crafty days

Now that Sara has received it, I can post my April (orange & yellow) Project Spectrum postcard:

I made it a greeting card instead of a basic postcard because I wanted to include the knitted thread heart, which wouldn't travel well sans enveloppe. It has been fun connecting with another knit blogger (and genuinely nice person), someone way across the country in New Hampshire even. Check out her blog and her beautiful quilted art, like her "postcards from the edge."

***

Today I practiced more craftiness in making Julie's birthday present:

On the right, you see the little plastic envelope with hand-punched confetti. The card, on the left, is the "key" to what each punch symbolizes.

Julie's birthday is tomorrow, but it's safe to post a picture here now because she is completely internet-free and even email-free. Can you believe that? Even though I am enjoying the blogging life and have been using email since 1991, I have to admire Julie for her low-tech lifestyle. She must have so much more time for knitting!

urban safari part 2 (turtles)

Yesterday's urban safari part 1 (ducklings) was wildly popular (according to the stats of my lil' newbie blog), so here's part 2.

Turtles at Greenlake! (Click)

Click the picture above to go to the… gulp… movie. Make sure your sound is turned on. Watch carefully.

EDITED 4/26/06: If you cannot view the movie when you click the link above, you may need to download the FREE QuickTime player (both Mac and PC versions available).

Look, ma! Look what I made! A quicktime movie!! Ok, so I'm pretty proud of my technical advances. The way I see it, you gotta pat yourself on your back or no one else will .

Photos by me
Music by Elliot Goldenthal, from the Frida soundtrack.

urban safari part 1 (ducklings)

Lately I've seen many different kinds of wildlife here in our beloved Seattle! And some outside of Seattle. It seems as if, over the past six months, I've seen more animals in the so-called wild than I did the rest of my life (excluding zoos). Okay, I admit it, I grew up a city kid. So I'm excited to present my animal urban safari photos, in installments. Today's episdoe is the Ducklings at Greenlake, sighted this Saturday morning.  Awwww…

knitting group/soup

Wonderful knitting group on Wednesday! And wonderful Joe Bar soup (creamy asparagus) with messages written…

Julie ordered the soup… Yes, the soup says "Joe Bar" in crème fraîche. (In photo on left: Julie with the soup; Christine in the background with her knitting.)

And Louise too… Hers says "I Heart Soup." Note the mitten-knitting too!

Louise reading her pattern and Carol in the background with lovely knitted hat on head and charity knitting in hand.

Joe Bar is one of the (or the?) best cafe in Seattle with awesome food, personable staff (the owner is often serving up yummy crêpes himself), and art on the walls. They were featured in a recent Seattle Times Pacific Northwest article, "Social Scene Brewing." And our knitting group was mentioned!!

divertissements #2

Definitely time for some divertissements… Fun stuff from the 'net.

Artist Ron Mueck makes really, really big sculptures of people. They look real too! As they call it in the art world, "Hyper-realist."

This guy, zeFrank, makes a daily videocast called Knowledge, "thinking so you don't have to." Lots of silliness, cynicism and sarcasm, interspersed with his opinions on news items. Now that's an alternative news source. Also, all you singles out there check out his pre-date confidence builder.

Can't believe how cool this Manmade Notebook is! I find some of their links simply hilarious… like Microsoft repackaging the iPod. Some links are educational, fascinating… like Gapminder's Human Development Trends. And then there's just cool stuff you didn't really need to know, but hey! Why not… like Aaron Koblin's visual of flight patterns across the U.S.

And last but not least, cat humor, check out these two cat videos. Ok, maybe cat humor is the least form of humor, especially when your're working on a couple hours sleep because your cat Jasmine's boyfriend-kitty was yeowling through the window all night. Come out and play!
Talking cats
Herding cats
Oh, zeFrank has cat humor too.

in other stuffffs

I've only been posting about knitting lately so I thought it was time for other things. I've been struggling emotionally lately and can't really see an end in sight. But this is part of why I quit my job, so I could have the time and space to delve into all this crap… so it's a good thing, really. I sort of believe that…

I get my stitches out Thursday, that will help. I haven't been able to exercise because of these icky stitches in my lower leg.

Jeff and I did walk a bit at Greenlake on Sunday and it was a splendid springtime day: rainy/ sunny/ big dark clouds/ big puffy white clouds. Here's one photo I took but I can't seem to get wordpress to upload the others now. You can check 'em out at My Flickr.

The melanoma walkathon is coming up soon on May 6. So far, I've raised a bit more than half my goal thanks to my generous friends and family members!! Thanks all!! If anyone else wants to donate towards this important melanoma education and awareness, go here.

I've started going to Al-Anon for support. Still deciding what I think of it, but I think it's helpful already.

Also last night I started this cool class called Self-Discovery for Women through Creative Writing. It's taught by Pesha Joyce Gertler, who was recently elected Seattle's Poet Populist. Already on the first night, the class was funny, sad, interesting… Great community of women.

I'm into this new singer/songwriter called Joshua Radin. You can listen to some clips of his music on his website (click on Music). He's got this great mellow folksy sound and his lyrics are poetry:

Way down, in New York town
Thinking about the way she loved me
There's a hole in my pocket
That's about her size
…

I wish my car
Could drive to her tonight
Then I'd know everything
Is gonna be alright
…

The rain in New Orleans forgot to end
But the mouths of the people are dry
And we watch and wait
And do nothing but sigh
And hope everything
Is gonna turn alright
But I don't know
If it'll be alright

…

I'm digging a hole And the walls are caving in behind me
Air's getting thin
But I'm trying, I'm breathing.
Come find me.

It hasn't felt like this before
It hasn't felt like home before you.

…

Somehow
I'm leading someone else's life
I cut a star down with my knife
And right now I still see the way the moon
plays this tune though our night's died
…
Somehow
I'll make tonight our own
Show you every way I've grown
since I met you
And right now
I'll be the boy in your next song
I'll learn the parts and play along
If you let me

more knittin’ stuffs

I've got one sleeve done on my topdown sweater… So close now…

This sock is nearly done, although I'm worried about several things: 1) is it too small? 2) will I get an entire other sock done in time? The Cirque du Socks KAL deadline is the end of the month, and Jeff's birthday is May 7…

I feel like a really slow knitter. I'm not even working right now, what is up with that? Ok so I get distracted by things like my Project Spectrum orange'n'yellow project:

Knitted out of crochet thread stuff… Isn't it sweet? Just gotta figure out how to weave in all those ends without making it look all twisted.

first KTC project done!

I finished my first Knit the Classics project for the Daniel Defoe book Moll Flanders: a shocking red coif. Red symbolizes Moll's many loves ("husbands" and lovers), which were indeed shocking for the times. The coif style seemed like something they might wear back them too.

Knit from the Knitty pattern Shocking Pink Coif. I knit it in Sensations Beautiful yarn (acrylic/nylon blend) on size 10 needles. It's super soft and warm!

I finished reading the book a few days ago too. It was interesting and sometimes humorous, but I found the second half a struggle to get through. Once Moll turned to thievery to survive, the stories were a bit repetitive. I guess her machinations and manipulations got to be a bit much for me when they weren't strictly necessary: she admitted to being well-off financially by then but could not stop the game of thievery.

There have been some great discussions about motherhood and feminism over at the KTC forum. Thanks to the KTC members for a great first experience!

independence from junk mail?

Declare your independence from junk mail is a new campaign sponsored by the Center for the New American Dream. On their site, you can send an e-mail to your elected officials asking them to support the creation of a junk mail opt-out registry similar to the Do Not Call telemarketer registry.

The production and disposal of unsolicited mail wastes trees, pollutes our water, and consumes more energy than 2.8 million cars at a time when energy security is more important than ever. Worst of all, it forces citizens and local governments spend more than $370 million per year to collect and dispose of unsolicited waste and it violates the privacy of our homes.

The Center for the New American Dream helps Americans consume responsibly to protect the environment, enhance quality of life, and promote social justice.

knitting update

At last I was able to take photos today. One of our camera batteries is completely dead. The other works a bit, so I was able to take these. Now wordpress is being fritzy about uploading photos! Grrr…

1. Jeff's sock. The heel turned out really cute! The colors changed right on cue, without my planning it! The gussets were troublesome but I'm happy with them now. Overall, it's coming along, but I'm getting a bit bored with this lil' bugger. Oh wait, and I have to knit the same thing over again? I'm going to look into that "two socks at once" method. My friend Cheryln has knitted two socks at once on two circular needles — and at the beginning it looked like a bikini top. Too late for this pair though.

2. Top down sweater. Right arm progressing.

3. My new project, Moll Flanders coif. (Based on Knitty's Shocking Pink Coif, but done in Shocking Red!) Super fuzzy & soft! Very fast to work up, since I'm using size 10 for the main part. Ahhh, relief from those other two projects…

orange & yellow mosaic

moll flanders project

I have chosen a small knitting project for Knit the Classic's current reading, Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. Knitty's Shocking Pink Coif. But I chose the color Shocking Red to represent Moll's… um… lovers. The yarn, which I dug out of my stash, is quite different than Knitty's coif, but I think it will work up well.

I was stumped about what to knit at first too. I am enjoying reading Moll, which I find alternately amusing and just sad, but couldn't find a project that felt exactly right. Plus, I wanted to avoid biting off more than I could chew right now (I'm feeling swamped with other projects). I am feeling like a sloooow knitter these days. I'm still working on Jeff's sock (first of the pair still!) and my topdown sweater. They are dragging along. I'm bored with them. The Shocking Red Coif seems like a nice breather!

divertissements

Divertissements, distractions or fun things. Here are some links:

1. Where the Hell is Matt? This guy traveled around the world and made video of himself dancing in each place. To add to the humor, he's not even a good dancer! Brave soul.

2. Word project. There are no words to describe it.

3. Make your own snowflakes. Here are a couple I made!

4. Cats in sinks. Just what it says. (Thanks, mrk.)
Here's our Cooper in our sink, and another of his favorite places:

latest colors & news

This month's Project Spectrum colors… Orange & Yellow!

I think there aren't many things representing orange and yellow in our house other than books! So I'll have to get creative. It's about time!

Knitting News
On the knitting front, I finally feel like i'm making progress. I turned the heel on Jeff's sock — it's the neatest looking heel because the stripe color changes right at the edge of the heel by coincidence! As for the top-down sweater, I completed the torso and am now working on one of the arms. These should go more quickly since they are much narrower than the torso section. Unfortunately I can't show pictures right now because both our camera batteries seem to have died. Grrr…

I'm delighted to be taking part in the Knit the Classics reading and knitting group. Reading classic books and knitting projects that fit the books… wayyy cooool. This month's book is Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe, which someone at KTC says is the first modern novel. Don't know what my project will be yet, because I've got a number of projects on the needles and some in the queue already — but I'd love to knit the Eleanora Socks by Miriam.

In Other News
The reason for my increased knitting time is… Yesterday morning the dermatologist took another mole off my right calf. It's one that was already taken off twice, yes two times before!, but kept growing back weird. Here it was in all its weirdness (I was calling it the dark crystal mole):

Despite the fact that the previous two times the pathology reports came back negative, the dermato wanted to take this off completely to make sure, because of my history with melanoma. She took off the mole plus all the scar tissue around it. Stitches come out in two weeks. The lower leg causes several problematic logistics because 1) blood tends to pool up in lower extremities and 2) the skin is pretty tight there. Suffice to say, I have to sit with my leg up as much as possible.

Anyways, I'll spare any more details (although later I might just have to flash some stitches images once I can take the pressure bandage off!). For now, I'll try to soothe any grossed-out readers with a sweet image of Cooper resting on the back of the couch– I think he thinks he's taking care of me!

hello to happiness

Hello to All That: A Memoir of War, Zoloft and Peace by John Falk (2005), a fascinating memoir of Falk's battle with depression, reminded me of my own here-now-gone-again depression issues. Falk lives what most would call a charmed life, but finds himself unable to appreciate it. For years he is filled with self-loathing because he cannot make use of the many advantages life gives him:

I became hyper-aware that I was somehow shut out from whatever it was that made other people tick. What the fuck did I have to do? I had tons of friends, family that loved me, had accomplished things, but it meant nothing. Why the hell did I feel so dead inside? I had tried so long and so hard to keep it together. (p 114)

For Falk, Zoloft is the magic bullet, bringing him out of clinical depression. However, living with depression for a decade and a half meant he did not learn to fully live and connect with people. He seeks a way to live deeper, fuller experiences, he has to push the envelope in order to catch up on all the living he's missed. Passing himself off as a war reporter, he enters beseiged Sarajevo, where he discovers that connections with other people — especially through helping others — are necessary elements of his recovery.

For some, Zoloft isn't the magic bullet it promises to be. I took Zoloft for eight years, but still struggled with these issues. So the search goes on. It's about learning, establishing habits that keep me healthy, and always, seeking inspiration to keep me going.

"Finding happiness in a Harvard classroom," a recent story on NPR's All things considered, discusses the most popular course at Harvard these days. According to the course description, it covers the "psychological aspects of a fulfilling and flourishing life." While some laugh it off as not serious enough for Harvard, students are flocking to this course; required readings include philosophical treatises on happiness, Ellen DeGeneres comedy, the Dalai Lama, and articles from the new field of positive psychology. If I were there, I'd probably enroll too. During my student years at University of Washington, I took an honors seminar on The Examined Life. While it didn't focus directly on happiness, the seminar asked the question of whether we are better off living without thinking, or if examining our life can lead to more understanding and awareness. I guess I believe the latter. Hence, writing this journal on-line…

The Harvard course's instructor, Tal Ben-Shahar, offers NPR listeners the following advice:

Six Tips for Happiness

1. Give yourself permission to be human. When we accept emotions — such as fear, sadness, or anxiety — as natural, we are more likely to overcome them. Rejecting our emotions, positive or negative, leads to frustration and unhappiness.

2. Happiness lies at the intersection between pleasure and meaning. Whether at work or at home, the goal is to engage in activities that are both personally significant and enjoyable. When this is not feasible, make sure you have happiness boosters, moments throughout the week that provide you with both pleasure and meaning.

3. Keep in mind that happiness is mostly dependent on our state of mind, not on our status or the state of our bank account. Barring extreme circumstances, our level of well being is determined by what we choose to focus on (the full or the empty part of the glass) and by our interpretation of external events. For example, do we view failure as catastrophic, or do we see it as a learning opportunity?

4. Simplify! We are, generally, too busy, trying to squeeze in more and more activities into less and less time. Quantity influences quality, and we compromise on our happiness by trying to do too much.

5. Remember the mind-body connection. What we do — or don't do — with our bodies influences our mind. Regular exercise, adequate sleep, and healthy eating habits lead to both physical and mental health.

6. Express gratitude, whenever possible. We too often take our lives for granted. Learn to appreciate and savor the wonderful things in life, from people to food, from nature to a smile.

I guess ultimately it's a balance between getting your biochemistry in place and the hard work of learning to accept life while taking care of yourself.

By the way, the Center for Positive Psychology at UPenn is looking for on-line study participants.

Memes, middle school, and music

Memes are like middle school question books. Remember those? You’d staple together about 30 lined pages, write a question at the top of each page, and number each line. Friends wrote their answers to the questions on the same line of each page. I'd write my responses on, say, line 21 of every page.  Questions ranged from Who is your favorite actor? to What is your favorite memory? to Who is your best friend?

Question books were pretty interesting, at least for my junior high friends and me — a way to glimpse inside someone else’s brain. They were silly, sure, but also culturally fascinating, particularly for a 12-year-old like me who was already starting to suffer the hyper-self-and-other-consciousness of clinical depression.

Maybe that’s why I’m interested to see memes propagate in the blogosphere. Same mentality, same fascinating interest in trying to figure out how others respond to the world. If you look up memes on wikipedia, you’ll find a long discussion of memes in anthropology and biology… and links to chain letters, jingles, and viral marketing. But I think they are more like the middle school question book than anything else.

Here’s a meme from Jenn at knit 'n lit. It combines the question book thing with music and random chance, making it even catchier.

Put your iPod on shuffle and ask it the following questions. NO CHEATING.

(Links are to artist’s websites.)

1. How does the world see you?
Vuka jona sithandaze by Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Interesting that it’s in a foreign language, what does that mean?! But it has a nice, mellow, rolling rhythm to it. And I love their harmonies. So I’ll take it.

2. Will I have a happy life?
Pacific Coast Party by Smash Mouth
Seems pretty positive! "If you’ve got to work today, get yourself a new vocation!” I already quit my job!

3. What do my friends really think of me?
Rumba: Extranjero by Matt Messina (from Pottery Barn: Let’s Dance CD)
Extranjero means foreigner, foreign, abroad… Hm…

4. What do people secretly think of me?
Greensleeves by Mozart
Per Wikipedia, this is a traditional English folk song associated with Anne Boleyn.
“Alas, my love, you do me wrong,
To cast me off discourteously.
For I have loved you well and long,
Delighting in your company.”

5. How can I be happy?
Bad by U2
“If I could through myself
Set your spirit free
I'd lead your heart away
See you break, break away
Into the light
And to the day
To let it go
And so to fade away”

6. What should I do with my life?
Cool Blue Reason by Cake.
Confusing. No wonder I can never figure out the answer to this question. Thirty-three years old and still trying to figure out what to do when I grow up! Does this mean something about writing?
“Cool blue reason empties on the page […]
Cool blue reason I'm just rearranging hell”

7. What is some good advice for me?
Blue Orchid by White Stripes: “I guess there's just no pleasing you." Unfortunately, this is true. Perfectionism. A blog entry about perfectionism has been forming in my mind lately. Watch for it soon.

8. How will I be remembered?
We Want a Rock by They Might Be Giants
Hilarious!

9. What is my signature dancing song?
Comfort Eagle by Cake

10. What do I think my current theme song is?
La Llorona by Lila Downs (From Frida soundtrack)
Witch, siren, harlot, virgin… hm… Check out this interesting website about the myth of la llarona here.

11. What does everyone else think my current theme song is?
Sahara by Moxy Früvous

12. What song will play at my funeral?
Cluck Old Hen(reprise) by Bill Frisell
At least this seems to indicate I'll live to a ripe, old age!

13. What type of men do you like?
I’m Lonely (But I Ain’t That Lonely Yet) by the White Stripes

14. What is my day going to be like?
Ghost by the Indigo Girls

flash your stash

Thanks to Zibibboisgood for promoting Flash your Stash 2006. Well, I am a day late and a dollar (or two) short, but I'll show you my yarn stash…. At least, a sampling. This was a great opportunity to organize — I've got most of it fitting into three bins plus one bag. Incredible! Mostly this made me realize I am certainly not allowed to purchase any more yarn (never mind that I was already trying not to because after all, I'm not working right now…). I've got a lot of yarn I've purchased for specific projects, but a lot of other yarn was purchased on impulse, no project in mind.

While I was at it, I sorted out all the various Orange-Yellowy yarns I have in honor of Project Spectrum's April colors! Last month I didn't knit anything in Red/Pink, even though I have a number of yarns meeting those specifications. This month, I plan to at least start something in the Orange or Yellow colors of the month.