A Handspun, Hand-dyed Adventure - in less than 20 hrs.

Thursday was a good day. I woke up to find a message from knittyblog.com (blogging home of knitty.com)  I had won the giveaway prize of Cookie A's new book (and the PDF for access before the book is out) PLUS sock yarn from Lorna's Laces! Honestly, how better to start the day?

Abi and I then attended the local Kids Hop where we met up with a friend and her son.

Nap time was supposed to follow, but someone decided to not sleep. She silently made a mess in the room instead (with stickers, not so bad as some of the stories I've heard about other toddlers...)

We did crafts after "nap", picked up Robin from work, at some broccoli (honestly, she started eating the top like an apple after refusing some broccoli sticks)...

And then I went out for Knit Night with the Mob.

After knitting my lace shawl for a while, J of Lofty Fibres arrived. That was some time around 7pm.  She has very kindly lent me a drop spindle to try.  Of course, I immediately pulled out my Romni wool fiber (brought along with the supplies for my desk-spindle to show and tell) and started to spin.  I wanted to take advantage of having other spinners around who could give me some starting tips. After the cafe closed some of us went back to a local home for more knitting and spinning.

Some time between 9 and 10pm  I stopped spinning my first ply of yarn.  The fiber kept breaking as I tried to spin, at the end, so I wound what I had onto a TP roll and started a second ply.  By the time I got home, shortly after 10:30, I had this:

 I was already giddy from the excitement of spinning my own yarn (the others can attest to that!), so of course I had to spin a little more at home.  I went to bed around midnight, but in the meantime I finished two single-plies:

Over coffee, G had been teasing that I'd probably have a double-plied skein of yarn by next week. Ha! I laughed - by tomorrow!! The challenge was set.  This morning I plied the two bobbins together, while hanging the TP rolls from the ceiling.

When I'd exhausted one of the plies, I had this much remaining on the second.  I can't remember which one I did first. I think what remains is from the first spinning because it is finer.  The second time I deliberately tried to spin thicker yarn.

I skeined the 2-ply around the table. Tied it up...

Pulled it off and, look, no curling. I'd say it's an aran/bulky weight for the most part.  I measured it - alas, it is only about 19m of yarn.  Enough to put a decent stripe into a hat! Especially if that hat is for Abi.

 A close up

Next up, of course, was the dying.  Abi chose the colours and dropped the blue and red food colouring into cups with water and a little vinegar while the crock pot heated. There was more vinegar in the crockpot water to help set the dyes.

Abi poured the colours in, one per side, but as expected they quickly mixed. That's okay, purple is good. (If I hadn't wanted them to mix as much, I could have used less water and no swishing, but Abi wanted to swish).

After an hour the yarn was looking decidedly purple.  The blue wasn't entirely exhausted, but since there had been no measuring of dye (I have no idea how many drops Abi used!) I wasn't worried.

 It is very difficult to capture purple on camera

We pulled it out to rinse it at 12:30pm.

 But there was really not much to rinse. The colour was fast.

Right now it is hanging to dry in Abi's room after we squished it in a towel (Abi's favourite part)

FUN FUN FUN

resisting the nap - a conversation in pieces

Abi: Mom, can I have yogurt after my nap?
Mom: yes you may
...
Abi playing and jumping on bed rather than settling for a nap and letting me brush her teeth
...
Mom (going for the positive statements approach): Do you want yogurt after your nap?
Abi (resisting the positive statements approach): no, no, no. You have to say 'Do you want NO yogurt after my nap.' Then I say 'Yes I DO want yogurt'
Mom (not falling for her attempts to create conflict): I'm asking if you DO want yogurt after your nap
Abi: No (jumping still).
Mom (trapped): Okay, so you don't want yogurt after your nap.
Abi: Yes I DO!
(I lost)
...

Abi: I have a great idea! How about I wear a costume!
Mom: Okay, you can dress up in your costumes after your nap.
Abi: No, I have a pretend costume on! (how silly of mommy not to have noticed)
Mom: Oh, okay. Is it a sleepy Abi costume?
Abi: No, it's a WAKE UP TIME costume! (jumping on bed)
Mom: Well how about I put your sleepy-Abi costume on. (Waving hands around her) Let me put it on all sides. Turn so I get your back (she does). Okay, now you have your sleepy-Abi costume  on.
Abi: Noooo, (jumping). I have a great idea! How about I wear my wake up and jump costume.

Costume changes are quick and easy when they are pretend costumes.

In the end I succeeded in brushing her teeth and having her lie down. She's playing with toys in bed. I hear the toys are jumping. She's also reading them stories.

The things I think of...

At about 1am last night, when I wasn't yet remotely sleepy but couldn't keep working, I did this...

I made a spindle from desk items.A CD sits perfectly held tight between a highlighter and its lid, I discovered.  A large paper clip sufficed as a hook and another lid at the base of the highlighter held down the starting thread.
It worked. I spun yarn. I had to knit it.  It was like thin lopi yarn - single ply. (I think I turned around when I stopped, thus it is lopsided)
Abi woke at 2 and I went to bed, so that's the end of that story.

Pre-Halloween Fun

With Halloween falling on a Sunday this year, everyone's been celebrating early - a sort of long weekend of Halloween.  At work, Robin dressed as Robin Hood and his team decorated their space as Sherwood Forest with Nottingham Castle in the corner (at the boss's desk).  They won the office contest for best themed decoration.  The other teams had more traditional "Halloween" themes - and I saw some cool setups in photos. But Robin's team was the most innovative.

 Today Robin, Abi and Grandpa are off to market in St. Jacob's, and then planning to find some geocaches.  Abi's wearing her Princess dress.  I suggested she might want to dress up since when we attended the local Market activities for kids on Thursday many of the kids were dressed up. 
This is how she decided to pose for a picture... 

Abi's been having great fun with her grandpa all week. 

Later today, or perhaps tomorrow, we'll finish decorating outside (it's been too windy to consider decorating early), carve a pumpkin (I already nominated grandpa and Abi for the job), and maybe decide what costume Abi will wear tomorrow.  She has three options: the Princess dress above, a witch dress (that she wore to the Medieval Faire), and a unicorn costume.  Or I might suggest the Princess dress OVER the unicorn costume ;)

I suppose I should also decide what I am going to wear tomorrow.  So far the plan is I'll stay home to hand out treats while Abi goes out with dad and grandpa.  I've got stickers ready to hand out, and a pile of stickers ready to trade with Abi - stickers for candy.  This year should be interesting as I think she's more aware of what candy is. Last year I pretty much could just take the candy and she didn't miss it.  She didn't know what she was missing.  In the last year, however, she'll have witnessed more kids eating candy... thus I am prepared to trade/bribe her candy away from her.  Not because I want it, but because I don't think it's right for a two year old to eat candy. 
So why trick or treat? Because she LOVES going door to door and getting stuff. She loves the decorations and the other kids in costume.  She loves getting dressed up.  It's all great fun.

Not much else of interest to write about. Well, not related to Halloween.

I am not looking...

"doing my dreams" does not include cleaning my office.

critters

It seems we have more than one stow-away snail in the tank.  We've been watching this one grow from a clear blob-thing, to something with a shell. And it continues to grow.  I assume it's an Apple Snail. It's pretty cute, but I hope it focuses on dining on the excess dead stuff rather than the plants.

Here you can see both snails on the tank wall.  There's also a third baby (itty-bitty) in the tank, but not pictured here. I can't tell yet whether the third snail will be a trumpet snail (like the black snail at top) or an apple snail.  So far they are not a problem, but if the snails continue to reproduce at a snail's rate (which is more like bunny-speed), I'll have to take measures to thin the herd.

And here's the spider that was crawling up my office wall yesterday.  I managed to trap it and put it out in the rain - I don't think the spider was impressed. One minute it's in a nice warm, dry house, the next it's out in the cold and rain.

children and social capital

I've read the sociological lit. on children as social capital, but it's pretty boring to read. Not nearly as interesting as experiencing it. I was thinking on it today after passing someone that Abi sees daily. This person always waves at me. But I don't know this person, not really. Basically, I would be "Abi's mom" to this person, but that's not insignificant socially speaking. This person knows I'm a grad student (we've talked once at the park) and what I study. Maybe one day this person, or another of Abi's acquaintances, will think to introduce me to someone who can get me a job! (Ah, wouldn't that be nice.) Not that I'm relying on something like that, but the point is, Abi is the link and her ability to create and foster relationships with other people in society means that, sociologically speaking, she is a form of social capital. She's a rather rich source actually. As you know by now, she's pretty darn cute. I couldn't deny it if I wanted to, it's a matter of fact. She's also very smiley and incredibly social. She lures strangers in with a smile and hooks them with a simple exchange of words (it helps now that she is also intelligent and talkative).
Who knows what random people she will facilitate introductions with over the next few years... it should be interesting.
I don't mind being Abi's mom. Not at all.
Being a parent is always interesting.
At the very minimum, Abi supports me by encouraging me to "do my dreams".

As a reward for having to read the above, you can watch a few silly clips of Abi talking (which you may have already seen yesterday)


[video of Abi]

an every-other-Saturday religion?

Wait a minute... I'm accustomed to hearing Pagans complain that certain other religious practitioners are "Sunday only" practitioners, whereas Pagans pride themselves on having a "lived religion".
So why am I reading this:

All of these trainings require a high degree of motivation and self-discipline as well as a certain ability to work under authority. As Jenny, a Wiccan high priestess, put it when talking about her coven: “You have to give up two Saturdays a month for four years. You have to really want something to give up half of your Saturdays for
four years. And you have to really like it.”(Balfer 2009, 38)

Yep, this says a lot about modern Western culture, not just the Wiccan quoted. I was surprised that the author made no commentary.
I suppose every other Saturday is a better commitment than 8 times a year (at the Sabbats). Maybe an addition 13 times if you celebrate the Esbats. That's still only 21 days a year you have to -
wait, these usually involve staying up late for a party, not getting up early to attend church. Where's the downside to a late-night (or early evening, followed by a potluck) celebration? Well, except for those equinoxes you might feel "crazy" and wake before sunrise to drive to the edge of the world and watch the sun come up over the ocean, then catch the bakery as it opens and dine on fresh bread.

In all seriousness, I don't understand on a personal level (on a social-psychological level of analysis I get it) why someone would declare that taking time from your life every other Saturday for a few years (and what's a few years compared with a lifetime?) is a sign of true dedication. OTOH, if we're talking about the fact that maybe you don't like the authority system of that Wiccan training (in the example above), but you decide to push through to get your initiated degrees so you can move on and hive off...
Meh, there's good reason I'm not a Wiccan. I still can't personally understand why one should take pride in giving up 2 days a month. I realize in reality that training actually requires much more than two days a month, but the above quote implies otherwise. Or at least it implies that two of the BEST days of the month must be sacrificed to religious activity. Why is religious activity even being treated as requiring "giving up" days. Isn't the whole point of a lived religion supposed to be that it is integrated in your life? Essentially you "give up" all your days.
This applies to far more than Pagans (and apparently not to all Pagans).

Okay, minor rant over now. Back to... oh, crap, not back to work. Time to get Abi.

Balfer, Maria. 2009. Three degrees of openness in London's Pagan scene. The Pomegranate 11(1): 29-43.

research that frustrates me

Much better than the alternative rant I could have made about a particular dissertation I was reading yesterday - the kind that makes me think the granting institution must be one of those "buy your degree online" kind of institutions, even if they claim to have status recognition by the APA and multiple campuses. And if the writing of the dissertation author itself isn't bad enough, there's content in there - quotes from the participant parents that were even approved by the participants - that make me cringe. Such as a father who tells his young teenaged daughter that if she goes out wearing provocative clothing that there is a 98% chance something will happen to her. (But, of course, it's still her choice...) Does that mean that he will direct blame at her if something does happen (even though the implied chance of molestation is far less than 98%)? And this is a family that prides themselves on having a healthy view of sexuality. One that proudly reports they provided their son with lubrication and hand towels when he reached puberty. Hunh. There's no mention of supporting their daughter's sexuality. Nope, instead they tell her that if she wears the clothes she wants to wear "something" (bad) will happen to her - and thus she is not free to engage her own sexuality.

I'm not endorsing common fashions for girls (alas, younger and younger...) that I find inappropriate and would never allow my own daughter to have in her wardrobe. But neither would I tell her it's her choice to wear them and state that if something bad happens to her it's a result of that choice. Granted, I also know from experience that you don't have to wear provocative clothing as a teen-aged female to be the object of sexual harassment. When it comes from classmates, putting them in their place and reporting it to authorities ends it pretty darn quickly.

Another father (or was it the same? it's hard to tell in this dissertation, despite only interviewing 3 couples she continues to generalize them and use vague descriptions such as "some of them") supposedly seeks to encourage tolerance (in the face of potential religious discrimination) by telling his kids that other people are small-minded and the kids/they are not. Wow.
And perhaps what is worse, in this dissertation, is that the psychology major ignores all of this stuff that she has transcribed and included in her dissertation to illustrate other things (such as how parents front-load kids in preparation of potential discrimination) and instead pushes her own analysis of discrimination even after she admits that the parents insisted religious discrimination wasn't a significant factor in their lives and the researcher similarly found little evidence of it affecting them.
And might I add, interviewing 3 couples for 2 hours, especially without any additional fieldwork and clear ignorance about relevant publications from Pagan Studies, should never ever be worthy of a doctorate degree! I'm pretty sure my undergrad students could write the same or better papers! Oh, and this was a new dissertation from 2010.

Oh well. It's not as if I could ignore it. It is related to my own research insofar as it is about Pagan parents, so to ignore it (ie, not have read it) would be poor research on my part (in my opinion) even though I now know it's not worthy of my time. I'll still make mention of it if only to say there have been others interested in this field of late - even if it's crap research. The fact that she didn't find religious discrimination to be a significant factor is inline with my own findings and does help to dispel common perceptions within the Pagan community that potential and real discrimination is of great concern. Of course, the researcher draws upon this same common perception (I should add she's a practitioner, although clearly not a well-educated one as she spells Samhain as Samhein and altar as alter) of discrimination that compelled her to speak with parents about how they deal with discrimination. Even after completing her interviews and finding that the parents had not experienced discrimination, she proceeds with writing her dissertation on the topic and trying to force it into one model - that it doesn't fit. Anyhow, despite her poor analysis, the fact that discrimination wasn't significant to these parents and the long quotes she includes from the parents discussing how they prepare (or not) their kids for misunderstandings about the religion does have some interest to me.

In other research, I was reading a different recent paper that, much to my frustration, references another thesis about second generation Pagans without challenging the (poorly conceived) conclusions of that thesis and instead using it to support the idea (desirable to the Pagan community) that the second generation of Pagans is growing significantly.

It is evident that I will be ruffling some feather with my dissertation and publications. There are a lot of people who will not like my challenges to this assumption. Certainly the researchers will not like that I take them to task on their faulty conclusions and Pagan leaders who will not like it. On the other hand, I imagine there are plenty of other researchers who will be glad to see it.

So, I suppose I should get back to that writing...

Pink socks

There was something I was intending to post, but now I forget what that was. Something Abi-related...
Maybe I was going to tell you that Abi has her own pair of knitted socks in pink. She watches me knit socks for others and has been requesting a pair for herself. It's not as if they are difficult to make in her size, but I always tend to put it off. Eventually I did cast on a pair as my simple project - the one that I can carry around and add a row here and there. You know, waiting for Robin to get out of work if we're picking him up. Walking to and from the grocery store in the evening the night before Thanksgiving dinner when Robin realizes we don't have any RobinHood pasty mix at home to prepare the crust for the pie he's promised my family he'll make for tomorrow's dinner. We get there only to find they no longer carry the product (no local stores seem to! yikes). Then we get half-way home and realize that we forgot Abi's purse on the bench I was sitting on, waiting with Darla while Abi and Robin shopped. So I had to turn around alone while Abi, Robin, and Darla continued home. Good thing I had that knitting with me - the kind that I can do while I'm walking in the dark (or as dark as it gets in the city).


But that can't have been it, because I was thinking of posting yesterday and I only finished these this morning while encouraging Abi to eat her oats and sit still (hahahahahaha).

It was going to be a brilliant commentary too... ;P

Oh well. Abi's next request is for a pink scarf. Why does she hate me? lol Pink? pink!
....pink.