All those bits of history.

When I was a child, in 1976 there were Bicentennial Minutes, with snippets of history.  This year we have 250 to 250, another series of history, some of which may overlap the earlier set but many show the broader interest and knowledge that people have today.

OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) created a list of non-fiction books about the USA from every year since 1776 that is the most widely held in libraries today.

Major League Baseball has its own set of 250, with 25 Top Ten lists.  I haven't seen any by the National Football League or others, but I haven't looked at most other sports.

Lillies of the Valley for May

Briefly I worried that I hadn't gotten the May puzzle done in its assigned month - I'd meant to do it all week, and somehow never did - then realized it was because I had been looking into the next week's calendar for work.  So today, I put it together:

Because much of the puzzle is dark, I left some of the pieces
reverse-up for the photo so you can see the shapes more clearly.

It was trickier than I expected, but I finished in about the
length of one side of an LP.  Yes, I still listen to vinyl.

Current project is something I'll show next week, after it is delivered, and this baby blanket made of three balls of the pink/white and one of the blue/white.  I'd intended to work the pink until it ran out, growing the blanket from a corner, then even with the blue, and reduce with the pink.  But I was tired of increasing, so changed to a central square of pink, with a border of alternating pink and blue stripes:

The balls of yarn fit into the blanket, making it very
self-contained, rather like being its own bag.

I finished this month's SciFi Book Club reading today, which means I am not cramming it until the final minutes!  Because the library system's summer program is based on paleontology, we read "Jurassic Park".  I was impressed in some ways, underwhelmed in a number of others, and thought it a bit full of tropes and thinly drawn characters.  But if you are writing for the masses and the movie studios, it's probably spot-on.  We'll have an interesting discussion, I am sure.

Thanks to Books Among Friends, which raises money for the Durham County Public Library, I also have its sequel, "The Lost World", and will start reading it.  I should be able to finish before I get next month's assignment.

Five in (about) one.

Last night was a "wintry mix" event with all sorts of things, including the Triangle Fiber Guild holiday party, cancelled or postponed.  So errands didn't happen.  That meant I had five or six to accomplish today, and at most a 90 minutes timeslot in which to achieve them.  Could I manage all the errands in an hour?

Not quite, but I tried.  Part of it was maximizing the route:

• First to the library, to return a book and drop off a couple jackets for the Welcome Baby collection.  As I did and turned to leave, I heard a happy "thank you, dear!" and over my shoulder responded "Absolutely!"  The guard and I then wished each other a happy day.
• I thought that if there was a close post office I could shave a bit off the route, and the car's navigator claimed there was, but after following the directions I didn't see one.  It could be that the gas station or another shop on the strip mall next to it had a postal kiosk or a courtesy station, but I wasn't going to spend time looking.
• Instead, I headed to the Durham Rescue Mission to deliver a duffel bag of mostly clothing, plus a lot of unused wallets that could be likely holiday gifts.  I wanted to be sure they would arrive as early in the month as possible, and we'd just located them during a drawer-cleaning.
• Then to the post office, and the automated machine was available and working!  Package was quickly postage'd and in the big rotating slot.
• Off to Kohl's to pick up another couple jackets, the result of rolling Kohls Cash credits.  While waiting for the item I realized I'd forgotten to grab my knitting, so I checked work email and dealt with a few things.  Which is how I noticed that a meeting was just beginning, less than an hour after I'd left.  Ooops!  A new addition to my calendar.  I joined, apologized, accepted the bag of jackets, and headed to the loggia where a bench waited in a sheltered spot.  Luckily the call was quick and I could continue on my route.
• Stop at the pharmacy for a prescription and an OTC ear-unblocking spray recommended by my PCP that I use before flying this week.  I have until tomorrow afternoon to figure out how it works.

So it took a bit over an hour, almost an hour and a half, but I think there needs to be some adjustment for the meeting and of course the stupidity penalty whilst hunting the snipe of a post office.  And a lot of extra slowness and stoppages due to construction on or next to the roads that took them to one lane in places.  So I came close.

This is the current knitting: I reached 99 hats for the big collection I've been doing (some were made by others, which I figure balance the ones I made and donated to the Blue Elves and otherwise) and stalled over the weekend for the final hat.  All the yarn was too thin, or too pink, or already used in other hats and I didn't want to make one more for this year, or........  So I started the scarf:

I knitted the first ten inches of the scarf in a knitting group
online gathering on Sunday.  Garter stitch moves quickly.

Then yesterday, a box arrived that included some mystery skeins, and one immediately spoke to me about turning it into a hat!  So I am doing that and may have it done before I leave tomorrow.  If not, it will be quickly finished when I return, then THAT box can head out too.

Some people may ask why I used hand-dyed yarn for charity work instead of cheap acrylics.  Well, I can afford it; the purchase helps a small business indie dyer; I get the pleasure of making something with the yarn; and somebody gets a warm and unique hat.  Wins all around!

Two and Two.

I finished the garter stitch scarf that I showed last week, and made another scarf plus two hats:

Hats are leftover bits of yarn.  Garter stitch scarf is Caron
Chunky Cakes, discontinued colour "Trifle".  C2C scarf is Caron 
Cakes "Lovely Layers" in "Sugared Cherry", also discontinued.

I'm making progress on the Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club assignment for this month (when I picked up the copy I'd ordered at the bookshop, the clerk was very enthusiastic about it), and should be done in time for Wednesday's meeting.  That will make my 21st book for the year, not counting the one I re-read on New Year's Day.

The library is starting another walking/exercise challenge, which of course I plan to enter.  Why not get double use out of my daily (except for Saturdays, when I do an early yoga class) walks?

Otherwise, it was a fairly standard week.  I should work on the last few items for my DFW Fiber Fest class and start gathering the items needed for the classes I am taking.  Now that I am presenting at a conference during the first part of that week, I have to be organized a little earlier than otherwise.

Today I started a shawl of Knitting Buddha's handspun, stashed from a prior DFW Fiber Fest:

Baseball and Opera and Books.

I love libraries.  I may have gotten my library card before my driving license during the latest move, and if not, it was close.  I've used many services over the years, taken out (and returned!) many books, and with the online options I attend events and watch videos and I'm borrowing an e-book (because my library doesn't have hardcopy) of a book to read before my next overseas trip.  So I'm always up for celebrating National Library Week, and hope that you support your local libraries also.

Last week was busy.  In addition to work (and the madness of our fiscal year ending on March 31st, which meant that the next days were catch-up on the carryover work plus anything that wasn't urgent and got postponed until after April 1st) it was NC Opera weekend, and my parents were hosting the guest speaker.  So in addition to two operas (I skipped the dress rehearsal because of my library's Science Fiction Book Club meeting) and the Sunday afterparty, I went to a ballgame on Thursday evening, and did other activities with parents and guest on Saturday, when not participating in the Knit For Food A Thon.

Sadly, the Durham Bulls lost to the Sugarland Space Cowboys,
but we had fun, weather was perfect, and they didn't get shut
out thanks to their designated hitter in the bottom of the 9th inning.

I started a hat during the ball game (which meant I had to restart it several times, even though it's a basic and easy pattern, because I kept getting off-count on the first row - stitch markers to the rescue!) and I finished a scarf that had been too big to take to the game.

I picked up some library swag at the game:

I asked if I needed to show my library card (of course it was with me) to get a sticker, and the library staff said no, and let me take one of everything that was still there.  I didn't need info about their Library Fest activities - I'm already signed up for ones I can do, and wish I could do more!

Chanukah Yarning.

I purchased a couple of "Channukah Advents" from an indie dyer; while Advent is a Christian thing, these follow the same plan of having wrapped packages that you open each night:

I'd purchased one from the dyer last year, a leftover, and had forgotten to open it, so did that one on each night as well:

This year I bought one each in the fingering and DK weights; last year's is fingering weight.  Each year she provided 100 grams of yarn, but in two different ways.  I also bought some additional yarns, optional add-ons in full-sized skeins:

Plus the dyer includes some extras each year, some in the packages and some in the box:

You can see the other goodies in the package photo.
She made a point of saying that these are made of clay.

 

Each night I opened the numbered package.  For the 2023 set, on two nights the package included two miniskeins, for a total of ten, plus a stitch marker one night.  For the 2024 set, the odd-numbered nights included stitch markers:

There is one of the progress keepers in the 2023 set,
with "2023" on the back instead of "24".

One of the double nights
for 2023.

The other double for 2023.

  

  

Closeup of the 2024 stitch marker.

  

These are the two extra 20 grams skeins I received in the 2024 boxes:

So these are the boxes for each year, and each weight, fingering or DK:

The dyer created two additional colourways, one on a yak/silk blend base, and the other on a sparkle base.  You could add these to your order, and I did!

 

She also sold the "yarn mops" she used to clean up dye and wipe her hands, and I purchased one of those for each of the two extra nights.  That is the skein at the top of Night 9 and on the right for Night 10.  You may notice that the two skeins for Night 9 are different weights; those are the last two she had.  I think I found a shawl pattern that will let me use them together.

I don't know what I will make from these sets, especially as the nights are very different plus I have boxes in different weights.  Because I decided that "dry January" will involve no yarn buying, I won't get more of the sets - these are plenty of yarn just as they are!

Two years ago I bought a Hannukah set from Olive and Two Ewe, and I took photos but forgot to post about it:

The theme is "tea" and not every day included yarn.
Some days had teapot stitch markers, needle stoppers,
or a tea bag rest and mug mat and sachets of tea.

I've been thinking about what to do with the yarns, selected a pattern, but didn't get started.  The very bright pink bothered me because it seems out of place with the others by its intensity.  While looking for ideas for this year found a pattern that I like better for these yarns, and it appears to need only four of the miniskeins so I am leaving out the intense pink.  I cast on New Year's Day, as my First New Project of 2025, and also a 'me' project:

Just the first four rows (yes, using some of the teapot stitch markers) as I am focusing on the Office Advent Shawl.

Stripe #18 is a bit narrow because the yarn tangled in one of
the wheels of my desk chair. On to the dark orange!
Also the "pocket hat" in progress, continuing to grow.

And re-reading "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" in preparation for the library's SciFi Book Club meeting on Wednesday.  This will be my fourth book finished in January!

Taxing.

From a 2011 art show at the Charter Oak Cultural Center.

Today is Tax Day in the USA, except in Maine and Massachusetts where it is Patriots' Day and they have an extension.  Mine are done and filed, and since I was a part-year resident of two states last year I had to do calculations that are naturally different in each state.  Hopefully everybody accepts my maths.

Last week was National Libraries Week and I didn't visit mine but I did wear library-themed T-shirts a couple days when I didn't have to be in business wear.  I do like my libraries!

I Read Harder

I finished the local library's challenge (read three books in different categories for a prize) and received my prize: a bookmark.

  

My third book was in the category "Choose a book from a library display."  The first two books I read were ones I have at home, and I wanted to read at least one library book for the challenge.  When I went into the building to select a book they had two displays near the entrance, one a general topic and another for Black History Month.  Since I am from Dallas, I instantly was drawn to this one:

I found it interesting both because I remember some of the time, having lived in the Dallas area then, and also for his personal journey.

Maybe next year I will read more than three books for the challenge; I thought about trying to read th4ree more quickly and get another bookmark, but there isn't time and I have a couple half-finished books I should finish first:  Charlie Wilson's War (still working on it from the course I took in November!) and The Catcher Was a Spy which I started on the trip to Spring Training.  I might take the latter on next week's trip to a cybersecurity conference, since the topic seems appropriate.

Again, a start. Several starts.

It was the Lunar New Year earlier this week, the Year of the Dragon.  I don't do a big celebration or observance anymore because I don't live someplace that does, and my grandmother, who really loved celebrating (she loved any celebration!) died last May.

I ate dumplings, and a moon cake (saved from the fall Moon Festival, and yes I know it's not traditional for the new year, but it's round which is), and wished people Gong Hay Fat Choi!

Tuesday was Mardi Gras, again not much of a celebration here.  I went to a local bakery and bought a filled donut so I could feel like I'd had the pączki which I'd gotten used to eating in Connecticut.  It was filled with strawberry cream so not traditional, but tasty.

The divot in the icing is from the tongs when I 
selected this one from the case - the frosting is soft.

I also got a mochi donut to eat the next day, for Valentine's Day, and forgot to take a picture but it had the same frosting and sprinkles.  I gave my parents the dark chocolate covered almonds, tucking the packets into their card, which I left when I took my morning walk and put their paper into their garage.  Dad found it when he went to check for the paper and put the envelope at my mother's place at the breakfast table.

Since it was also Ash Wednesday, and the beginning of Lent, I had to start either giving up or doing charitably.  In the give-ups are pork, and generally sausage things (yes, I know, I'm Jewish and shouldn't eat pork - and other than bacon, I pretty much don't, but I eat lots of kinds of chicken and beef and other non-pork sausages) except if I am at a baseball game and it's the most likely food option; and one category of sweets; and starting new fiber items.

I thought the last would help me focus on and finish a few things, but realized it could be a problem because I wanted to have some projects specifically for upcoming trips.  So I took an hour or so on Tuesday evening, instead of trying to finish a group project (more on which in a later post), and started things:

The two on the left are scarves (top one in knitting, lower one in crochet) that I plan to work on at North Texas Irish Festival.  Top middle is a project that I am taking to Spring Training next weekend: The Age of Brass and Steam Shawl in Forbidden Fiber's Pride DK (which has a bit of gold sparkle that doesn't show in the photo), colourway "Merchant Dynasty".  Below that is Granny's Not Square Cowl, the Carolina Fiber Fest crochet-along project, which of course I want to finish before then.  Yarn is an oddball of silk-wool blend, Louisa Harding's Amitola Grande in "Tangerine Dream".  

Bottom right is a corner-to-corner crocheted scarf if I need a charity project, of Premier Yarns Candy Shop in "Blow Pop" (there's more yarn waiting), and the top right is an emergency project (if I need something small and have nothing else before Easter), which is a baby sweater crocheted in sock yarn.  It is doubtful that I will finish more than four of these, especially with other items in progress, but I will keep reporting.

Reflecting, and a Status Check

Sometimes people use a new year to reflect and make changes.  Of course, I generally follow the Gregorian calendar for the major ones, but other new years provide a good time to review, possibly to reset, and evaluate.

Given that I just started six more projects, how am I doing on my resolutions?  I haven't completed any UFOs (and still not located the shawl), but I have almost made a thing for me:

I had a skein of handspun from the Knitting Buddha, and needed a simple item to work on while I was at a fiber arts group last weekend, so I decided to wind it up and work on a plain beanie.  I just wasn't happy with it, and frogged before I thought to take a photo of the progress.  Then I took the two ends, and wound a ball with both together, adding a small knot when I finished to mark the middle.  So if I reach the knot before the mitten is done, I need to add yarn to finish.  However, I've managed to finish this one without reaching the knot.  The ball at the top is the second strand, being wound into its own ball, and below is the remainder of the double-wound ball.  I need to take a row out of the thumb because it's just that much too long.  I have debated whether to make the cuff even longer, but it's probably sufficient as it will tuck nicely into a jacket sleeve or coat sleeve.  The second mitten will go quickly.

There are people in the fiber arts group who can help me repair my spinning wheel.  I'll get back to it after Carolina Fiber Fest as people are very focused on things for then.

I've read three books and made more progress on the really big one at my bedside.  Today I picked up the third book I need to read for the library challenge: "Called To Rise: A Life in Faithful Service to the Community That Made Me" by the former Dallas police chief, David O. Brown.  It resonated for several reasons, including my ties to Dallas; it's Black History Month; and the challenge category is "A Book From A Library Display".

Custodians of Knowledge.

Last week a friend posted the following, and I thought it was worth sharing:

I got a query from a High School student who was working on an essay. It was a good question, and I thought I'd share it and my answer.

Query: "do we need custodians of knowledge?"

Answer: I'm a writer with a modest following (how your dad knows me), and I certainly understand the instinct that people have that writing can extend knowledge, from personal experience to hard-won scholarship which synthesizes different threads of knowledge. I have tried to do that in my writing career.

     But I was also a conservator of rare books and documents for 30 years, and in that time I was dedicated to preserving the physical documents which contain knowledge. Today we tend to think that anything we might want to know is readily available online, perhaps with a little searching.

     But that isn't true. I have done conservation work on countless one-of-a-kind books/documents which will probably never be scanned, or written about, or shared with the broader world. Does that mean those items are unworthy of protection?

     Hardly. It is impossible for us to know what will be important to people in the future. It might be a herbal that someone's grandmother wrote that winds up containing a description of a plant that can cure some illness not yet seen. Or a prisoner's account of life in a P.O.W. camp where the prisoners composed a symphony that is found and performed to great acclaim, changing the course of music history.

     These things happen. I've seen it. But they can only happen if that knowledge has been protected.
     In this way, "custodians" can be different from "gatekeepers". The former are the scholars and librarians and teachers and conservators who protect the sources of knowledge from whatever threat. The latter are those to manipulate knowledge to their own ends. There's a huge difference.

This triggered some thoughts for me as well.

I don't think of "gatekeepers" as only those who manipulate and limit knowledge.  Certainly if you are a gatekeeper, and limit who can enter, you have that ability.  But I also see the gatekeepers as the ones who open the gates to possibilities, to reading, to new vistas of knowledge.

To me, "custodians" are the ones who keep the knowledge safe.  They are the ones who ensure the knowledge is there so people have access.  They repair (as my friend noted), they clean, they treasure.  They ensure the environment remains dry, or at the right humidity, and light enough, and the correct temperature.  They also share the knowledge, but their work is also to repair damaged containers of knowledge, whether books or papyrus scrolls or hard drives.  Absolutely we need these people, they are critical to making information available and keeping it available for the future.

Gatekeepers have a choice.  They can allow you in, or not.  Or they can allow some people in, or not.  The problem to which my friend refers comes when the gatekeepers want to keep all people out.  These people are not just gatekeepers, they are censors.  They decide what they want to read, and don't want others to have access to different information or sources.

There is a great series of comics where a child says they have to return a book checked out from the library because their teacher said it is above their reading level.  The librarian says the child should keep the book and try reading it.  The teacher then comes and scolds the librarian, who responds that the teacher doesn't know the book is beyond the child's abilities to read or understand, and shouldn't the child be given a chance to find out for their ownself?

What happens when a child (or anybody) reads something they don't understand?  They ask questions - and often those are not the ones that adults around the child want to answer.  Or they find they cannot answer, which embarrasses the adult.  They (child and/or adult) can start investigating, reading other things, checking a dictionary or encyclopedia or asking other people, to obtain the answer to the question.  This can lead to new discoveries, and new learning.

Gatekeepers who open the gates to this type of learning - librarians, and teachers, and similar people - enable exploration and support curiosity and allow the spread of information and knowledge.  This is what should happen.  I know there are people who think young children cannot handle all kinds of information, and I agree - but don't restrict all information from all ages.

Censors cut off the investigation, and block access to knowledge.  They want to keep people uninformed and uncurious.  They are afraid of information and don't want others to have access to it.  Those are the people who scare me, because they try to close off the world into their own box, and to mold people into the type of person they want to be.  Often other people don't conform, and this is where violence - whether overt and physical, or covert and psychological - takes place.

We need to have (and be) custodians of knowledge, and the type of gatekeepers who make the knowledge available to others.  Like many, I do have problems with making available some of the rhetoric that passes for information, but I also believe that having it available so people can understand why some people believe that way, and so it can be studied to see the source material, is important.  When we limit ourselves to a small amount of information, we limit our knowledge of the world.  Even if we don't agree with everything available (and I agree that some of the outright biased and hateful information should be restricted because of how much damage it does), knowing it is there helps us to understand others.*

Going back to the original question, I believe that everybody should be custodians of knowledge.  Keep the information safe, make it available to others, just don't decide what they can or should read, whether by reading level or content.  And be ready to answer questions.

Image of the library at Alexandria, borrowed from Britannica.

* I am the type of person who sees a meme or claim on social media or elsewhere, and starts asking for the source material.  Where are the studies, the original article?  Does the source have a known bias?  Are there countering or conflicting reports?  Some people don't like it when I question them, and I see those people are gatekeepers of the limiting variety.  Why not give me the information from which to make my own assessments and decisions?  Simply saying "you have a search engine; use it" isn't satisfactory to me, because it suggests the person doesn't really have a source for their comment, they are simply handing along something they received.  Search engines can be biased, and may show a person the type of information or source they prefer to see, thus locking somebody into narrow pockets of search results.  Be willing to share your sources, if you have them - and don't trust GenAI.

Progress and Possibilities.

I meant to post this last weekend, and for some reason didn't.  This is the Caledonian Cardigan at the end of the first skein - almost finished Row 25:

Yarn is a one-off colourway by Forbidden Fiber.

I wound the second and am progressing, now at Row 27.

I spent some time today (meaning, last Sunday) looking at possible patterns for a set of yarn I received as a Hannukah Advent - and yes, "Advent" is Christian and really doesn't apply, but in the yarny world it has come to mean a set of small gifts you get and open each day of a holiday.  So there are ones for Christmas that run either four (for the four Sundays of Advent) or twenty-four (for the days in December leading up to Christmas) or twelve (for the days December 26th through January 6th = Epiphany), and a few years ago some dyers decided to make them for Channukah also.  So I took a chance on one where Nomadic Knits collaborated with Olive and Two Ewes.

The theme was a tea party (there is also one for Christmas), and the box was filled with wrapped items numbered 1 through 8, plus some bags of tea and a tea bag holder, and information cards.

I worried a bit when I opened the first bag to find a pink skein, as it's my least favourite colour, but the others work together nicely and the set includes a full-sized skein for Day 8:

  

The stitch markers just fit into the little jar; I had to get tweezers to pull them out.  One has a bead to denote "start of round" or any other time you need a special marker.

So I spent a bit of time today looking for a pattern.  The site has a list of suggestions but most don't use the whole set.  I found one I like, but I think it needs more contrast.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It is a week later, and I am through the second skein of the Caledonian Cardigan, well into the body:

I have to decide whether I am OK with the yarn colours stacking the way they have done, or if I need to frog and see whether integrating a second skein will break it up more as it was on the yoke.  I may decide after seeing how the sleeves work out.  Now that the second skein is done, I am going to do those, and then all the remaining yarn can be the body.

I've finished the first library challenge book, "Read a Novel in Translation".  Since I started on Science Fiction Day, I selected Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon.  Very interesting to see what he got right given it was almost a century before space travel.

I am being wimpy in the mornings and not going for a walk until the temperature is out of the 30's(F), which means I often get a walk in the afternoon, if work allows and it's not storming.  When I lived up north, anything above freezing was worth a walk, and here I'm no longer that brave.  Or desperate to get out into the wintry sun.

It's a lot worse in many places, with NFL playoff games postponed and people joking about bringing in their brass monkeys and that the temperatures will drop from negative to imaginary numbers.  I always hope and pray that everybody who needs shelter in such bitterness will find it.