disaster strikes

I think my laptop is dying. It is three years old now, and according to Spanky, is about ready to kick the bucket any day now. I thought it was running fine, but we took it to the local cafe last night, and shortly after I got all set up on battery power, it started FREAKING OUT and shut itself down. We took it home, and after some cleaning and other sorts of routine maintenance, Spanky's given up. And if she can't fix it, I certainly can't. She says it isn't worth trying to pay for a repair, since the computer is so old, so I'm going to have to just suck it up and buy a new one, which is a financial burden I didn't want to have to shoulder at this point. We just shelled out precious, precious funds to buy inflated plane tickets home for xmas, and my sister's wedding is proving to be a money suck like all weddings are, and Spanky and I are planning our big escape to the land Down Under next spring, which is going to take a huge chunk. Plus the vet bills and, oi. Thank GOD I don't have kids. The pets are expensive enough keeping up with their constant shots and other ailments.

Anyway, so I'm posting this rambling mess from work (my assistant is out sick, so he's not constantly running in here for me to do something or sign something or whatever). I just received the Tahki Cotton Classic for the last two baby gifts I have to make for a while, and I have to say, it's not very soft. The colors are awesome, but meh. I was hoping for sooooffftt. Oh well.

Also, I'm so close to finishing so many things. My trellis fronts and back are done, and I'm working on the first sleeve now. The dog blanket needs two more stripes and then I'll be working on the border. All the ends are woven in already. So here's my list to do before the end of the year:

1. finish trellis and mail out.
2. start assistant scarf
3. two baby hats and booties sets
4. sweater for niece
5. shrug for sister's wedding

Luckily, I'm going to Richmond on Wednesday (yes, Halloween...), and I'm going to take that scarf with me. I think Trellis should hopefully be done by then, and the scarf will give me something to really work on. I'm hoping I get the majority of it done before I get back on Saturday. I should be able to knock the hats and booties out in a week, so that gives me most of November and December to work on that horse sweater for my 6 yr old niece and the shrug for my sister's wedding, which I don't even want to think about right now. I guess that's not too bad, if I can stick to it.

this is not about knitting

Well, I've about had it. I just wrote an email to Hasbro, because of this. Just looking at that line "built for boyhood" just makes me SO ANGRY. What the hell were they thinking? And those commercials? Where they have all the little boys riding around on the trucks? They might as well have a big sign that says "NO GIRLS ALLOWED". Which would be fine if it was a fort in a back yard somewhere, but a COMPANY? Voluntarily excluding half of their potential customers? Seriously? In this day and age?

I was so mad. I hope my email made sense, because I typed it through the red haze clouding my good sense. I can understand tailoring a product for girls or boys, but to blatantly come out and say 'this toy is for boys' flies in the face of good business. The parents will buy boys those toys anyway, regardless, but now, what are parents of girls who like trucks supposed to do? I hope they don't buy TONKA trucks! The trucks of sexist pigs...

ETA:

I feel like I should explain a little further that it is actually the Tonka "Tonka is built for boyhood" commercials that I object to. They show a buch of little boys playing with the trucks you ride around on and kids pushing dump trucks and stuff. They're basically toddlers, but the voiceovers and the text specifically say that these toys are just for boys. They say it several times. Anyone with a small child knows that kids watch TV obsessively. They believe whatever they see on TV. So I think companies like Tonka have a responsibility to encourage all children, since kids can't really filter what they see on TV. It is one thing to just show boys playing with trucks. Lord knows that doll companies do that. All the kids in those commericals are girls. And that is annoying, but it makes sense. Those are the people who buy the toys, and I'm not arguing that they should try to push trucks on girls. But by coming out and specifically saying that the toys are just for boys, they're closing the door for those little girls to have any interest at all in those toys. And that, to me, doesn't make any sort of business sense. A little girl looking at a truck toy just sees a truck until they watch that commercial that tells them it is specifically for a boy. So she thinks she isn't supposed to want that.

Anyway, they actually wrote me back. Here's the email response I received:

Hi Kimberly,

Thank you so much for your recent inquiry about our marketing strategy on Tonka. As the mother of a 3 and a half year old girl, I can certainly understand the fun and wonder when a little girl or little boy breaks "stereotype" and plays with non-traditional toys. My daughter is totally into Spiderman, and I LOVE IT!

As a family organization we are committed to finding exciting and appropriate play experiences for boys and girls of all ages, and if you log on to our website at www.hasbrotoyshop.com , I am sure you will find many toys that are both gender neutral as well as gender specific.

The gender specific toys help to build confidence and create wonderful bonding experiences amongst both parents of same sex children and amongst the children who they relate with most.

Specifically on Tonka, there are essentially two reasons why we choose to market Tonka to boys. In all of our research, the overwhelming majority of Tonka interest is with little boys. Further, we have scores of research that tell us about the psychological differences between boys and girls and how they play. In fact, there is some recent research that explains how this can actually be traced back to the actual biology and chemistry in the brain. This research proves to us that while there will be girls who defy these studies, the marketing is best targeted to boys and moms of little boys.

Thank again for your concern and interest, and I hope this letter helps to shed some light on our marketing strategy.

My Very Best,

Angie Salem

Director of Marketing, Tonka brand

Hasbro, Inc.
**************

So, in essence, she's absolving them of any responsibility for encouraging non-gender specific toys because of biological imperatives--boys like trucks and girls like dolls. Any girl that wants to play with trucks is 'bucking the system' (ie: is probably a lesbian to this 'family organization'). Kids play differently. Perhaps. That doesn't really get to the heart of the problem though, which is that they're now influencing how kids play by what they say in the commercial, and they're coming out as a company and saying that they believe that only boys want trucks, and they only really want boys to buy the trucks, when really, parents of boys would probably buy the trucks anyway. It's all just ridiculous.

I started looking into professional organizations for women in construction. There are several: The National Association for Women in Construction, Professional Women in Construction, Women in Construction Company, and Canadian Construction Women. I also found this interesting article about how hard it is for women to find construction jobs, even after they're trained. Hmmm. I WONDER WHY. It isn't because everyone's been trained to think that trucks are for boys, is it?

two yarn stores better than any in NYC

I don't know what it is about yarn stores in New York. I mean, I know they're all pretty small because of the astronomical rents, but why don't they offer better classes? More fun activities? I get so jealous when I visit other places and see the huge stores with the beautiful layouts and the friendly, helpful staff that aren't bitter if you don't buy a whole lot.

I was lucky enough in my recent business trips to have time to visit two yarn stores, both of which were great, and both of which gave me severe envy.

1. Mouline Fine Yarns: First up, Montreal. Now Montreal has several yarn stores, but I was only able to get to this one based on the time I had and my location in the city. They've just moved into a bigger storefront, and had a lot of selection. I got to see all the Kaffe Fassett Regia colors, although I didn't end up buying any. I got a Canadian colorway instead (since it was, after all, a souvenier of my trip to Canada):



The Kaffe colors were great too--there were both self-striping and variegated colors--but I thought some of the Canadian colorways were just as pretty, and not really that much different. So I guess I was a little underwhelmed. But they were still nice, just not really as spectacular as I thought they would be.



I also bought some Gedifra English Tweed for my assistant's xmas scarf (Interlocking Balloons from Scarf Style). I've been wanting to make this for a long time, and I think he'll really appreciate it. The shop had the yarn on sale, and so I bought four skeins. I think this will be enough, but I can always make it a little shorter if I have to.

The good thing about Mouline was the owner. He was this large, sweaty man with missing teeth, but he was so nice and so helpful that he instantly put you at ease. He is justifiably proud of their selection and their pricing, and if you look at their website, you can see that he passes his savings on things on to the consumer--lots of things are on sale at pretty decent prices. The one thing to beware though, is that he doesn't talk you into buying something other than what you came in for, which might be a danger, as he obviously wants to sell you the best yarn he can. But it was definitely a soft sell, as I didn't feel compelled to buy what he suggested, and I did appreciate the opportunity to see and feel a lot of the Colinette yarns, which are harder to come buy in NYC (at least where I shop, anyway).

I suspect that if I lived in Montreal I'd go there a lot. It was also very big-there was a good sized teaching table in the back, lots of books in their book/pattern area, available for you to thumb through (a feature I really love in a yarn store), and there was still loads of room for customers to look around without feeling pinched or crowded. The owner guy really seems to love what he's doing, and to love talking about yarn, and I had a really good time there and felt very welcome to spend as much time (or money!!) as I wanted. :)

2. The Gourmet Yarn Company: Second stop was in Oklahoma City. I had a car during this trip, and two days with some extra time, so in between all the other sight-seeing I did, I figured out how to get to "Oklahoma City's full-service, up-scale yarn store." It was totally worth it too. The knitters of OKC are very lucky to have a store like this one. I think this was more of a community store than Mouline, but probably because Mouline is more urban-Montreal is a lot more like NYC than OKC is. (Although, one could argue that NYC could REALLY use a friendlier, more community-driven yarn store more on this mold. Knitty City is the only one I've found that even comes close, and it is just too far away from me to make it a regular visit.)

Anyway, I didn't spend as much time in The Gourmet Yarn Co., because I had already spent a lot of money shopping for other stuff, and my suitcase couldn't fit anymore. I did buy one skein of this, though:


I had just finished a scarf for one of my friends for xmas (one gift down! YAY!), and loved, loved, loved it so much I immediately cast this Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande on for a version for me.



The one I made for my friend was made from one skein of Misti Alpaca Bulky, but it is basically the same yarn, although I did find the Plymouth to be a little bit splittier, which could have been because I was knitting it in transit. The ribbing looks fantastic too. It is done in this Eve's rib, which is basically a slipped stitch type thing, with those cute ruffles on the ends. I haven't blocked either one yet, although I am done with the one I started on the trip home. I had connecting flights, so I basically started my scarf when I got to the OKC airport and bound off when I unpacked at home. It was about 4 or 5 hrs of knitting, give or take the changing of planes, etc. Not too shabby! I don't have a picture of it yet, because when I went to bind off my version I had an extra little ball of yarn left over, and I'm debating whether I should tink back the ruffle on the cast-off edge and do a few more rows of ribbing so that I use every last scrap of yarn. I'm pretty sure I'll do that, but I just need to sit down and do it.

Anyway, back to the yarn store. It was in this shopping center, but the website gives such good directions, and OKC is so easy to navigate that I found it easily. The woman working there (I don't know if she was the owner) was very friendly, and you guys--they have knitting retreats! I'm so jealous. I do think I'm going to figure out how to organize one of those for my knitting group though. Perhaps it will just be us spending a weekend at a place upstate just knitting and relaxing, or perhaps I'll try to figure out how to have classes too, but the point is to get away and relax and knit. You should go to their website and look at the pictures of the place they go--it looks so pretty. They have a great selection of basic things like Lamb's Pride, but some other pretty handpainted stuff and lots and lots of sock yarn. The other thing I thought was really great was that they also sell the knitting-themed novels like The Friday Night Knitting Club, the hardback of which Amazon seems to be remaindering, because it is on sale now for $5.99!

The Gourmet Yarn Co. had one big room in the front, with waist-high shelves along several aisles and another room in the back with the teaching table, around which were seated several knitters when I arrived. The woman working came out to greet me, and then let me browse for a while, until I was ready to go. I also picked up some cable needles, which I really needed, and the Holiday Interweave Knits, which is awesome. But that's another post in and of itself (well, along with the two other fiber mags I've gotten since then (Holiday VK and Crochet Today! which for some reason I can't stop buying...).

GO DOG GO!!

Is it really October? I had three conferences in the month of September. In fact, I'm STILL AT ONE NOW. I've been to Canada, upstate NY and the southwest.

Some travel pics:


From left to right across the rows (click any to go to the flickr page):
1. Downtown Montreal from the Concordia history department window. Wish I had a view like that from my office...
2. French film production. I thought it was funny. Look for "Death Race" coming to a theater near you!
3. Went out to Jersey for my friend Ilene's baby naming ceremony and 1 yr birthday. Apparently for Jewish girl babies you can have these ceremonies like you would have a bris for a boy. It affirms that the girl baby is special in her own right. It was a beautiful ceremony. They had the same feminist lesbian rabbi who married them perform the blessing, and then the family members each said stuff, and they explained why they picked her name. I was glad I went, even though I didn't realize that there would be so many people!
4. The Edison Exploratorium. Extra points if you know where this is. My biggest regret is that it was closed when we found it.
5. Stillwater, where Oklahoma began. I'm not sure if that's technically true, but if so, that's pretty awesome. I like thinking about that sign being the very point where all those land grabbers lined up like in that Tom Cruise movie. There is so much history here, and it is so different from anything I'm used to on the East coast. I do love going out west.
6. Oklahoma State University student union.
7. University of Oklahoma--there's much more art on this campus than at OK State. At least in my very superficial experience. And I thought this piece was particularly strange. You're just walking along, and then there are these two women, from the 1950s. I imagine them as lesbians. What? They could be!
8. World of Wings, Oklahoma City. This is a racing pigeon museum that I went to this morning. Or was that yesterday? I think it was yesterday, before the conference really got started. That's the pigeon coop, were the pigeons land when they return from their races. That deck out front has a computer scanner underneath, and when the pigeons land there, the scanner reads a microchip on the band around their leg and logs the time of their return. That museum was actually really informative, and I'm glad I went, even though I was the only one there.

I'll have more coming up. I didn't even get a chance to talk about the knitting. I've been busy, and have one christmas present finished. I need to start my assistant's scarf soon, because I have to make a sweater for my niece as well.

I'm so glad all this travel is almost over. I have one more conference before the end, and then I'm going down to visit my mother and my sister before the end of the year, when Spanky and I are going down for the holidays. Sheesh. It's all a freaking blur, I tell ya. This is probably the busiest I've been in a long time.