Visuals

Long overdue, here are a couple of shots of the traveling shawl in Spain:

This is the Tuscany shawl from Amy Singer's No Sheep For You; I used Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the Tuscany colorway, which is a nice confluence, I think! I now wonder if I should have made it bigger, but I think the wearer is enjoying it in this size. There are other photos of the shawl across the big pond, but faces of my loved ones are visible in those shots and we're a family increasingly wary of posting face shots on blogs ...

Last night when we came out of the pool, the windows and doors of the athletic center were covered with condensation. Some of the kids were drawing on it, and one of them (an budding engineer, given his interest in knitting design) found a way to use the lights from the soccer field to project the condensation drawings onto the white walls beside the doorway. Voila:

Also, voila, here is a sequence of fish tank photos (unfortunately in reverse order because Blogger won't do what I want, also unfortunately a little blurred because we were trying not to have the lid of the fish tank open too long and I rushed the shots) showing you the snail eggs. I'm just boggled by this event and can't wait to see what the next couple of weeks bring.



Here is a somewhat fuzzy shot of my first neckwarmer (in the Unique Sheep Singularity in Silk)

This is slightly better:

This is the Tudora neckwarmer in Cascade 200 Hunter Green, pictured with the Malabrigo neckwarmer in the indigo colorway ...

Below, D#2's sparkly scarf (Adriafils stars, on 15s):

My Druid mittens. The color is less orangey than this photo would have you believe -- it's Dream in Color Smooshy, in Ruby River.

Not pictured, but also OTN, 2 lace scarves, one in Malabrigo laceweight and the other in Knitterly Things Vesper sock yarn, in the Muddy Waters colorway.

When are you grading your papers, you ask in the face of all this knitting? What papers? My hands are busy.

Learning to Think

Where did the past week go?

I taught, I knit, I graded, I ran around a lot, I went to a lot of meetings. I went to the doctor twice, trying to kick an upper respiratory tract infection. I did laundry and made soup and roasted beets. I took my children to the movies (High School Musical 3). I went to a swim meet.

I thought about papers I've written and papers I'd like to write, and a book review I have to do soon. I thought about my booklist for the spring. I thought a lot about teaching strategies.

"When we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings." My daughter's sixth grade homeroom teacher began a letter to parents with this passage from Wendell Berry, and went on to talk about the work the class has been doing on habits of mind. The kids have been introduced to three categories of habits of mind (self-monitoring, self-managing and self-modifying), all with the goal of becoming a "self-directed, self-reflective learner". My child assessed herself pretty honestly in the early stages of this process, and we have already seen her modify her behavior in response to this work. As I shuffle my own piles of paper, trying to deny my wish to work on the Sunday crossword and pick up my knitting project, it occurs to me that I could possibly benefit from some of this assessment as well.

It's true that some part of my mind is baffled a good deal of the time (how wrong am I getting my parenting? how can I find a way to spend some time with my spouse NOT devoted to the logistics of our daily lives? am I really meant to be pursuing the career path I've chosen? why can't I find more time to knit/sleep/read/cook/swim ?). Somehow I don't think that's the kind of baffled Berry had in mind.

There's a lot more to it, but I am impressed by this strategy and by one sixth grader's response.

I've knit 2 neckwarmers/cowls, heavily improvising the design based on a stitch count of 99, on 7s, and using a couple of different eleven stitch repeats. One is in The Unique Sheep's Singularity in Silk, in the Amani colorway, and one in Malabrigo worsted, in the indigo colorway. Photos to come.

Also, I have some slightly fuzzy photos of one of the coolest things ever, and I'll post these in the next day or so, when I'm at home (the cable for downloading such things from the camera is there, you see). One of our snails laid eggs!!

I hardly noticed Parents' Weekend

The girls and I went to Wet Paint Nail Spa today. We love this establishment.

Fruits of a seasonal activity: yesterday D#2 went apple-picking with friends. She had a blast. There are still a few orchards open, although it is getting pretty close to the end of the season. Maybe we'll get a batch of applesauce out of these guys.

Today I made chicken soup and bacon/Gruyere/green tomato quiche. I had good intentions about tackling the pickling but when I went ot our local Stop & Shop they had a full end cap of different kinds of lids for Mason jars, and NO JARS.

Below, another marker of the season (that's the Harvard Lampoon building):

These two shots (above and below this line) are the green tomato chocolate cake from last week.

These 2 shots are of my birthday cake, made by R and adorned by the candelabra birthday candle sent me by my New York relatives. Those white circles are non-pareils. They occasioned a great deal of discussion ("what are they?" "what does THAT mean?" "What are those little white things on them?" "Do I have to eat it?").

Yum.

So we're all pretty excited about tonight, and R and I have changed our plans in deference to this momentous achievement (out to dinner instead of to "Body of Lies," figuring that the former would get us home earlier than the latter). If TBS loses the feed from Tampa again there will be hell to pay.

On a bigger scale, win or lose tonight, the fact that the Sox got to Game 7 says a lot about their heart and determination. This is why I love baseball -- you have to play the games to find out what will happen. All my Sox knitter pals are casting on good juju socks tonight and I do have some good red and white sock yarn that was sent to me by a fabulous swap partner. Maybe casting on for good luck socks is the push I need to put the Druid mittens on a circular (and frog back to get rid of the miscrossed cable I spotted while awaiting my turn at Wet Paint this afternoon). I carry them around so much that the dpns fall out, and my nifty dpn transport case is in use (on a pair of socks suffering from -- no, not second sock syndrome but "final 2/3 sock syndrome").

Yesterday, driving down to Attleboro to collect my swimmer from a "Catch the Spirit" clinic, I imagined walking down to the water with Marit to admire the new sea house before returning to her house for tea and an explanation of baseball. I remember thinking, I wonder if W.P. Kinsella's short story "The Thrill of the Grass" is available in Norwegian? That's a lovely example of [baseball] prose ....

Then, on the drive home, when D#1 announced that she was done talking and turned on her booklight, I imagined going to the Left Coast for a long walk with Jocelyn. She has a lot on her mind and I'm a good listener.

I love the connections afforded us by this Internet/blogging world.

Nobody has sung (or, it ain't over)

Wow.

Nineteen

Nineteen years ago R and I stood on a rock in Damariscotta, Maine, and signed on for this amazing rollercoaster ride we've been on ever since. We stayed here (several owners ago, as best I can determine). Computer Genius Brother and Sewing Genius SIL were there too, having dropped all at a moment's notice when we discovered we needed actual witnesses to make the thing legal. They brought champagne, and cups. And as CGB just pointed out this evening, they also contributed "fancy" to the occasion, as my sister-in-law had on fuzzy pink socks (as you can imagine, our youngest is dismayed that we didn't have bluebirds and attendants and white dresses and tuxedos. "You got married on a ROCK?" she keeps asking, in tones of horror).

Druid Mittens

So I made a bad call and took the Druid mittens to faculty meeting tonight. I should have taken the boring but beautifully pink and sparkly scarf I'm making for D#2. During the first bombshell announcement I lost my place in the first chart and had to frog back 20+ rows. I hate when that happens. But then I pulled myself together and made a lot of progress. I'm trying to decide whether to color code the chart so I don't need my old lady reading glasses (I can no longer do the New York Times Sunday crossword without said glasses, sad to say). I like this pattern a lot, and the Dream in Color is showing the stitch definition beautifully. I wonder if I'll have the attention span to make more than one pair.

Kitchen update: I plan to buy some jars and try green tomato pickle -- I did try the green tomato cake recipe that came as an online extra with The Boston Globe magazine a couple of weeks ago; it was a huge hit with my family, none of whom knew it contained tomato. Interestingly, you also add beer -- which must help the batter counteract the weight of the tomato puree -- I used Avery IPA which I would NOT do if I make the cake again. Something with a less distinct and hoppy taste is probably better for baking (although the IPA is delicious for drinking). I suspect, in fact, that Guinness would have been better. Speaking of newspaper recipes, the other night R made the mac and cheese pancakes from the aforesaid New York Times. They were extremely yummy.

When we had family over on Monday I made whole wheat bread and banana bread, and squash/apple soup, and I'm glad I did, as I'm feeling crummy now (some sort of tree pollen allergies AND a cold) I have no interest in setting foot in the kitchen. Given that our 19th wedding anniversary is tomorrow, that doesn't bode well for a festive dinner...

And yes, I did notice that my beloved Red Sox are being massacred at Fenway. I don't really want to talk about it.

Some Silver Lining (picture heavy)

Adding text seems a little superfluous, but I want to credit the fall photos properly (taken by D#1). I am glad to be reminded that, while the overall picture is grim, daily life has many positives and it's time to focus on them. So I'll try to do that, and attend to the fundamental tasks of that routine, and try not to get agitated about the crashing markets, grim economy, and other frustrations attendant upon being part of a community.

I do love fall, and these photos do show some of the New England foliage thing at its most scenic.



I'm enjoying using up scraps of sock yarn on these little ornament-y things. Dobby thinks they're cat toys, and Raeford thinks they're good for puppies, but I'm inclined to think they might have a less rough-and-tumble use. The fall mittens are still OTN, but require a pretty intesne focus on the various charts. Photos of them next time.


Oh, yes, last night in Tampa Bay --that was pretty good.

courtesy of bostonherald.com
courtesy of boston.com

one of the new snails

and some more pretty leaves

Also, I made applesauce. Of course it did not come out as beautifully pink as my mother's applesauce always does. She won't share her trick.

I think I'll go to a football game for a little while. After that my list looks like this: come home & write some comments, open my e-mail even though it's a long weekend and I'm resolved not to stress out, knit something, and get ready for Game 2 ...

Looking for the silver lining

It's John Lennon's birthday today. Anyone else horrified to realize he would have been 68, or are we all so terrifyingly grownup now that we're not fazed?

On a larger scale, I cannot help but feel that we are entering (or well into) dangerous and uncharted waters in this country. I am fortunate enough to know that my job is safe, and so is my husband's -- but I think about all of the farmers and fiber artists and techie people I know and I worry about what the future holds for them. We're all so busy saying how important this election is but the fact remains that neither candidate is going to be able to fix what's wrong with our economy right away (if ever), and a lot of people who cannot afford to do so are going to pay for some stunningly bad decisions, policies, and lack of vision. And the people who made those decisions and cooked up those policies will barely feel a pinch. It's disheartening.

I'll come up with something more positive in a day or so. Maybe I'll show you some knitting, or some puppy pictures (she's coming to visit for the weekend). Maybe I'll have come up with an awesome recipe for using up the green tomatoes. Maybe I'll be able to tell you that I've graded all the papers in my possession. Yes.

Home again, and the onset of pennant fever

I'm back from my conference and am trying to make sense of re-entry into this life. For example, just how much research can I do into green tomato recipes? I can't believe how many green tomatoes I have right now, and the first frost is approaching....

For the record, I had no visceral memory of ever having been in Boulder before, though in fact we were there as a family for a while in (I think) the summer of 1968. It's a place that makes my hometown of Cambridge MA look positively right wing. And so beautiful! How does anyone get their work done? I was also curious about the vast numbers of kids we saw out and about during what I think of as school hours, and the motivation for holding a big kids festival on the Pearl Street Mall from 3-6 on a weekday... in addition to the conference, we were able to sneak out for a dinner in an amazing place, and of course I dragged a friend to Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins. Although we went for me, she ended up buying something. The patterns in that book are so cute. I can't wait to see which one she tackles first. (The only kind of evangelist I'm ever likely to be is the fibery kind, and I am very good at it.) We ran into another conference attendee while there, and spread the word among like-minded literary scholars when we returned from that exciting escape.

My paper and other conference/academic responsibilities went very well indeed, and as always attending this gathering feels like renewing my very lifeblood.

However, I lost the pattern for Tudora on the plane just as I was getting to the decrease/bind-off part of the exercise, so that's not finished. Now I'm home & can print it again, though, it should be a matter of a couple of innings.

And, in another misguided attempt to modify a pattern, I had thought I could convert Jared Flood's Druid mittens into a size large (the pattern is written only in Women's small) by just casting on and proceeding with size 4 needles. I completed one entire cuff before deciding that I was on track to create women's size humongous instead. So, time to frog & then back to size 3 needles as called for in the pattern. I'm using the Dream in Color Smooshy in the Ruby River colorway that my mother bought for me at Lettuce Knit last year and they're going to be SO gorgeous .... just right for fall in New England. This is my favorite time of year, and my favorite region in which to spend it.

Okay. Must keep moving! And let's hope that Joshua Patrick Beckett is close enough to 100% tonight that we can finish off this series before anything typically Red-Soxian occurs.