women of a certain age are like sunflowers; they know how to turn their faces to the sun.
Showing posts with label Festivus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Festivus. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Festivus Errata


Written directions, row 21 reads:

K4, (YO, SSK) twice K2, *K2, (YO, SSK) five times, K2: rep from * to last eight stitches. End (YO, SSK) twice, K4

It should read:

Row 21: K4, (YO, SSK) twice, *K2, (YO, SSK) five times, rep from *to last ten stitches. End K2 (YO, SSK) twice, K4

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Festivus - A Wrap for the Rest of Us!

There's a party goin' on right here
A celebration to last throughout the years
So bring your good times, and your laughter too
We gonna celebrate your party with you

Come on now

Celebration
Let's all celebrate and have a good time
Celebration
We gonna celebrate and have a good time
- Kool & the Gang



According to Wikipedia, "Festivus is an annual holiday created by writer Dan O'Keefe and introduced into popular culture by his son Daniel, a scriptwriter for the TV show Seinfeld.

The holiday includes novel practices such as the "Airing of Grievances", in which each person tells everyone else all the ways they have disappointed him or her over the past year. Also, after the Festivus meal, the "Feats of Strength" are performed, involving wrestling the head of the household to the floor, with the holiday ending only if the head of the household is actually pinned. These conventions originated with the TV episode."

But I knew that.

What I didn't know, was that it is celebrated as an actual holiday and pre-dates the Seinfeld show that brought it to the public's attention.

Turns out the show's writer - Daniel O'Keefe - has published a book The Real Festivus, which provides a first-person account of an early version of the Festivus holiday as celebrated by the O'Keefe family, and how O'Keefe amended or replaced details of his father's invention to create the Seinfeld episode.

And that's not all.

There is another book called Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us, that chronicles the spread of Festivus in the real world. It even has a website, people!

Little did I realize the depth and serious nature of this nomenclature, when I chose it for my latest pattern.

Silly me...

FESTIVUS WRAP $4


SIZE:
24 inches wide by 72 inches long


MATERIALS:
6 balls (816 yds.) Noro Silk Garden Lite
or other DK weight yarn
Color: 2048
Size 7 (US) needles


GAUGE:
Approx. 4 stitches = 1 inch (blocked)


SUITABLE FOR THE BEGINNING LACE KNITTER
CHARTED AND WRITTEN DIRECTIONS


I used a yarnover/SSK pattern with a zigzag built in. Kept the pattern simple, so it doesn’t overwhelm the color change. Yet it has strong enough lines that the yarn doesn’t obscure the pattern.

I made mine in the Silk Garden Lite, but you could easily substitute regular Silk Garden or Kureyon, swap the needle up a couple sizes and decrease the number of repeats.

OR...

You could use one of Noro's sock yarns instead, use a smaller needle, and make it a scarf!

So many ways to celebrate...

Festivus - for the rest of us!

Catchy...


Monday, July 13, 2009

No(ro) Time Like the Present

"We steal if we touch tomorrow. It is God's."
-Henry Ward Beecher

Isn't that a fascinating quote to ponder today? I'm not quite sure I ever thought of it that way.

Of course, it is all too true.

DH is out of town this week, down in Huntsville AL at a training session for his job. So I stayed up too late knitting last night.

But look at how much I accomplished!

Just last week, it looked like this:

Just goes to show, you never really know what your children are going to grow up to become!

The pattern just wasn't making the best use of the spectacular color runs of the Silk Garden Lite. But I wanted to keep this project on the simple side.


An easily memorized 6 stitch, 14 row mosaic pattern does the trick. You get the complex look of Fair Isle with half - one third - nowhere NEAR the effort! Clever yarn!

She doesn't have a name yet - any suggestions?

Note added later: Too late! I christened her "Byzantine" for the colorful mosaics found in Byzantine churches.

Meanwhile, Festivus is ready for her bath and a little stretch to knock out the kinks. Look for her tomorrow.


Not every ball of Noro is so flamboyant. This understated little fellow is waiting on additional yarn. As you can see in this pic, the dreaded Noro knot rendered the pattern indistinguishable at the top.

His time will come soon enough.

Last night, as I knit, I watched the late movie on AMC: The Game, with Michael Douglas. Michael Douglas plays Nicholas Van Horton, a very successful and lonely business tycoon, whose brother gives him a very unusual birthday present.

I won't go too deeply into the plot (would take forever - very convoluted) but the upshot is that Nick learns how to live in the present, because everything spirals so far out of control that he has no choice, but to react.

And, in the end, that IS the gift. The complete unsettling of his routine breaks the bonds that hem him in and sets him free to experience life more adventurously, more fully...

More presently.

Sometimes I think I am somehow deficient or less than an adult, because I live so fully in the present. My work demands it. Thinking about next month, or next year, while you are knitting a complex pattern is asking for it.

"It" being dropped stitches, unintentional "K2tog"s, wonky patterns, one-offs, and frog ponds.

Sometimes I think I should worry more about the future.
  • Will my eyes hold up?
  • Will my patterns keep selling?
  • Will I run out of things to say?
  • How will I cope if Scott dies first?
  • If I do?
  • What does tomorrow hold, that I should be preparing for today?

I used to worry about those things all the time. Now I just shove them back into the closet and slam the door behind them. I can't answer them, so why waste my enjoyment of life on them?

I am never happier than when fully present in the moment, whether I am knitting, playing with Conner, spending time with my husband, or listening to God.

John Lennon had it exactly right when he wrote, "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans."

Sometimes, we need those plans to go awry.

Sometimes, we need to let go of our perceived realities.

Sometimes, we need to let the yarn, the beloved, the truth, or the moment tell us where to go and what the pattern looks like.

I do not design. I let the design flow through me.

I do not drive. I let the road take me where it will.

Trying to wrest the wheel into my hands would surely lead to disaster.

Might as well sit back and enjoy the ride.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Yummy!

"For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something else."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I suppose it was inevitable...

I should have expected it...

It is basic physics, after all...

In a world where every action, produces an equal and opposing reaction...
(Thank you to my seventh grade science teacher - see? I'm not hopeless after all!)

When the view out my window looks like this everyday:


And my WIP basket looks like this:


And this:


And this:


And this:


After months of khaki and beige and white and charcoal and taupe and silver and platinum and champagne...

It had to happen...

Eventually I was going to kick over the traces...

And embrace color again.

And I never do ANYTHING halfway.

I've been seduced...

By wine and currant and grape and avocado, and ochre and lilac and seafoam and russet and teal and ...


Malabrigo Sock in Andiecita
(no name for this scarf yet)

Noro Silk Garden Lite in 2048
(Festivus wrap - thank you Seinfeld)


Kureyon Sock in 180
(Tilt a Whirl scarf)

And just look what's in the hopper...



Lots of gorgeous JoJoland Melody fingering


Luscious Dream in Color Baby laceweight


More Kureyon Sock

Don't worry - Mendhi (Friday release)and Rose (by the end of the month) are still my top priority, but everyone needs to cleanse their palate palette from time to time...

Aperitifs, anyone?