Geographically Challenged

I was born in Brooklyn and lived there, in several neighborhoods, until I went upstate to college.  The last 2 neighborhoods were both near Mill Basin at the SE end of Flatbush Avenue (see A below) and I could see water from almost any nearby street and most of the time when were were on the Belt Parkway which goes along the edge of Brooklyn.   My cousins lived in Cedarhurst (near Lawrence) on Long Island.

The other day Jim made a statement about Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island.  He said they were on the same landmass.  I adamantly said absolutely not because whenever we went to visit my cousins we went over at least one bridge meaning the Island was separate from Brooklyn.  I remember folks in boats floating and motoring by as we drove over them.

We then got out a map and I got egg cream on my face.

At Knit Knite last week, I related this story to the group.  Ruth, who grew up on the Island, responded like me in exactly the same words.
Carole got out her iPhone and looked up a Brooklyn map.  Sure enough the same result appeared.

Brooklyn, Queens and LI are on the same landmass!!!!  Yes, we did go over bridges as I can see there must be lots of them along the shoreline where streams come into the land from the bay and ocean. Sheesh.  How did I grow up in such ignorance and only now find this out?

Chambered Nautilus Saga

Jim keeps me in EZ (Elizabeth Zimmerman) books.  She is my knitting heroine.  I used to be a slave to patterns but after reading a few of her articles and books I converted to believing in myself and my knitting abilities.  I would not be designing patterns today without her influence on my fibery life.
EZ essentially says that any pattern is changeable, none are set in heavy felt and therefore a knitter need not feel like the pattern has the last say.  This she calls 'unventing'.

I am now one of those knitters who finds a new pattern, exclaims over it, says wow all I have to do is follow this for a simple knit and then proceeds to change the stitch pattern, or the gauge or to short sleeves from long or none or from flat knitting to round or even to steeked.  It's fun and liberating.  Really, if you have never tried to do that give it a knit on something small and see what happens. It's not life threatening, so take a chance.

Back to the story--- For Christmas, Jim gifted me with Knit One Knit All, the latest EZ pattern book from SchoolHouse Press

from SchoolHouse Press

"One of Elizabeth Zimmermann's dreams was to publish a book of her garter stitch designs. Though she proffered the idea to her primary publisher, and though the idea floated around their office for years, ultimately the project was not undertaken. In one of the publisher's letters that seemed promising, Elizabeth had written an exclamation of joy in the margins, and it seems fitting to us to fulfill her wish for a garter stitch book.

As we looked through Elizabeth's designs, we found a wealth of material, much of it little known or unknown to knitters. Further, we were intrigued and excited by the unique construction of some of these "new" designs (equal to her classic baby surprise jacket). You will find sweaters, coats, jackets, and vests for adults and kids, baby garments, plus a wonderful array of small projects including sideways gloves and socks, several brimmed hats, an ingenius pattern for knitted clogs and more."

I love the book, although I really dislike the look of garter stitch in general.  The designs are creative and EZ' sense of spacial positioning is astounding to me.  I immediately went through the pages several times exclaiming over this or that idea.  The hat on the cover looked so inviting and Jim said he'd wear it.  He even handed me a skein of a cabled 4 ply yarn (2 plies of natural icelandic hoggett  with alpaca and 2 of natural blue face leicester with silk) which was not thick enough for this project (!!! he does spin thin, very very thin, approaching frog hair), but I went through my stash and found just the right color of Rowan Tweed to knit together with his handspun.  My stash runneth over.

As soon as possible I started on this hat, diligently following directions.  Oh did I say EZ does not require that?  Well, with her patterns, one does need to pay close attention, at least through the first pass as teh construction is often unusual. Plus her patterns are what we call 'pithy', meaning they assume that the knitter gets it or can figure out what is suggested.  Sometimes this leads to some very interesting odd looking items.  Such as this:

turning into this:

The hat has 8 parts and mostly 7 stitch rows.  Starts simply enough too. But when I read to pick up half an icord stitch, yet the icords have been 3 stitches, I stopped.  hmmmnnn maybe that was only suggestive? Did I read it wrong.  No, so plowed ahead thinking it would get easier to understand once I had done this part but it only got weirder to me.  AHA! hopped online to Ravelry where there is an extensive EZ following and many forums dedicated to her works.  Sure enough I found the thread on this book AND the first erratta listings.  Wouldn't you know that this hat is the most confusing to knitters of all the patterns so far?

There's a note in the pattern saying: Slip the first stitch of every row k'wise.

Now with icord one does not slip the first stitch on the next row, but knits it pulling the yarn tightly into the stitch.  However since this was a prominent note I did as told.  WRONG.  I was supposed to use my brain and k the first st of the next row after the icord slips.  See its pithy............ and not slavish.

I then printed out the new instructions which do say which rows to sl1 and which to k1. Then frogged the whole thing, all 44 little rows and started again. 

Start up is 44 rows, section a is 4 rows x 72 times, section b is 6 rows x 42 times, section c is 2 rows x 260 times (which I wrongly assumed was an error or might never have started this beret), section d is 6 rows x 26 times, section e is 12 rows only once thank God, section f is 6 rows x 26 times and then 2 of those rows another 15 times.  That's a lot of little 7 st rows.  Way more than I have real patience for but its for Jim so I am plugging away at it.  I am now in section c. I have not multiplied and added up the total number of little rows.  I am not that insane, yet.

 The two rows in c have been knit 200 times while listening to an audible romance for relief from boredom.  Its hard to gauge whether this will really fit Jim or not and if not...(no we won't go there).

Another Surprise

What with all the getting ready and doing the holidays I just got around to actually looking through the newest Knit Picks catalog.   Unbeknownst to me, the powers that be at Knit Picks included one of my patterns, Wings On My Toes, from my IDP section on their website in the latest catalog, p31.  Actually Ruth showed it to me last week, but it took me another week to sit down and really look through the thing.

So exciting!!!!!!!

I love these socks and wear them int he cooler months whenever they are clean.  They are made from stroll sport weight machine washable yarn, cushy, soft and warm.  It could also be that I designed them with a dragonfly motif and that what was in my head came to fruition so well.  Whatever it is I am thrilled!!

Dragonflies on your toes.

Optional dragonflies on your heels.

As well as the cuff.

Fun knit too.

New Year's Surprise

I was describing at Knit Knite last Wedndesday how one year, in my youth, I realized that nothing changed at midnight 12/31 and so do not wait up for this artificial shift anymore.  As a child, I often stayed with my cousins on Long Island that day. Aunt Flora sent us out with kitchen utensils and pots banging the New Year in which I found a lot of fun.  I loved staying with them as they had a dog, Midnight, I could feed and love while there.

The local grands used to stay with us over New Year's eve but since they have grown to teen hood can now amuse themselves at home leaving Jim and I to be old fogies and go to bed at our usual times.  Jim about 10 and me about 11.

Ruth sent me a jacquie lawson card with fireworks at midnight.  Oh how I wished that might be but reluctantly admitted it was only virtual, maybe on July 4th, but not New Year's.    sigh.

I got really involved in the new beret I am working on and forgot the time. About 11:30 I went out to put the bunnies to bed and surprised a young raccoon.  Well I surprised me too.  I yelled at it to go away. I growled at it to go away.  It hesitantly climbed the post to the beam holding the deck roof, turned around and looked down at me.  I must admit he/she was very cute.  I let Basel out to be with me expecting him to bark but he was more curious than guard dog. hmmnnn  The buns were quite complacent, hanging out at the edge of their palace, even though I had expected them to be in hiding. None of the animals were acting like this was anything to worry about.  ODD

What to do.  I was carrying a glass of water to refill the buns dish so threw that up at the raccoon.  It shook off the water and tried to hide more in the rafter.  I yelled at it but did not get the results I was looking for.  Then I went to get Jim and ask him what to do, fearing he might shoot it as a solution.  It was full night so the coonie was not sick, just young and very tentative.  No growling or scare tactics on his part.

Last fall, Cole, our wonderful pet and house sitter, shot an enormous raccoon that had torn Gumdrop's nose by reaching into the palace.  I feared this might happen again even though this one is still smaller than the buns in size.

However Jim had already gone to bed and I didn't want to wake him since this wasn't an emergency, yet.

Meanwhile I gave the buns their night time string beans, refilled their oat/crunchy container, added night time hay and locked the palace as I always to to make them safe from marauders.  I do believe a raccoon qualifies as a marauder.  Coming to think that the raccoon would leave if Baz and I made ourselves scarce, we moved indoors, shut the dining room lights but not the porch one, and watched through the door to see what would happen. Eventually the raccoon did descend, walk around the railing for a while and slowly leave the porch.  whew

But even better were the unexpected fireworks sparkling up from somewhere on the far hill above the Danby Forest.

Wishing you all a happy and prosperous 2012.

Sunset Over Cayuga

Last Wednesday, as we came out of our oogling frenzy at MacKenzie-Childs, up the east side of Cayuga Lake, this is what we saw.  Ayne took the pictures.

Sometimes the beauty of this area just blows me away.

Resplendent

Wednesday was my birthday.  We used to try to go out for dinner but it often sleets this time of year.  So much so that we have stopped trying.  Mid December is not the best time to have a birthday what with Christmas and Chanukah in the same month.  Jim's birthday is the day after Christmas.  

Oh poor us.  

Ayne and I are planning a knitting retreat for the spring at her home in Lansing.  We had to do some of the hard stuff this week, so we scheduled it for my birthday.  We want the group to go out to lunch someplace not too expensive but scenic, nonetheless.  Since she lives several miles up the east side of the lake it is easier to go to Aurora than south to Ithaca.   We decided to test out the Aurora Inn's luncheon menu.  Well, someone had to.

I drove up to her 1860 Victorian and she drove us both north to Aurora.  Alas luncheon service in the dining room is halted from the end of October until May 1, so we went across the street to the Fargo Grill. The food was excellent as was the service but the atmosphere is not conducive to a large group nor to knitting.  sigh...  We may just have to check someplace else out another day.

Then we went next door to a clothing shop that is interesting to look through although pricey.  But hey, still fun and they did have a sale rack.

Next we went a bit further up the lake to MacKenzie Childs to check out its suitability for browsing.  This place is really something else.  I think we were lost in there oogling and oohing and ahhhing for over an hour.  The shop consists of several incredibly lush rooms.  A bit of this decor is really plenty in any room, but MacKenzie-Child's decorators have brought excess to an artform.

 

 Wouldn't you love to be invited to a dinner at this table?

Tuesday night, I set out a dark burgundy turtleneck to wear on Wednesday but changed my mind to a different one at the last minute.   Once I opened the presents from my sister, I knew why I was moved to wear the softer sea green colored shirt.

Doesn't this just go perfectly? 

 My sister sent a Brooklyn themed birthday this year as the bracelet is covered in old prints of Brooklyn. Look! That's the Brooklyn Bridge and NY skyline in the top photo and a side view of the bridge in the ad.  

We grew up in Brooklyn and even though our father's warehouse/factory was situated under the Williamsburg Bridge, we like the Brooklyn Bridge very much as he worked on it in his youth.

And these bird earrings are covered in maps of Brooklyn.

Very fun to wear.

Also on my person on Wednesday was this needle gauge from Jim.

Last Christmas a silver one was a present from my sister.  I wore it often. The nautilus design combined with the practicality really grabbed me.  However one day in February I came home to find the silver chain on my neck but no gauge hanging off it.  Major boo hoo.  I looked everywhere I had been, including under the seats in my car, all to no avail.  Big boo hoo.  I missed it greatly.  Jim replaced it just this week for my birthday with a nice leather cording so I can wear it two ways.  

I am so blessed.

Meanwhile my DIL, Liz, had asked me for a list of what I wanted for my birthday.  That was hard.  Finally after the second request I sent her a list of about 4-5 things I wanted: earrings (when don't I want earrings?), books and some Dreamz knitting needles.

Just yesterday a package from National Geographic arrived.

They are Fulani Tribal earrings, made by Fulani craftspeople in Mali.  

I wished for them but hardly expected that wish to come true. 

 Liz and Matt are very generous to me.

This was the best birthday in memory.

Be Still My Heart

Richard and Leslie met at my house about 10:30 to pile into my Pilot and head on south.  We stopped for coffee and snacks at Dunkin Donuts in Owego then boogied east to Binghamton and south to Scranton.  We made excellent time, getting there about 12:35.  Leslie brought their gps (Although it took me most of the trip to get used to the gps voice and mutterings as Jim is our human gps on most trips.) which was very helpful once we got off route 81, getting us easily to the HS situated in a working class neighborhood.

Of course by the time we arrived the school parking lot was full but a nice smiling cop let us make a U turn and told us to park across the street, which had just a few spaces left.  We called Jen to find out where she was and get our tickets.  Richard got on the line as it was already extremely long while Leslie and I walked up the hill to find Jen's silver car.  Fortunately she has Rhode Island plates so was easy to spot amongst all the PA ones.  And fortunately, myveryownsister lives in RI so I know what they look like.

Folks in Scranton got their tickets by standing in line Monday evening, while we got ours through incredible John, our upstate NY OFA coordinator, or we wouldn't have been able to get in.

Then we joined Richard.  

Folks were so happy and upbeat even though it was misting, cold and windy.

This is the Syracuse Squad who started their trek about 9:15 am.

Once the line started moving I was very impressed at the speed at which our closeness to shelter progressed. I thought I'd be able to knit while in line but the weather not at all conducive to outdoor knitting. Ravelry folks who know told me the security folks would check everything so I took a fairly small bag.  The guy looked into every zippered compartment, opened my purse and looked carefully into it.  As predicted he ignored the loose dpns and Denise shafts stashed among several pens and pencils so I got to knit on a hat once inside.  Score!

Folks who were on the line at 10:30 were not early enough to get inside the yellow lines where Obama actually touches people but we were close enough being in the side bleachers where he entered and left.  If you have seen any of the pics of the cheering cheerleaders, we were below them, about half way up.

Obama stopped at the Festa home before coming to the high school.  There are plenty of pics of that plus some video footage here.  Scroll waaaay down.  Donna Festa introduced him

but I could hardly hear her last words for the shouts of joy from the audience and my heart beating and my saying, "He's real!  He's real!".  This is one of the few I took that were not too blurry from my excitement.  Both Leslie and I are such groupies.  We were grinning and grinning and grinning. When we looked around so were most folks, well.... except for the Secret Service guys.

This pic and the one below were taken by a Syracuse volunteer who was way closer with a better camera.

Obama's speech was inspiring and just what we all were hoping he would sound like. ( I took a video of the whole thing but the c-span one is much much better.) Strong, upbeat, interactive, to the point, jeering a bit at the Republicans and telling us he was giving them one more chance with the tax cut bill that was going to the senate on Friday.  It sounded like if they didn't pass it he had an egg up his sleeve that might break on their faces.  He said to "Call your senators to support the tax cut extension for average Americans...."

"By the end of December all of our troops are going to be out of Iraq."

"America is a place where you can make it if you try....  Veterans should not have to fight for a job after coming home after fighting for America....  When you get knocked down, you get up. ... We've taken some punches in the last few years, we are tougher than the times.  We don't give up. We get back up...  We are fighting to make sure you can live a good solid middle class life where hard work is valued and.... rewarded....  not based on outsourcing and financial schemes but on education, manufacturing and small businesses....  Just like you don't quit.  I don't quit.  We can't wait. So we started taking steps on our own.  We can't wait for Congress... Since I have taken office we have cut taxes 17 times......"

O Bam a, O Bam a, chanting from the students.

He took about 10 minutes to leave, shaking hands, talking with folks, signing tickets.

Those are the teachers of Scranton HS in the background.  Most of the students were in the balcony behind us.

And he looked up, just before he boogied out, right at the place where Leslie and I were standing.

After waiting for the OK to leave we headed over to downtown Scranton.  Wow.  Some of those buildings are incredibly beautiful.

We met up with folks from the Scranton area, the Syracuse Squad and other OFA volunteers to get to know each other a bit and share info and ideas.

Such an up day.  So much to remember and think about that I will be flying for days to come.