Project Talk: General Updates

Farmer's Market Cardigan

Every winter, I overestimate the amount of knitting that I will be able to accomplish. For some reason, I think I'll be able to whip through large projects and create a mountain of finished goods. Sadly, that is never the case. I'm human, I get distracted, I decided to watch t.v. or read a book, I have to rip out and reknit entire sections of my work, I have less time than I think I will. You know, life happens.

Still trying to get a
decent picture.

Since the beginning of January, I completed a sweater and a pair of socks. The Farmer's Market Cardigan took forever to complete, especially the shawl collar, but was totally worth it. I love, love, love the finished product (though I've been struggling to get a decent picture of it). It is warm and super comfortable.

See, nothing is really
wrong with them.

The socks also felt like they took forever to complete. By the end of the process, I hated the pattern, hated the yarn, and even hated the knitting needles. I have since found other needles, but that is entirely another story. Even though they are finished, I still haven't warmed to them. I still haven't bothered to take them off of the blockers or even try them on. There isn't anything wrong with them, I'm just rather apathetic toward the entire project.

Cat's Paw Lace Socks

Currently on the needles is another pair of socks. These are Cat's Paw Lace socks, knitted in Poems Sock by Wisdom Yarns. The yarn is a cheaper version of Noro's Silk Garden Sock Yarn, and is pretty roughly spun. But the colors and beautiful and the pattern is easy. The socks are done from the toe up, with a short row heel. It just has a simple, single lace repeat on a stockinette background. It goes fast and I'm already past the heel of the first sock, so I will carry on.

Coming Soon!
Super Secret Project

My current non-sock project is a gift, so it is under a media blackout. But it is going well, and I'm pretty happy with the results so far. Pictures and project details will be posted later.

On deck, are a number of projects. I'd like to get another sweater done before abandoning heavy woolen knitting for the summer. I'm torn between making another Wicked Sweater, this time in a nicer yarn or finally taking on the February Lady Sweater. I'm leaning toward the February Lady Sweater, because I have been wanting to knit that one for a long time, but it always seems to get pushed back as other projects shove their way to the front of the queue.

As far as summer knitting goes, I need to make some washcloths for around the house, but I also have a number of summer weight projects I want to work on. And we cannot forget those unexpected last minute projects that always seem to crop up.

Book Review: Germs, Genes, & Civilization: How Epidemics Shaped Who We Are Today

Title: Germs, Genes, & Civilization: How Epidemics Shaped Who We Are Today

Author: David Clark

While I try to find a balance between both fiction and nonfiction, if I'm being completely honest, I would have never read this book if it had not been offered for free from amazon.com. That being said, I am glad that I read it. 

I'm not a microbiologist or epidemiologist by any stretch of the imagination (I may have taken a couple of biology classes in college, but that would be the extent of that). However, I do watch television and read the newspaper. I'm in the know about the global AIDS crisis and outbreaks of SARS, bird flu, swine flu, and so on. This book is geared toward people like me, with a basic understanding of epidemics, biology, and history. No need to be a scientist.

"Germs, Genes, & Civilization" (GGC) explores how epidemics have shaped the history of humankind. Author David Clark makes connections between illness and politics, religion, warfare, social development and empire-building, many which I would have never seen without reading this. GGC starts with ancient civilizations, including Egypt, the Indus River Valley, and the Greek and Roman Empires, goes through the spread of the plague and tuberculosis, follows along with malaria and smallpox to the new world, and explores the future pandemics humans may face. 

While all living creatures suffer from illness, GGC also suggests that humans present a unique opportunity for diseases, "No other large animal in the know history of our planet has provided such crowds of individuals, packed closely together, just waiting for some pestilence to move in and multiply" (18).

Don't be fooled by the seriousness of the subject matter here, Clark shows a great deal of humor in the pages of the book as well.

Bottom Line:

While stories about plagues and illnesses may not be well received at your neighborhood cocktail party, the information could come in handy if your ever a contestant on Jeopardy (which is a goal of mine). The book is an interesting read and the information is not too dense for the average reader to absorb. 

Product Review: Amazon Kindle

I love to read, I've pretty much always loved to read. Books have been a major part of my life pretty much since I learned to read (just ask anyone who has ever had to help me move about the number of books that I own).

This is why the Kindle from amazon.com was such a wonderful gift (from my wonderful husband, of course). I've loved it from the moment I got it, but I like to hold off on reviewing things until I've used them for awhile.

Now, I've had the kindle for over 4 months, and I still love it. I love the portability, the size, and being able to have multiple books with me at any time. I love that I can load knitting patterns onto it, I love that I have the New York Times crossword puzzles on it, I love the notebook feature where I can make notes on it, I love that I can highlight the text and post both quotes and book information to facebook and twitter (not that I have a twitter account, but I keep thinking about it), I love the e-ink pearl technology that really does allow me to read in bright light without a glare, I love, love, love it!

Right away, I had to add a couple of, in my opinion, must have accessories. My in-laws were kind enough to give me an apple green lighted leather cover and I went ahead and purchased a second cable (so I have one upstairs to charge it and one downstairs to hook to my computer, I'm weird like that). I've only had the cover for about a month, but I do plan on reviewing it later on.

Before selecting the Kindle, I did read reviews on ereaders, trying to make sure I chose the best on for me. There are a lot of options out there, and which one works best it dependent on  individual needs. I specifically wanted an e-reader, something to read on, I didn't want to surf the internet, go onto facebook, or anything else. I wanted a reader, which in my opinion, amazon makes the best one.  I'm also very loyal to amazon, having purchased many, many things from them and having experienced their excellent customer service. Amazon is a company that I'm happy to do business with. 

Blog Renovations

I started this blog with the best intentions and I still have the best of intentions about it. I mean to blog, I plan on blogging, and then I get distracted by something else. Knitting, reading, television, you know, life.


So, after a long hiatus, I've decided to give the blogging thing another go. And while turning over a new leaf, I figured I'd revamp the blog.


Starting with a new name, The Fifth Step was a great name, while the blog was primarily about my teaching experiences. But, lets face it, the blog isn't about my teaching experiences, so I thought about adopting something more knitting related. But the more I thought about it, the more I decided that I didn't want to paint myself into a corner with the blog title, so I figured Mental Scribbles has a nice ring to it. After all, this blog is a place for my mind to express itself (plus I like the doodles on the background).


Then I worked with some design elements, and found a look that I was happy with, for now. I'd also like to set a goal for a minimum number of entries. Currently, I'm shooting for at least on entry a week. So, we'll see how that goes. In addition to knitting updates, I'm planning on posting about the books I'm reading, my teaching experiences, and the life events of an almost thirty year old girl from Wisconsin.


So, here we go again.

In Need of Brightness

Brightness as in bright, cheery colors, not as in intelligence. I finished up my circle scarf, Encompass.

It is hard to capture the awesomeness of the piece in photos, I need to get some action shots of it. The scarf is a large circle (hence the name circle scarf), and can be worn several different ways. I am partial to looping it around my neck twice, so it forms a thick, squishy scarf. I also can take one of the loops up over my head like a hood. It works great.

Encompass is knit from Malabrigo yarn, in the colorway SFO sky. Which matches my Jack-in-the-Box mittens. The colorway is made of shades of white, black, and grey, which goes with any winter gear that I own.However, as much as I love it, the colors are a little drab, especially for knitting in the middle of a Wisconsin winter. It didn't help matters that I was also working on this pair of socks during the same time frame.

Both the pattern and the color are called Hedwig, named after Harry Potter's beloved snowy owl. The yarn, dyed by Dani at Sunshine Yarns, is a cream colored base, with black, greys, and a hint of brown. It captures a snowy owl perfectly, but again can be a little drab to work with in January.

A quick aside, Sunshine Yarns is one of my favorite sources for hand painted sock yarns. It is a one woman company in Colorado. The dyer gathers inspiration from a variety of sources, including Harry Potter, Twilight, and natural scenery. I've purchased many colorways from this site and never have been disappointed.

Having completed a couple of grey toned projects, I knew my next adventures would have to be done in some brighter colors.

I'm still working on my Farmer's Market Cardigan, which is a beautiful rust orange color, but I needed inspiration for a pair of socks.  I finally decided on a pattern that I have had in my Ravelry queue for sometime now, Pomatomus. Named after a fish, the pattern resembles fish scales, which led me to select a blue yarn for socks.  I selected a skien of Sterling Sheep Yarn, from a dyer on Etsy. The sock yarn is spun with a silver thread, giving the finished project some added sparkle. The colorway, Castiel, is a collect of blues, ranging from pale sky blue, to a deep, almost navy blue (Castiel, being named for Misha Collins' character on the tv series Supernatural) Of course, my camera did not accurately capture the colors, but you get an idea of the fish-scale like design. It'll provide a much needed break from the grey projects I had been working on.

Will I Ever Learn?

I'm pretty picky when it comes to my knitting. I just can't see investing all that time and effort into a project that I'm not going to love once it is completed. But, when I see that a project isn't working quite like I want, I tend to ignore that inner voice that is telling me that the project will not turn out.

After the Slip Stitch/Reverse Pinwheel Baby Blanket fiasco, one might think that I should have learned my lesson. I could save so much time (and heartache) if I would simply accept that if a project is not turning out how I would like, that I should simply rip it out and start over.

But no, I suffer from "let's just knit a few more rows and see how I like it," I see that my project isn't going right, but I'll invest more time into it to see if it magically improves. The more time I invest in the project, the more I decide to keep knitting on it to see if things improve, and the cycle continues. And yesterday, I did it again.

I cast on for a new project (ignoring the ones I have on the needles, actually finishing some projects might be a good New Year's goal for me), Encompass, a circle scarf designed by the Yarn Harlot. I decided to use a thinner yarn than the pattern called for, but made no other major changes. After finishing casting on, I looked at the stitches and my inner voice chimed in, "that's not going to be long enough, cast on another set of forty stitches." But, instead of heeding that inner voice, I decided to "knit a couple of rows to see how I like it."

So, I knit about ten rows and stopped to take a look and inner voice spoke up again, "It's too short, rip it out and cast on more stitches, like I told you before." And still, I decided, "Nah, I'll finish the first pattern repeat and see how I like it, its only seven more rows."

Seven rows later, I stopped and looked at the scarf, and inner voice said, "Well, look at that, it isn't getting any longer, RIP IT OUT AND START OVER!" At this point, it was getting late, so I figured I'd decide what to do in the morning (note: usually, late at night, taking a break from a project and getting some sleep would be a good idea, but I was iffy about this project from this morning on).

This morning, I picked up the project again. It had not magically grown overnight and was still to short. But what did I decide to do? Just knit a few more rows and see it I like it better. About three rows in, my inner voice was screaming at me, "START OVER, DUMBASS, START OVER!" I looked at the scarf, which I still felt was too short and decided to rib it out and cast on forty more stitches.

Seriously, I could have saved almost a full day's worth of knitting and had a much more productive inner dialog if I would have just listened to the inner voice right away. I should know by now, inner voice will prevail, if not today, tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, some day down the road, but it will prevail, the project will be frogged, and the sooner I accept that, the better.

Keeping Hands Warm

Between stitches on the various versions of the baby blankets that I've been working on, I have also completed a new pair of warm winter mittens. 

I chose the Jack-in-the-Box mittens from Knitting New Mittens and Gloves. The mittens have an normal top and an interior cuff. This allows you to have access to your fingers for things like unlocking the door, punching in the code on the garage door, and other tasks where you need some level of dexterity.

The bright pink button is to keep the top flap closed. I dug through my button box to find them. I had some super cute sheep buttons, that I was going to use, but they were a little big and I wanted to be able to button and unbutton with ease. Plus, I think it adds a nice splash of brightness to the mittens. I added some length to the cuffs, but otherwise knitted the pattern as written. 

The mittens were knit with Malabrigo Worsted yarn, a super soft, hand dyed merino wool. It is one of my favorite yarns to work with. The colorway is SFO Sky, a blend of whites, grays, and blacks. A little dreary perhaps, but a good universal, go with everything color that goes with my green winter coat and my red fleece coat.

The mittens have now been tested, in a very snowy Wisconsin December and have proven themselves to be cozy and warm while doing everything from driving to work to making snowballs.