The Mayonnaise Jar and the Coffee – a parable

The following story was sent to my by my mother, (at right, with my father, in a recent picture from the HHMI Bulletin which accompanied an article about married couples who work together in science.)

She received it from one of her colleagues at the lab. I had to post it here, because it struck me as the perfect expression of how to deal with the problem of "no time," which we all encounter so frequently in our busy busy rush rush lives.

I hope you will enjoy it too!

THE MAYONNAISE JAR AND THE COFFEE

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar, and the coffee...

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full.

They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full.

They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar, of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full.

The students responded with a unanimous "yes."

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand.

The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things, your family, your children, your faith, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions. Things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter, your job, your house, and your car. The sand is everything else, the small stuff. If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.

"The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with your children, take time to get medical checkups, take your spouse out to dinner, play golf, lawn bowls, tennis etc. Pursue those hobbies that you like. There will always be time to clean the house and do the laundry. Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.

The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."

what's that around your neck?

People ask me that all the time.

Some of you have seen my little box of treasures – an old Romany chocolate tin full of beautiful, sparkley, covetous pendants, which I usually bring with me to knit-alongs and the like.

You may also have seen one around the neck of the lovely Síle Convery of knit-one-one fame.

Well, wonder no more. The sparkly stuff is called dichroic glass, and a friend of mine in South Africa makes the pendants…

We've been working together for years (we've been friends, roommates, road-sistahs, and collegues over the course of time) and I still wear one of mine (I have four) every day.

So without further ado…


**flickglass designs**

This is my shameless friend-promotion post about flick glass designs, aka Frances Kierman, a very dear friend of mine who makes these gorgeous glass pendants for a living. We've known each other for years, lived together on this side of the big pond and the other as well, and I've been working with her on flick glass for about three years now. She lives in Cape Town now, three blocks from my house there, and she's kinda like a sister to me.


The pendants are made of dichroic glass, which you can read all about on the flick glass website (proudly designed and built by yours truly!!). The stuff is really an incredible medium to work with. The results are always somewhat surprising and always magical.

Visit her site to see tasty pics and look at the pricing chart (if you're a wholesaler – individual requests can just contact me direct) but don't bother about emailling Frances to order unless you're in Europe, Australia, or Africa – I'm the Official Flick Glass West Office of One!

(I figure highfalutin long-ass titles are not JUST for central African dictators, oh no…)

I distribute the pendants for the US, so if you're interested in ordering one or two or ten, email me at ejfishgirl@yahoo.com!

We'll both love you for it.

Did I mention I also designed the website? I'm proud of this one so I hope you enjoy visiting it as much as I enjoyed building it.

** local find alert: analog books **

Kapow! How cool is that?

So cool I just had to jump back on and tell you all about it.

This is a journal made out of a recycled book, as you've probably seen in your favorite local indie bookseller's, but look at that silkscreen! Did they read my mind? That I have been wanting a better knitting notebook to replace the eeeny weenie perforated-sheet pad with the cheesy Cezanne sticker on it?

Wow. Ask the universe and ye shall receive! A totally punk rock $12 recycled knitting journal, that is.

So let me tell you where I found this. It was staring me in the face when I walked into my neighborhood indie bookstore, Analog Books, on Euclid Ave right by the North Gate of UC Berkeley.

(That's my 'hood! I live in a den of millions of fresh-faced students and feel quietly old.)

You can also visit the creators online.

Secondly, let me say right now (up front, so we have no confusion) that while I believe that the Amazon.com's and Barnes and Noble's of the world have their place, particularly when it comes to ordering specific titles or browsing the Craft sections for bargains, I am a 100% staunch supporter of the LOCAL MOM AND POP BOOKSTORE. Or, in my case, the "local sweetly-geek-chic guy with horn-rimmed glasses" bookstore.

Love 'em! Support 'em! Buy whatever you can from them so they stay afloat and keep bringing amazing titles you'd never have seen otherwise and COOL KNITTING NOTEBOOKS and obscure works on current events not covered by CNN or Oprah!

Here's another book I bought at Analog today. This will be a familiar "face" to probably all Bay Area-ites, at least, for our resident genious Dave Eggers, but I only got a chance to pick What is the What up today and realize it's a book about Sudanese refugees in Africa and the states. And since all topics Africa are near and dear to my heart, and my husband and I sort-of vaguely collect first editions of important African (or Africana-related) fiction & non-fiction, AND it has the most beautifully done cover, I had to have it.

Why do we collect Africana. Well for those of you who don't know me, my husband James is South African, and I spent two-and-a-half of the last four years living there. We bought a house in a beach town near Cape Town, and one day we'll be leaving these shores to move back to Africa.

It's not just that though. There is something about the stories, both modern and ancient, which come out of that place. It's like the life-sterilization-board missed the entire bloody continent. Life is raw, unpredictable, joyous, tragic, and, well, alive. Not a facimile of life, as I sometimes experience it here.

And while we are on the subject of literature about Africa, here's one more title for you: A Bend in the River, by V.S. Naipaul, about life in a small town on the Congo river, which (so far) seems to oscillate between ruin and prosperity, stillness and bloody war, like so many places in Africa.

I'm in the middle of it now, and man does Naipaul have a way of capturing the paradoxes of living as a non-African in the heart of Africa.

Ok that's my little Reading Rainbow segment for you!

(And all you knitters, if I have not lost you yet, did you know that you actually CAN read AND knit at the same time? The solution: a $4 cook-book stand. Prop your current novel up on the table in front of you and knit away… go on, excercize both halves of your brain at the same time!)

habu! and japanese patterns at article pract

This is my new love.

I know it looks pretty technical and intimidating at first, but when you get to know it… ; )

After a wild and crazy weekend with our good friend Jamie (in town from South Africa while on tour) and the company he's touring with, Men Jaro, I spent a blissfully chill Sunday drinking coffee at our local Peet's and then heading over to Article Pract.

At Article Pract, Takako of habu textiles, purveyors of some of the most amazing yarns ever invented, was teaching a class on how to read Japanese knitting patterns, like in the pic above.

The patterns are diagrammatic, and after getting used to the strangeness of them if you are used to the western instructional style, they are BRILLIANT. As someone who used to work with patterns at the Berkeley Reperatory Theatre's costume shop, among other places, it's so helpful to think of knitwear in these familiar terms.

But what's even cooler about them is they really teach you to think like a designer, especially if you are interested in altering or inventing knit patterns yourself.

How many decreases does the average armhole require? At what rate? How steep should the shoulder slope be? How deep to make the collar? I'll bet after working with a few sweaters from Japanese patterns, you'd have a pretty good idea.

Another concept that Takako introduced in class was the idea of making a chart for yourself showing simultaneous decreases which happen at different rates – the shoulder slope decreases on one side against the neckline decreases on the other, for example.

What a good idea!

The always-brilliant Kate Freeman of both Article Pract and knit-one-one fame taught us to write out any pattern we are attempting for the first time, row by row, to prevent confusion and duff-ups down the line.

This is how I think I'll do it from now on though. It's like a road map, where you can trouble shoot potential confusion before actually knitting up your confusion into something which has to be ripped out later…

I think the thing I love the most about the Japanese pattern is the power inherent in its simplicity. On one page, you can see pretty much all the information you need to know to knit a sweater. No long lists of instructions which themselves need sometimes a lot of explanation…The principle is minimal, and the information design is about clarity.

Anyway, I'm totally psyched to try my first sweater by this method. I ordered my kit – the first time I will be knitting from one, but as the cardigan is double-stranded mohair and silk-wrapped steel, asymmetrical, and slightly felted, I thought I'd let the folks at habu do the math and I'll just play with the spoils and enjoy this new pattern concept.

I ordered the kit in a heathery light, light grey, and of course, pictures will be forthcoming when it arrives in two weeks!!

* * PATTERN REMIX: The Nantucket Jacket * *

Ta daaa! Here it is!

Finally! ; ) Thanks for being so patient in waiting for this one, dear reader.

So, like probably half-a-million other ladies around the country, I immediately fell in love with the Nantucket Jacket pattern, featured on the cover of the Winter 2006 issue of Interweave Knits . Slouchy yet tailored, with a "horse-barn-y" appeal to it (term officially coined by Elaine Kim, of Kim Chi Crafts), it looked like just the kind of thing I'd like to live in on a day-to-day basis.

A small aside here: when Elaine made her "horse-barn-y" comment, Síle Convery (who happened to be in the room at the same time) made a joke about not really being able to picture me with a riding crop and those funny little jodhpur pants.

See it's funny now, because I'm a pretty urban creature these days, tickety-ticking away on my computer all day, every day. As a graphic designer, I have to present myself with enough style to convince people that they trust me to design for them. ; )

BUT, there was a time (in the not that distant past) when I was much more of an outdoors-woman. I actually spent about a year volunteering at an Oakland stables on Skyline Drive. So I rather like the horse-barn-y look. Maybe this sweater brings back the memories of a wilder time…

Just for the record though, I never wore jodhpurs. I rode Western, after all! Cowboy boots, no jodhpurs.

Anyway Síle muttered something about being awfully young to have had so many previous lives, but I guess I've always been a bit, well, restless. ; ) Which is why it's on to the next sweater already…

SO ANYWAY back to the NANTUCKET!

I'm not going to reproduce the entire pattern here, but those of you with your copy of the Winter 06 Interweave should not have much problem plugging my changes into the original pattern, should you wish to!

Those who don't will be able to order back copies of the magazine in question here.

I do suggest having the pattern in front of you when reading the following, as I don't think my notes will make much sense otherwise.

* * THE NANTUCKET JACKET * *
by Norah Gaughan
Interweave Knits, Winter '06, begins page 62.

FINISHED SIZE (referred to in my notes): XS, 34" bust. (its actually a bit bigger than this.)

YARN: I used the Karabella Aurora 8 in colour No. 16, a pretty rust red. The pattern calls for 12 balls, but I used 11 on the dot, including edging and sleeve and body lengthening alterations. Hey, you can save yourself $9.

A last-minute word about the YARN: I received a kind note on my last Nantucket post from Frecklegirl Jess to alert me to the fact that the Karabella Aurora has a tendency to STRETCH when WET – I have not tested this out for myself, but just be warned! Dry clean!

NEEDLES: I used #9 circulars for the entire sweater, and a #7 crochet hook for the edging.

NOTIONS: I picked up some pretty polished wooden buttons ( you need 5 of 'em) at Lacis, but any 3/4" buttons will do.

GAUGE: Pattern calls for 18 sts / 24 rows = 4 in, using Stockinette Stitch. I think the Karabella Aurora 8 was something like that. Hey, this is a really stretchy sweater 'cause of all the cables.


PATTERN ALTERATIONS:

BACK: The only alteration I made to the body of the sweater was to lengthen it (both front and back, of course) by about 1-2" through the waist area, i.e. after the "shape waist" section but before the "shape bust" section. For the XS sweater, the easiest way to think about it is to count by cables, since the sweater is very boingy and getting an accurate length measurement is hard. So:

Shape bust: Begin with the first RS row AFTER the 9th cable row.
Shape armholes: Begin with the first RS row AFTER the 13th cable row.
Shape shoulders: Begin WITH the 19th cable row.


When you get to the final BO row, DON'T BIND OFF. Transfer your remaining stitches to a holder, so you can graft the shoulder seams in Kitchener stitch.

A note on LENGTH:
After getting the entire sweater together now, I realize I could potentially have lengthened the body even a little bit more, say by one more cable row, as the original pattern really called for a very short torso length. (Thank you to eagle-eyes Carrie for pointing this out to me at a knit-along in February! It was a very helpful insight).

I'm not that long-waisted, but even with the additional length above, the top of the seed wedges which allow for the flattering flare of the sweater rides slightly higher than my belt line. I think this sweater probably looks nicest if that line, i.e. where the sweater is at its thinnest, corresponds to your thinnest bits.


LEFT FRONT/ RIGHT FRONT:
Just use the same cable row numbers above (or whichever ones you use) to match your increasing/decreasing to the back of the sweater. That being said, you should know that even if you follow the pattern to a tee, the shoulder seam winds up sitting somewhat back from center (i.e the distance between the start of the shape armholes section and the shape shoulders section is greater on the front panels than on the back, due to how many rows it takes to "move" the seed stitch all the way over for the collar shaping.)

This actually works out fine, and simply must be taken into account when you attach the sleeves (see below), but it's good to know ahead of time, just so you don't pull your hair out over it like I did for a night. Live and learn.

When you get to the final BO row, DON'T BIND OFF. Transfer your remaining stitches to a holder, so you can graft the shoulder seams in Kitchener stitch.

SLEEVES:
Here's where I really messed this pattern around. You can see how it knits up according to the original here, at my previous entry specifically about Nantucket sleeve woes, and you can see more pictures of the alteration I eventually made here. To the right is a detail shot of the new sleeve pattern laid flat.

The problem was that the original sleeve knits up too short and too bulky for my taste, and the seed stitch underarm generated a peculiarly reptilian feel. See, while we're on the subject of previous lives, I used to be a rock climber, so definitely don't have waify little twig arms. Perhaps you can get away with knitting this the original way if you have skinny little twig arms, but for the rest of you, who don't, here's my alteration:

CO 51 (remember, this is for the XS, but for a larger size, simply CO the number required by the pattern, minus 3 sts.).
Purl 1 WS row.
Set up row: k1, knit Chart A over 21 sts, k 3, p1, k3, knit Chart C over 21 sts, k1. (total 51 sts.) If you are knitting a larger size than the XS, factor in the extra sts at both ends of the row, and do them in reverse stockinette.
Row 2 (WS): p1, Chart C, p2, k1, p1, k1, p2, Chart A, p1. (The central 3 sts become seed st.)
Row 3-6: Continue as established, with the central 3 sts in seed st. This forms a slighly more solid cuff than doing the entire sleeve in Chart B.

Row 7: inc 1 st each end of the needle, in rev. stockinette, so that the row would read like this:
p1, k1, Chart A, k1, Chart B, k1, Chart C, k1, p1 (total 53 sts)
Row 8 and on: Now continue for another 7 cable rounds in this established pattern, as you have been for the rest of the sweater. C'mon i know you're REALLY GOOD at it by now, having finished miles of it on the body of the sweater!

**NOTE: I drastically lengthened the sleeve, because I don't really have any use for a short-sleeved sweater, but if you want to keep the original half-lenth sleeves, simply don't go as many cable rounds before you start increasing towards the armhole as I did here.

Continue even (with your 53 sts, right?) until you have finished your 8th cable row. On the first RS row after the 8th cable row, begin increasing as such:

Increase 1 purl sts at the end of every other RS row, 6 times. (total 65 sts)

Shape cap: On your first RS row AFTER the 12th cable row, resume the pattern at the "shape cap" section:

BO 3 sts at beg of next 2 rows, then BO 2 sts at beg of foll 2 rows – 55 sts rem.
Dec 1 st each end of needle every RS row 6 (for XS!) times, then every 4th row once, then every RS row 5 times – 31 sts remain.
BO (beginning on WS) 2 sts at beg of next 2 rows, then BO 3 sts at beg of foll 2 rows – 21 sts rem.
BO all sts.

You'll notice that all the increasing and decreasing now happens in the reverse stockinette sections at the end of each needle, which makes a clean and unobtrusive gusset under each armpit. Yay!

FINISHING:
It may be helpful to note at this point that when you go to stitch your sleeves onto the body, you will need to set them slightly towards the front, if you want that pretty eyelet stripe to run down the crest of your arm (and you did all that work to put it there, so why wouldn't you want to show it off?) So what that means is you need to line up the shoulder seam with the back-most EDGE of the eyelet pattern, NOT with the CENTER, as you'd think. An easy way to check this, and find the exact spot on the sleeve that the shoulder seam will hit, is to make sure your seams line up at the armpit at well. Don't forget to check that both sleeves are even with each other too!

Once you have your sweater all stitched up, you can begin the crochet edging. I used for a slightly simpler design on the edging than called for in the pattern, by using the scalloping only around the collar. So here are my changes:

Crochet edging:
Row 1: With WS of work facing, work 1 row of single crochet (sc) from the bottom corner of the left front, up front edge, around collar, and stop at the base of the collar on the right front. Then *ch 2, skip down one st to make a 1/2" buttonhole, work in sc for 2" (or 7 sts in sc), and repeat from * 4 more times to create 5 buttonholes. (You probably won't have a full 2" left after the last buttonhole, so just go until the bottom of the right front.)

Row 2: Turn work and work sc back up the right front, until you get just past the top buttonhole, and then begin the scalloped pattern: * skip 2 sts while chaining 1, ([double chain, ch 1] 3 times, double chain again ALL in the next st, skip 2 sts, sc in next st, rep from * to bottom of collar on left side (make sure it's close to even with the right side!), and continue in sc down the left front, and weave in your loose ends.

I opted not to do the edging on the sleeves, but if you want to, just follow the original pattern.

Sew your buttons on the left side, centered on the band formed by the seed stitch/edging.

Voila! The Nantucket Jacket is finally finished!

flash, find your fit and radio africa

Howdy world!

Is this not the most glorious weather ever?? Man do I love spring! And I love daylight savings – it's such a relief to have light all day. Makes a person feel more alive…

Well I had a fabulously busy weekend. My weekends are full of learning these days – I'm taking a Flash class at the SFSU Center for Extended Learning, with an excellent professor named Lane Good. Wow is Flash a powerful programme…

I made the image on the right, of proteas on Table Mountain, Cape Town, during the first week of class, and I thought I'd share it with y'all.

And this too, if you want to see a little Finding Nemo-eque animation I made for class last week:

dude, mr turtle is my father! Hee hee. Anyone want to hire a flash animator?

So one class does not a busy weekend make, right? On Sunday, I had the pleasure of attending knit-one-one's Find Your Perfect Fit class, taught by the irrepressible Julie Weisenberger (at left, tracing a sweater.)

What a powerhouse she is! The tips and inspirations for sweater patterns, fit, texture, and embellishment just come rolling out of her like a great big tsunami of ideas. If you're ever thinking of refining your sweater skills, I'd say don't miss experiencing Julie's expertise, either at knit-one-one for classes or at Article Pract for her drop-in Saturday morning sweater sessions.

And, if that were not enough, a few members of the class and Síle Convery herself all went to a Radio Africa dinner at Sweet Adeline. "What's Radio Africa?" you say. It's a simply fabulous idea, which I've seen versions of in places like New York, but which I've only experienced here.

Radio Africa is a nomadic restaurant. They travel to different venues like Sweet Adeline and present a one-night-only, price-fixed three course dinner. Everything we ate was really masterfully prepared and totally delicious, and at $32 a head, that's not a bad night out in the Bay!

I'm also particularly given to like Radio Africa because of the head chef, Ethiopian-born Eskender Aseged, who is friendly and genteel all at the same time, and meeting other here/there people always cheers me up when I miss our life on the other side of the world.

Oh and check out the cutest honey-bee linens ever. I considered stealing the one off of our table, but I thought that might be a little too cheeky.

Anyway, that is my excuse for not having posted the changes for the Nantucket Jacket yet, which I finished yesterday!!! WHOOO HOOOOO! Pictures and pattern notes coming this week, for real. ; )

nantucket sleeve success!

Hello world!

Well, after a week of not knowing, I'm pleased to report that the pattern alteration I made to the Nantucket Jacket sleeve appears to have worked! Phew – glad I won't have to rip that whole sucker out!

You'll notice, those of you who are familiar with the original pattern, that I've also opted to make the sleeve longer. It's now somewhere between full length and three-quarter, at least on me. I figured, how often was I really going to wear a short-sleeved sweater?

Here is a pic of the new sleeve, flat:





What I did was substitute Chart B from the original pattern (the one with all the yarn-overs) for the width that comes from the seed stitch section in the original pattern.

I kept the sleeve width consistant for 8 cable repeats, instead of increasing immediately, then increased at the row ends, every four rows, in reverse stockinette to bring the width out to the proper measurement to begin the decreases for the cap shaping. I've basted one new sleeve on, and voila, it works!

Boy am I relieved.

Here's a detail pic of the substituted Chart B pattern:




Almost done! Check back in in about a week to see the finished sweater! I will also post detailed pattern notes on the full alterations I made to the original Nantucket Jacket pattern.

Stay tuned!

questionnaire time!

Hello world!

I just visited the blog of Carrie (aka Eagle Eyes, 'cause she's always the first to spot typos and the like whenever we update the knit-one-one site! Damn she's good.) and found this delightful questionnaire.

I have to admit at this juncture that I LOVE these thingies. Right up there with other secret slightly-shameful addictions like Sudoku and bad TV… but when your friends are scattered across the globe, and you sometimes have to go for years a time without seeing them, there's a strange kind of comfort in these little quizzes.

So, with all respect to Carrie (and apologies for unceremoniously taking this questionnaire out of whatever original context it had) here it is… all you fellow blogging-knitters and knitting-bloggers out there, please copy it if you need a blog topic next time you write, and send me a note so I can come read all about you! ; )

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
Natural fibres! Wool – what can I say, I'm old fashioned. I'm currently really loving 8-ply merino, such as I'm using on my Nantucket Jacket, at the moment…soft but stable and springy and such a pleasure to knit. I've yet to try some of the costlier fibres, like silk or cashmere, but it's sure nice to run my fingers over them at Article Pract.

Synthetics, the plasticky-er the icky-er. While I certainly love the effect of a bit of novelty yarn here and there, working extensively with the stuff is kind of like eating a whole bag of chips at one sitting…

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
Denise sets rock! The rest of my circulars and dpn's are bamboo (with one lonely little #2 Addi Turbo) and they live with the rest of my knitting odds and ends (markers, counters, tapestry needles, and a pair of fuscia kiddie scissors) in a little yellow suitcase, á la Paper Source. I have two sets of straights – one lives rammed into the wretchedly unending ball of flame orange Kidlin with which I'm knitting a wretchedly-unending lace scarf, and the other set lives in my fat knitting basket.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I'd say I'm intermediate, with a bit of an unfair advantage towards patterning after all my time in the theater doing it for a living, which makes me look more competant than I actually am. ; )

I learned to knit the first time when I was probably four or five, from my grandmother, with a whole pile of unravelled sweaters to work with. (Really! I'm not kidding! That's war-survivor mentality for you.)

I relearned at Brown University because it was cold and I had a lot of long, boring board meetings I had to attend for the theatre I helped run.

And I relearned yet again last year, after being inspired by my client Síle Convery of knit-one-one, who hosts the most excellent knitting classes this side of the Mason Dixon line. (Ok so technically we're to neither side of it, but you get the point.)

What can I say? I'm hooked.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Actually not! For someone who makes a living with computers, I'm remarkably recalcitrant when it comes to embracing the technologies in my own life. I love the smell of real live books, new or used, and spend many happy hours browsing the stacks with the, like, three other luddites in the San Francisco Bay Area.

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products, etc.)
Hmmmm… unusual smells like fig or mango, or spicy smells if they don't smell synthetic. I love lavendar and lemon grass and tea rose as well.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
Sometimes! And when I do, it's with a vengeance. Dark chocolate, caramel things, and those Kasugai gummy candies of various fruit flavors (lychee rocks) you get in the Asian supermarkets.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
Boy, I think I've given just about everything a whirl at least once… did learn how to spin on a drop-spindle, but I'm too short for that to be a practical option for creating my own yarn! I had to stand on a chair to get enough height…

I sew (used to work in the costume shops of the Berkeley Rep and Cal Shakes), like figuring things out like patterns, masks, prosthetics, and puppets, and used to work in the dye room of said theatres as well … I paint in acrylics and oils, keep a sketchbook, build things (I also used to be a carpenter), fix-it around the house, learned to blow borosillicate glass at the Crucible last year, and sculpt in paper-mache or clay… oh and I can re-sole shoes and do basic leatherwork as well, after working costume crafts and volunteering at a ranch which needed occasional tack TLC…

8. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
Rich earth tones – rusts, interesting greys and blues and greens, anything with good depth and complexity to it. I love yellow, but not to wear. I don't think there is any one colour I can't stand… ok maybe after growing up in the 80's certain pastel peach shades or shades of mustard give me involuntary muscle spasms…

9. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I'm 29, married with no children, (see there's my husband James over there…we were in Namibia, in Swakopmund, the same week Brangelina had their baby), a few wilting houseplants, no living pets but I've had quite a menagerie over the years, including two iguanas, two parrakeets, a cat, a rabbit, and an assortment of fish, frogs, and newts.

10. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
I'm on a sweater kick right now! I'm enjoying having these longer projects which I can really be with for a while, muse over what works and what doesn't. I'm coveting the Vogue Stitchionary books so I can start piecing together patterns on my own. Texture definitely appeals more to me than colourwork – I'd rather find a really brilliant yarn and play up its best qualities than have to deal with a tangle of bobbins and such… but I may be converted one of these days.








11. What are you knitting right now?
- The Nantucket Jacket, from the Winter 06 Interweave Knits
- Two of the most endless, excruciating scarves ever…the aforementioned Kidlin lace, and a knit-lenthwise copy of the Crinoid shawl from Morehouse Merino (see the pic to the left)… all I have to say is a gal would have to be MAD to attemt to do a whole shawl in this fashion.


12. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
Circulars! Except for lace, which I may never attempt again anyway… I LOVE my Denises… I thought I'd hate the plastic, but you know, it works. Before Denise, it was all bamboo, which I still love the feel of. And knitting really itty-bitty things on those Addi Turbos is strangely addictive, if carpal-tunnel inducing.

Oh and by the way, for the period-piece afficionados among you…(I KNOW I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE!!!) Lacis on Adeline/Shattuck and Ashby sells amazing, beautiful bone and redwood crochet hooks and the like. So you too can pretend to be living in the Victorian era without the corsets…

13. Is there anything that you collect?
Vintage dresses/costuming (not exactly intentionally, but I never seem to be able to resist a ridiculous bargain when I see one), good tools for many trades (drafting, carpentry, costuming, leatherwork, knitting…) african art, bones and feathers and shells and other natural detritus, paintings by one of my very best buddies and paintress extraodinaire, Vivian Prinsloo (that's one of her paintings over there. >> )

magnolias and nantucket jacket blues

Did I mention that this is one of my favorite times of the year? The magnolias have been magnificent this spring. I pass several different varietals on the way to my local Peet's in Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto. This little tree is on Walnut street near Cedar… After all the chilly grey of the winter, the riot of pink is positively soul-restoring.

It's another balmy Saturday in Berkeley, after a week of rain. I drove down to Stanford yesterday to visit my brother Max, who's on grad school tours now. The hills are green with all the recent rain, and I was struck again by how much Stanford resembles a gigantic country club. Lush, almost tropical with its palm-lined avenues, and the long open collonades (is that spelled right? hm) of romaneque arches in yellow sandstone, breezy sunshine, and glinting mosaics.



Anyway I gotta hand it to my brother for always landing with his bum in the butter, as the South Africans say. Here he is, next to a maquette for Rodin's The Gates of Hell. Stanford's Rodin collection is just amazing. What a sculptor. The hands, the feet, not really for their anatomical detail (although that is impressive as well) but for the resonance of their humanity.

But right, back to my brother. With acceptances to Harvard and Rockefeller, and Stanford and Teach for America pending, Max puts the ROCK in rock star.



Maybe by now you're wondering where the "nantucket jacket blues" part comes in.

Well, I thought I'd made it all the way through a pattern for once without seriously altering it, but I guess not. After weeks of cabling away I finally have the body of the sweater finished, (proudly displayed in this pic) and have been working on the sleeves these past few days.

I went to try the one 2/3's completed sleeve on, and realized…I hate it. HATE it. The seed stitch underarms totally don't do it for me. Maybe if I had skinny little, waify arms, I'd be able to rock it, but no. Can we say, "alligator arms?"

So the one almost-finished sleeve is sitting sadly on a holder while I test out a revised pattern for the other. (Nothing like pattern writing on the fly.) If my experiment works, then I'll rip the first one out, and knit it to match. Ribbit, ribbit. And I will post my changes faithfully here at Woolly Wumpus, so check back in in a week or so, all those of you who similarly don't need extra bulk attached to their arms.


Here is the offending sleeve, whip-stitched together for trial purposes. I goofed one row of the seed stitch too, which doesn't help.

See how weird it looks? Weird! This is such a texture-heavy sweater that to my mind, making the sleeves even heavier is a mistake. I'm knitting Chart B into the sleeves (the yarn-over sequence) to help lighten the feel and make the overall effect sleeker. And gone will be the seed-stitch filler. Down with alligator arms.

OH yes by the way, this pattern seems to be one of the more popular ones from the Winter 2006 Interweave Knits magazine. It's called the "Nantucket Jacket" and graces the cover in a similar rust-red to the one I ended up using. I'll include full pattern and yarn notes when I write up my chages. So stay tuned…