World-Wide Knit in Public Day

June 10th was World-Wide Knit In Public Day.  The DC event was hosted by Looped Yarn Works (my LYS) in Dupont Circle.  Nate and I rode our bikes down, worried because we didn't know exactly where they were meeting in the Circle.  Never fear: it was really hard to miss a crowd of knitters (although at first they looked like a prayer group because everyone was sitting quietly with their heads down concentrating on what looked like folded hands).

Immediately a burly man with a beard and clipboard came over to greet us.  He asked if we had ever heard of a group called "Minute." 

"Minnit?"  I asked.

"Yes.  Mennit," he replied, strangely only speaking to Nate through this whole conversation. 

I was a little perturbed.  Nate can knit but he isn't the die-hard that I am...just because I decided to just take a skein to wind rather than actually knit something didn't mean I should be completely ignored.  Or maybe this dude was inviting us to join a religious organization that systematically excludes women?

The friendly, burly man must have felt my attitude and spoke veeeeery slowly.

"DC Men Knit is a knitting group for men.  Would you like to join?"

Hells yea burly man who knits!  Please recruit Nate!  He's been working on the same damn hat for a year and a half now!

Moral of the story: if you knit in public, good things happen.  Do more of it.

Ravelympics Smack Down

Because everyone seems to be talking about it, thought I would mention the U.S. Olympic Committee's cease and desist order against Ravelry (an online community for knitters) for using the name "Ravelympics."  They had the nerve to refer to the knitters' use of the name as "denigrat[ing] the true nature of the Olympic Games,” and as "disrespectful to our country’s finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work.”

The Yarn Harlot did a really thoughtful response to the knitterly anger over the letter.  I agree with what she says.  My only problem with her piece is one comment a reader made:

Amen. As an attorney, I certainly understand the trademark issue at stake and agree that they had to defend the mark. Designers certainly should applaud this stance as well. I think the law clerks unfortunate comparison is what draws so much ire. I just hope it is a teachable moment for him in always considering the multiple audiences for any communication (and that he is not one to be smug about it when he returns to law school in the fall).

Why you gotta blame the law clerk, yo?

Candy Striped

I was spinning on my new wheel before I left Atlanta this spring.  Unfortunately, the wheel doesn't fit in my suitcase, so I don't have it with me this summer.  I did end up with several bobbins of purple and white silk/merino singles.

I plied them together to get some candy-striped yarn.

I think I like it.  Maybe.

It's growing on me.

Mostly because it is super soft and squishy.

About 300 yards of somewhere between fingering and worsted weight yarn.  It isn't obviously purple at first glance, though.

I have more fiber of each color and I am trying to decide whether to make more stripey or if I should make solid colors of each.  Then I could make a kind of color gradated shawl or something.  I guess I have all summer to think about it.

Decorating the Car

I mentioned that I went to visit my dad and sister in New York a couple of weekends ago.  My sister is even artsier than I am and so we decided to do a project together.  Her car roof fabric was falling down.  It was very annoying, especially when it flapped in the wind when the windows were down.  So we got ourselves some yarn and pins and started to decorate it.

We started from the middle and worked our way out.

My dad joined in.  We each had our own style that looked slightly different.

I think it looked pretty cool.  Unfortunately, my sister then bricked her car the following week.  She was heart broken over the lack of transportation.  I was heartbroken that our hours of work was taken to the scrap yard. 

In happier news, if you are looking for someone to decorate the ceiling of your car, I'm your girl!

200th Post!

200th post!  

Will try to update a little more frequently this summer than I have been!  Lots of good stuff to show you.

Knitterly Dad

Last week, I had some time off before I started my summer internship, so I decided to visit my dad and sister in Syracuse.  They showed me all the cool places they hang out, fed me the best burger and BBQ in town, beat me fair and square in our on-going, years-long air hockey tournament, and took me to the Syracuse Chief's baseball game (which is cool because they are the farm team for the Washington Nationals).

And I got to teach my dad to knit.

He got it pretty quickly.  Especially when I taught him the knitting poem: Up from the bottom, around the back, back down to the bottom and off jumps Jack.  We proceeded to say "off jumps Jack" to conclude activities for the rest of the day.

In just a short period of time he learned to cast-on, knit, purl and and cast-off.  He ended up with a bracelet for my sister.

Not too shabby for a weekend.

Back in DC

Soooo sorry for the radio silence.  Let's see...what have I been up to for the last month?

I made 100 pounds of homemade, organic dog food.  The things I do for the dolla billz...

I did journal write-on while sitting next to the pool.  Write-on is a writing competition for masochists that didn't get enough of an ass-kicking from law school and decided to spend two weeks of their summer getting a little more.

Visited the new Martin Luther King Junior memorial with Jha.  Interesting tribute.  Obviously, I also learned to use Instagram: way less important but also interesting.



Went to NYC and saw the World Trade Center Memorial.  Last time I was there was 2002 and it was a big pile of sad, dusty rubble.  Now it is still sad, but also hopeful.  It will be nice when all the construction is done around it.

 There was a whole bunch of knitting and wool-based adventures in there, too.  More on that coming soon.

I also started back at the U.S. Department of Transportation, this time as an intern in my agency's law office.  I am going to  be blogging about it over at my old site, Girl Intern.  There is some funny stuff on there from my previous internships.  Should be a good time.