Squared Off

I've got squares on the brain this week so this image going around on fb caught my eye. The game is to say how many squares you see. I found 40. At least that is the answer I get most often. Occasionally I count 41 or 43 but I think I was counting something twice those times. Don't know the official correct answer.

At any rate the reason squares are on my radar this week is because of the latest crochet project I've begun.  A very big project for my Secret Santa recipient.  I'm making her a crafter's tote bag though she could use it for travel or anything else totes are used for.  But to make it useful as a crafter's tote it will have many pockets.  And since quilting is her thing it will be big enough to hold a standard bed sized quilt.  Dimensions: 20x12x10 inches.  12 being the height.

Where do the squares come in?  Well to honor the quilting theme I'm making the front and back panels resemble a quilt of 4x4 inch blocks.  The back panel and cover flap is all one piece of 20x44 inches comprised of 5 strips of 11 4in squares in 11 pastel shades.  Each strip will be a different stitch with these five being my current selection: 2 chain mesh, single crochet, filet, double crochet cross stitch, seed [sc & ch alternating].  I would like to use beads in the seed pattern, attaching them at the chain stitches.  Or I might switch out cross stitch for track stitch consisting of alternating 3 rows SC with one row triple crochet.


I'm still working on the design of the front panel of squares but it will be approximately 12 inches tall and 20 inches wide using the same 11 colors and five stitches.  Or possibly since I'm have trouble choosing between stitches I could use different stitches in the front panel.


The bottom, sides and handle will be all one piece in dark brown done in 2 chains plus SC mesh in a  60 inch diameter Moibus strip so the natural stretch serves the front to back width.  The Moibus twist will be kept at top of handle and the front and back panels sewn across the bottom and sides at least twelve inches up.

Instead of making individual squares I am making 4 inch wide strips and using each color for four inches. Once the strips are completed I'll sew them together and do a decorative embroidery stitch in brown around each square to echo the quilt theme.  I may do simple cross stitch designs on the single crochet blocks or alternately sew buttons to the center of them.  I also hope to make inside pockets using the same mesh stitch as the Moibus strip though not sure what color(s).  

As usual I'm making it up as I go along.  Some of my ambitions may have to be curtailed as Christmas nears.

I began the first of the strips for the back/flap panel on Monday and am working on the fifth square already bettering my hoped for pace of one square per day by 50%.

I should have made the effort to get a picture of it for this post but my motivator was broken by the residual heat from the dinner time oven and the 95 degree day. 

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Puzzle on This

This was my entry into the Book Puzzle Mini-Challenge during Dewey's 24hr Read-a-Thon Saturday.  Nobody figured it out so I thought I'd repost it and drop a couple clues.

The challenge was to make a photo montage depicting the title of a book.  I'll drop my clues into the captions for each image.  Except for this one: The one word title of the book is also the title of the trilogy that contains it.

This is a well-known author.  At least in my time.  You need one of his names.

it is what it is.  say what you see

this is apparently a beloved video game.  you need it's name or possibly it is the name of the character depicted as I wasn't entirely clear

This was one of my all time favorite fantasy trilogies.  But I've never blogged about it since I last read it long before I started blogging.  Though I might have included it in a list for the Library Loot meme or something like that since I checked out both the trilogy in a single volume and audio books of each of the three volumes after watching the BBC miniseiries adapted out of it.

Really that should be enough clues to figure it out but if you need another nudge try looking at the image filenames and figure out which syllable contained in them need to merge to make the title.

I loved making this.  I just might make some more to use as posts when I'm scrabbling for content.  I might do the same for the mini-challenge where you make sentences out of the titles of books.

I have other ideas for creating puzzles, riddles, word-games and such out of bookish/writerly themes.  Would there be much interest in that out there?  Chime in.

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Morning Bacon and Cypher Night

Kryptos
Photo provided by the sculptor, Jim Sanborn
[see permissions]

So. I shouldn't still be awake considering I did not lay down to sleep today until 2pm and was wakened at 4:30.

Here's what happened (a typical occurrence)--after posting about crocheting last night I did pick up that hook again and crocheted three of the original pattern bookmarks while watching two DVD. First the movie A Month by the Lake staring Judy Dench and Uma Thurman then a Qi Gong video.

Only then did I pick up Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol to read the last 30 pages. I'd put it down last when called to dinner at 5:15 last evening and it was nearly twelve hours later before I resumed.

After finishing it, I decided it was as good a time as any to look up some of the items in the several pages of notes I'd taken while reading.

I started with pulling down the Francis Bacon and the Isaac Newton volumes from my Great Books set to see which of their writings mentioned in the novel were included, if any.

Discovered Bacon's utopia novel New Atlantis was, which really surprised me. Next thing I knew I'd been reading in it for over an hour.

I then switched to Newton. As I expected (remembered) only his science and mathematics writings were included. None of those on theology, Biblical exegesis, metaphysics or alchemy. But I spent another hour browsing in the texts anyway looking for keywords that indicated he was making metaphysical commentary connected to his scientific observations and thesis. Turns out he does that quite a bit.

Then I returned to New Atlantis for another hour. It's tough going. The language is similar to Shakespeare's in syntax and word usage as it was written within the same generation. It is not like any novel from my generation either. The story is a bit lame and seems to be there only as a frame for Bacon to put the espousal of his theories into the mouths of the characters. One set of characters (the visitors from Bacon's Europe to a mysterious uncharted island) submits to a series of lectures from different island inhabitants regarding their laws, mores, society, history etc.

Before I put the book down I spent a good half hour dipping at random into Bacon's essays The Advancement of Learning and Novum Organus.

I finally had to rest my eyes which led to a two hour nap.

Then after dinner this evening I looked over my notes again to see what I was most eager to look up online and chose the Kryptos sculpture in the CIA courtyard which has stumped thousands of cytologists, (many good enough to work for the CIA) since 1990. I wanted to see a picture of it so I could visualize it correctly.

So there it is at the top of this post.

A few other things from my notes for further research:

• Magic squares [related to sudoku? if so how?]
• The Apotheosis of George Washington
• Map of Washinton DC esp the Mall
• Pictures, history, floor plans and architecture trivia re all DC capitol buildings and monuments
• Ditto for Folger Shakespeare Library
• Ditto for Smithsonian Museum and Library of Congress
  
• all things Freemason [which would be mostly a review of old research with an eye for new info]
• Isaac Newton's metaphysical, theological, Biblical exegesis and alchemical writings
• Cryptology [i am a puzzle geek but have never done a formal study of how they are created. And I really should since it would help me a lot with the mystery project/website I've been hinting about here for over a year.]
• The writings of John Adams, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Einstein, Thomas Paine [by some weird synchrony I have checked out of the library right now the HBO John Adams miniseries which is based on the correspondence between him and his wife Abigail.. It's due Monday. It's 8.5 hours. So guess what I'll be doing this weekend. Tho at the moment there is no hold on it so it might renew for me.]
  

And here is a list of words I want to look up even tho my notes contain Brown's provided definition and explications. I want more context and examples:

• sigil
• symbol
• symbolon
• segmented cypher
• circumpunct
• ashlar
• sacrifice
• talisman
• abracacabra

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Sunday Serenity #10

I've always loved jigsaw puzzles. I find them relaxing. Which is why I love the Jigsaw puzzle software I have that will take any graphic I feed it and make a puzzle out of it. I can set the number of pieces I want from 6 to over 1400, depending on whether I want a quick fix or a long challenge. This pic was one my sister took on one of her road trips. I set it for about 140 pieces for a thirty minute break. The ghost of the pic is an option and I turned it on for the screenshot. I had a bunch more screen shots of the various stages of the puzzle, showcasing the various features of the software. Like slide out trays in all four corners to put sections of the puzzle together on; the several options for arranging the scattered pieces at the start; and the finished puzzle. But I am out of time here. We have some errands to run and Ed is chomping at the bit. And I am, like, twenty hours late getting my SS up as it is.

Note: since Ed is now using his own name in his blog's name and has joined in on Sunday Serenity and Thursday Thirteen, it makes no sense to continue avoiding using his first name. Imagine the keystrokes this will save me.

The Sunday Serenity hub. Please join us.

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