Dear Dr. President

Picture Stolen from the Associated Press

You may have heard that President Obama was invited to give the commencement address at Notre Dame, and also to receive an honourary degree. Some felt that his pro-choice voting record was in such stark violation of the Catholic Character that he should not be invited to speak at the school, and should certainly not receive a degree.

This reminded me of President Bush's speech at Notre Dame. His action's were serious violations of the Vatican's anti-death penalty and anti-war stances. So why were pictures of slain Iraqi civilians or electrocuted Texans not flown overhead in the run up to his speech? Are we allowed to cherry-pick our favourite morality issues? Is is because President Obama is a democrat? Is it, dare I suggest, a race issue? Nope. It's remarkably something even more pathetic. It turns out that the big ring leader in the recent protests was none other than Alan Keyes, famed for losing the senatorial race to President Obama back in 2004. So, congratulations to my fellow Notre Dame students. You allowed yourself to be pawns in what can be boiled down to "Mommy, Obama took my seat and he won't give it back!"

I missed the chance to meet President Obama. The reason I missed my graduation ceremony is that I had promised to go see my fiancé's graduation prior to the date and commencement speaker being announced. I had at that point already moved away from South Bend, and I had no intention of returning to Notre Dame for reasons I will not go into here. I just wanted to make it clear that my absence was not some act of one-issue-fanatical boycotting, like this idiot. In fact, missing the chance to be in the same room as a man that I both love and admire will go down as one my biggest regrets in life. Hopefully, I will get my US citizenship in time to vote for his second presidential term, which would be some small consolation to me.

I did, however, learn something interesting at my fiancé's graduation ceremony at the University of Arkansas Medical School. The awarding of degrees occurs in ascending order of importance. The first diplomas are handed out to certificate earners, then to the associate degree candidates and so on. What was of interest to me is that the very last, and therefore most esteemed, group to collect their diplomas are the PhD candidates. Even the dentists, pharmacologists and medical doctors are lower down the list. To really drive home the point that the PhD is the apex of academia, the PhD candidates are the only ones to be hooded on stage.

I am making this point because of my issue with the Associate Press's arbitrary title usage decisions. Yes, I am still on that! It really struck me when I was watching a broadcast of a certain right-leaning 24-hour news station* recently. In the piece, they referred to President Obama as either "Mr. Obama" or "the President", but were careful to avoid using the phrase "President Obama". I am not, by even the loosest definition, a regular viewer of this channel, though I do have specific memories of President Bush being referred to as "President Bush" during his term. I wondered if this was a mistake, or if it were a more sinister effort on the part of the news channel to refuse to identify "Mr. Obama" as the president. My mind wandered further, and it occurred to me that President Obama taught Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago once upon a time, and was therefore likely to hold a professional doctorate. One trip to Wikipedia later, and yup, he does. So, if the journalists at this news station refuse to refer to him as "President Obama", should they not at least be calling him "Dr. Obama"?

* I can't find the piece in question, so the news channel will remain nameless.

Tofini... marinofu... Okay, name to come!

As much as I love the Food Network website, it lacks somewhat in the area of pasta with tofu recipes. As I am in faux-vegan mode until I get married, the ever-succinctly named "meat sauce" is out. In truth, the phrase "meat sauce" has always been enough to make me skip dinner. Yuck! Anyway, I resorted to making it up a tofu-based recipe myself. I have been working on this one for a while, and I have it to a point where I am happy with it. Comments welcome!

4 tbsp olive oil
1 lg onion finely diced
4-5 good-sized garlic cloves, minced
2-3 cups mushrooms, sliced
1 zucchini (courgette) sliced
[Other vegetables by preference]
2 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp basil
1/2 tbsp thyme
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cinnamon (not kidding!)
7oz jar whole mantilla olives, drained (only 1/2 jar if you don't love salty foods, and omit black olives)
2.25oz can sliced black olives, drained
1 tub extra firm tofu, frozen overnight, thawed, drained & cubed
24oz crushed tomatoes
1 box whole wheat rotini

On medium heat, warm oil. Add onion and garlic and saute for 3 mins. Add mushrooms, zucchini and sauté for a further 3 mins. Add herbs, as well as olives and tofu and continue to sauté for 10 minutes. Add crushed tomatoes and reduce heat to low, reducing sauce for 20 minutes, then season to taste. In meantime cook rotini according to instructions. Serve!

Done!

T.G.I. Over! I finally finished the Ben sweater. What an ordeal! I'll spare you the majority of the gripes I had on this one, but suffice it to say, it took ages, everything that could have gone wrong did, I hated every moment of it and I the only person who will like the end product less than me is its intended recipient.


As this sweater took over a year to complete, I decided to do the finishing in a way that wouldn't make it look like I was inebriated for that length of time. So, I returned to the scene of the crime (berroco.com) and found that they have some really neat videos for how to finish your knitting projects. Here are the ones I used, and man, was I off-base before. I think the lesson learned here is that half-reading finishing instructions and wandering off, assuming you know it all, doesn't work so well. Shocking, I know!

Picking up stitches:


Seaming Shoulders:


And my personal favourite, the finishing feature I was so badly hamfisting my way through, I can only assume I invented my own wrong stitch;

The Mattress Stitch

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May 4th, 2009: I just found out that the sweater design I used is famous!!! Eveidently, Mo Rocca of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me fame commented that he didn't like knitted sweaters. This mobilized a group of Ravelry knitters to make him a sweater. They chose the Ben pattern and presented it to him!

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A Day in April

I just turned... ahem... let's just say "an age" and leave it at that. I had an awesome time over this year's birthday weekend. My very good friend, Faith, came into town for a yarn shopping trip! We headed out to the Twin Cities at what I would consider the crack of dawn on Saturday, and went to the Three Kittens Yarn store in Mendota Heights, and Borealis Yarn and The Yarnery, both in St. Paul.

I had been to the Three Kittens before, where, for some unknown reason, I decided against buying the yarn made from milk. I had since come to regret that act of woolly thinking, so this time, I picked up two skeins of the 80% milk sock yarn. Our next stop was The Yarnery, where we were delighted to find that everything was discounted by at least 20%. I ran a amok in that store, buying three skeins of Cascade Ecological Wool for a sweater I have wanted to make, a skein of Alpaca Sock yarn and two skeins of black Cascade 220, which, while I have no particular project in mind, is always useful. Finally, we went to Borealis Yarns. I was also able to pick up some Snuggly Bubbly, which I will probably make into a Baby Surprise Jacket. Finally, I found some navy Hempathy, which I will use to make some socks for my fiancé.

My main objectives, other than getting to spend time with Faith, were to pick up yarn for my cardigan pattern, buy yarn made from unusual or interesting fibres, and find some nice baby yarn. All in all, the trip was a complete success! I even found a cute clasp for my Butterfly cardigan, and locking stitch markers to finally finish my Ben sweater!

Despite this bounty of yarn and yarn accessories, the best thing I received this weekend was, instead, an early wedding present from Faith. I was just so grateful that she bought me the Addi Click set! I have been having so much fun with it and repaid her generosity by making silly sound effects every time I switched out the needles. I was so excited to be the proud owner of interchangeable Addi Turbos, that I instantly set them to work on the Deborah cardigan with my new Ecological wool. These needles are truly amazing, and I was able to finish the entire back panel over the weekend! I also finally learned how to do the continental purl stitch!

My only regret from this trip was that I forgot to charge my camera! I had this very wonderful idea of having various pictures of us outside each yarn store, inside the stores staring pensively at potential purchases, beaming gleefully with overflowing bags of wool and cotton.... But alas, it was not to be. Luckily, Faith had more photographic wherewithal than I, and took this picture:

10 Things #5: The Halfway Point

I finished my Moroccan Slippers from Fabulous & Flirty Crochet. They were super easy to make and went really fast. I used acrylic instead of the recommended wool/llama blend, and as a result, the puff stitches tended to strain the sc's into which they were made, and so the puff stitch motif looks a little stringy. Also, the first slipper I made came out way to big, so I dropped to the medium size and went down to a size H hook.

They are very cosy and I couldn't be happier with how rapidly they were made. Technically, they took 22 days, but this was my right-before-going-to-sleep project, so for most of that time, the slippers were in hibernation. In actuality, there were only three evenings when I actually worked on them, and I managed to churn out three slippers in that time! I think they look cute, flaws and all, and as they are only going to be worn around the house so it doesn't really matter if they are a little imperfect!

That's Five!

10 Things #3: *

The Excuse: I freely admit I am cheating on this one. I was going through some deranged love-my-heritage phase which culminated in my purchasing a book of patterns for knitting old style Aran sweaters. There's a reason Aran sweaters were modernised to the versions you find in shops these days; the original patterns were ugly. By the time the book arrived, I had come out of my misguided belief that I wanted to dress like a fisherman, and had moved on to my obsession with lacy sock patterns. I also took issue with the lack of charts in some of the patterns, as I am not able to follow strings of K1, P1, ssk, T3f, C2F, C2B, T3B, Sl1, P1, PSSO, K1, P3, K1, P1, etc. etc.


The Solution: I followed one of the nicer cable patterns and made a little cotton square. I had originally believed that I was going to make a few dozen of these squares and make and Aran sampler baby blanket.

That was a stupid idea. Cabling with cotton is a really efficient way to develop arthritis in your hand. It's so stiff and has no give the way wool does. The really dumb thing here was that I had previously suffered through making a cabled purse with acrylic yarn. That was equally painful, and I, at that time, promised myself I would only ever cable with wool. There is also no point in making a cotton baby blanket. Cotton is a light and breathable fabric and would do nothing to keep a baby warm. With those frustrating epiphanies, I threw the cotton square into a drawer and thought nothing more of it.

Until now that is. I have been lured into the world of making cotton dish-cloths by the seedier elements of the South Bend Knitwork. I am very conscientious of my impact on the environment, so I love that I have replaced my plastic sponges that sit in landfills forever, with cotton dish-cloths that can be put in the washing machine and eventually composted. I also like the fact that there is no risk of damaging pots and pans like there is with the scratchy green side of the sponges.

So here it is. My finished project from the book, Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys, and Arans, my cotton dish-cloth!

That's Four*

My Trip to Massachusetts

I was pretty darn excited when I discovered that Murder She Wrote had been adapted into a series of books. After all, murder mysteries are among my favourite things in life. Knitting is another of my favourite things. So you can only imagine the frenetic version of giddy that came out of me when I discovered this:

Yes, my two greatest loves finally tied the knot! I had heard rumours of such a series, but didn't have solid proof until Nick and I were looking for places to live in Massachusetts. We wandered into a realtor's office and met with a lovely woman, who was crocheting when we arrived. At one point, she was giving us long and boring directions to the various locations. Obviously, with my sense of direction I wasn't listening to that, so, instead, I was gazing around her office when I spotted the book on her desk. My mind is primed to spot pictures of yarn, and murder mystery-related keywords, so this really stood out! I took note of the name and resumed the less important task of finding somewhere to live.

The stars were really aligned on this one, and when I got back to Minnesota, I was emailed a Barnes and Noble gift card for a survey I had completed. I picked out "Died in the Wool" and "Knit Fast, Die Young". My order should ship within 3 days. I am quite literally on the edge of my seat. I plan to pass the time by devising some way to read my knitting mysteries while knitting at the same time. I know, it's the dream!

In other massachusite knitting news, we looked at a condo that was being cleared out and prepared for renting. The relatives of the owner were holding a garage sale when we arrived. Evidently, the lady who owned the house was elderly and her daughter now had power of attorney. I think the woman was going senile and was now living in a home. While this was quite sad, I did manage to pick up this yarn for 50¢! I am going to wash it, and also attempt to piece together enough of the label to figure out what it is. I think it's some sort of cotton.
(NiP: I pieced together the label and it read "Spinnerei Schweizerthal A.-G.". It also said that each skein, of which I have 4, has 225 yards.)

What a great State!