On my way upstairs to write this post, my brothers grabbed me and said ‘Sarah! look! the dog on The Bells of St. Mary’s looks exactly like Bosco!” And so I looked. And it was very true. Except for the tail (Bosco’s is cropped), they really do look exactly alike! I realized that I haven’t posted a pic of Bosco in awhile so here ya go:
Adorable, right? He’s grown up into a really sweet dog. Totally a momma’s boy, he misses me a lot when I’m gone!
I’ve been really excited about knitting and fibery stuff lately. Working on all my projects, planning out things to make with my stash yarn and fiber, spending hours on the ever-so-addicting ravelry looking at the hundreds of amazing creations; it’s been loads of fun, and I’ve really gotten all my enthusiasm for textiles back (not that it ever went anywhere, it was just in hibernation because of classes). Today I was feeling particularly inspired and excited about all things fiber-goodness, and decided to go to the bookstore and buy a knitting book. Our local Barnes and Noble has a very large knitting book section, so I felt confident that I’d find something irresistible to take home with me. So I went. And I looked through many, many books. And I didn’t buy one. So I looked through the knitting magazines, and left similarly empty-handed (I did, however, pick up a copy of Spin*Off – which I feel is consistently the best fiber magazine out there. I need to renew my subscription!).
When I first started really getting into knitting the really cool knitting books were just starting to come on the scene. The books were where awesome knitting patterns lived. But as the years have gone by* the face of knitting has changed. The awesomest patterns are no longer only found in the books or magazines – they’re found, almost primarily, online. And so many of them are free! Take socks. The sock has been given a total makeover by amazing designers like Cookie A. And so many of these incredible designs are available online – half the time, for free. It’s really something when you think about it, and when you’ve just come from your computer, ogling a dozen different tantalizing free sock patterns on ravelry, books like The Best of Interweave Knits: Socks fall… incredibly flat. We should be really, really grateful for all the generous designers out there who put their designs up for free (or very low cost!).
In other news, have you seen the Twist Collective yet? It’s an interesting idea for an e-zine – articles are free, patterns are US $7 for download. It’s an interesting concept, and they’ve gathered a very strong group of designers for their first issue. My favorite patterns of the group are Bonnie (omg. I. love. this. sweater. the very last thing I need to do right now is start another sweater. But I am so tempted. So, so tempted), lissajous knee socks (WOW), cleite (it’s a potential pattern for the laceweight yarn I’m spinning, if I ever finish it!), and empoisonnée (yarnissima – whose patterns I’ve recently discovered on rav and am completely in love with). The photography is beautiful, the articles interesting; and overall it’s definitely worth checking out.
Oh yeah, and I’ve been knitting:
The lace stitch is ridiculously easy and I’ve already memorized it. I’m kinda bored. But I know I’ll wear this to school a lot, and it’s very cleverly constructed and I’m eager to get to the finishing part, so I’m plodding on. Hopefully I can finish it next week!
-Sarah Elizabeth
*”as the years have gone by?” this post is making me feel old. For the record, I started knitting when I was 10 (before it was the hot cool thing to do) and am now almost 20)
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