Knitting on through Adversity

What is the Elizabeth Zimmerman quote? Knit on through all adversity. ? Maybe. I'll have to verify that.
Personally, I've been experiencing adversity. A lot of the people around me have been experiencing adversity. The knitting does help.

March Madness

Oh, no! Is it March already! My goodness, I’ve got to get a move on quick. Hustle, Hustle!!! What should it be this year? I love the socks that I made last year “Jayhawk Jaywalkers”. Every time I had a bad day, or was sick, I wore those socks. I even wore them to work a couple of times on Jayhawk days when other people were wearing KU shirts, etc. Soo, I’m goin’ huntin’ Rubyintherough.blogspot.com

Having a change of focus

Have you ever realized that your project has had a major change of focus?
That you had started out on a journey, and the destination has somehow changed?

I've been here before, you know?
I didn't even realize that it was happening, but here it is:
I don't want to be snarky about other people's knitting mistakes anymore.

There you go. It's the truth.
I just realized that I haven't really seen any knit objects that I cannot resist making fun of.
How did that happen? you might ask.

Well, I think I'm going to blame it on Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Yarn Harlot, the witty writer about knitters, not knitting. I've been reading her books a lot lately. Mostly when I can't sleep and my hands hurt too much to knit. She really is quite inspiring. And she seems to be such a good hearted soul. The point is, I just can't condemn another's efforts in knitting anymore. No matter how wonky the project, someone poured a lot of effort into it. No matter what the fiber choice, or the color, or texture, it is a rendition of someone's creativity and that should be celebrated. Who am I to say "What Were You Thinking?" when you knit that?

Now, that's not to say that I won't at some point in the future point out some questionable design choices on the part of say, a Yarn Company. Or a Magazine Editor. Or some high fashion designer that forces hard working runway models into outrageous garb that no mere human being should try to wear.

Let's just recognize that there's a Kinder, Gentler, Ruby out there now.
Thank You Yarn Harlot

Well, lots of stuff is talking to me, but not the yarn

Did you ever have one of those weeks where the "Muse" is not with you?
The highlight of my week was when DD1 introduced me to a D&D cartoon on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UqFPujRZWo
Did I do that right? Anyway, we've had a love/hate relationship with the kids playing D&D for several years now. It just struck me as increadibly funny when she was reciting parts of the video for her little brother. And, now I just can't get it out of my head.
Anyway, that's the kind of week it's been.
The DH's Work Socks With a Twist from Unique Sheep's Ram Club are showing progress ! Yeah !

When is a pattern modification really a new pattern?

At what point does a pattern modification become a whole new pattern?
The case in point for me right now is the February Ladies Sweater that has taken Ravelry by storm. What I have read about it so far gives a lot of credit for inspiration to the EZ SBJ.
But, it is obviously a new pattern, not just a derivation. Where does that line get crossed?
When did it become New and not Copy? Where is the line between the New FLS and something equally different that can stand on it's own merit?
The February Ladies Sweater is absolutely wonderful. When I saw it today for the first time, I knew that I would be casting on asap. The yarn has just been waiting for it since it jumped into my arms at the RenFest. A Black Baby Alpaca that is so luscious, I could not put it down. Of all the yarns there, this was far and away the softest. I would have picked it no matter what color it was.

There are literally hundreds of FLS photos posted on Ravelry. Many, many of these are being made as fast as needles can fly. Very few of them are in dark shades. Maybe because of the season of the year. Maybe because black doesn't photograph well. And, I agree that the FLS does look lovely in all of the infinite varieties of colors and fibers out there. But, I have this black that is begging to be made into something that I will want to wear every day.

Modifications:
1) The baby Alpaca is far finer than what is specified, worsted, I'll check exactly how fine.
2) The square neck isn't the best for my narrow, slopey shoulders. I'll be checking into a smaller, rounder neckline.
3) The widening look at the shoulders is good, and I'll be emphasizing that as much as possible.
4) Maybe not so much garter stitch. The Baby Alpaca wants to be smoother than all garter.
5) The lengthening look of the vertical lace pattern is good, but I'm not sold on the pointy shape of the lace. Due to the yarn's RenFest background, it wants to be a celtic knotwork of some kind. Aran or Gansey or some such mystery.
6) Not so sure about the 3/4 sleeves. Not sure why, I always push my sleeves up to that level anyway, so why not start out there? Hmmmmm
7) Must have a pocket somewhere. Yeah, I'm weird.
8) Not so sure about the baby doll, show off the baby bump effect on someone of my age. Might be kind of scarry.
9) Will be as long as I have yarn to make. It could end up quite a lot longer than in the design. I knit until the yarn is gone. Yeah, I'm weird.

So, more planning, more sketching, more thinking. Maybe if I just hold the yarn for a few minutes it will tell me what it wants to be.

I Missed the Yarn Harlot !

No one that I know (outside of You All) can possibly understand how disappointed I am. The Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee came within driving range, and the job sent me the other way! I even Excel calculated it out and MapQuested and everything. There was nothing short of a Hiro timeshift that was going to get me to the Yarnies before they left the building, and probably the airport. (Which makes me think, maybe if I had been a little more creative, I could have found out what flight she was on, raced to the tarmac, and .... what then? Would I have Kinneared her unobtrusively? Would I have collapsed, laughing, at her feet?)

There I was, all set to go to a wonderful night of knitting, ROFL, the awesome Yarn Harlot ! I mean who cares about the Debates, the New TV season, all that stuff. What is really important here, people? I mean, where are your priorities? All the Heroes, LOST, BSG, Dancing with the Stars, Survivor, ER, CSI, EM-HE, and Gray's Anatomy in the world don't measure up to one evening with the "One Who Understands". (Don't get me wrong, I know there are more important events: my faith overall, staying married to my DH, the birth of a child....)

Well, obviously, my priorities are with my job. Eventhough the non-knitters had no idea what they were doing by sending me to a different office miles and miles in the wrong direction. But. Seeing as how the paycheck leads to Stash Enhancement.
And, this paycheck will pay for the book that is waiting for me at the wonderful local book shop.
And they called today to let me know that Ms. Pearl-McPhee signed it for me even though I wasn't even there. If I wasn't in the office full of non-knitters, I would have cried. She is So Wonderful ! So Human, so Humane, so Knitterly!

Counting down the minutes until I can leave for the book shop to pick up the new book! Free Range Knitter! It's gotta be good.

Excel My Knitting

Excel is my friend, it helps me think to see everything all lined up in neat rows. Sortable, alphabetizable, numbers that can be manipulated: added, subtracted, averaged, factored. Lists that I can print off and boxes that I can use to check off. Excel doesn’t care about my grammar, or punctuation unless it’s in a formula.

I’ve been wanting to come up with a way to chart knit stitches in Excel. In the past, I tried using the regular fonts that come with Office and just typing in the stitches. But, it really only works for the simplest of patterns. So, off to search the internet. Maybe people have put new stuff out there since the last time I looked.

If I was going to spend money, there’s a program - Stitch and Motif Maker:
http://www.software4knitting.com/pstitchmotif/stmkr.htm

For free: you can download fonts with knitting symbols that you can plug into an Excel spreadsheet or a Word document I would assume.

Almost every link on the internet that showed up in my search eventually pointed to one of these two. So that’s where I’m starting.

http://www.knittinguniverse.com/xrx/DownloadsList.php?CategoryID=32
(scroll down to "Symbol Font")
or
http://home.earthlink.net/~ardesign/knitfont.htm

Update at 11

Greg Kinnear and the Yarn Harlot

Ok, so I have been out of the loop. Greg Kinnear was on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and actually talked about the Yarn Harlot; called her the Michael Jordan of Knitting!
It's about 20 minutes into this show:
http://www.nbc.com/Late_Night_with_Conan_O%27Brien/video/episodes/#vid=726521

So, this knitting wild woman that writes about knitters (not knitting) posts a story about the airport on her blog in August 2007. Then, a word she has coined, minted herself, is listed in the Urban Dictionary within days. See it here: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=kinnear Way to go Ms. Pearl-McPhee!

Yet, it takes over a year for it to hit TV. Makes you think, doesn't it?
Maybe Television is going to loose it's status as the trend-setter of our times.
Does that mean that within my lifetime, Television rose to the pinnacle of influence and then was usurped by the microchip on broadband?
Man, and my grandma thought that she had seen great changes in her lifetime.
What will tomorrow bring? What wondrous leap of progress is flying off someone's needles right at this very moment?
You know how the Geek/Nerd crowd is always talking in languages that mere mortals cannot comprehend? Clingon, for example. Metric, Binary, Emoticons, txtng, OMG, ...
What if the knitters spoke their own language? Would it be Yarnish? Harlotton? Knitish?
Fiberlingo?

An international language of fiber, where fiber lovers all over the universe live together in peace and harmony. Think of the influence that knitters, and fiber artists overall, would have on the world.

Wait a minute, I think we might actually have that started already.

I am so proud to be a knitter right now! sniff, sniff....

Buttons on Baby knits

The S'nB calendar pattern for Friday, October 10 was a Baby Swing Sweater. Absolutely adorable. On my list to cast on ASAP
Designed by Leslie Barbazette. The credits on the calendar page list at www.craftnation.net but that goes nowhere. So, I'll be tracking her down. (found her here: http://www.vivaponcho.com/about_us.html )
But, the point of this post is Buttons on Knits for Wee People.

Good, bad, rules, guidelines? What is the ongoing debate saying these days?
At what point does a button become big enough that it isn't a choking hazard? When are they small enough to not be a problem? When they're small enough to not be a choking hazard, don't they become a nose stuffer hazard? Please don't tell me that you don't know that little kids sometimes stick things up their nose that should not be there, or in their ears: cereal, corn, beans, peas, tape, string, beads, rubber bands, the key to Big Sister's diary.
Holes or not: Would the holes in a button work like the hole in a lifesaver and help out a little in choking situations? Would they air whistle, alerting adults to the crisis?
Teething: Buttons make great teething chewies from one point of view - they really help the teeth make it through. Grandma used to make strings of buttons on a cord for the babies to play with. On the other hand, how often does a baby chew right through the cord, string or other attachment to get that button off? How often would you have to keep checking on the attachment to make sure it's still secure? If it's a Gift Knit, how do you know that the responsible adult will know to keep checking?
Brain Development: Buttons are colorful, textural interest. Playing with buttons and figuring out how they work has got to be good for fine motor skill development. I know that my nursing babies were very clever about unbuttoning my top at the least opportune moment (think about Church, the grocery store, yep...). And everyone of them has grown up to be so brilliant now.

Strings are out on hoodies for children - because they get caught on so many things and choke the little ones. Blankets and Bumper pads are in question right now, or they were last time I checked. Car seats keep getting better, but keeping a little one comfortably warm on the way to and from the car without cooking them in the car is getting more difficult. Then there's the sleeping thing: Back to Sleep, Wedge to not roll over, Tummy Curling, propped up, sling, swing, bottle, water bottle, no bottle. Pacifier, thumb, ortho development device?

That's one of the problems with having kids; the experts keep changing all the rules. I refuse to give birth ever again until they quit changing the rules.

The Yarn Harlot Commeth !

O M G !
I just found out that the Yarn Harlot (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee) is coming within range of where I can be. Not like she's coming to my Home Town or anything. But, she's going to be at a location where I could conceivably be there too! Yeah!

Keep in mind that I didn't bother to go see any of the Political Candidates when I had the many, many chances. No on T. Boone Pickens. Same thing with Hannah Montana and several other celebrities. It just doesn't seem that important to me to see those people in person. I even once turned down the chance to see the Pope parade - it would have been a long distance view. But still - He's the Pope. That one, I probably should have gone to see.

But, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee ! That's a whole nother story, now. She's a person I would drive far and wide to see. And there's a couple others on my list of people to revere enough to go out of my way to be close to: Dave Ramsey, ... Can't think of anyone else right now. Maybe I'll add more later.

Hey, you know it's gotta be good if I'm willing to Drive Down Town to get there!

There are so many great new patterns out there

This is such a difficult time of year for a fiberholic.
All the magazines are coming out with great new patterns. The websites have great stuff, Knitty and Ravelry, and all those other ones too.
The shops are stocking up on great new yarns.
And the Sales!
The Gift List is clamoring for promises to be made. (Don't remind me that about half of the projects that I started last fall didn't ever get finished.)
There even seems to be a conspiracy with the babies ! Yes, the babies. There are new ones and babies in the making everywhere. And each new little downy head begs to be swaddled in cushy hand knit goodies. The patterns for babies and little ones are getting better too.
And then there's the new TV season. Finally. There's good stuff on TV to knit to, calling me to the big comfy chair. It's cool enough outside (and inside too) that it isn't torture to snuggle into a big pile of fluff.
But, there's so much other stuff that needs to be done.
What's a fiberholic to do?

Adding the CDC Widget to this page

Today, there's a new addition over there in the links side.
It's a CDC Widget that will have new information on health statistics from
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
They have lots of good information.
Especially for some of us that tend to be in denial about our health risks.
Personally, I have been using knitting as a "medication" for about 6 years now.
With my knitting, I'm lowering my blood pressure and stress levels. I hope that I'm also making more brain connections to help reduce the effects of strokes or Alzheimer's (not that I'm experiencing any of that)
My family history runs deep with diabetes, heart disease, obesity, allergies, asthma, arthritis, high blood pressure, strokes, kidney problems, .... Yeah, this is depressing.
So, I'm working on reducing the risk factors that I DO have control over.
Please feel free to join in, and I'll try not to bore you with it too much.
Now you know how this applies to Knitting - which is the most important. Right?

UFO pledge

Seventh and last in the Why UFOs series:

7) Might it be possible to take a No More UFOs Pledge?
A set of Vows?

Wouldn't that just be more unnecessary pressure?

Setting oneself up for failure?
Unreasonable expectations?
Pipe Dreams?
Pie In the Sky?

I am not seeing this one happen.

'Nuff said.

UFO amnesia

Sixth in the series

Sometimes a UFO happens because the knitter just forgot.

Why so many knitting UFOs?

Fifth in the series on Knitting UFOs:

5) Why are there so many UFOs in the knitting universe?
a) Conspiracy theory: the yarn manufacturers, publishers, and the LYS are in league to get us to over consume their products.
i) They will stop at nothing until they have the entire world knitting 24/7.
ii) They will change fashion so quickly, no one will be able to keep up and finish a project while it's still fashionable. Therefore, UFOs multiply like tribbles in the bin.
iii) They are secretly blending in a tactile addictive substance to the yarns, the coatings of the needles, the surface of the paper of the patterns.
iv) Secret, Hidden, Subliminal messages are encoded into the patterns, the pixelations of the web pages, the photos in the publications.
v) The Paparazzi have discovered that if a magazine publishes a photo of a celeb knitting, the circulation skyrockets.
vi) The Movie Moguls have discovered that if there's good knitwear design in a movie, knitters will flock to see it and buy the DVD asap to replicate the designs, thereby boosting the boxoffice.

b) Short Attention Span, ADHD, what is the catch phrase of the week?

c) What 'r we talkin' bout? Moving on....

d) It's a nutritional deficiency. Lack of fiber in our diets. But that explains OCD Hoarding issues, not UFOism. That's gotta be a potty training issue.
e) The knitted UFO is indicative of our fear of commitment as a society.
f) Baby Boomers and those who have come after have never been required to finish anything. We've become a nation of quitters or at least changers; Is that a bad thing? or a good thing?
i) It's OK to not clean your plate.
ii) when we couldn't take the pressure, we quit the team, or the class, ....
was that because the pressure was too much? too soon? too intense?
iii) we changed our college majors 5 times, sometimes to get jobs that didn't exist when we were born.
iv) we job hop, often because the job left us.
v) we can't drive one car long enough to not be upside-down in the loan, (see notes on job above)
vi) we can't stay in one place long enough to pay off the mortgage, or say that we have a "Home Town", or give our kids a place to say they're "From" (see notes on job above).
vii) If we don't like the rules, or the laws, we change them
viii) We don't stay married when it isn't working
g) We demand instantaneous gratification. But with perfection and style. We want to finish a sweater in a day, but make it look like it took a lifetime.
h) We've become too busy with all the things that fill up our calendars. We fill every moment with something important, or maybe just urgent.
i) We've forgotten what is really important.
ii) We are flooded and bombarded with information and images.
iii) Even from infancy, we are driven to "live up to our potential".
Even our youngest children are learning more facts than our ancestors ever dreamed of.
There is so much more information in the world, and so much fantasy and imagination.

A distracting thought here: As an example, when she was a child, my grandmother had
8 grades to finish (no kindergarten or pre-school), now there's at least 15 to 20
26 presidents to memorize, soon to be 44
45 states and capitols
When she got a phone, there were only 4 digits in her number
Her house needed no key
Her one car had one key
The only passwords were for fun, or on a show on one of the 3 TV channels in Black and White, not 3 million colors HDTV via satellite.

Gotta go, There's a new Lost Heroes Star Expose' Mystery Reality Show on in a minute. My TV automatically tuned in to it (from among America's Top 200) so I wouldn't miss it again.

Wherefore art thou, dear lost UFO?

4) I don't even know how many UFOs I have, or where they all are.
a) Should I spend some Saturday, or a sleepless night, sorting UFOs to find which ones have all their parts?
b) As I am sorting out and straightening out my Stash, should I come up with a way to store the UFOs? And maybe an easier way to access them in the attic?
c) Ravelry. Could this be my salvation? Or just another obsessive / compulsive distraction?
i) Could I make a fortune by selling the rare vintage yarns I have to Ravelers and eBayers that really need them?
ii) If my stuff was on Ravelry, and accessible from my smart(alec) phone, Would I be inclined to buy less?
d) If I had all my Stash - and all my UFOs in one place at one time, would negative things happen:
i) The world as we know it be at an end?
ii) The attic would explode from the pressure? (Insurance does not cover that)
iii) Would the men in white coats come to take me away because my significant support people decide I was a danger to myself or others?
iv) Would my DH ever understand?
e) If ...., Then ... Would positive things happen?
i) The attic would be fully insulated and we would save a fortune in energy costs.
ii) The rest of the house would seem spacious and airy.
iii) Really never need to buy anything again, retire debt-free to knit full time
iv) Become totally inspired to finish all the UFOs
v) No Christmas shopping required - everyone gets a FO that was a UFO.
vi) All the people I've ever promised anything to see that I am good for my word and love me even more than ever before.
vii) Lucky Seven - That guilty feeling would go away.
viii) Peace Reigns around the Earth!

Knitting UFO excuses

3) What about those projects where I did come across a UFO later, only to cannibalize the needles and stitch markers for another project? Not too long ago, I used to do that.
Why would I do that? What makes one project more worthy of finishing than another?
a) Lost the pattern
b) Lost a needle or other required tool
c) Lost the yarn and might find it again
d) Ran out of yarn and need to buy more
e) Ran out of patience with the pattern because it was:
i) Boring
ii) Too Difficult
iii) Poorly written directions
iv) Not turning out as expected
f) The intended victim outgrew the UFO, or made a disparaging remark about knitting, fiber, color, style........
g) The yarn wasn't right
i) didn't survive the swatch & wash test: faded, bled, shrank, felted or fell apart
ii) didn't survive the knitability test: itched, scratched, or was otherwise not worthy of knitting.
iii) not right for the pattern: couldn't get gauge, didn't showoff stitch properly, too many colors for the stitch.
h) Got side-tracked onto another project
i) a new magazine / book / Knitty / pattern came in the mail / email / bookstore
ii) a new yarn seduced and distracted
iii) a gift giving opportunity was looming, and the victim really "needed" something besides what was on the needles
iv) Oh, let's be honest, I'm just too easily distracted by anything.
g) The project, or it's component parts, got "lost" when:
i) We cleaned house
ii) We moved
iii) We cleaned out the car
iv) We went on a trip
v) Reorganized storage
vi) Someone was sick, hospitalized, Born, in crisis
h) Priorities Change
i) Stuff Happens

More UFO theory ....

To continue:
More on theories for UFO Rescue inspired by SnB Pageaday calendar 2008

2) Items like needles, markers and counters are usually assumed to be AWOL when the associated project becomes a UFO. If I didn't plan on loosing it, how could I plan on how to rescue it?

a) As a compulsive shopper and obsessive collector, I tend to buy more than I need of everything. So, I have plenty of duplicates of my favorite tools. I know, I'm working on getting over it.
b) Thinking about it just now, it probably would be a good thing to plan out the rescue of the UFO while I'm planning out the project in the first place. It's not like this is a rare occurrence for me, is it? It isn't an accident when a WIP becomes a UFO in my life. Unfortunately, it is very predictable and happens with great regularity.
i) Besides, the planning is the best part. For me anyway. So, getting the disaster drill ready would be a fun mental exercise while knitting.
ii) Note to self: Try not to scare significant support persons with statements like:
"I'm going to put a marker here just in case something happens to me tonight and I don't see this project again for 5 years."
"I'm putting this pattern in the bag with the yarn, just in case I get hit by a bus on the way to work, so someone else will know how to finish this project some day."
It really creeps them out to think that I think such things that they think are morbid things to think. One in particular tells me that it's very negative thinking.
iii) So, what's the positive way to state it?
"If I can't remember what I was doing next time I work on this, maybe this will jog my memory."
"When I pick this up next time, a little piece of waste yarn will mark where I last decreased." Annunciate very clearly so no one hears "deceased".

See ya later, gator.......

UFO Rescue - SnB calendar page for today

I love my SnB page a day calendar. Today's page is on UFO Rescue.
Something about putting in waste yarn as reminders.
Well, that's a great suggestion. Because sometimes from one day to the next I don't know where I left off, when I did the last inc/decrease, especially in something that says to "decrease every third row", or even better "decrease at rows 57, 92, and 111."

As self-declared Regional Queen of the UFOs, I have come up with a few strategies of my own.

1) Always keep a copy of the pattern with the WIP (which may become a UFO at any moment). I don't carry my prized books and magazines with me. I photocopy, or print, the page to carry in my knitting bag. I learned this the hard way; lost the pattern for my DD1's "wedding afghan" and it took me 3 years to get another. I still haven't been brave enough to try to figure out where I was.

a) I never know when a WIP will spontaneously become a UFO. It's not like I see it coming or it's a conscious decision. It's a default setting: I lost the bag, started another project, got sidetracked, ran out of materials, lost a tool, Who Knows?! But I do not ever remember saying "I think I'll pack this away until some later time and finish it then".
b) If I carried the whole book with me for every WIP in my bag today, I would have 2 magazines, 2 full sized books, and a computer in there. The point is, it would weigh a ton and have all my significant support people thinking I'm crazier than I really am.
i) OK, I admit, I do have one of those USB drive things with some of the pattens stored on it. And about 10 sheets of paper in various states of crumple.

More next time.........

Knitting in the Movies

OK, I know, I didn't originally want to see Golden Compass. Just to
prove that I'm not a flock-following sheep, I did read the first book of the trilogy. And, I may even slog my way through the next two in the series. I am very proud that I did Not Buy the book (or financially support the writer in any way). The gigantic tome was left at a friend's workplace break-room by a disappointed reader. And, because of our earlier discussions, he gave it to me ! Woo hoo! I think it was a compliment on him realizing that I am a discerning person that likes to know what I disagree with and why. And, yep, I did not like it.

And I don't mean in the way that I "didn't like" Harry Potter,
but then I read it, and bought copies for all the people I know,
and got on the advanced order list every time a new one came out,
and helped my kids (that were of the right age)
go to the Midnight Opening Day showing of all the Movies,
and knit a bunch
of the stuff from the Charmed Knits
book by Alison Hansel.

So, my point is, I don't like the Golden Compass book. I do not believe that it was written to entertain children or encourage a desire to read or educate or anything positive.

So, when one of my young-ish friends brought over
the DVD one evening, gushing
"You have got to see the Knitting In This Movie !".
Well, I had to watch, and it turned out to be The Golden Compass.
And, I was totally enthralled with the KNITTING !
Not that you ever see anyone actually doing Knitting (that I remember). But, Knit articles of clothing are everywhere in this movie! And they are so "Interesting". I haven't gotten any of my usual victims to commit to wearing any of the FO's that I have sketched out or pointed to in the film.

Anyway, my point is, The Real Story from the
Book is awful as a children's story.
The movie isn't too bad.
The knitting in the movie is awesome.
But, just like the Brats Dolls, I'm not going to support the writers by buying into their commercialism.

I'm sure not too Good to knit from an online photo, though.

Kids in Animal Hats

OK, it finally got here. The kids are sooooo cute! The knits are soooooo cute!
Of Course, I'm talking about Knitted Critters for Kids to Wear. Arf, Arf. Meow, Meow.
But I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed. It's basically just hats and mittens knit in colors to mimic animals. I think that many of us could have come up with these.
Use a little graph paper, it's even available online in knitter's dimensions. Find some Fun Fur. Make a hat to match the family pet. Or use the pictures out of any number of kids coloring books for inspiration.
Ears, and Eyes. Yepp, that's about the most inventive new thing in this book. So, if you can figure out how to make droopy ears vs. round teddy ears vs stand up bunny ears, you probably don't need this book.
I'm keeping it for a while to see if it grows on me, other wise, it's going back on the Amazon List and someone will get a great bargain.

Free Vintage Knitting Patterns

Were they Foretelling the future of the Teletubbies?

Found this on Ravelry today. The creator has quite a collection of patterns available. Some of the more interesting ones are for sale as "Digitally restored e-book". Interesting idea? Novel home business? Be sure to check your copyright laws before you try this at home.

Free Knitting Patterns
And, Yes, I know that some of these are Crochet Patterns.

New Book: Knitted Critters for Kids to Wear

To Be published 6/3/2008:

Knitted Critters for Kids to Wear: More Than 40 Animal-Themed Accessories (Paperback)

by Jean Adel (Author)

List Price:	$19.95
Price:	$13.57

At Amazon.com

This just looks too cute!
Gotta have it. I wonder how long it really takes to get stuff from Amazon? Would I get it faster if I wait to buy it at one of the book stores? Do LYSs get copies first?

Tuesday Tips: Photocopies of Patterns

Keep in mind that there are copyright laws, and they apply to all of us.
But, one of my best tips ever is to photocopy the pattern from the book or magazine, and then carry the photocopy around instead of the whole book. You can write on the pattern, highlighting parts, coloring in patternwork, marking off where you've finished, all kinds of stuff.
As far as I can find out, it is perfectly legal to make a copy of a work that you own as long as it is for your own personal use. It seems that you cannot make a copy, then sell the book and continue to use the copy. Then there are the hazy areas of scanning to a disk, and "archiving". Well, those areas are not hazy at all to the writers, publishers, and copyright holders. So, watch yerself! Don't even try to post a scanned copy of a pattern on the internet. It will come back to bite 'cha in the butt.

Now, my Aunt Mary liked to make tiny little pencil notes in her books to remind her of what patterns she had made for whom, changes she made, sizes for people, etc. But, surely it is better to have not lost the book entirely than to have all your notes scattered around in all those books. I would give anything to have some of her books with all those little notes in them. But, after her funeral, a nutty brother of hers trashed them all. They were "worthless" to him.

But, I digress. If having a record of the projects made, etc. is important, maybe you could put those copied pages into a notebook to track the notes? I know that at some point in time my DH is going to "have enough" and go on a cleaning bender, probably throwing away magazines in the process. If a copy of the pattern has been stored with the UFO, is is possible, in theory, to finish it at some later date. So, in the interest of someday conquering my OCD-hoarding disorder, the notebook and copies make it possible for me to let go of some of the mounds of periodicals that surround me.

Library Books: Who in their right mind even imagines that a person, even a super knitter, would be able to finish an entire knitting project before the library book is due?

Magazines: Why do some magazines spread the pattern out over pages scattered somewhat randomly around the magazine? Photo on one page, yarn choice advise on a second, directions on a third, charts on a forth. Oh, and don't forget that the finish up directions might be somewhere else.

Online Shoe Shopping

Ok, We've had quite a hiatus from being Snarky about Fuggly Fashion.
So, We're Baa ... ack!
I know, these aren't KNIT, they're SHOES, kinda.

Actually, they're 6" heels.
Real-ly.

This is the kind of thing that happens when I search the internet. "Honestly, Mom, I was just looking for some shoes that would show off my hand knit socks!"
Ri ig gh ht!

Please do not go horseback riding or even into the barn in those boots.
And, on behalf of the emergency personnel that will inevitably become involved if you wear these: Don't forget to wear clean panties. And, Keep them On! (Quoting Crazy Aunt Purl's Mom)

Well, when I can get back up off the floor: We'll have a few posts featuring good shoes to wear with Hand Knit Socks.