scifiknitter

Right now I am putting Elizabeth Zimmerman ’s motto to good use: "Knit on with confidence and hope, through all crises." There is even a finished object to show for it. Maia - a shawl designed by Rosemary Hill , and knitted by me in Moonlight and Laughter ’s yarn. The original shawl is designed to be a small shoulderette, but my version was to be a gift, and I wanted to make a longer, more versatile shawl. Easy to adapt the pattern - just add more yarn than specified. I used nearly all of two skeins of a fingering weight merino/bamboo blend. The yarn was handpainted and it was highly likely that small color differences would create a visual join if I knit all of one skein then added the other, so I knit first two rows from one skein then two rows from the other. The end result was perfect - no pooling of colors, and no noticeable change from one skein to the other. Pictures, please! In the knitting. I think this picture captures the lovely interplay of colors in the yarn pre...

It’s small. It’s benign. It can be seen on a 2002 MRI so I’ve been living with it for quite a while with no problems. It’s growing - slowly. It can be treated with radiosurgery. It’s my decision and there is no urgency. I plan on talking with my trusted family doctor before deciding anything. We also swung by Minuet on our way home, and it smells like we are going to win this year’s war against mildew. All in all, a day with more good news than bad. Whew.

For those of us who are addicted to social media, there are Facebook people and there are Twitter people. While I enjoy keeping up with friends and family on Facebook, I’m much more likely to encounter something new and exciting on Twitter. It’s easier to follow a diverse group of people there than on Facebook, where linkages are based on more traditional relationships. I also post updates more often on Twitter than on Facebook. I’m less self-censoring there. I’ve had quite a week, and I thought I would tell the story of it through my Twitter posts, with some editorial amplification. Here goes: May 8: I’m traveling to Rochacha to see my mom & my doctor. OMG spring is finally here in NNY & it’s gorgeous.         Note: Excellent music on satellite radio makes the mood even better. May 8: I retweeted a post by Ch ristopher Hayes of The Nation magazine: Great Mother’s Day column from @KathaPollitt : http://bit.ly/knVrFR May 9: Just had an MRI of my ...

Work keeps spinning around and around. Anyone who pays attention to the news must surely realize that the times do not favor small non-profit agencies that use government funds to deliver services to youth, small farmers, and low income families. Right now we are dealing with a mid-year rescission of funds to a program that used to look rock solid. Today we got news that what looks to me like an accounting error made elsewhere, possibly a long time ago, may turn that rescission from a 40% cut to a 50% cut. For those in the accounting world, I’ll just say that it looks like we’ve been operating on an accrual basis while the department that cuts us the reimbursement checks has been working on a cash basis. And then there is the question of what basis the department that cuts the check to the department works on, and how arcane its reimbursement rules are. And then there is the question of what basis the department that cuts the check to the department that cuts the check to the departmen...

It’s been a while since I’ve taken pixel to “paper”. So much has happened recently, and little has happened at all. Life is quieter right now. One reason for this is a little less money sloshing about and waiting for transformation. My husband’s work has suddenly changed from projects with periodic largeish payoffs to ongoing, steady work with relatively modest paychecks. We also had a larger than usual tax bill due to both some projects coming to fruition and to the loss of our one dependent exemption. We lost the higher ed tax credit as well. This is what happens when your kid becomes a grad student with a stipend that she can live on, and is one of those really good changes that helps you smile a little as you write a check to the US Treasury. And work - well, it makes my head spin. Meat for a separate post. My work hasn’t changed that much, though, because my agency has regularly had financial ups and downs in the decade I’ve worked there. I’ve been knitting away and have added a f...

A twitter link posted by Jad Abumrad of WNYC’s Radiolab steered me in the direction of this article in The New Yorker by David Brooks: “ Social Animal ”. Strands from this article keep floating into my thoughts. It resonates with me because it aligns well with my viewpoint on how humans work. I’m shaped by the work of B. F. Skinner, and anyone who has read his work knows that that statement curls around on itself in a satisfying way. In the smallest of nutshells, I believe that we are who we are not only because of who we are at birth, but also because of the environments we grow up in, study in, work in, live in. I am one of the last people who would have any interest in the ideas of Ayn Rand. I do not believe that we are individuals who can stand free of connection or culture. I’m with John Donne: No man is an Iland , intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent , a part of the maine ; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea , Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promon...

Recently, Susie of the blog Knitting Knoobie asked the question: are you monogamous ? Once upon a time I was monogamous. I worked on one knitting project at a time. As a project got close to the finishing point, I would get the itch to start another, and begin my research, lining up pattern and yarn. I might even cast on, and knit a few rows. The new project, however, would then be pushed aside, not to be touched until I had completed the knitting in progress. As my stash of both patterns and yarn has become lusher and more full of possibility, I no longer keep to this virtuous and efficient pattern. I have become a knitting multi-tasker. Actually, Susie’s characterization of monogamous v. polygamous is more accurate, because no matter how many projects you have going, you can only actively knit on one at a time. I spent most of 2010 with 3 projects on the needles. Currently I have 4 active projects: socks for myself. The pattern is Cookie A’s pattern Wedge , and the yarn is a fine, ha...