Well.

Since I (apparently) won't have my paper back to revise yet this weekend, and since I already cleaned my office (that was yesterday's between-meetings task), and since I have the necessary prep done for teaching next week, I think I may start some new project this weekend. (I have to be in town Saturday; I have a meeting at 10 am)

I'm just not sure yet what it's going to be. I think it will be one of these three:

a. Start the Linus Project quilt out of the cutesy-poo dog fabrics. This is going to be a simple cut-then-sew quilt and it's made of a limited palette of fabrics, so I won't have to lay it out to get the "right" arrangement - once the blocks are made, I can just sew them together in the predetermined order. Once it's done, I think I'm going to pay to have it quilted (Yeah, I know. But I like the idea of being able to deliver a finished quilt even if it costs me something, and doing machine quilting myself: meh.). I may even have enough of the fabrics to make two smallish identical or similar quilts.

b. Start the pi shawl that I've put some of the Noro sock yarn aside for. I don't like Noro sock yarn for socks, but it should be OK for a shawl. (Provided they didn't mess up the color sequence with a big knot in the skein like in the previous skein I had)

c. Pull out the Rosy-Fingered Dawn shawl kit that's been sitting in my stash for several years (since 2004, I think - I think that was the year of the trip to see Blackberry Ridge Woolen Mills), wind off the first color, and start the shawl. (The colors are subtle enough that I think I'm only going to wind them off as I need them, so I don't get confused and use the wrong one.

Yes, I know. I had talked about a couple other shawls earlier but seeing the Noro sockyarn and the Rosy-Fingered Dawn kit in my stash the other day made me think of starting them.

I'm actually leaning towards the Rosy-Fingered Dawn - while it's lace, it's not tee-toncy yarn lace, it's the slightly beefier "handspun feeling" Blackberry Ridge yarn. And the kit was a gift from my dad so it would be nice to actually let him know I'm working on it.

Heh. Given the post below, I had to note this:

I now have the perfect thing to say when a discussion gets heated and I don't really want to take part:

"I like pie."

Apparently it's what all the cool kids are saying when they don't want to rise to someone's argument-bait.

(It probably comes from some massively silly movie that I've not seen, and would be horrified to find it as a quote from if I knew. Like one of the "unrated" versions of a Farrelly Brothers movie. But I like the ability of being able to smile and say something cheerfully neutral when people around me are getting all het up.)

But it works so nicely, given the fondness of certain people who have to attend the same meetings as I do to get onto some kind of a hobbyhorse where agreeing with them might paint you as a kook, but disagreeing with them would make you an enemy for life. Or given the way political discourse goes. Or given the fact that there are a few situations I am in where two people must work together (and with me) who vehemently dislike each other.

So "I like pie" may sound a little dim. But on a more philosophical level, you could see it as an affirmation of the Good Things of life, and a recognition that the unpleasantness of Now (whatever that unpleasantness may be) is at worst transitory. Perhaps even it could help one to visualize the Platonic Ideal of pie (which in my mind is always apple. Well, when it's not green-tomato mincemeat) rather than the shadows of the world we actually inhabit.

I just wish I had known the Tao of Pie last week, when I was in a meeting, where two people were arguing pro and con on a policy where I could genuinely see both sides. (And as group secretary, I had to take down all of the discussion).

Michelle at Mimoknits is knitting/has knitted several lovely Pi shawls using the Kureyon (and now, Silk Garden) Noro sock yarns.


I want to make my own.

And it made me think of this "blast from the past" - I think I linked this in the early days of the blog but had forgotten it until just recently. But this is for Michelle, and all the other knitters-of-beautiful-pi-shawls.

want pi(e) now!

"When come back, bring pie!" hahahahahahaha.

(Gentle readers: there is one sort-of rude word in the episode. And the other Weebl and Bob episodes, as I remember, have more rudeness in them. Just a friendly warning.)