Calling Out to My Seattle Peeps.

I have a lovely niece -- for the purposes of the blog, I think I will call her Newsie -- who is currently a graduate student in Museology at the University of Washington. She is intelligent, articulate, hardworking, thorough, and trustworthy young woman. (She's also funny, talented, clever, mischievous, and cute!) She moved to Seattle in August for school and is still looking for a part-time job. She has experience in a law office setting, a pharmacy, box office, and hospitality (culinary) industry.

If you hear of any openings, could you please forward the postings to me? I'd appreciate it!

I'd Write a Haiku, But I'm Too Damn Tired.

When last we commiserated the Mollywobbles family was leaving to spend a weekend with the Royal Family. We had a wonderful time at St. George's Castle, and the Principessa was thrilled with her shawl. She's looking great for someone who has been under the weather, and we had a celebratory birthday feast -- my first Peking Duck! -- and a fabulous, relaxing weekend with the de Rumball-St. George's and the adorable Infanta, Little Bird.

It was hard to drag my tuchas in to work on Monday morning, but I did. And it may have been the worst day I've ever had in the office. We were informed that a big case had, overnight, become a BIG CASE and would require Herculean effort to accomplish. And they laid off one of the staff that provides me and my boss with a huge amount of assistance and has been working on our stuff for the last 8 months.

I don't know how I'm going to manage the amount of work we have. I feel lucky that we have identified some able people who can give me some of their time, but I could use a LOT more people. I feel so close to panic all the time.

I'm still trying to get in at least one hour knitting a day. I can usually bank on getting half an hour in the morning and I try to get another half or a whole hour when I get home -- 8:30 or 9:00. Sometimes I'm just too tired, though. (And knitting lace isn't something one should do when drowsy -- a lesson I learned after some oral surgery.)

The Cathedral Window shawl is up to 544 stitches in a row. I'd post pictures, but right now it looks like a placenta. I won't know until I've finished the 49 rows of 1088 stitches if it will need another increase to 2176 stitches. When I've finished the 49 rows of 1088 stitches I plan to run a huge lifeline and then take it off the needle and pin it out to see how bit the sucker really is. Then I'll make a decision.

I'll post again when I can. Stay well. Be good. Have fun.

I CRIED, BUT I DON'T KNOW WHY

I grafted the hem on the Lace Dream shawl on Saturday evening, and I blocked it this evening. It is prettier than I imagined -- even with my wanting skills and poor blocking.



I knit this shawl for my dear friend, the Principessa Maxine de Rumball-St. George. Maxine spent the greater part of this year very ill, and I was very worried about her and felt very impotent, being far away from her. I knit this shawl as a vehicle for focusing prayers for her health and well being. I wanted something really spectacular for her. As I neared the end of the shawl I received word that the Principessa's health was, finally, making improvements and that she had passed the first, most important milestone on her way to a full recovery.


I don't know if it was seeing the pattern finally revealed and realizing that it was even more than I imagined, or if it was a sense of relief and gratitude for the Principessa Maxine's recovery; whatever the reason, I was moved to tears.

I couldn't wait to show it to you. It may well be the most beautiful thing I've ever made. I still can't believe I could make something so beautiful. Tomorrow morning it will be off the wires and I will take more pictures. I will probably be working a great number of hours between now and Friday -- when we leave for the de Rumball-St. George's -- so I may not get to post more until after the weekend.

TUMMY YUMMIES!

I recently made this Brown Butter Pound Cake and can't stop thinking about it. It was so, so delicious. It kept well. And it doubled well. Reviews mentioned it being too dry, but I didn't have that problem. I think it is important not to overbake. Leftovers were yummy for breakfast.

I'm now looking for reasons to make pound cake.

WHAT DID SHE CALL ME?

As my regular readers will attest, I am incredibly fond of buying things. I reserve a greater fondness still for buying books. One of the few things I like more than buying books is knitting lace. And one of the things I like doing most of all is buying books on knitting lace. This, however, is a rare sort of treat, as good books on lace are few and far between. I have only a couple books devoted solely to lace. (I am still looking for an affordable copy of Gladys Amedro's Shetland Lace. Myfanwe refuses to let me spend that kind of money on a used knitting book. But please don't judge her. She's a muggle. She just doesn't understand. )

I recently -- ok, today on my lunch hour -- purchased a copy of Marrianne Kinzel's 1953 book, First Book of Modern Knitting, which has a few interesting patterns. I've already read all of the substantive text and the line by line of a couple of the patterns.

What did I think? Well, it's mostly stuff I would never make -- doilies and tea cloths, each knit out of crochet cotton, starched, then blocked withing an inch of its life. But her technique is good, and her method of blocking is interesting. And I'm thinking that the same pattern for a 64" square tablecloth, knit in a drapey alpaca or silk blend, would be a wicked shawl! And who knows. I might find it in me to knit a doily or two some day. They look to be quick and would make lovely gifts for the 80 year old women on my gift list. (Wait. I'm the only 80 year old woman on my gift list. Hmm.)

The book is a little anachronistic. It was written for housewives. Housewives in the 1950's. Kinzel's stated aim was "...to inspire the needlewoman of to-day [sic] to take up, in a new fashion, the old and fascinating art of lace knitting which enjoyed a tremendous popularity in the 18th & 19th century." (I'm not imagining it, am I? She did just call me a needlewoman, didn't she?)

The dedication of the book reads thusly: "A Dedication to ENGLAND, refuge through centuries of the persecuted, the proscribed, the people without a country, where my husband and I sought haven in exile and found most happily a welcome, a country, and a home."

I don't know where she was from originally, but I'm willing to bet it wasn't Ireland.

It's Like, Cosmic, Man.

My niece pointed me towards this, and while I wasn't quite sure I would find this sort of thing interesting, my niece is pretty cool, so I gave it a shot.

This is a video remixing parts of Carl Sagan's Cosmos and Stephen Hawking's Universe series, setting it to music using autotune on their voices. It is actually really awesome! (I'm not sure what Autotune is, but just go with me.) Check it out!



KNITTING:

Everything but the grafting of the hem done on the Lace Dream shawl. I plan to undertake the grafting next Saturday or Sunday.

I cast on the Cathedral Window shawl. I'm not entirely sure I've got the right needle size. I figure I will wait until the first full pattern repeat is completed, then I'll look at it and see that I think. So far I've done the central few rows, plus half a repeat of the main motif -- at which point it starts over with the motif on row 1 through 24. I'm on 6 now, so tomorrow I should know if I'm going forward or if I'm ripping back and starting over on size 2's.

I DON'T KNOW WHY...

...this spoke to me. Except that, even as a child, I loved her so.

Prayers

Over the Rosh Hashanah holiday I mentioned to someone I know that, as I've been knitting recently, I was praying for a friend who had been ill for quite some time. This person was less taken by a man who knits than she was by a man who prays. (And this was at synagogue. Go figure.) She looked at me as if I'd just farted on her new sofa.

Is it so unusual to believe in prayer? Am I out of the mainstream, even for Jews? Is meditating on the life and health of a dear friend a sign of mental inferiority?

KNITTING

I'm approaching the end of the Lace Dream shawl. The length has reached my wingspan plus 4", so I expect I will knit another 8 inches or so and then begin the end hem. (I've not taken the time to figure out how the end hem happens. I figure I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!)

After that I will begin the Cathedral Window Shawl. I am going to knit it out of Cascade's Alpaca Lace in Amethyst -- this color way reminds me of the colors in the rose window in the Cathedral at Reims. (see the lovely picture.) I'll be using a finer yarn than the pattern and smaller needles. I will have to end up doing extra pattern repeats. I'm estimating that the edging will take me two weeks to knit.

It has not escaped my notice that extra repeats of the pattern will mean, when I get to blocking, I will have to pin out over 1,000 points on the edging. Does anyone know where I can buy T-pins by the pound? I've ordered 2 sets of blocking mats from Knitpicks. I figure they will come in handy when it comes time to block. Maybe I'll have a blocking party -- if 4 people are pinning out 1200 points, they only have to do 300 points apiece!

Does anyone want to come? Sometime next May or June? I'll make lunch?

MORE IRELAND

Knitting at the seaside.


Grafton Street - one of my favorite places in Dublin. I didn't buy much, but the street was welcoming and vital and a wonderful place to watch people.


This is the best pastry I had in Ireland...an apple tart served -- of all places -- in the tea shop at the Newgrange/Boyne Valley visitors center. I never passed up an opportunity to sit down and have a pot of tea!


I couldn't help but think of my sock knitting comrades back in the States! I now have visions of 75 knitters rushing to the interwebs looking for transparent Converse sneakers/trainers!

Norbert took this picture of me knitting at Malehide Castle. I felt very much at home, knitting there. If anyone has a castle they aren't using, let me know. I'll go and knit there.


Myfanwe and I both fell in love. We both want to go back. Now. And every day away is just a little sad.

WHAT ELSE?

The holidays have snuck up on me. I have four days to plan and prepare Rosh Hashanah dinner. My house looks like we are housing the Jodes for the summer.

How long should a generous rectangular shawl be? Really. I need to know.

[Editor's Note: Norbert fell in love with Ireland as well. I apologize for the omission. In addition, he deserves an award for being a real trouper. He is really quite pleasant to travel with. We are, as ever, eternally grateful that G-d gave us Norbert!]

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS...

... ABOUT VACATION:

These are just SOME of the pics. In no order. I'll post more if the whim strikes me.

We took a lovely hike on Howth Head. Aside from seeing Dear Sinead and Malachy, this may have been my favorite thing we did. Well, outside of the prison.

The views along the hike are breathtaking. The heather was in bloom. Those yellow flowers you see are orchids. Amazing. And then look at this:


This is Howth from the North. We hiked all the way to the end, around, then up to the summit. SOOOOOOO beautiful.

If you are ever in Sandcove, we highly recommend this pub. The BEST mushroom soup you could ever hope for. Perfect.


Rocks at the seaside at Sandycove.

Newgrange -- a Neolithic passage tomb in the Boyne Valley. Very, very cool.

The Boyne River. The water was high, and the river spirited.

The Hills of Tara. Note: The hills of Tara are active sheep pastures.

A statue of St. Patrick at the Hills of Tara.

And such a lovely view from Tara.

Dublin Castle

The castle garden:

The throne room.

Malahide Castle. (Which was in the Talbot family for over 800 years!)


Christ Church Cathedral:


Myfanwe and Nortbert at the water portion of the Guinness Storehouse tour.

I loved the name of this shop, but never got in to look for knoba for our diningroom sideboard.

This place is only open from 10 am to 1 pm, weekdays. And I was never walking by when it was open. I would have loved a keepsake tin or baking pan!