This book includes some knitting as a matter of course, since it was written in the first half of the 20th century, when women knitted as universally as they cooked. At one point it says that Lucy "went on knitting repressively," which must be a lost art. Another time it says that "knitting conduces to aimless thinking: the occupation of one's hands seems to propel one's thoughts along already worn grooves." I can't quite agree with that, either. It seems to me that the aimless thinking that goes along with handwork is often very far-ranging. But that may just be me.

The back of the T-shirt is blocked and matches the dimensions of the pattern schematic exactly. Always satisfying, that. I am not sure you can see the pretty detail down in the lower right-hand corner, but you can certainly see the extreme jaggedness of the shoulder. I may not do that shaping in the same way again, though it will not show once it is sewn together.

In any case, I am glad I was able to post this picture, after only three days of attempts. I did not do anything different. Computers are like that. One of the older ladies in my Sunday School class mentioned that she had had trouble getting online one day and therefore had called the phone company and had them send a man out. I said, "You have no kids in your house, huh?" There is a sense of helplessness when the computer does things you don't want it to and vice versa. You can't negotiate with them, after all. But the kids can manage them well. For example, I am now listening to Tonton David, a Francophone reggae guy. Could I have arranged for the computer to play this? No way. Yet my son, who cannot prepare his own breakfast (to hear him tell it) can easily do this.

I knitted at the curriculum fair, of course, whenever I had an opportunity. It did not seem to keep people from coming up to my table, and it made me feel that I was not wasting my time in between customers. A little boy came up to ask what I was doing, and I explained that I was making the thread (hold up skein) into a cloth (hold up sweater). He digested the idea solemnly and then said it might be like crochet, and I agreed. Smart child. The encyclopedia salesman who had the booth to the left of me, however, said, "Are you chewing gum, too?" This was about the caliber of joke he was telling me all weekend, bless his heart. He didn't sell any encyclopedias, either, even though he had come a long way and stayed in a hotel in the extremely boring town in which the fair was held, so I forgive him all of it.

Sunday, I caught up on baking, laundry, and grocery shopping. I noticed that there are 15 in the choir at my new church, and that I knew the names of 11. Likewise, there are 11 in the Sunday School class, and I know the names of 9. So I think I can learn the remaining 6 pretty quickly and begin to feel settled there. We enjoyed our meal with my parents. I enjoy taking my kids out in public, because they are so well-behaved, well-spoken, and handsome. Don't tell anyone I bragged like that, okay? I now feel ready to begin this week, which is filled with appointments and such.

Here's a link to the story about those dogs with eyes of various sizes: "The Magic Tinderbox." . It is one of the Grimm's fairy tales. I tend to assume that we all read those as children, but if you did not, then you should do so now. And here is Knitting in Color with some truly gorgeous colorwork done with Peruvian Highland wool. No connection to anything we've been talking about: I just don't want you to miss work of this quality.

Xanga is still not in the mood to post pictures, and I am sorry about that, because I finished the back of the T-shirt, and wanted to show you how nice the armscye decreases looked in Sinfonia. You will have to use your imagination, I suppose. I would recommend following the directions for that section, though, especially if you are using a mercerised cotton, because it is quite a pretty detail. Some folks, including the very witty Dweezy, are planning to rib instead of doing the hem, but I am glad of the hem, because I think it will help prevent the flaring at the bottom that cotton is sometimes prone to. However, Nona reports that most of the knitalong are still swatching, so it is not too late to begin.

Also use your imagination to see the Humorous Pirate Tableware, which I had intended to show to you. We are celebrating #1 son's birthday today with a meal with my parents and a cake with a pirate on it. He has already received his gifts, which included the cool book Practicing Primitives which xanga will not allow me to show you. Computer improvements so often end up not being improvements at all -- do I show my age by saying this?

I did manage the driving just fine; thank you all for your encouragement. I still have one more to do. Sort of like fairy tales, where you have to get past the dog with eyes like saucers, and then the one with eyes like dinner plates, and you're just feeling chipper about that when you have to get past the dog with eyes like cartwheels. But by this time next week I intend to be finished with the whole process and fully cured. That sounds like a ham, doesn't it? I'm fine with all the other stuff on my initial aversion list, though. Once I conquer the driving problems, I can just move on.

The curriculum fair was fun. I began with everything nicely arranged and soon was up to my knees in boxes, coffee cups, and shrieking children, which is rather like life. There are far too many similes going on this morning, but I am still fairly exhausted. I was greatly tempted by this and by this. #1 son had spoken idly at one point about perhaps wanting to homeschool next year, but in reality I have no more students at home, so I was strong and resisted the temptation.

I would like to say that the organizers of the fair, who kindly brought our meals to us so we could stay at our booths, arranged heart-healthy  meals of whole grains and veggies, and that I came home after each exhausting day and fixed myself an equally wholesome meal of grilled fish and salad, but this would be a lie. I snatched bites of taco salad in between heart-to-hearts with homeschoolers and searches for my calculator, pen, and order book, all of which inevitably ended up being set down in some unlikely place. I even ate a doughnut, because it was that or sausage rolls, and then came home and had the pizza left over from all the boys who were staying over. Today will include a restaurant meal and birthday cake.

Life will return to normal as soon as we determine what "normal" is.

LikeWowMom checked out the knitalong blogs and came back with self-deprecating comments about her own. I can't agree. After all, those other blogs may be multilingual and otherwise flashy, but have they ever shown us pictures of insects? I do not think so.

Here is a discussion about what makes a good knitting blog, from last fall. I was surprised to see that I had participated in it. After all, last year at this time I did not even know that knitting blogs existed. But then we do not, we bloggers, require much in the way of expertise. As to knitting blogs, I want them to be witty and amusing, with pictures of their knitting. This is an either/or thing. The Yarn Harlot has both, but I'll read the Knitting Curmudgeon for her snide humor even though she doesn't post much in the way of knitting pictures. And I'll read Wendy Knits for her knitting pictures even though she is not amusing. I don't insist that they be amusing about knitting, either. Creating Text(iles) is clever about all kinds of things, with just enough knitting content to prove that she really is a knitter. And I like to read the blogs of people I know, whether or not they are amusing, and whether or not they post pictures. I am not hard to please.

It is #1 son's birthday today, and I will be at the curriculum fair until 9:00 pm, with a long drive home following that. I also need to be at the store in the morning for a large order we're expecting. So we will just have a luxurious breakfast with Humorous Pirate Partyware before work and school. He is having some friends in this evening to comfort him for the fact that I will not be here . We will be celebrating properly on Sunday.

So the serious question is this: what knitting shall I take the the fair? I will be there today and tomorrow, for a total of 20 hours, so I should be able to get a lot done. On the other hand, I am working, so I can't very well do anything with complicated shaping or colorwork -- such as the next section of the T-shirt.  I may need to begin the back of the second T-shirt.

However, here is something that is not a serious question: will I be able to drive to an unfamiliar location in the next county? and will I be able to drive back in the dark? Because I think I will. I am not even suffering from anticipatory anxiety.

Obviously, I am not merely watching this DVD. I am strenuously working out to it. I remember the Lotte Berk method from my dancing days, so I knew it would be a good choice for days when I did not go rassle with the Hammer Strength machines. This is one of those deceptive workouts, like Pilates and ballet, which are -- if you do them right -- much more effective than you would think if you were in fact just sitting down and watching them. The very toned instructor is almost 50, and says "Courage!" in the middle of a segment, as well as gloating "I love the weights section!" more than once. This appeals to the little bit of gym-masochism I have left over from said dancing days.

Also, Yarn Ho! Here is the Plymouth Stone Cotton, in Red and Electric Blue. This is a Dutch yarn. It is not mercerized, not shiny, not slippery. It has a much firmer hand and more traditional cotton-y feel. I swatched it up for a second T-shirt. I tried it on #3 needles, and got 17 stitches over 4", so I switched to #2s with complete success. The swatch below was done half on 3s and half on 2s, and I am going to take it entirely apart now so I can use all the yarn. The characters of the two yarns are very different, and I will be doing them rather differently, so I don't think I'll feel like I have two identical garments.

The blue is for Pokey -- but shall I send her some #2 needles? I notice that a lot of people are knitting their T-shirts on 8s and 10s. I suspect rampant nervousness, but I don't know. Maybe I'll let her get her own needles. I hope we all remember that the yarn for Pokey was supposed to be a bribe so that she would tell me how to put links on my xanga. See, without being able to do that, I have to try to work them into the discussion, like this: Creating (Text)iles is one of my new favorite knitting blogs. Otherwise, I have to try to remember which blog it was that I thought was cool, and then find it again. If I could put them all on the left with my xanga subscriptions, I would not have this problem. I admit that it is not much of a problem, but I am sending that yarn off today, Pokey, so think about it in your copious free time. 

At this link you will find Kim's completed T-shirt looking very cute.

This book contains the following exchange:

"There is no such thing as truth" "There is scientific fact." "That's just measurement."

I hereby nominate this passage as the most interesting thing about measurement that I have read this week.

The T-shirt pattern really calls for a row counter. It has a lot of instructions which are accomplished after 8 rows and then you do 24 rows and so on, rather than at a certain number of inches. I wrote the row count out at the side so I could see clearly that you begin bust shaping at 77 rows from the hem, etc. Otherwise, from the perspective of the 84th row, this pattern is very clear and simple.

I went around and looked at the T-shirt knitalong blogs. It is a very cosmopolitan group -- you never know when you're going to run into words like "unterschlagen" and "framstycket." There are a lot of nice swatches and some great-looking T-shirt starts. Also a lot of math going on out there. I am apparently not the only one who has trouble just following the pattern.

Not So Swift would approve of this. She has some interesting philosophical qualms about knitalongs. I like the practical advantages of working on an item with a number of other people at once, since that means we can share hints and tips and warnings, as well as seeing a lot of different takes on the same item. I even like the temporary sense of community that we gain.

But Not So Swift dislikes the conformity involved in a knitalong. She would like to see "a knitalong where... everybody knits an item that at least deviates in some significant way from the pattern being used, or is an entirely original pattern." Since the T-shirt knitalong already includes folks who are ribbing instead of hemming, V or scooping the neck, "zapping" the graphic or using something very much their own, trying different yarns, and recalculating all over the place, it may pass muster. Dweezy has bought his yarn, and since he admits that he is "not curvy," his project will be mostly inspiration. I think our results may all vary a great deal, and the things we have to say about the project on our blogs certainly vary a lot. I present mine for you today in a crumpled heap, just to be different.

(Pokey, our yarn has shipped. This week includes a lot of bold driving, and next week includes not only excessive amounts of bold driving, but also three separate appointments. I was home yesterday and answered my phone every time it rang. If I am still alive by the 17th, I will feel justified in proclaiming myself the very model and pattern of mental health.)

I've been thinking about chemistry lately, what with mercerization and soap -- you did notice that both require the use of sodium hydroxide, didn't you? -- and preparing a nice chemistry exhibit for the homeschool curriculum fair. We also had a caller asking for potassium oxide. Having been thinking about soap, I naturally wondered whether she meant potassium hydroxide, but no, there is such a thing as potassium oxide, and it is quite dangerous. Should a person who calls a bookstore in search of viciously toxic chemicals be allowed to use them in her homeschooling? I am afraid that we unwittingly sell chemistry equipment to people who want it for their meth labs, so we can hardly fault a nice lady who made us her first call when she was searching for a chemical which she might not have realized was a questionable choice for use with children. I suppose the real question is: who is going to allow or disallow it?

The Poster Queen and I had a bizarre experience along those lines the other day. A couple came in asking for homeschool materials for their ninth grader. The Poster Queen attempted to help them for a bit, and then asked me to trade off with her, and I could easily see why she found these folks challenging. As we asked them questions, their story changed. They appeared to be lying. About what? Hard to tell. When we offered them state history materials, they said they wouldn't need them, as they lived in a different state. Then they said they lived in an apartment complex a few miles away. Then, when we recommended going to their local school superintendent for some papers, they said they had already been to the one in the next town to the north. The entire discussion went like this -- they were teaching their son algebra -- no, geometry -- no, algebra, but they didn't like their book so they needed a new one. Once we had both given up, the woman had a very loud conversation on her cell phone in which she assured someone that you didn't have to prove to anyone that you were really homeschooling. We could only conclude that these folks had neglected their child's education all year and were now trying to fake ninth grade. Why were they bothering to lie to us? I don't know. A custody case, perhaps? I've been called in such cases before.

The Poster Queen felt that this was evidence that someone ought to oversee homeschooling -- but who? The public schools aren't successful enough right now to be a reasonable choice. For myself, I figure that a kid with problem parents will have equal problems whether he is in school or at home. Having been a homeschooler myself, though, and having great respect for our homeschool families, I hate to see people like this representing themselves publicly as examples of homeschooling.

In any case, I have noticed something chemical that makes me wonder. Sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate are detergents used to make bubbles. There is some question about how safe they are, but that is not what I am wondering about at the moment. The thing that is furrowing my brow is the fact that virtually all bottles of foaming things start off with the same two ingredients: water, and then SLS or SLES. Senteurs de Provence, Badedas, fancy cleansing lotions, cheapest shampoo, all begin with those two ingredients. Now, those who argue that SLS/SLES are safe point out that they are used in very small quantities. Water is about 60% of any of these liquid preparations, and then next in quantity is SLS or SLES or sometimes both. Following that comes a list of stuff which, with the chemical names decoded, often kicks off with table salt, oil, colors and fragrances, or citric acid. All things I have in my kitchen cupboard. You know what kinds of quantities of these things are being used. So by the time you get down to that tincture of chamomile or oat bran extract, the quantities are negligible.

Could it then be the case that we could all just mix up a spoonful of SLS  in water and use it for all the different purposes? It is a detergent, and therefore a surfactant, a thing that breaks up oil and moves it around, but its main purpose is to create bubbles. It is a petrochemical, and very cheap ($5 a pound retail at the link I've given you). Water is also pretty cheap. So what exactly are we paying for? Dish soap, facial cleansers, wool wash, bubble bath, shampoo -- we have all these separate things in our cupboards, but perhaps we are being deceived. It is as though every item in your pantry were made out of modified food starch and flavorings. And you were paying all different prices for the different shapes and colors manufacturers came up with. And the marketing campaigns, of course.

What do you think? By the way, if you want to learn more about chemistry, here is a very cool link: Caveman Chemistry.

If, on the other hand, you want to see my knitting, here it is:

I put the hem at the top this time to give the illusion of different-ness. It seems to me that Sinfonia is inclined to knit up unevenly, but it may be that I am just inclined to knit unevenly at the moment. However, if you are considering Sinfonia, I will say that it is nice and drapey rather than elastic.

I have a surprise day off from work today, and while I intend to clean my house thoroughly, I expect I will also be able to get in a bit of knitting. And possibly some further chemistry.

Since I have two 6-day workweeks in a row, I had no hesitation about spending Sunday afternoon knitting. I took my book and knitting out to the porch and enjoyed the perfect spring day. The perrrenials are waking up, hostas like crowds of green fingers pushing up, sweet woodruff peeking through the leafmold, salvia and columbine and cornflowers all leafing out. I did a little bit of weeding, just to get my hands dirty, but I also knitted this much of the T-shirt:

Sinfonia is nice to work with, as long as you don't mind too much about splitting. The strands have no desire to stay together. But it is soft, and sturdy-feeling, and smooth. Also slippery -- the stitches are very inclined to slip off the needle at the beginning of every row. You just have to be firm with it.

Sinfonia is a mercerized cotton, which is to say a cotton washed in lye. This shrinks the cotton, causes the fibers to become rounded and stronger, and gives it a shine and an affinity for dye that allows much stronger and more lustrous colors than can be obtained with cotton before mercerizing. The  process was named for the guy who invented it in 1844, John Mercer. Aren't you glad you know that?

Yarn Ho! This is the beginning of the T-shirt in Sinfonia. The pattern calls for Calmer, but since it is a fun novelty pattern rather than a classic wardrobe-builder (the lady at the LYS disagrees with me on this), I felt that Calmer was just too pricey. Now, normally I do not hesitate to substitute yarns. Basically, anything that gives you the gauge, and has the character you would like for the item in question, can be subbed. I generally do not even pay any attention at all to the yarn suggested. But Calmer has a reputation for being unique. The lady at the LYS assured me that nothing else could be used in place of Calmer. This elicited cynical sneers from those I passed it along to, but I have seen similar claims on the web as well. And I have literally never seen Calmer.

Not everyone loves Calmer, though. Quixotic Musings says she would rather eat metal filings than knit with Calmer again. And I have seen others claiming that it is a real bother to work with.

So I decided to try Patons Grace, a yarn I had seen suggested as an alternative to Calmer. I had it in my online shopping cart and everything when it struck me that I was buying a yarn I had never seen to sub for a different yarn I had never seen, and maybe I should try to find something locally. So I quickly replaced that Grace with Plymouth Stone -- another yarn I have never seen, but it's cotton, knits to gauge, and was on sale for so little that I wouldn't feel bad about having it, no matter what. That way, I figured, I'd have something suitable pretty quickly, regardless. I got enough for Pokey, too.

Off I went in search of Grace, or Calmer. Which sounds like some sort of emotional quest, doesn't it? I did not find either, but I did find Sinfonia, a yarn I have admired in the past but never used. It is an inexpensive cotton, knits to the right gauge, and -- the main appeal for me -- comes in these retro colors. The official names of these colors are "Rosa" and "Verde Pradera." "Pink" and "Meadow Green" to us English speakers. The fact that the yarn has a musical name and the color's name is equivalent to "Verdi Prati," one of my all-time favorite songs, is just a little added charm. This yarn comes from Mexico -- I do not believe I have ever before used a Mexican yarn, so this adds to the exotic air of the thing. I can remember visits to Baja California, imagine myself sipping margaritas in a bougainvillea-draped arbor overlooking the Pacific... Ahem.

Actually, I am about to visit the frog pond. First, the hem I have just completed is off by three stitches. I like the hemming technique, but perhaps should not have been reading while I did it. Second, while the swatch came out to the correct gauge, the actual knitting which you see in the picture is working out to 18 rather than 19 stitches over 4 inches. So I may yet be able to use the #3 needles and finish Hopkins simultaneously.

Chanthaboune, who is young enough to wear words across her bosom, is trying to decide which words to use. My favorites from her list were "Monkit" (which must be a private joke) and "Life Dances," which has the air of mystery we find on her xanga, combined with insouciance, which is always a good thing.

Voodoo920 thinks this design may accentuate the bustline, speaking of bosoms as we were, but I can't tell whether she considers that a good thing or not   She has also flashed her stash in a most picturesque fashion. I notice that she has some Plymouth Stone, so perhaps she will go ahead and make the T-shirt with us, in spite of its potential bust-enhancing properties.

LikeWowMom is making hers in Calmer, the yarn called for by the pattern. She is still debating her graphic, too.

As to Hopkins, I frogged the sleeve back to 33 stitches and decreased on every row to 15, at which point I bound off. Obviously, I have given up all notion of calculating and am going with trial and error. But it worked, I have sewn it back in, and all is well. I must now make sure to match the second sleeve to the first.

But what is the moral of the sleeve calculation story? Is it that arithmetic in knitting is hopeless? I don't think so. I think the moral is that, when your calculations say you should decrease every 1.2 rows, you can't say to yourself, "Eh, 1.2 is a lot like 1!" Instead, you should think "I need X number of decreases over X inches," and work it out exactly. In fact, you should just toss out all words like "sort of," "roughly," "approximately," and "about." Next time I will do better.

Spinner Mom suggests leaving the second sleeve till after the T-shirt -- an appealing idea. Yesterday I remembered the existence of Omega Sinfonia, a modest cotton yarn that comes in cool '30s colors like Aladdin Green and Bubble Gum Pink. I went and bought some on the way to work, so I could start with the knitalong. People who are thinking that I will soon have spent as much as if I had just bought the Calmer in the first place --

No, no, I am not going to say anything snippy. In cruising the knitting blogs today (while swatching), I found some of the nastiest exchanges imaginable. I had a 30-second spat with a friend the other day (I said something snippy, he said, "I can't talk to you any more!" and stormed out) and was upset for hours. These poor bloggers had vituperation in their comments for days. I don't know how their nerves held out. Cleverboots came in yesterday and spoke up in favor of the freedom to express outrageous opinions, but only if you can choose your audience, which I suppose bloggers cannot do. On the other hand, we blog readers surely can move on if we find ourselves outraged, can't we? And Cleverboots's outrageousness is usually about sex, schools, and childrearing (the story she told me yesterday combined the three), all potentially emotional topics, while the bloggers in question were ramping on each other about knitting. In any case, having seen firsthand what happens to people who make snippy comments, I will stop right there.

So I got to work early, with a good deal of nice yarn and quite a few spare minutes, and no knitting needles. But I really wanted to swatch. Naturally ( naturally, that is, for a crazed knitter), I began checking out all pointy objects in the vicinity. I am therefore in a position to tell you positively that there are some pointy objects which are not worth trying to knit with. Pencils, contrary to what #2 son said, are not suitable for knitting. Wire, screwdrivers, and pens are likewise no good. Watercolor paintbrush handles, however, not only work just fine, but also were perfect for the gauge.

Nonetheless, I swatched properly when I got home. I had hoped to go with size 3 needles, so I could keep the 4s for Hopkins's second sleeve, and perhaps do them alternately, but in fact 4 is what gives me the gauge. So I have begun the T-shirt, in Aladdin green. I will be deciding about the graphic when I get there, but I am thinking about this unassuming little flower from the Dover electronic clip-art library:

KnitPro charted it for me.

I also got my Brambleberry order. We were running out of soap, so I got in several pounds of bulk soap which which to make some bars. The order also included a spring scent sampler, with scents like Lettuce, Grass Stain, and Stargazer Lily. With soaping and knitting, I will be spending some time before going to work immersed in nice smells, colors, and textures. A good way to begin the day.

The farmers market also opens this morning. There may not be much there in the way of vegetables, but it will be a festive experience.

Silkenshine flashed her stash. Mine is not near as flashy, but I am still going to join in, to the best of my ability. There are plenty of flashy stashes out there, and Silkenshine's xanga links you to a bunch of them. So here is my stash: second shelf from the top, right hand side. It contains 16 skeins of Peruvian wool (for Erin, and you can see them in greater detail at left. When I say "greater detail" it means "not in a plastic box where you can't see them at all"),

5 balls of Wool-ease (finishing Hopkins and making socks), 1 skein of Morocco (completing the bath ensemble), partial balls of Sugar'n'Cream, some white cotton thread (for a bedspread), and one skein of Jewel Box. I've also just ordered 17 skeins of Plymouth Stone Cotton, which which to make a couple of T-shirts in the T-shirt Knitalong. Do I get to count that as part of my stash? Incipient stash? Never mind. I will never be a contender in a stash race. The Jewel Box is the only thing that I have bought just for stash enhancement, rather than for a specific project.

I have ordered yarn for the T-shirt knitalong which begins today. I may go to my LYS anyway and see if I can find something suitable there, so that I can begin today -- but I may not. When I was in the DNA scarf-along last fall, I had time to make three DNA scarves and matching hats, so I think we can order yarn and still get to participate in the knitalong. Nona is the hostess, and here is the pattern. This will be fun!

I was intending to finish Hopkins before starting anything else. However, I continue to have sleeve troubles. Having frogged, I re-knitted the sleeve to make it steeper, while measuring it against the body of Hopkins, and then sewed it carefully in, as you can see to the right.You can probably also see that I made it about 8" tall, rather than 7", and ended up with that same little puff at the top that I disliked in Siv. Actually, this is 8" rather than 9, so it is not quite as bad. It was good enough that I did not discover the problem until I tried it on. I think it comes down to the fact that Siv is actually more of a modified drop sleeve than a set-in sleeve. You can see how wide the shoulder seam is -- it doesn't fall at the natural shoulder, so it can't take a cap sleeve without ending up looking like epaulettes. That look is doubtless what the designer wanted, but it is not what I want. So I will have to take the thing apart, frog the sleeve back a few inches and redo it. Again. And when I finally get it right, I will still have the second sleeve to make. You can see why I am tempted to start something else.

The T-shirt! I like the version with the word "joy" on it, but I had a lot of fun with KnitPro and charted some exceedingly cool images from Dover's electronic image library. I am thinking that I may do one of those as a texture, rather than a color pattern -- that is, purl the black stitches on the chart and knit the white ones. You still get the pattern, but it is more subtle. I will swatch it and see.