D'oh - Forgot to tell you all my journal linky internet blah blah has changed slightly, so you may need to update your subscriptions. OR! Now would be a perfect time to subscribe if you haven't already =D

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Ok, I secretly love the "Look what I bought! " posts because it's total voyeurism. I can see YOUR FLOOR and YOUR YARN. It's like I'm right there looking through your windows! At the floor!

Um, anyway, stalker much? Me?

I bought two new knitting books this weekend. Much like the rest of the blogosphere.

Hanna

Stolen picture from Amazon

Tul

Also stolen. The picture, that is.

I had low expectations of the Mason Dixon book. I won't lie. I mean, it's a book built out of a blog and the blog is not even in my top ten. Well, let me tell you, I LOVE this book! I cannot wait to use their patterns for dishcloths. I'm serious, don't laugh at me, I'm this stoked about DISH. CLOTHS. Oh, and their log cabin knitting instructions. I want a log cabin afghan! Finally, a mod looking afghan! Vive log cabin! >insert epileptic fit of excitement<

I haven't read the Yarn Harlot book yet. I am sure it will be good.

The baby blanket? Maybe about 5 more inches to go before I wash and block it. Then it will be time for pictures. Oh yes. There will be pictures.

Recently I was given a copy of Good Housekeeping's, "Complete Book of Needlecraft." It has all sorts of thread related information in it, plus a large chunk of knitting. It was printed in 1959.

On knitting (er, towards the end, do try to remember it was the 50's):

“Knitting was at one time considered to be a manly accomplishment. Although women now regard the craft as almost exclusively their own, they are relative newcomers to it. During the Middle Ages in England in the years of the "Crafts and Guilds” a man worked six years to become a master-knitter. He served an apprenticeship under a qualified master, went abroad to learn foreign techniques, and returned to “sit” for an extremely difficult examination.

“The machine age and the Industrial Revolution changed all of that and knitting was left to the women. In early America , women knit to provide warm clothing for the family and Knitting became a necessary occupation. Every stocking had to be knit at home by hand and even the children were obliged to help out. They often knew how to knit before they could read and carried their work to school and knit during recess periods.

“Knitting is a simple technique, done for the most part on two needles, but it can fashion things of delicate beauty or of sturdy warmth and practicality for children and adults. Every girl should learn to knit because at some time in her life she is almost sure to find this skill to be useful either from a practical point of view or as an outlet for her creative energy."

So there you have it, friends, the lecture you can give to the next smirking, condescending man or woman who fails to appreciate your knitting.  

Also, this book has given me my future tattoo:

And no, it's not Repetitive Stress.

You see, I'm an Amazon junkie. It's fast (I can spend fifty bucks in five minutes), it's "cheap" (as in, "8,750 used and new starting from $0.01!") and I don't have to deal with strange people all up in my personal space. And I LOVE getting mail.

Most of my deliveries, as long as they're smallish, are sent to my office. My rental office has a bad habit of keeping my packages from me for weeks with nary a "hey, you got something here" even though they are TWO FEET AWAY FROM MY UNIT. I mean, would it KILL them to slap a post-it on my door? *clears throat*

Our office mail comes in a shallow drawer that's oddly wedged between the outgoing mail drop. Today I opened the drawer and right on top was a package with my name on it and an bookseller's return address. Oh! Rapture! Without thinking, as my reptile brain took over and need surpassed logic, I thrust my hand into the drawer like a cottonmouth.

SCRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPE. Across the top of the (grungy) metal drawer. The cottonmouth (aka my middle finger) now has a painful, stinging bruise/gash on it =(

But! It's totally worth it, for not only do I have a lovely copy of "Knitting Without Tears" by Elizabeth Zimmermann, the first of my large order of Dollanganger books has arrived!

What's Dollanganger? Well, if you were ever a 13-year old girl, you would know! Dollanganger is the name of the family from "Flowers in the Attic." I loved this trash. Squee! Too bad it's the fourth book, I still have to wait for the others to arrive before I begin my shocking display of brain candy gluttony.

"Eat the cookie, mother!"