A Bluestocking Knits

Uncategorized

Out of Sorts

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Bluestocking

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4th July 2005

Maybe I’m just in a bad mood, but I don’t really feel like knitting these days. Not counting goof-off things for the girls, I have three current projects, and I find myself looking at them as if they were UFOs in the other sense of the word. Silk Garden kimono jacket — mindless stockinette, despite my enjoyment of the colors went inches past my goal and will have to rip those out. Ostrich Plume blanket — too depressing. Forbes Forest scarf — well, um, I’m just bored with it, you know? I like all of these projects, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t want to think about them right now.

Maybe I just realized that seven weeks from today, we’ll be back home in Southern California. I haven’t decided if this sounds like a really long time or hardly any at all. Bought some RYC Cashsoft DK this afternoon, in "Thunder," I see — oh, thank heavens, I was just scrolling down that linked page and thought, "Oh, my gosh, I hope it’s not ‘Poison’" and imagining in that eternal split second the finished garment and me screaming "Don’t touch it, it’s Poison!" then the relief that it was only Thunder, after all.

I’m thinking of changing my hairstyle, so I’m letting the front grow out, and I look like something the cat dragged in. And I found the only bug in Hong Kong that actually likes the taste of Off, so the back of my leg has a welt on it the size of a quarter — an excruiatingly itchy quarter, needless to say. On the other hand, I spent the evening — okay, half the night, too — finishing the Moth Heaven archives. Just discovered her this past week. (I know, I’m a late bloomer, what can I say?) Got caught up on the Mason-Dixon archives recently, as well, so to be honest, I’ve been reading more about knitting than actually doing it. (I picked up one of the balls of Cashsoft while I was reading "Moth Heaven." It was hard to concentrate for a while, so enticing was the soft roundness of it in my hand, so very perfectly did my thumb fit into the center while my fingers curved around the outside. I could hardly bear to let go.)

Well, it’s very late now, so I’ll go to bed. Ho-hum.
Uncategorized

Fourth of July

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Bluestocking

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3rd July 2005

In honor of Independence Day, here are a few historical photographs from the American Memory collection at The Library of Congress —

Fourth of July celebration at Inkster, North Dakota, 1894 (Fred Hultstrand History in Pictures Collection, NDIRS-NDSU, Fargo).

Gathering at the school house for a Fourth of July celebration, Osnabrock, North Dakota (Fred Hultstrand History in Pictures Collection, NDIRS-NDSU, Fargo).

"Huzza! ‘Tis the fourth of July!" by T. Waldron Shear (Music Division, Library of Congress).

Watching greased pig race on the Fourth of July, Vale, Oregon, 1941, Russell Lee, photographer (Farm Security Administration, Office of War Information Photograph Collection, Library of Congress).

World’s Fair fireworks I, 1939 or 1940 (Gottscho-Schleisner Collection, Library of Congress).

July 4th celebration, Meling Coulie [sic], Milton, North Dakota , about 1894 (Fred Hultstrand History in Pictures Collection, NDIRS-NDSU, Fargo).

Boy on float in Fourth of July parade, Vale, Oregon, 1941, Russell Lee, photographer (Farm Security Administration, Office of War Information Photograph Collection, Library of Congress).
Hong Kong

Jumbo Shopping

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Bluestocking

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29th June 2005

Some more sightseeing — we went to the Jumbo Kingdom in Aberdeen for dim sum lunch again the other day. A small ferry takes visitors over to the grand floating restaurant, a Hong Kong landmark. Words fail me, really — gaudy isn’t in it. (Here is some info from the Footprint guidebook.) As you might expect from someone as nearsighted as I am, the photos I took were mostly close-up details of the little ferry and the restaurant itself.

We also did some shopping at the outlet stores at Horizon Plaza nearby in Ap Lei Chau — got that cool fabric wall calendar there, as well as more wooden track for the girls’ train set, and lots of art supplies for the school-free weeks to come.
Hong Kong

Hello, Sunshine!

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28th June 2005

After a week of these —

("rain expected exceeding 30 millimetres per hour") and even one of these

("exceeding 50 millimetres per hour") — we finally saw the sun. We ran down to the playground in the morning and had an hour or so before a new shower chased us back indoors.

Today, though —

was gorgeous, sunny and pleasantly warm. I took the girls down to the pool —

I wish I could say that I did lots of leisurely poolside knitting, but to be honest, I was too lazy, and the excuse of sunscreen on my hands was too easy to invoke.
Books and Reading

Rain and Shakespeare

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Bluestocking

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22nd June 2005

Heavy rain all morning, so I sat in the window to catch the little light, and knitted on my kimono jacket while listening to the last disc of the Arkangel "Romeo and Juliet". I was rather indifferent to this version at first — it isn’t bad, by any means, but I thought Romeo (Joseph Fiennes) a bit too overwrought and Juliet (Maria Miles) oddly underwrought. Certainly there are difficulties inherent in presenting a play entirely through voices alone, and I’ve gotten used to the visuals of movies, such as most obviously the glorious "Romeo and Juliet" scenes in "Shakespeare in Love", with the nuances available to the actor and to the audience of glances and gestures. I had a bit of trouble adjusting to this for a while.

But the last scenes got to me, especially when her family finds Juliet (the last surviving of their children) apparently dead on her wedding morning — "But one, poor one, one poor and loving child, / But one thing to rejoice and solace in, / And cruel Death hath catch’d it from my sight! … O day! O day! O day! O hateful day!" The thunderstorm outside echoed around me and made the thunder in the recording wonderfully atmospheric. Romeo mourning over the supposedly dead Juliet had me in tears — "Death, that hath suck’d the honey of thy breath, / Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty" — and Juliet kissing the newly-dead Romeo, the quiet agony of "Thy lips are warm!"

"For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."
Books and Reading, Hong Kong

I Visit the City Hall Library

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22nd June 2005

Having gotten word yesterday that our departure from Hong Kong has been scheduled for August 21, I promptly fell into a bit of a stash-enhancement frenzy, seeing that time really is limited now. When David found out that some of the prices here are almost half of those at home, he said, "Why don’t you stock up?" His only request is that I have a project in mind for whatever I buy…

I took the shuttle bus into town this morning, timing my arrival at the Star Ferry terminal to coincide with the opening of the City Hall branch of the Hong Kong Public Library at ten. It was raining cats and dogs, so hard that I was quite glad to leave the driving to someone else, and to stare both appalled and marvelling at the rain sheeting down the bus windows. As the wiper blade passed, a good four or five inches of water came down across the just-cleared section, to be flung away by the return pass of the wiper, so fast that it shot out from the windshield at least six inches away. Well, a little video is worth a thousand words —

Download 179-7992_MVI.AVI

It was too wet as I dashed across the plaza to take a picture of the library for those who (like me) are into that sort of thing, but here is a view from the staircase window on the second floor — the eastern edge of the Star Ferry terminal with Kowloon in the distance across the harbor, the carpark at left front, another part of the City Hall complex at right front, all very wet —

This branch of the library occupies quite a number of floors in the building, although each floor is not large in area. The knitting section at this branch is rather dated, I’m afraid, but this is in no way limited to Hong Kong. I didn’t have much time to browse and ponder this morning, as I had to collect the girls from school at 11:30, but I did find a few interesting titles, ran back downstairs to the check-out, and outside to the bus stop.

The rain was just coming on again when the 10:45 shuttle came around the corner, about five minutes late. As it tore out of the terminal, eager to make up time, I guess, we suddenly veered off the usual route, and since I’d been daydreaming, I had to glance surruptitiously around me to make sure that I was indeed on the right bus. It dawned on me that this driver was an old friend, so to speak — I’d taken a downhill trip with Speedy Gonzalez once before, and it was almost an hour then before the hairs on the back of my neck calmed down. This time he took a hillier but less-traveled road around the racetrack, but got stuck behind a public bus, which of course made stops every ten feet. When the bus made a stop in a passing lane, Speedy zipped around him triumphantly, and I swear I saw a corner of his mouth turn up in a smile.

So at least I got my library books home safe and dry, and have been poring over them much of the afternoon.

The Bohus one is really fabulous — such wonderful colors, such intricate designs. "Poems of color" indeed. The "Blue Shimmer" pullover is beautiful — in any colorway, I imagine — and the "Green Meadow" mittens, the "Large Collar" in any form. Jaeger has a lovely alpaca that I could get at Paris Cotton Singlets — I wonder if this would be a good substitute for the wool/angora blends. And I confess that I have never knitted a sock, not even one — but, no time like the present, eh? I’m especially intrigued by the Welsh Country Stockings, the Highland Schottische Kilt Hose, the Norwegian Stockings, and the Estonian Socks. Lots of lovely merino at Paris Cotton Singlets and at Cheer Wool and Elegant….
Hong Kong

Father’s Day

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19th June 2005

Yesterday was Father’s Day, so after the girls woke David up rather earlier than he was hoping, we went here —

the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence. He’d been here on a previous trip, and thought the girls would enjoy the tunnels in the old fort and the views of the harbor.

Julia discovered the echo capabilities of the tunnels early on — the exhibits were a bit much for the under-fives, but upstairs was a drawing area with tables and crayons and chops for stamping on their finished artwork, and the girls did have a good time running around outside, even though it was pretty hot.

On the way back, I got a little bonus when we stopped off here —

GB Woollens at the Cityplaza mall in Taikoo Shing (!). They were having a sale (!!), so I picked these up for HK$59 apiece (about US$7.59, retailing at home for $8.95) —

RYC Cashcotton 4-Ply in shade 903 Seafoam, a subtle tweedy tealy-greeny shade. Maybe it will be enough for the Interlocking Balloons scarf….
Blankets, Throws, and Afghans

Quantum Cotton

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Bluestocking

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17th June 2005

This morning I read the Harlot’s theories about black hole knitting. I thought about laughing, I thought about crying.

It’s using up a lot more yarn than it should, a lot more. I’m already on the sixth ball out of the twenty I have, and it’s supposed to be a lot longer than it is.

I did the math, David did the math — separately — and it should work. He sat on the floor with it a few weeks ago, with a pencil and another piece of paper, and finally said, "It’s quantum yarn. It occupies another temporal and spatial reality."

Stephanie, I feel your pain.
“Scarf Style”, Knitted Lace, Shawls and Scarves

Thoughts on the “Misty Garden” Scarf

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16th June 2005

I finished the Misty Garden scarf yesterday afternoon, after splicing on the last ball mere hours earlier. It’s a fairly easy knit, other than keeping an eye out that the mohair stitches don’t get dropped accidentally.

I’ve not been much of a mohair fan, but the colors of this Rare Comfort Infusion are simply beautiful. There was a noticeable difference in one of the balls — despite being the same dye-lot — in that the mossy green lengths were much shorter, working into a mere stitch or two, instead of three or even four. The other two balls were closer to the photograph in the "Scarf Style" book. The Old Shale pattern is a very good choice for this yarn — stitch definition tends to disappear in the mohair, but the ripples enhance the colors and the odd row of garter not only keeps the scarf from curling, but gives the mohair another element of volume in addition to the natural haze.

(I’m not happy with the photos — don’t know what I’m doing wrong, but the focus rarely pleases me. Will try again later — it’s starting to rain.)
Hong Kong, Knitting

Fifth Day of the Fifth Lunar Month

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11th June 2005

Today being the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, it is the Dragon Boat Festival. Tuen Ng commemorates an ancient national hero, Qu Yuan, who threw himself into the Mi Lo river to protest against the corrupt rulers of the time. Legend has it that as the townspeople tried to rescue him, they beat drums to scare away the fish and threw dumplings into the water to keep the fish from eating Qu Yuan’s body. This grew into the drumbeating coxes of today’s dragon boats, and the traditional dumplings of the festival.

More here and here. I’d heard that it was hot, crowded, and very spring-break-like (there was even an article in the South China Morning Post yesterday about how to get drunk barge-hopping), so as I was on my own with the girls and we’d gotten up at 5:30 to see Grandma off, we decided to simply watch it on television. Not very authentic, I’m afraid, but we did have dumplings from the restauraunt downstairs, at least!

Today is also, of course,

Worldwide Knit in Public Day. I took the Forbes Forest scarf to the playground with us — far too hot for the mohair of Misty Garden, but the stiff breeze blowing around the corner of the building kept the temperature from being unbearable.