sundered

Bowtie Stitch Dishcloth Pattern

2009-07-04T13:53:00.002-04:00

Bowtie Stitch

This is a very simple pattern that can be used for practically any project in stockinette. It's a repeat of six stitches, and the only thing you'll need to learn is to knit into the stitch below the one you'd normally knit (k1b) , the stitch between the purls in the pattern. If you do this wrong you'll end up dropping a stitch down a row, so make sure to watch this.

For the dishcloth:

CO 42 sts
Knit garter for 3 rows (keep the K3 garter border throughout pattern)

(r1) K3, P to last 3 sts, K3
(r2) Knit all
(r3) K3, [P3, K3]* repeat to border, K3
(r4) K3, [P1, K1b, P1, K3]* repeat to border, K3
(r5) repeat row 1
(r6) repeat row 2
(r7) K3, [K3, P3]* repeat to border, K3
(r8) K3, [K3, P1, K1b, P1]* repeat to border, K3

repeat these 8 rows to desired length, Knit garter 3 rows, BO.

The pattern will look like tiny bows or bowties, see picture.

birthday wish

2009-06-24T09:32:00.003-04:00

Birthday wish: Everything be beautiful

This birthday means that I'm a junior in college, that I'm down another prime number age, that I only have 364 days until I can get paid to get a tattoo. It also means I have two years to decide what to do with my life, and currently, I want that to include Michigan. Hopefully that doesn't cause any schisms.

art

2009-04-02T09:30:00.003-04:00

I feel very lost as an artist in the common era. Who really has their own identity in a decade full of cover songs and remakes? It seems like the greatest art we find does nothing more than harken back to something already great and distort it enough to call it our own. I don't think it's wrong at all, some of my favorite songs are covers, some of my favorite art is based on classics, books movies, all of it. I love when distortion is used as a tool of innovation, but are we all just innovators? Where is our signature? Where are the artists?

Maybe that's why I'm a poet. It's the only place I can find something new. Surely, contemporary poetry is a mix of the romantic and the modern, it's small and slight but has bravado. But it's also Victorian. It's scientific. It reflects who we are, now. Maybe the confusion came somewhere around the time that historians decided to name an era "modern" as if the title could no longer be used in the present tense. Technically we are still "post" modern, but that era too, is gone. We've driven ourselves into a time where we literally cannot even name ourselves. We've become the mice. As long as you don't name it, there's nothing left but to feed it to the snake.

I need a name for myself. I find myself craving brotherhood among long deceased groups, men and women who knew how I felt and would have accepted casual conversation that actually meant something. Perhaps that's where our corruption as a society comes from. Without a name, without art of our own, what is left but politics and vice? I'll never be a religious person, but the moral deprivation of our society is sickening. How could we find any beauty left in the world. Centuries of artists have relied not on new beauty (for the most part) but on recreating and reinterpreting the same beautiful things. We've found ourselves recreating interpretations, and nothing anymore is our own. We hardly even create original thoughts.

We don't even need Big Brother or a natural disaster to destroy ourselves. This civilization is anything but. We are the disaster.

solidarity's improper musings

2009-03-19T08:47:00.003-04:00

“Sometimes, there are things in our life that aren’t meant to stay. Sometimes, change may not be what we want. Sometimes, change is exactly what we need. And sometimes, saying goodbye is the hardest thing you think you’ll ever have to do, but sometimes, saying hello again is the thing that breaks you down and makes you more vulnerable than you ever thought possible. Sometimes, change is too much to bear. but most of the time, change is the only thing saving your life.”

I got so used to happiness and beauty
now that it's gone I feel like I can't breathe to scream

Every moment reverberates with the disappointment of what it isn't,
what I'm not, what I no longer can be.

what is this maddening silence,
this wicked perversion of everything i loved?

10 things I want to KNIT

2009-02-26T07:42:00.006-05:00

I just learned to knit, and I'm still learning. But I've got so many things I want to create, it's becoming a little like an addiction. At the very least, it's a stress reliever.

1. Crescent Bag

2. Bolero

3. Cabled Celtic Knot Neckwarmer

4. Cat's Pawprint Scarf

5. Fishnet Stockings

6. Lace and Belted Arm Warmers

7. An Elephant! (:

8. Owl Sweater

9. Opera Gloves

10. Watercolor Jacket
I think I've decided this is going to be my "elite level" test

wish

2009-02-07T22:05:00.004-05:00

I wish I could make everything beautiful again.

I feel like I've lost something in the hours that I don't spend between the pages of chapbooks and novels. Something that must have been in the lens of a camera, maybe the film. A piano string. I keep trying to catch it and all I find is dust. Dust that used to mean something, that used to make me dream. I could blame time, he's the most likely culprit, but somewhere comfort slipped her blindfold over my eyes and led me into a room that wasn't my own. I'm not sure I ever had what I'm looking for, but I remember the sadness. Something so deep even my dreaming is lost.

I ache.

She asked, but..
I don't even know who the most beautiful person I've ever met was.
I wish I could still say with certainty that I knew.

10 websites I love

2009-01-28T09:17:00.009-05:00

1. contrariwise

a literary tattoo website
there's often amazing quotes from some of the best books and poems
and since i wish i could cover my body (though probably not permanently) in some of these, it's a bit of a release for me to see other people have the courage to do it.
i think i just have problems choosing favorites, however
i love kurt vonnegut:

i'm not generally one for quirky tattoos, but this harry potter quote is really beautiful
it's "mischief managed" in uv ink
it only glows in black light.

and this is one of the tattoos from the skin project that i'm dying to be a part of
an author is composing her novel in the form of tatoos,
one word of each participant
i've already sent in my application

2. not always right
this is a website every retail employee should frequent so that you know you're not alone
all customers are morons.

(A woman who had gone through my line earlier that day came up to me.)

Customer: “Give me back my g****** keys!”

Me: “Excuse me?”

Customer: “My car keys! Give them back!”

Me: “I wasn’t aware that I had them. Ma’am, are your keys lost? I can get someone to help you find them if you want.”

Customer: “No! I know it was you who took them! I put them up on this little tray– *points to the tray next to the debit machine* “–and when I got home I couldn’t find them anywhere!”

Me: “When…when you got home? Ma’am, did you drive home?”

Customer: “Well, duh! What kind of idiot are you? Do you think I’m poor?” *gives a disgusted look*

Me: “No…how did you get back here, ma’am?”

Customer: “I drove here, of course!”

Me: “With your car keys?”

Customer: “Yes! Now give them back!”

Me: “Ma’am…if I had taken your car keys, would you have been able to drive home and back here?”

Customer: “No! But I know you took them!”

(I then notice the keys shining in her hand.)

Me:: “Open your hand please, ma’am?”

Customer: *upon seeing her keys in her hand* “Oh, you little witch! What did you do, ‘magic’ them back into my hand?! What kind of store lets witches work for them?!”

Me: “Ma’am, I’m not a witch…but you are a complete stereotypical blonde.”

Customer: “Oh, how dare you! I demand to speak to your manager.”

(My manager, who is a Wiccan and has been listening to this exchange for the past few minutes, comes up behind me, playing with her five-pointed star necklace.)

Manager: *in a mystical voice* “Well, hello there, earth-walker. What can I do for you?”

Customer: *sputters curse words and quickly storms out*

3. toxel

a website that steals from other websites to collect lists of anywhere from 10 to 100 amazing objects under a certain category, such as "30 amazing billboards" or "usb food drives" that come in sushi and cupcakes!

4. wear palettes
a website that gives you a color scheme to dress around every day, complete with an example outfit.
following the regime is nearly impossible without a huge closet, but its great for ideas

5. una bella vita
probably my favorite blog on the net, and the inspiration for my "10 things" blogs.
this girl finds everything beautiful on the internet and sorts it into blogs for my viewing pleasure
i adore her taste

6. astronomy photo of the day
i'm an astronomy and physics nerd so things like pulsars and quasars get me all excited.
it's absolutely amazing the things we can get pictures of from earth

7. polanoid
complete with a "photo of the day" it's a website for the dying art of polaroids
dying, because polaroid has announced that they will stop manufacturing the film as of june this year
:(

8. wicked alice
my favorite poetry journal, run by my favorite living poet, and the first journal i was ever published in
9. my polaroid blog

lovely lovely collections of polaroids, odds and ends, and mosaics
(una bella vita find, again)
10. man or mouse?
and hypocritically, this is the one i should be spending the most time reading.

10 things i want to do more

2009-01-24T08:04:00.015-05:00

I've decided that next semester I'm going to take less hours so I have more time to get back to the things I love (and have more money to pay for the books for said classes). Things like:

1. read for pleasure

I can't remember the last time I actually got to finish a book that wasn't assigned. Sure I start a lot, but I've also got way too many on my reading list. I just ordered five chapbooks from dancing girl press, so let's hope I can just get through one small dose of poetry at least.

2. get more involved

There are a lot of causes that I'd like to be a part of, only one being powershift. I'm still thinking about majoring in environmental science; it seems to be the only thing that gets me motivated, in the career field at least.

3. dress victorian

When we watched REPO! Genetic Opera the other day I was absolutely in love with some of the victorian fusion fashion. I mean, it's not my ideal, but its still gorgeous. Even Paris Hilton can be pretty victorian.

We're going backwards in fashion every few years to mimic what we've already done. I have no problem with that, I think it puts a new spin on things. I just wonder how long I'll have to wait until lace gloves come back in style. And I'm terribly jealous of the people who get to have their annual victorian tea party in Germany.

4. model

Less than two years ago, it was all I wanted to do. I even thought I could pull it off until Tyra Banks told me I couldn't model unless I was 5'7" and crushed my heart (along with I'm sure thousands others). But I've been talking to a friend of mine and I'd like to try again. Who knows where it could go.

5. photography

speaking of modeling, I'd like to get back behind the camera as well. Not only do I miss it, but I have a really expensive camera that I never use, and that's eating away at my central guilt nerve. I practically live life finding pictures to take in everything I see and feel (and sometimes things I can't even express in still frame) and I never do. Part of that is because I'm both proud and shy, and that is a lethal combination.

6. poetry

For Christ's sake, I'm a poetry major. But it seems like unless I have a class, and an assignment telling me what to write every two days I can't think of a damn thing. Part of me wants someone to just do that for me now, the other part says I should get some willpower and write my damn self.

New Years Resolution ( same as the last two):
finish and publish a chapbook.

7. dance

I was with a bunch of thespians last night, and surprisingly, I wasn't terrified out of my mind. Well, ok sometimes I was terrified, but mostly I was just having fun. As much fun as a bystander can have. See, I was in band, not theater. I always thought maybe I'd like theater, but I hated all the kids in it, so that didn't seem like a good plan (much to my chagrin, I'm now dating a former thespian). I don't think acting was every really what I wanted to do, but I did love to dance and sing.

And hell, I love learning choreography for music I wouldn't be caught dead listening to on a regular basis. I love everything from formal ballet to tap and jazz. I probably could have hacked musical theater (if it wasn't for the theater).

Either way, Anthony is taking me to Pranah.

8. orchestra

speaking of me being in band, I'm not anymore. The only reason I'm not is that I can't find a decent community band or orchestra around here that doesn't meet on a day I have class, or two hours from my house. And that sucks, because I've been playing for fifteen years, and I don't just want to give it up. I miss my flute, and my bassoon.

And I was real damn good too.

9/10: draw and paint

The sheer amount of energy and materials involved in visual arts is the reason these are two numbers, if not just because they're two different mediums.

I just bought drawing pencils yesterday, with the fancy rubber kneading erasers. I think we've come full circle of everything I lost after high school. That was where I learned that I could actually create something decent with paint and pencils. I won awards, I made the flyers for the main art show. I had a blast.

And now I never do it anymore.

Not that I can take the classes, they're absolutely ridiculous, and the supplies are unnecessarily expensive. I'll have to find my own outlet to create in. Along with everything else I now have to fit into my already overworked schedule.

Maybe some of this... mayhem will actually calm me down.
Maybe.

10 things I love

2009-01-13T08:46:00.016-05:00

this week, as the first,

with no particular order or theme

1. knitting

2. anthropologie

3. astronomy

4. polanoid

5. emma watson for vogue italia

6. lit movies

7. link
i've been playing twilight princess since christmas
and i have a crush on a 2d boy

8. the ones we love
the project : each photographer takes 6 pictures of the person or people they love the most

9. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
in just about a month, we've watched seasons 1-6
we're starting on the last season tomorrow

10. piano music
and this is where i leave to go listen to the Amélie soundtrack
by Yann Tiersen