Yarn Along: Mirin's Celtic Knot Vest

Years ago I wanted to learn cables, so I picked up Cables Untangled and set to work on a few projects.  One of them, rather ambitious I think now, was a cabled vest for Mirin.

It sat largely ignored for a couple of years, but last year he picked it up and decided he loved it and wore it every day.  It was even painful to part with it when summer came.  This fall when we got it out, there was the unpleasant discovery made that it is too small.

Back to the needles!!  The pattern is too complex to tear out the bottom and re-knit, and anyway I don't have the yarn anymore.  The new dye-lot seems shockingly green next to the first vest, but I think it faded from washing, and there was one day I had set my woolens to dry properly in the shade and drove off to do errands.  When I returned the shade had moved and they were in glaring sun - I'm sure it was terrible for the color.

It took me forever to correctly copy the cable chart (I think I picked the most complicated one).  Finally I managed, with only a few errors that I'm not worrying about too much, because even the complicated cables get into a predictable rhythm and make sense.

Apart from that, I recently picked up the most interesting book.  It's called Descent of Woman by Elaine Morgan, and is an explanation of Aquatic Ape Hypothesis for humans.  It is just amazing.  It is one of those pieces of information that just opened my mind up and is giving me so much to think about.  It is changing how I think of human beings and the world.  As I was reading, I kept thinking of new information I've heard in various places that so strongly supports this incredible theory.

It's also a really fun read.  She includes such juicy, stupid and shockingly male-oriented quotes from real anthropology and human evolution papers about what she calls the "Tarzan Theory."  I can't help reading some of the worst ones out loud to Ethan, and we have both had a good laugh.  Some things, like how women's breasts ("fleshy hemispheres") evolved only to make sex more interesting for the male hunter, to grab his interest so he would continue to provide joints of meat. I think a few of the males she quoted got their academic toes stepped on, and that is why this theory has remained largely ignored.  It makes a whole lot more sense than the Tarzan thing, though.