Best Quote I Heard All Day
The future masters of technology will have to be lighthearted and intelligent.
The machine easily masters the grim and the dumb.
--Marshall McLuhan, 1969

Internet Explorer has ceased to function on my laptop and will have to be reloaded...I am now grim and using Mozilla, but still more intelligent than the machine I use...I think. Lighthearted does not factor into my day right now.

There's Designers...and Then There's Technicians
The whole discussion in the last post's comments about EZ was pretty interesting. I don't believe in worship for worship's sake and when I see that sort of glazed-eye adoration towards anyone or anything, I'm immediately on my guard.

In my never-humble opinion, there are two main types of knitting designers: The Artists and the Technicians. The Artists have the color sense, the sense of balance, and use stitches and color to present their design ideas in an eye-pleasing manner. The Technicians, on the other hand, have the engineering savvy and innate mathematical talent to create fascinating shapings and constructs. In a perfect world, a knitting designer will have an even balance of both the Artist and the Technician. That happens rarely. And frankly, there's a few designers around who have neither and still manage to get published. Go figure.

EZ, to me, was a superlative Technician without an artistic bone in her body, at least when it came to garments. I agree with many of your comments--her garments are ugly, by and large. Her major contribution to the knitting world was to encourage people to push the envelope of their knowledge and to gain confidence in their skills by taking control of their knitting. I know her books certainly helped me to do that. But for a pattern resource, I go elsewhere.

So EZ, while a valuable contributor to my bookshelf, is not exactly my design muse, y'know?

My favorite designers? Deborah Newton, Lucy Neatby, Carol Lapin for general designs. Starmore, Feitelson and Schweitzer for Fair Isle. Robert Powell and Eugene Beugler for lace (not that I've done much but I like their stuff).

Just some ruminations on a Saturday afternoon when I should be cleaning...or knitting. Which I will, when I'm done with this.

Russian Joining
OK, I bit. This is the most obfuscated method of joining two ends of yarn that I have yet encountered. Makes regurgitating onto one's ends almost inviting...

However, it looks like it might be worth using on lace joins. I don't believe in collecting techniques for techique's sake. But this one I think I'll file for use with the Pacific Northwest shawl, if I ever restart the damned thing again.

Don't work lace in black mohair, kids. That's my advice to you.

It's quite unhandy. And rare enough to make you go blind.