Best Quote I Heard All Day
My alphabet starts with this letter called YUZZ. It's the letter I use to spell Yuzz-a-ma-Tuzz.--Theodor Geisel

Bobblicious

(with many apologies to Dr. Seuss)

I do not like them on a frock
I do not like them on a sock
I do not like them on a hat
I do not like them on a cat

I do not like them in my hair
I do not like them anywhere
I do not like them on a tam
I do not like them, SamIAm

If I needed an extra nipple or perhaps a colorful tumor, I'd put strategically placed bobbles on all my sweaters. And in the current issue, Interweave Knits offers me the opportunity to add to my already-generous bazoom with a bobble here, there and everywhere. Not to mention pom-poms, the new bobbles.

I ask you, besides the fugly factor, which is a bigger pain in the ass to make? Bobbles or pom-poms? I opt for the latter because who the fuck can ever trim them properly? I made some once circa. 1975 and I couldn't. And let's not discuss the pom-pom maker. An accessory that should have been born a-dyin'.

Let's send bobbles and pom-poms back to the era in which they belong.

What I liked from the current IK issue: the socks, the mitts, the Prairie Tunic (which I would have made at 25 but not now), Evelyn Clark's lace scarf.

The rest you can have.

Blogola
OK, you asked. Now I'm giving you a short list of good places to find good designs. Mind you, the decent patterns you'll pay for. But then, you're willing to pay for dreck like Knitter's and Vague, so why not fork over for these?

Disclaimer: I have not used the directions from most of these sites, so I can't vouch for their quality or accuracy. We're talking strictly visual here and not everything is always to my taste; however, I've found some really good stuff on these links.

Not-for-free

• The Knitting Vault--lots of good designs here, including Joe's great Koigu scarf pattern. Even Lucy Neatby has some stuff here. (Fredda, I promise you, I'm working on the directions for the hoodie.)
• Chic Knits--I like Bonne Marie's simple styles. Classic and nicely styled.
• White Lies Designs--I love this site and I swear that one of these days I'm going to get one of these patterns. Joan McGowan-Michael does knitted lingerie and retro stuff better than anyone I've seen to date. And her sizes range from petite to plus.
• The Girl From Auntie--Home of the Rogue. I wish Jenna would do some more designing.

Freebies
Note: Most pay-for sites also have their freebies. And most freebies are what they are. Pretty basic because who's going to give away something complex?

• GarnStudio--I wrote about this site several months ago but it's worth repeating. Talk about a pile of freebies, and good ones at that--GarnStudio has put up patterns from their old books. Something for everyone here.
• Knitting-And.com--I like the vintage patterns here. Lots of other stuff as well. Sarah has quite a bit on her site and it's worth perusing.
• wiseNeedle--You know it for its yarn reviews but Kim has a number of free patterns and graphs as well.
• BoogaJ--Home of the Booga Bag, a basic but nicely designed felted bag that uses Noro Kureyon. (BoogaJ was one of the group of us, Bonne Marie included, who started blogging in 2002. This woman has knitted more bags from Noro Kureyon than anyone I've ever seen.)

Just to prove that I put my mouth where my money isn't, I downloaded the Booga Bag and decided to make one last night because I really wanted to watch the skating finals and didn't want to concentrate on the Melanie.

BoogaJ calls this "mac and cheese" knitting and that's a perfect description. Her directions are excellent, by the way. And who doesn't have three balls of Kureyon lying around doing nothing? I know I did. You can make this in a weekend, easily.

Weird going from #1s to #10.5 needles, though. I find the larger the needle, the more it irritates my CTS, for some reason. I had to dredge out the big needles from my case and dust 'em off.

Quick Spin
After giving the Matchless a tune-up (cleaning, tightening the bolts, oiling), I decided to give that raspberry merino/tercel a go. Changed the whorl from the medium to the small, set the tension to nothing and off I went. In fits and starts.

I started by doing some predrafting. Bad idea. The twist was entering the fiber much too quickly. I changed the whorl and I slowed down my treadling. The fiber drifted apart. Spinning from the fold didn't help either. Put the small whorl back on. Feh. Not spinning smoothly. So I ended up by spinning right from the roving, keeping the small whorl and no tension. Perfect.

Noo Yawk
I enjoyed reading about Franklin's Sister Sue's trip to NYC last weekend. We went to some of the same places on Saturday because Liz had a hankering to go to Times Square and to the great punk mecca, CBGB, which is due to close next October. Ya gotta have the sweatshirt to amaze and impress your friends, dontcha know? It was fucking colder than shit.

Virgin Records is not my idea of a fun place to visit, despite its amazing selection of music, movies, and such. But then, I'm no longer 13 either. Dinner at Wo Hop's in Chinatown assuaged the old woman in me. Some very welcomed chicken and corn soup and shrimp egg fu yung. And the biggest fucking dumplings I've seen, ever.

I love my hometown--yeah, I was born in Manhattan, which makes me a native to some degree. But when you have to fight traffic for an hour going in (Lincoln Tunnel) and going out (Holland Tunnel), it ceases to be a rare and handy experience.