Knitter's got soul

Check it out, chicks -- music from Wren Ross:

Black Sheep

Had To Be Ewe

Geek Knitting

Excellent article on a blog post about the correlation between knitting & math/other geeky stuff:

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004347.html#004347

Here's a quote from the beginning:

"I wouldn’t say there’s any craft that doesn’t have some geek constituency, but there’s a real affinity between geeks and knitting. As mentioned here earlier, knitting just feels good; but it also has all kinds of interestingly technical variations: Aran cables, lace knitting, fairisle, plus purely knitterly jollifications like knitting two socks simultaneously, one inside the other, on a single set of needles, so that when you’re done you pull them apart and there’s your pair. (Why do it that way? Because it’s cool.) It also has an attractive deep structural logic based on geometry and proportion, pattern and shape and iterative processes. I’m not explaining this very well, but the way I understand knitting feels like the way I understand the internal structure of manuscripts, and the morphology and underlying interrelatedness of plants."

I have always been struck by the similarity of structure between a pattern and a computer program. Both call functions (list materials), create loops that are repeated til a certain condition is met, and are based on a binary system whether it be 0's & 1's or knits & purls. Guess I'm not as crazy as I thought I was.

Gangsta Knitter

Okay, the next time you have two minutes to absolutely waste, check out this short film (the secret's out about knitting!):

http://www.pisadesigns.com/gangstaknitter.htm

Knit on, baby....

Age difference

A desirable Saturday night, age 21: with great anticipation, dress in heels, black stockings, and a super little dress so you can get out of the house by 9 pm.

A desirable Saturday night, age 45: hope to get home by 9 pm so you can crawl into black sweatpants and a comfy sweater.

Hmmm. Who's to say which is better?

Got books?

I have been making a little time lately to do some reading: Richard Florida's The Rise of the Creative Class. It's a great discussion of the major change society is currently going through socially and economically, a change as great as the movement from an agrarian society to an industrial society. Creativity is quickly becoming the most lusted-after trait in the American worker today, and managing creative people is both wonderful and challenging. I'm getting a lot of pointers that I think will help me keep good workers at the store, and it also explains a lot of why I feel the way I do about what I do for work.  Motivation is less monetary and more intellectual stimulation; flexibility of working hours is vital;  place, the location of where people want to work and live, is important; comfort and little perks are important to creative people. Like buying coffee for everyone a couple times a day -- it costs me little but makes them know I appreciate and value them. And who doesn't like a free cuppa, anyway?

Knitting: an entrelac lace stole from Blackberry Ridge. Fun to knit and impressive to look at. Socks, plain knit with fancy yarn from Schaefer. One more seam to sew on Hanne Falkenberg's Pagode. The Helen's Lace garter stitch pie-wedge shawl. And all the other stuff never finished from January: the earflap hat,  the fair isle gloves, the purple gansey in Jo Sharp dk tweed, the baby blanket, the crocheted spiral-medallion shawl, the yellow cardigan from Interweave Knits a year or two ago. Then there's all the stuff not even started, some not even designed yet, that needs to be done by some future deadline: the Christmas stocking, the spiral-cable hat, the Cestari cotton-wool pullover. Well, we will see what gets done and what doesn't.