Porphyrios Slippers

The chest of prayer shawls at church is still full, a disincentive to knit another shawl just yet. But someone on one of the lists was brainstorming other projects for a prayer shawl ministry, and thought warm slippers might be nice, especially for men who are sick. The key to good knit slippers is to make them from wool and to full them, which means purposely wash them and make them shrink. It blends and lightens the colors, and makes them like a very good thick felt, but still with a tad of stitch definition.

One good thing about a smaller fulled project is you can use up the remains of other wool knitting projects. The slippers in these photos are all made from remnants of sweaters, shawls, and from yarn I got then didn't like for the purpose I'd bought it for. Most of them are stranded, 2 strands of different colors of worsted weight yarn knit on size 10's to get the gauge of 12 - 14 stitches/4 inches.

Wool shrinks about 25% when washed on my long cycle and then dried on high heat. That gives a good smooth sole to the slipper and a nice fuzziness too. It does shrink a little more on the length than the width, so before they're shrunk they may seem too long and narrow. Don't worry, it gets worked out in the wash. If you want to be really careful, knit a test swatch then run it through a wash cycle and see how much it shrinks.

These slippers are dedicated to a man, Elder Porphyrios, a saint in the Greek Orthodox tradition. A friend told me about his book, "Wounded by Love" which is about the best book I've ever read on spirituality. It changed my outlook and I imagine I'll remember this book for years to come. I belive reading this would be a great comfort to someone going through a rough time, as Elder Porphyrios really epitomized someone who "gets" God's love.

This pattern comes out in a women's size 8/9, but it could depend on how much you wash it. I've played around making them larger and smaller proportionately to make children's sizes and it works well. Once you wear the slipper, it kind of adjusts to the size/shape of your foot, and if it's too big just wash it again. Click on the image below to see it larger. NOTE: YOU MUST USE WOOL!! (or some other animal fiber)


To finish, the seam will come up the top of the slipper but first you have to sew across the toe. You also need to sew up the heel of the slipper. How much you wash/dry depends on your machine and what size you are trying to achieve. It will continue to shrink if you wash it again (so handwash once you get it to the perfect size!)

For a child's size 3/4 (woman's size 5/6), I started with 19 stitches, increased the center stitches until I had 9; knit 12 "ridges" of garter, bound off 2 stitches each side, then did stockinette for 24 rows after that, starting the toe decrease at row 18 (after the decrease) and following the same toe decrease style as in the chart - row 18 one decrease each side of the sole, then on rows 20 and 22, a double decrease on each side.

If it's not for a child who likes to slide on wood floors, and traction is an issue, you can make a design on the bottom (after you shrink them!) using fabric puff paint for traction. Let it dry completely before walking in the slippers to avoid unfortunate stains on the floor.

The White Man's Burden

Or "Why did World Vision Stop Returning My Calls?"

My mind is troubled today and this is why. I've got some questions for a charity I've been supporting for 8 years and they don't answer me. The answers are vitally important to my clear conscience in continuing to support the charity and I don't know what to do.

The questions are, when they give food assistance, do they give donated genetically modified plant seeds, like GM corn, rice, and wheat?

When they give food assistance, do they give powdered milk donated out of the US commodities system?

When they vaccinate the children, do they use donated vaccines that have been withdrawn from the US because of safety issues?

See, the US has a problem of over-production of certain foods, like corn, soy, and milk. Nobody wants the farms to go out of business due to failure to sell their product and inability to repay the loans they've taken out so the US government has a commodities program where they buy up the excess that won't sell in order to keep the farms going in case there is a bad year and their product is needed. So the government commodities program has a huge glut of corn, soy, and dairy products that they sell to the poor out of food distribution centers and give to charity in other countries.

Here's the problem: With the corn, it's all been mixed together. About 30% of the corn grown in the United States is genetically modified. So if clever poor get whole grain corn as a food donation (which lasts longer than milled corn without nutrient loss or spoilage) then they may plant it instead of eating it all. That has happened, and the corn they've planted has wind-pollinated other fields of corn. Monsanto has managed to get most countries to sign on to intellectual property laws that entitle them to take posession of any plant that has genetically altered genes for which they hold the patent. Anyone caught in posession of those plants must either let Monsanto destroy their entire crop, as happened to Percy Schmeiser when his family's strain of canola got wind-pollinated by Monsanto's GM canola (100% of canola is GM these days because of how far the wind carries the pollen) or they must pay a fee to Monsanto every time they plant the seed they've saved from the previous season to use their patented genes (which they don't want in the first place!).

Also as more suspicion about the safety of consuming GM foods grows in light of manipulation of studies on safety, as happened to Arpad Puztai, more countries are being pushed by educated consumers to not import foods containing GM ingredients, so now the farmers of countries where GM contamination has happened are less able to sell their crops on the world market.

The milk is a concern because, for one thing, powdered milk doesn't contain the nutrients of fresh milk, nor the digestive enyzmes and protective probiotics of raw milk that a baby would get from nursing from its mother. But once powdered milk becomes available all kinds of problems ensue - mothers aren't told to boil the water and use contaminated water, especially in disaster areas, and the babies die of diarrhea. Not just babies, diarrhea is one of the worst problems of disaster areas that are trying to get back on their feet, due to lack of clean drinking water. But because we have so much of it, it is often pushed on charities so the government can get "credit" for giving disaster aid.

The last concern arose after I read Robert F. Kennedy's statement before Congress on the use of mercury-containing preservatives in vaccines. Their decision was to let the manufacturers continue to use the vaccines for over a year while they looked for an alternative preservative, and then did not stop them from continuing to sell the vaccines overseas. It got me reading up on vaccine safety and I found some groups saying that different batches of vaccine had much higher rates of adverse effects than others. I started worrying that the contaminated vaccines and the ones containing mercury were being donated overseas instead of thrown out - for tax-credit, refunds, whatever benefit the companies might get from giving them to charity. I have no proof this is happening, but wanted to ask World Vision about the source of their vaccines and whether they tried to only use vaccines that met US safety requirements.

Nobody will answer me. I managed to get on the phone with an Executive Director, who said they were good questions, and he asked me to put them in writing and email them to him so he could forward them to the people within the organization who would know the answers. Then he stopped returning my phone calls and emails and I'm not even sure if he has his job anymore as I can't reach him. He was supposed to be a speaker at an event I organized and he didn't show up nor return my emails and phone call about that. I fear I've gotten him fired.

I don't mis-trust the motives of World Vision, but do worry that they've fallen into the trap of taking the "easy" way instead of continuing to act on conscience. I hate to think ill of them as they seem to want to do good for the poor, but sometimes when organizations get too big they get too bureaucratic to function well anymore. Assuming the worst, I would want to stop contributing to that sort of error and unintended spread of misery. I recently heard of a book, "White Man's Burden" that is supposed to talk about this issue, of us Westerners trying to help but from a top-down "let me tell you what's good for you" kind of way that makes the problems worse. I'm going to read it.

UPDATE: Gracie

Poor Grace passed away last fall from Vaccine-Associated Sarcoma, but just to share with you all that good things follow bad, I wanted to tell what happened next. My other cat, Jasper seemed lonely and more needy than usual. So when my sister mentioned that when we came down for Christmas we could see the kittens she was working to tame of a feral cat living under her steps, I had the idea in my head that maybe we'd take one home with us. As it turned out, by the time we got there there was only one left - the rest had perished from climbing under the hoods of people's cars to get warm in the cold and then jumping down when the car started. We named her "Itty Bitty Kitty" because at 3 months old she was closer to the size of a 6-week old kitten. It turned out that part of the problem was she had a tooth infection so she had trouble eating.

Jasper adores her as do all the rest of us. At 4 months now, she's about half the size of a normal cat, so it looks like the name will stick. You can see a video of her here on YouTube.

Coming Shawl - Rosary shawl

Some brilliant knitter on Ravelry recently brought up the topic of incorporating rosary beads into a prayer shawl. It's a truly wonderful idea, and is inspiring me to design a cape-style shawl with a rosary of beads around the front edge.

I don't know how long you'll have to wait, tho as I have some knitting commitments to finish up first including a Christmas lace sweater from some lovely Cascade Ecological wool that is so soft I can't wait to get started!

Holiday Shopping Guide

Protecting the world for our children is important to me. We need to keep resources and clean water and air for our children and grandchildren. The human race cannot maintain itself if we continue to be so irresponsible about the earth's resources!

Freya shawl

You can see the Stor Rund Dug doily I adapted this pattern from here.

This makes a gorgeous cape-style shawl, that looks similar to the feather-and-fan types but nicer, I think.

Some of the stitches are a little hard for beginners, but if you watch tutorial videos and keep at them until they look right, you'll be a pro in no time at making them. And don't forget, blocking erases many an uneven stitch!

I did two versions of this one, the first in a baby alpaca worsted that I stranded with a baby mohair laceweight. I used about 500 yards of those on my #10 circulars to make a shawl that measured around 21" long from neck to bottom. Then I did it on some mill end Caron Simply Soft and since I'm not sure how much I used I can't share that, but I made that one even larger so I could repeat the diamonds at the bottom edge.

I've decided to dedicate this shawl to a friend, Freya Koss, who, after curing her health problems that she found were due to mercury in her dental fillings has become a tireless worker to educate the public on the dangers of mercury in your teeth. It is a Danish pattern and Freya is a Danish name! :)

Here's the pattern (click here to download a printable .pdf of this):

ABBREVIATIONS:
K = knit
YO = yarn over
Slip = slip stitch from left needle to right without knitting.
K2TOG = knit 2 together as if they are one stitch
P2TOG = purl 2 together as if they are one stitch
SSK = slip, slip, knit
SSP = Slip 1 k-wise, slip another k-wise. Return slipped sts to left needle. p2tog tbl: Insert right needle up into back loops of the two stitches and purl them together from this position. (I find it easier to pass them from the right to left through the back loop and then purl them together as if they are one regular purl stitch.)
S2K1psso = Slip the next two stitches at the same time onto the right-hand needle knitwise, knit the next stitch, and pass the two slipped stitches at the same time over the knit stitch. It makes a somewhat raised but perfectly formed knit stitch in the centre of a pair of decreased stitches which slope towards it symmetrically
C** = This is the only hard stitch - a double decrease where the center stitch is on top when viewed from the right side. To do it, purl 1, slip the next 2 together through the back loop (all three are now on the right needle), pass all three to left needle, slip the right needle over the first stitch and under the next two to pass them over the first stitch (the one you purled). The remaining stitch is still on the right needle, so pass it to the left.
()x = knit text in brackets as many times as indicated after the "x"
[]x = repeat enclosed instructions as many times as indicated after the "x"
*-* = repeat enclosed instructions till end of round.
All rows not mentioned are knit plain (knit on knit side; purl on purl side).

Cast on 40 stitches.
Row 1: P
Row 6: K3, (YO, K1) x 35, K2
Row 12: K2, (K7, YO, K1, YO)x8, K9
Row 14: K2, (K2TOG, K3, SSK, YO, K3, YO)x8, K2TOG, K3, SSK, K2
Row 16: K2, (K2TOG, K1, SSK, YO, SSK, YO, K1, YO, K2TOG, YO)x8, K2TOG, K1, SSK, K2
Row 18: K2, S2K1psso, (YO, SSK, YO, K3, YO, K2TOG, YO, S2K1psso )x8, K2
Row 20: K2, (K2, YO, K2TOG, YO, S2K1psso , YO, SSK, YO, K1)x8, K3
Row 21: P7, (slip, P9)x7, slip, P7
Row 22: K2, (K3, YO, K2TOG, K1, SSK, YO, K2)x8, K3
Row 23: P7, (slip, P9)x7, slip, P7
Row 24: K2, (K4, YO, S2K1psso , YO, K3)x8, K3
Row 26: K2, (K1, YO)x4, [S2K1psso , (YO, K1)x7, YO]x7, S2K1psso , (YO, K1)x4, K2
Row 28: K9, (S2K1psso , K13)x7, S2K1psso , K9
Row 29: P8, (C**, P11)x7, C**, P8
Row 30: K2, (K1, YO)x5, [S2K1psso , (YO, K1)x9, YO]x7, S2K1psso , (YO, K1)x5, K2
Row 31: P11, (C**, P17)x7, C**, P11
Row 32: K10, (S2K1psso , K15)x7, S2K1psso , K10
Row 33: P9, (C**, P13)x7, C**, P9
Row 34: K2, (K1, YO)x6, [S2K1psso , (YO, K1)x11, YO]x7, S2K1psso , (YO, K1)x5, YO, K2
Row 35: P13, (C**, P21)x7, C**, P13
Row 36: K12, (S2K1psso , K19)x7, S2K1psso , K12
Row 37: P11, (C**, P17)x7, C**, P11
Row 38: K10, (S2K1psso , K15)x7, S2K1psso , K10
Row 39: P2, (P1, YO)x7, [C**, (YO, P1)x13, YO]x7, C**, (YO, P1)x6, YO, P3
Row 40: K15, (S2K1psso , K25)x7, S2K1psso , K15
Row 41: P14, (C**, P23)x7, C**, P14
Row 42: K13, (S2K1psso , K21)x7, S2K1psso , K13
Row 43: P12, (C**, K19)x7, C**, K12
Row 44: K2, (K1, YO, K2TOG, K5, SSK, YO)x16, K3
Row 46: K2, (K2, YO, K2TOG, K3, SSK, YO, K1)x16, K3
Row 48: K2, (K1, YO, K2TOG, YO, K2TOG, K1, SSK, YO, SSK, YO)x16, K3
Row 50: K2, (K2, YO, K2TOG, YO, S2K1psso , YO, SSK, YO, K1)x16, K4
Row 52: K2, [K1, (SSK, YO)x2, K1, (YO, K2TOG)x2]x16, K3
Row 54: K2, K2TOG, (YO, SSK, YO, K3, YO, K2TOG, YO, S2K1psso )x15,YO, SSK, YO, K3, YO, K2TOG, YO, SSK, K2
Row 55: P2, (slip, P9)x16,slip, P2
Row 56: K2, (K1, SSK, YO, K5, YO, K2 TOG)x16, K3
Row 58: K2, K2TOG, (YO, K7, YO, S2K1psso )X15, YO, K7, YO, SSK, K2
Row 59: P2, (slip, P9)x16,slip, P2
Row 60: K2, K2TOG, [(YO, K1)X7, YO,S2K1psso ]X15, (YO, K1)X7, YO, SSK, K2
Row 61: P2, (slip, P15)x16, slip, P2
Row 62: K2, K2TOG, K13, (S2K1psso , K13)x15, SSK, K2
Row 63: P2, P2TOG, P11, (C**, P11)x15, P2TOG, P2
Row 64: K2, K2TOG, (YO, K1)x9, [S2K1psso , (YO, K1)x9), YO]x15, SSK, K2
Row 65: P2, P2TOG, P17, (C**, P17)x15, P2TOG, P2
**If you aren’t counting stitches anymore because you’ve grasped the pattern, do count them every few rows. At this point it is easy to miss a YO or somehow end up with too many stitches which can get magnified as you go on and is really hard to repair if it’s gone on for too long! If you find your stitch count off, don’t despair! You can easily fudge this pattern so it looks good to all but the most discerning eye. For too many stitches, in the S2K1psso, you can slip 3 instead of two to eat an extra stitch. For too few, you can do a K2TOG instead of the S2K1psso at the end of the repeat to create a stitch for the next row.
Row 66: K2, K2TOG, K15, (S2K1psso , K15)x15, SSK, K2
Row 67: P2, P2TOG, P13, (C**, P13)x15, P2TOG, P2
Row 68: K2, K2TOG, (YO, K1)x11, YO, [S2K1psso , (YO, K1)x11), YO]x15, SSK, K2
Row 69: P2, P2TOG, P21, (C**, P21)x15, P2TOG, P2
Row 70: K2, K2TOG, K19, (S2K1psso , K19)x15, SSK, K2
Row 71: P2, P2TOG, P17, (C**, P17)x15, P2TOG, P2
Row 72: K2, K2TOG, K15, (S2K1psso , K15)x15, SSK, K2
Row 73: P2, P2TOG, (YO, P1)x13, YO, [C**, (YO, P1)x13), YO]x15, P2TOG, P2
Row 74: K2, K2TOG, K25, (S2K1psso , K25)x15, SSK, K2
Row 75: P2, P2TOG, P23, (C**, P23)x15, P2TOG, P2
Row 76: K2, K2TOG, K21, (S2K1psso , K21)x15, SSK, K2
Row 77: P2, P2TOG, P19, (C**, P19)x15, P2TOG, P2
Row 78: K2, (K1, YO, K2TOG, K5, SSK, YO)x32, K3
Row 80: K2, (K2, YO, K2TOG, K3, SSK, YO, K1)x32, K3
Row 82: K2, [K1, (YO, K2TOG)x2, K1, (SSK, YO)x2]x32, K3
Row 84: K2, (K2, YO, K2TOG, YO, S2K1psso , YO, SSK, YO, K1)x32, K3
Row 86: K2, [K1, (K2TOG, YO)x2, K1, (YO, SSK)x2]x32, K3
Row 88: K2, K2TOG, (YO, K2TOG, YO, K3, YO, SSK, YO, S2K1psso )x31, YO, K2TOG, YO, K3, YO, SSK, YO, SSK, K2
Row 90: K2, (K1, K2TOG, YO, K5, YO, SSK)x32, K3
Row 92: K2, K2TOG, YO, K7, YO, (S2K1psso , YO, K7, YO)x31, SSK, K2
Row 94: K2, K2TOG, (YO, K1)x7, [S2K1psso , (YO, K1)x7, YO]x31, SSK, K2
Row 96: Like row 62, but with 32 repeats.
Row 97-111: Like row 63-77, but with 32 repeats.
Row 111-123: Like row 78-90 but with 64 repeats instead of 32.

Many thanks to YarnOver http://www.yarnover.net for translating this beautiful pattern from the Danish! For the doily pattern, which could make a lovely round blanket, see http://www.yarnover.net/patterns/doilies/kunststrik/storrund.html

Shawls for Grace

Today as my little kitty dies of VAS - Vaccine-Associated Sarcoma, I'd like to dedicate a pattern of sorts in her memory.

Gracie was a fighter. I got her when, as a volunteer in the Red Cross Disaster Services Unit I responded to a house fire. The home was burned to the ground and the family - parents and several children, some quite young, were being sent to a hotel for the night. A friendly and quite pregnant little cat was threading through all of our legs, purring loudly the whole time we did the paperwork and made arrangements. As I petted her, the woman said I could have her, as she was their cat and they couldn't take her with them. I took her home and she had kittens the next day in my basement.

We had our differences over the years. She bullied my beloved Ricky (male cat) unmercifully. She liked to bring live birds through the pet door to kill them in the bathroom where the mirrors confused them. Once she brought in a live snake during a dinner party and left it under the table, quickly clearing the room. But looking back I can see the humor in some of it now.

I'm trying to tell myself she's not suffering the pangs of death for nothing, but they are birth pains toward a new life. I believe, as George MacDonald did, that animals don't just pass away into nothingness but are also welcomed into God's warm embrace at the end.


The Shawl:

This may perhaps be the easiest shawl pattern ever. You simply find a repeating lace pattern you like and keep going. I think good shawl dimensions are 18 - 22 inches wide by at least 36 inches long. It takes at least 380 yards, closer to 500 if you want to make it really nice. The pattern can be found in books or online. My favorite sources for lace patterns are the library - where they have books like Stitchionary that are filled with lace patterns. I prefer size 10 needles so it doesn't take forever to knit the shawl and I can use larger yarns - sport, DK, etc. and still have it with a lacy, open effect.

To get the gauge, knit one repetition of the pattern through once (in this way you can also see if you can do all the stitches!). Wash and block it and then measure it to see how many repeats you'll need to get the desired width. For length, I usually keep going until I've used up all the yarn. I don't like tassels because I worry they won't hold up over time and will make the shawl start to look shabby.

To class it up, you can add a knit-on or crocheted on edging on all sides. You can find many of them in pattern books as well.

I wanted to put in more pictures of some examples but evidently my printer just discovered it doesn't support Vista and no longer uploads photos! GRRR!