For some reason, I had trouble signing up for the Grammar Avengers ring, so I've just resubmitted my blog. But I actually feel sad that I wasn't one of the very first! Does that make me the biggest geek of all?

By the way, I know there are Breakfast Club fans out there. Remember the confrontation between Bender and Mr. Vernon, where Bender says "Eat my shorts" (long before Bart Simpson said it, I might add) and Vernon starts giving him detentions? Above all, do you remember this hand gesture? Hmm, it looks awfully familiar:

I haven't been knitting as much as I'd expected on my holiday, but all the knitting news is definitely good. After all, I can knit back in Taipei, so it's the shopping that's most important here. I got my hands on Interweave Knits. So I'm weighing in a little later than everyone else, but here's what I like. In IK, I think my favourite thing is the Short-Row Striped Pullover. I like both cable sweaters on the cover. These don’t rock my world, but I also like the Chinese Sweater, the Lace-Edged Raglan, and the Furlana Mitts. No world-rocking in VK, either, but I like the plainish cream pullover (#27) and the cable raglan pullover (#19). I think I like the seed-stitch cardigan (#26), but I might just like how it looks on the model in those particular photos; I'm not sure that I'd make it. I also like the ear-flap toque (#31).

Hey, I did finish my RocKami before I left Taipei! And it turned out well, though it's too long. I'm going to pull out the ribbing at the bottom edge and just cast off and let it roll up a bit. I haven't blocked it at all yet, but I brought it with me. So I guess it's actually 98 percent done, since I can't wear it yet. I'd like to make another, this time with shaping and wide straps.

Since being here I've whipped up a dishcloth for my mom, a mouse for Mooky (my cat! I'll see him in a few weeks!), and one little toddler-sized Hot Sok. I like the Hot Tamale colours, but I don't like the Hot Sox yarn much. It's so acrylicky. Plus, I wish each section of colour were a little longer so that it created stripes. I'd hoped that in a tiny size there would be stripes, but there aren't. Anyway, it's still a supercute sok.



Of course, the reason I'm not knitting all that much is because I'm out and about, spending time with people I haven't seen in ages, so that's been really nice. Besides catching up with people (and my friends' kids, who are all adorable and brilliant, of course), I've been taking so much pleasure in small day-to-day things. I've drunk skim milk and good red wine, and eaten tofu hot dogs, multigrain bread, and fresh peaches, apricots, and canteloupe, which is all thrilling. I went out into my parents' backyard last night at about one o'clock in complete darkness and silence and looked up at the stars. I bought three family-sized packages of red licorice to take back with me. I went for a drive and listened to CBC on the radio. Like I said before, it's all just easy. Ooh, I just remembered: I definitely can't leave without having a Slurpee. Maybe half Coca-Cola and half grape? Yeah, with a dollop of orange on top…

It's all just so easy here!

I slept in this morning, had peaches and blackberries for breakfast, and then hit the road to do a little yarn shopping. Just a few basics. Here's what I bought today:

3 balls of Bernat Hot Sox in Hot Tamale (just like Anna)

2 balls of Patons Kroy 4-ply sock yarn in Flax

1 ball of Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in Natural Ombre

1 ball of Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in Potpourri Ombre

1 apocalypse-sized ball of said cotton in Natural (it's like a theatre prop, it's so big!)

1 ball of Patons Melody Quick & Cozy in green (so I can actually finish the long-abandoned Joseph sweater)

a Patons Classics pattern booklet of kids' sweaters in Look At Me! yarn

a booklet called Knit Stitches & Easy Projects

the current issue of Vogue Knitting (to which I say, a magazine is a business, and a beautiful cover sells, and I couldn't care less if Daryl Hannah can't purl)

Sally Melville's book The Knit Stitch

Buying this stuff was so much fun. I bought the Hulk-sized ball of cotton for a ChicKami. Do you think it would work? Or some kind of tank, anyway. Oh, and I need some advice. So now I own The Knit Stitch and Knitting for Dummies. I also saw Debbie Bliss's Step-by-Step Knitting Workbook today. Would you recommend that I buy it? It has such pretty pictures, but does it offer anything that my other two books don't cover?

Hi! I really should be asleep, but my internal clock is still a little screwy. At this very moment, I'm in my old bedroom. My family built this house, and we moved in when I was one. It's always nice to come back.

You may have heard news about some serious forest fires burning in the Okanagan Valley at the moment. I arrived on Friday night; by the next morning, more than two hundred homes had been destroyed. Anyway, fortunately, my parents' place is not in danger. The air is very smoky, though. It's eerie to be so close to so much destruction, and of course it's the talk of the town.

By the time I got here on Friday night, I'd been travelling for about thirty-five hours, and I didn't sleep on the way. I called Bill when I got here, and he asked, "Did you knit yourself a whole jumpsuit? Did you knit sweaters for everyone on the plane?" Well, the truth is this: I knit one sock. In stockinette stitch. What is up with that? It's kind of embarrassing, actually! I'm feeling a little insecure in my knittinghood. One lousy 4-ply sock. And I was knitting like a mofo!

Anyway, I think I'll cruise through a few blogs to catch up. Jeez, I'm away for a few days and up pops the Grammar Avengers webring! Awesome. I signed up faster than you can say "i before e, except after c." Thanks, Em!

I'm getting on the plane in about five hours, and yes, I will have Internet access for at least the first eight or ten days of my holiday, so yes, you'll hear all about it. (Here a little preview: Whoa! Everybody's speaking English here!) Meanwhile, as promised, a few photos! Some FOs, as a matter of fact.

First, the assymetrical bulky baby cardigan (one of Kristi's free patterns). I made this for my supervisor at work, who is due to have a boy on August 30:



Garter stitch, knit in one piece, easy and super fast. The details are a little blown out in the photo, but the sweater has a cute little square neck. The pattern didn't call for it, but I did a chain selvedge on all edges.

Also one of Kristi's patterns is the Haiku, which is for a friend's one-year-old girl:



OK, I have to pick up the pace here. Can't exactly be late for an international flight. Here's a photo of the rainbow acrylic head kerchief I made a couple of weeks ago, with the attached i-cord ties:



And for no particular reason at all, here's picture of my feet in this summer's sandals!



Gotta run! Thanks for your well-wishes! I'll blog soon from the other side of the Pacific. See you then!

Hallelujah, the Brainylady Canadian Summer Tour 2003: Knitting and Felting Extravaganza starts tomorrow! In fact, I leave in about twenty-four hours. I can't wait to get on the plane. My inflight project will be Paint Box sock #2.

Since I started knitting last fall, I've flown between Taiwan and Thailand, Taiwan and India, and Taiwan and Canada, and I've never encountered so much as a raised eyebrow at having bamboo and aluminum knitting needles in my carry-on. Well, not from airport security, anyway. I know you've all seen the raised eyebrows when you actually pull out the needles and yarn and start knitting. Some knitters may be sick of hearing that knitting is the new rock'n'roll, but it's not exactly common knowledge out there, is it? Actually, people seem mostly to be surprised when they see me knitting, and in a good way. One time in a coffee shop, an older woman told me (in Chinese) that my stitches were really even; I asked her if she knit, and she said no. Knitting in a different coffee shop, I noticed a woman had stopped outside to watch me through the window; I smiled and held up my knitting, and she beamed at me. On my flight to Delhi, I was sitting next to a British/Indian teenager; I was making a hat, and she was pretty interested (in a cool, offhand kind of way). Is there something kind of sick and twisted about looking forward to a ten-and-a-half-hour flight because it means uninterrupted knitting?

Anyway, I haven't even packed. I've written lists (so I'm 80% ready to go). I'm not going to take much knitting with me, since I plan to buy yarn, patterns, and so on while I'm there. I'm so excited to see some of the stuff that I keep reading about on blogs! Kureyon? Wool-ease? Vogue Knitting? Huh? The reason that the BCST2003:KFE includes Felting, by the way, is that I plan to felt a pair of Fuzzy Feet in my mom's washing machine. Truth be told, I plan to try it again. I visited my parents in March, and I took with me a pair of green ready-for-felting Fuzzy Feet. I put them through a hot wash. When the cycle finished, I had a really huge pair of socks. Washable wool. Duh. So I've knit another pair, and I'm going to try to felt them. If it doesn't work, I am going to assume that felting doesn't actually exist, and then I'm going to wonder why so many knitters are involved in a conspiracy against me.

I want you to be excited about my holiday, too! Remember the pictures of my neighbourhood here in Taipei? Have another look. OK, now have a look at where I'm going during the coming weeks:

first, to my parents' place in the Okanagan Valley;

then a few days in Vancouver;

then I fly east and meet up with Billy so we can spend a week at idyllic Crotch Lake (heh heh);

followed by a few days in Montreal;

some time in Toronto;

and then winding up in Hamilton, Ontario.

I don't know that it's possible to understand how different from Canada it is here without spending some time here, but rest assured that I can't wait to be home. All of those photographs look like heaven to me.

I have some new knitting photos to show you before I leave -- maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow morning. And did you all see that Monica's IRO chart is now at the Rock-Along Gallery? Woo!

Happy cat story! Purrr.

The year is 2003, but I can't stop thinking about legwarmers. It may have begun with Stefanie's pattern for postmodern legwarmers in the spring issue of Knitty. (Well, actually, it began twenty years ago with my first pair, which were teal; oh, how I loved them.) I've done a little legwarmer research for you all (OK, maybe just for me!), so let's go back, shall we? Back to a time when we kept our calves warm but let our tops slip off one shoulder. First, a little background reading: "I Love 1982: Ra-Ras and Legwarmers". For some visuals, dance on over to "Legwarmers of the '80s: A Pictorial Tribute", which involves screen captures from Footloose. Oh, yeah!

Maybe I'm drawn to the fact that legwarmers would be easy to make. Besides Stef's pattern, there are free knitting patterns here, here, and here. Even easier (and so cute!) are the d.i.y. instructions here. (Admit it: you're starting to feel the soft, fuzzy pull of the legwarmer, aren't you?)

Anyway, you know where I'm going with all this, right? What is a legwarmer if not a blank canvas? An opportunity? Dude, I think I'm going to throw some metal at some legwarmers! (Should we be saying "knit some metal"?)

Meanwhile, where were you in '82? Tell me about your legwarmers!

OK, I'm no web designer, but I've put together a lil Knitting Rock-Along Gallery! What do you think? I see that Monica has been rocking. E-mail me your photos, intarsia charts, suggestions, whatever: brainylady[at]hotmail[dot]com!

Everybody's moving!

What a flurry of knitblog activity these days! So many knitters are pulling up blog-stakes and relocating. I can't update my links page for the time being, because while everyone else is all MT this and Typepad that, I'm a dork with a broken laptop and no ADSL at home. Here are some of the knitters' new homes:

Jen M.: MonkeyKnits

Kerstin: At My Knit's End

Leigh: Wool Flowers

Rachael: My Glass House

Sarah B.: One Stitch Short

Shannon: Knitting Girl

Plus a bunch of knitters are physically moving, like Stefanie, Carolyn, Gwen, and another Sarah.

I plan to have the Rock-Along Gallery up this weekend, so put on your leather pants and start knitting! There is no definitive chart or pattern yet, but we'll get there. In the meantime, why not pick two colours from your stash and knit ROCK ON on a wristband? Go here or here for alphabet charts, and gimme an R, O, C, K! (Hey, Canadians, remember that song by Helix?)

Oh. Mah. Gahd. Ronnie James Dio is really upset about the overuse of devil horns, you guys! He invented this "symbol of darkness," you see, and he takes it very seriously. Oh, and he gets really pissed when people add a thumb, too. Stop laughing! This is serious! What if he comes after us? OK, promise me you won't leave home without at least one metal knitting needle up your sleeve. This guy is totally unpredictable.

Yee haw! Eight pages of cowgirl pin-ups. (Beware: some of these images are, uh, "contemporary," but there are proper classics, too.)

I knitted on RocKami like a crazy fiend last night, and I'm almost up to my armpits with this thing (literally, so that's good news). Another two inches and I'll be ready to divide the stitches and conquer! Unbelievable. Will she finish before the Brainylady Canadian Summer Tour 2003: Knitting and Felting Extravaganza? (Look! Only 11 days left!) Place your bets now!

This is pretty funny: The Table of Condiments That Periodically Go Bad. The link comes from Alexandra at Moral Fiber, who is looking pretty hot these days with her new haircut. ;)

[Written yesterday afternoon:] I feel like it's been so long since I've been able to get to a computer, but it's been two days. Sad? Pathetic? Acceptable reaction for the twenty-first century? Just when we were finally close to getting ADSL set up at home again (haven't had it since we moved), our laptop bit the dust. Dead. We're going to take it in to "the guy" later today, and hopefully he'll tell us that we still have a computer. Why doesn't the technology universe want us to Rock On? I guess I shouldn't make promises until I find out whether our laptop is truly alive or dead, but the Knitting Rock-Along Gallery is going to happen. Because it will make a bunch of us so happy to go there! And thanks to a particular knitter-rocker who is soon moving to Germany, polls show a recent surge in popular support! Thanks for voting, everyone. And thanks too for commenting! Hilarious comments and awesome suggestions: what could be better? Just a few ideas:

"An international-rock-on-sign-intarsia-sweater, or tank, or felted tote, or...think of the endless possibilities!!" (Shannon)

"wristbands with bobble spikes." (Maureen)

"[F]ingerless gloves. So you could, you know, do the devil sign with the devil sign on your hands. A double devil." (Rene)

"...I am totally devil-horning up some sweatbands." (Stefanie)

I'll keep you posted about the gallery -- the URL, where to send photos, etc. In the meantime, Martina asked whether one must use the IRO. What do you guys think? Sarah and Stef have both come up with skull intarsia charts that rock. Should we limit the Rock-Along to the IRO? I think anyone who feels happy about the combination of knitting and rocking rolled up into one should take part, even if they'd rather stitch a skull or stars or whatever.

I had a day off yesterday, but it was too hot to spend any time outside (I did, and I regretted it), so I blasted the air-conditioning at home and knit. I'm about 7 inches into my RocKami, but I just couldn't drum up any enthusiasm for black stockinette stitch, so I made a rainbow head kerchief! Thanks to a ball of rainbow-coloured thrift-store acrylic and a free pattern from Jejune.net, I whipped up a pretty triangle and learned to attach an i-cord to an edge. The i-cord bit was slow but easy, since I left the long edge of the triangle on a needle, so I could skip the step of picking up stitches to attach the i-cord. However, I guess I was impatient, because the kerchief is actually too small for my head. Since there's no way I'm ripping out all that i-cord, and since I'm going to be visiting a four-year-old next month who has crazy hair, I'm happy to say that I've made another gift! As always, photos soon to come. (Is there anything worse than a blogger who doesn't have a digital camera?) (Don't answer that.)

I love reading the Guardian, and there have been a few particularly good stories this past week. To save you the trouble of digging through the whole lot yourself, here are a few to read if you've got a few minutes:

"Now which way back to the car?" There are more than a few people out there who go hiking with nothing on but sturdy boots and a Tilley hat!

Sitting on a log to eat a baguette is painful, but -- apart from the occasional nettle, an insect bite on the arm and the nagging fear that a fully-clothed rambler might appear at any moment -- it is a pleasurable, yes even liberating, experience.

"Vile Britannia" The author argues that in Hollywood movies, Americans are the good guys and Brits are the baddies, even to the point where a "good" Brit will be played by an American (e.g., Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft), but a Brit will be called in to play a "bad" American (e.g., Anthony Hopkins as Richard Nixon).

Our cut-price actors come over and do their dirty work, as villains and baddies and psychopaths, even American ones, while the cream of their prohibitively expensive acting talent Concordes it over the pond to steal the lion's share of our heroic roles. ... It leaves one wondering who's left who looms large in the American demonology, and must therefore be played by an Englishman. Ho Chi Minh? Mao? Saddam? Osama? Imelda Marcos? Call Ben Kingsley!

"Tracing Adam" A boy's torso was found in the Thames, and the huge and creative forensic investigation into the boy's identity is fascinating. If crime scenes, forensic geology, mitochondrial DNA, or isotope analysis interests you, this is a good read indeed.

After several months of chasing false leads, O'Reilly called a brain-storming meeting of murder detectives -- including some involved in the Soham case -- and forensic scientists from around the country. "We ended up posing a question to the scientists. What can be done to try to identify this child?" Forget CSI (Crime Scene Investigation), the popular television programme. Life is not that glamorous.

I hope everyone has a good weekend! Please send good vibes my way for the quick and painless repair of my computer!

Knit? Rock!



For whatever reason, there are a bunch of us knitters who just can't let go of the IRO. I think it's the knit-rock-geek-irony combination that is so appealing. Em knit a swatch. Sarah is working on a devil horns intarsia chart. I've made a button. And Rachael found an icon:

Clearly, we wanna rock! So swipe the button and knit (or duplicate stitch) something that rocks on. And here's what I'll do. I will create and maintain a Knitting Rock-Along gallery if you guys are actually into this. So are you? Are you, punk? (Be honest; it's anonymous.)

p.s. The best cat photo that I've seen in a while is on Pioneer Melissa's blog (August 4 entry; believe me, you can't miss it!). (This link is especially for my kitty-loving cousin Colleen.)

I know, I know, Gigli overload. But here's a good follow-up. I can only hope that the images it provides will replace "it's turkey time" in my brain: "Gigli focus groups demand new ending in which both Affleck and Lopez die" (from The Onion, of course). Ha!

I've been following the story of Marie Trintignant, the French actress who died this week as a result of a beating by her rock-star boyfriend. (The boyfriend has the nerve to say that when Trintignant lay unconscious after he hit her, he thought she had simply fallen asleep.) Of course it's a terrible story -- shocking in France, where her family is famous in the film industry and his band, Noir Desir, is super popular. Of course it's hard for the media to resist the celebrity aspect of it all (does the name O.J. Simpson ring a bell?), but I came across a feature in Time Europe today ("Until death do us part") and was impressed to find the magazine has taken the opportunity to discuss domestic violence in some depth. It includes a good range of sources, personal accounts, and statistics.

However, this feature is linked to a story called "Violent femmes: Girls get ugly", and this kind of story makes me crazy. It claims that German women are increasingly committing violent crimes. And look! It's oh-so-easy to blame feminism:

Why are German women becoming more violent? Gender equality may have something to do with it. ... "Girls and young women are generally less inhibited in adopting male forms of behavior, whether it's assertiveness, talking tough or using one's elbows," argues psychologist Arnd Stein, who specializes in the treatment of young people. "Unfortunately, the same goes for the use of brute force."

Funny. In the following paragraph, a professor of law and criminology is quoted as saying that "Human aggressiveness is not gender-specific." Which is it? Silly me -- I'm confused. I thought you just said that "talking tough" and "using one's elbows" are "male forms of behavior."

In fact, the whole Time story reads like something from about ten years ago, and it really surprises me. Any first-year criminology student could drive a truck through the holes in this story.

First of all, claims that are based on percentages, especially when comparing the criminal behaviour of men and women, are misleading. The story tells us that violent crime has increased "by almost 8%" among women under 21 in Germany over the last year; the kicker is that the corresponding figure for young men has dropped. But what does that mean? Without knowing the real numbers, this statistic is totally meaningless. The fact is that violent crime is rare, and it is especially rare among women. So let's say that in 2001, 50 young women committed violent crimes, while 350 young men did the same. (I'm totally making up these numbers.) And say that in 2002, 54 "girls got ugly," while 345 boys did. It would indeed be true to say that violence had increased by 8% among girls and dropped among boys. And so freaking what? Does the dynamic change? No.

Second, we're told that "women are the first to use physical force in six out of every 10 cases of relationship breakups." Again, this makes me crazy. Making a general statement about "physical force" is also meaningless. Here's a scenario: heterosexual couple fights, and fights bad. Woman slaps man's face. Man plows fist into woman's face. But she started it! Yeah, and he finished it.

I can't even talk about the title of the story. I won't be able to sleep if I get into that. Suffice it to say, it makes me crazy.

Hey, are you still here? Cool. Then I'll tell you this: I watched a gem of a TV movie last night. Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story. Oh, yeah, baby. You can read a review, with a hilarious title, here: "Five guys, nine arms." And by the end of the movie, as the one-armed drummer was succeeding in keeping the beat to "Pour Some Sugar On Me," Haiku was finished. Photos soon to come.

I have a confession to make: I often don't reply to comments left on my blog because it makes me so much happier to see "X comments, last by Somebody Else" than to see "X comments, last by Me." Ridiculous, I know, but rest assured that I love everyone's comments. Love, love, love. They're often super-hilarious and/or super-smart, and they continually make my day.

Oh, man, I don't have the energy to come up with anything near as good as the Rock Lock and Crotch Lake tonight! But I will have something special for you in a day or two. See you then. I'm going home to seam Haiku.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll finally have Internet access at home sometime next week. By then I will have put a few of the girls at the Internet cafe through college. Then I'll finally update my links page and knitting gallery. And I'll blog daily!

A few more details about the Brainylady Canadian Summer Tour 2003: Knitting and Felting Extravaganza! (Look! The countdown of days is in the right-hand column!) Here's the tentative itinerary: Aug. 22 - Sept. 1 in the Okanagan; Sept. 2 - 5 in Vancouver; Sept. 6 - 13 at a cabin in Ontario, fishing with my inlaws; Sept. 14 - 22 in Hamilton/Toronto/Montreal. Yes, Bill and I are spending a week with his parents in the wilds of Ontario, in a cottage on idyllic Crotch Lake. I kid you not.

I've said it before, and I expect I'll say it many, many times again over the next three weeks: I can't wait for this holiday. I can't wait to understand what people are saying and be able to read signs and menus. I can't wait to blend into the crowd. I can't wait to get away from crowds! I can't wait to be in the country, to stand on grass, to swim in the lake, to look at the stars, to hear birds. I can't wait to go thrifting and to second-hand bookstores. I can't wait to go to yarn stores! (What is this "Cottonease" and "Interweave Knits" of which you speak?) I think I need to come up with a big list of Things To Do so that I can check them off. (e.g., 1. Find grass; remove shoes; walk on grass. Heck -- get down and roll on it.)

I'm about two-and-a-half inches into my RocKami -- I'm doing the unshaped, wide-strapped version -- and I'm determind to finish before my holiday. Luckily I work well under deadline pressure. Also luckily, I can do stockinette stitch while watching TV. I'm also working on Haiku's second sleeve. The end is in sight! I want to have Haiku finished this weekend.

Something has come to light recently that touches the hearts and minds of many of my dear fellow knitbloggers, and that, my friends, is the International Rock On (I.R.O.) sign, a.k.a. devil horns. If you don't know what I'm talking about, no worries. But if you do, and if you're confident that you're ready to rawk and laugh really hard at the same time, click here to take it to the next level: the Bon Jovi Rock Lock. I'm speechless. Maybe because I can't stop laughing.

Actually, no; after reading this (from "Critics pan Gigli as 'disaster'"), I was speechless:

Among critics' biggest beefs with the movie is Affleck's efforts to change Lopez's character from being a lesbian into a heterosexual woman. The movie climaxes during a love scene in which Affleck convinces her to change sides, with Lopez spreading her legs and telling him, "It's turkey time -- gobble, gobble."

Oh. Holy. Jesus.