Well, the sun was shining (for part of yesterday, anyway) and it started to feel almost like spring!

As well, there was lots of good sunny energy at my office what with what the postman brought.

First, there was my parcel from Sivia Harding with all the goodies I had bought in her yarn auction:

crabapple red linen!

Blue Moon lace merino! And lots of Handmaiden (gasp!) mohair… now discontinued, by the way:

It’s even all wound up! I was so chuffed.

And then, as a surprise, I got a package from a friend in Ottawa containing a pattern, the Estonian Garden shawl by Evelyn Clark:

AND… (drumroll please): not one, but two skeins of Malabrigo laceweight in the Jewel Blue colourway!!!

(Methinks the friend is hinting that I should make her a shawl. Sucker!)

So, that’s my personal news… but what about the rest of the world?

Well, one of this week’s hot news topics is the annual publishing of the list of people known as the Sunshine Club – public servants who get paid $100,000 or more per year in the province.

Last night on the news there was the usual back and forth and jumping up and down in Parliament over this issue. Defending the government: our esteemed Deputy Premier the Honourable George Smitherman. His most recent claim to fame was announcing a plan to wear a diaper in order to see how seniors in care homes live – and you can imagine how this went over.

No idea where the Right Honourable Dalton was for the Sunshine Club debate – maybe he was hanging George out to dry?!

(I know, I know… I couldn’t resist).

Anyway, George of course defended the huge increase in salaries. He had a tough time of it from the Honourable Bob Runciman:

(doesn’t he look happy here!!?! I wonder why…?)

… big-time small-town Tory, who kept shouting how ridiculous it was that the number of people on this list has increased by 110% since 2003 when the Liberals were first elected.

But Bob has a short memory. He certainly wasn’t complaining last year around this time when all the MPPs got together and voted themselves a 28% pay increase.

Hmm… let’s see where they’re at on the Sunshine list:

RUNCIMAN ROBERT Leader, Official Opposition $143,303.03 plus taxable benefit of $260.00

SMITHERMAN GEORGE Minister, Health & Long Term Care $161,039.88 plus taxable benefit of $292.15

Oh – now I see why Bob’s pissed off!

What continues to amaze me about this list (although I don’t know why it should, really) is that well over 50 per cent of people employed with the power utilities are making more than $100,000. Obviously I’m in the wrong gig….

Oh – and by the way, the salaries shot up immediately the government (Mr. Runciman’s party at that time, mind you) allowed power provision companies to privatise in the late 1990s.

Like I said, a short memory. Ah, politics.

Well, I lay awake all night thinking about my latest work-in-progress:

In fact, stewing about it. Why?

Because I don’t know if the lovely Fleece Artist Italian silk is organic or not.

I think I’ve really taken to heart all of the advertising recently in which large multinational corporations are telling us that we should care about the environment and global warming.

These ads (and please tell me they exist outside of Canada – surely we can’t be the only caring country out there!) usually feature cute video footage of little kids playing (and, depending upon the ad, a dog or two) in a large field with the type of green grass that only comes after huge daily watering sessions.

Overshadowing the giggles of the kiddies, however, is a sombre voiceover telling us just what bad shape the environment is in, and what we can do to change all of that. You typically don’t even know what the ad is for until the last moment when a logo flashes up onto the screen.

I got so curious after seeing such an ad that the Hudson Bay Company has been running for the 512th time this week that I had to find out what it is they’re selling (all that the ad refers to is a mysterious programme called “New Renaissance”).

Once at the website I had to search long and hard to find out what I was looking for. A link from the home page called “New Renaissance” looked promising, but clicking it simply led to their online shopping catalogue. All roads lead to shopping, I guess.

(I’m reminded of a conversation I had some 15 years ago when the term “organic” was still in its infancy as a marker for luxury products. We were in a Greek restaurant on the Danforth where, ahead of their time, almost every meat was advertised as “organic”. My father didn’t know what the word meant. After I went on for a few minutes explaining about free range chickens and all that, he paused for thought, and then said “Oh, eet means expensive.“

Indeed.)

I finally found out what I was looking for under the (get this!) “Social Responsibility” tab on their website. “New Renaissance” is the Bay’s codeword for a whole new line of products made from organic cotton and bamboo – mostly luxury linens and towels.

Finding the prices was yet another challenge. Finally I was successful, though – and most of the prices were in the three figures. This is what the website told me about that:

That’s why we can pay our organic cotton farmers a 30% premium above conventional cotton prices. We also commit to buying the cotton before the crop is grown, so farmers have security of income too. Our cotton is produced by a group called Agrocel in Gujarat, India, which works with 20,000 small-scale farmers, using Fair Trade principles to support them in the conversion to organic farming. We think that makes organic cotton all the more worth the extra money.

Well, that’s nice, isn’t it? The farmers get 30 per cent more, the Bay at least 100 per cent more. Does that sound like “Fair Trade” to you?

Now, don’t get me wrong. Protecting the environment is an admirable goal, trust me – as is taking steps to pay farmers better. However, it seems that priorities are still skewed on some level. The Bay, after all, seems to feel that its customers are willing to pay luxury prices for such everyday household items as…

…the humble vacuum cleaner!

(Everyday, that is, unless you live in my apartment. Maybe we just need one of these to solve all of our housework issues!)

Now, just when did they start making vacuum cleaners that look like racecars? And – $500.00?? For that price I’m not buying one unless they throw something like this in to operate it for me as well:

Oh, and on this very same website where they lecture on (and on, and on, if you care to visit enough links – there seem to be more links on the Bay website about how much they care for the environment than there are telling you the prices of what it is they’re actually selling), they carry useful environmental educational toys for the kiddies such as these:

(Would that be the fuel efficient Hummer, do you think?)

Oh, and check this out:
This is a toy intended for children 18 months through five years of age. I like the subtle messaging about learning to keep that car filled up all the time. And, with the price of gas these day it could wind up being a really good educational toy on how to add (although I don’t know that your average 18 month old could actually count that high).

But my favourite part?

Comes with a hose, pretend nozzle, credit card swipe and special cut-out credit card [emphasis added].

I wonder if the cut-out card is a Bay store card? Three guesses, and the first two don’t count.

Anyway, am I the only one out here who sees a bit of a mixed message? However, it is instructive to remember that, notwithstanding all the preaching by the corporations (and the Bay is by no means the only one, just the one I’m picking on today because I find their ad the most obnoxious), they exist for one reason and one reason only. That is, to sell things to dupes like you and me by making us think that we need those things to be better people.

Which brings me back to my original topic, as pretty much the only thing I buy that makes me feel like a better person is… well, you know:

…lovely yarn. Oh, and shiny beads.

(This is my April Showers shawl in progress. Can anyone tell what pattern I modified to make this, pray tell? I know a couple of you out there have knitted the original pattern.)

The Fleece Artist website has no “Social Responsibility” tab, unfortunately. But then again, it is only a small cottage industry.

So I will have to continue losing sleep over the provenance of the silk, I guess. At least the beads are safe… or are they?

Wishing you a wonderful (oxymoron?) Monday.

I know I mused aloud somewhere about not observing PayDay as usual yesterday given that I am awaiting yarn in the mail…

HA!!!

Instead, I decided to check out a new (to me) shop called Americo on the basis that I had been in there once before, and left with nothing.

Well…

Not this time. Ahem. This lovely stuff is laceweight llama!! The colourway is called kyanite. I’ve never had llama before, but it is wonderful soft stuff. Approximately 1400 metres of it is now mine.
And…

Laceweight cotton, which I’ve never seen in such quantity.

The white nearly blinded me – turning it almost into a real colour. I had to snap some up.

I thought that one of these might be perfect to make a stab at the Laminaria in the near future…

What say you?

This is a stunning pattern, in my humble opinion. It looks quite difficult, but hey!

So, that and some drinks at Fynn’s then ribs and wings at a new joint near work was all the excitement I could handle last evening… I then sat and fondled the llama all evening.

And tonight – blackout night! What are you all planning to do for Earth Hour anyway?

I have no idea. We’re meant to go to a dance tonight which was rather poorly planned, I suppose. The original start time was 8:00 p.m. – which is the Earth Hour shutdown time in this next of the woods.

I suppose I could try to knit by candlelight – but given that I already have bifocals at the age of 37, that mightn’t be the wisest plan.

Anyway, however you decide to observe Earth Hour… have a good one!

I vant to be alone!!!

Er… not really (wish I could pull off a Greta Garbo imitation of that, but no chance with my short peasant heritage). But what I do vant is for you to admire my latest project, hot off the needles: the Cumulus scarf!

I’m quite pleased with this one, especially because I designed it myself (sort of). I took the main stitch pattern out of the Barbara Walker Second Treasury and had to do a bunch of math to make it fit into a triangle.

Then I knitted a picot edging…

… with some mauve beads!

I couldn’t think of a proper name for this at first. I had gone with “April Showers” but (a) it’s not April yet (and I’m nothing if not a stickler for accuracy); and (b) the name didn’t quite fit.

I then looked up “cloud” on Wikipedia. A “cumulus cloud”, apparently, usually has a puffy cotton-like appearance, with noticeable vertical development and clearly defined edges.

Well, that seemed to fit. Also, “cumulus” in Latin means “heap or pile”, and that certainly fit when I first finished knitting this:

I was actually quite despairing last night at the state of this. I couldn’t see how it would turn into anything remotely decent looking, and had resigned myself into making into a fancy oversized pincushion or something along those lines. However, luckily for me, it blocked quite well!

Notes:

Pattern: by me, adapted from the Porcupine stitch pattern (Barbara Walker’s Second Treasury of Stitch Patterns)

Finished size: 43″ x 12″

Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Night – 1 skein – 227 yards. This took virtually the whole skein. The “Night” range has little tiny sparkles throughout – you should be able to see them if you click on this picture:

Beads: mauve seed beads from Arton shop here in Toronto – 22 in total (one on each picot point)

Needles: 3.75mm Addi lace

Start Date: 22 March 2008

Finish Date: 25 March 2008

Notes:
– I think possibly I used needles one size too large and the stitch pattern is not as defined as I would like. I would go with 3.25mm or 3.5mm next time. I used the larger needles as I only had the one skein of the Night and wanted to make sure this was a decent size.

– I’ve made this as a wedding present for a co-worker of mine… and I’m not even invited to the wedding!!! How cool am I?! Too cool for school, obviously.

– The shape of the triangle turned out a bit odd for me as well – the stitch pattern was a nine row repetition over 12 stitches, and I think the math to actually make this all work out was a bit too complicated for my dummy brain. But I think overall it looks quite nice, mostly due to the fluffiness of the yarn.

– I enjoyed working with the mohair a lot more than I would have thought. Which is probably a good thing, given that approximately 1600 metres of it is winging its way to me from Vancouver, courtesy of a yarn auction held by Sivia Harding last week:

Discontinued Handmaiden Angel Hair in the Bronze and Burgundy colourways. You knew I couldn’t resist rare Handmaiden, eh? Sigh.

All in all, a success – especially because it only took three days to knit – maybe about 15 hours.

Now I must fly away…

I’ve got parties to attend this weekend as the Leftie Lawyer convention is coming to town. Skipping the convention, but not the parties. This makes me feel very grown-up and …

…happy!

Not to mention the latest Italian silk loveliness progressing apace…

A lovely Friday to you all.

Yesterday started off rather sour for me. First thing in the morning, I saw this photo and started fuming right away:

Little makes me more enervated than seeing photos of politicians making nice with one another for the cameras, in the name of charity. I mean, yes, charity is a wonderful thing but to my view it’s not meant to be used by self-aggrandising w@nkers who just want to look good to the public.

And what’s with the buddy-buddy thing?! These, after all, are the dudes who spend most days hurling abuse trading insults using unparliamentary language with one another and generally carrying on like naughty schoolboys.

(Most of the 100 or so days per year that the Parliament actually bothers to sit. I haven’t yet figured out what they do the rest of the time

Telling bedtime stories to puir wee kitties, apparently. Way to go, Steve-o.)

Anyway, Steve-o Harper, Gilles Duceppe and Jumpin’ Jack Layton flipping burgers? Donnez-moi un break.

I got so agitated by this that I had to engage in some serious midmorning meditation:

And some scheming:

And then the postman arrived… with a care package from Kalamazoo, Michigan!!!

Holly, as usual, outdid herself. Not only did I get the T-shirt I had ordered from her:
I’m now officially a member of the Zombie Prom Date Knitters club!!

Check out the spiky knitting!!! Good zombie fighting tools, no?

Yay!! No more zombies. Is that a promise?!

Not only that, but I’m an actual cardcarrying member… and President of the Toronto chapter!
That Holly sure knows the way to a boygirl’s heart. Check this stuff out:

Salty snacks! (I could have shown you the Funyons as well except that… ahem… I ate them after lunch yesterday).

And the yarn? A sample she sent me of a merino yarn called Dream in Colors (American spelling intentional) “Classy” Superwash Merino. (Ed.: American spelling intentional). Now, apparently people have been raving about this yarn being super soft, etc. And it costs $22 a skein (4oz or 113g). Well, it’s nice enough… but I really didn’t see the big difference between this and other merino yarns. And $22?!

A tad excessive, but then again so are many necessities these days:

SIGH.

Anyway, I could have shown you the Funyons onion snax as well, but they were gone by 3:00 p.m. yesterday.

My good mood continued into the evening, when I finished my blob shawlette…

(It looks rather rough in the photo but the blocking is shaping up. Proper pictures tomorrow!)

…and started a new project:

So, what’s this, then? A semi-design project with Fleece Artist Italian Silk. Now, there’s some ultra soft yarn!!! I think this is going to be a really good one… at least, I hope so. Stay tuned.

Happy Thursday… and don’t let the zombies get you down!

I feel like an Olympian goddess today!!

Why? Because yesterday I got a special delivery at the office:

The Moonshadow Yarn Kit!

The pattern for the gorgeous stole is by Sivia Harding, one of my favourite designers – and she’s Canadian!

Ellen at Earthfaire put together the kit with this absolutely gorgeous yarn:

It’s called “Leili” and is available from Kelly at The Unique Sheep. It’s a superwash merino/mohair blend and oh so soft – and WASHABLE!!! I don’t remember the last time I used washable yarn, aside from my beloved Super 10 Butterfly, of course:

But I digress. The kit also comes with these lovely crystal frosted megatama beads!

And – Ellen was kind enough to provide me with a different colourway than that used in the original kit, which, although lovely, was not quite vivid enough for me. This one is called Velvet Turquoise. The co-workers oohed and aahed over this colour yesterday when I passed it around. I actually had to yank it from one person’s hands … !

And, since one can never have enough beads… Ellen also sent me some more.

I can’t even remember what all I was going to use these for, to be quite honest. Sigh.
I’m sure I’ll sort it out at some point in the near future.

Oh, in other news: because I apparently don’t have enough of a life, I’ve been thinking about starting up another blog. Regular readers will note of late that I have been doing quite a bit of ranting about society’s ills as I view them on this blog. However, I’m not quite sure that the crafty/ranty stuff is a comfortable fit, especially as I become increasingly irritated. So – I may start something a bit different up on 1 April, which I thought a fitting date: April Fools Day and all. Stay tuned…

Now I’m off to party with my yarn work.

Man, I’d love me a couple of those hats… wouldn’t you?!

Sincerely yours,

… might not fare all that well food-wise, I should think, what with all that beef and cheese. However, lace-wise it might be another story…

…because… *drum roll please*…

I have finished the Vegan Tuscany!!!

This was made for my coworker/friend, W. She saw this Tuscany

and decided she wanted one for herself.

It was a bit of a challenge finding the vegan yarn as there was nothing really close to the Silken used in the other Tuscany. However, we perservered and W. found this bamboo which, I think, has worked very well!

I like the little elements of lighter blue and pink in the grey/blue base – it looks almost like little neon lights!

Notes:

Pattern = Tuscany by Amy R. Singer (No Sheep for You)
Needles = 4.0mm Addi Turbo
Yarn = Rosario Bio Bamboo (100% bamboo), 110g approx (2 skeins plus part of a third)

Date Started = 18 March 2008
Date Finished = 22 March 2008
Size = 67″ across by 24″ deep (slightly larger than the first one)

Notes:

– I really liked working with this bamboo. It was very soft. However, please note that if you use this it will result in a slightly weightier shawl than with the Silken.

– pattern mod: I only did 9 of the 11 lace repetitions, partly because I was getting bored and partly because by that point it was as large as my other Tuscany (on which I did 10 reps, I think).

– the pattern is quite simple and (I think) suitable for any level of lace knitting.

I won’t be able to give it to W. until next week as she is on holiday this week, though. Not quite sure why I rushed it, but she will be surprised because I told her it would take a couple or three weeks.

So, still loving the lace knitting… but starting to get in danger of not seeing the forest through the trees!

Well, that’s all she wrote – happy Tuesday and happy Greek Independence Day!

(in honour of this fine day, I’ll link you to some of my pasts posts on the wonderful world of Greek Heritage (those of you who have been reading for some time will likely have seen them already. Sorry. Too busy knitting to come up with any big brainflashes on what it means to be Greek-Canadian. I suspect you won’t lie awake about this, though).

A greek-canadian cultural odyssey

A Modern Antiquity

Valuable Greek Antiquities

Well, it’s official – I am a lace knitting champion and Viking Queen!

Why? Because I have finished the Savannah stole by Nautical Knitter.

The stole pattern was given to me through a mystery knit-a-long… my first, but by no means my last! It was originally known as Secret of the Stole II.

Although I had very severe growing pains initially with the project (I would consider it my first major lace project) and as a result nearly flung it off the balcony in a hissy fit on a couple of evenings, I’m now very glad I stuck it out.

Even though I did all the work for it (with encouragement from my blog friends and the very kind Nautical Knitter, I should add), it’s almost like getting a big huge belated Christmas present!!

Specs:
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace, 125 grams (2.5 skeins) – laceweight merino in Azul Profondo colourway

Needles: 3.25mm

Start Date: 21 January 2008

Finish Date: 18 March 2008

(Amazing to think that it grew so much in that space of time, really!)

Unblocked size: 62″ by 19.5″ d

Finished size: 70″ w by 24″ d

(approximately 11 inches too long for me to model with the traditional wing thing (I don’t know what you call it). This is the closest I could manage:

Notes:

– I already have a ton bunch more Malabrigo in the stock. It drapes wonderfully and is ultra soft!

– The pattern was relatively simple once I managed to figure it out and to learn that I am not invincible and just have to count and use lifelines like all the other mortals!

– DK (Nautical Knitter) was extremely encouraging to myself and others. It was a pleasure to meet her and I would definetely recommend any future KAL with her.

– I added beads in between rows 153 and 412 (I think). I enjoyed doing this but in future would place them with a crochet hook rather than stringing them on.

– as usual, it looks better on Aphrodite than me!

– I had a lot of fun photographing this. Because the sun was shining (for once) on Saturday, I decided to take a little stroll to Casa Loma:

…which some guy, Sir Henry, who decided that he wanted to live in a castle built between 1911 and 1914. A fitting tribute to my SOTSii, I thought.

However, in order to get to Casa Loma I had to walk through Millionaires’ Row a rather high end part of the city which is either referred to as “Lower Forest Hill” or “Upper Annex” in the real estate ads depending on which neighbourhood is more popular that week.

Although these are not gated communities (yet, anyway), the people who live here seem to think that they are entitled to special treatment. For instance, one woman who lived in a house which looks like this:

… came outside and started to give me a piece of her mind for daring to take a photograph of the SOTSii on her sidewalk. This on the public pavement, mind you.

Well. She didn’t realise that she had a pinko who also happens to be a lawyer on her hands. In other words, I have many years of professional training in talking for hours and boring people to death until they agree with my point.

So, I did have a few words with her, something along the lines of “Where there are municipal signs,

…I am free to walk – my taxes pay for this privilege and as a tenant I pay proportionately higher property tax rate, more than double, as it happens – so in fact this means that if I want to bring a lawnchair along, put on some tunes and hang out here all day, I’m free to do so. And, by the way, I’ve been known to sing aloud in Greek and the background music can be quite whiny indeed. Oh, let me advise you that should you have a problem with me, you’re free to call your City Councillor and see how far you get… “

She ended up fleeing the scene. And I ended up getting a rather good picture of the SOTSii taken right on her property!!

Heh heh heh.

I wanted to try the same stunt at this place:

.. but thought they may well have two or three guard dogs who love to feast on red pinko trespassers.

So I headed straight to Casa Loma, where apparently they had been warned that I was on my way:

I must confess I did have a look around for the smoking police (did you know they have more tobacco by-law enforcement officers in this City than residential property inspectors?!). Seeing no one, I did get this photo:

… as well as many of the others above.

As I was leaving Casa Loma, I spotted this huge residential property across the street:

You won’t be surprised to know that it was actually this which caught my attention:
… so of course I just had to take a photo.

So, after a fun filled morning it was time to take the yellow blue brick road

out of Millionaires’ Row (how I do love slumming)

… and back to my very own humble abode.

Happy Monday (and if you have today off as a holiday, I don’t want to hear about it. I’m on my way to work. Grr.

But here’s my newest spooky creation in progress:

heh heh heh.

And… a free on-line mag accepted my Shazam! pattern for publication! The site is called All Free Crafts, and it’s great. The Shazam! is found here! Yippee!

I read this on a website yesterday afternoon and found it very inspirational. I’m sure you will as well.

Easter is all about Jesus rising from the dead and scaring the hell out of his disciples who had moved on after his death to selling Chicklets to tourists. But sometimes I wonder if God was just a real forward-thinker. My guess is He convinced Christians to celebrate “Easter” to lay the groundwork so that hundreds of years later … He could share his second greatest gift with us…

What is it, you ask?…

The Cadbury Creme Egg.

Seriously. I believe everything I read on the Internet. Just ask this guy.

(Although I must confess that I cheated on Cadbury when I was a kid. My favourites were some of the offerings from Laura Secord …

… which even came in a large size! I don’t know what size actually – the website says 300g/12 oz. – but it might as well have been a pound of gold as far as I was concerned!
I mean, a peanut butter chocolate egg – what’s not to like?!

But I digress. Actually, I don’t believe that the true meaning of Easter is chocolate (although lots of chocolate certainly does make the whole effort worthwhile!). Instead, to me, Easter is about colour. And lots of it.

I know, I know… too cute for words. But I couldn’t resist! It reminded me of this Lace Silk I bought recently…

I actually thought it would be called “Easter” because of the colours. But it’s actually called Popsicle. This name makes me shiver even though the first day of spring has passed – I’m still drinking snow cocktails to try to keep warm!

But, as is my wont, I digress. Not colourful enough. Next…

Well, today I had to pop along to the LYS to buy stitch markers:

I must say that I showed remarkable restraint today. I had gone in to buy stitch markers, and left only with this kid mohair:

Um, I guess the http://brouhahaknits.blogspot.com/2008/03/evil-spirits-in-angus-ontario.html”>anti-mohair phase is definitely over now.

Then I went home and blocked my new Tuscany. Thought I’d photograph it upside down for a change:

(I did this partly because I didn’t want you to see that I was idiotic enough to have to use THREE blocking wires on the top because I didn’t bother to check to see if I had longer ones. Of course, I did. Sigh.)

Actually, though, it looks quite different from this perspective. Spookier. I like it. I wonder if I could get W to wear it like that?

I realised when I started to plot my new design project – secret stuff! – that this, too, is an Easter colour.
At least, it is in the Greek Orthodox tradition. The priests wear fancy purple robes in almost exactly this shade at this time of year (or so, at least, is my dim recollection surrounded by all the mists of the time passed since I last set foot in a church). It was a colour of mourning, apparently.

Red is also a big colour for the Greeks at Easter. They dye all the eggs red (that’s red like the blood of Christ. I kid you not.)

Don’t you love these web pictures of food on a white background. It looks as though it is flying through space! Anyway, this is traditional Greek easter bread called tsoureki. MMM.

However, I don’t get any today because today is not “my” Easter. That doesn’t happen until 27 April. Aphrodite is all miffed this morning because she doesn’t get any candy. See? She’s not talking to me!!!

Her problem. She should just suck it up, like I had to do. Besides, the leftover candy goes on sale on Monday!!! And – hey! – I never gave her permission to wear my Savannah stole (finally blocked – long boring post with millions of pics on Monday. This was known as SOTSii to me until today when the name was finally released.

Anyway, much to my surprise, JJ came home last evening and presented me with these for “his” Easter:

As you can see, I’ll have to fight for them. And in case you’re wondering where Bubbles went, s/he has been shipped off to boarding school.

(If you’re any type of fan of soap operas, or ever have been, expect hir to come back a few weeks from now, magically 18 years old and pregnant/on drugs/etc).

I did relent and give one to Aphrodite, so now she’s happy again.

Happy Easter/Sunday/feast day/whatever it is that you are celebrating today!

“Madame Defarge took up her knitting with great apparent calmness and repose of spirit….”

Well, I’m not sure if this describes me or not. Probably not. I suspect that if you ask anyone who has had the pleasure of meeting me in person to describe me, the words “calmness” and “repose of spirit” would not be the first ones to be used.

Unlike her:

Who was Madame Defarge, anyway? Only, arguably, the most famous knitter in English literature! Were you sleeping through public school when they taught Charles Dickens in English class, anyway? Sheesh!!

(Um… er… well, gentle reader, I do always strive to be honest with you. So, now it’s time for a deep dark confession. I never actually read A Tale of Two Cities in grade 8. Instead, I read this:

Coles Notes were my huge lifesaver in both public and high school. I could never figure out why they insisted on making us read Shakespeare and Dickens every year for – oh – eight years? Especially when I found out that Dickens got paid by the word to write. Sigh.

I still can’t figure it out, actually. Even when I tried to read one chapter of the online version for purposes of this post, I just couldn’t keep my eyes open. I had an easier time reading the Income Tax Act, and for anyone who has ever had that pleasure – no $&#(*@$&#( Coles Notes either!- you’ll know just how much I hate Dickens. )

So, how do I even know who she is, you ask? Because some of my coworkers bestowed “Madame Defarge” to me as a nickname. So, after 25 odd years, I had to go and find out who she was.

First of all, I reviewed the classic source materials:

… but the source materials were not as informative on her history as I would have hoped. However, luckily for me, well after I left grade eight the internet came along and now on-line versions of Coles Notes proliferate! (I’m surprised the teachers have not protested this en masse, actually…).

So, what did I learn?

Well – she was a subversive knitter of the first order, as it turns out. Apparently, she was a spy for the French revolutionaries, and used her knitting to record the names of the enemies of the Revolution in code.

Pretty wild, eh?

And – you’ve got to like a woman who got to boss around men in the 18th century:

“Take you my knitting,” said Madame Defarge, placing it in her lieutenant’s hands, “and have it ready for me in my usual seat. Keep me my usual chair…”

Man, I wish I had a knitting lieutenant to fetch me all my stuff, make emergency runs to the yarn store, etc.

Oh, hold on a minute… I forgot about JJ!

Phew. Things have not gone backwards for women in the past 225 years after all. What a relief.

Madame Defarge had certain other things in common with me apparently – she liked hanging out at…

Next noontide saw the admirable woman in her usual place in the wine-shop, knitting away assiduously. A rose lay beside her, and if she now and then glanced at the flower, it was with no infraction of her usual preoccupied air.

Now, I rather imagine that in real life, she would have looked like this:

(in other words, what I wish I looked like, minus all the black).

Oh – I should note that the coworkers stopped referring to me as “Madame Defarge” around the time that I started bringing my knitting to staff meetings. I wonder if they started to worry about the sopisticated codes contained within – especially given that I detest staff meetings and tend to mouth off during them as a result.

But fear not, O Coworkers – I have real enemies of the revolution to record!!! For example, this:

contains a record of all of the shameful, left-abandoning exploits of Jumpin’ Jack Flash, toady to the Conservatives current leader of the NDP – which is what passes as the “left” party in Canada today.

And this sophisticated code?

Well – Bob Rae, of course.

The colour of the scarf denotes the champagne nature of his prior socialist attitudes, now apparently long gone since he is making bids for Liberal leadership (although right now he says he’s not. Pull the other one, Bob – it’s got bells on it!

(Oh by the way, I’m not alone in my assessment. If you’re Canadian and/or extremely bored, check out what Rick Mercer had to say back in 2006 about him and his nonsense.)

So, how about the latest project off the needles, my Vegan Tuscany?

Well, I’m a bit behind the times on this one – maybe. However, I just saw the Trial of Tony Blair and was reminded anew of so-called “leftism” and its possible end results in the wrong hands.

Well, time to get off today’s soapbox, I guess. I have to go and check on the blocking progress of my SOTSii!!

It should be dry enough by later today to try to get some proper photos.

And then to scheme what future projects I will use to record the stupidities of politics… hmm. Here’s one I just started – working title is “April Showers”. Yarn is Kidsilk Night, which has little sparkles in it:

It looks a bit of a mess right now, but I have high hopes…

Vale Madame Defarge!