Housekeeping

Astonishing to relate, I finished Round One of Sock Madness so far in advance of the April 4 deadline that I've been luxuriating in a week-long patch of free time. It's an unaccustomed freedom at casa Jersey Knitter, where for so many frenetic months my time has been at the capricious disposal of others. It's meant no labored sock knitting during Earth Hour (as in 2009, 2010, 2011, or 2012). Instead, I've been attending to some long-delayed housekeeping.

First, I upgraded my computer from Windows XP to Windows 10. This required a new computer. I have somewhat mixed feelings about this, as the old one is a mere 12 years old and still works decently well for many applications. Although not for certain online functions, particularly secure financial transactions. It's the first time I've replaced a home computer that was otherwise working adequately because my bank insisted on it. (I have a sinking feeling it won't be the last time.) Then again, the blog reminds me the old computer caused a lot of trouble in its day.



Side-by-side, the old tower has rather a busy vibe; the new is spare and (strangely) argyle-y. That said, I do like the new computer. It's fast. That's all I've noticed so far, but that one attribute is so valorized that perhaps it's sufficient by itself. By contrast, the new software has a rather busy vibe. My computing wants are simple and few, at least at the moment, and I've been patiently turning off the many bells and whistles that I'd rather not have. (Cortana was first to go.) Maybe that will change. Watch this space.

The phoenix-like converse to shuffling off my old computer is assessing projects that are not happening, frogging them, and reconditioning the yarn. For example, there's my ill-fated Geology Socks, cast on during airport hell. The yarn really is too dark to show the fancy stitches to best advantage. I really should know better. Bonus: I'm pretty sure I'm going to need a solid or tonal yarn for the next Sock Madness sock.



SM Round One concludes on Thursday. I'm guessing the next pattern will drop on Friday or Saturday. In the meantime, it would seem more housekeeping is in order.

Earth Hour 2012

Earth Hour 2012 is sweeping 'round the globe today. That means at 8:30 p.m. local time, all nonessential lights go out for one hour as a demonstration of environmental awareness.

This year Girl Scouts around the world are participating as part of their centennial Forever Green project. Because once a Girl Scout, forever green.

I'll post some images from the day in a bit. To start things off at 6:30 a.m. local time, here's the official video.



Back in a bit.

Posted a little after midnight: My Earth Hour knitting was Scylla, which also was my Sockdown sock. I wasn't sure I'd make the midnight deadline for Sockdown, especially considering this was how the second sock looked during Earth Hour.



But I squeaked in mere minutes before the deadline. I love Scylla.



Better photos when there's better light. 'Night.

Earth Hour 2011

This evening when I turn off the lights at 8:30 local time for Earth Hour, I'll be thinking of the people of the northeast [tohoku] of Japan enduring the triple catastrophes of major earthquake, major tsunami, and the ongoing nuclear crisis. My blackout will be voluntary and temporary; in the Tohoku region, which includes Tokyo, rolling blackouts are mandatory, likely to continue for a long time, and could well presage far worse to come.

It's sobering to consider one of the great cities of the world reduced to third-world privations and nuclear age terrors in less than an hour, sobering too to note that New Jersey derives over a third of its electricity from four nuclear generating stations of similar vintage to those at the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi complex. They were "hardened" after 9/11, which not only suggests they were "soft" before, but also ignores questions of scope and degree. It would seem that it's only after – after levees fail, after the financial sector crashes, after the carefully calculated assumptions and omissions of the five-year or the 50-year or the 500-year risk analysis crumble – that we forego for a time the belief that it can't happen here, oh no, not in a thousand years.

Which is not to suggest I plan to waste spend my Earth Hour sitting in the dark, flagellating my conscience and bewailing the fate of humankind. Nor does a heedless Totentanz of denial make any sense to me. I have socks to knit and a crank lantern to knit them by, and that's what I plan to do for a quiet spring hour, come flood, computer bluescreens, or medieval pox.

Photos to come. Of socks, not pox, of course!

Added March 28: It occurs to me I neglected to mention that roundabout Exit 151 there indeed has been flooding, computer blues, pox, and divers and sundry other events in the weeks (!) between the last post and this one. Also not nearly as much knitting as one might hope – I missed the first round cut for Sock Madness, but continue to knit on, even during Earth Hour.



I'm knitting the first-round pattern, Supporter's Socks by Linda Pankhurst, in my own fingering spindled from Into the Whirled Superwash Blue Face Leister. The pattern and socks are worth a longer discourse, to follow ::cough:: soon. Right now I'm playing catch up... and missing Knitting and Crochet Blog Week. Ah well.

Earth Hour 2010

This Earth Hour I knit a bit on the Sock Madness Round 2 pattern, Cool Beans by Heatherly Walker. Here's what it looked like by flashlight.



I'm enjoying this pattern, but note to self for next year's Earth Hour: No colorwork!

Meanwhile, there's a new prize-winning documentary, Gasland by Josh Fox, on the environmental consequences of the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in natural gas extraction. I hope to have the chance to see it soon. Here's an excerpt:

CAN YOU DO THIS WITH YOUR TAP WATER? from JOSHFOX on Vimeo.

Of concern, there are plans afoot to use fracking in the watershed for New York City, among other populated areas. That adds immediate meaning to the small gesture of unplugging from the grid for a spring hour.

Earth Hour 2009

Earth Hour 2009, observed worldwide on March 28 for one hour starting 8:30 p.m. local time, is in progress!

Posted 9:30 a.m. EDT: The movement began, appropriately enough, in Sydney in 2007 (see the video). My township is throwing an outdoor party in Edgemont Park at 8:00 this evening.

That's a ways off, so howabout a random sock photo to enliven things? This is Kaibashira by Chrissy Gardner, worked in Zarzuela's Fibers Shiny Sheep, colorway DC Sunrise.



Ironically, it's overcast this morning.

Posted 10:30 a.m. EDT: I'm surprised by the unreasoning vehemence and hyperbolic fear-mongering by some critics of Earth Hour. Of course needful things like navigation beacons and hospitals will continue to function. Of course I'm keeping my refrigerator on. That isn't hypocrisy, just common sense.

Posted 10:00 p.m. EDT: DH started to feel unwell, so we stayed home and I knit on the second Kaibashira by candlelight. Who knew my best only pix of the day would be of knitting! Here's what the socks looked like by daylight.



Here's what they looked like, after a bit of knitting, by candlelight. The object in the upper right corner is the candlestick and chimney.



And here's what they looked like by flash. I'm surprised my little digicam has such a powerful flash.



So that was my Earth Hour 2009.

ETA: An estimated one billion people participated in Earth Hour 2009!