You're help is very much appreciated. Very much.

I'll be posting to the twist blog soon with my poffertjes if you're curious.

And if your comment hasn't shown up for the last post I made (THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR WONDERFUL SUGGESTIONS!) it's because I have to approve them and weed out all of the spam. I will do it soon, I hope. and I hope to also make a list of the books in one place. One of these days...

I have a dilemma. My daughter is a girl (obviously). We like to read. She likes books with stories. Most of the books she likes (In the Night Kitchen is a fave) feature boys. When we find a book that has a girl in it, often the girl is sacrificing her own well being in order to please others, or doing some stereotypically fluffy, pink, girly activity rather than doing something fun and adventuresome and smart. Would someone please please please please please give us some good books to read with girls in them? Sometimes I change characters to girls, but it doesn't always work. Help. Tadpole is now 3. Nothing scary please. We have enough problems with nightmares around here.

And if you feel like it say hi.

1. This is what www.twistcollective.com looked like at about 4 am on August 1.

2. I have some knitting and spinning I wanted to show you but I can't find my camera cable so I guess it will just have to wait until I post again in another 3 months. (joking. i hope)

3. And remember the sweater that I said I was really proud of? It's here.

4. We actually got a much needed "cation on cay cod" in August. I had some fun with my camera and here's one of my favorite shots.

5. Found on igoogle today. (sad story. silly typo)

Between visitors, I've managed to find a little bit of spinning time.

This is Spunky Eclectic Mud Season (I think). I'm a member of the fiber club now thanks to a generous friend. It's awesome and because the fiber keeps piling up, I really try to spin at least once in a while. I spun up half of it one Friday night. I should do the same with the other half. I really need some more bobbins but I don't dare spend the money on them for some reason... nor do I necessarily stick to one project until it's done which is why I have cakes of singles sitting around.

Anyway, hello to you all! I miss you. Say hi if you like.

I'm really proud of this one. Can't wait to show it to you.

Ysolda is here too. You know how she's all cute and stuff on her site? She's not really that cute in real life. She's cuter.

And just for kicks, I found a photo of the swatch I knitted and sent to Interweave when I submitted the idea for the jacket. Good thing Pam Allen has an imagination, no? It should have been called the "lumpy jacket". Apparently I had never heard of blocking.

Thank you for your votes!

$5.95

I really enjoyed using this yarn. I know many people are averse to cotton, but this stuff was really enjoyable to knit and I'm in love with the green I used, though my first instinct was to go orange or red. I'm glad I didn't go with my usual colors though and I can't wait to wear it, not that that will be happening any time soon due to the freezing temperatures. Is going on vacation primarily to get some use out of a knitted top insane?

How cute is this - Whenever I teach people to knit, I tell them to keep their first knitting and cherish it and place it on an altar and give it offerings of fruit and candy. Nobody does. A lot of people don't even bring their first knitting home with them. But someone finally listened to me. Check out what Myriam did.

Can't bear to listen - Ready, Set Knit is doing a knitalong with my Bird in Hand Mittens and to kick it off, they interviewed me for the podcast the other day. The interview is still too fresh in my mind so I can't bear to listen to it yet. You can if you like, just don't tell me if I sound like an idiot. Irene (my friend of 10 years) listened and said it was fine. I'm just going to take her word for it for now because I'm always shocked to hear my own voice when it's not inside my head.

What is one supposed to talk about when one can't talk about what one is working on? I'll have to finish that out or my blog is going to go down the tubes.

I did a major cleanup recently in the office. Actually, "office" isn't really the right name for what I've got. It's a sort of alcove and there's a desk, but I don't sit at it since it's got Frog's computer on it. Just about every available inch is crammed with shelves and yarn and books and fiber. most of the remaining floor space is used by my spinning wheel. I most often work sitting on the couch so I suppose that is really my office. The "office" is more a storage unit. ANYWAY! I did a major cleanup and in the process found many swatches. I stuck them all in bag and thought I'd share it with you.

These are just some of the swatches that I did in the last year or so. Many more were lost, frogged or thrown out along the way. It fills a grocery store plastic bag to the brim. That long, green swatch? It's nearly 2 balls of yarn. My daughter now wears it as a scarf. It wasn't meant to be one and is a little wonky, but she found it, exclaimed, "Tadpole's caaahrff!" and it's been that ever since. I knit for her rarely enough, how could I deny her a wonky swatch scarf... though I do find it a little embarassing if people notice I made it. The bananas are just there for scale of course.

You think swatches lie? That's pretty common for me too. You don't like doing it? I actually kind of like it most of the time because I have realized how important it is to the end product and it's the point where everything still seems possible. You whine about doing a teeny tiny swatch? Unless your pile rivals mine, I don't wanna hear about it.