Best Quote I Heard All Day
When I take action, I'm not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It's going to be decisive.--George W. Bush, Warlord and NASCAR Aficionado

Here's a new contest. Name the date and time that we invade Iran. Tomorrow doesn't count. Try next Tuesday.

If you're correct, you could win an all-expenses paid luxury trip to Teheran for your son or daughter. Or even yourself, if you're under 35. Bypass Baghdad, get out your M-16 and have a blast.

You Go, Hip Trendy Chic Hot Bitchn Knttr Grrrrrllllll with the Bling-Bling
Many heartfelt kudos to Lisa Myers for writing about the dumbing-down of knitting books on her blog. Read it. This, from a yarn shop owner who knows what's going on and is unafraid to state publicly that she will not buy any more idiotic EZ, Quick, Last-Minute knitting tomes.

Longtime readers of this blog know that I've ranted about this since the beginning. But Lisa is in the business, with clout that I don't have. I subscribe completely to her thinking that sending out the message in a Hello Kitty manner via ridiculous knitting books that knitting is HARD is so wrong. It's as fucking hard as you make it. Oh dear, all those bothersome numbers. Come on, aren't we all past this?

Evidently not. But on a positive note, there have been a few solidly serious knitting books published this year. So perhaps the tide turns. It remains to be seen.

Blogging Chutzpah
So I'm reading the latest issue of Yarn Market News, and lo! There is an article therein about bloggers who write negative, meanspirited things about yarn companies, designers and yarn shops. And how to stem the hemorrhaging if you're one of the latter.

While it's true that a lot of nonsense abounds in the knitting world, particularly the Knitting R Me attitude that I wrote about in the last post, there has been very valuable insights published by bloggers regarding the yarn industry. The article was a bit defensive, no surprise considering it's published by your friends at Vogue Knitting. And the industry should be concerned because if they're putting out garbage, they're going to get hammered on some of the knitting blogs, this one for sure.

My attitude, as you know if you read what I write, is that if a yarn is crap, I'm gonna tell you. If a designer strikes a diva pose, I'm going to write about it. If a magazine is badly off-track, I'll state my opinion. These are all public entities and as such, open themselves up to criticism. As I do myself, writing this blog.

Anyone who puts their product out for public consumption has to deal with the negative. It's not all "We lurve yoooooouuu."

Meanspirited? Perhaps some bloggers are. I've certainly been accused of it. However, my ultimate interest is not destroying someone personally but improving the product, be it yarn, customer service, writing, what have you. If I get a bit acerbic, that's because sometimes you have to hit people on the head with a large rock to make your point.

And it's always interesting to me that those who call me meanspirited forget all the positive things I've said about different yarns, designers, yarn shops, and magazines.

Obligatory Knitting Shit
Not much to write about, nor are there any pictures worth showing. I've been busy at work, busy writing some non-work pieces, busy finishing up stuff left on needles and writing up the patterns for Fredda's Knitting Vault. (Yes, Fredda! They are forthcoming. Please don't die of shock before we get together again.)

I did buy Knit Visualization. And it's even better than I had hoped. So out comes the Barbara Walker volumes, and I practiced charting patterns that I may use in the future. The Arwen hoodie is on hold until I finish a few other things on my list. Like warping that frigging loom. Cleaning up the Loom Room. All that good stuff. There will be pictures next week when I get to the point where I won't bore you with the same-old same-old.

Commercial Curmudge
Lately I've been wondering why I don't make any money from the hours that I spend writing this blog. So in the coming weeks, you will see some advertising, probably Google's AdSense at the least.

I've always wanted to stay away from this but the truth is, every year I pay for my domain and hosting. Not to mention my web stats and a few other related items. So it's time to make this hobby pay a bit of chump change. Shit, everyone else does it. I'm certainly not beneath making a few extra bucks.

You may have noticed that I've finished with the sidebar. I have not done much on redesigning the blog but that's going to happen over the course of the next month or so. It's time. I may not be able to use the Blogger tools for templates because I have my own domain and it seems that in the past, you could not use the new template utility if you published to an .ftp site. We'll see.

Anyway, I really have to clean. I don't feel like it but there are dust bunnies the size of my cat under the bed, I'm sure. What a rare and handy way to spend the rest of Saturday. I need a maid. Or a butler. Perhaps Jeeves. Or maybe just a sexy man. Heh.