Thank you, Emma!

My virtual friend Emma deserves endless thanks from me, and it is about time I give her proper credit.

Without Emma, and her amazingly generous enabling, I probably would not:

a) own a spinning wheel
b) be able to play with it
c) own sock yarn
d) own rosewood dpns needles
e) knit socks

and possibly I would not even have a blog (Melanie also deserves a lot of credit for launching me in blogland).

While knitting and spinning paraphernalia are the tangible gifts Emma has given me, what I praise in Emma are her warmth, support, generosity, friendship and courage in life.

The socks above were knitted using some Opal yarn she sent me along with rosewood needles, a few years back. I thought a lot about Emma, while I was knitting them, and about some of the difficulties she faces everyday. She certainly deserves a big public THANK YOU, and a lot of support from her friends for all she does.

Zeno's paradox

As I recall from my high school days, when I studied ancient Greek philosophers, one of Zeno's paradoxes was that if one plucks one hair off the tail of a horse, the tail is not decreased in size. And if one plucks another hair, the tail still looks the same. And so on and so forth. Thus, one can keep plucking away, but the tail will still be there.

Kind of knitting from a cone of yarn, is it not? One can knit a row, and the cone does not noticeably change in appearance. One keeps knitting, and at the end of the night, the cone still looks pretty much the same.

Zeno's paradox has been sustaining my knitting recently, as I attempt to knit Notre Dame De Grace (IK summer 2007) from a cone of alpaca yarn, purchased from an organic farm several years ago, which came with no information on yardage, only the weight (1 Lbs).

So far I got the back, the front and the collar. The cone does look quite a bit skinnier (apologies to Zeno for noticing this minor discrepancy), and the unanswerable question is: is there enough for two sleeves?

Zeno, I trust in you, pal, OK?

Knitters/crocheters wanted

My friend Steph, whom I love very much, has sent me this. Anybody wants to help?

I am too busy to advertise this much, or organize raffle prizes etc., but I thought I'd throw it out there and see if anybody is interested. Depending on how things go, I am pretty sure there could be some prizes lurking in the stash....

Thanks!


Hi folks. I have a request for anyone who wants to knit. My friend's son who is in the Army is headed for Afghanistan this December. There has been a request for scarves for the troops to keep warm. Apparently there is no money in the Department of Defense to keep soldiers warm. Hum..enough sarcasm.

The request is that if you are a knitter (or crochet) and want to knit a couple of scarves, we need about 45 by December 1st. If folks just do one or two, and we get enough folks, we get enough scarves. Give them to me and I will get them to her. Thanks.

Here are the dimensions that the Army will allow:

KNITTING:

MUST BE BLACK YARN.......any kind except wool [too itchy]..........

7" wide by 42" long [length can be 37" minimum or 45" maximum]

e.g.: size 10 needles, cast-on 28 stitches = 7"

Can do 'straight' knit, or make it ribbed: Knit 2 - Purl-2....no fringe allowed..no fancy-pants stuff allowed.......... [all men in platoon....]



CROCHET:

Use a size G or H crochet hook........[.if you crochet loosely use a G, if tightly use an H]

Chain 23 loosely. Turn.

Row 1: Skipping first chain from hook, single crochet first 2 chain stitches, then single crochet in BACK LOOP ONLY of next 2 chain stitches,repeating from across the row. Chain 1, turn.
Row 2: Repeat row 1.
Continue pattern until 42" long [length can be 37" minimum or 45" maximum]. Finish off. Weave in yarn ends.

Thanks,

Steph