For future reference
An old favorite and a new read, in that order :->
Curls & Purls
The Bookish Girl
feeding up the food chain
First, let me show you my Sunday Night Ritual knitting. This is the Manos for the Man-a-long, seeing this makes me think of the Flannery O’Conner story “A good man is hard to find” which we oh so hip college students always called “A hard man is good to find” so suddenly my man-a-long is a call for a long man, wink wink, nudge nudge. My long man is a practical kind of guy who likes cardigan vests, not pullovers, not sweaters, but cardigan vests. His wardrobe makes Mr. Rogers look like the after version of a Queer Eye for The Straight Guy makeover. Finding the perfect knitting project for him has been wrought with frustration. I think I finally found it in Nancie Weissman’s Classic Knit Vests for Men and Women I’m spicing it up a bit with the two color thing, which he disapproved of when he saw the skeins but likes now that he can see it on the needles. Phew.
Last week I stopped by a local knitting shop in search of Shaefer’s Miss Priss in the Mr. Funny colorway, I was hoping to finish up that shawl in time for fall. I had called earlier in the week and was told they had it in stock. They didn’t, but the owner, who knew me from my previous visits (I spent my “due dates” with each child in her shop, relaxing with my knitting) offered to call the rep for the company and have her stop by – she often has lots of Shaefer in her car and might just have what I was looking for. I should also add that earlier this year, I was the recepient of two packages, both from Dawn in the DC area, who sent two skeins each of two different unnamed Schaefer Esperanza colorways. The yarn has been teasing me for a while now. When I close my eyes and picture my stash, those skeins are the first thing that I see. Anyway, I had an appointment with the rep today at 1:30 and I brought those skeins with me, on the off chance she could name them and might have an extra couple of skeins in her car, just in case, you know?
The store was packed with women, if you ever wondered who spends $50.00 on novelty yarn to make scarves for each and every member of their family, come to my yarn store. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone in there picking out yarn for a sweater, afghans – yes, a hat or two maybe, but this yarn store is like no other. So in comes Elaine, the rep – whose name is also one of Schaefer’s most popular lines with a body bag size container of Schaefer. We worked together for an hour and decided on one skein of Miss Priss, one of Little Danya both in the Mr. Funny colorway to finish out my shawl, one skein of Esperanza in Indira Ghandi, two skeins of Elaine and one more of Esperanza in Babe Dirdkidson. In some ways it was like a scene from The Wire, they were all doing “hand to hands” (2-3 vials of crack at a time) where I was getting “weight” from the higher up the ladder. And while I wasn’t afraid of the police busting me, I did do a little inhale when the total appeared on the register and I handed over my credit card. Hello, my name is Amy and I am an addict.
Leigh left a great comment about the term chic-lit yesterday and I do think I could do a whole post on just that term, but I cushion my dislike of the term with the fact that lit is short for literature. And like any subgenre there are some great writers and there are some very, very bad ones. The fact that the Shop-aholic got published in the first place amazes me as much as the fact that Lisa Jewell’s novesl haven’t gotten nearly enough press. I read, I read alot – right now I’m reading both The Secret Life of Lobsters : How Fishermen and Scientists Are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean
by Trevor Corson and Baudolino by Umberto Eco and while they are both interesting, I don’t think I’d stay up till 2:00 in the morning, knowing that I’d have to get up with Alex at 4:30, to finish either book. Where as I couldn’t make myself put down Little Earthquakes. So it may never win the National Book Award, but it did win my Stay Up All Night award – a true sign of good literature!
Finally, until I rebuild my list of links, here is another of my favorite bloggers, Kathleen in Long Island -> http://katyknits.typepad.com/katyknits/
Girlfriend in a coma
I know, its really serious.
I spent the weekend in a fiction induced coma. It started on Thursday with Sammy’s Hill and ended at 7:00 this morning Little Earthquakes. They weren’t just enjoyable, they were addicting. Women in Politics, the politics of being a mom, relationships and porn jokes. If you like chic lit, and don’t mind upping the ante a bit, check them out.
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Go check out Amy, she’s become a must read
-> http://theboogerblog.blogspot.com/
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I signed up for the man – a long, with my manos, manos for my muchacho, I like it.
*A term I love and I don’t love, enough for another post, someday.
Let the cirlce be unbroken
I’m back in the ring, the knitting weblog ring that is, the arrows to the left now work. Thank you Julie!
In a fit of startitis, I cast on for two new projects in the last 48 hours. The wavy lace socks in Lorna’s Laces from a spring IKnits and a Nancie Weisman Vest for DH in Manos (insert Homer Simpson voice here, ohhh mannooossss). I must admit I was a manos wool virgin. The vest may be finished before the socks. Lace socks on #1 needles are very, very labor intensive, where as stockinette on size 8s seems to fly by, imagine that!
GSRP .. Round 1
I received an email from Lana yesterday. Lana was in what sounds like a horrible car accident and broke an arm and both her legs. If you are near zipcode 28729 and can offer her a hand in getting the box back in circulation, email me and I’ll put you two in touch. Slip Stitch has one more stop, before heading off to Karen, the captain for the next round. Keep your fingers crossed everyone, we’re almost there.
I am getting excited about Round 2. We will be standarizing the boxes, shrinking them down a bit, and I am looking at adding a message board. I would also love it if people could take an addition partial skein and knit up a square or two. You can save the square for Round Three, which will happen sometime next year our you can send it directly to me. I’ll seam them up and pass them on to Erin’s Afghan project. Hopefully that will keep the odd ball count down and get you a bit of credit with the knitting goddess.
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Thanks for everyone who commented yesterday. I wasn’t looking for a rubber stamping of my opinions, just a lively discussion. Two of my favorite eras of American History are the struggles to build a democracy during the Revolution and the women’s suffrage movement. In order for a democracy to work, people have to participate in the process and part of that particiaption is discussing the issues, the other part is voting, a right I will never take for granted.
I love Mt-blacklist!
Yes, I know the hot new thing is bloglines, and yes, I’ll probably check it out soon, but today I want to rave about MT-Blacklist . I was probably like you, getting bombed with more spam than I could possibly keep up with. I kept wondering, why am I getting Viagra spam on a knitting blog? I found out that the spammers aren’t hoping for click through traffic, they are hoping to increase their Google rating. Still, someone must be searching for it or else why bother. I assumed I wasn’t the only one having this problem and I also assumed that if it was a problem, there must be a solution out there and low and behold, there is. MT-Blacklist is like a big burly doorman for my commenting system. Yes, a few losers have gotten through (I spent a night at Mass General recouping from an accidental overdose on Phen/Fen – you think I want to promote that shit here???) But I sent the doorman inside, he caught a couple of the undesirables, threw them out and has added their names to the “do not enter list.” Now the party is safe for the rest of us, dance on my friends and comment, comment, comment.
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And now for something completely different. As election season heats up, and as the country gets more and more polarized, I’ve become more and more conflicted. First let me say that I will not be voting for George Bush, but I don’t think people who will be voting for him are morons, as I’ve seen other bloggers write. Although my husband and I disagree politically, he is well researched, well read and the most intelligent person I’ve ever encountered. Over the years I’ve challenged my most left leaning friends to debate him – hardened soldiers in the people’s army who see through the right’s daily barrage of bullshit and hyperbole like a peek-a-boo nightie – and by the end of the conversation, if they aren’t agreeing with him, they at least come away from the conversation with fairly clear understanding of his positions and agreeing with him on facts in evidence. The idea that liberals assume conservatives are ignorant morons is as offensive to me as the presumption by conservatives that liberals are lazy oafs who just want to steal their money.
And while I personally could never cast a vote for George Bush (43) I am feeling the same way I did when Mike Dukakis went up against ‘41. The fact that Kerry can not run a campaign makes me worry about how he could possibly run a country. I would have more respect for him if he campaigned on his opposition to the Vietnam War than his involvement in it. That to me says more about his character than anything else, especially in a time when the nation is so divided about the war in Iraq.
I don’t see how either side has any plans to improve the economy – and returning to the hyper-inflated late 1990s shouldn’t be the goal anyway. Kerry’s plans for Iraq – from what I’ve read, really aren’t that different from Bush’s. Both plan on keeping troops there for at least five more years, but chances are Iraq will become another South Korea or Germany – where we will keep troops indefinitely until militant factions in South America become the next target for our missiles and guns.
Yes, Kerry is pro-choice, but he isn’t for same sex marriages. And while I hold Roe -v- Wade as one of the most sacred decisions made by the Supreme Court – the cornerstone to women’s rights in the 21st century – I’m exhausted by the debate that has been circling for my entire life. I want to shake the feminist movement in this country by their shoulders and say MOVE ON! Let’s really tackle the problem, better, more affordable birth control and when that fails more respect and support for women who chose to carry a baby to term and put it up for adoption. Let’s find a way to put a birth control pill in Viagra and then men would be dying to take over family planning.
If I lived in Florida or Pennsylvania – I’d pull the lever (or punch the butterfly?) while holding my nose, and hoping I’d really picked the lesser of two evils. But since I live in the commonwealth of Massachusetts, I have the luxury of not voting for John Kerry. Instead, I will throw my weight behind Ralph Nader, yet again, in the hope that someday some third party, any third party, will come to the party and really give the big boys a run for their money.
Do you read?
A couple of years ago I and everyone else I knew read Good In Bed. Then I found Jennifer Weiner’s Blog and have been a regular reader of hers ever since. She is coming to the Border’s Books in Chestnut Hill this coming Wednesday night at 7:30 in support of her latest book, Little Earthquakes I am sending DH and the kids to the playroom in the mall while I knit and listen to her reading. If you feel like joining me, leave a comment. Maybe we can get a stitch ~n~ listen going?
PHOTO!!!
My Cirlces Shawl in Progress.
Getting There …
I can now log in from more than one computer, this is progress! I know a blog without photos is like a maxed out credit card – no fun at all, but life continues to be insane here at the ranch and what spare time I have has gone into actual knitting.
This past weekend we celebrated Alex’s first birthday at his cousin’s house (Patrick is one week younger than Alex so we had a joint party.) Last night, after months of “cruising” Alex took his first real steps. We’ve thought he was days away from walking for months now, but since he’s been practicing so much he seems to have gotten his balance set before letting go so he doesn’t have those Frankenstein arms that little kids have when they are learning to walk. Once he figures out he can pick up a toy and carry it, it should make life with big sister Cate a bit more exciting, as he can now protect his toys a bit better.
My work life is a bit like Alex’s walking, every day it seems we are just days away from making a big splash. My billable hours have crept up so I am now squeezing in about 30 hours a week with just 8 hours of childcare ~ no more nap time knitting for me.
But I have found time at the end of the day to work a few rows on a couple of projects. I finished my first scarf! I used some hot pink yarn I picked up in Maine to make the ever popular MultiDirectional Scarf . Just as I was getting bored with it, Cate asked if it was for her. I put it over her neck, checked the lenght and cast off. “Oh Yes Sweetie, I had you in mind the whole time!”
Still on the needles for Cate are a second sock and a vest version of the Kristin’s amazing Bulky Baby Pullover. I am making it into a stockinette vest with a start stitch pattern for the bottom and armholes.
Also, in case you missed pictures from my brief typepad vacation, I am working on a shawl made up with this yarn. I am loving this, the way the Interlacement’s New York ribbon yarn slides through my fingers, they way the bamboo knits up and the color combinations are exquisite, I don’t think I’ve knit anything green and these colors are really working for me.
The kidlets have finished their morning sippy cups and are demanding my attention. Have a great day everyone.
One bug down …
I can now log in from my main pc … stay tuned for a real post sometime soon!