Blog Migration

Worn down by the incessant blandishments (mixed with tacit threats) from BlogSpot, I'm going to migrate the blog to Blogger Beta this week. Sorry if that messes up RSS feeds for a while.

I've backed up carefully, but should the blog disappear altogether, I provide these images for your contemplation, a knitter's version of "Croatan."

   

The golden promise of increased functionality awaits! See you (I hope) on the other side.

[Edited to add: Well, so far migration isn't happening for me at all. Successful migrations seem to take 24 to 48 hours. Unsuccessful migrations sound a bit like being consigned to Dante's Ante-Hell or attempting to Disapparate and instead getting splinched. Be sure to back up your template and content!]

Ideo-o-o Spinning-o-o-o

The other day In Excelsis wondered if I've dyed anything for the Twisted Knitters DSK-along lately. Actually, I finished dyeing last month; I just neglected to blog about it. Ideo (Latin for therefore), this month is for spinning. But let me catch up first.

   

After sampling different dyeing techniques in The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook, I decided to scale up to production quantities using the spot-dye technique. Pictured are one 4 oz (113 g) braid in primary colors (a pale imitation of Stripey Tiger's far more beauteous roving) and four braids totalling 6 oz (170 g) in blues and greens, all of Lincoln lambswool. The colors are a bit off – the table was not refinished between pix.

I made another newbie spinner doh! discovery: braids of roving not only look cool, they're by far the most convenient way to store fiber. By following Loribird's excellent tutorial I eventually turned out a reasonable-looking braid o' roving. Simple enough, yet it feels like a big accomplishment. [g]

The Lincoln lambswool originally had a somewhat hard hand, but it bloomed after dyeing. It's nicer to the touch now; also harder to spin into consistent singles free of soft, fuzzy spots. That didn't happen with the Merino blend or the Finn. It would seem some fibers are better suited to dyeing after spinning than before spinning. Huh.

Methinks spindling projects (and also scarf projects) have a tendency to enter a boring intermediate stage during which progress occurs, but photos of each increment become rather monotonous. Hm... must think of ways to insert gratuitous images of spindling (and scarf) progress into posts.

Three Ys

Y is for Yuletide. One of my favorite signs of the season is the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, affectionately known as the Tree. A favorite pasttime during the holiday season is gawking at the Tree and also gawking at other people gawking at the Tree. Each Tree is a little different (the 2006 Tree is pictured) and yet there's always something infectiously happy about it. No matter how stressed or tired or jaded I feel, no matter how vast the crowds or ridiculous the traffic, a visit always restores my spirits. Not everyone feels the magic – my favorite annual overheard sour comment is "I've seen bigger." (The petulant absurdity of such comments never fails to make me merry.) When I can't gawk in person, I gawk on TreeCam (also see here).

Much of New York City (affectionately known as the City) is splendidly decorated in December. Other favorite holiday adornments include the glittering snowflake suspended above the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street (left), which is viewed to best advantage at night and from a distance (watch out for the crazy auto traffic). The façade of Saks Fifth Avenue is also decorated in blue-white and white-white snowflakes (middle), which at intervals twinkle in time to music. New this year are the giant falling snowflakes projected onto 30 Rockefeller Plaza behind the Tree (right). Judging from the comments around me, every photographer in the plaza was obsessed with capturing them!

      

Y is for Your Face Here. Time magazine is holding a whimsical contest in conjunction with their Person of the Year issue. You can submit photos of your choice for Person of the Year. Selected photos will appear on an electronic billboard in Times Square at 43rd Street, New York City and in Dundas Square, Toronto. (You can nominate yourself – notice the dude with the cameraphone in the photo.) For more information, click here.

And Y is for yak. I bought some yak down at MDS&W – so far the luxuriously soft, but very short fiber has been beyond my ability to spin. I've also tried yak meat (and sprung it on unsuspecting guests) – most people can't distinguish it from beef. [ETA: Winter 2006 Spindlicity has a helpful article, "Spinning Down Fibers", which recommends using a supported spindle.]

The Manly Scarf Continues

A cold front roared through last night: yesterday's high temperature was 72° F (22° C), a record for December 1, but it was frosty this morning. Time to get cracking on the Manly Scarf. In the Manly Scarf poll, King Charles Brocade garnered a commanding plurality, 41% as of this writing. Accordingly, I frogged the sample swatch, cast on, and started knitting away.



(The colors aren't quite right in the photo, but they're reasonably close.)

Thanks to all who participated in the poll and especially to fans of Other: Jen, who suggested seed stitch and the Guy Scarf, and Erica, who suggested man lace in the form of Hypoteneuse by Anne Hanson (see also Carole's man lace pix). It's always great to have other options.

The King Charles Brocade stitch pattern may be found in Barbara G. Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Patterns. It's one of several patterns in a beautifully knit blue silk vest (to modern eyes, a tunic) worn by King Charles I of England on the day of his execution in January 1649. (It's bloodstained.) However unsuccessful he was as a sovereign, at the end Charles showed manly style, asking for warm clothes to ward off unseemly shivering: "The season is so sharp as probably may make me shake, which some observers may imagine proceeds from fear. I would have no such imputation."

A sentiment worthy of a Manly Scarf intended to ward off bitter winter winds, not to mention the name Charles means "manly." I love it when knitting and history come together.

Meanwhile, Yolanda asked if I've been spinning. Well, I've spun up almost all the hairy Blue Face Leicester from the inferior vendor who shall not be named. The resulting 3-ply is lustrous and wiry and I hope will be hard-wearing. There should be about 250 yards (228 m) of yarn from 4 ounces (113 g) hairy fiber when all is plied up.

I finished the yarn using the simmer method described in Spinning in the Old Way by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. It's more involved, but does seem to set the twist more effectively than blocking yarn with weights.

Also, I've been rolling thrums from the Kool-Aid dyed fiber. The process makes my wrists tingle after only a few – I'm being very careful not to over-do.



DH, bless him, has taken to singing improvised holiday lyrics: "Thrum, they told me, pa thrum-thrum-thrum-thrum!"

A Day Without Knitblogging

It's been 25 years since Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome was identified and named. There's been some progress, yet the HIV/AIDS epidemic remains one of the worst in human history – and it's ongoing.

Silence, ignorance, denial, and lack of political will all play their parts in deepening the crisis, which threatens individual and public health, international security, and the global economy. Think you're informed? Try this online quiz.

For more information on HIV/AIDS, see:
World AIDS Campaign
National Institutes of Health AIDS Info
Centers for Disease Control AIDS Fact Sheets
Gay Men's Health Crisis Treatment Fact Sheets

And see this cogent interview with Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.