Graduate Students Provide Links
Graduate students are a lovesome thing, God wot, and I bless the day I got sent here so I could have me some. Also I especially bless the two who were sitting in my office yesterday afternoon, knitting leper bandages and looking, as I have mentioned, just like the March girls. (I was knitting on leper bandages too, but I didn't look like any of the March girls -- I looked like Marmee.) I bless them because, besides helping with the bandage project and being entertaining, they have provided me with the following two items of information:
1) The Incredible Hulk has a blog. You might think, on first learning this, that it couldn't possibly be worth reading, but it is. Oh, yes it is. Hulk is a superior stylist, to my delight, and the next time I want to be somebody besides me, I think I'll be him (as opposed to Dave Barry, which is who I was being yesterday). (Oh, come on, you did too know.)
2) There is a marvelous site with a lot of pictures of Dresses From Hell, and if you have any you want to contribute, I believe there's still room. (Mostly they've got bridesmaids' dresses, since that's the most fruitful category of dresses from hell in America, but they do have other examples as well.) And besides the dresses from hell they have -- look sharp, Ryan, you don't want to miss this -- a lovely photo of slippers made out of Maxi-pads. (Here's what you could hear me saying, if you stood outside my office yesterday afternoon: "Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!" ad infinitum, or for about 15 minutes, at least.)
These things were worth the whole day.
Ok. I've been thinking for some time about Debbie New's book, Unexpected Knitting. I ordered it from Schoolhouse Press sometime this summer -- I think they had a deal whereby I got free shipping if I ordered ahead, something like that -- and so I had forgotten all about it and then it arrived in the mail.
I want to write about it, as it seems right I should, but I don't really know how to even start talking about a book which has pictures of knitted boats. It was like falling down the rabbit hole -- I'd take a knitted teacup off the wall, and just barely get it back on a shelf before I'd fallen further and was going by the giant knit labyrinth created on 1" wooden dowels.
The most doable project in the book is the "Scribble Lace Shawl," which is done by alternating sewing thread and some thick yarn -- Colinette's "Point 5" works well, we're told. Lisa's got one done already, and a lovely thing it is, too. I'll do one at some point. I like the look of them, and covet the experience. Also it's a good excuse to buy a skein of Colinette's "Point 5," and I'm in a Colinette mood these days.
I like the knitted tea cups, too, though God knows I don't need any more art around here. (I thought they'd enchant Sam, too, but he's been mesmerized by the knitted boat. "Look. A knitted boat," he said, and mentioned it again later: "I can't believe somebody made a knitted boat." Sam. Honey. I am not knitting you a boat.)
And the "Labyrinth" knitting is intriguing, and I might mess with it sometime. (This would be the knitting wherein you knit a long zig zag strip and then assemble it into a sweater. You know. Don't you do that a lot?)
I'm glad to own this book. It's gorgeous. But it's not a book you buy because you want to knit the projects in it, though you could if you wanted. Even the boat. It's a book to buy because it's very useful, sometimes, to get somebody to take the top of your head off and stir your brains around.
1) The Incredible Hulk has a blog. You might think, on first learning this, that it couldn't possibly be worth reading, but it is. Oh, yes it is. Hulk is a superior stylist, to my delight, and the next time I want to be somebody besides me, I think I'll be him (as opposed to Dave Barry, which is who I was being yesterday). (Oh, come on, you did too know.)
2) There is a marvelous site with a lot of pictures of Dresses From Hell, and if you have any you want to contribute, I believe there's still room. (Mostly they've got bridesmaids' dresses, since that's the most fruitful category of dresses from hell in America, but they do have other examples as well.) And besides the dresses from hell they have -- look sharp, Ryan, you don't want to miss this -- a lovely photo of slippers made out of Maxi-pads. (Here's what you could hear me saying, if you stood outside my office yesterday afternoon: "Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!" ad infinitum, or for about 15 minutes, at least.)
These things were worth the whole day.
Ok. I've been thinking for some time about Debbie New's book, Unexpected Knitting. I ordered it from Schoolhouse Press sometime this summer -- I think they had a deal whereby I got free shipping if I ordered ahead, something like that -- and so I had forgotten all about it and then it arrived in the mail.
I want to write about it, as it seems right I should, but I don't really know how to even start talking about a book which has pictures of knitted boats. It was like falling down the rabbit hole -- I'd take a knitted teacup off the wall, and just barely get it back on a shelf before I'd fallen further and was going by the giant knit labyrinth created on 1" wooden dowels.
The most doable project in the book is the "Scribble Lace Shawl," which is done by alternating sewing thread and some thick yarn -- Colinette's "Point 5" works well, we're told. Lisa's got one done already, and a lovely thing it is, too. I'll do one at some point. I like the look of them, and covet the experience. Also it's a good excuse to buy a skein of Colinette's "Point 5," and I'm in a Colinette mood these days.
I like the knitted tea cups, too, though God knows I don't need any more art around here. (I thought they'd enchant Sam, too, but he's been mesmerized by the knitted boat. "Look. A knitted boat," he said, and mentioned it again later: "I can't believe somebody made a knitted boat." Sam. Honey. I am not knitting you a boat.)
And the "Labyrinth" knitting is intriguing, and I might mess with it sometime. (This would be the knitting wherein you knit a long zig zag strip and then assemble it into a sweater. You know. Don't you do that a lot?)
I'm glad to own this book. It's gorgeous. But it's not a book you buy because you want to knit the projects in it, though you could if you wanted. Even the boat. It's a book to buy because it's very useful, sometimes, to get somebody to take the top of your head off and stir your brains around.
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