Checks and Balances

Problem? Fury over the McCain "Health Care Plan." When Cindy McCain goes to a walk-in clinic, increased use of which is one of McCain's "solution" to the problem, for her pelvic exam, I'll be more inclined to listen. Not that I would agree, but I might listen a little bit. Or not.

Solution? Soothing sock knitting. Here's another Christmas recipient pair, from the Bloody Mary pattern (free!) and made in the discontinued KnitPicks Sock Garden, color Pansy.

When I left my State job a few years ago, I had to take COBRA benefits for a few months, and paid $450 a month for them. That's the monthly payment cost for a single person on a reasonable HMO, not one of the "Cadillac" health plans McCain says are the ones that cost more than $5,000 a year PER FAMILY. I worked in health care (first for the State, then as a hospital administrator) and have never, in my life, heard of a health plan that cost $5,000 per year per family. Triple that and I might listen. For a minute.

Solution? Spinning! Some of the brown fleece that was such a wonderful gift from my parents' neighbor, Ann. My spinning is getting more and more even and becoming a more and more calming experience. I see more of it in the near future, despite knitting deadlines. Besides, my right hand is cramping up from all my working for The Man.

Then I would think of my Dud and wonder what would happen if he lost his job. He's a paraplegic. His medical costs are through the roof. I absolutley could not imagine health plans "competing" to cover him, or even covering him at all. So I guess I wouldn't listen, unless the McCain's started getting their check-ups at walk-in clinics (probably wouldn't have caught that melanoma so quickly), raise the tax credit they suggest to three times the amount, and demostrate how someone in a wheelchair can get insurance for $5,000 a year. Or any insurance at all.

Solution:

I splurged. Meet my new yarn for the next few months. Color group 1, extra small. I had to consult one of my friends with exceptional taste to reassure me about my choice... I don't tend toward pastels, but these are rich, multi-faced colors, even though they are lighter than my usual choices. I think it will make for more adventurous knitting.

Hope all of you are coping, too.

Heavy on the photos this time.

It's DONE!

And it looks fantastic.

Chris has the sleeves pushed up a bit because it was about 75 degrees in the sun on Saturday at the Flea Market we visited. He kept the sweater on until I told him that I wouldn't be offended if he took it off, it was a bit warm. So sweet. He's earned himself another sweater in the after-Christmas knitting future.

Details? Check out Ravelry.

The design experience I haven't talked about until now because it was upsetting

The Chris sweater is so close to finished I hate to put it down for the evening, but, thanks to that very sweater (knit in shetland at a tight gauge with all sorts of pattern action), as well as a bunch of submission swatch knitting under deadlines and a busy week spent primarily assembling and formatting large documents at the Job (think scrolling and clicking), my right wrist is killing me.

So I thought I'd take a moment to organize things here and talk about a pattern I wrote that I haven't mentioned on the blog but may be familiar to those of you on Ravelry. Meet the Tiny Brocade Cardigan, knit for the Smart Knitter Newsletter's August issue.


I think of this as the anti-Rowan photo. It's all about the sweater and not at all about the styling. It was taken in haste... those are the weeds outside my Job. No one asked what exactly was up with my hair that day in all the comments I got, and it is truly a horror.


The shot without the head is much better. By the way, that's a slip-stitch pattern, you only use one color at a time.

If you've clicked on that Smart Knitter link, you'll see that there isn't much there. I was contacted by the assistant editor of the newsletter, who sent me a sample issue, which I liked. When I investigated further, I found several other clever patterns on Ravelry that had been published in this venue (including three from Tikru, whose work is impeccable and inventive as anything), so I decided to work with them.

The August newsletter came out, I received it electronically, and I posted the pattern to Ravelry. And people wanted the pattern. A lot of people. A. LOT. And the Smart Knitter was not particularly helpful, so I spent a lot of time feeling really sad that people were having trouble getting my pattern and sending messages to the Smart Knitter people about the desire for my pattern and the troubles people were having, and didn't hear back. I still feel sad when I think about it, but it taught me to carefully consider where I publish my work and also consider my goals for my designs and designing in general. And that goal is not to make a full-time living, or even a part-time living, or to be famous in a tiny niche way (I already had that... well, not "famous," but known... in my little academic field when that was my gig), but rather to give others access to my ideas, challenge myself to write out and size patterns, and make a little extra money to, well, finance my knitting.

Fortunately, I did not sign over copyright to The Smart Knitter. I was paid a small amount for the pattern, but rights were not transferred. So to make things better, I have self-published the pattern, which is available now as a PDF for $5. After the Smart Knitter incident, I wanted to make it free, but I know that many knitters paid $10 for the newsletter in which it was published, so I decided to do what, after many nights of serious contemplation, I considered the most fair thing.

So here it is. I will post it to my sidebar soon, along with more organized links to all my downloads and free patterns.

I said this in a few forums on Ravelry, and will state it again here: If you paid for the Smart Knitter and did not receive the issue with my pattern, please email me at weaverbergh13@verizon.net and I will email you the PDF. For free.

P.S. Tiny Brocade is made of Cotton Ease, so it holds it shape better than 100% cotton and is a total cheap-o project. Hooray!

Things to do while waiting to vote

Handspun! I'm part of the Spunky Eclectic monthly fiber club, though you would not know it from my lack of spinning. I spun July's shipment, "Celebration" (on the left) as well as another shipment, the name of which was lost. Two skeins of two-ply barber-pole goodness at heavy worsted weight, about 160 yards each.


Right now the plan is to spin up a bunch of this lovely fluffy brown top that I've already prepped and use this funky barber-pole stuff as accents on some sort of simple cardigan.

Mitten! Made a mitten yesterday, the last in a series of three single mittens for a commission. It's a Lopi Mitten, made of Lopi, from the book Folk Mittens.


Socks! Rib and Cable socks by Nancy Bush from Interweave Knits Fall 2005 in Kureyon Sock. Christmas knitting is well underway.


And check this out for happy laughs, not "I'm so scared of where this country could be going" laughs. Happy laughs!

What are we gonna do now?

A bad day back at work on Tuesday, another sick day on Wednesday, dragging on Thursday, and finally back to something approaching normalcy on Friday... only to have a few drinks, watch the presidential debate, then make the mistake of having a few more drinks out of a growing sense of apprehension and disgust. I could go into detail, but the fact that my household, Chris and I, make far, far under the national average American income while living in one of the most expensive cities in the nation, the fact that I have far more education than anyone really needs but that it was all obtained on scholarship and has not contributed to my current employment or income, the fact that I worked in health care administration for years and witnessed first hand the inequality and discrimination along the lines of wealth and insurance, the fact that both my parents are public school teachers and the research for my Dud's spinal cord injury is all based on stem cells, research that can't take place in this country, you probably know where I stand.

Hair of the dog on Saturday. Note that I am drinking some sort of fruity malt beverage that I would normally consider "stomachache in a bottle" but was rather pleasing yesterday:


The latest knitting project: The home stretch on Lochinver for Chris.

What was formerly a brown tube of various textures now has a nearly-complete sleeve. Hooray!


Gotta love Alice Starmore for the man-sweater perfection. As I wrap this up, think positive thoughts for the country. Or run away. Boy GET RUNNING!!!

Sick Day

Oh man, really, really not feeling well today... it sneaked up on me during what was supposed to be a long bike ride yesterday, cut short by my stomach issues. As I hung out in the bathroom of a service station we passed on our way back to the car, Chris made a small friend:

It seems he lives behind or within the station.

From my prone position yesterday I finished up something I've been planning for a while... a new pattern... or rather, blueprint for a pattern.

Remember the SCARF? Well, since cowls, scarves, and chunky knits are still very much the thing, I decided to write down everything I learned about knitting with roving and broomsticks and illustrate it with tons of photos so that anyone who's interested can make their own SCARF or COWL.


Seriously, I made the COWL this afternoon and it took about 45 minutes. What a present, right?

Enjoy! You can find the 10-page tutorial with instructions for both SCARF and COWL here for $3.00.



Hopefully it's back to the Job tomorrow. Until then, it's Law and Order reruns, lots of water, and some mindless round and round knitting.

Outtakes from "Fast Cars and Hot Women"

In celebration of our new acquisition, a 1998 Volvo V70, and one of my new finished objects, a Purple Suede Bikini, I present the following photo shoot:

Old, dear Mulva, our 1992 Volvo 740 whose drivability was becoming questionable, was donated to npr, to which I am listening right now. RIP, Mulva.