Best Quote I Heard All Day
I never did very well in math - I could never seem to persuade the teacher that I hadn't meant my answers literally.--Calvin Trillin

I am about to venture into what will be the most math-intensive experience I have had since failing high school algebra. Baggy-Pants Kowal would be proud of me, I'm sure. "Factor of x? What's that?"

We had nicknames for all of our high school teachers: Jolly Roger Kent, the music teacher who wasn't; G.I. Joe Kritzer, my first-year Latin teacher who threw erasers at you when you couldn't decline your nouns properly; and let us immorialize "Bubbles" Bubriski, who taught U.S. history while promoting narcolepsy among 16-year-olds.

Warp Tour
Now it begins. This instrument of torture is a warping board. I got it yesterday via UPS, when I was really hoping to get my winding station.

It's a big motherfucker, no? A warping board measures the warp of the loom in yards. You won't be cutting little pieces of yarn to size individually. Loopy has suggested that I practice warping. Oh yeah. Here's the process and what a warped board looks like.

This is going to be a most interesting journey with many, many fuck-ups. Thank God I have Loopy to guide me, although I suppose I could blame her for being a supreme enabler. Works both ways.

The New, Remarkably More Inane Knit List
I still scan the KL occasionally but Loop sent me a very special post from the list that I somehow missed. And is right up there on the Laziness Ladder with "How do I make a slip knot?" for the sorriest question ever.

The poster wants to know:
I would like to start working w/stripes but I don't know where to begin in choosing colors, how much of each color should the stripe be, repetition, etc. Does anyone know of a good resource, like a book or Web site? Or can offer some personal experience? (Note that I do know how to change color.)

My personal advice about stripes? Start with two colors and then alternate them. You can't go wrong with that recipe.

The dumbing-down continues. And it will continue to perpetuate, I'm afraid.

Little Bit, Little Bit
Just the scantest of spinning. I've been screwing around with the Joy and a 4-oz. bag of merino that I bought at Rhinebeck last year. I really need to get off the blue kick because as much as I love blue, I'm getting sick of it.

I need to get a digital camera that will take decent closeups of stitches. The Nikon Coolpix that I have now just doesn't cut it. However, the cost of digital SLRs is prohibitive, really. I'll have to ask my brother Rich, the photographer/massage therapist, what he thinks I might buy that will fill the bill.

Knit One, Purl Two
The rhetorical question: Why, when you are knitting in public, do non-knitters feel compelled to say this in lieu of any other intelligent comment? Besides, of course, the ubiquitous "That's crochet, right?"

I had to research this phrase, since it is certainly not a stitch combination that most knitters would do.

Turns out that it was a Glenn Miller song of the same name. I should have asked my mother. She was going to NYU at the time this song was popular and frequently spent her class time knitting and doing crossword puzzles. (Nice to know that her habits haven't changed much.)

Given the huge popularity of knitting during WWII, it's not surprising. In fact, I'm currently writing a piece about my maternal grandmother, who, flushed with patriotic fervor as only Grandma would be, decided she was going to knit for the boys overseas. Never mind that she didn't know how to knit--she was about the most unhandy person I've ever met. Her resulting balaclava effort started on five needles and ended up on two. I do not recall her ever singing this particular song.

Ex Libris
I'm still out in the garage sorting through boxes. And I knew at the time of the move that I should not have let John pack my knitting books because Mr. ADD didn't label a damned box. I managed to find some of them but not all. They're out there. But I need my lace reference books and my Barbara Walker books NOW. Sheesh.

Liz will be over shortly to help. She's off on a cruise to Bermuda Sunday with her father and I will miss her. Although I could have done without her continuous singing yesterday of her new song "It's Zimbabwe or my way."

You have to hear it to appreciate its annoyance factor. She's a rare and handy kid but sometimes she beats a dead horse, you know? To the death.