Yesterday winter returned with a vengeance to the south. I had a nice British roast dinner (Americans would call it lunch) with friends and the snowfall never ceased. Unfortunately I left during the worst time, and things were rather tense and silent in the car as I drove slooowly down the hill and wound my way back home on those curvy little roads. Ye gods. I am so over this white stuff. What you don't see in the picture is the village behind the snowfall. Really, it was rather beautiful, all that snow. Powder. Soft, light, white, pretty. But I easily got past that: how can those snowclumps pack so much wetness and cold in them, and sneak in through all 5 layers of clothing, and still make me shriek as they melt down my back???

Hello, Spring? The world wants you. Now.

I was doing some research for work when I discovered that Liberty of London are going to be featured at Target! Liberty, of the gorgeous flower prints, will be featuring 5 of their prints (Dunclare Pink, Sixty (below), Martha Grace, Peacock, and Carla) on items ranging from piggy banks to bicycles. (I personally would like a skateboard with a floral print but I'll settle for the teapot!)

Finally, here's a video all book lovers will love. Have a happy Monday!

Have you had enough of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics yet? Two weeks' worth of fantastic athleticism and I'm only just getting over it.

One of the reasons is that the IOC has given full recognition to sport climbing's internationally recognized body, the IFSC. This is the first step toward eligibility for inclusion at the 2020 Summer Games; sports for each Olympics is selected 7 years beforehand, so the 2016 sports are already locked in place. (Note that this does not include traditional and alpine climbing.) What happens next will take place behind the scenes, according to this article, possibly changing rules for bouldering (low-level ropeless climbing), sport climbing (climbing with a rope), and speed climbing (racing), and adding an anti-doping policy. What is key to making sport climbing a successful spectator sport (because it can be boring, watching someone project a route), as IFSC president Marco Solaris said in this article, was

"... 1) Media visibility; 2) Each competition must become a great event; 3) Federal commitment, on all levels, to make sport climbing grow in their own countries."

What does this mean for sport climbing? Well, more visibility for the sport, and probably more commercialism, as if there wasn't already enough of it. Recognition of the sport could mean that national parks associations will reconsider access issues and rules for cliffs in certain areas (such as the closure Williamson Rock in the Angeles Crest mountains just outside Los Angeles). It could also mean imposing mandatory safety measures, since rock climbing can be dangerous (whoa, Dean Potter solo highlining at Taft Point in Yosemite).

I've already stated my ambivalence toward sport climbing as an Olympic sport, but perhaps the idea will grow on me. Since the 60s the sport has evolved from a highly-specialized, almost-secretive, dirtbag pursuit to a more polished, accessible, structured body with ordinary people doing incredible things, one can only guess what can happen in the next 10 years. Change is good.

In closing, here's a selection of some of the best imagery of the 2010 Games, taken from The Big Picture.

© REUTERS/Dylan Martinez (CANADA) #

© REUTERS/Todd Korol #

© Clive Mason/Getty Images #

©AP Photo/Matthias Schrader #

© AP Photo/Matthias Schrader #

© AP Photo/Kevin Frayer #

According to this, Sweetheart was born out of a sketch made by Kate's daughter, and loving maman that she is, Kate obliged.

And, predictably, those with boys grumbled. Thus Sweetstar was born:

If pink and more pink just isn't your little girl's thing, try other color combinations. Maybe it's just me: these first two make me think of sunflowers and irises:

And these. I know of one niece who can at times be nature-lover or punk princess:

I'm sure you can think of other stupendous color combinations, with variegated yarn even, or stripes! And I'm sure they'll look just as good in yarns with textures such as tweed, velour, bouclé. The only limit is your imagination.

The best part is that 100% of all proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity's efforts in Haiti, exclusively. Isn't that fantastic? So you can keep *your* little sweeties warm at the same time that you're helping out other people's loved ones.

There are, of course, other knit-related efforts out there:

• Yarn Harlot Stephanie Pearl-McPhee keeps a running tally of the amount donated by knitters to Medecins sans Frontieres / Doctors without Borders here.
• Ravelry has created a special Help for Haiti tag for pattern searching. Check to see deadlines on donations, as some patterns may be available for contribution for a limited time.

Images courtesy Twist Collective. All rights reserved.

Rust on ironwork, 2010.

A visit to the old town on the hill just this weekend resulted in a few decent pictures, this being one of them. I lucked out: it was a bit of a cloudy day, which is perfect for pictures. It was bitterly cold, though, the kind of day when most people—most locals—stayed inside. When the hardiest people were the tourists and out-of-towners determined to make the most of an otherwise gruesome day. I found this bit of rustiness on an ordinary metal gate facing the fountain facing the Hotel du Beffroi. The owners never bothered sanding it away and, quite frankly, I like it the way it is. A few quick snaps and then off I went, down the worn and icy cobblestones and over the bridge to Place Montfort, for a mid-morning noisette.

I spent Sunday in the company of friends, at a lovely little village near us called Gigondas. It's a charming place with lots of pretty vignettes like the one above. There is a particular street decorated with all sorts of odds and ends, the work of one resident whose apparent motto is "more is more, yes, lots more". There is a garden of contemporary art that's quite interesting, and pretty cool in that they can be touched, and explored, and moved around. There is a former hospice that serves as a little tourist office and offers wine tastings. (Most people think first and foremost of Châteauneuf-du-Pape when it comes to Côte du Rhône wines, but Gigondas is high up on the list, too.)

We ended the day at a friend's place to enjoy a warm fire, wine, flapjacks, and a tarte aux pommes. And a promise to get together again. Enjoy the pictures!

:::

For the first time in a long time, while taking pictures, I thought about my blog. This one. It's been through redesigns and updates, and reflected my varying levels of interest in assorted crafts. And, quite frankly, I thought of shutting it down at one point, but perhaps out of pure laziness, flakiness, or nostalgia, I didn't. Sploggers be damned. It's about redefining its purpose. I no longer knit as madly as I used to, a consequence of my living in Europe and my stash living in the US. I obviously don't spin, or quilt, or sew, for the same reasons. (I really don't want to accumulate stuff while I'm here.) I still climb, just not now while it's bitter cold. And I'm doing more freelance design, which I've sorely missed, and which I recently got back into. So while I figure things out, I'll continue posting on anything and everying, and add pictures on Flickr. Stick around.

This year marks the 5th year that I've been doing the "52 Books in 52 Weeks" meme (see lists on my About page). Memes are strange things, part popularity contest, part true competition, part snobbery. Reading parallels rock climbing: there is a personal challenge, a variety of selections, a goal, and a tangible reward (of sorts) at the end. No wonder it endures. When it started out (I'll laregly credit Large Hearted Boy for this) and spread through the knitting blogs, I wasn't the least bit surprised because the knitbloggers of 2005 were a smaller community with a handful of marquee names, and very open to all kinds of viral marketing, polls, and memes. Now, with book lists so commonplace on blogs (and I've made lists to read once I return to the US), it was surprising to read that this meme is once again making the rounds, this time through design blogs such as this and this. What's old has become new again.

Here's to 2010 and many more books in your bookshelves!

1. One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night, Christopher Brookmyre. Funny in a twisted way. Reading the thick accents was a bit difficult.


2. Slumdog Millionaire, Vikas Swarup. Good book.


3. In A Sunburned Country, Bill Bryson. Touches on the Aborigines, which bears addressing even more.


4. The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett


5. The Perfect Spy, John le Carré


6. Revelations, Jerry Moffatt. The climbing legend's story in his own words. Could have been edited a lot better.


7. Scarpetta, Patricia Cornwell


8. Righteous Pork Chop: Finding a Life and Good Food beyond Factory Farms, Nicolette Hahn Niman


9. High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed, Michael Kodas


10. Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America, Morgan Spurlock. An older book, but still relevant.


11. Ender in Exile, Orson Scott Card


12. The Brass Verdict, Michael Connelly. Good writer. This book brings together Bosch and Haller in a very unexpected way!


13. The Overlook, Michael Connelly


14. The Last Coyote, Michael Connelly


15. Sandworms of Dune, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. These two books are what the authors claim would have been Frank Herbert's 7th in the Dune Series. They're good, but I disliked the ending because it has an unrealistic, fairy tale quality. I think I would have liked it if it had been written *better*, it just seemed so rushed. I do, however, like the very last line...


16. Hunters of Dune, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson


17. Jacquot and the Waterman, Martin O'Brien


18. The Full Cupboard of Life, Alexander McCall Smith. Good book, great series!


19. The The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith.


20. Tears of the Giraffe, Alexander McCall Smith.


21. The Kalahari Typing School for Men, Alexander McCall Smith.


22. Deeper, Jeff Long. The sequel to The Descent; less creepy. The first is a must-read. But not before bed!


23. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernières. I liked this very much. I don't intend on watching the movie; sometimes books are better left alone for the individual to imagine the characters.


24. The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman, Louis de Bernières. This wasn't very good. De Bernières' writing style was rather tedious here.


25. The Showa Anthology: Modern Japanese Short Stories


26. The Transformation and Other Stories, Franz Kafka


27. Mr. Nice, Howard Marks


28. Slam, Nick Hornby


29. The House at Riverton, Kate Morton


30. Genghis, Conn Iggulden


31. Moriarty, John Gardner


32. The Whole Truth, David Baldacci


33. The Appeal, John Grisham


34. Book of the Dead, Patricia Cornwell


35. Predator, Patricia Cornwell


36. Secret Prey, John Sandford


37. Phantom Prey, John Sandford


38. Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise, Ruth Reichl


39. The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World's Most Famous Cooking School, Kathleen Flinn


40. Come to the Table, A Passion for Eating and French Living, Louise Luiggi


41. I'll Never Be French (No Matter What I Do): Living in a Small Village in Brittany, Mark Greenside


42. The Billionaire's Vingegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine, Benjamin Wallace


43. Echo Park, Michael Connelly


44. Lost Light, Michael Connelly


45. The Overlook, Michael Connelly


46. Still Summer, Jacquelyn Mitchard


47. The Inner Circle, Mari Jungstedt


48. Chasing Harry Winston, Lauren Weisberger


49. Alexander & Alestria, Shan Sa


50. Personal Velocity, Rebecca Miller. Short stories of women.

Would love to read Susanna Clarke's The Ladies of Grace Adieu

Photo by Cesare Naldi.

The Big Picture recently covered National Geographic's International Photography Contest and the first photo in the gallery touched me: The image of Rajan, a swimming elephant, supporting his mahout Nazroo is beautiful because it speaks of trust and the bond (sometimes over a lifetime) between handler and animal.

For some reason when I think of elephants, I think of them swimming. It's incredible that such massive hulks of mammal can actually move across water (when, um, I can't), and to see them in action is priceless. I've collected a few videos for you:

This is Rajan, the elephant in the picture above. Rajan lives in the Andaman Islands, in the Indian Ocean. Lots of water! What to do, eh?

This second video has a particularly nice story behind it. The owner (who is not the filmmaker) saved the video because she liked it so much and posted it for all eternity (or until the BBC claim copyright violation). There are apparently quite a few swimming elephant lovers out there.

This third features a memorable scene in The Fall (2008; IMDB). Tarsem (Singh) directed this, with Krishna Levy doing the music; in this interview, Tarsem mentions that male elephants will swim in the ocean to get to a female. He's also known for directing REM's Losing My Religion music video, another favorite of mine for its look and feel.

It should be noted that Tarsem has a thing for elephants going back to 1994. Read on.

Elephants are good for comic relief, too. No water, but elephants and trampolines are another improbabe combination. Also, it's rendered, but let's suspend reality.

And of course, the magic combination is elephants + swimming + comedy, which resulted in one of the most memorable commercials I've ever seen. This 1994 commercial by Fallon McElligott (now Fallon Worldwide) and directed and produced by guess-who (Tarsem, of course) put them on the map. (They also created the Sony Bravia play-doh bunny commercial.) According to this, the scratchy phonograph music was made especially for the commerical and is unavailable for purchase, and that it was filmed at Koh Phi Phi Ley at Maya Beach in Thailand. 

And if you haven't had enough, check out this list of fictional elephants.

I picked olives. This year I picked only those bigger than my thumb. I packed them in salt and once a day I shake the jar. The mildness is *just* there.

I climbed rocks. I read climbing blogs. I watched climbing videos. I'm getting stronger but I'm not yet strong enough. (Hah! Like every climber I know.)

I read design blogs. I missed Graphic Design: typography, composition, color, imagery, artistry. Not usability. Not functionality. Just. Design.

I started drawing again. I warm up by trying to draw straight, parallel lines and round circles, like the monks, and perfectly spaced squiggles. I draw in pen. Because I want to.

I think I'd like to start blogging again. Whenever I feel like it. Out at the cliffs, I hear people yell out, "Allez", encouraging a climber to move past a crux section or to keep moving. Yalla expresses the same sentiment, flowing off the tongue like silk. Do you like it? I do.

Yalla. Allez. Let's go.

Copy scraping, or splogging, is illegal.

At least in the United States. But it doesn't matter whether you're doing this in Germany, or Turkey, or some tiny island in the middle of the Pacific. The fact is that if you're using someone else's original content and original imagery for your own purposes, whether monetary or pure spite or whatever, it exposes you for who you really are:

A fraud. A thief.

Unoriginal, uninspiring, uninteresting.

If you're reading this on a blog or feed whose name and owner is not Yummy Yarn by Mary Joy Gumayagay, then the words and images have been scraped from Mary Joy's original knitting blog.

You can't come up with your own content, so you have to use someone else's. I pity you, if this is the way you make money, with Google AdSense ads interspersed with my content. And, I might add, other bloggers'.

You must be one pathetic human being.

© Mary Joy Gumayagay and indus3ous.com. All Right Reserved. Do not copy or reproduce this site's content without proper attribution and express permission.

I guess you think you're getting the last laugh, don't you? Don't worry, call me lots of names, it just shows how uncivilized and crude you really are. You seek validation through others. You are insecure, you find joy in cheating, you find security in hiding. You are nothing, and you will always be nothing.

Goodbye, Summer! Southern California, thank you.

Reunion.

Revision.

Revival.

And, as always, a new masthead.

Toward the end of August I got to thinking about that vital part of me I left behind in the Old World. The rock climber. The museum-goer, the market-browser, the eater-of-berries-along-the-forest-path. The lover of light and shadow. The artist who so deftly creates a landscape in a few careful strokes of watercolor.

Reconnect.

Time to go home.

(Boy, did the light seriously wane at our most recent get-together! What was supposed to have been a Sew-In became a gabfest.... ladies, I think I know you all A LOT BETTER NOW.*ahem* Happy Birthday dear Jillian, I'm glad you liked the fabric and the crocheted scarf!)

I feel that, in terms of quilting education, I've graduated from preschool.

I've stepped away from squares. Hello, pretty triangles!

I've matched corners as best as I can.

And made sure they were square.

I improved my blind stitching.

And, inspired, even added detail work. (Next time I'll split the floss into two.)

The back was plain, but all the better...

To show off my quilting.

Accomplishment feels very, very good indeed.

Pattern: I was inspired by this post on Creative Little Daisy and this post on Don't Call Me Becky. The latter turned her corner squares in, so that the center is solid color. I like both versions. Just 2 days ago Blair of Wise Craft posted her finished Values Quilt, which uses the same pattern but is based on color and/or pattern value. Metrosupial Designs posted a tutorial on picking values, and there are some good notes there on piecing this particular quilt design as well.

Fabric: Moda Nostalgia charm pack (30 squares), random Amy Butler, and Alexander Henry; solids by Kona.

Notes: I used a total of 40 5" squares, so this ended up being a bigger quilt than CLD's and DCMB's. I actually had a wider border but not enough batting so I trimmed the border down, but I don't think the quilt suffers for it. I chose to quilt 3/8" from the ditch in a fairly geometric pattern because I'm still squeamish about free-motion quilting. (I tried it on a doll quilt for my niece that turned out well, but the operative word there is "doll". As in small.)

I haven't sewn a stitch in over 2 years, so it's a miracle all my corners match! I can't stress enough the importance of trimming your squares after sewing the diagonals—it's fiddly and takes forever, but well worth the time. Trust me on this. CLD linked to a video about basting which covered such things as sewn-in (which I much prefer over pin) basting and how to assemble the pieces for basting. Good info.

I think this or some variation of it (a zig-zag quilt is just a different arrangement of the same square) will be my go-to pattern for a quick but fun quilt. It took 3 days total to cut and piece the top, half a day for the back, and 2 days to quilt. I also love that it can use any combination of colors and patterns, and I end up with a nice-sized quilted gift. It's a good pattern to try if you're looking beyond squares.

Blogworthy:
:: AshiDashi's cool Notebook and Pencil socks.
:: Lego's latest ad campaign by Blattner Brunner.
:: Via Kottke, mythical creatures mapped by venn diagram. I love organizing stuff!

Inspiration.

It takes an interesting pattern and a beautiful yarn for me to pick up the needles. And, a nudge from Julia: a swap among friends. And, a pal to knit for. (Sorry, this is the year of the lazy.)

So I went a-searching for a not-too-lacey, not-too-cabley pattern. Nothing too foofy; she's not a foofy kind of girl. Certainly nothing too plain either. Here we go: Texture? Check. Technique? Check. Yarn? Check. Color? Drape? Yardage? Check, check, check. Love? Oh yes. Kismet? Definitely.

Oh, this was one knit I wanted to blog about in-progress. Can you see why?

Pattern: Twisted Ribbons Cowl by Kristi Holaas (Ravelry)
Yarn: 1.75 skeins Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in #55 Rusty Red
Needles: US 6
Notes: Because I used a smaller needle and thinner yarn, I added more repeats to achieve a cowl measurement of 22" circumference and 10" height. I also added a 2-stitch cable to the left and right sides where the ribbons ended, and made the garter edging 3 stitches wide. The pattern itself is very simple and very engaging; despite the fact that it's a 28-row repeat, it's a very visual pattern and you can intuit what comes next without referring to the chart. [Take my experience with a grain of salt, however.]

It looks great on its wrong side, I think.

A sideways knit, I looked forward to finishing so I could unravel the cast-on edge and graft them together! For that, I stopped at the 27th row of the last repeat, which meant that the yarn was now on the left side, ready for the wrong side row which would be the grafting row. I put both sets of cast-on stitches on smaller needles. Then I matched stitch to stitch, needle flying in and out of loops, until *finally*, close to an hour later, I had created a tube. You can see the seam, somewhat, on the 2nd picture, but you'd have to look closely. Maybe Lori's love of finishing rubbed off on me, because I was absolutely fanatic with making sure every fricking stitch matched each other, even the yarnovers and the cables.

What's next, ladies?

A reunion: Me, Julia, Shannon, Lori, Amiee, Felix, Kat, and Jillian. And Mary-Heather online. More pictures here, here, here, and here! And here!

{ + }

An introduction: To the cutest Bean of all.

{ + }

A secret pal cowl exchange: Jillian gifted me with a fabulous combination! My first Noro, delicious cables and a beautiful combination of neutrals.

{ + }

A launch: Twist Collective unveiled its first anniversary (Fall 2009) issue. Good quality patterns and a dynamic group of ladies. Congratulations Kate, Julia, Irene, and Mary!

Photos taken last April above Brantes toward Mont Ventoux (love that oversaturated, postcard effect), and the previous September at its top. Go here for Tour-related videos of the Drome and upper Vaucluse areas—god, looking at all those stills made me homesick!

MJ :: Saturday, July 25, 2009

Did you have a good time at the Tour?
The Saxo Bank kid shouldn't have looked back too much.
It's impressive that a (ha ha) senior citizen can finish third in the Tour!



MJ's Hubby :: Sunday, July 26, 2009

It was awesome, it really was... I left the house around 9:45a and rode my bike up to Col de Fontaube. You go towards Buis[-les-Baronnies], turn right to Montbrun[-les-Bains], and it is about 10km to the top from the turnoff. There were people at the intersection already, they put up a few barriers and those inflatables with the markers on them. The road was still open, so there were cars going up the hill and lots of other bike riders, many of them in full regalia.

I followed someone on another bicycle for a while but he didn't go all the way to the top, so I tried following some people on road bikes, which I really couldn't do on my dad's 50-lb, 20-yo mountain bike. Funny though, because I did catch one guy on his €5000 bike and passed him... hahaha!

There were many people on the col and the switchbacks up to it, but it really wasn't bad. Just like I hoped it'd be. As I was going up Dom [an acquaintance] yelled at me from his car and I met him higher up on the mountain. I decided I want to see the top first and told him I'd be back down later. He was waiting for his wife Lucy [another acquaintance], she rode her bike up as well. She did the Mondovélo on Monday and get this:

Her time was 8 hrs 30 min for that stage.

The Tour did it in 4 hrs 39 min yesterday.

Isn't that insane? How is that even possible? The stage was 170 km. BTW, Eric Zabel was in the Mondovélo, I hear he placed really well...



The top of Col de Fontaube wasn't so interesting, just barriers, police and all kinds of logistics vehicles. I rode back down and looked for the others. They had found a great spot in a slower corner with "Wigg, Wigg" [Bradley Wiggins] and the British flag painted all over the road. You could also see two switchbacks leading up and the road lower on the mountain. It was right above the place we stopped in the spring to collect some of the flowering twigs in that field. On our backs Ventoux is looming and looks quite intimidating. I watched some interviews the day before yesterday and the riders were saying that on this stage there is only one climb up to Ventoux. So they don't even count Col de Fontaube or Col d'Ey (where Baume Rousse [the climbing] is).

It was quite hot and the sun was beating down on us, no shade anywhere. The next two hours were slow, until the caravans came! It was great fun. All the sponsors drive in all kinds of weird vehicles the entire stage (!) and pass out shwag, promotional items. I got a bag full of goodies and we were all scrambling to get free stuff, like little kids.

The older the people the worse their behaviour [Eng. sp.]. Hahahahaha...

I was next to some black French dude in a turquoise bib (it looked gnarly) and he was trying to beat me to the stuff every time. But in the end he was cool, because I said something and then he started giving me things he snatched first. I was trying to take pics of the caravans, quite difficult, since they were blasting up the hill and around the corner with loud music blaring.

Then it finally started happening. We heard from someone with a radio that they are approaching Buis. So maybe 20 minutes... or less...

There was a lot of nervous energy. Everybody was getting ready—for what, really? Then the sure telltale signs: the drone of the helicopters, a lot of noise travelling toward us. I checked my camera; I planned on doing a video of the whole thing. I was a little nervous, we didn't know anything. Was there a breakaway group or was it one big peloton?



All the technical support cars came first, then the police and finally, the riders. They are FAST, holy shit. It was a real eye opener... In a way, there was something creepy about it. It turns out there was a group ahead of the maillot jaune, about 20 riders. Then came the main pack. I filmed and yelled at the same time, quite funny, it came out alright considering... Astana was behind the first team (don't remember which one it was) and I saw Lance toward the back and started yelling "Go Lance, go!" I think he heard me yell, because he started riding much better right after....

One thing I did not know: They were sweating like pigs, like someone who just stepped out of the shower, and you can hear their breathing... amazing! I was really close to them and I have to say, it was worth coming! Well worth it. Just to see how fast they go uphill, you watch it—you can't believe it!

They were followed by shitloads of team cars with wheels and bikes on top, it seemed it'd never end. The crowed dispersed pretty quickly after that (about 1:30p) and I rode back down towards [home]. I was glad I had my bike, all the cars blocked the road all the way down to the main road. But it really was nothing compared to what's going on on LA freeways and in the South Coast Plaza area around Christmas time. I am just used to so much worse...

So I got shwag for you, and I got video!!! We were also on TV. I saw the recap later and you could see us on the mountain taken from the helicopter. We were not looking [up], but looking down the road and we were also pretty small... taken from high above. But of course I knew where to look, so I doubt you did see me. Dom's little girl had one of those huge inflatable bananas. He was holding it and I was standing next to him looking away from the helicopter... hahahaha.