Pictures & Presents

Look at what arrived in the mail! Julie sent me a beautiful alpaca mug (which Andie tried, unsuccessfully, to commandeer). It's adorable and thank you so much Julie!

Yesterday, I hit the Knitters Knook 40% off sale. I was in the parking lot, waiting & knitting, when Becky pulled up to open the shop. We sat, talked, laughed and carried on for two wonderful hours; it was a ball and I had such a great time. Thank you Becky!

I also squeezed in a couple of purchases (imagine that!) and here's what I bought:

Cascade Yarns EcoWool (Here's my avalanche hat yarn Julie).

And five skeins of Encore Colors. This is going to be a baby blanket for Gabrielle (my friends, Jen & Mark's, little girl due in September).

Here's my last Sedalia souvenir. This is a Nana Sadie Rose knitting tote, the "Mavis", to be specific. When I went to the Sedalia Fiber Festival, I said that if I bought only one thing for myself, it would be one of Nana Sadie Rose's bags. I picked it up Sunday at Becky's and I love it!

Here's the inside of the bag. See the big blue pocket on the left? That's the pattern pocket! There are pockets galore and so much space. I think I just found a new fetish. LOL :)

Punk Knitting & WWKIP

I read this article on Angie's blog and had to pirate it and bring it here.

Funny? Absurd? Offensive? You decide.

Start Article:

Punk knitting: Has youth culture gone mad?

Steven Wells reports on how alternative culture has ditched rebellion for cross-stitch patterns and bobble hats

Saturday June 14, 2008
guardian.co.uk


So this is how punk ends - not with a bang but with a jumper. Today, all over the world, thousands of punks, goths, emos and other ferociously tattooed, face-pierced miscreant bastard folk-devil scum will take to the streets to protest their disgust with war, oppression and bourgeois conformity by crocheting hideous green twat-hats with stupid ear flaps.
I'm talking about World Wide Knit in Public Day. Which, by its very name, suggests that knitting is a sordid and disgusting practice best done behind locked doors and drawn curtains. Which it is.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On at least four continents muscular youths possessed of the sort of surly disposition and fashionable facial disfigurements that persuade old folks to cross the street, muttering under their mint-humbugged breath about the return of national service, will be sat in parks and on street corners, cheerfully nattering to one another and churning out skull-festooned jumpers that proclaim the need for anarchy. The sickening truth is that knitting is hip - and Western youth culture is knitting its own death shroud.
This decade's mods and rockers don't cluster at Brighton and Hastings for fisticuffs. Instead they mail each other patterns for socks. Which in some ways is obviously an improvement, granted. But, blow me, nobody's going to be making a movie about it in 20 years time. They even have their own knitting Woodstock, called (oh God oh God oh God) Woolfest.

In every bookshop in Christendom there are sections dedicated to the nauseating premise that arts and crafts are edgy and alternative. They are ram-packed with punk-chick adorned books with edgy titles like Stitch'n'Bitch and Anticraft (subtitled "Knitting, beading and stitching for the slightly sinister.")

We've gone from screaming for anarchy, rocking against racism, storming the US Embassy and picketing recruiting offices, tuning in and dropping out and rutting like pigs on Viagra to taking up the favourite hobby of senile old grannies everywhere and declaring it radical. Which was hilarious for about five seconds about five years ago.

The knitting craze is the death of both alternative culture and feminism. But it's even worse that that. Scratch a knitter - discover a Knit Nazi. Like the Nazis, alternative knitters have no sense of humour.

The last time I claimed in print that the concept of radical knitting is as absurd as radical dusting or radical toilet cleaning, I received hysterical and barely literate death threats from the ferocious, fanatical, froth-gobbed and swivel-eyed knit Nazi massive. This time I suspect I might not survive.

Nonetheless, the truth must be stated. Germaine Greer didn't articulate her disgust with women's oppression by knitting a lavender and yellow toilet-roll holder. Dr Martin Luther King Jr didn't say: "I have a dream ... set of place mats that I crocheted using a pattern I got from a magazine." Jimi Hendrix didn't take to the stage at Woodstock wearing a nice orange and puce cardigan (with a reindeer on it) that he made using a job-lot of wool he got at a jumble sale. And Sid Vicious didn't crotchet his own stupid mock-Tibetan hippy-dippy ear-flapped bobble hats. And neither should you. If you need a hobby, take up spitting.

End Article.

And then, for a lark, I googled and found these books.

Warning - - BIG BRAGGING ALERT

Check out this e-mail exchange and see why I'm grinning from ear-to-ear:

Message No. 1:

-----Original Message-----
From: Ashley Stultz
To: Alexander Soltani
Sent: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:23 pm
Subject: One more Email

Parents, Guardians, and Students:

Hope your summer is going GREAT so far. I really enjoyed working with you and your child this year. I wish you all the best of luck next year at the high school. On Friday after all of the students left I was informed that Math SOL scores were in. If you would like to know your child's score, please send me an email.

Thanks again for everything!

Ashley Stultz

©º°¨¨°º©©º°¨¨°º©©º°¨¨°º©©º°¨¨°º©©º°¨¨°º©©º°¨¨°º©
Ashley Stultz
Bedford County Public Schools


Message No. 2:

-----Original Message-----
From: clansoltan@aol.com
Sent: 6/10/2008 1:53:00 PM
To: astultz
Cc:
Subject: Re: One more Email

Hi Mrs. Stultz,

I would very much like to know Alex's score when you have the opportunity to e-mail it. Likewise, thank you too for all of your informative e-mails throughout the year; I greatly appreciated them.

Best regards,

Dana Soltani


Message No. 3:

-----Original Message-----
From: Ashley Stultz
To: clansoltan@aol.com
Sent: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 10:42 pm
Subject: RE: Re: One more Email

Alex scored a 600!! Please congratulate him for me!!

Thanks


Message No. 4: (Yes, I am an ignorant fool.)

-----Original Message-----
From: clansoltan@aol.com
Sent: 6/11/2008 10:01:00 AM
To: astultz
Cc:
Subject: Re: One more Email

Thank you! I will definitely pass your congratulations on to Alex. Now, if you don't mind me asking - - where does a "600" rank? "Pass Advanced" or "Pass Proficient"?

Any scores he made are due to your skills as a teacher, so congratulations to you too!!

Dana

Message No. 5:

A 600 is a perfect score. You cannot score any higher!

Thanks!

End Note: Well, he didn't get it from me. I managed to fail Algebra not once, but twice.

And again...more festival photos :)

I thought I'd share the last few festival photos I've collected from various festival participants. Have a great weekend everyone!


Carpoolknitter & Son
w/Overlook Manor Farm's Collie


Rosie again




Jadielady on the left and Careynev in the center!


Sedalia's View

Peace Fleece

At long last, I've found it!

Almost a year ago, my dear friend and fellow blogger, Marianne, gifted me a skein of Peace Fleece ("Kamakatchka" colorway) for my birthday. This past Christmas, my sock sister, Dianne, gave me another two skeins in the same color. I've been sitting on these three skeins, alternately hoarding and petting them, waiting for the perfect pattern to come along. I didn't want to knit just anything with them and was waiting for a pattern that "moved me." I found that pattern on Ravelry last week.

With all the festival planning in recent months, there was very little time for knitting, so this weekend was a double treat. I cast on the Peace fleece and knitted to my heart's content. It felt so good to have needles in hand again, as well as to work with this wonderful fiber that came from even more wonderful friends.

Meet my "Dragon Scales Shawl"....