Best Quote I Heard All Day
Even if God is dead, you're going to kiss his ass--Tony Soprano

Welcome to Sopranoland. Lovely view of I280, Newark, courtesy of my cellphone camera and taken from a NJ Transit train.

And welcome to my commuting life. You can be sure that I have a cup of coffee in my hand, my knitting bag next to me and my ears plugged into my iPod (I call it Shirley). Because it's an hour and fifteen minutes from Hoboken to Dover, if the train doesn't break down. Which it has, twice this week going into work. Fuck you, NJT.

So the shawl gets knitted on the train, alternating with a pair of socks. Hey, ya can't do fancy shit all the time.

How Do You Say in Your Country?
Well, I've slogged through about 160 pages of Slovenian English over the past week and a half.

I am beginning to appreciate my handle on English. It's a miserable fucking language and the Slovenians do pretty well, except that everything is written in the passive. So, OK, we Amurricans like to be active.

Oh yeah, and they write great convoluted sentences:

Driver of the vehicle which nowadays has mobile unit installed with PDA device (Blackberry, etc.) after toll payment can be sent to Control Center to make quick and efficient payment solution for logistics manager that could enter such data into system.

Pages and pages of this. That's why they're paying me the big bucks. To tell you the truth, I really love it, although it's damned hard work trying to figure out what the fuck they're saying technically sometimes.

I'm working with some Slovenian developers, all kids under 25 and all wonderful people. Of course, I've taught them swell American words, such as "fucktard." They bring out my maternal instincts, dontcha know.

I was thinking today on the train going home how much I treat writing as I do music. My father envisioned me as a professional musician, so I began violin lessons at about the same age as I learned to knit. And my parents were great classical music devotees, so all I heard until I was 10 was mostly opera and symphonic music, with a soupcon of Baroque thrown in.

When I read a poorly written and poorly spelled sentence, it's as if I heard a bad note played by a mediocre musician. I don't have perfect pitch but I do have relative pitch and an excellent ear. And that's why I am a good editor and writer. Notes have to be played on key, writing has to sing like Elisabeth Schwartzkopf.

So much for my quick post tonight. I'll write about some fiber crap this weekend. I'm about to warp the loom, so that might be of some interest to people other than Merrick. And of course, there's the ever-present, rare and handy Melanie shawl, which continues to grow. Sans mistakes, thank you Jesus. See ya on the weekend.

Best Quote I Heard All Day
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.--Douglas Adams

It's been a long week. But a good one. The job is OK. I'm OK.

But I miss those leisurely morning writing sessions.

Now I have day-long writing sessions in Jersey City. But with health benefits.

Shawling
Believe it or not, I've been dragging the shawl and accompanying cone of Zephyr on the train every day.

And knitting on the way home.

I love the way lace looks with the sun shining through it. Almost makes me want to knit lace curtains.

But no. That ain't ever gonna happen.

I'm on repeat #2 of the center square. Three more to go. So you know I have to get in at least two hours a night on this thing. That includes an hour on the train. I now know the pattern so well that there's no fear of making undesirable gaffes.

And There's More
I have somehow also managed to get some spinning done. This morning at 7 a.m. I've finished the first ounce of the cranberry merino/tercel.

Once I have the loom warped, I'll be able to sit down in the evening and do some weaving without having to be terribly alert. The towel warp gets wound today and perhaps sleyed tomorrow, if I'm so ambitious. Mayhap I will even have time to start the second raspberry bobbin.

So I can get to the Emerald City by next weekend.

I'm dying to see how this looks plyed up.

Spring Issues
Is it me or is it the X-men's ghastly, confused mess of a website, but have they stopped putting up the designs in each issue? The last I could find was for Summer 2005.

Based on the choices for Knitter's Spring 2006 cover, I'd say that the downhill spiral continues. How much further into the cesspool it can go is unimaginable. However, each issue manages to be worse than the last. Quite an accomplishment of publishing mediocrity, at the very least.

However, I am pleased to say that Interweave's Piecework and Handwoven were beautiful issues, particularly the covers. And plenty of stuff within, too. I'm anxiously awaiting the next issue of Spin-Off.

One of the things I like about Interweave is that they set up polls for some of their magazines on the website, asking readers' opinions. Or they provide a feedback link so that you can send your comments to them directly. That takes balls. Which the X-men don't have because they're more interested in fawning, kiss-ass comments than constructive criticism and suggestions.

And of course, Knit U is a vast wasteland of just those kinds of comments. Kind of a Mickey Mouse Club atmosphere, except you might call them X-cateers. The X-Boy Mondragon as Goofy. Or perhaps Dopey. Pick your own Disney character.

Whether or not I like the designs in Interweave's magazines, I give the editorial staff a lot of credit for being willing to take it, good or bad. That's why I stick with their publications.

OK, I'm ready to get out the mop bucket and start cleaning this shithole of a house. It's going to be in the 60s today. Before I know it, it will be Monday morning and back to work.

Time management is a rare and handy skill. However, what I'd druther do is go sit in the sun and knit.

Best Quote I Heard All Day
It is a curious fact that people are never so trivial as when they take themselves seriously--Oscar Wilde

A little enlightenment for those who were offended by Franklin's Knitting Olympics Gold Medal.

I am always happy to forgo good manners for the sake of educating fucktards.

Knitted Lace v. Lace Knitting
I'm writing this for my boy Franklin so that he doesn't have nightmares about big floating yarn-overs strangling him as he knits the Wedding Ring shawl. And for all the rest of you who might be having those nightmares too.

(Also, Kathy and Selma are whining that some of us write too much about spinning and weaving so now they can both have a nice cup of shut-the-fuck-up.)

Simply put, knitted lace has patterning on every row; lace knitting has a plain row, knit or purl, between the patterned rows.

Got that?

Most knitters with experience have done lace knitting to some degree. It's the knitted lace that makes cartooning, well-mannered gay men nervous. Along with the rest of us. Here's the pattern in the Melanie shawl that's lace knitting:

Very simple 6-stitch repeat that would be easy for most knitters new to lace. But then, pair this with knitted lace motifs and it's a whole different story.

You can see that the yarn-overs do not have the benefit of the plain row as the lace knitting yarn-overs do.

What makes knitted lace so much more difficult than lace knitting is not the first row but the second. In that, you must reverse the decreases so that k2tog becomes k2togB (or sl1, k1, psso or ssk) and vicey versey. Compound that with the occasional sl1, k2tog, psso and it's fuel for the dyslexic in all of us.

Here are the first two rows of the motif shown above:

Doesn't look that hard, does it? You knit row 1 as shown: K1, K2togB, yo, k1, yo, k2tog, k1.

However, on the second row, two things happen. First, you must now read the symbols in reverse, beginning at the lefthand side of the chart. As it happens, the second row is executed exactly the same as row 1.

Second, you will now have to include a yarn-over in your decrease. This is what had me floored until I got it into my head that the yarn-over must not be twisted when incorporated into the decrease. It's easy to do that.

Just remember this and make it your mantra: With k2tog, the yo follows. With ssk (or k2 togB), the yo comes first.

There's been some talk back and forth, on the Heirloom Knitting list and on Katherine and Ted's Princess Diaries as to whether it really matters if you mirror the decreases or just say, "Fuck it" and make all decreases k2tog. This has not been resolved. On a garter-stitch shawl and in such fine yarn, perhaps not. Probably not. Once the shawl is dressed, the directional decreases may be moot.

I've opted to knit the Melanie shawl as charted. Because I can and because it seems to me that if directional decreases were not a relatively important component, then all knitted lace single decreases would be charted as k2tog.

So, Franklin, when you get back from Ft. Worth and you read this, I'm happy to hold your hand throughout the Wedding Ring project. And work that sample swatch over and over until your brain sends your hands the right messages.

Back to School
Well, I got the job as technical writer/editor. I start on Monday. Vacation's over.

I have mixed feelings about this, of course. On the one hand, I have enjoyed every minute of my vacation from adult life. I've gotten a lot written on the book, taught myself how to weave (barely), got a lot of spinning and knitting done and a lot of blogging, too.

On the other hand, one does need those health benefits. And it's never good to live off of one's capital.

That said, as of Monday I would imagine that I will be blogging about twice a week, as I did when I worked full-time. And that blogging will probably take place in the evening or on the weekend. Whatever.

Suffice it to say that after almost four years, I'm not about to stop writing the blog. So bear with me while I get back into the swing of things--it may take me a few days. I'm actually quite excited about the job. It suits my skills perfectly and I always enjoy technical writing and editing. God knows why but that's the talent I was born with and that's what I love to do.

If you don't do what you love, work is just that. Work.

But this fiber life is a rare and handy thing, and I love that too.