Here's the Lap Robe...

Ok, remember a few posts back where I showed my pillow for my LYS owner? Well, I saw the finished lap robe.

So it's a bit bigger than a lap robe. The person who put it together went a little crazy with the crocheted border. And she put one square in backwards. It had a cable - it was easy to see but apparently, she missed it. Oh well - there's not much anyone can do about it.

Completed chemo throw

Here's a picture of it:

As you can see, it's quite extravagant. The entire thing is in Cascade superwash wool. I love that the white and cream blocks anchor the entire blanket. I'm not sure that the cream was a good idea to do the connecting and border, but I can say, if you click on the picture, the detail in the border really pops in that color.

I love the top right square with the "sweater in the square" theme. And the grey one in the middle is fun, with its abstract design.

Each square rather reflects the person who knitted it.

They're giving it to her in the next 10 days or so, and I'll probably miss that - but I took the picture before it was blocked, just so we could print the thing and have the photo on the "picture board" in the shop.

This throw is the essence of "crazy" because while everyone picked from 2 main pattern books, there was no organizing of the squares - it's not like everyone said, "Well, let's all do cable variations." The squares are the representation of the knitter's ability and that's what's cool about it.

The pillow

As a reminder, here's a shot of my pillow. I understand that one or two others are making pillows, which is a great idea.

The pillows can be under her arm if she's having an IV treatment; they can be at the small of her back, or under her knees if she wants.

And EVERYTHING is washable!

When you think about this, the warmth of the objects is magnified by the affection with which they were knitted. We didn't have them "blessed" like you would a traditional prayer shawl or afghan, but I think that the "blessings" accrued in the knitting and organization of the project.

Often, when a group of women have been together a while, things get so comfy that we can get ourselves into pickles without realizing it. That just happened at the shop, at a time when we should all be pulling together.

This project was an example of the pulling together. We don't always get along: we're human! And there are spats: disagreements, political stuff (which really shouldn't be discussed when you've got sharp sticks and scissors!), family squabbles that create strong opinions.

But we set that all aside. We had a 2-week window to get the project done. And we did it.

That's a blessing indeed.

Not Quite There...

...but close.

I'm talking about US District Judge Sam Sparks, who struck down a key provision in Texas' new law requiring doctors to perform sonograms before abortions, ruling that the measure "violates the free speech rights of both doctors and patients."

Well. Almost good. He didn't strike down the provision ENTIRELY. So doctors apparently are still required to do the sonograms. However, Judge Sparks has determined that the doctors are not required to abide by the provision that they must describe the image to the patients and requiring the women to hear the descriptions.

OK, first off. That's barbaric. And please don't come back and tell me "abortion is barbaric." Having a baby you don't WANT is barbaric. Having to listen to a doctor describe the images on a sonongram while you're laying there waiting for the perfectly legal procedure to begin? It's like a doctor telling you the exact procedure he or she will perform to take out your appendix, which is swollen and ready to burst, and when it bursts, it will spill toxic juices into your core, and those juices will affect every single organ in your body, and the entire system will be slowly and painfully poisoned. And often, there's not much they can do about it once it's burst, in spite of all the medical advances. Sometimes, even in 2011, you still die of a burst appendix.

There's "informed consent" and then there's "deliberate cruelty" - and Texas has followed too many states into the "deliberate cruelty" area when they try to overturn Roe v. Wade, which is the law of the land.

While an unwanted pregnancy isn't toxic, the woman who makes the decision to have the abortion has already gone through enough grief. She has made a difficult decision and doesn't need to be badgered by a doctor, when said doctor is performing a perfectly legal medical procedure.

So, if I get Botox, is the doctor going to make me look at pictures of botched Botox jobs? Will the doctor describe in excruciating detail what could happen if he or she didn't do her job correctly?

If I have any other perfectly legal medical procedure, I am required to sign a waiver that indicates that I have been advised of everything that could go wrong. And I've had enough surgeries to know that being knocked out could cause problems; the surgery could be complicated; the surgery could affect other things such as (in the case of my hand surgeries) future mobility, etc. All of that I know.

But the Texas law, like those other state laws that have been coming quickly across the nation, seeks to do something else. It seeks to reduce women to second-class citizenship. It seeks to deprive us of control of our own bodies. It seeks to render us "permanently labeled" and the label resembles Hester Prynne's scarlet letter.

Sparks wrote that forcing doctors to discuss the sonograms "compels physicians to advance an ideological agenda with which they may not agree..." Well, happy day. Someone finally has figured out that not everyone sees the issue of abortion in the same way the right wing uber-nut jobs do.

It is a perfectly legal procedure. Period. It's the law of the land. And part of the Texas law that is the most distasteful (actually, ALL of it is distasteful)? In order to get out of having to listen to your doctor, you would sign a piece of paper saying your pregnancy was the result of rape or incest, or that the fetus had a "irreversible abnormality."

And this paper is part of your permanent medical record. Nice, huh? Let's just call any woman who desires a perfectly legal medical procedure a slut, a whore, or any other pejorative word that demeans her own ability to make decisions about her own body.

Of course Rick Perry is very mad. The state of Texas is appealing. Perry says that "every live lost to abortion is a tragedy." Ok, where's your solution? Where's your support for the woman, who may have a child who is irreversibly damaged? (It happens -- look at the conjoined twins in Chicago recently who were born to a 20-year-old single mother -- and who lived 18 months in a hospital, at a cost of millions of dollars.) What about the woman who's had a child and is unable to support it?

Under Perry's logic, that woman should just "pull herself up and make it work" because of course he HAS no solution. There's no strong plan out there by any of the right wing uber-nut jobs to help a woman once the "fetus" is a "baby."

After it's born, they want nothing to do with the woman who had a child out of the holy state of wedlock (if that's the case). And if she's had more children than she and her husband can support because they can't get or can't afford birth control? Well, that would be THEIR problem. Not the state's. The state which is gradually stripping women of all of their human rights. The state where, if Republicans have their way, you'd have no social support system. No food stamps; no welfare; no heating assistance (it does get cold in Texas); no housing subsidies.

This is the state with the governor who wanted to secede from the Union. If this is how he plans to run the country? Go ahead and secede. We don't want you here. And women certainly don't want you in the White House. Women with brains, that is.

I Write About Knitting Because...

...at the moment, it's easier than writing about politics and how screwed up this country is.

Scary Perry, Batty Bachmann, people going off on Obama for a vacation (he's taken less vacation than Shrub, by the way. Look it up.), and an economy where the rich WANT to pay more taxes and the Republicans think that "job creators" deserve tax breaks while people at poverty level "need to pay their fair share..."

That's why I'm writing about knitting. Sometimes, you need to bury your head in your stash and look at the fact that you are able to afford this hobby and you have the ability to create something beautiful with sticks and string.

Which is what I think I'm doing right now. I'm knitting another project, and this one has a reasonable chance of getting done in time for me to wear it in late summer! It's a pattern from Knit One Crochet Too called Tee for Two, pattern number 1652. If you can get your LYS to order it, please do! It's for "advanced beginners" and it's a lovely little tee shirt. Please order from your LYS so that they can stay in business and be your local yarn COMMUNITY. It's kind of like the bookstores. I love my online bookstore, and I have ordered yarn from a number of online retailers.

But I wouldn't give up my LYS for anything; even though she doesn't have the "vast and unlimited stock" of an online store, we have a community, and as a small-business owner in our larger community, she deserves our support.

Color 631, Lot 187

I'm doing it in the Ty Dy cotton. See here: it's called "Blueberry" and it's 100% cotton. The label says hand wash, but there are about 4 gals at the LYS who've made this and one does toss hers in the wash machine.

I figure that I have a gentle cycle, so even if I do that part, I can put it on a drying rack to dry.

You can see the luscious colors I've got here. The cotton has several colorways and this pattern takes advantage of the way the colors lay out.

One of the gals (the one who tosses hers in the wash) has altered this design to give her 3/4 length sleeves. I'm adding a few inches to the sleeve, but that's only because my office is always cold! You knit the front and back panels, then pick up stitches on either side and stitch the sides and sleeves. Seaming up the side and you're done.

Front panel

Here's a shot of the front panel; I have about 3 rows to finish it. You can see that the bottom has that big whack of pale blue on it. I'm thinking of breaking open another ball and starting the back panel with that same big swath of blue.

Yes, that's a little nit-picky. But when the rest of the world seems like it's going down the Big Crapper, it's nice to think that at least my knitting is something I can control!

Click on the photo to enlarge it; it rolls because it's all stockinette stitch, but once you pick up the stitches, you see the whole thing lay much nicer.

I was looking at the design, and it called for a cable cast on; well, I lengthened it. It's a cropped shirt, and there's NOTHING on my belly that needs to see the light of day, thank you!! So I added 2" to the bottom. That necessitated me using a long-tail cast on because it's more elastic than the cable cast on. So, as I was looking at the cable cast-on directions in my knitting reference book, I noted that the author said, "when I use long tail, I make my first row a purl row so that the cast-on edge lays flatter."

Well. Okey-dokey. I did that. And you know what? It doesn't curl nearly as bad as my stockinette hat did! Look at the bottom of that photo: it's darned-near flat!

Reading. Gotta love it! Had I not been dithering about that cast-on, I'd have missed that portion of the book and I probably would've been muttering about the "%&$* rolled edge" as I went on.

Of course, picking up and knitting the sides? That forces the front and back panels to lay flatter anyway, because the sides are knitted long-wise. The whole thing is very "painterly" and is a sweater that's easily 3-season-wear. And I can seriously think about making it in Ty Dy wool, or in a more autumnal colorway. Or even my favorite Cascade Ultra Pima Cotton - where I could use solids and take advantage of the texture of the yarn itself and that gorgeous sheen that this yarn has.

Please patronize your local yarn stores. Please knit. It's very calming. In a nerve-wracking environment, knitting is like mental yoga. It's something we can hang onto, it creates garments and useful things. And it keeps us centered.

Making of a Pillow...

I can't remember who I've told what, so I'll start from the beginning.

Unfortunately, our LYS owner (LYS = Local Yarn Store for the un-knitterly crowd) was diagnosed with a melanoma that had spread. She had originally sought treatment for what she was told was a sinus infection.

The sinus infection got so bad that she was losing feeling on her left side...never a good sign! So they rushed her to the ER with "the worst headache ever" and they found 2 brain tumors, plus a spot on her lung (she's a smoker).

The brain tumors were taken out and they're not really worrying about the spot on the lung now, because there were actually FOUR brain tumors, but two were quite small and they thought they could zap them with radiation.

That has not turned out to be the case. Soooooooooooo. To help her out, those of us in the LYS community at her shop have all been pitching in to do what we can. Some are working in the shop; others come in to provide a bathroom break for those manning the register, or to sit with folks and help newbies, etc.

And to honor our friend, we had the great idea to make a lap robe for her. She didn't want a full afghan. There were already 12 knitters for the squares, taken from a "Great American Afghan" book (I can't cite the source because I don't have the book). Anyway, some of us thought we'd make pillows. Just little 12" squares for her to use at chemo or at home when her neck ached or she needed back support.

Eggplant Cascade

We are all using Cascade 22o superwash wool. Here's what I started:

As you can see, it's 2 balls. The actual squares take 1 ball, but I figured for a pillow, you do need 2 sides! I'd rather have a knitted pillow than put a knitted piece in a fabric frame. My sewing skills aren't that fantastic.

We all mostly chose different colors and I think it'll be stunning when it's done. If I can get a picture of it, I'll post it later on.

My pillow is a simple one. Double moss stitch, one of my favorite 'basic' stitches because it's got lots of texture, makes an interesting swath of stitching and looks much more complex than it really is! It's a 4-row repeat and I got the pillow finished in about a month, which may be long, but hey - I work for a living!!

Double Moss Stitch

I started it on the semi-circular needles, but quickly switched to circulars, just to keep control of it. If you click on the picture, you can see that the stitches look as if they're going diagonally, and almost like mini-cables.

This was a very fast pattern, and I really like the eggplant color. She likes earthy tones, so this will fit right in.

I made an "envelope" - I decided at the point pictured here that I wasn't willing to struggle with sewing all 4 sides together, or having to figure out how to crochet it all. It blocked out beautifully and I did a 27" long piece of fabric.

I bought a 12" square pillow form from the local craft store; it's washable if needed, and of course the yarn is as well. I wrapped it with a 4 or 5" flap on it and then used a mattress stitch to close it.

Mattress Stitch to sew up sides

Not the knitting mattress stitch; the crewel work mattress stitch, otherwise known as a buttonhole stitch if you've ever done hand-sewn buttonholes. I have. Only because I couldn't ever figure out the buttonhole attachment on my sewing machine.

The mattress stitch in crewel and hand sewing resembles a backward "L" and you come up at the bottom, hold onto the thread, then stick the needle in at the top and catch the bottom of the L on the way down. It's complex - Google it, but I can tell you that once you get it, you really get a rhythym going and it's quite easy to master.

Clicking on the top picture will give you a good idea of the color of the yarn, too. I think that the pictures were a little dark, but that was depending on where I took them.

I just fluffed it up and didn't bother stitching down the flap - it's long enough and it won't come apart. Here's the completed pillow:   As you can see, the pillow form showed through a bit, but when you're looking at it without a flash attachment, it looks just fine.

If I wanted to be fancy, I could've made a pillow form cover out of purple fabric and THEN put the envelope over it. But that's a little more than I wanted to do. Besides, we want to give her the ensemble this week, and we all needed to get our act together!

Here's a final shot of the double moss stitch up close. If you have a chance, add this stitch to your arsenal. It's lovely and easy. And it's something that you can use for cuffs, a sweater band, a scarf -- just a great and great-looking utility stitch that can be used in many ways.

One thing I've learned from this: If you have someone who maybe doesn't want or need a shawl, a pillow is a great idea. Whether for someone seriously ill who may be having treatment or maybe even as a baby gift for a nursing mom: it's an idea somewhat out of the box, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Just a Small Question...

As Batty Bachmann gloats over her win in the Iowa Straw Poll (which poll, remember, gave us Pat Buchanan and other luminaries of the GOP)...

She blathers on and on (and on and on and on and on and on ...) about her expertise and "post graduate work" as a tax attorney and has a proposal to put America in a "globally competitive" position by lowering corporate taxes to an all-time low - "to help create jobs."

So, my question is this: Create jobs? OK. Tell me WHERE you plan to create those jobs?

Here in the US or overseas where corporations can pay less, pay no benefits, and better yet, PAY NO TAXES HERE?

If the jobs are not created HERE, our economy won't prosper. That's a bottom line you don't need a law degree (or postgraduate work...) to figure out.

IS it a good compromise...

...if everyone hates it?

Maybe. Whether or not it is, the Democrats have a rough row to hoe: they really need to knuckle down and get this message:

It's the jobs, stupid!!

NOTHING will fix this crisis until people are employed. Nothing. Period.


Here are some quotes you might want to think about:

"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves." --Abraham Lincoln

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit."  -- Harry S. Truman

Honest Abe, the Last Great Republican (actually, at this moment, Barry Goldwater is a flaming liberal in some Republicans' and Tea Partiers' eyes...) - had it right. The Republican party of today is being ruled (and/or ruined) by the Baggies. Either they're screwing us totally by their honest opinion that this country is in the toilet, or they're screwing us because of their monumental stupidity and willful ignorance.


Either way, the ultimate end of this equation is that we're screwed.


Obama has dropped his requirement that deficit reduction includes some revenue increases. Now, I'm no economist, and no math major, but I like to think I have common sense. And common sense tells you that if your expenses outpace your income, you're screwed.


If you don't include revenue increases -- the dreaded "T" word in the Baggies' vocabulary -- you won't be able to balance anything. And besides, the balanced budget has NOTHING to do with the budget deficit. Tossing in that constitutional amendment thing is insane. The budget is fundamentally unbalanced, and with our economic system, it always will be.


The President put Medicare on the table in order to avoid triggers. So.... the Baggies that are holding signs saying, "Get your government hands out of my Medicare" are screwed. But do you wonder if they realize that??

Even the Chicago Tribune, an admitedly right-wing newspaper, (honestly, if I didn't hate the Sun-Times as much, I'd switch to a paper with more left-leaning chops) is indicating that "...history shows ... enforcement mechanism don't always work." So. All this talk about a Super Congress pretty much gags me. The regular Congress can't get its act together. What makes anyone think that a "Super Congress" will get anything done?

Under this deal on the table, this special "bipartisan" (cough, gag, yark) panel will recommend steps to reduce the deficit. Any logjams by the panel or rejection of its recommendations by Congress will trigger a round of spending cuts.


Spending. Cuts. Again - here's the math. You have a family and your annual income is $100,000. So you have a budget. You have certain fixed expenses: mortgage, transport, utilities. Say that those expenses come to about $70,000. $100,000 - $70,000 = $30,000. Say you have kids you're putting through college, a vacation home, and credit cards. That amounts to $40,000. $30,000 - $40,000 = ($10,000). That's called a deficit. Say you could have "revenue" in the form of additional income from a renter that would equal $15,000 per year. ($10,000) + $15,000 = $5,000 --- you would GAIN $5,000 from that revenue increase.

Taxes. Increase the stinkin' taxes. Don't holler at me that we are "taxed enough already." Yes, what's left of the middle class is taxed enough already. But those folks making $250,000 or more? Not so much. But wait -- there's hope.


Look here:  http://blogs.forbes.com/leonardburman/2011/06/07/some-millionaires-want-to-pay-more-tax/


And here: http://www.workingamerica.org/blog/2011/04/14/patriotic-millionaires-want-to-pay-more-taxes/

There are actually people who feel that we should let the Bush tax credits expire. And those people are in the bracket that'd benefit from keeping those credits alive. And they say it's not fair. For the sake of the country. So who's more patriotic? The Baggies that don't get the concept that Medicare is a government program? And those who use the word "entitlement" as a swear word, who don't get the concept that yes, we are "entitled" to these things because we pay for them. Or these folks who do make more than I'll ever see in my lifetime, who say that the nation shouldn't get its funding from the most vulnerable.


Here's another thing: Those corporations who aren't paying any tax? (Yes, you read that correctly.) So if they're "tax-averse" since they have flocks of corporate tax lawyers combing the flawed tax codes for loopholes you could drive a herd of yaks through... Make a fee. This "head-count fee" is imposed for the benefits WE lose when THEY ship jobs overseas. The benefits of having the corporate deductions taken out of paychecks of US EMPLOYEES - those are the backbone of our economy. And it's logical: If you have a job, you spend money. If you don't have a job, you don't spend money because you don't have any.


Jeff Imelt, Obama's Jobs Czar (an irony of epic proportions) has just indicated that GE (the company he heads) will be shipping hundreds of jobs overseas. Nice job, Jeff. That gives me a nice warm fuzzy.

See the print above in red? IT'S THE JOBS, STUPID. We can't recover unless three things happen: we get jobs back here so we're able to spend money and start taxing more equitably.

Economists are also saying that the US figures debt incorrectly. The government bundles bondholder debt with intragovernmental debt. Bondholder debt is owed to outside bondholders: individuals, pension plans (!), foreign governments. Intragovernmental debt includes the obligations of the Treasury Department to some trust funds: basically what we owe ourselves. This is basically counting internal AND external debt in one lump, which is something that makes for fuzzy figuring. Public debt is the more important of the two: those outside bondholders hold 2/3 of the total US debt. Yep. TWO-THIRDS.


And one-third of the US debt is owed to our own citizens: IOUs to Social Security, Medicare, pension plans for federal workers and military personnel.

We won't be broke on August 3. Period. But this crisis in a tea pot does point out that there's a huge problem. It's only an "entitlement crisis" if we let it happen. Pay the IOUs to those most vulnerable --- it is our money, after all. We gave it to the US to hold in trust for when we needed it - when we are old and need the help the most.


Pay us back. Stop taking our money. Raise the taxes on those who can afford it, and the businesses who skip town without a conscience. That will help go a long way. It's not the sexiest solution but it does make sense.

Normally, I wouldn't side...

...with Michele Bachmann if I was offered anything in the world. In the galaxy, even.

And I don't agree with her goons roughing up reporters. That's just not cool.

However, the other thing that's not cool is to make a big deal out of this migraine story. You see, I've got migraines. I'm in my 50s and I have had them since my 20s. I've gone through every therapy (aside from surgery and Botox) that has been available, including some pretty heavy-duty narcotics.

Properly treated, migraines can have very little impact on your life. It sounds as if she's got the proper treatment. Heck, her health care is probably head-and-shoulders above most normal humans, so I'm sure she's got top doctors looking at her meds and what she needs to do.

That being said, stories telling of her missing work and missing votes are stories I can truly relate to. I've called my boss a couple of times (not many, thank God, because my migraines are about 90% controlled), and said, "I'm leaving now, while I can still see. I have a migraine."

And she gets it. Here's a picture of my migraines. Often, I'm awakened at 3 a.m. It starts with a "feeling" that something is "off." And it gets worse. All of a sudden, I get a stabbing pain over my right temple. Think Sweeney Todd with an ice-pick and having a VERY bad day. Then, it begins to affect the vision in my right eye. Often, that vision turns into a tunnel, and I literally can't open my eyelid.

If I have one that starts during the day, it starts with an aura. I wear glasses and have done so since 3rd grade; during the beginning of a migraine, my vision becomes hyper-acute. Like, I can see in super-3-D and everything is sort of leaping AT me. This is called "migraine with aura" and it's got the grand distinction of carrying a significantly higher stroke risk.

Then I become (in either the early a.m. headache or during the day headache) hyper-sensitive to sound. I want EVERYONE to just shut up. I want no birds tweeting, no leaves rustling, no footfalls anywhere within 100 yards of wherever I am.

It's so bad that when I'm lying on the couch, the kids come in, take one look, and say, "Oh-oh - migraine!" --- softly, though. Because they know I'll hurt them if they disturb me. Or at least open my left eye, the right one being perma-fused shut, and glare at them.

I want lots of ice - around my neck and around my head. I want lots of darkness. I want nobody to touch me. At. All. At some point, if I can manage it, I crawl onto the floor and lay face-up while my husband uses a massage technique that literally stretches my neck; the traction seems to help, and I don't know why. I'm only grateful that it does.

Then the nausea starts. It comes in rolls. If I manage to throw up, frankly, I feel  better, but often I can't because I can't eat or drink. Picture yourself on the worst roller coaster of your life... up and down and up and down and up and down. That's what my stomach is doing, and often I end up with dry heaves. Not fun.

I take a daily medication to keep them quiet, but occasionally, I do have break-through headaches. They can occur because of triggers: strong scents; stress; certain foods; weather; hormones; lack of sleep (and hey, I'm in my early 50s - guess what my sleep is like??). They can last from 2 hours to 3 days. Three. Days.

It took me a decade to get a doctor who understood and who could prescribe me something that wouldn't knock me out for days or hours. Particularly after I had kids, I really couldn't have a 3-day headache - I needed to function. I have honestly had doctors who said, with straight faces, "This is all in your head." I've been accused of malingering. Trying to avoid work. Being a baby. Believe me, when the bells of Notre Dame and the National Cathedral are going off in your head? You're not trying to avoid anything. Except the stuff going on in your head.

But you can't shut it off. You have to endure it, and I use "endure" deliberately. It's an endurance test to make it through a migraine. I'm blessed if it only lasts a couple of hours. I have often said to people, "You know, I'd just love a 'take 2 aspirin headache' one of these days." I don't get those. I get migraines.

I have a medication that I take at the first sign of the headaches, but I can't take it unless I'm home because it knocks me out. My friend has a similar one, and it doesn't affect her that way. I'm not so lucky. If I don't take this at the right time, however, the migraine goes on to its own conclusion and there is nothing that will stop it. And one of the odd side effects of this medication is that after I take it, I get seriously cold and my blood pressure tanks. Yeah, that's something to keep in mind, because I bet that's never happened to anyone who's popped a couple of aspirins for a "regular" headache. Migraine is a very complicated ailment, and it's something that the medical community is only now taking seriously.

I've heard that people say they want to kill themselves. I know what that feels like because I've often felt, "Hey, the best thing that could happen is that this kills me. Just so it's over."

Migraine treatment has come a long way. Bachmann's staffers have said that they've often closed doors and shut lights off. I can feel for her. I don't agree with anything she says, other than her remarks on migraines. Properly treated, they don't have to take over your life, but often you have no control over what a migraine does. If you want more information about migraines, check out this website: http://www.americanmigrainefoundation.org/ or this one, for another viewpoint: http://www.migraineresearchfoundation.org/ -- you can educate yourself on how bad these headaches really are, how many people suffer from them, and what's being done in medicine to help those who suffer from this condition.

This story is a minor distraction. She'll have to disclose her medical records as the process goes forward. We need to be paying attention to the weird stuff she is saying; the contradictions with "get rid of government programs" versus "my husband's therapy practice takes Medicare patients;" the contradiction of the farm subsidies she disclosed on paper but denies on tape.

Get past the headaches she has and look at the headaches she could cause if she's elected.

The Birthing of a Prayer Shawl...

I'm sad to report that my friend's son died last week. It's been a horrible week, with 2 wakes, 2 funerals and then finding out that a friend of mine - my LYS owner(!) has a spot on her lung and a 3 cm. tumor in her brain. She's a smoker -- or shall I say "former smoker" since the doctor in the ICU slapped a nicotine patch on her and said, "Your puffing days are over!"

So. I finished the prayer shawl, and I figured I'd set out a little "life cycle" on this one since it did take me the entire 18 months of Mark's illness to get this done.

Cascade Pima Cotton, garnet color

Here are the statistics: 1,100 yards of yarn. Cascade Pima Cotton, voted "yarn of the year" on a bunch of websites and in a flock of knitting magazines. Here's what it looked like pre-balling and pre-knitting. This has turned out to be the most popular yarn in my LYS. The shawl is actually my second project in this fiber, and it won't be my last. This yarn washes beautifully, holds color, stitches pop like crazy, and it drapes like a dream.

Shawl Version #1

So I started this and my initial idea was to do lace. I've always wanted to do lace; the baby car seat blanket was a simple lace, and I found what I thought was the perfect pattern. And I started. Here's the first go-round. It was a take on a "Little Arrowhead" pattern with a border of knit stitch to give it some stability.

Well. That didn't work out. I tried. Seriously tried. But I kept screwing it up and getting more and more frustrated. So I know that doing a prayer shawl is supposed to be a "meditative" experience, and it's hard to meditate when you are pitching a hissy fit because, for the 6th time, you missed a yarnover, or you have 3 extra stitches on your needle, and your written pattern says "...end with K1." This was about April, 2010. I remember blogging about how excited I was because as you can see with this yarn, the lace would have been fantastic.

Shawl Version #2

I frogged. Then I came up with this version, in June 2010... You can see that I took the border off. I rejiggered the pattern and I got this lovely rippled edge, and I was swimming along nicely.

But then, it screwed up again. Or actually, I  screwed up because when I went to the LYS to knit, all I needed to do was move my eyes off the directions or the knitting just once and it was toast.


I even had my LYS owner help me when I got so totally messed up that I was considering chucking the whole thing and not doing the project. Which I felt would've been a real let-down.

Pipes pattern. The other 2 were done in Stockinette Stitch. The first
I frogged. So I did more research on patterns. I looked at non-lace patterns, and I wanted stuff that I could do kind of robotically so that I could finally reach Knitting Zen and do this pattern for my friend.

Organ Pipes w/Stockinette Intervals

This is what I came up with. It's off a "Knit Stitch A Day" calendar, and it's called "Organ Pipes" which is appropriate since my friend is an organist.


I decided to alternate the pattern. This shawl took 5 balls of yarn, and I did 3 of them in the Organ StSt part went quickly, but the last one seemed. To. Take. For.....e....ver....


The Organ Pipes sections were 70 rows each, and the StSt parts were roughly the same - about a ball's worth of that stitch.

Organ Pipes close-up

This close-up was about June, 2011. I washed the complete shawl in my front-loading Maytag, on "delicate," in Ivory Snow baby wash, rinsed it and blocked it. Here's my blocking board - actually "playroom floor tiles" set on my office floor, with the door closed so Tippi didn't have access.

Blocked Shawl Overview

I have seen blocking board sets in catalogs that were hugely expensive. I know it's all in what you can afford, but to me, going to Menards or Home Depot to get these multi-colored tiles made more sense. They're interlocking, they're rubber, the colors don't run, and they're pretty much the same thing as the $80 ones I can buy. I can tailor these to the size I need, too, which is helpful. For the baby car seat blanket, I only needed 4. As you can see for this, I needed more!

Blocking Pins

You can see where I added the new balls; I need to work on how I do these transitions in a more effective way. Here's a close-up of how I pinned it. I went through 3 boxes of pins! I had a knitted edge on the StSt part, to keep it from rolling, so I needed to make sure that knitted edge was nice and straight. If you double-click on the picture, you can see the transition and the pins I used.


It was easy to lay out and gently tug into place. It took 3 days to dry, even though I did use the spin cycle on the Maytag. I tossed a clean bath towel (not a new one) in there, too. Both to grab the inevitable dog hair that all my projects collect, and to give the shawl something to bounce off. I didn't use a new one because I didn't want terry cloth fuzzies on the shawl! Enough that the dog hair was there!

Finished shawl

Here's the finished shawl, with the shawl pin I got. My friend is a very simple person. She likes straightforward speech, appreciates quality, but prefers plain styles with her clothes or jewelry. I think this fits the bill nicely. Again, double-click on the picture to see it in a larger size.


The Yarn Harlot says, in her book Knitting Rules, that knitters should keep notebooks or journals. Well, I've combined a notebook with a journal, and I have several going, depending on the projects I have. I will literally re-write the instructions to a pattern, and use the journal/notebook to make notes on how many rows it took me to get to "X" inches, any pattern changes, any techniques I acquired while doing the project. All that stuff that comes in handy when you do these kinds of projects. Because I agree with her: I'll never remember this stuff!! So when I knit my second sweater, I'll drag out the notebook I used, and check the notes I made, because I know what I would do differently now that I've done one sweater already. And the green t-shirt I'm knitting will get the same treatment. I'll know that I kind of "fudged" the first 3" before the waist decreases, and I have to do the same on the right side, since the left is slightly more than 3"... you can bet that I will NOT remember that.

My notes

So here's a shot of my current notebook... Kind of a peek inside my knitterly mind; notes on what I did and the date the shawl was finished. The date the shawl was finished was about 2 days after Mark died.


You can see my scribbles and see that at first, I was only going to do 2 panels of the Organ Pipes pattern. I'm glad I didn't; all that Stockinette would've driven me round the bend. Mindless knitting to be sure, but good vibes don't come from mindless, dull, boring stretches of knitting!


I still haven't given it to her; we haven't caught up with each other yet. I have several copies of the DVD of the Mass that my Hubby did for her. She had elderly relatives who couldn't be at the service, and since we've done this before, it was no great shakes, though Hubby really did want to join us in the funeral choir.


Finishing this shawl is kind of bittersweet. My LYS owner will not see it, since she's still in the hospital and I'm hoping to get it to my friend sooner rather than later. But I can print up a nice picture of it. I'm thinking now of what else I'd like to do with that yarn. I can see another quick summer tank top or maybe a 3/4 sleeve plain top with a nice bottom band. I know my Knit Pattern A Day calendar will have plenty of ideas for me for the bottom band of a sweater. Just have to finish a few more WIPs and then on to something new.


I would love to hear from people who've received prayer shawls. What did you like? What would you have liked on them? (Ability to tie it; ability to button; a pocket??) I don't have any other shawls planned yet. But you never know.

We Survived 4th of July...

...and considering our idiot neighbor a block over who thought shooting off M-80s and M-120s was a good idea.... well, let's just say it's rough pulling your dogs off the ceiling when you're busy ducking because your large picture window is visibly wobbling. Luckily, a neighbor yet another block farther away was able to give the local police a decent location, and the cops started to increase their presence so that by the actual 4th of July, it was not as horrible.

My back door neighbor is a Navy veteran and when he says it sounds "like a combat zone" then I have to take that more seriously than I would otherwise.

Prayer Shawl in Pima Cotton

So, this long weekend saw several things accomplished. I'm 30 rows away from finishing the prayer shawl; which is good because unfortunately, it'll be needed soon.

I've been plugging away on it in earnest for several weeks now, and while there are speedier knitters, I'm not one of them. I am moving along as fast as I can, and remembering the premise: speed, in this case, is not the objective.

Mindfulness is the objective. Sounds like my last post? Well, in this case, doing a prayer shawl is a meditation on the person for whom it is intended. It's the one time that I really don't want to be a "product" knitter - interested in pushing out a product just to take it off my "WIP" list (work-in-progress).

While I can appreciate those who have a "stash" of prayer shawls, that's just not me. I make them for specific individuals. For example, the church ladies in my parish have a stack of "prayer blankets" and I think that's a fine ministry. That's the way they want to do it. I choose to make them differently, and that's ok.

Another addition to my knitting arsenal is the yarn pot Kid #2 did. Actually, I bought the clay and asked him to help me, but since clay is one of his hobbies, he just did it. Mainly because I bugged him...but that's a mom's right, right?

Yarn pot

Lid closed

Here's what he came up with. The clay is self-drying, so he just used some of my ornament paint, plus he rolled a clear glaze around the inside. He did a nice job; it's rustic, and while the top isn't a perfect fit, I don't care. It keeps the dog hair out! Another view shows it closed; I know he wants to do another version and I told him I'd be happy to be his "test market." Frankly, while I appreciate the lovely pots I see on Etsy, I'm tickled to know that all this one cost me was a box of clay and some sculpting tools. We also found out that the silicon mat I bought was useless. Wax paper seems to work well.

4th of July bandanas

River decked out

The next thing that got done (almost all done) were bandanas for the dogs. Since I take Tippi to do therapy work, I figured maybe I could deck her out to make her seem more approachable. We went to the Local Retirement Home on July 5, and she had to have something to wear, right? So I had purchased some fat quarters at the new JoAnn Fabric location and cut the bandanas to size. With a giant-sized snap on it, they fit her and River. Quinn, they're a little big on, but that's ok. Here are some pictures of the end product. The last bandana has to wait till I fix the tension on my sewing machine...and rip out the grosgrain ribbon that's on there... (sigh). I'm going to take the chunks of the fat quarters that are left, and (gulp!) "quilt" them together, making a "crazy bandana" for them to wear. I have fat quarters in various girly prints, since Tippi is often considered a boy dog at the Local Retirement Home.

Quinn's bandana

As you can see, we can literally tie Quinn's on her. I wanted to make them to be able to be used on all the dogs, so since River and Tippi are the largest, we went from there. I am anxious to work with the rest of the fabric, and I hope I'll have a nice selection for the coming months.

I heard on my elkhound list that there's some breed-specific fabric out there. It's holiday themed, so I'll be ordering at least a fat quarter for each breed! We do have some holiday scarves for the girls, and they'll tolerate them, so why not?

The final project that got done was the reupholstery of my chair. Now here's the story on that. We bought a La-Z-Boy couch and chair. The couch is lovely, except my feet don't reach the floor. Everyone else fits in that thing but me! So we figured we'd buy a chair to go along with it; and we found a lovely sort-of-Queen-Anne chair that I liked. Perfect reading and knitting chair. Except that the fabric didn't last 2 years, and it ripped right where the back of your knees hit. Now I could see if it ripped on the arm or where you might have something in your pocket, but I don't generally store things at the back of my knees!

Mechanically, the chair was sound. So I went to the local designer store and they assured me they could do the work on the chair. What they didn't tell me was that I'd have a coronary in the process. The chair originally cost me about $500.

My Chair

This is what it ended up looking like, with fabric that has been "wear tested" for 30,000 repetitions. So we can get into and out of the chair 30,000 times before it shows wear, so they tell me.

The first fabric I picked was my absolute favorite. But the gal made a mistake and miscalcuated. The original fabric I wanted would've cost me $800+ to have done. That's $300 more than the chair was worth new. And it's not like this is a family heirloom.

So we re-worked it and came up with this fabric. Well. It still cost me way more than the chair is worth, but it was closer to $700 than the other one. I'm not particularly happy for a couple of reasons: I liked the other fabric, in spite of its coronary-inducing cost and I was upset that she got the price so far wrong. And I didn't expect an upholstery project to cost this much just in general. This fabric is lovely; it's a little more stiff than I like, but maybe that's where the 30,000 "sits" come in! It's also a little more formal than I wanted for our very casual household.

Would I do this again? Well, not for a chair at that price. If the chair had been leather or had been a family piece, yeah, probably. But now, I wish I'd have gone with what Hubby said: Give the chair to Kid #1 when he moves out (with a makeshift cover on the bottom cushion) and buy a new one. The only thing I objected to with that was that I resented having a La-Z-Boy (who're big on advertising quality) that fell apart like that after only a few years. What if we'd bought the identical chair and 2 years after that, it did the same thing? No value there. If this fabric does last the way the designer said, then maybe this is worth the investment. In spite of the sticker shock.

On the plus side, it does match River, and she likes to sit next to it. Sometimes partially under it. So I guess I did make the right choice. Now we'll see if we can keep the elkhounds off it.

Are You Mindful? I'm Not...But I Should Be

As always, I cover about 4 things at once in each post.

First, as an anniversary gift, Hubby got me a Kindle. It's the WiFi one, and knowing him, it probably does about 6 other things that'll take me a year to figure out.

So I loaded about 9 or 10 books on it, including some freebies (I'm good with freebies). I've finished 3 books, which isn't unusual because I read like others breathe, and this is just a good way to take the books with me. I'm probably going to be doing more travel in the next few years; I'm president of our local Zonta Club (go here to look at what Zonta does: www.zonta.org) and I'm also involved on a multi-state level, so it'll be easier to haul the Kindle than it will the books I travel with.

When I first contemplated the Kindle, I said, "I'd get it and load all my reference books on it, making another shelf or two in my office for 'real' books." Well, I find that my much-thumbed reference books are just fine on their own. I can find stuff in my Chicago Manual of Style (15th edition) quicker than I can even find it in THEIR online edition! I have the 16th edition, just haven't tabbed it yet.

So I'm reading a new book now, The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese monk. My yoga teacher has read us several of his books. We do a yin practice, which means we hold poses for a long time; in our class, it's only 5 minutes, but in some practices, it can be 10 or more minutes. Well, you need to concentrate on your breath while you're doing that, but our teacher also uses readings to center us on our mats. That way, while in Dragon (a lunge I particularly dislike) or Saddle (also one of my "not very favorite" poses), you glom onto her words, and these words usually remind you why you're there in the first place!

Anyway, Thich Nhat Hanh wrote this particular book - but it's mainly a long letter. And while the whole book talks about "mindfulness," I found some of it particularly interesting especially in our multi-tasking society.

If you're not doing 8 things at once, apparently, you're really not "living in the moment" - or so says popular wisdom. Thich Nhat Hanh turns that idea inside out, and I rather like what he's saying.

Here's a quote: "When you are washing the dishes, washing the dishes must be the most important thing in your life. Just as when you're drinking tea, drinking tea must be the most important thing in your life. When you're using the toilet, let that be the most important thing in your life."

OK, stop giggling and think about it for a minute. Seriously. How many times a day do you have one thing going on on the computer screen, a cell phone vibrating, a colleague at your door, a report open on your desk, and what're you thinking about? "What will I do for dinner? What are the things the kids need when I get home? What about that meeting for next week?"

It's not that we are being told to not plan ahead. In our society, we really need to plan our work, etc. But this passage really took hold for me after a conversation with my mother. She said she wanted us kids to "spontaneously come visit" ... and I said to her, "The only 'spontaneous' thing that happens in my house are bathroom calls..." and sadly, that's true. My life, even now with grown kids, is circumscribed, and there's very little spontaneity in my schedule.

That's sad, isn't it?

Taking what Thich Nhat Hanh said, then, we sort of come full circle. I'm feeling like I'm having ADD over everything. When I'm reading, I need to check e-mails. When I'm knitting, I feel like I have to have the television on. When I'm talking to Hubby, I need to have a magazine in my hand.

The book says: "Each act must be carried out in mindfulness. Each act is a rite, a ceremony." Of course, he's talking of monks in a monastery, but how can we translate that to our own lives?

Personally, I can stop having seven things going on at once. When I knit, I should knit. When I'm eating, it should be at a table and not in front of the television set (which will also do my diet a world of good!!). When I'm checking e-mails, do I have to respond in Pavlovian fashion each time the computer dings? Probably not. In fact, definitely not!

My yoga teacher is always talking to us about mindfulness. We had a class on that. We took 3 raisins. Held them in our hand. And then put ONE RAISIN in our mouth. And then just let it sit there. Feeling the "raisin-ness" of it. Yeah, go ahead, think that's maybe a little out there, but consider this: It's like those diets that tell you to chew your food 25 times.

Have you ever tried to chew ONE RAISIN 25 times? The point of this exercise was to make us think about food, instead of shoving it mindlessly into our mouths because the clock said it was lunchtime. Or because we were bored. Or because the craving we had for "food" was actually "thirst" and water would've sufficed.

I think "thirst" is a good word here, too. We "thirst" for time. We "thirst" to manage everything in our lives and we've been seduced into thinking that by doing 6 things at once, we are doing that. But we're not. I find now that I have less time to do the things I need to get done. And then I wonder: Do I "need" to do this stuff, or is it my own attempt at managing everything?

I don't advocate a monastic existence. It's not where I'm at right now. And it may never be.

But this book has given me something to think about. It's a little volume, so if you're in the bookstore or you have an e-reader, download it and just read through it. It'll certainly give you something to contemplate, and that may not be a bad thing. Particularly if you turn everything else off and devote a little quiet time to what he's saying.

Take a moment, especially since it's summer, to lay on the grass and look up at the clouds. And breathe. In. Out. Repeat.

It can only do you good.

Conformity Isn't Necessarily Good...

In today's Chicago Tribune, there's a front-page article about how the State of Illinois is the only state to not have concealed-carry laws. Now that Wisconsin is on the brink (and I use that phrase deliberately) of passing concealed-carry laws, the pressure for Illinois to follow the herd will increase dramatically.

In full disclosure, I have nothing against guns. I used to own a .357 Magnum. My brother and I would regularly go to target practice and I found that I actually preferred his Browning 9mm - it was easier for me to hold. And I'm a pretty good shot.

But that's not the point. So far, Illinois and Washington, DC are the only places in the US that do not allow concealed-carry. And you know what? I'm ok with that.

Guns are not the problem. People are the problem. I applaud Governor Quinn's veto threat to the bill proposed last month. But it's scary because the legislation only failed to pass by six votes. That's the closest it's come.

I don't want "concealed-carry" laws. Period. There is no up-side to this. I don't care that the law is, according to its Democrat sponsor, "...so watered down  that you could only have it on your person walking around or in your own house."  It's the walking around part that gives me pause. The bill's "watering down" came down to this:

The bill would have prohibited concealed weapons in bars, restaurants, certain businesses, courtrooms, schools and college campuses. Chicago's ban, overturned by the US Supreme Court, forced the city to rewrite the law to allow weapons to only be kept in the home, not in public. They're banned in garages, front porches, yards, hotels, dorms and group living facilities.

Still... you can carry it. It's not the guns, really. It's truly the people. I can't see that this will help "keep people safe" which is the argument the NRA and other pro-carry people will force down our throats.

Some guy who owns a gun store (go figure) says, "Are 49 states wrong and we're right?"

Well. Yeah, maybe. Ever heard of "groupthink"?? Let's turn this on its head: Just because 49 states have this law, does it mean we have to go along with them? No. Not really.

Guns can only exacerbate an already tense situation. So you've got the gun. (A) do you know how to use it? and (B) do you know WHEN to use it?

And (C) --- are you prepared for the very real consequences? Bullets kill people. Bullets maim people. If your aim is off, "collateral damage" isn't just a video game...it's real.

When I was a criminal justice major, even though my field wasn't law enforcement, we all had to view and participate in the "Shoot, Don't Shoot" program. What an incredible eye-opener.

Of course, we were all in our 20s, studying for what we thought would be our life's work. And we knew ourselves. You can see where this is going, right?? Well, after the experience, our instructor, a former cop from St. Louis, debriefed us. And we knew then: Guns are for real. Bullets are for real. And in 90%+ of the situations presented to us as civilians, we didn't have a clue. We were wrong.

IF concealed-carry passes, then I suggest the following: tighten up the training and requirements. You must recertify every year. You must be licensed. You must have a "waiting period" before the purchase is consummated, so that a complete background check can be done on you. This background check should be nation-wide, not just state-wide -- this prevents someone coming into Illinois with a record as long as my arm, and buying a gun because he or she can waltz into the local gun show or Wal-Mart. And you must carry additional insurance for your home and auto, because if you do do something stupid, the people you harm must have appropriate means of redress.

Of course, I see a whomping new market for insurance companies: "So, you have a gun at home? Are you licensed? Have you been trained? Is your training up to date? If so, your premium is $XX... If NOT, then your premium goes up 50%. Your premium, by the way (on both your home AND auto) will be going up 200% anyway, because you are now a higher risk to us. You will need to pay those premiums or we will drop you. And of course, under state law, your auto at least MUST be insured."

This will, of course, make pro-gun people scream like crazy. "We have a right to carry guns."

And I have a right to not worry about being shot by some idiot channeling John Wayne or Annie Oakley.