First, my favorite, the Biologist’s Mother’s Day Song.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Barbara J. King posted a video of a lovely orangutan mom and baby pair at NPR’s 13.7 blog.

Here’s an anthropologist’s take on breastfeeding duration in humans.

From the Smithsonian, Celebrating Motherhood in Pictures.

And RadioLab’s latest short: Fetal Consequences.

And finally, my Mother’s Day gift, a long walk down the American Tobacco Trail with my hubby and two of my favorite girls.

Happy Mothers Day!

I’ve started a pair of Oak Ribbed Socks, from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush, something that has been marinating in my knitting library for a couple of years. Speaking of libraries, for you knitters who may not have checked out Ravelry’s new library features, do yourself a favor and have a look.  You can create custom shelves (sets), and have lists showing patterns from your queue, and patterns you have used for projects. Pretty awesome.

The original oak ribbed pattern was written for women, and I’m making these for my hubby, so I added a couple of repeats and adjusted the count for the heel flap. It’s a simple pattern that is great for knitting during seminars.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I did a similar experiment with the kids in my oldest daughter’s biology class when she was in 6th grade, and it was a big hit. I’m hoping some of them are considering careers in genetics as they look forward to college this fall. My daughter, contrarian that she is, is following in her stepfather’s footsteps and has decided to be an engineer (chemical, rather than computer), so all of that exposure to what it is REALLY like to work in a lab did not convince her to pursue a career in the life sciences.  I still have a few years to work on the other three, though.

With the recent upheaval, I was in the mood for a vanilla sock, so I cast on 64 stitches, knit an inch of ribbing, and settled in to a stockinette sock. Using my favorite heel from the Harris Tweed socks, and my favorite toe (no Kitchener!) from the Hedgerow socks,  I knit on these over several weeks at various seminars and meetings.

The Zauberball yarn consists of two gradient-dyed strands plied together, and the color changes keep the plain knitting interesting. When they are in my shoes, they almost match, but I know there are a pair of wildly non-matching socks on my feet.

Just the little pick-me up this knitter needed.

Here’s a little presentation from last year’s winners, to give you an idea of the types of research projects found at the fair.

 

 
I can’t wait to see what this year’s participants come up with.

Technical Specs:

• Yarn: Alchemy Juniper 100% merino
  • Autumn Ecstasy (Loopy Ewe 2010 Club colorway)
• Needles: US Size 0 47″ circular
• Pattern: Lacy ZigZag Mitts by Monica Jines
• New Skills: Perseverance
• Mods: I knit the lace pattern all the way around until I got to the palm, and added k2, p2 ribbing to the bind off

These mitts took less than 1 skein of yarn, so there’s enough left for a second pair.

***

I also finished the Burberry Inspired Cowl, which, while not an exact match for the one in the catalog, it is a classy little piece – just right for wearing under a nice coat.

Technical Specs:

• Yarn: Fleece Artist Sea Wool
  • Pewter (Cookie A 2011 Sock Club colorway)
• Needles: US Size 7 47″ circular
• Pattern: Burberry Inspired Cowl by Julianne Smith
• New Skills – Subbing yarns. The original pattern called for a bulky weight yarn, but the SeaWool is fingering weight. Held double, it made a great substitute, and I had only a few yards left.

This cowl turned out very well. I may have to knit one for myself. If I knit it again out of fingering weight, I would skip the kitchener bind off (now I know why I never used it on anything bigger than sock toes) and use a three needle bind off instead. I think it would be a little easier to manage with the doubled yarn.

***

Finally, I finished the Simple Pleasures hat, my first project using Malabrigo.

Technical Specs:

• Yarn: Malabrigo Sock (2009 vacation yarn from Loopy Yarnsin Chicago
  • Abril colorway
• Needles: US Size 6 and 7 24″ circular
• Pattern: Simple Pleasures Hat by Purl Soho

This was easy and quick, but knit in a luxurious yarn, makes a fantastic gift. And since I finished all of my Christmas knitting ahead of schedule, I can get a jump on selfish knitting month, or what the Muggles call January.

Here’s hoping all of your gift knits are finished, and that you all have a happy holiday season.

At Home: A Short History of Private Life

Bryson’s goal with At Home was to

consider the ordinary things in life, to notice them for once and treat them as if they were important.

Using his house, a former rectory in Norfolk, as a guide to private life, Bryson takes us through each room, including rooms that most homes no longer have (the scullery, drawing room, and dressing room, for example), to describe just how much life and homes have changed in the last several centuries.

Along the way, there are many familiar figures. Thomas Malthus and Thomas Edison, William Herschel, Charles Darwin and, for the anthropologists in the audience, V. Gordon Childe and Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers.  An interesting mix, and I learned things (about Pitt Rivers in particular) that never came up in my undergraduate history of anthropology class.

There were also interesting knitting-related tidbits. For example:

Sheep…were successfully manipulated to become the bundles of unnatural fleeciness we see today. A medieval sheep gave about a pound and a half of wool; re-engineered eighteenth-century sheep gave up to nine pounds.

And what did they do with these extra-fleecy sheep? Use the wool to make flocked wall paper that was attached with toxic glue. What a waste.

If you are curious about anthropology, history, or etymology (ever wondered where limelight, parlor, or room and board come from?), this is the book.

***

The second book for November was the biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. Rushed to print shortly after Jobs passed away, it is an unflinching look at the man behind Apple, describing his genius, his quirks, and his apparent lack of interpersonal skills.  While I enjoyed the Isaacson’s biography of Edison more, and think this book could have been improved if the original March 2012 release date had been kept, I feel the author tried to paint an objective portrait of Jobs.

***

As the end of 2011 fast approaches, and I’m taking December off from the book club to read holiday books to my kids, here’s a recap for 2011. I read:

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
• Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
• Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World’s Greatest Scientist
• The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
• Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution
• Long for This World: The Strange Science of Immortality
• Almost Chimpanzee: Searching for What Makes Us Human, in Rainforests, Labs, Sanctuaries, and Zoos
• Inside the Human Genome: A Case for Non-Intelligent Design
• Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light
• At Home: A Short History of Private Life
• The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science
• Plastic Fantastic: How the Biggest Fraud in Physics Shook the Scientific World
• Remarkable Creatures: A Novel

Along with the last-minute add-ins:

• Mama, PhD
• Every Other Thursday
• Getting to 50/50
• The Ghost Map
• Bad Mother
• Provenance
• Steve Jobs
• All Wound Up

Fifteen books for 2011. Nowhere near what I used to read, but respectable. And I still have a few on the list to look forward to in 2012. Happy reading!

I started the project on an airplane (I’m starting a new job next month, and we had to fly out to look for housing). In between touring houses, potential daycares, and meeting with future colleagues, I worked on the hat a little more here.

Sidenote: If you’re visiting the Raleigh-Durham area and are looking for a centrally-located-but-quiet place to stay, Carol’s Garden Inn is great.

I made it through the ribbing, and started the top portion on the flight home. And the color is pretty true in this photo, even with the flash. The Malabrigo is just luscious.