Random Rambling Wednesday.

I don't want to spend a lot of time talking about Ravelry because that is annoying for those who aren't "in" yet or don't care to be. I'm starting to think I belong in the latter category. It's a useful tool, if you have a yarn in your stash or see a pattern and want to gather intelligence on it it is indeed a highly useful place. But either the internets are nuttier than they used to be, or knitters are crazier than I'd suspected (and this is coming from someone who moderated boards back in the 2400 baud modem era, on everything from theology to science fiction). I thought I was a jaded Old Hag of the Internet, but even by my standards I must say damn, the Ravelry forums are full of people who take everything way too seriously. I couldn't get through an entire discussion of the "animosity" between knitters and crocheters, there were hundreds of posts on just one discussion, and some people were quite intense about it. There were crocheters telling tales of feeling like second-class citizens, unwelcome in yarn shops, and knitters saying crocheters were rude and had chips on their shoulders, it was all quite bizarre. I didn't realize that it existed until the internets enlightened me, but apparently for some people it's the Jets vs. the Sharks, minus the dance numbers but just as ridiculously stage-y.

Basically, if there is a topic to discuss, there are people ready to pick a fight over it. I don't think that this was the site developers' intention for Ravelry, and I do think that the "forum" area will need to be pruned with a chainsaw before the site goes public. The sheer volume of bandwith being consumed by a relatively small percentage of users who apparently never hoist their behinds from their chairs and go for a walk to cool off - it's stupefying.

Between that and the latest upheaval in Harlotland, which I missed because I don't read her blog that often but apparently someone dissed one of her recent projects and 500 rabid fans tore this person apart and then it moved to Ravelry and was dissected for several more days, I really am starting to wonder about that "knitting is the new yoga," thing, because there is a definite lack of serenity and centeredness in this behavior. It also made me appreciate KR that much more, because while there have been outbursts there, it is somehow self-policing, and very few people need to be told to STFU.

But back to the case at hand: Crochet v. Knitting. I am a non-combatant, I learned to crochet around the age of 5 or 6 when my great aunts and gram and mother watched with benevolent pride as I cranked out miles of nothing very useful and crooked babydoll blankets out of Red Heart. Knitting was a few years later, maybe I was 8, or 9? A damn long time ago, anyway. I don't have a preference, except that I will not deny that the fabric created by knitting is generally more suited to garments. I have had an urge to crochet an afghan for a long time now. By that I mean years. Years. I have started and stopped a couple along the way, and never hit on the right fibers or concept or whatever. So, being unemployed and all, I had plenty of time to review my options in my stash. And I revisited a cone of cotton I'd experimented with before, and abandoned. I pulled the simple hexagonal square concept out of a stitch dictionary. And right now, the cone of yarn and the hook are living on my coffee table, where I pick 'em up and whip out a non-square or two when the mood strikes me.





It's a fingering weight cotton, and the color is richer in natural light, a soft cocoa brown. I do not plan to make the entire thing in this cocoa brown, I will mix it with a natural cream color and, and here is the decision - either a soft green or a soft coral. My goal is something very light and natural, the colors need to be gentle, because each motif is about five inches across, and in mass quantity bright colors would be jarring. I want something soft and natural and neutral, and light enough to use as a bed throw over coordinating sheets in the summer. You will note that this will not go with my current bedroom color scheme, and this is intentional - this is the future bedroom color scheme.

Because in light of all the earlier discussions of visualizing the future, I realized that meditative fiber manipulation could be part of this process. My current projects are all directed toward my future life.

That sounds so great, but is perhaps not the best lead-in to the next photo.

Don't you love how the cool knitters show you all these great things they made so quickly and effortlessly? Have you noticed how you don't see that around here?

I will, however, show you my latest effort.



Ah, yes, the flash makes what was not so easy to see in the normal room light abundantly clear. I thought I had three skeins of the same dye lot of Euroflax. Nope. In fact, I'm not sure these are even the same color.

So, I can think of three good captions for this:

1. God help me, I'm knitting a beige washcloth. I really need a job.

2. I fucked up knitting a beige washcloth. I hope I can still remember how to have a real job.

3. "Could fuck up knitting a beige washcloth," may be the knitting equivalent of "could fuck up a one car funeral." I should copyright this.

Fortunately, the same bright light of day that illuminates the cat boogers I still need to clean off the living room windows showed me the error before I threw the thing in the wash. It has been ripped back, and the correct skein of beige Euroflax is now in place. There is enough of that other dye lot to make another beige washcloth to go with the other hand towel that is also a slightly deeper shade of beige. All's well. Aren't you relieved to hear that?

I applied for unemployment today, for the first time in my life. Job market still sucks. Cousin C cheered me up - I'm going to send my resume up to Cousin S in MD, and ask S and his partner J to advise me if it needs to be fixed up for the DC market, and J worked as an editor and loves to do stuff like this, so he has carte blanche to tear the damn thing apart and re-work it if he desires. I need to tell him that the better he does, the shorter the time my menagerie and I will be their houseguests. That'll light a fire under his ass.