The Wayward Skein Podcast: Episode 3

What I’m drinking: Caramel Apple Spice Slim Life tea by Yogi.

What I’m knitting:

FO: Harvest by Tin Can Knits (6-12 month size shown). Knit out of Lorna’s Laces Haymarket in the “Lookbook” colourway. Needles used were 4mm (US 6) and 5mm (US 8).
WIP: Barley by Tin Can Knits (baby size shown). Knit out of Lorna’s Laces Haymarket in the “Lookbook” colourway. Needles used were 4mm (US 6) and 5mm (US 8).
Frog Pond: Rob’s socks, based on the Sock Recipe: A Good Plain Sock pattern by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. The yarn used was Nova Sock Print, colourway 174. Needles used were 2.5mm (US 1 1/2).

What I’m reading:

Finished: A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle, and Many Waters by Madeleine L’Engle.
Currently reading: An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L’Engle, and The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama.

What I’m watching:

TV: Midsomer Murders and Champions on Netflix.
Podcasts: The Uncreative Crafter Podcast, and The Canadian Knitter Podcast The Canadian Knitter Podcast.

I knitted a thing!

This past week has been hard on a lot of us, so let’s look at something a bit lighter on the palate today. I finished a knitted thing!!!!! My Harvest baby sweater is finished!

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This is the Harvest sweater by Tin Can Knits. The pattern is free and ranges from sizes 0-6 months all the way up to 4XL for adults. It’s a quick, easy, intuitive knit, and I enjoyed every second of it. I love Tin Can Knits patterns, and I’ve knit up several of them over the years (my usual go-tos are the Flax sweater and the Barley hat). I talked about this knit on last weekend’s Two Tangled Skeins podcast, if you’d care to tune in. It’s knit in worsted weight yarn, which makes it work up very quickly. I’d even knit this for an adult, under the right circumstances (those circumstances would be one of my children begging for it). Our friends have already had their baby – she was born last Sunday, and she is absolutely adorable! I won’t share a photo, for privacy reasons, but trust me when I say she will look fantastic in this sweater 🙂

I only barely broke into the second skein of this gorgeous yarn (Lorna’s Laces Haymarket 100% Blue-faced Leicester in the Lookbook colourway), so I decided to cast on a Barley hat with the remainder.

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I imagine I’ll be able to finish it before I record Episode 3 of the podcast this weekend. (Right now, you’re looking at the inside of the hat). I also have my next project queued up, although that one might not see a cast-on until my return from Chicago – we’ll see how much room I have in my luggage! I’ll give you a hint though… it will be knit in this gorgeous yarn that was sent to me by the wonderful folks at Ancient Arts Fibres for review:

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A small bite of politics… In other news, many of us have watched in horror while border patrol and ICE agents have separated thousands of children from their parents and detained them in warehouses filled with chain link cages. I discovered a few days ago that, while Canada does not separate children from their parents, it DOES incarcerate children with their parents (awaiting immigration and refugee/asylum hearings) in detention centres in several major cities. The biggest and most crowded of these is in Etobicoke, a suburb of Toronto. I won’t go into the morality of this or any other political statements, but if you’re Canadian, I invite you to read this report, titled “Invisible Citizens: Canadian Children in Immigration Detention”, published by the University of Toronto. The topic will be revisited at a later date. (Thanks to an online friend of mine who works as an immigration lawyer for educating me on the subject.)

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I’ll be leaving for Chicago on Friday, so there may not be another blog post until I arrive there, but there will definitely be an episode of the podcast posted before Monday, and I’ll take lots of pictures, I promise! (Not of the actual trip down, since I’m driving, but once I get there.) I hope everyone has a great week, and maybe hit a protest up this coming weekend if there’s one in your neck of the woods!

Down the political rabbit hole

I spent a week trying to decide what to write about that wasn’t political. After the week we’ve had, I failed. So I may very well lose the three of you with this post, but I have to write what speaks to me.

On Friday, the US Department of Health and Human Services admitted that 10,773 unaccompanied immigrant children are being held in detention centers. This does not mean that these children crossed the border on their own. It means that ICE agents removed them from their parents and sent them off to be detained on their own. There is a lot of misinformation circulating on the internet, and the US government is actively trying to discredit the media – I will agree that many media sources are biased, but to discount every story that criticizes or questions the government as “fake news” removes one of the very necessary checks and balances on the activities of that government. The United Nation has since denounced the separation of these children from their parents and has demanded that the US cease these activities which contravene the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the US has refused to sign.

Also on Friday, the Canadian PM, German Chancellor, Italian PM, Japanese PM, British PM, US President, and EU Council and Commission Presidents met in Canada for the G7 Summit. The US President petitioned for Russia to be reintegrated into the multinational group, with agreement from the Italian PM. (Russia had been excluded in March, 2014, based on their illegal annexing of Crimea. That sounds so clinical… people were tortured and killed.) The US President left the Summit early, and now refuses to endorse the G7 Communique on Equitable Growth, based on what he called dishonest negotiation by the Canadian PM. Recently, he has imposed a number of tariffs on Canadian goods being imported into the US, and stated that Canada poses a national security risk to the United States. This is particularly disturbing given the long and fruitful relationship between our two countries. The fact that the US President engages in Twitter insult-laden tirades instead of engaging in diplomacy and open, honest conversation has led to a deterioration in the relationship between our two countries, and indeed, between the US and many of its allies of late.

I won’t even go into how disturbing the bigotry, misogyny, and discrimination evidenced in much of the US President’s communication is. What I will say is that in these uncertain times, we need to put aside this “I’m right, and you’re evil” rhetoric that the current US administration seems to encourage so wholeheartedly. I say this as a white, cis-female who speaks from a place of privilege – nothing about me is threatening to this administration, therefore they largely ignore me (with the exception of my uterus…).

Allow the LGBTQIAA+ folks and people of color in your circles to express their anger. And use your white voice to amplify their message, and to spread kindness where it will do the most good. A good rule of thumb is to use Ring theory. Those who are marginalized by the current administration are the aggrieved or afflicted at the centre of the circle. Offer them your help and support, your kindness and compassion, and your love. If nothing that’s been happening affects you, that means you’re one of the outer circles. (If nothing has affected you thus far, it does NOT MEAN that other people aren’t being hurt.)

Be kind to your LGBT+ neighbors. Be kind to your Muslim neighbors. Be kind to your Black, Latinx, Asian, or other neighbors of color. Be kind to the neighbor you don’t understand. Get to know them. They are deserving of the same respect and compassion you would give to your white Christian neighbor. We know better. So do better. Discrimination helps no one. It does not make you richer. It does not make you safer. It does not make you better than your neighbors. Kindness toward one another is how we beat this. It’s how we will survive and thrive beyond this dark hour.

I will step off my soapbox now, and promise some knitting updates later in the week. I have to work harder on this sweater!!! Its new owner has already arrived!

Madeira — Taken from https://gimmealine.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/a-ray-of-sunshine-through-the-clouds/

The Wayward Skein: Episode 2

Featured in this episode:

Harvest by TinCanKnits. Knit out of Lorna’s Laces Haymarket, in the Lookbook colourway. Needles are 5mm (US 8) fixed Carbonz 24″ circulars. Size knit is 6-12 months.

The “A Wrinkle in Time” series by Madeleine L’Engle. This week, I read A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet.

“Better Than Sex” tea by Tay Tea. Purchased from The Tea Shop of Woodstock in Woodstock, NY.

Midsomer Murders (BBC series).

Have a great week, everyone!

Procrastination

I’ve been meaning to write a blog post since Tuesday, but I kept putting it off because all the pictures I wanted to include, I took with Rob’s phone. It doesn’t really matter though, does it? If I just write a post, then I won’t keep stressing over the fact that I haven’t written a post, and I can catch you (all three of you) up without pictures. Well, MOSTLY without pictures.

Last time I wrote, I was winging my way to Chicago to celebrate Rob’s son’s college graduation with everyone and having a fabulous time. It was H.O.T. in Chicago… I’m not a summer person. You will *rarely* hear me complain about how cold it gets in winter, because I hate heat. I know, most of you are thrilled that you finally get to be comfortable, but I’m melting over here! It doesn’t help that Rob’s car doesn’t have functional air conditioning.

So Saturday dawned warm and sunny, and Rob drove up to Milwaukee to attend the graduation ceremony (there were only a few tickets available per graduate, and I didn’t want to prevent any of his family from being there). While he was gone, I did some knitting, did some reading, and recorded a podcast! It’s going to need work, and I don’t think I’ll ever use my phone for it again, but without my laptop on hand, I had to improvise. Saturday evening, we went for dinner at Rob’s mom’s house (without the graduate, so it was a weird graduation party) and hung out there for the evening. I have read some horror stories about mothers-in-law in my day, but I am truly blessed. My late former mother-in-law was the kindest, sweetest woman you could ever hope to meet, and I miss her every day. Rob’s mother? Cut from the same cloth. She is a kind, funny, loving, generous woman, and I’m so lucky that my future mother-in-law is as amazing as my first one! Anyway, even though he didn’t show up to his own celebration (I’m teasing! We knew he wasn’t coming, he was out with friends), here’s a picture!

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We took Sunday easy and went to see Deadpool 2. I will NOT SPOIL ANYTHING, but if you haven’t seen it yet, GO. (Except you, Mom. Do not go see Deadpool 2. You will not like it.) I laughed, I cried, I winced, and then I laughed some more. I agree that Peter needs his own spin-off movie! I was supposed to fly home Monday. Rob waved at me until I was through security, and then he went home and I went to the gate… where I discovered that my plane was delayed to the point where making my connecting flight was HIGHLY unlikely. Boo, hiss. Fortunately, I fly Porter, and they’re awesome. Not only did they rebook me for the next morning so I could go back to Rob’s for the night, but they also sent me a $100 voucher toward my next flight! I say it loud, and I say it often: Porter is AWESOME (the free drinks & snacks don’t hurt either).

Of course, taking a flight first thing in the morning when your house is 1 1/2 hours away from the airport is likely not the smartest thing I ever did… but hey, who knew how pretty a 4:30a.m. sunset in Chicago was? Not me, but I do now! I flew home, got picked up by some pretty awesome people (one of whom was VERY well behaved and didn’t fuss in the car AT ALL), and life goes on as usual. I’ve spent the rest of the week trying to recover from the fact that it’s suddenly summer, and REALLY humid. If you’re one of those who likes heat, enjoy your weekend! I’ll be huddled in my basement apartment with my fan and my air conditioner and eating things that don’t require cooking! Two Tangled Skeins resumes its normal schedule tomorrow, so see you there!