Busy, Busy, Busy

It occurs to me that it has been a long time since this blog saw what I would consider to be a nice, solid, sustained piece of writing. I hate that.

But you're going to have to wait a little longer before you see another one, because there's so much going on I fear today's entry is going to be a potpourri of odd twigs and bits of moss I've collected from all over and feel I must display.

(That's a very inept metaphor. Maybe I should take a few minutes and make it better. No, no time. No time. Must keep moving.)

Rhinebeck Concluded

The sun that came out during the second hour or so at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds hung around. I got up early on Sunday morning to take advantage of the morning light and shot a bunch of stuff that I'll post in another entry.

One of my favorite shots from the whole trip, though, is this one. Joe and Thaddeus had me over to their place for lunch before taking me to the airport, and I enjoyed playing with my drop spindle while Joe got down to it with the new Robin wheel.

If I were That Sort of Photographer, I would call this one "Contentment."



I got to check out Joe's stash. (Wow.) And his finished sweaters, the pile of which is taller than I am.

And we discovered a mutual passion for peanut butter. This leads me to suspect that perhaps we were separated at birth. You must admit the physical resemblance is uncanny.

What can I tell you? The guy has it goin' on.

New in the Shop

At one point when I was working the letters on the Seneca sweater I had a different color yarn in each hand and had finally achieved a pretty steady rhythm. So I was chugging along the row and then, wham–powerful thirst. I had a glass of milk right next to me on the work table, but I hated to drop the yarn to pick it up.

And then it hit me.


Even the Hindu mother goddess of time and transformation needs to chill out occasionally.

Right now, Kali is available on women's clothes. [Addendum: She's on a knitting bag now, too. I can take a hint.] I'm going to see about putting her on other stuff, but unfortunately the amount of detail in the drawing doesn't translate well to really small (i.e. coffee mug) size. I'll see what I can do.

MenKnit Magazine

Thanks to the passion and hardwork of Dan Vera and Tricky Tricot, the first knitting magazine specifically for knitters with that little (not too little, one hopes) something extra is now available online. You can get it here.

This is shameless plug, of course, because I wrote one of the articles and I didn't do it for my health, you know. Go read it. In addition to my drivel there's actual useful content - some cute patterns.

Actually, people must be reading the magazine because I've already had three pieces of hate mail for choosing Debbie Stoller's Stitch 'n' Bitch as my favorite book for brand-new knitters who wish to be self-taught.

Tough cookies. I only wrote about books that I have personally worked with and found to be effective. Yes, I know (in fact, I stated in the article) that Debbie's book addresses female knitters specifically and almost exclusively. Well, darlings, the woman publishes her own magazine for women and she knows her audience, and she produced the kind of book that she knew they would take to. I don't call that sexism, I call that good business sense.

Besides, she's thereby left the field clear for me to be at least part of the driving force behind a good, solid men's guide to knitting. Nobody else seems to be hurrying to plant a flag on that particular Everest. Why not me?

If you're reading this and you're an editor, let's talk.