Best Quote I Heard All Year

Having a holiday weekend without a family member felt like putting on a sweater that had an extra arm--Pamela Ribon, "Why Girls Are Weird"

Need I say more? What a good weekend this was.
















Yes, this is my family. Or part of it. From left, daugher Corinne, Jenn's boyfriend Norm, daughter Jenn, the ever punkish Liz, Corinne's boyfriend Mike, and Johnny listening to the Yankees lose. Vacant chair is mine. I take the pictures. However, the knitting bag is definitely a blood relative. We left the cats at home. No doubt they had their own party.

Est-Stoned
I decided on Saturday, after I had posted a picture of my suri alpaca attempt at the Estonian scarf from Pieceworks, that the suri just wasn't quite right for this pattern stitch. So a quick rummage in the stash, I found some of the Morehouse that I had bought last year at Rhinebeck.

This is a rather bold lace pattern, geometric to the nth degree. Diamonds a go-go. The Morehouse colors are also bold and suited the pattern much better, dontcha think?

Please, no comments about the Red Hat Society of idiots. The picture does not do the colors justice--therein are also shades of orange, lavender, mauve. Besides, I've been combining red and purple for years. What's so fucking revolutionary about that anyway? Not to go off on a side rant, but these women who are members of this so-called club presumably grew up when I did, during the '60s, when color went on a trip Leary-style. And now it's a big deal to wear purple and red?

Anyhow, the pattern stitch is a good basic lace--16 row rep and you've pretty much got it memorized after two repeats. As my sainted mother would say, "Good baseball knitting." Or good TV knitting, if you're not into baseball.

I've got a quad skein of this, for those of you familiar with Morehouse's put-up. (Kathy? Selma? I'm lazy, what's the yardage?) So this may make it to shawlhood. There's no finishing other than the selvedges.

More EST
Totally off topic, but how big a fucking dope is Tom Cruise? Never one of my favorite actors. Too many teeth and that crazy-eyed look. I was completely outraged at his comments about psychiatry and very glad that Brooke Shield wrote a dignified rebuttal for the New York Times Op-Ed page the other day.

His comments to Matt Lauer were so incredibly irresponsible, it was frightening. Here's hoping that he appeared crazy enough so that nobody who needs psychiatric help would even consider what he said. "I know the history of psychiatry" indeed. Walk a mile in my shoes, asshole, along with the rest of us who suffer from mental illness. Cruise might benefit from a little humility but I doubt that all the EST in the world would provide him with a dose of that.

Knitty-NOT
What a crap issue. Really. Where were the male designers? One doesn't cut it. And what gawd-awful designs. The guys I know who knit (yeah, I'm talking to you Joe, Franklin, Antonio-the-Unfinished, Sean, James, Peter, Tricky) are so incredibly talented and yet Knitty seemingly chose to ignore the Men Who Knit. More sappy cuteness about knitting for their guys. Spew time.

Frankly, Knitty missed the boat big time on this. I'm just waiting to see what the guys have to say about the issue. Just a lame magazine, in general (although the techical articles are at least worthwhile sometimes). And I had such high hopes for it when it first started. Now it's a HYUK-fest, Stitch 'n' Bitch Jamboree. Maybe I should start a magazine for the rest of us. I'm tempted.

Three Weeks and Counting
Busy collecting boxes and trying to get my act together to move. I'm feeling a bit sad about selling the townhouse but there was no other option. Nonetheless, there's lots of things to look forward to: A new house, a new loom, Rhinebeck, maybe a new job if I'm lucky. All sorts of opportunities.

Every day is rare and handy.