Comfort Knitting

Please excuse me, dear readers. I’ve been away from serious blogging for much longer than I had imagined. I got the unexpected news a few weeks ago that a good friend had been in a tragic accident and was in the hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, with a long road to recovery. Meghan and I have known her since childhood and were deeply saddened by the news of her injuries. We decided put aside our feelings of helplessness by doing what we could: we began to knit our friend a blanket that would brighten up her days in the ICU. Tragically, she passed away in the hospital on Memorial Day 2010, just over 8 weeks since her accident and 1 week after we had started the project. She was barely 26 yrs old and had a bright future ahead.

Once we recovered from our initial shock at her passing, we resumed knitting with the goal of finishing the blanket in time to give to our friend’s Mother at her memorial service later in June (near my farm).

Our portions of the blanket are raveled here (Meghan) and here (me). Meghan chose the lovely colors we used and assigned them to each hex; she gives more details about the project and perspective on our friend’s passing in this blog post.

I just finished my half of the blanket this morning (unblocked):

Note that my Ravelry listing includes a short synopsis of our modifications to the original pattern. Once I receive Meghan’s half from London (no pressure, Meghan. really!), I will assemble the two portions here in Virginia and attach a label that we designed.

Meghan and I agree that the simple act of knitting has done more to help us deal with our grief than we could have imagined. We started this project to bring comfort to our friend and finished it to bring comfort to ourselves and to the family she left behind.

MS&W, Norway & Stash Busting

I was in Annapolis, MD last weekend for a wedding and decided to go to the nearby Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival before the ceremony on Saturday. I left Annapolis with a friend at around 10am – by 12:30p we were 1 mile away from the venue in HORRENDOUS traffic. It was moving maybe 2 miles / hr. We did some mental math and ultimately decided that if we got into a major traffic jam leaving the festival we would almost certainly miss the wedding – Not cool. So we turned around and went out for a nice lunch. I was SUPER bummed, but it was a good lesson. LEAVE EARLY!

One good thing to come out of MS&W (however indirectly) was the 40% off sale at my LYS in anticipation of the festival. I scooped up 7 skeins of lovely Malabrigo Merino Worsted, which I have always wanted to knit with, in a pretty sea-foam green.

Definitely going to knit sweater. The wheels are turning on pattern selection…

Now to completely switch topics: I got a fun piece of news a few weeks ago. I’ll be going to Norway for 5 months this year (August – December) to do research for my PhD. I’m going to be in a town called Trondheim, which is about half way up the country’s western coast. It’s going to be SUPER cold, but the photos I have seen are gorgeous and there appear to be loads of museums and galleries. However, I need to finish LOADS of projects between now and August.  To keep my wandering eyes from getting off-track (see Malabrigo above!), I’m placing myself on a craft spending freeze. NO new yarn or craft materials, except for those required to finish existing projects or those on the Resolution list. Hold me to this, dear readers!

PS – Please excuse the infrequent posting these days. I have lots of irons in the fire, but no finished objects – yet. Stay tuned!

1 yr old and still an April fool

March 30 was the 1 yr anniversary of this blog – I can’t believe it’s already been a year! And incidentally, one of my first posts was about April Fools Day and how I always get fooled. This year I was legitimately “had” by Franklin Habit of The Panopticon, who is one of my very favorite knitting bloggers. He posts once every two weeks or so, less frequently than most craft bloggers – I literally squeal every time my Google Reader registers a new item from him. Anyhow, he tricked me with this post yesterday. I was SO excited for a Scorsese flick about Elizabeth Zimmerman. Totally believable, right???

Second, did anyone notice the red button that showed up in the bottom left corner of Ravelry yesterday???

It was just asking to be pushed – so naturally, I did. And then it jumped to the top of the page and appeared with a kitten?!:

And then I pushed it again to see what would happen (clearly) – and everything from the page began to fold up and disappear:

And I was left with a tiled screen full of angry bunnies!!!! What on earth?!

Oh, Ravelry, you’re so silly! Hope you all had a nice (dupe-free) April Fools Day!

New yarn is good for the soul

…especially when there’s a 40% off sale! Today a good buddy and I stopped by The Needle Lady to browse their sale yarns – Mimi, the proprietor is turning 50 this weekend, and decided to celebrate by discounting MANY of their nice yarns. I picked up a couple skeins of Tonalita by Trendsetter Yarns the colorway is called “Country Garden” and it’s a wool / acrylic blend. Feels nice and soft and I love the range of colors (the two balls below are the same dye lot!):

I’ve been wanting to make a drop-stitch scarf (raveled here) for a while now, so I think that’s just what I’ll do. Maybe I could reward myself with a few rows for every paragraph of my masters thesis I write?

Also on the needles are the Naive Socks (raveled here) for my Aunt. I’ve been working on them exclusively during my Tuesday night knitting group. Needless to say, progress is slow…but I’ve turned the heel on the second sock and will certainly have them finished in time for her birthday in March.

Now back to work!

Library Find: Vintage ‘How To’

Yesterday when searching through my university’s library stacks, I came across this wonderful little book called The Expert Cleaner: A Handbook of Practical Information for All Who Like Clean Homes, Tidy Apparel, Wholesome Food, and Healthful Surroundings by Hervey J. Seaman, which was published in 1899. I couldn’t resist checking it out.

I should have put a coin in the photo for a size reference, but it’s just 6″ x 4″ – a handy little guide.

Its pages are full of practical advice about how to keep a tidy home, everything from choosing furniture, to storing food, removing all manner of stains, dying fabric, exterminating pests, and cleaning/polishing just about anything.

When I began to delve into this book, I prepared myself for an onslaught of sexist, patriarchal rhetoric, and while it is written on the premise that women manage the household (a fair assumption), I felt the tone of the book was more about empowerment. The author recognizes the challenges associated with running a household, rather than marginalizing the reader (housewife).  An excerpt:

“If the expert cook has cause to be proud, the expert housekeeper has even more reason, for she must not only possess an intimate knowledge of cooking, but of all other arts included in the domestic economy. In addition, she must be something of a chemist, a physician, an accountant, and a disciplinarian, as well as a sanitarian.”

And truly – in the 110 years since this was written, with all of our advances in technology – nothing much has changed. Men are increasingly undertaking portions of this role, but the tasks remain the same regardless of who accomplishes them.

As for the remedies, I was struck by the causal use of very harmful chemicals. For example, mercury (quicksilver) as a pesticide:

“QUICKSILVER – Quicksilver, mixed with the white of an egg, and applied to the ends of the slats and cracks of the bedstead with a feather, will kill bed-bugs.”

Also:

“TO DESTROY FLIES – Take two tablespoonfuls of water and sweeten. Then add one teaspoonful of laudanum and mix well. Put the mixture in a saucer, or several saucers, as you choose, and leave where flies can get it, and at the same time where children can not get it, as it is a narcotic.”

And:

“TO REMOVE GREASE FROM SILK – Removing grease from silk may be found easy and satisfactory, if done in the following way: Moisten the grease spot with chloroform, and then rub it with a cloth until perfectly dry. This will not injure the most delicate color.”

There’s all kinds of references to chemicals and substances that an average household no longer possesses (at least in its pure form), many of which are petrochemicals – turpentine, kerosine oil, benzine (not to be confused with benzene, fortunately), glycerin, camphor, peraffin – and many that are plant derived, such as pennyroyal, tobacco, gum arabic, quassia, lavender, and sweet clover. I wonder if, in another 110 years, people will look upon our current cleaning methods and products, and cringe at our use of triclosan (antibacterial agent) or some other “modern” cleaner that hasn’t been well tested for long-term health effects.

This reference also seems to have useful (if odd) remedies for common situations that we still encounter. For example,

INK ON WHITE LINEN – “When ink stains get on the white table-cloth, and you have nothing else convenient to apply, use a ripe tomato. Squeeze the juice from the tomato on the spot of ink, and work the juice into the spot, applying the tomato liberally. Pour clear water through the stain. Apply the juice again, and continue until the stain disappears. This will remove other stains as well as those of ink.”

A tomato? Really? I almost want to deliberately stain some white linen to try it out – I’m not quite sure how the stain-removal chemistry works here.

After browsing this guide, I was impressed at its thoroughness and detail – I imagine it must have been very helpful for several decades. I also realized that I don’t have a modern how-to guide in my own home, even though I/we could certainly use one. Do you have a housekeeping / home-remedy book you regularly refer to?

New Look

Quite unintentionally, I managed to erase my custom header while I was browsing wordpress’s blog themes. Rather than try to recreate the old look, I decided to press on with a new one. What do you think? I couldn’t resist featuring at least one of our goats – Ivan was more than happy to oblige.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Today is my maternal grandmother’s 84th birthday. She (and my late grandfather) were very involved in raising me as a small child and I’ve always loved her very dearly. When I was young, she would knit the most amazing dolls complete with petticoats and rosy cheeks. She taught me to knit when I was 6 or 7 and eventually passed on her needles, patterns, and notions to me when her hands became too arthritic and her sight too poor.

I have several vivid memories as a child that involved her taking care of me when I was sick. I’d wake up in the middle of the night with a persistent cough and she’d come in my room, grab a sock out of my drawer and safety-pin it around my neck. In a few minutes, my cough would be gone and I’d be fast asleep again. I’ve used this sock trick MANY times throughout my adult life. It’s not exactly pretty, but it works well.

In these later years, my grandma has had an intermittent cough, which has kept a sock around her neck frequently. So for her birthday, I thought I’d knit her a neckwarmer as an alternative that’s stylish, but still not as bulky as a scarf – maybe something she would wear to church.  I used the simple, yet pretty Cashmere Cuff pattern by Jessica Vaughan with Berroco Inca Gold (an 80% merino wool / 20% silk blend) to give warmth and softness.

Knitting Class

My husband is an ex-smoker…and would have kept right on puffing if not for me. One of the (many) things he enjoyed about smoking was that it provided an easy way to talk to strangers. “Hey, buddy, can I get a light?” is a phrase that transcends color, country, and even language.  Knitting might not be quite as universal, but over the years I’ve met some interesting/fun/awesome people just by pulling out my needles and yarn.

Getting on my flight to Arizona last week, I realized I was in the dreaded middle seat. I arrived first and sat there for a few minutes in anticipation of being squished during the 5 hr flight. Instead, two delightful ladies – sisters – showed up. They hedged their bets by choosing window and aisle seats in case the middle remained empty, and ultimately they sat together giving me the aisle.

Just after take-off, one of the ladies (whom I will call “Window”) pulled out a ball of “Sugar ‘n’ Cream” (cotton yarn) and continued working on her washcloth. This was very exciting for me. I pulled out the project I was working on and started to make small-talk about knitting. As it turns out, these ladies (who were perhaps mid-40s to early-50s) had just visited their elderly mother who was dying of cancer. Their mother was a prolific knitter, famous for making beautiful personalized Christmas stockings for everyone in the family. As their mother’s health began to deteriorate, they had both tried to learn knitting to preserve the family tradition. “Window” had just learned and was knitting her first washcloth – 36 sts across; garter stitch, for you knitters out there. “Middle” had tried to learn a couple times, but couldn’t quite the hang of it.

I’m sure it was awkward for “Middle” – sitting right between two knitters and meanwhile wanting to learn to knit. I happened to have a spare set of needles and yarn, so I offered to teach her. We practiced casting-on, knitting, and just got into purling at the end of the flight. She was a quick learner; I was very impressed. At the end of the flight, she thanked me profusely. I told “Middle” about ravelry and gave her my handle. She was going buy some yarn & needles and promised to join the site. She hasn’t found me yet, but I bet she will. Knitting is wonderful like that.

At Peace

I’ve been home in Arizona this past week helping my mother plan my Aunt’s funeral. She was getting on in age and had been sick for several years, so it wasn’t a big surprise when my mom called me on Mother’s Day to tell me she had passed. What did surprise me was my mom’s reaction to her death. Even though my mother had moved her from her San Diego apartment to Arizona when her health started to deteriorate 4 yrs ago, and even though she had accompanied my Aunt to late-night ER visits with increasing frequency, she was having a hard time coping with the loss. I assumed that seeing my aunt’s health fail would have prepared her for when the time came, but I was wrong. She sounded awful on the phone and I knew I needed to go home.

This will sound callous, but I was never terribly close to my Aunt. She was much older and had no children of her own. When her husband died many years ago, she preferred to live alone.  She had a dry sense of humor and a sharp wit. As a 5 or 6 yr old, I remember walking into her apartment after not seeing her for quite a while. She looked at me and said in an irritated tone, “You’re not going to cry, are you?” Then she looked at my mom and winked. I was too young to catch the subtitles and so I was always a bit scared of her. I didn’t really appreciate her until I was much older.  But she was a good, kind woman – Catholic through and through.

Being Catholic is a very important part of my family. I tried so hard to make it work for me, but finally gave up in college – I’m too analytical for God. My mom is quite the opposite. So when my Aunt died, I assumed she’d find comfort in prayer and knowing that my Aunt was in heaven, but she clearly needed something else and I couldn’t figure out what.

We drove out to San Diego for my Aunt’s burial (she and her husband had purchased adjacent plots years ago). We went to the funeral home the day prior to make some final arrangements – and my mom was still in rough shape. We were just about to decide on the details for the funeral mass when in walked Sister Mary Joseph. She was a tall, thick woman in a full habit (though short sleeves) and as we got up to shake her hand, she came around and hugged and European kissed each of us on the cheek – “Oh, I’m a hugger, as you’ll learn.” Her personality radiated happiness, reverence, and kindness. She specializes in helping families mourn the loss of loved ones – in Catholic terms, it’s her calling. And I can’t praise her enough.

She worked out all the Mass details with us and held a short prayer session in memory of my Aunt. And as she walked out of the room, I saw that the pained expression on my mother’s face had changed to a peaceful one. Sister Mary Joseph was what she needed. At the funeral the next day, Sister touched the rest of my family and by the end we were all at peace.

I may not be religious but I understand the place that religion has, and I am so very grateful that we stumbled upon Sister Mary Joseph.

In Remembrance

Today we remember the 32 victims of the Virginia Tech shooting and mourn their loss.

But in the two years since, we must ask ourselves if we have taken sufficient action to prevent this tragedy from happening again. There are three major areas where improvement was clearly needed back in 2007, and which may have prevented it:

(1) The ability of students who seek mental help (or who have been identified as mental heath sufferers) to receive ongoing, comprehensive treatment. We now understand that although Cho had a long history of mental illness, he was not subject to mandatory follow up visits with VT counselors – defying common sense. [An exhaustive study of Cho's history of mental illness can be found here.] Even though laws have not been passed to require people with serious mental illness to regularly meet with a councilor, the post-VT shooting climate on U.S. campuses has made both students and teachers more aware of the need to report and follow up with troubled students.  Undoubtedly, this is a step forward.

(2) The restriction of gun sales to those who have received involuntary treatment for a mental illness. At the time of the shooting, it was illegal for such persons to purchase a gun; however, due to  “mental health loophole”, in which people who are involuntarily subject to outpatient mental care were not recognized in the ban, Cho passed a background check and legally purchased firearms. To his credit,Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine closed this loophole on April 30, 2007 via an executive order.

(3) The response of VT to this disaster as it unfolded. In hindsight, we know that VT should have contacted students to tell them that a gunman was loose near VT as soon as the West Ambler Johnson murders (around 7am) were reported. This would undoubtedly have saved lives during Cho’s later rampage through Norris Hall. In the wake of this tragedy, the vast majority of universities and colleges in the U.S. have implemented emergency text and email message systems, and have begun using them to report various types of crime in the area. They have also held disaster simulations on campuses, where students pose as victims to various attacks (shooting, anthrax release, etc) so that the emergency response units in the area receive “real-life” training. These efforts should be praised.

Has the risk of another campus massacre decreased in the two years since the VT shootings? Perhaps – it is impossible to say. Much has been done and many efforts are ongoing. Omar Samaha, brother of VT shooting victim Reema Samaha, has embarked on a campaign to close the Virginia “gun show loophole,” whereby people are legally allowed to buy firearms at gun shows in Virginia without a background check or an ID. Omar brought this issue to the forefront during a 20/20 segment which aired on April 9, 2009 – he was able to purchase 10 guns in 1 hour with $5000 and NO identification at a Richmond, VA, gun show. Truly chilling. He is on a mission to prevent “the next Cho” from obtaining a weapon legally in this manner.

It should also be noted to VT’s credit that they have recently reopened Norris Hall, though it has been redesigned into offices and labs and the classrooms have been removed. In this spirit, we must always remember the past, but look forward on behalf of VT to a bright future of learning and discovery.