What's In A Name?

I suppose it's about time to explain the moniker.  Nom de plume.  Pen name.

First, let me list for you my passions: those themes or objects or influences in my life which compel me, speak to me, and are there completely of my own choice and volition.  Things I pursue because I want to, not because I'm compelled to - aside from my own desire.  I guess you could apply the word "favorite" ... but it just doesn't speak to the intensity I am wont to feel about these things, as if they speak to my very soul (my apologies, Maria).

All the same, these are a few: 

1) Fibre Arts

2) Math (and numbers),

3) Books (the paper kind, though I'm warming up to the electronic kind, and I have long-enjoyed the audio kind),

4) Francophonia (I made that word up, just now. Meaning: all things related to the french-speaking world),

5) Theatre and other Fantasia,

6) Cheese, and

7) Pie.  

Sure, there are others, but these are Major.  I find I have already carried these themes in my recent blogging, as also they appear in my life.  

Aaand back to topic numero uno.  Really, Mrs. Pi is a pseudonym with many levels.  On the superficial, I'm sure you've got two so far.  

I am a Pie Person.  I have never liked cake.  It lacks complexity.  It's too much of one thing: sweet.  I love the culinary juxtaposition of the savory, dry crust and the sweet, moist filling of a pie.  I love the endless combinations, the possibility.  Consider the fact that pie is a homophone of a number, and you have my next segue:

As creative as I like to think I am, I am also a math nerd.  I love to solve problems.  I work with figures, just like the grown-ups The Little Prince bemoaned in his namesake novel.  I love when numbers align.  I graduated in the year 2000.  I got married on 9-10-11.  I like to play the "date" game by taking the numbers in today's date and making them into an equation that balances.  Don't mistake me: I am not a math genius.  I think "math nerd" and "math genius" have a subtle but significant distinction.  For example, today:

11/16/2011

1 + 1 + 1 = (6 / 2 + 0) * 1 / 1

Not a game, you say?  Well, I admit it's not complicated.  But I have fun with it, and so Game, I say, Game!  

I use simple operators.  Sometimes I'll drop in exponents if I need to.  But ne'er log nor e nor pi.  So I confess: I'm no math genius.  But I still love math.

Pie, Pi.  Mrs. Pi.  Need some more?

My wedding favors were apple Pies-In-Jars (recipe courtesy of one of my favorite blogs: Our Best Bites, pies themselves courtesy of my Penna bestie and her lovely mom):

Fresh out of the oven

Pretty on display

All 120 of them!  Ten dozen pi(es)!

My wedding cake was technically a groom's cake (my husband loves chocolate cake) but I had a wedding pie, also courtesy of my Penna bestie's mom:

Mr. Pi cut me a slice o' pie, I cut him a slice o' cake.  And if you care to know, we were kind and did no dessert "smashing".  Also, if you are attentive to detail, you'll see my signature symbol in the crust of my beautiful wedding pie.

That's most of what's in my name.  As midnight approaches, I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes:

"Someone has made you the happy recipients of a pie from The Pie Hole. As in "shut your." Or, in this case, "open your," because it's really good!" ~Olive Snook

Mrs. Pi

Tink Tink Tinkity Tink

Tink, tink, tink, tink ... this is what I was saying in my head today as I was un-knitting two and a half rounds of Debra's Mittens. Thankfully it only took me two and a half rounds to realize I had forgotten to leave a thumb hole. Speaking of this particular work-in-progress, here is a picture of the first of Debra's Mittens:

I really love the pattern, "Pearl Chain Mittens" by handepande (available for download on Ravelry).  The challenge of the color changes keep it interesting, while the simple repetition of the pattern keeps it from being overwhelming.  Ok, so I took a few liberties; it's been a while since I followed a pattern to a tee.  Admittedly, my edits aren't always as awesome as I expect them to be, but sometimes I land on something good.  Equally as good as the original, at least.  I'm still a young knitter (or this is what I tell myself in consolation, since one of those big landmark birthdays is looming over me) and I'm cheeky and bumptious enough to presume I know better than seasoned designers of the craft.


This pair of mittens doesn't have a gusset, since I couldn't figure out how to build it in without messing up the pattern.  I'm on the fence about gusset-less mittens.  I've only knit mittens with gussets to this point.  I think Debra's Mittens work sans-gusset, but if you ask me, on a plain-jane mitten, I am pro-gusset.


Final note on Debra's Mittens: the yarn, Caron Vickie Howell Sheep(ish) in Black(ish), White(ish) and Lime(ish), has grown on me, now that I've gotten accustomed to working with it.  Sorry for indirectly bashing Sheep(ish) in the previous post, Vickie Howell.  It's soft and fuzzy and warm, perfect for mittens.


Back to the original topic: do any of you out there, in that dear void - or "cloud" although, I like Meg Ryan's You've Got Mail reference better - do any of you talk to yourself while you knit?  Inside your head, I mean - although, I am also guilty of knit-speaking aloud to myself.  My only evidence to date that I'm not alone is that a guy I dated once used to tell me that his sister was also known to mumble: "knit, purl, knit, knit, purl, purl ..." whilst completing her rounds (By the way, that's a reference to another of my double-yous eye pee, "Hedgerow Socks" by Jane Cochran, also available for download on Ravelry.  Picture below).

I'll leave you with a few questions that occurred to me as I typed this post:


1.  Who first used the word "tink" to describe knitting backward?  It's BRILLIANT.  

2.  Is there a proper way to cite a knitting pattern, a (accent grave) la MLA format or APA format, etc.?  Huh.


3.  It has often occurred to me to ask the question, why is W called a "double-u"?  Did the letter W really not warrant its own unique name?  Furthermore, should we follow the same naming convention when multiples of that letter are involved?  WW becomes Quad-U and so on?  That's a rather slippery slope, I guess, since with any URL we'd be using the prefix "Sext-U dot such-and-such dot com" ...

Mrs. Pi