Incoherent Scribblings

Chicken Dance

I finished up Susie’s Chicken and Rooster Round Robin Square today. This pattern was a lot of fun to stitch and only took me 10 hours.

The title of this is technically “Huhn und Hahn” (Hen and Rooster — funny considering in the pattern the rooster is on the left and the hen on the right) and came out of one of my German RICO design books.

In my opinion, these RICO designs are perfect for a quick stitch. Most of them are designed for towel borders or to fit into table cloth/tea towel squares. As a result they are quite small and it seldom takes more than 10-15 hours to complete a design.

The one that I choose for Susie’s RR was actually designed as a towel border and so though it fit into the square height-wise, it was a little bit too long. I could have just stitched the Rooster and Hen with the grass and flowers and would have needed no adjustment, but what I thought made this pattern so cute was the little fence in the background. Of course, that was what was too long. I chopped a couple of fence posts off each end and stitched in the ends of the middle boards so that it would fit in the square and I think it came out really great.

I already emailed Susie a picture of them and she was (as we say in German) “begeistert!” (enthusiastic)

This week I have stitched a minimum of two hours each day and I must say that I have really enjoyed seeing the progress I made. I haven’t been very good about stitching a lot lately, mostly I think because I haven’t seen a lot of progress on those big projects. So, today I have set myself a little goal of stitching at least one hour every day… maybe that way I will start seeing some progress on those big projects soon.

Feet Meet Liters

In the seventies, a “study recommended that the United States implement a carefully planned transition to predominant use of the metric system over a ten-year period,” and as a result, the U.S. Metric Board was established. Unfortunately for the U.S. Metric Board,

“[its] efforts … were largely ignored by the American public, and, in 1981 the Board reported to Congress that it lacked the clear Congressional mandate necessary to bring about national conversion. Due to this apparent ineffectiveness, and in an effort to reduce Federal spending, the Metric Board was disestablished in the fall of 1982.” — from “Toward a Metric America: The United States and the Metric System”

I don’t remember exactly, but I think I was in third or fourth grade when the Metric System was introduced to us in math class. Up until junior high school I was fairly good in math and thought that there was certain beauty to the Metric System. It seemed so nice (and logical!) that everything was based on 10.

However, that was in 1983 and by the time I learned the Metric System, its virtues were not being praised by the American public. At the time, my elders scornfully said, “Eh, who needs the Metric System anyway? Inches, pounds, and miles have always worked just fine for me!” And, “The Metric System? It is just a Commie plot to undermine the great U.S.A.!”

So, while the rest of the world used the Metric System, it was glazed over in math class as one of those things we had to learn, but (as I would later say about algebra) something that we would never use in “real life.” Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would eventually end up somewhere where I would encounter the Metric System (or the International System of Units – abbreviated SI) on every corner.

But this is Germany and here (as in almost the entire rest of the world) the Metric System rules.

For the most part, though, I don’t mind the Metric System. As I said, since everything is based on 10 it is very nice and quite logical. Sure, sometimes I wish I only had to put 3 gallons of milk in my refrigerator a week instead of 12 liters, but that is merely a minor inconvenience.

Personally though, I think that for Americans living abroad one of the most fundamental lifestyle changes has to be converting to the Metric System. It isn’t hard: In comparison to learning a new language, for example, it is quite simple. All you need to know are your factors of ten.

It isn’t the math. What I think is most difficult about the Metric System is the abstract concept of just “how much” one of these units is. It is easy to recite like a parrot that there are 1000 millimeters, 100 centimeters, or 10 decimeters in a meter and that a kilometer is equal to 1000 meters, but the fundamental question remains:

Exactly how long is a meter?

I have discovered that amazingly enough, most metric units have rough American equivalents. For example, that meter? About a yard. Of course, then A. fires back at me, “How long is a yard?”

As every good American knows, a yard is three (3) feet. However, is this how I respond to A.’s question? No, I respond based on what my grandma used to tell me: A yard is roughly the distance from my nose to the tips of my fingers.

This, replies A., is exactly the problem with American units. Too many were based on arbitrary measurements like the distance between nose and fingers or the length of one’s foot and, as a result, the math is horrendous.

“For example,” he quips, “how many feet are in a mile?” Without a reference chart or conversion calculator, I have no idea. (5,280)

In all honesty, once you get past the abstract notion of “how much,” the Metric System is, by far, easier to use and it didn’t take me long to get used to it. However, I wouldn’t say that I am a convert by any means. Because even though I can understand and use the Metric System, I still think in feet, gallons, and pounds.