Now Norma Knits

Wow. It's October 23, 2015.

I hate to start this post with a bunch of clichés, so I'm just going to jump right into it.

Hi! I see you. Can you see me? Knock-knock. Anybody out there?

I look over at the sidebar of this poor underfed, anemic blog and I see something like 300 readers, down from 5,000 or more back in the day. That is just.....sad. Isn't it?

Annnnd, I did it. That was fairly blogger-cliché, eh? Sorry.

I was prompted to write because last weekend... well, last weekend was the New York Sheep and Wool Festival, aka RHINEBECK! And our fearless foursome -- Leigh, Sandy, Jenn, and I -- met up and roomed together for the 12th year in a row, and had the most wonderful, recreational and restorative time together.

And we selfied....

We walked....

 We talked....

Oh hey, I'm not kidding about OVER the Hudson. This is where those oh-so-tame-looking photos above were taken. I've got some vertigo just looking at this right now:

 We shopped....

(Blimey, the festival is RIDONKULOUSLY crowded now. I believe the figure is something like 54 MILLION PEOPLE PER SQUARE FOOT, or something close to that. We can only stand it for about 30 minutes before we have to leave and get some air. And booze. So we spend a lot of our time and money in the nice little village, just pretending that we are actually at the Sheep & Wool. But I did buy that amazing granny square scarf at the actual festival before we fled to safer ground.)

We ate......

And drank......

 

(That is an apple cider mimosa in the glass.)

(You're welcome.)

 But here's the interesting bit:

We (or at least I) knitted!

For the first time in maybe forever, I was the first one to arrive at our hotel, so I had some time on my hands while I waited for my compatriots to arrive. And just before I left home, I had done a frantic -- and I do mean frantic -- search for some knitting to bring with me. Much to my surprise, I found an already completed Red Scarf:

 

...and another one that was started who-knows-when. So there I was, doing this VERY WEIRD ACTIVITY when Sandy arrived. Upon seeing me, she loudly exclaimed, "WHO ARE you?!"

Fair comment.

(Coincidentally, David just walked in while I was writing this and I said, "I'm blogging," to which he replied, "WHO ARE you?!")

It's been quite a long time since I've engaged in this either of these activityies. But it truly is like riding a bicycle! I remember how! And I even remembered how to execute this pattern, the ever-loved, ever-popular unisex pattern, the Corrugator, by our friend Paula Smith.

I've been knitting a few rows a day since then, and look:

Before I know it, if I'm not careful, I'll be finished.

So now I've been thinking about The Red Scarf Project and learned that they now have a wonderful thing called The Book Club, which is sort of an outcropping of our own Red Scarf Fund with a little bit of a broader mission. I've just signed up. The way I thought of it is this:  I drive a Prius now, and I'm not spending as much on gas for my car as I used to. I figure I can send $20 a month without it hurting a bit, so that's what I just signed up for. Maybe you wouldn't mind spending a couple of cups of coffees' worth per month to help out some students in need, even if you are not a knitter, but just my friend.

One thing I'd like to mention is that Foster Care to Success ranks very high on Charity Navigator. They spend almost ALL of their money on their mission, very little on administrative costs, and have excellent transparency. Plus, I know the people who run it very well, and they are darn good people.

Either way, I'm just wondering how you're doing and how many of you Red Scarf soldiers are carrying on.

Do tell.

 

Craft Activism Contest

Welcome to readers new and old who have come here from the Potter Craft free excerpt from Craft Activism! Check it out! Isn't that wonderful?

Seasoned readers here at NNK will understand why, as soon as I heard the news from Gale that the publisher had chosen our humble chapter on the Red Scarf Project as the featured promotional chapter, I knew I had to jump up out of bed and put up a new post so that new readers would not encounter the 2nd word of my last post as their first introduction to this blog. First impressions and all that. Eh?

Anyhoo, this is still September for another few hours, and September is the traditional time for me to shift into high gear with regard to the Red Scarf Project. What better timing for this new book to come out just a few days ago? And look who has an extra copy:

How's about a good old fashioned Red Scarf fundraising contest?

The rules:

1.  For every $5 donation you make to the Red Scarf Fund For Foster Youth, you get one chance at a drawing for my extra copy of Craft Activism.

2.  You are on your honor (I trust my readers) to tell me how many entries you have in the contest. 

3.  Write an email with the subject line "donation" to THIS EMAIL ADDRESS (only):  [email protected], including the following information:

• Your name (first name and last initial are fine, if you prefer) 
• The amount of your donation

4.  Contest will be open until midnight ET next Friday, October 7.

5.  Winner will be announced by the following week.  

 

I've put a Paypal button below for your convenience, but if you would rather send a check to Foster Care To Success (the artist formerly known as the Orphan Foundation of America), you may do that also. The address is: 

Foster Care to Success
21351 Gentry Drive
Suite 130
Sterling, VA 20166

If you would prefer to donate through the Network for Good rather than use Paypal, click on this link.  Scroll to the bottom of that page to find the Network for Good button. 

Warm Hats Not Hot Heads: Serious or Satire?

Good morning Thursday! What a week it's been -- AGAIN! Time to check the zodiac again, I think! Lots of exclamations over and over! 

But today I'm a bit tired and I'm a bit late in writing the blog. The timing was good for receiving a request from India, who used to work at my local yarn shop Kaleidoscope, to help to spread the word about a fun knitting initiative entitled Warm Hats Not Hot Heads, the knitters' campaign to help restore civility in politics. This initiative was begun by two fellow knitbloggers Twinset and SpinDyeKnit. Several other bloggers have recently posted about this, too. There's a group on Ravelry and also on Facebook.

The idea is to knit hats--which embody the concept of every stitch working for the common good--for every member of Congress and every Senator, to illustrate our desire for our representatives to put down the poison pens and take up the business of crafting solutions to the various problems and challenges facing our country.

So far there are enough hats committed to cover 14% of Congress, but we would love to see that tally rise.

As I was getting set to write this post, I did a wee bit of Googling, and I saw this initiative discussed with Jon Stewart's The Daily Show attached to it! I got pretty excited and clicked through. It was only a forum posting, though, the response to which -- "Is your message serious or satire? I can't figure which." -- cracked me up. 

WE ARE KNITTERS. YEAH, MAN, WE.ARE.SERIOUS!  DO NOT MESS WITH THE KNITTERS. WE WILL KNIT-GRAFFITI ALL OVER YOUR ARSE!  

 

Yarn-bombed bus.

Taken from the Ravelry Group Page:  Warm Hats Not Hot Heads is an initiative started by spindyeknit and twinsetellen as a response to the increase we’ve seen in hate-filled political rhetoric in recent years. Whatever one's own political beliefs, we believe that they can and should be discussed with the idea that those with opposing beliefs are not enemies, and that this attitude will enable the United States to move forward with better outcomes for all.

Knitters are invited to knit one or more hats for their congresspeople (or for representatives or Senators who haven’t yet had a hat knit for them) as a concrete way of saying that soft words are powerful and that their service is appreciated.

 

So knitters and crocheters, take up your needles and your hooks. Make a hat for your political representative. Their heads are cold. Are you in? 

PSAs About Red Scarf 2010-11

I have received loads of inquiries about Red Scarf, about which I am usually yammering on endlessly at this time of year, so much so that I'm usually expecting you to drum me out of blogland coz you're just so SICK of me talking about red yarn every 13.2 seconds.  

However, it appears that I must have grown on you.  

Heh, heh, heh.

I have received offers of prizes for making donations to the Red Scarf Fund, and I have received lots of questions about whether it's still on and why I'm being so uncharacteristically quiet about it.

Sadly, I just don't have an ounce of energy or even a fraction of the time necessary to manage the whole prize-giving thing this year. It is, in the best of times and with the best of help that I've received from my wonderful friends The Wonderful Cookie and The Wonderful Paula and so many, many others, still such a Herculean task that I just can't take on this year. Don't worry, though, [take on Arnold's accent] I will be back. And shhhhh, come next April, there might be a little sumpin-sumpin interesting and special coming out that I can't tell you about, but can only tease you with. Shhhhhhh.  

I know you know me well enough that you are right now saying, "Wow. She must REALLY be busy if she is too busy for Red Scarf." Yup. And even with regard to my pet project, Red Scarf, I do know my limits. 

BUT I'm still doing my part -- just not as BIG a part as usual:  My good friends at the new Grand Isle Art Works Gallery have taken up the cause to help!

Oct 7, 14, 21 and November 4, 11, and 18, we are going to be knitting red scarves at the Gallery from 6:30-8 p.m.  All are invited to come and knit and crochet and/or weave some beautiful red (or other unisex colors) scarves for the project. Or if you can't come join us, then you can send your scarves in to be included in our mailing to the OFA.  

All the info is here on their website.

If someone wants to pick up the baton that I am not-so-unceremoniously dropping about the Red Scarf Fund fund drive, and prizes and all those whatnots and hooziwidgets, please accept my loving thanks and appreciation if you can do so. The OFA needs you!  You can always donate to the fund by clicking the link in my sidebar. Over there ------------->

All other things with the Red Scarf Project are exactly the same as ever before. And if you are new to the project, everything you need to know is right here, or if you want to get pulled into endless discussions about whether 59.94 inches is too short or whether bulky is really bulky or super-bulky, or lavender is unisex enough, or whether the menfolk in your family would never wear red, or criticisms that the OFA's site has an inconsistency or two and it's JUST.TOO.CONFUSING, or whatever else you might want to waste a lot of time and angst and energy on, you can always join the Ravelry group on Red Scarf, where you can have endless fun of that sort.

Best of luck on that one, and be sure to let me know how that is working out for you. (or not) 

Can you tell I'm too tired and cranky for Ravelry nonsense right now? What? Who, me? I just do not understand what all the confusion is or why there are so many tempests in teapots, and what is so damn HARD or CONFUSING about it, but maybe that's just me. 

Perhaps I am just a tad too outspoken and really should be kept far away from the public.

What?

Who, me?! 

 

 

Terrier Tuesday -- Red Scarf Reminder Edition

Dear Readers,

While A.Alpha is busy as a nut -- and kind of cranky and maybe going a little bit crazy, if I do say so -- trying not to let the Christine O'Donnell effect spill over into Vermont, she asked me to put out the reminder that it's Red Scarf season.

(A recycled photo of me in my red scarf. In real life, I don't look this good right now -- I need a grooming -- please tell Alpha!) 

How are you all doing on your red scarves?  Alpha has two finished and two more on the needles.

All the info is the same as usual -- same address to send them to, same rules as ever. (Check that link up above, or the Red Scarf Ravelry group. Also, in case you didn't know, our friend Anne of Knitspot has been running a knitalong all year long, WITH PRIZES, I think, in her Fan Group in Ravelry.)

Don't get all bent out of shape worrying that someone is going to use a caliper to check if it's a quarter inch short or something. On the other hand, don't pretend that 48 inches is LONG ENOUGH or 3.5 inches is WIDE ENOUGH.

Use your sensible judgment (You do have that, right? Hm, after these elections lately, maybe Alpha should not ASSUME so much.  But whatevs....). The thing that's needed is a nice unisex, soft, gift-giving-worthy scarf for college kids. Unisex collegiate does NOT mean shades of pink or lavender or other juvenile colors, nor does it mean lace. It can be other unisex colors. Lace means holes. 5-8 inches wide, by 60-70 inches. No super-bulky yarns (packing boxes won't accommodate super-bulky scarves).

You can send them out anytime now till December 15th. End of story. 

And don't forget, our Red Scarf Fund for Foster Youth is always in need of donations. It provides emergency assistance for such things as new glasses, school supplies, fuel assistance, flat tire assistance -- you name it -- for kids who are living on their own on very tight budgets. 

Click here:

All right, back to that .... whatever it is that Alpha is doing. 

 

Love, 

Mr. Jefferies

1. Exciting OFA News! and 2. A Local Raffle

1. Sterling's Orphan Foundation wins 500,000 grant from Jack Kent Cooke Foundation

How are your red scarves coming? (September 1st is when you can start mailing them....it's coming up soon!)  Read more about The Red Scarf Project, including address to mail them, here.

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2. The new artisan gallery that I love is having a raffle. Based on my experience the other night, it is sure to be the location of many a laugh and good story from me the third Thursday of every month. I had a blast there and met (or remet) some wonderful people. And it actually got me knitting again -- no small feat!

Go buy some raffle tickets! (Purchase them online -- free shipping of the tickets!) You could win a lovely shawl kit, a $75 gift certificate to Manny Beads, an art doll, and more, all while helping the gallery raise funds for new lighting and other stuff to improve and expand the space.

This 'n That

I forgot an important "B" the other day -- broccoli!!!!  (What was I thinking?!)

And look how well it's doing.  (So far.  We must not take these things for granted.  Last year they all died a horrible fungal death after giving up their initial head of broccoli -- at least I got something out of them, but I was very disappointed.  This year it's a different variety -- 'PacMan' -- so I hope they'll do better.)

And we've got some good C's coming up, as well:

Love the lacy look of the outer leaves.  Actually, I don't love it at all, but as long as the slugs (or whatever it is that is wreaking this havoc) stay on the outer leaves and leave the heads alone, all's fair in love and cabbage. 

Thanks to all the Michael Jackson video-watching (I almost never tire of watching some of those videos), some good progress has been made on the red scarf.  I do love this color of KnitPicks Swish (Fired Brick), and though this mindless scarf is all I can handle right now, at least it's a little bit of something for this poor little ole knitting blog. 

I've got sort of a busy week coming up, though there is no work-work scheduled.  Tomorrow I provide lunch to the workers at a Habitat for Humanity building site.  You just know they be gettin' some home-grown lettuce in their sandwiches.  I sure do wish I had some of AnnaMarie's homemade bread, but they'll have to settle for store-bought.  It should be interesting for me to manage preparing food for, and serving, a group of people, since I will be on a liquid-diet cleanse that day to get ready for my Tuesday, ahem, medical procedure. Ergh.

Then there's this antique transcript I need to try to get out, assuming I can still read the steno.  Court reporters will love this:  The court hearing was done in 1989.  Yes, I kid you not.  Twenty years ago.  Let me see if there might be any issues with this:  I had just upgraded my computer system at that time, from the old system that took up an entire room in my house and about five laborious steps to create a transcript -- took the whole night to translate a file that I then had to heavily edit.  First it was written on a digital tape, which was put into a tape-reader and put onto an -- are you sitting down? -- 8-inch floppy disk, which took like an hour (which at that time we thought was lightning fast)!  That then was put into a computer to read and try to match the steno to English. Then I edited it -- which was a lengthy and labor-intensive process, and then it was printed on a dot matrix printer.  It took a couple hours to print a half-hour court hearing, and several hours to print a day's worth.  There was carbon-interleaved paper, the edges of which I had to tear off, rip apart each page, take out the carbons, and collate the multiple copies. 

So in 1989, I was now up to a new system that had a five-inch disk and about two fewer steps.  It was a bit faster, but I can no longer read those disks, because since that time I have changed computer systems three more times, and that's not even counting the generations of software.   But also: Since that time, my steno theory was ripped out, stripped down to its nakedness; I was lashed and thrashed and trashed, and lowered to my lowest point; and right when I was at the point where I would almost rather choose suicide than go on, I was retaught how to write, and I have continued to modify it and tweak it and make it the perfect fit so now I can write realtime steno in practically whatever subject you throw at me with only the occasional kooky error such as the other night, "as pennies" came out "aspenis."  The speaker had earlier asked the question, "How many of you pick up a penny when you see it lying on the ground?" and later tied that in by saying that some people treat other people as pennies, i.e., worthless. 

So "aspenis" for "as pennies."  That's a word boundary error.  I had defined AS/PEN as "aspen," and the "-ies" ending decided to translate, in one of those moments of artificial intelligence gone terribly wrong, as "-is" so it almost looked like (but thank goodness it did not, quite) as "as penis," but in any event it translated as a NONword.  Ah, yes, it's always something....that's the third sure thing, after death and taxes.

Anyway, I have procrastinated taking a look at those musty, moldy steno notes that the court sent me because some guy wants to know some little detail in them.  I seriously doubt if I can read them, and I really probably should have just looked at them when they were first sent to me so I could just certify that, "Forget it, bub. It's been 20 freakin' years. Get over it."  So I have to do that this week.

In yet another blog non sequitur, the asparagus from the previously ailing bed continues to grow and produce, and ahhhh, here is a beautiful sight:

 

The new asparagus bed is freshly weeded and OMG, I found all these little asparagus ferns coming up.  After a few rains and some time, and the rock phosphate feeding, it is indeed coming alive.  That is not the 30 roots that I planted by a long shot, but I have confidence that more will come up.  Can I get a woohoo?!  After the weeding shown above, I spread four bags of Intervale compost, some more lime, and some more rock phosphate over and around it, and watered it in.  I am going to get a bale of straw to mulch it, and I think that next year we will be swimming in asparagus. 

I have put in a brand new grow bed:

Ahhhh, it's like a fresh canvas.  I put in a bean tower and planted it with Dolloff beans (a true Vermont heirloom shell bean) sent to me by the Extreme Gardener.  I also put in a fresh planting of arugula, Renee's Stir Fry mix, Romaine, and basil seeds.  When I started, I intended to put in beets and bush beans.  I have no idea how I got off track like that, but apparently the canvas spoke to me.

Can You Spare A Square?

First off, thank you for all the blogiversary wishes.  And of course there is a winner of the prize.  I'll announce who it is tomorrow.  If you get in your comments to that post up until noon Eastern Time today, they'll be included in the drawing.  

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Usually I do what I set out to do and complete what I say I will, but I have been known to bite off more than I can chew on occasion.  For example, I signed up for the "knit mittens in January" Ravelry group.  (or was it December?  I can't even remember.)  But when tendinitis reared its ugly head in November, I had all I could do to do my work for the months of December and January.  February brought the timely and much-needed rest period to allow me to heal, and I have since managed to complete the Marta sweater, get back to work, and get well under way on the Garter Yoke Cardi.  But I had a couple of very long work days this week, and I've been pushing myself probably a little too hard on the cardigan, which has brought back some of the pain in my arms/elbows.  I'm now taking it a little more easy, and work has slowed down again, so I will be fine. And I never even cast on for a mitten. 

Way back last summer, I made a commitment to knit a blanket for foster girls going to summer camp next summer. The request was simply for squares, but I volunteered to make an entire blanket.  I completed three large squares, and they have sat and sat. I have decided that I can't finish the blanket and do all the other things I have to and want to do, which includes being a bit selfish and completing the next sweater for myself. 

Anyway, since they're just sitting here, I've decided to mail out these squares.  I might or might not get some more done, but I think it's time they got off that little stool they've been sitting on in the family room, and now that work has slowed down, I actually have time to take care of little details such as mailing things.  

Seeing this photo of the very pretty squares makes me sad that I didn't finish the thing.

If YOU have any squares just lying around, or if you want to work on this project, please check in with Leticia at the Ravelry group Donate a Square. Leticia collects knitted and crocheted squares of all colors, shapes and sizes, and she has a group of volunteers to put them together in tasteful and artistic ways to make nice blankets to donate to various worthy causes.

If you are not a member of Ravelry and want the contact info for Leticia, let me know. 

343. There's More Than One Way to Fork a Biscuit* (A Hat Makeover)

The other day when I posted about the hat with the wonky cast-on, Jean commented something to the effect of, "Wonky is still warm."

Well, actually, I thought not so much.  I tried it on, and it didn't seem all that warm to me at all.  Soft, but not warm.  It is mostly acrylic, after all.  We had one damnably brutal cold snap yesterday, and it helped me to define what is warm and not warm.  I personally only had to move from building to car to building to car to building a few times, and even with all my wool layers, I could not get warm enough. 

So then I looked at the cast-on problems and wondered if I could do something to make that a little better, short of reknitting the whole hat.  I looked around the house and I found a couple little balls of handspun yarn I had left from my spinning days, and I found the skein of lovely handspun that Jean had given me as a gift a couple years ago.  An idea was born.  I carried the three thin strands together -- two of my handspun (one blue, one natural brown Jacob wool) and the lovely blues and purples of the skein Jean gave me, and it came to a bulky weight that was similar to the Thick & Quick.  I picked up stitches along the weird loopy cast-on edge of the hat, and I added a nice snug ribbed brim.  NOW the hat is warm and functional, and the ugly edge is camouflaged. 

Not only that, but the result is meaningful: It's a marriage of my handspun with Jean's, for her hat drive for the homeless.  Now, that's a happy hat.  Warm and cozy against the ears, and soft against the head.

Hats (and a pair of mittens) are in the mail, Jean.  I wish someone could be wearing it on this frigid night, I'll tell you.
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*If you don't know what this title refers to, see my post for December 7.  Gayle's comment about forking a biscuit still has me in "Gayles" of laughter.

340. A Pretty Bad Photo of a Pretty Good Hat

I needed a little stress-buster project. I picked up a skein of green Socos yarn the other day at Kaleidoscope, which came with a free pattern for a cute bulky hat.  I started knitting it the other night while watching Wall-E for the umpteenth time with Abigail, but the cast-on was wonky so I ripped it out.  Yesterday I decided to use the pattern with some blue Lion brand Thick & Quick for a hat to send to Jean.  The cast-on is still wonky, but it's still a pretty good hat.  I had to take a quick-and-dirty photo on the arm of my chair while multi-tasking -- watching another movie and blogging. Such is my life these days -- just a bit scattered and hectic.