Raphael for Samhain
Just in time for Samhain*:
The rewards of quick and dirty knitting -- giant ribbon, giant gauge, mindless pattern, shiny thing done in time to get worn -- it'll even work today, though we're at the end of October, cause it's unseasonably warm. I've got a skein left of the Colinette "Giotto" in "Raphael" -- I've discussed the absurdity of this name earlier -- what to do with it? Scarf, I guess, but I don't want one, and I don't know anybody who wears these colors -- I seem to mostly know blondes who wear blues and greens, or brunettes who wear intense purples and black, or redheads who wear REALLY BRIGHT stuff in any color at all. Browns? Nope, just me. So, either I'll resell my remaining skein on eBay, which is where I got it in the first place, or keep it in the stash for someone someday who will appear in my life and require a scarf done in mushroomy dark forest floor colors.
Now, I'm back to serious, real knitting -- by which I mean anything 1) with a difficult pattern, or 2) with a gauge over 7 stitches to the inch, or 3) both. Preferably both. I get bored by the quick and easy stuff. Good thing it goes so quickly.
I read James Lileks every day -- never a waste of time -- but I especially recommend him today; an enjoyably rambling column -- scroll down near the bottom, though, to reach his deconstruction of the lyrics to Canned Heat's "Going Up the Country." Not to miss.
Also, I read Queer Joe everyday, but I'm finding him especially delicious this morning because he's trying out a new way to drive more traffic to his blog, which is to sprinkle it with google-friendly words sure to attract the "porn-starved masses who also like to knit," so you'll be reading along today, and all of a sudden run into phrases such as "large breasts," which arrive out of nowhere and don't go anywhere, either, and amuse me no end.
And oh, what else....
Oh, yes, the Knitting Tarot. XVI, "The Tower," is -- no surprise here -- "Ripping Out."
No surprise, no. But what I love about this conception is the shift in focus. The Tower energy comes from outside. Forces greater than ourselves shatter our constructions -- our beliefs, our plans.
But "Ripping Out" -- that's not the same. That's not about things we didn't foresee messing up our schedules. That's about putting our own hands on what we have spent time and energy on, and shattering it ourselves.
Willful.
Cool.
*************
*Irish; Means "November," though it's used to mean "Halloween." Pronunciation: SAH-win. Really. I'm not kidding. Yes, I know you want to pronounce the "m," and maybe have even heard other people doing it, perhaps even at medievalists' conferences, while I'm sitting in the back of the hall trying to keep from sticking my knitting needles in my ears. Nevertheless. The entire reason the "h" is in there is to tell you not to pronounce the "m." I'm just saying.
The rewards of quick and dirty knitting -- giant ribbon, giant gauge, mindless pattern, shiny thing done in time to get worn -- it'll even work today, though we're at the end of October, cause it's unseasonably warm. I've got a skein left of the Colinette "Giotto" in "Raphael" -- I've discussed the absurdity of this name earlier -- what to do with it? Scarf, I guess, but I don't want one, and I don't know anybody who wears these colors -- I seem to mostly know blondes who wear blues and greens, or brunettes who wear intense purples and black, or redheads who wear REALLY BRIGHT stuff in any color at all. Browns? Nope, just me. So, either I'll resell my remaining skein on eBay, which is where I got it in the first place, or keep it in the stash for someone someday who will appear in my life and require a scarf done in mushroomy dark forest floor colors.
Now, I'm back to serious, real knitting -- by which I mean anything 1) with a difficult pattern, or 2) with a gauge over 7 stitches to the inch, or 3) both. Preferably both. I get bored by the quick and easy stuff. Good thing it goes so quickly.
I read James Lileks every day -- never a waste of time -- but I especially recommend him today; an enjoyably rambling column -- scroll down near the bottom, though, to reach his deconstruction of the lyrics to Canned Heat's "Going Up the Country." Not to miss.
Also, I read Queer Joe everyday, but I'm finding him especially delicious this morning because he's trying out a new way to drive more traffic to his blog, which is to sprinkle it with google-friendly words sure to attract the "porn-starved masses who also like to knit," so you'll be reading along today, and all of a sudden run into phrases such as "large breasts," which arrive out of nowhere and don't go anywhere, either, and amuse me no end.
And oh, what else....
Oh, yes, the Knitting Tarot. XVI, "The Tower," is -- no surprise here -- "Ripping Out."
No surprise, no. But what I love about this conception is the shift in focus. The Tower energy comes from outside. Forces greater than ourselves shatter our constructions -- our beliefs, our plans.
But "Ripping Out" -- that's not the same. That's not about things we didn't foresee messing up our schedules. That's about putting our own hands on what we have spent time and energy on, and shattering it ourselves.
Willful.
Cool.
*************
*Irish; Means "November," though it's used to mean "Halloween." Pronunciation: SAH-win. Really. I'm not kidding. Yes, I know you want to pronounce the "m," and maybe have even heard other people doing it, perhaps even at medievalists' conferences, while I'm sitting in the back of the hall trying to keep from sticking my knitting needles in my ears. Nevertheless. The entire reason the "h" is in there is to tell you not to pronounce the "m." I'm just saying.
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