Bad Blogger

Three months without a post officially qualifies me for the title. I’ve been thinking these past few weeks why I do not feel driven to blog more often. Most people who do it on a regular basis seem to enjoy it. To me it walks the line between delight and duty. I love the wordplay; I love the satisfaction that comes from a well crafted piece; I love the afterglow. I just don’t like doing it. I like having blogged better than actual blogging.

As Zach’s wedding approaches, and Cast On prepares for Milan, Lake Como and Turin (is Italy prepared for Cast On, I wonder?), I realize that podcasting will probably be sporadic at best over the coming weeks. I have a ton of sewing to do lest I wander the streets of Italy buck nekkid. My parents are coming for the wedding. Plans are being made, and podcasts will be thin on the ground for a few weeks. I have one planned for next week, and that will probably be it until the end of October.

Part of the reason I’ve been such a bad blogger is, of course, that I am lazy, and would rather talk than write. Talking, as we know, isn’t podcasting, which requires writing first, before talking, then editing, uploading files, writing a feed, and creating shownotes. Still, in my head they are the same, talking and podcasting. No podcasting means no talking, and since writing is what’s left, I guess I’ll have to be a better blogger.

I have this other idea that maybe a different kind of blogging might be, if not easier, at least less of a chore. Blogging perhaps not so many words, perhaps just cool links, and pictures and captions. Pictures of the garden and exciting images of algae from the pond cleanup in progress. Pictures of the wedding dress in progress. (Yes. I offered to make the gown. The wedding is ten days after I return from Italy. Proof, if proof is needed, that I am certifiable.) Maybe pictures of the myriad home improvement projects that need doing before my parents arrive. (I am just sure I have time to paint the hallway, don’t you think?) Once in a while there may be some knitting, and that’s my plan for being a better a blogger.

In other news, Emily came for a visit this week, and I got to talk about knitting for three days, and have the same talked back to me, which was bliss. I taught Em to spin, and we went to Swansea and looked at wedding dress fabric and ate lunch in a really nice little cafe, just around the corner from what is probably the first real haberdashery I have ever been in. A haberdashery is very much like a fabric store, only without the fabric. A place that sells things which are Not Fabric, some of which are Yarn. I was quite restrained, and only bought a little yarn that Tonia doesn’t yet know about. (No, not that yarn, honey. That was Thursday’s yarn. Wednesday’s yarn is in the white bag beside the sofa. It’s for gifts.)

I bought five balls of this, which look remarkably like this, except they are 100% wool instead of the 70% wool/30% soy, but are also fully half the price. Lovely, lovely colors; all five different, they are slated for one skein holiday projects to be named later. I snagged the picture from Get Knitted, but as clicking the picture will take you there, I hardly think they’ll mind.

Oddly, a flickr search for this yarn (Twilley’s Freedom Spirit) didn’t yield as many images as I’d have thought, given the extreme wonderfulness of the yarn. I tend to think of myself as one who routinely catches the last wave of a trend, and just assumed this stuff had been around forever, but as there are so few images, possibly it’s new-ish. If so, I predict big things for it in the UK. It’s wonderfully soft, great for beautifully coloured small projects, and it even makes nice sweaters. There are but few sweater images on flickr at present but, oh, aren’t they pretty?