I just received the Ravelry invite last night:

http://www.ravelry.com/people/comicsvalentine

I only just signed up maybe a month or two ago, so they must be getting ready to launch.

New username, just for fun. I love comics. I love valentines. Two great things that go great together.

+

I want a pattern for that heart.

I’m talking about the end of the beret phase, and the beginning of something new. Like a cloche phase, perhaps.

Yeah. That’s it. I sense a cloche phase coming on, complete with flower adornments and everything. Hrm.

This weekend just flew right by. Unfortunately, I was sitting at my computer for most of it. I’m still in that working-for-oneself phase whereby one is working out just exactly how much work one can take on without going bananas. Still afloat. All copy assignments for the month are almost wrapped up, and I’m looking forward to a little creative time. And getting my holiday act together — still stuff left to do there.

More deadlines, but they’re for comics short stories. Good things.

Any crocheters out there who feel compelled to point me in the direction of cloche patterns, go right ahead…

Everyone having a fabulous holiday weekend so far? I hope so. I am. We kicked off the festivities withNicholas, who graciously invited us to his place for Thanksgiving dinner. Six kids and the best stuffing I’ve ever had in my life. No disrespect to my mom (who is awesome), but this was amazing stuffing. And there was tons of it. 15 of us or something and collectively we didn’t even make a dent in this ginormous dish of stuffing. I forgot to take some home, however. This is probably for the best.

My last post on the Amazon Kindle sparked some fun conversation over on my LJ. I’ve calmed down. Not sure what I was thinking, talking about carrying books around like they’re badges of honor. I will admit the appeal and practicality of Kindling in airports, for example. Dan makes an excellent point. And of course Leland had to needle me with the squillion dollar question: “What if it gets kids to read more?” You got me there, chief.

So I amend my crankypants stance. But I will never “curl up” with a Kindle. I may perhaps read a Kindle on a crowded bus or on an airplane. I will never “curl up” in an airport. I’m still cranky. And confidential to Amazon: pay the damn bloggers for the content they provide (and you CHARGE FOR) on your damn device.

There is no excuse for that shit. None. End of.

I had a horrific thought, and it was this: there’s going to come a day when kids aren’t taught how to write by hand. Like, penmanship. Because “they won’t need it any more.” Think it’ll never happen? Yeah, that’s what they said about electronic paper.

We were at the launch party for Dan’s book last week and I got no less than five — five! — comments on this pair of fingerless mitts I wore. Nice, but they’re sloppy as sloppy (the mitts, not the comments), so I’m taking a break from the Christmas knitting (have I mentioned I’ve been Christmas knitting since September? go, me) to make a leaner, meaner pair. They’re lean and mean and purple, but jury’s still out on whether or not I should have went with the mohair-infused Lamb’s Pride Worsted. Mohair all over the place.

I also made another beret. What is up with the berets? I’ve made something like 7 berets. I don’t even wear berets. It’s official: they make me look ridiculous. And yet, I keep making them. The synapses in my head, I’m tellin’ ya.

Last knitting thing: I’m keeping my discretionary income on a tight leash these days, but once I got a gander at the just-released Anticraft book, I could NOT put it back on the shelf. It totally blew the hinges off my expectations. I love their site (though, with all respect, I find the voice of cynicism a little loud and overbearing at times), so I knew it was going to be great. But I want to make just about everything in here, including… the embossing project. Embossing. Are we kidding? And yet there I was, going through the instructions for logistical clues.

Wow, this post is getting long.

We were going to go see Beowulf but got sucked into movies here instead. Never read it? Midori’s got great crib notes over at Endicott.

I had this big post on arena rock all scribbled out here on an index card (Levenger, of course). Spontaneously came to me earlier this evening, after Bee sent me some “Dust In The Wind” on YouTube. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t so spontaneous, then. Whatever.

But you know what? I’m not gonna post it. Like the arena rock era itself, the moment has passed. However, Shannon’s classic TMCM Journey / Steve Perry sequence is immortal, in my memory as well as my heart, so I’ll leave you with that.

It’s been a blurry two weeks. So blurry that I’m reaching out for arena rock. But it’s a good kind of blurry. Lots of writing, both paid and to-be-sold-later and to-be-given-to-patient-artists things. Slow going, but making progress.

Watched GARDEN STATE. Twice. Was charmed. Working my way through Christmas gifts. That’s knitted Christmas gifts, don’t you know. And speaking of which, let me introduce you to the BEST YARN STORE EVER:

Brooklyn General Store

Because I don’t have enough hobbies in my life (actually, for much more Deep and Meaningful for Art and Craft and Witchery reasons, but I won’t carry on about all that at 2:30 am), I’ve decided to give in and spin. As in, spinning. As in, make my own yarn.

Yes. I know. Don’t start with me.

You’re probably not going to believe this, but Leland has been gently pushing the big wheel thing on me for a couple of years now. Like comics, I’ve resisted due to time and, now, disposable income restraints. But, like comics, my resistance slowly wore down, then snapped. The fact that one of the coven girls is a spinning freak master didn’t help.

So off I went to get a drop spindle. Small steps, all that.

“You have to go to Williamsburg,” the Coven Spinning Freak said. “Williamsburg is the only place that carries drop spindles.”

“Oh, geez,” I said. “At least I can hit up Trader Joe’s on the way home.”

But it was not to be. I don’t know how I found Brooklyn General online, but I thought, “Hrm. Red Hook. Yarn. I love Red Hook, I love yarn.” And I waylaid myself to what has turned out to be the biggest, baddest craft joint this side of my beloved Great White North. (And there are a lot of badass craft joints up there, lemme tell ya.) I mean, short of P& S Fabrics on Lower Broadway, may she rest in peace.

Fabric. Notions. Buttons. Ribbon. Patterns. Of course, yarn. Notebooks, for crying out loud. Brittany double-pointed sock needles (which are the best needles in the world for reducing hats because they’re shorter and thereby less sticky-outy-pain-in-the-ass). And — the most precious resource of all for crafters here in the city — space, and lots of it.

Oh yeah. And they had drop spindles and roving, thus saving me a trip to Williamsburg. So I called up the Coven Spinning Freak and I squee’ed. I wish I could show Midori this place because she would absolutely keel over.

Coven Spinning Freak taught me how to use my spindle the next day. My yarn was pretty sad, but I’m told it was exceptionally non-misshapen for a first outing. I was fairly patient with it all around until we got to the Andean Plying thing, whereby I wanted to cry. (OK, so not really. But I don’t have the brain cells for these kinds of shenanigans right now!)

Speaking of all things witchy, I was delighted to discover that Judy, founder of my tradition, has a substantial Wikipedia entry. That’s good fun. If you look real close, you can spot a picture of Judy and I on my bookshelves.

The yarn store could be really bad for my productivity, what with being a short subway ride and my favorite Brooklyn nabe and right next to an excellent pizza joint and the Best Yarn Store Ever and all.

Speaking of which, I’m not getting anything done on my script at this point, so I think I might as well go watch a few more arena rock clips and hit the hay.

Up for consideration: making one of these for Leland:

Whaddaya think?

(”Maybe you should make that in black for when we sneak into the cemetery,” he says.)

From the department of “it’s just not the same!!”, we have:

Knitted Donut pattern

I have to admit, the whole “knitted food” phenomenon is something I just can’t wrap my head around. All that preciousness at the expense of fuction. I say this without a hint of irony, mind you (who, me? I never engage in the creation of something for the sheer joy of it).

Anyway, doughnuts are one of my weaknesses. A doughnut made of yarn will never do, I tell you.

In other craft news, it’s official: sewing has become the new knitting. I know I mentioned this around here earlier, but it’s getting truer every minute. Indeed, apparently knitting book sequels are shamelessly slipping way to the new medium. Behold, LAST MINUTE FABRIC GIFTS (undoubtedly a companion to last year’s excellent-but-for-the-first-edition’s-countless-typos LAST MINUTE KNITTED GIFTS). What the ‘ell? No, we’re none too subtle, are we, publishers? I didn’t get the message with the squillion (okay, maybe seven) books on altered t-shirts that hit the market this fall (saw a new one one of those on the shelf today, too — in shrink wrap, no less).

Yes, of course I bought the FABRIC GIFTS book. It looks excellent, has cute projects, and I love to sew. But I can’t be bothered to alter t-shirts.

Publisher’s Weekly has even picked up on the shift in the winds. Their August 28 cover story is “A Knitter’s Tale: From Trendy to Hip. Now what?”.

Alas I’m not ready to give up my needles, be them for the yarn or for my sewing machine, just yet. This weekend’s craft project is my first knit hat in a while, which isn’t quite done thanks to having to rip it out a few rows — I did NOT put in all that work only to look like a pink and blue Abraham Lincoln (think stovepipe). It won’t be the last. It’s really seldom that I get my knitting in line before the temperature drops, so I’m going to strike while the iron is hot, so to speak.

“This fall I’m going to be all about… the knitted hat!” I proclaimed, on our way home from Barnes and Noble.

“Waaaait a minute,” said Leland, “I thought you were all about the writing!”

Yeah, yeah.

See? I’m too fried for a subject line, even.

1. Ed Brubaker is going nuts with promotion for his new project, CRIMINAL (you know, the one I mentioned last week). The latest: the CRIMINAL blog.

2. Leland and I took some time today to celebrate his birthday, which was nearly a week ago, but we missed thanks to the insane hours that my day job demands this month. First up: THE ILLUSIONIST, a movie that might as well have been tailor-made for yours truly. Spooky Victoriana? Check. S-e-x-x-y magician? Check. S-e-x-x-y magician… with a woodshop? Check. S-e-x-x-y magician making lockets of ingenious design for his sweetheart in said woodshop? Check. Policeman sympathetic to the “criminal” archetype? Check. Ghosts aplenty? Check. Where’s my DVD? I want to watch it again. The handyman thing, gets me every fricking time.

3. Then we hit Shakespeare & Co., who are probably my favorite booksellers in the entire city… I’m walking around going, “Why haven’t I been here in months? Sweet merciful crap, we need to get out of the house more often.”

4. Then we ate a lot of pizza. I have no idea why I’m telling you this.

5. Sewing is the new knitting. The New York Post said so yesterday, and they’re right. As someone who keeps close tabs on the crafts section of the local bookstore, I’m in a position to know. Built by Wendy! Amy Butler! And… this thing! No, it’s not punk if it’s in the craft book section, but I appreciate the sentiments anyway.

I need to sleep, real bad. Go see THE ILLUSIONIST.

Back the heck up:

Craft Memo

It’s Web 2.0 for craft nerds! YES!

Of course, I don’t keep track of my inventory. With my schedule that’d mean losing valuable craft time — something I barely have as it is. So I probably wouldn’t use the inventory portion. But if I was in the business of making things and selling them…

1. Last week, Leland and I had the extreme pleasure of meeing Tony Lee for the first time. This was rather exciting, as it feels like I’ve wanted to meet Tony for ages. If that wasn’t enough, Tony had run into MIRACLEMAN/SANDMAN/FABLES artist Mark Buckingham in an airport after a particularly hellish flight and asked him to come out, which meant lots of wacky artist discourse for Leland, which is always a hoot to watch. Both guys are charming/lovely/talented and I can’t wait ’til we run into each other again (which would have been Thursday after Tony’s Midtown Comics signing, had I been able to leave work before 9 — bah). “Refreshing,” is how Leland put it.

Mark Buckingham really liked RED. He really did. I’m wiggin’! I’m wigglin’!

Anyways. Kleid has a picture of all of us. Lordy, I need a haircut.

2. We did a little building this weekend. Correction: Leland built, I knitted. Here’s Leland in his new nook:

Here’s the Besotted Scarf so far:

Yes, I know we’re in the middle of a heatwave. Gotta get started on these things good and early. Also, that’s a cotton/acrylic blend up there, and a discontinued one at that. Booyah.

3. I’ll have some fun news for you in a few days — oh, what the heck. Check Streetfables for the tiniest of sneak peeks.

I get a lot of friend requests on MySpace. Most of these I welcome with open arms (this means you: my page is here). But there are some that I could do without. At first, I’d smile quietly to myself in that “that’s nice, dear” way when the unsigned bands whose music has absolutely nothing to do with anything listed on my page came a-calling. Hundreds of requests later, well, not so much. And then there are the “make money now!” people — whom, I suppose, will never leave well enough alone.

My point, and I do have one, is that it’s all fine and good to promote yourself and reach out and touch someone (it’ll be my turn one of these days), but for the love of Goodness and Gracious, please try to be discriminating about it. Like, for example, the Booze and Yarn people. I like booze (you know, in moderate amounts). I like yarn (you know, in insane amounts). I live in New York City. I can appreciate a little indie/urban/retro aesthetic. It’s a match made in heaven.

If you’re a real person, none of this applies. If you’re a real person, I’ll pretty much friend you back (this means you), provided that you and/or your page isn’t totally lacking in taste. But if you’re out there “friend of friend of friend” bombing people, um, up your nose with a rubber hose. So there.

Man, I’ve wanted to say that for a long time.

How ’bout that Booze and Yarn, eh? Bet they’re wicked cool girls (and guys — I saw at least one dude in the Myspace pictures). I want to make these.