Re: [lace-chat] Chestnut adventure
Jane Viking Swanson jvik...@sover.net wrote: Hi All, DH got a bunch of edible chestnuts a couple weeks ago. THe spiny pods opened up to reveal the brown nuts. Then he broke some open and has been eating the raw ones and giving me some. (snip) I ate some of the roasted ones and I still don't like them very much. They are so mealy in texture. DH is still eating them. I do like the delicate flavor but I had expected something crunchy. Hi, Jane all, Some chestnut research has been done near me using Chinese hybrid chestnuts. When we first moved to our house, we found trees on the farm next door and got some of the nuts to plant. Our nuts are now small trees that have just started to bear in the last year or two. Time flies! I have to agree on the texture. The farm down the road that is producing them now had a charcoal grill and was roasting them when the closest little town had a mini-festival after Thanksgiving. They smell good, but the texture is like garbanzo beans. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA http://lost-arts.blogspot.com/ Ravelry ID: alwen To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com.
[lace-chat] recipes with cloves
The chili recipe my mom (which came from my dad's Aunt Ruth) always uses has cloves, the spice, in it. My husband likes to add the garlic -- but that's not on the recipe! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com http://lost-arts.blogspot.com/ To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] the tall Dutch
Hazel Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Here in Holland we find the top shelves in the supermarkets are too high for us to reach because the Dutch are on average much taller than Brits. We chuckle and say It's so anti-British That's for sure! In the US, I'm about average height for a woman, but in the Netherlands I felt like I was looking at everyone's belt buckles. But my husband had it worse -- once I remember him coming out of a bathroom totally flustered, as the height of the urinal in it was too high! I read somewhere that the Dutch had the tallest average height in the world. Now I can't find where I read that, but I believe it. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com http://lost-arts.blogspot.com/ To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] I know it is not lace
Dora Northern [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I know it is not lace, but I just had to show off with some of the work which were done in my Upholstery classes. They all worked very hard and we had much fun as well. My next webpage will show all my pictures I made in lace.So please forgive me showing chairs, but you must admit lace would not look very well on it. http://theknotter.atspace.com Your webpage opened all right for me -- and I have the same rule when I vacuum under the chair cushions: Anything found in chairs or sofas belongs to the (vacuum-er) especially money. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com http://lost-arts.blogspot.com/ To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: Christmas too early
Tamara P Duvall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have my own beef with premie Christmas and it's the Christmas trees disappearing, by Dec 15 or wearlier. Our supplier sets up on the Friday after Thanksgiving and is gone (sold out? given up?) sometime between Dec 10 and 15. But, in Poland, we don't set up our home tree until Dec 24th (Christmas Eve). And we don't take it down till Jan 6th (Epiphany). Even a dyed-in-the-wool atheist like myself knows that. I'm lucky: living in SW Outer Nowhere has the side benefit that Christmas trees are grown here. Although I do see several shipments of them on trucks early in November (no wonder the needles fall off!), with a little effort I can still cut my own a week or so before Christmas. For all the fuss that's being made in US about the godless liberals declaring a war on Christmas it's the theofascists, driven by profits, who have taken both the meaning and the magic out of the holiday. I used to love Christmas but don't anymore. I spend a lot of time in stores turning my head, looking the other way, and practically plugging my ears and singing la la la to avoid even seeing all the Buy buy buy now now now that goes on. Not to mention that snow is now a hit-and-miss thing for Christmas. When I was growing up only 60 miles from here, we always had snow for Christmas, sometimes for Thanksgiving. Whether it's global warming or not, we have certainly experienced a considerable change from then (1960's and 70's) to now. This year we had no snow for Christmas, still no snow now, and temperatures near 50 degrees F. Pfui! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com http://lost-arts.blogspot.com/ To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Latvian mittens at Riga NATO summit
Take a look at the awesome mittens -- 4500 pairs -- given away at the NATO summit. Habetrot's blog, where I heard about it: http://habetrot.typepad.com/habetrot/2006/12/a_treasure_trov.html Mitten galleries from the Riga summit webpages: Latvian women`s mittens from the Latgale region, 9 pages (a full page shows 20 mittens!) http://www.rigasummit.lv/en/id/gallery/nid/114/ Latvian men`s mittens from the Latgale region, 9 pages http://www.rigasummit.lv/en/id/gallery/nid/115/ Latvian women`s mittens from the Kurzeme region, 6 pages http://www.rigasummit.lv/en/id/gallery/nid/116/ Latvian men`s mittens from the Kurzeme region, 9 pages http://www.rigasummit.lv/en/id/gallery/nid/117/ Latvian women`s mittens from the Zemgale region, 9 pages http://www.rigasummit.lv/en/id/gallery/nid/118/ Latvian men`s mittens from the Zemgale region, 9 pages http://www.rigasummit.lv/en/id/gallery/nid/119/ Latvian men`s mittens from the Vidzeme region, 8 pages http://www.rigasummit.lv/en/id/gallery/nid/120/ Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com http://lost-arts.blogspot.com/ To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] how government works and recycling
Rosemary Naish [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Someone who only had their recycling collected fortnightly, but had also been the recipient of an edict forbidding food waste in the ordinary bin, asked her local council what to do with the remains of her sunday roast chicken until the recycling bin was collected. The official, and absolutely serious, answer was either not have roast meals until just before the bin was due to be collected or to put the remains in her freezer until collection day! We live in what I often call Southwest outer Nowhere, and we don't have trash pickup. Instead, our taxes to the local township pay for something called a transfer station, which is basically a pickup point for all of our trash. The transfer station is open on Saturdays, and we haul our trash there. Each year they issue us a punch card, and if you use it up, you have to buy another. We recycle and compost most of our trash, but for fatty or greasy things like the chicken bones (which don't go into the compost heap, because caterwauling raccoons at 3am wake both me and the dogs!), we do keep a labelled bag in the freezer. Often we skip a week between trips to the transfer station, and I'm sure two-week-old chicken scraps would get pretty unpleasant if we didn't freeze them. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com http://lost-arts.blogspot.com/ To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] three snakes on a large round pillow
Rosemary Naish [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I also like the idea floated earlier of having three snakes on a large round pillow, so several people could have a go at once. So often when someone else is using the have a go pillow a child has wanted to try but couldn't wait long enough. I read this message, and since I understood what it was about, it didn't really strike me until later how calmly I had read the phrase three snakes on a large round pillow. Then it struck me as very funny! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com http://lost-arts.blogspot.com/ To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] another strange 'lace' tool
Alice Howell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Here is a lacemaking board that's different. Any clues, anyone? http://cgi.ebay.com/antique-sewing-tool-lace-making-or-knitting-1800_W0QQit emZ280009330998 Looks to this weaver like a warping paddle! Here is a much plainer wooden one in an eBay store: http://cgi.ebay.com/Wood-warping-paddle-hand-weaving-tool-weaver-warp_W0QQit emZ8257312619 Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com http://lost-arts.blogspot.com/ To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] World Cup
Jean Nathan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Just watching USA playing football against the Czech Republic in the FIFA World Cup (soccer to those in the US, and incidentally USA is currently losing 2-0), and it got me wondering how the team came about. We don't hear about it being played in schools, Since I don't watch TV or follow sports, I have missed most of this, except for some depressing commentary on the radio about the US team's, er, performance. But soccer is played enough here that the phrase soccer mom shows up in Wikipedia! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soccer_mom Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com http://lost-arts.blogspot.com/ To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Drat, forgot to email this!
*sigh* Just found this half-written email in my Out box, not sent. I was listening to the BBC World Service on the radio last week, and was surprised to hear the announcers talking to someone in Hell, Michigan. (This was Monday night, just before 6/6/06.) I think we talked about the place back when we were sharing webcams around the world, or maybe just talking about odd place names. Anyway, it really tickled my funnybone to hear the announcer solemnly asking someone in Hell what he thought was going to happen. And predictably, after they thanked him, the other announcer did wonder how hot it actually got in Hell. (Rarely over 100 degrees F.) It's a tiny place, hardly a dot on the map. To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] sirens
Sue [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Our town air raid sirens are also still used as a flood warning, about once a year they are tested and although I cannot remember the war they still give me the creeps when they go off. The sirens around here mark the 10-mile boundary for a nuclear power plant. If they go off, I'm afraid I'd have more than the creeps. :( Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com http://lost-arts.blogspot.com/ To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: What's the term?
Tamara P Duvall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On May 6, 2006, at 11:09, Lynn Carpenter wrote: And I don't know if this one counts -- I always think it sounds like a tattoo-and-piercing place -- there is a law firm that advertises on one of the public radio stations I listen to called Harness, Dickey Pierce. Sounds like owners of an SM club to me. Though, I suppose, equally suitable for a law firm :) Intellectual property lawyers -- is that close enough? ;D Harness, Dickey Pierce website: http://www.hdp.com/ The opening page alone says l a w y e r s ! all over it. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com http://lost-arts.blogspot.com/ To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] What's the term?
I remember going on vacation with my parents and driving through a little town where the dentist's name was Dr. Paine. And I don't know if this one counts -- I always think it sounds like a tattoo-and-piercing place -- there is a law firm that advertises on one of the public radio stations I listen to called Harness, Dickey Pierce. It's true, really, try Googling them! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com http://lost-arts.blogspot.com/ To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] gammon
David in Ballarat [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: NOw I've just been talking with a cousin who wants me to ask all you knowledgeable folk whether anyone uses the word gammon. The only place I've ever seen gammon was in Beatrix Potter's The Pie and the Patty-Pan, where the magpie says Gammon and spinach! :) Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com http://lost-arts.blogspot.com/ To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: paraffin
Joy Beeson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Jean Nathan wrote: It's not paraffin wax. It's a bit like petrol (gas) but not so volatile. Used to be used here a lot in free standing room heaters I'm pretty sure that your paraffin is our kerosene. There used to be a little kerosene pump at the side of every filling station, but you can't buy kerosene at all now, let alone by the gallon. Guess that's a regional thing -- here in SW Michigan, there are still regular pumps at many gas stations labelled kerosene. They sell it for use in kerosene heaters. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com http://lost-arts.blogspot.com/ To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: Writing (was: Editing )
When I was in college, we were sternly told that when we described our lab work, it should always be in the impersonal and passive voice. Thus Fifty-seven cubic centimeters of water were added to the soil mixture containing three varieties of petunia seed. Hey! Wake up! No snoring on lace-chat! I hated writing like that. Who added that water? What, did it just materialize over the soil like a tiny miniature rainstorm? Godlike, indeed, if so! Most of my grammar is self-taught. The English teacher I had in high school -- hah! A woman so boring I can't even remember her name without searching through my old mildewy yearbook. She obviously didn't love teaching English. I learned far more English puzzling my way through Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and can remember being in complete sympathy with Amy Carter bringing a book to a state dinner. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com http://lost-arts.blogspot.com/ To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] Terry Pratchett
Helen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Lace and fantasy/sci-fi readers isn't a combination I would necessarily have put together but I don't know why. Somehow, through sheer fluke, I've managed to get a copy of the Soul Music animation on DVDand my brother's got the Wyrd Sisters DVD. I've received every book since Jingo as either a birthday or a Christmas present. I've built up a collection of them all through Thief of Time. I even have Strata, which doesn't seem to have turned up in the round of reprints and American releases. http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article344232.ece I noted this quote from the article above: . . . a 6ft 7in Dutchman will play Death in person. I don't generally feel short in the US, but when we went to the Netherlands -- well, let's just say I haven't looked so many belt buckles in the eye since I was in grade school! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com http://lost-arts.blogspot.com/ To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: favourite authors
Sharon Whiteley [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: My all-time favourite author is Terry Pratchett. Hooray, another Terry Pratchett fan! I hate to say Me, too, but I'll say it anyway. The only time I got really mad reading one was when it turned out to be a bowdlerized Americanized version where Mr. Dibbler's famous sausages-inna-bun had been somehow turned into hot dogs. Ack. :P Talk about wanting to reach out and smack some silly editor. Or maybe feed the gormless soul a sausage-inna-bun! I hate it when they do that. Lucky for Dickens he doesn't live now, or we'd be reading It was the best and worst of times. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com http://lost-arts.blogspot.com/ To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] For the aluminum-coifed among us
On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets: An Empirical Study http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/ Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com http://lost-arts.blogspot.com/ To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] Cleaning
Jane Partridge [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In message [EMAIL PROTECTED], Alice Howell [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes At 08:09 AM 10/26/2005, you wrote: I've been cleaning everything in the house this last month, . I have found:... 1 An ENTIRE CLEAN SHELF The SHELF is what I envy the most of your finds!!! ermm... has anyone seen the floor recently, I seem to have lost it somewhere under his computer magazines :-) I have a table like that, too. I know it must be under there, otherwise all that stuff is just levitating ! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] moka maker and coffee press
Sylvie Nguyen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Thank you to the list, as I now know what my coffee makers are called in English. To add to the variety of coffee makers that we've mentioned, I can describe one more. In the past, my father and husband have used single-serving makers that are placed on top of coffee cups. First coffee is placed in the small metal drip-type cup. Next a small perforated disk is screwed onto a center post in the cup. Hot water is poured into the metal cup, which has been set on top of the coffee cup. Of course, it takes several minutes for all of the hot water to drip through. Oh. Yes, we actually have one of those, too. We first saw them when we ordered Thai coffee at a tiny Viet Namese restaurant my husband likes, and later bought one at the Mexican / Viet Namese food store where he buys kim chi. I also forgot we do have one small drip machine, besides the others I mentioned before. (Is it possible to have too many coffee pots? [twinkle] ) Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] coffee plunger
Malvary J Cole [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Sylvie wrote: My coffee is made in what you have called a coffee plunger. The water in put in the bottom portion, the grounds in the middle. As the water is heated up, it's forced up, through the grounds, into the top portion. Sylvie, I think what you are describing is a coffee percolator. I'm something of a coffee-pot connoisseur, and Sylvie's description does sound something like a percolator, but I think she is describing a moka pot. We have three of these, in three sizes, made in Italy. This page shows an example: http://www.viecokitchen.com/mokexbia.htm In my house right now, I have percolators (both electric and the stovetop one we use when camping), vacuum pots, moka pots, and my coffee saucepan, a tiny yellow-enamelled saucepan with a percolator insert and a big glass lid. If it has to do with coffee making, we have probably tried it! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Katrina
Sent to me via the origami list: http://www.defendamerica.mil/articles/sep2005/a090905ms2.html It's a report on Iraqi soldiers who collected up a million dinars for victims of Hurricane Katrina. It amounts to more than a year's pay for many people there. I have nothing to add. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Iraqi Katrina donation
I said I had nothing to add -- I was mistaken. The article says the total is over a month's pay for the Iraqi soldiers who collected the money. My origami-list correspondent said it was over a *year's* pay for many of the Iraqi people. I don't know, myself, if Iraqi soldiers are making 12 times what other Iraqi citizens are making. (Although I think they probably deserve it for their courage, making themselves targets of other Iraqis.) http://www.defendamerica.mil/articles/sep2005/a090905ms2.html It's a report on Iraqi soldiers who collected up a million dinars for victims of Hurricane Katrina. It amounts to more than a year's pay for many people there. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] smaller knitting needles
susan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: i don't know why i forgot that lacis is an american company. i'm sure someone brought that up in an email a few days ago. they are the only ones who carry a complete supply of knitting needles in the smaller sizes. I know of several US suppliers of the smaller size (00 to 8-0) knitting needles besides Lacis. Here are a few I can remember off the top of my head: http://www.purseparadise.com/ http://www.baglady.com/ http://www.jklneedles.com/ http://www.mielkesfarm.com/ I'm sure I'll remember another two or three as soon as I press Send! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: Creepy crawlies
Carol Adkinson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I am becoming even more thankful that I live in the UK! We don't have to put up with all these poisonous and unpleasant creepy crawlies and snakes! Michigan's list of creepy crawlies is pretty short. There is supposed to be one poisonous snake that lives in Michigan, the massasauga rattlesnake. They are very shy and rare, and although I have gone camping many times, I have never seen one. We do have various kinds of wasps and hornets. When I was growing up, there used to be wild honeybees, and if you had dandelions or clover in your lawn, once in a while someone would be stung on the ankle or foot. But these days the varroa mites and trachea mites have killed off most of the wild honeybees, so you only see them if you are near a beekeeper. I still find it very strange to stand by a flowering tree in the spring, and see that the few bees in the blossoms are big bumble bees, and not hear the flowers buzzing with honey bees. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: silkworms
BrambleLane [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Ricki in Utah writes: I've thought about raising silkworms in my mulberry trees, too, until I heard someone explain it's cruelty to animals. Ricki, I am in my second season of raising silkworms. I am a handspinner. And I intend to use the silk from them. I would be interested in knowing why it is considered cruelty to animals. I think that must be the point when cocoons for reeling are put in boiling water, killing the caterpillars before they chew their way out. Personally I'm not that sentimental about caterpillars. I've certainly killed my share of the white cabbage butterfly caterpillars! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Wasp story
We certainly have a lot of bug stories, don't we? This is better than the flame war that sometimes seem to start up in August. Give me creepy crawly stories from the safety of the computer room any time! Nova's wasp story reminded me that I have a wasp story of my own. A couple of years ago, in the fall, I took in a batch of laundry I had hung outdoors on the clothesline. The days were getting shorter and cooler, and so some of the heavier fabrics, like denim blue jeans, had not quite dried. So I put the whole batch into the dryer, thinking that at least they were partly dry. The next morning I pulled out a pair of my slacks to wear to work and put them on. As I walked to the kitchen I felt that jabbing pain Nova described -- like having a hot knitting needle spiked into you -- right where the back of the leg meets the buttock! YOW! I dropped those pants so fast! And sure enough, a wasp had ridden indoors on the laundry and survived its tumbling in the dryer. All I could think of was the fact that for me, wasp bites usually swell, and then they *itch*. I would be going to work (minus the wasp!), with an itchy wasp bite right on my backside! But strangely, this wasp bite, although it hurt, never started to itch. I slowly realized that it must have used up all of its venom stinging the laundry as it tumbled in the hot dryer! And I thanked goodness that the batch hadn't quite dried. Otherwise it might have been my hand, as I folded the laundry, that met up with the wasp. I learned my lesson -- when the wasps start looking for places to hibernate in the fall, I give up hanging laundry outdoors, even if the day is sunny and warm. It's not worth the wasp-roulette! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: IDIOTS
Tamara P Duvall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This one was from Kingman, KS. And he was a Kansas City chef! Happened in Birmingham, Ala. probation officer in Wichita, KS This was a brunch at Texas Instruments. A deputy with the Dallas County Sheriff's office no less. This was at a dealership in Canton, Mississippi! I've collected just the locations from the idiot sightings that Lynn Weasenforth had sent and can't help but wonder... Do we (here in the South) *really* have all the idiots in the US? Could it be due to gravity, seeing as we're down South heah? Up here in the North, we lose bunches of idiots to things like: I'm sure that ice is thick enough to drive my snowmobile (or hey, pick-up truck!) on! Quit complaining, the road's not that bad! (Flying down 131 in a blizzard) Aw, come on, the waves aren't that high! (Also spelled, Let's go swimming in a Lake Michigan rip current.) Mother Nature and winter are tough on idiots. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com [tongue somewhat in cheek] To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: Air Conditioning
Jean Nathan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I've only encountered air conditioning in modern shops and ofices. Everywhere else relies on opening doors and windows and portable fans. Portable air conditioning units are available in the big DIY stores, but they're not something we seem to have latched on to. In the early 1960's this was true in Michigan, too, and this reminds me of a story: When my parents were married, they went to Florida on their honeymoon. They were married in August. So these two 1960's 20-year-olds drive down to hot, humid, sticky Florida in August. They are so hot, they are practically hanging their heads out the car windows like a dog to catch the breeze. But they notice that a lot of the people in the other cars they see are driving around with their car windows all rolled up! Hm, they say to each other, Maybe they know something we don't! And they roll their car windows up. After sweating profusely in their closed-up car for a few minutes, one of them realizes that what all these native Floridians have in *their* cars, that they don't, is a little thing called car air conditioning! :D (In the 1960's in Michigan, air conditioning was relatively rare except in classy department stores, and *car* air conditioning was even rarer.) Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Distances, was Large city populations
Carol Adkinson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Despite mathematics being my first love, I am still sometimes fazed by distances, and I think it sometimes gets the UK into perspective when you realise that, from our coastal side of the country, in East Anglia, to *my* part of Wales - St Davids, right on the bit that sticks out into the Irish sea, and at the lower end of St Bride's Bay - it is about 400 miles. And that is - apart from the bottom of the country from the south east the south west - one of the widest parts of the UK, and can still easily be travelled in a day. And what I find hard to grasp is that the USA is farther from one side to the other, than it is from the UK to the USA. My mind boggles at the number of noughts on the mileage! When we went to the Netherlands, we had to make the opposite adjustment. We rented a car, and the map we bought was about the size of our Michigan state road map. But the scale! I often navigate when my husband is driving, so I have a pretty clear mental picture of how far we have to drive from the distance on the map. Well, on the Netherlands map, that distance was *much* shorter. Whiz! Before I could say to take N141, we had already passed it, and I was scrambling to figure out what other exit we could take to get back where we meant to be. It took me about a day to adjust, and then my mother said, Well, I should get used to doing that, too, so I can navigate while your husband visits his Dutch friends. Mom had to make the same map-to-distance adjustment, but her established strategy, from as long as I can remember, when the driver misses an exit, is to panic and yell, We passed it! We should have taken that exit back there! You'll have to get off and go back! Ouch. I don't drive very well with people yelling at me, so when I had to drive, I wrote out the route, line by line, in large black letters, so I could read it without looking at the map. Michigan's size -- (the wonders of the internet) -- the lower, mitten-shaped peninsula is about 277 miles long from north to south, and 195 miles wide from east to west. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Michigan geography quirks, was towel heaters
susan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: have you ever been to saginaw? even the water tastes like the lake water. it is very damp there as well. I probably have, as my parents took us camping all over the state, upper lower peninsula, and my husband also loves to travel. But I doubt I would have noticed the taste of the water: I grew up drinking hard well water with a very high iron content, and thinking my grama's chlorinated city water tasted weird! i have never lived near a swamp. only the detroit river, and honestly i might have only seen that 10 times my whole life in detroit. that is why i thought it was so strange here in tennessee where there are creeks every 3 or 4 city blocks. I don't know about Detroit, but I grew up near Grand Rapids, and once saw a map of historical GR. I was surprised at how many creeks showed up on that map. All of them had been routed underground decades before I was born. Even the rapids are all completely flattened out by dams, so the river just looks flat. michigan is very flat compared to tennessee, so if you are in mighigan and in a flood zone, you won't have too many hilltops to move to. i can image out in the surrounding counties it floods all the time. i know the roads in the city do. Yeah, Michigan doesn't have the extremes of elevation Tennessee does, but I think the west side of the state is less flat than the east side, and the northern part of the west side (for example, the Traverse Bay area) is even more roll-y. But then Michigan got plowed flat a couple of times by glaciers, so I guess it has an excuse. Personally, I live on the top of a little hill, in a 500-year flood zone. A couple of maps from my favorite map website, Raven Maps Images: http://www.ravenmaps.com/Detail.bok?no=33# (Michigan) http://www.ravenmaps.com/Detail.bok?no=49# (Tennessee) Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] towel heaters
susan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: i saw a photo of one [that is, a towel heater] used in a hotel in the u.k. and i thought that was the silliest thing anyone would ever need. i lived in detroit michigan and it didn't make sense why you would need a heater to warm or dry your towels. What a difference the width of the state makes! I live along the west side of Michigan, close to the lake (Lake Michigan) and I completely understand why you might need a heater to dry your towels. Very often in the spring, summer, fall, we have such damp air, towels won't dry hanging outdoors on the line in the sun, let alone hanging indoors in a small bathroom with no exhaust fan. Thank goodness for the humidity-reducing power of air conditioning, heated clothes dryers, and the germ-killing power of Oxiclean and chlorine bleach. There is nothing like a damp and stinky dishcloth to make you appreciate such things. Then again, in the winter, humidity, what humidity? At 20 degrees F, doors that were swollen and sticking are cracking up the middle. A state of contrasts. Michigan is a place where you drive to the top of a tall sand hill covered with dune grasses, and there you find: a swamp full of mosquitoes. And I still wonder why that water doesn't drain down into the sand! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Watching America website
I know news in the US is often so US-centered, we don't get a balanced picture of what is going on in the world. Often I have found out about world events, everything from floods to election results, via my international email contacts, rather than the news sources. So here is a website I find interesting: http://www.watchingamerica.com/ They take news from sources around the world and link to them, machine-translate them, and in some cases have volunteers translate them to English. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] USA eating, lack of exercise
*sigh* Not only are many neighborhoods unwalkable, almost everything is set up with cars and driving in mind. Mega-stores like Wal-Mart sit in the middle of *huge* parking lots, but people circle around and around in their cars like sharks to get a close parking spot, so they won't have to walk to buy their sugar water and sweet greasy salty food. My husband has always said he dislikes sweets, so imagine my surprise (okay, dismay) when we went to the Netherlands and I had to share my Pavlova with him! He said, I don't mind sweet things with flavor, I just don't like sweet things that have no other taste than sweet! It didn't take long, and now my taste is spoiled for sweets that only taste of sweet. Imagine, if you make something with real eggs, real butter, real vanilla, it takes hardly any sugar and only a touch of salt to taste good. But I'm sweeping against the ocean here in the US! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com Does this count as whale watching in a state with something like 30% obesity? http://www.mlive.com/beachcam/ To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] strange lace
Alice Howell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I found the strangest lace on eBay. It is listed as a collar but shown draped over a head form. There's lots of pictures so it takes a moment to load. The closeup pictures show that the base fabric of the collar is knotted lace like is used for Filet or Lacis. The flowers attached are neither needlelace nor bobbin lace. Anyone seen these before? This collar looks like it would make a good stage prop. It would look lacy from a distance yet be sturdy for rough handling. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemitem=7330550325 Only in the close-up could I finally make out the netting knots. But the applique is completely unfamiliar to me. It almost looks like something made of, I don't know, toothpaste or white caulking or some substance like that. (I can see it's not, but it's so big and, and, uh, GLOOPY looking!) Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: Dealing with pet accident on car seat
Ann McClean [EMAIL PROTECTED] We lost our faithful collie, Smudge, on Thursday - she was 14 and had lost the use of her back legs, etc. Despite extra covers over the car back seat to take her to the vets, she had an accident it soaked through. So what is the best way of cleaning and deodourising the seat? The cover is fixed so I cannot remove it. Have already sponged it with water and disinfectant, but need to do more. It is so difficult to lose pets. Five years later, I still miss my little lap-sitting Sky. Since you are in Wales, I don't know if you will be able to find this exact brand, but I have had good results using a product called Nature's Miracle. My vet sells it, and I have also seen it at large pet-supply stores. The products that seem to work best are either biological (containing some sort of bacteria that breaks down the odorous material) or enzymatic. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: Van Gogh's family tree
Jean Nathan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Only works in the UK because we know van Gogh is pronounced 'van Go' in the US. The UK tends to pronounce it 'van Goff'. and I replied: And in the Netherlands, they pronounce it with a difficult, I don't know, glottal? sound. and Tamara P Duvall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Tamara, say gracht (canal) I'd do my best (imagine choking on a chicken bone twice, with an aaah in the middle), and the room would explode in friendly laughter; ah... they'd say, you *might* 'make it' in *Belgium*, but, in Netherlands, you need to practice a lot more... Glottal is right, Lynn; we have trouble coping with it because, except for the Netherlands version of Dutch, glottal stops of that intensity are used only in African and Arabic languages; all European ones are much more gentle :) Yeah, I can hear it in my head, but I can't *make* that sound voluntarily. At least not when I am healthy! Now in the middle of the winter, in the middle of the second cold (the one that followed right on the heels of the first cold), I might wake up in the middle of the night making similar noises, but at that point I'm trying to breathe, rather than communicate. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com Who confesses to being mostly Dutch -- you can't tell a thing from last names! To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: pronunciation
Jean Nathan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I don't know about anyone else, but when I read the emails from the list, Tamara, Joy, Lynn, Pam, Joy and everyone else have all written them in a slight 'East End of London' accent because that's how I speak so that's how I read them. And I mostly hear you guys (that's Michigan-accent for y'all) with my undetectable-to-me Michigan accent. http://www.michigannative.com/ma_home.shtml :) Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: Van Gogh's family tree
Jean Nathan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Only works in the UK because we know van Gogh is pronounced 'van Go' in the US. The UK tends to pronounce it 'van Goff'. And in the Netherlands, they pronounce it with a difficult, I don't know, glottal? sound. This keyboard doesn't seem to have letters for that sound! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] slow motion video clips
My husband sent me these, and I've been having a few entertaining minutes viewing them: http://www.engr.colostate.edu/%7edga/high_speed_video/ They are .wmv files, and need Windows Media Player to view them. For some reason, Mozilla (my browser) was not opening them when I clicked on them, but I was able to open WMP and copy each link into the Open URL box, under the File menu. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: Getting sticky-label gunge off melamine
Tamara P Duvall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In the US, we have a product called Goo Gone. I'm sure something similiar (though, probably, under another name) is available in the UK as well and Jean Nathan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I use the orange-scented 'Sticky-stuff remover' available from suppliers like Kleeneze, Bettaware or Lakeland. Goo-Gone even works on pine pitch, as I found after my husband sat on a picnic-table bench on a hot July day. The bench was painted, but the heat had made sap leak through the paint layer. The label says Removes oil, tape, blood, candle wax, asphalt, tree sap, make-up, adhesives. I gave it to the contractor who applied the asphalt to the outside of our basement, and it took that off, too. The front label says Citrus power, so I wonder if the UK Sticky-stuff remover is basically the same stuff. For label stickum, after soaking the paper off, I let the remainder dry, then saturate the stickum with baby oil or mineral oil. Leave it overnight, then scrape the oil and stickum off. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: what *is* a piñata?
Subject: [lace-chat] Re Bungee Jumping In message [EMAIL PROTECTED], Shirley [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes Well, what the hell *is* a piñata? Piñata's are very popular here now for children's parties where they are usually filled with sweets. Shirley in Corio Oz. We used to make them for international events (eg Thinking Day) at Guides - basically, a papier mache shape (can't remember if that's spelt right and the spell checker doesn't like this version!) moulded over a balloon, brightly painted, which is filled with sweets and suspended from something high up (or convenient sky-hook!). Children (usually) are then encouraged to hit the Piñata with sticks in order to break it, and release the sweets. Mayhem ensues Michigan is an agricultural state, and attracts lots of migrant labor, largely from Mexico, so we enjoy lots of small Mexican groceries around here. Some of these stores sell piñatas that are apparently made out of concrete! At least, the last one I saw at a children's party had 20 or 30 children lining up, taking turns being blindfolded and whacking at it. I think they went through the line about three times before the rope finally broke and the child with the bat pulled off the blindfold and beat the thing to pieces. So -- the real Mexican piñatas take a really *hard* hit. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: Mac Duff, a question
My understanding of Lay on in Lay on, Mac Duff, is the sense I find in my 1960 (American) Webster's dictionary under lay on: To strike; beat; attack. Of course you have to remember that I am in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism), and frequently hear the fighting marshalls tell combat participants to Lay on!, meaning Start fighting ! (And yes, we do cry hold, enough! When melees start moving too close to pavilions or non-combatants at the edge of the fighting lists, you will hear a chorus of Hold! s coming from the gentlefolk who want to avoid being hit or trampled. Or both.) Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: Pictures of this area (SW Michigan)
Here is the grainy webcam that is closest to me. The camera turns around, sometimes showing a view of Lake Michigan, and sometimes a rather uninteresting street: http://webcams.fbv.mhe.viapointe.com/wwmt/southhaven.jpg This website has higher resolution webcams: http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/webcams/ GLERL is the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratories. There are 4 different views of the Muskegon channel and piers, as well as a webcam looking at Chicago, one in Alpena, Michigan, and another in Toledo, Ohio. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com Still cold, still snowy, but I saw the very tips of some daffodil leaves on the south side of the house! To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] Re: art
Tamara P. Duvall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Feb 12, 2005, at 20:33, Lynn Carpenter wrote: If you like big realistic art, how about Nina Akamu's interpretation of Leonardo da Vinci's horse? http://www.leonardoshorse.org I've seen the one at the Frederik Meijer gardens, and what can one say? It's enormous! Well, the one on the website is supposed to be only 8 feet; that's no more than most monuments of equestrian figures I've seen elsewhere. No, both the one in Milan and the one in Grand Rapids are 24 feet. From the Fact Sheet http://www.leonardoshorse.org/factsheet.asp section: Master Model * Eight-foot clay model sculpted by Nina Akamu * Based on Leonardo da Vinci's drawings * Input from Council of Scholars and Sculptor's Advisory Committee * Enlarged to 24 feet in clay by Tallix Art Foundry, Beacon, NY * Final sculpting by Nina Akamu and team of seven assistants Final Horse * Height: 24 feet; weight with armature: 15 tons * Engineered to withstand wind shear and earthquakes * Cast at Tallix Art Foundry * Silicon bronze, Alloy #872 * Armature of stainless steel, Type 304 * Flown to Italy courtesy of Alitalia * Mounted on a pedestal of Carrara marble * Installation: Milan, Italy at the cultural park in the San Siro Hippodrome * Unveiled: September 10, 1999 * A gift to the Italian people from the American people American Horse * Second casting of the 24-foot model * Unveiled October 7, 1999 * Located at the Frederik Meijer Gardens, Grand Rapids, Michigan * Displayed at ground level which allows easy visitor interaction Which reminds me, when a friend of mine visited with her husband, she took a photo of him under the horse's slightly-raised back foot, on his back as if the horse was about to squash him. And if that humor wasn't low enough, walking under the horse with my mother, we looked up and -- oh, yes! -- the horse is male . . . Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] art
If you like big realistic art, how about Nina Akamu's interpretation of Leonardo da Vinci's horse? http://www.leonardoshorse.org I've seen the one at the Frederik Meijer gardens, and what can one say? It's enormous! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] the Disaster
David Collyer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Dear Friends, I must say I've been amazed that in the past 3 days all we can find to talk about is what Santa brought us, when the world's worst ever natural disaster has just occurred in the Indian Ocean! I think it's more a matter of taking refuge in what feels safe and sane, rather than callousness over what happened. I don't watch television, but the radio and newspaper reports -- the mind just staggers. Since we live near a large body of water (Lake Michigan, admittedly no ocean, but you certainly can't see Wisconsin from here), we have had to explain to our son that a tsunami is unlikely to get us. He has already had to deal with the still-strong possibility of his dad being deployed to Iraq (Why can't those Iraq people come here? he asked me), and now he has to worry that the lake will wash him away. *sigh* My heart just goes out to the thousands and thousands affected. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: Mittens on small folks
Joy Beeson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: At 07:05 PM 12/18/04 -0500, Lynn Carpenter wrote: My Dover copy of Mary Thomas's Knitting Book mentions special glove needles used for knitting glove fingers. I wonder if anyone still sells glove needles? Must ask my Historic Knit list . . . After making a set of glove needles and finding them impossible to work with, I realized that in Mary Thomas's day, dp needles were long enough to tuck under your arm or plug into a knitting sheath to free up one hand. What she called glove needles were, no doubt, much like our sock needles. Report back what the Historic Knitters say. But don't tell me where they are; I spend *way* too much time sitting in front of the computer now. It turns out glove needles, from 4 to 5 inches long, are still available. Some of the vendors include JKL Needles, http://www.jklneedles.com Woodland Woolworks, http://www.woodlandwoolworks.com/Knitting/Tools/Needles/knitNeedles.html and Knitters' Underground has steel ones from Inox, in sizes #0 to #: http://www.knitters-underground.com/dpneedles.html The Historic Knit list replies were pretty varied. Some knitters found, as you did, that they just couldn't use them. Others used them all the time and loved them. I think it must be like the metal-needle-versus-wooden-needle debate, or the metal-tatting-shuttle versus plastic-tatting-shuttle: some people absolutely love one or the other, and can't stand to use anything else. Lynn Carpenter in snowy SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Lake Michigan webcams
We haven't done a round of webcams for a while, and I thought those who can get to them during our daylight hours (about 8am to 5pm right now, and I think we are at GMT minus 5 hours) might enjoy the NOAA (National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration) webcams for the Great Lakes Environmental Research station. http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/webcams/ At this address you will find thumbnails for 7 webcams, 4 on Lake Michigan at Muskegon, 1 looking at Chicago, 1 in Alpena, Michigan, and 1 in Toledo, Ohio. If you click on any of the thumbnail photos, they will take you to larger pictures. The Muskegon links also show more information, for example the latitude and longitude of each station, height above sea level, and links to current weather conditions. In summer I often see boats going in and out of the channel, but I don't think you'll see any today! At 22 deg. F (about -5 C), we don't get many pleasure boaters. And at that, the temperature has gone up all day: yesterday the high temp. was about 14 deg. F. Definitely mitten weather, and sometimes I do work my thumb out of the mitten thumb to warm it up in the mitten body! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] Louise Story
Faye Owers [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Some years back a Christmas story was posted regarding Louise would anyone still have a copy on hand??? Oh, Faye! This was one of the few stories that actually made me laugh my tea through my nose! Ouch! So here, for your enjoyment, is CHRISTMAS WITH LOUISE As a joke, my brother used to hang a pair of panty hose over his fireplace before Christmas. He said all he wanted was for Santa to fill them. What they say about Santa checking the list twice must be true because every Christmas morning, although Jay's kids' stockings were overflowed, his poor pantyhose hung sadly empty. One year I decided to make his dream come true. I put on sunglasses and went in search of an inflatable love doll. They don't sell those things at Wal-Mart. I had to go to an adult bookstore downtown. If you've never been in an X-rated store, don't go. You'll only confuse yourself. I was there an hour saying things like, What does this do? You're kidding me! Who would buy that? Finally, I made it to the inflatable doll section. I wanted to buy a standard, uncomplicated doll that could also substitute as a passenger in my truck so I could use the car pool lane during rush hour. Finding what I wanted was difficult. Love dolls come in many different models. The top of the line, according to the side of the box, could do things I'd only seen in a book on animal husbandry. I settled for Lovable Louise. She was at the bottom of the price scale. To call Louise a doll took a huge leap of imagination. On Christmas Eve, with the help of an old bicycle pump, Louise came to life. My sister-in-law was in on the plan and let me in during the wee morning hours, long after Santa had come and gone, I filled the dangling pantyhose with Louise's pliant legs and bottom. I also ate some cookies and drank what remained of a glass of milk on a nearby tray. I went home, and giggled for a couple of hours. The next morning my brother called to say that Santa had been to his house and left a present that had made him VERY happy but had left the dog confused. She would bark, start to walk away, then come back and bark some more. We all agreed that Louise should remain in her panty hose so the rest of the family could admire her when they came over for the traditional Christmas dinner. My grandmother noticed Louise the moment she walked in the door. What the hell is that? she asked. My brother quickly explained, It's a doll. Who would play with something like that? Granny snapped. I had several candidates in mind, but kept my mouth shut. Where are her clothes?Granny continued. Boy, that turkey sure smells nice, Gran, Jay said, trying to steer her into the dining room. But Granny was relentless. Why doesn't she have any teeth? Again, I could have answered, but why would I? It was Christmas and no one wanted to ride in the back of the ambulance saying, Hang on Granny, Hang on! My grandfather, a delightful old man with poor eyesight, sidled up to me and said, Hey, who's the naked gal by the fireplace? I told him she was Jay's friend. A few minutes later I noticed Grandpa by the mantel, talking to Louise. Not just talking, but actually flirting. It was then that we realized this might be Grandpa's last Christmas at home. The dinner went well. We made the usual small talk about who had died, who was dying, and who should be killed, when suddenly Louise made a noise that sounded a lot like my father in the bathroom in the morning. Then she lurched from the panty hose, flew around the room twice, and fell in a heap in front of the sofa. The cat screamed. I passed cranberry sauce through my nose, and Grandpa ran across the room, fell to his knees, and began administering mouth to mouth resuscitation. My brother fell back over his chair and wet his pants and Granny threw down her napkin, stomped out of the room, and sat in the car. It was indeed a Christmas to treasure and remember. Later in my brother's garage, we conducted a thorough examination to decide the cause of Louise's collapse. We discovered that Louise had suffered from a hot ember to the back of her right thigh. Fortunately, thanks to a wonder drug called duct tape, we restored her to perfect health. Louise went on to star in several bachelor party movies. I think Grandpa still calls her whenever he can get out of the house. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com Who wants to make it perfectly clear that she is *forwarding* the Louise story for Faye, and has never seen Lovable Louise in the flesh, er, vinyl! To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Christmas tree in the US
http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/holidays/christmas/trees.html I've browsed through several websites, many of which seem to have lifted their text wholesale from somewhere, and a good chunk of them point to Prince Albert's tree. I can believe that -- England and English customs had a certain amount of snob appeal, but more importantly, Queen Victoria lived in an age that saw the beginnings of (relatively) quick communications and quick travel. So word of what was fashionable could spread more quickly and easily than ever before. There was a book I read a review of, detailing inventions like electric lighting and the telephone, that were developed during Victoria's reign, and I dearly wish I could remember its name, and read the darn book! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] Fwd: push-pin
Janice Blair [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: My daughter asked if I had ever heard of an old English game called push-pin. I guess it was waaay before my time. It came up at college. Has anyone else heard about it and how to play it? I have Alice Bertha Gomme's The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland, first published in 1894 (Volume I) and 1898 (Volume II) by David Nutt, London, and reprinted by Dover Pub. in 1964, but now out of print. Now, for likely more than the list ever wanted to know about the game of push-pin! I'll quote the whole entry on push-pin: Push-pin, or Put-pin A child's play, in which pins are pushed with an endeavour to cross them. So explained by Ash, but it would seem, from Beaumont and Fletcher, vii. 25, that the game was played by aiming pins at some object. --Halliwell's _Dictionary_. To see the sonne you would admire, Goe play at push-pin with his sire. --_Men's Miracles_, 1656, p. 15 Love and myselfe, beleeve me on a day, At childish push-pin for our sport did play. -- Herrick's _Works_, i.22. There is an allusion to it under the name of put-pin in Nash's _Apologie_, 1593: That can lay down maidens bedds, And that can hold ther sickly heds; That can play at put-pin, Blow poynte and near lin. Two pins are laid upon a table, and the object of each player is to push his pin across his opponent's pin. --Addy's _Sheffield Glossary_. See Hattie, Pop the Bonnet. [end quote] (Hattie, A game with pins on the crown of a hat. Two or more may play. Each lays on a pin,then with the hand they strike the side of the hat time about, and whoever makes the pins by a stroke cross each other, lifts those so crossed. Pop the Bonnet, A game in which two, each putting down a pin on the crown of a hat or bonnet, alternately pop on the bonnet till one of the pins crosses the other; then he at whose pop or tap this takes place, lifts the stakes.) Gambling for pins occurs pretty often in this collection of descriptions of children's games -- I guess I don't need to lecture lacemakers on how valuable pins used to be! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: black squirrels
In Michigan, we have three common species of squirrel: The Eastern fox squirrel, Sciurus niger, a small red squirrel. The red squirrel, Tamiasciurus hudsonicus And the Eastern gray squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis. http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Sciurus_caro linensis.html (Sorry, the link above will probably break, but it's a good one.) Black squirrels (well, at least in Michigan, I'm not going to vouch for anywhere else!) are a melanistic form of the gray squirrel. Here on the Lake Michigan coast they are pretty common. It is kind of strange to see them running on the grass out of the corner of your eye -- like seeing a cat that turns out to be a squirrel. I could go on about ground squirrels and flying squirrels, but I can't type that word any more. It's starting to look too weird. If I type it again, I won't be able to spell it at all any more! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com The heart of bushy-tailed rodent country! To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: Pronunciation
Moving this to chat, as it has wandered away from lace: Annette Gill [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Sylvie Nguyen wrote: While I naturally use the American pronunciation of Sylvie, people still insist on calling me Sylvia, which is not my name. You're lucky - I'm often called Anita! G My aunt is called Sylvia, but in the family she's often called Sylvie as an affectionate nick-name. And while I have a name I think is utterly simply, I am amazed at the people who hear me introduce myself as Lynn and then call me Linda. Of course, my last name is utterly impossible for most to pronounce. My sister-in-law was married to a Nguyen, and so my niece and two nephews are Nguyens. (If you are wondering, the Ng is a nasal sound just like the ng in sing -- it sounds sort of like Wen, but put that ng sound first.) My SIL says when she gets people calling her and asking for Mrs. Nuh-goo-yen, she knows she doesn't want to talk to them. Mine is often pronounced with a soft G - even after I've said it to the person concerned with a hard G, they still think they know better than me how it should be pronounced. Funny how people who can't pronounce Lynn as Lynn can pronounce Carpenter correctly! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: Weather
I have to say, I'm another who loves hearing about the weather in other places. Where I live in Michigan, we had a very wet spring, and the Grand River near where my parents and brother live reached its highest level since the 1960's. Lake Michigan recovered several inches of depth --we've been having low water levels, and some people who bought waterfront property on rivers that feed the lake found themselves looking out at mud flats these last 5 years or so. I forget how many millions or billions of gallons they said it took to add an inch to the level of Lake Michigan. This affects Lake Michigan shipping, and the ore and cargo freighters have been loaded less heavily to avoid scraping bottom in the harbors and channels. Lots of money has been spent on dredging the channels deeper. Last year we were adding on to our house (a geodesic dome-room with a little bunker basement), and it seemed like every time the contractor put his hand on the back hoe, it began to rain! Today it's an overcast and steamy day, but we are still going to the beach for our son's 5th birthday. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Dishwashing liquid fleas
Before I started using Frontline (fipronil?) on my dogs, I used to use the dishsoap-in-water to drown the little biters. That was after I discovered a flea could struggle to the surface of plain water and leap back out! G. However, adding the dish liquid made them struggle around under the water and drown. Bite *my* dog, will you? Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re:Mosquito advice
Sorry, the Lemon Fresh Joy killing mosquitoes -- that's from someone who's been baking their brain in the sunny garden too long! Snopes' Urban Legends page: http://www.snopes.com/spoons/oldwives/dishsoap.htm Me, I'll stick to an old long-sleeved shirt sprayed with Muskol or Deep Woods Off. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: Mosquitoes
Louise Hume [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: only the male mosquitoes sing, to attract the females. So... if you hear a mosquito singing, it is a male and will not bite. I have read this, too, but apparently the mosquitoes in Michigan haven't. I don't know if male and female mosquitoes have a different pitch, but I can definitely hear the ones that bite me. Then again, perhaps this is a species thing, with some mosquiteo species quiet and other ones buzzy. Louise in Central Virginia, where we have had so much rain in the past month that the mozzies rise up in clouds when one walks across the lawn. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com Where we had so much rain in May that we hopefully raised the possibility that all the mosquito wigglers (larvae) would be washed out into Lake Michigan! To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: Flies and mosquitos
Tamara P. Duvall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Mosquitoes. In Poland, they were plentiful, but only outdoors; they almost never came into the house. Here, it's the same; they happily congregate over patches of standing water (lotsa happiness there, the past few weeks g), especially in the shade. Wa! So are you telling me in the South, even the mosquitoes are polite? ! I am so envious! A vampire insect that waits on the threshold -- it boggles the imagination (at least, to someone who grew up with the impolite Michigan species). I just did a Google search, and apparently one of our Michigan mosquito species is even called the northern house mosquito, Culex pipiens. They like shade: houses count as shady. If we have even a small hole in a window screen, say the size of a dime (about 1cm), they will funnel inside like the pointy end of a tornado. Not only are they whiny and annoying, now they also carry West Nile virus. Historically mosquitoes were malaria carriers here. Alexis de Tocqueville, who wrote Democracy in America in the 1830's, went hunting up near Saginaw, and found the mosquitoes so fierce he couldnt even pause to write in his notebook. Some summers when they are bad, I can't even pick black raspberries with long sleeves, jeans, AND mosquito repellant on -- they buzz all around you until they drive you flat NUTS. This page http://www.mackinac.org/article.asp?ID=25 describes Michigan in the early 1800's as uninhabitable due to the hordes of mosquitoes. The page has some other interesting quotes: In 1859, the new Michigan Agricultural College in East Lansing came to a standstill because all 100 students, and all but one of the faculty members, contracted malaria. and Tocqueville later wrote that he had never experienced a torment like mosquitoes, which were the scourge of the American solitudes. Wow, someone who has experienced a Michigan mosquito cloud, writing with the grammar of the 1830's. They are a scourge, all right. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: Flies and mosquitos
Lorri Ferguson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: How many have tried keeping basil plants around to keep out the flies? It really does work, I noticed the effect when I had a pot of basil (the herb) in my kitchen window. Then later read it in a gardening news column. It must depend on the fly species. Last year in my garden we had some kind of fly that liked to rest, sit, perch, whatever you call it, on the plants. They came by the tens at a time, and I do remember them sitting on the basil, as well the tomatoes, the four o'clocks, and whatever else was growing out there. Are there any other plants that have this effect? The old-fashioned scented-leaved geraniums are supposed to be insect repellents. But they are worth growing just for the leaf scent, if you can find them. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] The culture shock
Weronika Patena [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Ah, and they [windows] all have those insect nets, In Michigan (very recently wet, rainy Michigan), if you didn't have window screens, you'd be eaten alive at night by mosquitoes. Even with the screens, sometimes the mosquito-whining from outside the screens drives me crazy, and if one of the little devils has sneaked into the house, into the bedroom, it has to die before I can sleep. Does the US really have that many more flying, stinging insects than elsewhere in the world? Insects the screens keep out (in Michigan, I'm sure the list varies by area of the US): horseflies, blackflies, mosquitoes, wasps, hornets, various native bees, honey bees. Non-stinging but annoying to have blundering around: crane flies (or mosquito hawks, although they don't eat mosquitoes, unfortunately), all kinds of house flies. And nothing keeps out a no-see-um, a tiny little biting fly that can walk right through window screen mesh. The loggers who came here to lumber off our white pine forests came up with folk tales about the mosquitoes. One I dimly remember has a logger running from a cloud of mosquitoes. He hides under a big iron cooking pot, only to have the mosquitoes sting through it. He hammers each stinger over as it pierces the iron, and eventually the whole swarm is caught, whereupon they fly away, pot and all. Every state I've ever heard of with lots of mosquitoes, jokingly says the mosquito is the state bird. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: Language and culture
Ruth Budge wrote: I come from England, have lived in Australia most of my life - and after all, both countries are supposed to speak the same language! However, after all these years, I still find that the occasional Australian phrase comes up which I don't understand, I still use expressions which turn out to be particularly English. When my husband and I were first married, his Polish grandmother went back to Poland to visit her relatives. I remember her saying she and her sisters spoke American Polish. Since they came to the US as youngsters, when they encountered new things (television, say), sometimes they made up words or phrases for them. Naturally these were different from the real Polish words for whatever it was. Another thing that happened was that she and her sisters kept some of the 1920's or 30's ways of saying things, since they weren't hearing anything different. Meanwhile the Polish their cousins were hearing was evolving and changing, so when the two got together, sometimes they had to do a lot of rephrasing and explaining to get the meaning across. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Time Change
Where I live in Michigan, the daylength varies from 9 hours, 4 minutes in the middle of winter to 15 hours and 18 minutes in the middle of summer. It takes 6 weeks from the spring forward clock change for the sunrise time here to catch back up to where it was yesterday. When I still had to obey an alarm clock I loathed it. I'm only a fake morning person. I wake up with the sun, but I operate on autopilot most of the morning. My autopilot never cared for resetting. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] did you know ?
Coca-Cola was originally green. Nope. http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/green.asp *** The phrase rule of thumb is derived from an old English law Nope. http://www.urbanlegends.com/language/etymology/rule_of_thumb.html It's amazing how people will tell you things they absolutely know are true that turn out to be completely false! I was once told by a friend of my husband's that it was illegal for me to not change my surname, once I was married. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Thunder snow
You can send your hearings (I want to say sightings, but that's not right) of thunder snow to http://solberg.snr.missouri.edu/ROCS/ where they are doing research on Convective Snows. They are particularly interested in thunder snow that occurs out of the Great Lakes area -- I'm pretty sure Poole is out of that area! And yes, you can enter your hearing after the fact. We had a little thunder snow back in December. Of course, now we are having plenty of snow: http://webcams.fbv.mhe.viapointe.com/wwmt/southhaven.jpg This webcam is turned from a view of the channel into Lake Michigan (yes, that tiny little thing is a lighthouse) around to various views of the streets of downtown South Haven. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: red shoes
No, I never had red shoes. I have the family Frisian feet, wide across the toe (4) and narrow at the heel (2). When I find shoes that just plain fit, it's a cause for celebration, doubly so if they're not tan boats. And if they fit at the toe AND the heel, heck, I'd throw a party just for the shoes as guests of honor! When I buy shoes, I walk down the row to my size (approx. US 9), look for 9Wide, xxx out all the tan boats, and pick from what's left. Boo hoo, I can't remember that what's left has ever been red! My red-shoe equivalent was a pair of knee-high zip-up suede boots that I wore and wore and wore until the synthetic rubbery soles got some kind of plastic disease and started to stick to things. My current equivalent is a little pair of suede ankle boots made in Rumania or some lovely European country where feet are not size 3 and 2 inches wide. They fit at the toe AND the heel, and I've worn them to enough parties, I guess they do deserve their own by now. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] first paychecks
I well remember what I bought with one of my first paychecks: I was slaving in a baby clothing factory, and I sent away for a stunning $56 worth of lily bulbs that I had been circling in the catalog for at least 3 years. Tiger Babies, White Henry, Pink Perfection, Harlequin hybrids. I sweated about spending the money for months afterwards, but these days I am not sorry at all: 18 years later, I have Tiger Babies lilies all along the top of my retaining wall, and still a good stand of Pink Perfection and White Henryi. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] Found this and thought it would make you laugh
Devon[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'd say the fire department in Austin, is doing very well if it can arrive at the homes of people who use the terms rubbish and petrol within 5 minutes. Caught that, too, eh? I'd say someone reworded it to make it understandable to a Forwardee along the line. Otherwise it's a long drive across the ocean from Austin! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com Where it might be trash or junk, but if it's rubbish, you're not from around here! To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Christmas on the cheap!
I don't care what the economists say (an economic recovery that started in November 2001? In what alternate universe?), Christmas is going to be a bit on the lean side in this neck of the woods. So what have your favorite Christmas gifts been, that didn't cost much? One of my personal favorites has been an Exacto knife set, given me by my brother. I have solved more how can I cut this dilemmas with that knife! Others I can think of were a big box of miscellaneous food items given to my husband by his aunt (my husband is the cook of the household), and two pairs of excellent sock given me by my sister-in-law. How about yours? Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Remember the Small World experiment?
http://smallworld.columbia.edu Do you all remember the Small World experiment, in which some researchers at Columbia University in New York were attempting to prove or disprove the 6 degrees of separation hypothesis? (That is, the idea that any person in the world could be reached through a chain of acquaintances an average of 6 links long.) Well, the first Small World experiment is now complete and findings were published in Science Magazine in August, 2003. The results and press coverage of the experiment are available here: http://smallworld.columbia.edu/results.html and here: http://smallworld.columbia.edu/press.html And now I am looking for a contact in Tennessee, the closer to Gainsboro, the better! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Rods-only vision: achromats
The word for rods-only vision is achromatatopsia. More info at: http://www.achromat.org/ The section about special needs of achromats was interesting reading. I believe the horse trainer Monty Roberts is supposed to be an achromat. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Sun overhead?
I'm too far north for the sun to rise in the east in November. :) The sun goes south for the winter, just like a lot of people here. No, no, I'm not saying it *rises* in the south, but it does rise distinctly south of east. And as for overhead -- no, no, here in the north it's much lower in the sky as we head into winter. If I face west, at noon if I look straight up, I see sky. To see the sun (well, assuming we don't have a thick gray cloud layer) at noon in the northern winter, if I am facing west, I have to turn my head to the left. The only time I am going to see the sun straight overhead at noon is the vernal (spring) and autumnal equinoxes. At the two extremes, in the winter at the solstice, the sun souths. On the summer solstice, it is to the north at noon. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com I might not know left from right without checking my thumb, but I can tell you where the sun is! To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] Right? Left?
Lynn Scott [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: My kindergarten version of revenge on the teachers and my father, who insisted I change hands, was to learn to write upside down and backwards, something I am still quite adept at 45 years on. Hey, me, too! One rainy afternoon, my mom, with me and my two little brothers running out of entertainment, suggested we learn to write upside down. Then backwards. I can still write (or read) backwards or upside down or upside down AND backwards. Many people over the years have told me, Oh, it's easy, just remember that if you hold out your thumb and index finger, the left hand makes an L! However, since in kindergarten, I distinctly remember having trouble deciding which way the bottom of the L pointed, I doubt this would have helped me. :) I did eventually learn that if north was up on a map, west and east spelled WE . . . another Lynn, Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Right? Left?
I confess, I never properly learned my right from my left. While still in kindergarten, I realized I had a double jointed thumb only on my left hand, and I learned to click that thumb out of joint to tell which hand was which. If you give me directions with left and right in them, and pay close attention to my hands, to this day you might catch the little flick of my left thumb that tells me which is which. (Left is the click thumb, right is the other one.) For years I kept this secret, figuring everybody else just knew right from left. Then the subject came up in my origami email list, and it turns out there are dozens of us, mathematicians, physicists even, who use various devices to remind them right from left. Then one day I found this great quote: Sigmund Freud (you might have heard of him), writing to a friend: I do not know whether it is obvious to other people which is their own or other's right or left. In my case, I had to think which was my right; no organic feeling told me. To make sure which was my right hand I used quickly to make a few writing movements. So I don't feel half so embarrassed about not really knowing right from left any more! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Cruise control
I don't know about other car's owner's manuals, but the one in mine flat out SAYS Do not use Cruise Control in icy conditions. Do not use when the pavement is wet, as well as a whole bunch of other warnings that make you wonder when you can ever use it at all. (Yes, they call it pavement here in Michigan, too.) And the deal with hydroplaning is, a thin film of water gets between the tire rubber and the road surface. Your tires don't necessarily lift off the road (at least not at first, she said with an evil grin) -- but you *are* gliding or sliding exactly like an ice skater on the ice. And then you are in the situation my dad always talks about: You can go as fast as you want when it's icy out. The problem is stopping. It's not just cruise control. You can hydroplane with the cruise off, too. I have a police officer friend who told me the citation driving too fast for conditions could be issued even if you were driving below the speed limit, if weather or visibility made driving at that speed unsafe. And don't even get me started on people driving at me half in my lane having an doubtless life-and-death conversation on a cell phone! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Knitting Lace by Susanna E. Lewis
I am looking for a copy of Knitting Lace by Susanna E. Lewis. Yes, I've checked my usual online used-book vendors -- copies are going for around $95 US! Yowch! I've also emailed the publisher, Taunton Press, about the fact that used copies are going for almost a hundred dollars, and gotten the following: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 Dear Lynn Carpenter, Thank you for your email about Knitting Lace by Susanna E. Lewis. At this time we are focusing less on our Fiber Arts list, and more in other areas, but I want to thank you for your input. It is important to us to know who is reading our books and how you feel about them. I will pass along your email to the appropriate people in my department, so they know how much in demand this title is. Best regards, Jenny Peters Editorial Assistant Taunton Books Then it occurred to me (late light-bulb moment), oh, yeah, I'm still on lace-chat. Anyone on lace-chat have a used copy of this book they'd care to part with? I can get it at one of the not-too-far libraries, but I'd really like my own to stick sticky notes in. I can't pay $95 right now! And I probably wouldn't if I could! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] hat on backwards
What I always say is, Take lots of pictures. :D In 20 years, whatever the style today, they'll be groaning, I can't BELIEVE you let me dress that way! The pictures will also be great for showing to their children. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: English is hard to learn
When I was a little girl, we lived two houses over from my great-aunt, who was an English war bride. My mother says I picked up her accent so strongly that at one point she was asked how she came to adopt me! I thought I had completely lost it (I still think I have completely lost it), and last winter I was talking to another woman in a ceramics class I was taking, when suddenly she asked me where I was from. I gave her the name of the small town where I grew up, just north of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and she shook her head. Your vowels are all wrong for that area. Apparently the way I say o sounds, as in road are more eastern-US than they should be! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] photos
My mom is the family genealogy nut. You'd think someone who has boxes of very old family photos with labels like Mother on them -- no date, no name, no indication of *whose* mother -- would label her own photos, but no. I'm one who obsessively labels my photographs with full names and dates. I don't want them to end up for sale like some in a horrible box I once saw in an antique store, labelled Instant Ancestors, full of old tintypes. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: lactose intolerance
All this discussion of lactose intolerance has finally jogged a memory. I was doing some historical research relating to playing in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism), and happened to pick up a book about food. Now, I don't cook, although I do bake, and one of the quotes that stuck in my head was about milk. The section I remember had to do with the switch made from keeping sheep for wool, milk, and meat, to keeping cows. And it quoted a passage about the vast quantity of milk given by cows as compared to ewes, with the regretful note that it was a pity that cow's milk was indigestible for adults. This was a book about food in history, so they were talking about ?1500?s, maybe ?1600?s. I can't bring the title to mind. Next time I go to my library, I will see if I can find the book and find out how close my memory is to the actual text. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] forest fires
sharon [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Amazing isn't it? Last week we had around the clock coverage of the blackout in Eastern Canada and the States. Here in British Columbia we have the worst forest fires going on in over 75 years..but we barely rate a footnote in the news. I think it's a shame. It used to be that I relied on NPR (the US National Public Radio) for international news, but now all that is changed and they seem to get their headlines from the likes of USA Today. And now I rely on my email lists, such as lace-chat, for international news! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] allergies
The mention of Band-Aid allergies reminds me of the time one of my brothers was having trouble with a spot on his arm, which he covered with a band-aid. It did not seem to be going away for a long time, and he was worried about what it might be. Eventually I thought to mention to him that I had had trouble with band-aid adhesive irritating my skin sometimes, leaving a red, itchy patch. Then he realized that it was mostly square, like the band-aids (square with a small gauze dot) he was using. He took the band-aid off, left the spot alone for a couple of weeks, and it went away entirely. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] roo whistles?
Ruth Budge[EMAIL PROTECTED]wrote: I think I can answer both those questions, even though I live in the biggest city in Australia! In most cases, its the vehicle comes off worse in an encounter with a kangaroo - -roos are often very heavy animals, and they're bouncing fast and hard when they hit a car. We don't have elk or kangaroos, just white-tailed deer, which are relatively light, usually under 150 lbs. But their fast gait is a leap: when a deer leaps out of a ditch into the side or onto the hood of a car, it's not unknown for the car to be totalled when the driver loses control. Car-deer accidents having been going up as more people move into rural Michigan, over a 1000 a year in our county. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] Hot weather and the British railway system
Jean Nathan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Our railway system is never short of an excuse as to why services are disrupted. Yesterday trains were restricted to 60 mph instead of their usual 120 mph because of the exceptionally hot weather making it possible that the railway lines will buckle. This reminds me of a hot weather story. Several years back after work, I took the highway north to visit my mother, instead of south and home. I got stuck in a miles-long traffic jam, very unusual for that highway at that time. When we finally got to the delay, there was a police car with lights flashing in one of the two lanes. No accident -- all across the blocked lane, the concrete had buckled so that a foot-thick section was slanting up, facing oncoming traffic. Later I read in the newspaper that the section of highway in question was an experimental one, built without expansion joints. Result of experiment, highway buckles in extreme hot weather. Luckily no one was killed! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] men in kilts
I play in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism), and meet the occasional man in a kilt. A bunch of other ladies and I were greatly amused by one man, who obviously never got the skirt lecture we got as girls (that is, how to sit, stand, cross your legs and so on without anything showing). He was standing by a picnic table and put one foot up on the bench! :) So we had a good view of what was under that particular kilt. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] I know nothing about the Gulf Stream, but I can tell you plenty about the effect of Lake Michigan on the weather. To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Onions
All right, I finally can't resist. alice howell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Has anyone ever tried wearing goggles while chopping? I haven't, but I find I can chop onions tearlessly while wearing my (rigid, gas-permeable) contact lenses. They make me cry when I wear just glasses. Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA alwen at i2k dot com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: gone south
I found two web sites discussing origins of this phrase: http://www.word-detective.com/032602.html#gonesouth http://www.geocities.com/PicketFence/7608/sayG.htm And all this time I had thought it had something to do with the card game of bridge, where the players are north, south, east, and west! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace-chat] Re: May I be excused
(Devon) wrote: It seems to me that most of the respondents who adhere to the practice of excusing themselves and others from the table are Europeans or former Europeans. Hmm, my parents adhered to it, and family on both sides has been in the US for 200-400 years. My grandmother would have had a conniption if we had left the table without asking to be excused. My child-training philosophy comes from my dog-training philosophy: you are *always* teaching them with every thing you do and say, so they might as well learn what you want them to know. Consistent discipline gives a dog (or a child) a mental map: this is *always* no, this is usually yes, this is a maybe. What makes kids and dogs crazy is inconsistency. I have a friend who over the course of 18 months lost all four of his children to car accidents, so I am no discipline-mad monster. We go out for ice cream, and once in a while I will buy treats. But if I say No, I stick to it -- whining and tantrums won't work. And if I say Yes, we *will* do it, none of the someday and when we get around to it that never happened. I say please and thank you to my son and husband, so it is no surprise to me when both of them say please and thank you back. It sure amazes some people, though! Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED]
