I’m
connected to the internet this morning, but the computer is being unusually slow and
bolshie even for it, and I am in a mild hurry.
I am
grateful to everybody who took the time to write about interchangeable needles
yesterday. There were enough negatives that I settled for ordering fixed
circular wooden KnitPro’s in the size I
am using (4mm) and one smaller and one larger. Like you, Mary Lou, I mostly
knit with smaller-sized needles, and have a reasonable range of nice wooden
ones down in those sizes. No KnitPro’s, though. This will be interesting.
The jacket
progresses. Here we are around the first corner. This is the wearer’s left side
– I’ve finished the garter stitch band along the bottom, and am knitting
upwards towards the neck. I might even reach it today. Once there, one executes
an interesting double-mitre, starting the second before the first is finished.
The camera
hasn’t attempted to do justice to the beautiful madelinetosh colour, Dried Rose. And the impression conveyed, that the bottom band is wider than the vertical one, is an illusion.
I measured
my gauge yesterday – 5 ½ stitches to the inch, instead of the required 6. That
means that my garter stitch band is 5 ¾” wide, and that in turn means that the
measurement from shoulder to shoulder will come out at about 19”. That falls
somewhere between just-about-right and slightly-too-big, and I’m not going to
worry.
It’s hard
to estimate percentages for my progress bar, on a job like this.
Politics
You have
Barbara in NH to thank (or blame) for the inclusion of this photograph – and you can’t be
too sure I won’t have instructions from Charlotte
How did
American politics get like this? It wasn’t so in my day – the party conventions,
in the 50’s, actually nominated candidates, at least sometimes. Adlai Stevenson
in ’52, certainly. And I don’t remember political advertising on television at
all. Or canvassing phone calls, either automated or natural. It sounds from here as if
enough money is being spent on politics alone to kick-start the economy.
I wish
someone would make a short television program for us over here, showing some of
the political television ads from both sides on which (we are told) so much
money is being spent. We have nothing like that. Parties aren’t allowed to buy
time on the commercial channels. They are allotted carefully-rationed slots on
the BBC and nothing makes one reach for the zapper faster than the words,
“There now follows a party political broadcast on behalf of…”
I wish there was no political advertising here either. We have actually had a senior union man say he believes donations to political parties should cease and they should be taxpayer funded. That would cut down nicely on the outrageous advertising hype!
ReplyDeleteIt's actually quite easy to not notice the political ads. If one watches most of their television from their dvr it's unlikely they'll ever look at any of the ads, political or otherwise. The robo calls are another story. No one listens to them either, but they still clog up answering machines for those of us who cling to our landline telephones.
ReplyDeleteThe three states where our family is clustered (Michigan, Ohio, and New Hampshire) are all considered "battleground states" so we have seen more than our fair share of political advertisements. Perhaps that explains my rather jaundiced view of the proceedings!
ReplyDeleteBarbara M. In NH
NJ and NY are solidly in the blue (Democratic) category and as a result, we get fewer of the ads than those in battleground states. We have to go on the Internet to see what the talking heads are talking about!
ReplyDeleteBeverly in NJ
I'm not in a battleground state but you still get bombarded with local political ads in addition to the national ads. Not only are there political ads from the parties themselves there are ads from the political action committees (PACs) that don't have the same restrictions as the party ads. This year there has been the addition of the super PACs, groups that are able to amass millions of dollars from donors, to slam the other party's candidate. I did away with TV a few years ago and don't miss the barrage at all. It would be nice to have just assigned times for the parties with no ads from outside entities.
ReplyDeleteJean, I sometimes envy your system there. I like that the campaigning is limited to a few weeks. Here, the campaigning for the next election begins the day after the current election.
ReplyDeleteThe amount of money spent is obscene. I read somewhere that the those in Congress need to raise a minimum of $10,000 per day of their term in office in order to have money to run for re-election.
And this year is going to break records re money spent after the Citizens United decision of the US Supreme Court.