Rainbow Chills

Sometimes when somebody loves you

Sometimes when somebody loves you
Miracles somehow appear
And there in the warp and the woof is the proof of it
Charlotte's web

There must be something more to us than you and me
It must be tangled up somehow with destiny
I used to think the sum of one and one was two
But we add up to more, me and you

How very special are we
For just a moment to be
Part of life's eternal rhyme
How very special are we
To have on our family tree
Mother Earth and Father Time

Specs:

• Pattern: Charlotte's Web Shawl
• Pattern Source: Knits from Painter's Palette (Koigu single pattern)
• Designer: Maie Landra
• Yarn: Koigu in 5 colors, color codes forthcoming
• Yarn and pattern purchased: at Loop
• Needles: US 7 Knit Picks Options
• Started: February 18, 2008
• Finished: February 28, 2008
• Knit for: my Mom for Mother's Day
• Modifications: I didn't knit any edging on it. I may add something but I doubt it. I will definitely not be adding fringe.
• Notes:

My mom and I went to Loop on MLK day and she fell in love with the shop sample. I have never been a big fan of this shawl because I think the color variegation obscures the lace but my mom just adored it. She's been a crocheter for my whole life but had never stepped foot into a real yarn store before that day and was just bowled over by all of the options. I went to Loop last Monday and took advantage of the President's Day sale and got the yarn and pattern for this. Michelle is doubtful that I'll be able to resist giving this to my mom before Mother's Day but I'm going to try.

Two things made this knit go so quickly-- my love of knitting lace and the joy that is koigu. I really love to knit lace. It's so interesting. I will admit to having a problem in the rows between 30 and 50. I just couldn't get it. I kept ripping back and starting those rows over and over. But after that, I got it and it just flew off the needles. I haven't worked with Koigu in quite a long time. I may have only used it one other time- about 4 years ago for a pair of socks. I really loved knitting this.

I blocked it using my blocking wires. I think I'm doing something wrong with them. I keep reading that blocking wires make things so much faster but I feel like it takes much longer for me. Threading the wires through is a pain. Michelle suggested that perhaps it is taking longer but that I'm doing a better or more thorough job. That's possible. I don't know. Does anyone have any blocking wire words of wisdom?

Thanks for your contest guesses. No one guessed that I was knitting Charlotte's Web, a Koigu pattern that made the rounds about four years ago. Have no fear, there will be more opportunities for winning yarn in the coming months. Michelle and I will be launching our fundraising for the Arthritis Walk on March 1.

Note: All lyrics are from songs in the Charlotte's Web animated movie released in 1973.

River

I couldn't help but think of River Phoenix when I heard about Heath Ledger yesterday.

Natalie Merchant expresses the thoughts of many in her beautiful song, River:

Young & strong Hollywood son
In the early morning light
This star fell down
On Sunset Boulevard

Young & strong beautiful one
That we embraced so close
Is gone
Was torn away

Let the youth of America mourn
Include him in their prayers
Let his image linger on
Repeat it everywhere

With candles with flowers
He was one of ours
One of ours

Why don't you let him be?
He's gone
We know
Give his mother and his father peace
Your vulture's candor
Your casual slander
You murder his memory
He's gone
We know
It's nothing but a tragedy

Lay to rest your soul and body
Lay beside your name
Lay to rest your rage
Your hunger and amazing grace

With candles, with flowers
You were one of ours
One of ours

I saw cameras expose your life
I heard rumors explode with lies
I saw children in tears
Cry and crowd around the sight
Of where you had collapsed that day
Where your last breath & word
Had been sighed
Where your heart had burst
And where you had died
Where you had died

I saw how they were lost in grieving
All half-believing you were gone
The loss and pain of it
Crime and the shame of it
You were gone
It was such a nightmare raving,
"how can we save him
From himself?"

Random Tuesday

• The Bruce Springsteen concert on Saturday was awesome. Set list here. It's the first time I hung out with my mom, just the two of us, in a few years. Do the Courtney Cox dance from Dancing In the Dark and try not to have fun. It's impossible.
• The Phils got swept and baseball is over for me. Less than 4 months until pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training, a date my mom always knows. It will be interesting to see how contract talks go over the coming week. I have my fingers crossed that we'll keep Aaron Rowand but I think it's unlikely.
• My friend D said to me in an email today, "You must be on the really good drugs" when I suggested we go out dancing this weekend. She makes me laugh.
• I bought Rosie's new book today and will be reading it tonight (probably the whole thing) while Michelle tutors my sister Angie in Chemistry. I'm glad I don't ever have to know Chemistry again.
• Michelle has finally succumbed to my multiple requests that she watch every episode of Friday Night Lights and watch the new season with me. We've been watching it for the past few nights. I LOVE THAT SHOW!
• 8 days until the Rhinebeck celebrating begins. Yep, I'm going up on Thursday.

Wing update

I feel like I owe you pictures of the wing but frankly, I think the wing looks much the same as last week.

Non-pinned pic:

And a close-up:

This is what I've been doing when I haven't been knitting the wing:

Don't ask me what it is. I have no idea. It does, however, use up my sock knitting remnants. It's very mindless knitting and I love it. I just grab a ball and pick up stitches and go, without regard for what will go well with the rest (obviously). I'm trying not to be bothered by the two miters that are facing the wrong way. Seriously, is that what I should be worried about? Who can focus on that when I've used that many colors in a square foot. This thing could go on forever. The edges of each square are 20 stitches per side. You can do it too. I know you have leftovers like I do. I like this better than doing log cabin strips with sock ends. Too many stitches to pick up that way. I did most of this while watching the first season of Friday Night Lights on NBC's website for free. It's a great show and I can't wait for the new season.

What else is up with me?

Well, I'm at home now with WORK to do but instead, I put iTunes on Party Shuffle and I'm blogging. So far, I've heard U2, Raffi (yes, that Raffi), Beck, Jump Little Children, and Alanis Morrissette.

Coming up:
Elton John
STYX
Dave Matthews Band
Gwen Stefani
Peter, Paul and Mary
The Killers
Indigo Girls
Ani DiFranco
Madonna
Colbie Caillat (was an iTunes free download)
Aimee Mann
Dixie Chicks
Tim McGraw

Weird, huh?

Choose to Be Happy

From my favorite new album, the Grey Gardens soundtrack:

Choose to be happy, happy, happy
Make that the motto you use to be happy
Happy to choose what you choose not to see
Choose to be happy like me.
Think, really think, of a goal worth achieving
and try, really try, but begin by believing (praise the Lord)
wake every morning and say, really say
the rest of your life starts today.
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah
You're on your way.

Thank you all for your generous contributions and moral support for Team Monkey. We are thrilled at the progress we've made in the past eight days.

I did pick up some yarn for raffle prizes when I was at Maryland last Saturday. Pictures next week.

Have a great weekend!

Defying Gravity

Michelle and I just got back from a four day trip to New York to celebrate the five year anniversary of our commitment ceremony. We had a fabulous time, despite mediocre weather. We saw three shows: Avenue Q, Wicked, and Grey Gardens. They were all wonderful in different ways.

Avenue Q was funny and smart. What bad can be said about a show that features songs like Everyone's a Little Bit Racist and features Gary Coleman as a character? It's fun to mock child stars, especially when the mocking is being done by puppets. We had no trouble getting tickets at 5:45 on Thursday night at TKTS at the Marriott Marquis. They had tickets for many shows and plays and the line was nearly nonexistent. If you are willing to make an on the spot decision about which show to see, I highly recommend it. I'd skip the long line that often forms for the 3:00 opening time at TKTS.

Wicked was everything I dreamed and more. I bought the soundtrack last summer after hearing it on a car ride with my parents (we always listen and sing along to soundtracks on car trips). The current Broadway cast does not disappoint. Julia Murney as Elphaba was very good and I can't say enough good things about Kendra Kasselbaum as Glinda. She was silly and bouyant, just as Glinda should be. She was also incredibly likable as a self-centered spoiled girl. Seeing Wicked is an experience in being transported to an imaginary world, a world that we both know intimately (from the Wizard of Oz books and movie) and one that we've never seen before- through the eyes of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West.

Grey Gardens was unbelievable. It was a transforming experience for me. I literally felt as though I was being changed while I was seeing it. Christine Ebersole is amazing. She is such a powerful actress who is able to be vulnerable, quirky, and confident- a tough combo. Both Edith and Little Edie are so complex and seeing this reality portayed on the stage is something to behold. When Michelle and I were talking about the three shows, I said that contrasting Wicked and Grey Gardens was interesting: one is a world totally in fantasy and the other is based on reality, but not reality as WE know it. The layered concepts of independence, relationships, feelings of being paralyzed by one's circumstances, the concept of acting both professionally and in daily life, eccentricity, individuality, and mental illness all collide and combine in the second act. It's certainly not for everyone, just as I have heard varying reviews of the documentary. Some people see brilliance and eccentricity, others mentally ill people who need intervention. Can we see both? Are they mutually exclusive? I could talk and talk about this show! Christine Ebersole will win the Tony, no doubt in my mind and it will be well deserved.

A recent NY Times article said this about the experience of seeing Grey Gardens:

As absurd as they appear the Beales are comfortingly human too. Their decline from hopeful dreamers to withdrawn oddballs may be extreme, but it traces in unusually gothic style an arc that shapes many a human journey. The lives we live as adults are rarely in neat accord with the heady dreams of youth. The seismic change that occurs in the fortunes of the Beales while the audience is chatting away merrily at intermission is a sneaky metaphor for the stealthy progress of fate in our own lives.

Few will leave the theater thinking: Little Edie Beale, c’est moi! But everyone of a certain age (say 30) has probably lived through a few of those startling moments when you take stock of your life as it is and wonder: How did I get here, exactly? When did the curves come that moved me away from one destiny and toward another? I guess it all must have happened during intermission.

NY Times, 4/8/07

I could say so much more about the trip. About that most quintessential of vacation experiences- drinking wine at lunch time. About getting lost in Central Park looking for Strawberry Fields. About the beauty that was the Forbidden Broadway ice cream sundae at Serendipity for dinner on Friday. About the restaurant awning that dumped water all over me and Michelle on Satuday. About the football players in town for the NFL draft that were staying at our hotel.

I'll leave you with lyrics from Wicked's amazing Defying Gravity:

Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I'm through with playing by
The rules of someone else's game
Too late for second-guessing
Too late to go back to sleep
It's time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes
And leap...

It's time to try defying gravity
I think I'll try defying gravity
And you can't pull me down

The Clouds Part

"I can see clearly now, the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun shiny day

I think I can make it now, the pain is gone
All of the bad feelings have disappeared
Here is the rainbow I've been prayin' for
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun shiny day

Look all around, there's nothin' but blue skies
Look straight ahead, nothin' but blue skies

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun shiny day"

Johnny Nash, I Can See Clearly Now

It's a new day, one with beautiful, clear skies. I will be sitting outside this afternoon, reading, knitting, and enjoying this beautiful day. I'm praying for peace, internal and otherwise, and thanking God for each of you.

                                     

Tuesday Randoms

• I have dubbed Tuesday as "Danish Day." For the past three weeks, I've gone to Bonte' on Tuesday morning for a cup of coffee and a cherry danish. I love cherry danish and I picked Tuesday because it's the day when new episodes of Gilmore Girls air. In an episode of the Gilmore Girls from season 2, Rory said to Luke:

Okay, this is insane. So you guys had a fight, big deal. You know you're gonna make up anyway, and what better day to make up than Danish Day, the happiest of all days. The day when we all say, 'hey, let's forgive and forget over a nice Danish and a cup coffee.

• I've also identified Monday as the day I buy a 20 oz Diet Coke before I teach class and Friday as the day I buy my lunch. Monday diet coke has been happening for a few months. This Friday lunch thing is new this week though. I'm hoping that I'll eat in all week and treat myself by buying lunch on Friday. I'm hoping this will help me spend less money.
• It's only a little over 2 months until Maryland Sheep and Wool. I need to do a bunch of stash knitting to feel like I can buy without guilt, otherwise, I'm going to be buying very little.
• I am obsessed with my iPod nano. I listen to it way too much and find that I create situations in which I can listen to it.
• I am a girl who doesn't just like things. I LOVE THEM! This is not news to anyone who has been reading for awhile but the newest example is Grey's Anatomy. I have watched Grey's since the first episode but my appreciation for it has escalated to an obsession in the past few months. Now, I watch the episode and the next day, read the Writers' Blog, listen to the Podcast, and download the music from the episode on iTunes. I am not a well person.
• Recently someone bragged to me that she knew every word to every song from the Sound of Music. It took everything in me not to laugh at her. Come back to me when you also know every word to every song in the Wizard of Oz, Mary Martin's Peter Pan, Oliver!, South Pacific, Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, Les Mis, Phantom of the Opera, RENT, Chicago, My Fair Lady, A Chorus Line, Mary Poppins, Annie, Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, White Christmas, Grease, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and West Side Story. And that doesn't include other musicals that I know some of the words but all of them like West Side Story, Guys and Dolls, Anything Goes...I could go on and on.

I have no knitting news to share. Still working on blanket #1 for the twins. God save me from never-ending garter stitch.

Sin Wagon

The Dixie Chicks concert was phenomenal.

We got to the venue and climbed many, many stairs to our seats which were close to the front of the arena but in the second to last row of the balcony. So much for buying "best available" through ticketmaster the morning the tickets go on sale. After the opening act, my propensity for eavesdropping finally paid off in a tangible way- a stadium employee was asking the people next to us if they'd like to sit downstairs and asked them if he could see their tickets. I whipped our tickets out, handed them to Michelle and said "Show that guy our tickets." She had no idea what I was talking about (I forget sometimes that not everyone is simultaneously listening in on every conversation going on around them) so I handed the guy our tickets and said "Do you have two more?"

Then we headed to the floor! I have been to tons of concerts (more than 30). And while these aren't the closest seats I've ever had to a performer, it is the first time I've sat on the floor at this venue. We stood the entire concert and I sang my little Chick-loving heart out. The set list is available on wikipedia. It was so wonderful. My love of Natalie Maines only grew but the biggest surprise of the night for me is the crush that I am developing on Martie Maguire. Damn, that woman can play a fiddle! I've known how wonderful the Chicks were for years and I did see them live at the Lilith Fair back in 98 or 99 but WOW! The show was awesome.

On a different note, the haiku idea stinks and has been retired. Tune in for semi-regular blogging about books, music, knitting, and bragging about my nieces and nephew. Sounds like a barrel of laughs, huh?

Lyrics- no haiku

Well, I fought with a stranger and I met myself.
I opened my mouth and I heard myself.
It can get pretty lonely when you show yourself.
Guess I could have made it easier on myself!

We're off to see the Dixie Chicks rock out! Outspoken, strong women! Full report tomorrow.