Textiles and Bicycles

Thanks to a lot of time at the hospital while my man was recovering from possibly the weirdest (and scariest) case of appendicitis ever (his appendix burst a couple of days before he even felt enough pain to go to the hospital, which then resulted in a 3+ hour surgery, some removal, cleaning and replacement of vital organs, and a week of recovery in the hospital) and hours in airports and airplanes to Los Angeles and back for memorial day weekend, I finished my new favorite Cabled Capecho.

As a result of the well-documented, long-standing capecho-fit saga with knitters all over the world, I was able to make mine with the advantage of some pretty effective mods. For those unfamiliar, the capecho is shown on the cover of Vogue Knitting Winter 2007 to fit pretty closely and tightly on the model. But when knitters actually took to the pattern it would turn out quite large and bunchy.

To remedy this and achieve the close-fitting look of the cover, I copied most of this blogger’s mods, which mainly consisted of using DK weight yarn and 6s (instead of 8s), and changing the 8 stitch cables into 6 stitch cables, thus reducing the perimeter of each pentagon by 10 stitches. I didn’t follow the sleeve mods though (which theoretically are important since the pentagon pattern is modified) and just went with the pattern, which seemed to have no effect. The benefit of doing this is you get a smoother transition from the cable pattern to 2×2 rib (this means not doing the final decrease in the pattern). Using these mods, the fit is pretty damn good I think. I was worried before I blocked it because it seemed a little small actually, but it now looks the way I had wanted.

I used 4.5 skeins of Lorna’s Laces Green Line DK in Hope, which is 100% organic merino wool. It’s beautiful and soft, with a lovely slight sheen. I highly recommend it and it’s a pretty decent price for the yardage.

This pattern was actually insanely fun for me. I never got bored with it and was actually kind of sad when it was over. I realized that as long as cables are involved I’m happy. One could say I am in fact *obsessed* with cables.

And so I was a little excited when I happened upon these in a little shop in Silverlake:

I’m getting into the idea of using cable patterns in non-traditional ways, like these ceramics with knit patterns. I’m curious as to how they were done — knit fabrics pressed onto wet ceramics? Wouldn’t that ruin the fabric? How sad! I guess I like fabric more than ceramics…but I did appreciate the incorporation of one medium into another in such an interesting way. It really draws attention to the textural patterns in textiles, which I think often lose out to visual patterns.

Speaking of visual patterns, Norah Gaughan has been putting up speak previews on Ravelry of her new Volume 3, in which she has some interesting interpretations of the cable, where she’s kind of doing the opposite: taking a textural pattern and turning it into a strictly visual one. I’m speaking mostly of the pattern I found the most interesting, which is her Portrait of a Cable, a fairisle pattern of a cable. I love that she does things like this and it got me thinking about my own interpretations of cables–some of which will hopefully be forthcoming. In the meantime I’ll just dream of knitting more cables.

I’m from Virginia.

But I can’t tell you how many times someone has felt it was appropriate for this to be the first question they ask me (not my name, not how I was doing) and then look confused when I answer this way.

No, but where were you born?

Virginia.

Oh….well are you Indian?

My parents grew up in India. I can recommend some books if you’d like to know more about India. By the way, you look white. What’s that like?

Since when is it appropriate to express no interest in someone besides their ethnicity?

I share this because I’ve found throughout my life and even in my current workplace that people’s understanding of what is racially acceptable in America is so undeveloped when it comes to non-Black people of color. You would never walk up to someone black or white (that you have never even met before) and say, hey, so what’s it like being black or white? The point is that regardless of your race, it’s not your sole identity and you are not a representative for your race…and no one should ever be treated like they are.

Moreover, I can’t tell you how many times people who are barely acquaintances have felt the need to tell me about their Indian friends/boyfriends/etc as though I would care simply because they’re Indian. A coworker (who I am not friends with and share nothing personal with) spent a solid week or so catching me up on the goings on in her Indian ex-boyfriend’s life. I was incredibly annoyed and insulted at the use of this insensitive tactic as way to relate to me. By this method I should automatically be able to relate to every single white person on earth since I’m dating a white boy.

Frankly, it shocks me how people will often do this right off the bat with Asian people as though racial sensitivity doesn’t need to extend to us since we’re all doctors and engineers, right? The truth is virtually every Asian person I know has been touched by racial insensitivity and direct discrimination, whether it’s verbal abuse, being passed up for promotions, or the kind I’m talking about here. Interestingly, I encountered the most frequent and mind-numbing insensitivity while living in Berkeley, CA. Men trying to hit on me would first start talking to me about India. I would often walk away without saying a word. It was as though they thought they were so culturally sensitive that they could do it because they couldn’t possibly be racist.

The thing is I love talking about India because I love most things about the country. But India is not my identity, I do not represent it and I am not someone’s personal reference book on the subject. Especially when I don’t know the person.

I may sound angry about this, and, shocker, I am. I’m always amazed at how people that think they’re culturally sensitive and worldly will do this and I just want to scream RACIST in their face. Because while none of us are colorblind, it’s sobering and disappointing when it’s perfectly clear that your ethnicity and color of your skin are the only things someone sees–when they can’t possibly see that you’re a whole person with experiences and interests and that they could have tried to relate to you like they would with a person of their own race.

This all came to me when hearing about a series of articles about this exact topic on NPR.

People always talk about how diversity trainings are a waste of time…but I think everyone could stand to learn a little.

EDIT: I forgot to add one of my favorite related stories.  My friend was flying somewhere and a lovely young Indian woman was a row or so in front of her.  A young white man, presumably trying to hit on the Indian woman, turned to her and right off the bat asked her where she was from.  She turned to him and in a thick, thick southern accent and an obvious twinge of annoyance said, “Georgia.” and turned back without another word.  My friend called me immediately.

End rant here.

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’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.

and no Mona in sight.

According to a few blogs I read, I’m missing the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Given that it’s about an hour drive away, I feel like I’m missing an opportunity to be really irresponsible with my money.

I thought maybe today I would make it up there, but I couldn’t really get my act together.  I decided to tell myself that I couldn’t handle it. I think I probably share this attribute with a lot of people–I love to buy things, but I hate to shop. That is, I hate shopping after about an hour tops. In the past this feeling actually hasn’t extended to fabric shopping, which I could do for a VERY long time and be happy buying just a small bit of fabric.  Fabric shops are like museums to me, in fact my most favorite space in New York City is the Costume Institute at the Met and I also just found out that there’s a textile museum in DC.  But I’m not sure I have the same eye for yarn that I (think I) do with fabric. I’m still not sure how things will look knitted up, while I can have a pretty good sense of how a fabric will drape or look sewn up in a certain style. Experience has also taught me that the gravitational pull of a knitting design is way stronger than that of a particular yarn. So yarns I buy for the hell of it live forever untouched in my box o yarn unless by some stroke of luck they actually seem like they can work with a pattern I want to try out. That never happens with fabric–it’s always the opposite.

I also found that there was something that kind of irked me about the festival.  There are a few events or tents or something dedicated to lamb and sheep meat.  Duh, right? It’s a SHEEP and Wool festival.  The thing is I always forget about that element of things.  Like when I was researching wildlife management areas in Maryland and the main page I found (run by the state) was mostly focused on encouraging people to get them a hunting permit and hunt them some Maryland bear.  I was kind of incredibly shocked and appalled.  It’s possible I let the urban, liberal bubble close up around me every once in while, but hunting and the like also aren’t really a part of Indian culture…so it surprises me every once in while.

I think everyone has a line somewhere when it comes to animal cruelty/rights/welfare/whatever. For some the meat industry and hunting falls within their moral limits and for others using wool doesn’t even do that. I’m in between. I don’t really have a problem with using wool, though I completely understand the argument that animals should have agency — especially when the animal itself is presented solely as a product. I can imagine a sheep on the auction block where its value is in the flavor of its flesh and the softness of its fleece. And that makes me sad, because I think it becomes a spotlight for how we view everything, including ourselves.  I often fall into that trap of assessing my worth based on how valuable I think I am to others or how “marketable” I am (ewwww!).   But unfortunately I think every living thing on this earth is viewed to some degree by what they can offer the world — a product, an expertise, an attractive appearance, whatever. There’s just something unsettling when what you’re offering to the world has to be your life.  So that’s where I draw the line. For myself.

In any case,  I have a strong feeling that veggie/vegan knitters still enjoy the festival despite the meat offerings.  And the thing is there were a bunch of events not involving meat and not involving buying yarn that I really would have found fascinating — like the sheep shearing demonstration, or “Hands-on Basic Shepherding”, or the parade of sheep breeds!!  All in all I wish I had been able to pull it together and go see what festivals like this are really all about.  Next year maybe.  I’ll be excited to see the blog posts and pictures from those that went.

You know when I really think about it, it’s my use of wool yarn that makes me interested in sheep at all….I’m not sure I ever thought about sheep much before.

Careful, this is a rant.

I hate optimists.  By this I mean people that say stupid things that they haven’t bothered to validate with any real information other than their own feelings or anecdotes and then bow out of the debate by saying, “Well, I’m an optimist.”

The implication of course is that I am unnecessarily negative.

Haven’t these people heard of blissful ignorance?  Because that’s what it is.  Ignorance.  It’s not taking the time and effort to really assess reality, question what’s going on, and think of solutions to make it better.

What happened to critical thinking and problem solving?

What has ever been made better by simply pleading optimism.

Yes, global warming, war, aids–it’ll all disappear if we just try really really hard…in our hearts.  I’m an optimist.

disclaimer.  I am at work later than I should be.  And I’ve had my second run-in with the so-called optimist.