kmkat and her kneedles

This is a public service announcement.

Let's talk about the H1N1 virus. I know you haven't heard enough about it on the TV and the radio and the internet and the newspaper and Twitter and Facebook. (Did I leave anybody out?)

First, go read what I did at Boing-Boing about cytokines and a cytokine storm.

Then read what Older Son has to say on the subject.

Huh, she didn't actually say what a cytokine storm is.  It's not that hard to explain.  Cytokines are the chemical messengers of the immune system, the way that different kinds of white blood cellsB cells and T cells talk to each other over distances.  The ones responsible for a cytokine storm are inflammatory cytokines, which, among other effects, make all your tiny little blood vessels more permeable to everything.  They open little windows in their walls.  The point of this is to let cells of the immune system leave the blood and go into a particular tissue that has nasty microbes in it, like for example because you fell down and cut your arm on a sharp rock.  The little blood vessels open to let the white blood cells into the tissue, but the red blood cells and the fluid of your blood (plasma) go along for the ride once holes open up in the walls of the little vessels.  This is why you get redness and swelling, because there's blood loose in the tissue, and it's fine and helpful if it just happens in one spot.  But for somewhat complicated technical reasons, some diseases are able to cause you to secrete such a large quantity of inflammatory cytokines into your bloodstream that all of your little blood vessels open windows in themselves.  When you lose blood from every little blood vessel, then you just don't have enough blood, it's as if you'd slit your wrists or jugular and let all your blood run out.  So you go into shock, which just means that your blood can't adequately supply stuff to your tissues systemically (as opposed to just in a particular spot, locally, which is called ischemia).  This includes your brain, and when your brain goes without get glucose and oxygen for a few minutes you die.

Also, that lady didn't make the point that for any bug, including this one, your probability of developing the infection absolutely depends on how much of it gets into your body.  It also depends on how good your immune system is and how few of this organism are able to cause disease in a healthy person (the infectious dose).  But you can't control either of those, and if they're constant the thing you can have some control over is how many of the things get into your system.  That's why even a mask that doesn't stop all of the virus can be a good idea.

Andrew

The other thing The Boy told us on the phone last night was that the difference betweeen cytokines and hormones was that the former were discovered/studied by microbiologists (I think) and the latter were discovered/studied by endocrinologists. They do essentially the same thing, enable communication between cells. That is of course a cynical oversimplification of the sort that always appeals to me, so you may take it with however much salt you deem appropriate.

And now you know lots about virii and cytokines and such.

Loony results.

The results of yesterday's button poll, as of 12:56 pm today:

The red pearlies are clearly a favorite. Going by the comments I need to tweak these results a bit to account for some erroneous clicking and the failure of the quiz to load for at least one person, but such tweaking is not enough to change the outcome. Personally, I favored the brass hearts -- I truly thought they would be a runaway favorite -- but I am thinking hard about whether to follow my own inclination or to go with y'all's opinion. Stay tuned.

* * * * *

The loons are back!

It is unusual to see three adult loons on the same piece of water -- extrememly territorial are loons. Perhaps what we have is a pair and their yearling offspring. The Canada geese are especially vocal today, probably because they resent the *intruders*, never mind that last year was the first in nearly twenty and perhaps in many more that there have been geese on the lake at all.  Keep your fingers crossed with us that the loony pair remains!

Beat those buttons to death.

I tried a slightly different approach with the button box. Since what I am looking for are small buttons, I reasoned that they might easily be overlooked in the wealth of buttons in the box.

So instead of rummaging through the box looking for likely prospects, I dumped all of them out onto the table and removed the ones that obviously didn't work -- too big, too white, too green/orange/purple. This left me with a lot of smaller buttons that might not have noticed before. It also allowed me to conclusively eliminate any that did not have at least three of a kind.

What I came up with are these, some of which you have seen before.

Brass lions:

Brass hearts:

Red pearlies with shank:

Mottled red:

Brass helmets:

Wooden:

Buttons with a shank might work better given the thickness of the garter stitch fabric. Styles with >3 items allow me to sew an extra button on an inside seam in case one gets lost.

Let the voting begin!

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Button, button!

My original plan for buttons on the Einstein child sweater was to make some of these, found at CraftStylish.com:

But when I reread the directions today I found that they recommend starting with 1" rings for the first project. That is way, way too big for this sweater. The buttonholes are tiny. Plus I don't have any rings small enough to work.

On to Plan B.

Who knew how hard it is to pick the right buttons? I have a large assortment from which to choose in the delightful button box I inherited from my mother-in-law.

Above, you can see all the buttons that had any chance of working. The buttonholes are very small, so the buttons cannot be larger than about 3/8". Many of those above are too big.

The buttons circled in red, below, are my favorite. Tragically, I need three and there are only two. But they are too big anyhow.

The color of these transparent red ones is good, but I would like this sweater to be as unisex as possible just in case my friend has a boy someday. Clear red buttons = too girly? Not to mention too big.

These next red ones have the advantage of having a shank, which would make them perfect for buttoning through worsted-weight garter stitch. But once again, too girly? And too big?

A couple different brass buttons look good and have shanks, too. In fact, they probably look best of all. But they are too large for the teeny buttonholes. (Click to embiggify.)

These neutral little wooden balls will fit easily through the buttonholes. So easily, in fact, that the sweater may not stay buttoned. Plus, they are a little... dull.

What say y'all? Any favorites? Given that I have this splendid assortment of buttons and that my only alternative is Wal-Mart, I would prefer to use some I already have.

In my heart of hearts, though, what I would love to put on the sweater are three squarish wooden buttons, one stained teal blue, one stained tomato red, and one golden-brown. But that would involve a shopping trip to the Twin Cities, and I cannot justify driving 150 miles round trip for buttons.

Later: I did a little googling for "yarn ball buttons" and found instructions for some in Maggie Righetti's Crocheting in Plain English. That may be the solution.

Assuming I can summon the courage to take up a crochet hook.

Lemons, an (almost) FO, and a wee rant.

Just in case you are curious, here is the recipe for the impossible-to-overbake Lemon Bars.

* * * * *

I finished knitting the toddler Einstein. Here is it, drying under the ceiling fan.

 

The markers show me the buttonholes, which are remarkably easy to lose.

Now to find (or make!) the perfect buttons. Stay tuned...

* * * * *

I have a wee rant bubbling up inside, and it is time for it to come bursting forth.

WTF are people thinking?

  

  

  

(All images shamelessly lifted from The Sartorialist except the last one, which is Wendy teetering in someone else's 5" heels. I have met the woman, and I don't think she is so nutso as to wear such things as a matter of course.)

People are perfectly free to wear whatever they want on their feet, of course, but I really and truly do not understand why anyone would CHOOSE to wear ankle-breakers like these. Bad for your back, death for your knees, painful for every single part of your body except perhaps that part in the mirror in your head. Yeah, I know they make the wearer's legs look shapely and sexy. They also make it impossible to run away.

Do men do this? No, they are shod thusly.

 

Happily, The Sartorialist is not exclusively hung up on those ridiculous heels. I was so relieved to see a woman wearing the boots below a day or two ago that I was compelled to comment.

Another sensible and trendy example.

 

Those would have been my fashion choice ;-) Now you know another reason why I shall never be featured in anything resembling a fashion layout.

Of lemons and lemonade.

I made some lemon bars Friday night. The lemon part is supposed to receive a dose of yellow food coloring -- without it the bars are bland beige -- but I didn't have yellow. So I used red. When I tasted the batter, my first thought was, Mmmm, strawberry. Weird, how suggestible I am.

So I stuck 'em in the oven for 20 minutes but forgot to set the timer. You can see where this is going, can't you? An hour and 20 minutes later Maggie said, Hey, what about those lemon bars?

I whipped them out of the oven and they looked... normal (except for, you know,  the pink). So we decided not to tell Smokey and Matthew about the boo-boo (they were on a Menard's run for more staples and hand rail brackets). When they got home everybody had a lemon bar and glass of milk. The bars were fine. A tiny bit less creamy than usual, but fine. As of this writing, 36 hours later, then entire 9x13 pan is empty of bars.

Let this be a lesson to y'all. Instructions/recipes are... a suggestion.

In knitting news, I finished my socks.

Yarn: Opal Petticoat, slightly less than one-half a skein; yarn won in Carole's Tour de Fleece, 2007.
Pattern: generic toe-up, 64 st reduced to 60.
Needles: US#0.

You cannot tell from this photo but these socks are extra long. I decided last winter that drafts = death, and I don't want any. So these are long enough that, no matter how high my pant legs ride up when I sit down, no skin will show. (Please ignore that tiny bit of bare skin in the above photo. I had pulled my jeans leg up extra high so as to display the contrasting cuff. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

The yardage in this Opal skein was sooooo generous that, even though these socks are extra long, I have enough left for another pair of socks EXACTLY like these. The contrasting heels and toes and cuff probably have something to do with that.

Thanks, Carole!

Safety and payback.

In order to ensure safety and security at Chez Kat™, the highly coveted black cat emery board has been entrusted to the USPS, to wend it its way to Chris. I know she will give it a good home.

* * * * *
When we were driving to Wal-Mart today we passed a foursome of tuxedo- and gown-wearing teenagers on a mini-golf course. Tonight is prom night at one of the local high schools. The group appeared to be having a good time, and yowzers! did they look good!

* * * * *

Younger Son and Girlfriend came up for a long weekend to work for us. Yesterday YS and Smokey put a temporary runner on the eight-years-old-but-still-temporary stairs.

That's the pneumatic staple gun at the top. The carpet runner is for Bear. Since she has been getting her glucosamine chondritin and Rimadyl twice daily she can handle stairs again, but sometimes her paws slip off the treads -- the temporary stairs have no risers, just treads -- and she gets stuck. The carpet closes the gaps where the risers would be and makes the treads less slippery for her. She still doesn't scamper, but she is more confident and less likely to break a leg.

While they were at it, they installed something I have been wanting for a while.

 

I don't scamper up the stairs, either, but a hand rail makes the climb easier, especially when I am carrying three tons of groceries.

Right now Smokey is taking a little break so Matthew is helping Maggie wash windows.

Back when we used to go visit my parents for a weekend, Smokey would do all sorts of odd jobs for my mom -- fix broken appliances, clean the gutters, replace light bulbs that required climbing up a ladder. What went around has come around again.

One more thing.

This freebie emery board from 3 Kittens Needle Arts was included in the goodie bag at Yarnover.

I can't think of anyone who would want such a thing. Can you?

The spring, it continues.

First boat on the lake.



Bass fishermen. They must have been catching something; they stayed in that spot for a long time.

En Esch finally discovers the bird feeder.



Why, yes, En Esch is, shall we say, challenged. He has finally -- after two years of practice -- learned how to find his way back to the door after he goes outside. (It used to take him a couple days.) And today he actually ran inside on the first try when I held the door for him. Sometimes that opened door freaks him out and he runs away.

More signs of spring.

The view from my dining room window this morning:

Can you see the faint bits of red just above and to the left of center?

The swamp, or red, maple (Acer rubrum) is in bloom. 

Let's take a closer look...

There is a faint red haze in the woods.

 

* * * * *

The spring peepers have woken up. (ETA: spring peepers are a species of frog. There are also recordings of their sound, minus the sound of my car engine in the background, at that link.)

Yeah, the visuals are, um, shall we say, less than spectacular (it was 10 pm) but the sound? The sound! Such a welcome harbinger of spring.

* * * * *

Knitting on the Baby Einstein sweater progresseth. I sure hope a good soak and block will smooth this out. Yeah, I know it will, but we always harbor that tiny bit of doubt, don't we?

It progresseth on the current pair of socks, as well.

Sock on left = totally done. Sock on right = row 28 (of 30) in heel flap = halfway.

 

Go help my imaginary friend Jocelyn.

I don't really have anything earth-shattering to say, but I had to share this video from my imaginary friend Jocelyn's blog. (Oh, Jocelyn is real, all right, but I have never met her and know her only through her blog. Hence, imaginary.)

Jocelyn lives in Duluth and teaches English (composition?) in a community college there. She regularly cracks me up. This particular effort had me in stitches.

Click here for the video

Oh, and if you wanted to suggest some music for her iPod running playlist, that would be cool, too. Just tell her kmkat sent you.

Yarnover!

I went to Yarnover on Saturday. For those of you not in the Upper Midwest, Yarnover is an annual day-long knit-fest sponsored by the Minnesota Knitters Guild.  There is a keynote speaker and classes and vendors and lunch and knitting and chatting and fun. I went two years ago and loved it; in 2008 it was held on the last Saturday before April 15 so I had to skip it. But when I checked the website in December and saw that in 2009 it was scheduled for April 18, I signed up immediately.

This year's event was held at Hopkins High School, a large suburban h.s. perfect for the event. The keynote address was held in the airy, light-filled cafeteria.

 

That is slightly less than half the room. Look at all those knitters!

The keynote speaker was someone you may recognize.

Lily Chin talked about the history of knitting and how many things that seem new -- social knitting groups, novelty yarns, community knitting -- have been around for decades. She called for people in the audience to bring up examples of *heirloom* knitting from previous decades. A couple pieces truly were heirlooms -- beautifully fine-gauge hand-knit sweaters of vaguely argyle patterning that the knitter had found for $1 in a thrift store. Some pieces got a huge nostalgic laugh -- the 1960s brightly colored fair isle hot pants, the 1970s bulky knit poncho.

Then it was time for the morning class. I took "Two Colors, Two Hands" taught by Sally Melville. She taught us several different ways to do stranded/fair isle knitting. It began to feel almost comfortable by the end of the class. Yay!

In the afternoon I took another class from Sally, "Knitting to Flatter and Fit". The homework for the class was for each of us to bring a scale drawing of our silhouette. To judge by the groans that filled the classroom, I was not the only one who had found this to be... depressing. My own silhouette was somewhere between Gaston Lachaise's Standing Woman (below, left) and the Venus of Willendorf (right):

    

Ahem.

I was very frugal in the vendor area, resisting almost everything. But one particular skein of sock yarn had to come home with me.

That's Pagewood Farms Denali sock yarn in the Crayon colorway -- delightfully soft and beautifully colored. I had been wanting a shawl pin, too, but didn't want to spend much on it because I wasn't sure how much I would use it; the carved wooden one was $10 -- perfect.

One of the best things about going to a knitting event is to see the varied and gorgeous and intricate knitwear.

There were shawls (click to biggify, especially the one on the right -- there are a couple more handknit sweaters partially visible):

 

Intricate sweaters (if anyone recognizes the pattern for either of these, please sing out in the comments -- I would love to make either one, especially now that I am feeling rather smug about fair isle)(although I think the first one may actually be a slip-stitch pattern):

 

 

A tiny sweater grown to adult size (I didn't realize until I looked at the photo that it is Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise, knit for an adult):

A colorful yoke/scarf (from a Candace Eisner Strick kit; I think I heard the wearer describe it as such to someone else who admired it):

There were many, many other lovely pieces being worn, but as you can tell from the ones I photographed, I am all about the colors.

Susan Rainey, of The Rainey Sisters blog, was on the committee that put together this event. She and her fellow organizers did a great job -- thank you, all!

Signs of spring.

Pussy willows.

The last tax return of the season.

Rodentia emerge from their winter burrows, only to be felled by marauding felines.

The first blooms of spring.

 

Wait. What is hiding behind the remains of last year's asparagus?

 

Aw. Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Those are Tete-a-Tete daffodils and Siberian squill, planted by yours truly nearly ten years ago. That used to be our bedroom window (we have since moved into the real master bedroom upstairs).

Have a great weekend!

Mutterings and taxes.

(But not muttering about taxes.)

So. When a tax accountant has the weekend off before April 15, what does she do?

Why, she does her own taxes, of course!

* * * * * *

1. Animal :: vegetable, mineral.
2. Temporary :: loan.
3. Moan :: groan.
4. Rapid :: white water.
5. That’s for me to say :: dude.
6. City :: lights.
7. Bumper :: rubber baby buggy.
8. Eclipse :: moon.
9. Problematic :: huh?
10. If? :: When?

Sugar and squares.

It is the last weekend before April 15... and I am not working.

Let me repeat that: I am not working.

I am not sure this has ever happened in the 15 tax seasons in which I have labored since 1993. (I was laid off for a couple years during the post-9/11 recession.) This half-time gig is awesome.

And now, a moment of silence for Carrie K., who IS working.

This past week I had several county meetings for this, that, and the other. During these meetings I discovered that it is sugaring time right now, and anyone who lives in the country or the woods is way busy, what with the tapping and the boiling and the bottling.

"Oh, you need to talk to Kris about that, but not this week. He's up to his eyeballs in maple syrup."

"Yeah, the sap is really running right now."

"I can take care of that next week. This week my wife and I are too busy sugaring."

And so it went. Somehow I had known that people tapped maple trees and made syrup in this part of the state -- the maple syrup I buy in the store here and even in the Twin Cities generally comes from Cumberland, only about 30 miles from where I sit -- but somehow I had not realized how significant sugaring time is hereabouts. The comments I heard this week taught me that it is akin to the fishing opener and the first day of deer season, a time of intense outdoor activity that occupies only a portion of the local population but somehow touches everyone else in the area. Pondering that realization, I now know why it took me so long to awaken to it: it obviously occurs during the latter part of tax season, a time of the year when I am consumed with working and only occasional moments off for eating, sleeping, and commuting.

Like I said, this half-time gig is awesome.

* * * * *

I took a little break from knitting the toddler sweater.

These are for Code Pink, a Radical Act of Knitting for Mother's Day, which I read about at Vicki's blog. I still need to make 2 more pink squares and 2 green ones before I mail them off on Monday. Those four remaining squares should take about 20 seconds. Four-inch squares of knitting worsted on US#7s go INCREDIBLY fast. Every single one of these squares has surprised me by being nearly done before I realized it.

My squares will be somewhere in that fence cozy.

Tuesday amusements.

* * * * *

The ice is receding quickly.

 

We never managed to get our pontoon boat out of the lake last fall. It appears that our luck may hold and that any remaining ice will NOT be blown against it, thereby crushing it and depriving us of a boat.

Let's all keep our fingers crossed, 'kay?

* * * * *

Any other Mac owners out there?

Macheist is selling this $900+ bundle of 14 programs for $39.95, 25% of which goes to ten specified charities, none of which are anti-gay or "pro-life". Even if you are not interested in all the apps, let me tell you about one in particular, WireTap: it allows you to record anything that is coming out of your speakers. If, for example, you find a song you like on YouTube, you can record it and import it to iTunes.

Not that I would ever do such a thing, since it might be a DRM offense; just sayin', is all.

Older Son had gotten that program free in December and told me about it when he was home at Christmas. When I tried to find it I discovered that the free version was gone and it would now cost me $39. So I regretfully gave up. Now I will have it, plus others that may be nice, plus I am giving a little to charity.

* * * * *

Some more chuckles.

From Disapproving Rabbits:

 

Lolturtles:

A couple items StumbledUpon:

 

 

I found a great new site. Here are a couple recent examples:

 

And finally, a Hannibal look-alike:

Golden random.

I picked up the stitches for the right front on the Einstein child sweater.

If you have made this sweater, or the adult version, you may notice that I have changed the front slightly. I omitted the overlap in the lower portion (blue), instead knitting it so it will exactly meet in the front. The upper front (gold) will have three buttons and buttonholes and will overlap appropriately. Somehow that seemed a better, more current, design than the original. Not that there was anything wrong with the original, you understand. Sally Melville, if you are reading this (yeah, right), please forgive me.

I also found the perfect pattern on Ravelry and the perfect yarn in my stash for a stealth project. The intended recipient may read my blog, I'm not absolutely sure, so I will not reveal any details until the item is knit and blocked and received on the other side of the world. (Hello, Eleanor!)

* * * * *

Smokey's co-worker Dan, with whom he works all his regularly scheduled night shifts, has a small farm where he and his wife raise chickens, goats, bunnies, a large garden, two dogs, two cats, and three children. Remember the pink and white baby hat? That was for Dan's newest progeny.

Smokey buys eggs from Dan. This morning he -- Smokey, not Dan -- made me breakfast.

 

I don't know if it is apparent to you in the photo, but the yolk of that egg is way, way more colorful than the yolk on any store-bought egg. Mmmm. Smokey says they taste more egg-y, too, but I couldn't tell. Need to do more research, which will be easy because we have nearly three dozen (that's 34!) more off these little hummers in the fridge. Anybody got some good egg recipes?

* * * * *

Hannibal missed some intense feeder action yesterday. He was sleeping elsewhere.

 

Don't tell him, okay? He would be all depressed and waaaahhhhh! And we don't want that...

Random Friday.

Our new office has multi-function machines scattered all over -- multifunction meaning they are a printer, a copier, a scanner, and a fax all in one. I can print to the closest machine, or I can send my print job into the ether and, by waving my RFID-equipped ID card in front of any printer in the office, print my job right there.

Fine. Technology scores.

But when the printer that is 20 feet from my desk (and additionally, the one that is 12 feet farther along the wall) stops working correctly, I have to call frickin' INDIA! to get someone who sits at a desk two floors below me to come fix it.

Sheesh. Outsourcing = weird.

* * * * *

This was the view from my cube one afternoon this week.

 

This is the Norwest Center Well Fargo Center reflected in the IDS Center. (Please ignore the reflections of the office ceiling lights.) 

Want to see the inside of the IDS? Here is the Crystal Court, which was the first indoor courtyard in downtown Minneapolis back in the early 1970s.3

  

* * * * *

The mallards that I showed you a few days ago were subsequently chased away by a gaggle of geese.

 

* * * * *

Spring is here. I picked two plump wood ticks off Hannibal this morning. Sorry, no photos.

* * * * *

In knitting news, I turned the heel on my sock.

 

Last night Smokey and I met for dinner at a little Chinese place near us in Wisconsin. The owner's two daughters, about 8 and 10, were doing their homework at one of the tables. They both came over to see my knitting. The older one knits and was intrigued by the thought of knitting socks. The younger one, who crochets but doesn't knit, had me explain to her exactly and in detail how I turned the heel. I think she has a bright future as an architect or engineer.