My New Best Friends - Bookwise

Since I have become my dad's primary caregiver, time is at a premium these days and I am still struggling to figure out how to complete the Master Level 1 handknitting program. Time is at a premium and my knitting is the mindless kind these days, the kind I can pick up and put down and not think too deeply about. Having said that, I have been indulging in some knitting retail therapy - book wise. 

Charles Gandy recommended Nancie M. Wiseman's The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques.  I have been knitting a child's cardigan and I was at the point of fitting the sleeves into the armholes.  This gave me the opportunity to practice the joining technique.  Was it a great job?  Not really.  In the Master's Handknit we submit swatches which are to be a reflection of "our best work".  It is easy to get fixated on that one small part of the program.  I think the real value of the Master's hand knit program is the ability to research, practice and expand one's knowledge.  This sweater is also helping me practice weaving in yarn ends.  As a side benefit I learned that the duplicate stitch method is a great way to 'fix' or reinforce sloppy, loose gauge on the sides.  Sloppy side gauge is a separate issue that I need to work on. 

I also picked up The Knitter's Handbook. Small, portable and spiral bound.

I am finding there is a lot of different information out there regarding knitting.  Knitting is a very slippery business with different definitions for many of the techniques.  I am knitting a simple cowl that has mobious in it's title.  It is not technically a mobious.  It is just circular knitting with the cast one row having a twist in it. This does create a twisted fabric, but a true mobious it is not.

I am surprised how my knitting is secretly improving.  I used to look at Vogue knitting magazine and think "Yea right, I will never be able to knit that stuff".  Now it doesn't seem so out of reach.

The Masters: Blocking and the first 3 Swatches

I have just completed the first three swatches which to me seem to all fit in a group.  They are about even tension in rib and flat knitted fabric, weaving in ends so that they are invisible and maintain the elasticity of the fabric and correct blocking - or so it seems to me. 

Along with correctly blocking the swatches, the Masters requires a report on blocking and in my mind this is the logical time to start to research and write this requirement.  It is also the logical time to put what I learn into practice.  My plan is to block the first 3 swatches and get them all prepared for the binder with labels, Swatch sheet, etc.  I will polish the report and put that in the binder as well. 
Of course any good report requires reference materials and with a gleam in my eye - that means BOOKS!!  So I quickly rationalized the need to buy three new books and a blocking kit.  Okay, I know that I could have probably done the whole thing without a blocking kit.  The report could have been written with a library card and the Internet - but this just gave me the excuse to buy what had been on my list of "I wants" for some time.  Besides, one can never have to many wonderful, glorious reference books about knitting   I chose to buy the following:

The Principles of Knitting
The Knitter's Handbook: A Comprehensive guild to the Principles and Techniques of Handknitting
The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques

I have my eye on the Vogue Knitting Book, but that will have to wait.  I hadn't counted on the US Post Office choosing not to deliver the books and declaring my address undeliverable.  Considering I have been here for 3 years and they just delivered an Amazon package last week this was bizarre.  Maybe they think I have too many knitting books and are staging an intervention.  In the meantime, I found this great video specifically targeted to the MHK program and blocking.  We don't know what we don't know and yes I bought the above picture of the blocking kit, when a couple of towels, some rust proof pins and a mat from Lowes or Home Depot would have been good enough.  I don't have a reputation as an equipment junkie in my guild for nothing. 

References:  Blocking Swatches for the MHK Program, LippizanKnitter  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id0ti5-c1ds&feature=endscreen&NR=1

The Second Half of Life - A book review (sort of)

I'm reading a book that is irritating the crap out of me.  The Second Half of Life by Angeles Arrien.  I am seeing a disturbing trend in the self help book arena. As the writers in this field age they have begun to write about how American culture doesn't honor elders like other cultures around the world do and that "We can no longer ignore the wisdom that is irrevocably lost to future generations when our elders are marginalised or rendered invisible."  She goes on to say that .."we live in a society that has lost many traditional initiation rituals"...Really, I think this is a case of the cultural 'grass is greener' on the other side.  We have lots of rituals.  Graduation from High School, College, weddings, baby showers, divorce, retirement and funerals.  How the hell do you over look the ritual of divorce - you will spend enough money and time in court that you have to be stupid as a rock not to get that this is a major transition. 

Frankly, this sounds like a case of " Holy Cow, I'm getting older and I'm having a really hard time with it so I will write books about how much personal work I have done and how I am now a "Wise Elder" and let me show you how to be wise like me.  Yea, so???  Sounds a little like trying to prove to one self and others how important you are.  If you are wise, others will see it or they won't.  That's the sad truth of it, people need to find their own inner wisdom.  You might be wise but that doesn't mean others will appreciate that fact, actually they might resent it. Wisdom is or should be pursued for it's own sake not because it is a licence to call your self a "Wise Elder" and graciously start bestowing your opinions on others or write books about how no one in our culture appreciates how much we could do for them it they just paid attention to you.

Wisdom is hard won and many do not chose to follow it's path.  I can see that, personally I think ignorance is bliss. I sometimes think the truly clueless are the happiest.  The path to wisdom is through the valley of sorrow.  It requires deep spelunking and a willingness to take responsibility for what you may have contributed to your life's outcome.  Nothing new here.  Erik Erickson said it almost 70 years ago when he proposed that life was a developmental task.  His last stage was Ego integrity vs. Despair.  Retirement was a time of retrospection.  He also viewed the life stages as a cycle: the end of one generation was the beginning of the next. Seen in its social context, the life stages were linear for an individual but circular for societal development.  (Wikipedia).

Each of us has our own wisdom path, I sometimes think true wisdom is learning to keep our mouths shut and allowing others to learn on their own.  If they wanted our opinion they would ask for it.

Side note:  The book does have some amazing photos of hands - truly beautiful.

Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. A friend commented on my last blog post and I wanted to respond, but being long winded, over inclusive and verbose it became another blog.

Frances Pauli commented that:
I want to be in love with the characters, NOT intimate with them. Seriously, the weirder and more graphic it is the better it "sells" right now.


I have noticed that there is an increasing “go for the quick and intense” mentality in the general public. Graphic sex in books as a replacement for good writing or a story line is part of this. Culturally, I think it is also reflected in “speed dating”, “hook ups”, and our rather intense but short relationships. As soon as the “high” is beginning to abate we think there is something wrong and we rush to the next intense moment. The Meth addicts I have occasionally worked with have stated that nothing is as intense in life, sex, you name it, as when you are on a meth run. It is really hard for them to let go of that intense high no matter how destructive it might be to the rest of their life. As a culture we are also not very good at delayed gratification. The ability to delay gratification to a future point requires a certain maturity, something else that our culture doesn’t support.

Just as meditation can change brain function, so can our rapid fire video games, special effect movies,  and texting instead of writing (email is the new snail mail);  the graphic sex in movie and books keeps us titillated and like a meth addict on a high. Partially, I think this might be explained by the presence of mirror neurons in the brain.

A mirror neuron is a neuron that fires both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another.^[1][2] Thus, the neuron "mirrors" the behavior of the other, as though the observer were itself acting.  Wikipedia. 

So all that graphic sex we are reading about, our brain thinks we are experiencing on some level.  The sex, violence, intense music, etc., creates high which is very addictive.  We don’t know how to slow down, to see the beauty around us in simple and quiet things.  We become instantly bored and anxious when our systems aren't amped up, we reach for something exciting like a junkie looking for the next fix and like a junkie we are developing tolerance and need bigger and bigger doses to get the same effect.  Books get sexually more graphic to appeal enough to be purchased.  It is one ugly cycle.

This leads me to something else I have been thinking about lately and my next blog which will be titled "Love is Just a Feeling".