what's behind the wall?

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions. – Rainer Maria Rilke

When I was in high school we had a unit on the process of insight and how creativity works, and I found it fascinating and revelatory. I considered myself a “creative”, and loved exploring where creativity and insight comes from, and especially how to nurture it during those “stuck”, uninspired, moments of confusion or emptiness we all face. Interestingly, it was led by our chemistry teacher Mrs. Jakalski, and in the class she introduced the concept of “po”, or lateral thinking. (I’ve since learned that scientists are some of the most creative people out there.)

“Po” is about trying something new, about embracing mystery, the unsolved problem. Just as in my creative life, I’ve found embracing (leaning into) mystery and the questions both necessary and helpful to diving deeper into my own relationship with God. But spiritual practice takes this even further. As Rainer Maria Rilke points out, we have to not just question, try new approaches to find an answer or insight, but also frequently sit back and just live with the fact of our un-knowing. To an inquisitive mind, that’s really hard to do. It feels like sitting on one’s hands.

There’s a great kids’ song we sing in our house sometimes, What’s Behind the Wall? by Dog On Fleas. It’s a bouncy tune based on the Humpty Dumpty rhyme, and is full of questions: what’s behind the wall? Who put that wall there? Who put the egg on the wall? Sometimes, my questioning, creative mind wants to keep turning over the darkness, the stuck-ness, to come at it with the same questioning energy in the children’s song. But I’m learning that right now this side of the wall is maybe where I need to be, and just living in the dark right now is right.

Zen Buddhist koans contain that, Christian contemplative prayer does too. It’s hard, awkward, uncomfortable. One feels silly, foolish. But not only is it necessary, it’s the only way forward sometimes. Sometimes the questions are all you’ve got, and living with them a bit is precisely the thing to do.

I was recently entranced by a cardi pattern – does that ever happen to you?  It was the Tissue Cardigan in the spring issue of Interweave Knits – I liked the bell sleeve and the woodsy-lace looking yoke.  I’ve had some Brooks Farm Mac Acero in my stash for almost two years now I’d purchased at Stitches Midwest, and was looking for something just like this, something rather uncomplicated that would show off the gradations in the yarn, but something with a bit of drape.  I thought this would be the perfect pairing.

I soon discovered that although the Tissue Cardi is listed under “minimal finishing required” it has quite a lot of finishing and picking up.  The sleeves alone are finished off and picked up three times, in addition to being knitted flat and then seamed.  Being the adventurous knitter that I am, I decided that I could easily convert this to the round and do a whole lot less finishing.

my knitting advisor supervises my knitting closely

Body – The body was designed to be knit in three pieces; I eliminated one stitch on either side and converted it to be knit in one piece with a one-stitch false purl seam.  The body requires a three row garter stitch border at the bottom in smaller needles (which I missed until I was 3″ into the body, so I’ll do that part later as part of the finishing), then one switches to larger needles to do the yos and miles of stockinette.  I left off at the armpits and then went on to the sleeves.

Sleeves – I co 55 sts for the sleeves, joined in round and worked 3 rows garter stitch with US5 needles.  After 1 more row in stockinette, I did *k3 yo* around to get my increases, resulting in a nice, matching set of yarnovers at the cuff.  Two more rows in the smaller needles, then I switched to US7 and completed the rest of the bell, finishing with k2tog decreases and then switching to US5 again for 3 rows of garter st to create the firm band at the top of the bell.  Having done that, I then followed the pattern for the upper portion of the sleeve, except I continued to use US5 as I liked the firmer fabric.  They came out great!

Yoke – the yoke of this sweater is lower at the back center, and then there are stair-step bind-offs 9sts wide alternating rows moving outward, leaving you with a wide U-shape,  Many (not all) of these sts are then picked up to form the yoke.  I’ve decided to accomplish this portion with short-rows instead.   I’ll also be joining the sleeves first; this sweater fits perfectly EZ’s percentage system for a yoked sweater, so I’m using her numbers for underarm sts to join and then doing raglan decreases, again for less finishing.  Still working on a sleeve, so we’ll see how it goes.

Here are some shots I took around town.

“Ideas meeting the reality of government” – Tim O’Reilly on CityCamp’s purpose

“Government is a vehicle to get stuff done,” he said.  I agree.  I’m spending the day at CityCamp Chicago today, learning more about new initiatives to create open data streams and put them to use from the federal to the very local level.  An incredible group of people – looks like a very productive weekend ahead.

What are the challenges we face to achieving open local data?

- data-holders don’t “get it” – don’t understand why they should open data to collaboration

- creating tools takes resources

- building grassroots support so the newly created resources “stick”

Goals:

- Make cities more efficient

- Make information more easily available to citizens and other agencies

- enable citizens who can do it better/faster/cheaper to make things happen that will make our city better

- Get to “have you released your data set yet”?

- “find pockets of new innovative people in government and nurture them” – CIO of SF

Today’s ice cover has wrapped the bare branches in white.  It’s a stunningly beautiful scene, and makes for great photography.  A couple of shots from my photo-a-day project: