Etherknitter

More on the musings of weight control

Dr. HunterFarmer gave another lecture.  

He moderated his message.  There is only one way to lose weight, says he.  "Eat less."

There is lots of developing data that suggests eating less lengthens lifespan.  That is true in cell culture, and in rodents.  (A recent primate study did not show this.  More data is clearly needed.)  No current scientific knowledge proves why eating less lengthens life.  Science-types (me too) think that it relates to the body having to burn less fuel, use less oxygen, and therefore generating fewer free radicals that damage cells.  

There are always the jokes about how if you cut the amount of food you eat each day, then life just FEELS longer.  Or the converse, of course:  who would want to live longer if that is what you have to do to get there??

Dr. HunterFarmer (I typed Dr. HungerFarmer initially...hmmm) took questions from the audience.  One person asked if weight loss was possible through more exercise.  Most people would need over two hours of intense exercise to burn enough calories to lose weight.  He pointed out that more exercise creates more appetite.  Resisting appetite is difficult for all of us.

He pointed out that if we cut our calories, our bodies get very upset with us, and lower our metabolic rates. We are eating fewer calories, not having any fun at all, and NOT LOSING WEIGHT.

Well, yeah.  That used to be a very functional strategy for our famine-prone ancestors.  If your ancestors were not really really good at lowering metabolic rates when calories got scarce, you wouldn't be here.  

I have heard about good results (anecdote only, zippo science) from the 5 + 2 diet.  There is a disputed Wiki article here on this.  

The idea is that you decrease weekly caloric intake by a significant number of calories.  Since you are doing this on nonconsecutive days, your body doesn't figure out that it needs to lower its metabolic rate.  Dr. HunterFarmer says that, on average, each person needs 10 calories per pound per day just to lie in bed.

10 x 130 (yes I am making this up) = 1300 calories

Then, a normal person burns somewhere between 400-800 calories per day in doing normal activities.  Honestly?  Most people are at the 400 calorie mark.  So our hypothetical dieter needs 1700 calories per day to maintain body weight.  

Even if you were to cut down to 700 calories per day for those two days per week, that would be 4000 calories gone every two weeks.  

Of course you can't eat like a starved weasel the day after each calorie-restricted interval.  

The Wiki calls it a fad diet.  I think ANY diet that doesn't make a sustainable change in lifestyle is a fad diet.  But I really do want to dump about 5-8 pounds.  I should add that Dr. HF does not recommend any particular diet, including this one.  

But, obvious pun acknowledged, it is all food for thought.  I've tried the draconian day twice.  It is difficult at the same time that it is very simple.  I am now hyperaware on ALL days about what I am eating.  That is good.  

I am knitting Nuvem.  It took about seven attempts to learn the Judy cast-on.  The sixth try was somewhat heartbreaking:  too short a tail, discovered after 100 stitches x 2 needles.  This business of pushing stitches onto cables, and knitting tight little stitches off different needles bends my brain.  I need to weigh the yarn NOW before I get much farther.  I like Martina Behm's patterns.  She throws in something that does the brain-bend, and then lets you relax for some numbers of stitches before she does it again.  

 

 

Curlicue

I am srsly behind on blogging content.  The Ten on Tuesday topic, 10 reasons to love bacon, is best answered here.  *dusts off hands, moves forward*

Summer Etherknitter knitting is all shawls all the time.  I took an occasional car-knitting break with socks (not done), and with the MIL scarf, take 2 (not done).

Onerva has less than one repeat to go.  (I cannot type that without first typing Onvera.  I thought these fingers and this brain worked together, but I would be wrong on that.)  Lace blob that she is, I'll wait for a blocking picture.  If there is such a thing as easy lace, Onerva is it.  I may have to make another one in drapey fabric.   This iteration is in Malabrigo sock, 100% superwash merino.

Yarn intentions:  so much sock yarn, make things other than socks from sock yarn.  Ravelry is overflowing with one skein shawl and scarflet patterns.  Skeptics live amongst us.  Caroline talks about this (August 3rd post).  KnittingTheBlues Terry talks about the misbehavior of superwash merino used for shawls here.  Onerva will be my test case. 

The second lace blob is still FeatherDuster.  I have been making tinkless progress.  I can knit a pattern row (every fourth) only when I am not tired, not past 5 pm, only when no wine has touched my lips, and not when it is 90 degrees/90% humidity.  My work defines S L O W.  I have 31 rows left before bind-off.

Volt is making backwards progress.  I count each set of stitches, do the increase, place a marker, count the next set of stitches from the marker.  Did 395 stitches of knit row.  Did 381 stitches of decrease row.  Yes, I had ONE EXTRA STITCH.  I inexplicably (isn't that how it always works?) had done an extra yarn over in one of the increases.  Since the pattern is ruled by stacked increases/decreases, I had to tink.  It was something on the order of 550 stitches back, so I did it.  I just DID it.  I need to devise a better system of counting.  Lynn advises fudging.  Maybe when I have more of the pattern sitting out in front of me, that will be possible.  Then I could consider fudging in ways that won't show.  Fudging at the beginning bothered me too much to do it.  I did not assess man on a galloping horse potential.  I just tinked.  Single ply, the Isager yarn sticks to itself, but not as badly as mohair/silk.  The shawl is currently an incredibly small line of black stitches.  You can put something that looks like that in your mind's eye.

An FO graces the blog today.  I started a baby blanket as mindless vacation knitting.  KellyR sharpened the focus when she asked, incredulously, "You are knitting a blanket for someone who doesn't EXIST yet?"  Yes, I did.  But I found a mom who will appreciate this gift.  Her little human is 10 weeks from existing in an air-breathing world. 

Given the time it takes to knit one of these suckers, I do need to start well ahead of time.  OTOH, this time-suck of a knit may take a back seat to the time-suck of The Fine Line's knitted shawls (see Volt above). 

I modified the pattern (Curlicue) by increasing the number of stitches in a fingering/sportweight yarn.  I matched the ends with a 3 stitch garter edging on each side of the blanket.  

Details:

Pattern:  Curlicue
Yarn:  Tess superwash merino, 1060 yards
Needles:  #5 Knitpicks Harmony 32" circ
Mods:  172 stitches, 3 stitch garter borders to match 3 row garter stitch beginning and end
Started: January 11, 2010
Finished:  June 16, 2010

And, of course, one more beauty shot, then the modeled picture.  We come full circle to the Ten on Tuesday topic.  Our Curlicue stand-in is a baby wild boar from the San Diego Zoo.

Alpaca Baby Shawl

This knitter's sock rut has taken a summer vacation.

The mindless knitting substitute was the Alpaca Baby Shawl.  Although it is neither alpaca, nor a shawl, the busy knitter will not hold these inconsistencies against such a delightful pattern.

Old Shale (Feather & Fan) seems to have taken over the world as defined by Ravelry. 

Yarn:  Tess Designer Yarns Superwash merino  ~880 yards
Needle:  Knitpicks Harmony #7 on increasingly large cables after initial Lantern Moon #7 dpns

Size:  34" x 34" blocked.  It could have gone slightly larger or slightly smaller.

Mods:  I closed the hole in the middle from the cast-on with the yarn tail.  One could also have started with Emily Ocker's cast-on. 

Rejected mod:  One knitter on Rav insisted that M1 was the only correct increase to use.  Barbara Walker uses the KFB increase in her Stitch Dictionary pattern for Old Shale.  That's authoritative enough for me. It looked fine.  

I had enough yarn to do another stockinette section repeat.  But it would not have been much larger, and the WIP was telling me that it needed to be done.  I also didn't think that adding more weight to a baby blanket was necessarily a good thing.  And the points would not have been as decoratively pointy.

I loved this yarn.  It was smooth and soft, and felt wonderful as it slipped through fingers.

Finishing the mindless knit forces me back to the mindful knits.  I've accepted the challenge of a mini-KAL with Manise and Knitigator.  They persuaded me to pick up a woefully and long-neglected Leaf Lace shawl.  That slows down progress on Swallowtail, but she doesn't mind.  Much.

The weather outside is frightful, handknits are so delightful

It's not working.  I'm okay with that.

The pattern showed three dimensional texture.  I cast on and knit three or four rows.  Using sport weight alpaca yarn to substitute for worsted weight cashmere was the deal killer.

I voiced my doubts to Mr. E.  We decided that knitting one repeat of the pattern (16 rows) would be enough to see what the yarn and pattern would produce. 

There is not enough textural stiffness to the alpaca to make the definition of form required by those inward pockets.  The weight and drapiness of the scarf will stretch the pockets even more.  The scarf will then look like simple lace.

I bailed before he did.  He understood and agreed.  

Last night, we walked to a restaurant near the hospital.  Our path took us around buildings, and then into the teeth of the storm.  Dinner in town would give the commuters time to finish their version of Boston bumpercars without our participation.  We would head home later on empty streets.  The plan worked well.

As we walked into the wind, snow blowing through my teeth,  I turned to the DH.  "It is now that I truly appreciate the value of handknits."  I was wrapped in two scarves (Irish Hiking, and a commercial cashmere), a hat knit of angora by my mom over 15 years ago.  My hands were covered by alpaca mittens knit by someone vending at Rhinebeck 2007.

I'm working on a new fashion look.  It is two complementary (or not) scarves worn together.  You can wrap one around your neck and let the other hang in front.  Or you can wrap both.  Or you can wrap neither.  It is a versatile combination, and it is warm when the weather outside is frightful.  Let it snow let it snow let it snow!

Goal: Current WIPS done by 12/31/07

Multiple WIPS are circling the landing strips.  There has been an unwritten embargo on starting anything new.  The knit nook has migrated, WIP by WIP, downstairs, to form a still-life:

Mr. Etherknitter wanted to know how the young man in the picture came to have a knitting shrine dedicated to him.   

The one new project (fingerless mitts) that slipped onto some empty needles peeks out from the lower right hand corner.  The Samson merino/angora from the Nameless-Rhinebeck-Vendor-in-Barn-A is an odd color melange.  I bought it for the texture, not for the combination of hues.  It knits up somewhat more confused than my color sense usually permits.  Any leftovers will become baby booties, for which the colors will be exactly right.

The rest of the WIPs:  I'm up on the v-neck divide on the Straker vest pictures on the young victim.  LeafLace sits in the canvas bag on the left, awaiting a two-row-tink.  Socks (one finished, one on the needles) lie strewn across the field of battle.  I think the baby kimono is visible on the left, awaiting garter edge seaming.  There is a Reckless Abandon scarf deep in the pile.

The scarf for Nurse Beth is done.  Acker's Acres Angoras bunny blend (merino 60%/angora 40%),  2.75 skeins, Arrowhead lace pattern.  The color in the center pile is true.

Circular and linear thinking, Vancouver II

Mr. Etherknitter insisted on visiting the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia.  The building was recently designed and rebuilt to showcase the monumental house totems in the collection.  I wandered through, without focus, until I found the Visible Storage section.

Spinners!  Whorls!  Most of the spinning tools on display were whorls without spindles.  I've included some of the best examples.  The museum has cabinets with many drawers.  You can pull open the glass-topped drawers as you wish.  The artifacts aren't on formal exhibit.  One feels almost sneaky and sly as treasures are revealed.

There was no evidence of knitting.  You can see several spindle whorls that have archival yarn still in place.  Can you picture your own stash, frozen in time, and placed in museum collections?  The story twisted into each yarn was lost. 

Weaving appeared to be the future of spun yarn in the Coastal Peoples' cultures. 

 

Susan Point, a Coast Salish artist, has taken the spindle whorl motif into her inspiration.  The glass whorl in the third picture is from her studio.  I couldn't find functional pieces in any of the Vancouver galleries.  (How functional could a glass spindle whorl be, really?)  Her whorls have become exquisite symbols in First Nation art.  Her website (which speaks of handknitted sweaters by Coast Salish women) is worth a peek.  Marcy has promised to do an in-depth look at her place in the spinning universe at some point in the future.

 

My sock yarn project is evolving.  In everyday knitting, it is harder to measure lengths than I had anticipated.  Each knot that I use to mark out 5' of yarn introduces 0.5 - 1.0 inch of error.  Then, of course, one has to remember to mark down each time a five foot length has been knitted.  And then one has remember whether or not one has remembered.  (I wish I could tell you I was joking, but, alas, I am not.)  I've changed measurement strategies.  I measure how much yarn I use to knit a row (k2p2 row uses more than a stst row, etc.).  Maths will then allow me to calculate yardage used.  I'll have to go back to brute force measurement of foot by foot at the gusset.

This is actually better.  Mr. E has promised that if I give him good data, he can whip up a Java applet for my sidebar.  Then you can plug in your cuff, your sock's ankle length, and your foot length to find out how much yarn your sock will use.  Cool!  It will work initially with simple stst socks with ribbed cuffs, standard heel flap and gusset decreases.  Future modifications (i.e. for short row heels) are possible.  It will NEVER help you with Cat Bordhi's new sock book, which looks incredible.  It is clear that Ms. Bordhi does NOT think in linear fashion.

Vacation knitting was a Baby Kimono, pattern and yarn from Tess Yarns' new shop in Portland, Maine.  The kimono is knit all in one piece, with a three needle bind-off at the shoulders, and two small seams under the arms at the end.  I'm knitting the back now, with just a left front remaining, and it is slaying me with its cuteness. 

Some of the local bloggers and I did a Maine yarn crawl at the beginning of September.  Tess Yarns (1 Spring Street ) is a must.  Melinda is there most days and loves us knitters dearly. 

Mellow yellow

Spring colors mean new life.  It was mere coincidence that the baby blanket, now an FO, matched the ONLY thing blooming in the garden.

Pattern:  Estonian Lullaby Baby Blanket, Fibertrends, Evelyn Clark   Yarn:  Shelridge Farms Superwash worsted, colorway Mango, four skeins (same dye lot)  x 200 yards each, dimensions 29" x 42"

Multiple pictures seem appropriate for a WIP that took so much knitting time.  It was remarkably easy for something that looks unique and special.  I'm pleased with the results.

The tides of winter are receding.  The sere landscape releases a beacon of promise.  This is what is visible when the earth breathes a sigh of relief, then the frost and rime and snow are gone.  I'm not the only creature waiting for the spring garden.  The lone crocuses (croci) blooming near the front door show evidence of residual rabbits.

I have 1700 feet of sweater-worthy Coopworth spun on one bobbin.  I mini-swatched early.  As several commenters noticed, the grist was too small for my three-ply worsted goal, so I increased the diameter of the yarn.  I plyed back multiple times, checking consistency, and mini-swatched close to the end of the bobbin.  Five stitches per inch switched from fantasy to reality, and it was good.

I'm finding it challenging to maintain a good, consistent grist.  It is difficult to maintain the visual memory of what the fibers look like in the drafting zone for a given yarn goal over yards and yards of spinning time.  I speculated whether I was overly obsessing about consistent grist.  Caroline M offered some veritable wisdom:

"The only way that you get good at doing something is by doing it.  By the time (you've) finished the last bobbin (you'll) be much better at spinning a sweater weight single than (you) are now...At the end of the day it doesn't matter if the yarn isn't perfect, it is enough that it is fit for its purpose... 'Perfection' is something to aim for but 'good enough' works for now."

That just stopped me dead in my tracks.  I'm much calmer about this project as a result.   The bobbin below has my finger for scale.  I'll be the first to point out the absence of manicure.  I left that fingernail long on purpose.  It's the one that picks out the VM from the fleece.

Unaccustomed dithering

It was 69 degrees yesterday.  The landscape is a sodden, dripping, draining, soggy, squishy mess.  If spring fever could be measured with a thermometer, I'd be pushing the ex-mercury past 105 degrees.  The soil is unworkable.  I knew that, but tried to pull a few weeds.  It was futile, as clods of mud spotted  my gloves and sleeves.  I knew it would be like this, and could not stop my hand.

The snowdrops are going to be in bloom soon.

Ellen's Halfpint socks will also be blooming on my feet.  They need only two kitchenered toes before the photo shoot happens.   They are my leapfrog socks.  I didn't know if I would have enough yarn, so I knit the second sock from the other end of the ball.  To midfoot on one, then midfoot on the second.  To toe on the first, then to toe on the second.  SSS is avoided, suspense and drama enter into the knitter's life, and it really IS time to learn toe-up sock techniques.

I do have an extremely delayed FO picture.  I knit an Elizabeth bag a long, long time ago, and started felting it soon after.  My front-loading washing machine made checking it mid-cycle impossible.  It rested, half-felted, spewing guilt, until Lorrie took pity on me.  She finished the felting in her washer, and returned a cute little bag to me.

Pattern:  Elizabeth bag by Black Sheep Bags
Yarn:  Lamb's Pride Brite Blue #57 and Sapphire #65

(Pill container supplied for scale)

Hot and b0thered

It is still WAY too hot.  Day after day after day.  Can't weed.  Can't breathe.  Can't exercise.  Can't knit.  Can barely spin.  Plyplyply.  It's the least exposure to wool possible while still doing wool.  I finished Persimmon Tree Farms' Border Leicester 50%/mohair 50% blend in Peacock:

It was 8 oz, producing something over 300 yards of sport-DK weight.  Spinning two bobbins, weighing them, and spinning the last of the 8 0z onto the lighter bobbin, and measuring them through the Yarn Meter showed that mathematically, my grist varied by 10% over the cloud of roving.  Plying, once again, covered a multitude of dissatisfactions and whinging.  This is darker than reality, but you get the texture and the spinning from the pose.

I also plyed bunnycrack in Kim's "Blue Lagoon" colorway.  I spun up the first three ounces in the winter, and finished it last month.  Real life has no sparkles, but the color is true. 
I suppose I have done a titch of knitting.  I'm almost done with Mr. E's latest scarf.  A true summer picture, where WIP matches dinner:

Placing the container plants on the deck by the porch has made the local denizens bold and brazen.  There is now adequate cover for sneak attacks on the bird feeder.  It is squirrel-proof, as the lever action closes access to the seeds for the fat buggers.  But the chippers get a free ride, as this guy's cheek pouches suggest:

Shincere thanks

Our house has had odd buzzing noises, and vibrations audible through the timbers for the last 48 hours.  I can trace it to Kellee's call to arms legs, sent out to the knitting community.  It's difficult to say the words "thank you" in a different way, that would put how we feel into those simple two words.  So Mr. Etherknitter sends you this:

    "Healing is more than just car repair,
     Darning, patching, or weaving in ends,
     It takes hope, and maybe, some prayer,
     And welcome wishes from all our friends.

     Thank you, all, for the positive vibes.  Especially as my recovery lags, the spirit and love is very heartening."

I've sent him many links, and watched him smile.  Thank you.

So.  I'm doing my share.  How about an FO, which began in ambivalence, and ended as a gift of my time and love to a broken husband-unit who enjoyed watching each foot of knitting unfold?

I lost the pattern at the end.   Claudia looked at me in disbelief when I mentioned this last week.  In order to salvage  some small modicum of knitting chops, I skulked home, looked at the cabley beginning, and figured out a simple cabley ending.  No big deal.  She was right.  (She always is.  Damn.)

Pattern:  Plymouth Cable and Rib Afghan
Needles:  #10 and #10 1/2 Addis
Yarn:  Plymouth brushed baby alpaca, color #1000, 13 balls
Started: 11/25/05  Finished:  4/28/06

I plied the Cormo/alpaca neppy, felted roving.  I got about 232 yards of almost DK weight yarn.  It actually looks far better than I expected. 

This is prewash, on the niddy.

I truly hate to admit that it was a great learning experience.  It worked on multiple levels.

-I stumbled into an algorithm that allowed me to spin it into the best yarn possible for what it was.

-The comments from other spinners acted as an effective workshop.  Helpful, to the point, and informative, I learned good stuff from them.

-For the first time, I have had the experience of plying as a way to improve my singles, rather than as a way to ruin some good singles with a second variable.  It was a sea-change in my thinking about plying and spinning.

I am Maryland-bound on Friday.  Roving?  Spinning tools?   Sock yarn?  Fleeces?  Who knows?  That's half the fun.  I'll be wearing a Boston Red Sox cap, and waving a bottle of red wine around at the hotel.  Any takers?