having a great life in spite of everything

The Easy Leaves Scarf is an small bit of lace, a good choice for a beginner’s first lace project. I gotta say, though, that I was underwhelmed by the yarn, Classic Elite Premiere. It’s a cotton/tencel blend, and while it’s a pretty color and very soft, it’s unbelievably fuzzy and sheddy. I foolishly wore it with a black shirt and got peachy-pink fuzz all over me. I looked around online and found a few comments about how linty it is. I don’t intend to buy this stuff again, so be warned and don’t take the fact that I used it here as an endorsement. Yeah yeah, I should have knit the pattern again in something good, shoulda, but didnta.

Anyway—the pattern itself is good for a quick gift or first lace project. The lace leaf stitch has a wavy edge to it, you can block it out in points so it looks a little like it has a lace edging on it without the effort of actually knitting a lace edging.

Didn’t I say at the end of my previous post that I’m in no hurry to finish the landscaping? Well I lied, I want the whole freaking project done, I’m sick of the bare-dirt look around there. The hard part now is figuring out exactly what to do, though. I did fix some of the edging to keep dirt from washing down the slope into the pond, like it did when it rained this past week (doh!). We need some kind of casual seating in there somewhere, but I don’t want too much hardscape, I want to jungle it up with a variety of plant heights, maybe a boulder or two, and all this has to fit in the teensy available space. So I want a lot, and I want it NOW.

You know what, I think I’m going to run to Lowe’s and just buy a bag or two of mulch to cover up the bare dirt, maybe then it’ll cease to look so construction-zoney that I can deal with it taking a while to finish out completely. I think that’ll help quite a bit, I just hate that crappy bare dirt and it’s really interfering with enjoying the parts that are finished.

I have kind of a love/hate thing with shrugs. They’re small and generally fast and easy to knit, minimal shaping, should be everything I like in a knitting pattern. The fit though, well it’s hardly worth the ease and speed if I’m never going to wear it. They so often have that odd bracket, framing effect, where they draw just a little too much emphasis to the boobular area—hey, everybody, look at my boobs! Which is probably why I often think of them as a juniors-type of clothing item.

But that’s not fair, I like the concept of a cute, little bit of sweater. Not so much that it’s like a true cardigan with buttons and all, but with at least some hint of a front on it. So I call this the Cardi Shrug, it’s not really a cardigan, but not only sleeves like many shrugs. And I couldn’t really think of anything better or more accurate to call it.

I only wrote one size, because I’m being lazy, wanted to get it posted, and it’s really not that tough to resize. If you just wear it open as a shrug, I think it’ll fit a surprisingly wide range of sizes. My bust size is about 36, and it works fine for that, anyone smaller could wear it easily, and sizing it up a bit would be easy. But hey, if you want more sizes, say so and tell me what you need. I could expand the pattern if anyone wants, honestly I wasn’t sure what other sizes I should try for.

I’m working on e-book formatting, specifically ePub. Do you think you would ever use knitting pattern e-books? I don’t know how many knitters/crocheters might own e-readers, or ever use them for knitting. It could be quite handy for traveling, you could have books plus knitting patterns all loaded in to one device. I suppose I could even include extra reference info in a knitting e-book, like working kitchener stitch.

I’d be very interested in hearing opinions—positive or negative—about whether you own an e-reader or expect to own one in the relatively near future, and if you think you would ever use it for knitting patterns. Anyone?

Scarborough Renaissance Festival—the one in Waxahachie—begins April 10 and runs through the end of May. The larger Texas Ren Fest outside of Houston is probably better known, but Scarborough definitely has a charm the big one can’t match. A few years ago, Texas Ren Fest cut a large number of acts, and before that they eliminated the lane entertainments (small performances that seem to appear spontaneously in the streets). They still have the chain mail show (never to be missed!) and they have a grander, more polished overall feel. They even have one pub with air-conditioning. It’s almost Disney-esque in its renaissancery. The smaller fair, while lacking the large infrastructure, has a more personable feel, more like what the Texas fair used to be like.

One of my favorite all-time moments happened at Scarborough, when we just happened to be in an outdoor pub and caught Sholo the Nubian reciting an epic poem.

awesome in his scariness

You can see Sholo at the Texas Ren Fest, too, but I’ve never seen him reciting there.

Both fairs are about the same drive distance from Austin, and they cost roughly the same. There’s several of the same acts and vendors, and of course they both have a large selection of various meats-on-a-stick and other trashy food. They have plenty in common (they are both renaissance fairs, after all), but their personalities are a little different. Which is a good thing, really.