Last night, we took the whole family to a Washington Wizards basketball game. It was a lot of fun–Selma enjoyed every second. She loved the game, the “dancers,” Jay liked the mascot and all the clapping and chanting. We’re paying for it today, all tired and out of sorts from a change in our schedule.

I had some crocheting with me, but It didn’t make its way out of the bag in the arena (it did on the metro) because Jay was too bouncy going from lap to lap.

During the game, A Wizard player had the ball, but he realized he was falling out of bounds. Just in time, he threw the ball so it bounced off his opponent’s foot, and then out of bounds. Because it touched a player on the other team, the rules say the ball stayed in possession of the Wizards. I thought this was completely unfair. Unsportsmanlike. The opposing player never reached for the ball or touched the ball–it was thrown at him (something an opponent would never do under other circumstances). But no one sitting near me agreed with me. “Those are the rules,” they said. I was trying to think of any such “rule” in everyday life, but I couldn’t. Imagine, you’re about to have some kind of problem, and instead, you push a problem onto someone else, on purpose, to save yourself the trouble. To me, that seems to break what my mom calls “the golden rule.”

Aside from that–I loved seeing how the two teams interacted. I’ve been mostly to baseball games in the past few years, and there’s often shouting, and sometimes even brawls between teams. But during last night’s game, I saw Wizards helping up Pistons when they fell down, and vice versa, and after the game (The Wizards won), I saw high-fives and even hugs between players of opposing teams–they’re clearly friends off the court which was cool to see.

I went to a new yarn shop yesterday. It’s called A Tangled Skein (no web site yet), and it’s in Hyattsville, MD. right on Rt 1. The shop is big and the people there are very friendly and fun. I’m going back tonight to their “sit and stitch.” The shop is in a great location with no competing stores in the entire county from what I can think of–and it’s a downtown area that’s having a very artsy renaissance, so a yarn shop fits right in.

Crochet Today - March April
Originally uploaded by plainsight.

Drew’s sneaking around the Craft and Hobby Association conference in between his book signings, and look what he found at the Coats and Clark Booth. It’s the March-April issue of Crochet Today, and it’s got the vest I designed on the cover. Yeah, cameraphones!

I’ve finished my tea and toast, and I really should be starting work (have I mentioned I have piles of other peoples’ knits and crochets in my studio waiting to be edited? It’s a little scary–I have them perched on high surfaces to protect them all from things like pets, kids, the odd natural disaster.) But anyway, instead of working, I really needed to tell you about the British knitting magazine Simply Knitting. I’ve been buying it occasionally for a while, but the most recent issue I bought convinced me to subscribe. It’s not just the patterns (the patterns are ok, but the magazine isn’t as beautiful as Vogue Knitting or Interweave Knits), it’s just full of great information… New Yarns I learned about a new French yarn company that folks in the UK are all very excited about–Bergere de France, lots of reader interaction (they give a free gift for every reader letter they receive.) They have crochet patterns as well as knitting ones–the January issue had a cute Crocheted Cardigan and a very chanel-ish purse, and they even have a knitting crossword puzzle! If you’re in Britain, the mag is even more useful because they list local events and things happening at shops and festivals. My favorite parts are the technique articles–a great one in Jan. about substituting yarns, and their stitch library-each month they “profile” two stitches. Oh, and finally–two other tidbits–it’s monthly unlike most other fiber magazines, and you get a little present with each issue. This month it was a needle sizer–can never have too many of those–this one was small enough to fit in my knitting bag’s toolkit.

In other magazine news, the latest issue of Knit It (sorry, they don’t have a web site, but they’re produced by Better Homes and Gardens), has an article by design guru Deborah Newton (author of the still in print after over 20 years, Designing Knitwear), about creating a custom fit. It has instructions for making a graph-paper scale model of your body. I find these things indispensable–I use one every time I make a garment–with my little model and some tracing paper, I can see how a garment is going to fall on the body, how much ease I need, how big an armhole, etc. And since one square of graph paper is like 1 inch, I can even work out my schematic and design. But even if you’re not designing your own sweater it’s very useful for seeing if a garment is going to fit you, and figuring out how to change what you don’t like.

In other “literary” news, I had a long train ride, and read The Friday Night Knitting Club from cover to cover. It was a treat for me just to have the time to sit and read, and I was definitely drawn in by the book–I enjoyed the characters, it was funny and moving–I loved the young girl, Dakota who is so much like the pre-teens I teach knitting to. I did have a hard time imagining it as a movie–I think it might loose a lot of the humor, but we’ll have to see. (Julia Roberts bought the movie rights before the book was even released–but the script has not been written yet, so the film isn’t expected ’till late ‘08).

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Ellen Bloom has recently posted pictures of her take on my Sweet Sweater. I love it–It’s a cardigan, and she played with color and stitch pattern and added a collar and buttons. Fabulous job!

Since I’m woefully behind in writing about TNNA, I’ll point you instead to CRAFT Magazine’s great re-cap of the event–it has links to other good write-ups too. After all that reading, you’ll know pretty much everything I did. To see some pictures, you can click on the photo here-it will take you to my flickr set.

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The Little Projects blog has a nifty tutorial on how to make a hairpin lace loom out of stuff you have around the house. (By the way, this is a great site. She’s also got a crocheted felted clog pattern which I just bought–I’ve been eyeing the cool fiber trends clogs, but being able to crochet them seems like a big advantage to me). (Thanks to Amie for the link)

I’ve been promising myself to spend more time with hairpin lace this year (as well as tunisian and other fascinating crochet subsets). I have many looms, including a beautiful one Jennifer gave me when we shared a room at the Chain Link conference last year. Well, I suppose it won’t happen if I don’t put it on the schedule.

I got some lovely samples in the mail today from Darlene of Hand Jive, she’s the artist behind Nature’s Palette–she dyes all the yarns herself with plant dyes. They’re amazing. She has a fingering weight merino that’ s a favorite for socks, an organic wool and mohair which comes in generous 230 yard skeins (it’s a 2-ply and seems very soft), and a bulky thick and thin merino that feels like you’re touching clouds.

Today I’m crocheting with another favorite yarn, Malabrigo, while I usually knit with it, it seems to be lending itself well to crochet. I’m using a size K hook and a simple v stitch to make a prayer shawl for a friend. I’m headed to the bead store this morning because I was reading on another site a suggestion to add beads to the end, for meditation. I love that idea.

Blue Sky Crochet Swatch
Originally uploaded by plainsight.

With thanks to Robyn for the idea, here’s a look at what I’ve been doing. I adore swatching. Maybe I even like it more than making garments. Am I crazy? Maybe. Swatching is all about potential–with none of the worry (yet) about fit, shaping or other fiddly bits of designing.

This swatch is for a sweater I’m working on for Blue Sky Alpacas. The yarn is lovely, and is so new I don’t even know it’s name. It’s soft, has a beautiful drape and with this stitch (a conglomeration of two I found in Harmony and the Crochet Stitch Bible, it’s quite stretchy.

If you click over to my flickr page, you’ll see I’m swatching for a couple of other projects too. The knit swatch with the ribbing is for a vest I’m working on in Blue Sky sport weight. I’m headed off to write up that pattern now.

Why, mobius shoes, of course!

Thanks, Boing Boing