Best Quote I Heard All Day
No balls, no blue chips--James J. Roberts

One of the reasons why my late husband was so very dear. And far more curmudgeonly than I. This was one of his favorite sayings to me whenever I dithered.

Elitist Yarn Bitch
Having read Joe's entry today about the snitblogger who bashed him back in May, I simply had to go and read her entry for myself. As Joe noted, her band of merry morons were far more amusing to read than the blogger's rant about Joe's fiber snobbery.

Hear this: There is absolutely NO reason whatsoever to use shit yarn, especially now that KnitPicks offers good stuff at low prices. If you can't afford decent yarn, try plastic canvas needlework. Why bother putting hours of work using materials that are crummy and will fall apart after a year? I never did see the rationale behind this and I guess I really don't care to understand it either.

I am an elitist knitter and I've never made any bones about it. Bite me.

On a Roll
I'm feeling particularly petulant today, I suppose from the stress of moving. However, I finally picked up the latest Interweave Knits at Borders, after flipping through the other bad and hideous knitting magazines. Besides a batch of feh-to-fugly designs in IK, I really did love the felted intarsia carpetbag. Absolutely the best felted bag I've ever seen, and God knows there's a shitload of mediocre ones out there. I'm sorely tempted to make this, even though I don't care for intarsia. The article on shiburi was interesting, as was Deborah Newton's article on edgings (although I didn't always agree with her). Which leads me to another burr that's been irritating me.

Knitting Does NOT Act Like Cloth Fabric
While going through the knitting magazines at Borders the other day, it struck me that more and more designers are trying to force knitted fabric to act as woven fabric. Square or sweetheart necklines? Never in knitting. Instant failure. Knitted applied pockets? Watch it, they may be too heavy and clunky for the lines of the design (see the aforementioned Deborah Newton's jacket in IK for a fine example of this).

You want to re-create a Chanel suit? Do it in cloth. Coco knew what she was doing.

Le Mess

Ten days to go before we move. I hate the disorder but at least I truly understand that it's finite.

The blue bag, a birthday present from Joe last year, holds the ripped-out Slainte. The Flow Blue porcelain formerly in the china cabinet is all packed.

However, you can see at the lower right some skeins of yarn.

Stubborn to the last minute. I have no doubt the new owners will find errant skeins that were stuffed in small spaces. Nice housewarming giftie, eh?

Still spinning, though. Another two full bobbins of the Starry Night done, with plying done on the QT this weekend during breaks from packing. And the Estonian scarf/shawl has been an excellent stress reliever. I'm looking forward to Nancy Bush's new book on Estonian knitting.

Now THAT's elitist knitting for ya, in a good way. Estonian knitting. These Fun-Fur babes don't know how rare and handy knitting can be. Too bad for them.