Day: October 12, 2010

Turkey Tracks: Hand Projects: Socks and a Rug

Turkey Tracks:  October 12, 2010

Hand Projects:  Socks and a Rug

I quilt mostly during the day.  I knit at night while watching movies.  It’s enormously relaxing.

Socks:

I completed a pair of socks recently.  I used a light yarn with a bamboo component.  They came out really lovely, though the color is much more silvery than this picture shows.

The pattern comes from Charlene Schurch’s book SENSATIONAL KNITTED SOCKS:  http://knitting.about.com/od/reviews/fr/sesational-sock.htm.  This pattern is in her 4-stitch pattern section; it’s a “baby cable.”  I have had such success with her 4-knit patterns that I have not ventured into 5-stitch or upwards.  And, these socks fit beautifully as well.

The only trouble I did have was with the bamboo blend yarn.  It turns out that bamboo is heavier than wool, and there were enough grams in the ball to produce a pair of women’s socks.  These are a women’s size 8 or so.  But, there was not enough length of the yarn.  I was missing enough yarn for the two toes.   So, I had to buy another ball, and I was lucky to get the same dye lot.  I’ve written the sellers of the yarn, and, hopefully, they will do something about this problem since right now these socks are double the cost they should be.

One of my grandchildren will be happy, however, as I will have about enough left-over yarn to make one of them a pair of socks.

Rug:

I’m also working on a knitted rug from the MASON-DIXON KNITTING book by Kay Gardiner and Ann Meador Shayne.   These gals also have a terrific blog:   http://www.masondixonknitting.com/.

Here is a picture of one of these rugs I did a few years back.  It’s been washed numerous times, and it still looks great and still feels yummy great to the feet!  It was meant for the kitchen in front of the sink, but looked like it had been made for the lower bathroom, so there it went.

Here is a bigger, close-up picture–one that is (yikes!) showing it needs a trip to the washing machine:

The yarn is a double strand of a double worsted Peaches and Cream cotton.  (Yes, two cones are used at once.)  The fabric knitted/crocheted into the pattern is from my quilt stash, cut into strips.  I love this rug.  It has just the sort of rough, handmade look that I love in a project like this one.

Over a year ago, a friend asked me to help her cut down a king-size duvet cover, and I cut the leftovers into fabric strips.  I wound up with a fairly good-sized ball.  The colors of this fabric are brighter and clearer than this first rug.  I’ve been plotting another rug ever since.   I will confess I did have to add a few more fabrics than I had in my stash.  But, I have two panels done now, so the rug will be on the kitchen floor soon now.  I’ll take a picture when it’s done.

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Turkey Tracks: Karen Johnson’s Written Driving Test

Turkey Tracks:  October 12, 2010

Karen Johnson’s Written Driving Test

Today was a red-letter day for Karen Johnson.  And, as an interested observer, for me.

Karen is one of the students at The Community School I worked with last year.  We worked on her writing skills and on English requirements in general.  For her Passages Project–a major school project needed for graduation–we made a quilt.  You can see Karen’s quilt in the May 2010 section of this blog.  It hung at the Center for Maine Contemporary Arts in a special student exhibit. 

Karen has remained in the Camden area, which makes me happy because I like her a lot.  It’s fun to watch her grow into–and recognize–her awesome abilities.  She’s a special person.

Young people trying to get a toe hold in life in rural areas are constrained by transportation needs.  Karen is no exception.  So, we are working on getting her driver’s license.  In Maine, if you are not 21, you need to get a learner’s permit first, which means taking a difficult written test.  After six months of driving, the student can apply to take the driving test itself. 

Karen sent for the informational booklet and scheduled her written test.  And, we began working on the material she had to learn.  Karen discovered that she has really good listening skills.  So, if I read information aloud to her, she could remember it.  And, she learned that she has really good visual skills.  If she could see a sign she had to learn or a diagram of a driving problem, she remembered it.  Learning how you learn is half the battle.

Karen has a vexed history with taking tests, and this morning she was a nervous wreck.  But, I kept reminding her that those memories were in her past life and that she is now in her future life, that she had worked hard, that she knew the material, that the only way she could experience defeat would be if she worked too quickly or let herself get too panicked.

Here is Karen watching her test being graded:

 

 

And here is Karen when she was all done:

 

 

Karen PASSED the test with flying colors!!!!

Karen can drive!!!  And in six months, she can take the driving test, which she will pass.

We had Homestyle Cafe’s famous “Cinnies” as a treat (grilled Cinnamon buns that are to die for), and, eventually, Karen drove me home and herself to work with me as supervisor. 

She will be a good driver, I can already tell.

 

Turkey Tracks: Annie Chickie at 3 Months

Turkey Tracks:  October 12, 2010

Annie Chickie at 3 Months

Annie Chickie is 3 months old now.

Here’s what she looks like now.  Notice her feathered feet.  She’s almost as tall as our full-grown hens, but not quite.  And, her comb has not fully developed yet.  But, her coppery neck feathers are quite lovely, aren’t they?  She does have a white feather on her feet, which is a big no no for Copper Black Marans.  Her father has developed rather a lot of white, which is not breed ok.  The eggs from the hens are quite dark though, which is good.

She still sleeps inside in her box.  She comes to the back door and hangs around until I open it.  She strolls in, has a snack, and settles in for the night.

I think she is lonely during the day.  She isn’t quite big enough yet to follow the big hens and the rooster around the yard, so she hangs out in the bushes in the back yard.  Or, lately, she gets into the chicken coop until she is chased out by the big hens.  The Wheaten Americaunas are delighted to have a chicken lower on the pecking order than they are.

Here is a small picture of Annie, who told me just yesterday that she wants to be called Annabelle from now own.  Teenagers have minds of their own.

I love her shaggy feathered look.

Turkey Tracks: The Camden International Film Festival

Turkey Tracks:  October 11, 2010

The Camden International Film Festival

Small Towns, Big Films

 

One reason I’ve gotten a bit behind on this blog is that we spent last weekend at the 6th annual Camden International Film Festival, or CIFF.  This year it was clear that this festival has made a name for itself.  We’ve enjoyed this CIFF weekend since we moved to Maine, and it’s really exciting to see how CIFF  has grown, how it has acquired now major sponsors, and how well attended it is by people in the industry.

The films are all documentaries.  And, from Thursday to Sunday night, about 45-50 films are screened in venues in Camden, Rockland, and this year, at the CellarDoor Winery in Lincolnville.  The Winery held VINFEST this same weekend, and the final film, by Ian Cheney (KING CORN and THE GREENING OF SOUTHIE)–a work in progress–was viewed under the stars or from the inside of the hugest tent I’ve ever seen.  (The film is about the loss of darkness with the growth of urban development and light pollution.)

What makes viewing each film special is that often the film is followed by a question and answer period led by representatives from the film–the director, sometimes producers, sometimes a panel of people who are experts in the film’s area of coverage.  Viewers often can find out what has happened since the film was finished.  And, if the film is about particular people, sometimes they are in the audience and come forward after the film is finished so we can meet them.  It can be an exciting experience. 

We always have a terrible time choosing which films to see because films that look really promising often overlap.  And, we can only see so many movies in any one day before becoming brain-dead and having major fanny fatigue.  But, many of the films shown will go on to a general release in about a year and can be found on Netflix.  You can preview the films shown this year at www.camdenfilmfest.org.   And, each has a web site where you can read more about the film.

Movies that stood out for us were as follows:  you may want to try to see them next year some time:

BUDRUS–the opening film on Thursday night was about a nonviolent Palestinian protest to having their land taken by Israel during its building of its perimeter wall. 

MY PERESTROIKA–a film about 40-something Russian adults who attended the same local elementary school and who lived through the tumultuous time of enormous social change in Russia.

DREAMLAND–a film about Iceland, where the development of cheap energy (electricity from abundant rivers) led to Alcoa aluminum locating plants there that would begin to spoil untouched, gorgeous land.  Visually stunning.

GENERAL ORDERS NO. 9–an innovative, lyrical, artistic film by a middle-Georgia (Ft. Valley and Forsyth) man.  This film is quite unlike anything I’ve ever seen.  The title is taken from Robert E. Lee’s last orders to his troops at Appomatox, and the film, like Lee’s orders, is a confession of failure.  In the case of the film, it is a failure to understand the urban world, and it is the mourning of the loss of a deep attachment to the land. 

ON COAL RIVER–Massey energy has removed over 500 mountains in West Virginia (and in other states) in order to take out coal.  The mountain tops are dumped into the valleys, which pollutes the water and the air and which sickens nearby people.  The land is utterly despoiled.  This is a shocking and scary movie that lets one know what AVATAR was really about.  The equipment is huge, just as it is in AVATAR.  As with DREAMLAND, local politicians have sold out the little people. 

SUMMER PASTURE–nomad herders in Tibet take their yaks to summer pasture in China.  Their way of life is changing rapidly, as life has changed for other migratory herders across the world.  The novel, WOLF TOTEM, by Jiang Rong, details a similar story in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. 

I am already looking forward to attending CIFF next year!