Yarn Recycling - Part 2

DSC_0073.JPG, originally uploaded by doctorkrg.

Here's the washed yarn hanging in my bathroom. I've only ripped the front panel of the sweater so far. I have another ball that I haven't washed, composed of short pieces knotted together, in case I need the extra yardage for a project. This yarn, for the most part, is without breaks.

I can't wait to make socks.

Yarn Recycling - Start to Finish

I went to the thrift store yesterday and found this gorgeous alpaca sweater. The sweater itself was a stupid shape, but I had my M.A.P. try it on just in case. But I was right, dumpy shape. So I ripped and ripped it out.

Here's how it started. Look at all of that yummy yarn for $4:


I've only ripped one front panel. There was a lot of loss, so I probably will only end up with about 1000 oz. of yarn, instead of 1500 or so. Darn. 1000 oz. of like-new alpaca for $4.

It's fingering weight, so I'm going to make socks with it. I'll post a follow-up when the yarn is dry and wound, and the socks are WIP.

Why we should pay college athletes

From NYTimes today, "Serfs of the Turf" by Michael Lewis:

If the N.C.A.A. genuinely wanted to take the money out of college football it’d make the tickets free and broadcast the games on public television and set limits on how much universities could pay head coaches. But the N.C.A.A. confines its anti-market strictures to the players — and God help the interior lineman who is caught breaking them. Each year some player who grew up with nothing is tempted by a booster’s offer of a car, or some cash, and is never heard from again.

Can you imagine Nebraska or Michigan or Ohio State football games on public T.V.? What a joke. There are so many issues here, including big intersections of race and class, but I don't feel like writing a treatise.

But I just can't think of one reason why we don't pay a stipend to college athletes. Waiving tuition isn't enough. I went through 12 years of higher education and learned the difference between a tuition waiver and education support. A tuition waiver doesn't help you take your girlfriend to the movies, especially if you are forbidden from having a part-time job because of your D-1 athlete status.

Although, I've never actually heard of an "interior" lineman. We always called them "inside." Whatever. Lewis still has a point.

Ravelry "Friends"

By the way, I'm not "fiber smarts" in Ravelry. I'm "krgp," like my author's name here.

Yes, those are my initials. Yes, I have four names, because I'm stubborn and easily swayed by society's dictates at the same time.

Yes, I'm a gemini.

Ravelry Rocks!

I finally received my invite to Ravelry.com, and boy is that my new addiction (that, and the Urban Vest from the latest issue of Knitter's Magazine).

Mostly I'm entering in my WIPs and FOs into my "notebook" and putting in the books I own into my "library." What fun! I highly recommend it.

Another Off-Yarn Post

I don't always agree with NY Times columnist Frank Rich, but I enjoyed his take on Justice Clarence Thomas and his new whine-a-rama memoir. An excerpt:

Justice Thomas, elevated by Bush 41, was the crucial building block in what will probably prove the most enduring legacy of Bush 43, a radical Supreme Court. The ''compassionate conservative'' who turned the 2000 G.O.P. convention into a minstrel show to prove his love of diversity will exit the political stage as the man who tilted American jurisprudence against Brown v. Board of Education. He leaves no black Republican behind him in either the House or Senate.

My favorite bits of this paragraph:
1. "Radical Supreme Court" = hyperrepublican, highly politicized, activist conservative judges. Warren had nothing on these guys. God bless Ginsburg.
2. Minstrel Show. No kidding. See below.
3. No black folks remain the Republican party in Congress because, well, duh. Republicans are scary.


"Minstrel Man" by Langston Hughes

Because my mouth
Is wide with laughter
and my throat
Is deep with song
You do not think
I suffer after
I have held my pain
So long?

Because my mouth
Is wide with laughter
You do not hear
My inner cry?
Because my feet
Are gay with dancing,
You do not know
I die?

Mohair Cable Scarf

[Update June 18, 2008: This pattern is called Bryher. It's now available on Ravelry, for free.]

Here's a project I just finished. I bought an odd lot skein of Artful Yarns "Portrait" mohair blend and mixed it with a worsted weight merino. I used size 10.5 needles, and realize now that I could have used an even bigger size, because the gauge is still a little tight. But it's not too tight by any means. Just a note for future ref., or for anyone interested in making something like it.



The pattern I stole from an episode of Knitty Gritty, when Lily Chin was on talking about a nine-block baby blanket. She showed us how to make a double-sided cable using k1-p1 rib (otherwise the rest stays the same). Brilliant!


I ran the cable off-center for kicks, and kept it skinny because it's fairly warm here down south and this is mohair, and now I just want cool weather to kick in.