Donna Druchunas's Blog

How embarrassing!



Thank goodness I don't have to wear name tags any more.

I've been tagged with a "meme" by Dani at Blog Book Tours and by Susan J Tweit at Community of the Land. I put that in quotes, because a meme is really just an idea that may or may not be reproduced in society due to it's reproductive success, just like a gene in physical bodies. But somehow the term has been co-opted by these chainmail blogging things. Oh well, it's a shame, but you can't control how language is used.

1. How long have you been blogging?

Three or four years. I'm too lazy to actually look up the first post in my blog to let you know. It seems like a long time.


2. What inspired you to start a blog and who are your mentors?

I have no blogging mentors. I'm not even sure what that means. I just decided I wanted to have a blog on my website so I set one up. I wanted to be able to post some updates about when I was teaching and signing books, and a blog seemed like the easiest way to do that. Now I have a workshop schedule page on my site, and I blog about everything and anything that grabs my attention.


3. Are you trying to make money online, or just doing it for fun?

Neither and both.

I don't blog to make money, but I hope that some people who read my blog will possibly buy my books. I also blog to say things that might not otherwise by said by people in the industry. Those who have read my blog for a while know that I often have unorthodox views on business practices (and other things) and I like to have an outlet for talking about these things.


4. What 3 things do you struggle with online?

Nothing, really. Sometimes I waste too much time, but it's fun so I don't really care. Other than that, there's nothing not to like as far as I'm concerned.


5. What 3 things do you love about being online?

I love meeting people that I might not otherwise take the time to talk to.
I love that people are judged by their ideas and what they have to say, and not by what they look like.
I love having all kinds of interesting information at my fingertips.


That's it.

Tag, you're it (I'm tagging these people, but there's no guarantee they'll play!):

Deb
Joanne
Rebecca

This morning I got an email from Tanner Randall, the guy behind Nanuq of Alaska. I guess he googled himself (something I do all the time) and stumbled upon a post from my trip to Alaska last year where I saw his photo in a local yarn shop. The ladies I met at the shop seemed to think of Tanner as a kind of hunky Alaska knitting mascott, but actually he's a talented designer in his own right.

Tanner is "the founder of the Alaskan-based brand label NANUQ OF ALASKA, under which knit and crocheted goods, various clothing pieces and leather accessories are sold in a collection of stores in the greater Anchorage area. Currently, [Tanner is] studying Menswear at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City."

The designs of Nanuq (which means Polar Bear in Inupiat), are young, funky, and at the same time classic. I think it's the photo styling that makes the projects look so hip, because the pictures without the shirtless male or mini-skirt clad female models, don't seem to have the same feeling. What I'm trying to say is, these designs are great for people of all ages, even though they're apparently being marketed to the college crowd.

Here are two of my favorite items. Tanner calls them crowns, but I'd just call them headbands.



The products are available in retail shops in and around Anchorage, and you can find a list of shops online. I'm sure some of them do mail order, if you want to pick up some of these unique Alaskan accessories for holiday gifts.

If you haven't seen the first half of the movie Adaptation, read this essay by Shalom Auslander.

Here's a brief excerpt, but you really need to read the whole thing to appreciate the feelings:

Why? Why do I bother? Why do I sit here in this coffee shop every morning, trying to write? Am I a cliché? Am I a narcissist? Should I order something besides coffee? Do they need the table? Shouldn't I be home raising my son, or spending time with my wife, or oiling the squeaky hinges on the front door, painting the trim in the guest room, organizing the closet, the basement, the attic, the shed? Organizing rallies for peace, bettering the world, planting a tree, assisting the elderly, rescuing dogs, rehabilitating cats, reforming prisons, helping the homeless, hiring ex-cons who've paid their dues to society and deserve a chance at making something of themselves, saving forests, restoring wetlands, giving alms, seeking penance, tithing, repenting, learning, studying or just living this day as if it were my last? What's the point? Am I crazy? Who needs it? Does the world need another book? Does the world need another anything? Does it matter? Will anyone care? Should anyone? Why should anyone care? What's wrong with them? Don't they have better things to care about? Don't they have blank pages to fill? Then again, what if they don't care? What if nobody cares? Shouldn't it be enough that I care? What if...

I have notebooks full of stuff like this. Who knew it was publishable? I actually enjoy reading it, too. I'm going to buy Auslander's newest book today. Go figure. It'll probably be the best book I've read all year. I hope I'm not spoiling it by setting up unrealistic expectations.

I might be light on blog posts in December. I have a book to finish, plus I have a lot of bookkeeping to do so my accountant won't be mad at me in January.

Here are a few reminders:

Design a Sweater Knitalong -- poll to select project is closing on Dec 1. Click here to sign up and vote. The knitalong will start in January, so we should all have time to get our materials collected (or ask for them as gifts) in December. This knitalong is to make a project from Ethnic Knitting Discovery, so check it out if you haven't already.

Charity Knitting Updates -- posted here, including a couple of new hat patterns and some ideas for hoilday charity knits.

Safe Sex and Dangerous Knitting -- I should be finishing this 'zine up in a week or so. It will be available on my website and all proceeds will go to the Colorado AIDS Foundation.

Kitty Knits -- coming in January! My book of patterns for cat lovers. No serious techniques or history here. Just a cats, cats, and more cats.

That's it for now. I hope you all enjoy December. If I have time, I'll post a few updates during the month.

Since I have no children to carry on my genes, I sometimes hope that my books will give me a bit of immortality by carrying my ideas into the future. It can happen. Today is the 148th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. I don't know if I'll ever write anything that will change the world as much as this book has, but I do hope that my works will at least change the lives of a few individuals if by nothing else than by bringing a small bit of beauty and undesrtanding into the world. Really, I'd like to change the world, but I have no delusions of grandeur. The odds of that happening are miniscule. Even so, I will keep writing and leave it to the wind. After I die, history can judge (or forget) what I've said. I won't be around to care.

Good morning! The turkey is stuffed and in the oven, the pumpkin pie is chilling in the fridge, and I am ready to clean my house and do the laundry. That's my routine every year. Then the rest of the weekend is free.

I'd like to thank some people who have made a difference in the world for good this year:

Ann Rubin of afghans for Afghans for continuing to keep up the good work in getting warm clothes and blankets to needy families in Afghanistan.

To Gail from Knit-U and Knit Design, who was the volunteer listmom for both lists and who worked to collect knitted garments for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Gail recently passed away and Dez Crawford is working to meet Gail's goal of sending 1000 knitting donations to Covenant House New Orleans.

Al Gore for having the guts to speak out about the dangers of global warming. Congratulations on winning the Nobel Peace Prize!

Richard Dawkins for starting a non-religious charity foundation that I feel good giving my money to.

Sam Harris for starting a fund to pay to protect Ayaan Hirsi Ali from the Muslim fundamentalists who want to kill her because she is an infidel and has written about the horrors she experienced as a Muslim girl and young woman.

These are just a few of the people I can think of who are giving their time to make this world better and safer. I hope that you'll take a few moments today to send thoughts of thankfulness to those who come to your mind for doing the same.

I just got a package with these in it:



These are issues 66 to 77, 1990 - 1992 of Whole Earth Review. I read these after I'd moved to San Diego and something about the material cracked my mind open. Reading these was the start of a completely new worldview for me. It's amazing what reading can do. The whole pile of magazines was $12. I've been reading some of the articles on findarcitcles.com, because I've been trying to remember what I was thinking at the time. But having the physical magazines and the tactile and visual experience is oh so much better for dredging up memories!

It's amazing how prescient these writers were and how so many of the headlines could have been written last week.

I've been writing a column called Knitting Around the World and doing small projects for Black Purl Magazine all year. I've mentioned them from time to time in blog posts, and I just got my copy of their holiday print issue in the mail today. Here's a list of what I've done for them so far:

HOLIDAY PRINT ISSUE
Arcticle: Charity Knitting for the Holidays
Pattern: Mohair Cat Blanket & Matching Sweater

TURKISH
Article: Turkish Delight for Knitters
Pattern: Turkish Delight Hat

NORWEGIAN
Article: Knitting from Norway
Pattern: Norwegian Bunny Headband

ESTONIAN
Arctice: Lace Knitting Around the World
Pattern: Lillie of the Valley Stole

LITHUANIAN
Article: Finding my Roots in Knitting
Pattern: Beaded Wrist Warmers

Bonus: ARCTIC LACE REVIEW

Next month I'll be interviewed on the webiste, too.

I guess it's the time of year, and habit. Over the past decade, I've made a point of taking the last 6 weeks of the year -- my favorite season, from Thanksgiving through New Years -- and using the time for reflection and recouperation. So here I am, not really set up to do that this year, and finding myself doing it anyway.

Instead of New Year's resolutions, I usually have one overall goal that I make for myself for the year, a focus for my life and work. I don't have to do that for next year, because I know exactly what my direction is for the year (it's twofold, getting my memoir written and doing the research for my Lithuanian knitting book).

In 2007 my focus was marketing. I had a very successful year, and I had a lot of fun. I taught workshops at home, around the US, and in Europe. I spent a lot of time online talking about Arctic Lace. I went to knitting conferences and trade shows. But now I'm beat. Even though I have another book that's just come out, and one more in January, I can't put the effort into marketing that I did last year. I don't have it in me. I do want to sell books and so I will spend some time doing things to promote my new books, but it won't be my focus for 2008.

Since I don't have to spend time searching out my focus for 2008, I'd like to make some confessions about what I've been feeling lately and where I see my life going in the next several years.

1) I'm sick and tired of knitting. Not of making the stitches and the hobby iteslf, but of the industry. No big surprise, all of my obsessions run this route. I get interested in something, immerse myself in it for months or years, and then I'm done. Kaput. Finished. I usually still maintain some cursory interest in the topic in the future, but it doesn't consume me any more. That's where I am with knitting. I just want to make stuff for myself, not post picutures of my projects on my blog, not talk about knitting conferences and new books and who's teaching what, not try to make a living from knitting related work.

2) I'm not going to buy any more knitting or writing books. I'm tired of reading books I could have written. I want to read more gorgeous prose, literature, classics, and books by authors who make me drool with envy because their writing is so good. I want to read books that will teach me how to be a better writer.

I've been bored by the books I've bought this year, even the ones that seemed to be on topics that have been in the center of my interests, even the ones that are very good books. I've bought several excellent knitting books, but they're just not capturing my imagination much any more. Although I admit there are also too many mediocre knitting books that have been coming out as so many new publishers tried to jump on board and catch the wave. I hope the wave is ending, actually, so we go back to focusing on quality instead of on quantity. There was a small trend in that direction over the past couple of years, and it seems like there are fewer books coming out this fall. I think that's a good sign.

3) I don't want to write patterns any more. I am not giving up on knitting completely, but instead of spending time designing and writing and editing patterns, I want to work on art pieces and subversive knitting projects (as I mentioned the other day). That can be as simple as making a handspun sweater to make a statement against consumerism or as complicated as -- well, I don't know yet. But I want to explore new areas instead of just making more and more sweaters and shawls. I also want to use green, environmentally friendly, yarns and materials much more, perhaps exclusively. I definitely want to spend more time spinning.

4) I want to travel more. I'd love to go to Europe for a year, but my husband has to work at a day job, so that won't be happening until our house is paid off. I don't want to make weekend trips to teach knitting classes. I want to spend months at a time in different places. I want to learn to feel the rhythm and spirit of different countries and cultures.

5) I want to spend my writing time working on personal projects, not projects to make money. In the end, it will be nice if my personal projects make money, but I don't want to have deadlines and contracts and editors telling me what to do with my projects. I want to explore new ground creatively and I need to do that on my own, on spec, taking a chance that it might end up under the bed instead of on a bookstore shelf.

6) I don't know if I want this to be primarily a knitting blog any more. I've been trying to think back about why I started blogging. I think maybe it was to promote my books. But I don't have one of those hugely popular blogs -- I get a thousand or two visits a month -- and I probably never will. I am not as passionate about knitting as the knit-bloggers who do get millions of hits. Knitting is just part of my life, and that's all it will ever be. It will never be all consuming, it will never be how I define myself. I don't want anything to be all consuming in my life. I let some obsessions get that way when I was younger, and I didn't enjoy the results. Now that I realize my obsessions are all temporary -- even if some last for over a decade -- I'm just not willing to let them own me. I don't believe in moderation, I think it's OK to follow your obsessions without guilt, but at the same time, for me at least, I need to remember that "this too shall pass."

There you have it. That's what's been on my mind recently. I need to redefine my relationship to knitting and writing. Both will be in my life forever, but not in the same way they've been in my life over the past several years. I've been successful at acheiving the goals I'd set for myself, but now I want to go in a different direction.

Wish me luck!

(P.S. I wrote this instead of working on my memoir this morning. Sigh. But I couldn't stop thinking about this to write the other stuff anyway so it's just as well. I'll try to write more on my memoir this afternoon.)

(P.S.2 I got everything on my todo list for the week done today, so I should have extra time for writing the rest of the week.)

Wow, right wing idiots really don't give a crap about people, just about promoting their ideology. I hate just about everything they say, but this really pisses me off:

The latest target for demonizing by right-wing talk radio is an 18-year-old Yup'ik Eskimo woman who traveled to Washington, D.C., this month to tell what global warming is doing to her remote home village of St. Michael, Alaska.

Charlee Lockwood spoke of how moose have moved north, berry patches produce less fruit and the catch is declining at her family's fish camp. "Our culture will die because everyone will have to move someplace and there will be no one to teach them," she told a House panel.

Over about 600 radio stations last week, however, talk-radio king Rush Limbaugh declared that Lockwood's testimony made him "really want to puke. I just want to throw up."

"It's the Democrats exploiting a young child, ladies and gentlemen, for the advancement of a political issue that will grow the size of government and increase their control over everyone," Limbaugh declared.

Link

Rush Limbaugh and the rest of these Republican assholes really make me want to puke. When will this country wake up and realize that these people don't care about anyone but themselves and fattening their own pocketbooks? They claim the moral high ground but they are just about the least moral people I can think of.

Alaska is more at immediate risk from global warming than most other places on the planet. At least one village in the Oomingmak knitting co-op has already been experiencing so much erosion that the entire village will have to be moved at the cost of many millions of dollars. And Native Alaskans are very much in touch with what is going on in their environment. They have to be to survive.

What Limbaugh has said is nothing but a fat white guy letting his racism and stupidity show. Why does our society put up with this? Why did Howard Stern get kicked off the radio for being "obscene" when the right wing talk show hosts say retarted stuff like this every day and this is not considered "obscene"? I really am so sick of how screwed up this country is, I can hardly stand to live here any more. If I had the money to leave, I would be gone already. American is being ruined by false patriots who try to make those of us who really care look like traitors.

I am so sick of golbal warming deniers and people who are so short sighted that all they can think about is how much money they can make. Only idiots deny the truth when the evidence is right in front of their eyes. I'm sorry if any of you think I'm being rude, but the time for being nice is over. It's time to start ridiculing and slamming these idiots and not letting them get one word in edgewise, before they destroy our whole fucking planet.

And, yes. That's what I really think.

I always knew I had espcecially intelligent readers.



Really, I think fourth graders ought to have the reading skills to get through the content on this blog. Sigh.

Oh my, I discovered a free knitting pattern for a FSM hat at the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster!



I shall have to make one. You'll need a basic hat pattern for the base, but the instructions cover how to make the eyes, meatballs, and noodley appendages.

Apparently despair in the second week of NaNoWriMo is quite common, as confirmed by none other than Neil Gaiman in the intro to a pep talk sent out to all participants yesterday. Since I'm not writing a novel, I didn't sign up for the program, so thanks to Deb for forwarding this to me:

By now you're probably ready to give up. You're past that first fine furious rapture when every character and idea is new and entertaining. You're not yet at the momentous downhill slide to the end, when words and images tumble out of your head sometimes faster than you can get them down on paper. You're in the middle, a little past the half-way point. The glamour has faded, the magic has gone, your back hurts from all the typing, your family, friends and random email acquaintances have gone from being encouraging or at least accepting to now complaining that they never see you any more---and that even when they do you're preoccupied and no fun. You don't know why you started your novel, you no longer remember why you imagined that anyone would want to read it, and you're pretty sure that even if you finish it it won't have been worth the time or energy and every time you stop long enough to compare it to the thing that you had in your head when you began---a glittering, brilliant, wonderful novel, in which every word spits fire and burns, a book as good or better than the best book you ever read---it falls so painfully short that you're pretty sure that it would be a mercy simply to delete the whole thing. (emphasis mine)

Yeah, that about sums it up for me. I keep thinking of the other books I want to write in the future and how much fun it would be to get started on one of them and how great they will be. Just like knitting, I really enjoy the starting a new project part. But I can't have 25 unfinished books on my plate, even though having 25 unfinished knitting projects is generally not problematic. So, at 10:00 when Borders opens, I'll be down there for an hour or so of writing this morning and I'll try to write more later today as well, because the goal is to get as close to 30,000 words completed by the end of the weekend. I have about 23,000 (I have a lot more than that written for the book, but I have that much new material written since the beginning of November.) I would like to have a total of 300 pages of raw material done by the end of the month. Then I have to do something else in December (finish a knitting book), so I'll let the material all sit for a while and next year I will attempt to take all of the raw ingredients and bake a book. I have some ideas about what it will be like, maybe even a recipe for writing it, but the dough probably needs to rise a bit before it gets tossed into the oven. I just have to remember that the baking is the shortest part of the breadmaking process. Especially for good breads that rise twice.

I've been knitting a lot lately. I haven't been taking pictures of my projects and I haven't been designing anything. I'm making stuff from patterns, which is totally fun and relaxing after working on my own designs for publication for the past few years. So there's not much to tell. If you're on Ravelry, you can look at my projects. I haven't got them all online yet, but I have a bunch. I don't really feel like it right now, but I guess I should get the rest uploaded and also update the information about some of my patterns that are on the site. You know, it's the weekend. I want to just fart around, go see Beowulf, read a book, and waste the rest of the time. I really enjoy just sitting on the couch and staring into space. And you can do that and the laundry at the same time.

But I feel remiss for not having much knitting content lately. First, let me pimp my books for a few moments. I've added links so you can buy signed copies of Arctic Lace and Ethnic Knitting Discovery on my website. I'll be doing the same with Kitty Knits when it comes out in January.

I've also started a gallery for posting pictures of projects made from Ethnic Knitting Discovery and the first project is up now. I hope to be adding a few more this week. If you make something from the book and would like to share photos with other readers, please email me!

I'm also still working on Safe Sex and Dangerous Knitting, the first issue of a new 'zine I'm publishing that will be called Subversive Knitting, and I've renamed my charity knitting site to match. This year I've been much too busy to keep up with monthly, or even bi-monthly, posting of charity knitting patterns. I feel guilty about letting it lapse so much, but it's stupid guilt because I've really and truly been too busy to do anything more. Next year, I hope to get back on track with that site, and to expand the focus to include more subversive projects, not just all charity projects. There are plenty of free charity knitting patterns on the internet, there's not enough subversiveknits, in my opinion. And my goal is to have one themed issue of the 'zine come out each winter. The current one was delayed because a couple of contributors dropped out at the last minute, but my new replacement projects are almost finished, and I hope to be getting it all finished very soon.

Mainly I've been working on my memoir about walking away from Christianity, and it's taking a lot of time and energy. I've written about 80 pages so far this month, which is great, but it's all in bits and pieces. It's a long-term project, and although I'd like to finish it quickly, it just isn't going to cooperate. I also have a lot of reading to do before I can move much further along on it. I have to reread the Bible, probably the King James version, I need to reread a pile of books and magazines that I read at past turning points in my life, and I need to go back through all of my journals from the 1990s, a key period of change for me. When all of that's done, I might be able to take all the material I've drafted so far and put it together into some coherent whole.

To be honest, I'm not feeling very good about the whole thing today. (Yesterday I felt great about it, so nothing to worry about too much.) It's just that I was reading some bits from The Elusive Embrace, a memoir by Daniel Mendelsohn, my newest favorite writer. This book is so beautifully written, so elegant, so personally revealing, and so brave that it just breaks my heart. Although the author and I have a few things in common (we were born around the same time, lived on Long Island, had Jewish grandparents), we mostly are very different (man/woman, gay/straight, academic/hs dropout, neat/slob, book critic/knitting editor, love NY and the South/hate NY and the South, I could go on and on). Still, when I read his book, I felt like I was reading about myself. What a fantastic accomplishment for a writer! I want my book to be like this in so many ways, and am pretty much convinced that I'll never be able to attain my vision for this project. And that makes me sad. So I'll keep writing and doing my best and hope it comes out even half as good as I'd like it to.

Maybe I'll try to knit a few more inches on one of my unfinished projects today or go buy some dark chocolate and binge.

Well, perhaps you don't know it, but my two encompassing passions or obsessions lately are knitting and atheism. Mostly I write about knitting on this blog, with a few diversions into politics or other things that are on my mind. Today I'd like to talk about my other passion, with a slight diversion into fiber arts. It's not often that I find a topic that bridges both passions!

You may well ask, "How can you be passionaite about atheism, since that's just the absence of belief? Isn't atheism just a lack of passion?" A few years ago, I would have agreed with that sentiment. But then came 9/11, which in turn illuminated and increased the political power of religious fundamentalists in the United States. And I, in my unbelief, was no longer able to ignore the beliefs of others, beliefs that I once shared. And then came a slew of best-selling books on Atheism including The End of Faith by Sam Harris and The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. When I read the first, I couldn't believe that a book author actually understood what I had experienced in my own life as a fundamentalist. I was thrilled that this book might help others to understand the dangers of fundamentalism in the world -- and in the US.

When I read Dawkins's book, I was emboldened to come out more publicly as an atheist and I started thinking about writing my own book about my journey from being a fundamentalist (edited for clarification: I was a born-again Christian) to unbelief, because I thought (and still think) that the ex-insider's perspective is missing from the dialog about atheism. Almost all of the books that have come out have been written by people who were always atheists or who nominally belonged to a religion as a child, but none (except perhaps Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi) are written by people who had once been fervent followers of God.

For the past couple of years, I've been working on my book. I can't keep on it for very long stretches, because I start having nightmares about my past, which is much worse in my dreams than it was in real life. But the dreams show to me that my unconscious mind is still processing all of the information, and that I need to step back from the writing for a while to let the next step happen internally.

Well, I've said all that to say this. If your'e an unbeliever like me and you have a chunk of spare change to blow, here's something fun to help you celebrate Christmas -- a holiday that I still love, even though I don't believe that either Santa or God is real. This Flying Spaghetti Monster felted tree topper from NifNaks is a great way to throw your holiday celebrations off kilter and show a litte spunk. If you can't afford this tree topper, they also have a tree ornament and a lapel pin for sale (they have lots of other cool and geeky felted stuff, too).

If you're not familiar with the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM), you owe it to yourself to read up on this new diety, who many believe is the real Intelligent Designer.

May this Flying Spaghetti Monster reach down from above, and touch all your holiday guests with His noodley appendage.

Cross posted, with minor variations, at skepchick.org.

What's wrong with this picture, comparing how much America is spending on the Iraq war verus alternative energy development?



Oh yeah, and if you made it this far, can someone remind me why the US is allies with Saudi Arabia?

A court in the ultra-conservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia is punishing a female victim of gang rape with 200 lashes and six months in jail, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

The 19-year-old woman -- whose six armed attackers have been sentenced to jail terms -- was initially ordered to undergo 90 lashes for "being in the car of an unrelated male at the time of the rape," the Arab News reported.

Link

I really want to have a weekend off. But I just keep myself too busy. Here's what I've been working on this weekend while Dom has been raking leaves.

Blocking swatches for the second Ethnic Knitting book (due out next fall).



Trying to finish the Fan Shawl that I started last weekend. Yes, I've been knitting a lot this week and I should be able to bind this off today.



Proof reading an article on Lithuanian Knitting for the Dec/Jan issue of Piecework.

Setting up the Ethnic Knitting Discovery Gallery on my website. I hope to get some designs added today.

I also need to clean out my clothes closet and find (ack) my favorite stole/scarf (scroll down to "Wrap Yourself in Lace") that I have misplaced or lost. I checked the lost and found at Borders and it's not there. I remember wearing it to go shopping last weekend, and I think I threw it in the back of the car when it got hot. My mother thinks she saw me wearing it to walk one morning after that, so maybe it's just buried in my house and I'll find it when I clean. But I doubt it. When I was 7 or 8, a friend from the neigborhood came over after school I couldn't find some toy or game we wanted to play with. "Don't worry," she said, "you'll probably find it when you clean your room." I couldn't bring myself to tell her that I had already cleaned my room. That's as good as it got. And I fear my house suffers from the same flaw of being lived in. When two people are in a place all the time, it gets messy. That's the drawback of working at home and having a husband who gets home from work at noon. Good thing I have no kids, or I wouldn't be able to find the floor. At least I can remake the stole if it's truly lost. I'd already bought the same yarn in different colors to make a second one.

I recently received a copy of Yarn Therapy: An Introduction to Knitting by Leanne Dyck. Leanne and I are e-friends--we talk off and on in email although we've never met in person. Yarn Therapy is Leanne's brand new learn-to-knit booklet. I got my copy hot off the presses and I'd like to share my impressions.

Right off, I love the title of this book. Yarn is therapy for so many of us! The personal knitting advice in the beginning of this book is fantastic for the beginner and any knitter who likes to maintain a beginner's mind (something I always strive for in my writing, but often forget in my knitting). The advice covers topics such as choosing the right needles, the necessesity of making a gauge swatch, selecting yarns, and reading yarn labels. Leanne's unique advice includes tips for rural knitters to find good yarn sources, and why you shouldn't be a yarn snob. Some of her advice reminds me of my grandmother's knitting philosophy, which makes me feel good about this book.

The knitting basics tutorials include clear, step-by-step photos. Although I don't think I would recommend this book for someone who has never knit a single stitch before -- only a few photos show the knitter's hands -- it's definitely got enough detail to work as a reminder for anyone who has made a swatch or a small project in the past or for new knitters who have friends to turn to for a little extra help. The how-to section includes everything you'll need to know to make each of the projects, including finishing. I especially like Leanne's version of the mattress stitch seam, which is different than the version I use, and probably easier.

The projects in this book are wonderful. Less boring than a garter stitch scarf, but still easy enough for beginning knitters, they also make fantastic charity knitting projects. Again, total beginners may need a little help figuring out some of the details, especially envisioning how to sew things together.

Here's my favorite, a unique type of scarf/shrug that Leanne calls a Pulse Stole:



Other projects (all knit flat) include socks, several interesting scarves, fingerless gloves, a hood, and three hats. Right now the book is availble printed with a coil binding for $15US+shipping, but Leanne's website says an ebook version is coming soon. This is a great gift for a new knitter that you're mentoring or a friend who likes to knit for charity.

I know I've been slacking off on posting since the blog book tour ended, but I needed a break. I have a book to review this weekend, some knitting photos to post, and several other things to write about. But for the moment, I'd like to post this video of Larry Lessig's talk from TED.

About the talk:

Larry Lessig gets TEDsters to their feet, whooping and whistling, following this elegant presentation of "three stories and an argument." The Net's most adored lawyer brings together John Philip Sousa, celestial copyrights, and the "ASCAP cartel" to build a case for creative freedom. He pins down the key shortcomings of our dusty, pre-digital intellectual property laws, and reveals how bad laws beget bad code. Then, in an homage to cutting-edge artistry, he throws in some of the most hilarious remixes you've ever seen.

About Larry Lessig:

Stanford professor Larry Lessig is one of our foremost authorities on copyright issues. In a time when “content” is not confined to a film canister, Lessig has a vision for reconciling creative freedom with marketplace competition.

You may be asking yourself (or me), "What does this have to do with knitting?"

Good question. I read several professional knitting designer forums, and copyright issues are discussed there frequently. Vogue Knitting also frequently has articles about copyright. (The other magazines may as well, but I have only noticed this topic in Vogue.) There are knitting designers who think they can copyright or patent knitting stitches. Others think they can own a knitting technique. There are designers who think no other designers should use stitches they've made up in new designs. There are newbie designers who are worried that if they use a pattern from a stitch library in a design they want to submit to a magazine that they are breaking the law. The discussions somehow make them think that every single element of their designs must be unique or they are stealing from another designer. (I don't know about you, but I've never invented a new kind of buttonhole myself, and I don't plan to.)

All of these things really irritate me and are directly related to Larry Lessig's talk. If you're interested in copyright and creativity at all, please listen to the talk and do some additional research into Lessig's work, especially at Creative Commons, and think about how these ideas apply to knitting and fiber arts. And please seriously think about which side of the fence you want to be on: The side that controls and stifles creativity or the side that values freedom of expression.

Good morning. For your listening pleasure, here's a link to a review of Ethnic Knitting Discovery on the Knit Picks podcast.

The book is also available for purchase on Knit Picks, at their usual discounted price.

Hi Everyone! I'm starting a knitalong for my newest book, Ethnic Knitting Discovery: The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and The Andes.

It's actually a design-a-long because we'll all be designing our own sweaters. In the book, instead of having specific patterns, I have created "recipes" for sweaters, so you choose your own yarn and colors, your own gauge, and you design to your own size. The knitalong will go step by step through the process, beginning with choosing materials and swatching, to selecting and arranging pattern stitches, to sizing, knitting, and finishing. We'll also discuss special techniques that are used for knitting circular sweaters.

We'll be voting on what style of sweater to work on soon, so we have time to order the book and so we can also ask for materials for holiday gifts. The knitting will start in January, after we all recover from the holidays.

You can learn more about the book and see what the sweaters look like here:
http://www.ethnicknitting.com

You can sign up for the knitalong here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ethnicknits/

Would anyone be interested in joining a Ravelry companion group to the knitalong as well?

Donna Druchunas