Best Quote I Heard All Day
The most important thing to a lot of people, is to belong to something that's hip or whatever. To be a part of something that's not society, just a clique.--Ric Ocasek

The so-called schism between older and younger knitters continues to be perpetuated by the knitting magazines.

And that's a crime.

I suspect that in reality, there is less of a schism than we think. Rather, there will always be a group of knitters, regardless of age, who knit crap. And there will always be a group of knitters who are interested in expanding their knitting repertoire.

KnitScene
And perpetuating this nonsense and so as not to let Vague Knitting one-up them, Interweave Knits has come out with KnitScene. You can see the garments on the web site for yourself. There was not one I would make, not even for Liz, who doesn't consider anything knitted but socks and scarves to be "kewl."

I will say this, however: The magazine has some very good features. The size, for one. I like this format very much. Makes it easy to slip into your knitting bag, although if there were complex charts within, it could be a problem. And the layout, as is always the case for Interweave magazines, is well done. And I suppose 44 patterns plus articles for $7.95 is a good deal if you like 2.5 spi garments and fugly crocheted schmattehs.

There was a curious reference to Margaret Thatcher in a section head, I thought.

"Move Over, Margaret Thatcher. Parliament Goes Glam!"

What the fuck does THAT mean? First of all, Maggie's been out of office since 1990--fifteen years ago. I would daresay that most of KnitScene's readers barely remember the Thatcher years. Rather than hold Maggie up as a fashion-don't, which of course she was, I would think that the editors of KnitScene might recall Maggie as the first woman Prime Minister. Like her or hate her, she was one of the most influential women of the 20th century.

This is yet again another "hip to knit" magazine. I didn't bother buying it because I'm just not "hip" these days. Of course, my fashion education began with Mary Quant and Betsey Johnson. So what the fuck do I know?

What I know is that even when I was 22, I would not have knitted anything in KnitScene. But that's me.

But Now I am Six, I'm as Clever as Clever
I hate to do the old person's "When I was young, I walked twenty miles in the snow to get to school" routine. In many ways, I do miss the old knitting magazines.

I got these issues recently on eBay. Some of them are ones that I worked on as assistant Knit/Crochet Editor. The one on the top, in particular, was an incredible issue, with Lola Ehrlich as fashion editor. More than twenty years later, the designs are still fresh. I do have copies of every issue of every magazine I've edited and copies of every article I've ever had published. I just wanted doubles.

To this day, that issue is my very favorite of any publication I had a hand in, no matter how minor my effort.

Loom Strumming
It does remind me of stringing my violin and guitar, years ago. Although on a much different basis.

Finally some progress. I managed to get my sampler warp sleyed. Great word, isn't it? Another obtuse fiberwork term that leaves itself wide open to awful puns.

This photo was taken after I had finished sleying the one color. I've now added the blue and I'll be heddling my way into backache this afternoon. The heddles, for those who are not weavers, are those stringy eyelets attached to the shuttles, through which each warp thread must pass.

All 120 threads, each through four heddles. I'll not complain until I do a much larger warp. This is small stuff. Very small.

Off to do some book writing now. And to await the appearance of my rare and handy elder daughter Jenn, who is 36 today.

Shit, am I that old? I guess so.