It's response-to-comments-and-e-mails-time!

(Mainly because I was NOT HOME AT ALL yesterday and so have no knitting to report other than a tiny bit of work on the Dulaan sock that I did while reading journal articles).

Charlotte: thanks for the ideas. I think I will put strap-carriers in the sweater just in case I ever wear it as is. I have some narrow satin ribbon that should work for that. I've done the same thing in some of my more open-necked dresses.

As for crocheting a chain on the inside to tighten it up - also a good idea. But I'm actually thinking of seeing if I can fit a wide elastic between two of the "sewn down" stitches and treat the neckband as sort of a casing - and have elastic in it to tighten it up just a bit. (I won't turn it into one of those ruffle-topped Daisy Duke things; the elastic will just be pulled tight enough to secure the collar).

Grace: thank you so very much. I used to belong to the Knitlist - I started reading about '97 or so - but after the last time I went "no mail" I kind of never went back - I don't have the time to scroll through those long digests anymore and honestly, I'd rather read people's blogs or Knitter's Review.

Devorah: yeah, I know, VBS is supposed to be "hip" but to me it's just underwear showing. (I know - it's also hip for some of the girls to have thongs peeking over their lowcut jeans). And I do a flagella impression - I stick one arm up over my head and rotate it. I haven't yet figured out a good way to do amoeba, though...maybe using a big trash bag full of something oozy? Except then I'd have to find somewhere to store it.

and dragon knitter: the French heel is a type of round heel. It starts with a small number of stitches and fans out to be wider. Unlike a Dutch or German heel where you're working over the same number of stitches the whole time and the result is more square. There's a thing out there called Heels by Number that gives the basic methods for several different heel turns. I've tried them all and the French heel and the half-handkerchief (or v) heel are my favorites because I have narrow heels.

*****
I'm having committee-tsuris. I used to be the chair of a campus committee, then I cycled off. But I cycled off before they chose a new chair (mainly because NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE showed up to the meeting where we were to choose a chair). So I'm trying to push them to pick their new chair. And I'm getting all these emails begging off, telling me why this person or that person can't possibly do it. And maybe I'm wrong here, but the overwhelming feeling I get is "We want you to ask permission to be chair again, so we don't have to!" No. I am not going down that road. I'm teaching an overload this fall, I'm chair of another committee, I have several research projects in the pipeline that I need to work on, I have Youth Group, I have the presidency of the local AAUW chapter...my plate is overfull already. And I TOLD them last fall I was not doing it any more because the stress of this particular committee was beginning to affect my health. And that's where I draw the line: when my blood pressure goes up and my insomnia gets worse and I begin having tummy trouble, it's time to find another responsible party to take things on. But it's like no one believed me.

("I told you I'd quit! But you didn't believe me! WHY didn't you believe me!" Heh. Obscure Ren and Stimpy allusion.)

But it just irks me that I'm having to do this. It's like the old Little Red Hen story...when there's work to be done, excuses get made all over the place, but when there's something good, people will flock to take advantage of it.

And to reference another old children's story: responsible people are the golden geese of today. And people know that, but they don't know the story: that the farmer KILLED the golden goose to get even more golden eggs (instead of just letting it be) and wound up getting no golden eggs at all. Sometimes I feel a little bit like the golden goose - that if I let people, they'd exploit me until I had nothing left to give.

I seriously think taking this on would...well, it would be melodramatic to say it would KILL me, but it would make me very very very unhappy and it would cause me to have to give less than 100% in some other area of my life, and I'm unwilling to do that. There is a limit to the things I can do and do well. And I'd rather do fewer things and do them all well than try to juggle too many balls and drop a few every round.


*****

I've said before I really truly don't believe in astrology, and there are many reasons for that. But sometimes the stuff you read is kind of spooky. Like Crazy Aunt Purl's October hor-o-scope:

"PISCES (Feb. 19 - March 20)
I know a cute Pisces guy who is so darn adorable you want to just hug him until he needs chiropractic help to disentangle. Problem is, he's a Pisces, so it's real real hard to get close enough to hug, and if hugging were to occur he'd break away before medical intervention were necessary. Not that ya'll aren't warm and affectionate. It's just that once you've been hurt -- and come on, by now if your old enough to be sitting upright and reading words in a sentence, you have been hurt -- you're about as excited to let someone else into your heart as you are to jump headfirst into an empty swimming pool. Unlike us Cancers who just keep volunteering for more heartache and sorrow on our World Quest For Love and Attention, you Pisces folks want the same thing but are most reluctant volunteers. Explain to me how you're going to get the Recommended Daily Allowance Of Lovin' if you're too scared to re-enlist for hugging?"

Yes, that's true of me. And not just in the Realm 'o' Love. The phrase "once bitten, twice shy" could have been written for me. Opening up - for ANYTHING - is just not something I do well.