Some questions answered

Tat:

No, I don't finish the pieces. You have to be a little careful to keep the fabric from ravelling but it is 100% cotton, medium-weight, and so it doesn't ravel like satin or something like that would. (If I were doing a quilt with a more raveling fabric, I probably would either cut the pieces larger and pink the edges with pinking shears, or else maybe take very small hems on them). Or I'd do larger than the standard-for-quilts 1/4" seam. I'd probably even do that working with flannel. Some people make quilts with flannel but I don't; I find it ravels like crazy and it also is stretchier than the quilt cottons, and those both lead to annoyances I don't need.

You also have to be careful if you are not finishing the ends (tying off) of the seams. Often times quilt patterns instruct you to "chain piece" - that is, sew a bunch of units together all in a long strip, with just a couple centimeters of thread between the units, then you cut the threads. I actually find I have bigger problems with those seams "undoing" in the process of working with the pieces than I have with the pieces raveling.

If a finished but unquilted quilt top needs to be washed (like, you spill something on it), I think you would need to finish the outermost edges to prevent raveling, though. Also, if you have the bias edge of a fabric on the edge of the quilt, you might want to do a...I forget the term, what dressmakers call it, but it's just a narrow line of stitching that stabilizes everything and stops the stretching. ("Staystitching." I just thought of it).


***

And Ellen, I started reading "Shop Class as Soulcraft"....had underlined stuff in it, written a few blog posts on it in my head, and then I got busy with other stuff...and never finished it. (I do that a lot with books). I need to find it and pull it out and finish reading it. Because I do think it says something important about how we live now, and how we might live.

***

And Grace, I have read a few things about heavy-duty exercise depressing the immune system; that marathon runners seem to fall prey more easily to colds than folks who exercise, but exercise less intensely (not sure about totally sedentary people and where they fit in). That could be part of it.

Thank you all for the nice comments. Perhaps I am actually more "popular" than I think I am.

Popularity is a strange concept. I think the reason I craved it - and think I still do - is in part, that it was so mysterious. As the anonymous commenter said, some kids were popular just because they were. In some cases, I think it was a matter of confidence - of seeming like you "should" be popular. I didn't have that confidence. In some cases, the kids probably "deserved" their popularity: they were attractive and well-dressed, they were good at sports, they were generally nice to people. But there were other cases, of kids who, you might say, talked the talk but didn't walk the walk. I remember a few popular girls who had really fooled the teachers into thinking they were nice kids and all, but wow, the things they would say to other kids when the teachers' backs were turned. Or the rumors they'd start and then disavow.

And I think, because I believed on some level that life should be "fair," it seemed wrong to me that a ratty-acting person could be popular, and could get away with stuff like, for example, referring to my friend Sarah as "trailer trash" (the first time I ever heard that phrase, and while she and her family DID live in a mobile home, "trash" was not a word that should have been applied to her). It seemed to me, even then, that in a just world, people like Sarah and my friend Debbie, and, perhaps even me, would be the popular ones....and the girls who spread rumors and teased other girls to the point where their stomachs would knot up just because they saw their tormentor coming down the hall...well, they wouldn't be.

So perhaps it IS a bit of ego on my part. And a bit of jealousy.

Actually, popularity is kind of like celebrity, I guess. There are some folks who are famous 'for cause' - they are good musicians, they do amazing sports feats, or they make good movies. But of late there's also been a trend (or maybe there always has been and I'm just noticing it now) of people who are famous because...well, they're FAMOUS. It's almost an Emperor's New Clothes sort of thing - everyone says that person X is famous and important, and people don't want to look like idiots or hicks, so they go along with it.

I guess the other thing I think popularity would give/would have given me is a sense of approval. I know, having a hundred yes-men around you is not equal to having one real friend who will tell you, for example, that something you are doing is wrong and you should stop it. But I've been in enough situations in my life where I wrote something, or did an art project, or made something else, and I thought it was pretty good, actually, and then when I presented it for someone else's approval, they tore it apart. And there have been other times when time or other pressures prevented me from making what I would consider the best effort, and I got high praise for something I believed to be half-hearted at best...and that, plus other things that happened in my past, have taught me the lesson of Don't Always Trust Your Own Judgment. And so, for better or for worse, I tend to seek "approval" from outside sources. And I think, popularity would be like the ultimate approval: a critical mass of people find you interesting and that what you are doing is good.

(You can imagine that reading the faculty evaluation comments every semester is pretty painful for me. I've been told by people that if you are 50-50 or better on the ratio of positive:negative comments - and I am - that you are doing a good job. But I still can't quite let go of those negative ones, even when they're NOT "constructive" criticism or when they're things I really had no control over and can't fix).

So I don't know. As I said earlier, perhaps craving "big knit blogger" popularity - when I do have a solid cadre of readers who like my stuff - is sort of a form of ingratitude, not seeing those readers for who they are. Kind of like the person at the party who is talking to someone but scanning the crowd for someone "more interesting" or prettier or who can advance their career more.

At any rate.

Revenons a nos moutons (one of my favorite idiomatic sayings, in any language. It literally means, let us return (to tending) our own sheep. Essentially "stick to your knitting" but not quite so imperative)

I've been working on various things...the Mystery Project (which I will photograph and put up here when it's done; I don't think the recipient reads here and even if she did, she wouldn't know it was for her). I'm also knitting on a pair of Kew socks (from Knitty). I like them but I think they will take aggressive blocking to make the edging work when they are done (right now, it wants to fold over).

And I keep looking longingly at my quilt fabric. Perhaps this weekend I will make time to work on the Pie Crust Pileup that has been sitting on my table for several weeks.

*****

Two other comment responses (if you've read this far):

to the anonymous commenter: I have not found a good source for 100% cotton pillowcases. In some cases I have made my own: it's not that difficult and if you get the slightly heavier quilting muslin, it makes good sturdy pillowcases that you can still embroider well on. (You could probably also make LINEN pillowcases, if you felt like spending the money - and washing the linen a few times to soften it up).

And Charlotte: the monster teeth are cut from white felt. The pattern suggests gluing them on but I stitched them on with white thread and a small running stitch because I tend not to like the stiffness that a large area of glue lends.

*****

Weather is unsure here. For three days they were selling the OH NOES GIANT ICE STORM and telling us to prepare to have "alternate sources of heat" if the power went out. Now they're saying we MIGHT get a little sleet.

While I'm grateful that we're not going to get hit hard, it looks like north of us it's going to be BAD. (I have a couple students who commute from McAlester). I hope TPTB, if it gets bad north of us and driving is unsafe, decide to cancel tomorrow and give the commuters a break.

(And I wouldn't complain about a Friday snow day myself. It's early enough in the semester that I could catch back up if necessary).

I did run out to the grocery yesterday afternoon (it wasn't bad yet, but I bet today it will be) and bought more milk and the few things I might have bought on a Saturday-morning trip, just in case the roads here are slick Saturday morning. And I did my laundry last night (Yes, I'm still having to stick the hose out the screen door, I'm still on Plumber-Watch) in case it gets really cold and would be kind of miserable to have that door open tonight or tomorrow.

So I'm as ready as I can be for bad weather.

Mostly comment responses:

Charlotte, pralines, while not strictly Cajun, would be New Orleans. That would be another option for desserts....I didn't think of them. I often make pralines at Christmas time. (The only problem with making them for the lunch...if it's as humid next week as it is now, they'll be all sugary. Candy is best made on dry days.)

Lydia, CPAaG is the Completely Pointless and Arbitrary Group on Ravelry. It's one of the odder groups on there. We rarely talk about knitting. But it's become a little community of sorts and the people are funny and supportive. And it's one of the rare places where I feel free to be a bit childish, in the sense of laughing at things that would have amused me when I was 12.

I do think I'm going to finish the dog quilt and donate it in her name and I'm also considering making a donation to cancer research in her name. I will just have to find a good group. (I don't know specifically what kind of cancer; all that was ever said was, "an abdominal cancer" so I don't know if I'm supposed to read between the lines like with my grandmother (hers was uterine cancer) or if it was something they couldn't really localize).

Thanks for the support. On some level I was expecting the news at some point, just not so soon. Cancer, to use a word I rarely use on here, sucks.

Oh, and Ellen: Clapotis is still going, it's just not at a stage that's interesting to photograph right now. I guess I kind of put it to the side in favor of other things, but it will get finished eventually.

And to answer Lynn's question of a few days ago (This will require a more involved discussion) about how long hand knit socks last. The answer is, "It depends."

It depends on a number of things, mainly I think, the yarn used, the gauge knit to, and how you wear the socks.

There are many yarns you can make socks of. Some of them perhaps being yarns you should not make socks of. Yarn that is very softly spun tends to make weaker socks. The best sock yarn tends to feel kind of "hard" - in the sense of being tightly spun.

Opinions vary, but I tend not to like all-synthetic yarns for socks. They may be stronger but they do not breathe; it is like wearing plastic bags on your feet. I tend to prefer wool.

Wool is a little warm for the summers here but the other day, out in the field, I was reminded of one of its best properties: it continues to keep you warm even when it's wet. (I stepped in a hole full of water while collecting the soil. I was wearing sneakers with woolen boot socks. It would have been a lot more miserable if I had had the thin cotton athletic socks I usually wear with sneakers on)

Most of the sock yarn made by the large companies (Regia, Online, Opal) has about 25% "polyamid" (I think that's the same as polyester?). This is supposed to make the yarn stronger. I have never tested it. Some of the smaller, independent dyers use 100% wool yarn. I really think if the yarn is tightly spun, the wool vs. wool plus polyamid won't make a difference.

There may also be differences between different wools - merino, for example, tends to be softer than some other breeds. I've never really investigated, though.

The gauge is also important. Simply put, the tighter, the better. I tend to shoot for a gauge of 8 to 10 stitches per inch on sock-weight yarns. This give a firm fabric. Looser stitches can experience more friction and may wear out faster. Also, slipped stitches (I think) tighten the gauge; often heels are knit using a slipped-stitch pattern which makes a thicker fabric that wears better.

How you wear the socks also plays a role. I have heard that walking around in stocking feet on carpeted floors can wear socks out faster. I don't have carpet in my house, and I usually wear slippers if I'm walking around bare/stocking footed so I don't know about that one. But the type of shoes you wear can have an effect: if there are points where the shoes create friction, that can lead to the socks wearing out. I usually wear handknit socks with clogs (low friction) or, yes, Birkenstock sandals (so sue me, fashion police) which also are low friction. (If I could find a pair of nice, clunky, Mary Jane type shoes, I would also consider wearing those with socks.)

Friction is the enemy of socks.

All of that said, I've never had a pair of handknit socks actually wear out. I've had a few that are getting thin in spots (mainly under the heel) but I've never had any "blow out" in the way that the cotton athletic socks I wear for exercising do (big holes starting in the heel or under the ball of the foot). Some of the socks I've been wearing off and on for seven or eight years. (I can't speak to how heavy wear would affect them, because none of them see particularly heavy wear, as I have many pairs).

I will say the times I've had holes appear, they can be blamed on one of two things:

carpet beetles (curses upon them) or the fact that I got a sandbur tangled in one of the socks. In both cases, strands of yarn got broken, and as I wore the socks, the hole enlarged. (The holes typically have been in the cuff, which tells me they're not wear-holes). And yes, I bother to repair them. Either with leftover yarn from the socks if I have it, or with a matching yarn. I put too much effort into my socks to throw them out of they get holes. (In a couple of cases, I've even reknit portions of the sock when they got damaged).

I like to think of the mends as being similar to the Japanese practice of mending tea bowls with gold seams. While on the one hand, the holes bother me - they are a reminder of the impermanence of all good things on this Earth - on the other, it gratifies me that I can repair the socks, and that they are worth repairing.

(The cotton athletic socks? When they wear out - usually pretty spectacularly with big holes on the ball of the foot - I throw them out and buy new ones).

Thanks, all. Maybe the Day of Service is not an idea that's made it out of the East Coast region yet. I don't mind doing something but I do mind when stuff like this gets all politicized (by either side) and when what was really a human tragedy gets used as a political issue. Or as a goad to beat people with, to tell them they "must" do something lest they dishonor the memory of those who died.

I also get irritated when organizers act like you have to do it "their" way or what you're doing doesn't count. I feel a similar irritation when I hear the PSAs on the radio that imply that if you are not volunteering for an afterschool program, you are contributing to the next generation of juvenile delinquents. (For one thing, I do a Sunday evening program - though it's doubtful any of the kids currently attending would be headed for delinquenthood - and for another, when I'm on campus from 7 in the morning until 4 or 5 some afternoons, plus evening meetings, it's like, "Take the REST of my life away, why don't you?" I mean, especially with the hour of exercise I do every morning to keep myself from becoming obese - which apparently is now part of my "patriotic" duty, according to some - it's like how much MORE can people expect of me?)

Anyway. I'm torn about trying to give blood. As I said, I'd rather do it at the church drive because there are an increasingly smaller number of members who can donate (older folks who have had cancer within the past 5 years, or who are on medications that exempt them, or among the younger women, several have given birth recently, which also exempts them).

I suppose I could send off the scarf I have ready for Red Scarf Project. One of the women in my AAUW group suggested baking cookies for a Red Cross event later in the fall, but with the way my schedule goes, I'm not sure I'd even have time for that.

If I had had an extra week to think about it, I probably could have come up with something. I think the short notice is in part what annoyed me - it's like "Drop everything and do this" when they have no concept of how many balls some of us are attempting to juggle.

Maybe something else will turn up I can do Friday afternoon. Maybe there will be something at the library I can help with.

****

Charlotte, I've substituted winter squash equally for pumpkin in soups and pies; I see no reason why it would not work equally well in breads. I admit for "cooked" things requiring a puree I'm more prone to use pumpkin because it's easier to pick up a can of it than it is to bake or steam a squash.

****

Anyway.

I finished all the knitting on the Airy Cardigan but ran out of steam to complete the finishing around 7 pm last night.

I did get both sleeves knit, all the ends woven in (easier on mohair because it has "sticky ends" - they don't seem prone to pulling out and unravelling), the edging on the front (with buttonholes) done, and I sewed up the first sleeve seam, but just couldn't work up the energy to do the second sleeve (with the mohair, it took a good 15 minutes to unpick the provisional cast-on for the sleeve edgings, and that took a lot of my patience towards the end).

But it is very close to done. Sew up the second sleeve, set both sleeves in, and put on the buttons - and that's it! I'm pleased I pulled this back out and persisted on redesigning the sleeves to be longer.

(Edited: gah, I went to the trouble to take a photo and then forgot to post it):



Now I can move on - probably back to the Honeycomb vest.

Charlotte: you are right, the sock toe is a little folded. The toes are done using a "star toe of four points" (as Nancy Bush would describe it), and they don't decrease down quite as fast as they might, so the toes are just a wee bit "floppy." It shouldn't matter when I wear the socks with sandals; the straps will "take up" a bit of that floppiness.

And on the other question: If I do design a vest pattern (which I'm actually contemplating; I can see what I want in my mind and if I can transfer it to paper AND convert that to a pattern...), I probably wouldn't sell it. For one thing, I'd probably only design one size (mine; which would be 42-44" inches). But if I do, I'll post instructions for it on the blog (or make it available as an e-mail file to anyone who wants it). It seems most for-sale patterns, you need to design a range of sizes and I'm not sure I'd be ready for that. Especially for a cabled item, which would be more of a challenge to resize. Also, it would probably be heavily borrowed-from from existing patterns (like from the Interweave "Grand Plan" book) and I never know how much change is sufficient to be "different" from a copyright perspective (for that matter, some might argue that giving away a highly-modified pattern is wrong itself. But if I put the cables in and figured out how much wider I needed to make the fronts to account for the cables...)

What I'm thinking thus far: 2x2 rib on the bottom band, arm bands, and button band. "Homes of Donegal" cables running up the fronts, with a small (probably 4-stitch) cable on either side of them. The back, maybe something like rice stitch, some kind of texture (even though I always groan at those dense knit-purl textures like moss stitch because they take longer, they do look nice). And it would have a v-neck. And I'm even imagining those menswear-style leather buttons (you know, the ones with the four little sections on them?) as the buttons.

The fact that I can "see" it so clearly makes me think I can do it. Oh, it will take months - and I will probably wait until I finish the Honeycomb vest, or at least get further on it before I try to design something. But maybe what I need is to try my hand at designing now. Who knows, maybe I'd be good at it.

Perhaps do the back first - the simpler part - to get the sizing down and be sure that it seems like it would fit right. And then design the fronts to work with the back.

I didn't get any pictures taken last night, and this morning was too hectic (I'm trying to get back into my usual schedule of "on campus by 7 am") so I'll show the quilt I finished over break tomorrow.

two quick comment responses:

First: Angie, I saw no crocking or bleeding of dye when I knit the socks, nor for the half-hour or so I wore them last night. But your comment makes me think that when I handwash them I should use a vinegar rinse to help clear out any excess dye that may be there.

Second: Aven - and anyone else who reads this, if you want to "follow" me, you're more than welcome. It's under crazyfillyjonk on Twitter. (I'm still not really up to speed on doing things like invites or sending "messages to" people on Twitter; I'm still learning). And I added you to my list, Aven. I think I need to follow more people so I don't just see my own posts up there.

I think most of the Twitter posts will either be, as I said, favorite quotations, links to cool websites of a sciency/educational nature, or random factoids. I still like writing longer-form posts here, and I like how it is seemingly easier for people to comment on a blog than it is on Twitter (though I see that it's POSSIBLE to refer to someone else's tweet and comment on it...)

Spike: dare taken.

Actually, that was how I originally intended to wear it - with an otherwise perfectly serious skirt and blouse (I actually have a rather nice blouse with a ruffle around a plunging (well, for me) neckline that would look good with it).

I will think of it as a wee experiment into how perceptive people are. I suspect 95% of the people who see it will go, "oh, cameo necklace" and very very few will go "Wait...that's Miss Piggy!"

(Though it might be interesting to note if, say, males happened to notice it more than females...just testing to see if they're observing that general area. And yes, I have my suspicions, but never enough to go, "Hey, my eyes are up here." Of course, if I really wanted to test that, I probably would also need something surprising to stick on my rear end, too.)

Besides, I've concluded that anyone who would think less of me for wearing a Miss Piggy pendant in otherwise semi-casual circumstances (I would not, for example, wear it to a relative's wedding) is not someone whose approval I need. On the other hand, I suspect that there ARE people who would think more highly of me for wearing - either because they are also a Muppet fan or they appreciate humor and a bit of guts in clothing choices - and they are someone whose approval I would welcome.

I probably should have just made the chocolate cake FIRST, instead of trying the fancier cake, based on the response I got. Everyone (or at least everyone who likes chocolate and cake) seems to like that cake. (It IS a good recipe - not too fiddly, nice crumb, nice texture, and the resulting cake isn't overly sweet).

****

Grace, thanks for the article link! That's what I was talking about. I think it's interesting how they are combing through old maps (and doing what we GISers call "ground truthing" - going out and looking at the site to see if what's on the map is actually there). And it's an unusual use of GIS.

That said, I'm not sure how I'd feel if I owned property with one of these "ghost roads" on it. I'd be uncomfortable if it were my homesite, thinking the state could come through and decide that I'd have to cede a portion of my property close to my house for a road.

And I do think it again brings up the issue of "what is civility? How do we manage to live together?" I keep thinking about that hay farmer and his comment about how 90% of the people who came through his land, he was perfectly happy to give the right of way to, but that there were a few who made him re-think that choice because they behaved badly.

I think that's one of the big challenges we face as a society. I don't know if the "special snowflake" problem (people acting as if they are the only ones that matter and doing things that abuse the hospitality of others) is an increasing problem or if we are just becoming more sensitive to it.

Oh, and Charles - I think is is a White Owl cigars ad. Now that I think about it, I believe one of my grandfathers used to occasionally smoke White Owls.

I should just go out some day and take some photos in my town; there is some interesting stuff to look at and right now when a lot of the ornamental trees are flowering there are some pretty plants, too.

***

One thing I did this past weekend was decorate my mantel.



I found a couple more pieces of "cottage ware" at an antique shop in McKinney (it's a newer shop called "Heirlooms" and I'm happy to see that it has kind of taken up the mantle of the dear departed Antique Collection in terms of what it carries and the style of how it's displayed).

I like this stuff. I suppose there's more of it out there - I'd be willing to bet there's at least a teapot in this style.

And I suppose, because once you have more than two of anything, you're a collector, I will probably now start looking for more of this stuff. But it does make me happy; it's just so cute.



I also put up a few Easter things. Decorating for Easter is something I've never really done; it seems to me that if you observe Lent (which I do, in kind of a half-hearted way), you don't put stuff about Easter up until the day of - and by then, it's kind of a lot of effort for a short time. But I decided to, this year.

The big bunny in the middle is from a Wee Wonderfuls free pattern; he was made using scraps my mom had saved from a dress or top I had when I was a little girl, so the fabric is (I guess) "vintage" (more than 35 years old - I probably would have been about 4 - counts as "vintage" now, I think.)

The "chocolate" rabbit is actually resin but it looks and feels very much like the real thing. And the fuzzy chick was so cute that I had to buy it - that's what made me want to do an Easter mantel.

(The sparkly eggs are covered with German glass glitter. Now that I think of it, it probably would have been cheaper to buy the foil-wrapped chocolate ones. But leaving them out might have attracted ants.)

Thank you all so very much for the kind Blogiversary comments. I'm glad you enjoy reading the blog, because I do enjoy writing it. (It's one of my rare chances at truly creative and free-form writing.)

A couple of responses, to those comments that require or inspire them:

I guess "weird" can be good or bad. I think part of the thing is that most of the people, I'm not exactly "on the inside" on their lives, so I don't see how "weird" they might actually be - I can only judge by myself and my immediate family. My parents are pretty normal. My brother is weird, though in different ways from those in which I am weird. My sister-in-law is pretty normal but with a sense of humor sufficient to enjoy my brother's Monty Python/ Top Gear/ Dr. Who obsessions.

I don't know. I refer to myself as "weird" because that's what my peers told me I was growing up. Frankly, I like the way that I am - I can entertain myself easily enough, I have a fairly rich inner life.

And I do think people whose default position is kindness and compassion are sometimes made to feel weird in this world. (My mother often laments that she taught my brother and me to be "too nice," meaning we often got ran over by the not-so-nice kids at school).

And Spike: maybe we need to go out, waving skeins of yarn or trailing fat quarters behind us, and start singing, "Come out, come out, wherever you are..." a la Billie Burke in "The Wizard of Oz"? (Or maybe not). But it does at times feel a bit like being in a closet (though I am sure not to the degree that gay people who were in the closet felt, or at least that's the sense I get from talking to the few gay people I've known over the years)

Actually, it's interesting: it's always an exciting little thing to find a compadre out there. There was a woman who belonged to my church (sadly, she has since moved across the country) who knitted. I didn't know it at first until one day she remarked on how much work must have gone into the shawl I was making. It was nice (at least for as long as she was here); I loaned her an extra set of sock needles when she lost hers (and she promptly returned them when she was done) and she had a standing offer to bring any hanked yarn over to my place because I had a swift and a ball-winder.

Maybe I'll be lucky and find another kindred spirit again.

There's a quilt group in my town but they meet at 1 pm on Wednesdays - very inconvenient for those of us in the working world. (There's another one that meets Thursday nights but it is purely aimed at making lap robes for local nursing homes, and while that's a noble thing, I have to admit I don't need yet another volunteer project).

The next nearest guild is in McKinney, and I just can't face that long of a drive on a weeknight for a guild. (Maybe as my town grows, one will spring up. I hope.)

Aven: if you restart the blog (or start anew with another URL), please drop a comment. (It doesn't matter if the comment doesn't "fit" with the post it's on).

And to the person who felt more comfortable (I assume) e-mailing than commenting (and I won't "out" your name here in case you e-mailed for reasons of privacy): thank you. And you know? I could probably be locked in my house for 15 years and still not use up the fabric I have. I should probably claim to two fabric-related hobbies: quilting, and buying quilt fabric. Because that's a whole hobby in itself.

And Astrid: if seven years is like five centuries, then is my blog akin to the Bayeux Tapestry of blogging? (OK, that's more like 10 centuries, but it's the first comparison I can come up with).

And I think it's interesting that several people commented on the blog being an island of stability or sanity or something like that. You know, actually, for me it is too - a lot of crazy stuff can go on around me, but as long as I can keep knitting or quilting and can talk about it here, it does kind of make a "safe place" where things are fairly nice.

I'm glad people like reading about my quilting. At first, when I started this as a KNITTING blog, I was a little leery of posting about it here; I was concerned some people would think I was losing my knitter's "street cred" by talking about other crafts (or cooking, or the books I'm reading, or whatever). But they're part of the whole. (As I've said before, I'm not good at going, "If they don't like me, forget 'em" but I'm beginning to learn that there are some things about me that are non-negotiable in the name of making friends or avoiding making enemies.)

Well, this was written Tuesday night (but set to post Wednesday morning - and I LIKE that little feature of Blogger; it means you can write a post when you're inspired and set it to post at a time when you might be too busy to). Part of the reason I'm online right now (while my rice cooks for dinner) is that I keep checking to see if I get another Ice Day tomorrow. (I did today). If anything, it's going to be worse tomorrow, so I hope they call it. (If they call it before I go to bed, I won't have to set my alarm clock for 5 am).

I did do one thing today (other than read half of a book one of my Directed Reading students chose)

I "maded" some cookies. (As the LOLcats say).



Just plain old Toll House cookies (which we always called chocolate-chip cookies in my family). I baked them in bar form. My mom used to do that often (her mother used to say any drop cookie could be baked as a bar. But I suppose the trick is in knowing how large a pan to use). It's a lot faster and when my brother and I were kids, we actually preferred chocolate chip cookies this way, because they stayed gooey-er. (I cannot find a spelling of that word that looks right. Gooier? Gooeyer? Gooyer?).

For this batch I did use some Ghiardelli 60% cacao semi-sweet chips I had, plus a cup of chopped walnuts that were hanging around in my freezer. So they're a little fancier than standard Toll House cookies.

So, if it turns out all classes are cancelled tomorrow, I will finish the Directed Readings book in the morning, and (perhaps) finish the Sock Monkey quilt in the afternoon. If only morning classes are cancelled (which sometimes happens and the weather is supposed to improve around noon), I may just stay home until class time and knit. (And yes, that's the biggest suspense in my life right now. And I kind of like it that way.)

Ellen: no, no lying in front of doors. Then again, I don't have a drawing room or a tureen to worry about ;) (I do keep most of my amigurumi; right now they are decorating my bedroom. Yes, I realize that most people would view that as kind of childish; I really do not care.)

It was a nice, peaceful weekend. (The best kind, I'm convinced.)

(Piano update is at the very end in case anyone is bored by it and wants to skip that section).

I worked a bit more on the Sock Monkey quilt - all the pieces are cut, the simpler blocks are sewn, and the first of the more-complex blocks (two "pinwheels" set with solid squares) has been made. (No pictures yet; I think I'm going to wait until I lay out the quilt).

I also read a bunch for a fire-ecology class I'm helping teach (and yes, the students have already begun doing the Beavis and Butthead impressions. I think that's kind of required in a fire ecology class).

And I finished my first-ever pair of toe-up socks:

They even fit.

As I said, I'm going to use some Regia that I had deep in the stash (I think I got it on sale somewhere, and when it arrived I was kind of like, yuck, why did I buy this color? so it will be good experimentation yarn) to try out a modification of the pattern with a deeper heel flap. This is an attempt at "perfecting" the fit because I do find I have a couple stitch patterns I want to plug into socks, but that would only really work starting at the toe.

I also started a new scarf:



Diann, remember this? The yarn you said you bought because you liked it and then realized the color was wrong for you? I'm making just a simple feather-and-fan scarf out of it. (I really had planned to for a couple years, but just never got around to starting it).

I like the opal-like quality of the colors and I think it works well with the feather and fan pattern. (Really, sometimes, I think the simple old stitch patterns are the best - this is probably the most basic lace pattern out there)

And here's the January mantel. I like the "icy" effect I've done the past couple years (with candles in all kinds of clear glass holders) that I did it again. Here are all the candles, lit:



(Forgive the shakiness; it was taken with the "extreme night" long exposure time and the "tripod" I jury-rigged out of books wasn't as stable as I thought it was)

Also, one of my favorite things, which always finds a place on my mantel, regardless of how I have it decorated:



These are little copper tealight holders. You can see they have words punched out of them so the candle light shines out through the words. My dad got these for me for Christmas several years ago. They make me very happy.

I did other things - put in a couple more hours of practice on the piano (and discovered that the piano in the Fellowship Hall has a much better tone and doesn't have an annoying "click" in the G above middle C. My church has a great abundance of spinet pianos but most of them haven't been kept up well and they're either badly out of tune or have sustained some damage somewhere).

And you know, I've learned two things already:

1. An hour is the absolute limit I can sit at the piano in one "chunk" and work productively. As I close in on the hour, that's when I begin to make mistakes.

2. My piano teacher was absolutely right when she said that consistent practice is better than a big chunk one day and nothing other days. I didn't disbelieve her on that, after all, she has years of experience and it makes sense - but I really saw it in action this weekend. I think it's like learning anything - if you sleep after learning, somehow it gets "set in" better. I could play the little Mozart piece MUCH BETTER today than I could either yesterday or Friday. I'm even beginning to notice and do things like, "Ease up on the left-hand chords; they are sounding too dominant" and being able to put in legato where there's legato and staccato where there's staccato.

And one of my big worries - and I think this goes back to some bad advice I got from a music teacher years ago (I don't like to speak ill of the dead - and he did pass fairly recently - so I'll just describe it as bad advice). It kind of doomed me to thinking that I could only learn to play "technically proficiently," that I would always play like a machine and not be able to put FEELING into it. But I'm beginning to hear the hints of feeling in my practicing. So maybe there's hope yet.

I am tempted to go a bit "rogue" and see if I can find some copies of the Well-Tempered Clavier books and buy them to have when I feel like messing about on my own. There's one piece extracted from Book 1 at the very end of my performance book. I tried it out today and while I am far, far from perfect on it - it brought me so much joy to be able to do it. To play it, and to hear it, and to recognize it as a piece I've heard before. It's all based on arpeggios so it's not that hard (It's also "arranged," and therefore made less hard. But still).

I may also ask my folks to dig around in the music chest they have at home and see if they can find the old exercise books I had years ago - I think maybe I had one of Clementi's books (did he write for piano? Or did I have that book for clarinet? I don't remember).

I will say I will be so glad when my piano arrives (less than 2 weeks, now.) My plans for my day off tomorrow are to move the necessary furniture and clean so there is a space for it. I envision being able to practice for ten or fifteen minutes in the morning before heading out the door to work, and being able to sit down and "decompress" at the end of the day by practicing. (Right now, I usually switch on the tv to one of the all-news channels. It is probably spiritually healthier for me to sit down at the piano instead. And there's at least a half-hour there most days that's "empty" time otherwise). I know I will be able to make time to practice, especially once the piano is here. (One of the men in my Sunday School class has often commented that "people find time for the things they value" as a response when he hears about someone claiming they "don't have time" for this or that. While that may not be strictly true 100% of the time, I do think there's some truth to it - thinking of all the quilters and knitters out there with far busier lives than I lead, or the people who sing in choirs, or who read far more books than I do.)

I've really loved all the comments on the Shakespeare post I made. (I do think I am going to start with Hamlet - I am quite sure I can either borrow or rent the Branagh version, which I want to see). I am thinking perhaps I will interlard the comedies with the tragedies, just to keep things from being too heavy. So maybe Hamlet first, then perhaps Twelfth Night (darn, if I had been thinking, I might have been able to do that first, closer to the actual "Twelfth Night").

And I will read some of the sonnets. I have read some in the past; the one I remember best (of course) is "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun..." (At one time I even had it memorized). I also know "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day..." but I think those are the only two with which I am really familiar.

And Lynn reminds us that this is National De-Lurking week. So if you're a lurker, please do leave a comment - on the Shakespeare post, if you have any thoughts or suggestions, or on any other post. It doesn't have to be a profound comment. Heaven knows I've left my share of not-profound comments on other blogs. But it's nice to know that people are reading, even if they do not comment regularly.

Charlotte: is this it?

(About the only sort of "parlor trick" I can do is find things on the internet)

****

And, regarding the Simon and Garfunkel conversation: I pretty much love a lot of the Simon and Garfunkel stuff (though partly because I played it a lot during my early college days; I've always been at least a decade and a half out of step). But yeah, some of their early work gets a little bit precious. And yet, I have to admit, I'd still rather listen to is than most "modern" pop music. I'll take a pair of singer-songwriters who reference Dickinson and Frank Lloyd Wright over bragging about conquests or brooding about how dark the world is...

I do think that when setting poems to music one has to be VERY careful. The slightest anachronism or mismatch between music style and poem is extremely jarring.

****

Last night was the AAUW Christmas party. Lots of talk of Dorothy and her absence; she was such a big part of the Christmas party.

****

My exams are all written. I have a tiny bit of grading to do this morning (and will have more after my 9 am class). But other than that, I'm essentially done until exams (which start up Monday). I think I'm going to take the weekend to relax. For one thing, I need to clean house (or at least the kitchen; the new dishwasher is supposed to arrive Monday). And I want to finish the violets quilt; my name is on the list with my mother's quilting group to have it hand-quilted. (I don't have a backing but part of the fun will be going out to one of the shops up there to pick one out). I will say I am really ready to be done with cutting the "houndstooth" bits. I have 16 more squares to do (of something like 288 originally) and cannot be done fast enough, it is very tedious. (I tested to see if I could "stack" the strips and cut more than one at once, but I don't think I safely can.)

I'm also considering cutting some more hexagons for the grandmother's flower garden quilt; I think I will take the pieces for this with me at Christmas and sew on it while on vacation. It's one way of doing some quilt piecing that is portable.

(I'm also thinking this is going to be a toy-heavy Christmas break, in terms of projects. I found a kit for some knitted and felted sea turtles I got years ago and that has been in my stash, and I also want to finally get around to doing that unicorn from the Claire Garland book).

Thanks guys.

On the ravelry "spam posts" issue...yeah, I kind of suspected she was off base. It seems that there are a certain proportion of the people on there who have the attitude that when a bulb in an overhead light fixture burns out, all they must to do change it is stand underneath the fixture, holding a new bulb aloft.

(...I hope I'm not being too oblique there).

The thing is, I have enough of a people-pleaser personality that if I see someone complaining about something that I tend to do - even if they are not complaining directly about me (the person in question is NOT one of my "friends" on Ravelry), I begin to wonder if what I'm doing is a problem.

I don't know if this is genetic or learned. I do know in my early childhood I had a couple of slightly dysfunctional friendships where my friend would say things like, "If you want to stay my friend, we'll only play Barbies for the next month." And I hated playing Barbies. But I wasn't mature enough or independent enough to say, "Forget it; I hate Barbie. I'm going home." Just one of the legacies of perceiving oneself as an "unpopular" kid - you take the friendships you can get.

(I say "perceiving" because more and more, as an adult, when I talk with my friends about early childhood stuff, it seems like EVERYONE was an unpopular kid. I don't know if popularity was a sham, something everyone was on the outside looking in on, or if all the "popular" kids are now business owners or politicians, and therefore unlikely to be in my circle of friends.)

I suppose different people have different modes of posting, and it's just something we learn to accept. I admit I get annoyed when some blogger that I enjoy and think writes well only posts once a month or so. (Though I recognize it is likely because he or she is far busier than I am). Also lifestyle differences affect it. I am required to hold 10 hours of office hours a week. Some of those are as long blocks of time where no students are coming in...and while I DO work much of that time, my mode of working tends to be "half hour on intensely working followed by needing a break"

So the Internet is my coffee break. (I don't tolerate caffeine at all well, and besides, if I TOOK coffee breaks, I would probably become the de facto coffee-maker cleaner for the department...)

Anyway.

The skin is clearing up too thank you. I think it was a combination of allergic overload (it is really a very bad pollen season here) and dry skin. (I have horrible, terrible dry skin in the winter. It abates some in the summer and in fact if I used too much goo, I get break-outs). I took (at the urging of my mother) a bath in water to which baking soda had been added (I didn't believe it would work but she claimed it does) and I've also gone back to the lotion. ("It puts the lotion on its skin or it gets the hives again"?)

I did go out to the Walgreens and buy some new Burt's Bees stuff to replace what I had used up. I know, it's not "medicated" or anything but I tend to feel that when my skin's really flaring up, using something with as many "natural" ingredients (provided none of those are chamomile or echinacea...two things I know set me off) and as few "synthetics" as possible seems to help.

The one I got seems to have both coconut and something mint in it so I smell a bit like a pina colada mashed up with a mojito, but at least I don't itch any more.

Part of it may be that I've been pushing pretty hard for pretty long - trying to get several research projects finished up, doing lots of new prep for a course - and I haven't had that much time to breathe. I do think one's state of mind can affect things like allergies; sometimes I wonder if histamine is released as a stress-response in some people.

(Edited to add: yes, it apparently does So what I'd suspected for years is supported by research.

("Yes, yarn counts as a medical expense. Knitting helps my allergies by reducing stress"? And I guess I could also count apples as a medical expense because apples are high in quercetin, and another anti-allergy site suggested that can help. Good, because I like apples.)

****

At least today is Mid Semester Assessment Testing, a/k/a I Have No Commitments Until 1 pm Day. (And I chose one of the more "fun" labs to do today with my class). And tomorrow I give an exam in my only class.

****

I think I need some "quality time" winding yarn using the swift and ball winder. When I'm in a stuck place, that usually helps. (Besides, I have to wind off the rest of the Araucania for the Cobblestone sweater some time; I only did the first two skeins because I was eager to begin.)

****

When I get a bit farther on the sweater I'll photograph it. (I may do as Lydia is doing and show you how far I can get with one of the 220 meter balls of Araucania).

I do like the Araucania. It's a nice "natural" feeling yarn, you can feel the sheep (it's a tiny bit rough) and you can smell the (idealized) sheep (the lanolin is left in but the wool is very clean...so it smells like you'd want a sheep to smell and not how sheep most likely actually do smell). I tend to prefer yarns that remind me that they once grew on a living thing; I don't like stuff that's processed to death.

There is a happy medium though, I also don't care for wool that's like steel wool and still has most of the barnyard attached to it; I washed the Kureyon socks in "Soak" and a vinegar rinse and they are still a bit more scratchy than what I'd like for socks.

Lynn, having worked a lot with folks from other countries (including some - from India - whose English was better than mine, even though it was their second language), I understand what you meant - people do say things differently and what is a simple colloquial locution in American English makes little sense (or sounds really bad) in British English, or Indian English, or one of the African variants of English.

I know of someone who was British and lived in America for a while as a child, then got in HUGE trouble after going back to Britain and referring to her sister as a "bum." What she meant was that her sister was being lazy and not pulling her weight, chores-wise...but of course "bum" means something different over there. Two countries separated by a common language and all that. (I'm not going to go into why "Fanny" was never a popular girl's name over there... other than to say it's not for the reason you might think, and "Fanny Hill" was a naughtier book title than most Americans realize...)

****
I'm thinking about new projects. (Oh, I do want to finish some of what I have going right now). One big one looks like it's going to involve - eep - me doing some of my own designing.

Back when we all thought the little yarn shop near my parents was closing, I asked my mom to go and get what Boku she had in the green and brown color combination. I have eight skeins (which is about 800 yards). Since this is a color-shifting yarn, something like Kureyon, I want something very simple out of it. I have been envisioning a pullover vest, v-necked, done in a simple rib. (Maybe 2x2...that was my first thought but now that I think of it, that might be too narrow of a rib to look good. 4x4 might be better, though maybe a bit harder to wrangle the numbers on).

I also plan to do a provisional cast-on and do the bottom ribbing last. Why? Because I only have 800 yards of the Boku and I'm not sure that's going to be enough for an entire vest that is long enough and big enough to fit me, plus the bands at the neck, arms, and bottom.

I can ALMOST envision how I would do it...do a 2x2 rib gauge swatch (actually, 3x3 or 4x4 rib might look better, given my size and the color patterning), figure out how many stitches go to the inch, and then measure myself in strategic places (I want a vest that narrows a bit at the waist but is wider at the bustline...basically I want it to be fitted everywhere on me and not baggy).

And I have the Big Book of Patterns, or whatever Interweave book that is that purports to let you design whatever you want.

And I can kind of envision it...but I also kind of stop. My natural fear-of-failure goes, "But what if you get it all wrong and knit for weeks and weeks and then have to rip it out?" or "But what if 800 yards ISN'T enough for the back and front of a ribbed vest and you have to rip it out?"

So I don't know. I'm still thinking about it. It aggravates me a little that I can SEE this thing in my head, how it will look finished (if I need to, I will buy some Cascade 220 in a coordinating color for the bands at the neck, arms, and bottom). But I don't quite feel ready yet to try to take the thing out of my head and into three dimensions.

I do want to finish AT LEAST the Go With the Flow socks and the current SitCom Chic before I take on something new.

TChem - your comment makes me wish I had more time for/was more clever at designing, because I can TOTALLY imagine a "Neutral Mutations" scarf, where it starts off as one lace pattern and slowly becomes another, equally workable lace pattern. Or a "Biological Clock" scarf of some sort, with the idea of "neutral mutations" in it.

Sort of like that "deconstructed Fair Isle" that was in Interweave Knits a couple years ago, where the peerie patterns sort of started floating off on their own...

TChem, you are totally right on the pyro thing. My grad adviser used to get a funny sort of gleam in his eye whenever March (the prescribed-burn season) would roll around. And I remember once, one of my profs posting this announcement in class:

"Don [the campus horticulturalist] is going to go burn something this afternoon. I don't know where and I don't know what, but he says it's going to be a good time."

I guess I'm still a little bit afraid of/too respectful of fire to be a real pyro, but it's interesting to watch the prairie burns. (I've been at a few. I always took "flapper duty" - they give you these things like truck mudflaps on a rake handle, and the idea is if the fire starts to creep across the boundary lines, or if there are "hot spots" once the main fire line has moved out of the area, you smother it with the flap. Being the water-backpack-person - where you get something like a jerry can full of water strapped to a back, with a hose and nozzle attached - looked like fun but for some reason the men in the group always grabbed those first. Perhaps there's an underlying anatomical reason for that...)

Prairie burns (done right) are much calmer and less violent than other types of fire - ideally, the fire creeps sort of slowly towards the center of the site, and then when the firelines converge (in the center, where they can't really hurt anyone), then they go up big. But I've also heard of burns that crossed the line and "crown jumped" into adjacent forest.

Oh, and I think the box must have come...had a package slip in my mailbox yesterday. I'm going to try to pick it up this afternoon.

Chittavritti: The book I was thinking of turns out to be "The Cloudspotter's Guide." I don't have a copy of "Cloud Atlas." (And I think I'd get lost in it easily; that's a problem I have with many-POV books).

Ellen, I had not heard of that study but that is very interesting to me. "Read more books" as a New Year's Resolution (OK, I know, it was "Shakespeare") is actually a resolution I could get behind...

****

I do still knit.

Here's the start of the Bird's Nest shawl. Most of this knitting has been accomplished while invigilating exams.

(Yes, I think I am going to use that word now instead of "proctoring.")



It's a relatively easy pattern to memorize but it's also easy to lose attention and forget to make one of the yarn overs. (Fortunately there's a way to "fudge" them on the return row).

I also finished the little elephant from the Knitting at Knoon "Safari Friends" pattern.



Originally it was going to be a girl elephant and be called something like Posey, but as I finished it up I decided it had to be a boy and be named Algernon.

(People who've never made toys may not get this. But it happens - you'll be working on something and its "personality" will come out and you will wind up naming it something totally different than you intended).

He is knit from Paton's Classic Merino in a pale blue. His eyes are "vintage" black buttons (I am not sure how old they are; they were on a card of 12 I bought for a buck in an antiques store. I'm guessing pre-1960s as the card is unlike typical button cards that started in that era).

Yes, I'm aware that he bears some resemblance to Max Rebo. (And I had to search for that. The name was nowhere in my memory...if the creature was even given a name in the movie. I searched on "Star wars blue elephant creature" and that brought it up).

Oh, I see further down in that article that Max Rebo is merely a stage name. The creature's real name is "Siiruulian Phantele." Remarkable how fleshed out what was essentially a throwaway group of characters have become.

If I had bothered to learn all this information during the time when the "original" Star Wars movies were out, I probably would not have had enough brain-space to actually complete a Ph.D....

Grace: I hadn't seen the Berroco site. There are some interesting things on there; I'll have to take some time to explore it.

***
Ah - so Boom-de-yah-dah IS a real song!

I guess it just uses a similar chord progression (I've seen it called the "1950s progression" as it was so commonly used in doo-wop songs) that Heart and Soul uses.

I was in Brownies and then Girl Scouts for a year or two (I quit Girl Scouts when they introduced the heavy guilt tactics to get us to sell cookies; I remain firm in my conviction that children should not be turned into salespeople, especially if they do not want to be, and I was temperamentally ill-suited to walking up to the houses of strangers [or even people I knew] and asking them to buy cookies. I would have rather had small pieces of bamboo inserted under my fingernails. I would even have rather gone to the dentist).

We didn't sing much in Brownies/Girl Scouts; didn't camp much either. Now that I look back on it, a lot of the stuff that WAS done was kind of junior Junior League. (I grew up in a fairly wealthy bedroom community; in a lot of ways my family really didn't fit in there.)

My mom used to talk about being in Campfire Girls; similar thing but it sounded like they had more fun than my Girl Scout troop did because they actually did "daring things for girls" (like the book) such as building actual campfires and learning basic woodworking. I think the Girl Scout leaders I got must have been ahead of their time; they seemed so bent on protecting us from anything vaguely dangerous that it actually made the whole experience kind of bland. (Luckily, my mom let me climb trees and sort-of dangerous stuff like that. And I'm still alive. And the only time I ever broke a limb was when I was in graduate school and slipped on a wet floor...and there's some kind of moral in that somewhere - kid runs around largely unsupervised a lot of her childhood, climbs trees, pokes mud with sticks, throws rocks at bees' nests, clambers around streambanks trying to catch frogs...and winds up getting biggest injury running to answer her graduate advisor's phone.)

(I will hasten to add that I broke my nose while sledding when I was 13. Which was actually a worse injury than the broken arm because the nose had to be surgically set and the arm wasn't out of alignment or whatever you say...they just slapped a cast on it and let me go. But then again: life is for learning and because I had the nose-surgery as an early teen I've never been able to look at those extreme-makeover shows with an unjaded eye. Any kind of "cosmetic" surgery [and arguably this one WAS] hurts like the dickens and the recovery from it is not as fast and easy as the television shows would depict. I threw up for three days from the sodium pentothal alone. And that was even before the bruising started.)

But back to the childhood things. Maybe someone needs to start a co-ed group called "Danger Scout" or somesuch. Where the stuff done wouldn't really be all THAT dangerous, but it would be the kind of thing that most schoolyards wouldn't permit because of liability issues (parents would have to sign waivers). That way, parents who wanted their kids to, I don't know, get to try hang-gliding or something but didn't have the wherewithal to go and do it themselves would have a chance.

Because really, a lot of the happy (and memorable) memories I have from childhood are of doing things that some of today's "helicopter parents" would disallow - wading in strange creeks (that might have leeches or bacteria!), climbing trees, building rings-of-fire for the kid-across-the-street's Evil Knievel mini-motorcycle to jump through....

Oh and...

Grace, there is a tiny bit of waist shaping (as in, a few decreases and increases here and there) in the SitCom Chic but I bet you could alter it to curve more steeply. (Heck, someone may even have done it already and posted their calculations somewhere).

I don't worry about it because it is (surprisingly) a flattering sweater on me without the shaping. (But then, my bust is generally the first anatomical attribute people notice...)

I did wind off the first couple hanks of the yarn and swatched for and began the sweater this afternoon - something simple to knit on while I read journal articles. (I had been missing that - the long quiet Saturday afternoons sitting on my bed with the windows open, reading the back numbers of American Scientist and Ecological Monographs that accumulated while I was "too busy" to read them, some soft music in the background, and a simple, mostly-stockinette-stitch project.)

A couple more thoughts on the quilts:

Kucki, I wonder if MOST quilters have a Grandmother's Flower Garden UFO. I know several personally who do. I think it's just kind of a project that everyone loves but maybe underestimates how long it will take.

And blow-in cards are those little heavy paper cards (usually promoting subscriptions) that come in magazines. They're the ones that, when you get a new magazine in the mail, if you hold it upside down by the spine and shake it, they fall out on the floor. They're called "blow in" cards because they're placed in the magazine that way - the bound printed magazines are run in front of a blower that blows the cards in between the pages.

****

I finished another book last night. This one is called "Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter." It's one of Thomas Cahill's "Hinges of History" books (I think it's the fourth - his first was "How the Irish Saved Civilization," the second was about the early Jews, the third was about the life and times of Jesus, and this one is about the Greeks. I believe there are seven books planned in this "series," and he's written five so far.)

Cahill has an interesting view of history and I always learn things from his books. In this book, he titles the chapters "How to..." and takes on different aspects of Greek culture in each chapter (Fight, Feel, Party, Rule, Think, and See). I find ancient cultures interesting because they are so different from ours. Especially the Greeks; their worldview is very different from the Judeo-Christian worldview that shaped western Culture (and even if you do not ascribe to either of those faiths, if you grew up in a western culture, I do think your philosophy and way of looking at the world will have been shaped by those Judeo-Christian underpinnings of the culture).

A big difference is how the Greeks viewed the individual. In Judeo-Christian cultures, the individual is important..."So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." In ancient Greek culture, it seems that the individual was less important, more a part of a unit. This was true of the fighting forces and I think (and those of you who are classicists feel free to correct me if I'm misinterpreting) that the idealized Forms of Plato also limited the concept of individuality and individual's worth - in the sense that we are all reflections of some ideal form of "human" (or in Greek culture, "Man." Women didn't seem to make the scene much except as wives and mothers or as courtesans.)

Also, fate played a large role in Greek culture; there seems to have been a believe that the dies were cast when you were born and, rather like a character in a play that had already been written, you moved through the necessary plotline. (Hence "Oedipus Rex" - he was condemned to kill his father and sleep with his mother, and even though his family went so far as to attempt infanticide to prevent that prophecy from coming true, Fate still willed it). While in Judeo-Christian (and I suppose, for this concept, primarily Christian) culture there is some belief in predestination (at least in some Protestant denominations), free will plays a much bigger role.

(And interestingly - thinking about the book on Finding Darwin's God - the author's argument there was that there is something fundamentally unknowable and unpredictable to us about the universe - that what the Greeks would have called Fate doesn't exist - but that that fundamental unknowableness is the signature of God, so to speak, the idea of "you humans think you may control everything but you can't." And the idea that things may be able to change on a dime - related to some of the odder findings from quantum mechanics - the idea that there may be no "Fate" in the Greek sense.

Arrah. I'm not saying this very well. I can't quite get the concept I'm thinking of our of my head and into words on the computer right.)

Anyway. Lots of differences between the Greeks and us and that's one of the things that makes them interesting to me.

Cahill's last chapter is kind of a "Well, what became of them?" summing-up - showing how the Greek world evolved and changed as people decided that the old gods really weren't possible, and as they began to learn of this new concept of God from a people called the Jews. And one of the really interesting things that Cahill talks about are how the fundamental differences in Greek and Jewish-Christian* philosophy (for example, ideas about matter, ideas about whether resurrection of just the soul or of the body as well was more desirable) were some of the "stumbling blocks" that they faced in the two groups forging a new identity as Christians.

(*not the same as Judeo-Christian; here I mean the Jews who were followers of and believers in Christ. They wouldn't technically have been called Christians yet, not until Paul)

And that struck me as interesting. Having grown up learning Paul's letters in Sunday School, hearing about the "Judaizers" and the difficulties with the Greeks, you sometimes come to assume that it was more a fault of "those people, they're not like us" in terms of the Jewish Christians accepting the "Gentiles." But it may actually have been a two-way problem, where people had such different mind-sets and worldviews, that trying to understand what the Man from Galilee was telling them would wind up kind of a "blind men and the elephant" type situation - where each group grabbed hardest on to the things that appealed to them, and tried to disregard the things they were uncomfortable with. (And I think people still do that, today.)

Cahill also talks a little bit - but I'd have like to have seen more - on how Greek philosophy seeped into some of the teachings of Christianity (one of them being the idea of "world without end" - that's more of a Greek concept, according to Cahill).

There's a tremendous amount of information in this book, a lot to think about. I've only scratched the surface.

My only complaint with Cahill is that sometimes he tends to pander a bit- to describe the shocking or the titillating to excess a bit. And he does use four-letter words here and there, which is (to me at least) a bit surprising in what I'd consider to be basically a scholarly book.

But I did enjoy this book - I think of the four of his I've read, this is my second-favorite, after "How the Irish Saved Civilization." The one on the Jews, I almost felt like he didn't understand the topics as deeply (or maybe care about them as deeply); in his book on Jesus at times he felt insufferably flip to me (He actually referred to Nazareth as...well, I won't write it out, but it's the same general terminology that sometimes the acronym B.F.E. is used for. I get his point, but he could have as easily said that Nazareth was "the boonies" or "where the hillbillies came from" and that would make as much sense. But I'm a prude in some ways and I'm not ashamed to say it.)