Ravelry - good or bad?

I signed a while back for my spot on the wait list at Ravelry. Here's my stats today:

• You are #14523 on the list.
• 3879 people are ahead of you in line.
• 15003 people are behind you in line.
• 35% of the list has been invited so far

There are almost 4000 people ahead of me - discouraging - but there are over 15K behind me. Suckers.

Anyway, I'm a bit worried about this whole Ravelry thing. Everyone who's anyone in the knitting world is talking about it. Those who are already in are acting like they're part of some secret exclusive knitting clique. I hate them. I want to be them. My biggest concern however lies with the day I actually get the invite. This Utopian knitting community is going to be the biggest time suck I have ever encountered. What should I do on that day? Call in sick to work and camp out with a pot of coffee in my PJs in front of the computer? Act cool and pretend I don't really care and put it off until I have free time then sneak looks all day when I should be doing other things? How will I keep it from being a distraction day in and day out? It's a serious quandary. There's a little part of me that doesn't want to get the invite any time soon because I'm afraid of what will happen to me.

But I wish it would happen soon.

Team Haley

My friend's baby, who I mentioned a few posts ago, survived her surgery, but has a tough road ahead. She has been diagnosed as terminal, but has surpassed all of the doctors expectations so far. They are considering chemo as the next step. Haley's parents and friends will be participating in the Jimmy Fund Walk on September 16th. Since Haley is now a patient of the Jimmy Fund they are asking for donations of any size to support the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Please help Team Haley.

I've been a big slacker about posting the last couple of weeks. But, coming soon... photos of my Super Awesome 80s Birthday Party and some knitting (though I'm not as prolific as normal in the late summer heat) and maybe even some home cooking.

I am grateful to all bloggers out there who write reviews of knitting magazines. Not only do I not have to buy the magazine, I don't even have to sit in the yarn shop making fun of the designs myself (but I probably will anyway). One of my favorites is GrrLeigh Knits. I'm kind of a lurker on her blog, but I love the extreme snark mixed with genuine praise when it is deserved. She reviews everything, so the rest of us don't have to.

This week she reviewed the new issue of KnitScene. I'll pretty much buy any magazine with handmade yarn stuffs in it (or hand made anything really). But I've been a bit of a tightwad about this one. I think I have an issue or two stashed away here somewhere, but I can't buy it on a regular basis. It's just to 'sceney' for me. GrrLeigh starts her review with a great definition of 'Scene' from Urbandictionary. It's a pretty apt definition. She seems to be a hesitant fan of the magazine and I agree with most everything she says.

I love Glampyre's bright blue vest (obviously in something non-fuzzy) and the Firefly Mobius (but I wonder what it would look like on someone with breasts?). The Road to Golden might convince me to try fair isle again. Traci - show Pete the Hero Pullover. It could be the one.

Whenever I get in that mindset where I think everything cool has already been done, I have to remember that I'm grateful to the cool people out there who do these things to save the rest of us having to....

Things that I think are cool today

But, remember, I am a dork, so these might not really be cool....

• The new log cabin blanket - Buncha Squares - from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I must do this immediately. I'm going to start plotting out the yarn tonight during drop-in at Webs. I really shouldn't start it with all the other projects I have in the works, but maybe if I only do one square a week?

• Tricks for making the perfect popcorn.

• Tom Robbins. I'm thinking of rereading Still Life With Woodpecker (and maybe all the others). I recently read a quote taken from the book that got me thinking about it again. His writing runs the gamut from hysterical quips, to lovable nonsense, to philosophical uber-wisdom. He's basically brilliant and, if you haven't read him, you must. Here are a few choice quotes from Still Life:

"She lunched on papaya poo poo or mango mu mu or some other fruity foo foo bursting with overripe tropican vowels."

"He looked at her with that kind of painted-on seriousness that comedians shift into when they get their chance to play Hamlet."

"I'll follow him to the ends of the earth," she sobbed. Yes, darling. But the earth doesn't have any ends. Columbus fixed that."

"Funny how we think of romance as always involving two, when the romance of solitude can be ever so much more delicious and intense."

"'It's only a paper moon/Sailing over a cardboard sea.' The moon can't help it if the best toys are made of paper. And the best metaphors made of chesse."

"There are only two mantras... yum and yuk. Mine is yum."

"Who knows how to make love stay? Tell love you are going to the Junior's Deli on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn to pick up a cheesecake, and if love stays, it can have half. It will stay. Tell love you want a momento of it and obtain a lock of its hair. Burn the hair in a dime-store incense burner with yin/yang symbols on three sides. Face southwest. Talk fast over the burning hair in a convincingly exotic language. Remove the ashes of the burnt hair and use them to paint a mustache on your face. Find love. Tell it you are someone new. It will stay. Wake love up in the middle of the night. Tell it the world is on fire. Dash to the bedroom window and pee out of it. Casually return to bed and assure love that everything is going to be all right. Fall asleep. Love will be there in the morning."

See? (thanks Wikiquote)

• Melissa doing canning on her grill. Cool.

• And this? This is the coolest thing. Ever.

In which I let my lameness out to play

I'm a big dork. I'll just say that up front. In case you didn't know yet.

I love LOL Cats. They make me laugh. I'm a simple girl - it doesn't take much. I know they're tacky and a bit passé already, but I had these pictures and I had to do it.

Also? I am big Harry Potter geek.

Just found this. Funny fake sign making fun of the LOL cats...

Knitting content to come soon. I promise. Haven't done much lately because it's been hot and I've been busy. But there are a few things - a FO from vacation last month and a store project and a redo that needs to be done on my Sahara sleeves.

Good thoughts please

A friend's baby is having brain surgery to remove a horrible tumor. Please think good thoughts for Haley. Her story is here, but, be warned, it is a tear jerker:

http://heidifinn.com/Haley/news.html

Free time

I had a great adventure last week that I’ve been meaning to blog about. But I’m in a funk and it was the sort of adventure that deserves to be described when I’m in a better frame of mind. What is it about the week after a vacation? Doesn’t it always suck? I had some discouraging news first thing at work Monday morning that set the tone for the week. Follow that up with a few other personal disappointments (and I am maybe fighting off a cold too) and I’m in a right funk. I’m cranky, impatient and intolerant. I feel overtired and fat. I’m using my favorite Al Swerengen curse way too often (you know, the one that starts with ‘cock’ and ends with ‘sucker’?). Mostly it’s under my breath but sometimes much louder.

When I get in this sort of a mood, nothing is right. Today I was thinking about how I have no time to do all the crafty things I have ideas for. I’m wondering how it was in my 20s I had plenty of money to go out every night and plenty of time to do all sorts of crafty things. Now, in my 30s, I make more money and have no social life, but I never have any money or free time. How did that happen? Is there some strange age vortex that sucks away your money and your free minutes? Did I not eat or buy clothes in my 20s (I know I paid bills and drank a lot of wine….)? Did I require less sleep so there were more hours in the day (I know I worked all the time and kept my house relatively clean. Maybe cleaner than it is now even.)? I read just as many books and watched just as much TV. It’s a mystery.

Because I think a funk is only ok if you can find one thing to focus all that negativity on (It’s not good to go around feeling miserable about EVERYTHING at once), I’ve focused on this issue of free time. I’m not really sure what I do with myself, but there is never time for all the projects I want to do. There are materials and even partially finished crafty things stuffed away all over my house. It’s embarrassing really. If a stranger were to come in and go through my things I wonder what they would think about the giant bag of salvation army sweaters (some felted already) in the basement. Or the large stash of plastic bags – organized by color. I have big plans for those bags. Someday. They came with me last time I moved. I moved bags of plastic bags. There is a large closet (and much of the adjoining spare room) full of yarn. Much of it is partially knit or set aside for certain things that I will probably never get to. I go in the ‘yarn room’ looking for just the right yarn and sometimes I find it, but I can’t use it because it is slated for some project I will never get to or there is too much of it to use on the small thing I want to make now. If I use a small amount there might not be enough later when the right project comes along. And the beads. There are large quantities of beads and wire and stuff tucked away around here somewhere. I’ll probably never use them again. I should ebay all this stuff, but I think – maybe? – I’m a pack rat. I think I can’t get rid of it. I might need it someday. Someday when I have more free time.