- How many books do you usually take with you on vacation? Too many? Too few? Do you still have room to pack clothes? We rarely go on "proper" vacations, but when we go somewhere I usually take a paperback of something I hadn’t gotten around to otherwise. We took far too many books with us to Hong Kong when we relocated last year, but the shipping was "free" and we decided that we’d rather have too much than not enough! I usually travel lightly, suitcase-wise, so books are limited to one or maybe two, not counting travel guides.
- What kind of books do you read on vacation? I think of "vacation reading" as paperback novels, sometimes heavy and sometimes light, depending on one’s whim at the moment of packing.
- Do you read the same kind of books when you’re on vacation as when you’re at home? No, I suppose I don’t, since by some quirk of chance or fate I don’t read much fiction these days!
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Thanks to a few well-scheduled TV programs, I finished the knitting for the Baby Sweater on Saturday — watched "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone" that night, and a few days earlier an episode of "Secrets of the Dead" called "Titanic‘s Ghosts". Despite the lurid title and opening sequences, this was actually a serious documentary about using DNA testing to identify survivors of the Titanic disaster. I’ve always been fascinated by archaeology, which manages to be both romantic and scientific at the same time — recreating past lives, researching history, and using analytical techniques to gather and record information. This one was fascinating for its use of genealogical research techniques to identify and locate surviving relatives, the still-amazing way that DNA evidence can be used to identify blood relationships between the living and the long-dead, and the photographs and personal stories that made us identify sometimes nearly unbearably closely with the people on the Titanic and their families. (Imagine having one seat on a lifeboat available, and looking at your five children there on the deck.)
Anyway, this was an easy-peasy knit. I used less than two and a half balls of the Merinogold, so it takes almost as little wool as it does time.
I also loved that the Gull pattern fit perfectly into the shaping that Elizabeth devised, with the repeats ending just at the places where you divide for the sleeves (and adding on 7 fits another repeat in just as perfectly). I actually added eight stitches, instead of seven, on the sleeves, because the lace pattern made a rather wonky edge and I wanted to firm that up to make seaming easier; I just knitted the first and last stitch of every row.
The sleeve shaping gave me a bit of pause, and I had to think about it for some minutes until it made sense. It is essentially a T, with the crossbar to be seamed along the underarm and the downward stroke becoming the sleeve seam. This is how it goes together —
That extra K stitch on each side of the sleeve seam came in very handy, as the seam turned out almost invisible. I am, I confess, rather lazy when it comes to finishing (Reason #47 to Love Shawls: There are no seams), so I faithfully followed a little tutorial on seaming by Theresa Stenersen — good practice for the Swing Jacket coming up.
These white pearly buttons were the only shanked ones I had in the button jar, so they are merely prodded into place for the photo. Obviously I am starting to get into swing-jacket mode — I thought this jacket would look as pretty with three buttons as with the six of the original, and it does.
"Result: a beguiling baby sweater with only two seams to sew"!
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I’ve added a list of the Swing Jacket knitalong participants to the sidebar, with their blog title if they have one, and referring back here if they don’t (as TypePad apparently requires a URL for this kind of list). If I’ve missed you, please let me know — if you want me to add you, please let me know!
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"TypePad is currently unavailable for maintenance. We apologize for the inconvenience."
Now, while this doesn’t approach one of the classics of this genre — "We were literally glued to our seats for the whole movie!" — it still manages to ring a little alarm down at the Grammar Police station.
So TypePad is unavailable for maintenance, eh? Then why is it down?!
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LollyKnitting Around has come up with Project Spectrum, a celebration of the colors around us, most obviously in knitting and other textiles, but also in crafts, food, and the different facets of our everyday lives. Each month, from March through August, will focus on a different color.
I suspect that this project, like the Knitting Olympics and Grace’s Poppies’ poetry blogging, will become much bigger than their originators ever suspected. Already, my imagination is humming with colors.
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I stopped for a moment last night just before dividing for the Baby Jacket sleeves, to admire the way that the knitting curves on the circular needles. It’s like a little magic trick — I’m knitting straight rows, but it turns into a circle, voilà!
I’d started it on straight needles, then decided that the gauge was just a little tight after all, and moved to these lovely rosewood circulars. Are they not beautiful? so light, so smooth, so rich in their browns and golds, so warm like the grain of a fine violin.
Excuse me, I feel a little "Citizen Kane" moment coming on …
"Rosewood!"
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For Blackbird’s Show and Tell today, Sarah Louise asks to see our purses or bags.
I am completely indifferent about the Target purse I use at present, which was quite a step down from the Gucci bag that I used BK — Before Kids. I need something with enough room to carry the tissues, calendar, and assorted paraphernalia of children without overloading myself, but also something that is small enough to slip inside a larger backpack, and I am still looking for just the right one.
Here instead is the Allerhand Ergo Backpack, far too cool to call a "diaper bag," and so we use its proper name. I bought this at an outlet mall in Ap Lei Chau last spring, when our old and well-used diaper bag proved not big enough for our day trips around Hong Kong. Note the mobile phone pocket, which I did use after David dragged me protesting mightily into the 20th century, and the little one beneath is still, I think, full of Hong Kong coins and a taxi receipt.
Zippered pouches at the sides are waterproofed to hold baby bottles, if one desires — ours usually stashes the digital camera and spare batteries on one side, and tissues and handwipes or a bottle of water on the other. The main pocket holds spare clothes and whatnot, and a large pocket across the bottom carried our street atlas and the Lonely Planet Hong Kong (Condensed) that served us so well for many months. (Another slim pocket at the back holds a changing mat, still useful in certain circumstances.)
Here is a photo from last April, of the Allerhand in action, this time at Chater Gardens —
Very comfy, very dashing.
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A "(silent) poetry reading," from Grace’s Poppies, who requests winter poems. I made a small collection for my own amusement some years ago, and here is one of my favorites from it.
Snow in the Suburbs
Every branch big with it,
Bent every twig with it;
Every fork like a white web-foot;
Every street and pavement mute:
Some flakes have lost their way, and grope back upward, when
Meeting those meandering down they turn and descend again.
The palings are glued together like a wall,
And there is no waft of wind with the fleecy fall.A sparrow enters the tree,
Whereon immediately
A snow-lump thrice his own slight size
Descends on him and showers his head and eyes,
And overturns him,
And near inurns him,
And lights on a nether twig, when its brush
Starts off a volley of other lodging lumps with a rush.The steps are a blanched slope,
Up which, with feeble hope,
A black cat comes, wide-eyed and thin;
And we take him in.— Thomas Hardy (English, 1840-1928)
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Paton’s Katrina, destined to become a shrug for Laura’s ballet teacher.
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Booking Through Thursday writes, "This week’s questions are brought to you by Deb, reader extraordinaire. Thank you, Deb."
- Do you lend your books to other people? Yes. In the immortal words of Dolly Levi, "Money is like manure. It’s no good unless you spread it around," and in a lot of ways that goes for books too.
- If so, do you get them back? Eventually!
- What do you do if they’re not returned? Send the police? Stop speaking to the borrower? Storm the house and take them back? CDs and DVDs are a little easier, as I put a sticky note with my name on it inside the plastic cover, whereas sticky notes often fall off of books. I don’t usually write my name in books, but I’ve not had a problem with returns. Most of the people I lend books to are family members, and I already know where they live!
A Bluestocking Knits 