Stephanie gets it right.

Again.

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee on children in public.

I think our culture’s attitudes towards kids are pretty sick ,  and that it is a serious sign that our culture as a whole is pretty sick.    There are,  I grant you,  times and places when it is reasonable to hang out an ‘adults only’  sign –  but on whole we have no right to expect to live in a child-free society.

Did you know…

… that those styrofoam mesh sleeves they put around exotic fruits and veggies are the perfect size to be worn around an eight year old’s wrist?

I am told they look “just like armor” and are “made out of the strongest metal in world”.

Missing; reward.

One knitter’s sanity. Kept in a green binder, with lots of knitting patterns in plastic sleeves. Also includes notes on works in progress, a needle sizer, and a yardage estimation.

Knitter suspects her sanity may be in serious jeopardy unless the binder can be located immediately. Works on the needles are already suffering from minor mistakes and neglect, and even the neatness of the knitting corner has been threatened by this disastrous loss.

Knitter will reward finder of sanity with plenty of appreciation, good tea, and possibly hand knit socks.

Happy Monday

I’ve had a good weekend.

I finished a very tall sock - that cuff is nine inches long. Lane cerevinia Forever sock yarn, US size 1 needles, for dasHusband.

I mailed off a swap package to my Miss Marple swap partner.

And I scored the good stuff -

Fair Isle Sweaters Simplified by the Philosopher’s Wool folks, and Passover Coca-Cola.

Life is good.

I don’t understand.

If you search for Monet in google,  my blog is not to be found.   (okay, so I only looked at the first 20 pages of search results.

If you search for Monet in Yahoo search,  my blog is not to be found.

If you search for Monet in Dogpile, my blog is not to be found.

IF you search for Monet knitting,  my blog comes up in the google search results - on the third page of them.

I have only five references to Monet on my blog — four of which reference the Monet colorway of RedHeart Acrylic,  and one which references Claude Monet, impressionist painter.

So why is Monet the top search engine term that brings people to my blog?   It beats out ‘calorimetry knit’  by 150 some hits.   On a KNITTING blog, fer crying out load.

Are you diligent Monetphiles out there searching through hundreds of pages of search engine results to find my opinion on La Japonaise?

Political Angst.

I try to avoid talking about politics here - I like a quite peaceful knitting blog, and politics is one of those topics that makes people crazy. But I am in a hell of a bind right now.

As voter, what is more important? To vote for the candidate you truly believe is most qualified to lead, whom you think would do the best job? Or to vote for the candidate you truly believe most likely to win, in order to ensure that the party you favor wins the Presidency?

For this first time since I came of age, I sat out a primary election because I couldn’t figure this out. I know that I’ll vote along my party line come November, so I suppose I could just wait it out and try not to think about it, but it’s a strange feeling to be so idle during a political season. Normally I’m writing letters, following news, working for the candidates I think will make my government work as it should.

I like Hillary Clinton. I like her because she’s smart, she’s tough, because she’s a woman and I’ve been waiting for the day I could vote for a woman for President since I was eight years old. I think she would good at the job, that her experience and connections in the political establishment would let her hit the ground running and go to work. I want to vote for her.

I like Barack Obama too - he’s charismatic and inspirational, and knows how to parlay his skills to his advantage. I wish he had more experience, but when he gets the job he’ll learn fast. I won’t be angry that I have to vote for him come November. I won’t feel disenfranchised by his candidacy.

I just don’t want to vote for him. And yeah, I’ll be the first to admit it’s all about gender for me. It probably shouldn’t be, but there you have it.

So I stood down during the primary. I don’t feel good about that, but I feel better then I would have felt voting for either candidate. Voting for Obama, I’d have felt terrible about betraying the candidate I wanted to win. Voting for Clinton, I’d have felt terrible about betraying the needs of my country.

Because Hillary can’t win. There are too many people sitting on the fence who will cross it for Obama, and not for Hillary Clinton. There are avowed Republicans in my family who voted for Obama in their primaries, and avowed Democrats who’ve said they’d rather vote for McCain then Clinton. She can’t win.

It breaks my heart.

But I can’t just sit by idly anymore - politics and it’s results are too important to ignore, no matter how gut wrenching the choices we must make sometimes.

I have a letter to write. Because we need to take back this country if we want it to keep being a country we’re proud to be citizens of.

Hillary, it’s time to stand down.

I’m sorry.

One the Spindle right now.

I am spinning laceweight right now - this is some unidentified fiber that I got in the goodie bag at the spinning class I took last year.   I estimate I have about two ounces of it. It is a very fine soft stuff, and spins very easily - I believe the mix has silk in it, but I really don’t remember.

This is on my .8 oz SpinSanity - I love this little spindle. I have a larger SpinSanity too, with a spiral pattern on it. Very nice stuff.

A frenzy of finishing.

I finished a One Row Scarf - Classic Elite Renaissance, US size 8 needles.

I finished a nice hat - US size 8 circs and dpns, in Philosopher’s Wool, light purple heather. No particular pattern.

And I’ve started a sock. Toe up with a heel flap, for dasHusband. US size 1 needles, Lane Cervinia Forever sock yarn.

Memoirs in Six

TeaBird tagged me for this! The meme originated with BookBabie.

1. Write your own six word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.
4. Tag five more blogs with links.

Found tea, found yarn, found zazen.

 

I’ll tag: CheapLikeMe (a cool ecology/economy blog), Velvet Notes, Andy, KeyWordScarf (another knitting librarian!), and Sarah.

Note to my tagees — most of you have never heard of me before - I’ve been doing tag browsing recently and noticed you!

SnowDrop - finished.

I finished Stephanie’s SnowDrop Shawl (pattern is a pdf) yesterday! I cast on in December ‘06, so it only took me a year and a half.

This was knit in KnitPicks Bare merino laceweight, and used slightly less then one full skein on 4mm needles.