Luscious Lush Update

I'm still plugging away at this Rowan Denim pattern for the Lush tunic-y thing (to see previous pics just use that google window up there to the left and search for "Lush"). I am so excited, as only a knitter would be about something like this, that it seems to be working to knit this thang completely seamlessly. I have finished the front and back, used a 3 needle bind off for the shoulders, and learned this VERY COOL trick from the nice person who posts PURLWISE knitting blog: Ladies and Gentleman, you CAN knit a sleeve right onto the body of a sweater from the top down. Here is a link to Purlwise's great instructions: top down cap sleeves using wrapped short rows It sounds scary, but I promise that it is not and these instructions are great. If you loathe sewing seams after all the knitting is done, this is a must!

Here's some evidence:
mmm...and lovely blue toenails to match...



There is one very scary prospect that I am facing, but I'm hoping that I've made the proper allowances for it. Rowan Denim shrinks lengthwise by about 20% after you've knit it up. The sleeve stitches in my case here were picked up very loosely in order to compensate for the shrinkage. I hope.

Song of the Week: Crepuscule with Nellie

Crepuscule with Nellie

No squawking and words/lyrics this week.

Thelonious Monk will probably pop up here now and again. For me, his music is very spiritual, and like all things spiritual I feel like talking on and on at length about it tends to sully the subject and miss the point. It's beautiful, and it's a little funny a lot of the time. Crepuscule means twilight, and Nellie was Monk's wife.

NOTE: The link to listen to my song of the week will only be posted for a week. after that you gotta find it yourself.

Recommended reading...from a load!

A Voice Through A Cloud, by Denton Welch

One of my co-workers saw me reading this and judging the title erroneously spat out, "sounds like a chick book". I was too engrossed (and maybe a little too annoyed) to bother defending it, but it is a very hard to define, highly entertaining book that so far is about a guy who gets creamed on his bicycle at around the age of twenty and winds up in hospitals and in chronic pain from then on. Sounds uplifting, right? Not only that, but it's autobiographical---poor old Denton died at the age of 33 after suffering for years from his fractured spine! The thing is, he rose from the ashes, and at such a tender age no less, to rival Proust in his ability to make a definite SOMETHING out of almost NOTHING. Here's a quote from William S. Burroughs (yes, that old yunky wheezebag!): "Such a marvelous writer, the way he can make anything into something. Writers who complain that they don't have anything to write about should read Denton Welch and see what he can do with practically nothing."

And here's a wee moment from the book:

I thought of the Mongol who had first worn my ring. I saw him dirty, in a broad hat with tassels, and enormous cloth boots. He was on horseback, waving a sword, breathing out garlic. I thought of ten thousand miles of ink-blue ocean, huge waves the three-cornered shape of wedges of cheese. I thought of friendship as an egg which never really hatches. Each moment of quarrelling or magic harmony is a pecking away of the shell; but the baby bird's head never emerges.

I love this book. It is a luxurious read.

A link to info on Denton Welch
A link to buy every single one of Denton's available books---do it now!

Song of the Week: Crossing Newbury Street

This song has been going through my head all week, it keeps coming up on shuffle in my ipod, and I love it, so I thought it had better be the song of the week. It's by Roddy Frame, whom some of you will remember from his band Aztec Camera a loooooong time ago. My gurlfriends and I all thought he was so cute in his little fringe jacket, especially how he couldn't say his "R" words very well. We called him "Woddy Fwame". Well, I loved him back then, and then I forgot about him. A few years ago Chris (my better half) sought him out---because he never gave up on Roddy---and he found this newer CD called "Surf". It is beautiful, from start to finish. Perfect little songs and it's just Roddy singing and accompanying himself on guitar. You may remember, Roddy is no slouch when it comes to guitar. It's an especially good record to listen to in the Fall. BUT I DIGRESS...this song is simply about looking back over your life with a sad but sweet nostalgia. Oh, but it tugs my heart strings! I know some will disagree, but I think it rivals the Beatles "In My Life" as a song about wistfully looking back. I hope you like it, too!

Link to Crossing Newbury Street

PS-It seems Roddy can say his R words now.

More knitting patterns for the few, the proud, the knitters who look at this site

PLEASE NOTE: These patterns are around 60 or 70 years old, so I'm betting you may have a tough time finding the yarn they're referencing! The sizing may be a bit different than today, too, considering the corsets they were wearing and all (or were they calling them "girdles" by then?)! I'm thinking the best thing to do is just do the math: find a yarn/needle combo that works to give you the suggested guage and make sure that the suggested gauge with the number of stitches cast on will give you the size you desire (stitches per inch X inches around you). Adjust from there. Not for the fainthearted, but really not that hard, either.

Click here for link to this pattern---I'd make it just for that collar!

Click here for link to this pattern---and how about that hat?!

Click here for link to this pattern, if you're feeling very ambitious!

I'm with David Lynch...

On his Daily Weather Report today (look to your right for a link), David Lynch broke from his "sunny, blue skies and 70 degrees" tradition to inject: "Where is the next Joseph N. Welch?!"

Don't know who that is? That's okay, he was an attorney, most well known for standing up at the Army v McCarthy Hearings and saying: "Until this moment, Senator, I think I had never gauged your cruelty or your recklessness...Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"
This moment was apparently the beginning of the end of the McCarthy witch hunts.

Don't know why that's significant? Then you can keep kissing your civil liberties goodbye, one by one...

Where the hell is the next Joseph N. Welch?

Link to the audio, thanks to Mark: McCarthy and Welch

E-Z Felted Slippers part III

My Dad got his felted slippers and sent me this X-Ray vision shot of them. I can't believe he put them on even for a second in this sweaty heat, but I'm glad to see that they fit!

This Old Camera

Well, we're supposed to be on a spending freeze in this here household, but my friend Larry showed up with this Seneca 5x7 view camera (born sometime in 1906) and offered it to me for a very reasonable price...so really, I can't afford not to buy it, right?! I mean, it's not mindless consuming of packaged goods, it's helping my friend clear out his pile of cameras and, and...Oh, why do I bother trying to justify? You'll be seeing some gorgeous scans of 5x7 negs here before too long.

Gnit Shells

I like to buy old knitting magazines, and here are some smart, crisp little shell patterns from the late 60's. Feel free to have at 'em, I'm thinking they're so old I won't get hunted down by the pattern police.

Click for pattern

Click for pattern

Click for pattern

SOW-a great Song Of the Week acronym!

Thanks to Sari for pointing it out! Here's her SOW...it's a lovely song (note the complex saw solo)! Now we're really wallowing in sound!

My Song this Week: Bob Dylan Blues

Well, I was going to pick Bjork's "All is Full of Love", but I decided to pick a song full of snide resentment instead---just because it's so dang funny! This is Syd Barrett's angry little jab at Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan Blues. I'm guessing it was recorded somewhere around 1969, not too long before Syd went right off his nut. He seems pretty darned lucid on this number, though, and Bob Dylan had better watch out!

For those of you who would like some of Bjork's love as well, here she is performing that song for Live 8: All is Full of Love
Here's more info about Syd (there are lots of Syd Barrett websites out there, but most of them are, uh, out there, so I used Wikopedia here).

NOTE: The link to listen to my song of the week will only be posted for a week. after that you gotta find it yourself.

Holga Harvest

Here's some of that Holga magic I was looking for! These are from two rolls of film, one 400 speed and one is Ilford 3200 (the more grainy ones). Link to More Holga Pics

Pinholes for pinheads!

Here's a neat link to a site about pinhole photography. You can download your own plans for a cut-out paper pinhole camera! It's called a "Dirkon".

Looking for a little Holga magic

My very kind friend Mark (see bitterpill) sent me a Holga last week. Here's the Wikopedia definition for Holga: "The Holga camera is a medium format toy camera. First produced in Hong Kong in 1982, its name may be a corruption of the Cantonese phrase 'ho gwong'—'very bright'." Images taken with the Holga tend to be unpredictable and often (hopefully!) better for it. I've just loaded it up and taped it up (they can be prone to light leaks), so stay tuned to see if I get any magic on the first outing with it.

If you're interested, this guy has a good site about using Holgas, with some cool images he's caught with his...Argonauta.com

My Song of the Week: I'm Shakin'!

This week I'm pulling out Little Willie John from my dusty but loved record collection. I don't know much about him, but I did read somewhere that he died in Walla Walla Penitentiary at the tender age of 31. What a shame, he looked so darned happy on his record covers...
Anyhoo, I was riding around with my friend Marky T (talk about a record collection!) in his old Monte Carlo and this song came on---it flipped my wig! Check out those crazy drum breakdowns! I ran right out to find some Little Willie John records of my own. He has a lovely voice, and he also does smokin' versions of "Fever" and "Cottage for Sale".
---CORRECTION: Little Willie John was apparently the FIRST to record "Fever"! (see Mark's comment)

Little Willie John - I'm Shakin'

The link to listen to my song of the week will only be posted for a day. after that you gotta find it yourself.

I want to ride my bicycle!

This is my new bike, I love it very much. It makes me happy to move my lazy bones! I'm going all Peewee Herman over it (the bike obsession, not the porn house bust)!!!