Borderline Savage

Date Dilemma

I met a wonderful man in the summer of 2010 and by the time fall rolled around, it was too late. I was in a serious relationship with a man who loves football, the one and only major sport that I really do not like. You'd think that I would have avoided that issue by dating a man who grew up in Central America, where futbol is soccer, not American football. But no, I had to find myself a man who fully embraces American football and doesn't follow soccer any more.

He's a good guy and football addiction isn't the worst thing that could happen, so I had to suck it up. We made a deal - I will sit with him and knit (or read, but usually knit) while he watches football, and he will be happy for my presence without expecting me to watch, understand, or care about the game. It works for both of us. We can spend time together and chat while doing something we each like to do. I even started a football knitting project. The problem is, I never finished the project. Once he noticed that I could knit, my football project was tossed aside and I set about knitting boyfriend socks. (Of course, I have yet to photograph them, but they were done by February 2011.) And then I picked up all sorts of other knitting projects and my poor football 2010 project languished. However, due to a recent bout of finishitis (not evidenced here or on Ravelry), I found myself ready to pick up the football project. I present to you the Senor Ardilla Mitten:

It's pretty, no? These are the Squirrel Sampler Mittens by Adrian Bizilia. The outer layer is Harrisville Designs New England Shetland in two shades of gray. The inside is going to be rose alpaca. I am at the very top of this mitten now, almost ready to start the lining. My boyfriend (now fiance) has implored me to knit him another pair of socks, and I will do that, but I will pick the mittens up again after that.

The problem is, the first mitten says 2010 on it. What do I put on the second mitten? I could put 2012, for the year I (hopefully) finish the mittens. I could put my initials, but they are not really suited to block lettering, so that won't be really nice looking. I've looked through the Ravelry projects and people seem to have done quite a few different things with the mittens, but nothing really strikes me as the thing that I want to do. 

Looking at the other projects on Ravelry has made me realize I have monster hands. There are all sorts of project notes from people who said the mittens were too big, and they were knitting the smaller sizes. I'm making the very largest size (and my gauge is spot on!!!), and it's the perfect width for me, though a bit long. It's actually a bit of a novelty to have mittens that are long for me.

So, opinions, please about what to put on the second mitten. . .

Music, Music, Music

Susan was talking about sharing music with our kids. Unlike Susan's parents mine were very much into music although not necessarily what I listened to.  My Mom and I shared a love of singing from early on and would often sing along to the radio when I was little but my tastes changed as I got older where hers did not. My Dad was big on jazz and classical but really enjoyed a wide range of music, especially after meeting my step-Mom, who was a hard core Led Zeppelin and Heart fan. 

I definitely took a strong hand in my children's musical education. I sang Daydream Believer to the eldest as a baby (and Too Young to Fall in Love but ssh his father doesn't know that, lol).  I gave him my love of Crue and Guns & Roses, I introduced him to The Ramones, the Sex Pistols and Pink Floyd.  We share our love of Pink and Florence and the Machine.  His first concert was the Green Day show I took him to for his birthday.

Interestingly as his own tastes have grown he's learned my tastes very well and is good at introducing me to bands I'd enjoy. When I liked Foster the People's single, he told me the whole album was worth a listen and he was right. He's also introduced me to bands I may never have paid attention to on my own. 

Below are just a few favorites that he made me give a listen to:

 

 

 

 

The musical generation gap that existed between my me and my parents  doesn't exist in the same way with my generation and our kids. Maybe because music was so important to us and the time we grew up in, we're more open to new music defining each era. Nostalgia is a strong pull and the mood to listen to older stuff strikes more often than not but there is plenty of newer music on my ipod as well. There's always something interesting to discover.

Blogger's Silent Poetry Reading to celebrate the Feast of St Brigid

Her Kind

I have gone out, a possessed witch,
haunting the black air, braver at night;
dreaming evil, I have done my hitch
over the plain houses, light by light;
lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.
A woman like that is not a woman, quite.
I have been her kind.

I have found the warm caves in the woods,
filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves,
closets, silks, innumerable goods;
fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves;
whining, rearranging the disaligned.
A woman like that is misunderstood.
I have been her kind.

I have ridden in your cart, driver,
waved my nude arms at villages going by,
learning the last bright routes, survivor
where your flames still bite my thigh
and my ribs crack where your wheels wind.
A woman like that is not ashamed to die.
I have been her kind.

Whatever

Both Nancy and I have made a few posts on Facebook in recent weeks about sharing "our" music with our kids. I don't know about Nancy, but I had parents who weren't really into music. They listened to the radio in the car, but they were not people who bought albums or went to concerts. I grew up listening to 50's music because I spent so much time in the car with my dad, and I do like it. My mom went from pop music (back in the days of AM only in the car) to easy listening, neither of which thrilled me. When my brother was in college, he had a friend whose girlfriend's parents used to take them to rock concerts. I was so envious. I never wanted to go to any of the concerts they went to, but the idea of having parents who would take you along stuck with me.

I like to take the kids to see live music, though they're way too young to get into a lot of concerts with age limits. I'm looking forward to being able to take them to see more as they get older. And we listen to a lot of music in the car. I don't listen to regular radio, only satellite, and we've got the following stations preset:

Caliente (latin)

First Wave (classic alternative)

Lithium (90's alternative/grunge)

Alt Nation (new alternative rock)

Faction (music of action sports) (Note: This is not for kids. Too much swearing.)

The Joint (reggae)

Soul Town (classic soul/motown)

Symphony Hall (classical)

Radio Disney (kids)

On my old satellite radio, I had the 1940's channel bookmarked. I should do that and the classic radio shows, too. Anything else I'm missing?

The best times in the car are the nights coming home from DD's dance classes, when we turn up the volume and sing along. Our three most recent favorites:

 

  

 

You never know what will resonate with the kids. What do all of you sing along to in the car, kids or no kids?

Last week, I told DD that she says "whatever" much too often for my liking. She gave me a whatever, so I found this video and showed it to her:

 

She giggled a lot, especially at the last scene, when I told her Liam Lynch was wearing a scarf that reminded me of her Gryffindor scarf, but I haven't heard whatever very much since then. Oh, the power of the one hit wonder.

Knitting? Yeah I still do it on occasion.

While my knitting output is greatly diminished I do still knit every once in awhile. I just rarely finish anything. I started the year off well though by finishing yet another pair of Fetching:

Yes, I know the ends are woven in, don't be judgemental. They will be at some point today. 

I'm also working on another Calorimetry (Susan says I am the Queen of Calorimetry since I've made so many). I actually got into such a rhythm that I kept going on the short rows far too long. I tried to rip it back but I got lost and ended up ripping the whole damn thing out. Its coming along nicely now though:

For those of you wondering. I still have not finished the wedding afghan.  Most of the knitting is done, its the seaming that I'm procrastinating on. Then something happened. I laid it out for a photo shoot this morning and discovered a problem:

Do you see it? Try now:

Sigh. Now I have to rip out that seam and re-do it.  Ettiquette says a wedding gift can be given anytime in the first year but this is getting ridiculous.

Susan now has me hooked on Downton Abbey. I did indeed take the quiz she linked to and was very pleased with my result:

You are John Bates, valet to Lord Grantham. You probably have a secret identity or are lying about your past to someone you care about, but at least you feel really bad about it. On the plus side, you’re loyal and hardworking, and you’d never rat anyone out to the boss, even when they really deserve it. Noble and a bit mysterious, you’re a genuinely decent person – and everyone’s wondering when you’re just going to tell that nice Anna girl how you feel.

First FO of 2012

I'm having a bout of finishitis lately, so let's all enjoy it while it lasts. I present the Gryffindor House Scarf. This was my go-to mindless knitting project this summer. This scarf is one very, very long tube, so I experimented with different types of jogless jogs on the stripes and I must say that I didn't care for any of them and abandoned my search for the perfect jogless jog. The beginning/end of each round comes at the side "seam" anyway, so it all works out just fine.

Although the actual knitting of the scarf is pretty much mindless, it is a lot more knitting that I thought it would be, and this is a bit on the heavy side for a scarf. I finished the actually knitting in November, then put off giving the scarf a bath and properly blocking it. Once that was done, I put off adding the fringe for another month and a half, until today. I'm ashamed to admit, it took less than an hour to cut and attach all 150+ pieces of fringe.

The princess loved the scarf. She had really wanted it. (Believe me, I wouldn't have come up with the idea of knitting almost six feet of giant tube scarf on my own!) I didn't take any close up photos of it because, well, it does have a bit of yellow lab hair on it. . . just one more thing that will discourage me from properly blocking knitted items. I block them on the floor, and although I do have blocking pads, let's face it, the dog is near the floor and when his fur swirls around, it comes to land on the floor. . . and on top of whatever I might be blocking. It's rather discouraging after all of the storage of yarn in plastic totes and the efforts made to keep WIP's properly bagged up to avoid unnecessary contact with pet fur. C'est la vie.

I do wish I had a closer photograph of the fringe, because I did a lot of thinking about it while I was attaching it today. Other than trimming  a couple of overly long pieces of fringe, I left the rest of it to be more or less the right length. This is a handmade scarf. It shouldn't have factory perfect fringe. To be honest, I was also a bit afraid that once I started evening out and trimming the fringe, I would end up trimming it all off. I had horrible visions of the haircut my mom gave me when I was about eight. I had very long hair and, though she said she was just going to trim an inch or two, she couldn't get my hair straight and ended up cutting off over six inches in her attempts to make it even. To this day, I'm still not sure whether she's really lousy at cutting hair or whether she did this on purpose as a way to get my hair shorter without actually telling me up front.

Families are a funny thing. I've been very much enjoying the family (Should I say household? It's much more inclusive.) at Downton Abbey. I completely missed this show when it first aired, but the internet is full of knitters who are obsessed with it, so when I discovered that Season Two was about to air, I streamed the first season on Netflix and was all caught up in a couple of days. Now, I am among the faithful who watch it as PBS releases new episodes. And now I've got Nancy watching.

I considered it my duty to let Nancy know what she was missing with Downton Abbey. She, who has turned me on to Leverage and almost any book written by Philippa Gregory, among other things, just couldn't miss out on this show.  And I am adding this link to one of those Which Downton Abbey Character Are You? quizzes. In a true sign that blogging is so yesterday, there is not one single share option that will give the HTML for the result for a blogger to use. So, take my word for it, I'm Lady Sybil Crawley. And here's what it says about that:

You are Lady Sybil Crawley. The youngest daughter of Lord Grantham, you’re compassionate, strong, and really concerned about social justice. You’d also like to be able to vote. The bravest and most idealistic member of your family, you’re the most likely to end up at a political rally, try and help a servant to a better job, or scandalize your sisters by wearing pants to a party.

So, let me ask Nancy and anyone else who wants to play, which is your Downton Abbey personality?

Ten on Tuesday

Since my co-pilot did a list the other day and this morning Vicki reminded me of that old standby "Ten on Tuesday" I have decided to compose a list myself. Kind of a "what's gone on since I stopped blogging" thing.

1- I have gone from a 30-40 project a year knitter to a 12 project, if I'm lucky, knitter. I still enjoy it but I seem to lack motivation and focus when it comes right down to it.

2- my eldest is in his junior year of high school and embarking on the college search.

3- the youngest, who has special needs as many of you may recall, is doing very well on the social front but struggling reading-wise. He's a worker though so I'm hopeful we'll see inprovement this year with his awesome teacher.

4- I've attained the position in my career that I've wanted since I was 18 but having had it for a few years now I feel an overwhelming urge to seek new challenges professionally. Not leave my current job necessarily but explore other skills I may have or want to develop.

5- I got a new much more public tattoo this year and updated the old one. I have plans for at least 4 more.

6- I got my nose pierced which I've wanted to do since I was a kid.

7- I'm obsessed with Roller Derby. I'm even planning on joining the local req league when the season starts up again in a few months.

8- I read more now. I read 52 books last year. Although I'm off to a slow start this year.

9- I've realized as I've gotten older I am way more punk than metal.

10- I really miss blogging and writing in general and hope to make it a habit again.

-Nancy

Life's NOT the Same, Except for My Shoes (Apologies to The Cars)

As I read Nancy's post, part of me (okay, a lot of me) thought, "Damn, she beat me to it. I was going to say a lot of those things." And I guess that's the nice part about this blog. . . we are so much in sync. In the brief discussion we had about giving birth to a new, shared blog, neither one of us mentioned anything about changes in our lives that led us to thinking that this blog was a good idea, yet it turns out we are both going through changes.

I can't even begin to catalog the changes that have occurred in my life over the past few years. They definitely correspond to the massive decrease in blogging, and, though there are more changes to come, I wanted/needed to start blogging again. As much as I dislike the monotony of routines, the past couple years of chaos beyond my control have made me very much appreciate the familiarity of them.  I think I've come to a more balanced approach, appreciating the small rituals that are comforting, while embracing other changes. The difficult part is where I have no control over the changes. I'm still working on that.

I still love making lists, so here's a brief, non-comprehensive set of lists about my life now:

What Hasn't Changed

1.  I still knit. (And I still have too many UFO's!)

2.  I still take photos of bathroom tile. What you see on the current banner  (It's only a temporary banner; we need something fabulous.) is Ernest Hemingway's bathroom tile in Key West.  I'm not a big Hemingway fan, but I do like that tile. We went to Key West on a  family cruise. I took this photo, and one of each of my kids at the Hemingway house. My brother photographed every single cat we encountered on the grounds. When I look back on it, I wish I had photographed all the cats, too. You know the saying, "If you can't sing good, sing loud"? I think it applies to a lot of things in life. A photo of a few of the cats is nice, but if you make a point of photographing EVERY SINGLE CAT there, that's something. Clearly, I need to photograph more bathroom tile, just enough to make it an interesting project. Don't worry, I don't do bathrooms in private homes. You can still invite me to visit without worrying that your bathroom tile will show up here.

3.  I'm still enamored of all things tea. However, I do drink coffee now. Really.

4.  I still love hockey. My attempts to watch it live have been thwarted by local minor league teams moving out of the area, but I'm coping.

5.  I still wish I had more time to read. However, I actually do read more now. I'm going to have to post my reading list on the sidebar so you can see that I'm reading a wider variety of books, too.

What Has Changed

1.  I got divorced. But I'm getting married soon.

2.  I have allowed a television in my bedroom. This has been good for knitting in bed, not so good for reading in bed. And sometimes I very much resent it being there, to be honest.

3.  I'm no longer incredibly overworked. I got laid off. I must confess it was a blessing, though I'm quite ready to go back to work now.

4.  I've learned to let go of things much more easily now. . . ideas, tangible objects, people. Sometimes you just need to say goodbye and push on forward. Echa palante!

5.  Although I've grown more tolerant of people's idiosyncracies, I've grown far less tolerant of mean, self-absorbed, and selfish people and I feel less inclined to pretend otherwise. Life's too short to be irritated by someone you love, or to be sucked into an acquaintance's negativity.

I'm glad to be back in the blogosphere with Nancy as my co-pilot. We're starting a new, fabulous adventure together, with you.

-Susan

New Year, New Blog

I blogged over at bronxgirlknits.com for five years. Then I got a new job which cut my down time considerably. I missed blogging but I barely had time to breathe let alone knit so it lay dormant. I've tried to get back on the wagon  a few times over the years but it's never worked out, mostly I think because its main focus was knitting and while I still do  make things it is at nowhere near the level I did previously. 

I'm at an interesting time in my life. At 18 when I was a bookstore clerk I decided I wanted to manage a bookstore one day and while the route was circuitous I have finally reached that goal. This has led to a intriguing turn in my life, as my kids are older and less high maintenance I find myself looking at all the things I was interested in prior to marriage and motherhood. There's always writing which I've done sporadically on the blog and for Pink Raygun. Lately though there's also tattoos, roller derby, hockey, and other things on my mind. 

Sweeping in as a muse for me was my virtual twin Susan, who shares this blog with me. She proposed a joint venture to get us out of our blogging ennui. A "reading, knitting, hockey, humor, feminist (post-feminist), mom, fitness, music, Polish, multicultural, pet loving, caffeinated, tattoo, piercing, movie/dvd/tv, geek/nerd/freak kind of blog". Which is definitely where I am at the moment. So I am genuinely enthused about this new forum to listen to the sound of my own voice and give you my opinion. 

I recently found a picture online that described my view of my generation:

This is my view of this blog as well. We are creating our own forum to talk about the things we enjoy, are exploring and thinking about.  I think it's going to be a great adventure.

- Nancy