Ravellenics 2014 Recap

Continuing the catch-up: Last month there was a modest amount of Ravellenic crafting roundabout Exit 151. I crocheted three pinky granny hearts to use as hotpads because I was getting sick of all the snow. Which only seemed to encourage more snow to fall the day before Valentine's Day.



I picked at my old Scar socks, which were cast on in ::cough:: September 2007. Since then, there have been many, many attempts to complete them and many, many appearances with the year-end Socks of Shame. Here's where I started this time.



And here's where I finished. One pair = one less UFO, one less Sock of Shame!



That left me contemplating my almost-finished Betty's Tee (front view).



I love the pattern and the yarns, but the combination just wasn't working (back view).



So there was nothing else to do but frog (frogged view).



Thus Ravellenic glory was mine in three events. I claimed my event medals, but didn't bother with the technique medals available. The giant kerfuffle over human rights before the games made me realize I'm on Team Simplify rather than on Team Many Rules. From my perspective the stakes in a knit-along pale in comparison to the stakes in real life geopolitical crises, such as the crisis in Ukraine. Although I do enjoy seeing a Bobicus or three on my blog.



I ordered the 2014 Ravellenics pin, delivery pending. When it arrives, my Games will be complete.

Ready to Roc

I'm getting ready for the Roc Day gathering. The signups are done and the signs are ready.



My 20-yard (18 m) sample skeins for the handspun swap are ready. Erm, well, I didn't have a chance to finish them, so some are a bit pigtailed. They're a favorite fiber, Forbidden Woolery 100% BFL, colorway As You Wish.



Alas, my hemi-handspun vest isn't ready. In fact, she looks pretty much the same as before. Oh well, best of three.



Ready or not, I'm going to Roc!

Ordinary Time

Before the New Year glow of new resolutions and new beginnings wore off, I did a bit of stash neatening. Ordinarily I store handspun yarn and commercial yarn in separate boxes, but in the course of shifting stash from place to place I came across some handspun and some commercial spun that might have been separated at birth and wandered the wide world, only to be reunited in my stash.

Handspun Zarzuela's Fibers Targhee, colorway Swamp Story, and Noro Kureyon, #188

There was just enough of each in stash to together knit up a vest in Brooklyn Tweed-y stripes. Betty's Tee by Tram Nguyen caught my eye. Ordinarily I don't much care for entrelac, but the intriguing construction intrigued.

In the photo the vest in progress has reached the utter confusion stage that entrelac projects sometimes seem prone to – stitch holders (or in this case, circular needles) holding live stitches seemingly everywhere! The knitting wraps around, then tilts and folds – it's an absorbing 3D puzzle, very entertaining.

The spindle that spun the yarn, a three-inch Golding, is included in the photo because someone asked to see it.

One thing I don't like about ordinary entrelac is in order to keep the stitch count correct, the rate at which stitches are picked up usually does not correspond with the ratio of stitch to row gauge, with the result the fabric often puckers. The designer cleverly compensated for this by working wide ribs that wrap and hug the torso rather like the psoas muscle. I think the diagonal bias drape of the entrelac blocks will be superb, with just enough but not too much stretch.

Some who have made the vest have complained about fit issues, in particular an overly wide and deep v-neck and a too-short body. I'm not concerned about length (at least not at the moment), but clothes barely hanging on (or off) my shoulders fidgets me to no end. I'm pondering neckline modifications as I go.

With any luck, I'll have a hemi-handspun vest to wear for the Roc Day gathering. If you're in the area, hope to see you there!

F is for Felted Marbles

F is for felted marbles. At the end of Malabrigo March, I had a bunch of high-quality skein ties and remnants left over, much too good to discard. So I made felted marbles and strew them around the first Annetrelac sock, which is posed with the Wee Tiny Sock Swap sock for scale.



It's easy to felt Malabrigo marbles. You start with skein ties and remnants, tease them mercilessly, dunk a fair quantity (not too much at once) in warm soapy water, and roll them between your palms. It takes a minimum of two minutes of tedium rolling to form a decent marble. Even so, most of these have a seam, like a peach.

      

The marbles seem heavy and dense when first formed and wet, but when dry they are surprisingly light for their size.

F is also for freak flag. Mine would seem to be waving high. I didn't set out to select the Ten Most Obscure Movies of All Time (and I do mean all time), but apparently I have a penchant for such. So here's second clues for the movie meme.

1. "I am not a sissy!"
"You see what's happening, don't you? How we're being corrupted by their hipper-than-thou fashion and cool slang you can't help but use?"

2. "Arthur! What an Englishman you are."
"I'll discuss peace over Wellington's dead body!"

3. "Id! Id! Id! Id!" (Dr. Morbius)
"Monsters. Monsters from the id." (Doc Ostrow)
From: Forbidden Planet (1956). What guilty pleasures are all about, in cheesy b/w. There's an excellent hommage in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
Identified by: Risa

4. "Akita! Akita!"
"A time of beginnings, of darkness, of light, of the sun, the earth, the sea, of man!"

6. "People of Valencia! I bring you bread!"
"We call such a one El Cid."

7. "Break the conga line." (Mel Bakersfield)
"Any approach is no damn good if it lands on runway 2-2." (Vernon Demerest)
From: Airport (1970). A worthy progenitor of Airplane! and many, many others.
Identified by: Risa

9. "You can add Sebastian's name to my list of playmates."
"Waving the flag with one hand and picking pockets with the other, that's your 'patriotism'."

10. "As long as the lady is paying for it, why not take the vicuña?" (Salesman)
"It's the pictures that got small." (Norma Desmond)
From: Sunset Boulevard (1950). Overlook the howlingly bad framing device and instead enjoy how ostentatiously scrumptious vicuña looks in b/w. Although in film noir, those who play must pay.
Identified by: Eileene

DH keeps insisting he can do better with this meme and is threatening to take over the blog. Gentle readers, what say you?

Finally, while out biking I noticed this sign of the times.



Possibly the happiest family roundabout Exit 151.

Vigilant

Today is what some call the Great Vigil. In keeping with that tradition, it's a good day for another rant about politics and religion, again wrapped in yarn and flowers to sweeten ill humor. In the interest of full disclosure, the yarn is a wip, but that could be misread as advocacy for violence and there's been quite enough misunderstanding already.

Here's the yarn, in the process of becoming Annetrelac Socks by Sandy Beadle with a 64-st cuff, instead of 72 sts. Knitting backwards for the entrelac always makes me crazy, but I'm loving how the yarn is pooling. It's my March Sockdown! sock.



Here's the rant: By now just about everyone with access to U.S. news media knows that Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, has preached fiery sermons that sometimes include strong language – there's video to prove it. But what is less known is the brief excerpts shown incessantly by some media outlets actually were selectively redacted in ways that distort them beyond necessary summary into willful misrepresentation.

For example, in Dr. Wright's first sermon after September 11, his words, "America's chickens are coming home to roost," are a quotation of a quotation. The originator of the phrase was Malcolm X, but the speaker who used the words and who is cited in the sermon was Edward Peck, a former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and Deputy Director of President Reagan's Terrorism Task Force. See for yourself – Trinity Church has posted a longer excerpt of the sermon on YouTube. Ed: Audio of the entire sermon of September 16, 2001 is available here (scroll down). It's about 36 minutes long and is very worth hearing in its entirety.


Or view here.
For those unfamiliar with Christianity, the sermon has as its text Psalm 137. The psalm's opening lament is well-known, but (as the preacher notes) its cry for wholesale payback gets less attention. Remarkably, Dr. Wright is preaching against the popular demand and the biblical license for total war. Some may find his explicit call for self-examination and implicit call for a measured response counter-cultural, radical, or offensive, but this sermon is hardly the hate-filled raving of a lunatic black racist. I think it's fair to wonder why some have characterized it and him as such.

Trinity Church is in the process of posting more excerpts of Dr. Wright's sermons. They're worth a look. I may not always agree with the content of Dr. Wright's jeremiads and my pastors may use a less loud preaching style, but the church denomination we share has a long history of freedom of the pulpit and freedom of conscience. This does not mean ignoring or wishing away what seems difficult or different in others, but rather serious, respectful engagement with one another and deep commitment to the theological principle of unity in diversity. Thus endeth today's rant.

Here's the flowers: cherry blossoms from Branch Brook Park.



I'm dreaming of the Cherry Blossom Festival next month.