In which we speak of cabbages and kings...

...and a variety of things.

First, A News Flash! (but with no photo...I'm sorry, my camera is among the missing). I think I mentioned before that Main Street Yarns in Watkinsville, GA has been running a Six Weeks of Socks contest to benefit Annie Modesitt and her family with some of the unexpected costs related to her husband Gerry's illness. Well, I won last week--amazingly. I never win anything! The prize was a gorgeous skein of Trekking Pro Natura in my colors (how did they know?)--blues and greens--and a 40" Addi Turbo needle (size 1, perfect for magic looping socks). Main Street's owner, the lovely and generous Ruth, also sent me a copy of Annie's book "The Knitting Heretic." (Again, how did she know I hadn't read it?) Thank you, Ruth, and all the very generous folks at Main Street--I salute your compassion and lovely spirits.

There are two more weeks of the Six Weeks of Socks, with the charitable effort moving to another store in New Jersey after that. Better hurry!

Next, MS3.
Question: How is MS3 like Harry Potter?
Answer: Muggles are involved and they keep behaving in such Mugglish ways. Predictable but, oh my! Here's what I mean. Let's take HP.

What the Muggles Say: No Spoilers! We love the stories and we want to find out on our own what happens.

What They Mean: OMG! What's going to happen? Is Snape good or bad? Is Dumbledore coming back? Is Harry going to die? OMG!

What They Say: We love JK Rowling and we respect her as a great writer and we're just happy to have been able to be a part of this incredible phenomenon.

What They Mean: OMG! She killed off [fill in the blanks]? I didn't want him/her/it killed off! Who does she think she is?

What They Say: I've got to know what happens next! I'll just die if I don't know what happens next!

What They Mean: OMG! I hate the epilogue! Who does she think she is?

Bottom line: Muggles are never satisfied. They want to read the books AND write them.

So, how does this relate to MS3?

What the Muggles Say: The fun thing about a mystery knitalong is that ... it's a mystery! We don't know what Melanie has in mind for us and we're having fun knitting something that is a ... well, let's face it, a mystery.

What They Mean: OMG! I don't know what's happening! I don't trust her...maybe she's going to have us steek it along that dumb lifeline that she asked us to put in. I hate short rows/double decreases/wings. Who does she think she is?

What They Say: Now that I'm almost halfway through this thing, I just can't face the thought of knitting the other end. I really hope I don't have to turn around and knit the same thing but going backwards.

What They Mean: OMG! This thing is asymmetrical! We don't knit it exactly the same way as we did it before--we have to do something new! That we weren't expecting! OMG! Who does she think she is?


What I Say: It's a mystery, folks. And Melanie is a designer...that means she's going to design something unique that we wouldn't or couldn't design ourselves and we're going to learn something new and challenge ourselves. Get a grip, put on your big girl panties, and just knit the darned thing...or put a sock in it and stop knitting this thing that isn't going the way you wanted, and quit yer whining.

Rant over...back to our regularly scheduled program.

Next, Ravelry update. Well, two people that I know are now on Ravelry, and I'm struggling with extreme jealousy. Not that I need one more distraction from life, mind you. I got involved with some professional networking sites (LinkedIn and Pownce) last week and, given that I think I could need a new job in the near future, this is a good thing, but what a Time Eater. And Ravelry looks like the same deal...hours spent inventorying and detailing and listing and networking with other knitters....well, you get the point. Is Ravelry good for me or will it ensure that I just sit like a hermit in my home office, entering things into Ravelry?

Anyway:

Found you!
You signed up on June 14, 2007
You are #9168 on the list.
1444 people are ahead of you in line.
13520 people are behind you in line.
33% of the list has been invited so far

(Don't get me started on how it's ALWAYS 33% of the folks that have been invited--no matter what the other numbers are....I'm just trying to be non-Mugglish and trust in the process.)


Which brings me to my final comment. This whole community of knitters is killing my "knitting as hermit" personna. For years I've been a solitary knitter, happily ensconced in my little world and knitting by myself, feeling a little lonesome but really not wanting to make the effort to change things. Now, knitting as part of a community has become my life. Here in Atlanta, there's a group to knit with EVERY day. Monday, it's the Square Knitters. Tuesday, Starbucks in West Cobb. Wednesday, take your choice: Barnes & Noble or Needlenook. Thursday, it's Knitch or Chocolate. Friday, back to Knitch. Saturday and Sunday, well, those are the days you get together with friends to shop hop or knit at someone's home.

So, you'd think I'd be getting a lot of knitting done. Well, uh, no. First off, I can't knit MS3 in a crowd. I can barely knit it locked in my office with no interruptions. So I carry my omnipresent car knitting with me, a multidirectional scarf, which grows imperceptibly as I schmooze and touch other people's yarn and check out their knitting and gossip about what's going on in the knitting world or knit on The Big Sock (more later on that).

Then I drive home, exhausted, and sit up late into the night knitting on MS3, trying to get to the next clue. (I'm lengthening so I'm still on Clue 4.) And the next day, I go knit somewhere else with friends. The days of the hermit are gone.

Finally, the Big Sock. Debra is schlepping the Big Sock around with her. It's a project from UK by some folks trying to knit the biggest sock ever, and it's here in Atlanta for 3 or 4 weeks. It's got 1500 stitches in a round and 11 people knit on each row simultaneously. Photos if I ever find my camera.