A Purl in the Ocean, sans Oyster
Last night it began to rain around 6:30, and by 10:00 p.m. the street and water mains were overflowing with water. Next. my backyard began to fill , and before long, three feet of water had collected outside the doors and windows and then, yes, it came pouring in everywhere - into my office/craft studio/basement. What a mess. We spent the night bailing water, and today, throwing away all the floating flotsum, moving my office and saving yarn. Then came the phone calls to the City, the insurance company, the guys who said they waterproofed the basement - and the clean up crews. It looks like the carpet has to be ripped out, walls repaired, and who else knows what.
Not sure how much blogging I'll be doing this week. But I'll try to come up for air long enough to say hello.
A few days ago, newspapers in South Africa announced that a bookkeeper named Alta Tucker had broken the national record as the fastest knitter by knitting 178 stitches in 3 minutes. The previous record was 162 stitches. That's pretty damn fast. But Alta probably won't need to be jetting to the UK in October for the World Competition, because (get this) the world record is 255 stitches in 3 minutes.
How loopy is that???
)
As the summer winds down, knitters will turn their thoughts to attending the Fall Sheep and Wool festivals. Yes, from California to Vermont and everywhere in between, we fanatics will flock to familiar fairgrounds to get our fill of fiber. I went to the New York Sheep and Wool Festival last year and came home with a carload of stuff (including a border collie - but that's another story) There's nothing like that shot of adrenaline that hits you as you leave your house at 6 a.m. Your heart begins to pound as you aproach the parking area. And then, like crazed hunters, its off to capture The Big Game. Moving from one vendor's stall to the next, secretly hoping that we will come upon some one-of-a-kind handspun long before anyone else. And when all is said and done, we make it home: tired, broke and sporting a new loom, a dog. or something else that will need to be returned to its breeder. But that's another story.
I hate "shoulds". I frequently "should" on myself, as in "I should finish that project before starting another." 'I should wind all the skeins - not just one." The fact is, there aren't that many things that we should should ourselves about. I should eat better. I should call my mom. But I have a basic knitting query to put out here, mindful that there aren't any hard and fast knitting-shoulds. Here's the question:
If I found myself on a plane with snakes, I guess I wouldn't be too happy especially since I have been stripped of all my cosmetics and moisturizer, and probably feeling a little scaley myself. But the snakes that are a problem for me are all those little ones that pop out of my finished work as ends that I thought I had so nicely woven in. I usually weave in about 1 or 2 inches, in and out and through the finished work, even splitting the ends of yarn and weaving in smaller ends. But no matter what I do, the ends just end up rearing their ugly little heads. Any suggestions?
After this weekend of indulging, I plan to stick with only cakes that come from my knittin' sticks.
My Knit Picks 
