Best Quote I Heard All Day
Some rainy winter Sundays when there's a little boredom, you should always carry a gun. Not to shoot yourself, but to know exactly that you're always making a choice. --Lina Wertmuller

Perhaps I should just shoot my knitting.

(Maybe I should change this to Best Quote I Heard All Week, since I started writing this four days ago. It would be lovely if Monster.com had some jobs for Pro Bloggers that paid handsomely. That way perhaps I could cease my employment as an Ops manager and write full-time.)


Hand Jive
I tend not to complain about various minor ailments, for the simple fact that once one reaches a certain age, life is fraught with aches, pains, and occasional indigestion, all of which are well worth ignoring.

But damn, my right hand hurts. Since Carpal Tunnel Syndrome has been done to a crisp on the list, suffice it to say that I know how to deal with it. That doesn’t make it easier to knit. I’m working a row, putting it down, picking it up, putting it down. I’m finding the Taos to be harder on my hands to knit that I thought it might be, probably because it’s not terribly resilient due to its 44% cotton content.

Generally, the thinner the yarn and smaller the needles, the easier it is for me to knit. Besides finer yarn being a personal preference, I think that big yarn and big needles can wreak total havoc on one’s wrists and hands.

So the Taos, with the back completed and the front half done, is being set aside for a week or so. I may go back to the Forest Path Stole, which is half done and languishing in a bag.

Incidentally, before you ask, the orthopedist says that my CTS definitely comes from using the mouse, not from knitting. Unfortunately, I can’t give the mouse a rest, like I can knitting.

Welcome Back My Friends, to the Show That Never Ends
It’s getting to be that time of year when the promotion for Stitches East goes into high gear. I’ve already decided that I’m going—there was never any question of that. However, this year I am taking a totally different approach to how I do the market.

First of all, Elly and I discussed the fact that we both raced through the market last year. Well, she did. I was happy to noodle around but when my mother goes shopping, she functions like an ICBM—strategic strikes only. So she has promised me that we will pay more attention to the vendors listed and more attention to the smaller booths.

I find buying yarn at Stitches a pain in the ass, to be honest. The lighting is far better in AC than it was in Valley Forge but I still like to look at colors in natural light. Not that I don’t end up buying some yarn but in the main, I go for books, tools, and sock yarn. I always need something from all of those categories. If you’re the kind of person who buys yarn for yarn’s sake, you can spend a fortune. I am very project-oriented and seldom buy anything unless I know exactly I’m going to do with it—even if it’s an ephemeral design concept that will solidify later.

The Holy Shit Trinity
That’s what I stick to—3 projects. I seldom pick “quick/easy/simple,” although at the rate I’m completing anything these days, I could almost (“almost” being the operative word) go for something that knits up fast. Considering that two of my three projects are complex AND knit on small needles, I suppose that I might want to start counting socks as projects so that I can fool myself into thinking that I’m getting shit done.

I’m not. I’m a slow-ass knitter to begin with. And with a maximum of two hours a day in which to knit, I suppose I can’t expect much more of myself.

I’m so focused, it’s beginning to make me crazy. I absolutely will not start another thing unless I have finished something. The Trinity stays constant that way. However, one of the three is a project for the book and I need to keep that ratio, if not increase it, if I ever hope to finish the book and get it published. In fact, once I’ve finished the other two, they will get supplanted by book designs.

Don’t expect to see this book before the fall of 2005. I’ve decided that I will fob off some of the knitting designs to be knit by test knitters, whom I’ve already picked, but I really prefer to do most of the knitting myself.

And I still have that Koigu jacket that’s been designed in my musty brain and will be the next project I knit for the book. It’s one I can’t wait to start—but I have to finish the Taos first.

Guillotine Scarves
I’ve been reading this strange little mystery that is set in the London of 1794, about émigrés from the French Revolution. And one of the fashions in Paris at that time was the wearing of little red bands around the neck, which were supposedly symbolic of the guillotine’s cut.

I’m thinking that knitting a guillotine scarf, perhaps from some French frou-frou yarn, would be just the ticket for the book—or perhaps to sell to well-heeled idiots at craft shows. The marketing alone would be amusing, n’est-ce pas? You're welcome to contribute your marketing savvy. I somehow envision Wednesday Addams knitting a guillotine scarf for her doll.

And with that, this former French major says, a bien-tot. French is a rare and handy language but I don’t want to encourage Kathy, you know?