Face Cloths are knitted, Death is studied, Perspective and High School Algebra

Well it's been alot of homework and little things to knit in between the homework.

Little things like a really nicely designed flower-shaped face cloth from Melanie Falick's Book ~ Weekend Knitting. The fiber I used is some raw silk that was hand-spun so the yarn is thick and thin, the thin part being tight and nubby, the thick part soft soft soft. So nice to wash up with.

Also from her book is a miniature turtleneck sweater (egg warmers) that I loved making from scraps of yarn: I'm also knitting up some very very cute dishcloths from some thrifted vintage terry yarn mixed with some Sugar & Cream Cotton. Pictures as soon as I find some more AA batteries.

The Spring Law classes I had signed up this Spring changed around on me.

I was really looking forward to taking the special course in Bankruptcy Law while also signing up for the specialty course in Wills & Probate Law, filling out a class load with the other two courses in Drawing 101 and Algebra 112. The Bankruptcy course got cancelled this semester and the Wills & Probate Law turns out to be verrrrry cool to get into right now with the whole Anna Nicole Smith case going OJ a little.

The Wills course lecture is every Saturday morning wherein we end up bringing Anna Nicole up for a little while, asking about things in the news like paternity issues involving yet undetermined dad and his part of the inheritance to her little baby, or we talked about the mother and her inheritance issues, while the split with the fortune going to the "dead son's" wife. stuff like that.

I am soooo naive on the whole Anna Nicole thing and I really really don't care. Really. I knew NOTHING about the inheritance disputes with her and her deceased rich husband's son's fight over the money that went all the way up to the Supreme Court. While I've been reading way too much about the magic cast-on and listening to the Quirky Nomad or the history of Muses from Brenda Dayne, the whole world has gotten way too much ahead of me about this whole inheritance thing and Anna. This seemed fun to the rest of the students in the class that I kept going "what?" or "no way?"

Yeah, I live right in the middle of Hollywood for yearssss and I tune it all out.

What I like even more in class is the reading of certain Wills at the end of each class lecture. The first will that we read was Marilyn Monroe's. It's a nice short sweet will that's like her, simple, sweet, giving and just a little grown-up.

Last Saturday was the reading of the final testament of John Winston Ono Lennon. Yep - ONO. I never knew! And the will looked eerily like She wrote it. Everything goes to her. If anything is contested by anyone, then they lose every cent for contesting (except that everything goes to her). Whew. For some reason I kinda like Yoko Ono - something about her fascinates me. Her balls, maybe. Or that somebody like her, quite but with a strange voice could be such an overwhelmingly strong influence to Lennon. She's the ultimate in the "your no fun since you got married" type of girl to this universally loved friend of the masses of Beatle lovers.

something like that.

My favorite class? Drawing, followed closely by Algebra 112.
Really, it's been a nice semester forming of classes really.

Drawing helps me to go over the basic fundamental things like contour line and perspective. It's a nice 2 hours twice a week to sit in the room with HUGE sketchpad and pencil in hand and just focus on the subject to be drawn. And I'm all for anything that pulls me out of my Monkey Mind.

Algebra 112 is basically going over and really getting down the final stages of High School Algebra and Geometry. Restudying once more and really drilling exponents, formulas, perimeter and area formulas and fractions with variables.

My fantastic math tutor and teacher Jane Wiley helped me prep for this last November and December. Thank you Jane!!! Even though I missed the first test (Stupid Stupid Stupid - I just stayed home that one day, thinking the test was the following Thursday instead), I still think that I'll manage a B in the class because of her prepatory drilling.

So that said, I'm off to do some more Algebra homework on the www.educo-int site and maybe grab some AA batteries today.

xohe

L I N K S

Links
activism198 methods of nonviolent actionactivist links for librariansactivism.netactivist network (canada)audioactivismbehind the labelbloodsistersthe breast cancer sitedepresidentdistrict of ladiesfair.org's activism kitindy mediamicrorevoltreclaim the streetsscavenge ukspace hijackersworking for change
crafting for charitable causesafghans for afghansbinky patrolblankets for canadacarewearchemocapscrafters for critterscubs for kidscuddles for newbornshead huggersla casa de las madresmass youth in actionmother bear projectnetwork for goodolivia's angelspeace fleeceproject linusrehumanizing quiltsewing charitysnugglestouching little livestsunami quilt 2005warm hearts warm babieswarm up americawool works
crafty inspirationanother girl at playblissenbuzzvillechurch of craftcraft revolutioncraftstercrafty chicadevoted beedioramaramaex libris anonymousgerbera designsgetcraftygoblinkokinderartmy paper cranesublime stitchingsubversive cross-stitchthe arts & crafts society
weewonderfulslinks for the knit-mindedbritish hand knitting confederationcastoff knitting club for girls and boyschicknitsknitchicksknit happensknitlistknitting-andknitting and crochet guildknitting gardenknitting guild of americaknitting historyknittymagknitsnot martha!menknit.netrevolutionary knitting circleswapatoriumvirtual yarnsyesterknits
links for the lit-minded.adbustersbee lavenderbitch magazineboing boingbustknit knitknitlitloose lips sink shipsmicrocosm publishingmother jonesmy my distronatalie goldbergpander zine distropitchfork mediaplan bponyboy presspop culturespop matterspunk planetsoft skull presstni booksturning the tide revolutionary media
people who rock.52 projectsacechickacorn studiosallyson shawantifactorybig box reusebits and bobbinsboygirlpartybrainyladybloodredrosebuy olympiacopacetiquecourgettehousecrackers + honeycrafty scientistcut and pastedepartment of craftexploding dogi likeis this youkatherine bourkelady luck rules oklauren cerandlayers of meaninglekknerlindamadeluka designsmake and boomarissalandmarc horowitzmisshawkletmorningcraftms filmsobsessive consumptionone inch buttonspaper, scissors, soulpdx supercraftypink acryliqueplain mabelpoiseport 2 portthe post punk kitchenpurl piratequeen puff puffthe samplerseamrippershe's young and with itspasmodicastephanie syjucostella marrssupermaggiesusanstarsthe switchboardstatty devinetiny envelopethe walrus + the carpenterwooster collectiveyou grow girl
people who literally rock.airielantifolk onlinechicks on speedkill rock starsk recordsmika bombmog whitemerge recordsthe neinsaddle creekyep roc records
sociology, history, politics + modernity.24 hour museumdesigning britain 1945-1975homework (1891)quilts of gees bendred cross museumlondon stationsage publicationssemiotics linksshetland museumundercitythe victory homewalter benjaminwonkette

Art, Spinning and Swatching

Spring Semester just started today. First class: Art 201 - drawing.
I know that this means less knitting.
The weather is warming up, I'm on my bike and heading to the pool more and the only knitting I'm getting done is just a whole lot of swatches. Because of the Stash-A-Long, I've been swatching all my stash without any real plans but just a lot of oggling and dreaming of possibilities.
One thing I do know is that I'd really like to make a cardigan. I really really like the Enid Cardigan from Interweave Winter 2006 Issue:

It's knitted in the round and then involves Steeking the front. I've never really steeked before (on purpose), but I can see how it would work and saw a great episode of Karen B on Knitty Gritty showing the whole world how. But, just in case, I plan to thrift a sweater and steek it into a cardigan for practice.
Yep, that's a good plan.
Yeah.
I like the Enid Cardigan also for the cool fair isle type stitching, that mixes knit and purl for texture as well. Very cool looking pattern.

Something that can use different colors and yarns - like a fair isle nordic-type thing with a wider, more ballet type neck.
Then there's the Body Count Mittens that some yarns are swatching on #3s for.
The AfghanforAfghanistan mittens that can use different colors as well.
Some swatches are going into the felt pile since they will felt and don't look all that great otherwise.
One example is the Soy Wool.
I love love love the feel of this yarn, but it's the most unforgiving yarn to knit with - splitting all over the place no matter how careful I've been. The finished product kinda looks like a cheap washed wool before it even hits the water for the first time.
And finally, I'm starting to dig on this old stash of 80's terry cloth nubby yarn of 100% cotton. This was originally intended to follow the trend back then of terry, nubby cotton 80s sweater. I didn't know what to do with it, but at 25cents a skein, I grabbed about six: 3 light blue, 2 white and reddish purple. Swatching the blue gave me some great ideas for it. when knitted loosely, in garter stitch, it makes are really nice nubby face cloth so I'm thinking some wash cloths for the gym and maybe even a Calorimetry headband for the gym and yoga. Then I stumbled on some great muted green cotton and mixed the terry blue with the green cotton and they look great together. So a Calorimetry it is; plus some washy things.

So now I better take picks and post it here. Just for posterity . . .

S p i n n i n g . . . . .

A hand-made drop spindle from Annie May and a half pound of soft white wool = hours of process learning ultra joyous friggin fun!
Before Annie May Stone was going to teach the beginning class on Spinning tonight, I wanted to try a little. So a few days ago, David from That Yarn Store (a store that really really likes to help people try anything) thought he could get me started, just by kind of telling me what he'd seen Annie May teach in previous classes.
So he set me up with one of Annie May's handmade spindles from his store and gave me a few basics to get me onto my first ball of beginner's very thick and thin yarn. The session lasted all of 15 minutes (at best) and I put it down.
Got home and picked it up again and tried some more.
5 minutes later, put it down, satisfied that I could still kind of do it.
Throughout the next few days, the process continued: walked by the spindle, stop and spin another five minutes, put it down. Each time, satisfied that something was coming along and letting it slowly come and go.
By the time I had arrived to the Real first class by Annie May herself, I had pretty much spun a half-way decent yarn that maintained something between fingering weight to light worsted weight throughout.

The real class helped tremendously.
First Annie May was excited to see my first amount of effort and began to show me how to ply it while newcomers were coming in to sign up and prepare for their first time.
Then she began the class by showing us the simple act of winding the threading string and spinning the spindle clock wise.
Next, we put the spindles down and took out about 12" of roving, about an inch or so thick, and practiced drawing the fibers to a pencil size thickness. Just drawing, no spinning yet. She explained that these fibers were about 5" from the sheep, so you need to keep the fingers a good 5" apart to really draw the fibers out smoothly.
After drawing the fibers out for about 5 minutes we were ready to pick up the spindle and practice spinning the wool onto it.
Putting down our already drawn fibers, we picked up another 12" yank of roving, an inch thick.
Began drawing out the beginning and were given the ogling balance of steps to maintain at the same time: spinning the spindle while holding the roving onto the thread off the spindle, while using both handles to break at each spot to draw out finer fibers to incorporate into the spinning - all at the same time!
It felt stupid.
And contagious.

It seems impossible at first and if you do this on your own, HAVE PATIENCE AND JUST DO BITS AND PIECES. I cheated and draw the fiber first for a couple of days before joining onto the fiber, until I felt that this was getting relatively easy. After a good several days of practicing this (five days, of about 15 minutes a day), I finally clicked where I can really do it all at the same time now, but it's still awkward - great improvement!

Law, Art and Algebra

I got my books today for new classes next week.
Pre-Algebra (looks easy enough. And I was worried).
Law 037 - Introduction to Bankruptcy Law
Law 013 - Wills, Trusts and Estate Law.
No books for the ART 201 class. But $50 saved for the supplies, which I know will be heinous more amounts of $.
The Bankruptcy Law book was cracked open as a head start.
Fascinating!
Only a few pages in, but really cool stuff about the history of debtor's prisons over in England and here in the USA.
But before all that, the work bankruptcy actually goes back to early days in Italy and the term "banco rotta" where a debtor who didn't pay his debts got his bench broken in front of his store to show others a little of his character. Italians seem pretty friendly about this.
And, by the way, even though rumour has it that the early Romans could cut bits of body parts of the balance-owing debtor, it simply wasn't done really. Instead, selling the debtor into slavery was the exercised solution.
Gee, if bankruptcy can start out this interesting, I can't wait to read about death, errr, Wills, Trusts and Estates law.
Cheers~