Rav Games 2014

There certainly wasn't as much mainstream public hoopla about these Olympic style fiber games as there was before the London games but there was drama on Ravelry behind the scenes. I won't go into it, because frankly, I stopped reading all the comments and opinions when the dislike button numbers far exceeded the other buttons combined on what seemed like every post.

Book Review ~ Brightest Kind of Darkness

Brightest Kind of Darkness by P.T. Michelle

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


For a YA book, it was ok. But doesn't anyone just write one story anymore? Does everything have to be part of series? Even that's not so bad if the current storyline is finished up and a new issue with the same characters is created in the next book. Not with this. I noticed I was only ten or so pages from the end and I knew there was no way even one of the ends was going to be tied up before I finished.

To the writers that do this (A Discovery of Witches) comes immediately to mind, I will buy your next book if the first one is good enough. I won't buy it if you just stop writing so the reader has to buy the next one to see how the first ends. In most cases, I'm not that interested and there are plenty of other writers out there that know how to keep good characters and stories alive over a series.



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Just, why? Why do you do it?

I recently saw a blog article titled "Why Bother Knitting a Scarf?".  It was a short article that summed up a few of the reasons a lot of knitters would nod their heads in agreement to.  It had a couple points that were socially conscious, supporting local small businesses (like indie dyers and local yarn stores) and touched on the emotional and health benefits.  And I thought, that's a nice piece.  But is that really why?

I get asked a variation of that question frequently.  Sometimes it's my dear husband tentatively posing it when I've ripped something out after starting it three times and thrown the mess of yarn across the room.  Sometimes, I'm asked that question while knitting in a waiting room or while my daughter is in her ballet class.  Most non-knitters don't know that a really good sock yarn is not inexpensive so they aren't even aware that a comment such as "You know you can buy a whole bag of socks at Walmart for that cheap?" is way off base.  Ha!  If only I could get a skein of Happy Feet or Socks That Rock for the price of a bag of Walmart socks!

So why?  For me it's much simpler and more complicated than a couple bullet points.  But in the end, the reason I bother with the hassles that go into finding the perfect pattern for the perfect yarn, or getting gauge, or learning a new cast-on, or finally finishing a WIP is just this:  "Because I can!"

This is one of the new techniques I recently learned.  Arm knitting!  It was loosely based on Simply Maggie's Arm Knitted Infinity Cowl.  My daughter says it looks like a hammock and it is a little bulky for down south, but it was fun.