Underwater solutions: a theory / missing ocean

[this message following a neotic studies link received from this esteemed agent:]

Perhaps this system of mass could be what the term 'Boston Mass' refers to? Interestingly, I read earlier today that one of the most likely early outcomes of continued global warming is that Boston would end up submerged. This takes me back to an earlier postulation; that the suspected woollen structures were/are being made to absorb rising sea levels. This idea was explained by an insightful investigator to be based on a false premise and that sea levels would still rise regardless of the woollens. It now occurs to me that perhaps the whole Searly operation is based around finding/testing solutions for underwater living in the event of rising sea levels and submerged habitations. The great lakes would certainly be a convenient testing ground for such potential solutions; solutions suspended in a a solution, if you will.

One more thing; in a muppets newsflash from the '70s I watched recently, there was a story that the Atlantic Ocean had disappeared. Investigations found that it had been stashed in a Boston apartment. The idea struck me as possibly relevant to the case, but I have been unable to work out how.

How could the entire ocean be hidden in an apartment, I wonder? Through the use of extra dimensions? Maybe.

in response ...

Interesting developments and postulations indeed. Tell me more about calabi yau. I haven't heard of this discipline.

Where are you situated at present? Where are these boxes being delivered to? (I would also ask where are they being delivered from, but assume that isn't yet known.) Are you on campus in UK or have you returned to the US? If a similar operation is being begun this side of the atlantic, this could be the beginnings of a second round of soft cells. Either a single replication of experiment 31, or else one of many second generation repeat projects. We must keep alert.
As for locating Dan, I suggest you look underground. In the cellar, or on the ground floor at least.

I await Epstein's opinions on using softness to access other dimensions.

Multi-dimensional crochet & campus deliveries

hmmm.... The crochet/yoga angle is an interesting one. Perhaps the yogic prep is key to the outcomes of the hook. Maybe the exercise is no mere pre-stitch warm up, this flexing could be flexing fibres, not muscles, a la don genaro, allowing the practitioners to tap into other realms/dimensions [possibly one of the curled up dimension thought to be universally hidden in calabi-yau shapes], which allows them to execute crochet manouveres otherwise impossible. in short, they may be knitting in more than 3 dimensions, but we 3-D dwellers may not be able to see it. Perhaps this is why you struggled to understand the finely woven structures of your dutch associate.



For my part here, I have been trying to find and/or contact Dan Stairs. I feel he may hold information which may help unravel this whole mystery. Campus-based investigations have led me to discover the daily deliveries of large cardboard boxes, which seem suspiciously light for their size when one observes the delivery men carrying them. Enquiries with the receptionist allowed me to learn that such deliveries are 'for the Knitting Society'. I did not possess sufficient front to begin opening the boxes there and then, so cannot confirm their specific content, but the lightness of the boxes suggest woollen thread [or perhaps pre-knitted structures , possibly to be joined together into yet larger structures] and the amount of them being delivered daily implies a large-scale operation. I shall keep my eyes and ears peeled for possible evidence of their purpose.



The thought now occurs to me that the point of the softness could be exactly that - it is not rigid, but flexible; possibly flexible enough to be bent into space dimensions beyond our familiar 3. Perhaps the soft michigan group are attempting to [or even successfullly] building a new softer world in a new dimension which the average joe is not aware of. I must confer with Epstein on this matter. I am sure Stairs could also shed light on this were he to be found, but would he be willing?



Mr. Marbles

Super-strung out on a car seat

Quite so. I was reading up on superstring theory last night and it struck me that it seemed applicable to the case - alternate realities, strings, fibres and loops. It's all there in the text, in the theory. I now strongly believe that the soft michigan group are trying to create a new reality, a new american dream, by stitching it together with their own bare hands. No need for large particle accelerators etc. Make the microscopic macroscopic and you have your new world. S string theory is the foremost likely leap in our understanding of the universe, it seems the logical one to base a new method of reality on. The fact the terminology is transferable to sewing techniques and woven matter is highly fortuitous. These cats are knitting a new, softer american dream, all we need to do is find the right thread and we are in there, part of the Pattern.

I must speak with epstein asap.

New wine sounds good. Have been tucking into first batch of parsnip - my first brew. Is good, but a bit earthy. Missing elderflowers, I imagine. Plan to get some more cherry wine on once I get round to clearing space in most recent apartment base.

Any idea on how to clear a cloudy/earthy one? Wine finings failed to help much.

in response ...

Superstring theory – I keep meaning to read up on. I’m sure it involves closed loops as well as unclosed strings.

Detectives always wear hats because it is a wintertime activity, indeed. [in response to a suggested document exchange in late oct/early nov autumn/winter crossover period, in a cold room with steamy mugs of tea nearby.] Trying to light a pipe hunched up against a lamppost with the wind to your back, cursing telephones and dames… that’s the life of a true detective.

I think your string theory is worthy of investigation. Low-lifes in high physics. String vest technology.

Unprovoked speculation...

foxes are common as the pigeon in most urban centres/suburban areas; like a world famous celeb they need no introduction. used to watch a family of them living on garage rooves out the back of my ex-ex-residence. oft bumped into when crossing the road home after late night sessions at jason's place. them frozen in the road, not expecting to be interrupted from their scavenge at 3am. but regardless, indeed WHY?

re-naturising the urban area may be a possible motivation for the woollen warriors we are investigating.

must admit, am struggling to make much progress in the case; am suffering from time restrictions and internet backalley connectivity problems both at work and at home. laptop battery issues making simple tasks difficult. freelance project and band development soaking up time and energy like wool soaks up water. it may be a month or so before i have the time, mental space and resources to develop the case further. it occurs to this investigator that perhaps the michigan group are trying to knit a new, softer American Dream to replace the spikily deviated one which has appeared to have taken over since the Nixon era. This is based on unprovoked speculation without even so much as spam, gossip or a made-up name to back it up. It may be a breakthrough in the case or be completely inconsequential.

interestingly, i learned recently of a fabric spinning device known as the 'water frame'.

this may be a connection, it may not. i am not sure how the roads link up.


cotton-eye joe

In response...

i was just about to pick out the same quote based on the same thought. maybe jaywalker socks are designed to leave an unidentifiable footprint so suspects cannot be positively identified or traced. maybe they cover up the foot-scent to avoid sniffer-dog detection.

Jaywalker Socks

Lots of new sock yarn in!
I am knitting a pair of Jaywalker socks out of the Berroco Sox and they are turning out fabulous!

This makes me think of the jaywalking discussed previously as a means of seeing the real locations of urban areas and living outside the road system to see where they’ve really got us boxed up.

What are jaywalker socks, I wonder? What special features? The warmth and comfort of hiking socks I assume, maybe in urban camouflage colours – greys and browns.

Luke Jaywalker

Kitty-Kat

A ‘Kitty Black’ is recorded to have taken part in a trade fair in the Appalachians in February 2007, where s/he sold novelty earmuffs from a stall, under the unregistered company name Lake Pleasant Ski Supplies. Kitty first surfaced, however, in the summer of 2002 as an outsider on the winter sports scene in Oregon.
A paper calling for the increased reintroduction of rail transportation of freight as opposed to transportation by road, along the western seaboard, was published in a 2004 US lobbying periodical, under the name K Black. While seemingly unrelated, this is suspected by one source to be a deliberate attempt by the same K Black to reintroduce the ‘midnight ghost’ freight-jumping shuttle route as a viable mode of transport for her and her associates. “With a rucksack full of earmuffs even a boxcar roof or a flatbed is an option”, she is quoted as saying. I wonder if she may have met up with the Michigan set at some trade fair or at some wool supplies store… I also wonder if the attempt to pressure for the increase in rail freight between Washington State and California may be as much to do with potential cargo in the box cars, rather than just the potential human riders on the roofs…

A New Insight

New insight: Agent L, a close personal friend and my personal knitting tutor, is currently researching cult escapees, having speed-read several autobiographical accounts by escapees. I suspect that Agent L may herself be a cult escapee, having heard her talk of a mysterious ‘dancing chicken society’ – a cult group now defunct (or else gone underground??) that had been based on the same campus that also saw the demise of the darkside goth society. I don’t like to ask her too much on the subject of the chicken dance, as it may have been a psychologically damaging episode for her which she may not be ready to talk about. She may even have subconsciously blocked it from her mind – forgotten it happened, or else projected it onto ‘someone else’, believing it happened to somebody other than herself. Either way, this personal experience of cult involvement, even if forgotten and buried deep in her subconscious, would be invaluable in her investigations. Unless this personal involvement brings her too close to that particular field of study… At present her research is centring on quasi-religious groups such as the Latterday Saints, but I feel the area is close enough to the Michigan to Whitby wool scene to be of great interest.

Mormon Norman

Live Transmission

this investigator reports:
That wickerwork ball of wool is spooking me. that whole back alley scene in the whitby I know and love is suddenly giving me shivers like its something from the wickerman. that quickly-removable knitter wanted advert gives me the jitters more thananything. Something I can't identify quite... I mean, who are these people?
I am sitting here in my caseroom with a mug of wine pondering frictions and situations and events in some order...
I will tell what I can: My comrade identifies a certain episode of a certain nineteen seventies show entitled 'the ojuka situation' which involves geoffrey palmer as abad guy in a grey suit with a grey mood. The michelson morley thing: in a certain science periodical onlineresource, a posting was placed on a registered-users-only section, entitled 'failings of the michelson-morley model'. It attacked themichelson morley model (cf. luminiferous aether theory circa 1890-1920?) on two main fronts - the first being the theory that light slows downwhen it is, or its effects are, being observed, such that measuring speed of light waves at differing angles of movement within the aether will not necessarily reveal much as the light will behave differentlyunder observation compared to unobserved. Anyway, the real mystery is the response to this posting, which was posted a few days later underthe name 'michelson morley'.
I will return to the whitby area, all being well, a week saturday.
My email order to my man in edinburgh did not reach. I had to chase up the order by phone. If melody reaches me I will let all parties know, and glean what I can.

transmission ends. Refil mug. restroom, then plunge in nearby loch circa 17 degrees C at dusky 11pm. Pearl jam just fades out. I am not a knitter so cannot apply. I may go in as a crocheter. offer them analternative take. One hook instead of two sticks. I am sure there is a fair haired girl in floral cottons in a recess of a whitby arcade called something like ... sympathy, or sky, waiting with a consignment of silks or angora. I will investigate...
-/

Lines of Enquiry

lines of enquiry for Parks...

does he know when reagan came to the wolds?
does he know of kozyra? does he think reagan and kozyra's presence in the wolds is linked? [surely it is]
what does he know of the whitby scene? is he aware of any coastal folk known to be/have been in the area/s regan and kozyra are thought to be active? has he ever seen the ball of wool and needles emblem?

i will add more as it comes to me.

Whitby Discovery

Investigations in the Whitby region of East Cleveland UK have yielded vital clues and possible heavyweight evidence relating to the case. A task force was dispatched there by myself on a hunch while looking for Dan Stairs' presence in East Cleveland Ohio, USA. While reserching the US East Cleveland in Ohio, I came across various mentions of Whitby in East Cleveland UK. The town's name rang bells in the investigative chambers of my brain due to its similarity to the name of the WhitbyBoat company first identified in Michigan in the early days of this case. My hunch proved to be correct and the team returned with ample evidence of activity in the town. Here one of the team recount their experience first hand.

A handwritten cardboard sign was found situated on the lower step of a building entrance which opened onto a busy shopping street. The sign read 'part-time sales assistant wanted - must be a knitter - apply within'. This immediately struck me as pertinent to the case. I was tempted to go inside and apply for the job myself, to test the reaction of the staff already present, but my lack of knitting knowledge would have been a dea giveaway, so I settled for the covert approach, secretly photographing evidence whenever I got the chance.

Further up the steps were two permanent signs which read 'wool' and 'crafts'. Alarm bells were ringing in my ears as well as my brain by now. These permanent signs indicated to me that the building is being/has been used for woolcraft purposes for a long period. The handwritten sign is obviously temporary and can put on show or hidden away at a moments notice, allowing the group operating from within stractegic options as to when to advertise for 'help'.

More handwritten signage covered the walls of the corridoor so I walked in to take a look and found another handwritten sign, this time for 'Bobbins Postal Service'. The sign described a 'british wools yorkshire service' which can, and does, 'post wools, kits and exclusive design (in denim) all over the world'. The global aspect of their contact details suggests they are by no means an isolated operation and are in touch with other groups and/or indivuals potentially spanning the entire globe. Another sign, this one painted on a wooden A-board, showed that their output was not limited to deniim, with pure wools, aran and rowan yarn all represented.

A quick flick through a pile of second hand paperback books sat on a bench in the entrance corridoor revealed a book called 'warrimoo' by a Mary Patchett. The author's name struck me in its similarity to Melinda Packett, possibly an early version of the alias, or even inspiration for it, though this could just be coincidence. I cannot recall the subject matter of the book.

Stepping back outside the building in to the street (I noticed I was drawing attention to myself hanging around in the corridoor with camera being swivelled and pointed at every sign in sight and feared my intentions may be about to be discovered) I looked up to see a large model of a ball of wool with a pair of knitting needlers crossed through it, hanging above the doorway like a chandelier. The structure was pretty big and I was surprised not to have spotted it on my way in. My guess is it is the craft circle's emblem used to identify themselves to others. A hand-drawn image of he same structure appeared on a poster in the shop next door to the craft centre circled by the words 'Knit Happens In Whitby', which by now was sounding like an understatement to this investigator. It advertised a meeting for a 'newly established craft circle' to which 'all members were welcome'. Unfortunately, this is not occuring until the end of the month and it is unlikely we will have any agents in the area to attend. I can only surmise that the operation is being expanded in the aera, hence the need for new recruits. I wonder if the timing of the expansion relates to the beards presence on the UK festival circuit in any way. Incidentally, the shop this advert was placed in is called 'The Shepherd's Purse' which brings to my mind Regan's quote about the relative riches of the shepherd and the banker noted earlier in the case.

The other piece of possible evidence discovered was an advert placed in the window of a disused shopspace (opposite the Shepherd's Purse) which mentioned a 'cargo shed relocation presentation' something which sounds vague but ominous. Could be related to shipping cargo out of whitby to elsewhere, or the relocation of sheds (or other buildings) possibly mirroring the Michigan housing re-plan.

I have listed much evidence here but little theory. I shall tackle the evidence in this manner now...

The first thing I must focus on is the ball of wool and crossed needle motif the Bobbins group are using. It seems very similar to the marks of crossed needles made on the great lake cave paintings found in Lima by EPPS, as described by Safelight. This cross motif is the opposite of the rings found drawn around the great lakes on the wallmap of the military man who Phipps (the woodland ranger in Maryland) had contact with. This leads me to conclude that there are definitely military and counter-culture operations active in the same field - the military using the circle as their power symbol, and the underground group using the crossed needles as theirs. So, we are dealing with a game of noughts and crosses. As is known by anybody who has played the game, the centrespot is by far the most effective position to hold on the grid; without taking control of this spot, the game is almost lost by default. In our investigation, any form of midpoint seems to be empty. I do not know what this means, so draw your own conclusion. One thought occurs to me - if the military are aligned with the circular sumbol, it seems likely that closed-loop production methods are the realm of the military, not the counter culture. This seems all the more probable due to the amount of resources the military has compared to the likely resources of any kind of underground operation.



The existence of the Whitby group could well explain Regan's presence in the Wolds. My guess is that the Bobbins operation is being bankrolled by Kozyra and Reagan is there to oversee operations. A further guess is that the Whitby location was selected as a UK site due to the similarity of the name to Whitby Boat co. Searly is the most likely candidate to have chosen the spot, I would imagine. Whitby is also a harbour town, and with boats and water having much to do with the case this would seem to be a key feature of most locations. The water/boating savvy group no doubt chose the place as it provided a means to ship goods out to sea privately, avoiding official border crossing points. The synchronicity of the town's name providing confirmation that is was the right choice for the group to run an operation from.




Bobbins co. are no doubt shipping stuff to USA and also recruiting other craft circles in some global craftweb. It is highly possible that new recruits do not know the intended purpose of what they are making, knitting purely for pleasure or for social reasons. My guess is that only a few top brass in the organisation know the true agenda. The most likely suspects for this are Searly, Reagan, Costa, Kozyra, Melody Nelson, Melinda Packett, Cate, Grant, De Leon and Vandeloo. Some of these names may be aliases for the same person, but further research is required to confirm this.

Down In The Basement

Did you ask the woman where she learnt the stitching technique? If you see her again, I suggest you try to glean if she ever spent any time in the vicinity of Droitwich. I take it that this is a wholly different lady to the old laughing elk you met in the road last week (the image of such a scene in my head makes me think of 'Grandma Death' from the film Donnie Darko). Old ladies are often wise beyond expectation and the insights possible from such sources should never be underestimated. Allow me now to recount what was gleaned from another Old Hand from the labs...

The evening with Dr. Epstein (in which he explained to me the guilt-free method of donut theft) yielded the following unexpected discovery of sorts. As the jazz music filtered through the post-dinner chat, there had been metion of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes and the mistaken belief was held that they were redcorded in 1968. An hour or so later, a copy of Thelonious Monk's Underground was noticed on the table, copyright information showing an original relase date of 1968.

The artwork on Monk's record depicts the artist in an underground bunker, a basement of sorts. In this basement, Monk is at his piano surrounded by assorted objects thus: cheese, grapes, guns, a haybucket, several wine bottles and glasses and a gestapo officer tied to a wooden chair. In the background (the image has a strong sense of depth) is a woman holding a rifle, staring at the viewer from a distance. Monk also sports a gun, strapped to his back out the way of his hands for freedom on the keyboard yet in easy reach should he decide he requires it's use. A detonator connected to a string of explosives lies at his feet in the foreground and Viva La France is grafittied on one of the walls [above the nazi]. The image is rendered in dark earthy hues and has a natural textural quality to it.

Now, i happen to know the Dylan record fairly well and am familiar with its sleeve art. The two are very similar. The artist is also situated in a basement with his instrument of choice (in Dylan's case a mandolin, being played in the manner of a fiddle). Earthy tones, seemingly random objects and characters abound. There is also a man in military dress similar to Monk's Gestapo prisoner. A woman also stares at the viewer from the back of the picture.

Working on the assumption that both records were recorded and released in the same year, it struck me that these two pieces of work were a further example of two people having the same idea, separately, but at the same time. However, upon returning home and checking my copy of the Dylan record, I discovered that it was in fact released in 1975 and so would not seem to be the evidence I initially supposed. One further thing did strike me about the two covers - both artists are wearing wool - Monk a fine suit and Dylan in a striped cardigan reminiscent of South American patterns and colouring.

Now, I am not for a 16th note suggesting that these two seminal musicians were involved in the beginnings of the soft-core group, but I have a hunch that there may be some significance in all this similarity and mistaken belief. If the softcore group have been in hiding for the last 3 years, where have they been? Based on the insights gained from these record sleeves, I have a strong suspicion that when the group went 'underground' they did so literally and have been living subterraneously since 2005. Given their suspected plan of trying to submerge a city, or even a state, it seems likely that they would possess the means to hide themselves underground also, something mentioned as a possiblity with regard to the stateline existence you hypothesized recently.

Of course this theory would have so much more weight to it if the two records in question had been released in the same year.

Droitwich Fix

Enlightening wool knowledge there. I now wonder how wool knows which way is inside and which way is outside, and thus which way its heat transferring properties are to be implemented.One thing I forgot to mention - my initial suspicion regarding the girl you came across singing about 'Boston Mass' was that she was Costa, possibly on a recreuitment drive in the UK, or else meeting a connection there and filling in time playing solo spots as some kind of coded call to arms to any UK followers she may have.

However, in light of the BSS Ca-nad/lafon-ian tour, it seems unlikely she would be in the UK sans band, unless she was undertaking some low-key gig practice to work on her solo performance skills prior to the tour dates. It is entirely possible that she is no longer in the band, having trained them to function autonomously, though possbly still receiving her instruction from afar.

Another explanation as to the identity of the Boston Mass singer is that she is the religious studies student who had assocations with Costa in the '90s. She was known to be UK-based (at least during her studies) so would no doubt have acquaintances there- people who could provide her with shelter and find her work if needed. The fact she sings of some kind of 'mass' suggests that she is/was religiously minded, possibly abandoning Christianity or whatever her denomination was, in favour of some more fringe-based belief system. I certainly don't think she is connected to the religious right dogsquad, but I may be wrong.

Perhaps she is in the UK to locate contacts in the Droitwich reason (the theory was mentioned to this investigator that the 'Droitwich Fix' is a specialist stitching method used for heavy-duty repair work when a woven object's lifespan seems othewise at an end. A variation of this theory is that the term 'Droitwich Fix' refers to using an otherwise impaired object to serve a function different to that it was originally designed for - ie. using an old hat which no longer fits the owner's head as a tea-cosy, or fashioning a steel-bodied guitar from a broken oil drum (something this investigator has personally seen evidence of). Such things could be examples of the Droitwich Fix.

Either way, this theory, as put to this investigator, identifies the Droitwich Fix as a method of extreme object salvage when all other hope seems lost - something out on the edge of the repair/reuse/recycle culture which has been subordinated and marginalised by modern capitalism and its constant promise of shiny new goods to those who subscribe to its culture.

Home Knit?

Astute indeed. Is there a place for llama knit bobble hats in summertime? This investigator knows the double use of woollens as both warming and cooling aids – just like leather or antifreeze, the fibres (or the gaps between them) have a dual quality for both extremes of temperature - keeping warmth in when cold outside, but also cooling when hot outside. I believe wool does this partly by allowing moisture out, thus utilising the cooling effect of latent heat of evaporation. Far better than moisture-trapping synthetics… There may be a market for woollens in California for this reason.

This investigator’s back is burnt, but not as badly burnt as it would have been without frequent use of light blue ethnic cotton shirt. I do like the term ‘ethnic’. All of us are ethnic, hence it implies humanity as opposed to artificial, made by a genuine human being as opposed to a machine… Perhaps even made by a genuine free-feeling alive human being as opposed to a factory slave drone… Maybe some sweat, but not shop sweat… maybe some dollar changed hands, but hopefully some donation made to an orphanage or something. A new village well, that’s not owned by coca cola… I wonder if the road south is a case of the hippies going home, back to the canyons, back to Lake Tahoe?

Festival Circuitry

This investigator took the weekend off the case to indulge in some much overdue sunshine of impressive intensity and only now has he picked up the impending development in the case, ie. the immediacy with which BSS are 'touring' from Canada to California.

This strikes me as pertinent for the following reasons - we have already established that festivals and musical touring circuits are ideal ways to move people and goods around the continent in a fairly undetected way. We also know Costa is either in BSS or has close links with them. This suggests to me that Costa may use a BSS tour as a means to achieve her own ends, with or without the band's complicity (she is a known Obfuscationist, remember, and as such would have no problem hiding her true intentions while being close to the band).

The band may even be a front to hide less universally accepted operations, such as the promotion of wool-based lifestyles or products of closed-loop synthesis, with promotional methods possibly adapted from those used by the Minnesota thinktank (I recall Costa being quoted in a marketing journal from years ago, which suggests she either worked in marketing or pretended to work in marketing to gain knowledge of their obfuscatory techniques [i strongly suspect the latter]).

It seems to me that the BSS tour is likely a smokescreen to transport a portion of the Michigan operation (people or products) down to California for some purpose, or perhaps to collect something from the southern state to bring back north. The California connection cannot be ignored - Searly's act of philanthropy at the Reno Steak-n-Cake suggests the California route has been active for sometime, and Melinda Packett is registered to a Bay Area address.

The California connection could well be a base or stop-off point for managing the South American connections - this investigator for one is definitely aware that products made from llama wool are readily available in the fields designated for corporate-sponsored rock festivals, though how popular such things prove to be in the california heat, this northerly located investigator cannot confirm.

Wool and Vinyl...

...simultaneously spinning natural and synthetic materials wool and vinyl - simultaneously spinning natural and synthetic materials.

Both. I have, partly to understand more clearly what we are dealing with here, begun spinning natural and synthetic materials simultaneously, in something approaching what I suspect was behind the report dug up by Kingsbury PI. The natural material I chose was unwashed and uncarded highland-grown white sheepswool. The synthetic was medium-density black vinyl, sourced from Ullapool area junior highland games indoor sales area, specifically N Young’s first solo album, and the seminal Warhorse album, both picked up for £2 a hank, along with More soundtrack original-ish pressing, early Queen, and ‘Taste’ (Rory Gallagher’s band). There was also a wealth of prog, in particular Yes albums, which I left. Said highland games included 1 male senior event (over 21 yr old dads), for which I narrowly ensured no photo-finish was required.
The spin-source I chose for closed loop natural material spinning was an Ashford dark-rosewood wheel fitted with jumbo flier for greater width flexibility. Foot-Action operated. The spin source for closed loop (if indeed a spiral-groove 45 counts as closed loop, as opposed to the rare continuous-play closed groove discs) was a black turntable circa 1995, I forget the manufacturer. Powered by mains electricity.

Both spins were started near-simultaneously, without any CERN-style hiccups. Spin was allowed to continued for some time (1-2 hours). The bobbin filled quickly with approx 4mm width off-white coarse wool cordage, and was emptied and refilled once. Apparatus were then shut down, again close to simultaneously. The scaremongers’ fears of adverse reactions between the two mediums producing an uncontrollable chain reaction of spin, were this time at least unfounded.
I recall while working with Sam Ting at MIT, the same feeling of quiet achievement quickly giving way to the desire just to get on with the next test…

The next process in this case was the dyeing of the natural spun material. For this I chose mixed lichens from the lichen repository out back of the facility building, along with solar-distilled and re-acidified streamwater, balsamic vinegar, sea salt and onion skins. After bringing to critical point temperature in heating chamber, I added the first skein of post-spin material, and reduced heat to low. Second skein was then added. The hue began a deep magenta from the lichens, then after a night cooling in the chamber, turning to a rusty orange. The material is now airing naturally on a medium to high humidity external sill. I will use said material soon and pass on further findings and conclusions.

Woolly Jumper Crew

More connections between wool and the canadian music scene, as found in the UK music press. see the last sentence for validation that we are digging in the right area...

Album Review: Malajube ‘Labyrinthes’How many Canadian bands have you loved? It’s worth a ponder while wandering Malajube’s aimless ‘Labyrinthes’. In fairness, the Quebec quartet often appear equally dubious of the indie-rock Montreal is known for; the kind that all seems filtered through Broken Social Scene or Spencer Krug and their Pitchfork-goading smugness. Startled by the prospect of a ‘safe’ 7.2, the record veers off along theatrical tangents that recall Muse or ELO as much as Sunset Rubdown but ultimately don’t seem to make sense, highlights ‘Casablanca’ and ‘Cristobald’ botched by over-eager forays into cock-rocking territory. Stranded, the record potters about not knowing what to do with itself. One for the woolly jumper crew.

In Reply

Certainly, the historic link dates from the highland clearances – a mass migration caused solely and completely by… yes, you’ve guessed… the wool trade.Huge swathes of Scotland, and in a different manner, England too, were cleared of indigenous resident sustainable populations by an elite with political and military power, in order to occupy the cleared lands with huge sheep farms. The wool trade was partly, I believe, serving to fuel the Napoleonic wars, though I forget what the English army used wool for. Today’s residual contingent of struggling UK sheepfarmers is largely a hangover from this not-too-distant example of ethnic cleansing – the previous sustainable populations kept cattle, pigs, grew oats… were foresters… coppiced… Now the hills are bare and the soil has no nitrogen content – the nitrogen went into the wool. Taken from the land and not put back… Fertility was lost. A culture was shifted, by sea, to New Scotland (nova scotia); to New Zealand (Dunedin, NZ city, named after the original Gaelic name for Edinburgh), to Australia, to Canada. With the exodus went knowledge. There is a theory that the grail is now in Nova Scotia.