katiesbooks.org

First off, I’ve added my blogroll. Hope you follow some links there; I’ve only added sites that I visit faithfully.

So yesterday I did indeed go to Windsor Button, and I got a load of stuff:

• 4 balls of Lion Wool-ease chunky in bay harbor for a shawl
• 3 balls of Lion cotton-ease in lake, lime, and stone for a striped hand towel
• 1 ball of obmre sugar n cream for another towel - I just liked the colors (I think it’s lime stripes)

Shawl will be from a free lion pattern. It’s really simple: cast on 3, knit 3, knit 1, yo, knit to end, on and on till you have 35″ or as much as you want (I think I want a bit more cause I’ll want it plus size). I started it on the tail end of my lunch hour yesterday and kept going on the bus/train. I started out really loving it, esp when I saw how the increases were working, BUT. Here’s the thing- I’m no big fan of garter stitch. Yes, it is the easiest thing in the world, but I just don’t like how it looks or feels. I’m hoping to come around on this. I was hoping to make my hand towels with it, and I’m gearing up for a Mason Dixon inspired log cabin project, but looking at the 10″ of shawl I’ve got, I’m just not that happy. I’m torn. On one hand, I have this new idea for a pattern. The garter stitch is useful for doing the increases at the ends of the rows, but there’s no need for them in the body of the shawl. What if I changed the pattern so that there were 3 garter stitches to accomodate the yo’s on the edges, but the body was stockinette stitch? I find this idea pretty attractive.

But on the other hand, I’m afraid that I’m abandoning this project too soon. Is there some rule for craft projects like Nancy Pearl’s 50-page reading rule? I worry that I might start to like it once the piece gets bigger and looking more like the finished shawl. Plus, it’s really fun to knit. Ideas? Advice?

As I said, for the two hand towels, I was planning on doing garter. But now I have this idea to do stockinette with a 4-stitch and -row rib border. But once again, I wonder if I’m getting hasty and over-ambitious. Perhaps I should make myself try garter. That’s me all over, secon-guessing myself, then second-guessing the second guess.

Finished a little something last night, still semi-secret. Now I have itchy hands. I’m being kept awake at night thinking of things to knit. When did I become such a crazay knitter?? Basically any craft with a needle I’ll go for, I guess.

I’ve been planning to go on a yarn shopping trip sometime this week or weekend, but the logistics were tripping me up, as usual, to an unreasonable extent. When to go? After work? On the weekend? With M? Without? Should I go to Michael’s or Mind’s Eye? Chain or LYS? Aarg! Then this morning I had a brainstorm. I was like, “I wish there was a place close to work, but there isn- Windsor Button!!” It’s right there, how could I forget? So I’m off to there on my lunch hour. I might also try and hit Winmill Fabrics for some nice cotton for embroidery. I have a coupla projects in mind for both knit and embroidery.

Here’s a quick list of the craft magazines I’m liking right now. I buy this first group every month, and will subscribe as soon as I get off my ass:

Great general craft mag.

Of course!

Some neat inspirations. I like to mix up mags that skew “young” vs. “mature”.
I buy these every now and then:

I never really like it, but I’m looking for a good papercrafts magazine, so every now and then I try. The aesthetic is just too very, too layered, too confused. Also, I have a problem with the way femininity is represented in a lot of these pieces.

I’m not doing enough serious sewing to read this much, but, as with the above, every now and then I pick one up.

This is an Australian pub. for the serious embroiderer. I’ve only read one issue, and it was a little old-fashioned, but I’ve got to give credit to how seriously it takes this work.

Another mature-skewing one, but they’ve got some nice stuff.

I used to really like “Cutting Edge”. Is that still published? I haven’t seen in in an age.

AND, you know what I read that I really liked this month?

Vogue! I bought the mega September issue last week, and instead of intimidating and ugly, I’m finding it lovely and inspiring! Who’d've thunk?

The owl purse pattern I showed below comes from Ana Paulaoli on Esty. Her stuff is the best. Some favorites:

Diana, Madeleine, and Tex (or Mike, as you prefer) at Greek Corner:

Boston Common and State House on a cloudy summer day:

The new Wagamama in Harvard Square on the preview night we attended:

Niece Ria eyeing her 4th birthday cake:

Ria about to blow out her candles:

As blogged about previously, a really odd T ad for a football walk
for liver wellness, featuring a footbal (character design clearly ripped
from Stewey Griffin) holding a liver. Yes, a football holding a liver.
SO wrong.

Aaand some cratfy pics. My birthday haul (thanks Manish!):

Sewing stars tree in progress:

Tree in "summer":

Embroidery floss stash. I want to use more of this!

Finally, some crafty pics:

Bonnet for baby Rencic in progress:

The flowered skit that’s been waiting and waiting to be altered:

Open projects. Crocheted owl purse, hat for baby Rencic, felt tree from Sewing Stars, Hawaiian quit pillow, Paper Source address book, Hawaiian quilted pin cushion. This was taken so long ago that I’ve made the tree (pics soon), and started the hat (ditto).

Just finished Dr. Thorne and I have such a huge smile on my face. Wonderful, wonderful! I totally recommend it.

I’ve realized something about Dr. Thorne. Early in reading the book, I thought that the views Trollope expressed (or had his characters express) about class and marriage were his own opinions, which were not to be questioned. But the entire book is an exploration of these questions of money, love, marriage, and class. The whole thing has many more dimensions that I’d anticipated after reading 75 pages or so. I think I turned the corner when I met Miss Dunstable. She’s the “money” that Frank Gresham’s relations so badly want him to marry in the first half of the book. Frank is sent to Courcy Castle expressly to court Miss Dunstable, the daughter of the “Oil of Lebanon man”, who has inherited her father’s vast (and recently garnered) wealth. When Frank leaves home, the reader is busy wondering what Miss Dunstable will be like. We already know that she’s about ten years older than Frank, and we just know that she’ll be mean, stupid, ugly, horrid. In the back of our minds we think perhaps Trollope will play with our assumptions and make her lovely and have Frank truly fall in love with her. And Trollope does surprise us, but not a predictable surprise, the oxymoron that lovers of narrative have come to expect from so many stories. Trollope surprises us by making Miss Dunstable real. She’s ruddy, unfashionable, has a loud laugh, and she’s completely aware of her role in the society she’s found herself in. She does charm Frank, but from the start they’re nothing but friends, laughing in a corner about everyone else while his aunt thinks Frank is gearing up to propose. Miss Dunstable becomes a fast friend who supports Frank in his love for the illegitimate and poor Mary Thorne. After we met Miss Dunstable, I saw that this is a novel that’s seeking to look at an issue from all kinds of angles, in all sorts of instances. And my faith in Trollope was restored. 

I’m now about 75 pages from the end, and I’m ready for it to finish. I’m not reading anything else at the same time, which is rare for me, and I’m ready to move on. I’m hoping that the last chapters will provide the satisfaction promised by the rest of the book.

Didn’t do much reading over the weekend, but plenty of craftiness. I finished my gift project, and my cover has been blown so I may as well say that it was a bonnet for Varsha and Joe’s baby, and that it didn’t come out as I’d wished. But it looks cute from the front, and it’s too small to be much more than a “coming home from the hospital” hat, so hopefully it will live long enough to serve it’s purpose. There’s a hole in the back that’s threatning that, though. I also started a gauge swatch for a hat for baby Rencic that will hopefuly be more practical and long-lived. Varsha and I went shopping for some wool for her as well, and she started on another hat for baby that will be really beautiful. This is one fall baby whose head will never be cold! Now we just need to get someone on making booties, cause her feet will freeze…

I also started (and about halfway completed) the tree from Sewing Stars’ Small Toys to Sew vol 2. The tree trunk is done, and is looking pretty untreelike, but will at least serve as a functioning base for the summer, fall, and spring toppers. I’m not sure if it will function on its own for winter. I also made the summer topper, and it looks almost right. I’m not completely satisfied with how the scalloped sections look, but I’ll either leave it as is or perhaps sew them down to the base. Pics to come?

Speaking of pics, as promised last week, I have pics coming. I just can never seem to get them uploaded from my laptop. Someday…

Picked up Trollope again on the train this morning. Still liking it, but I should pour on some speed, because I think I’ll lose energy on it soon.

Finally!

I’ve been wanting to swim in the Charles since we moved here in 1997. For a few years, now, the water has been swimmable almost every day of the year, but swimming is still not allowed because no beaches have opened. No beaches have openend because the bottom of the river is still polluted. I’ve flirted with the idea of just jumping in, the heck with it, but I haven’t had the guts, and M has discouraged me.

Then came my new pal Ben Martens, the Swimmable Charles Coordinator at the Charles River Conservancy. I heard about his appointment around when he was hired in March, but I hesitated to mail him directly. I was kind of worried that he would be working on policy and getting beaches opened, and that he wouldn’t be able to actually encourage anyone to swim until a beach was opened. I thought that he’d say, “it is a part of my job to encourage _safe_ swimming in the river, and this is not possible yet. I’ll add you to my list to be notified when we do open a beach; this is projected to happen in spring 2010″.

Happily, I was wrong. I emailed him asking whether he could give me some tips and information on swimming in the river. Here’s what Ben said:

1- Currently it is illegal to swim in the Charles River because there are no
sanctioned locations to do so from. You are subject to a $50 fine if caught
swimming in the Charles. The recent swim that took place was sanctioned,
hence no fines. because all the swimming locations along the river were
closed down in 1955 there is no place for people to safely enter the water.
People do swim though, from boats, and from locations upstream. Fraternities
have also done swims across the river and i have never heard of anyone being
hit with a fine or even told to get out of the river, except on the 4th of
July.

2- although it is illegal (technically) If you are interested in jumping
into the river i would suggest you go upstream to do so because the river is
much more native there and there are some wonderful little sandy beaches and
places just long the bike path. Havey Beach, in West Roxbury is a place that
we are looking to start swimming. Also, i would check the boating standards
before jumping in because there are still pollution issues with the river on
certain days due to rain or algae.

3- I am working on trying to arrange a swim for maybe the late fall but i
don’t know if that is going to happen or not. we are going to try and have
the swim race again next year as well as (hopefully) more recreational swims
for those of us who cannot race a mile without drinking half the river.

Hooray! I feel now like there’s someone out there (and I suppose more than one someone!) who does not think this is crazy, as does everyone I’ve spoken to so far. I’m thinking that, as soon as I can get a pair of water shoes that provides more protection than my tevas, and actually get out there, that I’m going to take a swim from this little tiny beach at Elm Bank Reservation that I’ve always had my eye on. It’s at such a beautiful bend in the river, and I’ve been hoping to kayak there someday, but now I feel like I don’t need a boat to experience this place from the water.

Thanks, Ben! And I’ll be sure to send in my post about my swim to your swimming page at http://www.charlesriverconservancy.org/projects/swimming/index.html.