Gidget Casts On

Scary Dairy

I'm usually not one to write about food, but I must direct your attention to this website, where James Lileks, the genius behind The Gallery of Regrettable Food, does a number on a 1959 book of Knudson's recipes that will have you wetting your pants, it's so funny. Here's a sample:

"Burger Rice Casserole. Small balls of cow flesh arranged in a lake of sour cream and rice. Probably better than it sounds. Below you have Knackwurst Rolled in Beef, which is Meat wrapped in a meaty Meat Wrap. Again, I’m sure it’s delicious, but the usual addition of Strewn Peas detracts from the overall effect. Who ever eats a knackwurst and thinks: man, needs peas.

Don’t forget to surround the dish with a wall of extruded insulation foam, in case the peas make a break for it."

Definitely not for the lactose intolerant.

More good reads: my revoltingly talented husband has a new poem up here, scroll down to "Cape Cod. 1960. Peking. 1997."

Is half a tank better than none? I'd love to keep going on Lick, but need to take a break to work up some Mother's Day gifts. I'm doing a pile o' Reverse Bloom Flower Facecloths (pattern in Weekend Knitting and Interweave Winter '03) and am already getting into a snit with the cotton chenille; I like my yarn to be a little more giving, and this just ain't. I have most of one done, but may rip it all out because the petals are cupping. Supposedly they'll flatten out with blocking, but I want to try to get them to be just a tad more flexible beforehand.

I'm also having one of those days where I'm unreasonably crabby, unaccountably distracted, and hate my cast-on. Maybe it's the pollen count.

Bear With Me

Thanks to Rob I will soon be in possession of this:

And I thought I'd have to wait a good 2-3 weeks to get my hands on it. Though I already have way too many projects going, I've got my eye on quite a few from this issue.

OK, maybe not the tea set.

I have half of Lick done:

Impossible to tell in this crappy light, but there are textural stripes in alternating knit/purl and in varying widths that look quite nice. It could be either the front or the back - I haven't decided yet.

Get Tanked

I've just joined Nathania's Tankalong, hope to have the back of Lick (as I'm now calling it) done tonight so I can post pix.

Fastidious Horses

I couldn't be more excited about this, just found a link to a song I've been searching for since 1985. Remember the movie White Nights? A must-see if you were a dance geek in the '80's (which I was), it's a great piece of anti-Soviet Cold War propaganda packaged as a quasi-musical. The dance numbers are really wonderful, and to me the standout was Baryshnikov's 'improv' to a bootleg recording of the Russian singer Vladimir Vysotsky, which didn't appear on the movie's soundtrack. For years I was haunted by that song - the vocals were raw (think Tom Waits on a fair to good day), accompanied only by an acoustic guitar, but it was so simple and powerful. Over the years I found several CDs of his work online, but the song used in the film had eluded me until now: KONI PRIVEREDLIVYE, or "Fastidious Horses". "Audio 2" in the left-hand column will hook you up with an acoustic version.

No one's fault but my own that I wasn't in DC this weekend, marching for the cause that, for me, is always the political dealbreaker. I thought I was going to be working, and then couldn't get it together to make last-minute travel arrangements for myself and an 18 month-old, so I settled for trying to catch it on the news, where it was sadly, though not unexpectedly, underreported. Apparently everyone was distracted by this enormous, floating metaphor in the Hudson River. Anyway, props to all – knitters and non – who gathered for choice yesterday. You guys rule!

Sadly, the Cotton-Ease Hollywood tube top didn't survive the week. It was just too bulky & heavy for a summer top, so I frogged the whole thing and started over from scratch using this pattern, from the talented designer who brought you Rogue. I'm liking Cotton-Ease much better single-stranded and I've been working on it almost obsessively for the last couple of days, so the back is almost done.

I'm also amusing myself by fantasizing about my next big yarn purchase, which I expect will happen around the time of the new Rowan mag R2's release. The new yarns sound dangerously exciting; so much so that I'm thinking about getting a knitalong together, mainly because I'd love to see what people can do with these wacky things. Anyone interested, drop me an email (lower right column) or post in the comments.

The Sweetest Sound

Anyone who's ever ridden the subway knows about the music; there's every type of busker here that you can imagine, from free jazz to Ghanaian djembe to "Titanic" karaoke. Some performers are virtuosos, some are passable, some are flat-out dreadful (anyone remember Busted Saxophone Guy on the 1 & 9?); for the most part, they're unremarkable and easily relegated to the background of your daily commute. But this morning on the A train — stalled between 42nd and 59th Street — I heard a guitar & 2-part harmony from the other end of the subway car that gave me chills, it was that good. I actually gave up my seat (believe me, this is a BIG thing at 8:37am) to move closer to the music. At song's end, the guitar player introduced the group as The Cagle Family, thanked us for listening in French, English and Spanish, and directed us to a website for more info. Go there NOW, and listen to Susan Cagle's "Touched". You will be, I promise.

Secret Goodies

How lovely to come home to this:

That's 2 boxes of Peeps there (expect an entire photo series as we introduce them first to the microwave, then to Mr. Martian), a skein of some gorgeous Cherry Tree Hill yarn and a Woodland Woolworks catalogue/idea book. I've never heard of them, but I loooooove catalogues, and they've got a terrific selection of stuff.

Secret Knitting bud, you're the best - - mmmmmwwwah!

Yidden in Da House

I want this shirt:

The tube top is almost done, but a little too large up top; rather than rip and shape, I'm redoing the next-to-last row with eyelets, so I can thread a drawstring. I keep forgetting that the breastfeeding boobs were loaners and have lately been recalled, and the originals are somewhat less...er...exhuberant. For a while there, I was actually bordering on bodacious; now, once again, I'm just a board. I'll admit, it was fun while it lasted, but I'm actually a bit relieved to have my familiar, pre-pregnancy body back, bras optional.

I've joined Fluffa's Bucket-along, will swatch tonight with some Araucania Nature Cotton when I've finished the top.

Insert Expletive Here

Lost this morning's post. Typepad and iMac do not play well together. Feh.

This would have been the perfect day for the Kureyon legwarmers, but I was halfway to work before I even remembered that I had legwarmers. Which is an ongoing problem for me - once I knit something, it takes a while for it to sink in that this new addition is actually a part of my wardrobe. Oddly enough, these things that take over my world when they're on the needles abandon my consciousness entirely once they're completed. Maybe I should follow the example of my LYS and hang all FOs from clothesline strung around my bedroom. Then I'd have a constant reminder that the damn things exist. Heck, I might even remember to wear them.

Another LYS deserves mentioning here. Though less L, this YS really came through for me the other day. I had a return that was a tiny bit over the time limit on the receipt (really, what's a couple of months in the grand scheme of things?) but the owner very graciously gave me the store credit, which I promptly blew on Rebecca 25 and 2 skeins of King Tut, an amazing cotton yarn. What for? Why, a shrug, of course. Probably a variation of this one. Lacy, I'm thinking. Half green and half french blue.

The Hollywood Knits tube top is shaping up nicely; especially considering that the pattern calls for absolutely no shaping. I'm thinking I'll modify it a bit more (I'm already knitting it in the round) and add straps, since I'm skeptical about whether a couple of crochet chains will be enough to hold this mother up. I'm working it in doubled Cotton Ease, and it's a mite heavy. CE is my new favorite cheapo yarn - - the yardage is amazing, and it feels pretty darn nice.

Speaking of the HK book, there are quite a few pattern corrections. This is the first pattern of hers that I've attempted, and while it's working for me so far, it's also fairly simple. There are a lot of things in the book that I'm planning to make (eventually, eventually), and I'm curious as to how some of the sweaters will pan out; I've heard that Suss's sizings are more suited to 10 year-old boys than adult women.

But overall, I love her sensibility. No patterns for sale for these two gems on her website, but aren't they nifty?

I was on the receiving end of a few strange looks this morning as I was letting myself in at work. My keys had gotten mixed up with some of the loose contents in my knitting bag, and in trying to extricate them I pulled out my size 6 Denise circs. Which are somewhat less than useful for opening doors, though I was tempted to try and pass them off as some new high-tech lock-picking device. Couldn't you just see this in the next James Bond? Or, more likely, in the highly-anticipated sequel (yes, that would be sarcasm you're hearing) to Mystery Men. There must be a 'zine or comic superhero(ine) out there by now whose powers are somehow related to knitting...isn't there?

Random Monday

Maybe it's the nice weather, maybe it's the high pollen count; for whatever reason I'm having a hellish time concentrating on anything today. I started a black Cotton-Ease top yesterday, but got barely any knitting done on the subway because I was trying to figure out which of my fellow passengers were the undercover cops. Recent announcements from the MTA assure us that there are more uniformed and undercover officers in the subways than ever before, in response to the heightened terrorist alerts. So I'd knit a stitch or two and then surreptitiously check out the Chasid standing to my right reading a little TOO intently from a pocket edition of the Tanach, the suspiciously nonchalant Wall Street Type who kept sweeping the perimeter of the car over the tops of his Polo glasses, the athletic-looking woman wearing a t-shirt that said 'Beware of God'. And then I started thinking, how do undercover officers pick their secret personae, anyway? Do they select from a pre-existing list? Is there a stylist? Wouldn't THAT be a neat job, working as a glorified costume designer for the 'construction workers', 'art students', and 'yoga instructors' who are really anti-terrorist agents?

I almost missed my stop.

Then once I got to work I spent the rest of the morning ruminating on how elephants can scratch their knees with their teeth without bending down.

I saw this over at Alison's a few days ago, lately reminded of it by Iris and Em. What the hey, at least it's not another quiz. Or maybe it is, in some obscure dadaist fashion.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the sentence in your journal with these instructions.

"When the system works, the Seminoles end up with training and experience and can eventually put the white managers out of a job."

The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession, Susan Orlean

(You are, like the orchid, a small thing of grandeur...)

Spring Ahead

So what if Daylight Savings Time is a couple of weeks old already, what with this weekend's gorgeous weather it's JUST starting to feel like winter might be on its way out. That being the case, I've finished the legwarmers just in time to pack them away for six months. Still, it's given me a sense of closure for my winter knitting, now I finally feel like I'm ready to commit to the summer projects I've been halfheartedly jerking around for the last month. Legwarmers, coming and going: