Armed with yarn

I tried my hand (if you'll pardon the pun) at finger knitting especially when carrying knitting needles on airlines was forbidden. After I had done some finger knitting, I wasn't quite sure how I would use the long, thin fabric I had created. Somehow winding it into a ball and then knitting it on very big needles was too ironic.
I read about arm knitting on the Knitting Daily blog. Mmmm, I am suspicious of 'quick fix' knitting, but the prospect of running up a scarf or cowl in 15 minutes was tantalising. It helps that the picture is clear, the tutorial helpful and the yarn close to one of my favourite colours. I didn't have yarn that I thought was thick enough but I came across a couple of hanks of Moda Vera Liana yarn that was being sold for $2 per hank. It is a yarn that is usually made into 'frill' scarves and 15 minutes was about right to finish it after I had sewn the two hanks together.

This is the result

The pattern

Materials - two hanks of Moda Vera Liana
Implements - sewing needle, machine sewing yarn, arms

Instructions:
Unravel the hanks. Trim one end of each hank before overlapping them and joining using back stitch or another stitch that will stabilise the seam. You could probably use two lines of fine stitches if you have an obsessive compulsive bent, but you can tuck any ragged ends when the scarf is finished.

Follow Mari's method to cast on three stitches, arm knit your scarf until the hanks are nearly exhausted and cast off.

Variation: for pointier ends, try casting on one stitch at the beginning  and increasing to three stitches by increasing into the back and front of that stitch. In the last row, knit three stitches together.

Knitting as a political act and therapy

I avoided posting this last year because I thought that anger may have clouded my judgement. Nearly a year has passed and I am no longer smarting, but I haven't changed my mind.

Australia's first woman prime minister, Julia Gillard, has made a dignified exit. It was the culmination of a destabilisation campaign that has lasted three years, conducted as much from within her own party as the political party that her government opposed.
While the criticism that accompanied the picture of Gillard knitting in The Australian Women's Weekly a few days ago was the predictable rubbish that the mainstream media churns out, I doubt that it really contributed much to her demise. A cultural cringe about craft is the subtext of many of these news stories.
Knitting was/is therapy for former US Secretary of State, Madeline Albright. It does not define her any more than it defines Julia Gillard. I love that Albright was able to use a brooch as a metaphor in her top level meetings and knitted bright red beanies for her grand kids to let off steam, rather than uncorking a bottle of wine.

Saturday

That it is not Saturday is no barrier to the early morning earworm. Elton John's 'Saturday Night's (Alright for Fighting)' - lyrics by Bernie Taupin - is a song that is evocative of another time. It creates images of bodgies and widgies rocking in a 1950s dance hall and the 'moral panic' associated with the youth rebelliousness. The chorus of the song is raucous - what a great word that is. There's a great version of the song here with Eric Clapton and other prominent musicians. If Saturdays are energy, Sundays are sedate.

Sunday sleeping sitting knitting
Puddling patting purring purling

Right said Fred

Whenever I am contemplating doing something mechanical, snatches of Right Said Fred get stuck in my mind, particularly the lines 'And Charlie had a think and he said 'Look, Fred, / I've got a sort of feelin'/ If we remove the ceilin' ...' I think of the song as a ditty, but it is probably too long for that. I like the absurd story that it tells and I relate to the incompetence of the characters.

If I was feeling witty
I would write a little ditty
About things that go awry
When I or my spouse try
To fix things around our house
To make it bright

It isn't all that funny
It always costs us money
Things seem simple at the outset
We soon find ourselves in more debt
When an expert is called in
To make it right

Anthem

Working class man. Blue denim, likeable blokey and I hadn't expected to wake up with Jimmy Barnes shrieking in the morning. I heard the song on the radio yesterday. It is a stirring lyric and an anthem for a one or more generations. A good song and an anthem of sorts. I am Woman is a more universal anthem. There is something that appeals to me about 'localised' or 'personalised' anthems. They are often about ages and stages, and expectations. Here is my anthem (not autobiographical)

She knitted hot pants for a friend
An intricate sweater for a crush
That he kept as he asked for the ring
A layette for a friend
Who threw it in the washing machine
And shrunk the friendship
She made sweaters for oil-smothered penguins
Squares for charity blankets
Tree adornments and bike stand coverings
She knitted herself a scarf
In silky yarn with a fine lace pattern

Over and over

A hard one to dislodge. Over and Over by Hot Chip. Lasted well into midmorning.
'Over and over and over and over
Like a monkey with a miniature cymbal'
A great lyric and a catchy song, a repetitive lyric about the idea of repetition. Clever.

Repetition

the glue that holds a song together
the 'bookends' of a story
the rhythm of knitting
it is the mantra and the chanting

There's an interesting discussion on this page and a good example of a poem that uses repetition effectively. The discussion raises the notion that, in a poem, the second repetition of a word 'reduce[s] the energy at that point as well as at the first appearance of the word'.

Take it as read

A slow creeping heat from my neck up my face

A hot steering wheel searing my fingers

Blind red ragged rage flashing before I say something stupid

The melancholic tones of a favourite torch song

The fireworks burst of a new season’s cherry tomato in my mouth

Take it as read – it’s red

A little bit of a Mozart piano concerto dancing through my head this morning. Ah! Not really an earworm I want to erase, so I looked to this great site for poetry prompts and wrote a colour poem. Here's the format that I think that the writer was referring to if you want to do one quickly.