PJs

I finished sewing my new PJs.

The fabric is from, I think, Capital Iron and the buttons...

...Such cute little sheep buttons... are from the Button and Needlework Boutique.

Drat that hat.

Well, it looks like I have some frogging to do.

I have this yarn I bought many years ago. It's rather expensive, and rather luxurious. It's call Cashmere Canapa and it contains 60% cotton, 30% cashmere, and 10% hemp. I've kept it locked up in a special box, separate from all the other yarn, waiting for that special project.

I finally decided that the special project would be B from Three Tams.

I tell you it looks lovely. Have a look for yourself.

See? LOVELY!

What a great pattern.

I adore how the colours contrast but are muted enough to produce a traditional feel to the fabric. The drape of the fabric is perfect at this gage... only, well it's the wrong gage. The pattern calls for 5sts/1in and I have 7sts/1in. Do you know what that means? (adapt the whimpery Kryten voice from series seven) It's too small!

I'm almost finished knitting the dratted thing so I considered finishing it up and turning it into a bag that I would never use. Bad idea. So then I thought about just frogging the whole thing and putting the yarn aside for another few years until something better comes along. No. I don't like that idea either. I've started working with this yarn and darn it, I want to finish.

I could get bigger needles and re knit it. But then the texture/hand/drape of the fabric would be all wrong.

I don't have the brain to do math right now, so I was thinking frog it and try knitting it with one extra pattern repeat. That might do it. Only... I don't want to be the one to frog it. I need some courage, a glass of wine (don't tell my doctors) and a good movie; but in the mean time, I think I'm going to go play with my spinning wheel. At least that doesn't complain about gage. It complains about y.p.p but that's an issue for another day.

Confirmation

Maybe I was right about that time thing after all:

Picture is from Worst of the Time Lords.

work, space and time.

In many ways I miss working. Working is an excellent way to mark the passing of time. You get up, you get ready, you go to work, you watch the clock and wait until you can go home again. Work makes one acutely aware of time. The time of the day, the day of the week, the month, the year; all of these things are part of one's existence.

These days, most people think of space like a giant box that stuff exists in. But it wasn't always that way. At several times in history people thought of space as something that is relative. It didn't exist in and of itself. (to simplify,) Space was nothing more than our perception of how physical objects interacted. Object A is to the left of object B and we see this as a space between A and B. If there were no objects, then there would be no space (opposed to the Everyman idea that if there was no space, there would be no objects). If there was simply one object existing, then there would still be no space. Space, for several individuals of history, requires two or more objects interacting.

I don't know if people still think this way about space. I suspect that quantum mechanics has something to say on the subject. Something like: space is a manifestation of the observation of the collapsing of the probability of the interrelationships of physical forms. But that's what they all say.

What matters is that according to this theory of space, it is something that requires participation. It requires two objects being left and right of each other. It requires an observer to look at them and say, ah yes, they are not in the same space. It requires more than just looking, Space requires evaluation and the understanding that A is to the left of B. Without these things space is for people like Leibniz, nothing more than unexpressed possibilities. In other words, it doesn't exists (qua space).

I don't know if I agree with this. The problem is that I don't fully get it. I have a chicken that understands it better than I do. She can walk through wire fences that contain all the other hens. She is not able to do this when observed, but like the weeping angles of Doctor Who, she moves through the fence only when we are not looking.

One can think about time in similar ways. Is it, as my watch would have me believe, a constant ticking away of events? Is it a line that events cram themselves into? Is it like space, a container that events fit into? Is it somewhat dependent on how fast you are moving through the universe? Or is it like many of the above alluded to thinkers suggested, created out of our observation and understanding?

I am more and more convinced that time, as in the relationship of events to each other, is more dependent on our perception than most people realize.

I'm not talking about time in the sense that a digital watch measures. I'm thinking about time as in how our day progresses. Time as the interrelationship of events that we experience. Time in this sense is very different than time according to a clock.

We participate in our perception of time. Take that fellow from Catch 22, who tried to be board all the while because when you are board, time moves more slowly and if time moves more slowly he would live a longer life.

Without something like work (or school) to mark the time of the day, it's really difficult to see the passing of time. The day takes on a slower pace and things have less sense of urgency. It is no longer that I have to have X amount of tasks finished by 11am. It's more like I have to have all the animals fed and watered twice a day, once before breakfast whenever that is and once before dark, whenever that is. I have to spread manure on the garden before we dig it and and we need to dig it before we plant and we need to plant sometime in the spring depending on the weather. If I'm not feeling well, or if it's raining, less gets done. Sometimes more gets done. But it's more or less the same thing every day. I notice that the buds on some of the trees are swelling now so it's a different day than a few weeks ago when the buds were smaller.

Time is no longer marked by seconds or minutes. Even hours and days have very little meaning here. Weeks and seasons seem to be the units for counting time.

I like that there is less stress in this way of keeping time. But it's also difficult to interact with the rest of the world where things are so much more urgent.

Tangled cap

I had some yarn left over from the Tangled Yoke Cardi, so I decided to knit myself a tangled hat. I spun this yarn from some Louet fibre, starting almost two years ago. This yarn has been an adventure in mishaps involving car doors and all sorts of wild and crazy things. But you know what, I adore knitting with it. It's been a great sense of accomplishment to spin this much of the same kind of yarn for this large a project. And then to have some left over that I could knit into this cute little cap (pattern Celtic Cap by Girl from Auntie).

I have enough of this yarn left over for almost another hat. I would really like a tam, perhaps I can find a contrasting colour and knit up something with colour work in it.

Things I've seen in America

A couple of photos I found on my camera from previous trips to The US. I'm not trying to make any sort of statement here, I just like taking photos of things I've seen that interest me.

Knitting funk

I've got myself into a bit of a knitting funk. I've only picked up the needles once since New Years and that was simply to finish off a pair of simple socks that I keep in my handbag for knitting at the doctors office or anywhere else I have to wait.

I admit that some of this knitting funk is due to my health. Some mornings I wake up with the most terrible arthritis and simply cannot hold a mug of coffee level on use my computer mouse or hold the pointy sticks. But I put that down to it being winter and wet. Especially since last winter was just as bad. Plus my joints are suggesting that we are going to get snow in the next two weeks, but I don't believe them.

The Lissajous Sock pattern has been in progress for a few months now. It's a true delight to knit. The pattern is easy to follow but challenging. It is the kind of pattern that goes well with an audio book or some classical music but is difficult to knit in public or in front of the TV.

I have other works in progress bumming around the place, but non of them really capture my attention right now. What I want is something fairly simple to knit. Perhaps with a couple of lines of colour work here and there, but not too much.

What I really want to knit is this:

It was spun with the intention of being a sweater and should knit up nicely on a 4.5mm or 5mm needle size. The trouble is that I don't think I have enough. I only have 607 meters total (light plum - 192m, dark purple - 139m, blue - 128m, and grey - 148m). I am small or extra-small these days so I wonder if it would be enough for something.