whatifknits

I got the Dishrag Tag box today. In the back of my mind, I’d been wondering whether I could manage same-day turn around. I knew that if the box came on a Thursday I couldn’t, because for some reason Thursday mail never arrives before five or six o’clock. But today being a Monday, I picked the box off the front porch at 1:30 and got to work. I admit that the dishrag I knit is merely utilitarian: knit-on-the-diagonal garter stitch. To jazz it up, I switched from variegated to solid yarn at the midway point. Nonetheless, I am deeply chuffed because I got it in the mail at four o’clock! I rock! Cotton Commandoes rock! If only all of us could channel all our competitive energy into dishrag knitting, beating our swords into needles. Imagine a world where international disputes get settled by a knit-off.

My Phoenix scarf is finished.

I made up this two-row stitch to try out with this particular skein from Tallgrass Yarns. I wanted a stitch that mixed Ks and Ps for maximum color-blending and that would have a clear vertical line to it.
Cast on 27 stitches (or any multiple of 5 + 2)
Odd rows: *K2, P1, K1 through the back loop, P1* repeat across, ending with K2
Even rows: *K2, P3* repeat across ending with K2
That’s all there is to it. My version used one 240-yard skein of worsted-weight yarn.

And now I must turn back into my everyday, non-dishrag-knitting self and finish all the work I tossed to one side when the box arrived. I’ve got a three-hour class to teach tomorrow.

P.S. Kudoes to Chris, who suggested Elann for yarn for Silver Belle. I’m looking at two of their aran-weight yarns. One is 80% wool/20% alpaca; the other is 50% wool/50% llama. Has anyone had experience working with either of these? How do they feel next to the skin?

P.P.S. Not only did Laurie send me a great dishrag in the Dishrag Tag box (a pretty yellow/white ombre), she also sent four lovely stitch markers and chocolate, the last of which may help explain my knitting speed. What wonderful treats!

Have you been to Vogue Knitting’s web site and checked out the free patterns from their 25th Anniversary cover series? A great many of them lean toward the shapeless, but I am absolutely in love (don’t worry, Melissa knows, and she’s confident it’s no threat) with Debbie Bliss‘s “Silver Belle.”

The construction is fascinating, if a bit daunting. The peplum is knit from the hem up, with cable extensions at each end that wind up just inside the button bands. There’s also a cable extension up the center back. Then each sleeve/body side is knit from the wrist inward and they’re joined to the peplum, after which come the button bands.

I spent a bit of time yesterday trolling about the discount yarn sites (Little Knits, Webs, KnitPicks) looking for some bright moss green (like Oregon) or grey solid-colored alpaca or part-alpaca, but no luck. I want alpaca because that feels good to me, so I know I’ll really wear the sweater once (if?) it’s done; I want discount because this sweater takes about 2,000 yards in my size, so if I make it I’m looking at buying 2+ bags of yarn. If you have any hot tips or suggestions, please let me know.

The weather in Oakland is lovely just now—sunny with a breeze off the bay that keeps things from getting too hot—so Melissa and I headed off to an Oakland A’s game in the afternoon. It was a give-away day, and we each now own a Nick Swisher belt buckle.

They are large and very, very shiny and will come in quite handy if either of us decides someday to take up steer wranglin’.

Since I am a knitter and this is a knitting blog, I took my yarn to the game—a one-pound cone of apple-green Peaches ‘n Creme. I tried to get my knitting into this shot taken by the “Game Day” photographer, but didn’t hold it up high enough. Sorry to let our side down.

By the way, that is an Albuquerque Isotopes hat I’m wearing.

I finished one dish cloth and got most of the way through another, and the A’s won 2-1, despite getting only two hits to Anaheim’s eight.

I kept going on the knitting last night, finishing up my Phoenix scarf (pic and pattern tomorrow) and the first of a set of four variations on a theme for a pattern I’m hoping to find a home for once they’re all done. This afternoon I’m off to a “tasting” of Uruguayan yarns at Article Pract.

Our “mystery” road signs have all been accounted for, the Teardrop Flags were a massive success.

Mandie had the first correct answer, idetifying Troutdale as the home of Tad’s Chicken ‘n Dumplins.

Lin came next, placing the Egyptian Theatre in Coos Bay.

Nicole figured out that Bell Buoy Crabs is in Seaside.

And Lella solved our last mystery, tracking the penguin to his home in Cascade Locks.

Amazingly enough, none of our winners lives in Oregon—in fact, two of them live outside the U.S. Viva Google! Viva winners!

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[Note: There is no knitting content in this post, so feel free to skip it—but be advised that if you do you’ll be missing out on some of the coolest gigantic roadside art ever.]

Who in her right mind would drive past this sign without pulling over?

The mighty Tyrannosaurus beckons Siren-like and I am helpless, forking over my $7 admission without batting an eye.

(Check out the man-udder on this guy; Damian would be jealous.)

Prehistoric Gardens is just south of Port Orford on Oregon’s coast. While clearly an amateur effort, these dinosaurs have been sculpted with real love, passion even, and a commitment to scientific integrity. Sculptor E.V. Nelson consulted with academics and did research on his own, trying to assure that these dinosaurs are accurate in terms of size and proportions. He provides context with several large signs outlining the evolution of plant life (that made life on land, and hence dinosaurs, possible) and the geologic epochs in which these creatures lived.

We were lucky enough to visit the gardens on a drippy, misty day, so the setting was perfect for an encounter with these megafauna.

We saw Triceratops, both adult…

…and junvenile…

…Ankylosaurus…

…Elasmosaurus…

…the Pterodactyl…

… and Archelon.

We even escaped with a little dinosaur of our own.

Melissa found this baby Stegosaurus in the gift shop. I have named her Rowena.

If you, too, have been enchanted by this lost world, you may want to check out the following links:
• A photo collage of the dinosaurs
• Prehistoric Gardens map
• A history of Prehistoric Gardens and its (sadly no longer in operation) “sister” Thunderbeast Park
• A complete set of photos of all the dinosaurs (these photos predate a recent, and more subtle, repainting of the creatures)

[Tomorrow, some knitting. I promise.]

One of the joys of a road trip is stumbling across all sorts of interesting signs and other oddments along the way. Melissa and I have a particular weakness for old-school neon. Here are a few of our favorites.

The anonymous penguin drive-in.

Two views of the trés sophistiqué Egyptian Theatre.


I think I took a few years off Melissa’s life when I swerved to the side of the road to get these shots.

Henny-Penny’s worst nightmare.

What makes crabs crabby.

So here’s the contest: the first person to leave a comment naming the correct location for each of these signs gets a hand-knit dishcloth with a surprise knitting goodie thrown in. That’s four signs, four dishcloths, four chances to win.

In addition to the above signs we also spotted Frankenlincoln in Ashland.

Yep, his head was stolen, then replaced.

Sadly, it was not Tuesday when we passed through Medford, Oregon.

I will still be haunted by the imagined pleasures of Ladies’ Day at Penzoil when I’m on my deathbed.

Still life with dishcloth and cone.

We left Portland early in the morning, drove west, and had breakfast at the Pig ‘n Pancake in Seaside. We were hungry by then, but we’d have stopped even if we weren’t.


We did not buy one of these plush pigs, but we did purchase a wooden pig (with pancakes) to hang on our Christmas tree next year.

Some of you may remember back in the day, when Sambo’s got with the program and reinvented itself as “A Taste of Baker’s Square.” Apparently there was a hold out.

We were relieved not to see any Sambo depictions, but we did find the tigers rather jaunty.

We’ve been careful not to show this picture to Damian or we’ll never hear the end of how he needs pants and why do we insist on denying him.

Sparky would be so chuffed if he had a parasol like this one.

And if you think some of these images are wild, just wait until you see what’s in store for tomorrow.

Yesterday I started teaching my summer session course, Shakespeare Santa Cruz: Writing in Response to the Bard. I felt some dread as the start date approached—that my summer would feel as if it were ending early, that the work would be a burden. Now that I’m actually teaching the class, I’m pleased to report that I’m enjoying it every bit as much as last year.

I have seventeen students: about one-third are theatre majors; the remaining two-thirds come from a wide variety of majors and are taking the course because it satisfies UCSC’s upper-division writing requirement. The students attend three of the four plays being produced by Shakespeare Santa Cruz (The Tempest, Much Ado about Nothing, and either The Playboy of the Western World or Endgame). I give them short, non-essay, thinking-writing assignments every night (Explain how you would design the sets and costumes for the first two acts of Tempest. Tell me what you know about yourself as an academic writer. Find an effective theatrical review and explain why you think it works as well as it does.) We cover the life of Shakespeare, see excerpts from as many different film/video versions of each play as possible (today we looked at this, this, this, and this), examine what goes into producing a play, and learn different techniques for writing about the theatre. The students each write and rework three play reviews. They also do group projects that describe the history of the production of one of Shakespeare’s plays and propose a novel production they’d like to see mounted.

Sometimes my job is an absolute blast!

In other news, today marks the start of Dishrag Tag! My team, the Cotton Commandoes, are off and running. Emily Ivey of Yarn Miracle has divided us into teams of ten. Instead of passing a baton, we pass a box with cotton yarn and a knitted dishrag inside, removing and keeping the yarn and dishrag we receive, then knitting a new dishrag and mailing that and different yarn on to another team member. I’m “running” second on my team an expect to receive the box sometime between Friday and Monday—then I’ll have to drop everything and knit like a madwoman, so I can get that box back in the post and avoid letting my team down. Fun, fun, fun—Emily is a genius for thinking this up!

Who knew that Bea would warm up so to the paparazzi? As a matter of policy, Bea trusts no-one—not even me. (Just because I haven’t yet brandished a chainsaw at her, doesn’t mean it’s not on today’s to-do list.) She demonstrates her affection from a distance. If I’m on the bed knitting, she sits across the room from me, stretched out comfortably and purring. If I’m reading in the backyard, she curls up beneath some bushes, once again purring. But when Melissa and I started taking photos this weekend, she just went all lovey-dovey on us.

She allowed us to look at her.

She rolled about coquettishly in front of us.

She started giving nuzzles to random inanimate objects.

She may be paranoid, but apparently she’s also aware of the value of good P.R.

Although her undercoat is grey, to look at Bea is black, black, black. Outdoors on a sunny day, she seems like a little tear in the fabric of the space-time continuum, resembling nothing so much as nothing itself.

She’s just six years old at present. I have great hopes that she’ll become more of a lap cat as she ages. I would love to feel the weight of her all calm and solid on my legs and to run my hand over her back again and again. For now, I mostly content myself with looking.

• Best line I overheard during our road trip [female hiker to male hiker], “It’s not actually the baby that smells; it’s the diaper.”

• Melissa’s comment as we hiked Cascade Gorge, “Oregon is just like Galicia, but with less cow poo and fewer flies.”

• My nomination to be included in the great list of life’s little pleasures: the day you change the bathroom air-freshener because your nose hasn’t yet learned to tune the new scent out. Snifferific!

• I am officially halfway through Clue 3 on MS3. (Am I the only one who thinks of MST3K whenever I type MS3?)

• Mighty Bezoar is preparing for a Tuesday Mewsday appearance.

You may not be able to tell, but the boxes behind her contain my ball winder and swift.

We had 41 entries in the Guess-Our-Mileage Contest, with guesses ranging from 759 to 2,200 miles. Melissa and I had an actual mileage of 1,732.2 miles, which makes Steffaroni our winner with a stunningly accurate guess of 1,735. She was off by less than three miles!

Other guesses coming within 20 miles of our actual mileage included
Sherri H. at 1,736
Karen (of Unknitted) at 1,725
Andrea at 1,734
Clarabelle (of clarastitchandtotalbitch) at 1,750

Steffaroni will be receiving her choice of two skeins of the hand-crafted Oregon yarn from the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center (you’ll need to tell me which ones you want!). And, as honorable mention prizes, I’ll be sending hand-knit dishcloths to Sherri H., Karen, Andrea, and Clarabelle. Look for an email from me asking for your mailing addresses!

I was delighted upon my return home to discover that I’d won some gorgeous HipKnits lace-weight cashmere in a draw over on Lin’s blog, Queen of the Froggers. Check this out:

Not only did Lin send me this absolutely beautiful yarn, she also enclosed a hand-stitched sachet and a lovely enameled stitch marker. I feel thoroughly spoiled. I’m planning to order a pattern from Pink Lemon Twist for the yarn, either Scheherazade or Moon Dance. Opinions, anyone?

I got a bit of knitting done during our 1,732.2 mile sojourn, and now have photos to prove it. First, I worked up a “Don’t Mess with Texas” washcloth for one our hosts, LeeAnn (mother of the ever-dapper Dinsdale), who is a Texas native. We had to take this shot in a rather poorly lit motel room, so you may need to squint to see the design.

A much clearer picture—with the pattern—can be found here at Knitting Memories. (I knit a kitty cloth as well, pattern also from Knitting Memories, and several cloths from Leisure Arts’ Garden Dishcloths to Knit.)

I got to work on a scarf using a skein of Tallgrass Yarn (colorway “Phoenix”) from the Procrastiknitter.

I’ll post another pic and pattern once I’ve finished it.

Finally, I made it a bit past Clue 1 on Mystery Shawl 3.

I’m absolutely delighted with the way my not-as-directed fiber choice is working out. Hooray for knitting without a net!

I finished Clue 2 two nights ago. (Note that the color is the first photo is more accurate than the color in this photo.)

Now I’m logging off so I can dig into Clue 3 while listening to the ballgame.

Congratulations to all the winners!

When Melissa attended PS 5 on Staten Island, she learned this song:

Let the ball roll,
Let the ball roll,
No matter where it may go.
For, though you may get many a ball,
You never can get a new leg.

When my sibs and I were growing up, a favorite book was Struwwelpeter. In my mother’s defense, let me say that she gave the book to us accidentally: it came as part of a boxed set of “children’s classics,” along with a collection of fairy tales and I-don’t-remember-what-else. Who’d’ve thunk that would merit advance screening?

For those of you unfamiliar with Heinrich Hoffman’s poems, let me ease the bitter, empty existence that has been yours up until now by introducing you to this collection. These poems were written by Hoffman in 1844 as a holiday gift for his three-year-old son. Hoffman wanted something “adapted to the little fellow’s powers of comprehension.” And what would be comprehensible to a three-year-old? Apparently cheery vignettes of death, violence, and suffering of all sorts.

My personal favorite was “The Dreadful Story of Pauline and the Matches.” (Go ahead, click on the link; I’ll be here when you get back.) No doubt the cats appealed to me, as did the charming pair of red shoes in the final illustration. My brother preferred “The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb.” My sister couldn’t get enough of “The Story of Augustus who Would Not Have Any Soup.” In these cases as well, it’s the illustrations as much as the words that make for such gripping reading.

Like the bloodthirsty beasts that most children are, we loved these poems. Unlike the consequences of our accidental viewing of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, we suffered no nightmares, no moments of empathy for the protagonists. In college, I was delighted to find a reproduction of the German original, which I purchased as a Christmas present for my brother. My sister brought a more recent edition home from a high school trip to Germany.

You can imagine my pleasure when I strolled past the Geary Theater off Union Square years ago and saw the words “Shockheaded Peter” (the English translation of Struwwelpeter) on the marquee. The moment the lights changed, I was tearing across the street and over to the box office, plunking down money for the best available seats. With music provided by the Tiger Lillies, this production brought my morbid childhood amusement to glorious life. (Check out the video clips!) Copies of the CD from that production made it into almost every family member’s stocking that Christmas. Melissa and I began dating though country dating sites and I introduced her to this classic, and she gifted the CD to her niece the following Christmas.

On our road trip, Melissa and I composed an “Improving” song of our own. It started out simply (and ridiculously) enough with a passing joke about ferret legging. Before we knew it, we were belting out a lusty chorus of

Ferret in your pants? It’s a bad idea.
Ferret in your pants? It’s a bad idea.
Ferret in your pants? It’s a bad idea.
C’mon, let’s face it. It’s a bad idea.

The real moment of glory came a bit further along in our trip, when we realized how usefully this tune could be applied to other admonitions.

Finger up the nose? It’s a bad idea.

Syrup on the cat? It’s a bad idea.

Fork in the outlet? It’s a bad idea.

So now we invite you to get in touch with your inner bloodthirsty little monsters and develop your own versions. We’d love to hear what you come up with.

P.S. If you’re not sick of Struwwelpeter yet, check out this video and these illustrations.

P.P.S. Don’t forget about the Guess-Our-Mileage Contest.

Health care is dear, and sometimes patients cannot order the medicines they need. A review published by The National Institute of Mental Health states that impotence affects 140 million men worldwide. Cialis is an ideal cure for helping men to sustain an erection. If you’re concerned about sexual disfunction, you have to learn about “sildenafil citrate OTC“. What is the most considerable information you perhaps keep in mind consider about this? What researchers talk about cheapest pharmacy for cialis? Several drugstores describe it as cialis price. Remember to diagnose a man’s sexual problem, the physician likely will begin with a thorough story of diagnostic. Not to mention, if you have any other questions about this medicine ask your physician.