A loud POP

Often enough the foreign knitters think that since so many gorgeous yarns are produced in italy, this country must be a sort of Mecca of good knitting. Sometimes I wonder how can be people who knit, out there, when the best instructions that Italian books can give about knitting are like this example.

Sorry, guys: I know, this is bad porn

Yes, the text explains exactly what you seem to understand frm the picture: to cast-on on a circular needle, cast-on on a straight and transfer all the stitches. That's the best circular cast-on you can work according to them. On reading this I heard a loud "POP" and it took me a few moments to understand that it wasm't from some outside sourche: it was my brain popping apart!

Ogival

Damn you, horrible ogival-tipped 4.5 mm dpns, that make it impossible to cable wihout cable needle and cause me to knit looser then I'd like. You will be substituted. I think I never hated knitting with anything as much as with you.

The dyslexic knitter at work (with a touch of Britishness)

Let's talk about serious stuff. In a woman's cardi, where do the bloody buttons go? On the bloody left front or on the bloody right front?

À propos de "Julie et Julia"

Meryl Streep portraying Julia Childs
and, on the right, Julia Childs herself

I was watching the first part of Julie & Julia and it started me thinking about obsessions' salvific power. Obsession can eat you out, but they offer you a place to go back to and something to hold on when things go bad. It occurred to both the main characters in the film. It occurred me several times in the eyars since I started crocheting first and then knitting: I strted crocheting because I needed something to hang from in times of trouble, and time after time I constantly find myself going back to crocheting, knitting and spinning when I start really feeling lost and empty. Obsessions can eat you out, but then they throw you up in a new shape and consistency, one more fitting to face the world. Maybe not as clean as before, though...

Never, never, never

Never start working on a toe first thing in the morning. Toes take more time than you'd expect. Dammit!

May the cyanoacrilate be blessed

And blessed be the fact that drop spindles are such simple devices because a couple of days ago the hook in my Turkish spindle came off yesterday I grabbed a cyanoacrilate glue and this morning a drop of it fixed my spindle. Yet, in the worst case, I could have just picked the hook totally off and filed the top into a notch.
Spindle, such wonderful, simple and yet effective design, how I love thee!

Lace rocks

So, what's got this White Stripes song to do with lace? IMHO lots of things. Hear how the song starts: just the bass describing a sinous but rithmic line, then the drums intervene with a steady staccato beat and finally voice, guitar and a more complex drumming fill the space before going bak to bare essentials. Yet, everything lies over that initial bass line that sets the rhythm of everything, and everything else is built on it.