I meant to post these on Monday but I got distracted by mom's gardening lessons. I'm going to try to make Sunday night/Monday morning my standard update time. Here are the items from today's store update (click to see details):

Lately there have been an unusually high number of aborted sales showing up in my log and I can't figure out why. They put things in their cart and click checkout, but something gets canceled somewhere along the way. I "bought" something from myself just to make sure there were no bugs along that way but everything was fine. Maybe people just don't want to sign up for a Google Checkout account, hopefully it's not that they're having second thoughts about my merchandise. I've been so badly screwed over by Paypal that they're not an option, so there's not much left for me to choose from. Boo!! Google checkout isn't that bad, you guys! I promise!

Not much spinning this week because my back is very uncomfortable in my spinning chair, but I was able to get quite a bit of knitting done from my spot on the couch. I'm slowly but surely making progress on my Cable & Diamond Lace Socks, and I got through the most difficult section (argyle) of our Xmas stockings. The cable socks don't look this shabby in real life, I promise. Because of the black-on-black, I had to lighten the picture to the point that it looks washed out.

I feel guilty about the stockings, because I kinda sorta stole the idea from a book that I did not purchase. ("A good artist borrows; a great artist steals.") I just couldn't bring myself to pay $30 for a book when I could take one look at the project and recreate it on my own, not to mention the fact that the book didn't have any other patterns that I would ever want to knit. I have justified my actions by emphasizing the fact that christmas stockings have existed for many years, and probably hundreds of them looked almost exactly like this one. So I'm not stealing from this one particular author; I'm stealing from a long line of pattern designers who each in turn stole from designers before them. The blame is easier to accept when I get to share it with so many others.

Adam started a new job this week and is no longer working from home. (Boo!) Here are the 5 skeins that have resulted from my first week home alone:

Imagine my surprise and delight when I saw that Opal yarns has come out with a line of Harry Potter sock yarns! Imagine my disappointment and dismay when I realized that they were just regular sock yarns with a Harry Potter label on them. The colorway shown to the left is called "Lupin". Really? I don't see anything particularly Lupiny about it. In fact, it looks like a sunrise, which is the exact opposite of what you'd think of when thinking of a werewolf.

The "Harry" colorway is just some blue stripes, "Tonks" is just some pink stripes, you get the idea. The only one they happened to get right was 'Ron" (orange and brown stripes) but only because it looks like some of the outfits he's worn in the movies. The "Hedwig" colorway is probably the furthest fetched. Despite being pretty, there's not a hint of snowy white to be found. For some reason they chose browns and greys instead.

I know that Hogwarts house colors is kind of an overdone theme at this point, but would it have KILLED Opal to give us a burgundy and gold stripe? Or anything not made up from thin air, like Snitch-gold? Dumbledore's-flamboyantly-cut suit-purple? Snape's-underpants-gray? What a rip off.

(I'll probably end up buying some anyway because I am a sucker.)

Debbie Bliss magazine's premier issue is a highly recommended read, in my opinion. It has a very Martha Stewart Living kind of feel to it. I am a finicky reader and have never subscribed to a knitting magazine before due to the inconsistency of pattern quality from issue to issue, but I might just have to subscribe to this one on faith. Debbie Bliss is a truly great designer and I trust that this great issue will be the first of many, not just a fluke.

In addition to her designs, I have a soft spot in my heart for her yarns. I've been a fan of the Cashmerino line for years, and now it seems no matter what I'm going to knit, Rialto comes to mind as a contender. This magazine will be like a high-class version of whatever that other magazine is that only calls for Lion Brand. Or that other other magazine that only calls for Red Heart. Bleagh.

The selection of patterns in the issue is impressive. Though many of them have been published previously in her books, there are several new designs as well. I've already made it past the heel flap on the black cabled socks (knit in Rialto 4 ply) and I'm happy with them so far despite finding a couple of minor mistakes in the instructions.

Rant Of The Day: I vowed to keep myself up to date with the latest knitting news, so I have tons of knitting blogs dump their content into my RSS reader. Lately I am really surprised at how many blogs previously consisting only of craft-related subject matter have begun adding political content to their posts. I'm just as opinionated about the presidential candidates as the next person, but a blog about knitting hardly seems like the appropriate place to discuss it. Why would you risk alienating your readers like that? Rest assured, this blog will stay on the topic of knitting, though I many occasionally veer to such off-the-wall topics as crochet and spinning.

It's not that I am against political blog rants. For instance, I've enjoyed reading The Little Red Blog of Revolutionary Knitting since seeing some of her machine-knit sweater art in a magazine. But her artwork is political in nature, and therefore the ranting is to be expected. But one other blog in particular (whose name I will withhold to avoid being a meanie) had a post the other day where the writer went back and forth between posting pictures of progress on a scarf and discussing what a whacked-out moron Candidate x is and why Candidate y is so much better. Coincidentally, I agreed with the opinions expressed, but I'm removing the blog from my list on principle.

The store has been updated! Yay! 10 new handspuns, 9 new batts, and lowered prices on lots of older items.

Last week's trip to Dallas was fun; I got to see my old coworkers and customers, though not as many as I would have liked to. But man, I really forgot how long that drive was. My bad back was acting up as usual, and the drive home was quite literally a pain in my backside. With me hobbling around and Adam dealing with the bug he caught from a coworker, this weekend was one big mope-fest.

All I've done today so far is yak on the phone, but while yakking, I managed to re-shoot some of the photos for the store. Now that I am a little more familiar with my camera, I was able to make all the carded batts have more true-to-life color. Here's a sample of the updates:

We moved this website over to a new server last night, so I'm going to wait until we make sure all the kinks are worked out before I do the store update. Also, I will be out of town this week (Dallas!), so I probably shouldn't send out an email telling everyone to buy all my new stuff, and then not be able to ship it out for 5 days.

I'll be back in Houston next weekend and I'll do the mailing list email and store update as soon as I get home. Until then, I better go dig up all my unfinished knitting projects because I have an entire week of sitting either at The Woolie Ewe or a hotel with not much else to do.