Do The Math

Even if you know a lot about me, you might not know that I spend most of my workday doing math. Today was a big math day for me, math all damn day with just a tiny break in the middle to go to Habu Textiles and fondle the fiber. (And they're having a sale).

Interestingly enough, 156 years ago today Ada Lovelace summed up her interesting and mathmatical life. You can read about her here, but every good feminist knows that Ada Lovelace invented the first math based software language.

Looking around for some math based knitting patterns to celebrate the day, I found the Sockulator. While I don't really need a sock pattern anymore, I really need to say Sockulator a few more times just for the fun of it. Sockulator.

You can also spice up the stripy stuff - and use up some stash - by using modular arithmetic as shown in the Perfect Shuffle scarf. There is also the tried and true Fibonacci sequence knitting- which I used for my golf bag.

I am finally getting around to updating the links, left. Mostly they are golfers and knitters, but who knows, maybe some of them are good at math.

Cook Some, Knit Some

For the last several days the smell of baking pies and turkey gravy has wafted down the hill from Nancy's house. This is pretty powerful wafting, since she lives about a mile away - but that's how good a cook she is. And while we are thankful for the wonderful meal Nancy makes on Thanksgiving, I am very grateful every day for the loving friendship, kindness and fun that whole family brings to us.

In anticipation of the feast, I haven't eaten much since Halloween. So I have been browsing recipes for Turkey Day and here are some that would be of interest.

The best part of Thanksgiving - or almost any meal! - is the cranberry sauce.


While I prefer the kind of recipe with little marshmallows and nuts in it, I am happy with a carefully calibrated can slice.

You need some veggies too.

And Last But Not Least, the Turkey.

Retail, Then and Now

When I was at school, not only was there no Internet, there were hardly any yarn stores. My only source of yarn was the C. H. Martin's on George Street, which stocked a decent selection of Red Heart acrylic and Boye Needles. The yarn was displayed directly across from the lunch counter and so most of my projects smelled like hot dogs.

There was (and is) a farm school at Rutgers, but no one there was doing anything crafty with the sheep they raised there. They did have a cow, though, with a glass panel in her side that showed how cow stomach worked.

Let's not think about that anymore, and take a minute to look at some knitting. Here is the Foliage pattern from Knitty stretched out all over Emily's big New Jersey hair.


I am not much of a lace knitter and you can see where I goofed up a little, but this pattern is quite fun and super quick. I knitted it with Decadent Fiber's Creme Brulee that I got at Sheep and Wool this year. This yarn is a pretty good buy but unfortunately, it looked better on the skein then knitted up: the colors puddle together in kind of a bland mash. I wouldn't buy it again even though it feels nice,

While I still couldn't find a yarn store in New Brunswick, I was surprised to find about 8 tattoo parlors in a 10 block radius on our walk. Can people really be buying more tattoos than yarn? I don't have a tattoo, but I want one. I want a knitting tattoo, like this one:


If you've been sucked into the Ravelry vortex, check out the Tattooed group for many exciting ideas. Like you need some excuse to waste more of your time there.

Class of '82

I woke up this weekend and realized that somehow, I forgot to attend my 25th college reunion this past spring. So, I bundled up the family, and all that knitting that needed to be photographed, and headed down to Exit 9.

Here is Emily wearing Calorimetry made from a scant half skein of leftover Noro. If you haven't knitted one of these cute things yet, by all means try one right now. I liked it so much I've made two of them.


While I've gotten out the leftovers, here is another hat made from Noro scraps, this time crocheted.


Sadly, it was Sunday morning so my most beloved hangouts were being hosed down from the night before. In fact, most of them had dissapeared or been moved to new locations: The Court Tavern isn't on Court Street, because Court Street was torn down to make way for a parking lot. Similarly, The Melody had also dissapeared.

But I was downtown with a guy who's last name is Dalton, and during my college years that meant a free meal at Tumulty's. The Dalton I knew then is my brother-in law-now. Whenever he blew into town, he'd take me and his girlfriend (my roommate) out to dinner at Tumulty's and pay for it with money I knew his parents meant for finer purposes, like text books and not $1 drafts. As I dug into my iceberg lettuce salad (actually just a quarter of an iceberg lettuce head slathered with dressing) I always said a little thank you to his parents for their kind hospitality.

Fall, Finally

Yesterday was damp and blustery enough for Polish food and an afternoon movie so we got out of our pajamas and headed out to find some.

On our walk we lamented the decline of the many Eastern European restaurants of our youth, where you could brace yourself with a combo platter for the long night of cheap beer ahead. However, there are still a few old standbys, however tarted up for the neighborhood they might be, and I must say I was treated to a real fashion show of hand knit fabulousness as I looked out the window on E9th Street at the passersby.

In honor of the season, Emily wore her new Newsboy Cap from Stitch n Bitch Nation.

I got this yarn at Rhinebeck from Twist of Fate Spinnery in Portland, CT. It was a great deal, $14 for 150 yards of good quality, kind of rustic yarn. On the barnyard smell chart, I'd say it's a little gamey but okay. I love yarn, but I don't like to be too close to the animal it came from, and I almost didn't buy this but the color was irresistible. The yarn is a twisted rich dark brown and cream, and very even so you get a good overall pattern without too many patches of just dark brown.

This Newsboy Cap is a fun knit and I finished it in one night. I did this version without the cables, and at Emily's request made it a little more Rastafarian by decreasing the crown at regular intervals every 3 rows instead of whatever was recommended in the pattern.

Nose to the Grindstone

April is the cruelest month, but clearly November is the busiest month. There is NaNoWriMo which goads you into writing a novel in the month of November. I signed up for this in October, when I was still unemployed. Alas, I got a job and I'm back to work full time now, and no longer free to go to the gym daily and drink coffee for hours and yes, I admit it, gloat about it. But I am going to take a stab at it.

Note to readers: the book contains explicit scenes of knitting and golf.

If a few paragraphs a month for a blog is killing you, you could try the NaNoSweeMo and knit a sweater this month. For a lot of you readers, this really isn't such a big challenge, particularly those of you who rarely go below a size 10 needle. But the idea is a very good one, particularly since you could be on Sleeve Island right around the Thanksgiving break and therefore have a good excuse not to cook.