Best Quote I Heard All Day

Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that, I'll be over here, looking through your stuff.--Jack Handy

I've never gone much for memes. If you don't know what a meme is, the long, pedantic explanation is here, the short one for dummies is here.

However, I have been listed by both Carol and Grandma Flea for the Thinking Blogger Award. I only just discovered that Grandma had tagged me, on my birthday, of all days. Certainly these two are thinking bloggers par excellence.

This is something I am truly honored to have been awarded. I will put it in my sidebar.

In accordance with the rules, I am listing the five knitting blogs that I feel are absolutely worthy of this:

1. QueerJoe: As long as I've known Joe, which is coming up to five years, he's contributed immensely to the political awareness of knitters. And yes, his knitting and spinning are extraordinary, too. Joe was the one who got me to thinking that maybe my spinning wasn't quite as good as it could be. He was the impetus behind my working to improve my handspun. A personal friend? Yes. My gay brother.
   
   
2. KnitterGuy: Ted has a remarkably analytical point of view towards his knitting and spinning. He has been my muse, as he has been for so many other intelligent knitters, for longer than I care to remember, first on the Knit List and now on his blog. And then there's the cooking and the dyeing, as well. Another dear friend who is greatly cherished.
   


3. Jean's Knitting: What can I say about Jean Miles, that hasn't been said? American-born, she has lived in Scotland for many years, and is a premier knitter. I've been reading her since our days on the Knit List back in the mid 90s. Jean's lace knitting site and her almost daily blogging are incisive and insightful.
   
   
4. Whoopsy Daisy!: Kerstin's beautiful photography, of things knitting and life in general, along with her often poetic style of writing, make her blog a meditative stop for me. Sometimes, just the photos give me pause to ponder.
   
   
5. Wabi Sabi: Along with Ted, Katherine (aka k) is an analytical knitter, but with a tinge of philosophical thought. Her latest post, I Fought the Lawn and the Lawn Won--The Existential Gardener, is perhaps not about knitting but I think indicative of her writing.
   

Having been tagged, these bloggers need to:

1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.

If you do not already, please go and read these blogs. They are all refreshing antidotes to the relentlessly mindless, chirpy knitting blogs that have so wallpapered the ether.

Thanks again, Carol and Grandma, for this award. I hope I keep you all thinking for a long time to come.

Apres Moi, Le Filage
The former French major at work. However, I am glad to say in English that I've done the first plying of Carol's amazing alpaca top.

Once I get it on the niddy-noddy, perhaps the true subtlety of its color shading will be more apparent--there is a lovely lavender that shows up here and there. However, I am very pleased with the way this came out. I wanted a laceweight and I got it.

The yarn to the left is commercial laceweight, the yarn to the right my plyed alpaca. Without having done a wpi, I'd say I achieved what I set out to do.

Da Mags
I stopped at Borders the other day to use up my Personal Shopping Day, which they are making obsolete, much to my chagrin. So I flipped through both Interweave Knits and Knitter's. And bought both.

Yes, you read right. I bought Knitter's, for the first time in probably three years. Why? For this, by Celeste Pinheiro:

Yeah, Celeste, I really liked this one. Enough to buy the magazine. Amazingly, either someone bound and gagged DragonBoy or for once, he almost got it right, because the issue has two other good designs by Deborah Newton and Nancy Marchant.

However, the Knitter's Design Team needs to go out and design cocktail napkins or something else other than knits. Please. Modular knitting and fugly, too. Really fugly.

And I do wish the magazine would lose its frenetic, overwrought layout. Half the time, I can't differentiate the ads from the editorial.

IK also had some fairly nice things. Socks by Veronik Avery that I liked very much, although I don't wear knee-highs, wonderful hats by Kate Gilbert, and a beautiful lace blouse by Shirley Paden. I could definitely make this sweater by Veronik.

But the kicker is an indepth article by Ann Budd on knitting socks toe-up. I would say that between this article and Mel's tutorial on Sherman short-rowing, you've got what you need. I may yet go back to fiddling with toe-ups. But at this point, I'm sticking to my old ways.

As a final note, I haven't forgotten. I will write about spinning fine yarn. But it's Sunday morning, I'm watching CBS Sunday Morning, and I need another cup of coffee. Rare and handy, that caffeine.