Best Quote I Heard All Day
Thought: Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only food: frequently there must be a beverage. --Woody Allen

I have high standards for yarn and low standards for food. There is little I won't eat (Brussel sprouts, lima beans) and too much that I will.

One of my favorite places (and Joe's, I might add) is up the road a piece from my house: Hotdog Johnny's. Jersey has a veritable plethora of roadside eateries. I love this place, and not because it's in Buttzville, either. Yes, Buttzville. What do you want from an area that has a road called "Shades of Death" that runs right past Ghost Lake? And towns called Tranquility and Stillwater. The AS Stillwater. This region is a great place to live.

Zoomzoomzoom
I don't go 55 mph, so I've decided that I won't act 55. By the way, thanks to all for the birthday wishes. Much appreciated--sympathy was just what I needed, especially when Liz pointed out that I am old. Thanks, kid.

Non-Knitting Rant-o-rama
I have no pictures today because Liz has my camera. Why? So that she and her science fair partner Chris can take pictures of them working on their project (a solar oven made from a pizza box, very nifty idea) as proof that their parents did not do the project for them.

What a sorry state of affairs. Guidance is one thing, but parents doing kids' homework and projects for them is totally unacceptable. No wonder the HYUKs can't do much more than scarves. Mummy and Daddy never taught them to figure stuff out by themselves. What a terrible disservice these people are doing to their children. I suppose their kids never learn to wipe their asses on their own, either. They should be shot, or at least reported to DYFS for education abuse.

Birfday Present
My package of stuff came today from KnitPicks. Twenty skeins of Wool of the Andes and a Nancy's Knit Knacks electronic row counter, all courtesy of Ma's birthday check. I'm generally not one for gidgy gadgets but I've been wanting one of these counters for a while. It will retain your row count until the batteries wear out, 7 or 8 months. This is particularly handy for work that I don't touch frequently, like the Starmore Queen Anne's Lace. I've found that no matter how careful I am, the row counter dial tends to shift the numbers. Not good, especially on something like a complex Fair Isle, where it can be difficult to rediscover the correct row. I believe I will call my new counter Raci. Or maybe Rowsi. Woodums.

The Wool of the Andes will be used for an Aran design for the book. I'm going to modify the design of my first Aran (also my first sweater) so that it's a bit more challenging but retains the qualities of the original, which I made for my late uncle. The original was made in bulky Berella. Ye gods.

I thought that it might be of interest to write about my design process on this one. I've designed a number of Arans in the past but haven't done one in about 6 or 7 years, so this should be fun. Of course, I won't give away the pattern--you'll have to buy the book for that--but you'll probably enjoy watching me bumble around with it. Arans are a bugger to design. It takes a lot of planning and forethought, which I'll share with you beginning next week. And no, this will not be a Knitalong. Ever.

But I'll tell you, my fingers are itching to get started. The WOTA is really nice.

Other Knitting/Spinning Shit
Still knitting up the cranberry homespun. I like knitting my own yarn very much. I've finally learned to spin exactly what I enjoy working with. And I'm just about ready to ply my first skein of that Starry Night wool/mohair. Also a pleasure to spin. When I've done the skein, I'll put up a picture. That's presuming I get the camera back soon.

Time to eat pizza for dinner. With anchovies. Of course. Such a rare and handy addition.