Sammy's Hill: a review

Young, idealistic Samantha works for Senator Gary in his capitol hill office as his health care policy advisor. She is smart, capable, and a hard worker. Her personal life is considerably more fragile, less organized, and fraught with neuroses. It is early in a presidential election year and Sammy begins dating a speechwriter for a smarmy Senator who also happens to be a presidential candidate. The romantic trajectory is relatively predictable, but the political climate Kristin Gore has created is exciting and a refreshing change to the chick lit genre.

Sammy is humorous at times, but so neurotic as to render her unrealistic. Her odd quirks - a love for telemarketers, odd daydreaming scenarios, an obsession with disaster-preparedness - were probably inserted to add depth to her character but feel tacked on. Still, the character is sympathetic and admirable in a lot of ways; she's obviously smart, an expert in her field, and holds political views with which I sympathize.

President Pile is a thinly veiled George W. Bush (I was tipped off by her description of his permanent "deer in the headlights" expression). Although the book was published in 2004, the presence of both Pile and female presidential candidate Melanie Spearam feel very current. Unfortunately, Spearam drops out of the race after a public emotional meltdown over a love affair; a bit too stereotypically female for me (but thank goodness, not a danger in the current real-world race!)

Despite its flaws, I was humming "Don't Stop Thinking about Tomorrow" by the end of the book and I'm very much looking forward to reading the follow-up, Sammy's House.

Word of the day: Failure

Today we will learn some knitting vocabulary, shall we? The two terms we'll familiarize ourselves with are frog and hibernate.

To frog means to completely unravel a project. It is referred to as "frogging" because you "rip it rip it" (I know, lame, but I didn't make it up). One frogs if a project is coming out so poorly that it cannot be fixed without re-starting, or if it is so hopeless the yarn should be rescued and used for a more suitable project in the future.

To illustrate, the Here And There Cables Scarf:


I couldn't think of one good reason to keep going on this scarf. The only reason I started it was because I had the yarn leftover, and I had a copy of Scarf Style which I had never used. These, my friends, are not good reasons to embark upon a time- and effort-consuming project. I don't need another warm winter scarf, the color doesn't match my coat, I had nobody to give it to, and it wasn't even coming out as nicely drapy as I had hoped. So there it is. A reminder of why I normally choose a pattern I want to make, and then buy yarn appropriate for it. Very simple.

When a project hibernates it means that no further progress is being made, but it is not being frogged. Hibernating occurs when you are so despondant at your failure that you cannot even bring yourself to frog. The article is simply stuffed into a bag and then into the farthest reaches of your least-visited closet.

My hibernation example, sadly, is the Sweater with Rib Pattern:


I was told by Eric that I should go ahead and make the second sleeve as "it's not terrible," but I won't. First of all, "not terrible" isn't a good enough reason to continue putting in that much work on a project. Secondly, perhaps it doesn't look terrible but it was not his arm that was losing circulation from this sleeve.

Had I used wool I could block it larger, but of course I used a cheap acrylic as I wasn't super-excited about the pattern and just wanted to use up the yarn (see above lesson learned about using these determinants to choose projects.) I could, if I had the wherewithall to do so, take the sleeve out, knit a new slightly larger sleeve, then another similar sleeve, and finish. But honestly, I just can't. I have been bogged down by this project for too long and don't like the sweater enough to continue. I've already made 3 back/fronts and a sleeve. I have nothing more in me for the Sweater with Rib Pattern. And of course, I have only myself to blame as I knew from the start that this project was ill-conceived.

So there you have it - two perfectly apt real-world illustrations of important knitting concepts. There will be a quiz. I hope we don't have to go over these concepts again. I really, really hope not.

March: Craft

Craft is the theme for the BAM Challenge this month, and while the theme is open to interpretation, I took the narrow view and read No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting by Anne L. Macdonald. Spanning from early colonial America through the 1970s, the scope of the book extends well beyond just the craft of knitting - war, the changing role of women, fashion. Still, it is mainly of interest to knitters as that is the central focus, though I must admit there were craft references that even confounded me (What the heck is "picking lint"?)

The author used primary sources and quotes are used liberally throughout the book. For this reason, I found the chapter on colonial America the most difficult to read because of the style of writing from that period. But in general, it made the history seem more real as it was told through the words of those who lived it.

My favorite chapter was "Westward Knit!" which appealed to my love of all things remotely related to Little House on the Prairie. Here is described a method of dyeing yarn by first wrapping it in corn shucks to create gentle gradations in color. Also in this chapter was a story of a woman kidnapped by Narragansetts, who knit items of clothing for them to earn their food and good will.

Macdonald described the important role knitting played during wartime. A loyal informer to the army during the Revolutionary War would insert messages containing British military information in balls of yarn and "accidentally" drop them when General Washington's troops passed by. During World War I knitting for soldiers reached frenzied heights, spurring knitting bees where participants achieved such great feats as knitting an entire sweater in one day. Many men knit for the war effort as well, including prisoners at Idaho State Penitentiary, where two prisoners braided their yarn into a 25-foot long rope and used it to escape.

Some of the anecdotes in this book sound very familiar as a knitter today:
-Women who knit bathing suits, only to find out - in the most embarrassingly ways possible - that they were impractical for swimming.
-A knitter in the 40s, when argyle was very popular, described rigging a shoebox to keep different colored yarns separate to prevent tangling, which would have been useful for me a couple of weeks ago
-When patterns finally began to regularly include gauge information, many knitters simply ignored it, beginning our long tradition of not knitting gauge swatches even though we know we should

As a knitter, it is distracting to read a book about knitting. When I read about the constant sock knitting (two socks at a time, even!) during WWI and WWII I would suddenly need to put the book down and work on my sock; when I read about knitters finding ways to knit and read at the same time, I was inspired to scour the internet for a good book stand. Despite my inability to focus, it was a very interesting book packed with information - and photos! - of knitting throughout US history. Published in 1988, it doesn't contain knitting's most recent surge in popularity, and I look forward to seeing how some future book characterizes knitting and knitters in the 2000s.

Privatize your library?

This is not the way to support libraries. Two towns here in Massachusetts are proposing privatizing their libraries, saying that they are struggling with continuing services while keeping taxes low.

First of all, this completely goes against the very idea of what public libraries are. Private companies are not accountable to the public the way that a city or country run library is. Or is it? LSSI, the company that already runs libraries in California, Texas, Oregon and Tennessee, say that they would not rely on fees and would instead get their funding through grants and taxes. Kind of like now. So if the libraries would remain free and still operate on the same funding, what exactly would the role of this company be?

Secondly, and this may partly answer that question, I'm concerned about one of the statements in the article: "LSSI generally does not hire unionized employees, helping it to save on benefits packages." Given the way my union has behaved I'm all for not being in a union, but what this says to me is that they don't want to give librarians decent benefits. Because everyone knows that librarians are compensated way too much, right?

Predictably, the MA Board of Library Commissioners opposes the idea. And although the idea was originally proposed by a resident, I have to think that many people won't want their tax dollars going to a private company. I sure wouldn't.

Here is an article about the privatizing of the Jackson County, OR libraries last year. 15 branches had closed due to a budgetary crisis, and re-opened with LSSI running the libraries with a smaller staff receiving fewer benefits.

Maybe I'm just a socialist at heart, but I think corporations have enough power already. It's bad enough that you can't see a movie or a concert or even a roller derby without being advertised to, so let's just keep the private companies out of our libraries, shall we?

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

Lovely, impractical socks! I do not like this thing called intarsia, nor do I think it's a good choice for sock heels. But they are cute, no?

The pattern is from Knitty and designed by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka the Yarn Harlot. Unfortunately, it's a bit sloppily written but if you have sock experience it's not too bad. The sizes are very unclear; while the pattern lists sizes S, M, L it actually only includes one set of instructions with a note that if you want to make the larger size, use larger needles. What if you want to make medium? Or maybe I made medium and it is small that is missing. We will never know, because the pattern doesn't include any measurements to help define S, M, or L. The instructions also neglect to tell you to work in stockinette or switch to white for the toe, but you can tell from the pictures. But mostly it was a fun project and really, I enjoy make anything that is turquoise. And they are very springlike.

But what is this wayward stitch marring the otherwise orderly gusset?

Your guess is as good as mine. I have no idea what happened there.

I made these for the February Sockdown on Ravelry. The theme was to make socks with a heel that is new to you; cast on anytime during the month of February and finish by the end of March. There are fantastic prizes for some lucky winners, which is what it's all about. Or maybe it's about having yet another pair of fabulous handmade socks?

The Glass Castle

Jeannette Walls' memoir is a gripping tale of a dirt poor, nomadic family, headed by irresponsible parents who barely even tried to provide for their children. Their lives were full of pipe dreams, and plans to build a glass castle in which they would live in some unspecified future time. Their reality consisted of running from debts, living in run-down houses with no heat or water, starving, lying, and refusing any help available to them.

Maybe I'm just cynical because of the recent memoir scandals, or maybe it's just because of my general feelings about memoirs, but some of the anecdotes read like tall tales. Although I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of her story, I do not for one moment believe that she was proficient with a pistol when she was 4 years old, or that she was an excellent reader when she was 3. The story about how the family filled up the entire car with grapes and ate only grapes for weeks just made me wonder how long grapes will still be edible. They don't last for "weeks" at my house. I also don't think a wild rat - or any wild animal - is going to climb into your bed and come after you, but I suppose anything is possible. Much of this is surely based on poor memories or just the way the author perceived events as a child.

Nevertheless, I was carried through on the quick narrative flow, but I think the real strength of this book is in the characters. Walls' parents were fascinating. They were both very smart, with hippie-ish ideals, but lazy and unfocused. Their father was an alcoholic and spent any money he could get on booze; their mother was immature and selfish, and most likely mentally ill. The author is far more forgiving than I would have been and way too much of a pushover with her father. I don't care how charming the guy was - if it was between food for me and booze for him, I wouldn't hand over all the family's money to him.

An interesting story and decent writing; despite its few faults, it was better than many memoirs I have read. Most importantly, I came away feeling very grateful that my mother isn't a lunatic.

Hoppin' Down the Bunny Trail

Considering this for Easter?

First, please consider this:

Futon, destroyed.


Yes, this is a library book.


Lovely black chair from Ikea, apparently tasty.


Magazines, borrowed never to be returned.


At least this part doesn't show when the boot is zipped.


Three consecutive issues of Interweave Knits.


Vintage SciFi book, expensive because of the previously excellent condition.

Not pictured: computer cord chewed through in 2 places, new computer cord already chewed and taped, pee spots on the hardwood floors, and one extremely harrassed cat.

If you're prepared for the destruction and want a rabbit anyhow, good luck and enjoy your bunny! But if your possessions are important to you, think long and hard first. And keeping them caged isn't the answer - would you keep a cat in a cage? (If you answered yes, I hope you don't have pets. Or children for that matter.)

Rabbits aren't for everyone. Animal shelters are full of them. Now you know why.