Men With Needles And Yarn

I grew up with my mom knitting whenever she was watching tv or doing other activities that left her hands free.  So it's not a complete surprise that my son has started knitting.  In Bainbridge he took me to Churchmouse Yarn and Tea shop while he was looking for some needles. And I had my camera.  (The pictures were all taken at the shop.)

Apparently, knitting is relatively new. 


From Knitty.com:
"A quick cruise of the Oxford Unabridged English Dictionary also reveals that the term 'to knit' wasn't added to English until the 1400s. Further poking around will reveal that any term meaning 'to knit', specifically make loops with two long, straight needles, wasn't in any European language before the Renaissance. Other than the Middle East, and Spain, other places in the world were even later in their assigning words for knitting. It's pretty obvious; knitting hasn't been around that long. Most of what we're left with in terms of physical evidence is a tiny pile of knitted fragments, and a lot of speculation. And did I mention the knit fragments are really hard to interpret? Before the development of knitting, a craft called nalbinding was used to make stretchy fabrics. [original link didn't work so I put a new one in] for a quickie lesson on how nalbinding is done. The drawbacks are obvious immediately.) Termed 'one needle knitting' by some museums, it is similar to knitting in structure, but stronger, less stretchy, and a lot more difficult to create. The resulting fabric would look very sloppy unless done by a master, and it wasn't something you could have the kids do while tending the sheep -- unlike knitting."

Somehow, knitting has come to be thought of as a woman's activity.  But Yarn Boy sets us straight:

Since there was money to be made from knitting (and we already know the history of how men feel about women making money), it was initially a male-dominated craft. It is generally believed that sailors and traders from Arabia, as well as Catholic missionaries,were responsible for spreading the craft of knitting around the world. Knitting didn't become the female-associated activity that it is today until cheaper and faster methods for making clothing were developed, and men moved on to other forms of world domination. By the beginning of the 20th century, it was highly unusual for a man to knit.

I didn't know that Catholic/Muslim link. 

I found a number of men's knitting blogs. 

(Almost) Eternal Bliss

There are moments in a knitters life that are without match. Usually they are relatively fleeting- a finished project, a mother’s joy at her new shawl or the admiration of others as they see skilled fingers producing intricate lace. I’d hardly imagined that it was possible to string a series of these moments together to create something akin to Nirvana, but this past weekend proved me wrong.
My dear friend Matthew had pestered me for years to attend a Men’s Knitting Retreat. For one reason or another, I’d never been able to go. This year, Matthew took matters into his own hands and essentially signed me up whether I wanted to go or not. I acquiesced, requested a few days off and packed my bags. .  .

With Icelandic Air flying non-stop to Anchorage this summer, here's a link to an Icelandic knitter on video.  Here's the description:

Halló, this is Iceland. It is true that my men are very manly, and sometimes have names that are hard for you to say. This is Þórgnýr Thoroddsen, whose name is very hard to say, but he makes up for it by being a very good (and manly) knitter. If you see him on one of my streets, and would like him to give you some advice on how to do knitting like an Icelandic man, just call out “Halló, Icelandic man with a difficult name who knits! Stop and show me how!” He will not mind at all.

From the House of Humble blog:  (nice picture of him sitting on a huge, colorful, crocheted, I think, quilt)

"In the Winter of 2010, I was on a train crossing the Hawkesbury river on the way to my job in Sydney. I had my headphones blaring (I would have been listening to either Neil Young’s Comes a Time or Hold Time by M. Ward, as those were my train riding albums) and I was knitting an iPod cover in the shape of a crocodile. Every now and then I’d look up from my work to check on the journey’s progress and enjoy the scenery out the window. Once when I looked up, the old lady sitting across from me mouthed something and smiled. I’m a terrible lip reader so the headphones came out to sit on my lap. She was saying something along the lines of “It’s so lovely to see a young man knitting.” Sadly her husband continued to stare out the window and didn’t add to the ensuing conversation.
One of our awesome bloggy neighbours, Raynor from The Shy Lion, was in the paper over the weekend. It was an article all about people who do things that defy gender stereotypes. They interviewed Raynor because, like me, he is a man who knits and crochets. Reading the article got me thinking about being a man and a crafter, and it reminded me of the friendly old lady and her less friendly husband.

Knitting With A Y: The Accounts of A Male Knitter  

 "25 year old clarinetist living in Minnesota. Began knitting summer '07 and can't seem to put the needles down! Ravelry name: yarndude"

Mad Man Knitting is a blog by a man who's knitting Teddy Bears for a living.  His book page gives a quick summary:

I was the head server at one of Savannahs most successful and popular restaurants, The Firefly Cafe, catering to the best of this citys blue-bloods. But, once the restaurant was sold, everything changed. The new owners were running the business into the ground, my partner left, my father was diagnosed with a terminal illness, and my weight dropped to a 115 pounds. And while most people find themselves escaping into drugs and alcohol, I became obsessed with knitting. I spent long hours chugging beer after beer and working on any pattern I could come across, developing a psychotic routine of mindless action while life around me was crumbling.

These next two blogs' titles reflect male knitter sensitivity to their image:
The Straight Male Knitter

We walk unseen among you. We possess both “Y” chromosomes and knitting needles. We’re equally at home in a yarn shop and a gentleman’s club. When admiring exceptional décolletage, we may find ourselves distracted by the softness of a mohair sweater as it clings to the complex curves of your bust. If we ask to touch that delicate fabric, rest assured we do want to experience the fabric. But that probably isn’t all we want to touch. We are men. We love women. And we knit.

It Takes Balls To Knit: A big-balled, bald man with sharp sticks -

 On July 25, I was lucky enough to be one of the 3,000 or so knitters in attendance a the 9th Annual Stitch ‘N’ Pitch event at the Seattle mariners baseball game! What a blast we had – and Seattle won the game 8-2, due in large part to a barrage of runs in the 2nd inning. 6 runs as a matter of fact. In that 6th inning Nick Franklin went yard, I mean went yarn for a 3 run blast!

It turns out we were in close proximity last week because my son took me to the Stitch 'N' Pitch night Seattle Mariners baseball game too.  



Men Who Knit has blogs, forums, even a store.


There's an ABC News video at this website on male inmates learning to knit.

"I'm arrested for armed kidnapping and I love knitting."
Every Thursday around dusk, a group of men, hardened criminals sentenced for a variety of violent crimes and incarcerated at the Pre-Release Unit in Jessup, Md., can be found with knitting needles in hand and balls of yarn in their laps.

Yarn Boy (the history quote above) also has original patterns and is one of the smartest looking male knitting blogs I saw.   He lives in San Francisco and I guess the young twins he mentions are taking up a lot of time because the most recent post on his blog is April 2012.


This post was supposed to be a short, quick photo post from the yarn shop.  A quick post while I finish some longer posts that need more thinking.  But I'm finding all sorts of websites on this topic.  But I need to stop and go to bed.   But here's one more link - to Knit Vienna - that has lots of pictures of knitted and crocheted decorations in urban settings as well as a section on men knitters (middle of the page) that includes pictures from some of the websites I'd found - including the picture I liked at House of Humble and the Icelandic video. 


My son gave me a baby hat he'd knitted to bring back to Anchorage as a gift for a friend's new addition.  

West Coast Weather

These are the weather reports I have on my computer dashboard.  It's almost 11pm in Anchorage right now, but this is what the spread looked like (but a little warmer) all day. 

These locations are where my immediate family reside these days. 

Walk and Sleep, Autism on Campus, Left Brain Meet Right, Plus Sheryl Gordon McCloud

In the USC alumni magazine for this summer, there was a letter that caught my attention. 

"The latest issue proposed that there is a "Medical Mystery" (Trojan Beat, Spring 2013, p. 6*)as to why Americans die earlier than people from other high-income democracies.  I disagree with the perspective.  Without the benefit of knowing which 17 countries were examined in the research, two very likely reasons behind the earlier deaths are surely that Americans, on the whole, walk less and sleep less than the people living in the other countries studied.  Walking is not expensive.  Sleeping - generally speaking - is not expensive  Wealth and access to medical technology can't undo the negative effects of a sedenatry, sleep-deprived lifestyle." [emphasis added]

I don't know how much walking and sleeping would improve people's health, but it seems reasonable.  Many people tend to want shortcuts - cholesterol lowering drugs so they can eat high cholesterol food - or when they do exercise, they often drive to the gym to do it. 

But anyone who doesn't walk (or move some other way) at least 30 minutes a day and doesn't get at least seven hours of sleep a night, might set some goals.  Starting with two days a week and adding one more day each week until they're walking and sleeping well at least six days a week.  I bet it makes a difference in how you feel. 


I've found that alumni magazines from good universities can cover very interesting stories as they highlight what their students, faculty, and alumni are doing.  Here's a list of the feature articles:

• Dinosaur Depicter 

  A talented USC Roski alumna brings the prehistoric Mesozoic Era to life.
  

• Neurodiversity and the University 

  Students, alumni and faculty on the autism spectrum show they have a place in the university.
  

• Meeting of the Minds 

  Right Brain, this is Left Brain. Scott Fraser’s happy to make the introduction.
  

• Number Crunchers 

  Ninety percent of the world’s data was created in the last two years. What we do with it will change the future.
  

• Designs on Social Change 

  Creativity can combine with business principles to solve societal challenges—and turn a profit.
  

• Busy Signals 

  The National Medal of Science recognizes Solomon Golomb’s many contributions to communications technology.
  

• Fresh Air 

  Targeted therapies and other advances create new hope for lung cancer patients.

The Summer 2013 edition also has a profile of USC law school graduate Sheryl Gordon McCloud who was appointed to the Washington State Supreme Court in January.   She's of interest to Alaskans because she was in Anchorage in 2009 to representing former Rep. Pete Kott, not in the original trial, but later, trying to get him released from his convictions
because the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence.   She was very impressive in court and talking to the press afterward. Knew her stuff, no nonsense.

It seems ironic, reading her profile. I suspect as Republican Kott's constituent, her ideas probably would have been ignored (she fought for women's rights issues including protection for pregnant employees), but he paid good money for her to defend him.  (Actually, I don't know Kott's record on women's rights, I could be wrong on this.)


*The online version doesn't have page numbers but it appears that that section isn't in the online version.  Nor are the letters - this one is copied from the print version.

Daniel Ellsberg On Bradley Manning Verdict

From an interview with Scott Horton July 30, 2013.

Daniel Ellsberg: I’m doing okay. We’ll tell your listeners that you just informed me 30 seconds ago that Bradley Manning was found not guilty of aiding the enemy. That’s very, very important, and good news, because the alternative would have been extremely bad news. It would have been very close to being a death knell over time to investigative journalism in this country, which means a free press, which means ultimately democracy or any possibility of democratic control of our foreign policy, our defense policy, totally, if the prosecutor’s argument that his simply giving information to the internet and thereby making it available to the world, including whatever enemies we had, if that is enough to earn a death sentence or life in prison, without any attempt even to prove or indicate intent to harm the United States or to help an enemy – that’s the argument the prosecutor was making and the charges they’ve pursued ever since Bradley Manning pled guilty to 10 military offenses, which could still keep him in prison for 20 years, and I haven’t seen the full verdict here so it may well be that she has added some other offenses to that which may add up to a life sentence.

In my case, I didn’t face a single, one single count that carried a death sentence, such as the aiding the enemy charge in this case did, but I had 12 felony counts which added up to 115 years in prison, so the effect was much the same. That could still be the case here.

The truth is that he did not deserve a day in prison for informing the public here as he did. He certainly does not deserve an additional day after the abusive treatment he’s received here of three years awaiting trial, 10½ months in solitary confinement, part of that nude, a treatment which was described by the UN Rapporteur for Torture as, if not being torture – and he didn’t have all the facts there because he hadn’t been allowed to speak to Manning alone – but he said at the very least it was cruel, inhumane and degrading punishment, which is the definition of a crime under the Geneva Conventions we’ve signed and under domestic law. So he should have been released on the grounds of governmental misconduct, as was the case in my trial, but wasn’t. .  .

You can read (or hear) the whole interview here.  

Videotaping US Police versus Videotaping Swedish Police [Updated]

From a June 2012 post I wrote:

[Following up Anon's comment,   I found where it moved to and changed the link.]

- Photography is Not a Crime - which is full of stories about people having problems when they photograph or video tape cops in action or just in public places.  Here are links to some of his recent posts:

[I took out the links, but if you go to the main site, you'll find lots of similar posts.]

• NYPD Publishes Poster of "Professional Agitators," aka Citizens who Record Cops

• LAPD Tell Photog Not to Listen in on Their Private Conversation on a Public Sidewalk

• Introducing TapIn, an iPhone App Essential for Citizen Journalists

• Albuquerque Police Officer Chases Away News Videographer From Investigation 

• Austin Man Facing 10 Years in Prison After Photographing Cops Making Arrest 

It doesn't have to be this way.  Wimp.com describes this video as:


This is what happens when you attempt to take video of police in Sweden.

I couldn't find a way to embed the video, so you can click the link above or on the screenshot from the video to the right.


Of course, this is just one unverified example.  Take it as a piece of evidence, not a conclusion. 

What's 97 X 96? Quick. In Your Head.

For when the electricity goes out and you have to know. 

This is the most cerebral of 100 lifehacker tricks presented in poster form.  Like putting a rubber band across the top of an open paint can to wipe your brush on or using frozen grapes to chill wine.  The whole 100 tips list is here.

Garden Tour, Lavatera, Spenard, and Corn

Sunday was the Anchorage Garden Club's Annual City Garden Tour.  This is always a delightful affair, a chance to discover hidden neighborhoods, and  wander through people's gardens, ask questions, and dream about the possibilities of your own garden. 


[NOTE:  Click to enlarge and sharpen any photo.]



The first garden we saw was in the heart of Spenard.  I have to give the Garden Club credit.  Snootier clubs would have never chosen this garden.  But it was the quintessential Spenard garden - flowers and junk.  A plastic flamingo and a bald eagle on top of a metal flag pole.   Of course, junk is a subjective term.  But how many garden clubs do you think would include a garden that had this next to the driveway?

But this is so Spenard.















Since four of the five gardens (seemed a low number this year) were close to Turnagain Road, we biked over there in the beautiful, warm sunshine.

This was the back yard of one of the Turnagain gardens.  They had bright pink flowers that looked something like hibiscus and I learned they were lavatera.

Here's more detail from malvaceae.info:

"Lavatera is a genus within the family Malvaceae, which also includes, inter alia, Althaea, Abutilon, Gossypium, Hibiscus, Malva and Sidalcea, and is particularly close to Malva. The 20-25 species of Lavatera have a broadly Mediterranean distribution, stretching to southwest Britain, the Canary Is., Abyssinia, Central Asia and Kashmir, with outlying species in Australia (Lavatera plebeia), California (Lavatera assurgentiflora, Lavatera insularis, Lavatera lindsayi, Lavatera occidentalis and Lavatera venosa), and eastern Siberia.

Lavateras are annual, biennial or short-lived perennial herbs and sub-shrubs. The flowers are pink to purple, or white, or yellow in some forms of Lavatera triloba. The stems and foliage are typically downy or hairy. The fruits consist of a divided capsule containing a ring of nutlets."

 

This window box of flowers nearby was probably my favorite spot on the tour.  It just worked beautifully.  

The last house was near the Coastal trail, which we got off at Arctic to find some dinner.  

 



These corn plants were growing in the two inch crack between the asphalt and the building.  Corn is usually iffy in Anchorage, but this is an exceptionally warm summer and this south facing wall is probably five or ten degrees warmer yet.  There were a few big ears getting close to ripe.   This wasn't part of the garden tour, but it should have been.

There was one more garden on the tour, but it was in South Anchorage and we started late. 

Into Anchorage With New Camera - Chugach Peaks and Fire Island Windmills

There was a strange mix of clouds and sun as we neared home, but Anchorage was in the sun that set about 11pm.

Foraker and Denali in the background

Fire Island windmills

WW II Shipbuilders Put Out Ships In A Week, Why Nine Months Plus For Tustumena Repairs?

The Department of Transportation put out a press release with the following headline:

Tustumena Return to Service Delayed Indefinitely,
Schedule to be Reconfigured to Meet Community Needs

The Tustumena has been in repair since November 2012.  We're four months shy of a year now.  

All this brought to mind our visit to the Rosie The Riveter National Park in Richmond, California earlier this year.  It's a Historical Park in honor of the World War II ship builders  who put together whole ships in a week or less sometimes!
 
From a long essay at a National Park Service site on WWII ship building practices, we learn: 

"During World War I, steel shipbuilding followed tradition, calling for riveted hulls with each vessel custom built on site, a labor intensive, relatively slow process. In 1917, for example, a typical steel vessel took 12 to 14 months from keel-laying to delivery. At the peak of production in World War II, the work could be accomplished in four to six days." (emphasis added)

 From another Park Service page: 

The Liberty Ship Robert E. Perry was assembled in less than five days as a part of a special competition among shipyards; but by 1944 it was only taking the astonishingly brief time of a little over two weeks to assemble a Liberty ship by standard methods. Henry Kaiser and his workers applied mass assembly line techniques to building the ships. This production line technique, bringing pre-made parts together, moving them into place with huge cranes and having them welded together by "Rosies" (actually "Wendy the Welders" here in the shipyards), allowed unskilled laborers to do repetitive jobs requiring relatively little training to accomplish. This not only increased the speed of construction, but also the size of the mobilization effort, and in doing so, opened up jobs to women and minorities.

I understand that regulations for the ships and for the workers were a lot less stringent in those days, but if they could build a whole ship in five days, they ought to be able to repair one in less than a year.  

Is it because this administration is lax in oversight of its contractors?  Is Seward Ship’s Drydock just not competent for a job like this?  Or that ferry service is a low priority?  Or perhaps maintenance was delayed so long that there were lots of unexpected problems as the Fairbanks News Miner reported earlier this year:

"The 50-year-old ship went in for maintenance in November, and it turned out to be in worse shape than thought. It will now be in the shipyard until June, the Kodiak Daily Mirror reported. "

I'm sure there are other possibilities and probably more than just one applies.

I'm using the WW II shipbuilding times just to give this situation some perspective.  If the right people really cared, this could have been done a long time ago.  Meanwhile the people out on the Aleutian Chain are still waiting for their ferry service. 

Took New Camera To Mariners Game - They Won, But Modern Cameras Can Be Creepy

Went to the Mariners game with Minnesota Thursday night.  It was balmy and shirt sleeves were comfortable even on the ferry ride back.  I also brought my new camera on this trip - my daughter's request - and I'm figuring out more things I can do with it.

But I've also concluded it can be a lot more clinical, almost forensic.  We were in the upper bleachers. Though this photo of the strike was a little closer.  R wanted to see what things looked like from the top of the bleachers in right field. I took this on the way back.

Strike

Safe at first

This was the beginning of the game.  I haven't been to a major league ball game in probably 15 years or more.  I remember when ball fields were named after the ball team - like Dodger stadium.  Nowadays companies buy the right to put their name on the stadium so every time you refer to it, it's a mini-advertisement for the comapny.   I don't do advertising here - though sometimes I'll tell people about something I thought was really good - so I won't mention the name of the field.  I'll just call it Mariners Field.

Seattle started scoring early.  They got six runs in the second inning.  This one is the first or second run. 

I took these pictures from up in the bleachers.  This camera takes really sharp pictures.  I have to learn how to make this less about sharp and more about beautiful.

When R and I went to check out right field, I saw how intrusive this camera can be.  Look at this:

 

The people in the bubble - upper right - were blown up from the little circle in the stands.  You can take pictures with cameras anyone can buy and get sharp enough pictures to id people from about a quarter of a mile away.  The right field was 326 feet from home plate and we were in the upper upper bleachers. It's a little creepy.  

It was knitting night at the game and we were sitting in the middle of the knitting section.  My son had his knitting with him.  More on that in another post.

R made sure he got some blue cotton candy before we got back to our seats.

And I made sure I got this picture of Mt. Ranier in the evening sun before we got back to our seats.

We left in the 6th inning.  It was 8-0 Mariners and we'd promised to try to get the 10:05 ferry back to Bainbridge so R could get to bed by 11pm.  Here was the view as the ferry was pulling out of downtown Seattle.  The Ferris wheel was more like the blue in the water, but I couldn't figure an easy way to get the right color.

And as we got into Bainbridge, they announced over the loudspeaker that the moon had just risen over Seattle.  So I went out and got this picture.  Other than using a telephoto lens and boosting the exposure - after the fact - of the city lights, this is pretty much undcotored and what it looked like.

Thanks J, it was a fun night out.