Best Quote I Heard All Day
Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.—Mark Twain


A good “fuck it” is better than Maalox.

Blog Buggery and Other Fun Profanities
If it weren’t for Loopy’s e-mails and Joe’s recent blog entry, I never would have known that the Knit List was whining about profanity on blogs and the term “Stitch ‘n’ Bitch.”

What true fuckwits. And I use that word with emphasis aforethought.

Blogs are like TV. If you don’t like what you read, go elsewhere. Joe thought that perhaps he might need to place a disclaimer on his blog. I won’t do that, ever. My writing is what it is. No apologies. If your kids are reading it, then you clearly aren’t managing their online time. And that’s not my problem. If you find my writing offensive, that’s not my problem either.

Enough said.

Blogs and the Sunday New York Times
I would imagine that some of you read My So-Called Blog by Emily Nussbaum in the Sunday NYT last week about teen bloggers. I found it interesting, so when Ms. Nussbaum showed up on one of the national morning news programs to discuss the article, I watched. Much to my chagrin, she gave viewers the impression that blogging is a kid thing to do, with a lot of assistance from the interviewer, whose questions focused on teen-age blogs and the angst contained therein. Parents, do you know what your kid writes online?

As you know, if you read this blog and others, there is a large number of adult bloggers who write on a wide ranges of topics other than their lives: sports and politics, movies and literature, hobbies and travel. There’s a lot of good reading out there. And a lot of bad writing too.

I’ll be interested to see if this Teen-As-Blogger media theme becomes the public’s perception of blogging. I hope not. For most bloggers, writing a blog is exactly what Nussbaum describes. A not-so-private online diary that works better than therapy. But many blogs are written with a more journalistic edge, and those are the blogs that deserve the media attention.

If This is January, It Must be Catalog Time
I’m impatiently waiting for the 2004 Patternworks catalog. I have no idea why. There is nothing that needs to be purchased for the Roberts Stash-o-Rama. I did get the Knit Picks catalog and thumbed through it. This time, they’re pushing Fair Isle. Knit Picks seems to theme their catalogs. Last time it was lace, I believe. I don’t think that offering 12 or so shades of Jamieson Spindrift establishes them as the mail order emporium of record for Fair Isle. But their policy of free shipping over $30 is endearing. There were some nifty double-pointed needle protectors that I thought worth the six bucks. Couldn’t find them online, only in the hard-copy catalog.

Shetland Lace
I’ve been wanting Sharon Miller’s book, Heirloom Knitting, for a long time. It was nowhere to be found at Stitches, apparently because the first printing was sold out (the next printing is due out soon). It’s a pricy book, around $40, but it looks to be a definitive treatise on Shetland lace knitting. Consider that the XRX book, A Gathering of Lace, with its mistakes, is $35, I think Heirloom Knitting will be worth every penny. (Why is it that XRX buries its book Errata under “Book Help” on their increasingly befuddled web site? Rhetorical question, of course.)
Sharon’s web site is worth a visit—she has a free pattern available for download and a lot of good information. Of particular note is her “Beginner’s Guide to Charted Lace Knitting. The photo gallery of Shetland lace projects is amazing.

Speaking of XRX books and the Knitting Eunuchverse web site, if you have a burning desire to be the next Sally Melville, XRX wants you. Yep, they’re looking for writers on their web site. Of course, I found the link once, probably never to be found again. As is my wont, I will never publish a link to anything XRX does, so if you want to find fame and fortune as a published knitting writer, you’re on your own here. The thought of working with Alexis as photographer is enough to chill the blood of any intelligent human being.

Random thought: Has anyone noticed that Meg Swanson does nothing with XRX any more? No designs in Knitters, no books, no appearances at Stitches? I suspect that AGL was the last project she did with them...a wise move, I’m sure.

What I Knit
Lately, it seems as if I have to rearrange my schedule to find five minutes for knitting. However, I have made some small progress on the Lavold Ran tunic. More on this and a picture too in my next entry. The Ran back is 2/3 completed. The Queen Anne's Lace and the Forest Path Stole get momentary glances and not much more right now.

I'm also working on a quick hat in Cashmerino for John, since the London beanie I knit for him was not precisely what he wanted. Hey, I told him up front that it was tight-fitting, and he even tried it on halfway through and said it was fine. Then when it was done, it wasn’t fine. I knew the fucking thing wasn’t going to be fine. This time, I call the knitting shots. WTF does he know?

It’s about 10 degrees or so in these parts. Maybe a little more, probably a little less. I got to enjoy a few days off from work so that I could experience the flu along with many of my friends and co-workers. Shall I admit that I am a Judge Judy addict?

A week in Aruba would be rare and handy.