Allow Me to Elucidate

Yesterday's post generated a lot of questions, my favorite of which was a simple "What? I don't get it." via e-mail from a reader who turned out to be looking at the post as it showed up in Bloglines–with no photographs.

So all she saw was:

WHIRRRR. CLICK. SLURP. TICK-TOCK. SLAP MAH ASS AND CALL ME SALLY!

Which sounds like what you might hear if a robot from Tuscaloosa got overexcited and started to short-circuit. No wonder she was confused.

Now, to answer your questions.

1. The fiber on the spinning wheel is merino roving I got from Rabbitch, who is positively evangelisitic about spreading the joy of living hemmed in on all sides by unspun wool. You know how you're always hearing that merino is terribly hard to spin? Bullshit, kids. Once you get the basics down using something with a longer staple/lower price go ahead and try it. I swear it won't leave scars or frighten the children.

2. The open book in the photograph is Margaret Stove's Creating Original Handknitted Lace and I love it. It takes a lot of the mystery out of not only laying out your own lace designs, but also adapting or creating your own stitch patterns. You could buy it from Amazon, as naughty Danny suggested, or you can buy it from a company that actually gives a damn about knitters and knitting. I suggest either Schoolhouse Press or Halcyon Yarn.

3. The Harley-Davidson mug is there because I am a wild, butch roughneck who likes big, noisy bikes and, not infrequently, the men who ride them. This is, of course, in addition to knitting lace.

4. I do not tease you with my Ashford, Mr. Brinegar. You know perfectly well you're welcome to take it for a spin whenever you like.

5. The blue sock is knit out of some lovely Knitpicks (the first I've ever used) from an Anonymous Donor using a pattern from–oh, what a shock!–Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks. Yes, I know. There are lots of other sock books out there. I've seen them. I'll get around to them. As soon as I'm finished with Charlene. Which is apparently going to take a while.

6. And yes, that's a garter stitch edge on the heel flap. My very, very first sock–my ur-sock, if you will–was knitted from Mary Thomas's gut-wrenching treatise on the subject and had slipped stitches on the heel flap. I find the garter edge feels firmer and, to my eye, is more handsome.

Did I miss anybody? If I did, just yell. I turn 36 in couple of weeks and senility is setting in fast.

[Yep. I forgot Ted's question about the charting software. The software ought to have its own entry, actually–so I'll answer that tomorrow.]