Herp 'n' Knit

Woooof! Baaaaa.

Just thought this was funny: http://bigsister.typepad.com/bigsis/2007/04/the_dog_goes_ba.html

Some knitting podcast reviews

It has been just about forever since my last post. I am going to blame that on a horrible incident with a cat, and another yesterday with a deer, both involving my car. Luckily everyone except the cat (which was bad enough) escaped without too much harm done. Then again, let's not discount the psychological toll of having two suicidal creatures run in front of your car in a two-week time span. Although it did help commiserating with my father in law -- in the past he has been dubbed the Duck Killer by his children and still vividly remembers that family of ducks crossing the road on a trip to Europe.

I am taking a break at work and was thinking about all of the wonderful knitting podcasts that I have had the pleasure of listening to during my commute to work. I will review two of them here, and will be posting additional podcast reviews in the not-too-distant future.

The Math 4 Knitters podcast, hosted by Lara Neel, is one that I have been listening to a lot lately. It's fairly low-tech (no music or anything fancy) but the sound quality is good, and Lara is a lot of fun to listen to. She discusses the applications of math to knitting in a very approachable and easy to understand manner. Having tutored math myself, I understand the hesitation that so many people feel about math, and Lara does an excellent job breaking everything down into small steps and making it less intimidating. She also does occasional book reviews and other extras. The podcast website is http://www.math4knitters.blogspot.com/.

KnitWit: Rantings of a Rabit Knitter, hosted by Carry, is described by the host as a "storytelling podcast with occasional knit bits". Although I started listening to this one for its knitting content, I have stayed for Carry's stories. She is a wonderful storyteller, and her tales often leave me laughing out loud. She seems to alternate between knitting and non-knitting episodes, and I have to say I like both equally. An older episode that I didn't get the chance to listen to until recently dealt with Carry's experience getting a mammogram, and then finding out that she had several masses that had to be checked out (everything seems to have turned out OK). Carry managed to tell the story with a dose of her signature humor, and she provided great info for other women dreading going through the same. Definitely check this one out. The website is http://autumnbreezedesigns.com/blog/.

RIP

to the teeth

ani di franco

the sun is setting on the century
and we are armed to the teeth
we're all working together now
to make our lives mercifully brief
and school kids keep trying to teach us
what guns are all about
confused liberty with weaponry
and watch your kids act it out
and every year now like christmas
some boy gets the milk fed suburban blues
reaches for the available arsenal
and saunters off to make the news
and the women in the middle
are learning what poor women have always known
that the edge is closer than you think
when the men bring the guns home
look at where the profits are
that's how you'll find the source
of the big lie that you and i both know so well
by the time it takes this cultural
death wish to run its course
they're gonna to make a pretty penny
and then they're going to hell
he said the chickens all come home to roost
malcolm forecast the flood
are we really going to sleep through another century
while the rich profit off our blood
yeah it may take some doing
to see this undoing through
but in my humble opinion
here's what i suggest we do
open fire on hollywood
open fire on mtv
open fire on nbc and cbs and abc
open fire on the nra
and all the lies they told us along the way
open fire on each weapons manufacturer
while he's giving head to some republican senator
and if i hear one more time
about a fool's right to his tools of rage
i'm gonna take all my friends
and i'm going to move to canada
and we're going to die of old age

RIP

Virus, go away!

I may just be the laziest blogger on the planet. It's not that I don't want to blog, but darn life just keeps getting in the way! After two weeks of sick kids, I am the lucky recipient of their cold, which includes a nasty sore throat. After working at home on Monday to avoid getting my coworkers sick as well, it's only getting worse, not better. Aaarrggh -- I haven't even had time to take pictures of my latest secret pal package yet! :(

Rest assured secret pal, your package was much appreciated and really brightened up my day. I am still petting the organic cotton when I feel too sick to knit. Although, maybe if I do a little more knitting, I'll feel better... Worth a shot, right?

First secret pal package!

Secret pal, your package made my week! It was so green, and cute, and smelled wonderful! :) The picture below doesn't do it justice.

Contents:

• Two skeins of Blue Sky Alpaca sport weight alpaca, in a gorgeous avocado color,
• Extremely adorable froggy magnets
• A cheeky notepad,
• Chocolate,
• MORE chocolate :),
• A wonderful olive oil soap, which made the package smell SO GOOD!

Thank you once again, my excellent secret pal!

Progress on Trellis

Minimal, but it's there. A big step for me since I'd gotten into a rut thinking I could no longer knit. The pattern I'm knitting is Trellis from Knitty, and I've wanted to knit this ever since it came out (in Spring 2005). I bought the yarn for it quite a while ago (Debbie Blish Cashmerino Aran in a gorgeous wine color -- pictures don't do it justice), and of course no longer have enough of it to make a sweater for little E. However, Miss C. is only 4 months old, so it'll be for her instead.

I decided today to take a look at my Amazon.com wish list and update it. I hadn't looked at it in probably about two years, and I added some more knitting books as well as novels that I'd like to read someday. I was surprised at how many knitting books I could find to add, considering that I had a hard time coming up with books that I still needed. I guess that's the difference between "need" and "want", right? Looks like there's some great books coming out soon though, including a Nicky Epstein felting book and Lace Style, the third book in the series following Scarf Style and Wrap Style.

Memes

I became interested in the origin of memes and how they propagate, and came across this on Wikipedia:

The term "meme" (IPA: /miːm/, to rhyme with "theme", not /mɛm/ or /mimi/), coined in 1976 by the zoologist and evolutionary scientist Richard Dawkins, refers to a unit of cultural information transferable from one mind to another. Dawkins said, Examples of memes are tunes, catch-phrases, beliefs, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. A meme propagates itself as a unit of cultural evolution and diffusion — analogous in many ways to the behavior of the gene (the unit of genetic information). Often memes propagate as more-or-less integrated cooperative sets or groups, referred to as memeplexes or meme-complexes.

Couldn't resist this meme, stolen from http://knittingspaz.blogspot.com/.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.

Well, here it is:

Initiative often takes this form of being unusually enterprising. Take the shipping clerk who realized his company did enough business with Federal Express to get not just a volume discount, but a dedicated computer to track shipping orders. The clerk took it on himself to approach the CEO as he was leaving work and pitch the idea -- and saved the company $30,000.

From Daniel Goleman's Working with Emotional Intelligence

Winter is here, frustration, and a wimple.

Finally some more knitting content! I feel like I'm all over the place with my knitting lately -- trying different projects and then getting frustrated because I keep making errors. It is making me question my abilities, but I probably should chalk it up to the fact that I have a job, two kids, and associated hassles as well as joys. After seeing the forecast for the next few days (winter is finally here in New York) I decided to sit down and knit something relatively straightforward and practical, a simple wimple! The pattern is based on this one.

The yarn: I bought a skein of Morehouse Merino wool when I was at the store after the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival 2006, and found this one in the bargain bin. I believe it is an underdyed version of their "Autumn Colors" colorway. I actually looooove these colors -- they are so muted but pretty. At least I have a finished object to put on my blog, and I have gathered up enough confidence to feel ready to tackle one of my many, more challenging, unfinished projects.

The dog who loved to suck on toads

Hee hee -- I found this on Wendell's Frog Blog -- thanks for the heads-up on this story, Wendell. Click here for the story with pictures -- text only below.

The Dog Who Loved to Suck on Toads

by Laura Mirsch

All Things Considered, October 24, 2006 · A dog may be man's best friend. But one dog, Lady, decided she needed more friends -- and she found plenty in the knot of toads living at the local pond. A suburban family's secret struggle with an uncommon addiction comes to light in this personal essay by NPR's Laura Mirsch.

Lady "was really perky, and happy, and generally excited to see you when you came in the door every day," recalls Andrew Mirsch.

But that was before the Mirsch family moved into a new house.

"We noticed Lady spending an awful lot of time down by the pond in our backyard," Laura Mirsch recalls.

Lady would wander the area, disoriented and withdrawn, soporific and glassy-eyed.

"Then, late one night after I'd put the dogs out, Lady wouldn't come in," Laura Mirsch says. "She finally staggered over to me from the cattails. She looked up at me, leaned her head over and opened her mouth like she was going to throw up, and out plopped this disgusting toad."

It turned out the toads were toxic -- and, if licked, the fluids on their skin provided a hallucinogenic effect.

What followed was the Mirsch family's quest to stop their cocker spaniel from indulging herself. But it wasn't easy. Lady was persistent, and resourceful.

The situation seemed to resolve itself when the toads went into hibernation for the winter.

But when they returned, so did Lady -- and with a vengeance.

"We couldn't keep our dog's addiction a secret any longer," Laura Mirsch says. "The neighbors all knew that Lady was a drug addict, and soon the other dogs weren't allowed to play with her."

In the end, Lady seems to have found a way to manage her problem.

"She seems to have outgrown the wild toad-obsessed years of her youth," Mirsch says, "and now only sucks on weekends."

Why I have not had time to knit.

Besides the horrendous cold which has now migrated to my head, I have been busy with this:

Yes, my little tadpole is starting his potty training. All he does so far is just sit. He finds it all incredibly amusing.

The other activity he seems to enjoy when he is tired is trying to kick his sister out of the bumbo chair:

Although all was once again quiet last night after the kids fell asleep, I was too exhausted to do anything that required mental effort, so ended up watching TV. 

On positive knitting news, I just found out today that my local knitting store has a free knit night on every last Thursday of the month, so that's where I'm headed tonight!