Step Into My Thimble

Reading an old issue of Knitter’s Review over the weekend inspired me to put together a lovely list of children’s books that have to do with knitting and the fiber arts. I’m talking about fiction rather than instructional books. The list is here for your enjoyment.

This list is by no means comprehensive. There are probably a lot more Young Adult titles that could be added–but because all I used was an article from KR and an expert search in WorldCat, they elude me at the moment. Feel free to suggest additions, particularly anything older than about 1990.

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How was your Memorial Day weekend?

Rodney and I both have no military family. I only have one very loose relation (now deceased) on my dad’s side who served in WWII, and everyone else got out due to college or being flat-footed or whatever. It wasn’t until I was all grown up before I realized what this holiday is about, because for our family it was usually just another day off.*

Of course at my parents’ house this weekend, it was time to get ready for the gigantic annual garage sale. I myself am heading up there on Wednesday, to staff the cash box for a few days. I already keep our house relatively free of things we don’t use, but it’s been another chance to really purge the closets and the kitchen.

I also put a little time into making this:

If you click it you can read more about the pattern, fabric, etc. The original plan for this crazy cotton was a scrubs shirt, but then Rodney didn’t need it any more, and here you go. It just seemed too obvious to make an apron out of it. But there is enough left to line some bags, maybe even a big bag you could take on a picnic, with matching napkins to tuck inside?

At any rate, I am kind of curious what the reactions to wearing a skirt with “Beef Stroganoff” and “Seafood Chowder” (complete with pot, crab, lobster, and skewers) will be. I plan to test it out at the garage sale.

I also finished the top half of a totally experimental thing. I saw a really beautiful tank-top in the background of Crazy Aunt Purl’s photo of a KIP group (wayyyy down almost at the bottom of the post, a girl named Michelle who just learned how to knit), and I thought I’d try to replicate it. Of course, what I made ended up very different. Now it consists of a bandeau top (done) with ties for behind the neck (done) and a sort of loose bottom (not done) with maybe some trim or a ruffle made out of the same fabric (not done). What fabric am I using? A discontinued Kaffe Fassett print called Chard. See some here. Other Fassett prints I adore and will eventually buy include Lotus Leaf in color “Antique”, Roman Glass in color “Leafy”, and the new Spools in color “Brown” or maybe “Jade”. I guess I like loud things–when did that happen?

*Maybe that makes us insensitive, I don’t know. If put to the test I think every one of us would say we appreciate the people that went to war for this country; however, I don’t even remember living anywhere where there was a war memorial. They have them now, but not when I was a kid.

What better thing to do than take your knitted dinosaur out for a stroll on a sunny Friday morning?

Last night I fixed Mr. Bronty so that his front legs helped him stand up straighter, but I’m afraid his neck is a little floppy. I could have stuffed the heck out of it, but then I could see the stuffing through the stockinette. He just has to pose carefully from now on.

Lately I’ve been feeling like I don’t have enough green jewelry, so I stopped by the bead shop on the way home from work yesterday. I found the best alligator-shaped silver clasp, so I rushed right home to make a necklace and earrings. It was a good thing to do while watching the first three episodes of Gilmore Girls (season one) last night. I can’t believe I didn’t start watching this show until almost the end of last season.

Click the alligator clasp to see the rest of the jewelry from last night.

Happy long weekend!

Feel-good memo of the day:

I have to say that “I love Archivists!” Many times in the past I’ve gone to them and I’ve always been met with helpful, friendly people. Even if this is not the William M. XXXXX for whom I search, I appreciate your time and energy looking for (possible) pertinent information.

Thank you.

XXXXX

It’s hard not to be helpful and friendly, desperate as we are for human contact from the recesses of our dungeons and linear miles of unprocessed what-have-you.

Now, for the general populace, here is a question. Try to be helpful and friendly when you answer it, even if you’re not in a basement.

If you have a blog, do you list that on your resume when looking for work?

I’ve been chatting a bit with Andrea about this. I know people from my work (hi people from my work!) have seen my site, because, at least when it was done with Movable Type, I got a log of all the queries that were entered in the search box, complete with IP addresses. Although I don’t put my full name all over this blog regularly, I’m not that hard to find in a web search.

Additionally, and let this be a warning to some of you who can be a little too trusting sometimes, whenever we are hiring people here we traditionally take some time to web-stalk those whose resumes look best. One guy got eliminated pretty quickly when his weblog was found, full of all kinds of unfriendly sentiment about his current employer. Hey, if we could find it, so could that current employer. Not a good idea.

In the library world, knowing a thing or two about open-source software, coding, server administration, etc. can come in handy. And Andrea made a good point about the writing end of having a blog, something I could definitely pay more attention to: summing up experiences and drawing people out to comment on them is a skill. It would be easy to list some of the skills related to having your own blog in a resume, without actually giving a direct link to the blog.

How private do you think your blog is? What are your reasons, if you think it is an outright bad idea to list a blog on your resume?

Where do they all come from?

This morning my car on the blue line train to work was graced by the presence of two homeless individuals. They were talking at length about the tattoo on the one man’s leg: he had named it Mai Tai, even though he found the image in some kind of Irish history book. But stranger than that, the man had the face guard part of a football helmet attached to his head. Just that face guard part, kind of like what you see here but without the top half.

Last night during the disappointing season finale of “Medium” I finished another little project. You’ve already seen the mittens; now there is an I-cord connecting them, and a hat to match.

So now we have a baby blanket, this little set, and also hiding out with the stash is a little toddler jacket from way back in 2003. None of these have been made with any particular baby in mind.

Alas, last Friday my little brother (age 28) called me up to say his wife is pregnant. They’ve been doing fertility treatments for two years now, and had gotten to the point where they were going to take a break. They got a dog. But two weeks ago they had some kind of procedure done, and it worked. They are brave to make the announcement so early; when asked why, the answer was that they’d rather have the support of everyone they know throughout the process. Me, I would probably keep it to myself a little longer, but then I haven’t had to have monthly ultrasounds and a bunch of drug therapy either.

It’s very exciting news, especially for my mom who has been waiting for one of us to finally have a kid. Or in this case, kids. They may be able to find out how many at yet another ultrasound in early June.

So that means I’ll get to be an aunt, and that Trellis over at Knitty will be made with someone in mind. Yay, babies!