Weekend Gauge Check: Transitions

It’s time for our weekend rituals, the ceremonies of escorting one week out and preparing the next one. Which, around here, is the Gauge Check, where I take a look at my week and figure out where I’ve come from and where I’m going. Sometimes there are goals, sometimes I just talk about what’s going on in my life and my crafting. You are all welcome to join in in the comments.

Fall is coming.

It’s not here yet; the week was still sunny and warm, but there’s been a wind that makes you think about light jackets and fingerless mitts and maybe getting that sweater finished. The days are getting shorter. I suspect that this was the last week that I’ll leave the apartment without thinking about bringing a coat – I may not take it, but I’ll think about it.

I feel like I’m ready for it. Like a true Portlander, I’ve spent as much time as possible outside this summer, storing up sunshine to carry me through the long weeks of winter when the clear blue sky is more a concept than a reality. I’ve eaten farmers’ market tomatoes and peaches and berries still warm from the sun, enjoying the new bounty of each week and the feeling of connection to the earth. Soon there will be apples and potatoes and pumpkins, rich fall flavors that are every bit as precious as those first strawberries of spring.

A year ago, we were in the final stages of packing and cleaning, with less than three days left before our departure date. I fell in love with Oregon in the autumn, and while I’ve loved every season in its own way, I suspect that the autumn will always be my favorite. Perhaps because it is so completely unlike Arizona.

One thing I do love about summer is the wide variety of things that happen here. There were a ton of different possible things to do Friday after work, and we ended up at a local indie theatre on the PSU campus watching a French Hong Kong action film (which was just as weird as you might imagine). Yesterday we went to a pop-up consignment shop, a block party, an estate sale, and Pearl Fiber Arts. Today was completely unstructured, and we walked around PSU and then Nob Hill, which is slightly different every time we go up there.

The Peacock Tail and Leaf scarf has claimed almost all of my attention this week. I sat in the park across from my office and knitted on it at lunch, and worked on it nearly every time I was on the MAX this weekend (which was often), and I’m working on the 20th pattern repeat, which is slightly more than halfway through, according to the pattern. The finished object is supposed to be 49″ long, which seems kind of short to me, and I have more yarn than it calls for, so I may just keep knitting pattern repeats until I’m sick of them. The far end is knitted and then grafted on (presumably so it’s not upside down), so what I’ll probably end up doing is knit to the end of the ball, put the scarf on waste yarn, knit the far end, and then knit pattern repeats until it’s long enough for me. Alternative thought: knit until I (almost) run out of yarn, place stitches on holder, cast on as if I’m beginning again, knit until I (almost) run out of yarn, graft two halves together. (Of course, if I do that, I’m committed. If I knit until I’m tired of it, I can stop.)

It’s almost the end of August, and I still haven’t picked a pattern for the month for the Year of Good Intentions. Rather than stress out about it, I’m going to skip August and pick a new pattern at the beginning of September. If I get the July socks finished up this week, it’ll probably be another pair of socks; otherwise, it’s going to be something else. I’m starting to feel knitting mojo again, and I’m excited about tackling another project.

What are your plans for fall?

Weekend Gauge Check: Trying New Things

Things I’ve done this week:

– Worked 40 hours

– Knit three pattern repeats on the Peacock Tail and Leaf Shawl

– Made an anti-anxiety potion

– Cut off all my hair and dyed it black

How was your week?

Weekend Gauge Check: A Night at the Fair

The project I’m working on basically involves doing all the things people in my office don’t (or haven’t) had time to do, which the degree of difficulty and challenge varies. A lot. This week’s task involved 35+ pages of social security numbers that had to be looked up in three different databases, and I’m pretty sure it was the single most boring thing I’ve had to do in the past decade. It was so dull that there were some podcasts I couldn’t listen to because they weren’t interesting enough to keep my attention. It was so dull that even being almost done was not enough to motivate me to work faster. The days didn’t even do the courtesy of going quickly. It was awful.

But it’s DONE, and next week I’ll be on to something else.

After work on Friday, we went to the Clark County Fair. Walking around the arts and crafts area and some of the animal barns kept us out of the sun until it went down. It wasn’t hot, by my standards, but it was shining right in our eyes when we arrived at around 6:00.

It seemed to me like the standards of spinning and knitting were overall higher at this fair than at the Multnomah County Fair earlier in the summer. I’m not sure why this is; I doubt that the overall level of knitting is just better on this side of the state line. Maybe people in Multnomah County are more likely to submit entries to fiber festivals than the general county fair.

There were “Master Canner” and “Master Gardener” displays courtesy of the Washington State University extended education programs, and a lot of 4-H displays. (The succulent was a 4-H entry, because it didn’t occur to me to start taking pictures until well after I’d already walked through the adult flower entries.)

Outside, there was a huge display of antique tools and equipment, including a functioning blacksmith shop and several turn-of-the century engines. Jack was delighted.

We stopped for apple pie and roasted corn on the cob, and then we walked through more animal barns and the midway. I love fairs at night. It had cooled off and gotten windy, and it was beautiful and bordering on chilly as we walked around taking pictures. We didn’t feel the need to ride anything – just feeling the energy of the fair was enough for us.

Saturday we stopped by the Portland Zine Symposium for a little while, and then went up to the Alberta Street Fair. Alberta is an artsy neighborhood in Portland, home to my favorite LYS, Close Knit. The street fair was huge – we covered more than ten blocks and didn’t see more than half of it. It was in the 90s and fiercely sunny, so eventually we gave up and went home.

Today was cooler, and we went into downtown to have lunch and then out to a coffee shop for a write-in. I put two complete pattern repeats on my Peacock Tail and Leaf Shawl, mostly on the Max.

Over the course of the week, I put a few more rounds on the Welsh Traveling Socks. I’m almost to the heel on the second sock. It makes excellent sitting-in-the-car knitting while I’m waiting for Jack to get off work.

I’m feeling motivated to pick my needles back up, so off I go. Check your gauge, or tell me what the most boring thing you had to do last week was, in the comments. Doesn’t matter if it’s the weekend or not – it’s always a good time to check your gauge.

Domestic Violence, “Mutual Battering,” and Being Accused of Bullying

One of the things that made it easier to accept the fact that I had been abused was a class I took on women in the criminal justice system. Unsurprisingly, a big chunk of that class focused on domestic violence, and some of our readings were about domestic abuse in queer relationships.

In heterosexual domestic violence situations, when the cops show up, it’s generally fairly obvious who the victim is. (Yes, there are men who are battered by their female partners. If you want people to remind you that these men exist, refer to a generic victim of domestic violence as “she,” or worse, refer to a generic abuser as “he.” Someone will almost immediately correct you.) When one partner is considerably larger or stronger than the other, it’s pretty evident that any damage done to the bigger partner is self-defense. A scratch on the hand isn’t comparable to a black eye and a fractured cheekbone, after all.

In a queer relationship, that kind of demarcation is much more subtle. Isabel is taller than me, with broader shoulders. I am smaller (and not by more than a couple of inches), but solidly built. The police were never involved in any of our altercations (some of our neighbors must have been pretty deaf, especially when we were living in apartments), but most of the time, it wouldn’t have been immediately obvious which of us was the abuser.

After the jump, I talk about having been a victim of abuse with occasionally graphic detail. Please be warned, and take care of yourself first. Continue reading →

Weekend Gauge Check: Yarnventure!

Yes, I’ve officially given up on the guilt for not making my gauge check on Friday. Maybe I will shift back to being able to make it on Friday in the future, but right now, this is where my life is at. Besides, I don’t think any of you really care about the regular happenings of my day job. (I barely care, and I’m the one doing them.)

Like I mentioned last week, I have a longer-term temp position with the same agency I worked with for two days. They want me for at least two months, and possibly longer, as one member of the team is retiring, another is training to take over her job, and then they will have to hire someone to fill her vacated position. The longer, the better, as far as I’m concerned.

Monday through Wednesday was doing that, and then Thursday and Friday I took the last two classes for foster parent training. We have one more class to take, which is scheduled for the beginning of September, and a lot of paperwork to fill out, but the big thing will be moving to a larger place. For some reason, they won’t let us have a baby in our studio apartment – not that I would really want to try and figure out where to put any more furniture in here.

Yesterday was hot, even by my standards – it hit 108 in some places in the metro area. We hit the farmer’s market before it got too bad, but then we retreated to the movie theatre. Kiggins was showing Beasts of the Southern Wild, which is an indie fantasy film about climate change, community, and “civilization” set in southern Louisiana. It was visually stunning, richly told, and amazingly acted – and the young girl who is the main character is five years old. If it shows up in your area, go see it.

Afterward we went down to Barnes and Noble and spent a few hours mostly appreciating their air conditioning. I picked up the Summer 2012 issue of Jane Austen Knits, which has a lot of lovely patterns plus some fantastic articles about literature, clothing, and culture.

Today we’d been planning to go to the Clark County Fair with a co-worker of Jack’s, but she ended up bailing. Instead, we drove down to Scappoose, Oregon for the Blue Moon Fiber Arts barn sale.

I ended up with two skeins of Socks That Rock Mediumweight (one for me in varying shades of blue and teal, and one for Jack in red, brown, green and blue), a sweater’s worth of teal Wensleydale, a Cat Bordhi book, and a tube of fiber. The Blue Moon Eastern Luxury Collection is yak, baby camel/tussah silk top, Mongolian cashmere top, mulberry silk, and baby camel top, all in natural colors, and I’m very excited about spinning it. Jack picked up some mini-skeins for rug punching and a stack of cards. She also had a bunch of leftover Sock Summit paraphernalia; I scored a notions box and Jack got a button.

It was a beautiful drive, sunny and warm but not quite triple digits, and we had a lovely time.

Since I spent two days in class again this week, I bet you want to know how much knitting I did! The Diamonds and Cables socks are finished! In fact, I wore them today. It’s probably the last time I’m going to wear them until it starts cooling off, but I couldn’t resist putting them on for a few hours. I also finished the first Welsh Traveling sock, and got about halfway down the leg of the second. It felt good. If you’re looking for a sock knitting pattern that is easily memorizable but fun to do and hard to get lost on, this is a good one.

Of course, now it’s August, and it’s boiling hot out, so I suspect the August project will be more socks – something from 2-at-a-Time Socks, probably. The last thing I want in my lap right now is a sweater.

What are you working on now? Or have you given up on knitting for the summer?

Ripping Back

A blog about emotional honesty, effective communication, and yarn.

Monthly Archives: August 2012