More knitting for babies

Since finishing the boatneck sweater for Liza's (May) baby, I've been working on a vest sweater for Megan's (June) baby. The pattern is from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms: Beautiful Designs Using Organic Yarns, by Louisa Harding. (I'm substituting a decidedly nonorganic yarn: KnitPicks Shine Worsted in Terra Cotta. I do love working with this stuff!) It's a fairly simple pattern--nearly all stockinette, with garter-stitch "stripes" at regular intervals. I completed the back last Thursday evening while knitting with two friends at bookstore/cafe, and since then I've already finished one-third of the front.

No baaaaaaaad yarn here

Interweave Knits is hosting two events to celebrate their publication of Amy Singer's No Sheep for You: Knit Happy with Cotton, Silk, Linen, Hemp, Bamboo, and Other Delights this month. The first is a No Sheep for You knitalong. The second event is the "No Sheep Secret Pal Skein Swap": each participant sends two skeins of nonwool yarn (one in June and one in July) to his or her pal. I happen to be a huge fan of wool, but for those of you who aren't keen on wool or are allergic to it (or are knitting for non-wool-lovers), this book and these two events might be worth checking out!

End-of-winter knitting tidbits

For the last days of this winter (or for next winter, if you're planning ahead), try these knitted pants for little ones.

Just in time for Easter (for those of you who celebrate it)--and for anyone who thinks that baby chicks are too darn cute--use this pattern to knit a whole flock of 'em.

This random stripe generator gives you an idea of what a stripe pattern will look like before you start your knitting.

When I get plastic shopping bags from the grocery store, I return them on my next trip there so they can be recycled. Lately, though, I've been hoarding my bags and cutting them apart to make "yarn" from them. (My plan is to use them to knit--oh, irony!--some sort of market bag out of them.) I made up my own technique for slicing and connecting the bags, but this one is much better.

If you find your hands or arms cramping up while you knit, you might want to give these square knitting needles a try. I bet they're also useful for people who are tired of chasing after runaway needles rolling off tables...

The Spring 2007 Knitty has a great article on creating your own handpainted yarn. There's some KnitPicks Bare in my stash that's just waiting for me to give it a splash of color...

I've used the long-tail cast-on only a couple of times (when a pattern specifically required it), and I've never really cottoned to it. After looking at this video from Knit Like a Man, I may give it another try.

Via Craft, these skull-patterned stockings may interest those of you who want to get a jump on your Halloween knitting.

A dream come true

I first heard of Stephen Colbert's AmeriCone Dream ice cream right before it hit the stores about a month ago. The latest flavor from Ben & Jerry's, it "is a decadent melting pot of vanilla ice cream with fudge-covered waffle cone pieces and a caramel swirl. It’s the sweet taste of liberty in your mouth."

Of course, I knew right away that I had to try it. Not only does it have a delicious combination of flavors, but, well, it's ice cream. (Really, no reason is necessary beyond that.) Unfortunately, I have been unable to find it in any stores in my area...until this evening.

Let me just say this: I'm one of those people who, when pressed to name a favorite ice-cream flavor, usually says, "Oh, I can't possibly choose just one." But you know, maybe I can now...

SP10 just launched...

...and look what's already happened!

A few days ago, my SP10 sent me an e-mail warning me to watch my mail. When yesterday's mail arrived, I could see why: she sent me a package!

Yes, that's right--sock yarn! Her accompanying note reads "I love making socks, so I thought I'd encourage your new foray into knitting them as well!" Along with two skeins of Cascade yarns Sassy Stripes superwash (in an oh-so-fun blue-green colorway) she included a great toe-up sock pattern. (Question to my Secret Pal: did you send this pattern because I'm learning toe-up socks now or because it's one you like a lot? Just wondering...)

Thank you, SP10!

A big sex and the evil king of Halloween

Shouts & Murmurs in the current issue of the New Yorker presents alternate views of a few conversations. My favorite bits:

(From "A Conversation at the Grownup Table, as Imagined at the Kids’ Table")

DAD: We just saw the PG-13 movie. It was so good.
MOM: There was a big sex.

(From "A Day at UNICEF Headquarters, as I Imagined It in Third Grade")

(UNICEF sits on a throne. He is wearing a cape and holding a sceptre. A servant enters, on his knees.)
UNICEF: Halloween is fast approaching! Have the third graders been given their little orange boxes?
SERVANT: Yes, your majesty!
...
UNICEF: Ha ha ha! Those fools! Soon I will have all the money in the world. For I am UNICEF, evil king of Halloween!

A better boatneck

Three of my friends are pregnant. Babies are due to arrive in May, June, and August. Needless to say, the knitting projects that are occupying my time these days are of the baby-sized variety. Since I ordered the yarn for these projects, one of the three has learned (and announced) that she's having a boy, but the other two babies will remain mysteries until they are born. I chose the same yarn for all three items: KnitPicks Shine Worsted (a machine-washable mostly cotton blend that handles and drapes beautifully) in the Terra Cotta color, which I think would look nice on any baby.

For my friend Liza (May), I decided to knit an old favorite that I've made several times before (including twice for my own daughter): the simple boatneck sweater from Baby Knits for Beginners, by Debbie Bliss. For the 6-9 month size (plus the gauge swatch), I ended up using well over three balls of yarn. I made a couple of modifications to the original pattern, including the use of the three-needle bindoff on the shoulders. (I am a huge, huge fan of this technique and use it all the time now. What a great way to get bombproof, neat, tidy, perfectly-lined-up shoulder seams!) Here's what the sweater looked like about a month ago, right before the tendonitis really kicked in and I had to put it away for a while.

My wrist is feeling much much better, though, and the problem seems to have gone away (though I still wear the wrist splint during most of the day and all night, just to be cautious). For the past few days, I've felt mended enough to knit and even do some seaming. So I've finished putting together this sweater, and I am mighty pleased with the result. The other modification I made to the pattern was in how I attached the sleeves. Rather than knit the sleeves separately from the bottom up, then sew them into place, I picked up the stitches at the shoulders and knit the sleeves from the top down. This meant I had to reverse engineer the sleeve a bit, figuring out how do the decreases that are usually increases when coming from the other direction. Again, I ended up with a very sturdy, tidy seam.

One thing I really like about this pattern is the little bit of garter stitch at the hem and cuffs. This detail isn't busy enough to distract from the sweater as whole (and probably doesn't even get noticed most of the time), but it's a nice little variation from the sea of stockinette stitch around it.

I did knit a gauge swatch, but the sweater seems a little big (this always happens to me, even when I dutifully check for gauge...). I'm not worried about it, though. It's intended to fit a child who will be around five or six months old when the cool weather returns, and since Liza and her husband are both very tall people (and their first baby wasn't tiny!), I suspect this baby will need all the extra sweater he or she can get!

More musings on art

My secret pal's comment to my last post has had me thinking about class and art and Bourdieu and whatnot these past few days.

I'm certainly no expert on Bourdieu, so I'm sure there are all sorts of nuances that I'm missing--especially since he did gobs and gobs of writing about art and aesthetics. He spent a lot of his career trying to understand why rich people and poor people (in France, specifically, but his theories are generally applicable) have different tastes in art, music, literature, etc. One point he made in one of his most famous works, Distinction (and no, I haven't slogged through the whole book--just bits and pieces), is that because rich people have the economic capital to own works of art, they therefore set themselves up in opposition to those who don't. So art works to legitimize social differences: because rich people, freed from focusing on survival and the necessities of life, can pursue art that is far removed from the quotidien. A shared interest in this kind of art ( e.g., antiques, "complex" works) helps shape and reinforce an unconscious sense of class unity.

At least, that's what I remember from grad school--and I'm fairly surprised I remember that much! I like Bourdieu--rather, I should say I like the idea of Bourdieu, since I can't claim to have read even a small portion of his prodigious output. I like that he was thoughtful and publicly committed in a way that few academics are these days. I was very hopeful when, upon becoming prime minister, Tony Blair announced that Anthony Giddens would be one of his advisors. But then that whole relationship seemed to fall by the wayside, and after a while we saw the UK join the USA's headlong rush into war (and tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq). Here in the USA we had John Kenneth Galbraith, but he left us last year. At least we still have Noam Chomsky!

Anyway, I don't think Bourdieu would say that "art isn't art unless it's a grand bronze sculpture or oil on canvas." I think he would say there is a distinction--made by both rich people and poor people--between grand bronze sculptures and finger drawings in the dirt, though.

I don't pretend to have a clear definition of art--at least, not one that is generally applicable. I think of art mostly in terms of "I like it" or "I don't like it," and in terms of whether or not something prods my thinking in new ways. I do think there has to be some intentionality, though. So, for example, when my daughter upends the contents of her breakfast plate onto the floor, I wouldn't say that the oatmeal-splatter marks in my dining room constitute art per se because she wasn't intending to be creative or thought-provoking.

Some things fall under the rubric "art" because they were innovative. When Marcel Duchamp stuck a urinal on the wall and called it art, he was the first person to so something like that (and his name became forever linked to an entire movement).

When someone makes a chandelier of gummi bears (yes, that's right), I find that pretty novel--especially when the artist is striving for some social commentary. YaYa Chou did this first, and I'm happy to call it art. But if this sort of thing became popular and widespread enough to appear in many other incarnations, well, then it seems to me less "artsy" because the initial impact is no longer there.

My brain hurts now. (Social theory tends to do that to me after a while.) I'm going back to knitting. I have a few finished objects and works in progress to chat about, but I'll save that for another time.

Art and life

Via Craft I came across this article about a guy in San Francisco who, on one afternoon every month, sets up a sewing machine on the street and sews whatever people bring him. Sure, Michael Swaine is a performance artist. But one could also say that he's someone who's just trying to connect with other people. In this age of disposable everything, people who can't sew rarely bother to mend their clothes, I think. Why pay someone money to fix a shirt when you can get a brand-spankin' new one for only a few bucks more, right?

I also think this is one of those rare cases where art actually does touch the masses. It's not hung up in some hoity-toity gallery, or set on a stage or concert hall for which paid tickets are mandatory. It's right there on the street, accessible to anyone. The utilitarian nature of this project--fixing people's stuff--makes it easier for people to engage it. Instead of trying to wrap their heads around an abstract painting or interesting wordplay or major and minor themes in a piece of music (not that those projects aren't worthwhile, too), people can just ask someone, "Hey, can you fix this for me?" and end up having a conversation with that person.

The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu theorized that the production of art is one way in which the ruling class maintains its status. They have access to the material capital to produce it. A truly democratic society, he argued, should provide gobs of funding for art. (Yes, I know this summary doesn't even begin to do justice to Bourdieu's massive oeuvre and incredibly influential work.) We have the NEA here, but that agency funds only people who are "officially" recognized as artists. That money isn't spread around nearly as widely as Bourdieu would have liked.

I'm not sure how much money should go to public art. I'm not sure how art should--or can--even be defined in these cases. But I do see a need for publicly supported encouragement of creativity. Having worked for two different educational publishers and one organization that was involved in educational activities, I know how state-mandated educational standards have affected what goes on in classrooms. Funding for art, music, and theater programs in elementary, middle, and high schools keeps getting cut because those subjects aren't seen as "important" enough; that is, they aren't generally part of the core subjects that students are tested on these days. And by "tested" I mean "taught to memorize tons of information that will be on a standardized test." Yes, a lot of this is stuff that students ought to know. But what about standard-less creativity? What about time to draw a picture or play a song not to have it evaluated in some way but just for the sheer joy and self-expression?

This one is for Katie

Giles: We may, in fact, stand between the earth and its total destruction.

Buffy: Well, I got to look on the bright side: maybe I can still get kicked out of school.

Xander: Oh yeah, that's a plan, 'cause a lot of schools aren't on a Hellmouth.

Willow: Maybe you could blow something up. They're really strict about that.

Buffy: I was thinking of a more subtle approach. You know, like excessive not studying.

Giles: The earth is doomed.

Happy tenth anniversary (today), Buffy.

Spring is here!

At least according to the folks at Knitty: their spring issue is up!

So what are you doing still hanging around here?

Review: A Guy Who Knits

When I first saw two of Lucinda Guy's books of handknits for children in a catalog, I was utterly charmed--so much so that I bought one of them, Handknits for Kids, sight unseen. Last week, I finally got my hands on its sequel, And So to Bed..., thanks to my local library.

Both books are beautifully designed and feature patterns for clothing, blankets, and stuffed toys suitable for ages two to five or thereabouts. The designs for girls are girly, but mostly in a heavy-on-the-pink way and not in a frilly-curlicues way; similarly, the designs for boys are boyish but not obnoxiously so.

Handknits for Kids is divided into four "chapters," each defined by a season. Each chapter includes a blanket (one has trucks and cars on it, and one is completely pink, but the other two aren't gendered), a stuffed toy (dog, bird, mouse, cat), and a sweater for a girl; three chapters also include sweaters for boys. The designs are clever and fun--stuff I could actually imagine children wearing (and enjoying!) without looking ridiculous. You can see photos of all the projects in the British version of the book here. (It contains the same projects and has the same design as the American version; only the title and surely some spellings are different.) Look at the Jack Frost Jacket in the last chapter--isn't that adorable? I'm giving serious thought to making one of those for Sylvia...maybe even in the pink that the pattern calls for. (I am not a big fan of lots of pink, so that's saying a lot about how much I like this design.)

And So to Bed... is equally charming in its presentation (like Handknits for Kids, all of the illustrations are photographs of the knitted objects against cartoon drawings--there are no photographs of people wearing these handknits). The projects here didn't appeal to me as much, though. They're all bedtime-themed (clever idea!), and include blankets, pajama cases, robes, and cases for hot-water bottles. (All of the projects can be seen here.) But, aside from the Dream Cardigan and the stuffed owl, I had a hard time imagining myself knitting any of this stuff.

I should mention that this book is from Rowan and thus features only Rowan yarn. Beautiful stuff, to be sure, but holy cow is it expensive. The Dream Cardigan I mentioned would cost about eighty bucks if I used the yarn that is called for. Ouch. Unless I can score an exceptionally good deal on eBay, when I'm ready to start these projects I'll definitely be substituting other yarns.

Anouk completed

I started the Anouk pinafore in January 2006. The bulk of the knitting was accomplished pretty quickly, and a little over two months I had completed the piece--sort of. I'd attached the four side bands as the pattern specified, but the top pair were placed too high up and consequently squeezed Sylvia's little armpits. Since the weather was already turning warm--too warm for a knit pinafore--I put Anouk aside and decided to wait until the following winter to fix it.

Well, I finally got around to doing the "repairs." First, I removed the side bands and all of the buttons. (I had thought about replacing the leaf-shaped buttons I'd originally used with some garden-themed pewter ones I'd picked up recently, but the new one were just too heavy for this light fabric.) Then I blocked the pinafore and the side bands. Then I reattached the side bands--just one pair this time--and the buttons.

The result? I'm pretty pleased with it (even though the picked-up stitches around the neck--the first time I'd ever done that technique--aren't super tidy). Sylvia really likes it and deemed it banana-eating-worthy attire.