It's Like, Cosmic, Man.

My niece pointed me towards this, and while I wasn't quite sure I would find this sort of thing interesting, my niece is pretty cool, so I gave it a shot.

This is a video remixing parts of Carl Sagan's Cosmos and Stephen Hawking's Universe series, setting it to music using autotune on their voices. It is actually really awesome! (I'm not sure what Autotune is, but just go with me.) Check it out!



KNITTING:

Everything but the grafting of the hem done on the Lace Dream shawl. I plan to undertake the grafting next Saturday or Sunday.

I cast on the Cathedral Window shawl. I'm not entirely sure I've got the right needle size. I figure I will wait until the first full pattern repeat is completed, then I'll look at it and see that I think. So far I've done the central few rows, plus half a repeat of the main motif -- at which point it starts over with the motif on row 1 through 24. I'm on 6 now, so tomorrow I should know if I'm going forward or if I'm ripping back and starting over on size 2's.

I DON'T KNOW WHY...

...this spoke to me. Except that, even as a child, I loved her so.

Prayers

Over the Rosh Hashanah holiday I mentioned to someone I know that, as I've been knitting recently, I was praying for a friend who had been ill for quite some time. This person was less taken by a man who knits than she was by a man who prays. (And this was at synagogue. Go figure.) She looked at me as if I'd just farted on her new sofa.

Is it so unusual to believe in prayer? Am I out of the mainstream, even for Jews? Is meditating on the life and health of a dear friend a sign of mental inferiority?

KNITTING

I'm approaching the end of the Lace Dream shawl. The length has reached my wingspan plus 4", so I expect I will knit another 8 inches or so and then begin the end hem. (I've not taken the time to figure out how the end hem happens. I figure I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!)

After that I will begin the Cathedral Window Shawl. I am going to knit it out of Cascade's Alpaca Lace in Amethyst -- this color way reminds me of the colors in the rose window in the Cathedral at Reims. (see the lovely picture.) I'll be using a finer yarn than the pattern and smaller needles. I will have to end up doing extra pattern repeats. I'm estimating that the edging will take me two weeks to knit.

It has not escaped my notice that extra repeats of the pattern will mean, when I get to blocking, I will have to pin out over 1,000 points on the edging. Does anyone know where I can buy T-pins by the pound? I've ordered 2 sets of blocking mats from Knitpicks. I figure they will come in handy when it comes time to block. Maybe I'll have a blocking party -- if 4 people are pinning out 1200 points, they only have to do 300 points apiece!

Does anyone want to come? Sometime next May or June? I'll make lunch?

MORE IRELAND

Knitting at the seaside.


Grafton Street - one of my favorite places in Dublin. I didn't buy much, but the street was welcoming and vital and a wonderful place to watch people.


This is the best pastry I had in Ireland...an apple tart served -- of all places -- in the tea shop at the Newgrange/Boyne Valley visitors center. I never passed up an opportunity to sit down and have a pot of tea!


I couldn't help but think of my sock knitting comrades back in the States! I now have visions of 75 knitters rushing to the interwebs looking for transparent Converse sneakers/trainers!

Norbert took this picture of me knitting at Malehide Castle. I felt very much at home, knitting there. If anyone has a castle they aren't using, let me know. I'll go and knit there.


Myfanwe and I both fell in love. We both want to go back. Now. And every day away is just a little sad.

WHAT ELSE?

The holidays have snuck up on me. I have four days to plan and prepare Rosh Hashanah dinner. My house looks like we are housing the Jodes for the summer.

How long should a generous rectangular shawl be? Really. I need to know.

[Editor's Note: Norbert fell in love with Ireland as well. I apologize for the omission. In addition, he deserves an award for being a real trouper. He is really quite pleasant to travel with. We are, as ever, eternally grateful that G-d gave us Norbert!]

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS...

... ABOUT VACATION:

These are just SOME of the pics. In no order. I'll post more if the whim strikes me.

We took a lovely hike on Howth Head. Aside from seeing Dear Sinead and Malachy, this may have been my favorite thing we did. Well, outside of the prison.

The views along the hike are breathtaking. The heather was in bloom. Those yellow flowers you see are orchids. Amazing. And then look at this:


This is Howth from the North. We hiked all the way to the end, around, then up to the summit. SOOOOOOO beautiful.

If you are ever in Sandcove, we highly recommend this pub. The BEST mushroom soup you could ever hope for. Perfect.


Rocks at the seaside at Sandycove.

Newgrange -- a Neolithic passage tomb in the Boyne Valley. Very, very cool.

The Boyne River. The water was high, and the river spirited.

The Hills of Tara. Note: The hills of Tara are active sheep pastures.

A statue of St. Patrick at the Hills of Tara.

And such a lovely view from Tara.

Dublin Castle

The castle garden:

The throne room.

Malahide Castle. (Which was in the Talbot family for over 800 years!)


Christ Church Cathedral:


Myfanwe and Nortbert at the water portion of the Guinness Storehouse tour.

I loved the name of this shop, but never got in to look for knoba for our diningroom sideboard.

This place is only open from 10 am to 1 pm, weekdays. And I was never walking by when it was open. I would have loved a keepsake tin or baking pan!

IT TAKES A VILLAGE!

...to knit a shawl!

SO, my friend, Cheri, needs some knitting help. Knitting MATH help. And, really, when maths rears it's ugly head, I become that simpering Barbie Doll from the 1980's, whispering in my breathiest baby doll voice, "Math is hard!"

Could you please read the comments to this post and see if you can come up with the answer? I tried, but the answer I came up with -- Eskimo Pie -- didn't sound right to me.

The winner gets a gold star!

[note: edited to include the link. I am such a doofus sometimes!]

Gobsmacked.

It has just occurred to me that I need to have the Lace Dream shawl done in 40 days. I still have 36 inches left to knit, plus hemming the bottom edge and blocking.

Of course, I've been working 11 to 12 hour days since we got back from vacation! But if I knit one inch a day, I can finish the shawl on time. I should be able to do this. Breaking it down into daily segments makes it seem less daunting.