Alexander Borodin was a research chemist in addition to being a composer. I didn't know that until I was flipping through a booklet I have of information on various composers.
That booklet - also this site mention that his chemistry career left him less time than would be ideal for composing.
Heh, I kind of know that feeling. Even though I would in no way consider myself an artist, I can see how having a career in the sciences - and with teaching - cuts down on the time you can spend on other pursuits. So I can sympathize with poor old Borodin.
(I also admit I feel a bit sorry for him that he's mostly only known second-hand now, that the adaptations of his music for the musical "Kismet" is how most Americans know his music - if they know it at all. (When was the last time "Kismet" was produced? I mean, other than maybe as a high school spring musical). It's hard to hear that bit from "Prince Igor" and not start singing "Stranger in Paradise" in your head.)
Interestingly, the website I linked to above noted that he was also a champion of women's education in 19th century Russia. (A couple other sites I looked at noted that too).
Speaking of pursuits outside of research and teaching, I finished the leg of the first Butter Peeps sock and began the heel flap. I enjoy knitting socks - and I knit a lot of them - partly because they're modular. When you get bored with one part, it's time to do something else. Cuff, leg, heel flap, turn heel, foot, toe...there's enough changing in what you do to keep them interesting.
Also, I think turning the heel - essentially, making knitting change direction - is one of the cleverer human innovations in craft. But sadly, I cannot think of too many other clothes-applications for it. (And I tried to think of them last night...shoulders on a sweater are done differently, even bust-darts on a fitted piece would probably be done differently). I remember years and years ago, the "old" Threads (before they went over to being a purely sewing-oriented magazine) had an article titled something like "If you can turn a heel, you can knit anything you want" though the focus was more on knitting sculptural forms than knitting clothing.
I suppose you could argue that plain-old shortrowing (with or without the "wraps and turns," which I always have to look up to remember how to do - the way I turn heels is the old Dutch or old French way, and you don't have to wrap and turn for that - could be thought of as kind of "half turning" a heel. And wrap-and-turn shortrowing is often used to shape shoulders of sweaters - or put in bust darts - things like that.
I do wonder who was the first person (if there was a "first" person, and it wasn't some kind of a, to use an evolutionary term, polyphyletic development) who figured out how to turn a sock heel.
2 comments:
Some Islamic stockings use a heel that looks like the first half of a short-row heel; others use an "afterthought" heel (see my recent article in, ahem, _Knitting traditions_, if I may be permitted to toot my own horn here).
European heel treatments seem to have evolved gradually. The first European knitted stockings seem to have taken their geometry from the way older cloth stockings were cut and sewn from woven cloth, and so they have a flap-heel that is very interesting in the way it turns the corner: I actually teach this heel to beginning sock knitters because I think it's easier to understand how it works. (I turned conventional heels blindly for years because the instructions didn't make sense to me; I just followed them and it worked.) If you look for the Pre-Literate Stocking pattern on Ravelry, you can see how to do this older style of "common heel."
Some of the earliest stockings -- which are from Islamic countries -- use something that looks like the first half of a short-row heel: see the"Medieval Muslim Egyptian Stockings" pattern on Ravelry. Other Islamic stockings use an "afterthought" heel (see "Medieval Islamic Stockings" from Knitting Traditions, and yes, that one's mine ;).
European stocking heels seem to have evolved gradually: the first ones were probably copied from the way that cut and sewn stockings from woven cloth were assembled. I actually teach this early style of "flap" heel to beginning sock knitters, because I think it's much easier to understand why it works. (I followed conventional sock heel instructions for years and they still made no sense to me.) Take a look at the "Pre-Literate Stockings" pattern on Ravelry (also mine) and you'll see how it's put together.
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