Restingmotion

Bumper Progress

When you are the world’s slowest sewist, and you are terribly distracted, promising to make things for other people is probably not a good idea. It gets done, but it gets done in "Mardel time" not in "other people time".

In short, I am still working on the crib set. No surprise really. I had hoped to sew a good bit on the weekend, but that was a naive hope at best, if not completely delusional. Weekends are not my best sewing time. Although the weekdays are often filled with work and other "tasks that must be done", weekends bring distractions of their own, and can go through periods bordering on constant bedevilment.

Oh well.

I have actually made progress though, and good progress at that. When I suggested this I had no idea how many details were involved in making a crib bumper. I am consoled by the thought that mine, although plain and not covered with cutesy animal appliques, is turning out quite nice, nicer than the many bumpers we examined in Babies"R"Us .

Sunday, due to the bedevilment issue, I was probably not in the mood to sew, and found that although the sewing was not difficult, sewing batting onto the twelve pieces of the bumper, and most annoyingly, trimming said batting out of the seam allowances, while it stuck to my hands, the fabric, and everything else, shredding in the process, did not make for the most relaxing of sewing projects.

Monday evening was better. The next stage of construction consisted of making ties to attach the bumpers to the crib. This required 16 strips of fabric which must first be sewed into tubes, right sides together:

A gap was left in the middle of each tube to allow for turning:

I broke the process into batches, just to avoid having to turn everything at once. After all the tubes were turned, the openings were stitched closed:

which was actually more enjoyable than trimming and turning all the tubes.

And then, finally, late last night I sewed on the 32 pieces of Velcro.

This portion of the project gave me considerable pause before I started just because I found the directions in the pattern somewhat confusing, and knowing my own natural inclination to do things backwards, I was terribly afraid of messing it up. I’m the kind of person who tries to push doors that are supposed to be pulled, and the woman who filed all the books in the house alphabetically from right to left even though I know perfectly well that everyone else does it the other way. I have also been known to write in notebooks from back to front as well, but that is neither here nor there.

So what was the problem?

My problem was the way in which the instructions for applying the Velcro were written in the pattern, McCall’s 4328:

The instructions do not use the standard terms "hook" and "loop" to describe the different sides of the Velcro tape, but instead use the terms "soft" and "hard" as in "Cut sixteen sections from soft side of VELCRO, each 3 1/2" (9cm) long" and then continues to instruct the hapless sewist to then cut the shorter sixteen pieces from the stiff section. This may be standard sewing terminology, but it was not familiar to me.

Hook and Loop I understand. Soft and Stiff???

I picked up the pieces of Velcro, each side of the tape seemed equally stiff to me, one was not more flexible than the other, my interpretation of soft and stiff. What to do? I really didn’t want to mess this up. I finally decided that by "soft" they must mean the "loop" side of the Velcro because it is kind of soft and fuzzy looking, although it doesn’t really feel soft to me. I would have understood "fuzzy" or "curly" more easily than soft. Therefore stiff must mean the "hook" side, which I would have called "prickly" or even "smooth" comparatively speaking.

And so they are done and the bumpers are ready for final assembly. If I got the Velcro thing backwards, I really don’t want to know.

October 17, 2006
A little math is always helpful

Math and engineering seems to be the topic that no one wants to face, that many want to go away, and perhaps the subject that will affect our future.

But math, and chemstry are everywhere, although I know more people than I can count who swear they haven’t used either since high school. How do you cook or alter recipes? Sewing uses math if you have to fit anything. What about mixing cleaning chemicals? It seems to me that math is everywhere, if only you care to look.

What about re-fiberglassing your pool? What do you do when the contractor quotes the cost of the job and says it will be $20 per square foot. (pool shell surface)?

It is pretty easy if you have a standard rectangular pool.

But what happens if your pool is odd shaped?

I have a free form pool that was poured on fill. I would love to see how they framed the original pour, as nothing is smooth or even. The empty pool looks like one of those clay bowls we made in elementary school, roughly bowl shaped but with lumps and bulges and odd indentions where our fingers poked and smoothed the unformed clay.

Years ago, the first time we had a fiberglass liner put in this pool I did it the difficult way, taking measurements at various different points and calculating the surface area of the different cross-sections. But I didn’t save the original figures from 16 years ago, just the bill. Today I am lazier.

If you look at the pool you will see that it is basically oblate. My drawing is not to scale, or even all that accurate, the primary and secondary diameters are 29 and 27 feet. The pool is deeper than it was 15 years ago as we had to raise the sides, one side more than the other, as the pool had slipped down the hill and tilted somewhat over the years.

The lazy woman immediately realized that she could assume the pool was a dome (inverted) and calculate the surface area. Armed with the radii, depth, and a computer, the calculations are pretty easy.

If we assumed the pool was one big dome (red) we might be close, but we might be a little on the high side of our estimate as the bottom curve is really not consistent. Or, if we look closer we could see that the pool could also be estimated as three separate oblate dome shapes. The small blue circle in the middle is so placed because the deep end of the pool doesn’t really slope gradually from the sides, the pool is a relatively shallow bowl, and then there is this little nipple like extrusion at the bottom that suddenly becomes deeper than the rest.

You can see the view in cross-section here:

Viewed this way, you can see that the calculation for the red surface area would be a little large, and the combination of the other three inverted dome-shapes would be a little small, but close to the actual measurement.

This is all basic high-school math. Of course, when I was in high school we were not allowed to use calculators and had to do all the calculations by hand. Evenutally someone figured out that using the calculator wasn’t cheating because one still had to understand what one was calculating and know what kind of formula to use. Given modern calculators and computers, the actual calculation was easy. The math took less time than I spent on the drawings.

And all of this took less time than I would have spent walking around the pool and measuring the actual size and calculating the exact surface area. I just needed a general price range so I know how much money to have available when the contractor shows up.

But if I hadn’t taken "college track" math in high school would I know how to do this? Basic math requirements when I was in high school called for two years of math, of which one was basic math and the second year was plane geometry. Niether one would have covered this kind of thing, and most students who took them probably never took another math class.

I assume what was called "college track" when I was in school is the same as AP math today. But I just read that the Scarsdale schools decided to drop AP classes in high school bccause the kids are working too hard with all their extra-curricular activities. Don’t parents realize this is their last chance to actually be required to learn anything. Some students will study hard in college, but more will just party their tuition and time away.

Granted, calculating the surface area of your pool is not an every day occurrence. But it seems to me that a lot of things in life are a lot easier with a bit of math and science under the belt.

October 14, 2006
I petition the power sewists for strength

I would like to honor all the sewists who come home at the end of the working day and actually get into their sewing rooms, or closets, or sit at a table and sew. I don’t seem capable of doing it. I admire their stick-to-itiveness. I admire their energy. They must be the power sewists.

Tell me all you fabuous sewists, how do you do it?

Here it is Friday morning and I have not sewn in the evenings this week. Of course I realize I am spoiled. I am used to working a rather flexible schedule, partially from home, and often I can do creative things during the day and I spend the late evening hours at my computer working away on all the office accounting which often works well because G usually straggles in after 10:30 at least 2 or 3 nights a week. But this week I am very much behind at the office and have been working full time all week, and I have been working daytimes because my car is still in the shop and I have to work out this car-pooling schedule.

So I leave work and go to the gym and come home and make dinner and collapse. Between work and sleeping badly all week I was ready for bed at 8:00 last night, about the time I got home (early night — we ate out, no gym) when I am usually in bed around midnight and up around 6 AM. By the way, I slept late as well since there is no trip to the office planned today, I didn’t wake up until 7, after nearly 11 hours of sleep. It make up for all those 4 hour nights earlier in the week (and no I didn’t sew in the wee hours either)

Well, actually I exagerate. Tuesday I ripped out part of the baby blanket I had made and photographed on Monday The decorative topstitching on one side had made a buckle on the underside of the fabric so I ripped it out and redid it. That was Tuesday night. I started about 9:30 and finished about 11:30. It took me far longer to rip and press that fabric flat and smooth so I could re-stitch it without more trouble than it took to actually sew the seam.

Wednesday, I caught a ride home from the gym early so I got in around 9:30 and still had to sort through the mail and make dinner. By the time G got home at 10:30, and we ate, it was bed-time.

Thursday, well Thursday was a waste.

No office today, but lots of work. I have software programs, paperwork from the new computer, an overflowing stack of bills to pay, and tons of financial and investment reports piled across the cutting table directly behind me. I must have everything ready for my meeting with the actuaries on Monday. After I work my way through the piles I can sew or knit, or perhaps I will wimp out again and collapse with a good book.

Oh power sewists — send me strength.

October 13, 2006
Beaux Arts Trio

Sunday afternoon we drove up
to Pittsfield MA, for the last of our annual chamber music concerts at South Mountain. It was a beautiful clear day for a drive, if unseasonably warm. In fact it was warmer in the Berkshires than it was at home on the Hudson River in Hyde Park.

Pittsfield had already passed peak and most of the trees were
bare or just lingering with a few brown and yellow leaves hanging limply and
sadly. Winter will be here too
soon. I usually love the fall drive up
to the Berkshires: The glory of the fall
leaves, the fall flowers especially, the autumnal colors of the chrysanthemums
and asters and the beautiful beds of
Colchiums that seem to glow with a vibrant, almost translucent pink sometimes
with a hint of purple. But we missed all
that this year; we were in Tennessee hanging on to the last of summer, and welcoming our grandson into the
world. It seems odd to come home and
find that Autumn may have passed us by.

Fall peak is approaching but
has not quite arrived in Hyde Park. The maple at the bottom of the hill, acutally on our neighbor’s property is in full blaze of red and copper. The maples on the hill, between the house
below us, and our deck, are still mostly green. But these tend to turn later. The
maple by the sewing room has lost over half its leaves, odd as it is usually a
mid-season maple, turning after the maple at the bottom of the hill, and before
the ones on the slope. Strange year we
are having.

The drive up the Taconic
parkway was interesting because there was such an unusual contrast in the
colors of the foliage. Some areas were
totally devoid of leaves on the trees, other areas were still in full leaf and
completely green, while yet other areas were a tapestry of beautiful oranges,
reds, yellows, tangerines, and glistening coppers shining in the sunshine. Usually the picture is more consistent, a
study in fall glory, rather than this rather odd patchwork, not to say that it
was not lovely, just a little disconcerting, as if we had been away and then
come back to a world that had shifted imperceptibly, still the same and yet
slightly different. Interesting how we
don’t really notice things around us until we go away and return again.

I tried to figure out if
there was a pattern, for example north face of hill versus south, altitude,
east versus west – but there seemed to be none that I could discern. Perhaps I was just not looking critically enough.

But, I started out with the
intention of writing about the concert, which was glorious – a perfect cap to a
music filled weekend.

The concert opened
gloriously with the Schubert Notturno, lush and lovely, a perfect respite for
us as we had misjudged the timing and had rushed into the concert just as the
concert was beginning. Luckily the staff
at South Mountain were well trained and I could hear the parking attendant radioing the concert hall as we dashed from the parking lot "2 walking, no, 4 walking".

And the Shostakovich was
fabulous, tight and controlled but still emotionally resonant. I enjoyed it very much, found it very
powerful and moving, but although the applause was quite generous, not everyone
shared my sentiments, which of course should be expected in any group of music
lovers. In fact I was lost in thought
during the second half of the program, having overheard the people sitting
behind me discussing the Shostakovich at the close of the intermission (and no
I was not trying to eavesdrop). Therefore, although the Schubert trio was beautiful and received thunderous
applause and a standing ovation, almost a leaping ovation, I was not perhaps as
moved as I should have been, as I might have been had I been paying more
attention.

Sometimes I wish I could
just flip a switch and turn my brain off, tell it to go away and be quiet. I wish I could learn to just sit and enjoy.

But what profundities caught
my attention? Nothing of great import I
am afraid. Following a comment that the
Shostakovich was played very precisely with restraint and the commentator
preferred the playing of Bernard Greenhouse, the long-time cellist and founding
member of the Beaux Arts Trio, to that of Antonio Meneses whose playing is a
tad bit more reserved, my mind started wandering along the theme of the changes
in the trio over the years, different ways of listening to music, and even
memory itself and the art of “paying attention”.

Of course I thought Meneses
played beautifully and I loved the piece. I found the very precision and restraint emphasized the emotional
resonance of the piece. Shostakovich uses
so much folk music, and there is so often such a dichotomy in the music, a fine
line between joy and pathos, hysteria and despair, that I sometimes feel that
over-emphasis of the emotional aspects of the music almost blunts its force,
making the music a parody of itself. Of
course I can get carried away in an emotional performance just as much as the
next person. But what struck me here was
that we all bring such different perspectives and histories to each piece of
music that we might hear each work in completely different ways. I might love a piece and you might hate it,
or vice versa. But that doesn’t mean
either of us is wrong, most specifically not. If it touched anyone it was probably quite good. Music always has that power to transform, or
should always have that power to transform. But each of us approaches it a little differently.

I think that is why I have
such increasingly mixed feelings about reviews. Everyone has a bad day, a day where they might not feel like playing a
particular piece of music, but they must, it is a job not just an art, and this
might be apparent in the performance, because no matter how professional we
become we are also still human and music is an emotional medium. And it is hard not to judge, not to
criticize. There are so many technically
excellent performers out there, who might play a piece to perfection as it is
written on the page, but yet it still might not move the audience. Oh it was easier to say X left out half the
notes. But how do we separate out the
baggage we bring into our own judging?

Admittedly I also spent part
of those few minute thinking about truly mundane and selfish things. How could the speaker behind me remember how
Greenhouse played a particular work? I
have particular trouble with this kind of thing, and I know it must simply be
that I don’t pay enough attention. I
know I have heard a musician perform before, I usually know if I have heard a
particular work before, but I am terrible about remembering who played what and
when they did it. Many people do
remember these details. I was talking to
the director of the concert series and he told me it is a lot of work
coordinating what gets played and how often a work is repeated, and that many
patrons do remember that Group X Played the Mozart Z 2 years ago and complain
when the same group plays it again in such short rotation. I was stunned. I don’t remember that. And frankly I would probably love hearing it
again, even if I had heard it a dozen times before, or more. Each hearing is like something new, an
opportunity to be freshly swayed. Maybe
these others save the programs and compare them? Always looking for a way to make myself feel
better I, but I suspect that truth is that I just don’t pay enough attention,
and so I vowed to do better. But when
did I make this vow? During a wonderful
performance of the glorious Schubert Trio in E flat Major, to which I was not
paying adequate attention because I was letting my mind wander over such truly
frivolous issues.

Next year. Next year I will try to do better.

October 11, 2006
Half Way

I passed the half-way point on Mermaid — in the dark on the way home from a concert in Pittsfield MA Sunday night. Mermaid is not the best knitting in the dark project and I think, if I see more knitting in the car at night on the horizon I will have to find a project on bigger needles.

Mermaid is pretty easy but you do have to count at times. The tough part last night was picking up the yarnovers and knitting them together with the next stitch as I finished the center back gussets. Mermaid is pretty easy to feel on the needles although small stitches are not as easy as big ones, espeically as I approach the end of a row, where it is much to easy to drop things.

I think for piece of mind, knitting blind is better done at a much larger gauge.

Of course, by half way, I am not counting the sleeves.

October 9, 2006
A quilt for Owen

Today was a working day, albeit a light one. My car is in the shop for two days getting a broken axle repaired so I was working from home, and although some clients were open and wanting their materials ASAP, many were closed.

I took advantage of the slow day to get to finally start a little sewing between the interruptions:

The quilt is made of the three fabrics to be used for the crib set, The lime green border surrounds the two blue fabrics that are used in the rest of the room. I have been hoping that the green can be used to tie the two blues together, and unify the set. It is reversible, blue on one side, blue-violet on the other side. The colors are all pretty, and they are pretty with the green, but I don’t like the blues together.

This is one of the reasons that I don’t usually like sewing for other people. I get all excited about the idea, and I love making things for my grandson, but I dislike making things that someone else wants but I don’t like.

Selfish, selfish I know.

But I enjoyed sewing the quilt. I should finish the rest of the crib set in the next day or two.

But first I have a new computer to install. Yeah that’s right, the old computer died a slow death. I could have resurrected it, but I my heart wasn’t really in it, this was the third of fourth equipment failure on this computer, all under warranty, but each time the computer is harder and harder to get going again with different generations of hardware that are incompatible. There comes a time when throwing in the towel is the best recourse.

October 9, 2006

As usual, straddling the fence

You Are 45% Left Brained, 55%
Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning.
Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others.
If you’re left brained, you are likely good at math and logic.
Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet.

The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility.
Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way.
If you’re right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art.
Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

October 7, 2006

Widows and Orphans Need Not Apply

My closet is filled with widows and orphans. There is actually no real shortage of clothes that fit, except perhaps for blouses, but each piece is isolated into itself, adrift and alone, with few if any companion pieces that will elevate it into that most desireable of units — an ensemble or outfit.

This is new and unfamiliar territory for me. I like clothes. I like to shop. I like to sew. And I have been pretty consistent in my taste and style for some years now. I can’t describe that style, but it all seems to go together.

Things got a little dicey as I gained weight, but it didn’s slow me down that much. Loosing weight however has been different. It happened faster. And the weight did not go off in the same order it went on.

Suits that once fit don’t. Things that used to go together don’t, or look so totally dumpy and dowdy I would be depressed to walk out of the bedroom in them, in fact lookng at myself wearing some of these outfits makes me want to crawl back into bed. If the pants or skirt fit, the jacket is way too large. If the jacket fits, the pants are probably a little snug, but there are exceptions. It’s more than the pounds. The weight has redistributed itself in new ways, like my fat cells are playing twister and finding new ways to configure themselves on my body.

Well, it is not all that bad. I have black pants, casual narrow black pants in several lengths to wear with heels or flats. I have dressier black knit pants of the St. John variety to wear with several tops. But no jacket that fits looks good with any bottom that fits, except for a few tried and true casual options. These are fine for running around town and going to Wal-Mart, but not for everything. I have one nice suit — a little on the dressy side, not a business suit and it served me well for going to the symphony and dinner last night, but I shall quickly grow sick of it if ite mains the only think I can wear for dressier occasions.

The green skit I made goes with one sweater well; the jackets I thought would look good are too big or too dumpy. There are no blouses. The second option, which has been in my photo album looks dowdy even though the same sweater set looks lovely with a longer skirt. I do have fabric for a jacket that will lovely with that skirt. It is a wine and green tweed, predominantly wine (oh no, will the green shoes go?) but it will expand my options considerably.

So. there is sewing to be done. And for the first time in probably 20 years I can’t just make whatever pops into my head, inspires my imagination or just happens to be lying around.

I must PLAN.

I must make a series of outfits that coordinate. I must make things that work together, or at least work with items in my wardrobe that I care to save (perhaps both).

And so I am starting on to work on a plan.

to be continued…..

October 7, 2006
L’Enfant et les Sortileges

The New York Philharmonic season has begun, at least for us, again.

We went in to NYC for our first concert last night and it was truly spectacular.

The program started with Ravel’s "L’Enfant et les Sortileges" which was beautifully magical. What a stunning performance. All the performances were . Susanne Mentzer was wonderful as the boy, Patrizia Ciofi was spectacular, but all the performances were very very good. And the piece was both restrained and magical without the kind of cutsey Disney-like niceness that seems to plague things written and performed for children today. The performance was restrained and yet lush, with a very French feel. It was both cruel and kind, terrifying the way I remember children’s stories being in my youth, and yet with peace and resoltion in the end. Absolutely lovely.

The second half of the program was filled by Saint-Saen’s Symphony # 3, the Organ Symphony, which was splendid also, a really spectacular performance. G was thrilled by how long the organist drew out that final chord…he kept remarking. He is something of an organ lover my G, not that I object, but I do not get quite the same thrill.

We came home on a cloud. A splendid evening!

October 7, 2006
life intervenes

Perhaps this is more entertaining than another inch of Mermaid.

As happens occasionally, life intervenes and the knitting slows, although I am hoping for a little progress on the weekend.

For those who have inquired, Mermaid is not a complicated knit, very straightforward, and the instructions are excellent and clear with explanations of techniques to be used as one progresses.

But the call of work becons….I shall return.

October 5, 2006