Two things

1. I read a book when I was in junior high or so, called The Endless Steppe. It's an autobiographical story taking place in WWII-era Russia, and among other things to help her family get by, the girl in the book learns to knit. She finds discarded items of clothing, unravels them, and makes sweaters and things to order from the yarn thus acquired. I don't think I'd thought of that book since I learned to knit, but I now have a whole new admiration for her.

2, Is yarn like photocopy paper? You know how it has a right side up and a wrong side up for when you put it in the drawer, but the naked eye can't tell the two apart, and if you take the paper out of the wrapper with the arrows without paying attention, you're toast? One of my little red mice was way twistier and more obnoxious than the others, and I wonder if somehow I wound (and therefore, used) that one wrong end first. Is such a thing possible?

Evil Yarn

The scarf is a little longer. I'm liking the pattern - after the rough start, it seems to be going well and I've gotten better at keeping track of where I am. There is one mistake I've found that will probably show up more after blocking, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with it.

I cannot, however, say the same for the yarn. My knitting efforts last night were seriously hampered by the fact that instead of the usual two, my skein of yarn turns out to have 14 ends!! Under its normal skein facade, it really looked like this:


If you're thinking "wow she doesn't really know how to wind yarn, does she?" you're absolutely right. I did my best to follow these instructions, but mine don't look as cool as the example - they look like little red mice haha! They do pull from the middle and not tangle, though, so whatever.

I'm also concerned about having enough yarn (even in pieces) for a decent-sized scarf. A scarf a little on the short side is one thing, but one that won't go all the way around one's neck with enough to tie is another. I bought this yarn a really long time ago, too. I guess I'll start carrying around one of the little mice and the label (which, miraculously, I still have) and see what I can do. If I can't find a decent match maybe I'll make it into a bag or something. Although I'm not sure about that, it's not the sturdiest yarn ever. Any ideas? I so don't want to rip it out now!!

Red Scarf

Here's a scarf I've started this week for a red scarf project that you can read about here. The scarves go to women who are recovering from heart troubles. Both my parents had that kind of trouble a couple of years ago, so it's a cause I care a lot about. I knitted this mostly in the car on the way to and from Massachusetts Friday and Saturday of this week - it would be about five inches longer if I hadn't taken out the first few rows a bunch of times. Hence the yellow lifeline - if I make a mistake now I would never be able to pick up the right stitches a row or two down!! This is my first real lace project - it's a knitty pattern, branching out.

Oh and about the Ebright Azimuth - the picture is really just proof that I'm a geek. It's the highest point in Delaware, at a phenomenal 447.85 feet above sea level! Upon further research, I learned that only Florida's highest point is lower.

Delaware

Do I need to explain this? I think it speaks for itself.

I went to Delaware this weekend and had a blast! We (my friend Kathy and I) went on a whirlwind tour of the Franklin Institute, Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Reading Terminal Market, Winterthur, and of course the highest point in Delaware. I brought knitting for the plane, but when I took it out to start I realized I'd brought one size 10 needle and one size 7. Sigh.

FYI, I won't be at knitting group this Thursday. But next week, I'll be there!

Snowy Day

Guess who doesn't have to be at work until 10 today? :)

Three things:

1, Here is the new improved string bag. A 500% improvement in the color scheme, in my opinion. Dying it was exciting! I don't have a washing machine so I had to use the "on the stove" method. I felt like Mrs. Cratchet, stirring laundry over the fire. I sacrificed a wooden spoon to the cause, and my left thumb got hit early on, but otherwise neither I nor my kitchen were blue by the time I was done. Overall a pretty successful game of How Talented is Sue.


2, Here is a bear wearing a lovely pink and purple no hair day hat (size small - but don't worry not that small, it does stretch!). Next to the bear on the couch is all that was left of the skein of fun fur when the hat was finished. I'm a fan of extreme knitting.


3, About the possum. The possum was inspired by William the Hedgehog. However I did not use thick and quick yarn, and I only used one strand of one color of fun fur, and I used smaller needles. The tail was an I-cord of my own design (ha), and the wire was an inspiration. I thought of adding a pouch and a baby or two but then I didn't.

The Answer

A possum! With wire in its tail so it can hang. I'm proud.

But now that I'm aware of the hats for kids at Boston Children's campaign, I'm on it! Thanks Lisa!

Beautiful Bag

Here it is, in all its finished glory. No swirling pattern this time, oddly enough. But I did like how the stripes stayed pretty much the same almost all the way up, and then got wider near the top.

And here's a close-up of the "Turkish stitch" that's used in the main part of the bag:

The pattern came from here - I used size 10 needles instead of 13, and I'm not sure if that was enough to make it so different looking? I think I actually like mine better, though, so it's all good. Now for some warm weather so the vegetables can grow and I can buy them at a farmer's market!

This weekend's project involves fun fur. Any guesses? Hint: it's not a hedgehog, quite. :)

Who is Mehetabel

I was initially slowed down by spelling it Mehitabel. I guess Mehetabel is the more common, who knew? So then to a baby name site. Result: Mehetabel means "God makes happy" in Hebrew, and it's mentioned briefly in the Old Testament. For a context for that I'm off to Biblegateway. Surprise! It's mentioned briefly three times in the Old Testament!

1. Genesis 36:39 When Baal-Hanan son of Acbor died, Hadad succeeded him as king. His city was named Pau, and his wife's name was Mehetabel daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-Zahab.

This is in a list of kings who reigned in Edom before they had Israelite kings. Don't ask me any more, I don't know. Esau and his descendents are mentioned on both sides of the relevant section of this chapter, and in some random searching it looked like Hadad was the son of Ishmael, but I didn't feel like getting into it. Read into that what you will.

2. 1 Chronicles 1:50 When Baal-Hanan died, Hadad succeeded him as king. His city was named Pau, and his wife's name was Mehetabel daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-Zahab.

Familiar? Yes. Moving on.

3. Nehemiah 6:10 One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, "Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you—by night they are coming to kill you."

This looks like a story. So I read a little more. Nehemiah had made himself some enemies by undertaking the rebuilding of Jerusalem's city walls, and Shemaiah was hired by two guys (who would indeed have liked to kill him) to try to get him into a trap by convincing him to hide in the Temple which, as a layman, he wasn't supposed to go in. He didn't buy it, though, don't worry. This mention of Mehetabel intrigues me, like a lot of mentions of women in the Bible intrigue me. If they're mentioned as people's mothers, it makes me think people would have known who they were. Why?!

I couldn't find anything about a Persian princess Mehi[e]tabel except in reference to Archie and Mehitabel. But I did find one page saying that it's "a name which, for some reason, has become associated both with backwoods people and with cows"

Who knows.

All for now. Picture of the finished bag coming soon!

tying shoelaces

This page just made me feel a lot better. And pretty special, since my way is not on the list. :)

How to find an Antipode

It's pretty easy. The hardest part is finding your own latitude and longitude. The Lat/Long of Augusta, Maine is approximately 44.4° N, 69.7° W.

Once you have it:

1, Change the N to S (or, if you're in the Southern Hemisphere, the S to N)
2, Subtract the longitude from 180 and change the W to an E (or E to a W when appropriate)

So 44.4° N, 69.7° W becomes 44.4° S, 110.3° E.


And on another subject entirely here's my string bag before I unraveled most of it (don't worry, the resulting mess has since been re-knit). I took a picture because when it was laid flat you could see this cool swirling pattern:


ps Keep the comments coming! Woohoo! :D

Antipode

Antipode is my word of the day for both yesterday and today. So of course I had to figure out the antipode of where I live. The answer is, a spot in the Southern Ocean. Here's a screenshot from Google Earth (the red dot marks the spot):

I will probably never go there.

Does this relate to knitting, you ask? My answer is, yes it does because it came up in conversation at the knitting circle last night!