Textiles and Bicycles

(A good reference map for actual DC neighborhoods is here.)

This idea came to me when a coworker likened Brooklyn to Arlington.

My immediate reaction was shock and horror. Brooklyn is not Arlington. Arlington is Jersey.

This map comes with a million caveats and here are just a few:

DC neighborhoods and NYC neighborhoods are only VERY loosely comparable.

The comparisons I make are based on either urban form, architecture, demographics, history, institutions in the neighborhood or a combination of the above.

I thought about giving you the complete rationale for each neighborhood comparison, but I thought I’d let it stand on its own first. If the rationale is desired it can be provided. I welcome any disagreements, agreements (obviously), or suggestions for other hoods.

One thing I will explain is that in DC most immigrant communities (with all that tasty ethnic food) is spread around the suburbs instead of in the urban core. So the suburbs is Queens. Speaking of Queens, if you want the best Indian food not made by someone in my family (yes, I’m biased) go to Jackson Diner in Jackson Heights. I’m one picky Indian and that food is goooooood.

Here are the initial neighborhood comparisons:

Chevy Chase = Upper East Side

Rock Creek Park = Central Park (though RCP isn’t so central)

Mount Pleasant = Carroll Gardens

Adams Morgan = East Village

Connecticut corridor (North Dupont to Cleveland Park-ish) = Upper West Side

Columbia Heights = Spanish Harlem

Trinidad = Crown Heights

Eastern Market = Park Slope

SW Waterfront = Battery Park City

Chinatown = Times Square

K Street Corridor = Wall St

Georgetown (around M St) = SoHo

Georgetown north (around the University) = West Village/NYU

Dupont Circle/Logan Circle = Chelsea

All of Anacostia = All of the Bronx

Shaw/Ledroit Park = Harlem

Potomac River = Hudson River

Anacostia River = East River

There were a few neighborhoods that couldn’t be applied to DC like (to name just a few) Nolita, Dumbo, and Williamsburg…which I tried to apply to Columbia Heights, but having moved from Williamsburg to Columbia Heights I knew it was too much of a stretch. Hipsters aren’t concentrated enough in DC anywhere…their little population seems to be pretty diffuse.

The knitted bicycle.

Or this crocheted bicycle that I found on flickr from user jackrabbit.etsy.com:

It’s seems to be the true intersection of textiles and bicycles I’ve been searching for.

I went to the Museum of Natural History yesterday to see an exhibit of live butterflies. There are over 300 butterflies in a smallish room heated to 90 degrees. It was lovely.

However.

While I learned a lot about butterflies, bugs, and gems and minerals (and saw the Hope Diamond, which I didn’t find that impressive…but I can’t tell the difference between a diamond and glass), I learned even more about the blind consumerism taking over our world.

The thousands of people on the national mall in the summer months provides endless annoyance to DC residents. And since there are so many people, there’s a lot of opportunity to hear some of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard a human utter. Though I’d like to wholly attribute these tokens of idiocy to tourists and suburbanites, I can’t be sure.

Quote 1, boy whining to dad in bug exhibit:

“Daaaaad, can we go buy something?”

Tim and I turn to each other jaws dropped in disbelief. This is not an exaggeration. I was stopped dead in my tracks. Um, say what? It’s a zombie child…must - buy - something - losing - will - to - live. Shopping is the new heroin.

Quote 2, young woman whining to boyfriend/husband/whatever in gems exhibit:

“I don’t want to look at anything I can’t afford”

Because if you can’t own it has no value to you and therefore not worth looking at. Zombie couple. Must - own - everything. One of my favorite things to do is go into all the fancy boutiques on 5th Avenue and treat them like museums. So I find it particularly amazing that someone could actually be IN a museum and still behave solely like a consumer. As if she couldn’t imagine an object being a source of inspiration or beauty, but rather only a possession to flaunt. When I’m socialist queen of the world…

Quote 3, on a fluorescent-colored t-shirt worn by one of those annoying t-shirt wearing groups sprinkled throughout DC everyday:

“Okay, if this is the national mall, then take me to the Abercrombie memorial”

I have a feeling they were annoyed that the national mall wasn’t climate controlled.

I leave you with some butterflies. While you can’t own these particular butterflies, I hope you’ll find them beautiful nonetheless. And, who knows? Since my dreams of being socialist queen will in all likelihood remain unfulfilled, maybe you can actually buy them and really have it all.

Owl butterfly that tried to “hitchhike” on my leg (and then later on Tim’s).

Don’t remember what kind of butterfly this one is.

This one I thought would make a great fabric pattern.

An effective reminder to store your yarn carefully.

I’m relieved that I finished it in time.

This is the Medallion Shawl by Norah Gaughan from this past winter’s Vogue Knitting. It’s made on 9s with the now discontinued Rowan Linen Drape, acquired through Ebay and my first Ravelry trade, which is my new favorite thing. It’s a fantastic way to keep the possessions from piling up while still getting new things to keep me excited. The pattern calls for alpaca (I think) and smaller needles (6s I think), but I went with what I had and I wanted bigger, lacier, more summery hexagons. I’m actually really happy with it and am happy to give it to my stepmom for Mother’s Day. I did make a couple of modifications/short-cuts in that I left out the last 2 hexagons because I thought they would be too droopy tacked onto the ends and I didn’t do the crocheted edging. I thought it would actually look kind of messy since the hexagons are so loosely knitted in my version.

So, this will now be my offering to my great stepmom.

I consider myself to be pretty selfish and so I have endless admiration and wonder for those women that have assumed the most selfless position in life.

This day always makes me think back to my mother who died when I was young. Mothers are the ultimate role models and mine was and always will be a real life goddess to me: incredibly smart, skilled, talented and just lovely. She had a fabulously effective strictness and thoughtfulness in raising me and hopefully some of her strength and integrity has trickled down to me. One of my most distinct memories as a child was spending afternoons at the library with my mom cobbling together a huge pile of books to bring home. I consider myself to be endlessly blessed for that.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Actually May is for bicycle. It’s National Bicycle Month.

The League of American Bicyclists has a great “50 ways to celebrate bike month” (pdf). My favorite is “wear spandex to your next board meeting”. I personally think board meetings should be like costume parties…but I guess the type As wouldn’t be so into that.

So with rising gas prices and a generally stagnating economy, bicycles have really been making it into the news lately and I thought I would share some of what I’ve been reading every once in a while.

The Chicago Sun Times has a great article about saving money with bicycles, highlighting one man that traded in the second car for a collection of old bikes that he’s fixed up — none of which were acquired for more than $10.

“My wife gets frustrated,” he said. “She’d rather have a second car. But the kids seamlessly just kind of bought into this lifestyle because that’s how we go to the park, to the Beverly Arts Center for classes like violin classes, to the local grocery store to pick up things. That’s how we go to the pool all summer, and so for them, it’s just a lifestyle that they kind of were just swept into.”

Raising your kids this way is possibly the best way to ensure we get that “lifestyle change” that is so essential to combat global warming. It may be hard to get to the baby boomers, but the new kids (including my own generation) are still malleable enough to convince of the responsibility and myriad benefits that come with a “low-carbon” lifestyle. Living without insane excess and prioritizing our health again — I hope this is the wave of the future.

Another comes from NECN.com, a New England news site, where the spotlight is also on those that are able to save money and reduce their carbon footprint by biking to work.

This one is rather interesting from Seattle, where a man actually was taken in for psychiatric evaluation after riding his bike down Interstate 5 in Seattle. I found this hilarious at first that we actually have started committing people for riding on highways, but it turns out he had other, more severe issues…

And a great one from the LA Times about the rising use of bicycles as a mode of transport in New York City, despite the often treacherous conditions (potholes, taxis, traffic). I actually never biked in New York except for fun because I felt like it was too stressful. But the article offers a lot of promise:

The number of bicyclists has grown by 75% during the last seven years, according to the city’s count. Soon an ambitious city plan will make it possible for riders to traverse Manhattan via dedicated bike lanes and circumnavigate the island along the waterfront. Sheltered bicycle parking and thousands of new public bike racks are already in place.

New York is, afterall, the greenest city in America. It’s great to see it getting better every day. I heard one city official once say that every new person that New York gains as a resident is a win for sustainability. I plan to be one of them again someday.

In my own news, I’ve decided it’s time to really connect green craft with bicycle. So there’s a project in the works that I’ll share soon…if it makes that transition from my brain to my hands. And doesn’t suck.

Ride it like you know you should. (shout-out to my shameless Khia fans)

I found this on the Gristmill blog, but in case you’re not a loyal Grist reader…this is amazing.

It’s a Hungarian ad…clearly in favor of biking. Apparently they build bikes differently out there. Vibrating seats perhaps.

The Grist post has some great comments mentioning some upcoming bicycle events that I encourage you all to take part in, like May 16th’s Bike to Work Day. I’m not sure if this is nationwide, the commenter mentions the one in San Francisco, but there will definitely be one in DC, courtesy of WABA and co-sponsored by the organization I work for. I will definitely be participating and hope that all of you can join in wherever you are. If you’re not a regular bike-to-worker it’s a great way to introduce yourself to it–and see how doable it can be even once in a while. If we could all try and substitute just one car trip a week with a walk or bike trip it would make a significant positive impact on our physical fitness, air and water quality, and that always looming problem of climate change.

Another event coming up on May 21st is the Ride of Silence, which is a silent, slow-paced ride in honor of those that have been injured or killed while riding on public roads. This is something I feel strongly about, because even with a fair amount of bike lanes in DC, car drivers (and pedestrians) are often oblivious to bikers. The 2 ton bubble that a car provides seems to give drivers a sufficiently dangerous air of invincibility. And they forget that those of us using that bubble-less form of transportation with infinite gas mileage are anything but invincible.

And lastly, on a happier note, if you’re in DC on May 23rd, head over to the Black Cat for…wait for it….

The Bike Prom!

In June of this year a major Australian wool supplier (Elder Limited) will start sales of specifically non-mulesed wool for foreign markets.  You may already know that Australia is scheduled to phase out mulesing by 2010, but this is a preliminary step to start identifying whether wool is coming from a mulesed sheep or a non-mulesed sheep (as part of the Australian Wool Industry’s 2007 agreement with PETA).

I’m not sure how this will translate into labeling for consumer goods, but hopefully the identification will trickle down in a clear way.  Or else those that wish to know will have to research where labels source their materials…which is an unlikely practice en masse.

For those that don’t know what mulesing is, the wikipedia article on it is decent.  It’s hard to find objective sources of information…and the subject sparks a lot of heat between consumers and producers.

I may not be down with made in China, but it seems made in Turkey is getting better everyday. A giant Turkish textile mill, Bossa, which supplies brands like H&M, Calvin Klein, Habitual and Nudie Jeans with organic cotton and denim is expanding its eco-friendly operations. It’s investing like crazy to make organics 10% of its total production and will start including fabrics from linen, hemp, soybean and wool.

I actually always notice that H&M’s organic clothing is generally (or possibly always) made in Turkey, as is some of their conventional clothing as well.

What’s interesting is it seems that Turkish mills acknowledge that they can’t keep up with India and China in terms of price, so they’re consciously trying to cater to higher aesthetic and moral values to give them a leg up — or at least a place to stand. I’ll take that. While I don’t think “green” is about shopping, I think it’s promising that “eco-friendly” is becoming a strong enough value on which even huge, global operations can begin to stand on in a real way. It’s even more promising that that these mills can carve out an environmentally and economically sustainable niche against the almighty price signal delivered so powerfully by the often irresponsible textile production practices in both India and China. It’s as though in the clamor to prove that just because it’s more expensive doesn’t mean it’s better, we forgot that if it’s really cheap it’s probably for a reason…

Aside from the labor concerns across the developing world, there are some interesting facts I found that really drive home how destructive conventional cotton production can be not only to the environment, but to human health. These can probably transcend cotton production into many realms of manufacturing.

In the United States, 25% of all pesticides used are applied to cotton.

Five of the top nine pesticides used on cotton are cancer-causing chemicals (cyanazine, dicofol, naled, propargite, and trifluralin).

In India, 91% of male cotton farm workers regularly exposed to pesticides eight hours or more per day experience some type of health disorder, including chromosomal aberrations, cell death and cell decay

Too bad all of these negative externalities, like pollution, environmental injustice upon the globe’s poor, and the true costs of transport are still just that: external, and not factored into the price. Somehow it’s the organic stuff that’s more expensive.  Damn economies of scale.

I’ve been doing pretty well with my shopping rules, meaning I’ve been doing pretty well sticking with organic and/or local and/or second-hand purchases. The only problem is I haven’t been doing so well on cutting back the unnecessary things I buy, which is definitely the most important of all those goals.

While I have been doing extremely well in dampening that gut reaction to buy something brand new by looking to Ebay or Craigslist for something used instead (like my new tripod or my new sewing book), I’ve recently been faced with something harder, but possibly more responsible in the long run: making used things work (thank you, Tim Gunn). In some cases I mean that literally, like this old Remington typewriter that my Tim (not Tim Gunn, because he’s clearly not mine) got from his now-deceased grandmother’s attic.

It weighs like a million pounds.

That’s obviously an exaggeration. But it weights A LOT. I think it’s cast iron. I know it’s pretty much absolutely gorgeous. Although I feel like I was raised on computers, I was actually on the generational cusp of having to use typewriters. I remember using them for college applications because just a mere 10 years ago not all schools offered PDFs of their applications that you could fill out online.

This is actually a terrible example, because the typewriter isn’t going to keep me from using a computer…it’ll just be a fun thing to test out and play with every once in a while. Could be fun to make prints and art with or something…

There are other things that are a better example of using the old to make something that will hopefully prevent me from buying something new.

Like this dress he also found in the attic:

I think it’s from the 30s (his great grandmother’s). Right now it’s a huge sack, but the rhinestones are actually quite nice–they’re set in brass in a way that, like everything else, seems to be done of a high quality you never see now. The plan is to seriously alter it into a fancy-ish dress. If I ever get my hands on that sewing machine.

So in preparation for my new life of altering old things and making them new again, I thought I would look for some tutorials on altering old clothes…and I found something even better. Did you know you can get incredibly old New York Times articles online? I found one from 1915: “Altering Frock Often More Expensive Than New Suit; Frequent Changes in Styles Likely to Make of No Avail the Hard Work of Reconstruction.”

Haven’t you seen a woman work for over a week over a frock that should have been discarded, and which never gave a moment’s satisfaction after it was finished? This condition implies lack of judgement.

Ouch! That’s totally me usually….

One of the greatest financiers, when asked to what especial quality he thought he owed his success, answered: “The elimination of the non-essential.”

I agree. But 1915 was a different time (amazingly profound, right?)…and the elimination of our non-essential would probably refer more to our purchase of new things rather than our need to more readily throw away old things…which most of us seem to have zero problem with. Remember when people used to fix things?

I guess maybe if this was what I had to make, I wouldn’t be considering rehabbing that old dress.  Luckily I can get away with a simple design and call myself deliberately minimalist.

Apparently parts of my blog have been blocked in the Middle East says a good friend currently working on the zero emissions city in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

From her blog:

‘We apologize the site you are attempting to visit has been blocked due to its content being inconsistent with the religious, cultural and moral values of the United Arab Emirates.’

Must be the nude pics.

Maybe I could knit a head scarf and they would unblock me?