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September 28, 2004

picture day!

Rene, Vovichka and I are so loathe to see the end of summer!

Rene doesnt mind as much as the rest of us, and in a way looks forward to toque weather.

Marcel and I had a conversation about little dogs who wear sweaters.
He kind of likes his, as they keep him nice and toasty, so go ahead and laugh but he will kick your ass!

You want a piece of this???

Putting the Tear In Terrier Since 2002.

Posted by pippypippy at 08:22 AM | Comments (1)

September 27, 2004

peachy

For all you Freudians out there, dig this dream! It is just a fragment of a larger, operatic, epic tale, too long and twisted to describe here. But in the midst of it all was an Indian woman in a beautiful sari standing behind a table with plates of food on them, fabulous dream food, unlike any actual food. There was a section of plates with candy and fruit on them, arranged artfully in pyramids and piles. One of the plates had on it a single confection, a hollowed out peach (again, it was a fabulous dream peach) with a hole to peek into, which revealed that the inside was densely coated in those tiny multicolored sugar sprinkles seen on cakes. It was fascinating and in my dream I stared at it for some time. Is it possible that sometimes a candy filled peach is just a candy filled peach??

Poor Marcel seems to be under the weather today, and somewhat lethargic, poor little guy. It is some kind of tummitis, accompanied by general logginess and malaise, hopefully a temporary and not terribly serious problem. I see boiled rice in the little guys future. He kind of likes that part, anyway.

Here is the DUCHAMP! progress update~ all that is left to do is one illustration of a pitbull! Hourah!

The sock monkey is almost complete as well. I seem to be knitting with fewer wrist problems these days, and I am wondering if maybe the blankie was just too heavy. When I work on small things with bamboo needles it doesnt seem to be such an issue.

I am so wanting to make this for a certain soon (not too soon, but soon!) to be 2 year old. Who may or may not have gotten a smallish surprise package in the mail recently from a Fairy Godmother..(if not she should watch for one!)

Oh, and all I am saying is today is definitely Red Lettuce. Thats all Im saying about that! Its a really good thing!!! More about this situation as details emerge!!

Posted by pippypippy at 01:39 PM | Comments (2)

September 25, 2004

toothy

Here is what I did at work today~ went and got everyone coffee, myself included. Said hello to customers. Rearranged 2 paintings. Stuck a pricetag on a jewelry box. Petted Loomis. Visited Clyde the dragon head. Who, I discovered, incidentally is in fact made from fiberglass, not wood like I thought, so I could conceivably bring him to Savannah without too much trouble. Then I tacked pretty fabric to the wall and draped it artfully around a mirror. Moved a small table upstairs. Petted Loomis and chatted with my boss s uncle. Dusted off a taxidermied badger whom I ve named Pierre Auguste. Said hello a couple more times. Got more coffee. Folded some tablecloths and quilts. Packed up a metal bulldog. Petted Loomis some more. Went home. Not so bad!
Even if it wont remotely pay for cosmetic dentistry. I know this because my teeth are something I am very self conscious about and so 2 years ago I consulted Dr. Tomaselli, the Sexiest Dentist Alive (he has the most incredible arm hair! A dark and dare I say verdant forest... ! Too bad hes married! But hey, not everyone manages to stay that way, thus a girl can dream) who said that he would be more than pleased to do a set of veneers for the 8 teeth or so that needed them, to the tune of $1200 per tooth, since that was the only viable option. Not that this has anything to do with anything, just an irritation from yesterday which irked me then but like all irksome things will fade out quickly and go to that black hole of stupid little irksome things. And one can take some comfort in knowing that all irksome things given out into the aether return in some new, unexpected, odious form, and are visited upon their source, threefold, often at inopportune moments. In rare cases this has taken the form of spontaneous human combustion, sometimes its bad luck finding parking places, most times, however, its rejection by potential romantic partners due to being a mediocre conversationalist and/or an insensitive, egotistical, lout. Thats all I m saying about that.
Anyway, back to our Knit A Log, in progress~
Today I worked a little bit more on the multi colored scarf (see below photos) as well as the sock monkey. The paper version of DUCHAMP! the zine is so close to completion I can almost smell the toner. I cant wait to get stapling, and mailing. Tomorrow may be a dedicated DUCHAMP wrap up day. Then I can get on with the Fall issue.

Posted by pippypippy at 07:44 PM | Comments (0)

September 23, 2004

pippy blah blah blog

My friend Thomas always used to say you should never go looking for a job because you might find one and until yesterday I thought he was joking! But tomorrow I will start eeking out not even remotley enough to live on, and will still have no health insurance into the bargain! Yeeaa, retail! As retail jobs go, though, it seems ok, as I will be working at a kind of eclectic home furnishing stuff place, for a woman who was a painter until recently. And there are lots of weird crazy things like a giant dragon head, carved out of wood, approximately the size of a refridgerator, which had been part of an amusement park in Gary, Indiana, and was made in the 50s. The rest of the stuff is mostly furniture, but other highlights include a tiny wooden toy piano, piles of old metal buckets in different colors, some of which look like they may have been for children to play with, millions of chandeliers and light fixtures, including one made of antlers, lots of old quilts, kimonos, and various religious artifacts. Oh and also bird cages, some pottery, and old apothecary bottles. And a collection of tiny toy metal guns.
Plus, apparently there is a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy in the shop most of the time, which is always a big bonus. If I am not mistaken, his name is Loomis. More about him and my work as the situation progresses!

Last night we had a very small, micro Knit Wit Nite, Lorie, Sarah, and I. Lorie and Sarah worked on gift scarves, and I worked on a sock monkey, made from blue and orange shades of Rowan All Seasons Cotton Printed (oh, how I adore Rowan All Seasons Cotton Printed!! On another knitting blog someone said that if you wanted to get him in bed, bring him Manos. This applies to me and All Seasons Cotton Printed. Not that anyone wants to get me in bed these days. Or that it would take any more doing, depending upon the person, than saying gee, I would really like to get you in bed. Because at this point I am beginning to wonder if I am not horribly deformed in some way, or just smell really bad, and everyone is just too polite to point it out, especially since I have such a nice personality and all. So I am trying to convince myself that moving to Savannah, Georgia and becoming an eccentric old spinster who drinks nerve tonic and talks to her dog and knits tea cozies and whatnot is not such a bad fate, really, and Ive always wanted to keep chickens in my backyard, and that way I would have more company. Anyway.) I started a couple of days ago as a gift, but now am thinking of keeping for myself. (photos to come!)

Just to cheer myself up, here is a timely and inspirational quotation that I came across recently and found interesting~

"Whether the mask is labeled Fascism, Democracy, or Dictatorship of the Proletariat, our great adversary remains the Apparatus - the bureaucracy, the police, the military. Not the one facing us across the frontier or the battle lines, which is not so much our enemy as our brother's enemy, but the one that calls itself our protector and makes us its slaves. No matter what the circumstances, the worst betrayal will always be to subordinate ourselves to this Apparatus, and to trample underfoot, in its service, all human values in ourselves and in others."
-- Simone Weil

Posted by pippypippy at 01:13 PM | Comments (2)

September 17, 2004

some scarf photos

Here is the crazy scarf I am obsessed with. It has the safety orange that matches

the handwarmers.

I am thinking of putting these little flowers on the handwarmers to make them prettier. But maybe that is just too dorky.
This is how you say scarf in French, un foulard.
So now you know!

Posted by pippypippy at 08:57 PM | Comments (1)

September 15, 2004

brite becomes blue

When I was a little kid I had a parakeet named Dixie. I had never traveled to the south, and had no real associations with it to speak of, but the name popped into my head and it stuck. He is long gone and Im pretty sure he wasnt a Baptist, although he did enjoy the occasional dip in a small bowl of water (hm, maybe in a past life ~ BTW, my apostrophe doesnt work, hence the typos) I can see him now, tooling around bird heaven with Confederate flags under each wing. When I was little I imagined he could roller skate. There are crayon drawings of his little bird feet with wheels strapped on (I had the kind of skates that clamped to your shoes, and wore my skate key around my neck on some yarn) with SSSssss trailing out behind for dramatic effect.
In any event, I have been researching housing in Savannah, GA, this morning online, and of course got distracted and came across this small article about this couple in Tennessee who do
some really nice letterpress work. I particularly enjoyed the quote from the young man about what he learned “painting was the best vehicle for … creative expression;” printing was an ideal means for mass-production; and the computer was “the Devil’s work.” And just when I was contemplating sitting down with the Flash MX manual. Oh well, Id been thinking recently that it feels better to me to spend less time in front of the screen and more making things with my hands.
Anyway, YeeHaw! Sorry I missed them at SCAD!
In knitting news, the safety orange scarf to match the safety orange handwarmers has been dismantled, as I realized it was too wide and also too boring. So now I am working on a narrower, striped version, using scrap yarn whenever possible. I cant decide if I love the colors or hate them. But the safety orange is in there, so it matches. Not that I ever place much stock in matching.
I got some really lovely brite blue (thats the name of the color, Brite Blue) Brown Sheep worsted, it is the color of bluebirds and makes me so happy.

Posted by pippypippy at 10:20 AM | Comments (1)

September 10, 2004

Ohh, it feels so like fall outside! Which is unusual for September in Chicago!
In general, I have a love/hate relationship with fall. I love it for the beauty of it, of course. The colors and whatnot, the crunchy leaves and the kids trotting off to school, the sense of getting back down to business, what's not to love? But for me it is accompanied by a sense of dread always as well, because it means soon my feet and hands will revert to their perpetually frozen state, a sad state of affairs indeed, which literally drives me to distraction and despair! The pata permafrost generally sets in around the end of October, when it is too warm for heat and too cold for no heat, and lasts until about June or July, when the truly warm weather gets started. Chicago winters are not for the meek and the absurdly skinny! Some of the joy of back-to-school, halloween pumkins, and knitting with wool is always tinged with the teensiest bit of trepidation for this ectomorph. Sigh.
Last night we had Lorie's Knit Wit Nite at our house. It was a smallish group, but a good time was had by all. If our group is representative, it appears that three out of four knitters are already immersed in the the Christmas gift scarf knitting frenzy! We also had amazingly tangy key lime pie, made by Lorie, in honor of it being 9/9, also known as Beez's birthday. Marcel also crashed the party, which was officially designated as a dog-free zone for the evening. Like me, he is an anarchist, and dislikes rules, and the state apparatus, including jails for dogs or humans. So he broke out! Far be it for me to rain on the little comrade's parade! After a couple of foiled attempted yarn-biting incidents, he curled up next to me in the chair, sighed, and fell asleep.

Posted by pippypippy at 10:13 AM | Comments (1)

September 07, 2004

fabulous destiny

Phew! I hope I didn't bring anybody down with that sad story!
And now back to our regularly scheduled Knit-A-Log!
I spent Labor Day weekend in Madison, Wisconsin with Kathrine, mind-reader, herbalist, and nature girl extraordinaire! I have gained new respect for the plants of the prairie after a guided tour of the wilds of one fabulously overgrown Madison backyard. Saturday Henry and I went to the farmer's market while Kathrine worked at the Food Hole (Hole Foods) where she is body care buyer. We got lemon cucumbers, little round yellow apple looking things with cucumber insides! We also got lettuce and heirloom tomatoes, plus a regular tomato from an exuberant young dreadlocked man that was handing them out from a box with the words "Grown In Real Dirt" on it in marker. It appeared he felt the need to underscore his enthusiasm for real dirt by wearing much of it on his person as well.
I also ate an antique apple, from a box that said "Alexander, Russia 1700s." For such an old apple it was well preserved and tasty, plus organically grown and thus safe to eat immediately, according to the nice apple lady.
There was more than one farmer with wool and/or hand-spun yarn for sale, all of it beautiful and more expensive than I could afford, but I patted it and sighed longingly.
After Henry and I got Kathrine from work, she and I tried to go to The Knitting Tree, but apparently they closed for the holiday weekend.
Sunday Kath and I rode bikes around Madison. There are so many vegetable gardens, and flowers everywhere! Especially sunflowers! Hippies, apparently can't get enough of sunflowers! There is also a garden called Olbrich Botanical Gardens, we saw it from the bike trail, it has a Thai pavillion that made me nearly swoon from the sheer beauty of it. It has ornated carved sides and peaks, and is painted gold and shines in the sun, it is truly magical! We sat on a bridge and watched ducks and looked at it for a long time. There is also quite a bit of enthusiasm for bicycles in general in Madison. Hourah!
We went to Taste of Madison and ate corn and saw a very funny (not on purpose!) band called Flaw, there was amazing people-watching, especially all the young people who were rocking out, they were so so rocking out!! And all making the little rock 'n roll finger thing in the air! I didn't know people really did that and I was laughing and laughing, I guess this goes to show how truly old and unhip I have become! Sigh. These young people and their modern music!
Sunday night we watched Amelie, as Kath hadn't seen it and I will always watch it again. I worked on the second orange hand warmer, which I finished the next day on the bus ride home.
It came out a little bit bigger than the first, but in general I am so pleased! They will be so warm and toasty in the winter. I have begun an orange scarf to match, so far doing seed stitch, which I have never used before.
Photos to come!

Posted by pippypippy at 10:07 PM | Comments (0)

September 02, 2004

I went to a funeral
Lord it made me happy
Seeing all those people
I ain't seen
Since the last time
Somebody died

-Lyle Lovett
Since The Last Time

That's what was going through my head this morning in the car on the way to the funeral for my mother's older sister, Elinor. That and what to say to my uncle, and my cousins, and how to meet my cousin's kids, who have grown up since I saw them last. Plus remembering that I meant to bring kleenex for my mother and I forgot. And wishing that death didn't make everything seem so urgent, while at the same time being glad that it does, and that I know it. If that makes any sense.
Here is what I would have said at the service, when the minister asked if anyone wanted to say anything, and only one person was able to, and I really wanted to except I was totally frozen in my seat from fear. My Aunt was more like my grandmother than my Aunt, since she was 20 years older than my Mom. She had 2 sons whom she loved very much but she also wished for a girl child, to do girl things with, and I continually disappointed her because I didn't like dolls. She loved having family gatherings at her house, and cooking traditional meals for holidays. Like my Mom, she secretly loved all animals. A few years ago she had a pet parakeet. So I made a postcard from a picture of some parakeets that I cut from a funny little book on parakeet care that I found at the thrift store, with the caption, cut from the book, "always make sure there are enough perches to go around". Apparently Aunt El got quite a kick out of it. Caretaking was in her nature, although sometimes I think the responsibility and the power of caretaking overwhelmed her so she held back, for fear of caring too much.
A lot of what I remember about my Aunt comes filtered to me through my mother's relationship to her, as a sister so much older that she became a kind of alternate or stand-by parent, and authority figure. My mother looked up to her sister, and feared her disapproval. I remember as a child absorbing this conflict when we went to their house, and always feeling vaguely, or sometimes strongly defensive around my Aunt and Uncle, but also wanting the feeling of security of being part of a family who remained the same no matter what.
I am quite certain that she is in a better place now, as the minister at the service said, so much better that we have no words for it, no picture of it, no way to imagine it.

Posted by pippypippy at 07:11 PM | Comments (1)

September 01, 2004

fyi

Just for the record, Patrice Lumumba (aka Elephant) would like it to be known that he is not now, nor has he ever been a mascot for the Republican Party.
Yesterday on the train I taught myself the continental method(dig it, Martha's got the continental method down, as she does most things. Her illustrations are hard to see though) There is also an excellent little video clip here. I had read instructions for how to do it several times, and tried to learn several times, but on the train yesterday something clicked and I got finally got it. What I am hoping for is that I can use a different muscle in my left hand so as not to repeat whatever motion has caused my repetitive motion injury. We'll see. Its kind of fun to work differently, and plus it looks so much more complicated to do the continental method. Its actually one more streamlined motion than the english method, I think. Apparently you can go faster this way too, but it is still new to me, so its about the same.
Time for another doggy photo!

this is Marcel's "what? no pie?" face.
Hey! I've added some links! At some point I will catagorize, but for now they are all in a mess.
There are some really pretty dogs here!
Peruse! Enjoy!

Posted by pippypippy at 04:24 PM | Comments (0)