alisonknits

GA Junkie

I really love the UUA's General Assembly. Part of it is the opportunity to see folks from other congregations I've been involved with; also there are some excellent workshops in which I learn a lot; there are reports from various commissions and leaders which keep me informed about the state of the denomination; this year there were some inspiring sermons, and a lot of amazing music (who knew that UUs were capable of singing outside the 19th-century Western music box?). But most of all, as I alluded to in my last post, I feel that the "congregation" of GA is like finding My People. How I wish I could find a congregation that more closely resembled the spirit of openness, enthusiasm, activism, mindfulness and spiritual depth that I find each year at GA. Perhaps I'll have to create this congregation for myself.

Also, there was much knitting.  I started Birch the day before I left, and finished it on the plane ride home (after a two-hour delay on our connecting flight out of Chicago).  Here she is, in her current un-blocked state:

As I'd hoped, this was the perfect project for my trip.  Easily memorizable (unlike the Peacock Feathers shawl which requires careful observation of charts), yet detailed enough to keep me interested.  Well mostly.  In the middle of the project I was not enjoying the purl rows, so I decided to practice knitting back-backwards on most of them.  I got pretty fast at it, and enjoyed not having to turn the work, especially as the rows got shorter.  Yeah, I'm a freak.

I returned home to an exciting package - the VKOTG: Ponchos book in which I have three designs!  This series doesn't usually use models, and I was wondering how that would work with ponchos.  They wisely opted to use models this time.  The book looks great, and I'm proud of my work.  I don't think it's out in stores yet; Amazon says it comes out August 28 (last time I checked, anyway).

I also returned home to my Peacock Feathers shawl.  After putting in several more hours on it, I realized that this whole time I had been doing the wrong kind of double decrease.  I should have been doing a centered double decrease, but I was doing a left-slanting one.  I realized this when the pattern starts having right- and left-slanting double decreases as well as the centered ones.  And the centered ones really make more design sense than the ones I was using.  So guess what?  I ripped the whole thing out, with nary a second thought.  Here's how far I had gotten before starting over last night:

Yup, I sure am a freak.  Any normal person would have accepted the errant decreases and realized that no one would ever know that they weren't correct.  (But I would know.)

Boo Typepad! Typepad Boo!

Often when I try to post on my blog from home at night, I lose my posts just as I'm trying to post them.  It is beyond frustrating.  I've taken to copying what I've written just before posting, but that didn't work out this time (I copied something else after copying the post) and I just lost one again.

Shorter version:

I started making the Birch shawl, since the Peacock Feathers shawl is too involved to knit at a conference.

I'm off to the UUA General Assembly.  That's where I get to see My People.

It's the Little Things

Several months ago a woman in my knitting group made fancy stitch markers out of jump rings and beads. I'd been meaning to attempt this myself ever since, and yesterday I finally got around to visiting an amazing bead store called Bruce Frank Beads. It was pretty fabulous, but I was somewhat intimidated by all the expensive and exotic things they have. I did walk out with some (not expensive, not exotic) beads and other materials to make fancy stitch markers. I made five of them as soon as I got home.

The color in this photo isn't very accurate - the ones that look reddish are actually purple. But you get the idea. Scott pointed out the absurdity of fancy stitch markers. Essentially, I'm embellishing my tools now. It's like a carpenter carving a design into the handle of his hammer. But I don't care. They are pretty and they bring me joy.

As you can see in the photo, I promptly attached a fancy stitch marker to mark the center of my Peacock Feathers shawl. I am also using four plain jump ring markers. What's great about them is that they are thinner than plastic stitch markers, so they don't cause any gap in the knitting like the thicker plastic ones sometimes do.

I can't stop knitting on the shawl, and am (predictably) neglecting my other projects. Dorothy Siemens' patterns are so good! Go buy her shawl kits. You'll be glad you did.

More Fun With Memes

So if everyone keeps circulating memes, I could become a very lazy blogger.  (Okay, who am I kidding, I'm already a very lazy blogger.)  But Noah tagged me for this book meme, so I figure what the hell.

1. Total number of books I own:  Who knows how many books they own?  I very scientifically counted the books on one shelf and multiplied by the number of shelves in my apartment and came up with 375.  But a lot of those are Scott's.  Last year when I moved a got rid of a lot of books, and my book buying addiction is no longer what it once was.

2. The last book I bought: On Tuesday I bought Donna Druchannas' The Knitted Rug, The F-Word: Feminism in Jeapardy by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, and America's Women by Gail Collins.

3. The Last Book I Read: Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd.  (I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the sacred feminine.)

4. Five Books that Mean a Lot to Me:
Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes.  (Do you see a theme developing here?)  I read this the year after my mom died.  It seemed like a good way to honor her spirit.  It taught me a lot about the kind of woman I want to be.

Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund.  I just like it.  Also her second novel, Four Spirits.

The Collected Works of Eugene O'Neill.  My senior thesis was directing an O'Neill play, and I've never been able to figure out why a cheerful person like myself would be so fascinated by such a depressing playwright. But there it is.

The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand.  Ah, youth.

The Greek Myths, by Robert Graves.  I contemplated a Classics major in college, but instead opted for the far more practical Drama major.  But I enjoyed studying Greek and Latin, and have been fascinated by mythology since I was little.

5. Tag five people and have them do this: how about Kay and Ann, Alanna, Stacy, and Julia.

Oh, also - What I'm Working On

It's summer, so I must be knitting lace.  In fact, I've got three projects going and they all have some lace element.  There's the interminable poncho, which I haven't been working on much but I want to get it done since it will be good to wear in the air conditioning.  (Insert my annual rant about overly-air conditioned restaurants, movie theaters, and office buildings.)  This project has cables and lace, actually lacy cables, which are the best of both worlds.  I like this stitch pattern so much!  Here's a picture of it, which you might not be able to see very well (sorry):

Also last week I started a shell to match the bolero cardi I recently designed.  I realized that I didn't have anything to wear the cardi with, so now it will be a twinset.  I'm going to try to sell the pattern, so you don't get to see that.  The cardi has an allover clover lace pattern, and the shell has the clovers on the bottom border.

But the real lace project I started yesterday.  It's the Peacock Feathers shawl from Fiddlesticks Knitting (which is also being knit by Julia, as luck would have it.)  I like knitting lace-weight yarn with bamboo needles (Addi Turbos are my needle of choice for everything else), which makes lace the ideal travel knitting, and later this month I'll be going to Ft. Worth, TX for a conference.  Why anyone would make people go to Texas in late June is totally beyond me, but I guess Unitarians are crazy like that.  Anyway, I'll be taking this with me to knit on the plane and in meetings and lectures.  Here's my swatch:

I look forward to a summer of glorious lace knitting... in between all the packing and moving, that is.

The computer ate my homework

Last week I wrote a long entry which was then eaten by my computer when I tried to post it. After much swearing, I went to bed, and didn't get around to re-posting it for the rest of the week. Here is an approximation of what it said...

Is it me, or have memes been sweeping the blogging world in the last couple weeks? I didn't know what one was until last Tuesday when, catching up on my reading, I found several on my favorite blogs. (Speaking of my favorite blogs, I think it's time to redo my blog roll. Lately I've been reading more lefty political blogs, and have found a few that are really clever and interesting.)

So, Kay over at Mason-Dixon Knitting had the best meme I saw - an image meme. Here are my answers...

The place I grew up:

Lexington, MA

The place a live now:

Astoria, NY

But by August 1st I will be living here:

In my new house in Haverhill, MA! The inspection was last week, and it went fine. Barring any tragic and unforseen circumstances, we will close in late July. It is, seriously, my dream house.

My name:

My grandmothers' names:

Julia

Lorraine

My favorite food:

ice cream

My favorite drink:

coffee, in its many wonderous forms

My favorite song:
To list but a few...

Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes, by Elvis Costello (which is also the title of this sculpture. Apparently someone is as much of an Elvis Costello fan as I.)

Daydream Believer, by The Monkees (my favorite was Peter Tork - isn't that wierd?)

"So Long and Thanks for All the Fish," from the Hitchhiker's Guide movie. The rest of the movie never quite lived up to this opening production number with dolphins. I downloaded it from iTunes.

Favorite smell:

Grass. I even have it in a perfume from Demeter Fragrances.

Favorite shoes:

Flip-flops. I refuse to call them thongs. To me, a thong is an unsanitary and uncomfortable form of underwear.