« July 2004 | Main | September 2004 »

August 29, 2004

help is on the way

Back-to-school time is just around the corner, and in case you were looking for some sound, practical advice for writing about philosophy, go here! Even if you don't need writing advice, its kind of funny. The author is one of an elite corps of eggheads which we at this Knit-A-Log depend upon to keep our spelling from going horribly afowl! You can also read more of his writings here. He doesn't knit but I know for a fact that he really likes alpacas. Go read his article and then send him hatemail, he can take it!
These days, when I am not watching the action at the RNC on Indymedia, and simultaneously wishing I were there and being glad I am not being arrested and having my bike taken away (This is so wrong!!!), I have been scheming new patterns for knitting fingerless handwarmers. It really feels like October the last couple of days in Chicago, it is the type of weather which is highly conducive to knitting.
Last Wednesday, after my knitting cave-in, I went to Arcadia Knitting and got two skeins of Brown Sheep in a bright, beautiful Safety Orange and began improvising a hand warmer which may yet turn into a scarf. Stay tuned for details as the situation develops.
As promised, here is Samkat, smiling because her head feels much better all sewn up!

And bonus cat photos!
Eli prefers Crate and Barrel bags for lounging

And Arcadia bags for dinner

Plus here is half of a red handwarmer

It came out kind of weird.
Lorie says I absolutely have got to make another, though, since to wear just one would be way too Michael Jackson.

Posted by pippypippy at 10:33 AM | Comments (1)

August 24, 2004

uh-oh

I started knitting again! I couldn't help it!
Sunday night I was reading Slave To The Needles, an awesome zine drawn Seattle knitter Aimee Hagerty, which Marcel's Uncle Wininger had brought us from Quimby's. The next thing I knew the needles were in my hand, and half of one mitten was coming along nicely! Ooh I will live to regret this, I just know it. But now that I am started I can't stop! Help!!! Its a sickness!!!

Posted by pippypippy at 01:27 PM | Comments (1)

August 21, 2004

very good grasshopper

Spent yesterday afternoon hobnobbing with Audrey! Having taken the literary world by storm, she is currently found making etchings, working on her second novel, and chilling at Ragdale. Stepping into Ragdale is always a catapult to the late 19th century as well as the late 1990s (June of '97 and September of '98- the times I went there). Thus I forgot to bring the digital camera for our walk in the prairie, which is in its explosive late-summer phase. It vibrates with living things, plants which climb over one another to touch the sky, humming insects, all kinds of flitting butterflies, shuffling, scuttling, jumping grasshoppers, buzzing bees, chirping and singing birds-including one tiny yellow one who perched on a twig next to the path and asked us the same funny question over and over again until we scared him off. All kinds of other critters live in the prairie and woods, critters one would never expect to find so near to the city. On other walks in Ragdale Prairie I have seen a snake, a mole (dead, unfortunately) and a thing that I think was a crawfish by the creek. Not so surprising, but still exciting to see are the deer, sometimes with babies hopping through the plants beside them. In winter you can see their hoof-prints in the snow on the paths. This time I saw some prints in a muddy part of the riverbank in the woods. Some people have seen foxes too but I never have.
On this walk I felt a big bug brush against my leg, then stick to the inside of the long skirt I was wearing. I shook the skirt a few times but I still felt that it was stuck there.
Audrey suggested I turn my skirt inside out, but I was afraid to look! Then I did it anyway, and a huge (huge!) bright green grasshopper stuck there against the black material for a moment in the bright sunlight and then sprang off into the plants! Eek!
Two other memorable visuals of the day- giant salmon red geraniums overflowing in pots next to the doors of the Ragdale House, and Audrey coming down the hill, across the lawn with the sun making
her hair look like orange flames.

This morning I finally finished sewing and stuffing Samkat's head! Photos are to come, but not downloaded yet! Soon I will have to start knitting again. That's all there is to it. Thursday we are having our Knit Wit Nite, maybe then I will get out the blankie, or start a hat. There is money burning a hole in my checking account, its for groceries really but I am hearing the siren song of Manos del Uruguay...
and thinking I will just have to build a catapult if I want to get myself the Savannah before school starts.

Poor Marcel has required sedation to cope with the noise from the air show! These terrorist alerts and whatnot I think really have the little guy spooked! Its rough being a nervous little dog.

Posted by pippypippy at 04:46 PM | Comments (0)

August 19, 2004

on a plane

We've had a request for more doggy photos, so here is one~

Ooh, give us a kiss!
Its been such a weird day since I am all excited and nervous about going back to school. The logistics are truly overwhelming at this point. So I am trying to do things one at a time..
In the process of digging out last year's taxes, for filling out financial aid thingies, I discovered the spring issue of Interweave Knits and realized I never read the article on 6 Ways To Knit and Purl, and I am thinking maybe a different method might be better for my wrist. Sigh. There are so many projects and so little time!
In other news, this weekend, apparently, is the Air and Water show, which is annoying on so many levels, not the least of which it is scaring my dog!!! Planes have been swooping over the city all day, making it sound like a war zone. Kind of makes you wonder what it must be like to be in a real war zone.
You have to love parades of high tech military machinery as family entertainment. Go here for more.

Posted by pippypippy at 01:29 PM | Comments (0)

August 18, 2004

X-treme blankie!

Today, while waiting for something to happen (anything! And something did! More about that later!) I decided to rearrange my yarn stash, in between living vicariously through other people's knitting blogs. The good news is I don't have as much yarn as I thought I did, so there's room for more! More!!
Here are some photos of the knitting stash in its splendor.

The red and green are Manos, the colors make me salivate. Umm.

This is the whole stash from the top. Some of the brown is alpaca that I need to find a project for. Its soft like a bunny!
I also took some blankie photos of the yummy Cavendish blankie.

And the X-Treme Blankie Close-Up

Ooh la la! What's going on under there?!
I will never tell!

The really really big news is that I got accepted into grad skool, and got a skolarship!
So now I just have to figure out how to get me, my stuff, and Marcel to Georgia by Sept. 15.
We'll see! Stay tuned to the Knit-A-Log for breaking news as it develops!

Posted by pippypippy at 03:17 PM | Comments (0)

August 17, 2004

healthy and natural!

I actually came across the following link on someone else's blog, but I had to pass it on~the Knit-A-Log goes X-rated!
Maybe you came back after clicking on that link?
If so, here is what's new.
I have been seeing a little bit of improvement with my wrist since going to the doctor. She gave me anti-inflammatory medication, which can, in rare cases, cause severe stomach and intestinal bleeding! (never read the little booklet that comes with medication!) but so far I am ok! Phew. I almost didn't take it. And plus I have a little wrist velcro thingy to wear at night so my wrist doesn't move and maybe will heal more while I sleep. What I really want is a hi-tech prosthetic Robotic Knitting Hand (RKH), but without insurance the cost could get prohibitive. I shall have to write an angry letter.

Posted by pippypippy at 05:59 PM | Comments (1)

August 11, 2004

This morning I was trolling on the internet, and came across this funny article~
This made me laugh~ "One Bush administration official has commented that Mr. Kerry 'looks French.' ”

Posted by pippypippy at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)

August 10, 2004

Tiger bomb

Today was cloudy and cool and felt like October. I was almost overcome with a feeling of wanderlust, since something about the sky reminded me of last December. Plus I am still in slow motion, to the point where it is more like suspended animation. Nothing really feels worthwhile but I keep plugging along hoping something will happen. Everything feels like it is slowly sliding downhill..
Before I bring you all down with me, maybe this is a good time for some happy puppy photos! Here are some of Marcel's baby pitchers I found today, when I was trolling for references for Duchamp! the zine-
Broccoli took them!

Couldn't you just eat him up?? Such a baby!! Ok, I feel better now.

There is no knitting news to report, except that just thinking about knitting makes my hand hurt. Tomorrow I am seeing the dr. about it. Hopefully there is some kind of magic shot that she can give me to make it go away. Oh, and Extra Strength Tiger Balm is exactly the same as regular Tiger Balm, and neither of them do much of anything. Blargh.

Posted by pippypippy at 09:24 PM | Comments (2)

August 07, 2004

slow

Yesterday at the Brown Elephant on Clark I found 2 bags, 6 skeins each of Lion Kitchen Cotton, for $2!
It was kind of a pukey terra-cotta color, but it was tempting anyway because it was just so cheap! I could have had pukey terra-cotta washcloths until the end of time. What was I thinking? Maybe its still there...
I'm still living vicariously through other people's knitting blogs, as the knitting blackout continues. It seems to be doing some good for my wrist, and plus yesterday I threatened out loud to go to the doctor and today it feels much better. Maybe if I actually made and appointment it would go away? And then I could finish the blankie.. which is in fact, called Cavendish! How goosey! It is so lucious, they should have called it Lucious. Or Yum-yum.
Samkat was well on her way to being stuffed but somehow I got stalled on her head, when I accidentally sewed her left ear to the wrong side. But all that remains is to sew the ear back on and I am still stuck, because I am in a non-finishing phase in general. My laundry has been in the dryer for 3 days. Sometimes it seems like everything is in slow motion. How does it happen??
Duchamp, the Pippy Knit-A-Log paper edition, is coming along, also not so quickly but there is a cover
and 1.5 pages. Look for it soon in a mailbox near you. It feels very retro and weird to be drawing with a pencil.

Posted by pippypippy at 08:23 AM | Comments (0)

August 03, 2004

the lust in illustrator

Even as I write, a tiny photo of our Pippy Knit-A-Log Mascot, "Red" Rene DuBois, is on its way to Savannah, GA. Rene and Katya, the pink (Lamb's Pride cotton wool) kitty with the green socks and tres bold, tres modern, blue and white sleeveless mini-dress (designed by moi, made from Rowan All Seasons Cotton-printed -I can't get enough of the All Seasons Cotton printed) are part of my portfolio for grad skool. One hopes the MFA Illustration folks have the same visionary sense of knitting as we at this Knit-A-Log!
There hasn't been too much knitting going on, mostly because I am on an extended knitting blackout due to ongoing tendonitis problems. So I am trying to work up as much enthusiasm for drawing as I have for knitting. I used to have it! Today I went down to my old skool and sat in the library to try and rediscover a sense of purpose. Its nice to see that people still do it, and that somewhere in the world it is still important to make pictures. I kept thinking I saw people I knew, but that is because art students tend to recycle themselves. There is always the skinny girl with glasses, pigtails and baggy corduroy pants, always the so-geeky-he's -cute severely pug-nosed boy with sideburns,messy hair, and crooked teeth. Exchanged meaningful smiles with a beautiful black man with long, long braids, and an elaborate, figure-8 looking top-knot affair, after discovering he was a man, when I saw him from the front! He was wearing a suit and quite dashing. Such an art couple we would make! I had it all figured out down to the beautiful mocha babies. Sigh.
More later...

Posted by pippypippy at 06:49 PM | Comments (0)

August 02, 2004

Quote of the Day

"To each according to his needs, from each according to his possibilities...Just a minute, comrade. There is a smell of book-keeping here. We are talking of consumption and production. Everything is still in the dimension of productivity...What madness the love of work is! With great scenic skill, capital has succeeded in making the exploited love exploitation, hanged men the rope and slaves their chains. This idealization of work has been the death of revolution until now... It is time to oppose the work ethic with the non-work aesthetic." -Alfredo M. Bonanno, Armed Joy

Well! Right on, my brother!
I have to get my hands on that book! As it is, I gleaned the quote from Green Anarchy magazine, summer 2004 issue, a periodical which mysteriously began appearing in my mail (always discreetly turned face-down by my mail-carrier on our bottom step!) after I wrote a letter to a hapless young man who is in jail for trying to save the world by torching some SUVs. It was a little spooky and so now I always think GA is actually written and distributed by the police and any minute now I am expecting a knock on my door for having posted this on the Knit-A-Log! Hello FBI!? I knit stuffed elephants! You're barking up the wrong tree!!
Anyway! That's my paranoid rant for the day.
Did anyone out there see Farenheit 911? Yesterday I saw it, here is my review~
The Peace Fresno meeting! When they are passing around the cookies and Michael Moore is narrating and he says "They eat cookies. Some people even eat two." It is worth the price of admission! Go now!
In general, I left the theater with that kind of lighthearted, jovial disgust that Michael Moore's work tends to inspire, both at the state of the world as well as the tabloid style manipulation that Moore employs.. its fun though!
No knitting news to report right now.

Posted by pippypippy at 02:09 PM | Comments (1)