The Experimental Knitter

Interesting Observation

2012-01-27T10:15:00.000-08:00

My new yarn has been telling me what to make out of it. I've finished one project (another post on that) and started the new one.

Lisa Souza's Timaru is a silky yarn, suitable for lace. The Mother of Pearl when wound becomes a shimmery off-white color; the gradations of pastel simply melt away. I've been meaning to make myself something from Nancy Bush's book on Estonian lace. I need a dressy scarf. The Triinu scarf pattern fits the bill in terms of yardage, weight, and esthetics. Knitting the first edge I discovered something:

This is the edging for Triinu.

This is the Watermelon Wedge sock you've seen before. Notice anything about these two?

Would you believe the patterns are the same? Well, nearly: the sock pattern has K4 between the YO, K1, YO and the SK2P, whereas Triinu has K3 between the YO, K1, YO and the SK2P. Observe how the ribbing provides the anchor so that the space-dyed yarn makes those neat chevrons for the socks. Without a ribbed edge, the Triinu edging is free to flare out and make that nice frill that I'll be pinning when I block.

Neat, huh? I love knitting.

Do You Detect a Trend?

2012-01-26T07:43:00.000-08:00

Hint: These are my latest yarn acquisitions. From top to bottom, they are Kraemer's Silk and Silver in White Veil; Brooks Farm Four Play in White, and Lisa Souza Timaru in Mother of Pearl. Who knew off-whites could be so intriguing?

First Peek... And Some Good News

2012-01-15T17:18:00.000-08:00

Yep, watermelon wedge socks on the needles. I'm really about up to the heel flap (my modification-- doing a heel flap and French heel in place of the afterthought heel in the pattern). The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I did slip 1, k2tog, psso in place of k3tog, as pattern is written; I split my pushing finger and could not bear the pain of the k3tog. I like the look and am never anal about patterns anyway. On to the good news.

DH got the job. Starts this week. He'll be an adjunct prof at a college in the next county, teaching biology with lab; 48 students in class, 24 in lab (there's another prof to teach the other half of the lab). The pay sucks, really sucks, but it's a foot in the door. Who knows how many more sections of bio there'll be next term? Also, this college has a micro curriculum for med techs-- and micro is DH's specialty. Being it's a pubic college, DH stays in the state pension plan. I'd say great news if DH were teaching more than 1 course; a typical load at a teaching college is more like 3 or 4 courses, plus advising and some research. BUT it's a foot in the door, as I wrote.

Off to watch Downton Abbey. We're all hooked. Love those clothes and jewels. I can wear this from the back of my cedar closet, an Anny Blatt design I made out of Tahki Sable about 20 years ago:

I'd give a lot to have Carson come and run my household. Heck, I'd give a lot to have Carson come and polish this:

This being a sterling silver candelabrum I inherited from my mother. You can't tell from the photo, but it's over 2 feet tall. I spent over an hour polishing it this morning, and that's after polishing it 2 weeks ago, and after coating it with the same stuff the British Museum uses on its antique silver collection so they don't have to polish all the live-long day. Carson? Anna? Where's the staff when you need them??

Lupine Socks Redux

2012-01-13T05:57:00.000-08:00

New socks, I haz 'em. Just in time for the next blast of winter (coming this way any minute now-- what a weird winter this is turning out to be) I finished my second pair of Lupine Lace socks. Now because I did not use reinforcing yarn with sock #1, I kept things symmetric and forewent reinforcing yarn with sock #2. So far my socks of Sundara yarn (sport weight and sock weight) have held up. Let us hope socks will last into the future; there a fair bit o' money sunk into these, after all!

Started the next pair of watermelon socks, meaning I casted on and knitted 2 rows, nothing exciting enough to take a shot of. When the pattern looks like something and the thing looks like a sock leg, then I'll be motivated to take photos. Now the question is, what color reinforcing yarn shall I use with the yarn? FYI, I use fine cotton crochet thread as reinforcing yarn. I have green, rose, and natural. Yarn looks like this:

Another question: Does somebody know a technique to add reinforcing yarn on the soles only when knitting in the round? Seems to me there must be a way if people knitted padded sole socks, right? At $26 plus shipping form Canada for the skein, it's too expensive to contemplate holes in these future socks.

Big news of the day: DH has a job interview in a couple of hours! At a nearby public college-- to teach biology and lab. The chair of the department called last night, while DH was in synagogue for evening service. Nice man; told DH salary, hours, and everything when DH called back. Pay isn't great, it's for one course BUT DH keeps his state benefits (only 2 years until DH is eligible for full pension) and there's always the chance they ask him to teach a full-load. I'm hoping DH gets something to keep himself in the loop. Quite a few profs in his department at the med school will be retiring shortly; they'll need DH to take over the teaching load because they surely aren't hiring new faculty.

Today I work from home. Must go now and prepare for a teleconference with a client. Tempting it is to pick up those circular needles and knit my socks, but I refrain. Imagine the uproar if I were to drop a stitch while on the speaker phone. Words cannot describe.

What a Year That Was

2012-01-06T08:41:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to one and all. Hope everyone had happy holidays.

What a year 2011 turned out to be for the Knitter family. First was my mother's passing, when the year was barely a week old. My year of mourning according to Jewish law is now at an end; in so many ways it whizzed by and yet in others it feels as if my mother died just yesterday.

Next came the double loss of jobs for DH and me. I'm so lucky I found work relatively quickly. Not just that, but it's work I enjoy, work I'm good at, and work that should be going into the future. Word from The Firm is that since the IRS frowns on contract employees (like me!) being contract employees indefinitely (if the work's time frame is indefinite, the work is therefore permanent; so should the employees be), The Firm will have to change my status to permanent full-time fairly soon. Which is good news for me, since I will then have paid vacation and sick time, paid unemployment and health insurance, and a retirement plan once again. DH is still looking for work every blessed day. We were paid too much (sounds funny, right?) in 2011 to open IRA to supplement retirement savings when our jobs ended on June 30. Now going forward in 2012, I can max out IRA savings for both of us.

Truly, I'd been too depressed to knit for most of 2011. Once the job hunt and new career started I found myself immersed in figuring out things I thought I had figured out long ago, like how to find a job and how to work in a company environment. The learning curve was steep but rewarding.

DD#2 will begin her final semester of college in a few short weeks. She worked to support herself this past semester as a medical archivist; truly a relief for DH and me not to have to send her living money in addition to paying her tuition. She has been a named scholar at college since her sophomore year, earning herself merit scholarships that covered 25% to 75% of her tuition. Besides working, she's editor of her college's literary magazine, concert mistress of the wind ensemble, and an outstanding scholar in her field, earning a straight A average last semester, which places her GPA firmly in the realm of graduating with honors in her field come May. DD#2's most exciting news is that she's already accepted to 2 MPH programs, out of the 7 she applied to.

And for my little future epidemiologist, there's a brand-spanking new Estonian lace scarf ready for her to take back to school on Sunday (she'll be working full-time until classes begin). From Nancy Bush's fabulous book on knitting Estonian lace, this is the Peacock Tail and Leaf scarf started just about a year ago. DD#2 is modeling it (I think she must like it because she's wearing it as she zips around the house doing her laundry and such).
The luscious yarn is Dream in Color Starry, color Lucky Jade.

2011 was also the year I wore a hole through a pair of socks I made, the very first time a pair of my socks wore through. These are the socks, pre-hole:I did not use reinforcing yarn at heels and toes; I should have known better. Bleah!! The yarn is Freshisle Fiber's hand-dyed Suffolk wool in self-striping watermelon. I could darn them; instead, since they felted a bit over the years, I'll make them into a silly snake toy for Rocky. Besides, I have more yarn from Freshisle Fibers in self-striping watermelon-dyed Louet merino. I'll be casting on for new watermelon socks as soon as I finish the pair of Lupine lace socks, the ones that ran away last year and hid for months. Those socks are now on their way to completion (I need them! it was cooold this week): one done, about to start the heel flap on the other.

I'm getting back into jewelry-making mode too in the new year. I had this set of tourmaline crystals lying around forever (well, years; seems like forever). I whipped them up into a bracelet one evening this week:

If knitting went as fast as wire beading, I'd have no UFOs, nor stash-- the perfect excuse to buy more yarn. Right?

My Big Fat Gluten-Free Luncheon

2011-12-11T10:29:00.001-08:00

We have a good friend with celiac disease. We had him and his wife over for lunch yesterday. Clever cooking was involved. I experimented with a few recipes and came up with a menu that was such a crowd-pleaser, I have barely any leftovers.

For starters, I served bought Mediterranean-type salads, like caponata, Turkish eggplant salad and hummus. I also served vegetarian chopped liver, made from eggs and onions.

For the main course, I needed something for the crock pot, so as to have a hot dish, a Sabbath tradition. Here's my variation on a cholent casserole, with my celiac friend's seal of approval.

First, parboil about 3/4 package of baby lima beans in the microwave. Basically, put them in a glass bowl, cover them with water and cook them on highest power for 10 minutes. While the lima beans are cooking, whisk together about a quarter cup each honey mustard and ketchup; set aside. Put your meat in the crock pot first. I used about 2 pounds of stew beef for this dish. Cut 3 or 4 Yukon Gold potatoes into chunks and spread them around the meat. Add the whisked mustard and ketchup. Sprinkle a packet of onion soup mix on top. Add a generous dash of Hungarian paprika, maybe nearly a tsp. Now add the beans, water and all. You'll probably still need to add more water to cover everything if you're going to cook it overnight, as I have to. I set my crock pot on a timer, cooking the food on the high setting. I put the dish up around 1 or 2 pm; the timer shuts off around noon the next day. Normally, I put a cup of barley and less beans into this cholent, but barley has gluten, so no barley this week. Everyone loved the way it came out. I think my friend with celiac had 3 helpings.

For side dishes, we had plain veggies and a corn salad made by DD#1.

For dessert, I got inspired. I bought big Rome apples and cut them into chunks into orange juice, so they chunks wouldn't turn brown. While I was cutting the apples, I soaked some dried blueberries, cherries and raisins, maybe a half cup each, in enough rum to cover. You can speed the hydration along by sticking this in the microwave for 20 seconds on high. I put the apple chunks and a little orange juice into a 9" by 9" baking dish and added 2 tbs of brown sugar, mixing well. A generous dusting of cinnamon was mixed in next. Then the dried fruit plus the rum was added. After a final mix, I dusted the top with more brown sugar and a final bit of cinnamon. I love cinnamon, in case you couldn't tell. The mix gets microwaved on high for 15 minutes. That keeps everything nice a juicy. This is great warm or cold, and with a dairy meal, excellent with vanilla ice cream on top. None of this is left. DD#1 came over this morning to roust the last serving and eat it.

The second dessert I made was coconut custard. Silly to make pie if my friend can't have crust, right? Plus DH won't touch crust. So I never bother; I just make custards in pie plates. For this, I mix up 2 eggs with a cup of sugar, a tsp of vanilla extract, and normally 2 tbs flour. With my friend coming, I used potato starch left over from Passover, but corn starch should work just as well. To this mix add 7 ounces of flaked coconut. where I live, flaked coconut comes in 14 ounce packages; I make 2 custards at a time. They go fast, believe me. Pour into prepared deep dish pie plate (I spray with Pam for baking) and bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes, until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean. Cool on wire racks. Since I made 2, we have one tucked away for the week.

On the work front, I finally confronted the person who'd been avoiding my phone calls. I got clever and called from a phone she wouldn't recognize. I listened to apology after apology. Turns out she's waiting to hear back from her redac editor. Great; in two months she couldn't let me know the editor flaked off? I'll keep calling her from different phones until we get this resolved.

On the other work front, The Firm's asked me to work on two other projects, starting last week. In addition, they want me to do a presentation in Europe at the end of April. Nice. DD#1 says she's coming to Europe with me as my unpaid assistant. I'm hoping for the south of France. DD#1 hope it's Scotland. Stay tuned!

Stiffed!

2011-11-27T11:34:00.001-08:00

How was your Thanksgiving? Did you have company or were you company? Did the turkey come out done to perfection? We had a lovely Thanksgiving. We started cooking in stages last Sunday. Made the split pea soup, then 2 pumpkin pies. DD#1 made a cranberry crunch bake, corn salad, and pumpkin bread. Her MiL made a cranberry gelatin relish and apple crisp. On T-Day, we arose early, ate breakfast, then hiked up Second Mountain to be in fine fettle for the meal to come. "We" consisted of DH, myself, DD#2, Skye, and Rocky. Back home, DH baked yams and then roasted the turkey. He insists on making the turkey according to whatever recipe I find earlier in November that guarantees moist bird with crisp skin. We were 9 at the table, with a fantastic turkey dinner enjoyed by one and all. I served a white wine, a blend of Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, and French Colombard wines. Leftover score: barely enough turkey for DH and me for one meal.

The title of this post refers to having been stiffed, robbed, jilted, and treated poorly by The Place I wrote for over the summer. To recap, I was asked back in June to develop an online book chapter on lung cancer for a continuing medical education website. I wrote the chapter. I submitted it knowing I'd have to do some editing but needing feedback from the MD consultant on the project. That was August. September 9 was the last correspondence from The Place, acknowledging receipt of the chapter, reference materials, and chapter test questions. I e-mailed The Place before heading to LA. I e-mailed The Place to let them know my holiday schedule in late September and through October. I called and e-mailed The Place in October and throughout November. I have received no response by either medium. Ergo I've been stiffed for $1200.

I have a contract with The Place. Tomorrow I'm going to re-read that contract and call one of two friends, either my friend the contract attorney or my friend the litigator.

A Peaceful Day and a Busy Week

2011-11-18T05:31:00.001-08:00

Sunday we had a free afternoon so we loaded the collies (we were dog-sitting for DD#1 and DSiL) and headed for the Delaware Valley to explore a new place. Knitters who knit the designs of the Hebridean She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named might recognize the area as the setting of her book, Stillwater. We didn't go to Stillwater itself, but we were in the area, driving through farmland and wild hills. Trees still held fall foliage, despite the October snowstorm. The dogs enjoyed the views from the back of the SUV. We discovered a nearly deserted mill town called Alexandria, which now holds an apiary. I think the town isn't totally deserted; according to the 2010 US census it has a population of something like 200. We'll have to go back another time and see it when the apiary is open for selling honey and beeswax.

Our ultimate destination was Milford, on the east bank of the river. It's tiny too, just a bit larger than Alexandria. Its claim to fame is having been the site of a Delaware & Raritan railway depot and boasting the oldest on-site beer brewery and pub in New Jersey, The Ship Inn. The Delaware was smooth as glass.We walked across the bridge to Pennsylvania, to an even tinier town, where we discovered the Delaware Canal and towpath.Once back in Milford, we just had to sample the offerings at The Ship Inn. Ales, porters, stouts, and beer were on tap. For $6.25 we received 4 ounce glasses of every offering. I liked one of the porters and ordered an additional glass of that. DH couldn't decide which to get, so he wound up drinking all the samples. He discovered he does not care for wheat beer. DD#1 told us Skye likes porter, but I wasn't taking any chances. Rocky gets car-sick so he received his prophylactic dose of Dramamine before we set out. I had nothing to give a drunk Skye in case of nausea on the way home!

We came out of The Ship Inn to this site:

This turned into a most busy week for me. I'll be interviewing oncologists about their prescription decisions very soon; I was supposed to interview one today in fact but she had to cancel at the last minute. It'll be exciting to find out why they choose what they choose when the practice guidelines are not clearly defined.

I also started freelance writing for www.Textbroker.com. I write about anything and everything. The pay's not great but the faster I write, the more I earn. In two weeks I made over $200, enough to pay some utility bills. While writing the articles, I learned about Treasury bonds and their yields, what pipes to put into a new house, and what a reverse mortgage is. The one fiber-related assignment I saw, but declined, was on crocheted scarves. Not that I have anything against crocheted scarves, but the client's instructions were unintelligible. I learned quickly that clients do not respond to requests for clarification. I suppose if they wrote clearly enough to begin with, they wouldn't need to pay a writer to read their minds.

First Client Meeting Today

2011-11-09T13:36:00.000-08:00

Today I had my first meeting with a client, the person who supplies the money that pays the firm to pay me to do research. I tried not to think about it at all, so my nerves wouldn't get to the point where I couldn't handle the meeting. After all, I'm just a lowly free-lancer, trying to learn a new trade. The client didn't know that (a good thing), but still, I need to come off like the consummate professional in this field I hope to be someday.

Before the meeting, I felt like this:

I let nothing show, and left it to the director for scientific strategy to lead the meeting. I initially thought I'd have nothing to say. Pretty soon I realized I really do know a lot about the project I've worked on since August, and that I could help the client figure out what to do with their new drug.

Back in the Dark Ages, when I worked for pharmaceutical companies, we had folks in the company who figured out what should be done with the drugs the scientists (like yours truly) kept discovering. Every so often my manager would let us peons know what was going on with this or that drug. Our job was to keep on discovering new drugs. Their job, the reason they got paid the big bucks, was to figure out what to do with the drugs. Now it seems that pharmaceutical companies outsource everything they can. Do they discover drugs? No, they buy them from little start-up companies and develop them. Do they figure out what to do with the drugs they've bought? No, they hire firms like The Firm to figure it out for them. I'm not complaining; I find it faintly amusing in fact. If I become an expert opinion that drug companies listen to regarding their future cancer drugs, so much the better for The Firm and for me.

After the meeting, my frame of mind was much better.

I do believe I did a good job. Now of course I can get nervous all over again, since I learned that I'll be conducting interviews with physicians to find out what makes them decide on one anti-cancer drug over another. And in January, I think I have to do a big presentation to a roomful of clients. I was never nervous giving presentations to roomfuls of scientists; somehow the thought of giving one to pharmaceutical executives is, well, different. Good thing I have time to prepare.

While I was at this client meeting, I missed tow phone calls from people about jobs. I was happy to return those calls; until I'm employed permanently and full-time, I'm still on the market, as it were. The first call was from a recruiter, one I spoke with a few times over the summer. This fellow makes me wonder sometimes about what it takes to be a recruiter. I'd sent him my resume several times before, but fine, I sent it again today. My resume states clearly what I've done. If it's not on my resume, I haven't done it.

Recruiter: "So you have a lot of experience as a bull wrangler."
Me: "No, just a little bit of experience, not a lot."
Recruiter: "My client will only look at folks with a lot of experience."

Dude, you called me! Should I be lying to the recruiter? Should I be hastily modifying my resume as I speak to him before emailing it?

Wait, it gets better.

The second phone call was from a local firm needing an oncology expert for their medical communications needs. That's exactly what I'm doing. They want someone for part-time. All right, two part-time gigs equals one pretty decent amount of money. Here's that conversation:

Firm: "So you have loads of experience in medical advertising."
Me: "Not advertising but medical communications. I believe some aspects are related however."
Firm: "We really need you. Can you come in tomorrow for a chat?"
Me: "Yes I can."
Firm: "And you have loads of experience in cancer of the esophagus."
Me: "I have some. I have loads of experience in cancer of the prostate, pancreas, and other areas." Remember- all of my experience is spelled out on my resume.
Firm (tone of voice changing from excitement to polite disinterest): "Well then fine, we'll get back to you."

Should I be lying or what?

Moscow on the Passaic

2011-10-30T06:09:00.000-07:00

This is what it must be like to live in the extreme north: major snow before the quarter day of autumn has arrived. And major snow is what we had all day yesterday. It started out as light rain at 8 am. By 10 am, when I went out with Rocky, it was a mix of snow and rain. By the time I left for synagogue at 10:40 am, it was like walking in a blizzard through the wind-whipped snow. All afternoon we heard transformers explode, tree branches fall, and wind chimes knock. There was rare thundersnow. Light pulsed and failed several times (fortiunately we never truly lost power or heat but many neighbors did). Early this morning I took a photo essay of the eerie scene around my house.

This used to be my special garden for herbs, my big Mme Lemoine double white lilac, my peonies, my Bath pinks, some unusual hydrangeas. Now a big frozen mess.

This branch fell on DD#1's car. SiL and DH clear it off but she'll have to check for roof damage.

Snowplows clear branches from the street all day, then came back to clear snow.

A former lilac bush by my front door- it would have bloom profusely come spring. Will it live until then?

Our Cherokee Pink dogwood has suffered through heat, drought, and other calamities. We gave it a big trim to bring it back. The storm may have finished it off.

Neighbor's car is buried. He hasn't come outside yet to see- or maybe he's hiding under a bed, whimpering.

A mound of snow to you is what used to be 6 foot tall bear grass to me. On the bright side, I hate bear grass. I'd like the excuse to plant another hydrangea.

Roy, our whacky new neighbor, never brings in his stuff from the yard. Not for Hurricane Irene and not for the storm yesterday. He was lucky during Irene, not so lucky yesterday.

I guess the Kousa dogwood just gave up and decided to sleep the storm away. Maybe I'll be planting another hydrangea.

Rocky's opinion on the matter is quite evident. it's as if he knows the collie club show scheduled for today was canceled due to inclement weather and impassable roads.Hope all of you fared well. Another look on the bright side- it's good knitting weather. And am I grateful for the socks and scarves I've made!

Whoosh!

2011-10-10T05:11:00.000-07:00

That's the sound my newly refurbished iMac makes.

For a few years I'd been chugging along on a G4 iMac, bought in late 2003, running the Macintosh 10.3 operating system. Lately, I couldn't do many normal things on it: view YouTube videos, use Flickr or Ravelry, run my Bonanza site, even pay bills or browse my bank account. Aaargh! What to do? Well, what I did was to buy a new brain for the thing. Not a new hard drive- a new operating system, a new way for it to think. I decided to buy OS 10.5 because it is (I am pretty sure) the most recent OS that will work with my coprocessor (which is, of course, several generations out of date). Found a reseller with brand-new authorized DVDs at a great price and fast shipping. Came the DVD, I inserted it into the iMac (nick-named Galadriel, as all our Macs have Lord of the Rings names; we're weird that way) and- got the spinning gear of death. I shut down all ops, examined the DVD for scratches, wavy lines, flaws-- nothing; the DVD is pristine. Tried again in geeky ways (safe start-up; single-user mode; other modes I learned when I subscribed to MacWorld, MacLife, MacAddict, MacCrack, MacUniverse, and All-Things-Mac). Still got the spinning gear of death.
So I contacted reseller and we schmoozed by e-mail about what Galadriel's problem is.
Reseller: You need a coprocessor with a speed of at least 867 GHz.
Me: Mine says it's 1000 GHz. Check.
Reseller: You need a G4, G5, or Intel coprocessor.
Me: It has a G4 coprocessor. Check.
Reseller: You need at least 500 MB of RAM.
Me: It has- it has (sob-- can this be true?) 256 MB of RAM. But it has an empty RAM slot.
Reseller: Aha! There's your problem. Buy more RAM and try again.
Translation: I needed more random access memory (RAM) for the OS to install. A 512 MB RAM chip cost me all of $21. I kid you not. I ordered it and waited 3 days for it to come. Then, even though I've installed RAM myself in a previous iMac (the original G3 iMac), I was taking no chances with Galadriel. I called a local expert recommended by the Apple store near me (while there, I bought a new keyboard and scroll mouse; the space bar on the old keyboard broke and the old mouse was held together by cellophane tape). He came Friday late morning. In 10 minutes he installed the RAM, made sure Galadriel was running fine with the new RAM chip, took a look at our other Macs ("they should keep on running for a long time with proper care and maintenance"), and played with Rocky while I wrote out a check. He left, I stirred the split pea soup again, and loaded the 10.5 DVD-- VOILÀ! I haz installed OS 10.5 (OK, the actual installation took over an hour, but you get the picture).
Uploading a new OS was step one; the rest of the steps consisted of finding all the outdated apps and updating them. Firefox! Microsoft Office! (I had bought a new Office Suite at a deep discount through the university- but couldn't use it. Now I can.) Adobe Reader! And so on. So now Galadriel goes WHOOSH when I turn her on, and I can surf again like a modern person. Cost for refurbishing Galadriel: less than $300 (including keyboard and mouse); cost for having Galadriel refurbished: priceless.

When the repair fellow was over on Friday, we spent a little time eulogizing Steve Jobs, the man behind Apple and Macintosh and iPod. On Thursday, I wore a black turtleneck and jeans to the office. I could swear I heard my iPod Frodo crying from its dock next to my bed when the news broke Wednesday night. In a NY Times article the weekend, I read something about Jobs' design philosophy. It wasn't just about the look, though that of course was a big part of the appeal of Apple products. Design was about the workings of the thing- the computer-human interface had to be as pleasant as possible. The word pleasant was actually in there. Now I never took a computer course in college (when languages like BASIC and FORTRAN ruled), never thought of myself as particularly geeky. Until I worked for pharma- and Macs invaded because the chemists and crystallographers required Macs to design molecules and display crystals. I could use a computer. Soon I could install a computer and its software, troubleshoot a computer, network a computer, and fix some computer software problems, as long as the computer was Apple. Thank you Steve Jobs for showing me a new world.

In memoriam: Steve Jobs 1955-2011

It's LA: Even the Airport Gets a Facelift

2011-09-27T15:19:00.001-07:00

Actual signage greeting me as I exited the plane last week...

Dad is finally out of hospital and in the rehab joint (no, not that kind of rehab-- PT rehab). Could have been a better hospital stay. Certain docs who shall remain nameless didn't have to do ninnyhammer things, like write Dad's med orders so that he got all 4 blood pressure meds at once. Little things like that. DD#1 was right: Dad was in the best hospital behind Beverly Center.

But he's feeling much better and in good spirits; my visit was helpful. My brothers, particularly the youngest one, tend to order him around, whereas I tend to explain why something is necessary and ask Dad if he wants to do something or other.

The trip was helpful in another way. Next youngest brother (NYB), upon hearing that I was missing some of Mother's jewelry, said, "I have it. She got mad at Youngest Brother and gave it all to me to put in a safe deposit box at a different bank." Whereupon NYB went to bank and withdrew contents of box. Ninety per cent of what was missing- and then some- was in that box (the rest is likely in another box at the bank that NYB hadn't time to open). The "then some" consists of an 18K gold and diamond watch I never saw. NYB and YB bought it for Mother right before her terminal illness; she wore it 3 times before it went in the bank. What will I do with the thing? I love pretty sparkly things, but this is too much! DH said wear it. DD#1 said sell it to her (until she heard the retail price tag, then she said just let her wear it). Think I'll be renting a box at the bank too.

The movers called while I was at the airport. What timing! We met at DD#1's house first to offload Mother's dining room set and the stuff DD wanted, then we headed to my house. My living room looks eerie wearing Mother's furniture. DD#1 said the same thing. DH said it looks grand and that he always loved the sofa. Sunday I got out the hard wax and waxed and polished until my hands ached.

Now this is a photo of YB and Dad's new digs. Quaint, huh? The original owner of the joint was Max Factor (yes, that Max Factor). YB knows his great-nephew (we all were neighbors of a cousin once upon a time). Sister-in-Law gave me a tour though renovations are still ongoing. My first thought upon entering was "Good Lord, YB went and brought Downton Abbey to LA." Still my thought about the joint, er, estate. Well at least Sister-in-Law volunteered to store the things of my mother's we didn't ship in June (we thought her kids might want something from their grandmother) and which I was unable to ship last week.

The new job is going well, the one I spend most of my time on I mean. It's kind of fun analyzing a therapeutic landscape and trying to figure out if a future drug will be a game-changer or a dud (that is, MDs won't bother to prescribe it no matter how good it is). I pray the firm will pick me up for full-time soon; they sure have enough work to do so.

Tomorrow night starts the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. The marathon cooking is nearly over (it started Sunday). I made chicken soup (with an entire chicken and couple pounds of flank steak, so we have meat and veggies from the soup to eat), gefilte fish, sweet noodle kugel, savory cauliflower kugel, and a Constant Comment™ cake (really, a yellow cake with vanilla pudding mix, 1/3 cup of Triple Sec, and a TBS of ground cloves). DH will cook the noodles for the soup, make some steamed veg (not sure what he picked up), and he grilled up a bunch of chicken cutlets in a marinade. DD#1 made pumpkin bread and plans to make some kind of salad. DD#2 arrives tomorrow afternoon; she shows up in time to shower and eat. I shouldn't complain: this is the gal who did well enough on her GREs that she can apply to Hopkins and Harvard for grad school.

A happy and healthy new year to everyone!

Complications

2011-09-19T11:13:00.000-07:00

So Dad came through the implant surgery fine, only to discover that the cardiologists punctured his chest wall, allowing air to leak in and forcing a partial collapse of his lung, a condition known as pneumothorax. They took Dad to the OR so they could put in a chest tube for draining the air; the puncture will heal on its own. Needless to say, Dad is not pleased with this turn of events.
Me? I'm wondering about the cardiologists. But I imagine all questions will be answered when I arrive in Los Angeles tomorrow, for I'm going out there, sure as shootin'. Checked into my flight and everything. Since I'll be gone only until the Red-Eye leaves Thursday night (back in NJ in time for breakfast Friday morning), I'm not even checking luggage, just stuffing a few necessities into a briefcase.

Of course, because life just isn't complicated enough, the movers hauling the stuff from my parents soon-to be-former house to me just called to say they want to deliver tomorrow. DH refuses to accept delivery, in case there's damage he doesn't notice (he's real bad about noticing things like big gashes in fabric, huge deep scratches in wood, etc.). Le sigh. I have set up delivery for Friday, after assuring the movers that a plane landing at 7 am should allow me to reach my home 10 miles from the airport by 10 am (assuming no delay in LA). I could accept delivery right now, this afternoon. Now I'm thinking I should have post-poned delivery until Monday afternoon. Won't think about that, the plane will land on time. Right?

What a Week

2011-09-16T04:01:00.001-07:00

What a week.
First the knitting knews:
Finished, blocked, shipped baby blanket(and girlie bibs) to great-niece. Now I have an excuse to make another pile of girlie bibs. Have another baby blanket on the needles, this one in multicolored cotton. And a stack of boy baby bibs. I am going to remain prepared for baby eruptions in the future, that's certain.

Now the week:
Tuesday started out like so. E-mail came at 6 am from my colleague at The Firm (how I shall refer to the pharmaceutical consulting firm I work for part-time; the medical education firm I write for shall be called MedEd). I saw it at 7:10 am when I returned from walking Rocky. By 7:15 colleague Jill and I were deep in a discussion. It seems that CEO of The Firm arranged a last-minute meeting for late Tuesday with a drug company to land an account analyzing a potential new cancer drug. Jill remember that this type of drug is pretty much what I worked on for the past decade.
Hence the early-morn call. DH walked in during the call,overheard what I was saying and promptly walked out, In his opinion, it was a bit early to discuss signal transduction in cancer and transcription factors.I would normally agree, but well, work I must now. Jill was on the road when we spoke; she telecommutes from Pittsburgh to NJ because her DH can't relocate and drives in when necessary). I was to create the analysis of the diseases and the therapy by noon. Not daunting when it's what I knew; not sure I could have pulled it off so quickly otherwise. By noon I created the presentation and slides, with reference articles.
Tuesday early afternoon comes another e-mail, from a brother in LA: father had transient ischemic attack in the morning, taken to the hospital, still in ER because no beds available. All vitals look good, but some tests need to be run in-patient. Reach brother mid-afternoon- still no bed but Dad is feeling better, well enough in fact that brother left to get a bite to eat (has diabetes) and run into the office for a bit (runs the 2nd largest network of convalescent/nursing homes in California). Will call when Dad has a room. Wait up to hear from LA until I fall asleep Tuesday night.
Wednesday morn get e-mail from brother: finally a room opened for Dad, and he's in room 5891; call at such and such a number. Call when I think it's a good time but it's not- Dad is being taken for tests but I tell his nurse-companion, whom I've met, I call back. Only Dad calls me! He sounds in good spirits and expects to be home by Thursday. Late Wednesday Jill calls- the presentation went well; they love what I did. Can we meet for breakfast Thursday? Sure, at my house, where we can have lovely muffins and Danish pastries from the kosher bakery plus DH's special Antigua de Guatamala coffee that he grinds himself.
Thursday 8 am Jill comes. It's the first time we've met in person, though we've spoken on the phone everyday for nearly 3 weeks now. We find we have a lot in common besides science: collies, pet birds (hers being a Quaker parrakeet that dances to the Hokey-Pokey), and so forth. Meeting ends at 11:30 as Jill heads back to Pittsburgh and I decide to work at home. Midafternoon I call Dad, see how he's doing, is he home yet.
Dad's still in hospital, in good spirits, loves telling me how much poking and prodding they did on him during the imaging the previous day. Then he says casually, "I just singed the consent form to put in a pacemaker. The cardiologist thinks I need regulated so I won't get attacks any more." He said it like you or I would say, "I think I'll run out and get a quart of milk." Me, quaking inside but not showing it a bit, ask Dad, "You trust ther cardiologist? You think it's the right thing to do?" Remember, Dad is nearly 88. "Oh sure," replies Dad. "He showed me the results and explained everything. They won't even put me to sleep, they'll do it under local with sedation and I'll go home the next day."
So that's today's agenda: Dad's surgery in LA. Personally, I think Dad will remain in hospital until Sunday. Brother thinks Dad should go into a rehab center (nice he owns a few, right?). We'll see.

Update:
So it turns out Dad's hemoglobin/hematocrit values were too low for the cardiologist to procede. Pacemaker placement post-poned until Monday, and I told Dad to eat lots of steak over the weekend.

One step at a time.

Ten Years Later

2011-09-12T05:21:00.000-07:00

We flew our flag in the window. We listened to the names read until we ran out of tears.
We went to gaze at the flood waterss once more, looking into the murky depths as if some sense could rise out of them. We heard the roar of the falls (50% more water after Tropical Storm Lee dumped 4 days of rain on us) and walked along the canal. Thus DH and spent 9/11/11.
Best tributes: the music played in Lower Manhattan:

and

What I've Been Up To

2011-09-05T05:56:00.000-07:00

Well, in part making jewelry to sell alongside the vintage costume jewelry. If you're curious to see more, go here and check out what's offered.

Also, being in jewelry-making mode and having a pearl necklace that needed restringing, and hankering for an Art Deco 2-stranded bracelet I saw with platinum and diamond fittings that is priced beyond what most people make in a week, I made this:
No platinum or diamonds, but the clasp really is Art Deco, a vintage one from the 1930's ($12 plus shipping), and the spacers were made with vintage molds so they look right ($4 for a set of 4). I love the clasp so much:

What else? I'm 3/4 done with the baby blanket. Baby came early Thursday and it's a girl, named for my mother. It's traditional among Eastern European Jews to name a baby for the deceased (I am named for both of my grandmothers, who were murdered in the Holocaust). Doesn't make it easier to call the baby by my mother's name: I remember my own mother telling me years and years ago how hard it was for her to name me for her mother (my middle name). I'll finish up the blanket and send it along with the girlie bibs I made (after taking its portrait, of course).
One more bib I finished weeks ago but was too lazy to shoot:

I know it's on its side; it's little fish swimming around. A fitting theme for our lives these days, I think.
We got water back late Friday afternoon. Yesterday DH and I took a drive to see the scenes of some of the disasters near us: DD's hospital (which has fish swimming in the basement), the little falls at Little Falls, and so forth. En route from DD's hospital, we were stopped by none other than El Jefe, the Commander-in-Chief, POTUS, you know, that guy who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave in Washington DC. Yep, the prez and our governor were touring the same scenes we toured. I have to say that seeing the rapids along the river were quite impressive. The falls roared like Niagara, and though we stood well above the falls, we could feel the mist. Sad to see were the neighborhoods along the river, where people were cleaning out, not just basements (lines of washers and dryers in the street waiting to be hauled away) but first floors too (sofas and dining room sets sitting out in piles of debris). The Red Cross was there, handing out gallons of water, as were the utilities. This was in the borough of Little Falls, and it was a heart-breaking sight. I feel so grateful we were spared much damage. But now 2 more hurricanes may bring us 4 days of rain in the coming week. Hope not, but I may have to build a boat to be safe.
What else? I finished the book chapter on lung cancer; now comes the editing. I'm immersed in my project on kidney cancer treatment, and hoping I get to write 2 more chapter on cancer. Tomorrow DH and I will attend a job fair for out-of-work scientists. Should be an interesting experience.
Enjoy your barbecues, trips to the beach, or anything else fun you have planned for today.

Goodnight Irene!

2011-08-29T05:08:00.000-07:00

Good night, good bye, good riddance.
Gone but not forgotten:

This is what Irene did near me.
We lost power from 4 am until after 1 pm. We've had to boil water for use since yesterday morning (naturally the phone call from the water company came AFTER I gave Rocky water from the tap. Naturally). We had stockpiled drinking water, now we have stockpile dishes in the sink. I usually clean my kitchen Sunday mornings; just looking at it frets me now.
Dealing with Rocky during the fury of the storm was fun. This is a collie that doesn't like mud on his white paws. I opened the sliding door to the patio to let him out (didn't want to risk a gust of wind yanking and breaking the front door). I ordered him to relieve himself (it's a command I taught him) and what did he do? Circled the patio and returned to the door. Three times I ordered him to go and do what he had to do. Finally he relented, and in came an unhappy and soaked dog. I had towels at the ready as well as a speech: if you'd gone the first time I told you, you'd wouldn't be nearly this wet. And of course that was right before the eye passed over New York City, and the storm began dying down. By noon it wasn't drizzling any longer and I took him for a hesitant walk, as the winds were then kicking up and the trees look a bit precarious.
DD#1's hospital can be reached only by boat,the the river, now at 25 feet above flood stage, has yet to crest. Plus the new moon tonight means tidal waves. She's not going to work today. DSiL's hospital evacuated patients; I think his office is fine but I don't know if his privileges go to the hospitals patients were evacuated to. I don't think he has many in-hospital patients.
And yet, I didn't knit as much as I thought I would.

First the Earth Moved, Now the Winds Howl

2011-08-26T06:54:00.000-07:00

Earthquake, hurricane- it's enough to make anyone scream "ENOUGH ALREADY!" We are in the red zone, even though we're inland from the coast. New York City is evacuating hospitals and nursing homes from its coasts. Our governor, who is inertial on most things that government should do for people, declared a state of emergency yesterday.
Every East Coast governor from the Carolinas up to New England did so. This storm is big- it looks like it could cover the state of Florida; that's sizeable.

Irene is coming. The normally inperturbable DH is making noises about leaving the med school real early today to do some hurricane preps: gas up cars, pull the Weber grill inside, create a place in the garage for Rocky to relieve himself if he cannot go outdoors Sunday (what, me walk him in 90 mile an hour winds?), and so forth.

I'm in mild panic mode, checking on batteries, milk, eggs, water, candles, and stuff to keep me occupied, like knitting (and finally taking photos of my knitting).

On knitting- I am halfway done with blanket for niece's baby-to-be. Feels like a milestone. Made nearly a dozen bibs in all colors, just in case. This way I can send the blanket (it's ecru) plus a bunch of color-appropriate bibs.

And a news flash. I am employed, at least until the end of October. Not permanently, not with benefits, but as a consultant for the company I liked best with which I interviewed. The salary is great, just about what I was making before the lay-off. I hope and pray this will turn into a permanent job for me.

Did You Feel It?

2011-08-24T04:47:00.000-07:00

How many of you on the East Coast felt the earth move under your feet right before 2 pm yesterday? My office started swaying, my blinds rattled and shook, and being a former Angeleña, I knew immediately we were in the midst of a temblor, a major one at that. Aftershocks may happen, magnitude greater than 5 can be expected. The East is so not prepared for this.

If you felt it, you can register your experience with the US Coast & Geological Survey here. I did. Someone had to tell the USCGS that NJ shook too.

What's New?

2011-08-22T06:46:00.000-07:00

What's new is waiting and more waiting for both DH and me to hear back from places that offered us jobs without firm start dates. In my case, it's no less than 3 part-time jobs for firms in competition with each other. Meanwhile, I'm doing my free-lance book chapter, and I've been selling vintage costume jewelry on a couple of sites. I had amassed quite a collection years ago. The market may be soft now but for the vintage silver pieces, it's pretty good. Also, I can repair costume jewelry, so if I find something for very little (and I have picked up pieces for less than a dollar than just needed a rhinestone replaced), I can sell it at a discount and still make money.

Also new is my baby bird Estella. Right before I went to LA in June, my little budgie Pip got his wing caught in his cage soemwhere and broke it. A family friend who's a vet and frequent guest was over on successive Fridays, and looked at it and thought he was slowly getting better. But while I was on jury duty he died. Poor Pip; I really liked that little budgie. His cagemate Merry went into a decline and stopped eating, even though Duncan the cockatiel is his other good buddy. So DD#1 and I went bird shopping. We found this adorable little hen pulling the other budgies to her so she could preen them.

I thought that meant she might have a good nature to temper Merry's more fiery one, and it turns out I was right. She's sweet and docile, and Merry has become more so.
DH shot several photos of her, including this one- and she posed for the camera. Don't believe me? Take a look:

Now Merry had to get into a photo, something he used to disdain:

Yesterday we went to Collie Gathering at Terhune Park (site of Sunnybank, home of Lad and the Sunnybank collies), where we met LASSIE!!

That's Skye looking totally unimpressed in typical Skye-fashion to be posing next to the most famous collie of all (and he's usually a ladies' man- go figure!). Because it was thundering in the distance, Rocky wanted to find somewhere to hide, rather than meet Lassie.

The last new thing is my father is moving from my parents' house in 2 or 3 weeks, so I have to book a mover to move the living room and dining room furniture to NJ. It's sad that my my father should have to reduce his belongings to what will fit into a sitting room and a bedroom. But maybe he's happier not to have to bother with the upkeep of a full house. Once he's decided which photos he wants to hang, I'll have the others sent to me. I couldn't bring myself to take down the family photos and leave my father with empty walls.

I have been knitting in fits and starts; I keep forgetting to take photos of what I'm making! I need a camera upstairs as well as downstairs so I can always have one at the ready.

This Week's Score: Bears 3, Humans 1

2011-08-05T12:35:00.000-07:00

Well the bears are on a rampage this week.

In case you haven't heard the latest, a polar bear attacked some teens camping in Svalbard. If you read The Golden Compass, you'll recall that Lyra and Iorek Byrnison head for Bolvangar, which is located in Svalbard, which itself is located near the top of the world.

Then two days ago a bear attacked some teens camping veeery close to where DH, Rocky, and I spotted that big bruin last Sunday. The kids were frightened but not injured (thank the good Lord for that).
Monday, 2 black bears were spotted in Metuchen, frightening residents half to death.

The worst of all was also on Monday at DD#1's animal hospital (recall she's a surgery nurse at one of the largest animal emergency hospitals in the northeast). Two frightened kids brought in their mauled little dog from- you guessed it West Milford. It had been mauled by a bear Sunday night. There was nothing DD's team could do for the poor thing, except euthanize it.

DH wants to take another trip up the Ramapos, this time armed with a map of local microbreweries. If we see another bear, I'll surely need something stronger than 1 scoop of mint Oreo fudge, like maybe a beer plus 2 scoops of mint Oreo fudge.

Knitting is still in progress throughout the excitement. I need to snap some photos to show you what's on the needles, and what's been completed. DH says I should make a bib with bears on it and I think I will, soon as I find the right pattern (wouldn't want to scare little kiddies or mommies now).

Job hunt is still on. I had a nice interview this week. I was interviewed by the executive VP of that firm. He wanted to offer me a job on the spot, but could only offer me part-time work. I said yes. That makes three part-time jobs I've been offered in the past 17 days. This week I have another interview coming up. I'll keep agreeing to part-time work until full-time work materializes.

While on a Sunday Drive

2011-08-01T07:58:00.000-07:00

It's the three weeks, the three weeks before the ninth of Av, a major day of mourning in Judaism. No movies (can't go anyway, 'cause I'm in my year of mourning for my late mother), no beach, not much to do on a hot summer Sunday. DH weeded early, I cleaned early, then we packed Rocky and some cold drinks in the car and headed for the Ramapo Mountains in West Milford, where DH thought he remembered there were parks for walking. DH even printed out directions for every Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor (kosher ice cream, you see) in a 10 mile radius of the town of Butler, slightly south of the area on the map. Once in Butler, we discover the bridge to the park DH remembered was out, so we decided to head north in the mountains. Pretty scenery, a temperature drop of 10 degrees (we have a compass and thermometer in our car's rearview mirror, handy gadget), headed for another park when BAM! we both spotted this in someone's yard:

Only to me he looked like this:

Rocky did not make a sound. DH kept asking me if that was a bear. Yep, it was. I had some knitting with me (of course) but it was on wooden needles!! Size 5! What I needed were sharp metal ones, maybe size 27 or so. No such luck.
We made a U-turn to see what the bear was up to (he was wandering near a tractor, of all things), but the bear had scampered off. It took the entire trip back to Butler, and a scoop of mint Oreo fudge ice cream at BR to calm me down (this after contending with turkeys and deer every morning when I walk Rocky; the white turkey hen and her 6 poults have taken to following me part-way home sometimes). I am so not cut out for the wildnerness.
Then, of course, this morning's Today show would feature this story. I should have been warned; the NY Times' Travel section the weekend began with a writer visiting Glacier National Park checking for bear repellant on his hiker's belt. I should not have laughed at the story.

Experimental Knitting Done

2011-07-28T06:11:00.001-07:00

Remember the experimental knitting, the face cloth in chenille? It's done. I'll report the experimental results like in a real scientific paper.

Results:
Before washing/drying

After washing/drying:

Discussion:
Biasing of the knitted fabric was observed post-knitting; this was only slightly relieved by the washing and drying process. The yarn bloomed in a way deemed desirable by the intended recipient. Shrinkage was greater than anticipated, being closer to 20% than 10%.
Conclusions:
Cotton chenille may be a suitable yarn for creating household items such as face cloths. The use of a non-baising stitch such as garter stitch may help to eliminate biasing that would occur if a biasing stitch such as stockinette stitch were to be used. Blocking will not help the item retain its shape, being the item will be used in a wet and often steamy environment. Because shrinkage was about 20% of the final knitted dimensions, care should be taken to include extra stitches and length, so that the final results will be satisfactory.

Really, that's how scientific and medical papers are written, in such formal and stilted language. I'll make another when I have time, in garter stitch. I'll cast on extra stitches (enough to give another inch in width) and make it another inch longer. That should work (see- I even have a hypothesis for the next experiment).

In non-experimental knitting, I made another couple of bibs. I didn't mention previously that I began to use short-row shaping for these, to make the bottoms curve nicely. As easy as turning a heel!

Heartbeat bib
Peaches & Crème in Tea Rose

Swan bib
Peaches & Crème in Eggshell

For the swan bib, I used a dish cloth pattern with bib shaping. I've been lazy about making the bib ties; I've merely been crocheting chains for 14 inches and knotting the ends well. Too lazy to half-double crochet back down the chain.

On the job front: had an interview yesterday and was offered a job; part-time intially but should grow to full-time soon as the pharmaceutical industry brings more anti-cancer drugs to clinical trials. I still have another interview next week, and maybe a dozen more places to contact.

This is Ridiculous

2011-07-22T14:08:00.001-07:00

The heat, that is.
I'll let the weather map speak for me.

Eating cold food, drinking iced drinks, staying indoors as much as possible (walking Rocky pre-dawn today was an adventure; it was already 80 degrees F and disgustingly humid).

Knitting- I cannot stand to touch wool now, so I've been working on a stash of cotton knitting.

Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille face cloth

Baby bibs in Peaches & Crème Coral Reef, Faded Denim, Juanita Rose/Tea Rose, and Faded Glory.

I'm praying for no brown-outs or black-outs (which would mean my A/C is fried- happened 3 years ago and it cost $2400 to fix, let alone how long it will take to get an A/C unit fixed now). And making ice pops. And thinking cool thoughts.

Nuts to Minimalism!

2011-07-20T14:25:00.000-07:00

I had another interview today, at another cool agency. Agencies are all about the cool, the ultra modern, the minimalist. At least this one was in a real building, not a loft, and there were offices, loads of them.

Agencies are not the only entities that are into minimalism; career advisers love it a lot. I attended 2 career seminars on how to interview in 2011, and both emphasized dressing minimally (no, not like a pole-dancer) as follows: suit, hose, good shoes, well-groomed hair: yes; makeup, perfume, jewelry, briefcase, (even handbag if possible): no. One should strive to look like this:

Oh and pockets must be empty. No one must see a bulge from wallet, glasses, cell phone, or anything else. G-d forbid you might be human and have real needs- no employer wants to be reminded of that!

OK, I put together a few outfits based on a light jacket, dark skirts, different tops. I wear my watch (with catching trains to interview in New York City, a watch is essential), my wedding jewelry, and my college ring. I took off my earrings (let the holes show!), the necklace I always wear, even my MediAlert bracelet (hooked it to my purse strap. Left my briefcase home (although half the places I interviewed with wanted extra copies of my resume, le sigh) but really, cannot forego a purse. About the purse: my usual purse is this very practical bag by Timbuktu, in the very same color, which I wear crossed over my body:

I never have to wonder where it is, it's lightweight and washable and waterproof.
Career adviser said, "If you must take a purse, it must not be that one!"
DD#1 said,"Oh Mom, you cannot take that purse with you into an interview! What will people think?" Note that this is the same daughter who has the same purse, in aqua, if you please.
So what does Mom do? Mom bows to DD#1's superior hipness and modernity and asks her to choose a suitable fashion accessory for Mom.
DD#1 says, "That straw one you bought in Hawai'i will be perfect for summer interviews. I always loved that one."

Mom: "When I land a job you shall have it."

So back to the interview today. To say it was broiling hot in the city would be to underestimate the temperature of lower Manhattan. Yet there I was, in suit jacket over top, dark skirt, heels and hose, purse, no briefcase but carrying a file folder containing more copies of my resume, walking in the noon day sun from the train station to my destination (those of you familiar with Manhattan will know that walking is often the best way to get around the borough of Manhattan). As I was quite early, I stopped at a cool (in the literal sense) café a block away from the agency, to sip a tall iced coffee. Purse slung on back of chair, iced coffee in hand, I read over my notes on this agency. Feeling refreshed, I walked the last block and entered the building (this agency owns its own building). Asked for ID by the guard I reached for my purse-- but it wasn't there! Yelling to the guard that I'd be right back, I RAN to the café, praying the entire time.

With heart in throat, I re-entered the café. Miracle of miracles, my purse was right where I left it. No longer cool (in the literal sense of the word) nor as early as I'd like, back I went, found a ladies' room, and cooled down with copious applications of cold water.

And the interview? Well without experience, they won't offer me a job. That's a full-time job. They will offer me a part-time job as a free-lance writer because I have knowledge of a product area that's coming their way: the exact area of my expertise. They gain my knowledge, I gain experience (and some pay), and who knows? They might offer me a full-time job eventually. They want me to come back soon and meet more people. Absolutely, am I willing to come again.

I'm going back to my usual purse after today. And DD#1 can have the woven straw bag from Hawai'i she likes so much. I am not risking it again.

Summertime

2011-07-15T07:37:00.000-07:00

Peaches in season, here in New Jersey.

Jury duty is over; verdict rendered; justice served, more or less. I managed some knitting during recess and finished a face cloth in Peaches & Crème yarn.

Appropriately enough, I'm calling it my Peaches and Cream face cloth. I also started some experimental knitting: trying out Crystal Palace chenille on size 6 needles for face cloths and such like. It's not the knitting so much as how the chenille will hold up to wash and wear. For the record, I dislike working with chenille. It's less elastic, if possible, than other cotton yarns. I don't mind working with Peaches & Crème at all (I like it more than Sugar 'n' Cream, will say that). I never minded working with Bernat's cottons (Gloucester, I'm talking about you). But the chenille- ugh! At least I got the 5 hanks pretty cheaply, and if the experiment goes well, I'll make some nice soft gifts for folks.

Signed up for unemployment, and had my unemployment interview. That means I explained why I no longer work for the Department of Veterans Affairs. As if I had a choice. NJ Department of Unemployment is so dysfunctional I received contradictory instructions from 3 different sources. Not having patience for that sort of thing, I called the governor's office and demanded action. Yes, I did. I was put through to the Commissioner of Unemployment herself, who recruited someone with a name and phone number to help me. That person, from Trenton, recruited a supervisor in my local (Newark) office to expedite my case. No one should ever be told that their case will not be reviewed for 5 weeks after receiving a last pay check. Just unconscionable. I'd heard of folks in NJ who were at a new job and had yet to receive unemployment benefits. No excuse, NJ. You can raise great summer fruit and veggies; you can do better for your working people too.

Skye the Circus Dog- Tah Dah!

2011-07-11T06:35:00.001-07:00

No, Skye is not practicing for Ringling Brothers.

We went on a new hike yesterday (before the heat of the day kicked in). "We" consisted of DH, DD#1, DSiL, and myself, plus the three collies. We'd heard there was a trail to a waterfall in a nearby park (in reality, a dam overflow, since that part of our county is not on a fall line). DH wanted to see it, so we all piled into DD's Equinox and headed there.
First, the view from atop the dam:

Now the waterfall:

Niagara it ain't.

The collies were encouraged to frolic in the stream to stay cool. Skye decided that following DD across the log was the better option.

Coll was shown by Rocky how to ford the stream (I would not let Rocky, who is 10 and a half, on the log you see- the risk of injury was too great). Rocky forded so quickly we could not get a photo of him doing so.

Just like Lassie Come Home fording the River Tyne, right Coll?

Rocky deigned to pose at the end of the hike. He is head collie, after all.

In other news, I was picked for a jury; judges here have a strict definition of what constitutes personal hardship. Fortunately, the trial should end mid-week, so not bad. DH has no fewer than 3 job offers IF the folks who offer have money. They won't know until next month or thereabouts. I can't schedule interviews until the trial is over, so my job search is more research into potnetial employers right now.
I keep intending to pick up needles and finish the baby gift for my niece, then start some just-in-case bibs for quick gifts. Plus I need to make myself some face cloths. I really should make those cloths. Inertia, I haz it and hates it.

Turkeys, We Haz 'Em

2011-07-01T09:30:00.000-07:00

Let's end this turkey of a week (see previous post) with some shots of a white wild turkey hen that's been lurking near my house, with her brood of poults in tow.

A Tale of Two Interviews

2011-06-30T05:07:00.000-07:00

It was the best of interviews; it was the worst of interviews. With apologies to Dickens, here's my tale of two interviews.

First, the good interview. Tuesday I set out to the country. Remember the peony farm I visited the other week? Well, the barns you see above are the home of the firm for which I interviewed, located one town west of the peony farm. Beautiful countryside; I shudder to contemplate a winter commute. But one thing at a time! I met with several people simultaneously, whom I convinced (I hope) that the lab no longer calls to me. I addressed the points in the job ad for which I already have required skills, and pointed out the one or 2 areas that would be new to me. Being that the firm is literally miles and miles from any sizeable town, and being that gas prices are still high, I can't imagine that their doors are being beaten down by MDs or PhDs with expertise in oncology or other branches of medicine. At least, that's my hope.

Now the bad interview. To be accurate, it was a non-interview. This was the firm for which I already had a phone interview with (let us call her) Catriona. I aced that and thought I'd do well in person too. I had to submit a writing sample. Only fair, I'm applying to be a writer so submit I will. The sample was based on a paper and the instructions gave a maximum length, excluding reference literature. Instructions also asked one to specify how much time the assignment took, and that time would not be graded. The paper picked was out of my field, and that was intentional. First thing I did was do a literature search to learn about the field. Then I highlighted the results, both the good and the bad. I discovered mitigating factors for the bad results, and ended with a summary statement. I was well within the maximum length. Now Catriona told me there was no rush to submit the sample; after my interview was fine. However, the e-mail from the HR recruiter (let us call him) Yates with the sample assignment asked to have the sample back within 2 to 4 days, and definitely before the interview. Hmmm, what to do? Since these firms thrive on pressure and speed, I decided to do it à la Yates, finishing it inside of 2 days. Time it took was about a half-day, evenly divided between the literature research and the actual writing.

Well, there I was at the firm yesterday, and no one was expecting me. No One. I asked for Catriona. Surely she was expecting me; she set this up for when she came in from the UK. Catriona is at a meeting. I'll wait. Fifteen minutes later in comes Catriona, with apologies. Yates was supposed to e-mail me, obviously that didn't happen, she is so sorry, business meeting cropped up and she now has no time, etc. I asked: What about a future appointment? She hesitated, then said maybe when next she's back in the US, in August.

I was so furious I could have killed somebody. Like Yates. Drove to the office and went back to my new job of finding a new job.

At 4 pm, the phone rang. It was Yates. Who could not stop apologizing for never sending out the e-mail to me canceling the appointment. So being that Yates screwed up, I decided to press my tiny advantage home.
>Me: Did the position really disappear?
>Yates: More like we're not ready to create a new position right now but August is more likely.
>Me: Did my writing sample have anything to do with this decision?
>Yates: Well a bit.
>Me: Can you be more specific? I want to improve my writing skills so I'll be more marketable.
>Yates: Well you were definitely better than a lot of candidates. We can train you. These things are formulaic - you extract the data and plug into the writing template. My best advice to you is to take a course on how to write these kinds of studies. The grader said you used outside sources (Me thinking: if it's plug in the data, why not give me the template?? word limit said excluding references; that would imply outside references) and had 2 errors.
>Me: Can you find out what the errors were? I really want to improve.
>Yates: Being I screwed up and inconvenienced you, I will find your paper and get you the information. By the way, what did you think of our firm otherwise?
>Me: I thought that Catriona and I could work together, I'm impressed by the firm's offerings and philosophy, and I could be essential to the firm's success. (I hate spouting this stuff, but it's required if you want to work for a company.)
>Yates: I think you'd be a success here too. I'll keep your resume on top and let you know when there are openings for you.

Nothing like using guilt to get a favor.

Flowers in Bloom

2011-06-26T07:44:00.000-07:00

Todays I'm showing off my flowers in bloom.

I have a shady property. For years I tried to fight nature and grow roses, which need a lot of sunlight. A few years ago, after discovering deer feasting on my Sonia roses, I gave them away and planted hydrangeas, which like shade. I have one climbing rose in a sunny corner that started as a tiny cane and now covers the trellis. Soon my lavender and black-eyed Susans will be in full-bloom, then my later-blooming hydrangea will open. I should have flowers pretty much until November. Enjoy!

LA Photos

2011-06-24T05:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's a photo of LA: Franklin Canyon Park, just north of Beverly Hills.

We had a mostly pleasant time in LA. Sad yet not sad was the time spent going through my mother's things and sorting them. DD #1 and I now have lovely new hats, and DD #2 has several gorgeous dressy suits. I inherited nearly all my mother's jewelry, but several pieces cannot be found. Towards the end of her life she told my brothers people were stealing from her (she had people to clean and people to help care for her and my father). They dismissed her fears as paranoia, and now her diamond engagement ring, platinum wedding band, name necklace, jewelry from Israel, and more are gone. Being she hid some of her jewelry in unlikely places (DD #2 reached into the pocket of a coat she tried on and pulled out a gold watch, diamond bracelet and earrings, gold necklace, and gold bracelet- all stuffed in that one pocket), we are hopeful that some of the missing items will turn up when the house is packed later this summer (my father is moving to my brother's new house, which has a separate apartment suite).

We went through old family photos. I found the original of my mother's passport photo taken in Germany before she emigrated to America. The daughters were enthralled to see the old albums. My sister-in-law had the presence of mind to find all the loose photos she could, to store them in advance of movers coming. On another trip, we'll go through all the photos so that copies can be made for everyone.

I'll also be getting my parents' living room suite. My father prefers to use the family room furniture in his new apartment (I can see why: more comfortable for him with his needing to put his legs up now). So I'll be arranging for a small mover (that's what they're called!) to move the various pieces from LA to NJ.

On the job front I have more interviews lined up next week, in between nephew's wedding, post-wedding parties (called sheva brochas, or seven blessings for the special blessing recited in honor of the bridal coupled during the grace after meals), and checking out of the VA, then in again as a volunteer (give up old ID; get new ID). DH has some job leads and interviews, even an offer from someone who won't have money to hire until grant funding comes through- in October. I have some freelance work; maybe I can pick up enough to hold us over until we find permanent employment.

Meanwhile, enjoy some more photos from LA.

Franklin Canyon Park again

View from Mulholland Drive, summit of Santa Monica Mountain range

View of Beverly Hills and nearby area from Mulholland Drive

Near my brother's house

Rejected, Dejected, and Off to LA

2011-06-14T08:25:00.000-07:00

I did not get either job.

The job in Manhattan, the one to which I was supposed to return in order to meet the manager? According to the recruiter, a better candidate (one with "agency" experience) showed up and was offered the job.

The job on the beautiful overlook? The very next day I received a politely worded e-mail informing me they've decided not to move forward with hiring a grant writer to obtain Federal grants. Somehow I think they knew that at 3 pm the previous day. Yet, the following day, they e-mailed me again, asking if I would write for them on a free-lance basis. I said yes. I still have to hear back from them. I'm not holding my breath.

Friday I had a telephone interview with a manager for a UK-based company that has a local education company. That went well, so well that I'll have an in-person interview at the local firm late this month. They sent me a writing test (totally out of my field); I finished it and sent it off. Now I've not heard really good things about this firm; in fact a friend of mine who switched from lab to medical education some years ago interviewed here and was glad to be offered a job where she is now (she's been trying to get me an interview there, but that's another post). My take: get my feet wet here if I'm offered a job and keep looking. If I like it there (things change!), I can stay and not look anywhere else, right?

To be honest, I am panicking, not the least because DH did not get his bridge grant and will definitely be out of work starting July 1. His field is less marketable than mine (yeast genetics; unless you are a brewery, who needs one of those?).

Tomorrow the entire Knitter family is going to LA. My nephew is getting married, not in LA-- in New York City on the 27th. My father thought he would be too ill to fly, so we made a family decision to go see him and attend synagogue, when my nephew will be called up to read the Torah portion as a groom. Thank G-d my father is better and will be coming east for the wedding after all; in fact, he will stay with DH and me. You can imagine how hard I'm finding it not to think about the cost of travel, in money as well as time at this juncture.

Sock update: it's back. Really and truly, it dragged its bedraggled self back onto the shelf from whence it came, needles and yarn and all. I'm letting it sit in time-out for a while as I make hostess gifts for my sister-in-law.

Another Interview

2011-06-07T08:15:00.001-07:00

This is where I had another interview yesterday, in this glass tower that sits atop a 350 foot high bluff in the Watchung Mountains of northern NJ. It's 11 minutes from my house to the parking lot. How convenient.

Inside the building is all fancy marble and plants and soft lighting and waterfalls and fountains. I loved it. Quite a idfference from the uber-chic loft in Chelsea of last week. The office for the firm is on the tenth floor. Gorgeous views from the elevator ride up, and gorgeous views from office windows. Here, the conference room was an interior room, but a normal room, with projector screen, white board, and food and drinks on sideboards. Big oblong table, plants, and accessory lighting complemented comfortable chairs (Aerons, I think). In the reception area was a tabletop basketball hoop, a Zen rock and sand garden, and eatable goodies (candy jar, 5 types of pretzels, etc.). My kind of place. The dress code was decidedly casual; I saw jeans and flip-flops. No female wore hose or closed shoes. This is the second place in a row that every gal wore sandals or open-toed shoes (save me, the interviewee). I will love having a work excuse for pedicures.

Two ladies interviewed me at the same time. Both are senior vice presidents. they told me that one of their clients suggested they hire someone with grant writing expertise; lo and behold I happened to e-mail their CEO out of the blue (this is true- I found them because they are a local medical education and communications firm). Can I write education grants for them? Why not? I replied. We spoke for a while about how I find funding agencies and grant mechanisms, how I put together a grant, how they put together grants. There are commonalities, and I pointed those out. After an hour, the interview ended (one of them had another meeting). I promised to e-mail grants and publications, so they could see my work. I'll call them next week and find out what they're thinking if I haven't heard from them yet.

I don't really want to write grants forever, but if I can write some grants, and also help develop new education content (I have expertise in an area they ought to represent), I'll have a nice blend that interests me.

Tonight starts Shavuos, Pentecost, the commemoration of the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. DD#2 is coming in from parts south for the holiday. It's traditional to eat a cheese-based meal so we'll have 3 kinds of blintzes plus sour cream and ricotta cheese; a variety of smoked and herb cheeses; a cheese ring for dessert. I'll whip up huevos rancheros one day, and we'll also have pot roast. I spotted a pie from DD#1, dropped off this morn on her way to work. Now I'm hungry and it's not yet lunch time!

A Visit to a Peony Farm

2011-06-06T05:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday DH and I spent a quiet day doing chores and visitng a peony farm, Peony's Envy in Bernardsville, NJ. It's supposedly the largest peony farm and garden in the northeastern US. They grow and sell peonies, irises, and other flowering plants. We came just past peak bloom but still it was a sight to see. I'll let the photos I took tell the story.

The last photo looks like what my own Karl Rosenfeld peony should look like; this year it set buds but they didn't mature. The owner of Peony's Envy, whose title is Lady Farmer (I like that) thinks the weird weather disturbed it and I shouldn't rip it out and plant a new one.

Meanwhile, DH and I came home to see this:

Yep, my own double light pink peony decided to open up afer all.

Cracking the Interview Code

2011-06-03T07:32:00.000-07:00

Ah, recruiters and HR reps! Sometimes I want to throttle them!

Take today. Now I'd heard via voice mail that I didn't get the writing job, the one 100 miles away, requiring me to live in a hotel 3 days a week, for 4 or so weeks. Company X understood I'd work from home once I was trained; Company X also understood how much value I bring to them in terms of the length and breadth of scientific knowledge. And I already know how to write. The writing test came May 18; the recruiter who presented me, MC, advised, "Take your time! If you do well, they may very well offer you the job, they have several openings and lots of new accounts to service." I finished the test (writing a 3 page structured paper) by May 21, decided to heed MC's advice, and sent the paper in 1 week after receiving the assignment, on May 25.

MC, who's been ill and out of his office, finally called me today. Well it seems that 2 writers turned up out of the blue after Company X had my resume; the writers were local, turned in their tests within 3 days (I was given 2 weeks to complete the assignment!), scheduled interviews before Memorial Day and were hired on the spot. Oh and the writers were local, did I mention that? So they can be on site 5 days a week forever. Oh, did I also mention the writers turned up out of the blue, meaning that Company X doesn't pay MC a retainer (about 3 months of my future salary) for finding those employees either. I finished that test on May 21; I should have sent it in immediately.

The career counselor was so right when she advised me not to use a recruiter. I thought I was hedging my bets. Now I know better.

Or take the saga of recruiter BM (truly, the guy deserves his initials). Now a general rule with recruiters is that they discuss possible jobs for you, and you pick the ones you are interested in/ good fits for. Then they present you to the firm, resume and all. You give permission, in other words. If you send your resume directly to a firm, it doesn't have to pay the recruiter. So nearly every recruiter I've ever spoken to asked me where I've sent in my resume-- and I tell them. Back to BM. He played phone tag with me for 2 weeks. Not as if I didn't leave my home phone number by e-mail and by voice mail: "You can reach me at home after 6 pm at xxx-yyy-1234." How hard is that? No, BM called 11 pm to my office, if you please. Considering I get up before 6 am nearly every blessed day, 11 pm I am asleep. I had given up on BM when BAM! he phoned me bright and early one morn earlier this week. And starts to chide me for not telling him I'd sent my resume into Company A. Dude! If you called and spoken to me, I'd have told you where I applied directly. Reprimanding me as if I'm a naughty child caught with a hand in the cookie jar is beyond uncalled for. Not like I didn't call you 6 times, and e-mail you 12 times.

Yesterday I received a call from a human resources (HR) rep at a firm that has 2 sides, a communications group and an education group. The HR rep told me loads about the communications side, then ended with "But we have a medical writer already." Hmm, one writer? thought I. And that writer covers every aspect of medical communications?

Then the nice HR rep went to tell me about the education side. In fact, her words were, "We do have an opening for a medical director. It just opened up. The CEO of that firm is very, um, er, passionate about education. She's worked with very famous guy at Very Famous University to develop news ways to enhance adult learning."

Sounds sweet, right? I reserve judgment. A check on Google reveals the CEO's LinkedIn profile, how much she paid for her house, and nothing else. She never was associated with her guru at Very Famous University. But I'm willing to suspend judgment, as I wrote; perhaps she was a student there (not listed on her profile though- maybe she took a class as an audit student), perhaps she met the guy and really believes his methods (I found one paper by him and a book he co-authored but I'm not on every database).

Or maybe it's a case of understanding the HR-ese:

I sure hope not. As of now, this education firm seems to consist solely of the CEO and that hardly seems likely. On the other hand, if the communications side has 1 lone medical writer, it could be possible. In any event, when I interview, I'll find out for certain.

I'm on Twitter

2011-06-02T08:28:00.000-07:00

By TwitterButtons.com

I'm on Twitter, where Evenstar will serve as my avatar for now. I'm not sure how much I'll post, but it may be a useful tool for job hunting. I have a hunch it will be more useful when I switch to a smart phone; my current cell phone is over 4 years old. High time for an update. The link to Twitter is on the left, below the links to websites I like.

If you're on Twitter, follow me and I'll certainly reciprocate: @ExptKnitter.
If you have good knitters or others you follow, let me know.

How It Went

2011-06-01T05:16:00.001-07:00

No, nothing like the cartoon (thank G-d!).

It went well, I think. Everyone was very cordial, very nice. They seemed to be almost as eager to sell the position to me as I was to sell my skills to them.

The venue: a converted factory loft in Chelsea, very hip part of Manhattan. The loft itself has exposed brick walls, indirect lighting, is one huge room with some offices along 2 outer walls, and stuck at odd places in the vast space are these round open can-like objects that fit 8 or 10 people, a table, and a white board. Painted black inside and out. Called pods, they are the meeting rooms (!), and are identified by the hip neighborhood in Manhattan folks chose: NoHo, Flatiron, and The West Village. Otherwise the decor is so minimalist the offices don't have full walls, such that while I was speaking to the hiring manager, the fellow next door bellowing on his phone was louder than our conversation. I took it in stride but I would think that if it inhibited work, the bellowing fellow would be made to quiet it down a bit. One manager I was to meet had to "take" an important phone call, which lasted for over 45 minutes. The upshot of that was the manager then had to dash to another meeting. I took that in stride too, and told the HR rep I'd be very happy to come back and meet the manager another day very soon.

The weather: The heat was terrific and the humidity impressive. Thought I did not have to wait for a single train (a miracle, I tell you), I was totally worn out by the time I returned home last night. It took 2 tall glasses of iced lemonade to revive me.

What I noticed: people dressed like college faculty, which surprised me; I was expected the ne plus ultra of downtown-chic. I was the only gal in hosiery/ closed toe shoes (I even spotted flip-flops). Jeans and untucked shirts prevailed on men, nary a tie in sight. That's good news for my wardrobe budget and my feet: I can wear comfy shoes to walk to and from the train station, a half-mile each way (not a great distance, but imagine doing it in dress heels).

What next: They are supposed to call me to set up the missed meeting with the manager. This gets sticky because of: 1) the interviews I have lined up and may have lined up (I hope); 2) the holiday of Shavuos (Pentecost) next week; 3) going to Los Angeles to see my father the following week; 4) having a family wedding out of town the last week in June. Well, come what may, I'm sure we'll work it out. If they don't understand prior commitments, they're not the right workplace for me, right?

Interview!

2011-05-31T06:30:00.001-07:00

This afternoon is the first of 3 interviews scheduled (so far). Today's is with a hip, young medical communications company that was recently spun off a large multinational corporation. From the website, it looks like it has maybe 15 employees, but looks of course can be deceiving. It's located in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City; that means hip and cool and exciting. There was no advertisement for this position. How I came to be interviewed is this: Remember the career counselor I consulted a couple of weeks ago? She urged me to get in touch by e-mail or phone with friends and former colleagues who left laboratory science for new careers, asking them for advice and contacts. A former colleague sent me detailed lists of contacts, one of whom is a head-hunter who places people in medical writing, education, and communications jobs; exactly what I'm looking for. She had no clients who matched me, but gave me the name and contact info for the head HR fellow at the parent company where I'm interviewing today. I looked him up on LinkedIn, saw he was once a dentist, composed an e-mail to him addressing him as Dr.-- and he called me right away! He was so pleased I noticed his title and used it. We talked a bit about life and work, and then he said he knew they had an opening for which I wasn't quite qualified, but I had the main qualifications already, and he was sure I could learn the ropes fairly quickly. Once again, your mother was right: it pays to be polite!

Next week's interview is at a small, independent medical education firm quite close to my house. I found it through one of the lists my former colleague sent me. They also weren't advertising any openings, but I sent an e-mail with my resume to the head of the firm, asking for more information. The next day they called to set up an interview at the earliest we could schedule one. The last interview was set up the same way.

I see from this limited experience that the career counselor was 100% correct when she told me that most job advertisements are not for real jobs, but mainly posted after a candidate has been found, to satisfy EEOC regulations. Dismaying, right? That's why she taught me to write an introductory letter, requesting information or an informational interview. Submitting a resume this way can lead to an interview; even if all you get is an informational interview, you can ask for more contacts in other places, and keep yourself in people's minds when openings come up.

It's a scary world when job ads aren't real and you have to play detective to find actual openings. Who knows, maybe I'll spot my sock during my interview travels.

A Double Dose of Murder and Mayhem

2011-05-23T07:45:00.000-07:00

Left to right: Elsa Lanchester, David Nivens, Peter Sellers (partially blocked), James Coco, James Cromwell

The monsoon continues, with a brief respite on Saturday. DD#1 and I hiked in the drizzle with the collies, then rewarded ourselves with some yummy ice cream from Hagen-Dazs (I got dolce de leche). DH did what chores he could outside (without sinking knee-deep in mud; trimming the lilacs will have to wait for now). I'd like to dry off before I mold.

Being in my year of mourning means I'm limited as to what kind of entertainment I can attend.
Live music- no
Sporting events- maybe (but I'm not really interested in those)
Movies- generally no (I'm planning to ask my rabbi for an override when the last Harry Potter movie comes out; some things cannot wait.)
TV- OK in my community.

So after dinner, DH found Murder by Death rebroadcast on some obscure channel (believe or not, the Wealth TV channel. What a hoot!). We saw this when it first came out 35 years ago and loved its whacky zaniness. Or is that its zany whackiness? Whatever it is, it's hilarious. The all-star cast is phenomenal. Imagine a young Maggie Smith trying out her timing so that she'll be perfection as the Dowager Counter of Grantham in Downton Abbey. James Coco plays Hercule Poirot, only in the movie he's called Perrier (Sam Spade, played by Peter Falk in a try-out for the Colombo years, is called Sam Diamond). You get the picture- and the corny jokes. Peter Sellers plays Sidney Wang (a Charlie Chan send-off; I had a professor in grad school named Sidney Wang, so I found his character particularly endearing).

After Murder by Death, the real Hercule Poirot (well, as real as a fictional detective can be) was on the Orient Express on PBS. David Suchet who plays Poirot is a great actor, whether he's the scoundrel Melmotte in The Way We Live Now or the infinitely-fastidious Poirot. This episode, by the way, was filmed on the actual Orient Express. Best Line: "We're in Yugoslavia, M Poirot! The backside of Europe!" Naturellement, Poirot solves the mystery of the murder on the Orient Express.

I should hire Hercule Poirot to solve the mystery of the missing sock. Le mystère de la chausette qui est manquée. Gripping to every knitter, n'est-ce pas? "No, hot chocolate!"

Rain, Rain, Go Away, etc.

2011-05-19T09:42:00.000-07:00

After 5 days of near-relentless rain, this is what northern NJ looks like. My backyard is underwater; I've gotten soaked through the raincoat 3 times while walking Rocky; my feet won't warm up (unless I turn on a space heater- it's MAY dammit!). My wavy hair will not be tamed without generous application of goop. On the other hand, the grass is lush and long (the gardners do not come to cut in downpours), the Bath pinks bloomed prematurely, the lilacs smell heavenly, the peonies and paniculate hydrangeas are gigantic (the mophead and lace cap hydrangeas are taking their own sweet time to come into bloom). Such is spring in the Mid-Atlantic states.

On the job hunt still; attended a webinar today on honing my interviewing skills. I received test materials from one company to see how good my writing skills are for their purposes. A friend at another company is helping me fill a suitable vacancy at her firm. And I'm still doing what the career counselor told me: contacting 1 or 2 new companies each day (or most days) to find out about openings I may suit. It's totally nerve-wracking, the cold-calling or e-mailing, but it has to be done.

The sock must have drowned, I am convinced of it. Maybe flushed itself down a storm sewer. What a prospect! What a waste of hand-dyed yarn! To be continued...

Career Counseling 101

2011-05-12T10:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I met with a career counselor. For nearly 2 hours we brainstormed about my past and future career trajectory, and I came away with a list of to-do items. This was time and money well-spent. Although I had an idea where I should look in terms of changing fields from lab-based research to medical education and writing, I had no idea that so many job listings are red herrings, mainly to satisfy EEOC regulations. Or that scanned electronic resumes rarely net one a job unless the key words match up (and the chances of that happening are close to my winning the Power Ball lottery). Most importantly, I learned that focusing my objective statement on my career aspirations make the resume, well, about me (DUH). Instead, I rewrote my objectives section into a short statement about how my previous career as a bench scientist brings skills a firm can use to meet its goals and serve its clients.

The counselor and I will meet again in 3 weeks. The time gives me a chance to set up informational interviews with targeted firms close to me. Beats crying, let me tell you, to have something positive to do.

When I returned to the office today, there was a message about one and maybe 2 potential jobs. Plus an e-mail from a former colleague who heads a medical education firm inviting me to call him tomorrow. And both messages trump no news about zero jobs any day.

Lost sock update: Since last spotted at Cinqo de Mayo celebrations in LA (thank you, sharp-eyed Fleegle!), it must be taking Route 66 home, which means it should make to Chicago by the 4th of July or thereabouts. How it gets from Chicago to NJ is its problem!

Royal Wedding- Belated Thoughts

2011-05-06T04:06:00.001-07:00

It's been a week since Kate and Wills (otherwise known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge) tied the knot at ye old Westminster Abbey across the pond. I was awake, and forewent walking Rocky in order to watch the nuptials. What a feast for the eyes! So many hats and fancy suits in the crowd. Now I want a royal outfit to wear to synagogue on Sabbaths; only question remaining is which? Help me choose, dear readers!

Her Majesty the Queen wore an ensemble that looked more apricot on my TV than primrose yellow:
I like apricot; I'd adore this outfit most of all if the color weren't so, well, yellow. Bad color for me. Otherwise, I love the demure cut, the flower flourish on the hat, and the lovely pearls set off by the Lovers' Knot brooch, a royal heirloom.

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, arrived in style: A lot of fashionistas dissed her ensemble. I disagree. I like it; when she walks, the embroidery at the hips seemed to minimize them (not that she's wide-beamed). The pale colors maybe washed her out a bit, but they're sophisticated pales and not little-girl pastels. I could wear this outfit, hat and all.

Carole Middleton. the Queen's new in-law, wowed everyone in pale blue:
Love the whole get-up, but the hat screams for hair to be pinned up. I could totally wear that set, and my hair would be up in a chignon. Style, I haz it.

Princess Letizia of Asturias (Spain) wore this pale rose confection.
I love it. The dress looks like organdy or chiffon and may be suited to a slimmer figure than mine; the hat I'd have to try on to see how it looks but I love it anyway. I adore veils. I heart this outfit even if I can't wear it.

Outfit I love with the hat I hate award goes to Princess Beatrice:
The outfit is me. I own a pair of shoes that match. Pearl earrings, no other jewelry needed. All I would need is a matching hat in organza and you may courtsey and call me "My Lady." Why Princess Beatrice chose to wear antennae on her forehead is beyond me. If I'd been wearing pearls when I saw her arrive at the wedding, I would have clutched them.

Worst overall outfit award goes to Princess Eugenie:
This was the best photo I could find of her in the wedding attire, plus you get to see how gorgeous her sister's Valentino outfit is and how hideous that hat is. Eugenie looks like something out of a fairy tale, but not in a good way. Bows at the bust are not for the busty; take it from another well-endowed woman. I can't totaly blame Eugenie for the hat; I noted several other women with blue canoes perched on foreheads. Must be a new trend, one I fervently hope remains on that side of the pond forever.

Feliz Cinqo de Mayo!

2011-05-05T05:22:00.001-07:00

Cinqo de Mayo festivites at El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula, otherwise known as Los Angeles.

Today, May 5, is Cinqo de Mayo. Olé!

Cinqo de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day (that's September 16). It's a celebration of an unlikely victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. The French occupation of Mexico was an aftermath of several wars that plagued Mexico: the Mexican-American War (1846-48), the Mexican Civil War (1858), and the Reform War (1860). The series of wars left Mexico nearly bankrupt. To alleviate the debt, Presidente Benito Juàrez suspended all foreign debt repayments for 2 years. In response to the suspension, Britain, France, and Spain sent their navies to Veracruz to demand payment. Britian and Spain eventually withdrew their navies, but not France. This set the stage for battles, ending in the victory at Puebla, a victory of 4,000 ill-equipped Mexicans over 8,000 superior fighting French.

Thiough it provided a morale boost, the victory of Cinqo de Mayo 1862 was not decisive, for shortly thereafter 30,000 French troops were dispatched and Mexico came under the rule of the French from 1864 until 1867. With the help of American forces, freed from fighting the American Civil War, Mexico was finally able to repel the French. This French incursion into Mexico represents the last time Europe invaded a nation in the New World.

Ever since living in SoCal, I've continued to celebrate Cinqo de Mayo with my family. Usually we celebrate a day later because that's my birthday. And we celebrate with food: Mexican meatloaf (my invention- a meatloaf made with Ortega chilis, salsa, and a mixture of meats), or tacos, salsa and chips, fajitas, guacamole and chips, flan (lots of flan), and of course margaritas by the pitcher. If I could make sopapillas, I'd have them too, but crullers are a good enough substitute.

So Feliz Cinqo de Mayo to everyone.

Sock update: I have it on good authority my sock is at El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula, the historic pueblo in downtown Los Angeles, enjoying some tequila with Dos Equis chasers. It'll be a looong while before it slogs back home, I'm guessing.

Denied!

2011-04-28T07:21:00.001-07:00

That's the outcome of my grant appeal to the VA.

The new head of research wants me to revise and resubmit in September (the next deadline). I reminded him that as of June 30th, I'll no longer be paid by the VA. "We may be able to fix that," says he. He's much more dedicated to research than his predecessor. Meanwhile, I had a brainstorm for a grant to go to the NIH. It's just about ready to submit. It's on pancreatic cancer. It's new, novel, innovative, and 100% do-able in my lab.

The errant sock is still somewhere other than my knitting storage shelves. Maybe it's still out on Times Square having a blast, Fleegle. When I find it (and I will), I will punish it by finishing it, making its mate, and wearing the pair. Hah! That'll larn those pesky socks to mess with me.

Where, Oh, Where Has My Little Sock Gone?

2011-04-22T06:32:00.000-07:00

This sock: the Evelyn Clark Lupine sock I was working on seems to have walked off on its own. When last seen, sock #1 was nearly done to the toe, and hanging on to a vintage 2.5 mm Addi Turbo needle (gold-plated with clear cord). The Sundara yarn has joined it to be MIA as well. If seen, please contact me. Reward offered in yarn. Thanks.

It's That Time of Year Again

2011-04-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

(Pesach is Hebrew for Passover)

No, not the government shut-down, though it was temporarily averted at the last minute.

No, I am referring to Passover, that major source of OCD for those not otherwise suffering from OCD. Just look at its accompanying madness: cleaning, shopping, cooking, and more cleaning and shopping. See what I mean? Still no time to knit!

What's done so far:
Carpets cleaned

Oven cleaned

Chandelier and breakfront cleaned

Silver polished

Rocky bathed

Kosher-for-Passover pet food purchased (yep, even they must change their diets; the birds will stage a hunger strike for the first day or so, then remember how much they like spray millet)

Cars cleaned and vacuumed

Non-perishables and some perishables purchased

What's left:
Purchasing remaining perishables

Doing a wine inventory and purchasing wine (we each drink 4 cups at each seder.)

Cleaning/covering/kashering rest of the kitchen

Switching dishes, cooking utensils, and cutlery

Cooking, cooking, baking, then more cooking

Someone needs to remember to pick up DD#2 from the train station Monday

This video has been making the rounds of friends' e-mail boxes. It's a pretty funny encapsulation of the holiday. Enjoy! And a chag kasher v'sameach to everyone (in other words, have a happy holiday).

If the Government Shuts Down

2011-04-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

I am so sending one of these temper tantrum mats to every single obstructionist member of Congress.

My director at the VA said to me this morn, "Of course you'll still be working during your furlough."

Actually, I will be- writing a new grant- whether the gubermint shuts down or no. But I have DD#2 in college, and a mortgage to pay (memo to Wells Fargo: remember when the Feds bailed you guys out? How about bailing out one of the Federal worker drones during the shutdown? Puhleeze??), and food to buy, and utilities to pay.

Who can knit?

I Won, I Won!

2011-04-04T05:17:00.000-07:00

Lake Louise, British Columbia

This was in my in-box at work today:

BRITISH COLUMBIA NATIONAL LOTTERY BC-49,
Unit 5, Tiger Court, Kings Drive,Kings Business Park,
Prescot, Knowsley, Liverpool, L34 1BH.
Confirm Winning: http://www.canada.com/life/lotteries/lottery_results.html
Winning No: 08 23 26 33 37 38
Bonus No: 40
BC-49 Lottery Chip NO: IMP/73253CA/2011

BRITISH COLUMBIA NATIONAL LOTTERY BC-49 MEGA JACKPOT.

Your E-mail ID has been awarded £1,550,952.00 GBP in British Columbia
National BC-49 Mega Jackpot, On Global 2011 Promotional Draw
held on Saturday 2nd April, 2011 in Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Confirm Winning:http://www.canada.com/life/lotteries/lottery_results.html
Winning No: 08 23 26 33 37 38 , Bonus No: 40, BC-49 Chip NO: IMP/73253CA/2011.

You are to contact our Claims Consultant with the details below:
Contact Person: Mr. Nicholas Donnie (Esq.),
E-mail:( b.columbia_claims.unit@hotmail.co.uk)
Telephone: (+44-704-573-3163)

FILL PAYMENT PROCESSING FORM:
NAMES:
ADDRESS:
SEX:
AGE:
TELEPHONE:
OCCUPATION:
COUNTRY:

Sincerely,
Sir. Gordons Fletcher.
Lottery Controller General
BC-49 Mega Jackpot.

Wow. When did British Columbia move to the UK? I'm pretty sure my plane to Vancouver went west (I changed in Seattle). And Canada is now on the pound sterling. Did that happen when they voted their government out? I'm so lost on the Parliamentary system.

New Blog: New Lace, Old Traditions

2011-04-01T06:58:00.000-07:00

There's a new lace blog around the knitting blogosphere, one devoted to Haapsalu shawls and Estonian lace stitches. It's called New Lace- Old Traditions. Its aim is to popularize the Estonian knitting tradition, and enrich it by developing new motifs and using motifs to create triangular shawls. Patterns for shawls are expected, and from the little I've seen so far (this blog started only in January!) it's one I'll be perusing a lot for inspiration. The latest post (March 11) shows a little daisy stitch and its variant, with and without added nupps. There are links to Ravelry download pages, and a link for a pdf download. The March 2 post has a pattern for a shawl right there, with links for downloads and to the Ravelry page. It's a rectangular shawl, similar to a Crown Prince pattern according to the designer. It looks a bit simpler to execute (I did not read the pattern yet- please note!). The pattern is charted.

I think, er hope that this blog will satisfy some of my Estonian lace knitting urges (I'll still have the urge to own the Haapsalu shawl book that commands impressive prices). I've been wanting to knit more triangular shawls using Estonian stitches. I have some lovely fingering yarn just begging to be made into shawls. I'm looking forward to many more patterns on the blog.

On a different note, I have to share this little gem with you. YouTube won't let it be embedded, so please go and watch it here. (h/t Julie of Knitting at Large for this.)

Laugh of the Day

2011-03-28T07:21:00.001-07:00

If my yarn starts talking to me, I'm putting down the needles.

Baby Blankets and Back-Lit Lace

2011-03-25T08:58:00.001-07:00

In the spirit of showing rather than telling, here are photos of the baby blankets I'm doing in lieu of the Log Cabin:

That's the progress so far on the one of Peaches & Crème. I should add a third solid color to it, according to DD#1, to make it more unisex. Blue or green? Let me know in the Comments section, please, before I get back to another solid color!

I love how this wool is knitting up. After I soak it in Eucalan, it'll soften (from previous experience).

I just wanted to show off a little here. I like the way the light shines through the lace of Peacock Tail and Leaf lace scarf. It's about half-way done. DD#2 spied it and squealed. Warms a mother-knitter's heart.

So Long, Log Cabin!

2011-03-23T08:52:00.001-07:00

Purim came and went. We went to the 2 required readings of the Book of Esther Saturday eve and Sunday morn. Afterwards on Sunday, DD#2 and I hitched up Rocky to help deliver the Purim baskets (mishloach manot in Hebrew) in our neighborhood. Being I am in my year of mourning for my mother, I can't accept gifts, including mishloach manot, so I hid in the house while DD answered the doorbell. We had a delicious Purim feast (commemorating the feast Esther made for Haman and the King, at which she dropped the dime on Haman) at DD#1's in-laws, then headed to an engagement party for one of my nephews. At which party the hostess (brother's future in-law) wondered why nobody was eating. Clearly she wasn't at the in-laws for her feast or she'd know.

Feast menu:
Strawberry-rhubarb compote
Beef leek soup (like an onion soup)
Brisket
Sweet and sour chicken breasts
Pickled green beans
Sweet potatoes
More stuff I can't remember
Salad to cleanse palates
Peach cobbler and non-dairy ice cream pie
The ubiquitous Purim pastries known as hamataschen
Assorted wines, liquors, liqueurs, other beverages

Who could eat? I wasn't hungry until Tuesday!

I took SapphireBlue's advice (thanks so much!) and bound off what bit of Log Cabin I did. It's big enough to be a security blankie.

I started another blanket (all these ladies birthin', must be in the water), this one of pure wool (vintage Brunswick SheepsWool), also knit on the diagonal. If I'm going to make a big thing, at least I'll knit it using a technique I like. A diagonal knit is a technique I like. Here's the yummy wool I'm using.

And the latest development in the world of knitting knews is that, at loooong last, The Principles of Knitting by June Hemmons Hiatt is coming out with a new edition later this year. Cue the fireworks! This book has been known to go for $5000 (so say some folks on Ravelry). The usual price I see it for is between $100 and $200, but still -! I preordered, got free shipping, and will not have spent more than $30. Now all I have to do is knit so as not to be checking on my Amazon order every second until it's in my hot little hands.

The Loooong Scarf, Finished at Loooong Last

2011-03-17T05:42:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is finally finished, DD#2's loooong scarf. I don't even remember when I started it, it was so long ago!

The pattern is Hugs and Kisses by Dorothy Siemens, and the yarn is JaggerSpun Zephyr laceweight in Mahogany, used doubled on size 6 needles. The tassel maker was a coaster I had sitting nearby. DD#2 will be home tomorrow for spring break; I'll report on how much she likes it.

Now the full moon is nearly upon us. This one will be a super-super sized one, so says NASA. Fourteen percent bigger, being it is a near-perigee moon (perigee = close to the earth), off from perigee by one hour. So be sure to view it Saturday night at sunset. We'll be out and about, on our way to synagogue to hear the Book of Esther read for Purim. Have a happy Purim!

Earthquake

2011-03-14T06:27:00.000-07:00

Japan is now 8 feet closer to the US, thanks to to the magnitude 8.9 earthquake (on edit: now listed as magnitude 9.0) from late last week. The earth shifted on its axis from the jolt by 10 cm (almost 4 inches).

My good friend Kiyo, now at a major university in New England, hails from the town opposite the quake's epicenter. When we spoke Friday morning after the quake he said all was well with his family. Thank G-d for that.

Meanwhile, anyone who's tuned in or lifted a newspaper knows all is not well with most of Japan. So instead of a regular post, I'll just post some links to relief organizations working to help to poor people affected by the quake and its horrible aftermath.

Orthodox Union Earthquake Relief Fund
Japan Society Earthquake Relief Fund
Global Giving Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund
American Red Cross

Am I Alone?

2011-03-13T08:44:00.000-07:00

Am I the only one in the knitting world who hates knitting the Log Cabin blanket pattern? Because everyone else seems to love it, by the looks of the projects pages on Ravelry. Heretical thoughts, I know.

I started one:

Knitted merrily along for a bit, then somehow lost my mojo. Don't know if the colors irk me or I dislike the start-stops with picking up stitches in-between. This one is in time-out until I figure out what I want to do about it.

Now, oldest niece is expecting in late summer so another baby blanket is in order. In case I can't bear to finish the Log Cabin, I began one of my own design:

This one's a cinch. I casted on 5 stitches (yarn is Pisgah Peaches and Crème Worsted 100% cotton), then knitted 1 row. With yarn in front, I slipped the 1st stitch purlwise, then knitted front and back in the next stitch to increase one, then knitted the rest of the row. I repeated the increase row, always slipping the 1st stitch (to get that nice chained selvedge) until I reached 50 stitches: time to change yarns. I'll keep increasing until 160 or so stitches, then decide if I'm making it square or rectangular, changing colors at intervals.

The beauty and fun of this blanket lies in combining the colors. The knitting is mindless and portable, and makes a nice break from lace knitting. Will it be a square or a rectangle? Have yet to decide.

How about you? Do you ever try to puzzle out why some patterns flow for you while others languish? Do you try to overcome your hurdles?

I Still Knit

2011-03-02T05:15:00.001-08:00

Honestly, I still knit.

In fact, 2 days before I left for Israel I made another Brambles beret so as to have another hat, in case the nights turned cold. This one is made from stashed Yarn Chef Mulligatawny in Bramble Bush, used doubled on sizes 4 and 6 needles. Of course because I rushed to finish it, it fell out of my carry-on bag and was left behind in the car. Such is life.

Then I agonized over whether Rivendell would give me enough in-air knitting (no, probably not) or should I cast on another item from my inexhaustible queue (yep, that's the right answer). After lassoing DH to help me wind 450 yards of Dream in Color Starry, I casted on Peacock Tail and Leaf Lace from Nancy Bush's Knitting Estonian Lace, this one for DD#2. I completed the edging before heading to Newark airport, then knitted 2 rows in the air, nothing more during my travels but have been working steadily since my return. You'd think I'd finish the other lace scarf I'm making for DD#2 first, but I find that pattern a bit boring after a few feet (she wants a l-o-o-o-n-g one in that pattern).

Now that I'm back, I finished Rivendell.

Still have those Lupine socks to complete. Would you believe I'm still on sock #1? I'll finish them and the thermometer will hit 85 degrees.

And maybe, just maybe I'll feel like finishing up the big projects that have been languishing for many a long day.

Israel Trip, Last Part

2011-02-25T07:55:00.001-08:00

One last post for you on my journey. First, the Sabbath (Shabbos). I have one photo taken right before I lit candles, grabbed a prayer book, and headed out to the Old City, destination: the Western Wall (Kotel) for evening services welcoming Shabbos.

This was the view from the apartment's terrace as traffic came to a relative halt in Jerusalem on the Jewish Sabbath. I write it that way because Israelis, depending upon their religion, may celebrate one of 3 Sabbaths: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Sabbath is serious stuff in the Holy Land. I write "relative halt" because non-Jewish tour buses and taxi cabs continued to come to the Old City's walls as I walked: I saw Maronite and Eastern Orthodox tourists, who walked to the Jaffa Gate with me.
As I approached the Jewish Quarter the mood changed. In the Armenian Quarter, business was as usual. Men played backgammon outside their stalls, vendors hawked food and souvenirs, tourists took photos of everything. But in the Jewish Quarter, everyone, everyone was rushing towards the same place. At the Kotel Plaza I saw throngs of people awaiting the time to welcome the Sabbath Queen (that's how we refer to the start of Shabbos). There were uniformed soldiers on leave for Shabbos, waving the national flag across the plaza as they walked to their respective sides of the Kotel. I found a jolly group of American students beginning their prayers next to the divider, their male leader standing on a chair on the men's side so he could direct everyone. That was perhaps the most inspiring welcoming of the Shabbos Queen I ever experienced. There's a prayer where we welcome the Queen and stand up, turning around as if a Queen truly did enter: we beckon to her as we turn to the front again. Singing this hymn at the holiest place was, well, mind-bending and beautiful and awe-inspiring all rolled into one. When the service ended, women and girls joined arms and started singing and dancing to songs I knew very well: David, King of Israel, and most poignantly, Jerusalem of Gold.

The next day I went to the Hurva Synagogue, that very pretty domed one I showed you. As lovely inside as outside. On the way, just outside the Jaffa Gate, a man was handing out leaflets explaining the week's Torah reading. I took one and he immediately asked me if I had a place to eat Shabbos lunch. That's a typical Israeli thing, to find someone to bring home for Shabbos lunch. Me, I tried to bring my friends' daughter, who goes to school in the Old City near the Hurva, home to my brother's for lunch. Alas! she was required to return to school for lunch (they had a guest lecturer that week).

After Shabbos ends, Israel comes back to life- night life. My father wanted his usual early bed time, my brother wanted me to experience Israel, so David and I headed to Ben Yehuda Street, a pedestrian mall about a mile from the apartment. As if we needed more food, we stopped in Cafe Rimon for a light meal. I had onion soup (OK, not great), David had fettucine Alfredo (he said it was good), then I had to try the caramel blintzes with vanilla ice cream. Amazing. Good thing I was doing a lot of walking in Israel.

If I sound a little food obsessed, it's because no one told me Israel had such amazing food. I've been to Italy and France, and Israel can compete with both of those countries!! Check out the shuk I visited on Sunday, the Machne Yehuda:

Oy vey! I had to limit myself as I ate my way through the shuk!

Who knew so many types of olive existed?

After eating through the shuk, I really needed to do some walking in the Old City- and check out some places I was curious about. Like the Burnt House of Kathros. My brother, who lives in Jerusalem part of the time, had no idea what Burnt House was. I had to find out.

So the Burnt House was burnt by the Romans 1 month after the destruction of the second Temple in 70 CE (original name, right?). The Kathros family was of the high priest caste (hey, just like DH!). The cellar survived the conflagration and many artifacts abounded, in part because high priests used a lot of stone vessels in place of pottery.

That's me photographing some of the vessels that survived. There was a sword, believed to have been used in the defense of the house, and the skeleton of a young lady (maybe 20 years old) buried in the stones.

Spooky place.
I spent a while at Burnt House, then wandered until dinnertime.

Monday was my last day, a sad day yet a healing day. First we went to Bet Shemesh, west of Jerusalem, to unveil my mother's monument. The scenery around the cemetery is very striking, a lot like that near Los Angeles. It's a fitting final home for Mom.

Relatives I'd never met before attended the ceremony from as far away as Kiryat Shemona near the Syrian border (a 3 1/2 hour drive each way) to extend their condolences. DH's cousins who live nearby came also; it felt comforting to see people I knew.

Afterward, I spent the remainder of the day bidding l'hitraot (see you again soon) to the Old City I've come to love so well on such a brief acquaintance.

I explored her nooks and crannies, finding the 8th century CE Karaite Synagogue.

Karaites number only about 40,000 or so; they are Jews who observe Jewish law from the Torah and not from later commentaries on it like the Talmud. This is their sole synagogue (I think) in Israel; they have one in Turkey and 1 in the US and I'm not sure where else they have synagogues. Karaites are believed to have best preserved the writing of the Torah in a form known as the Aleppo codex. To explain this, first let me tell you that a Torah scroll has no vowel marks nor punctuation marks; people reading it memorize the starts and stops, etc. The Aleppo codex (so-called because it was kept in the synagogue in Aleppo, Syria) preserved the Torah in chapter and verse format with vowels and commentaries in margins. I saw the Aleppo codex at the Israel Museum, so the synagogue to me was a link to my historic past.

One of the things Jews do to honor their deceased loved ones, especially parents, is to donate to charity (tzedekah) and to write a Torah scroll in the deceased one's honor. Writing a Torah scroll is an expensive proposition ($10,000 - 20,000), so contributing to the writing of one counts just as much. Part of my plan in the Old City was to give tzedekah and find someone writing a Torah to whom I could give money. In fact, I felt driven to complete these 2 tasks before I left Israel. The person writing the Torah found me here:

This is outside the Chabad of the Cardo, and they truly were soliciting funds for writing a Torah. When they heard my story, they said G-d sent me. They asked me to write down the names of my entire family, so they could pray for blessings upon us. There's another reason to show you this photo: it's a typical Jerusalem scene. You can see the 2 Arab ladies walking by the entrance to Chabad, the Lubavitcher Chasidic man standing outside the entrance, and different folk walking around the plaza. No one stares at anyone, points fingers, or makes anyone feel awkward.

I had shwarma in the Old City for dinner, then needed something to cleanse my palate (the shwarma was great; the spices linger a bit). I found a candy shop (mints, gum, something sweet) with a bonus:

A view down to Roman-era excavations below. Not your everyday sweetshop.

As for the tzdekah, I knew there was a fellow in a wheelchair stationed by Jaffa Gate asking for alms. The previous time I passed him I had no cash. Today I made sure I had cash to give him (in fact, I wound up giving away all my Israeli money instead of changing any back into US currency). Giving away felt as if I had gained something.

I began this post with views of near-sunset, now I'll end it with views of dusk before I headed to Ben Gurion Airport. First, the Montefiore windmill (1857) and Mt. Scopus beyond as seen from outside Jaffa Gate:

Last, evening falling over the Old City.

I'll be back soon, I promise, with DH along. We have new places to explore.

Israel Trip, Part 3

2011-02-22T03:52:00.000-08:00

Masada.
The very name strikes fierce pride and love of liberty.
If you don't know, during the revolt against the Romans ca. 66 CE, Jews fled to this desert stronghold in the Judaean hills overlooking the Dead Sea. Some 30 years earlier, Herod had built himself a winter palace replete with cisterns to catch rainwater, filled store rooms, hot and cold baths, and more. Standing some 100 meters above the plain, Masada (meaning fortress in Hebrew) was meant to be unassailable (Herod, you may recall, was more than a little paranoid). In 72 CE, General Flavius Silva finally breached Masada's impregnable slopes- to find that the Jewish defenders had committed suicide rather than become slaves. So accounted to us by Josephus in his History of the Jewish Wars and verified by modern archaeology.
In the summer of 1968, my cousin hiked up the slopes of Masada before dawn. We have it easy in 2011: we take the cable car up.

Those 2 big rectangles you see in the ground? That's where the Romans camped during the siege.

This is the view Herod had from his private chambers.
Herod built many baths; the Jews turned some of them into ritualaria (mikvaot).

Much of the palace floor was mosaic like this, however much was removed to museums overseas.

This was a store room. Note the old vessel still standing.

Here is an area believed to be the oldest synagogue. Before the Romans destroyed the Temple in 67 CE, that was the main place of Jewish worship.

These boulders were launched from catapults by the Romans.

We left Masada and drove to the Dead Sea for lunch and a dip near Ein Gedi, where David hid from Saul's troops.

To be accurate, David dipped his feet in the Dead Sea while the guide and I sat and watched people bobbing about like corks. A stop at Qumran was next, where the Dead Sea scrolls were found.

That's the cave where most of the major scrolls were found. We saw them later the same day at the Israel Museum (more on that later). To go back to Jerusalem from the Dead Sea, you make a left turn at the road to Jericho. A tour guide for Jericho was waiting for us at the Jericho turn-off:

He's even smiling at us. Along the way back, we stopped at a Druze village near the monastery of St. George. It has the most marvelous view of the Judaean hills:

Back in Jerusalem, we toured the archaeology wing (it's vast!) and the Shrine of the Book, where the Dead Sea scrolls are on display. No photography allowed here, so I link you to the fiber-related item I saw on display. Neat huh? Top whorl too. So ended another day of adventures and wonders.

Israel trip, Part 2

2011-02-20T10:06:00.000-08:00

This is the scene on the road between Jerusalem and Hebron, also known as Derech Avos, the Way of the Patriarchs. You can see an Arab farmer tending his vines at upper right, with his donkey gamboling nearby. That donkey had a lot to say. We stopped for lunch in Kiryas Arba, where I had the best falafel ever. From here we drove to the Cave of Machpelah, second holiest site to Jews. We were greeted by this very happy scene:

It's a throne for a bride, from which she greets guests and receives traditional compliments. In Herod's time a fortified wall was erected around the cave; later on Crusaders, Mamelukes, and Ottomans added onto to the structure above the caves themselves. Inside are synagogues around where the patriarchs are buried. This is the one where the wedding took place:

The cenotaphs of the patriarchs and matriarchs are covered with elaborated embroidered cloths. We could not see the ones of Isaac or Rebecca, for Jews are only allowed to go there 10 days out of the year. Isaac, you may recall, was the son of Abraham by Sarah and the father of Jacob and Esau.

Tradition holds that these cenotaphs are those of Adam and Eve. There are bones buried in the caves under the cenotaphs but archaeological exploration is no longer done (I think it ceased in 1927).

This is the cenotaph of Avrohom Avinu, Abraham our Father. Seeing this sent chills up my spine: this was something I heard about, learned about when I was such a small child and could only hope to see someday.

This is Sarah's cenotaph. It was for her burial that Abraham bought Machpelah from Ephron the Hittite, as recounted in Genesis 23: 2-16. Ephron wanted to give Machpelah and the fields around it to Abraham out of respect. Abraham demurred and offered fair market value: 400 silver shekels. Ephron accepted and drew up a contract of sale. So Machpelah became the family burial plot for Abraham and his descendants. My mother, may she rest in peace, was a Sarah.

We spent a bit of time here, prayed the afternoon service (Minchah), took photos of the other cenotaphs, then headed to Hebron. There's a beautiful old synagogue there known as the Avrohom Avinu synagogue. Some Jews fleeing Spain in 1492 brought their Torah scrolls here.

We ended the day at Kever Rachel, Rachel's Tomb, on the road to Bethlechem. This is the third holiest to Jews, and a very auspicious place to pray, especially for women. DD#1 is a Rachel, so it has special meaning for me to pray here for her, her sister, and for my entire family. Sitting in the synagogue here I felt that miracles could occur around me.

After the intense experience of Kever Rachel it was time to head back to Jerusalem. More adventures will come in my next posts.
L'hitraot!

Israel Trip, part 1

2011-02-17T05:24:00.000-08:00

I returned from Israel Tuesday morning. My emotions ran the spectrum from elation to sorrow. I loved Israel: the sights, historical wonders, the food, the aura of holiness that seemed to permeate everyday comings and goings. I took over 200 photos, some of which I'll show you in these posts.

Day 1 my nephew David and I arrived in Tel Aviv at dawn. As we drove towards Jerusalem in the rain, I looked back at Tel Aviv and saw a double rainbow connecting clouds to earth. As DH put it, what an awesome (in the literal sense of the word) sign. After a brief rest (neither of us slept during the 10 hour flight), we headed out to the Old City to the Kotel (Western Wall, holiest of all places to Jews). In pouring rain (soaked through my raincoat). With thunder. With hail (sounds like a few plagues, no?). To be greeted by this site at the Kotel:

We prayed the afternoon service (Minchah) and took more photos:

This is the women's side of the Kotel. I cannot describe how I felt when I stood next to the wall, touched it, prayed at it, cried to it. The stones are always warm, maybe they feel the intense emotion they evoke.

We explored a bit more. I looked for ancient ruins like these Roman columns from the old market place:

When we returned to my brother's apartment, my brother (DB) and father arrived from their LA to Tel Aviv flight. Dinner was next, at Herzl House, the place where Theodor Herzl stayed the single time he visited Israel.

The next day we went to the Mea Shearim to shop (I had quite a list from family). On the way I spotted this, the Artists House:

I completed most of my shopping in one place, then we went back to the apartment because of the cold rain (my father is 87 after all).

Here's my father in his jaunty cap on Mea Shearim Street.

Wednesday was a landmark occasion for me. DB hired a private tour guide for me. We started at Mt Zion, site of the tomb of King David.

That's David with me by the statue of King David outside the tomb site. From there we went through the Zion Gate into the Old City:

See the funnel above the gate? That's for pouring the boiling oil when invaders come.

This is the Hurva synagogue, it was the main Ashkenazi synagogue in Jerusalem before it was destroyed in 1948. It was rebuilt less than a year ago. Hurva means destroyed in Hebrew, I forgot the original name of it. I came back here for Sabbath morning services. It is magnificent inside.

Don't know what this is, but I found it somewhere in the Jewish Quarter.

These are ruins from the time of the Hasmoneans next to the underground shopping gallery in the Cardo. In a Roman city, the Cardo was the heart of a city and the main north-south street. In Jerusalem, the Cardo is the underground Roman shopping gallery. Where there are no shops, it looks like this:

The floors look like this:

Imagine walking on hills paved with these in clogs. Yep, I wore clogs to Israel. No traction whatsoever. My thighs got a good workout. We climbed back up Mt Zion to get our car and head out for new adventures. I'll save those for the next post.

Iced in Today

2011-02-02T08:22:00.000-08:00

It's Groundhog Day (think of the scenes in the movie where BillMurray repeats the previous day over and over again), it's dejà vu all over again,it's winter, it's disgusting, and it's several inches of new snow followed by inches of ice followed by semi-solid precipitation (rain that's almost in a gel state). It's awful. I used to like winter. No more. Even Rocky would rather do this than play in the snow:

On the knitting front, I finally put the finishing touches on DH's new vest. He models it here (he wanted to look very serious and professional for you):

To help me cope with the cold, I'm making myself a cowl out of some lovely Sundara sport merino I was saving for a special occasion. This winter qualifies as special.

The color is Shell Over Cocoa Butter and the pattern is Rivendell by Susan Pandorf. Don't think it ever snowed in Rivendell: Elrond wouldn't let it, I'll wager. I'm using a bigger needles (4 mm in place of 2.75 mm) and making fewer repeats, so my 250 yards just might be sufficient (pattern calls for 300 yards). I did a cable cast-on very loosely and that seemed to be a good choice: you can see how the edging is shaping up so nicely.
Last week I made a beret out of the Venezia I bought for myself. Not for me after all; DD#2 on the day before she returned to college decided she needed another hat (not as if I hadn't asked her for months). One look at the photo of Brambles plus a touch of the Venezia and she begged me (well, didn't take much begging).

Now I need to find yarn - again - to make Brambles for moi. I really liked that Brooks Farm yarn I used the first time; maybe I'll call them and see what colors they have in stock (they don't update the website very often).

Sunday I'm off to Israel (G-d willing). I'll be there nearly 10 days to observe the 30 day anniversary of my mother's passing and to be present at the unveiling of her monument. My father and one brother, one nephew, and some cousins will be traveling from the US. Other assorted relations already live in Israel, most of whom I've never met. I'm excited and sad at the same time. Camera, batteries, local cell phone, shopping list, color-coordinating outfits: I'm making lists and starting to pack. L'hitraot until I return.

Snowed in again!

2011-01-27T08:22:00.001-08:00

Yep, we got socked again last night. Unofficial snowfall in my town (measured against Rocky's 25 inch shoulders) is over 20 inches. Poor guy, he could barely leap over it this morning on his way to his tree (I had to remind him he doesn't use the indoor bathroom). I won't bore you with photos of pure whiteness.

In more sad news, Pisgah Yarn, makers of Peaches and Crème cotton yarns, sold out to SpinRite of Canada. In case you don't know, SpinRite bought Bernat yarns years ago, turning it from a really nice yarn company (selling lovely basics, seasonal fashion yarns, inspired design books, and distributing Jaeger before Rowan bought them) to a craft yarn line. Not that I'm opposed to craft yarns- they have their place for many things! But not to have Sesame 4 wool in the beautiful color palette of Berella 4 (what a color palette that was!!) was indeed a big loss. And Gloucester cotton was a great cabled cotton that washed and wore well. SpinRite is the home of Lily, maker of Sugar and Cream. I myself don't think Peaches & Crème is long for this earth, being the 2 cottons are quite similar. But not identical: P&C is much softer than SandC. P&C has colors that SandC does not (and vice-versa, to be fair). This morn I sent in an order for 10 cones (that's over a mile) of P&C. I wish I could afford more. The P&C Ravelry group moderator asked us to make at least one dishcloth for each of the 80-plus P&C employees who will be laid off come February 25th. Last night I whipped off 5.
First, a set of 3 heart-shaped ones based on Grandma's favorite dishcloth pattern:

The color is called Cherry Pink (might as well archive this info for posterity).
Next, Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth itself, in Faded Denims:

One corner is a little off, because I was knitting in bed (I have the cold plus sinus infection from Hades) and was too lazy to check how to end this thing on my computer. One day I'll have an iPad...
Last but not least, the Double Bump dishcloth, also in Faded Denims:

These 5 were completed in a matter of a few hours. Now they are packed up, ready to be mailed to the group mod (if we ever get dug out- so far no traffic moving on our street).

In somewhat happier news, a fellow researcher at the VA got wind of my grant rejection. He looked over the nasty comments and advised, "Appeal. Appeal directly to the program director at the VA. It won't go back to the reviewers. They had the facts wrong anyway so they are not trustworthy." Appeal is due March 25. An entire committee is supposed to help me with this process. Maybe I'll win, maybe not, but it helps to do something (other than job-hunt, which is depressing).

Last, I want to thank everyone who left a comment in consolation over my recent bereavement. It helps to know that folks are thinking about me and wishing me solace. Next week I'll be flying to Israel (February 6th). My camera will certainly go, as will lots of extra batteries. I have a shopping list from the DDs and DH. Not sure if I'll bring knitting, only because I think I'll be too excited and busy and sad to knit.

Stay warm, stay dry, and if anyone has a cure for head colds or cabin fever, send me a line, OK?

May you be comforted

2011-01-19T14:55:00.000-08:00

Jerusalem Hills, Israel

"May you be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem."

How often I heard those traditional words this past week. They are the valedictory Jews utter upon leaving a shivah house, a house wherein dwell those in the first seven days of mourning.

DH and I arrived in LA 11 am last Tuesday, the 11th. By noontime we at my parents' house. My mother had been in cardiac arrest several times during the past several hours. Lala, her head nurse said to me, "She is waiting for you and your other brother." My other brother was in fact en route. And for the next several hours, my brother and I sat with my mother, crying, praying, and administering medicine to alleviate her pain and ease her breathing. At 5:40 pm, my other brother called-- he was stuck at Miami International Airport due to the snowstorm DH and I escaped. While other brother was on the phone, my mother passed away. She would have been 84 next month.

Chasidim (religious Jews who worship G-d through spirituality and mysticism) say that many years ago, a chasid passed away and was brought before the Heavenly Court. But to his vast relief, not one accusing angel was in sight. Instead, a chorus of joyous shouts greeted him. "Baruch Haba! Welcome!" shouted throngs of gleaming angels. This tale is told of an ancestor of mine, but it could well be told of my mother. Robbed of her parents, her childhood, nearly of her life by World War II, she came to this country, met and married my father, had me and my brothers. Let me tell you, after what she went through and what she saw, that took courage, and a faith I believe few have.

My mother was buried in Israel, in the Jerusalem Hills. I didn't go to the interment, so as to be with my father, who could not travel due to a blood clot in his leg. My brother noticed on the return flight a reddening in the sky. He nudged my sister-in-law and said, "See that? That's my mother's turn before the Heavenly Court." I don't believe she's done yet and won't be for a long time.

Leaving for LA

2011-01-10T09:21:00.001-08:00

Yesterday my brother told me my mother's time is short. So DH and I will be on the first flight out of Newark, remaining in LA as long as necessary.

It's 2011

2011-01-05T06:27:00.000-08:00

The last week of 2010 was pretty awful. First, the news about my mother moving to hospice care threw me. Then after the snow cleared and I returned to work, I found out that my VA grant was not renewed (more on this later). This means I will be out of work by the end of July. And if these two blows weren't enough, my Pap test came back with cellular atypia. That's a type of abnormality sometimes considered pre-cancerous, sometimes not. Because I had borderline melanoma ten years ago, any cellular abnormality is a big deal finding. Do I need all of this? Does anyone?

As for the VA grant, normally, I'd take the critique to heart, revise the proposal, and resubmit. Not this time. The comments I received were nasty, spiteful, and mostly the kind that can't be answered. What do you say to a critique that basically trashes the journals you've published in-- when you published in the major ones for your subfield? The reviewer called one journal barely acceptable and the other unmentionable. Are we in middle school again? Shock is too mild a word for what I feel. And that's one of the "nicer" comments on the critique.

So my new job in the interim is finding a new job. I just got off the phone with a technical recruiter who told me how my research experience works against me; I should eliminate or downplay it on my resumé. Fine, I'll revise and resubmit that.

On the knitting front, Friday is dear SiL's birthday. I'm knitting him a scarf out of a Louisa Harding wool/cashmere/microfiber blend I picked up on sale at the LYS:

As of last night it was more than 75% done. Yep, that's a DNA helix you see winding its way up the scarf. Fun knit. Free pattern, in case you've a mind to knit yourself a double helix too.

Blizzard!!

2010-12-27T06:39:00.000-08:00

So the blizzard of December 2010 has come and gone.
With DH still recovering, it was up to DD#2 and me (mostly DD#2) to keep a path cleared for Rocky. She set an alarm for 3 am to dig- and could not open any door!
A pictorial story of what we found today when we awoke.

Our only hope, until the guy with the snowplow we hired comes:

Needless to say, DH did not make it to the surgeon's office this morning (bit of a concern, since his recovery is going a bit slower than it should). Intrepid DD#2 managed to squeeze out through the garage, where the snow wasn't piled as high. She dug a path and led Rocky out and back to the house.

On the knitting front, I finished the body of DH's Aran vest; it's blocking as I type. Also finished is one Twining Leaves Lace sock. Today is a good day to do the second one; wouldn't want a case of second sock syndrome now, would we? No indeed.

On a more personal- and sad- note, yesterday my brother told me that my mother is now in hospice care at home. I've been wrestling emotionally with my mother's decline for nearly 2 years now, but it doesn't get any easier. The daughters and I have plane tickets to see my family in LA in 3 weeks. I may go out there sooner. LA never seemed so far away as it does now.

On the Road to Recovery

2010-12-20T06:05:00.000-08:00

DH had his surgery last week. It went very well according to the surgeon. I suppose I have to take his word for it-- you see, when the surgeon came out of the OR to talk to me he said, "You husband had a very large hernia." Oy vey.

DH came home later that day and has been a bit motile since. Appetite pretty good, wnet off the heavy duty pain meds and as of yesterday not even taking over the counter pain relief. What a trooper is DH. Today he's at work for a few hours of data analysis (we work at the same medical school so I can nab him at a moment's notice and shuttle him home if need be).

The night before surgery I was about to bind off the back of Silures, only to find that my gauge was once again off, though I went down a needle size. This has not happened to me in maybe 20 years of knitting. Thoughts flew madly: the pattern was written for a yarn that's really a DK weight, and Rowan Magpie Aran is, well, Aran weight. On a size 7 needle (what I went down to), Magpie knits up as a substantial fabric (on a size 8, my preferred needle with it, it's lofty and drapy). On a size 6 it would be like iron to work with, stiff and unyielding. I was already making the extra-small size; I could re-write the pattern for one size smaller but my brain was a bit fried with DH's surgery coming up. So I grabbed a book, a very old book, of vests: Bernat #240 Small Change (if you like classic vest styles, this is a good one to have. The women's vests are pretty dated but the men's vests are true classics, and most could be worn by women too). DH picked a pattern (reluctantly, it must be told; he really liked Silures but I have no DK-weight yarn on hand and when asked, he wants a vest in thicker rather than thinner yarn). the pattern DH picked is an intricate one, featuring cabled lattices, Bavarian traveling stitches, asymmetric cables, and sand stitch at the sides. For all its intricacy (and despite the fact it's not charted), it's easy to memorize once the pattern is set. I knitted up the the armhole while waiting for DH, now I'm just about at the shoulder of the back:

Close-up of the cables:

This pattern loves Magpie, and Magpie loves this pattern.

In other knitting news, I finished a pair of socks:

Pattern is Undulating Rib socks by Ann Budd from the Favorite Sock book. Yarn is Cascade Heritage handpaints. This is my least-favorite sock pattern so far. Ms. Budd must be a very tight knitter, for she specified a 3.25 mm needle; I used a 2.75 mm needle and the socks are too slouchy in the ribbing; I may need to add some elastic. Also, the way she has you do the increases creates little holes (k1, p1, k1); I should have done the increases thusly: k1, p1b, k1; that would have prevent the little holes. Not so bad on the legs but at the gussets! I never had holes there before in any of the socks I've made. Maybe after washing and drying the yarn will tighten a bit. We'll see. I give the yarn high marks for being lovely to knit, lovely to look at, and lovely to buy ($18 buys a 437 yard skein, enough for a pair of large or long socks). No dye came off on my hands either- that's a common complaint I see on reviews of handpainted or hand-dyed yarns.

Being in sock mode, and needing a break from constant cabling, I started Evelyn Clark's Twining Leaves Lace socks. If you're looking for well-written sock pattern, Evelyn Clark's are those. Great charts and line-by-line written instructions. Easy designs (really! the lace pattern is so easy). Good pattern notes. And a pretty result:

The yarn is Sundara sock yarn, 100% merino wool, color is Crème de Menthe. Pricey at $28 plus shipping for 370 yards (I may need to use another yarn for the toes, in fact); however this yarn knits like an absolute dream.

Days of Wine and, er, Wine

2010-12-06T09:42:00.001-08:00

As I look over my knitting for 2010, I'm struck by a couple of major color themes that emerged.

First was the blue theme, with Milkshake and Carefree both in shades of blue. Then there was the Bluebell scarf in deep silver-shot blue, Swallowtail shawl in lovely azure. Added the Undulating Rib socks to the mix of azures. Seguéed to the teal of Twist, and the marine blue plus ivory that is the Toggle Knot Cable sweater. Which led to an ivory Wilson hat, tied to the pale beige of a Shetland shawl and the cream of a kitchen towel. Oh sure I got side-tracked along the way, with a pink Shetland Triangle shawl and a bunch of colorful baby accessories, not to mention a blanket for DD#2.

But the days of wine and wine are upon us. Perhaps they started with Evenstar and the Hugs & Kisses scarf, both in the same deep shade of burgundy wine. Now here's Peggy, in a claret color I could drink.

The recipient is happy with Peggy's fit and claims it is her warmest sweater (no doubt the alpaca in the yarn is part of the reason):

I'm still plodding away on wine-dark Maidenhair. Making this is an odyssey in itself: 55 repeats of 55 rows of 235 stitches. No wonder I feel inebriated when I work on it. To finish off the year, how about Norah Gaughan's Silures in port-red yarn?

The yarn is Rowan Magpie Aran, color, Ruby. The vest is DH's belated birthday gift (hey, I can only knit so quickly). If we were to sample wines to match these yarns, we'd have port, claret, Burgundy, Zinfandel, maybe even Beaujolais or Côtes du Provence. I could drink to that!

Speaking of DH, he will have his hernia repair done one week from tomorrow. It will be same-day surgery but not laparoscopic surgery (hernia too big for that procedure). All positive prayers, thoughts, and wishes greatly appreciated.

Happy Chanukah to all!

2010-12-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

OK, I know it's only Day 1 so this chanukiah is not representative (yet) of the holiday.
DH and I ate potato latkes (pancakes) with applesauce last night after we lit, and tonight we will have spinach latkes with plain yogurt (in place of sour cream). Maybe even some jelly donuts (known as sufganyot) for dessert.

Rocky got his Chanukah present; it coincides with when we think his whelp day was, and now he is 10 years old.

We're calling it Schlitz the malt liquor bull. Rocky calls it something else likely, but knows what we mean when we tell him to get Schlitz. He drags it around everywhere. It's bigger than his head so he looks pretty funny trying to carry it. He looks like he's enjoying it and has given it 5 baths at least already. He put it on my slippers last night for safekeeping when DH went to let him out for the nightly constitutional; he only does that with toys he really loves.

Been knitting a lot but had to frog the back of a new vest for DH (oh noes!). Gauge on a small piece- OK. Gauge on the whole piece- ginormous. Have not had to do that in many a year. Better to find out now. At least I'm halfway to the armhole again.

Speaking of DH, guess who discovered he has a hernia over Thanksgiving weekend? Luckily our internist had office hours on Friday and saw DH; surgeon's appointment this Monday. DH wants laparoscopic surgery: small incision, less OR time = less anesthesia time, likely shorter recup time. Best Chanukah present for DH will be getting this taken care of quickly and easily, with minimal fuss.

Have a happy holiday, and don't eat too many latkes whatever else you do!

Hey Mr.Wilson!

2010-11-28T14:47:00.000-08:00

Remember that cry? Well, here we have a new twist on Mr. Wilson.

It's Norah Gaughan's Wilson hat, but I think it's dignified enough to warrant being called Mr. Wilson. It's intended recipient, my laboratory assistant, is likewise dignified. The yarn is vintage Red Heart worsted wool in Eggshell. What a wonderfully soft wool it is. I loved working with it.

Of course I had to make another gift for my graduate student. Wouldn't do to leave her out. So she's also getting a beret, this one is Brambles and is found in the Deep Fall 2010 issue of Knitty. The yarn is Brooks Farm Four-Play yarn, the skein I bought at Rhinebeck. It's heavenly soft also.

Included in the gifts will be some fancy teas and tins of Dutch butter cookies, plus bottles of Eucalan for washing and keeping moths away. My assistant told me his apartment has some problem with fiber-eating critters. His Italian cashmere sweater became lunch. Hoping to head off any hungry vermin with the power of eucalyptus, I'll add the Eucalan to the gift baskets. I'd include lavender sachets, but that just doesn't seem like the things to give guys. DH wouldn't go for it, that's certain. You know, wrapped in lace and tied with a little purple ribbon, or else embroidered and surrounded by frills? I can see it now:
No, I don't think so.

Pre-T Day Countdown

2010-11-24T08:04:00.001-08:00

I took today off so as to get a jump-start on the T-Day cooking. DH does the turkey and baked yams (whew), and this year DD#1 will be making a few things in her kitchen and bringing them over. We headed off the whose house do the newlyweds go to by inviting the in-laws early last month. After all, DD#2 is home from Charm City, and the sisters need to spend time together (more like, DD#1 needs to needle her little sister; for some reason DD#2 puts up with it).

Since I got off to an early start this a.m., I can take a break. I made 2 pumpkin custards (neither DH nor I care for pie crust, which is good because I suck at making it). I made the cranberry sauce. I made apple cobbler (featured at top). I did not make the roasted veggie kugel (like a casserole) we'll serve tomorrow, but I picked it out at Costco. I bought fresh veggies for crudités, plus pita chips. Tomorrow I'll make the guacamole, the tomato vegetable soup with wild rice and barley (DH thinks he doesn't eat enough veggies, so we tend to serve a lot of them with our dinners). DD#1 tells me she made pumpkin spice bread (I have a feeling DD#2 will be taking it back down to college with her), a cranberry-pineapple kugel (this is absolutely delicious as a side or for dessert), and fixins' for a salad. I was going to make rosemary-garlic potatoes, but I decided we'll have enough food and then some. I will not be cooking for Sabbath this week; leftovers will be consumed.

Last night the family saw the new Harry Potter movie, being that DD#2 could join us and we suspected the theater would not be mobbed (we were correct in this). Better than the book is my verdict. And the knitwear is enough to make anyone's needles cast a charm.

Ravelers have determined that Harry's sweater is a type of beaded rib. Hermione's Fair Isle yoked hoodie has reverse stockinette stitch body and a pretty cabled button band you can see here:

Harry also wears this saddle-shoulder cabled pullover in a marled yarn:

Ron of course gets a handsome sweater, a two-toned cabled number (no doubt knitted by Mrs. Weasely):

My favorite is the raspberry hat Hermione wears in Godric's Hollow:

I would love the pattern to that. Maybe a book of more magical knits will be in the offing. I could see DH and SiL in the sweaters Ron and Harry wear. Once again, I'm faced with so much to knit and so little time.
Enjoy your holiday!

Enraptured by Wrapped in Lace

2010-11-19T05:20:00.000-08:00

While I was away, USPS delivered an early Chanukah present to me: Margaret Stove's new volume, Wrapped in Lace. If you don't know who Margaret Stove is, she's the New Zealander who brings a fresh approach to knitted lace. She incorporates New Zealand flora and fauna in her lace designs with great results. In her previous book, Creating Original Hand-Knitted Lace, she walked readers through her design process for a shawl, ending with painting the shawl in the most beautiful saturated pastel shades. The shawl featured sea life found around New Zealand such as sea ferns and urchins and whelks. It is utterly amazing. Go to your library and take a peek at it sometime. The earlier Stove book gave me a bluebell motif I used to design this scarf:

The new book gets my juices flowing just as much, if not more. Maybe because I've grown so much this past year in my lace knitting, I'm no longer intimidated by designs like this:

A Faroese-style shawl like this would be pretty easy:

I think my favorite of all may be the Christening shawl, which Ms. Stove writes replicates her very own shawl. She recreated the pattern from a fragment and a photo, helped along by a friend who sent her an old pattern for such a shawl:

There are clear charts, a section on preserving and repairing old knitted lace (marvelous to have!), and lots of encouragement to design your own. One of the best aspects, in my opinion, are the wonderful discussions Ms. Stove had with the likes of Barbara Walker and Elizabeth Zimmermann and Nancy Bush. Ms. Stove is not too arrogant to show any gratitude she might have to other knitters, and she says so. She includes a bibliography that I think many of us have in our libraries. I have to contrast this attitude with another recent book purchase, one on cabled knitted from the Aran Islands, in which if you didn't know better you'd think the author invented the entire genre (hardly, since the redoubtable EZ published the first Aran sweater pattern in the US around that time this particular author was born).

I have one peeve with the book: one pattern, the New Zealand Tribute to Orenburg shawl, is not included in the book. It's free on the Interweave site, but you have to sign up with your e-mail address first. I was already signed up; if I weren't I'd call this a major peeve (in my opinion, it should have been included and not used as a tool to get more people to sign up for the site).

To sum it up, Wrapped in Lace (ISBN: 9781596682276) should be included in the library of many knitters. I can't think of another single book spanning the styles of lace from Shetland to Estonian to Orenburg that this book does. Even if you are not interested in knitting big lace projects like shawls, you can incorporate the lace motifs into socks, berets, and scarves. The photos are lovely. The information is timeless.

If you have or do get this book, please let me know what you think in the comments.

Back from Hotlanta

2010-11-16T07:24:00.001-08:00

Which wasn't all that hot. The lobby of the pretty Grand Hyatt was about the most interesting thing I got to see, being I was obligated to be present at the meeting at all times (as a speaker, I was sort of like faculty for the duration of the conference). DH was luckier: he got see the Salvador Dali exhibit at the High Museum, explore the historic district nearby, and generally lounge about Buckhead, enjoying the good weather.

One thing I learned from the conference: my eye doctor is right, I need stronger lenses. I could not resolve fairly large letters on a huge screen from a moderate distance. It's been 3 years since my last change of glasses, prompted by losing my lamented Escadas, replaced by these new Kate Spades.

In 3 years I managed to strip the screws and scratch the lenses from constant wear. New sunglasses ordered, and they are Kate Spades once again (apparently, this brand of frames fits me the best).

Doesn't look like much, right? Add the lenses with tint and polarization to cut glare and you are looking at one mighty expensive piece of eyewear (thank heavens for flexible benefits to help pay for eyeglasses).

My indoor glasses held up pretty well (a pretty rose pair of Safilo wire rims), but if I hand them over for new lenses, I won't be able to drive at night or on cloudy days, let alone watch the new Harry Potter movie (already have tickets, will sit up front).
After much, much debate, angst, and trying-on of frames (do these look too school-marmy? Too librarian? Tortoise-shell: ugh, no! a throw-back to when I was a kid and only wore tortoiseshell frames. Wire rims again? The pretty green frames I loved-- made me look green) the optician picked these semi-rimless Guess? frames for me:

I'll be getting them in sophisticated brown metallic.

In the knitting department, I did take along a ball of cotton and plastic needles to make another bib (everyone is having babies, must keep cranking out the bibs). Pretty much completed it on the trip down. Photos a-comin' soon.

One last word about Atlanta. DH and I made one foray outside of Buckhead before the meeting to buy kosher food; this was to nearby (so we thought) Toco Hills. The map was so misleading. I had a dang-hard time figuring out where to go and how to get there (please Google Plantation Drive, Buckhead; you'll see what I mean). I lamented this to DH for some sympathy, asking, "What's wrong with Atlanta? I can't figure out how the streets run." DH replied, "Blame Sherman."

Spinning a Yarn

2010-11-08T05:32:00.001-08:00

Remember this pretty little spindle I bought last month at Rhinebeck? I used it on the Cotswold roving to make this:

Yeah, go ahead and laugh; I know it's quite pathetic. In fact, I intend to save these ~200 yards of handspun madness as a reminder that we all start out as rank amateurs (and I don't think spinners start out any ranker than this). I suspected that besides my non-existent spinning skills, my pretty spindle wasn't really up to snuff, at least for a beginner. Ravelry spinners recommended several name-brands to me, and so I bought a Kundert spindle in walnut and maple:

It came with the tie-dyed roving you see wrapped around it. I took it for its maiden spin to the spinning guild meeting yesterday. I was the lone person using a hand spindle; everyone else had wheels: Louets, Schachts, Ashfords, you name it, it was there. One wheel in particular was made of gorgeous chestnut-colored wood, with leaves carved around the wheel. It was quite a thing of beauty. Naturally, everyone told me how hard it was to spindle, how easy it was to use a wheel, and how everyone present started with a hand spindle. Two lovely ladies helped me used my Kundert spindle. One, V, took my pretty painted one for a spin and determined that it was not balanced well-enough for me to use (she of course could make a lace-weight yarn out of my BFL roving like that spindle were a $300 Golding!). So I guess I'll use it as a hand-supported spindle, or stick it in a basket as decoration. My Kundert, which weighs 1.3 ounces, V though was too light for a beginner (yikes! and it came as part of a learn to spin kit!!). However, if I draft well (I still really suck at drafting), I should be able to use it. Bonus: I can use it as a top or bottom whorl. Ha- I actually think I like it as a bottom whorl more.

I also bought the cheap $9 lucet:

It's made of walnut, so for $9 I think I really got a bargain. I haven't used it yet; I've been waxing it since it came unfinished. When I like the gloss, I'll start cranking out cord.

On the knitting front, Peggy is about 97% done. I have about 5 rows left on the 2nd sleeve. The body is made up, waiting for the sleeves.

My hairdresser is expecting a wee one on Valentine's Day, so I'm making some bibs. Here's the first, modeled by Betsy:

This is a pattern from the Down Cloverlaine website (link on the sidebar) called Baby Ripples; I modified it a bit. I may make another in the same Peaches and Crème Fiesta yarn.

DD#1 still has lots of stuff at our house that I keep threatening to make disappear. The other week she realized that the dressy hat she insisted I make her when she was in college is still at my house. Now she wants it again (I don't think she wore it once while she was at college, to be honest).

Nice, isn't it? Made of Tahki Sable that is 70% Merino wool and 30% angora, it's sooo soft. The pattern is the cover hat by Nicky Epstein on the Vogue Knitting Winter 94/95 issue, only I made it shorter, in one color, and left off the snowflake and reindeer embroidery. (In case you have that issue and were wondering.)

Later this week DH and I go to Atlanta, GA, where my scientific society is having its annual meeting. I'll be speaking next Sunday about my cancer research. Might take a project along for the plane; can't decide. Flying is such a hassle and TSA is somewhat capricious.

Collie Show

2010-11-01T06:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a cold day, the kind of day we call "collie weather." As if it were planned, the Collie Club of North Jersey's annual show was yesterday. We all went, 4 humans and 3 (that's right, 3) collies. You see, the rescue group called DD#1 the other week to foster a pup. She fostered before for co-op credit in collie and Rocky is a rescued collie from their affiliated group in central Jersey. When a few smoothie pups came their way, DD#1 popped up on their inner radar. So Col, a lively 10 month old that's BIGGER than Rocky, joined our lives. Yesterday was Col's opportunity to shine as the prospective adoptee of the month.

That's Col on the right (the sable). Is he shining enough for you? Skye hopes so. He's gotten so used to being top dog in DD#1's house (though he loves to visit Rocky every chance he gets) that Skye hopes someone will fall in love with Col and take him, please. Col really is very loveable but DH does not want a second dog in the house. I suppose 4 years with Skye (who's a bit of a clown) was enough for DH and so I won't push the issue.

That said, DH did fall for this little fellow. If he had a "Buy Me" sign on him, I think we'd have gone home with a fourth collie.

Last week we took some photos of this house all ready for Hallowe'en:

Well last night DH just had to see it in the dark. Turns out he was not alone...

We couldn't get near the place!

This is the best we could do. Those are FLAMES shooting out from torches flanking the double window, with little ghosts strung on wire from a tree. You can see the red eye of the giant skull peeking out between the branches of the blue spruce towrds the left.

Not to be outdone, these neighbors did their best to recreate Shelob's lair from the Lord of the Rings:

Those are little lighted skulls lining the pathway. No trick-or-treaters at this house. Wonder why....

On the knitting front, Peggy now has a zipper and one sleeve done halfway to the armhole decreases. Next week is a meeting of the local spinner's guild. Guess who is going with a brand-new walnut spindle plus more roving?

Beauty on a Budget

2010-10-28T06:38:00.000-07:00

These days everyone's looking for ways to save money. I know I am. Because some of my grants ended, my pay from the medical school has gone down 80%: quite a big hit. DH and I were gearing up for it in advance by adjusting our spending as much as we could. Mortgage and college for DD#2 are our big outlays, then utilities, retirement account, and food. We paid off the cars years ago. We never spend much on entertainment; luckily we enjoy things that are pretty much free like drives in the near-by countryside or hikes in our parks.

Still, when I made more money, I used luxury personal items for face, hair, and body. Now I'm using beauty care items that cost so much less yet perform as well or even better than the luxury brands. The savings in this category can free up some cash for a trip to Rhinebeck, a new spindle plus fleece, or a skein of hand-dyed sock yarn. Maybe some of these products will work for you too.
Disclaimer: I bought every item myself; none of the companies mentioned knows I'm recommending these products.

Hair care

Instead of using a salon brand shampoo and conditioner, I find that the Suave Professionals Almond and Shea Butter line works just as well on my color-treated hair for a bargain price (I paid less than $2 a bottle at a discount store Sunday). I like the light fragrance and smooth feeling of both. I get regular trims and never blow-dry, so I don't deep condition my hair (it's not that dry).

For helping put some bounce into my pathetic waves (besides a good cut with layers), I am a convert to Aveeno Nourish+Style Soft-Hold Gel-Crème and Curl-Defining Gel. A dollop of gel-crème worked into my hair, then some spritzes of gel, shape with my hands, and my hair air-dries into starlet-worthy waves like Salma Hayek's (I have a similar hair cut).

The hold lasts all day yet feel soft, not stiff. Price? less than $15 for both. Bonus: I love the nozzle for the spray gel; it directs the stuff where I want it. No more spraying my shower curtain or towel rack.

Face
I have rosacea, so I look for products meant for sensitive skin. I also need a sunblock that doesn't dry my face (no zinc oxide or titanium dioxide for me), and if possible, the sunblock should be moisturizing enough that I don't need to load a layer of moisturizer under it in winter. I've spent big bucks on face products ($50 on little jars that barely lasted a month or so)- this is a category I really wanted to pare down spending so I could feed my fiber habit instead.

I have 2 winners for cleansing, Cetaphil Gentle Cleanser and Aquanil Lotion Cleanser. I've used the Cetaphil for years, it's highly-recommended by most dermatologists. You find Cetaphil everywhere and if you sign up on the website, you can download coupons. Recently I've come under the spell of the parent company (Person & Covey) that makes Aquanil. Right now I like it more than Cetaphil. It feels more moist on my skin. I think I'll go back to Cetaphil during the humid summers and use Aquanil when the furnace is on. It's priced like Cetaphil.

The Person & Covey spell extends to a night cream with a price you cannot beat: DML Forte. Check it out. It has everything I love in a face product: it comes in a tube (I will not buy jars any more, especially since companies are going preservative-free); 4 ounces of it costs $13 full-price (and I usually buy it discounted; more on that later); little discernable fragrance (I'd rather smell like my favorite eau de toilette, thankyouverymuch); it works. Its smooth, creamy texture means it applies like a dream- no drag at all on my skin (if I have to work a cream in, I'll risk rubbing and aggravating the rosacea; been there and done that. Ouch!). I wake up with really soft skin. If the air is exceptionally dry (I'm traveling in the desert say), I'll apply it a second time before bed.

My daily moisturizer has to be my sun protection too. DML Daily Moisturizer SPF25 has the feel of DML Forte plus protection against both UVA and UVB. I'll use it on my face even for a day at the beach or hiking (I always wear a sun hat so it's enough). It's not meant for the body and I don't think it's water-resistant. Like DML Forte, it comes in a tube, costs less than $15 full-price (the tube is smaller at 1.5 ounces), has a similar creamy texture, and has very little fragrance. Bonus: it's a pretty good makeup base or primer.

Want to know how I found Person and Covey? Dermatologists in Los Angeles swear by this stuff. My parents' derm gave them a bag of samples of these things, and I tried a few while visiting them. I was hooked. Now you can find this stuff everywhere in LA, but in NJ no one sells it. However, I found that Skinwest carries Person and Covey products, and get this: Skinwest discounts the prices and throws in free shipping on orders over $24.99. Easy enough to reach that minimum.

Lips

I used to be a lip-balm junkie. I'm still an addict, in that I cannot abide not having something coating my lips. I think it began years ago, when I learned to play flute as a wee lass. Chapped lips and a woodwind instrument do not mix, you see. It started with Chapstick, went on to Bonne Belle, then Yardley Lip Slickers, and the rest is history. Often I wear a sheer lipstick or some lipgloss, but for times when I don't want to bother, I reach for lip balm. I've tried some pretty posh ones, with sourced cocoa butter and organic mint, beeswax, and all sorts of au courant pedigreed ingredients. I always come back to Blistex DCT (it's an initial kind of day I guess). I use this day or night. It has SPF20, aloe, cocoa and shea butters, plus a bit of menthol (I like that in a lip balm), and staying power: apply before bed and wake up with smooth lips. You find this everywhere for less than $2 a tub. I'm not thrilled with the tub packaging but I go through tubs so fast, I figure it must be OK. Plus menthol has antiseptic properties.

Hands and Body and the Rest of Oneself

One winning product here: Lubriderm with shea and cocoa butters. Not greasy, good for cuticles too, little fragrance, and 16 oz goes for $6.99 full price but the Lubriderm site always seems to have dollar off coupons when I check it. Everyone in the Knitter family uses it and note that we wash hands a lot due to our occupations as lab scientists, vet nurse, and pre-med student. Note: The packaging just changed so you might find old style as well as new style bottles in your store.

I haven't figured out my actual savings since switching to these products from the luxury brands I used to use; I estimate I'm saving at least 75% on what I used to spend for face and hair care. Even saving $30 a month is enough to keep me supplied with yarn, books/patterns, and now roving or fleece. And the occasional luxury product!

A Quiet Weekend

2010-10-25T06:12:00.001-07:00

After 2 whirlwind weekends, DH and I were ready for, no make that needed, a quiet weekend. We were alone for Sabbath, being that DD#1 and her DH were in New Orleans for a spell (lucky, lucky them!). Yes, we were Skye-sitting so Rocky entertained his brother. DH fell under the evil spell of rhinitis, came home from synagogue early so he could cope without disturbing everyone around him, poor guy. He went through an entire box of tissues by the time the Torah was taken out of the ark! Me, I was fine until lunch (really, it's dinner on the Sabbath): chicken baked in spiced corn meal, baked yams, steamed asparagus and cauliflower, challah, pine nut hummus, and my special coconut custard for dessert. All delicious. Too bad it didn't last long in my system; sometime during the week I must have picked up a gastrointestinal virus. I was down for the count the entire afternoon. By evening I was feeling hungry enough to attempt some cookies with double-bergamot Earl Grey tea (amazing how cookies always make you feel better).

Sunday I had a full day planned. Clean the kitchen, groom Rocky, clean downstair windows and glass doors (some of them anyway), then take the dogs hiking at Hilltop Reservation, which brings us to the highest point in Essex County. That's the start of the trail at top. In the autumn, I always expect to be attacked by Ringwraiths, it has that look. Back home with 2 tired but happy collies, cooking for lunch began.

First, vegetable barley soup with wild rice:

So easy. Take a large can of crushed tomatoes, fill the can twice with water and mix into the tomatoes in a Dutch oven, start heating on a low to medium flame. Start thawing a large package of frozen mixed vegetable- you'll add them to the soup soon. Add 1 Tbs powdered Osem consommé mix, 1 Tbs Cajun spice, 2 Tbs dried parsley, a bay leaf, 1/2 cup pearl barley, 1/4 cup or so wild rice, 1 cup small noodle or pasta (I used ABC noodles). When soup begins to simmer, add vegetables. Simmer around 2 hours, adding more water as needed. We ate half of what I made in one sitting.

For dessert, blueberry-pear cobbler.

Make this while the soup is cooking. Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Prepare a 9x13 glass baking dish with Pam or whatever you like. Empty into it a 16 oz can of pears with juice, a 21 oz can of blueberry pie filling, a cup or so of dried blueberries (mix them in so them start soaking up the liquid). Sprinkle on top 1/2 package of yellow cake mix. Sprinkle on top of that 6 - 7 oz of flaked baker's coconut. Take a stick of margarine and dot on top of coconut (or melt and pour it on; I prefer making pats of margarine and placing the pats on top). Bake ~50 minutes uncovered.

While cooking, I started a sock.

I discovered that I had felted a pair of socks beyond wearing, made holes in another pair (not my handknitted ones), and just in general need more warm socks. The pattern is Undulating Rib by Ann Budd, published in Favorite Socks by Interweave Press. The yarn is Cascade Heritage Paints in Aqua Sol, such a pretty variegated blue. While going through socks, I found a pair I made that DD#2 won't wear (go figure) and a lone sock that was an experiment when I began knitting them years ago. I couldn't bring myself to throw them out (not even the holey wool ones) or give them away.
Solution:

Stuff, sew the cuff, embroider. Instant dog toy.

Rocky likes it. Tell him, "Go get silly snake" and he brings you this toy.
Of course Skye got one too.

In his favorite color, orange.

The last thing we did was run a couple of errands. Next to the store we were shopping in was one called Wild Bird Center. Intrigued, we went inside. Beautiful stained glass birds, all kinds of bird seed, lawn ornaments, and so forth abounded. And I spied bags of alpaca fleece for nesting material. I showed this to DH, whereupon the owner told me selling the alpaca fleece. I mentioned alpacas and fleeces at Rhinebeck and she exclaimed, "I was there too!" Then she showed me the hand-knitted socks she was wearing, excitedly brought me over to the register to show me her hand-dyed yarn she's knitting into more socks. DH showed off his Rugged Vest, the one I made last year. She's a new spinner too, and told me about the local guild. Next meeting in 2 weeks! DH was amused. Knitters are everywhere.

Rhinebeck Haul

2010-10-21T05:19:00.000-07:00

As promised, here's my Rhinebeck haul. It's small, mainly because 1) it was my first time and I had no idea what I wanted/needed other than a drop or supported spindle plus some roving; 2) after paying for a wedding, major car repairs on both autos, and DD#2's college tuition in the past year, cash is real short in the Knitter household.

Left to right:
1) One skein of Brooks Farm 4-Play 50/50 silk and wool. This will be a hat for my grad student come December. I had a most difficult time deciding on the color (Brooks Farm has one of the most gorgeous ranges of colors I have ever seen in yarns), then remembered that the pattern has a sunflower theme. The first skein of yarn I picked up was dyed lovely shades of golden peach and apricot. I showed it to DH for his opinion, which was, "It's very orange." As if orange were a negative adjective. I picked up this rose and cocoa mélange sitting next to the peach and apricot (I think I was getting hungry at that point) and DH said, "That's very pretty." Coming from DH, that's high praise indeed.
2) A hand-made and -painted high whorl spindle from Snook Farm. These aren't on the website; I think they must make them just for the fiber fests. The lady said the wood is some kind of hard pine. You can see a little of the yarn I've spun so far on the hook. I have much to learn. The spindle was only $18.
3) One ounce of Coopworth roving from Snook Farm to practice spinning. This is the white fiber I spun. For $3 it's cheap enough that I can play with the roving and not feel bad that I don't get anything useful from it. I had a coupon for 10% off the Snook Farm purchases, so spindle and roving amounted to $20, even with tax.
4) Not pictured (I forgot to take it off for the photo shoot!) is a dainty silver and coral bracelet I bought from one of the Navajo vendors. I'm a sucker for Navajo and Pueblo jewelry, especially if there's coral in it. This one was only $18.

What would I have bought if I could? Well, I had in my budget enough $ for some Bartlettyarn sport weight to make a vest for DD#1 in a color she fell in love with at Brooks Brothers (but not the $385 price tag). But alas! though I stopped there first, they had only 2 skeins and 3 are needed.
I drooled over the Golding lucets. I never even heard of a lucet until I saw them at the Goldings' booth. Such a simple device to make an I-cord! My wrists ache for some reason when I make I-cord on DPNs; I have a 4-pegged knitting Nancy, but it makes a too thick I-cord. A lucet will make a thinner I-cord more suitable for ties or button loops. But $61 for the thing! I could not justify it, no matter how beautiful. A search on the web found wooden ones; granted, not carved like the Golding lucets, but made of precious woods all the same for prices ranging from $9 to $20. I think I'll go for the $9 one in walnut, and that one has only a $1 postage charge.
I never did find a supported spindle. I'll put that on my list for next year, along with a revisit to Brooks Farm.

One last photo from Rhinebeck, this one of the sheepdog exhibition. The little black border collie was a bit too eager to go after the sheep; she kept biting them. We were surprised by this because at the sheepdog championship trials in Morristown, biting is a disqualification. Rocky herds people (us, mainly), Skye herds other dogs (though his parents are champion stock-dogs). Wonder what they would have thought of this show.

Don't Sit There!

2010-10-19T14:41:00.001-07:00

We're all pink this month for breast cancer research, right? Well knitters, what do you think about this chair, designed by Sara Rotman? Looks to me like yarn gone wild, with knitting needles protruding from the seat.
Think I'll just make a direct donation.

Rhinebeck!

2010-10-18T08:28:00.000-07:00

I finally made it a sheep and wool festival. Yesterday DH and I went to the NY Sheep and Wool Festival at Rhinebeck, about a 2 hour drive from our house. We could not have ordered better weather. Trees were near peak foliage color. Temperature was cool enough to show off my hand-knitted creations.

That's me in the grey cabled sweater, shopping for yarn. At one point, I felt faint, truly overcome by all the selections. I was quite restrained in my shopping (really, I spent less than $60; I'll cover those in a separate post).

We met this Highlander selling spinning supplies.

We watched so many people spinning. DH got into the spinning groove; I think he checked the pricing of every wheel there. I myself am not ready for a wheel, but nice to see he was looking for a good wheel at a good price.

Fleece, roving, yarn- you name it. If it's fiber, you could buy it.

This baby alpaca was so cute, I wanted to take him home.

DH wanted to buy this young buck for DD#1.
Of course there were sheep- so many breeds of sheep!

These are Jacob sheep, a rare and ancient breed that date back to Biblical times. These sheep may be descended from the sheep that Jacob herded for Laban. Jacob and Laban struck a deal: Jacob could keep all the spotted lambs that were born. Apparently Jacob took Mendelian Genetics 101, for it's recorded that he separated the spotted ewes from the solid colored ones, so as to have more spotted lambs.

We watched some of the sheep being judged. I thought they all deserved medals for cuteness.
We left before the day ended, and still hit traffic on the NY Thruway. Oh well, it won't keep us from eagerly awaiting next year's festival.

Nautical Knits

2010-10-15T04:11:00.000-07:00

Minquiers Breton Sailor's Shirt by St. James of Normandy

Nautical knits appeal to me. The crisp stripes in contrasting colors, usually some shade of blue plus white or écru, the flattering bateau neckline, easy fit, and perhaps interesting textured stitches, ribbing or cables are all design elements I like. I've made a few in my day, and wear them nearly year-round. To me they go beyond spring or resort wear; they are seasonless and timeless.

Here's my interpretation on a Martin Storey nautical knit. I used the flattering fit, bateau neck, and general dimensions to turn a striped sailor top into an evening sweater made of sparkly Filatura di Crosa Sera.

I still like the original, especially the red bobbles along the ribbing; I may make it yet.

This Cornelia Tuttle design was published in Vogue Knitting way back in 1987.

It needed bulky yarn; I chose Schoeller and Stahl Merino Stretch in Midnight (deepest navy) and Cream. It's actually light enough to be worn into May where I live, and the stretch in the Merino a nice body, clings without being too obvious.

Kristen Spurkland turned blue and white into black and taupe for Vogue Knitting in 2002.
A novel twisted stitch that begins in the ribbing creates a rope-like plait. The taupe is Classic Elite Avignon (sadly, discontinued) and the black yarn is Lion Microspun. I wear this nearly year-round; it's good for warding off frigid air conditioning in summer; with a cotton turtleneck underneath, it's good for winter.

Though I haven't made this one yet, AS' Mystic has long intrigued me. I keep thinking I should make it more fitted, use one anchor motif in the center flanked by ropes and braids on either side. I'd like to use a DK-weight cotton-wool blend in a lovely shade of blue. We'll see.

I should have kept this cutie-pie gem I made for DD#1 (also worn by DD#2), found in VK Spring/Summer Special 1991.
I didn't make the matching beret, being that both Ds preferred baseball caps. I made it in Bernat Berella in a pretty aqua, rather than the specified yarn, Gloucester.

And speaking of Gloucester, we come to my current nautical knit, one I made previously of blue and cream Gloucester. This is Michele Rose Orne's toggle knot cable pull, also found in VK Spring/Summer Special 1991. I brought it along on a business trip to Switzerland so I could finish the sleeves and wear it. On the train from Grindelwald to Geneva, I finished the last stitch. I wore it to my conference, sightseeing to Annecy, France, and on the plane home. Wore it so much that I wore it out. Now I'm remaking it out of another cabled mercerized cotton, Reynolds Saucy in Natural and Denim, great buy from WEBS.

Look at how well the knot pops out. I love dimensional cables. Saucy is a bit thinner than Gloucester, almost DK-weight. It'll be more fitted, which is what I want. I'll make it longer, instead of a crop-top. I'll make J-sleeves, rather than dropped shoulders. Just by decreasing 5 or 6 sts at the beginning of 4 rows is enough to take a lot of bulk away from the armholes. Will I keep the round neck or make it into the bateau neckline I so love? For that, stay tuned: I have yet to decide.

A Weekend Away

2010-10-12T06:24:00.000-07:00

This weekend we visited DD#2 in Baltimore. Couldn't have picked a better weekend, weather-wise. After the mandatory shopping marathon (food, supplies, new shoes, etc.) and the necessary inspection of her new apartment, sightseeing in my old hometown was in order.
First stop: Federal Hill for the coffee at Spoons and the view from the hill itself:

You can see the National Aquarium (glass pyramid) and the University of Maryland research station (funny white tents across from the aquarium) quite well.
We came across this doorscape (if that's the proper term), which we found amusing:

It's amusing because the owners put up a mezuzah (meaning, like us they are Jewish) yet they have a crab-shaped door-knocker (definitely not kosher). But hey! it's Maryland, and Maryland is for crabs. We approve.
If you've any doubt that Baltimore is Birdland, check out this entrance to the Museum of Visionary Art (next to Federal Hill Park):

Last, a visit to Fort McHenry. Thought Columbus Day is an official Federal holiday (hence my day off), National Park Service folk have to work.

This is the modern-day view of the scene of the Battle of Baltimore (September 13-14, 1814):

Pretty peaceful. We spotted a cargo ship bearing new autos coming up the shipping lane on its way to one of the terminals.

DD#2 spotted this; the soldier bore her initials. That gave her a thrill.

Of course no trip to this fort is complete without paying homage to the flag that still waves; this is a replica, as the original now resides in the Smithsonian.

No knitting on this trip, though I brought a sweater and vest down to DD#2 to keep her warm when the chill comes next month.

Scotch on the Rocks with a Twist

2010-10-07T06:04:00.000-07:00

That's Twist, completed and modeled by DD#1 (still in her scrubs, she's so excited to finally get it).

But wait... what's that sneaking in for a petting?

Why, it's Auchentoshan on the Rocks, CGC, aka Rocky. Not one to be left out of the action, the Twist photo shoot turned into this:

and then this:

and finally this:

(he wouldn't sit still for a nice pose).

Notes from a Knitting Professor

2010-10-03T13:19:00.001-07:00

(The Knitting Girl, 1869, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau)

It's been over 30 years since I began to knit really seriously. A bit of perspective is in order as I look back over the years.

I’m a professor who knits. Science may be my profession but knitting is my avocation. I was knitting long before the current craze and I most likely shall continue to knit long after the fad fades away (hopefully, it never shall). My mother knitted for all my life, and I recall that one of the highlights of our many trips from Baltimore, Maryland up to New York City- besides visiting family and friends- was the various yarn shops we visited. My mother didn’t drive, so she never ventured to find knitting stores or yarn shops near us in Maryland. I remember not only the beautiful brightly-colored wool of every hue, I also vividly recall that my mother mastered advanced technical details, which was difficult for her as English is not her first language; thus she found written knitting instructions hard to follow. When the fashion rage for evening clothes in the 1960’s called for iridescent sequined tops knitted out of gossamer thread, she made one in every color to wear with her long black crepe skirt. She added crystal pendalogues along the hem, a detail which I know was not in the pattern books. Soon she was knitting with gorgeous iridescent beads, so that sweaters were like glamorous jewelry of the 1950’s, when aurora borealis crystal sets of jewelry were commonly worn. Yet, although I watched my mother knit (and funnily enough, could read and interpret the patterns for her), I could not learn to knit from her.

I attribute this to being left-handed and to my mother’s cultural aversion to left-handedness. I did succeed in teaching myself to chain-stitch, as in crochet, using yarn and the index finger of my right hand. I also succeeded in knitting garter-stitch squares, which I would make into strapless evening gowns for my Barbie by sewing them up into a tube and embellishing with whatever I could find in the sewing basket. In school, knitting was not taught, but embroidery was. I became adept very quickly. I taught myself advanced crewel after mastering cross-stitch, then went on to needlepoint. Soon the walls of the house were covered in what I had made, and I hadn’t left for college yet.

No knitting in college was done by me, although plenty of embroidery and needlepoint was. You know the boyfriend sweater curse? For me it was the embroidered tablecloth curse; the tablecloth big enough to cover a table for 8, done in colors to match BF's mother's décor, with stitching so perfectly executed my roommate could not tell the right side from the wrong side. Yep, that curse. Thirty-odd years later I can laugh. Never made a tablecloth for DH's. Instead I made the atarah (neck ornamentation) for his tallis, with a matching bag to store it in. I also made the cover for challahs we use every Sabbath and holiday (Passover excepted). I did embroider and do needlepoint for my late MiL at her request; those have come back to us since her passing at age 93 2 and 1/2 years ago. Guess there's no curse if you make the things after you're married.

While in graduate school at the same university however, I was visiting with a college friend who was also continuing school there. Somehow the topic of knitting came up. My friend, a right-handed person mind you, told me she had had success teaching lefties to knit. Why she held out on me all the years I knew her, I will never know! But enough! We ran to a local 5 and dime to buy some acrylic yarn, some needles, and a knitting stitch bible (I have it still). I remember that yarn: it was in my favorite shade of bright coral pink, even though it was shiny and scratchy, but no matter, it was for learning. And learn I did. Now I already knew from watching my mother the long-tail cast-on, the common bind-off, the knit stitch, and the purl stitch. My trouble was keeping my tension even. My friend showed me to stick the right needle into my groin to anchor it (sounds gruesome, I know), and to use my right hand to throw the yarn over the needle. In other words, she taught me to knit the English way as if I were on the Shetland Islands wearing a knitting belt and using those 2-foot long needles! This was a bit of a shock to me; after all, my mother held her needles almost horizontal, wound the yarn around the fingers of her left hand, and picked it up with the right needles. In other words, my mother, like the European she is, knits the Continental way. Which then explained to me all the times that certain twisted stitches and cabled patterns did not work out for my mother—they were written for someone knitting the English way! (Needless to say, my mother, who always frowned upon anchoring the needles and/or throwing the yarn, was not pleased to hear that I had “solved” her knitting mysteries.) Within a week, I had knit enough little sample squares to make a small blanket. I was hooked (a better pun if I crocheted).

Soon I left the East Coast to complete graduate school at the Harvard of the West. Graduate school stipends being what they are, DH and I had very little to live on. DH did a lot of his work those years in the cold room (so the proteins would remain active). He needed freedom for his arms to move. Vests would be the practical garment for him to wear under lab coats. Could I make vests inexpensively? As it happened, there was a knitting and needlepoint store near Stanford. Sometimes I'd walk there on a lunch break. The ladies were very sweet and helpful. Needlepoint supplies were pretty inexpensive (I could buy 1 or 2 hanks at a time to fit my poor budget), and soon we'd talk about knitting. They showed me their basket of bargains (I'm sure I wasn't the only poor student to come into their shop). One day the basket held a vest's worth of lovely Shetland wool in antique gold, a color DH favors. I had the right sized needles from Baltimore (my bargain find at the old EJ Korvette's), and the nice ladies sold me a book of basic Bernat patterns that included a V-neck vest (I have it still). I was so naive making that vest, I didn't really know that "Pick up and knit" meant. I picked up all 130 stitches at once, then started knitting them, wondering all the time why they felt so tight. Well, that was how I learned, by error (I won't say trial and error because I don't recall taking out the neckline or armholes, just picking up all the stitches and knitting them). DH wore the vest until it fell apart and I could no longer repair it.

When graduate school ended we moved to Orange County, CA, to begin work. Now I could find great yarns at several yarn shops near work and home. I made another V-neck vest, this time in gorgeous (to me) salmon worsted wool. It came out perfectly. DH however refused to wear it on the grounds that the color was not "him." Never mind that several knitting magazine at the time featured salmon for men. Onward.

I was expecting DD#1, and so started baby knitting. Bought a couple of Bernat booklets, some turquoise cotton and some Bernat Berella in a lovely deep lilac called Mallow Heather. Made a seed stitch hat and cardi set, and a little hoodie. To show DH the baby was not replacing him in my knitting repertoire, I picked up a book of patterned vests and made him a mock-cable vest out of au courant Baruffa Maratona pure Merino wool, in dusty blue. That one is floating around the cedar closet. The rest of my knitting history is, well history; a lot of it can be viewed on Ravelry.

The lesson I learned is that anyone can learn to knit, although one may have to search a bit for the right teacher or the right time to learn. And I am still learning— there are dozens of techniques I haven’t tried yet!

In My Own Little Corner

2010-09-26T10:26:00.001-07:00

Remember that song from the Rogers & Hammerstein show "Cinderella?" Cinderella had a chair in a corner by the hearth, where she could wool-gather, daydreaming about being anything but a drudge to her stepmother and stepsisters.

Here I've set up my own little corner in DD#1's former room (she insists it's still her room, though she's a homeowner herself since April). Neither she nor DD#2 (now an apartment dweller rather than a dorm resident) wanted this etagère so I asked DH to reassemble it here. I'm using some clear plastic shoeboxes to store my notions (stitch holders, packs of stitch markers, darning egg, tape measures, etc.) and part skeins leftover from projects past. I think I'll get some more clear storage boxes, one for circular needles, one for straights, and one for crochet hooks and DPNs. I'll move my storage bin of yarn (yes, only one storage bin of yarn; the rest of my stash is in a cedar storage bench at the foot of my bed- I'm not that minimalist) to one side of the etagère. Having too much stash frustrates me (I want to knit it all at once: it feeds my knitter's ADD too much), so I doubt I'll acquire more bins to fill.

If I ever learn to spin, I'll set up a spinning wheel in here. But that's far in the future. More likely I'll redo the room, getting rid of the old wood paneling that was there when we bought the house, adding brighter light, and a comfortable chair for sitting and knitting. Maybe.

DD#1 has a notion that I'll turn it into a nursery for her children-to-be. Perhaps it can be both, my own little corner and a nursery for the next generation.

Going Nowhere Fast

2010-09-19T09:55:00.001-07:00

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This is how I'm feeling these days: between my university and the VA I can't get my budget in order (both administrative units are dysfunctional, to be kind). I attended a 2 1/2 hour meeting last week at the VA, subject: abysmal administration for researchers. Resolution: so far none. I need to kick some of these problems up the food chain and meet with the assistant director. I submitted my grant, but until it's funded, I need to run my lab. Or not. Maybe the VA doesn't mind paying me a salary during the time that my lab might have to shut down? I can't tell. Tomorrow I'll try to meet with a university administrator and get some things straightened out (grants ended, stop paying people from those grants; where did $35K on one grant go between July and August; etc).

I was praying yesterday on the Day of Atonement for some help from On High with these matters. I really thought I went to graduate school to learn how to do science; I'm finding out that I needed an MBA plus the PhD because the paid administrators surely aren't administrating; I'm expected to be the administrator as well as the PI. I hate that.

Twist is almost done, yippee! The hood is 3/4 finished, then the bands will be picked up and knitted in 2x2 ribbing. I'll be putting in a 2-ended zipper, which I'll order from Zipper Stop. They'll match the color you need, in case you ever need an odd-colored zipper. While I'm sending in yarn from Twist, I might as well send in some yarn from Peggy and order a zipper for that cardi too. DD#2 doesn't want a 2-ended zipper. I think it's a mistake that I'll regret every time I resew the zipper.

A Knitting Storey

2010-09-16T06:47:00.000-07:00

There's a marvelous knitting designer out there. Named Martin Storey (that's him wearing his design, Morris). Perhaps you've seen his fantabulous designs for Rowan yarns, perhaps you saw them for the now-defunct Jaeger yarn line. Wherever you saw them, did you swoon over their perfection for today?

I did. I bought his books for Rowan featuring Soft Lux (soft, soft, soft), and his summer book from a couple of years ago.

And one of his Jaeger Handknits books.

I made Milkshake from the Rowan summer book. Why? Because the shaping, the neckline, the proportions were perfect, darling. I made that sweater out of Filatura di Crosa yarn (itself wondrous to work with and wear), and wore it to several weddings to rave reviews. As in, "No, you did not make that yourself; it looks professionally done!" Exclaimed several times in loud voices. I was kvelling (Yiddish for swelling with pride), I tell you.

Now, this Jaeger book has 15 designs and all of them are winners. When was the last time that happened? The sizing runs from extra-petite to, shall we say, suitable for the quite well-endowed. The yarns are no longer available, BUT they are standard DK-weight yarns, running 22 stitches to 4 inches so finding suitable substitutes should not be a challenge. DD#2 took one look at the book and wanted every last one. Though I love her dearly, truly, 15 sweaters were just not happening. Plus DD#2 told me she needed a cardi more than a pullover, and she'll never wear a sleeveless shell even as an underlayer (she prefers thin camis). After long thought, this design won:

Peggy, it's called. Cables on every right side row. To be made in DD#2's favorite color, Burgundy (of Jaeger Shetland, a blend of soft wool and alpaca). It's worsted weight to be sure, but I'm making it in the smallest size so it'll be more like a jacket than a light cardi. DD#2 goes to college in Maryland; this will be her go-to outerwear for most of fall and all of spring.
Did I say cables on every right side row? Did I say that most patterns in this book feature either cables or lace motifs? Did I say that the patterns are not charted? This is 2010, you'd think that charts are now de rigueur. Guess who charted Peggy (the things we do for our kids)?

Note that not only are cables running throughout the garment, the cables are on a background of stockinette stitch, rather than purl stitch. You can't tell from the stock photo but trust me, that's the way it is. The cables at least in Shetland don't pop out quite as much from stockinette as they might from purl. Yet the subtle appearance is part of its charm. I suspect that the Jaeger yarns specified in the book, Trinity and Aqua, are crisper than Shetland, and the cables would have more definition worked in either yarn. Still, this will be one warm jacket when it's completed, and that's the important feature.

Mr. Storey, I'll keep knitting your patterns but I'll also keep wishing you'll start charting them. Morris is calling me to be knitted, but I must have charts for those cables.

Saturday is the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. Have an easy fast to those who are fasting. May we be sealed in the Book of Good Life for the coming year.

A Bounty of Books

2010-09-15T04:00:00.000-07:00

The New Year holiday was a welcome break from intense work activity. Synagogue services were inspiring, lunch with friends was delicious and fun. USPS worked through it as usual, bringing me some wonderful "presents" in the form of books, one of which I'd been awaiting since May.

First book I cracked open (post-holiday) was Sweater Quest: My Year of Knitting Dangerously by Adrienne Martini. In case you don't know, the 2 books are related by virtue of the fact that Martini wrote about how she spent a year knitting a design by the author of the second book. The design is Mary Tudor, and it was published in the out of print Tudor Roses, which I am lucky enough to own. I followed Martini's adventures along with Tudor Roses open at my side. I could appreciate the art and the craft of the design, the intricacy of the colors, the beauty of the finished product. Martini included no pictures, which several people on Amazon commented about in their reviews. The book entertained me for the most part until the end: the sweater did not fit Martini. How she didn't know this a priori boggles my mind: the schematics are right there, in black and white. Now, I've been known to resize a sweater (not drastically, mind). Often, going up a needle size or 2 can be enough (often, not always). In the case of designs by AS, who might specify a size 5 (3.75 mm) needle for bainin (Aran-weight wool from Ireland) to make a sweater waterproof, going up a needle size will not only make it larger but may give it better drape. If you don't need a waterproof sweater, why not make it to suit you? I was left, well, cold upon reading that Martini balled up Mary Tudor, stuck it in the closet, and declared that she's a process knitter. Well, so am I (that's my excuse for my kntter's ADD and I'm sticking to it), but I still make sweaters that fit folks (most of the time- I'm only human after all). And I look at schematics before picking out yarn and needles to see if size needs adjusting. The ending did not satisfy me as a reader or as a knitter.

A case in point about resizing a sweater is ongoing due to the second book I received, the long-awaited (since May) reprint of AS' Aran Knitting. We'll get to it in a moment. I have the first edition, and now the second. I do not regret owning both. The photography in the second is mostly updated, so you get more beautiful shots of sweaters (in new colorways) set against beautiful scenery. There's an retrospective introduction, with a couple of fantastic (in the sense of fantasy) claims made. And then there's the new design: Eala Bhan, which means fair or white swan.

To say it is gorgeous is to understate its elegance, its perfection (I couldn't get scans of the sides and back of the sweater to show you; trust me on this). BUT its largest size is like Mary Tudor, which is a tad too small for me. Oh it'll fit if I wanted it to be a blouse. But I need a dressy cardi for Sabbath winter eves. when I have the thermostat cranked down. I'm making the lovely White Lies Designs Collette for DD#2 in ivory wool (as soon as I'm caught up with other knitting); I don't think the Mom and Daughter thing will go over too well. Eala Bhan will suit quite nicely if I can get the size to work for me. My plan now as I mull it over is to make the largest size 10% larger by using a DK-weight yarn in place of the light sport-weight specified in the book. That'll give me the ease I need and I should be able to knit the pattern as written. A bit longer won't bother me, and I know I want the sleeves shorter than they are on the model. As befits a fair white swan, I'll look for a lovely ivory or winter white color.

Meanwhile, I finished the body to Twist and am currently blocking it.

No, your eyes do not deceive you. The pieces are wrong-side up, so I could flatten the edges. I love Magpie but its one drawback is that it's so tightly plied it curls like the very devil when knit in stockinette stitch. I now regret not having knitted the body in one piece, but what's done is done. Pattern says to block before adding the hood. DD#1 is now vacillating about whether she wants sleeves or not (please, not! there's so much other knitting I have to get to!).

And I have yet to take a photo of the new project for DD#2, but that's its own story (and therein lies a clue).

L'Shanah Tovah to One and All

2010-09-07T09:09:00.001-07:00

Earl came, delivered no more than some humidity and gusts of wind, and now is a memory.

Earl's passing to our east meant no clean-up (yippee!). Instead, I spent the holiday weekend cooking and baking for the upcoming Jewish New Year. Two gallons of chicken soup, one extra-large noodle kugel (a baked pudding), 3 extra-large fruit cobblers, a gallon of tzimmes (a traditional dish based on carrots or sweet potatoes or both), a brisket, and I'm still not done. DD#1 was supposed to bake for me but instead she broke a rib (persistent cough left over from a cold, if you want to know). She's on the mend, thank G-d, but I'm stuck with all the cooking and baking, plus animal tending. Not to mention I have a manuscript in production (meaning I have to play production editor for the journal so it can be published) and my VA merit grant application is due Thursday. Nothing like a little pressure, right?

I've still managed a bit of knitting. I made another kitchen towel (DH loves the first one; guess I'll be making more towels for a bit). This pattern is called the basket rib; yarn is Pisgah Yarn Peaches & Cream in Teal and Eggshell.

And I made good progress on DD#1's new hoodie; Back is done and armhole for the left front is complete as well. Since she doesn't want sleeves (I think; must double-check with her), it could well be finished by Sukkot (except for the zipper, which I have to order).

Must leave until next week. To all my readers, l'shanah tovah tikoseivu. May you be inscribed for a good year.

Awaiting Earl

2010-09-02T10:55:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Earl is poised to carve a swath of destruction in these parts. As of this morning, we are under a tropical storm watch, soon to change over to tropical storm warning.
Milk- check.
Eggs- check.
Fruits- check.
Veggies-check.
Food for Sabbath- check.
Canned goods- check.
Flashlight/batteries- check.
Bottled water- check.
Extra pet food- check.
Enough yarn- Uh oh. Better make a run to the LYS in case the urge to cast-on overtakes me at the height of Earl's fury.

This bird is stocking up- he's no fool.

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