Is it back? Is Blogger un-hosed? (We'll see, if this posts).

Added another repeat of the lace to the border of the Hiawatha shawl last night.

I've also given into startitis a bit - I began the crocheted shawl of the Lion Brand Lion Suede I bought back in January . It's actually kind of a nice yarn, for an all-synthetic - it doesn't feel plasticky, it doesn't squeak, it's like a chenille but it doesn't shed all over the place. It feels more tightly bound than most chenilles. And it does look kind of rustic and suedey from a distance. Or at least the Mocha color I'm using does.

I also finished the red hat for the Dulaan project box. I will try to get a picture of this sometime (it's crazy week here). I'm fairly proud of the hat - used up a skein of "7 Settembre" wool sportweight I had on hand. Used a basic hat pattern but popped in the "Welted Leaf Border" from the first Barbara Walker treasury - I like this stitch pattern and may use it on some socks in the future, at least around the leg-parts. The hat is quite cute.

I also have another one of those multidirectional scarves I've been picking at, out of the Lion sockyarn - the Magic Stripes stuff. The scarf isn't all that pretty to my eyes, but maybe someone on another side of the world ("where the women wear tin bras..." - I think that's a line out of some Judy Blume book, where a girl who thinks she's ugly reflects on the fact that people in other parts of the world might have different standards of beauty) will find it nice. So I've decided to finish it, and if it's not too butt-ugly when it's done, pop it in the box.

I'd really like to give in totally, 100%, to startitis - to haul all the wool I've got put aside for specific projects out, and start ten thousand things and have projects strewn all over my house, and work a few rows on a thing, put it down, and pick something up. To have all my needles filled with projects.

I won't do it, though. Partly because I know I'd never finish anything that way, partly because I don't want ten thousand projects strung all over my (still fairly clean) house, partly because it just seems like a symptom of madness....

Speaking of madness, a couple more pop-cultural knitting things. Apparently knitting is going to feature this season on Desperate Housewives (I've never seen the show, so I guess I can't really comment, but the whole idea of it sort of skeeves me out - I don't like any entertainment that's presented as "here are these people who have these perfect exteriors, and they're totally rotten inside." I'd much rather see (or read) things where you have people who are rough and imperfect and prickly on the outside, but turn out to have hearts of gold - or, at least, to be as good as a human being in an imperfect world can be.). So now (eye roll here) are people going to start asking knitters if they got interested in it because of the tv show.

I'm almost beginning to see the reason some of my friends in college gave up certain bands when they got "too popular." It's annoying to think that people think you are doing something because The Glowing Box In The Living Room told you to....

There's also a NYTimes article today - go to their opinion page. I'm too lazy to link it, it's a lazy sort of article that just rehashes what we all already know: "Knitting isn't for grandmas anymore!" "Twenty somethings knit!" "Knitting is the new punk!" (or should that be 'tha new punk' or 'teh new punk'?)

Feh. There was also an article in the new Vogue Knitting that came yesterday (meh to the patterns, meh, meh, meh. I'm glad I have so many projects ahead because both FCEK and Vogue were just a giant MEH this spring) about how "pink is the new punk" (I'm sorry but - what the hell?) and this woman talking about her son who crochets and how the Younger Generation is "reinventing" life and how they, precious things that they are, don't want the stultifying life of going to work in an office and be grownups and be responsible and plan ahead and all that crap. And it rates a giant huge eye-roll from me, because I've been dealing with some of these self-same people who think they're so special and so wonderful and they've invented a Whole New Way of Being and it's so great it will make flowers bloom in the dead of winter and Prime-grade steaks appear on the grill at the Golden Corral and it will make people have spontaneous moments of sexual bliss as they're walking down the street.

And I'm sorry, I hate to explode anyone's notions, but I really want to shake these folks and go "wake UP. Being an adult is hard work and it is not fun and finding a job that will pay a mortgage and for food and for taxes and for the yarn you buy will not always be hearts and roses, or wine and roses, or even beer and skittles, that a lot of days it's just a long hard slug through life, and dealing with meetings and irritating people and endless paperwork."

And part of it is irritation at the fact that some of the people who Reinvent Life for Themselves are the very same people who seem to be slacking on their responsibilities in a way that directly and unpleasantly affects me.

I guess that's my irritation. That's my eye-roll. It's not so much sour grapes that I'm a Tired Old Grown-Up Hag and they are Beautiful Youth as it is irritation at the fact that some of their flowery notions mean they don't show up to meetings where they're supposed to do stuff, or they expect me to pull their bacon out of the fire when they don't bother to write down what they're supposed to do so they call my office frantically at 2 am the morning that something is due (like I'd be in my office at 2 am) to ask me about it.

Oh yes, I know some of you who have a few years on me will be going "and how is this different from how we talked about YOUR generation when you were 17, Miss Fillyjonk?" And I don't know. I suppose it is no different in some ways. I remember reading Catcher in the Rye and really, really identifying with it, like, thinking Holden Caulfield was, like, some kind of modern philosopher or something. But then again, forgetting to show up to class on exam day was only a nightmare in my life. And when I agreed to do something, I damn well did it. I didn't "forget." I didn't have something more pressing in my life, like a hot guy calling me up for a date, or my girlfriends suggesting I go to a dance party...

Ah, man. I know, I need to stop the vent. Improve the love. Erase the hate. Stop hating the players and start hating the game, or whatever it is the cool kids say now. I think part of the problem is I've spent too much time recently dropping what I was doing - or cancelling "fun" plans I had because "duty" called, and maybe, yeah, there is a little sour grapes there. I wish I could shut up my Inner Wilt (which is what I am now calling my conscience) for long enough to enjoy an evening of just knitting or just reading or just watching tv where I don't say to myself "okay, you could be grading those papers now...hey, why don't you re-read that chapter you're covering tomorrow....you could get a jump on preparing Youth Group stuff...." In other words, I'm tired and kind of frayed and don't WANT to be doing more stuff for other people rather than doing stuff for myself, but I can't stop it now...So I get irritated when other people are off having fun, especially when that "fun" means that I have to do the work they left behind.