Food Fury

Warning: There is no knitting content in this post. I'm furious about something else, and want to share my fury with all of you in the hope that it may inspire change.

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution is am amazing movement. With childhood obesity reaching epidemic proportions, along with childhood diabetes and other diet-related chronic illnesses, there needs to be a paradigm shift in how we feed our children, both at school and at home. Educating students, parents, and staff face-to-face in the schools is a great way to make that change happen. Filming that education and broadcasting it on national television is another excellent way to make it happen. Re-learning how to feed our children (and the rest of us) is an obvious, critical step toward improving the health of our country.

So why in hell are school districts making this impossible?

School boards are trying to prevent Jamie from coming into their schools and making changes because they fear bad publicity. They're afraid of Jamie pointing out that the average American school lunch is packed with empty calories and preservatives, and utterly lacking in the nutrients necessary for healthy bodies. They're afraid that if Jamie broadcasts anything negative about their school lunch programs, that parents will stop having their children buy lunches at school, and revenues will fall.

This. Is. Bullshit.

There are schools that are providing healthy, locally-grown, freshly-prepared food for their students, and doing it in a cost-effective way. There are schools that are educating students and parents about nutrition so the diet changes extend to the home kitchen. There are families whose lives have been improved dramatically for the better thanks to Jamie and his show.

It can be done. It is being done, but it's also being opposed, and that's what scares me. As long as there are people actively inhibiting such a beneficial project, we, as a society, have more work to do.

Start here. Sign the petition, find out what you can do on a local level, and make this change happen. Watch episodes on Hulu to see exactly what Jamie is doing, and get ideas that you can use at your school and at home.

Don't wait for someone else to raise the subject, and don't let the school board tell you that it can't be done, that it's too expensive, or that the pre-processed, long-distance, preservative-laden food they're serving is healthy enough.

Nearly two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese (a percentage which is almost identical in Vermont, by the way -- we're not as healthy a state as we think), and the kids who are in grade school now will add to that statistic in the next dozen years. Change the eating habits of our children today, and the adults of tomorrow will be healthier. Simple as that.

I'm gonna go try to calm down now.

Beatrix (after the Queen, not the lady who wrote about bunnies)

So, I have a new job. After a year with the Spinnery, things just weren't working out, so I decided to move on. A perfect opportunity fell into place just when I needed it, and I finally have a job that makes me happy, pays the bills, and doesn't send me home covered in machine oil. It does occasionally send me home with blisters, but that's because I got so darned excited about learning a new task that I didn't stop when things started hurting.

The groovy folks I work for now are, naturally, fiber people. They've been doing some cleaning/destashing lately, which has led to me expanding my collection of fiber tools. I've been given a Kundert spindle, a lignum vitae crochet hook, and... drumroll, please...



...this! Her name is Beatrix (because all of my wheels must have names beginning with B... for no particular reason), and I haven't done anything but clean off the dust so far. The footman is a replacement and needs some tweaking, and the pedal isn't going to see much use before it needs to be replaced, but aside from that, this wheel is in very good shape, and I almost don't care how it spins because it's so pretty.

I've been doing some knitting and crocheting, but haven't managed to take pics of the projects yet. Maybe soon... maybe.

Fortuna

Tidying up after dinner, I'm about to pick up my knitting when he pulls our fortune cookies out of the take-away bag and hands one to me. Fortune cookies have been good to me over the last year or two (they may not deliver the good things they promise, but the promise makes me feel better), so I'm especially curious to see what this cookie has to say. He looks at his, and remarks, "I think I got yours."



So I show him mine.



Then we can't breathe for about two minutes because we're laughing so hard.

When we finally recover, I pick up the WIP of the day and get a few rows done. This is going to be a hooded mantle with liripipe (that is, a long hood with an even longer tail), and it's made from some rejected yarn from work. We'd been having trouble keeping the drive gear on the spinning frame engaged, and if said gear drops out, the yarn keeps getting twisted but doesn't wind onto the bobbins, so we have to either break every end and tie lots of knots, or re-start with fresh bobbins. This particular mishap was maybe 30 yards into a new bobbin, so I made lots of little balls of yarn and re-started the set. That yarn would have been thrown in our reject box, but I knew I could do something cool with it, so I took it home. This is what it looks like now:



The center of the hood is going to be steeked (my first time... yikes!), and there will be cabled borders both around the face and around the hem.



It's very dense and should fit snugly. I've designed it to protect me from the various meteorological anomolies that pop up during faire season, like cloudbursts and blizzards, so I've knit it with two strands of Sylvan Spirit (a DK-weight yarn) on my US#7 ebony needles. It's practically armor.

I'm going to take my quiet and unobtrusive nature and go back to my knitting.

Time For A Change

Holy cow, I've been neglecting this poor blog, haven't I? I keep telling myself I'll find time to post, and then life gets in the way. I think it's about time that I resign myself to the idea that I'm never going to get back to regular posts... when I have a few minutes and a few pictures, I'll put something up, but I can't promise anything close to a schedule anymore. It's probably just as well -- even in the depths of Vermont's Snowpocalypse, I'm getting out of the house pretty frequently and having something close to a normal life, and if fewer blog posts is the price I pay for that normalcy, I'm okay with it.

Knitting has been happening in small amounts, but it's either secret projects or things that will look cool when they're finished but currently just resemble lumpy blobs of string, so I can't share much with you. I've also been very bad about taking pictures of things, but I think I cured that dry spell by shooting a roller derby game last Saturday, so keep an eye on my Flickr in the next few weeks. There might (just might) be some knitting to be seen.

Hope y'all are enjoying the chilly season as much as I am. It's perfect knitting weather!

Pick Me Up, Love, Every Day

On my way home from work this afternoon, I swung by the bank a few blocks away to deposit a check, only to discover that the bank was closed -- even the ATM was dark. There was a sign on the door, but I wasn't motivated enough to get out of the car to go read it, so I headed home. On the way, I spotted a police roadblock that seemed to be clouded with smoke. I figured I'd go home and use my fancy new DSL to check the local news websites to learn what had happened. As I got out of the car, I noticed that my stairway light was off, and wondered why my neighbors would turn it off, since it was a full floor above them and shouldn't bother them.

As I reached my door, I had that unpleasant eureka moment where all of the dots connected -- my neighbors hadn't turned off my light, the power was out, and whatever the police were dealing with was probably the cause.

Well, feh.

I set down my bag and groceries, turned around, and went for a walk to see if I could determine what the problem was. Apparently they'd cleaned up the worst of it by the time I got there, because I couldn't see anything, so I came home again and hunted for my candles.



I made dinner (tuna sandwich), read the mail and the paper, shuffled some boxes around to make room for the things I'll be bringing home over the weekend, and just as I was running out of stuff to do by candlelight, the power came back on.

Now, I may have mentioned that my new place has certain perks that my Summer lodgings lacked, and while I've been enjoying the bigger-than-a-breadbox shower, full-sized fridge (with freezer!!), and stove (that gets hot enough to boil water!) already, I hadn't yet used the oven. So tonight, I baked.



Here you see the combined fruit of my kitchen's wonderful appliances: apple-cinnamon muffins (Jiffy mixes aren't half bad, but don't make much), boiled water for a cuppa, orange-chocolate cake (vegan!), and ice cream (solidly frozen, not mushy).

I'm in heaven, I tell ya. Being able to make the whole apartment smell like chocolate totally makes up for the stairwell smelling like the neighbor's cigarettes.

I was expecting my beau to be here to enjoy these goodies with me tonight, but apparently a drunk driver ran somebody down right outside his house, causing the police to shut down the area, so he can't get out until morning. It seems the crazies are out all over the place.

So yeah, every day is an adventure. I'm going to have one more cup of licorice tea to help with this head cold I've acquired, and then I'm going to tuck myself in for the night. I'm aiming to carve out some time on Monday to post about more knitterly things, so, as usual, stay tuned!

Checking In

Hi, there! I moved out of the chilly caboose and into a cozy apartment, and then had to wait a week and a half for my phone and internet to be turned on, which is why I haven't posted in a while.

Coming soon: pics of new place and new pets, a not-contest with prizes, and... not much knitting. As usual. Stay tuned!

Minding the Store

Thank you all for your messages of sympathy and condolence. I'm doing my best to find a balance between mourning and living, and I seem to be doing okay. I am eternally thankful for the vast and strong network of friends I have made, both online and in real life, who help me through tough times like this. You remind me that life goes on, and not even harsh words from small minds can take away the wonderful memories of the time I shared with my girl. Thank you again.

Life does go on, plans get made, and sometimes plans get un-made. For example, this Saturday, instead of going to Rhinebeck, I'm going to be working at the Spinnery. On Sunday I'll be curled up with my beau, enjoying some peace and quiet, and playing with the newest members of my household. (More about them another day.)

I thought I would be disappointed not being able to go to Rhinebeck this year, but I'm actually okay with it. First off, I have no money to spend on yarn, or even the gas to get from here to there -- just getting groceries is a stretch these days. Secondly, my full-time job is making yarn, which means my spare time... what little of it I have... is spent doing non-yarny things, because there is, as it turns out, such a thing as fiber overload.

So, to all of you happy fiberholics headed to Duchess County this weekend, have a great time, have a deep-fried artichoke (but not a deep fried pickle), take pics of the punkin' chuckin' contest, and remember to look at everything twice before you decide what to buy...

...unless it's something that's really screaming at you. Then buy it on the spot. ;-)

In Loving Memory

My beloved greyhound, Sassafrass, passed away yesterday. She had been having health issues for a while, but the decision to end her pain yesterday was the result of bone cancer that wasn't discovered until yesterday's x-ray. It was so far advanced and causing her so much pain that, even with amputation, meds, and chemo, she would only have had a few weeks at best, so it was time.

Sassafrass was 13-and-a-half years old, a retired racing greyhound who never officially made it to the track, and she came into my life just before her second birthday. She was especially fond of peanut butter and ear skritches, and not so keen on fireworks or things flying through the air near her. She recognized other sighthounds and was friendly with them, but was much more of a people person than a dog person. She never could figure out why blankets didn't behave like dirt when she tried to dig in them. She will be loved and missed and never forgotten.













Goodbye, babygirl. I love you.

Roll Or Bowl A Ball, A Penny A Pitch

My beau spent a week and a half at Pennsic, arguably the biggest living history encampment in the Northeast. I couldn't afford to go this year, so he sent me pictures as the event progressed, and he brought home a present for me.



It's a yarn bowl! It keeps one's balls of yarn from running rampant while in use. I love it!



Pretty, huh? I love functional things that also have an element of beauty to them.

Speaking of beauty, I've been knitting and finishing! The alpaca neckwarmer I knit up a while back finally has buttons:



There's also a project that I've had up on Ravelry for a while but haven't mentioned here, the Merry Little Bag. Last year at Birka I bought some yarn from The Merry Little Lamb, and it finally decided that it wanted to be a felted colorwork bag. The pieces are made but not assembled yet, as I'm still trying to decide how to assemble them.



Then there's some more colorwork that I think will be a pillow (the bit on the left):



I've started another panel that reverses the colors, and that will be the other side of the pillow. The yarn is rejects from work -- some Mountain Mohair that's too thin, and some custom yarn that became impregnated with rubber bits from the carding aprons. They both work just fine for this particular project.

I picked up some more free waste roving at work today, which has me itching to spin, but I've promised myself that I'll finish the curtains I promised a friend months ago before I start anything new. I've also been informed that, after over four months of working at the Spinnery, I'm finally due for my three-month review. I would tell y'all what I'm hoping for from that meeting, but I don't want to jinx it, so you'll just have to stay tuned and see what happens.

Happy knitting!

Feed Me, Seymour!!!

Either I work in the Little Shop of Horrors, or... well, it's just another day at Green Mountain Spinnery. Something got stuck or clogged, and Laurie crawled in to pull it out. As he keeps saying, you'll never get rich at the Spinnery, but you'll have a lot of fun.

Speaking of fun, I wanted to make something romantic but quirky for my beau, and I settled on giving him my heart... my vaguely anatomically-correct heart, that is!



The pattern is from Knitty Winter 2008, the yarn is Ella Rae Classic, and the veins and valve-ends are needle felted.



I brought it to him in a cooler packed with ice. He loved it!

Also, as promised, the handspun FO. Here's the Northumbria Cowl from the Fall 2010 issue of Knitscene. I discovered once it was blocked that the dye in the silk bled onto the white in places, but I think I'm okay with it. When the weather isn't 90°F and humid, maybe I'll model it.



I have the sudden craving to knit up a model of Audrey II, for some reason. Hmm...