The Secret Life of Walter Knitty

This one right here

I like scary movies.  Not so much into gory.  Gore for gore’s sake just doesnt work for me.  Scary/suspenseful does.  One of the things I liked about “Blair Witch” was that you didnt see the monster.  And, like “Blair Witch”, it cost little money to make.  About $15,000, I think.

Even though gore is not my thing, I loved “Shaun of the Dead”  Dont think that one really counts as gore though.

As some of you know I work  in a law firm.  Even though there is a hiring freeze, a pay freeze, the partners and associates took a pay cut, the attorney’s have cut back on travel expenses, and the firm has cut back on expenses in general, that did not prevent 9 people from getting laid off yesterday.

It’s a fairly close knit group of people here.  Yesterday, when my boss told me what was going on, she looked like she was going to cry.  It was a decision that came after several weeks of deliberation.

Last week my LYS closed.  Friday, Saturday, and Sunday they had their closing sale.  The owner is still going to have an online store out of Spokane, WA with the same name: Abundant Yarn.  Their physical space, 4 blocks from my apartment with the cafe and free wi-fi is gone.  I went down to the sale on Friday and talked to the owner a bit.  One of the factors that contributed to their decision to close?  Health Care.  When she took over the shop this past winter, it was important to her to offer health care to the employees.  When she looked over their first quarter earnings it looked do-able.  With the economy being the way it is (in Oregon unemployment is 12%.  If you count people working part time because they cannot find full time work, people who have exhausted their unemployment benefits, and those who have stopped looking the figure goes above 20%) and summer being a very slow time anyway, they couldnt make it.  They couldnt afford the space, the cafe, the dyeworks, and health care.

This is a crappy thing that happened to some of the nicest people I’ve ever met.  That health care should even be a mitigating factor in why they had to close their doors is ridiculous.  The US is the richest country in the world and we cant even provide health care to our citizens even when the lack of care contributes to rising unemployment is asinine.  Death Panels and Death Books my ass!

Thank God for small favours, like keys and paper towels. 

I checked my bag after getting to work and found out I forgot my badge.  We have key cards that allow access to certain floors and in certain doors.  The door I have to go through to get to my desk is one of those.  Thankfully, I had my keys.  Those are needed to unlock the bike so I can pedal to work.

Unfortunately, without my key card I cant get to the womens shower.  But, there is a bathroom with outlets on my floor.  The kitchen has lots of paper towels.  Fully equipped, I managed to make coffee and fix my hair.  No, there was no coffee in the bathroom although it might be a good experiment.

And, it’s official.  I’m going to the great state of Iowa in October.  Dad’s 60th birthday is the 24th.  Five days of crazy making.  My parents bicker a lot on their own.  When my brother gets involved he ramps the two of them up and between the 3 of them it’s a bit like “Itchy and Scratchy”.  Hawkeye is going to loan me his french press and electric kettle.  Yea! Real coffee.  And, if I need it, I can call and he’ll come, in his Ford Bronco with skull details, and rescue me.  Yea for that too.  Dad’s getting two pairs of socks and Great-Grandma’s German Chocolate cake.  For all their bickering (last Thanksgiving they were bickering over the phone about gravy) they’re looking forward to the visit.  Dad really wants to take me for a trip on his motorcycle.

I’ve been trying to think of something clever to say about the Sock Summit, but cleverness fails me.  It was a lot to take in.  Lots of people everywhere, lots of classes, the Marketplace was the Ikea of Yarn.  I’ll expand on that later.

Overall, the Sock Summit was a very positive experience.  Positive for the knitters, teachers, and for the City of Portland.  Each of the 3 classes I took had between 20-25 students.  For a 3 hour class, this was a good size.  It meant that questions could get answered and there was time and space for one on one attention.  The teachers I had were all nice and seemed excited and happy to be there.  The knitters seemed grateful all this had been put on and were polite.  People from around the US, Canada, and even a few from the UK (I dont know if there were any knitters from the Continent.) 

The Recession has hit towns and cities across the US.  Portland gets kind of touristy, especially in the summer.  With all the people who came in, stayed in hotels, went out to eat, and saw the city, it had a positive economic impact on the city too.

One of the most amazing things I learned?  That you can use a long tail cast on to cast on purl stitches.  It’s true.  See for yourself:

What can I say, I’m amazed by small things.

All the classes I took were useful, but the one I took away the most from was the ergonomics class.  Sitting properly, taking breaks, stretching, being properly supported while knitting, etc.

Friday, there was class early in the morning again, then I hit the Marketplace before my volunteer gig.  It was the Ikea of yarn.  Seriously.  There were over 150 vendors with more yarn in more fibers and colours than you could shake a sheep at.  It was visually and tactilely overstimulating.  Lots of yarn, batting, roving, needles, shawl pins, patterns, of all types, prices, fibers and combinations of.  I was unprepared and after about an hour and a half, I was wiped.  I had the same feeling I had the first time I went to Ikea.  M. and I looked at each other and at the same time said “I need a drink!”

Saturday was my last class and thankfully it wasnt until later in the day.  Stranded colour knitting.  Did you know you can carry your floats for up to 10 stitches?  I was always told 5 was the max.  I made it to the Marketplace again, but this time, knew what to expect and had an idea of what I wanted, which made things a lot easier.  I bought this pattern, found some nice silver yarn in a merino/tussah silk blend, before going to visit the Yarn Doctor.

At the Summit they had a Lucy booth (Lucy from Peanuts) where for .05$, or something clever, you could get knitting help.  The shawl and I were not getting along again, there was a hole that I couldnt fix, so I went to see the Dr. 

Little did I know that the Dr. would be the same woman who wrote the pattern I had just bought.  Anne Hanson.  Who knew?  She gave a valiant effort to try to fix the problem but it had to be frogged.  Only about 10 rows with 590 stitches a piece, but I’d rather frog than have a glaring mistake.  I learned two lessons from this:

Never knit while having beer, especially if you’re really irritated and tink/rip back the rows you think are wrong instead of having someone try to fix it.  The woman I asked to help me fix the shawl made the problem worse. (imho) Anne Hanson was really nice and gave me a hard time when I admitted what initially went wrong.  She took some photos, so check her blog.  You may see me there with a lump of blue yarn.

I saw Stephanie Pearl-McPhee while at the Dr’s.  I told her that I was grateful that she and everyone involved took the time to make this happen even though it must have been very difficult (I wanted to say pain in the ass but didnt)  It was nice to be able to tell her in person.

That’s it for now on SS09.  There may be more to follow.

It’s finally starting to cool off here.  Yea!

Friday was my birthday.  It’s been a pretty good weekend.  I took the day off because my Dad says that you shouldnt have to work on your birthday.  I went to see The Stolen Sweets that night.  The band was fun and there was a burlesque show.  I’ve never seen a burlesque show before but I’d go again.  It was a lot of fun.  It wasnt sleazy, but fun naughty.  This isnt from Friday’s show, but it is the Stolen Sweets with a couple of the same performers from Friday.

Yes, I was hooting and hollering along with everyone else.  It was too much fun.  The Stolen Sweets have an upcoming free show next month.  They would be fun to see again.  Hawkeye asked if I ever thought I was born at the wrong time because old time jazz is one of my favourite styles of music.

He and I got together yesterday and hung out together.  We went to Oaks Park and rode bumper cars and go carts, then to Sweet pea Bakery.  He’s not supposed to have dairy so an all vegan bakery worked out for the two of us.  After that he took me out for a beer.  By that time, after all the walking and heat, I was worn out.  We parted ways and I relaxed at home.  He knows I like Jack Kerouac so when he found an audio play of “Dr. Sax and the Great World Snake” at Goodwill for  3$ he picked it up for me.

My folks paid for my classes at the Sock Summit next week.  When I told my Mom that was what I wanted from them for my birthday she sounded like she thought it was weird, but they did oblige.

Talking to her Thursday was fun.  I wondered if she had been miserable the last month of her pregnancy.  It’s July in Iowa which normally means (except this year) 98 degrees and 98% humidity.  She said it wasnt too bad.  The house they bought had A/C so she wasnt miserable.  I told her that I had wanted to ask her if there was any part of her that wanted to rip Dad’s penis off and beat him with it because she was so miserable.  She said “No, we had air conditioning.  It wasnt too bad.  Besides when it’s your first everything is new and you dont know what to expect.”

It’s Thursday and it’s still 100 degrees.  Four days in a row of 100+ degree weather.  I think I’ve had about all I can take. 

The green beans are fried.  I dont think they’ll come back, but,  the cucumber seems to be doing okay.  I picked two yesterday. 

Last night I came home from work, took a bath, changed my clothes and went to the yarn store.  Abundant Yarn has A/C and is only a few blocks from my place so last night I hung out there till close.  It’s so hot that one of the boys who works there came in at 6AM just so he could crash out on the sofa for 4 hours to get some sleep.  Even with the A/C running since Monday it was still about 80 in there last night.  80 may sound hot, but it was more than 20 degrees cooler than it was outside. 

The question I have every day is: How did the pioneer’s do it?  How did they, especially the pioneer women, handle it.  Back then women wore long, heavy, dresses.  In the summer they may not have worn all the petticoats that were usually required but wearing a long dress had to be freaking hot.  Modesty of the day said you couldnt shorten your dress over your knees or run around in your bloomers and undershirt.  There was no electricity, so, no fans during the day or at night, no refrigeration or freezers (no popsicles!).  Women on homesteads often did the same work as men as well as the household chores.  High heat makes me short tempered and very cranky.  I’d be wanted for murder on the High Plains.  Being from Iowa it might be, murder on the prairie, or murder on the flood plain.  

It’s 100 degrees here.  I couldnt imagine baking bread or standing over a wood burning stove on a day like today.  Even if that wood burning stove was outside.  I couldnt imagine plowing a field with horses or if I was too poor to own a horse either me or my husband would have to have been attached to the plow to pull it.  Living in a sod house built into a hillside, might have had it’s advantages.  Dirt is a natural insulator after all.

Even so, farmers and homesteaders were much more dependant on the mercy of the weather than we are today.  If your well dried up or there wasnt enough rain you were just screwed.  It could mean moving or starvation.  Could you imagine digging a well in 100+ heat?  Or digging a well, building a house, weeding and hoeing crops, or harvesting crops when it’s that hot?  There was no “it’s too hot to move”.  There was only “this has to be done so we can eat.  This has to be done so we can survive”.  People probably died of heat stroke/heat exhaustion more often than now.  On a homestead your nearest neighbour could be 5 or more miles away.  The nearest town with a doctor could be a day’s ride away.  You really were on your own.

What did the pioneers on the Oregon Trail do in the summer.  Traveling, walking, plodding along day after day in the summer heat and, depending on the area, humidity.  How many people said “I cant take it anymore.  I’m getting off at the next town”

We’re pretty spoiled by comparison.  I can go home and have a popsicle or have ice water with cucumber and lemon.  I can take a cold bath and run away to the ac at the yarn store.  I can have a cold beer at the yarn store.  I can wear a mini skirt and tank top or a thin silk shift or my undershirt and underwear and I dont have to wear socks and tall boots.  I can say “it’s too hot to do anything”, watch documentaries on my laptop, drink lots of cold water, go up to the store and get something from the deli.  I have a fan, a freezer, and a fridge.  If my plants die I’m not going to starve.  I can get my ice pack out at night and lay on it or put it on the back of my neck.  I’m unlikely to get heat exhaustion. 

I guess, the pioneers wouldnt have known any different.  They grew up that way.  Still, though, I wonder how they would have dealt with this.