6 Degrees of Separation

My divas get a kick out of talking about who they are "connected" to. Maggie in particular likes to connect the dots...her favorite is the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese. Not only does one of our Irish cousins know her well, she is actually a cousin of ours, not too far removed.

Every once in a while, we go through the fun exercise of how we are connected to famous folks...Uncle Mark was a light guy on tour with Spingsteen, Dylan, and Madonna among others. Grandpa Mick got to know DeNiro because of some consulting work on a movie. My dad knew Mark Harmon's dad, and we even went to his house when I was little...I remember playing with the crawdads in the creek behind his house. We know so many stage combat masters who have worked with so many actors. There are so many actors and celebrities these days, that most folks can probably identify a connection only one or 2 degrees separated.

I have 3 favorites. The first is Clint Eastwood's wife, Dina Ruiz. We went to the same high school...my brother knew her well. My mother babysat her occasionally when she was tiny. I can still see this small, little firecracker with masses of hair.

And then there is Kristi Yamaguchi, the Olympic skating medalist....my sisters and I used to babysit her and her siblings. They lived around the corner. Kristi was about 3 when we met them, this beautiful, tiny little doll. My mother taught one or two of the kids. In fact, her father is my mother's dentist!

But the best one of all was the Sandy on "Flipper!" Remember him? Tall, tanned, good-lookin' dude...not the little freckle-faced boy. Well! He was another cousin... a million times removed, but I did not care! When I was 12, I used to daydream about him (not the stupid dolphin!) saving me if I drowned. {{{big sigh}}}

But all of this pales in comparison to a different kind connection discovered this weekend.

The family went to see "Enchanted" on Friday while I was sewing. As SOON as they got home, Diva Molly comes tearing down the stairs...

"MAMA, MAMA!! Remember when we saw all of those weird creatures in Central Park last summer?!!! That was this movie!!" she squeals.

"And we were THIS CLOSE to McDreamy! Patrick Dempsey, Mama! PATRICK DEMPSEY!!!!!"

The other 2 divas repeated this. Michael and I got a big kick out of how excited they were...that MAYBE we had been within spitting distance of McDreamy...no real connection, just the thought of a supposed, hypothetical, highly unlikely sighting...the divas promptly told all of their friends.

They are such GIRLS!!! Albeit girls with great taste in men...like their mother...who could daydream about McDreamy saving her from drowning...if she were so inclined...in her dungeon...sewing and daydreaming go well together.

'Scuse me, I have work to do in the dungeon....

Meave & Bailey, the dog… and Embroidery

Adventures with Meave: Meave & Bailey, the dog… and Embroidery

Archives of Knitting News: "Knitting Cure for 'Nerves'"

I was fooling around, looking for something interesting to read on the internet (I read my morning news on my computer), and it occurred to me that a Knitting News section on Ravelry would be nice. They currently do not have one. So, I started googling knitting news, found something interesting to me in the New York Times...and then noticed that you could search their archives going WAY back for anything you want. So I did.

And I found this (which can be read in pdf here):

(Published: May 11, 1912
Copyright © The New York Times)

KNITTING CURE FOR 'NERVES'

Berlin Doctors Prescribe Practice in Bed to Benefit Women.

By Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph

to The New York Times.

BERLIN, May 10. -- Knitting in bed as an effective antidote for nervousness is the latest remedy prescribed for women by Berlin's great specialists. Among the distinguished patients who at present are undergoing this novel cure is Mrs. Leishman, wife of the American Ambassador. All accounts agree that the preoccupation and concentration required for needlework when performed in a sitting posture between pillows and coverlets, is working wonders in women afflicted with nerves. They find it vastly more agreeable and efficacious than the ordinary and sometime tedious "rest cure," and it is producing results found unattainable from the old-time "nerve" panaceas.

"Our grandmothers," said a distinguished Berlin woman specialist, commenting on the knitting cure, "were not nervous as a rule. They were placid souls who were not easily ruffled, and were passionate knitters. What is more natural than that we should resort, for nervous women of to-day, to the favorite pastime of our maternal ancestors? I have at present a dozen Berlin society ladies, who are spending from four to six hours a day abed knitting. If possible, I require them to be alone and set themselves a task of accomplishing a fixed amount of work each day.

"Their progress is marked and apparently permanent. They are learning to become fond of knitting and tell me it is the best anti-nervousness cure they have ever tried. It remains to be seen, of course, whether the present effects, which are undoubted, will last."





This keeps bringing on little snorting giggle fits because of the ridiculousness of the quote about our ancestors being placid and not easily ruffled! And what never ceases to amaze me is that women were (and sometimes still are) seen as such fragile, helpless creatures by virtue of their gender. That frame of mind has always fascinated me.

Response: I of course know and agree with this statement: "While it seems ridiculous that women with all the money and time in the world would be afflicted with depression, remember that they lacked status and the opportunity to be anything BUT ornamental and 'useless'." We HAVE come a VERY long way, baby (I really do not need to get started here). For those who see this posting as a denigration of those who suffer from depression, you are reading too much into it; this is a piece of nostalgia, a part of our history as women. There is of course many a rant to be raged about the male-dominated medical profession's treatment of "hysterical women." But my snarky observation (that I removed rather than edit) that the employees of the society matrons described above must have had opinions about the cures, forced or otherwise, is valid. I am not negating the suffering of the priveliged women, but what about the not so priveliged who were subject to their own? About that I am very curious. I do wonder at the thoughts had by the female servants attending to the afflicted...there was a definite delineation between the classes, and did the less priveliged "lie abed" when depression struck? The economic repercussions for that "cure" would be hurtful, I'm sure.

I get it, and I do not need anymore feminist history lessons, thank you very much! I enjoy reading things like this as both a window into social history and as a reminder of the gains people have made...and as an amusing affirmation of what every knitter already knows!!! I put them here for those who enjoy the same.


More archives: "Oh, Eliza, I beseech you, knit no more!!"


(P.S.: Had to share this because I find this stuff so interesting-

K8 said...
By "nerves" think Mrs Bennett in Pride and Prejudice. They had too much time on their hands, and nothing to do or think about but themselves and maybe their children's social advancement. Small wonder they'd become "hysterical", especially if they had other issues going on (which of course at that time would be dismissed or treated in ways likely to make them worse...). For what the traditional rest-cure can do to a person needing completely different treatment, see the chilling story "The Yellow Wallpaper" about a woman with postpartum depression magnified into psychosis by her rest cure. Small wonder knitting was of greater benefit to these women than purely sitting in bed all day, not even allowed to read!

Found a Wiki link...fascinating: The Yellow Wallpaper

Thanks, Kate!)

Knitting Cables without a Cable Needle

Youngest diva Meave has been sick since Tuesday...viral chest thing, fever, and croup that sounds the way I imagine whooping cough sounds. This past Tuesday night, after her first day of missing school, she crawled into my bed without me knowing. At 2:41 am, she coughed...she loosed the foghorn from hell and scared the bejeezus out of me!!! I was sitting straight up wondering where I should punch first before I realized that that horrendous sound was coming from my little 7 yr-old curled up next to me. She did fall asleep right after that, but I spent the rest of the night listening to her breathe, ready to scoop her up and head to the ER. I have never heard croup that bad and Molly had viral croup that set off asthma several times.

So, the next morning, while I was waiting in the pediatrician's office with the coughing-choking diva, I was knitting as usual. Just the little cabled shrug I am making for her. I was doing what I do (cabling without a cable needle) and this older woman was watching me and declared that in her lifetime of knitting she had never seen that done. I have to admit I was surprised and then said that I never use a cable needle. You would have thought I was committing heresy by the shocked look on her face, and then she said snidely that I obviously have not done anything all that complicated yet.

I was contemplating my polite yet not-so-subtle snarky comeback when the nurse called for my daughter...just as well 'cause the woman looked ready to wrap my circular needles around my neck!!!

It's knitting, not brain surgery!!!!

So that incident spurred me on to this post.

I simply do not DO cable needles. It is just one more thing for me to lose!!! I have 6 pairs of glasses because I lose them between the couch and the bathroom at least 3 times a week...and they return to my plane of reality when they freaking feel like it!

I tried cabling with the needle once, when I decided to do a whole sweater in cables when my father had his heart transplant and hanging in the hospital was our life. Bought one, used it for half of one row...then figured it out differently. I truly could not see the logic when NOT using one was so easy...at least for me.

So this is a pictorial of what I do...for every cable no matter the size. I have no trouble with gauge, or holes or any other demon I read about. It works for me............ so THERE, testy-lady-in-the-waiting-room!

This is my photographer, Diva Maggie. A good diva always gets pics of herself first. Lovely, eh?


This is a 6-stitch, left twisting cable. I think of this differently than patterns write it because I am not putting any stitches onto a cable needle to just hang out front or back. Here are my beginning 6 stitches.


1) Since the first 3 stitches are going to cross over the front (left-twisting), I am reaching to the back for the next 3 stitches.


2) Here I have put my needle thru the 2nd set of 3 stitches...all 6 are still on my left needle.


3) Here I am gathering all 6 stitches under my right thumb in preparation to slide them all off of the left needle (3 stitches are still on the right needle).


4) I have slid them off...the 3 stitches on the right are free while the next 3 on the left are on the right needle.


5) Now I insert my left needle into the 3 free stitches...


6) ...and then pull them across so my needles are now in their correct positions (so sorry for the blur). The 3 free stitches are now in front of the back 3.


7) Next, I transfer the stitches back to the left needle, 1...

...2...

...3...


8) ...and then knit all six off of the left needle as usual. ( sorry for ANOTHER freaking blur...need to talk to my photographer about that blue sugar she uses on her gums...)


And there you have it! A cable.


If I am going to do a right twisting cable, then I am going after the second set of 3 stitches from the front...

...grab them...

... and repeat from # 3 on in opposition. Here I have grabbed the 3 free stitches with my left needle to the back...


I imagine there are other ways of doing this, but this is my habit now. It is fast, I have no extra little needle to lose, and I can even do it only half-looking, you know, when there is some young hot guy on tv that I have to keep my eye on...

Here is another tutorial from WendyKnits...it is the same technique (great minds, and all that!), but you can see what she is doing a bit more clearly...I am sure her photographer was not hopped up on a blue sugar retainer!

Hallowe'en Festivities

The Hallowe'en Sentinals.


Punk Fairy Diva.


Punk Fairy Castle.


Diva Maggie with her favorite boy and his happy parents.


Diva Molly with cousins Jamie & Holly and friend Michael.


I told the teenagers that if they did not dress up, they were not going trick-or-treating...nothing worse to me than older kids who make no bones about the fact it is ALL about the candy.


Princess Michael...what a guy!!! Takes a secure male to take on this look!!!!


And even lipstick!!!!!


More of the PFD!


PFD with the Horseback-riding Diva Witch.






MIL Grandma Dolores and SIL Debbie.


The crew is ready to hit the town.


It is also Debbie and Michael's birthdays. My divas made the cake.


Happy 16th...again!








Meave's stash.


And the sugar kicks in!












Hallowe'en family portraits....










Molly's face says it all...DONE!