On blogging and life

There's a really interesting conversation going on over at January One about blogging and commenting on blogs. Since I rarely get comments, you may wonder why I'm interested in this conversation. Well, it has to do with my reservations about blogging in general, based on some pretty painful real life experience. As a rule, I do not read blogs that have to do with people's personal lives. It has been my experience that people who use blogs as live journals invariably end up hurting people - making comments on the way that other people live their lives generally leads to nothing good. When I started this blog, I was concerned, because I didn't want this to turn into a live journal. I post about knitting - the places I knit, the things I knit when I travel, and how knitting effects my life. This is not a blog about my life. It's about knitting in my life. This is an important distinction.

This is why, though I mentioned bits of my life in my last post, I'm not going to tell you exactly what my brother and I did this weekend. Plus, I don't have any pictures :). But, since part of my weekend did involve yarn, you will get a little snapshot of who I am.

My brother did take me to that yarn shop this weekend, bless his heart. As it turns out, they were having a charity knitting event, and the place was filled with at least 30 old hen, clucking away. My brother and I were horribly conspicuous. One, because he's 6'6", and two, because we weren't over 50. Oh, and let's not forget that he was also the only male there. It was actually kind of disappointing. A lot of the yarn was what you'd expect the older set to be interested in - heavy on the acrylic blends and weird textures. I did pick up a ball of sock yarn though, because I don't have any in my stash. I know. How can I possibly call myself a knitter with my stash in that state that it is? Well, the truth is, I move frequently (5 times in the past year) and therefore, if I have no immediate plans for a yarn, I really can't afford to truck it cross country. Plus, I'm a new enough knitter to not be sure how much of a yarn I would need to make a certain project without a pattern. But socks, that's pretty guessable. I coveted some Cascade 220 and Plymouth Tweed. When I got the proper pattern, at least know I'll know what they look and feel like.

One highlight: There was food at this charity knitting event, and one of the ladies said to the other, "Judy, everyone just loves your salad. Do you have the recipe?" Judy pulls the recipe out of her bag. The other lady shouts to the shop at large, "Girls, she's got the recipe!" Picture a flurry of excited comments and shuffling for pieces of paper. Then picture my brother and I trying to contain our giggles.

Anyway, here's a picture of the yarn.

Sorry for the terrible picture. I need to learn how to take acceptable pictures. Especially when there are so many blogs with inspiring pictures out there. And look what I got just in time for my recent sock yarn purchase:

It's two thirds of a shipment from Overstocks.com. There's a pattern in the Knitting Vintage Socks book that will be perfect for my new yarn.