the middle knitter

I know I promised a rice recipe (a ricipe?), but this was too good not to share immediately.

My dad just bought a new house in Divide, and in the crawlspace, he found a box full of old letters and magazines from some previous owner. We know nothing about her--I'm working on the letters right now (going through and writing down names, dates, and places, trying to piece together this family . . . just because now that I'm out of college, I need a project!), but I'm not sure yet whether the magazines belonged to Carrie Jones, or her daughter, Susan Camp. From the age of some of the papers, I'm guessing it might be Carrie herself . . . Anyway, what we do know was that she seemed to be pretty into crochet--most of what's here is lots and lots of copies of The Workbasket, along with a few pamphlets with doily patterns. However, there are also a few very old, very cool newspapers, and a few other gems.

(You can click on any of these images for a larger version.)

I have a lot of cool things to show, so I'll probably split this into two posts. Part one: advertising!

I'm going to confess, most of the time, the advertisements in these things are much more interesting than the actual content of the paper. (I wouldn't be surprised if in seventy or eighty years, somebody said the same thing about our newspapers. I would be embarrassed, though.)

This next one was in a newspaper called Hearth and Home, from Augusta, Maine in October, 1927. It's an advertisement for "Degnen's Radio-Active Solar Pad" from the Radium Appliance Co. in Los Angeles. These newspapers are FULL of miracle remedies for common ailments (gout and bunions and deafness, for example), but this one was particularly interesting. All I'm going to say is that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Radium Is Restoring Health to Thousands

No matter how bad your ailment, or how long standing, we will be pleased to have you try it at our risk.

The rest of the full-page ad gives testimonies from customers who claim to have recovered from things like asthma, constipation, and paralysis as a result of the product. It also asks, "Will RADIUM At Last Open The Door of the Great Unknown?"

Oh, Radium Appliance Co. If you only knew.

(Incidentally, Samurai Knitter recently put up two posts about radiation which I found very interesting and which I think explain why Degnen's Radio-Active Solar Pad wasn't killing people willy-nilly in the late twenties. Well, apart from the fact that I have serious doubts as to the amount of radioactive material the Radium Appliance Co. bothered to include in the device, despite their assurance that it "contains actual RADIUM in sufficient quantities to be highly radio-active".)

Some more gems from another newspaper in the same genre: these are all from Mother's Home Life and the Household Guest, August, 1937.

TOBACCO HABIT
Formula 21 removes desire for tobacco.
CAN BE GIVEN SECRETLY.
Contains no narcotics or habit-forming drugs.

There are a lot of these advertisements, for drugs that will help your husband (though it never ADMITS it's for your husband) break his tobacco and/or alcohol addiction. Every one of them promises that the drug can be given secretly. (Another one on the same page is for a drug that "Can be given secretly in food or drink to anyone who drinks or craves Whiskey, Beer, Gin, Wine, etc.") Does this seem grim to anybody else?

This next one is also very grim, but more because if you changed the copy a little (to make it more politically correct) and inserted a couple of glossy before and after shots, this could be straight out of a women's magazine today. Actually, I think this girl's photo is much more flattering than the fat girls we get in advertisements today.

Personal to Fat Girls! -- Now you can slim down your face and figure without strict dieting or back-breaking exercises. Just eat sensibly and take 4 Marmola Prescription Tablets a day until you have lost enough fat -- then stop.

Marmola Prescription Tablets contain the same element prescribed by most doctors in treating their fat patients. Millions of people are using them with success. Don't let others think you have no spunk and that your will-power is as flabby as your flesh. Start with Marmola today and win the slender lovely figure rightfully yours.

Yeah, apparently the desire to magically lose weight without having to work at it isn't new at all.

There's also this one, but I'm not going to bother typing up the copy--the main point is the illustration. Again, eerily familiar.

Next time: some actual vintage fiber-related tidbits! Probably significantly less interesting than this stuff, unless you're into yarn like I am.

So, one of the things I've been taking advantage of since I graduate is having a real kitchen. I've been cooking a lot--I enjoy it, and my mom likes the help. Right now, I'm focusing on making tasty, nutritious, low-cost meals, mainly by making stuff from scratch and eating a lot of bean and lentil curries (curries, because spices are a cheap way to make food flavorful, without adding a lot of expensive and fatty meat). Here are a few highlights:

No-knead Bread

I know everybody's said it already, but this stuff (which first blew me away during dinner at a professor's house) is freaking amazing. A beautiful, crispy crust, with a moist, chewy center. Plus, the ingredients cost like 50 cents. Sounds like my kind of recipe! The only down side is that the loaf doesn't keep very well. We've found that it makes good toast even after a couple of days, but for eating as bread, it's really best that first day.

The other day, I made this black eyed pea curry. I would have made the dal from the first link, but we were out of yellow lentils, having used them a couple weeks ago for a dal that we pretty much made up.

I love black eyed peas, and I really loved this curry. I served it over brown rice, with this yogurt sauce, and a glass of a nice Gewurztraminer from Alsace, which I splurged on a while back.

My mom said it was even better the second day, although there wasn't much left to prove that--however, I have frozen a few servings to use as lunches. (I got a job proofreading the local newspaper one day a week, and I prefer to fill a thermos with soup from home rather than buying food in town.) Which reminds me, I need to take one of those out of the freezer to thaw for tomorrow . . .

And, for dessert, I made this rice pudding out of leftover rice from a dish I'd made the night before. (White rice, not brown.)

I left out the raisins, which was a good call, but it could have used a little more sugar. Other than that, the pudding was delicious and creamy. I tried making the same recipe last night, actually, but I messed something up--the texture is very strange and slightly unpleasant. But, practice makes perfect! I'll definitely keep making rice pudding--it's a great way to use up leftover rice that nobody's eating.

Stay tuned for my other favorite way to use up leftover rice!

Hello Blog! It's been a while, but I'm not going to apologize, because I think I had a pretty good excuse. I was working on this:

Well, okay, technically that was over a month ago now. Can we just chock it up to recovery and call it even? Unfortunately, I can't tell you guys much about graduation, because it would sound too much like bragging. Suffice it to say, I did very well, and so did my friends. It was awesome!

Backing up in time a little, here is what my table at the library looked the morning after I finished my very last college essay ever.

Click to examine my book titles in creepy stalkerish detail! Even without clicking, you might be able to see that my last paper was about Monty Python. (Well, comparative analysis of Monty Python and Aristophanes. It was pretty awesome.) You can also see my graduation present, an Eee PC 1000HE. I will be posting about that at some point this summer, but let's just say it's really nice to be off of Cicero, my old Asus Travelmate. (The new computer's name is Aristophanes. It seemed appropriate.)

The day after all of us finished our classwork and embarked on the amazing week before graduation, my friends and I went out and saw the new Star Trek. Also, I got my ears pierced, and we ate Indian food. So, awesome all around. And, when we were leaving the movie, I saw this license plate, which pretty much made my YEAR.

(If you don't get it, then obviously you weren't obsessed with Homestar Runner a few years ago. Okay, admittedly, my geekiness can get obscure sometimes.)

There has been a lot of fiber stuff going on, as well as a lot of cooking. Pretty much all I've done since I graduated is make stuff. Well, and submitted my Peace Corps application. I'll keep you guys updated on that.

I also have a twitter now! Feel free to follow me: middlemuse.

Since it's still Poetry Month, here's my current favorite poem. Fiber-related content will resume when my honors thesis is done.

"Call Me By My True Names"
by Thich Nhat Hanh

Don't say that I will depart tomorrow--
even today I am still arriving.

Look deeply: every second I am arriving
to be a bud on a spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with still, frail wings,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I am still arriving, in order to laugh and to cry,
in order to fear and to hope,
the rhythm of my heart is the birth and death
of every living creature.

I am the mayfly metamorphosing
on the surface of the river.
And I am the bird,
that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily
in the clear water of a pond,
and I am the grass-snake
that silently feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.
And I am the arms merchant,
selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl,
refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean
after being raped by a sea pirate.
And I am the pirate,
my heart not yet capable
of seeing and loving.

I am the member of the politburo,
with plenty of power in my hands,
and I am the man who has to pay
his "debt of blood" to my people,
dying slowly in a forced-labor camp.

My joy is like spring, so warm
that it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.
My pain is like a river of tears,
so vast that it fills up all four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up
and open the door of my heart,
the door of compassion.

April is Poetry Month, and since I'm currently trying not to collapse under the weight of my thesis, I thought I'd share.

The literature club left this poem in my mailbox this morning:

I, being born a woman and distressed
By all the needs and notions of my kind,
Am urged by your propinquity to find
Your person fair, and feel a certain zest
To bear your body's weight upon my breast:
So subtly is the fume of life designed,
To clarify the pulse and cloud the mind,
And leave me once again undone, possessed.
Think not for this, however, the poor treason
Of my stout blood against my staggering brain,
I shall remember you with love, or season
My scorn with pity, -- let me make it plain:
I find this frenzy insufficient reason
For conversation when we meet again.

--Edna St. Vincent Millay

I read it over four times. It's deliciously snarky, and I appreciate any woman who can be snarky in meter.

It also made me think of another poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, which used to be up on my LiveJournal, before my mom told me that it made her nervous that I seem to identify with it. (I replaced it with Emily Dickinson on books.)

First Fig
My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night.
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends--
It gives a lovely light.

--Edna St. Vincent Millay

Funny thing is, I still identify with it just as much as I did when I started college, except these days I think 'lovely' is perhaps too generous a word for the light my candle is giving off. 'Sickly' would probably be more accurate.

But, you know, this made me realize--I now love two poems by this woman, and I don't actually know anything about her. So, I looked her up on the ubiquitous Wikipedia. I learned that she was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, and that she had a relationship with Thelma Wood. (I love historical lesbians!)

At any rate, I hope that everyone will take the time to celebrate Poetry Month by reading a new poem and perhaps sharing one of your favorites with the world! And by world, I mean, the blogosphere.

My schedule is about what you'd expect it to be during senior year, with the Honors Thesis and the 18.5 credits. So, I don't have a lot of knitting or spinning to show you.

It snowed six inches last night. Here, in Virginia. On the first day of March. And while I very much appreciate having classes canceled, I find myself longing for summer again . . . warm breezes, and bright sunshine, and cool grass (and no school).

Here's a photo I took last summer of the sun shining through my mom's poppies. I tinkered with it in Photoshop last night to age it a little. (It needed to be aged. Our entire neighborhood looks like it never left the seventies.) It's my desktop background right now, while I wait for winter (and school) to end.

(Click for a full-size version.)

(Yeah, this project deserves a much more romantic name, but I'm terrible at naming things. Any suggestions?)

Now that I'm back at school, I'm very low on time to devote to fiber, but I've made a little time. Most notably, I finished my fourth skein of yarn, and it is BEAUTIFUL. I took that purple and blue roving from the last post and spun it up into a two-ply with a very, very long color gradient. (It goes from blue and violet on one end, to dusty purple, to semi-solid burgundy.)

(Now for the first time, you can click on the photos to see a bigger size! I am that proud of myself.)

It was beautiful in the skein, but it didn't stay there very long.

I'm making this scarf, because I wanted something that would show off the long color change. I'm actually still a little apprehensive--I hope the burgundy will look all right in the same piece as the lavender. Also, I didn't read the pattern closely enough and failed to notice that I'm supposed to crochet a few rows at each end when the knitting is finished (probably to stop it curling). The long color repeat makes that problematic--by the time I get to the end, I'll only have burgundy leftover. I'll probably skip the crochet and just block it well--I may use invisible thread to sew on some clear glass beads. . . that would be pretty.

The photos really don't convey the amazing depth of color in this yarn. I tried to get them accurate on my monitor, but I know that my monitor tends to wash things out a bit . . . if they look stupidly bright to you, that's probably why. Anyway, I didn't measure the WPI, but the yarn seems to be roughly worsted weight (still highly variable, but much less slubby than my previous efforts). I'm knitting it on size 6 needles, which may be a little to big, but I want it to be drapey, and I think it looks all right.

Also, in the realm of minor victories:

I should note that that's the page count for my SECOND chapter. I'm still running badly behind, but I've only got a couple of days to finish the rough draft of this chapter. I better go get to work on that.

I finally got batteries for my camera, so here are the results of last Saturday's efforts.

I dyed two four oz. lengths of roving, and two skeins of sock yarn. Here they are drying in front of the furnace (you can just see the sock yarn on the back of the chair there). I was very nervous about the roving, but I don't seem to have felted it. I haven't tried spinning it yet, but I think I'll be able to fluff it up into something totally spinnable.

This image is a three-fer. On the left, you can see the sock yarn I dyed on Saturday. It's in my school colors--I used Wilton's icing dyes, in Aster Mauve and Juniper Green (I mixed up a little brown dye, too, and added it to the mauve to mute it a bit--worked perfectly). I tried to make it self-striping, but I won't know until I knit it if it worked. (I was . . . kind of too lazy to figure out exactly how long I needed to make the color lengths in order to make it self-striping.) I love the way it turned out, though. The skeins are so pretty, I almost don't want to knit them.

In the middle is my second attempt at spinning--my first two-ply. Even after plying, it's still thick-and-thin, so I'm not sure what I'm going to make out of it . . . I don't need another bulky white hat, and I'm not sure there's enough there for a scarf. I'm going to sit on it for a while, and maybe dye it later. (Jennifer Tallapaneni just made the world's most adorable mittens, which I must have, but I don't think this inconsistent yarn would work for them, even after adjusting for the gauge.)

And on the right are a couple skeins of sock yarn I dyed a week or two ago. I kind of screwed it up, I think--the color definitely took up strangely. I only used two colors, Wilton's icing dyes in Delphinium Blue and Juniper Green. (The blue seems to have broken into a deep blue-violet in a couple places--or maybe not so much broken as just soaked up much faster.) I just rolled up one of those skeins into a ball, so I'll be starting the socks soon. It's been a while since I've made myself a new pair of socks!

Oh, incidentally, both of those sets of sock yarn were Patons Kroy Sock in Muslin.

With this roving, I was going for something that went from blue at one end to purply-burgandy on the other. But, I forgot to add vinegar to the dye before I poured it on the wool, so I had to pour on the vinegar after the dye. The second it hit the blue (Wilton's, Delphinium Blue), the blue broke wildly into the neon purple color you see at the center of the ball. I was initially disappointed, but it is kind of cool how instantly it happened--chemistry is kind of cool! (Full disclosure: I don't know the first thing about chemistry.) The other end I just dyed with Black Cherry Koolaid. (I have to say, so far I've had a lot more look with Koolaid than Wilton's . . . but Wilton's has so many more colors.)

For this one, I was going for a dark, variegated green. I used three different shades of Wilton's (Juniper Green, Leaf Green, and Moss Green). One of them (I think it was the Moss Green) broke into that sort of brownish amber color . . . Also, there are places that didn't take any dye at all. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this one. I'm not a big fan of brownish greens, or limey greens . . . I think I'm going to spin it, and see how it looks, and then probably overdye it with a dark green, or maybe even a deep blue . . .

Anyway, those were my experiments! Tomorrow, very, VERY early in the morning, I get on a plane to go back to school. After the hell that was lass semester, even thinking about going back makes me queasy . . . but I have to push through this one last semester. (You can expect updates to slow down again . . . it looks like I'm averaging about once a month while I'm at school.)

(Via Amelia at Ask the Bellwether. I need to update my blogroll to include all of the new craft blogs I've picked up as a result of starting to spin. Turns out, almost everybody has a blog!)

The program obviously only works with the most recent posts (I know I haven't talked that much about nalbinding), so there are lots of words related to food from all those cooking posts I made last month. My favorite part is that the word "carcass" made it on there. One of these things is not like the others . . .

Today I dyed wool! (Got tired of spinning white all day.) Come back tomorrow for pictures, provided I can find batteries for my camera!

Today, I finished my first project in handspun yarn. (I would have finished it yesterday, but I needed another five yards or so, and my last skein of the Corriedale was still wet. That was kind of frustrating!) My bulky, thick-and-thin yarn was just begging to be an adorable hat . . . and now it is!

(Pictured with the first spindlefull of my new BFL roving, which is destined to be a vaguely worsted-to-bulky weight two-ply--my spinning got much thinner literally overnight!)

It's a beanie cap with a buttoned garter stitch brim. It was inspired by Knit-a-Gogo's Cashmere Beanie, but I couldn't get the PDF of the pattern to load (thanks to my lousy dialup, I think), so I just made it up myself. Judging from the pictures on Ravelry, it's pretty much the same, except my garter brim folds up over the ears for double thickness. (Much warmer!)

The button is a vintage mother-of-pearl from my mom's collection. Sometimes it's very nice to have an older and more experienced crafter around. (My button collection is abysmal . . . it consists of a bag of mixed buttons I got at Michaels.)

The thick-and-thin nature of the yarn works perfectly with the hat . . . it looks rustic and nobbly in all the right ways.