I'm Ba-a-ack!

Hello again to all my friends and Happy New Year! Christmas and the old year are behind us at last, so now we can move forward, hopefully to a better future filled with many good things. I’ve been quite busy these last few months, though not with writing—as you are aware, since I’ve scarcely written anything on my blog for ages. No, I’ve been knitting or crocheting baby blankets for several co-workers’ new arrivals, not to mention Christmas presents I made for friends. Whew! Now I can finally turn my attention to something else.

It feels good to be writing again. There were a number of times I almost sat down and blogged, but then something would interrupt, or I just didn’t have the time, or the time was past regarding what I wanted to write. Well, no more!

For example, I was in my kitchen cleaning the other day and discovered something fantastic. I felt so smug; I wanted to share my discovery with you. You know that nasty layer of grease and dust that settles over everything in the kitchen? I found out how to get rid of it! Honestly, I’ve bought all kinds of super-duper grease-and-dirt-fighting products through the years, but most household cleaners just smeared it around—that is, if they touched it at all. Plain old soap and water, which is good for most cleaning, won’t cut it, but the amazing wonder cleaner I discovered right in my bathroom medicine cabinet will: Rubbing Alcohol. Imagine that! No kidding! It’s fabulous!

I had thought of writing a blog on Holiday movies in the same vein as my Halloween movie review, but I got involved watching them, and before I knew it, the Holiday season was marching along rather fast. I had loads of other things I needed to get done, so the blog on Holiday movies will have to wait until NEXT season. In the meantime I shall continue my research.

It went like that with a number of ideas. Believe me, nobody cares about Halloween movies on November 1st, unless they’re dyed-in-the-wool horror movie fans. I came up with a few new recipes, which I may share eventually, but I need to get them properly written down first. There were some Thanksgiving reflections among other things, and even a few thoughts regarding the professional sports scene up here. What I wrote has been saved for future reference.

The real killer where my writing is concerned, however, is that this year I became a serious knitter. I’m not joking! Most people’s stereotype of a knitter is some little granny sitting in her rocking chair by the fireplace knitting socks. Man, that is so yesterday! Today’s knitter may still knit socks (it’s all the rage now), but there is so much more going on in the knitting scene. There are shelves of books on knitting and knitting patterns at the library, not to mention more than a dozen magazines that I know of devoted to the subject. Some of them target teenage knitters and several carry high fashion designs, in addition to homier projects such as afghans, shawls, dishrags, or socks. The patterns, stitches, and process are fascinating. I subscribe to six magazines now myself.

Then there’s the yarn. That’s IF you decide to buy it, rather than spin your own (that’s the rage too). You can literally buy any kind of yarn you can dream of, in any color, from any part of the world, at any price you wish to pay. There is that much variety out there; and if you can’t go to the store, then the store can come to you via catalogs or the Internet. All that demand has a huge impact. I’ve been told that the Chinese government is farming so many of the goats that produce cashmere fiber that you can see the denuded pastureland from outer space.

New fibers are “in” too. There’s yarn made from bamboo fiber, even from corn, and some very rare animal fibers (e.g. qiviut from the arctic musk ox) are on stage now. In addition, there’s llama, alpaca, and bison—or if you’re really adventurous (tsk, tsk), you can save fur combed from your pets, send it off, and it will be made into yarn for you. If you’re like me and grew up knitting Red Heart acrylic (there was something else?), the new yarns will knock your socks off. They are wonderfully soft and beautiful, especially the hand-painted ones, but holy moly are they ever expensive. You get ruined though, and it’s so hard to go back to scratchy old acrylic (no matter how cheap) after knitting a lacy scarf in a wonderful teal color from Rowan’s “Kidsilk Haze” and Debbie Bliss’ “Cashmerino!” Once you’ve gone there, there’s no going back.

No, I won’t stop knitting. But I’ve got to write too, so discipline will have to prevail. You know, “moderation in all things.” Besides, I’ve got bundles of yarn I’ve bought for projects pending just waiting for me.