Persephone Magazine, February 17, 2012
I hope you’ve been practicing your increases and decreases, because you’re really going to need them this week. We’re tackling lace knitting, so ready your needles and your patience.
I like to say that there are no hard patterns, only complicated ones. See, once you’ve learned the basic stitches, all you do to make complex lace patterns is follow the organizational instructions for the increases and decreases to make a beautiful design. You have to count and pay close attention, but really, no patterns are completely impossible.
Lace is just a series of yarn overs (which create a hole) and decreases (using k2tog and slip slip knit to lean in the preferred direction) between stockinette stitches. The way that you organize them determines what the lace looks like. Generally, a single repeat will have the same number of decreases as yarn overs, so the final stitch count will be the same at every row. Once you get the hang of it, it’s really just about following directions.
Speaking of directions, there are two ways that lace patterns are explained: written and charts.
Written directions are exactly what they sound like. The instructions are written as a series of stitches. Sometimes they will use “rep to end,” which means you repeat the pattern until the end of the row or round.
For example: k1, k2tog, yo, rep to end
If you are only supposed to repeat part of the pattern, this will be indicated by an asterisk or brackets. Sometimes they will tell you to repeat until a certain number of stitches before the end of the row.
For example: k1, k2tog, yo, [k3, k2tog, yo], rep to 2 before end, k2
A good example of a lace hat pattern that uses written instructions is the Arrow Hat. Or if you have enough head wear, try the Tilting TARDIS Cowl (you may have to join Ravelry to access that, but it’s free).
Death + Taxes, February 14, 2012
Sleigh Bells’ 2010 debut “Treats” is a fantastic record. It’s a driving and powerful mix of punk, rock, synth and dance, with shining and slippery vocals over a grinding and crunching background. From beginning to end, it doesn’t stop.
The duo’s second album, “Reign of Terror,” is no different. Well, it’s a little different, with a few slower tracks and more reflective lyrics, but it still packs the same rawness and power as the first record. You get the driving beats of “Crush” and the multi-layered guitars of “Comeback Kid” but there are also softer tracks, like “Road to Hell” and “You Lost Me.”
There’s more range here than the pair had two years ago. This could be from Alexis Krauss more heavy involvement — half of “Treats” was written before she joined — or because Derek Miller wrote this record while reflecting on family tragedy. Either way, it has good balance but is still distinctively Sleigh Bells.
The record is available for streaming over at The New York Times. “Reign of Terror” officially drops February 21 on Mom + Pop Records. The pair will perform on “Saturday Night Live” on February 18.
Death + Taxes, February 13, 2012
Giving us further proof that the late diva influenced artists of pretty much any genre you can think of, Girls paid tribute to Whitney Houston over the weekend. During a show at the Laneway Festival in Singapore, they covered “I Will Always Love You.” Frontman Christopher Owens may not have Whitney’s pipes (who does?) but he’s kind of teary during the song, which makes the whole thing pretty touching.
Check out the performance below.
Death + Taxes, February 13, 2012
Much like last year, when Arcade Fire won Album of the Year, Bon Iver‘s Best New Artist Grammy was met with disbelief and confusion by a lot of Twitter users.
The most entertaining ones are the people who not only have never heard of Justin Vernon and company, but had no idea how to spell Bon Iver, and instead of going to the Grammy website and looking it up, spelled it out phonetically on Twitter.
It’s a little surprising to those of us who have been living inside our comfy indie-rock bubble for a few years now that people still haven’t heard of Bon Iver. Of course, it’s also surprising that the Grammys thought an artist who has been playing since 2007 and has released two albums and an EP plus collaborated with Kanye West and contributed music to the “Twilight” soundtrack classifies as new, but that’s a whole other story.
If the tweets above don’t make you laugh or roll your eyes enough, there’s a whole blog dedicated to the Bon Iver-ignorant, called Who Is Bon Iver? Next up, there will be a blog called “What is Google?” to help these people out.
Persephone Magazine, February 10, 2012
I assume in the past week, you’ve all been diligently at work making scarves to practice your brand new knitting skillz. How’s it going?
I hope you’ve all become whizzes (or at least mildly competent) at the basics — knit, purl, cast-on and bind-off — because you’ll need them for basically every project you ever make. Now we’re going to move on and try out some other techniques. Let’s go for some basic increases and decreases, then I’ll briefly explain knitting in the round. By the end of this column, you should be able to make a hat.
Increases
There are a few basic increases that work in different situations. The easiest to execute is the knit front and back, which is usually abbreviated in patterns as kfb (but we’ll get to pattern reading later). To do this, you start off like a regular knit stitch, but don’t transfer it to the right hand needle. Instead, you then knit into the back of the same stitch before moving it over. The only drawback is that it leaves a little blip in the work that kind of looks like a rogue purl stitch. How much that matters depends on the project and how much of a perfectionist you are. The Knit Witch has a good tutorial video for this:
Death + Taxes, February 7, 2012
Lana Del Rey just released her album “Born to Die” last month and has already generated more buzz than a lot of artists see over their entire careers — in fact, the chatter started months before the record even dropped. Of course, not all of the talk has been good, with debates about her authenticity and criticism on everything from her lips to her name change. In fact, a lot of the discussion has felt unnecessarily harsh, and it’s already getting old.
I’m not going to pretend to be any great fan. I had Del Rey classified as “overrated” before her record was even out. Maybe that was jumping the gun a little, but it felt like the amount of buzz was disproportionate to the quality of the few songs she had released.
With a little more exposure, I’ve softened to her somewhat. After a few listens to “Born to Die,” I’m still not completely enamored, but I don’t feel as viscerally repulsed as I was when all I had heard was two or three singles and entirely too many remixes of “Video Games.”
The album is all right. It’s not terrible, but it’s not spectacular either. Del Rey has a smooth and low voice that gives her an old-school, bluesy feel. There are some real gems in the musicality, with tracks “Off to the Races” and “Summertime Sadness” standing out, but overall it leaves an empty, hollow feeling like an important element is missing. Her lyrics at times feel vacant and often play annoyingly into bland gender stereotypes, but she does occasionally hit some interesting wordplay.
In other words, it probably won’t make my top 10 list at the end of the year, but I can hear it without wanting to shove a knitting needle into my eardrum. She sounds like she needs time to grow and develop herself, which we may or may not see, since she recently said she doesn’t plan to write another album.
But, despite my relative disinterest in her music, I feel compelled to defend Del Rey. Not against criticisms of her songs — she’s a singer, she released an album, critiques of her musical merits are pretty much fair game — but from the other backlash.
The comments surrounding the notion that she (probably) had her lips done and (definitely) changed her name are pretty tired. She tried to make it under her real name and appearance, and when that didn’t work, she remade herself. If she’s the first artist to do that, then tell me where I can see Stefani Germanotta play an acoustic set in a Lower East Side dive bar.
Del Rey received so much hate from her stiff SNL performance that she opted to postpone her upcoming tour. While artists should have a thick enough skin to withstand their critics, it seems like a pretty strong statement about how harsh people actually were toward her.
This may end up being a good thing for her, however. First, yes, she was kind of awkward on stage, though musically she sounded fine, so maybe with some practice and time she’ll be better prepared to put on a solid live show. Second, now that her so-called bomb (if you think this is a disaster, where were you people when Ashlee Simpson played SNL?) is reaching semi-legendary — or at least viral — status, she can generate enough buzz and mystery to sell out more shows. It could end up a major win for her if she plays it right.
She seems like a young woman who is unafraid to really go after what she wants. Whether or not you like her music or her image, she is in complete control of both, and that’s something to respect.
However, a lot of her strongest critics seem convinced that she is the creation of some record executive or managerial team. Where she differs from other artists with strong stage personas — Lady Gaga, Marilyn Manson, and others — is that she puts forth an image of dedicated femininity and a certain level of innocence. Her girlishness seems to be leading to an assumption that she isn’t capable, creative or intelligent. It may not be a shock, living in a culture that uses “woman” and “girl” as insults, but it’s highly aggravating. Were Del Rey to come across as more masculine than she does right now, the conversation would likely be very different. But her presentation shouldn’t be an indicator of her validity, consciously or otherwise.
Clearly what she’s doing is working on some level. We’re talking about her. I just wrote about 800 words on the topic of Lana Del Rey. But we are letting her current and former images inform our opinions more than they should. There’s no need to hate on her name change, her lip puffiness or even her TV performances nearly as much as everyone does. Opinions of her album run the gamut from complete loathing to adoration, stopping in the middle at “meh,” so let’s focus on those. There’s plenty to say there.
Persephone Magazine, February 3, 2012
When I floated the idea of writing about knitting to some Facebook friends, someone suggested I call it “Stitch n Bitch n Drink n Curse.” I’m not using the title, but the sentiment is pretty accurate. Just so you know what you’re getting into.
So you want to learn to knit. Or you know how to knit, sort of, and want to get better. Never fear, because I am here for you. I will guide you through the process, explain all the things you need to know and probably a few you don’t. I’ll help you figure out what you need to buy and what’s actually pretty useless.
Let’s get going. There’s a lot to cover, so no dilly-dallying.
A World War II era poster, courtesy of Wikipedia.
You’ll Definitely Need:
-Needles
-Yarn
-Scissors
-A tapestry needle
You May Need:
-Cable needles
-Stitch markers
-Stitch holders
-A stiff drink
You can get most of this at your local craft store or big box place like Michaels. Except the drink, but if you’re in New York, Michaels is right next to a wine shop, so that helps.
Brooklyn Based, February 1, 2012
Outernational opening for GBH in 2010.
Well, the Super Bowl is this Sunday, and as you may have heard, a little team called the New York Giants will be playing. So the city is likely to be awash with football fever. But maybe you don’t like to watch men in tight pants bash into each other between ridiculously expensive commercial breaks. You could watch the Puppy Bowl instead, but maybe you want to get out of the house and pretend that sports don’t exist for a few hours.
So the natural solution is to find a show to see. And luckily, there are a few of them happening on Sunday night.
Outernational rocks the Acheron (57 Waterbury Street) on Sunday, wrapping up their current tour. They’ll be playing from all of their records, including the most recent one that came about thanks to their successful Kickstarter campaign. If you’re into unapologetically political rock that pulls influence from punk, reggae and world music, check this gig out. The show is all ages, and doors are at 8pm.
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Death + Taxes, January 31, 2012
Kowtowing to political pressure, Susan G. Komen for the Cure has decided to stop all of its affiliations with one of the biggest cancer-screening providers in the country, Planned Parenthood.
By pulling money from the group, Komen is going blindly against what should be their mission — providing all women with preventative measures and treatment of cancer.
In case you forgot, Planned Parenthood has gotten all kinds of right-wing grief because some of their centers provide abortions on some days of the week. During the debt debate, Republican members of Congress blatantly ignored the fact that abortions are not covered by federal funding and one even lied saying that they were 90% of what they do (in reality, abortion makes up about 3% of the organization’s services).
Not only does Planned Parenthood provide a lot of different services, they do so for lower income women who can’t get them elsewhere. And it’s relatively painless. I was without health insurance for a few years after college and used the New York branch for routine care and birth control. It was fairly easy to get an appointment, the staff was welcoming and the doctor was friendly. For a lot of people, this is the only place healthcare is available, and it needs all the support it can get.
Officially, Komen claims the parting of ways is because organizations under investigation cannot receive funds. Of course, this criteria is conveniently newly adopted and the investigation that Planned Parenthood is under is only occurring because of backwards Republican lawmakers — the same ones who wanted to hold up the entire budget debate because they dislike one procedure that federal funds don’t even cover.
Diverting money away from the good things they do because they happen to perform a legal medical procedure that’s politically controversial is hypocritical and misguided at best. Komen will slap a pink ribbon on anything — including fast food and cars, both of which contribute to ill health — and say it’s “for the cure,” but when it comes to doing something that actually helps the women they claim to support, they take the cowardly route and bow down to right-wing, anti-choice bullies. They certainly can’t call it pro-life, since they’re taking money from services that can save women’s lives.
For awhile it has seemed like Komen was paying more attention to pink marketing and “awareness” than actual research compared to other organizations, but this is the final, inexcusable straw. This move flies in the face of what a cancer group should stand for. They should be supporting the people who will help with prevention and treatment, not blacklisting them because of politics.
Death + Taxes, January 30, 2012
The Flaming Lips are going full speed ahead with their plans to release a collaboration album on Record Store Day. They’ve announced that they’re working with Bon Iver, Yoko Ono and Nick Cave, and now they’ve unveiled a preview of a track with Erykah Badu.
The spacey, floaty track also samples from Siri, which may be the Apple personal assistant’s first appearance on a song from a bigger-name band, unless you count the brilliant hack that has her rapping to Notorious B.I.G.’s “Hypnotize.”
Check out a clip of the track below. Record Store Day is April 21, 2012.
