Best Quote I Heard All Day
Don't rule out working with your hands. It does not preclude using your head.--Andy Rooney

And thank God for that.

Party On, Wayne
Far be it from me to bite the hand that feeds me fiber. Kathy brought her unwanteds to my house last Sunday...five garbage bags full. Joe and Lisa and I had lots of fun digging through the goods. Here is my living room floor, bedazzled and bedecked.


Holy shit. My stash as-is equals about this. Well, maybe a bit more but not much. I tend to be pretty project-oriented. Here are some more pictures you can look at: Joe and Kathy expounding. Lisa holding up the one skein no one wanted. I guess Joe was still talking. Heh.

Joe gave me the latest Rowan magazine AND A Yorkshire Fable for a housewarming gift. When I look at the Rowan designs and the ones in the Jamieson books, I know for sure that the American magazines have no fucking excuse for the total excrement they've been publishing of late. Even the easy Rowan designs are elegant.

It's a good thing to get together with your friends. More than anything else, writing this blog has given me the opportunity to meet extraordinary people like these.

Far better than going to some goofy knitting guild that hangs on TKGA's every word.

IK ICK
For some strange reason, I thought this issue was going to be better than the past few. It just bored me to tears. Not that the garments were woofers. They weren't. They were just dull. But it was a $5.95 ennui-filled 10 minutes of reading. The thumb gusset article was mildly interesting. The article on prisoners knitting was also sort of unspellbinding. Unfortunately, I didn't see any potential poster material for Joe that might pander to his fixation with serial killers. In fact, all of the articles rather set the tone of this issue's mediocrity.

I'm getting to the point where I am tremendously more interested in the ads. Blue Sky Alpacas had one of the most arresting ads I've seen in a long time. The web site is the same. It's not that the designs themselves were so incredible. But it shows you what spectacular photography and great art direction can do. And looking at how the Classic Elite ads have gone down the toilet, it makes you wonder. Frankly, the Lion Brand ad is more interesting than CE's.

One company that has been advertising of late in the mags is Fiddlesticks Knitting, a Canadian company owned by Dorothy Siemens that features her lace shawl designs. I'm thinking that if I ever finish the Forest Path Stole, I may go for one of hers. Really nice designs, if you're into lace.

Knitbloggers Knitting Basket Project
Saw this on Joe's blog today--this is a good thing, people. Teresa, Wendy, and Deb (Yentala) have put The Knitbloggers Knitting Basket Project together. I think it's a very appropriate charity, otherwise I wouldn't endorse it.

If you want to do something charitable for the holidays (or any time--do you need an excuse?), check it out. I'm sure you can manage a buck or three.


BIZ-E or E-BIZ
When I catch up with myself, I may find that I have once again aged two years or so. At least, it seems that way. Work is sucking up a lot of time, as is my relationship with John. Not to mention planning my 2004 e-business stuff. Initially I thought I might do an e-magazine and I still may, down the road. Then I thought about doing a newsletter, also online. But in the end, I felt that keeping it small and manageable was the better part of valor. I've pretty much decided that I will start publishing my designs myself and selling them on the internet. I have not worked out the how's, why's and when's, so don't ask. But I'll keep you posted.

One thing I do know. I will control my product, not some pompous twit who knows dick about publishing and design. And I will not sell the designs from my blog. My blog is my blog. I never intended it to be a commercial venture. Of course, she says with a snort, somebody's gotta pay the fucking cyber bills around here. Domain names cost money, server space costs money. And so it goes.

I'm going to get my butt back into a regular posting mode on the blog. I need time and space to write. And only I can make that time and space.

So it is written, so it shall be done rare and handily.