Bess seems to be in my brain a lot, but luckily she doesn't take up much space these days. What she says about the new KnitIt! goes for me, too. I thumbed through it and decided to SkipIt! And this from the queen of easy, mindless knitting. Enough with the damn novelty yarn scarves already! The sock craze has been around the block a couple of times too. I am the mindless knitter, I never scoff at stockinette, I do not scorn garter stitch, and too much shaping is like, too much work sometimes - but it's still possible to come up with fresh ideas in simple ways - Sally Melville has demonstrated this twice so far. Knitty does it regularly - the French Market bag is a case in point - imagine that, a felted bag that doesn't look vaguely like every other felted bag! And of course the great Bonne Marie regularly comes up with designs that are easy to make and actually look like the stuff in the stores that season. It can be done and IS done. There is a whole lot of stylish knitting in the vast conceptual space between acrylic garter stitch scarf and I'd-go-blind-if-I-tried-that lace. It doesn't have to be all about boxy kid sweaters, even for beginning knitters. I'm lost on the concept of giving a beginning knitter novelty yarn to make a scarf - that stuff can be a major a pain in the ass to work with, it frustrates experienced knitters, why do so many "beginner" books recommend something that is likely to be discouraging? Rant off.