Ply and Burl

Yay! I finally got my invitation to Ravelry! If only I wasn’t in a knitting slump due to the heat — I’d have more than just frogging to report. Alas.

Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, the guys behind Freakonomics, wrote a column in last week’s New York Times Magazine about the modern practice of doing “menial labor” as leisure activity. Gardening, knitting, and cooking were at the top of their list of examples. Clearly, by the subject of this blog, I’m one of these fun-laboring people they’re talking about. They say that middle-class people engaging in these activities is a paradox: the cost of growing your own food or knitting yourself a scarf, when you include the labor as well as the supplies, often far exceeds the cost of simply buying the the same items in a store.

One example they give is the $140 dollar scarf — that’s $40 in supplies, plus 10 hours of knitting at $10 per hour. True, that’s a pricey scarf. Nevertheless, I think their math, as calculated, is meaningless. Nay, I’ll add to that: it’s dehumanizing. By this equation only, the logic would say, why knit or garden, when you could work more hours in front of the computer/at the counter/in the factory and just buy the items instead?

The answer seems so obvious, doesn’t it?

The authors discuss the economic reasoning at length, but only briefly touch on the psychological, ecological, and sociological reasons behind the phenomenon. Now, I don’t claim to have expertise in any of the above areas, but I do have a gestalt opinion:

Freakonomics guys, we knit and garden and cook for ourselves because we’d be drones if we didn’t. Our lives would be devoid of self-sufficiency, devoid of the gratification of caring, feeding and clothing ourselves and our loved ones. We express creativity when we do these tasks in a way that would not be accessible to us if creativity was only limited to fine art and music. We share an irrepressible desire to engage the world in a physical way, to alter the landscape and surroundings we occupy, and these tasks provide us that outlet. When we do them together, or for each other, we are able to connect and build communities to boot. Money aside, statistics aside, “pure leisure” vs. “home production” aside, these tasks have value in much deeper and wider ways than traditional economics would allow to enter the calculation. To me, the explanation just seems a matter of common sense. We all do it, so why is it remarkable at all?

The past month has been the harbinger of a boat-load of inner turmoil and endless off-hours slogging as a result. The big change (gulp)? Ply and Burl is moving to Ann Arbor, MI! Me, the boy, the kitties, the G5, my wheelbarrow and my yarn.

The emotional end of move is proving more grueling than anticipated. Twelve years in a place can make some roots run very deep.

But still, I’m determined. It’s now or never for grad school, and I’m excited to become a bigger part of the digital revolution. So instead of trying to tackle all of the deep sadness, I’m going for the superficial stuff that’s been nagging at me.

Calling anyone who’s every been to / lived in / or left Ann Arbor, MI, I’ve got questions!

1. Where is the absolute best place to get an incredible haircut in Ann Arbor, and who should I get it from?
I’m the biggest whiner when it comes to my hair. I want it great, and I’ll pay a lot for it. Speaking of, I chopped off nine inches last week. Wahoo!

2. Where can I buy Noro yarn in lots of shapes and sizes in Ann Arbor?
I’ve got that Clapotis itch to scratch, and Lion Brand just ain’t gonna cut it.

3. Where can I do some ass-kicking yoga in a mostly non-competitive atmosphere in Ann Arbor?
I want to sweat buckets without feeling judged by my mat-mates.

4. Where can I find a lap pool that is not full of boogers and bandaids in Ann Arbor?
One thing I won’t be missing is the cesspool at the local Y.

Thanks in advance for the answers — more questions coming soon, along with a knitting update, including the long overdue shot of my finished sunrise circle jacket!

Though my stash is teeny tiny already, I still feel the need to liberate a few skeins, let them fly off to new homes where they’ll be knit with joy. So, I’ve got yarn for sale!

Super cheap $2 shipping for any order, or one or all of the following. Comment here or contact me by email (at the bottom of the sidebar) to buy!

2 skeins Karabella Soft Tweed in Tweedy Purple

$14 (that’s $3.50 off retail!)
Dyelot # 7553, 50g/108yd per skein, US 7 16sts/4″

Super soft and fluffy yarn!

Here’s the Karabella knit up:

3 skeins Elsabeth Lavold’s Silky Wool in Pumpkin

$16 (that’s $4.85 off retail!)
Dyelot #40, 50g/175m per skein, US 6 22sts/4″

Earthy, organic silk yarn with a lovely drape

Here’s the Silky Wool knit up:

Brand New Knitting Bag/Scarf Kit

Just $25!
Comes with this funky bag, 4 skeins of yarn, a pair of wooden needles, and a spindle topped crochet hook. Bag has needle holding hoops on the inside.

The bag:

The contents:

Knitpicks Red Yarn Grab Bag

$6 (that’s $3 off retail!)
1 ball Wool of the Andes in Iron Ore
1 ball Wool of the Andes in Hollyberry
1 ball Andean Silk in Hollyberry

Check out knit picks textures and colors with these three test skeins

3 skeins Alpaca Yarn Co.’s Classic Alpaca in Horizon

$16 (that $5 off retail!)
Dyelot # 58266 50g/110yd per skein, 22sts/4″

Soft, elegant 100% alpaca yarn in a gengle gray/lavender hue

Did you hear? I’m famous! In addition to boosting my nerdiness-based self-esteem, Jenny and Nicole of Stash and Burn pulled off an incredible feat in having my stashquations read aloud and made meaningful in their podcast!

But a note to John, their resident mathematician: If I have to tell you why 308 is special, well, you’ll just never understand.
Thanks to Wikipedia for the correlation equations.

Thinking, no big deal, I’ll just up and design a baby bootie on the fly? Think again, young Jedi.

I am embarrassed to admit that these booties gave me a serious run for my money. I tried to stripe them around the gusset, resulting in about sixty thousand straggly end pieces everywhere. Then, when I finally settled on a simpler pattern, I kept getting messed up turning the heel, which is ridiculous, considering the heel had, oh, 12 stitches to turn. Twelve measly stitches, and I was on the mat, begging for mercy. I was heel impaired for just that one weekend — yesterday I turned 32 heel stitches and didn’t blink an eye.

In the end, I think I won. The second one was a breeze, and the pair came out super cute. They finally went off to the new guy in Boston last week.

On another note, can I go crazy and link to some non-knitting stuff? It’s been interesting out there lately!

Women of Our Time from the Smithsonian is a photo gallery of influential women of the 20th century. Click on the photos for a biography. Inspiring!

NPR is blogging the Most Promising Musicians from SXSW this year. My favorite? Amy Winehouse, whose killer song “Rehab” will have you singing for hours.

Oh, Yoga Today, how I adore you. You rock so hard. Free one-hour yoga classes from three great instructors in Jackson Hole, WY. (Mostly Ashtanga, but I just did a really interesting Kundalini one last night.) You can view them on the website, or subscribe to the podcast and get a new one every day. From a long time yoga practitioner, I can say confidently that these are great classes, and are not too easy.

The Speech Accent Archive has people from all over the US and the world reading the same quote in small audio files. It’s fascinating to listen to the differences in accent.

Ironwood Designs is an Etsy shop that my woodworker boyfriend recently opened. Cute stuff and getting cuter.

Yay! (That’s all.)

People on the web claim time and again that Addi Turbos do not kink. This intrepid reporter is here to tell you that Addi Turbos do kink. Behold, my once smooth and supple Addis, after innocuously hanging from my circular needle holder for several months:

These buggers were kinked from here to Toledo! I tried knitting with them, thinking they might soften up again as they changed position. No dice. Knitting with them was a total drag.

Luckily, steaming them over boiling water helped a little, and dipping them in the hot water helped a lot. Still, after using the Knit Picks Options needles, these cables feel stiffer than they used to. But that’s another story for another day.

For now, my debunking work is done.

The last few weeks have been hectic, with a visit to UC San Diego, discussions with U Mich and Cornell, and lots of thinking about my future. Not to mention the giant backlog of website work that’s been plaguing me for months.

Remarkably, in the middle of the tumult, I’ve managed to produce an FO! One of my oldest friends is having her first baby, most likely later this month, which has resulted in my first ever urge to knit a baby anything. Though the idea of having my own bundle of poopy diapers sends a cringe washing over me, I’ve found myself unabashedly enthusiastic for my friend’s impending motherhood. It’s coming out on my needles: behold, my first ever baby hat, in Rowan Cashsoft:

I’m mid-matching-bootie as we speak. Baby bootie, that is.

I’ve also been contentedly plugging away at my first Pomatomus socks. There is something hypnotizing about this pattern. I love love love it. This might sound fruity, but I think Cookie has tapped into a deep human aesthetic with this repeating curve pattern. Seriously, pomatomus = deeply tapping.

Enough philosophy. Here’s the pic:

The yarn is from my wonderful summer secret pal, Wendy. It’s Meilenweit MegaBoots Stretch and it’s sooooooper cool. Very stretchy, gorgeous colors.

Actually, my heart is balmy and temperate. But outside during this Valentine’s week? Truly arctic conditions!

On Valentine’s Day, 16 inches of snow fell through ferocious winds and single-digit temperatures. I loved it! Blizzards make me feel so hardy and intrepid. My sweetie, after being couch-bound with a cold for two days, made a grand romantic overture by shoveling 25 feet of driveway so he could unearth my car and drive out to buy me flowers. Of course, as a result, he got even sicker. But seriously, after that gesture, could he not be my knight in shining snowpants?

Here’s our house that night with said driveway, buffeted by a giant berm of snow:

The morning after the storm was sunnier than a mid-summer day. Rarely do we get anything but overcast skies here, so between the cheeky elation from the rush of vitamin D, and the kaleidoscope vision from the snow blindness, I got a little high on life. Then I got out the camera!

Here are some different snow textures I found:

And here are some bikes abandoned outside the coffee shop:

Can you see the car in this picture? I’ll give you a hint — look for the driver’s side mirror:

Here’s my one go at playing with the macro on my crapola camera. Hemlock pinecones:

Anyone up for a cookout?

A lovely snow path:

And finally, a self-portrait. Being drunk on all the sun, I had to take a picture of my shadow in the tire tracks: