Yurt.

A week or so ago, there was a big hubbub on the interwebs over the New York Times article on Michael Roach and Christie McNally, Buddhist monks who live in a yurt in Arizona, practice celibacy, and never are more than fifteen feet from each other. Responses were mixed, sort of. Actually, a lot of people seemed to be disgusted by the fifteen foot rule. Many people also found the couple's claims to celibacy ludicrous, insisting that something had to be going on between the man and his much younger partner. Those who believed the couple were celibate were disgusted by their rejection of sexual intimacy.

I ... don't really care. Whatever weirdness goes on in the privacy of people's yurts, and whether or not those people are completely honest about it, isn't really of interest to me. I won't say it's not my business, because by allowing themselves to be featured in a NYT article, McNally and Roach are inviting the public to scrutinize aspects of their lives that would otherwise be off-limits. Obviously, they don't really care if we talk about them. And I don't really care what they do in their yurt.

What I care about ... is the yurt.

I want a yurt.


Above is the couple with their yurt. Oh my freaking God I want that yurt in my backyard. Can you fathom the awesomeness? I always wanted either a hut, a teepee, or a treehouse in my backyard. I don't have any good trees, so the treehouse is out, but a yurt is like the awesome combination of a hut and a teepee. It is beautiful. I want one.

Did you know that there were whole Flickr groups devoted to the yurt? Did you know how cool it could be to live in a yurt? Honestly, looking at these pictures, I can really imagine myself using one of these as a sanctuary, storing all my knitting and my favorite books in it, and hiding away in it when I wanted to spend some time with nature but at the same time feel like I was at home.






From what I've seen on the web, yurts look very similar on the outside but can vary greatly in size and look vastly different on the inside depending on the inclinations and budget of the ... yurtee? yurtian? Some yurts are like small houses. Others are much more humble. I would want a humble yurt.

That is, if I could afford one. The cheapest yurt I've found online is a little under $4,000. A great price if you plan to make the yurt your permanent home instead of a house or apartment, but not so great if you're a college student who already has a home and a dorm. Sigh. Maybe I'll wait till I'm older and buy one of the bigger yurts as a house. Who knows? I may end up living the yurt life.

Ta-da.

I knit these hand-warmers from my own pattern! I used a very nice "cashmerino" yarn - part merino wool, part cashmere - but I can't remember the brand name. It wasn't THAT expensive - about $8.95 a skein - considering how nice the yarn looks and feels. I had a hard time with these, for some reason. It was my first time doing thumb holes with double pointed needles (I've done thumb holes before, but not with double pointed needles, and I've used double pointed needles to make hand-warmers, but with thumbs, not thumb holes) and I had to start over a lot, but I think it was worth it.

Tetocat decided she wanted to be in the pictures. She's being very gray today.

List of things to knit.

This summer, I'm starting a knitting network with some of my friends from SLC Stitch n' Bitch. Additionally, I've got my Etsy store to look after, gifts to make, and my own insatiable knitting goods hunger to fulfill. I've already knitted one thing (or, rather, pair of things) over vacation (I'll be taking pictures soon). Here's a look ahead to some of the projects that I plan to take on over the next few months.

-Fingerless gloves/arm-warmers [my favorite thing to make and to wear; expect a lot of these]
-Legwarmers [I never expected to be yearning for legwarmers in May, but it's been so cold lately! That being said, the ones from Year of the Goat are so delicious, I'd probably crave them in any type of weather.]
-Raspberry Rhapsody Scarf [from the book "The Knitter's Book of Yarn" by Clara Parkes; absolutely perfect for summer. I couldn't find a picture of it online, but I can tell you that it's a lovely raspberry color and very lacey and light.]
-Cowls [inspired by Etsy sellers like Rosetung; I can't get over her Cloudy Morning Cowl.]
-A headband [Like this one by Corpseknit.]

... that's all I've thought of so far, but doubtless there will be more things for me to make. I'm going to take out some knitting books from the library and look through patterns, and look around on Etsy for inspiration, and ask other people what they want me to knit. Maybe I'll even be able to attempt something like a sweater by the end of the summer - although I doubt it. Maybe a vest. But who knows?

Best of knitted Etsy.

Every time I go on Etsy now, I look at the knitted goods section and check out some of my favorite Etsy knitters. And every time, I find something that I really WANT, only to think to myself: Yes, you COULD buy it, but you could also KNIT it. And I'm like, damn, I should, but seriously - that would involve learning how to knit it. Damn it. Now I've got a ball of part cashmere, part marino yarn and really want to make fingerless mittens (which shouldn't be so hard, because I've done it before) but just can't get it right. I've spent more time unravelling than knitting.

Anyway, these are some things that I like.


Cloudy morning cowl, Rosetung, $35.
[Cowls are definitely next on the list of things I need to learn how to make. This one is an intricate mixure of wool, cashmere, silk, and nylon.]


Hook up over the shoe legwear, Year of the Goat, $75.
[100% merino wool. I really want to learn how to make these, but without the hooks in the back. Anyone know a good pattern, with or without the lace shown here, for legwarmers?]


Tunic sweater, Year of the Goat, $240.
[Exquisite. The seller made the yarn herself from sheep's wool and knitted this from her own pattern.]


Dot Com fingerless mittens, Cubist Literature, $20.
[100% acrylic. Knitted by a guy. Excuse me while I swoon.]

Confession: I really like Scarlett Johansson's "Falling Down."

Okay, so here's the thing. I first saw the music video for Scarlett Johansson singing "Falling Down" on somebody's website, and the somebody was like, "Oh my God, I can't believe how horrible this is; Scarlett Johansson can't sing, etc." And I was like, "Ugh, yes, she's terrible." But the thing is, I kept coming back and watching it. And then when it appeared on another website, I watched it again.

Oh my God, I thought - I LIKE it. How? I don't know. It's true. Bitch can't sing. Bitch can't sing for a million dollars, which is probably what she got paid to, er, sing. She is a terrible, terrible singer. But somehow, her terrible voice lends itself to this song. I would never listen to Scarlet Johansson singing anything else, but this ... well, this I LOVE.

Watch and tell me what you think:



I should say I also like the video as well as the song ... it's cool to see Scarlett behind the scenes of whatever movie or thing she's working on. She looks really nice and sweet and - HOLY MOTHER OF GOD IS THAT SALMAN RUSHDIE BITING HER NECK???

My mom.

I've been looking through old photographs today - my first day of vacation - and realized that I have photos of people in my family going all the way back to my great-great-great-great-great grandparents. Wild, right? And they're really cool, but right now I'm more transfixed by pictures of recent relatives, especially when they are set against the yellow plaid wallpaper that used to be in my kitchen, and such. I thought I'd start a journey back through the generations. So this is my mom ...


... as a bebeh. I won't tell you when this picture was taken because she might get mad at me. You get the idea of when it was taken, though. The guy in the bow tie is my grandfather, Alan Bourque.


This is my mom as a little girl with the kind of bangs that I pine for. Next to her are two of my uncles.


My mom with all three of my uncles. She is the second oldest.


The Bourque family in living color: my mom, my uncles, their dog, and my grandparents, Janet and Alan.


My mom as a teenager. I like her high-waisted jeans. You can see in this picture that her hair has a little red in it; it was reddish all through her childhood and darkened as she grew older. It was never fully red like mine, though - I get my hair color from both of my grandfathers and my aunt.


My mother when she was about my age, with my grandmother and my great-grandmother (Ruth Hamblin Waldie, 1896-1987). I'm pretty sure the picture behind them is of my great-uncle. The circular thingy behind Ruth's head is actually an incredibly intricate sculpture made out of seeds by my great-great-great aunt Mariette. We still have it; it's about 100 or so years old.


Here's my mom and my dad around 1991 ... and that's me, of course, establishing the oversized vintage eyeglasses look that has been copied by countless hipsters since.

To those of you who have been in my kitchen ...

... and also to those who haven't: this is my kitchen in the 1970s. Yes, the same kitchen in my house which you may or may not have been in.


My flickr album of old pictures is rapidly expanding. I think you should check it out. If you don't, though, it's okay, since I'll be posting many of the lovely photos I've been finding in my house on this blog anyway. Like this one:


Yeah. Those are my grandparents, man.

Goodbye, SLC!

I mean, I'm coming back next year and everything. It's just kind of weird to see this:


It was pretty today, sort of. Half the time it looked like it was about to rain, and half hte time it didn't. It didn't, luckily, when I went to get free ice cream in front of Westlands. Honestly, in my excitement to get free Ben and Jerry's, I forgot to set my watch by Sarah Lawrence time ... the thing was set to start at 2:00, but of course in SLC time it's 2:30. I wasn't about to go somewhere else and miss it, though, so I kind of circled the area like a vulture - as my friend Sara put it - until the ice cream got there.

Other stuff that happened: the foliage looked nice ...



And I went to class ...


... where I saw some cool art ... that wasn't mine because I didn't get into any art classes this year ...





I said my final goodbyes to the penises ...


... and my Sigg bottle and I trundled home.

Last Day.

I just had my last freshman class at Sarah Lawrence. It's crazy, man. This is what I wore:



I love the outfit, but looking over these I'm reminded of the fact that I need some new poses, dude. I do that pulling-down-my-shirt one way too much. But it just feels so GOOD, you know? And by that I mean I think it makes my thighs look smaller.

Sigh.

And, oh yeah:

Shirt: Gap
Pants: Banana Republic
Shoes: Minnetonka Moccasin, of course.

NINJAS!

In honor of my last tae kwon do class, I give you:



You're welcome.