Something Knitty

Entries in Civic Duty (13)

Tuesday

Jan192010

I've Been Knitting, a month in pictures

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Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 12:55PM

My words are a little stopped up these days. Perhaps I've let my story-tap subscription lapse?* Or perhaps I'm distracted by the human tragedy that is occurring in Haiti right now. If you haven't already, please consider making a donation to one of the organizations that is trying to provide relief to this battered people.

CharityWatch.org has a list of highly rated charities working in Haiti right now if you'd like some ideas.

While I seek out my words, here are some photos of what I've been knitting in December.

Half-Pipe Hat by Debbie Stoller from Son of Stitch 'N Bitch for Sonar X9

Sonar X9 wanted a knit cap with a brim right before Christmas. We had a few days of actual winter, so I tried to accommodate him. This is made with a strand of Oxford Grey Lion Brand Woolease and a strand of something else in black (ball band swallowed by the furies of entropy), held together to make a thick, sturdy cap. The front is sewn in place to hold the brim, but the sides and back will fold down to cover the ears and the top of the neck. Sonar X5 is modeling in the absence of his brother.

Half-Pipe Hat before the brim is sewn inHalf-Pipe Hat after brim sewn in

Helmet Liners by Bonnie Long via the Citizen Sam Helmet-Liner Project for My Brother and His Battle Buddies

I made three of these from one skein of Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool. Hopefully they will warm my brother and his comrades. This was a very satisfying project.

Sonar X5 with Helmet Liner #3 and the remains of the skeinSonar X5 demonstrating alternate wearing options for the helmet linerTempest Cardigan by Weaverknits from Knitty, Spring 2008 for ME!

I've been hankering (that's more fake-Texas talk) for a lightweight cardigan for sometime, and this sweater has been in the back of my mind. I flipped the stash and came out with a few things. One abandoned project was frogged. One unsatisfying project was frogged. A few other things were scattered about. I thought of buying new yarn, but then there was that earthquake. I counted my blessings, sent the yarn money to the folks at OxFam, Doctors Without Borders, and The Red Cross, and started swatching with what I had.

The K'nex swift is holding a partial skein of Tofutsies, resurrected from another project, and a partial skein of KnitPicks Gloss lace, also lifted from obscurity. I liked this combination on the swift, but was less certain about it (and gauge) in a swatch.

Frogged yarn on the swift.

I made a crazy-long swatch of several yarns, trying to work out what I liked. This is what survived. The top half is two strands of the KnitPicks Gloss Lace (Celery) held together. The bottom is a strand of the Celery held with a strand of AlpacaWare superfine (Pale Pink). Gauge is as close as it's ever been for me. Maybe this sweater will actually fit me.

The winning swatch

After an hour or so of measuring myself, measuring my favorite tops, and worrying over the pattern, I cast on last Thursday (thereabout). I finished the back piece on Monday night, so it's going pretty quickly. I cast on the first of two front pieces this morning.

The back of the Tempest Cardigan, among other things on my mind

My Future Knitting

I'm looking forward to several baby projects for different friends who are expecting. In the meantime, I'm pondering possibilities for the yarn the Sonars gave me for Christmas.

And what shall I do with this? I have an idea. *Don't miss the veiled reference to Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie. Great book.

Eglentyne | Comments Off |

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Thursday

Nov062008

The NaNoWriMo Post-Election Update

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Thursday, November 6, 2008 at 10:42AM

Proud to be an American

Wow. Just wow. I'm still so excited and proud and relieved about the results of the presidential election. Disappointed in the outcome of some local races, but I have a good feeling that things will work out for the best.

I want to hold on to this hope and enthusiasm and do Something. I'm about as far from the White House as most of us, but I think we can all find some little way to Be Nice, Live the Hope and try to make our communities and our country and our world a better place.

For me, this starts small, helping out a little more at the kids' school, on the philosophy that every little thing we can do to make the whole school better helps all of the kids. I'm also investigating volunteer opportunities at the local library.

What thing, small or large, can you do to help us all live in a better world?

A Month of Literary Abandon

In other news, we are in day six of NaNoWriMo. For those of you who don't know, this is a crazy, month-long, writing extravaganza, in which people from all over the world try to write a novel in one month. The goal is to write 50,000 new words during the month of November. And this year is the tenth anniversary. More than 120,000 writers from all over the world, many of them just regular schmoes like us who might never have written a thing in their lives before right now are whipping out blank sheets of paper or opening up text files and starting to pound out stories.

There are writing forums, a procrastination station, a very cool word-counting widget that lets you mark your progress, weekly encouragement newsletters from writers un-famous, famous and infamous. Last year Neil Gaiman put in his good cheer, among others. Brian Jacques, Meg Cabot, and Philip Pullman are among the list of notable Pep Talkers this year. And at the end of the month, if you've written more than 50,000 words, you can verify your word count with the word counter robots and you get a lovely certificate and badges for your blog or web page, as well as the satisfaction of know that you did a hard thing.

Participation in NaNo is free, but The Office of Letters and Light, the non-profit organization that runs both NaNo in November and ScriptFrenzy in June, takes donations to cover their overhead costs as well as in support of the Young Writers Program. YWP seeks to provide materials and support to get young people involved in writing as a valuable form of self-expression. Their motto: "We believe in ambitious acts of the imagination." The goal this year, in honor of the tenth anniversary of NaNo, is to get donations, big or small, from at least ten percent of participants. They're up to 3.6 percent at last count.

In my personal novelling quest, I have achieved 8500 words so far. My goal is to write 2000 words per day. I missed goal on the first, which was a planning and mapping day for me. I also missed goal on Tuesday (the election was just too distracting and exciting), but managed to make up a little ground yesterday. The tickle of sinus congestion promises to be a challenge today, but I'm hoping to hit 11,000 before I go to bed tonight.

If you've ever thought that there might be a novel knocking around in the back of your mind, this is a fun and butt-kicking opportunity to start to capture that idea and get it down on paper. It's totally not too late to start. I try to write in 15 minute bursts here and there throughout the day (though mostly during afternoon naptime and after the kids go to bed), and on a good day I can spit out 300-400 words in each 15-minute stretch. If you can manage to get a friend writing at the same time, it can be very motivational to have 10- or 15-minute Word Wars, races to see who can write the most in a short burst of time. (Go ahead, suggest another metaphor for me to throw in that messy mix)

I'm eglentyne on the NaNo site. Send me an email to eglentyne at gmail and I'll add you as a buddy.

Writing with a friend--or 120,000 friends--or writing with a deadline can make the writing fun and really get the words flowing.

Give it a shot. At least drop by the site. And leave a fiver in the jar as you pass through.

Eglentyne |

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Monday

Nov032008

"Live Your Values. Love Your Country. Vote."

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Monday, November 3, 2008 at 9:22PM

Reasons 4 and 5 on MoveOn.org's Top 5 Reasons to Vote in Texas (but these apply elsewhere as well):

4. Help make history. You could cast one of the votes that elect the first African-American president. If we win, we'll tell our grandchildren about this election, and they'll tell their grandchildren. Do you really want to have to explain to your great-great-grandchildren that you were just too busy to vote in the most important election of your lifetime?

5. People died so you'd have the right to vote. Self-government--voting to choose our own leaders--is the original American dream. We are heir to a centuries-long struggle for freedom: the American revolution, and the battles to extend the franchise to those without property, to women, to people of color, and to young people. This year, many will still be denied their right to vote. For those of us who have that right, it's precious. If we waste it, we dishonor those who fought for it and those who fight still.

We voted. You vote too.

Eglentyne |

Are you out of your ever-loving mind?

Posted on

Monday, October 13, 2008 at 9:37PM

This is another post where I tell you about something that I'm not talking about. This telling-you-what-I'm-not-telling-you was actually a classic rhetorical move used by Chaucer to great effect. Though at the moment, the exact story in which he used it to such great effect is escaping me.

The other day I wrote an angry, ranty, post about an ugly bit of racism occurring on our quiet street, and more generally about racism and its stupidity and hypocrisy. I've learned (ha) as I've grown older that it's usually best, with an emotionally charged communication, to let things percolate for a day or two before zapping things off. Now that the anger has come down to a simmer, I've decided not to post that little love note. It was a little too personal. That kind of anger isn't generally a part of who I am or what I do.

I leave in place, however, two quotes that I think work well together, as part of a somewhat measured response to racism, sexism, ablism, classism, and outright ignorant bigotry. Implicit in my sharing of these particular quotes at this particular time is, I don't doubt you'll notice, an endorsement.

***

Referring to his mother's "creed," Joe Biden said in his acceptance speech for the Democratic Vice Presidential nomination: "No one is better than you. You are everyone's equal, and everyone is equal to you."

***

Stumping for Barack Obama with union workers, Don Gonyea said, "And here's a man, Barack Obama, who's going to fight for people like us, and you won't vote for him because of the color of his skin. Are you out of your ever-loving mind?"

Eglentyne |