Brigid in Cyberspace

I'ts the 9th anuual Brigid in Cyberspace day.  Here is a poem I like:

Fictional Characters

by Danusha Laméris

Do they ever want to escape?
Climb out of the white pages
and enter our world?

Holden Caulfield slipping in the movie theater
to catch the two o'clock
Anna Karenina sitting in a diner,
reading the paper as the waitress
serves up a cheeseburger.

Even Hector, on break from the Iliad,
takes a stroll through the park,
admires the tulips.

Maybe they grew tired
of the author's mind,
all its twists and turns.

Or were finally weary
of stumbling around Pamplona,
a bottle in each fist,
eating lotuses on the banks of the Nile.

For others, it was just too hot
in the small California town
where they'd been written into
a lifetime of plowing fields.

Whatever the reason,
here they are, roaming the city streets
rain falling on their phantasmal shoulders.

Wouldn't you, if you could?
Step out of your own story,
to lean against a doorway
of the Five & Dime, sipping your coffee,

your life, somewhere far behind you,
all its heat and toil nothing but a tale
resting in the hands of a stranger,
the sidewalk ahead wet and glistening.

"Fictional Characters" by Danusha Laméris from The Moons of August.

"Vintage" Thermal Knit Mittens

Sorting through patterns I found a pattern for mittens that I had clipped from the paper back in the 1970's. There was a column in an Iowa paper by Ruth Ann Gable. Hard to believe that the 70's are now "vintage".

Thermal Knit Mittens
This pattern was in the CR Gazette in the 1970’s, submitted by a Tama Iowa Reader. “A wonderful mitten wich is ribbed on the right side and has a garter stitch on the wrong side. It’s undoubtedly the warmest mitten we’ve ever had. …”

Note: To make smaller size (5-6) cast on 39 stitches; size 3-4 cast on 35 stitches. Work 4 rows less for each size on fingers. Rake off 6 stitches for thumb, casting on 6 stitches and picking up 1 on each side (total 14 stitches) wihen working thumb.
For larger sizes, cast on 4 more stitches for each size and increase length as necessary.
Always add an even number of rows so decreases will be on the right side. Size needle will change mitten size. Size 5 is best, no larger than size 7.
Materials: 4 ounces worseted weight on size 5 double point needles and single point needles.
Left Hand: sizes 7-8. Cast on 43 stitches.
ROW 1: * K1, P1; repeat from * acress, ending k1 (wrong side).
ROW 2: * K1, sl1 (as to purl) repeat from * acress, ending k1.
Repeat these 2 rows for desired length to thumb base (45 rows).
On second row of pattern work 13 stitches, slip next 8 stitches to holder, cast on 8 stitches on right hand needle. Work in pattern on 22 stitches on left needle. Continue in pattern for desired length, (end of forefinger – 35 rows), ending with Row 1.
With right side facing, K 2 tog across, 22 stitches remain. Work in stockinette stitch (K 1 row, P 1 row) for 5 rows and end with a P row. K2tog across. P 1 row, cut length of yarn to draw through stitches and sew side seams.
Thumb: On double point needles, pick up 1 stitch on right side of thumb stitches, work acress 8 thumb stitches wich are on holder, pick up 9 more stitches around thumb opening.
Work P1, K1 rib around.
NEXT ROW: * K1, sl 1; repreat from * around. Continue in pattern until thumb is desired length (23 rows), ending with K1, sl1 row.
NEXT ROW: K 2tog across – 8 stitches.
K1 row. Fasten off.
Right mitten: Work 45 rows as for left mitten. On 46th row (Row 2 of pattern) work 22 stitches, take off 8 stitches, cast on 8 stitches on right hand needles, work remaining 13 stitches. Next row should be Row 1 of pattern. Finish as for left mitten.

Brigid in Cyperspace 2010

It's Brigid in Cyberspace day. Here is a poem I like by Anne Sexton.

There is joy
in all:
in the hair I brush each morning,
in the Cannon towel, newly washed,
that I rub my body with each morning,
in the chapel of eggs I cook
each morning,
in the outcry from the kettle
that heats my coffee
each morning,
in the spoon and the chair
that cry "hello there, Anne"
each morning,
in the godhead of the table
that I set my silver, plate, cup upon
each morning.

All this is God,
right here in my pea-green house
each morning
and I mean,
though often forget,
to give thanks
to faint down by the kitchen table
in a prayer of rejoicing
as the holy birds at the kitchen window
peck into their marriage of seeds.

So while I think of it,
let me paint a thank-you on my palm
for this God, this laughter of the morning,
lest it go unspoken.

The Joy that isn't shared, I've heard,
dies young.

Estonian Cast-On

Estonian Cast-On {as I know it}
Originally uploaded by Garden Purl

Just when you think you've learned most of the cast-ons around another one ambushes you.

Simple baby blanket

I found a handwritten pattern for a baby blanket in an old box. Here it is:

Long side - cast on 197 (odd number of stitches).
Knit 1, purl 1 across. Purl 1, knit 1 back. (Seed stitch) Work for 8 inches.
Knit 2 together, yarn over, across -- ending with knit 1.
Work seed stitch for 11 inches.
Knit 2 together, yarn over, across -- ending with knit 1.
Work seed stitch for 8 inches.
Bind off.
Crochet around entire blanket.

On this opening day of the Olympics -- thinking of Tibet

None of us are free until ALL of us are free.

International Campaign for Tibet.

Ravelympics Quandaries

Well, I was getting ready for a big trip across the country to take my daughter back to college. Of course, the first thing I was working on is what knitting to take with me. I figured 6 or 8 projects ought to do it. I found yarn, needles, patterns, made cast on the first few rows of several of the projects to make sure that the yarn/pattern/needles were a good match. Then I happened to notice RAVELYMPICS!



What to do? They happen right in the middle of the trip which is great. But all those projects that I just got organized and started. I guess they have to go in the WIP game.

The other problem is that all the projects are calling to me to start them now. Don't wait for the ravelympics. I am trying to hold firm. To stave off those projects I have started new ones. Small things like booties and dishcloths.

How are you biding the time till the Ravelympics?

Rockin with the socks

Long time since I posted, but I have been knitting. I have a backlog of Socks that Rock projects from the 2007 club. Last year life overtook me and I got behind. In the last month I have finished, Solstice Slip socks, Serendipity. And Saturday night I started Summer of Love.


Something that I am doing with Summer of Love is knitting them both at once. Not on one needle but on 10 dps. That is 2 sets of 5 brittany dp needles. I am doing this because I started the socks late at night and after I finished the first lace cuff, I was too tired to search out the ironing board to block, but I wasn't tired enough to stop. So I got out another set of dp's and started the second cuff. I felt a bit like the Harlot when she was knitting leaves. Ended up being a very late night.

I can't figure out why I delayed starting Summer of Love. Perhaps is was the blocking of the lace ruffle? Blocking (like tucking in ends) is something that I do only as a last resort. But as you can see I steam blocked the lace and pinned it to the ironing board. Of coarse, doing that meant searching for iron and ironing board and finding my pins. Looks like the rest of the socks will be an easy mindless knitting project.

Brigid in Cyberspace

As a part of this, here is my poem:

Lost by David Wagoner

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.

Too fun not to include

Saw this over at Mason Dixon Knitting and had to try it.