New Teeth!

Yes, we have two new molars at our house! The poor Widge has two molars coming in at once: synchronized teething, so you can imagine the crabbiness we've had here. In spite of that, he's been fairly cheerful and well behaved, and he's starting to talk somewhat understandably.

I think I have the allergies, because I've had this sort of runny nose going on, and general sleepiness which is possibly from the allergy meds. "Non-drowsy," is what they want you to think. Or maybe I just don't tolerate drugs very well. I could never be a drug addict (although I am addicted to a few other things: coffee, tea, yarn, fabric, books, and fancy soap). Speaking of addictions: new sewing project: pirate costume! Well, its really a generic medieval/Renaissance/colonial outfit to be used for halloween, festivals, parades, and other events. But I'm adding a few touches that will give it pirate flair, because I love pirate flair. Confused as to how one outfit can cover over 400 years of historical costuming? Its all about layering. I'll post pics when I'm done, I promise.

get thee to the faire!

Yup, we went to the famous Maryland Renaissance Festival yesterday! I, personally, have been to a number of medieval-type festivals and events of various sorts, all in Europe, home of the actual Middle Ages and Renaissance. In fact except for yesterday, all the medieval-type events I've attended have taken place at authentic medieval sites, like a castle, a walled city, another castle...you get the idea. But I wholeheartedly endorse Maryland's Renaissance Festival for a great historical experience. Also heavy on the comedy, and not just because of the grown men wandering around in tights, either. If you go, be sure to check out the Hack and Slash show, notable for their great jokes, beer-swilling, sword fighting, and the fact that we saw them twice. Even the Widge seemed to enjoy them, or at least it seemed that way, because he wasn't trying to chop things down with his wooden sword during the entire show (during the joust, on the other hand, that clump of dirt took a serious beating. It'll think twice before hanging around insolently, or being taller than the surrounding clumps of dirt, ever again). The Widge, by the way, is afraid of free pony rides. He liked watching the ponies, but he screamed whenever he got close to them. (its worth noting that I spelled both "renaissance," and "medieval" correctly on my own, but I would have misspelled "afraid" if not for spell-check.)

The music was great, we saw the king himself, and several of his people running around, the food was good, and they have elephants, so what's not to love? We did take pictures, but on a little disposable camera we hastily bought at CVS on the way out there. I'm on the verge of putting out an APB on my camera. I think there may be a worm hole somewhere in the apartment: we've lost at least three significant items in the seven weeks or so we've lived here. Perhaps the Widge is selling them on the black market while he's supposed to be napping. The infrequency of naps explains why only three items are missing. I wonder if he has some new, pimped-out matchbox cars anywhere: that would be the tell-tale sign. If I find a matchbox car with a hot-tub and wide screen TV, I promise I'll find a way to post pictures.

I read my knitting magazine, and it was wonderful: like an ice-cold beer on a hot day. There was a great article about cables: I love the look of cables, but I just never knit any. Maybe I will now. Anyway, it really got me back in a knitting frame of mind, and I feel innovative, so I started a daring new project. I'll write more about it if it works. If not, I'll delete this paragraph and replace it with a review of our Curious George DVD. I love George. He's the only thing that lets spend a few quiet moments in the bathroom alone. For those of you contemplating parenthood, or any life-style other than one of strict abstinence, re-read that last sentence. My ability to answer the call of nature without an audience relies entirely on a fictional monkey. Now, doesn't the convent seem more appealing?

Nothing much to say...

except that it is gawdawful hot lately, and the Widge, who always wants to play outside, doesn't understand why we can only do it in small blocks of time. Yesterday I got stung by a wasp, further proof that we should spend all of August indoors, reading quietly.

Went to Borders yesterday because we needed to see some new scenery, and Borders is close to where we live. I personally like Barnes and Noble better, and if they'd build a store near here, I'd go there. Widge got some new truck books, and I've noticed he's becoming a connoisseur: he now wants only books with real photos of trucks, not drawings. Or maybe thats this week's inexplicable toddler fad, along with refusal to nap. Yesterday we woke up at 5:30, didn't nap, and so were yawning before dinner. Hopefully today we nap a bit, but I'm not holding my breath.

Anyway, I bought a copy of Interweave Knits. I used to buy every issue, until I got pregnant and started buying baby magazines instead. I was actually looking for a good quilting magazine, but there aren't many: I mean they mostly are compilations of patterns, and while that's swell, I also want some technique and theory. Knitting is full of it: at Borders, the knitting books take up shelves and shelves, some pattern books, books on technique, design, and just plain philosophy, books on knitting for charity, knitting with only natural fibers, knitting without wool...piles of good books on knitting. Quilting doesn't have it: just one shelf of books, mostly patterns. I think the problem is that knitting went through such a huge renaissance, and now all kinds of people knit: young, old, male, female, from all walks of life, and the book market has responded. Quilting doesn't have that saturation yet: fewer people talk about quilting, and most people still think of it as an old-lady craft: grandmothers making bed quilts out of pastel floral prints. I think as knitters, we've changed the public perception of us, but quilters haven't yet.

I was looking for a hand-quilting book, with maybe some design, but also some history, maybe, some theory: are there advantages to different thread types? Are there different techniques that work better with different fabrics? what happens to the overall durability and finish if, instead of using a running stitch, you quilt with a backstitch, or cross stitches, for effect of emphasis? I'm not sure such a book exists. The quest continues.

Also, I have to say that I feel I've compromised my integrity as a writer. In the last post, I used the phrase: death grip. I wanted it to be one word: deathgrip, but I let the spell check seperate it instead, in a moment of weakness. I just think it looks more dramatic as one word. Two words look disassociated, as if they happened to be wandering around and ended up standing next to each other, like you might end up standing next to a serial killer in a bank line. Do you think it matters?

See, for having nothing much to say, I actually had a few things to say.

Clean Car and Karate Kid!

Yes, that fabulous movie, beloved by 80s kids everywhere, is on TV!

Elsewhere, my brother just gave me a CD with photos of the Widge, including 32 photos of the Widge's first haircut (in April), so I'm posting one here, mostly to cover for the fact that I've lost my digital camera. Honestly, for most of the haircut he was a happy kid, but after a while the thrill wears off. I'm guessing the death grip granddad has on that skinny little arm isn't improving morale any.

So, as mentioned in the title, my car is clean. On the outside, of course: the inside remains a riot of Matchbox cars, too-small baby sandals, and CDs, cases smeared with diaper cream. I don't know how that happened. Most of what I own seems to be soaked with diaper cream, liberally doused with drool and cemented to other things with a crust of toddler snot. The physics of children's oozing abilities is like the flying of bumblebees: not mathematically possible, but it happens every day anyway. Anyway, back to the car: it was due for regularly scheduled maintenance, so we took it to the closest dealership, about half an hour's drive away. This particular dealership is owned by a family in our area who owns a whole pile of dealerships, and who sent all of their kids to my high school. The one in my grade sat behind me and kicked my chair through senior religion class, which kept me awake. But I don't hold grudges, I slept enough in college classes to make up for high school wakefulness, just like I'll rest enough when I'm dead to make up for motherhood.

About the knitting: the paradox of knitting blogs is that we start them to discuss our knitting, but the time spent blogging is time robbed from knitting. In my case it doesn't matter too much: I've been working on the same dishrag for about two weeks now, partially because the Widge helps out, partially because we've spent more time reading truck books, and partially because I've been working on stitching up the binding of my mom's table runner. My dishrag drawer is overloaded anyway, but of course the dishrags are bunking out with the napkins and kitchen towels, so if ever they had their own drawer, they'd probably need more friends. Thats how I justify my continued dishrag knitting. Anyone planning to set up house any time soon, if you need dishrags, I'll gladly knit you up a few. Lovely, handmade dishrags, all old-fashioned and heirloomy. Just let me know.

A Little Color

Yesterday I saw a few leaves changing color a bit. Well I didn't actually see them changing, they were already reddish. Anyway, I was happy about it, because Fall is my favorite season, and summer is my least favorite. All the heat and humidity, and I don't like the beach: I like to swim, but I hate getting sand everywhere. Plus, summer sucks if you wear glasses. You non-glasses-wearers don't think of it, but when it's 93 degrees and 98% humidity, that chunk of plastic on the bridge of the nose slides everywhere. Glasses don't breathe. And if you swimming, you either take them off, and wander around blindly, or else you swim in glasses, and they get all wet. Wet glasses are one of my big pet peeves.

Winter isn't any good for glasses either, they fog up all the time. Technology has moved us beyond glass lenses, luckily, because glass lenses contract in the cold and fall out of the frames. Its hard to find something transparent when you can't really see.

In spite of all this, glasses are easier than contacts. I don't mind sticking my finger in my eye (the Widge jabs my eyes all the time) but I have really dry eyes, and anyway there's been all this news about blindness caused by various contact drops. I hate all the fussy cleaning contacts need.

So Fall is better, and I'm happy to see it coming soon.

No pictures, for a long time, but if you want photos, visit: Matt's Road Trip.

Is it Sunday already?

actually all the days are the same for me, except that Sesame Street doesn't air on the weekend.

Just started a lengthy biography of Hemingway, who is, of course, my first love. Too soon to tell how it is, I'm only on page 17 out of 600. Some days all I want to do is read, and other days reading just isn't satisfying. No matter what book I come across, it isn't right. But I think I'm just edgy because I'm almost finished with a project: I quilted the entire table runner today, and it turned out very well, but I don't have enough fabric for binding, so I'm at a standstill.

Probably I should just go get some sleep.

Any recommendations of good books? (bearing in mind that I'm the sort of reader who likes Hemingway)

Thinking about handwork

So I just got back from quilting class: it was a one-day hand quilting lesson, and I think it was pretty good. I've seen hand quilting how-tos in books, but I needed a real demonstration before I could mentally grasp the physics of it. Now I understand the principle, and its just a matter of practice.

So I came home, and immediately knit a few rows on my dishrag.

Knitting is the craft I've done the longest: probably about 17 years, off and on, so I feel most comfortable with it. Its become somewhat meditative, or at least it can be, depending on what I'm working on. The latest dishrag is a seed stitch pattern, my favorite stitch of all, because it makes a wonderful texture, but isn't complex. I've pulled this rag out and re-knit over and over, but that doesn't bother me, not like when I am piecing a quilt and realize I sewed a complex seam with no thread on my bobbin. For me, knitting is about the process, so in a way its very zen, except for when I start thinking about how I'll be using the finished item, which isn't very zen at all. In quilting, I' still looking for results, I'm still actively trying to achieve a desired result, and it can be stressful. I have to remind myself that a hobby shouldn't cause stress (I have a Widget for that). In knitting I feel like I can adjust as I go, and I'm not certain what I'll get until I get it. I can't say that I design knitted pieces, but I feel comfortable working with no design. My quilt class attendance is a step on the path toward making quilting that way: calm and comfortable, the old friend I can turn to when I'm cranky, the one that relaxes me. I try to ignore the technical requirements and just let the experience wash over me.

At least thats how I think about it in quiet moments.

Deus ex Quilt

So I've been actually making progress on some quilting, and I'd post a pic, but my camera is in a box somewhere. But as I was working along, I thought to myself: self, should I be using this flammable adhesive spray right in front of the oven? And is this area sufficiently well ventilated?

And then I thought about quilt myths. I read recently in a quilt magazine that the ipod has been called one of the great quilting tools. I personally listen to my ipod while quilting. I know you can get knitting podcasts (www.knitpicks.com), and if there aren't quilt podcasts, there soon will be. But wait: isn't the stereotypical quilter a little old lady?! Thats right, and now legions of quilters are listening to the smooth sound of Laurence Welk while whipping up quilted tea cozies.

The most famous myth, however, is probably the one that quilters deliberately make mistakes because only God is perfect. Yes, I make deliberate mistakes, because I feel the Almighty might be threatened by my needlework. If not for those deliberate errors, guests would come to my house, see that table runner I just finished, and begin worshiping me as the Messiah. Quiltmakers are far too pious a group to allow that! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, if ever you see a truly perfect quilt, you know that it was, indeed, crafted by a Supreme Being, because all other quilters put in deliberate mistakes.

The blog title would suggest that I knit, and I do, but lately it hasn't been interesting. I've been knitting dishrags. Dishrags are great to knit, because they don't have to be in matching colors or any specific size. Plus they actually do something, instead of sitting in my craft box(es), forever, like almost every other item I knit.

Eeeek!

yup, its been a long, long time since I posted. I lost my password. Honest. Plus we moved and my computer was in a box somewhere, and then I got the laptop but couldn't remember my blog address...anyway...

So I'm including a photo of the Widget helping to garden. He loves all the dirt. He has a new favorite show: Curious George, which is fine by me because: 1) its not Barney, 2) theres nothing else on at 3 PM, and 3) the Man in the Yellow Hat isn't bad looking, for a fictional animated character. Lately, however, Widge has been asleep at 3. Curious George also comes on at 8 AM, but thats also when Little Einsteins are on. With all their classical music and art appreciation. Now, if Curious George were up against the Higglytown Heros, George would win, hands down.

I' m okay with the concept of auto mechanics and plumbers being heros. I can even turn a blind eye to the episode where the cow is a hero. After all, ice cream is a serious necessity and without cows, there'd be none. But in one episode, the camel is a hero. First of all, how many camels are there wandering around your town, helping folks out? No, wait--first of all, isn't it true that heroics imply some degree of free will? The plumber doesn't have to unclog your toilet at 2 AM, after all (unless he wants a repeat customer). The auto mechanic is only a hero if he choses not to overcharge. But camels don't seem to have that sort of option. A camel never calls in sick, no matter how much he wants to watch the NFL draft instead of schlepping a bunch of crap across the desert.

Of course I could be wrong. Camels might be highly altruistic creatures. Maybe the show is justified in naming them as heros.

The pack mule, on the other hand...