Thursday, July 19, 2007

Best Quote I Heard All Day
I mistrust total competence. I've always felt life is a series of small disasters we try to get through.--Michael Palin

This week meant two days without hot water due to a retarded furnace.

A small disaster is taking a cold shower, not to alleviate any yearnings but because you are beginning to stink.

Diamonds
This will be a post of short spurts, mostly because I’ve been writing nonstop and I’m a bit weary and out of words. Nonetheless, I’ve been working on the Magenta Diamonds shawl at a steady pace (often during conference calls, of which there has been four too many since Monday). I’ve had some thoughts on lace but I’ll save them for the weekend when I’m more lucid.

It grows like Topsy. I’ll put up a picture this weekend.

The Cotton Glace for Jenn’s Campanula showed up Monday but I’m going to finish this shawl first. I’m about halfway through and don’t want to drop it now.

I’m also behind in my spinning but that will be remedied this weekend, possibly. If I’m not busy with social stuff. The weekends keep filling up, which is a good thing. Won't talk about the loom or my spindles, all of which are growing plant life or hair. Or something.

The reason I did not insert the link to Royal Yarn, Joe, is because I don't want to be directly responsible for leading someone there. Google is everyone's friend.

Open Mic Thursday
OK, so we’ve had socks, shawls, mitts, ponchos, lingerie, fugly dog sweaters, and other stuff making the rounds for a while now. Along with lace, which seems to have taken off, as intarsia did back when. The bulky knits seem to have run their course, although they’ll be back in about 10 years, along with the excess of glitz. Shaped garments seem to be overtaking shapeless schmattehs. Here’s your chance to be a knitting prognosticator.

What do you see as the next trend in knitting?

I have no particular thoughts on this. However, your thoughts are welcome, if written wisely and intelligently.

The BW Charting Project
It occurred to me that there may be some copyright issues at play here. I have some of the charting finished but I am hesitant about publishing them because I am not sure of where I would stand. I would not charge for access to the charts but that may not matter. So I’ll leave that to the legal minds who read this blog. You all can comment and let me know what you think.

Faux Borat
I did enjoy the guy in the yellow thong running along with the Tour de France participants. Nice touch.

Potted
Not a fan of Harry Potter, particularly. I read the first book, saw the first movie on DVD, and promptly forgot about the whole thing. My sister, Harry Potter fiend, is attending Friday’s Border event to pick up her copy. Not me.

However, this past Sunday, alone and on the loose, I decided to go to the movies by myself to see either "Ratatouille" or "Sicko". Until she called me on my cell while I was out shopping and offered to buy me a ticket to the new HP movie so that I could go with her, my nephew Alex, and my brother-in-law Jim. Hell, why not?

I actually enjoyed the movie, although it does behoove you to have read the books, I think. But there’s a plethora of knitwear in the movie, which I’m afraid will prompt yet more HP knitting.

I read extensively but I prefer to leave those reviews to others. There's always a book at hand, generally history or a good mystery. One of these days I'll set up a separate LibraryThing for my other books.

IK Felt and Piecework
I'm looking forward to seeing this new special by Interweave. Felting or fulling, depending upon how you do it, can look either very interesting or like something you made in Girl Scouts. There's a preview of the magazine on Interweave's site; however, the pictures really didn't tell me much. So I'll check it out in Borders.

I've said this before and I'll repeat it: Piecework is a fine, interesting magazine, one that I've read faithfully since its launch back in the '90s. Yes, there's Nancy Bush as the contributing knitting editor, if all you care about is knitting. But for those of us who are interested in the history of needlework, be it quilts made from flour sacks, Russian shawls, tatting, or Renaissance costuming, there is always something worthwhile reading.

Boom Boom
Watching the coverage tonight of the explosion in NYC, one thing came to me immediately. It happened right where I worked as a consultant at CIBC two years ago. Yet another reason why I will not work in New York again, the hideous commute nothwithstanding. I enjoy visiting the city for fun and yarn, buttons, and other ephemera, but about six hours is my max tolerance. Noise, people, bullshit. Not rare and handy.

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