June is my favorite month of the year, of course, and it always seems to pass so quickly. Where did it go?

–

Lauren’s recent post reminded me that Nona of NonaKnits has written a few great tutorials on short rows. To refresh your memory, my first mitered cable was made by turning the piece over, no wraps, no nuthin’. Gaping holes resulted.

Remember me?

I thought I’d just seam up the back, and I even said as much, but some of you encouraged me to find a more elegant solution.

OK, OK, you win!

It didn’t eliminate the holes entirely because the act of crossing stitches inherently puts in a tiny hole in the fabric, but it’s as tidy as I could hope for. I used the “Japanese short row” (as explained by Nona and linked above). Thanks, Nona!

This cable will be a border for a baby blanket (stockinette center). My aunt asked me to make this for her soon-to-be grandson – I understand Cousin Jeff is expecting his second child sometime in September, so I’ve got to get going on this! It’s funny – she called to request the blanket right after I ‘blogged about why I usually don’t knit for children. Somewhere, someone is laughing at me. To be clear, I’m always happy to knit stuff for kids if their parents or grandparents request it or if the project intrigues me for some other reason.

The yarn is Dale of Norway Freestyle, a superwash 100% wool in worsted weight. I’m using US 8 needles, and thus far, the yarn tends to split and does not like cabling without a cable needle (it slips or splits).

I did start Matt’s sweater again.

I triple-checked the pattern orientation. I hope it’s correct because it would truly suck to have to knit this piece a THIRD time.

I’ve finally updated the “Read,” “Listen,” and “Watch” portions of the sidebar, it was something I’d been meaning to do for quite a long time.

Briefly, I wasn’t crazy about Gilead (it plodded in many parts), but I still found it enjoyable. I’ve recently discovered Girlyman (thanks, Ben!), and the Dittybops have a new CD. The movie Cars was great but terribly predictable (loved that the Car Talk brothers had a part in it, though, and ohmigod does Owen Wilson ever tire of playing the same character in every movie?!?), and I heart Hugh Jackman in the latest X-Men because who doesn’t love a surly guy with big hair?

I wanted to talk about my latest read, Intuition. This book is freaking me out. I generally like nonfiction sciencey books and have enjoyed Pointing From the Grave (early use of genetic evidence to capture a murderer), Stiff (what happens to bodies that are “donated to science” – it is laugh-out-loud funny [if you're morbid like me!] because truth is definitely weirder than fiction!), and The Genome War (private vs public race to sequence the human genome, described from the non-NIH-funded point of view).

Intuition is fiction, but it’s weirdly timely because the story revolves around fraud in an oncology lab. Just off the top of my head, I can think of a few big stories in real life that deal with questionable research:

- Hwang Woo-suk’s human cloning debacle
- The retraction of SEVEN recent papers from the Sames lab of Columbia University
- New England Journal of Medicine editors believe that Merck did some seriously wacky data massaging to hide evidence that Vioxx could induce adverse cardiovascular events

I’m about a quarter into the book, and sections of it literally make me cringe. It’s all way too familiar. The author reportedly followed a few postdocs around the Whitehead Institute to gather material for her work, and she did a damn good job noticing the details because descriptions of things like the correct technique for killing a lab mouse, kvetching about people never returning equipment to the proper place, arguments for and against using a laminar flow hood to maintain sterile technique, the color of tissue culture media, etc, are dead-on accurate. It’s deja vu all over again, and, if you recall that I left the bench with a song in my heart and a spring in my step, you might guess that I’m not enjoying the flashback at all.

In addition, the whole story is set in Cambridge, MA (where I did my postdoc), and therefore includes many references to local landmarks that I’ve driven or walked by and eateries where I’ve had meals. If that’s not enough, I can either relate too strongly with characters as she describes their deficiencies as researchers or recall people I used to work with who fit these descriptions like a glove. I twitch every time I recognize someone in the book.

She even has a description of – get this – a scientist who grimly KNITS HER WAY THROUGH LAB MEETINGS. The similarities are getting creepy.

Back in 2004, my cousin gave me a generous gift of Noro yarn as a wedding present. It gracefully aged in the stash until I knew what to do with it. I’m not crazy about sweaters knit with Noro in general because the stripe width varies wildly depending on the width of a row (body vs sleeve vs shoulder) and placement of knots in a skein. Furthermore, it is so softly spun, it pills easily. Who wants to wear a sweater that looks old after it’s worn for a week?

However, when I spied the Lady Eleanor stoles out in knitblogland, I was inspired.

Here, the color lengths and order don’t matter, plus a stole never gets the kind of abuse that a sweater would. I didn’t actually follow the official Lady Eleanor pattern from Scarf Style – I just cast on until it was wide enough to suit me. I should have read the pattern at the bookstore or something, though – I used a provisional cast on b/c I couldn’t anticipate how much it would stretch on the bias. The author of the original pattern calls for a backward-E-loop cast on, which is much smarter because it has a lot of flexibility. Live and learn!

Each square is 10 stitches wide. I think I’m knitting on US7 needles, but they’re downstairs and I’m not, so we’ll just have to trust me on this one. I’m just over halfway done with the bag of yarn (middle of Skein Six), so the final length will probably be from wrist to wrist. (I’m not going to add any fringe, it will just be a simple rectangle.) The colors are somewhat somber, but I’m enjoying how they flow. This has been my “car project” for a couple months – when we go anywhere, it’s usually at least a 45-minute ride each way because I live in almost-Boondocks. Matt drives, I knit.

For the longest time, I believed Noro yarns were millspun. I thought the inconsistencies were crazy (thick and thin, overspun and underspun), but I know you can get a machine spinner to do just about anything these days, and I thought it was deliberate. Some time ago, I found this thread – and the note from the manufacturer says it is handspun. Knock me over with a feather!

The yarn that I’m using, Kogen, is a blend of angora rabbit and wool. It’s very coarsely blended, which means some places have thick tufts of nearly unspun angora sticking out. I’m quite certain it will shed a bit. The wool has a much longer staple and is not as soft as the angora. I’m mentally contrasting it to the Foxhill roving that I bought at MDSW – it’s a 60/40 blend of Cormo/Angora, and I’m thinking of spinning it into a tight, fine, 2-ply yarn. The fiber content is almost the same as Kogen, but the 2 yarns could be polar opposites.

After we bought this house last year, Matt and I decided that we did not want to systemically spray our lawn with herbicides. I couldn’t find any convincing evidence that herbicides did not have any long-term adverse effects on health of people, animals, or even the lawn itself, and I thought I could control the weeds with sheer force of will alone.

Well, I was wrong. Despite application of a chemical fertilizer (with crabgrass pre-emergent) to encourage lush lawn growth, the weeds grew thickly and rapidly. We had the worst looking lawn of the entire neighborhood last year, and more than 1 well-intentioned neighbor came by to offer, erm, “advice” when they saw me with the Weed Hound and the wheelbarrow. Late last summer, I was determined to make 1 tiny corner of the lawn weed free, and I pulled and pulled until every last weed was gone. By then, I was staring at dirt – no grass had survived under the heavy cover!

This year, I thought we’d take a multiprong approach. Thanks to one-time commenter Aarlene, I got a tip to use corn gluten as an organic pre-emergent and nitrogen fertilizer. The upside – organic! Roll around in it, eat it, and face no health consequences! The downside – expensive! Boy howdy, expensive!* And not particularly efficient! Weeds are supposed to decrease by 30% to 40% each year, which means that by Year 5, your lawn might start to look decent. So, our second prong – targeted application of herbicide.

Oof. I know. Herbicide. But this summer, I’ve only had to apply it once so far. (This is why I’m conviced the gluten is working – b/c this time last year, the lawn was already a mess.) I’m using Weed-B-Gone, which has a hazard label that scares me to pieces. (I spray wearing a long-sleeve shirt, long pants, elbow-length gloves, nonfabric shoes, and a mask.) I only go after the weeds and don’t apply it as a general herbicide. Moreover, I don’t saturate the weeds as heavily as they prescribe, so it doesn’t quite kill them. After a few days, they are sufficiently weakened, and I can finish the job with the Weed Hound. Thus far, it looks like I can get away with spraying no more than once every 6 or 8 weeks.

Matt rolls his eyes and mockingly clutches his wallet whenever I get excited about corn gluten and my 5-year plan for the lawn, but even he’s noticed something different about our yard.

Birds love us. I see this again and again – we often have many birds all over our backyard, and the other yards are empty. I’m not positing a cause-and-effect relationship, but you gotta wonder why they avoid the perfectly manicured lawns on either side and come to hang out with us.

* As I understand it, corn gluten is a byproduct of the corn syrup and ethanol industries. The stuff is so rich in protein (60%), abundant, and cheap, it’s often used as cattle feed. The high jump in price supposedly is attributable to the process that turns a flyaway powder into a granulated product that can be applied with a broadcast spreader.

–

One last thing – WordPress had a bit of a time-stamp glitch on the previous entry. If you’d like to see my final mini-review of the Kromski Symphony, Lendrum Saxony, and Schacht-Reeves Saxony wheels, please check out yesterday’s entry.

This entry is the last installment on my mini-review series. I wanted to get this out before memory fades entirely!

Kromski Symphony

It was a pretty wheel to sit down in front of, but as soon as I began treadling, I was turned off by a persistently loud and creaky wood-scraping noise. I didn’t investigate the source, but nothing I did (adjusting tension, treadling with 1 foot, treadling with the other foot, faster, slower) made the sound go away. The vendor thought that the wood had swollen with humidity. I know wood breathes and changes shape with weather and with time, but I think I would not trust a wheel that couldn’t accommodate these changes. I was disappointed by the performance and stopped my test run after only 2 or 3 minutes.

Lendrum Saxony and Schacht-Reeves Saxony

Lendrum and Schacht-Reeves, respectively.

I’m going to review both of these in the same paragrah because I found them to be quite similar. I tried a Lendrum with a right-hand flyer, which was perfect for my left-hand-dominant spinning style, and a Schacht-Reeves with a left-hand flyer (less comfortable). Both wheels spun smoothly and evenly, drive bands were easy to put on and adjust, treadling was easy and didn’t have any sticky spots. Bobbins were large, and the wheels were nicely made (and handsome!). AFAIK, the Lendrum only comes unfinished. Personally, I can’t see myself buying an unfinished wheel – as much as I love wood, I don’t like sanding and staining and sealing and… Well, it’s a lot of work! The Lendrum is about the same price as the lowest price Schacht-Reeves. However, I think the spendiest Schacht-Reeves (30″ wheel in cherry, double treadle) is kind of expensive for a mass-produced (that is, a noncustom) wheel. For what they’re asking (MSRP $1,500), I think I’d rather save a few more pennies and invest in a wheel made to my specifications.

I think both were fast and versatile spinners. If you’re looking for a large Saxony wheel and don’t want to wait 1 to 7 years for a custom model, either wheel would be a very good choice.

If you looked at the pizza recipe from yesterday, you might have noticed that it calls for cake flour and all-purpose flour. That wasn’t a problem for me because I regularly keep both on hand, but I wondered if that was normal. I thought about how many types of flour I have at the ready; after some digging, I discovered that 6 different flour types routinely reside in my kitchen. (I didn’t include things like cornstarch or pancake mix.)

From left to right, whole wheat, all purpose, semolina, cake, bread, and gravy.

(Gravy flour is awful, btw. I really ought to throw that out.)

I thought I was pretty geeky. So when we were in Wisconsin, I asked Alain – who is a more devoted baker – how many types of flour he kept stocked in his pantry. Well. I hereby relinquish the right to call myself a baking geek because… Alain’s pantry kicked mine to smithereens. (Alain, how many was it? Eleven?)

Now it’s got me a-wonderin’. How many flour types do you have in your kitchen RIGHT THIS INSTANT?

Matt and I have wildly different opinions about good pizza. I grew up in Chicago. He grew up in New Jersey. I like pizza straight from the oven with either a thick bready crust or a crispy thin crust. He likes room temperature pizza with a moderately thin (read: droopy and tough) crust. I prefer less cheese and more veggie toppings. He likes to have an armor-like coating of cheese (with pools of orange oil that drip off if you angle the slice) and a sprinkle of Italian sausage and green peppers. I like to make pizza from scratch. Matt is not crazy about eating my homemade pizza and openly prefers Dominos! (*sniff*)

Clearly, we’ve been at an impasse for many years.

Eh, but why give up, right? Everyone knows the secret to a good crust lies in the surface upon which the pizza bakes. A few weeks ago, I went to Home Depot to pick up some unglazed quarry tiles to line the oven (much cheaper than a pizza stone and works just as well). Matt freaked out after he saw the warning label (potential carcinogen hazard) on the side of the box. If you cut quarry tile, yes, you risk inhaling bits of crystalline silica, and yes, that can eventually do you in. However, if you don’t cut the tile, no such risks exist. But he didn’t believe me and insisted that I spend 10-fold more on a Bed Bath and Beyond–sanctioned pizza stone.

He even pulled the box out of the recycling bin to make sure it didn’t say anything about cancer.

Second, I used the receipe for New York–style pizza from a recent Cook’s Illustrated. Lucky for all of us, I see that someone has typed it all here. I followed the directions to the letter, but I can’t make a round pizza if my life depended on it.

You know what? It was a dead ringer for the pizza Matt often enjoyed when we lived in New Jersey. The crust even got tough after the pizza cooled off.

Matt was overjoyed. He declared it the best pizza I’d ever made.

We stayed my parents after saying goodbye to Alain and Annalisa. My sister arrived on the same day and brought her boyfriend to meet the parents (and Matt) for the first time. It was nice to spend time together as a whole family. We went to a number of great restaurants, including an awesome Korean barbecue place (why don’t we have places like this around Minnesota?!) and Walker Brothers, home of the luscious apple pancake.

Matt had a specific goal to accomplish when we visited my folks – they asked him to help them set up their new television. Some time earlier, my dad was at the quasi-local Asian grocery/superstore and saw some sweepstakes-like promotion going on. He dropped in a card with his name and address, and among the hundreds (or thousands?) of entries, his name was drawn as the winner of a Panasonic 42-inch plasma TV and a fancy-schmancy Yamaha surround sound system! Un-freaking-believable!

Because Matt is the Consumer Electronics Whisperer, he put everything together. It took a few hours, but it went pretty smoothly. We might hang those mini speakers around the room at a later date.

Pretty sweet, hm?

Thanks to everyone who left me such lovely birthday wishes. I had a really special day this year!

Mouseover to see the gift from Matt.

Matt and I drove about to see some friends and family. We stopped near Madison to visit with Alain and Annalisa.

They have a (relatively) new son, David, and it was our first time meeting him. I brought him some onesies (though he probably won’t fit into them until next year) that I had painted using freezer paper stencils.

I first saw this technique on another blog and thought it was the neatest thing. I used the Google image search to find photos of animals, enlarged or shrank images until they were a good size for the garment, and printed them out on regular paper. I laid plastic-lined freezer paper on top of the image (plastic side down) and traced the image with a fat marker. Outlines were carved out using the tip of an Exacto knife (and a cutting mat). The onesies were used straight out of the package. I probably should have washed them first, but it seemed to work OK anyway.

I ironed a large square of paper on the inside front to prevent any fabric paint from bleeding through, and I ironed the carved paper on the public side. With my Rowenta, the freezer paper didn’t “set” until I applied high heat (no steam). I daubed Tulip-brand fabric paint (purchased at Michaels) using bits of scrap fabric (a brush or sponge would have been much better). One hint – use generous margins on the stencil and the backing piece of freezer paper. Let everything dry for 72 hours, peel off the paper, and throw the onesies in the wash. Came out pretty cute!

The crocheted puppy was for Andrea, of course. Alain says she seemed to really like it. (Yay!) He wrote, “Yesterday we went to the park, and she brought along Otty (her long-favored doll) and the dog. Otty and dog went in the swing together, and played in the sandbox together.”

While we were there, we went to a local art fair, picked strawberries from a friend’s organic garden, canned 6 1/2 pints of Barb Schaller’s Mango Strawberry Jam with Kiwifruit, and ate 3 homecooked meals in a row. (Please note that they have 2 kids under age 3, but they still made the time to prepare things like pancakes, chicken-veggie soup, lasagna, brownies, all from scratch! And of course the house was really clean, the kids seemed happy and well behaved, etc. They amaze me.)

It was a fabulous birthday! Thank you!