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June 28, 2004
Mermaid Pride!
Busy weekend for us -- Origami USA convention, MoCCA show, and the Mermaid Parade on Coney Island.
Here are a couple of my favorite snaps Francis took (out of around 300):
Those jellyfish were astonishing; just incredibly beautiful, well executed, lovely costumes. A complete pleasure to watch. The slightest effort on the part of the person in the costume caused gentle swaying movement of the jellyfish.
Fabulous day!
Posted by Rose at 08:26 AM | Comments (1)
June 25, 2004
Just call me a happy hooker
(But only call me that once, and let's never mention that joke again, okay?)
It's true -- I've succumbed to the newest, hippest, niftiest, everything-old-is-new-again yarn trend of 2004: Crochet!
After seeing the samples for the new Interweave Press book Hip to Crochet, by Judith Schwartz, I just couldn't help myself. So I have resurrected my oh-so-rusty crochet skillz, and now I have to tell you:
There is mad shit goin' down, yo.
I'm making a baby sweater in Sirdar Denim, in a sort of celery green color that is both lovely and non-gender-specific. The newest thing on the hook is a baby hat in Koigu, and this is the tipping point -- I am totally in love with crocheting with Koigu. The fabric is thicker than knitted Koigu would be, and has a nice heft. The color distribution is different, a little blockier. It's amazing.
Posted by Rose at 11:53 AM | Comments (1)
June 21, 2004
Knitty Gritty
Great news for the public image of knitting: the DIY network is going to begin airing a knitting show, titled Knitty Gritty, and hosted by a member of the Austin Craft Mafia, specifically, Vickie Howell of Ruby Goes Retro.
Despite the near obligatory reminder that "this ain't your grandma's knitting show", I think that the producer actually get the idea, and that this won't be another stupid sop to "hip knitting" (such as R2, Rowan's horrific entry in this field).
I know that there are many forces at work in producing a TV show, so I'll try not to be disappointed if it's not my dream-show. But for now, all signs are positive, and my hopes are high.
Three cheers for cool knitters!
Posted by Rose at 01:49 PM | Comments (1)
June 14, 2004
I love my phonecam
I am a dork. I chose my cellphone because it has a little camera. I feel slightly vindicated, though, because I have not yet gotten bored with it. I love my low-fi toy! Here are some shots I took out of the window as I flew into LaGuardia on Sunday.
I only wish I'd had more room on my phone for pictures -- I think I could have gotten a pretty snazzy shot of the skyline if I hadn't been trying to delete old stuff on the fly to make room. It's okay, though -- I'm super pleased with the shot of the bridges. Coooool!
Posted by Rose at 11:16 PM | Comments (2)
Bloomsday in Brooklyn
Due to a spirited discussion with a friend about James Joyce's dirty letters to Nora, I decided a couple of weeks ago that I should finally read Ulysses.
I have successfully avoided reading Ulysses for at least 12 years; however, now seems to be the moment. Twelve years ago, I had a partner who loved Joyce. Unfortunately, he also had a peculiar characteristic: uninfectious enthusiasm. He was singularly unable to share his interests, and also had a way of making one feel poorly read and inadequate to the task of appreciating (in this case) Joyce. (I say this as someone who went to graduate school in Renaissance Studies at Yale.)
Today, though, I'm 32, not 20. And he's my ex, not my partner. I re-read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man last week, and I loved it. When I read it in college, I liked the most straightforward narrative bits the most, and felt uncomfortable with the more lyrical passages. Upon rereading, I felt almost exactly the opposite -- the wordplay and experimentation and Joyce's obvious lust to describe all were thrilling, and I was a little disappointed when the prose was more, well, prosaic.
That's a fine state of mind for beginning Ulysses, I say! I'm armed with Don Gifford's Ulysses Annotated, and I happen to have just reread Hamlet, and I've got shelves full of Dante, so I think I'm about ready to go. I couldn't have chosen a more auspicious month: this Wednesday is the 100th anniversary of June 16, 1904, the date chronicled in Ulysses. I can barely open a magazine or a web page without reading something more about Joyce, about Dublin, about Jews in Ireland.
Here's another bit of serendipity: I made a new friend at Church of Craft fiber study last week. Her name is Amber, and she lives about eight blocks away from me in Windsor Terrace. How cool is that? Very. But it gets cooler still! She and her husband celebrate Bloomsday every year with a party. However, she's never read Ulysses, and has been thinking that really, she ought to. We're planning to read it together and discuss it as we go along -- and having a reading companion will clearly make this even more fun. I'm so pleased!
I'll post on how I'm doing, and I'd love to hear from any other Joyce fans in my small reading audience. Speak up!
Posted by Rose at 10:54 PM | Comments (2)
Voyage of Discovery
What a wonderful weekend! I traveled to Columbus, OH for the summer yarn trade show, sponsored by TNNA. This show is only to the trade; there are no retail sales allowed there. So just about everyone you meet there is a fiber professional, which turns out to be very stimulating. (I was able to ask several shop owners how they are enjoying themselves, and every single one said she was having a good time, despite the obvious challenges of owning a small business.)
Annie Modesitt and I shared a room and spent the weekend traipsing around the show. I had a much better time with her than I would have had alone. Being on a business trip but having someone to pal around with was great! She has promised to kick my ass until I get Yarnivore open.
I wrote up several advance orders for yarns for the store; the vendors I placed these with will keep them on file until I am ready to have them ship. I have small amounts of some of these yarns coming to me soon, so I'll be able to work on shop samples over the next few weeks.
Posted by Rose at 11:55 AM
June 02, 2004
Big things ahead for Yarnivore
It's going to be quite a month for Yarnivore -- I'll be attending the National Needlework Association trade show 10 days from now, where I'll get to see the just about all the commercial yarns that will be available in the 2004-05 fall/winter knitting season. I found the trade show to be an invigorating experience last year, and I am looking forward to getting a shot in the arm next weekend.
It can no longer be put off: space hunting must begin in earnest. I have a new idea about this: I'm going to walk around the neighborhoods I'm interested in, to look for "For Rent" signs in windows. This should work better now that I have a cell phone. My theory is that many of these spaces for rent never even show up in the rental listings, for various reasons. I'm hoping to snare a sublet. This has the downside that Yarnivore will have to move when the sublet is up, but has the bonus that I don't have to get tied down to a multi-year commercial lease just as I'm getting the business started.
Yay!
Posted by Rose at 01:06 PM | Comments (1)