kmkat and her kneedles

In Wisconsin, it is now 1952.

"On February 21st, in a stunning move, Assembly Republicans voted to repeal Wisconsin’s Equal Pay Act... Assembly Republicans repealed the law that ensured that women cannot get paid less than a man for doing the same job. Women in Wisconsin still only make 77 cents on the dollar compared to men." 

-From a newsletter put out by the state assemblyman from the Racine area.

I could not believe this when I read it. But it is true. Welcome to 1952, or maybe 1902.

If you are a woman or are married to one or have daughters and were thinking of moving to Wisconsin, you may want to think again.

My new wallpaper (if only it were in landscape mode).

Repinned from The Bloggess.

Privacy.

In case you have been living under a rock for the past couple weeks -- or have been offline, which is, frankly, more likely than any of you actually dwelling beneath boulders --

Google change[d] its privacy policy

which led to any number of reactions, ranging from concerned to outraged:

Information Week.

zdnet.

PC Magazine.

Huffpo.

And best of all for our citizenry at large

36 state attorneys general.

Remember Google's original motto, "Don't be evil"?

Apparently that is true for only certain Google-defined values of evil.

* * * * *

In the interest of calming everyone the f*** down, here is a Lifehacker post showing one way to keep your Google browsing history to yourself. There are several good ideas in that article; many and more thanks to Chris for including it in her regular Friday linkety post.

Why do we need libraries? Isn't everything on the internet?

From here via Neil Gaiman Tumblr. This is sooooo true.

Undoubtedly libraries are a good thing. The access and training that we provide for technology isn't offered by any other public service (largely because public services are rapidly becoming a dirty word in this gilded age of decadence and austerity), and without our services it wouldn't be the end of the world, but it would be a significant dimming. 

If you can take yourself out of your first world techie social media smart-shoes for a second then imagine this: you're 53 years old, you've been in prison from 20 to 26, you didn't finish high school, and you have a grandson who you're now supporting because your daughter is in jail. You're lucky, you have a job at the local Wendy's. You have to fill out a renewal form for government assistance which has just been moved online as a cost saving measure (this isn't hypothetical, more and more municipalities are doing this now). You have a very limited idea of how to use a computer, you don't have Internet access, and your survival (and the survival of your grandson) is contingent upon this form being filled out correctly. 

Do you go to the local social services office? No, you don't. The overworked staff there says that due to budget cuts they can no longer do walk-in advising, and that there's a 2 week waiting list to get assistance with filling out forms. You call them up on the by-the-minute phone you're borrowing from your cousin (wasting 15 of her minutes on hold) and they say that they can't help, but you can go to your public library. OK, so you go to your public library after work (you ask your other cousin to watch your grandson for the day since wasting those minutes has temporarily burned some bridges). Due to budget cuts the library no longer has evening hours, sorry, try again (and you also don't get back the bus-fare or money you spent on a hack to get across town to the nearest branch, since other budget cuts closed the one in your neighborhood). OK, so you come back on the weekend. You ask the overworked librarian at the desk to sign up for a computer. She testily tells you that you're at the wrong desk, and that sign-ups are at circulation. You feel foolish and go over to the circulation desk, who tells you that you need to sign up for a library card to use the computer. After filling out the forms the librarian starts to make your card for you, and informs you that she can't process a card, since you have fines from 2 years ago that total fifty dollars. It's an emergency, you say, you need to use the computer. She sighs heavily, informs you that it's against policy, and then prints a guest pass anyway. You get 30 minutes at a time for a total of 2 hours per day. Computers are on the second floor. 

You go up to the second floor to find a total of 20 computers with a waiting list of 15 people. You do some quick math in your head, and realize you're probably going to be here for a while, so you walk over to the magazine section, and read People while you wait. Finally, it's your turn. You walk over to your terminal, and your time starts ticking. Your breath seizes in your chest, and you realize you have no idea what to do. You have the form that they gave you at the social services office, which has an address, which you sort of know what that does, but you can't quite remember – 17 minutes, by the way. You try typing X City Social Services in a box at the top, a page comes back and says “address not found” with a list of things below it. You're panicking, because there's a line forming (there always is) and the library will probably close before you can make it back on – 10 minutes, by the way. After a little more fumbling and clicking you have no luck, you're kicked off, and immediately someone is standing behind you to use your computer. You relinquish your seat, and head back down stairs. You're about to leave, already trying to think of who you know who has a computer who might let you use it, and might know about filling out these forms, but the only person you can think of is your friend in the county, and taking a bus out there would be awfully expensive.

Before leaving you decide to try one last thing. You go up to the desk, and explain your situation. The tired, overworked person at the desk nods along, and says, “well, we're not supposed to do this, but...” and tells you to walk around the desk. With a few clicks on the mouse they have the site up that you spent 30 minutes trying to find. They bring up the electronic form, politely turn their head aside as you fill in your social security number, and then ask you a series of questions to satisfy the demands of the form. It comes to your email address, and you have to admit that you don't have one, so the librarian walks you through setting up a free one and gives it to you on a slip of paper. “We have free computer classes,” he says (and you're lucky, because a great deal of public libraries don't), but you look at the times and realize that between your job and taking care of your grandson you'd never be able to attend, and it'd probably be too hard anyway. You thank him, and he smiles, and you leave. Congratulations, you've staved off disaster until the next time you need to use a computer for a life-essential task.

Now let's start that again, but this time you don't speak English. Just kidding, I don't want to give you too much culture shock in one day.

I have shortened this a bit. It was written by codacorolla, a library school student and library worker, in a thread responding to the fact that a large amount of state funding was recently cut from California libraries.

Best colorway names you are ever likely to see.

Found at Indigo Dragonfly.

Tweety Of Versailles

I've Never Been Up With People Before

 Have Fun Storming The Castle

Did I Listen To Pop Music Because I was Miserable? Or Was I Miserable Because I Listened To Pop Music? (High Fidelity series)

Squid Vicious

Who's A Guy Gotta Kill to Geta Drink Around Here? (Angelus)

Kathleen Turner Overdrive (High Fidelity Series)

Never Go Up Against A Sicilian When Death Is On The Line

 

I Made This Mixed Tape Just For You (High Fidelity series)

Is She All Green And Fuzzy And Mossy? (High Fidelity series)

River Song

Between Love And Batteries

Sonic F$#*ing Death Monkey (High Fidelity series)

And Then Buffy Staked Edward. The End.

Bright Lights, Big City, Busy Highway, Slow Unicorn.

As God Is My Witness, I Thought Turkeys Could Fly

 

Groverkill (i.e., it has all the colors of Grover)

 

Tiny Bloodsucking Dancer

 

Self Elmolation

Nancy Spungenbob

Shortbus

Grr...Arg.

Up Until The Punching, It Was A Real Nice Party 

 

Also I Can Kill You With My Brain

2 Minutes For Sarcasm

Hootnanny: It's Chock Full Of Hoot, Just A Little Bit Of Nanny

You Punched The HighLights Out Of Her Hair!

My World Is All Askew

Paging Dr. Smartass

Daybreak does not always come as scheduled.

Once I finished knitting the sweater for Ser Percival The Energetic and the sweater for Melissa's baby and and the Calorimetry for Jocelyn and fingerless mitts and hat and scarf for Alex and the hat for Matthew, I can finally get back to knitting for me me Me! (Never mind that Noro hat I made for myself last month.)

The project for me was Stephen West's Daybreak (photo cheerfully snatched from Ravelry), which had been long in the planning stages.

The pattern was well-written and nearly mindless -- as always, my favorite kind of knitting. I was closing in on the last section when I noticed something.

Can you see it? Probably not. Let's take another look.

Still no? 

A hint -- let me give you it.

The increases should all have been done to the right of that line of slipped stitches. Apparently I got a little confused as to which side of that particular column was right and which was left, resulting in a wonky column of slipped stitches.

Having had some recent success in dropping back and fixing things, I decided to attempt that here. After all, if others can drop back and fix a miscrossed cable, surely I ought to be able to fix a few misplaced increases, right? Right.

The dropping back part was easy, as was fixing the slipped stitches.

The rest was not difficult, but it looked like crap.

This is fingering weight yarn on US#4 needles. Had it been on #1s or #2s I might have been able to make it look okay, but the loose gauge -- necessary to make the scarf drape nicely -- was impossible for me to duplicate neatly with a crochet hook. Would blocking have fixed it? Maybe, but I didn't want to take a chance.

I frogged back to the little brass safety pin and reknit that 4 inches. And gave a sigh of relief.

Here is how it looks today:

A bit later, still sopping wet.

Blocking (please to admire the nice straight columns of slipped stitches):

Someday, a modeled shot...

Kill Bill arrives!

I finished knitting Alex's Kill Bill scarf. (If you are reading this, Alex -- here it is!)

Yarn: Sweet Georgia Tough Love sock yarn, "Kill Bill" colorway (no longer available
Pattern: Cinnamon Grace
Needles: Signature US#3 circ

The pattern was well-written, the knitting was nearly mindless (my favorite kind), the yarn was pleasant, the Signature needle was a dream. All in all, a successful project.

The pattern has the knitter make a slipstitch along the straight edge. Early in the knitting I had trouble keeping track in my mind as to which edge that was, so that straight edge -- the one that does not get a ruffle -- was not as neat it should have been.

The bits sticking out are stitches where I did... something other than what I should have done.

So I got brave and dropped down that edge stitch.

I didn't do it recklessly; first I experimented dropping down just a few rows. When I found it was easy to pick up that edge stitch again, I got braver and dropped down farther (above)

Behold, a neat slip-stitch edge!

Fixing something right at the edge of knitting has always intimidated me. I feel more confident now. 

"30% of Breast Cancer 'Survivors' Will Be Diagnosed With Metastatic Cancer."

My sister-in-law (she of the scarf) also has a blog. Every woman among you should go read this post.

Doctors are human beings, and like the rest of us, do not like to talk about bad things. It may be up to us to ask them the hard questions. Like, Can this come back? Exactly what are the chances? What should I watch for?

Minnesotans are crazy. Knitters.

You have got to go see this over on soxanne's blog.

Winner of the Twisted yarn is Chelsea! Chelsea, I have emailed you.

Ten on Tuesday, the chocolate edition.

Carole has asked us for our ten favorite chocolate treats. Hah! 

Ten Favorite Chocolate Treats

1. Chocolate.
2. Chocolate.
3. Chocolate.
4. Chocolate.
5. Chocolate.
6. Chocolate.
7. Chocolate.
8. Chocolate.
9. Chocolate.
10. Chocolate.

Can you tell I am not particular about my chocolate, as long as it is chocolate?

Bear! Cat!

Photo taken by a friend from his living room... without benefit of zoom. Said friend lives about 5 miles away from me; that's where Matthew and I were on New Year's day. That cat waiting for his turn at the feeder? His name is Pete and he weighs 23 pounds. Hard to say which is more amazing, the bear on the deck or the size of the cat.

Thanks to Kris and Dave for sharing their photo.

Psychopathology in the Hundred-Acre Wood.

Winnie the Pooh has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and perhaps Obsessive Compulsive Disorder(OCD), plus he is possible victim of Shaken Bear Syndrom. Piglet has Generalized Anxiety Discorder, Eeyore is clearly in the depths of clinical depression, and poor Roo is growing up in a single-parent household. And Tigger! Risk-taking behavior! Socially intrusive! Obvious hyperactivity!

A.A. Milne, meet the DSM-IV.

 

Visuals.

Go here to see what I'm talkin' about. From Knitting in the Shadows via Google+.

Thought for the day.

Screen shot from neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/. Also seen at stumblingoverchaos.tumblr.com/

Great customer service should be shouted to the rooftops.

I have mentioned before how much I love my Signature circs. The points are perfect, the needle tips are smaller than many and thus fit my smallish hands perfectly, and the cables are incredibly flexible.

But not indestructible.

When the cable broke I immediately went to the Signature website to see if the needles had a lifetime guarantee. Nope, only a 21-day return policy if a needle appeared to be defective. Still, in my mind a $40 needle ought to have some sort of guarantee, so I emailed the company and got this response:

 Kathryn

Thank you for contacting us.  I have attached a prepaid shipping label for the return of the defective needle.  Please fill out the attached form and include the RMA# in your package.  You do not need to fill out the payment information as there is no charge associated with this.  Thank you for your continued support of our product and  I apologize for any inconvenience.  

Thank you

 V*** C***

Excellent!

I wrote back:

Thank you! I will mail the needle back tomorrow.

I have defended the high price of Signature needles on my blog, saying that they are made in the US, probably by union labor, so their manufacturing cost is higher than those made in China or Bangladesh or some other third world country. Was I correct? In any case, I will also blog about your excellent customer service.

Signature needles are worth every penny :-)

Thanks again,
k

 

What was even better was the email I received this morning from Cathryn Bothe, the president of the company (reprinted here with her permission):

Good morning,

I see all the emails and wanted to personally answer yours.

Signature is the “child” of our 62 year old US manufacturing company. Bothe Associates Inc (www.bothe.com) has been making high tolerance metal products since 1950.

When Signature was starting up we bought samples of many of the cheap “box store” needles and were beyond shocked to see their tolerances were horrible, that is, if you thought you were getting a US 7 needle which is a 4.500 mm size you could be off by a large amount. There were even differences from one in a pair to the 2^nd. Then we cut them open to see what metal was being used. That, too, was a real surprise.

We know what the cross section of a bar of aluminum should look like but what we saw was astonishing. We think they threw many scraps of various alloys into a furnace and came up with a mess but one that could be covered with the anodizing. We even found one that was sort of powdery. I had them stop working with that and put the pieces in a Hazmat bag.

We also know that only 1/3 of the zillions of Chinese have good drinking water. Some of that is because they just throw any excess or used chemicals literally, in some cases, out the back door. We have had people here who have traveled to the big manufacturing centers in China who say the air is so bad it looks like heavy fog.

And then..there are the workers: Being a student of history I know that many mill towns in the East in the 1800’s employed young women who came from their poor rural families with the hope of earning hard cash but were exploited along with children.  You don’t have to read much to see that is exactly what is happening in China.  Even worse is that the “low cost” manufacturers are moving to India or Thailand where they can get even cheaper labor!

Here at Signature we pay US wages and healthcare and unemployment taxes. We provide a clean, well lit, air conditioned factory. I know every person and for many a lot about their families. We even found someone to sew our bags in Milwaukee.

Our processes are controlled by OSHA and EPA. Any water that leaves the plant where the anodizing is done must be cleaner than when it came in the building. We go so far as to collect any “drippings” of coolant and oil (needed for machining metals) from the chips that are made. We then send the barrel when filled for proper disposition (at a cost of almost $1000.00) but we don’t let it soak into the ground. Actually we have the chip hoppers inside and should they have even a pin prick leak we have grates on the floor that collect the drips and pump into that barrel.

Every single needle is hand polished on the point. I know the people who do it and would [not] allow any scrimping. I

I am proud to say that our products are made here. Yes they certainly do cost more but we are making steady, secure jobs for the families of those that work here. I know that the company could make more money if the needles were made abroad but I won’t do it. They know I mean it when I say that I will go out of business before I go to China.

I know it seems like I am rambling but I wanted you to know a bit more of the background.

Cathryn Bothe

President
Signature Needle Arts
6901-46th St.  Kenosha,WI 53144
Ph: 888.656.1113   Fax: 262.656.1858
www.signatureneedlearts.com

 

In this world of often shoddy workmanship and indifferent customer service and help lines staffed by (admittedly hard-working) people who perhaps cannot speak English as well as one might hope, I cannot let this incident go unrecognized. I love a bargain as much as the next person, but products manufactured in such a way as to degrade the earth and abuse its people are not bargains.*

I salute this company, its products, and its people.

Now, to put my money where my mouth is, I shall offer an incentive to y'all. Mention this incident on your own blog and provide a link both to this post and to the Signature site and I will put your name into a hat. Winner will receive the skein of Twisted fingering weight that I got in my mailbox a few days ago. If you have ever attempted to buy Twisted yarn, you know what a sacrifice this is :-)

You can see it on the Twisted site here -- scroll down to Netherfield Self-Striping Yarn. The colors in my photo are more accurate, on my monitor at least.

Deadline is, oh, um, let's see, Sunday, February 11, midnight CST. Blog away, people, and think about buying some Signature needles!

(You might say that this contest is a bit self-serving, in that it will draw people to my blog. To that I say,  And your point is...?)

* I did a tiny bit of research. Knitters Review says that Addi needles are made in Germany, Knit Picks are made in India, Crystal Palace in Japan, and Lantern Moon in Vietnam. Hya Hya needles are made in China. Presumably the inexpensive needles found at Wal-Mart and Michael's and Joanne's are the ones Ms. Bothe refers to in her letter and are probably made in China, as well.

Winter on the ice.

Just in case you live where people are sane winters are mild, let me show you something I saw earlier this week. (Crappy photos taken with my iPod because I had left my camera at home.)

In summer, this is the swimming beach on a nearby lake. 

In winter it is the place where those crazy Norwegians Danes locals drive onto the lake to get to their fish houses. While I was sitting there, two pickup trucks went past me.

Now, ice houses on the lake are no big thing. Anyone who saw Grumpy Old Men knows about the ice house villages that spring up on northern lakes in winter. I spent my high school years in northern Minnesota, where the village plowed a road across the frozen-over lake on the edge of town so that residents on the other side didn't have to drive so far to get into town. I have even grown to accept driving on the lake, although I will not do it myself.

What drew my attention this time are the two fuzzy gray things in the photo below.

Those are fuel tanks -- BIG fuel tanks -- to run the heaters inside the fish houses next to them.

Somehow that struck me as... weird.

As I look at the photo now, it occurs to me to wonder if the two side-by-side blue things at right are Port-o-Potties for the convenience of the fisherfolk...

Ten on Tuesday, the view edition.

Ten Things I Can See From My Favorite Knitting Spot (in order from most favorite to least).

1. Smokey.
2. Smokey's chair.
3. The lake.
4. My iPod dock that plays my audiobooks while I knit.
5. The collection of knitting tools and random bits of yarn and patterns on the table next to my chair.
6. The deck, where the dogs bounce around outside the windows when they want to come back into the house.
7. An assortment of hand-knit and -crocheted afghans on the couch.
8. The television.
9. The fireplace.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
    
10. Piles of clutter.

 

Jukebox.

I got a link to this site in today's email. It has been playing to me all day.

(The link takes you to songs played on the radio in 1973, but feel free to explore your favorite years.)

Eye candy Friday.

Just in case you wondered how I feel about the shenanigans in Wisconsin...