Best Quote I Heard All Day
Genius is born--not paid. --Oscar Wilde

The quote is apropos of nothing in today's entry. It's simply true.

The Fugly Fugue
Thanks to reader Cathy for sending this along:

Forever Hip. Forever Fugly. A symphony of shite. A concerto of crap. Ye gods. I'm so glad I had not eaten this morning prior to viewing this picture.

What's incredibly sad about this picture is that Berroco used to be a leading yarn company. I always disliked their yarn, though, especially after a tragic episode in the late '70s of knitting pullovers with their ghastly boucle on #3s. I was doing it for the money, for a designer who sold her expensive crap in Madison Avenue boutiques. Hey, I had two kids and needed the extra cash.

Even worse, Margery Winter, who used to be the editor of VK, is their creative director.

When you think about the work that went into designing and knitting these lovelies, you have to wonder what the motivation could be. It certainly isn't the money.

Would someone please send me links of extravagantly beautiful knitting so I can publish something on the other end of the spectrum? Or have we seen most of it already?

The Non-Mag
After considerable thought and discussion with friends knitting and non-knitting, I have decided that I am not going to put my financial ass on the line and do a magazine. And this is strictly a financial decision. It's all very nice for readers to say, "Oh please, do it! We'll buy it!" However, most of my readers have no concept of what's entailed. So perhaps I may do a newsletter at some point but for the time being, I think writing the blog is sufficient.

In fact, I am putting the book on hold as well, since I'm not sure that I wish to contribute yet another flaccid tome to the legions already out there. What I may do is take all of the blog entries, format them into a .pdf and edit them. That is, if I can find time while learning how to weave, spinning and knitting.

Knitting and Spinning and Looms, Oh MY!

Liza insists that I put my Bernina to good use and do some quilt piecing. Just what I need, one more fun hobby. I decided years ago that if I got into quilting, my fabric collection would have to have its own residence because I'd buy every color imaginable so that I'd have a total palette. Far worse than collecting yarn. And unfortunately, I do know how to piece, applique and quilt, so it would be so easy to segue into quilting.

However, the weaving thing continues to itch like a bad case of poison ivy. Loopy has been extraordinarily helpful in guiding me towards the right loom, the right books, and the right accessories to buy.

And the Bernina would come in handy for making clothes from my woven fabric, if I ever get that proficient at weaving.

Some more progress on the Estonian scarf/shawl and the spinning of Starry Night:

In my opinion, this is more of an eyelet pattern than a true lace pattern. For some reason, Cleo, who is never interested in fucking around with my yarn, decided to take a stroll over the shawl as I was photographing it this morning.

I don't recall if I published a picture of the plyed Starry Night but here it is, complete with black safety ties. I use sock reinforcing yarn for that since I never use it for socks.

As I was spinning this morning at 5:30 (yep, I do get up early), it occurred to me that I haven't the foggiest idea of what this will knit into when it's done. Sounds like I may need to swatch.

It's always good to have a plan.

Blog Changes

I finally bit the bullet and upgraded the Comments, which means no more ads for you and easier deletion/editing of comments for me. Not that I edit the comments nor do I often delete them. But I thought it would be nice to support Haloscan.

Off to pack china. I will be most happy when the move is over. John wants to pack my knitting books and yarn today. That's the worst of it all. Limits the rareness and handiness considerably.