchiest wool known to man.

In other knitting news, this from the PIttsburgh Post-Gazette November 29, 1933:

Well, here they are—those electrically lit knitting needles Grandma’s been wanting to take to the movies, so she can kill two birds with the same slingshot! The lights in the tops of the needles are so tiny that they are not objectionable in the audience and detract in no way from the interest of the show. The idea must have come from the electric pencils, which made their debut a few weeks ago and which have proved so useful for taking notes in the middle of a dark night The knitting-needle lights are concealed in thick glass so that no matter how many times you drop them they defy breakage. The stems contain the elongated batteries. Not bad, eh?

So all you hip folk out there with your LED needles, ha! It's not new at all, it's an 80 year old idea! (I would soooooo love to find an original pair of these… dream on, girl!)

Of course, I didn’t stop drifting at 1933… I continued many, many years backward. Here’s a last little posting courtesy of the Sydney Mail, dated January 17, 1920, which I’m just giving to you so that you can see it for yourself.

As I fear you have expressed yourself badly. Oh, how many times have I wanted to say that after reading some nonsensical, incomprehensible internet posting! I’ll bet “Persephone” was mocked until she was forced to master the art of communication… more probable is that she never developed the self-awareness to know that she looked like an idiot. (Sigh!)

Anyway, I found a few patterns on my trip through the archives—here’s one that sounded fun, dear readers. If you find typos or something expressed badly, just leave a comment and I’ll double check myself.

MILITARY SWEATER

Sydney Morning Herald September 6, 1934

Needlework - by Mathilde

The Military Influence in Fashionable Knitwear

This ultra-smart example of the Continental jacket was carried out in dead leaf brown with a tie of Havana brown. The epaulettes give the military touch, which is so popular in this season’s fashions.

Materials: 10 oz of 4-ply wool; No. 9 needles; 3(?) oz of fine Angora wool; 10 large wooden buttons. {NB - I could not make out the amount of angora requested for the design - apologies.}

Measurements: to fit a 34-inch bust. Length to underarm from the lower edge, 14 ½ inches; sleeve at the underarm seam, 21 inches.

Back: Begin at the lower edge, and with No. 9 needles cast on 120 stitches. Knit into the back threads of the newly cast-on stitches.

First Row: *Knit 6, purl 6, repeat from * to the end of the row.

Second Row: *Purl 6 over the knit 6 in the previous row, and knit 6 over the purl 6, repeat from * to the end of the row.

Repeat the last 2 rows twice more (making 6 rows in all).

Seventh Row: To turn the cable use a spare needle or stitch-holder. *Slip the first 3 stitches off with the spare needle or stitch-holder. Hold them in front of the work, knit the next 3 stitches, and then knit the 3 stitches on the spare needle or stitch-holder. Purl the next 6 stitches, repeat from * to the end of the row.

Eighth Row: The same as the second row.

Repeat the last 8 rows until the work measures 14-1/2 inches from the beginning.

Shape the armhole by casting off 6 stitches at the beginning of the next 2 rows and decreasing 1 stitch at each end of the needle in every other row 6 times. Knit until the armhole measures 8 inches.

Shape the shoulders by casting off 6 stitches at the beginning of every row until there are 40 stitches left in the centre at the back of the neck. Cast off.

Left Front: Cast on 70 stitches. Knit into the back threads of the newly cast-on stitches.
At the front edge work a band all the way up the front in moss-stitch.

Knit in pattern for 60 stitches. Knit 10 stitches in moss-stitch. Knit until the work measure 14-1/2 inches from the beginning.

Shape the armhole by casting off 6 stitches at the armhole edge and decreasing 1 stitch at the same edge in every other row 5 times. Knit until the armhole measures 6-3/4 inches.

Shape the neck by casting off 20 stitches at the neck edge, and casting off 3 stitches at the same edge in every alternate row three times. Knit 2 together at the neck edge in every alternate row twice. Knit until the armhole measures 8 inches.

Shape the shoulder by casting off 6 stitches on the armhole edge in every other row until all the stitches are cast off.

Right Front: Make the same as the left front, being careful when the pattern is started that the two fronts face one another.

Make buttonholes in this front.

Make the first buttonhole 2 inches from the beginning of the work. Four stitches from the front edge cast off 4 stitches. Knit to the end of the row in pattern.

In the next row cast on 4 stitches over the castoff 4 and finish to the end of the row in pattern.
In the following row knit knot the back threads of the newly cast-on stitches. Make other buttonholes 2-3/4 inches apart.

Finish off as the left front was finished.

Sleeve: With No. 9 needles cast on 56 stitches. Knit into the back threads of the newly cast-on stitches. Knit in pattern for 2-3/4 inches, and then increase 1 stitch at each end of the needle in every sixth row until there are 90 stitches. Knit until the sleeve measures 21 inches at the underarm seam.

Shape the top by knitting 2 stitches together at each end of the needle in every row until 26 remain. Cast off.

Make another sleeve to match.

Epaulettes: Cast on 28 stitches. Work 5 stitches in moss-stitch, 6 purl, 6 plain, 6 purl, 5 stitches in moss-stitch. Continue in pattern, making the cable come in the centre of the epaulette until the measurement is 5-1/4 inches. Knit 2 together at each end of the needle in every row until 1 stitch remains. Finish off.

Make another epaulette to match.

Scarf Tie: With Angora wool, cast on 3 stitches. Knit into the back threads of the newly cast-on stitches. Knit in plain knitting, casting on 3 stitches at the same edge in every other row until there are 33 stitches. Knit until the scarf measures 36 inches.

Shape the other end of the scarf by casting off 3 stitches at the same edge in every other row until all stitches are cast off.

To Make Up: Press all parts carefully, having first pinned all the pieces to measurement on the ironing sheet.

Sew up the side seams, shoulder seams, and sleeve seams. Stitch the sleeves into the jacket, seam to seam. Crochet round neck 1 row of double crochet. Attach the straight end of each epaulette to the neck edge at the shoulder. Catch the end of the epaulette to the shoulder with a button, leaving plenty of slack for the scarf to go through, as shown in the illustration.

Sew buttons down front.

Thread scarf through epaulettes and fold over in the front.

A Call for Artists

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:05:00 +0000

From one of my favorite sites, Morbid Anatomy, this was posted:

* EXHIBITION ANNOUNCEMENT & CALL TO ARTISTS *

Please note: This is not a typical art show. Not all participants are artists. Inventors, mechanics, and people who ordinarily have nothing to do with the art world are involved in this exhibition. That said, I encourage artists to make use of their whimsy. This show is about wonder, as well as craft, science, mathematics, and experimentation.

"Kinetica" is an exhibition of kinetic, automatic, mechanic, robotic, &etc. sculpture.

It will be held at the Candle Factory in New Orleans. The two main events are the opening on Saturday, April 24, and the closing on Saturday, May 8. The events are scheduled to begin at 6pm.

Proposals-only deadline: March 20th. Send idea, space required, special requirements, etc. to Myrtle von Damitz lll at myrtlered@gmail.com

I will consider late proposals but must begin to map out the installation as early as possible.

INSTALLATION will begin on Saturday, April 17. Artists are responsible for installation. Work that has to be shipped must include detailed installation instructions, and arrive by April 17.

Also important: whether your piece can only be run by you, its creator, or whether I or anyone else running the exhibition can turn it on when needed.

Participants are responsible for display arrangements, ie: tables, pedestals, etc.

The Candle Factory is a warehouse situated on the west side of the Industrial Canal, and is a known events destination & a good crowd is expected. There is a great electrical set-up and room both inside and outside for a wide variety of work. The owner, Charles Handler, lives inside the warehouse and security is good. However, please take note that this IS a warehouse space and not a pristine gallery.

The show will not run on regular gallery hours, but will be on in full force for both opening and closing events, leaving room for multiple event-specific possibilities. I would like very much to find anyone or any group working on Rube Goldberg Machines!

I'm working towards arranging school field trips to view the work and for the artists to speak to the kids about their ideas and how they work. If you are part of the show, I'd like to know if I can schedule you to be present on any of these days (TBA!).

I will be able to work out showings by appointment, as well, for however many pieces can be operable during the run of the show.

Questions: myrtlered@gmail.com or 504 908 4741

I'm not nearly the artist, designer, mechanic or engineer for this show, but it sounds great, and I know a few folks who very much create work along these lines. Consider this my public service announcement for the millennium.

By Special Request

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:36:00 +0000

I've plenty to blog about - mostly about how I didn't accomplish shit last month.

No FOs.

A Knit Olympics 'Fail' - disqualified for abusing Benadryl. That's what happens when we get Spring in February - I sneeze, my eyes water all the time, and I end up one of the living dead on nasty antihistamines. (Please don't write me and testify to the efficacy of some new-fangled one out on the market; I fell for the Claritin scam a couple of times and still ended up brain dead.)

But I'm not going to write about that, or anything else right now. I'm just posting some lovely stocking tops from this 1884 classic:

Compiled and Edited by Marie Louise Kerzman, Published by Henry Bristow, Brooklyn, New York 1884.

I love this little book, full of nifty designs. I mentioned some knitted tops for stockings in a comment on Severina's blog, the Omnigraphic Blogopticon. Sev's been one of my favorite bloggers for years, and in fact, someday I'm going to make a necklace out of chicken bones - just you wait. In fact, I might gift one of my lucky readers with such a fantastic creation, heh heh. But I digress.

I mentioned I had these patterns, and she requested them. Never say I don't try to be accommodating, eh? So without further ado, five mediocre scans of knitted stocking tops (I miss the HP scanners we had at work - those babies rarely let me down). A good click on the images will take you to an even larger version, for those who hate tiny print. Enjoy!

PS - I actually did finish one thing last month. I wasn't kidding about the Benadryl. Who knows what else I did last month that I slept through? And under the category of "De Gustibus Non Disputandum", I wrote this post listening to the soundtrack of "Dune" - The Lynch "Dune", the Toto s/t.

Hepper, Anyway...

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:28:00 +0000

Wow! I'm going to post some knitting crap on my knitting blog - it must be a new year, if not a new decade. I'm not going to debate when decades end and begin. My orderly mind says 00-09 belong together, and 10-19 belong together. I realize that zero is a weird 'number' mathematically speaking, but if I were organizing the years in a file cabinet, above is how I would order them.

But enough about silly things that people have too much leisure time to worry about. I've some photos of recent projects, and one old one that I'm determined to get off the needles by the end of January 2010. Yes, this January, not next. Ay caramba! I've also a little something at the end for those kind enough to endure poor photos of knitting and that previous rambling blog about Charlie Chan movies.

My Multnomah shawl - a pretty little thing. Hers looks much nice than the rumpled mess I'm working on - yeah, well, that'll happen.

Next up, a cravat/neck warmer/short scarf knitting up from one skein of Claudia Handpainted yarn using a reversible stitch from one of Barbara Walker's books:

My photos do a really poor job of showing off the stitch details. I'm underwhelmed.

Here's something that will be an Xmas gift - a 2009 Xmas gift, natch - called Asphodel (warning - link leads to download, I think):

I'm rather liking the look of it - it will look nice when I've blocked all signs of life out of it - but that bird's eye stitch is kicking my ass. Once I've knitted the 55 inches of it requested by the pattern, though, I expect I'll be pretty good at it.

And then there's the Hemlock Ring Blanket. It's come to life and started to eat anything resembling a life form in my apartment; mostly it's pissed that it's been on the needles awaiting bind off for a year now.

Blogger is being a butt today... Anyway, to save mankind, I'm going to get this thing off the needles this month. Yeah, yeah, I hear y'all out there going, "I wonder how far along she'll be in January - another scallop, maybe?"

I'm also knitting another one of these for my former supervisor:

It's a neck warmer thingy, something that I can even knit when I'm drinking. There are few projects that fall under that category, btw. I've found some cool buttons for these:

I've knitted a few versions of this thing, in case you're wondering why you see a teeny bit of one that looks nothing like the one the monster is wearing. I've posted the pattern for the brain dead, as I think of it, in the notes on Ravelry, but really, it's a four to six inch wide rectangle, approximately 24-26 inches in length, with three or four crochet scallops on one end for button loops. Wow. That's difficult. You don't even need to be a knitter for these, one could crochet the same damned thing.

Okay, so here's a pattern from the archives, a 1933 beauty, kids:

Hyper Ape Yawn!

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:54:00 +0000

I'm sure everyone reading this already knows that I was given a set of Charlie Chan dvds for Christmas. In fact, if I hadn't been ill, I would have scripted a little Christmas play, "A Charlie Chan Xmas", in which a famed Chinese-American detective buys a beat-up tree for the holidays, only to discover the proprietor dead beneath it, stabbed through his carotid artery with an expensive glass ornament...

Anyway, I've managed to spend most of the holidays in the 1930's, thanks to this dvd set, and I really want to share some of the beauties of it.

For example, did anyone realize that Bela Lugosi was in one of them? Probably the best of the bunch, in terms of productions values and such, "The Black Camel" is a pretty wonderful film. Here are some shots below, showing that the cinematographer got to have a little fun, at least (apologies for the photo quality - I can't use the Grab function on my computer in conjunction with the dvd player):

Unfortunately, the whole film doesn't look quite this stylized, but it looks good, Bela looks healthy, and he has some fun dialog.

Another favorite of mine is "Charlie Chan Does London", or something like that. London is in the title, at any rate, and Warner Oland is again in the lead role. This film contains the coolest silk velvet outfit ever:

Even though the print was restored for this film, it's obvious the original was in very poor shape. This Chan movie is loaded with wonderful clothing, though. Highly recommended for 1930's fans.

There was knitting in one of them - midget knitting, as Olive Brasno knits up some thing in "Charlie Chan Goes to The Circus" (or some such title - it's Warner Oland and Keye Luke at the Circus, at any rate). I tried to get close-ups of what she was knitting, and they are uber-crappy:

Part stockinette, then with loopy rows? chenille rows? eyelash yarn spun from the bearded lady rows? See for yourselves:

No bloody help at all. Rent the movie, folks, and then tell me what you see.

As if Bela Lugosi, silk velvet, and knitting midgets weren't enough fun, in "Charlie Chan at The Olympics" he actually rides in the Hindenburg! Oh, alright, it's just stock footage. But stock footage of the Hindenburg! And one little bit is shot from the inside of a zeppelin (not sure it's the Hindenburg - it could have been from the Graf Zeppelin or another airship). See for yourselves:

I've still got five movies from the set to watch, so you might have to look at more crappy photos of my laptop. Apologies.

Recovering From Illness at Covet Central

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 02:45:00 +0000

Good grief, kids, whatever you do, Don't Hit 'Return/Enter' after typing the title of your blog entry - it posts directly and immediately! Hopefully I deleted the thing before Feedburner or whoever sent an email to my hapless readers. I'm not a Blogger-hater, but some of the whizbang updates they foist upon us bloggers are a real pain in my ass.

Anyway, here's the post-Xmas post; I say that as if it's a tradition - I have no idea whether I've posted after the holidays or not, and I'm not going to look at previous Decembers to find out. You should know by now I'm not that kind of blogger, the kind that cares.

I was sick over the holiday; unfortunately, my mother's druggist doesn't carry my favorite cold medication:

I really do need a teaspoon full of it every four hours, just as is says on the label. Since I had to do without, not only was I expectorating like a late-stage consumption patient, I was cranky as hell. Lucky for you, I've been home a couple of days now and taking my Pectoral Compound as prescribed, so I'm no longer ranting about the holidays and my relatives.

{Nota Bene: These wonderful olde-timey labels are courtesy of Spookshows.com - you can download a zip file of high-quality versions!}

I treated myself to some fine jewelry from Perfidious Beadworks for the holiday season, and I simply want to say that everyone out there needs to purchase an Edgar Allan Poe pin. Anyway, the proprietor of PB recommended I check out photos of dearly departed folks at The Art of Mourning. I've been avoiding that site, because I knew it would waken lusts best held at bay (unemployed people should only want food, shelter and a job, not old junk about dead people). But I went there, and indeed found much to covet. So if anyone is interested in buying me a fine present for my upcoming birthday (50th - I deserve something fancy for my 50th!), below are the sorts of things I would enjoy and appreciate:

A late 18th century fob (another view below)

A late 18th century clock (another view below)

A hair chain (for an eyepiece?), circa 1840

I definitely need the latter item - I had to fake a chain for my eyepiece recently with some shredded silk ribbon, and it would be much nicer to have something like this.

A final mention of things related to death, I found another lovely website, Morbid Anatomy. Want to read old broadsides of crimes? Look at photos of medical students and dissections? Look at 19th century photos of albinos? The site covers a lot of territory, but if you are interested in science, medicine, pathology, death, crime, and the history of these things, you will undoubtedly find something there to keep you amused.

I'll be doing a post on knitting stuff soon - and to stay on the theme of old and dead, I'll make sure I post something written by some long-dead housewife trying to feed her family by writing knitting patterns. But right now, I've got to take another dose of my Pectoral Compound (cough! cough!).

'ere, now, wot's all this, then?

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:48:00 +0000

Picking on the knitters - for shame! From The Telegraph:

9. Mother Clancy must have found the deal of the year at the Arran jumper shop: 'Buy one get three free'.

I must admit, though, that's a lot of Aran knitting on those four boys. Hopefully some knitter was handsomely paid for all that cabling.

A Fine Idea for Clutzy Needleworkers

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:17:00 +0000

When my father died a few years ago, my mother wanted to have all the men in the family over to pick through his tools for what they wanted. No way! I cried. Why, I might want to build an airship! Or a Tesla coil! Or at least a Tesla induction motor...

In truth, I haven't even glued the leg back onto my pizzelle iron, simply due to laziness. But I did drag a few tools home, and they do come into good use, even when no construction is involved. For example:

This is one of those extending magnets for reaching icky areas and grabbing loose screws and bolts, and quite a powerful one at that.

And those safety pins? They are part of a box of 300 safety pins that spilled on the floor. Mr Extenda-Magnet was lying nearby when I spilled the box of pins - what, don't you leave tools lying around your house? Y'all are strange. I have a hammer next to my bathtub and a crowbar hanging on the bathroom doorknob.

Anyway, the magnet was lying on a bag of roving, so I grabbed it and used it to collect bunches of pins at a time.

It worked great! (Until I got to those evil little brass pins, consarn it!). It worked so well, brass pins excepted, that I vowed I'd use it next time I spilled a bunch of straight pins (which happens every five years whether I need it or not).

Plot Z-twists

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 23:56:00 +0000

The would-be pithy title is my half-assed attempt to make light of my excitement in discovering a film in which knitting is a plot device. Not much of one, admittedly – mostly serves as a red herring - but one that unexpectedly moves the story forward.

As you may have noticed, dear reader, I have a fondness for things vintage. I’ve a modest but well-loved collection of vintage knitting and crochet patterns. For over a decade the only new garments I wore were underwear and socks (put on a bit too much weight to stay vintage, unfortunately). And when I’d switch through the channels on TV, I’d stop anytime I saw something black and white.

So I was delighted to find a small collection of public domain movies available on the Internet Archive. I downloaded one immediately entitled “And Then There Were None”, directed by Rene Clair. The visuals of the film are quite wonderful, and there’s a light touch of humor brought to a grim Agatha Christie tale. (NB – the novel has a much nastier ending than the film.)

If you’ve never seen any versions of this story (most filmed under the title “10 Little Indians”) or read the book, it’s about a group of people who are invited to an isolated locale for a house party that turns out to be an opportunity for one of the characters to kill off all the others. The justification is that everyone in attendance has gotten away with some crime and deserves their fate.

Judith Anderson is one of the actors in this film version. Her character knits. And she sports a knitted stole for a sizable amount of her screen time. And in one sequence she is wearing what looks to be one of those lovely 1940’s hand knit jackets.

So I grabbed some screen shots – sorry they’re not better, but the print was not dvd quality – to share with everyone, along with a few of the more entertaining dialog quotes.

First photo is a seemingly gratuitous kitty photo. But it’s not gratuitous at all.

The next several are of Judith Anderson. She is sitting on a terrace, knitting her hard little heart out. She seems to be knitting a sweater (or jumper, as they would have said in 1940-something Britain) with what looks to be two to three inches of ribbing. Notice also her shawl and the jacket she is wearing.

Check out the knitting bag!

Large enough to hold her knitting and a pair of binoculars, as you'll see in the next two shots. You'll also see closeups of the sleeves of her jacket – I would have loved a clearer picture, but these were the best I could get. I'm pretty sure I've seen that design, or something similar, in one of my vintage books.

These photos show the design of her stole (which she also uses for a scarf). It’s a long rectangle, so shaping isn’t an issue.

Here’s Judith throwing her yarn, knitting English (just as I would expect). Nice to know that she and Dr Zoidberg share knitting techniques.

Next we see Dame Judith at the beach; note that here she’s using the stole as a head scarf.

Dame Anderson's character stops to pick up some seaweed. But why...?

She returns to the house with her find and says, “Such a pretty pattern - I thought I'd like to copy it for a shawl.”

At a knitting retreat, no one would think twice about that remark. However, since she's the only knitter at this house party of doom, they simply look at her as if she's insane.

The notion that her behaviour is irrational is seemingly supported by a brief conversation someone has with her in the kitchen, in which she makes (what I think) is a perfectly rational observation:

“Very stupid to kill the only servant in the house; now we don't even know where to find the marmalade.”

After breakfast (probably one without marmalade), the rest of the house party discusses Judith's oddness, with Walter Huston passing final judgment with this great line:

“No sane person would think of using seaweed as a pattern for a shawl!”

However, before they can get their pitchforks and torches together to go after the heartless, knitting-crazed witch, a ball of yarn drops down into the conversation. Our little kitty friend has chased it over the banister.

And here’s a gratuitous shot which does not do justice to Clair’s visual aesthetic – the light yarn against the dark floor, with an even darker shadow falling across it.

They follow the yarn into Judith’s room, where she’s obviously died like she lived, with her knitting in her hands (and probably on a chenille bedspread).

From Viviana's Mad Howls

I'll look through some of my knitting patterns to see if I can find one which matches her jacket. And I think the design for the stole should be fairly easy to reproduce - in the next few weeks I'll knit up some swatches and post the photos. I won't, however, be designing shawls based on seaweed just yet. Maybe later.

So, in summary, I rate this film "Mmmm...knitting."

Cross Post - Good Summer Reading (circa 1875)

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:26:00 +0000

He's dead, Jim!

I just finished reading the first half of that classic novel, "The Somnambulist and the Detective" by Allan Pinkerton. Yes, the Allan Pinkerton for whom the Pinkerton National Detective Agency was named. Allan moved here from Scotland with his bride, began as a private detective in Chicago in 1849 or 1850, eventually met up with some muck-a-mucks (click the link if you want details; I'm not going to repeat a Wikipedia article), popularized such detective tricks and shadowing (tailing, following) and what we would now consider undercover work, and eventually put his name on a series of fictionalized accounts of his career (rumor has it they were ghostwritten).

The story begins with a young bank clerk being killed and a bank robbed. This all takes place somewhere down south; most of the evidence is overlooked by the locals, since it leads to the best friend of the deceased because class matters in 1850 Mississippi, and the best friend, Mr Drysdale, is of the best of families. But ol' Pinky, who is called in as a last-chance attempt to catch the killer/robber, is a cranky Scot, he is, and he dinna care fer a man's standing in the community. After examining clews, weighing evidence, and sucking down mint juleps galore, he trots back to Chicago, and formulates a plan so cunning that you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel. A large, inefficient, clunky weasel.

Next we know, a widow (Mrs Potter), a man of means (Mr Andrews), and a young carpenter (Mr Green) descend upon this small town. All are operatives of ol' Pinky - oops, I should have said spoiler alert. Now y'all will know how the story ends.

Their job is to figure out how to get a confession from the murderer Drysdale. Mrs Potter (not her real name) befriends the innocent wife of the alleged murderer...

Hard-boiled female detective schmoozes up innocent housewife

...you can see the evidence for yourself. In fact, this heartless undercover agent fakes an injury to infiltrate their household - a shameful pretense of being dependent upon the kindness of strangers. Indeed!

"She's suffered severe trauma, Jim!"

Mrs P starts smearing blood all over their home in the middle of the night in order to freak out the suspect. Talk about the house guest from hell...

Meanwhile, Messers Andrew and Green (not their real names) plot to drive Drysdale insane, in case Mrs P's imitation of "The Shining" doesn't work. (Okay, okay, this book came before "The Shining".) Mr Green looks like the deceased, so they dress him up to look like, well, a zombie in order to freak out the suspect even more.

"He's undead, Jim!"

And it works - but only some of the time. Our alleged murderer gets up and wanders in the middle of the night to the locations where he has buried the stolen money, and doesn't notice the zombie during his late-night strolls.

"He's the living dead, Jim!"

At this point, I know, you're hoping for a zombie war, or perhaps a face-off between a zombie and, say, a nosferatu. No such luck, dear readers. If the title hasn't already given it away, he's sleepwalking! Yes, sleepwalking. Wow! And FYI, that's a large, flat rock that our sleepwalker is holding. He's not wrestling with an alien life form or anything. Sorry.

By now, Drysdale is in hysterics. No southern belle could out psychosomatic him at this point, and I mean it. For instance, every time he finds the blood smeared in his room, he faints and says that he is weak from loss of blood... but he hasn't really lost any blood. So why is weak and faint - hysteria? Nerves? Guilt? A secret opium habit we're never told about?

No matter. They've succeeded in making him crazy. And yet, he still won't confess.

From what I can tell, the operations of these three detectives has probably taken three to six months. Honestly, if all his cases were this labor-intensive and drawn out, there is no way Allan Pinkerton would have become the rich, worker-hating lawman that he became.

Anyway, Pinkterton returns to the south, and gets together with everyone to plan one last attempt to coerce a confession from this dude without using a waterboard or lynch laws. Mr Green gets into his zombie togs again, and hides in the bank - the scene of the original crime. They arrest Mr Drysdale and take him to the bank. (If you're like me, you feel like you're suddenly in an episode of "The Beverly Hillbillies", but you're not; hillbillies could not afford Pinkerton's fees back in 1856.) I'll let the lovely illustration show you the moment when they break the killer:

"Dammit, Jim, I'm a murderer, not a doctor!"

Ah yes, they just don't confess like this anymore. And look at Mr Sourface McMustache in the background (just to the left of Drysdale) - stern and judgmental. That's a level four glare of disapproval. If it had been a level five, Drysdale would be a heap of ashes or a puddle of goo on the floor.

Eh, I give the story a C, mostly for being brief and having some lovely illustrations. The plot was ridiculous - but not as ridiculous as "The Ghoul", a book which I will review in loving detail someday. If you're not going to be a realistic mystery, you should go all out for crazy, over-the-top thrills, which "The Ghoul" delivers. The second half of the Pinkerton book is a tale entitled, "The Murderer and the Fortune-teller". If it's any good - or if the drawings are the least bit entertaining - I'll let you know.

Woo hoo! Knit Swap Time!

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:28:00 +0000

Gypsygirl and I had our Summer Swap - a smaller swap, but full of goodies to get us through the dog days of summer. So I've got a few photos of summery fun to post, as well as my thanks to my knitting swap buddy.

But first, I wanted to post a little something regarding the fact that I rarely leave home without some sort of knitting project in hand (and often, a book as well). I keep telling people, "You don't want to be trapped with me for 72 hours and me not have any knitting around!" Friends generally agree, whether they appreciate knitting or not. They can imagine the horror of such an event...

I've been reading articles every now and then about the earthquake in Abruzzo, Italy. My grandfather was from that region, and I'd like to move there - or at least visit - someday (yeah, it's boring, but they have sheep - sheep, I tells ya! Sheep-wool-knit!) I found the following articles on the same woman:

Maria D'Antuono told rescuers that during the 30 hours she was trapped, she occupied herself by knitting and doing crotchet.

The stone house where the 98-year-old was buried under her bed in the village of Tempera, was a scene of devastation having completely collapsed on one side.
A relative told The Daily Telegraph: “She is a very respectful, well brought up, nice person. She is a little, skinny lady, full of life, joyful and well-educated.

"She lived with her daughter, a retired teacher. Because of the strength of the quake, they thought the old woman was dead. They couldn’t look for her the first evening as it was too dark.

"The firemen came back at first light with a ladder and found Signora D’Antuono alive and in good health. It’s a miracle. She couldn’t do anything as she was stuck under the bed. They took her away, gave her a check-up and found her to be in perfect health. It’s incredible.” {from the Telegraph UK}

And then on the Yarn Forward blog:

Always keep your knitting near!

by Shannon on April 8, 2009

One bright spot in the news about the recent Italian earthquake: a 98-year-old woman pulled alive from the rubble spent her time knitting and crocheting while waiting to be saved.

From the Telegraph:

Maria D’Antuono told rescuers that during the 30 hours she was trapped, she occupied herself by knitting and doing crochet. The stone house where the 98-year-old was buried under her bed in the village of Tempera, was a scene of devastation having completely collapsed on one side.

Let this be a lesson to you — always keep your knitting nearby, you never know what might happen and it’s good to be prepared!

At this point, I assuming it's a genetic predisposition that has me going nowhere without my knitting. And for good reason, as the articles demonstrate!

Now, back to the swap.

Gypsygirl sent me the following goodies:

A couple of skeins of yarn, and a yarn bag!

A close-up of the Opal; the perfect color for some summer knitting. I have several sock patterns that would look wonderful in this color!

Some sari silk yarn; this is great, as I have some Mango Moon I've been meaning to knit a pillow out of. I can add this to it. That's the nice thing about the sari silk yarns - they are usually so multi that you can mix them any which way!

Patriot goodies for the family 4th of July fete - I'm gonna kick my cousin's arse at paddle ball, I tells ya!

Mmmm...knitting patterns.

She also sent me this groovy ice cream cup and scoop. So I had to buy some ice cream to try it out!

A to-do list with "I'd rather be knitting" at the top (I have my doubts as to whether I'll get more done with something reminding me that I'd really would rather be knitting) - a red, white and blue candle that I'm enjoying in the bathroom (I'll have to take a soak with some champagne on Bastille Day and the tricoleur candle) - some wonderful old-fashioned soap that's really lovely - a book of very funny quotes for women and their women friends - and the best bubble-blowing setup I've had in forever! This baby puts out a lot of bubbles, all good-sized but not huge. Too cool!

What did I get her? Oh, a bunch of weird stuff from the local Daiso $1.50 store. I love those places! And yes, I did send her yarn. Need you ask?

Blogging Fabulously!

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 01:05:00 +0000

Liisa of Under the Cupola has rated me as one of her top five fave blogs - woo hoo! {For those of you commenting about my infrequent and erratic posting, Kultakutri, as she is known on Ravelry, is a great reader and doesn't rely on my blog alone for information - and a good thing, too!}

This is a meme, of course, so let me post the details for the bloggers who are about to be tagged here -

The rules are thus:

1. You have to pass it (the award) on to 5 other fabulous blogs in a post.

2. You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post.

3. You must copy and paste the rules and the instructions below in the post.

Instructions: Include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them. When you post your five winners, make sure you link them as well. And don't forget to let your winners know they won an award from you by emailing them or leaving a comment on their blog.

Five Fab Blogs & Their Bloggers

1. Liisa/Linda of Under the Cupola: If you've been on Ravelry, you've probably seen a few of her posts (at the very least). Very smart, incredibly funny, she relates her adventures and misadventures in a wonderfully wry voice that makes her posts always worth reading. If you're reading my blog, then you would undoubtedly enjoy reading hers - it's better, more interesting, and updated more frequently. I'd list the things she writes about, but I cannot do her justice. And she posts some wonderful photos... Just go - read some of her posts - you'll find fibery goodness in there from time to time, of course, but it is all worth reading!

2. Severina of The Omnigraphic Blogopticon: Severina's blog is full of steampunkery and snark, and funny as hell. Regular postings include her perverted steampunk Sims and periodic book reviews (which I highly recommend as informative & entertaining), as well as her Perfidious Beadworks projects (I'm the lunkhead who recently put her Arthur pin through the washer and dryer). If you want to check out her knitting blog, which features tons of lovely vintage patterns, it's here. If I weren't 150 years older than she is, I'd want to be her when I grow up.

3. Franklin of The Panopticon: Franklin has no idea who I am, and probably couldn't give a rat's ass for getting this nomination. I do enjoy his blog - vintage knitting here and there, well-written entries, and (for the unenlightened), an explanation of 'twinks' and 'bears'. I, of course, was already familiar with those terms, but his explanation and accompanying photos were delightful. A wonderful blog, funny, and there's plenty of fibery goodness to be found here, too.

4. Toni of A Little Off The Beaten Path: Toni's blog is the home of "Month of..." and "Year of..." experiments. The current experiment is the Year of No Processed Food. She writes entertainingly of trying to live without eating processed stuff, both the successes and disasters involved in such a process. Her "Things We've Learned" posts are always funny. If you have an interest in knowing what it's like to live without high fructose corn syrup in your diet (something very difficult to do in the US), this is definitely a site for you. And hey - if you want to find an alcoholic drink with peanut butter in it, you need look no further than this site. NB: Toni is also a knitter, and her sister blog about her knitting is here.

5. Bohemian of A Lost Bohemian: My former coworker (we were both laid off) has recently begun a blog attempting to unravel the mysteries of her family's exodus from WWII Europe, their ultimate relocation to the US, and the impact that life in a diaspora can have on people - the shift from citizen of privilege to resettled refugee, and what that has meant for her family. All this in addition to entried on the current state of the human condition. Thoughtful stuff.

You'll notice that four of the five feature fiber, or have a fiber blog in addition to the one listed here. I discovered all of those blogs via my knitting habit, and indeed, knitting drives a great deal of my blog-reading activity. I'll let knitting transition me into my Five Fabulous Addictions. And they are, both fabulous and addictions.

1. Knitting: I first took up knitting in the early 1980's. There isn't a single thing about knitting that I don't love. I love patterns, looking at them, reading them, studying their construction. I love the quality of yarns that have become available in the last 5-1o years or so - the softness or squishy-ness of the fibers, the gorgeous colors, crazy art yarns with all sorts of strange things spun into them. I love Addi Lace Turbos. I even love the act of knitting, of creating a fabric with a bit of (very fancy) string. My friends have to regularly intervene when I try to expand my stash.

2. Books: As with knitting, there is nothing about books I dislike (except how heavy they can be in large quantities). I have no idea how many books I have; they are scattered in various locations, like a pirate who has buried his hoard on several different beaches. The best thing about books is content - information - words - ideas - entertainment. But I love old books especially - the craftsmanship that went into a well-designed, embossed and painted cover; gorgeous illustrations; heavy paper... The happiest of finds is an old knitting book (sigh!).

3. Coffee: My current favorite is the local Herkimer coffee, but anyone who knows me is familiar with my "Coffee. Now!" routine. In fact, the unfortunate above-mentioned Bohemian used to endure "Coffee Me" every day when we worked together.

4. Sushi/Chocolate/Curries: I couldn't choose one of the three. Sushi is not an addiction I can afford to maintain, but folks who know me will tell you that I am obsessed with it, however infrequently I get it. Chocolate and curry are much more accessible - the last I can make at home, and do. Frequently. And Seattle is a good town for good chocolate, so I can and do indulge in that addiction without great expense. All this talk of food - I'm hungry!

5. Single Malt Scotch: I can't really afford this either while I'm on the dole, at least not the stuff I enjoy drinking. Friends will tell you, though, that I am perfectly willing to accept donations of 16-yr-old Lagavulin or Oban. Anyway, I don't drink it every night - don't want to run out of the good stuff - but see what happens if you try to walk off with one of my bottles. I'll cut you!

Why Non-needleworkers Shouldn't Write About Needlework

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:43:00 +0000

I recently completed Laced, by Carol Higgins Clark. On a scale of 1 to 100, I'd give it a "meh". Not bad, not good, but had the virtue to not take up too much time to read (if you're not going to be a great book, you can at least be a fairly brief book).

The title of the book, of course, appealed to the lace knitter in me. The stolen object is this magnificent handmade lace tablecloth featuring a castle as either the focal point of the design, or the main design element. But what irritated the hell out of me was that readers were never told how the famed tablecloth was made. May Reilly made it by hand, we are told in the novel. But how? The reference to shamrocks not being part of the design made me think Irish crochet (and the novel takes place in Ireland, so this makes sense). And that would indeed be some fancypants needlework to create a castle in Irish crochet and make it look good. Don't get me wrong. I'm sure it could be done, but nutty needleworkers from the world over would trek to Nowheresville Ireland to see such an incredible thing.

So then I pondered whether it was knitted, or if some other method of lacemaking had been used. One could knit a castle design in openwork, using yo's and the like to create the shape. This sounds more like a Shetland textile than an Irish, though. Not that the Irish can't knit Shetland, etc. My logical (?) mind, however, thinks that a novel set in Ireland should feature needlework for which Ireland is famous. For example, the Irish Lace Museum lists the following as the five main Irish laces:

Irish Crochet Lace, Youghal Needlelace, Inishmacsaint Needlelace, Carrickmacross Lace and Limerick Lace.

If you visit their lovely site, you can see photos of the various types of Irish lace. What was most interesting about this, though, was that in seconds (thank you, Google) I found an Irish lace museum with examples and discussions of the main types of lacemaking done in Ireland. I gathered enough information from one site to give some description of how a famous tablecloth with a castle as the main design feature could have been made.

Not that I think a writer needs to become an expert in every topic that comes up in their books. Not at all. In the age of the internet, though, it's extra-inexcusable to not spend an hour researching something that's pretty easy to research.

So if anyone out there is inspired to crochet/bobbin/knit/hook/otherwise make a lace castle, please send me photos!

For the Industrious of the Fair Sex - 1882

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Fri, 29 May 2009 05:27:00 +0000

{From the South Jersey Republican, Hammonton, NJ Saturday, April 29, 1882}

French Lace

cast on 15 sts

row 1: knit 3, yo, k2tog, knit 3, yo, knit 1, yo, knit 6

row 2: knit 6, yo, knit 3, yo, k2tog, knit 3, yo, k2tog, knit 1.

row 3: knit 3, yo, k2tog, , k2tog, yo, knit 5, yo knit 6.

row 4: cast off 4, knit 1, yo, k2tog, knit 3, k2tog, yo, k2tog, knit 1, yo, k2tog, knit 1.

row 5: knit 3, yo, k2tog, knit 1, yo, k2tog, knit 1, k2tog, yo, knit 3.

row 6: knit 3, yo, knit 1, yo, sl 2, knit 1, p2sso, yo, knit 4, yo, k2tog, knit 1.

begin first row.

Below are photos of a few repeats of the pattern, unblocked and still on the needles. I used some really old Knit-Cro-Sheen, needles sized 2.75 mm.

This last photo is mostly to show that, at one time, Knit-Cro-Sheen really did have a sheen:

Happy Valentine's Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 23:47:00 +0000

Happy Valentine's Day!

First, some lovely flowers from a friend:

From MoreMadHowls

When I thanked him for the flowers and other kindnesses of the day, he said it was all part of the package. What a sweetie!

I opened my VD swap package from Gypsygirl today - and what a lovely bunch of goodies!

From MoreMadHowls

Lots of chocolates - including chocolate-covered sunflower seeds, which will pass as protein on my diet list. Yummy valentine-red yarns, heart-shaped ice cube tray (which, weirdly enough, is perfect for my overcrowded freezer), a gorgeous candle (in case I can't afford to pay the light bills anymore, heh), chocolate liqueur, silly putty, and that wonderful book on Orenberg shawls that I've been eyeing but didn't have! I've been lusting after it for quite some time, so I'm really, really happy to have gotten that one in my package! Gypsygirl has been a great swap partner over the last year - I consider myself very lucky to have gotten paired up with her on Rav last Valentine's Day! We're close enough in age and life experiences where we can grouse about things, and sympathize, and warn each other about which yarn folks to stay away from.

Anyway, here are more photos of what I got from GG:

I want to thank Gypsygirl for the great prezzies, and another fun Valentine's Day!

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March 7 is for Bikers

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:27:00 +0000

I'm knitting a version of March is for Bikers from Hank's Yarn. I saw the picture, and really liked the design; it's great for bicyclists (which I am when there's less ice on the ground than we currently seem to be having), or anytime you want a collar rather than a scarf.

Nice looking pattern, I thought. Looks nice with the hand-painted yarn. So I ordered a bit of dk from Yarni Girl on Etsy - Soothing Blue Violet:

I thought this would be a nice yarn - and it is! I would certainly purchase from her again. And in spite of the way the yarn looks in a ball, even my friend-who-hates-multicolor-things thought the effect, once knitted, was nice and didn't offend his monochromatic sensibilities very much.

So, excited to use this pretty new yarn on something that would be much quicker than a scarf on #4 needles, I cast on. I knitted 4 rows of moss st. Then I started the pattern rows. For any of this to make sense, fellow knitters, you must understand that there is k2-p2 ribbing at the center back, so when I talk about halves of the collar I'm referring to the sections on either side of the ribbing. Row 1 was not the same on both sides, and I'm not referring to the buttonhole; so when you get to the row where you cable the slip sts for that crossed st look, one side had doubles and the other singles on the slipped sts. And then, when I got to Row 7, I couldn't get the stitch numbers to add up to what they should have been.

My first thought was, I screwed up. So I frogged, cast on and tried again; stuck on Row 7, with some weirdness still happening in Rows 1-3, I went to the projects on Ravelry and read up on what other folks had done. I wasn't the only one to encounter this difficulty, apparently. But I wanted to make this pattern out of this yarn. I was not to be deterred.

First step (for me - I'm studip) was to chart out the pattern as written - done. Then I compared the chart with the two halves - one which seemed to be working the way intended, and one which definitely was doing something weird. I modified the chart to match the effect I desired, and corrected the strange first row to make it consistent all the way across - done. However, the chart was two pages of graph paper - so I translated it back into written instructions for brevity.

I frogged the second try, and cast on using my instructions. I found a section where they didn't seem to work, so I made changes as I knitted and wrote up corrections. The pattern calls for three repeats of the st pattern, so I'll get to test knit my instructions three more times (my memory isn't good enough to remember 10 rows of 82 sts, so I will indeed be following my own instructions).

I'm sure it sounds as if I'm attacking the designer - and I'm not. It's a free pattern, after all. I suspect that some of the difficulties may simply have been cut and paste errors. Since it's a collar and not a sweater, the problems were easy enough for me to work out; if I'd trusted myself more, I would have done this after the first attempt, when things didn't make sense. I am posting this on the chance that some other knitter is going nuts trying to figure out what they are doing wrong.

Anyway, I am liking the way it's coming out for me - crappy photos below tell the story.

If anyone else working on this pattern is having difficulties and likes the way my version turns out, let me know and I'll send you my corrected rows once I've finished knitting the design. I really like the design, and plan to knit up a couple more. Hopefully I can get some photos that are not so overexposed (it's a digital camera, how does it do this?).

Xmas Gifties

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 07:38:00 +0000

I did receive a couple of excellent holiday gifts to please the knitter in me.

My swap buddy GypsyGirl sent me some lovely, lace-weight merino in a delightful brick-ish red:

She also sent me a lovely pattern to go with the yarn, so I won't have to try and decide which lace project to use it on. That's actually a painful process, leading to lots of lace yarn not being knitted up. She sent me other knitterly delights including a black sheep - I want to thank her for the lovely holiday package!

And my friend Anton, now that he's beginning to appreciate what knitting is about, picked up a couple of things at ye local yarne shoppe for me. One was some of the softest cotton I've ever handled in my life - it was love at first touch!

And some silky Malabrigo; I'm going to knit up a pair of Susan Pandorf's mitts with it:

Finally, we always have crackers at Christmas - the things you pull apart that go 'bang' and have a paper crown, a prize, and a bad joke within. I received a knitting joke en francais:

Patricia: Savais-tu que ca prend 3 moutons pour faire un cardigan?

Emilie: Je ne savais meme pas qu'ils pouvaient tricoter.

Heh, heh.

And You Thought I'd Given Up on This!

noreply@blogger.com (Viviana) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 05:31:00 +0000

Nay, not I, sirs and mesdames! Still knitting, still blogging.

I've been writing the last few months, but less and less for the blogs. However, I'm going to attempt to blog more regularly (every 10 days or so), just to keep in blogging mode.

I'm almost finished with my second booty - I was distracted with canning, and hanging out with friends and poets, when I was first laid off, so the second booty was a long time in coming. And then, after I started it, I had to put it down for holiday knitting. Crap, I just realized I didn't take a photo of one of my knitted Xmas gifts. Well, it was just a garter st scarf out of a nice art-type yarn, about 800 ft long (a wee exaggeration, okay?). You'll just have to believe me on this one.

I also started my first "Hemlock Ring Blanke t", the legendary project launched by Jared Flood. If you join the Yahoo! group, you'll find a very clear pdf of the destructions. Some folks have had difficulty following it, but I found it clear and easy to use. I've had no trouble with it, and I'm glad I let braver, younger souls knit it up and work out the bugs, kinks, and other difficulties. (The group is free - join up if you want to knit this project!) Anyway, I'm 20 rounds away from the short version still, but I'm hoping mayhap by next weekend it will be done. If I can bear the way it looks when it's blocked, it will be an Xmas gift. I'm using a chocolate-colored version of Cascade Yarns eco-wool - I do love the color. I hope my knitting will do it justice! Knitting lace in such a huge gauge makes me nervous; I'm used to that super fine stuff.

I also am knitting up another set of "Gorilla My Dreams" wristwarmers for a friend and former coworker. She liked the pair I made myself, but said she'd prefer browns, greys, etc. So I found some PEP print in those colors, and purchased it to make her a set. In the process of knitting them up, I posted an entry on my non-knitting blog about the special handmade gifts I was giving folks this year, namely taxidermy gone bad. That was a joke - but I realized that the wrist warmers I was knitting up looked like dead kittens, so I'll be giving at least one bad taxidermy-ish gift this holiday season. See, I'm not a liar after all!

I also started two versions of the Manly Lace scarf, one in a sock yarn from KnitPicks, and one in some old Sirdar dk I had laying around. I'm hoping that, when these are finished, that the men I give them to won't think I'm giving them something less than manly. It is a fun pattern to knit up, though, easy to remember and looks lovely. The first photo captures the colorway (knitpicks yarn) fairly accurately; the second photo shows up the pattern; dear readers, you can let me know if it's manly lace or not.

I began a lovely set of wrist warmers from Spincycle made from their BFL - and it's a lovely, silky BFL that they're using. A gorgeous color, too. Not cheap, but so incredibly pleasurable to knit up! I should have added it to my stash, but I'm embarrased to be knitting up new yarns when I've a century and half worth of stash. In fact, embarrasing to admit, of all the things I've been working on recently, only the Fidget and the Sirdar Manly Lace are from yarn that I've had for more than six months. (The photo doesn't capture the vibrancy of the yarn; the close-up made them brighter, but also faded the richness of the colors.)

I also whipped up a pair of wrist warmers last night from a ball of "Jolt" merino boucle I purchased from Pancake and Lulu on Etsy. The colors are gorgeous - it was a dream to knit up, a lovely, jewel-toned, squishy dream come true. There was very little of it - silly me, I only purchased one ball - so I cast on 15 sts, knitted to 5.5 inches, and then did the same with the other end of the yarn. I ended up getting 6.5 inches, enough to sew up, leave a thumb hole opening, and have me a couple of quickie warmers. I'll provide the details in my next posting; I haven't sewn up the sides (I need to mark where the thumb opening will be). I'm hoping these will work for playing the piano at a friend's house; he keeps his place a bit cooler than I keep mine, and I'd like something super basic that will cover the hands without annoying the fingers one bit. If I'm successful, I'll let you know.

I'll be knitting up a swatch over the next couple of days - I found a nifty men's scarf in Nordstrom recently, nice design idea but super simple knitting (it would be a good project for a beginner - you get a switch up in pattern so you're not knitting five or six entire feet of garter st or stocking st or rib st). If the yarn works, I'll start knitting up and post the details, for anyone else who wants to duplicate an expensive scarf. Wish I could remember the designer's name on the label, but I don't. Apologies.

Once the throw is done, I'll be taking up the Saigon lace again. I'd like to get that finished. It's not that difficult, but the beads do take up time (always with the beads!).

Finally, I taught my friend Anton to knit. He rather pooh-poohed knitting as something not challenging until he spotted my lace charts. Being a mathematician, the idea of knitting being able to be charted, graphed, got him all kinds of excited. He knows the difference between Z twists and S twists, warp and weft knitting, he's charted his first chart using Mathematica, and last Saturday he came over, worked on his long-tail cast one, and worked a few rows of garter stitch. My first pupil* - and his knitting actually looked like knitting!

*(Okay, he's my second pupil if you count a woman I helped out at a writing workshop - she was having some sort of serious selvedge issue, I couldn't tell what she was doing wrong, but I suggested that she slip the first stitch of each row and that fixed it for her.)

Here's to more blogging and more knitting in 2009!

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