Silly Frilly Yarn, Undercover Lace, and Knitting Careen...Career

Best Quote I Heard All Day
"Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him to the public." Winston Churchill

The truth. Right now, my book is in the Master phase. I shouldn't take time off to write this blog entry but I need a break.

Always loved new knitters. While up in Maine in June with friends John and Mary Jean, I taught her how to knit. She was having a lot of anxiety over a family issue so I went and bought her that Boye Beginner's Knit Kit along with two skeins of junky acrylic, which was all I could find up there. Focusing on knitting seemed to help her feel a little better. That's why I'm happy to write this how-to book. Maybe it will help other people feel better when they pick up the stix.

Yeah, I had to put my sock book away but I plan on publishing it by November at the latest.

Silly Fucking Frilly Yarn
WTF are yarn companies thinking? That these stupid ruffly yarns are nice? NOT. They're a pain in the ass to knit. Frankly, if you want some ruffles, knit them. Buy Nicky Epstein's "Knitting on the Edge" book and do it yourself.

I have never been a fan of silly yarn. Yeah, Fun Fur, the original silly yarn. Now there are shitloads of this crap. Make your own textures. Granted, that takes a certain amount of skill but there are too many lazy knitters encouraged by this garbage.

Undercover Lace
Waiting for the yarn for the book--Universal Yarn is contributing their great Deluxe Worsted with which I'll do samples of knitting plus three designs--I still need something for my hands when I'm not writing. So I grabbed some Universal Yarn Garden 10, a fabulous Egyptian cotton laceweight, and started doing my "Ellie's Scarf" design. Yes, this is one I created for Mom. Gawd, she'll be 89 next month and still knits like the rest of us loonies. Here it is, on the needles.

I'll probably put the pattern up on Ravelry if you want it. Once I finish the book, I'm going to submit a couple of sock designs to one or two of the mags. Most likely Vogue Knitting first.

Knitting Careen...Career?
At 62, I still feel like I'm 32. Go figure. When I was 33, I got the job at McCall's Needlework & Crafts. Now, almost 30 years later, I want to go back to publishing, work as a knitting or directions editor. Not that there are many of those jobs out there but some of my friends have been pushing me to do an online knitting mag. If I do, I would make it a traditional knitting magazine because that's where my head's at. Even though I haven't knitted other people's designs in four years, my favorite designers are those who are classic. Not to mention EZ, there's Alice Starmore, Beth Brown-Reinsel, Sharon Miller, Deborah Newton, my dear Kristin Nicholas, Gwen Bortner, Kathy Zimmerman, Veronik Avery, and a bunch of others.

You know, I'm allowed to put quotes in my book. So the first is one from EZ, the second one from the Yarn Harlot. Maybe I should put my own in--Knit rare and handy, skanks. Waddya think? Nah, I'm sure the publisher won't go for that one. Heh.

Later, skanks. I'm back to writing...and mourning the deaths of those poor souls in Colorado. The next post will be for the blog's 10th anniversary on the 25th. Jeez. Ten years of this. Holy shit.