March 23, 2007 – 10:45 pm
My local yarn pushers, Purlescence Yarns, had Claudia of Claudia Handpainted Yarns custom-dye yarn to match the San Jose Sharks team colors. They borrowed a jersey from a fellow Sharks-obsessed knitter, ran off to the nearest paint store, matched the colors with paint chips, and then sent the paint chips off to Claudia for her to work her magic.
Right before Stitches West, they got lots of Sharks yarn in, and I had to snag four skeins for socks for Bill and I to wear during the playoff run. I just finished both sets of socks, and here they are.
My first installment of the 2007 Rockin’ Sock Club came and, as expected, it’s fabulous. The little emergency stash keychain is too damn cute; I’ll put it on my scissors to make them easier to find. I was afraid that my brutal handling of my car keys would be too harsh for the fibery goodness.
February 19, 2007 – 7:21 pm
Recently, some Santa Clara University students thought it would be fun to have a “South of the Border” themed party. Things rapidly devolved and controversy ensued. I was disgusted to read the story in the San Jose Mercury News a couple of days ago.
Fortunately, it seems like some Santa Clarans aren’t afraid to challenge racism and classism in their own midst.
I hope Father Locatelli and the rest of the University community takes this incident as a wakeup call. It’s hard to see sometimes, but not all Santa Clarans come from upper- or middle-class backgrounds. It wasn’t that way almost thirty years ago when I first got there, and it isn’t that way now, but I am encouraged that they’re not trying to keep this under wraps.
February 11, 2007 – 8:21 pm
A very nice entry about women dealing with the need to write amidst the demands of daily life.
And, this has resonance for integrating any sort of creative work, not just writing, into our lives. In my case, it would be beading or knitting.
February 7, 2007 – 5:52 pm
The John Edwards campaign is getting pressure from Bill Donohue of the Catholic League to fire Amanda Marcotte (Pandagon) and Melissa McEwan (Shakespeare’s Sister) due to postings they have made on their weblogs.
I just sent this message to the Edwards folks:
Keep Amanda and Melissa working on your web presence. The people most enraged by them working on your campaign will never be your supporters, and if you cave in due to their pressure, then you send a message to all Democrats and progressives that the right wing are the only people in this country who have the ability to define the terms of political campaigns. We are the ones who have the right to tell our stories to the rest of the country and the planet; if we let the right wing get away with this, our stories would never get heard. What would our beloved Molly Ivins say about this?
Stay strong.
If you like, go make your voice heard over there.
Bill Donohue does not speak for this particular technopagan Buddhist Catholic, but then according to him, I’m already consigned to various forms of eternal torment. Pthpppt.
January 31, 2007 – 11:11 pm
A commenter on Pandagon just reminded me of one of my favorite quotes of hers:
So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.
Nothin’ But Good Times Ahead, pp. 254-5
I am trying to cheer myself with envisioning Molly, Ann Richards, and Barbara Jordan having a raucous reunion and then getting back to business on another plane. The $AFTERLIFE will never be the same again.
I’m just sorry I won’t have more of her writing and humor to prod me along in the struggle.
Saint Molly of Austin, pray for us (and kick our butts into gear!).
January 26, 2007 – 10:26 pm
I was a couple of revisions behind on WordPress, so now I am running WP2.1 and have an Atom 1.0 feed. Note the teal and black colors here, kids, Bill and I were listening to our Sharks do a well-deserved smackdown on the Edmonton Oilers up in Alberta while we were making the changes.
January 11, 2007 – 10:11 pm
The Yarn Harlot has a righteous rant about how Blue Moon Fiber Arts had to deal with a dipshit bank that doesn’t understand that dedicated, nay obsessed, sock knitters are willing to fork out a fair bit of discretionary income for periodic shipments of awesome sock yarn that isn’t yet available to the general public. Also, here’s a link to JanuaryOne’s blog entry (go to the 1/11/07 entry) about the snafu.
Here’s the description of the Sock Club from the Blue Moon website. You get patterns and other goodies as part of the club, and this also covers shipping for six shipments.
Heck, perhaps some of those banking idiots up in Oregon ought to come down to my LYS, Purlescence Yarns, on the day when my favorite fiber pushers get their Blue Moon shipment to witness the feeding frenzy that ensues. Come to think of it, they could do some minimal googling to learn more without even leaving their desks, and this is actually the second full year for the club.
And yes, here’s some full disclosure about how I am a BMFA fangrrl. I’m currently working on a pair of Socks that Rock in the Carbon Dating colorway. Once you get a pair of socks done in this yarn, you understand why there’s such enthusiasm for it. My feet love my first pair (done in the Highway 30 colorway).
This is a small women’s owned business who is doing a good job of delighting its customer base as well as growing sensibly (they’re being careful in choosing retailers and not growing faster than they can support). Here’s hoping they find a new commercial banker who does the needed research and can be supportive. The knitblogging community is rallying around Blue Moon; the company is letting all their customers know as much as they can (I’m sure there are legal actions pending).
December 29, 2006 – 8:29 pm
JRR Tolkien said it best:
“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”
—Gandalf to Frodo, The Fellowship of the Ring
Unfortunately, I don’t see any of the very wise making decisions in either Washington DC, London, or Baghdad.
Reading Riverbend’s latest post places this all in horrifying context.
December 20, 2006 – 9:42 pm
Today is the Carl Sagan blogathon.
I wanted to add my own short appreciation of his work; Cosmos was one of the first hardback books I bought myself that wasn’t a textbook; The Dragons of Eden was another early addition to my library.
My first scientific love as a child was astronomy; I moved on to chemistry when I got fascinated by what the stars and planets were made of. Reading Sagan’s work helped me recapture that early love and fascination. I’m sure his writing was pivotal in having many people decide to pursue science.
May his memory remain unwithered. Ex astris, scientia.