etc.

I was bored of the old tagline, so I changed it. And I came up with so many alternative taglines (smart! witty! taglines!) that I have decided to put them into rotation. You won’t know when the next one will appear! OK, yes you will. I’ll point it out.

Because I am the master of subtlety.

Feast day of St. James of the Marches, patron saint of Naples. I would very much like to go to Naples. To-day, preferably.

Remember the catalogue of knits-in-progress and the fervent promises to complete certain items on the list? Completion was put on hold as I whipped together a pair of mitts to greet last week’s feverish cold (do you remember last year’s purple mitts, a most gracious gift from Ms. Melanie? I remember exactly when (April) and where (Jarvis Street) I lost them last year. I console myself with the thought that they were a happy find for some frosty-fingered person). But this week, 11°C above, some sun, a mild drizzle, and no need, whatsoever, for woollen mittens. So, there you have it.

This morning, I took some pictures of my cats, and this weekend, I read the current issue of ReadyMade, cover to cover. I commend them both to you.

Oh, did I forget to tell you about the blog holiday? Well, yea, that’s sort of because it was an unplanned blog holiday, more in the vein of Life Trumps Blogging actually. Or, Blogging Trumps Blogging (how meta!) really, since I just did another one of my blog-evangelization talks yesterday and I spent most of the past week working on it. And draft 1 of a book chapter that’s due next week. Fun stuff (and I really do mean that).

Happy Thanksgiving, neighbours. And, Buy Nothing Day to-morrow, plan accordingly.

The next day: you know, I spent a lot of time to-day thinking about the possibility that Buy Nothing Day might be more successful if it was Buy Used Or Homegrown Day. I did not buy nothing today, but the things I did buy (a homemade samosa and a homemade cupcake, each respectively sold in support of World Peace and The Biology Club, both on campus; and a used CD) were off the grid and went to support either a charity, a local club, or someone who probably really needed that $10 I paid for the CD. So, instead of spending the day feeling alternatively ornery and debilitated by insane consumerism, I spent the day being mindful about who was getting my $12. I liked it a lot better.

Good morning. How about I put on some Dandy Warhols and tell you about the knits languishing about me? Okay? Okay!

• Socks: towards the end of the demon sock-knitting I was doing a couple of months ago, I cast on another basic pair in lovely, lovely Cherry Tree Hill. One sock is done, the second stalled about 1.5 inches in. Will complete these before the end of the month.
• Scarf: a basic mistake-rib scarf for my sister in Australian merino that is just a joy to knit with. Here’s the shameful part: I’ve had this yarn for a year and a half and have started two different scarf patterns with it, both frogged, before casting on this mistake-rib. I’m about 4″ from the end, will complete this before the end of the week. Later: done!
• French Market Bag: love the bag, hate the yarn. I started this months ago, in Briggs & Little (Regal, I think) and when I noticed that the yarn was giving me hangnails (so itchy! so unforgiving!) I promptly set it aside. This one will not make it, sadly.
• Kyoto: begun in April, abandoned June-ish. I’m doing it in Missions Hills cotton (snagged a few bag-fulls of the stuff when it was in close-out) and as much as I have tried to love this yarn, I can’t. I simply like it, and that is all. But I still love the pattern and will forge ahead at some point, just not right now (it’s wool season, for pete’s sake).
• Wristwarmers: these are only a week or so old. They’re for my grandma and I’m aiming for completion by week’s end.
• Cabin Fever top-down pullover: I love a no-seam pattern as much as the next seam-hating knitter, but is it just me or do top-downs just get too difficult to handle after a certain point? It’s been ages since I picked this up but I do remember being distinctly irritated by the considerable heft of it. It’s in Red Heart Cozy Wool, so I’m not shedding any tears over it, although I’m still not sure what will become of it (not minding the idea of a warm, snuggly, kick-around sweater right now).
• Swank, from Rowan 29: another cotton knit I failed to complete before my cotton fixation pettered out. Fate? See Kyoto, above.

Next up? Stash cataloguing! Anticipate!

I haven’t said much about this but I’ve been feeling a goodly amount of librarian angst over the subject categorization I have going on on this here blog. It has seemed to me, for quite a while, that I had too many categories and that my choice of categories wasn’t always meaningful. So I’ve been reorganizing and weeding, I’ve added a couple of categories and deleted some others, bringing us to a net reduction of 6 categories. Ouf, how bloated we once were! Categories now live on the archives page, in case you’re wondering.

In other news, unrelated entirely, I have to-day completed a few household tasks (cleaned the kitchen, done the laundry, paid the bills) in the company of 339 of my favourite songs. I have a new gadget and I love it dearly. So dearly!

To-night, I am sorting through my basket of temporarily-abandoned knits (with Win Butler humming in my ears) and to-morrow I will tell you about them. There is an alarming number of them and it is incumbent upon me, isn’t it, to tell you about them in order to embarass myself into action? Yes, I think so.

Feast of Leo the Great, 5th Century Pope, of whom Attila the Hun had visions.

True story: last night I woke the mister up as a result of incessant talking. He leaned in and listened to me deliver a cogent explanation of RSS. While I slept. True Story.

The talk I gave yesterday is here, in case you’re interested. Although I can’t guarantee it will be as clear online as it was in my sleep.

Starred out of a possible five, most of these were thoroughly enjoyed:

• Crash ****
• Jurassic Park ****
• March of the Penguins *****
• Million Dollar Baby ****
• Batman Begins ****
• Some Things that Stay ***
• Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith ****
• Before Sunset ****
• Just Married **
• Born into Brothels ****

Feast day of Hubert of Liege, patron saint againt rabies and bad doggy behaviour. It’s an establishment just waiting to be established, isn’t it? The Hubert of Liege School of Canine Obedience.

Warm & blustery today, there are clattering branches and blowing leaves about. But warm, so warm that I didn’t wear socks. No socks, in November! A rare treat.

I have 175 subscriptions in my aggregator, and a sure sign of where my head is at is the choice I make as to what folder to read first. Since September, the “library”, “web 2.0″ and “IM” folders have been wining out (in that order), which is not to say that I haven’t been reading your crafty blogs, my crafty friends, but rather that I’m feeling somewhat disengaged from the world of craft and creation and reading craft blogs has begun to feel rather self-indulgent (when I peek into the “crafty” folder, it feels a bit like a longing gaze at a bowlful of bright & shiny sweets!). I’m giving three talks this month, two on Web 2.0 applications for libraries and one on NEL. And the online course I’m teaching started this week.

If this is starting to sound familiar to you, it’s because it is, it’s that Balance issue all over again. In my little world, there is no such thing as a well-rounded week of reading, writing, knitting, crafting, teaching, speaking, working. I can only ever manage to juggle two or three such activities at once and while Balance continues to loom in the distance as a State to Which I Aspire, I’ve decided to stop beating myself up about it. I will never be that person who can comfortably live with routine and scheduled off-time (e.g.: planned crafting/reading/whatever time), so inasmuch as it works for me (and it does work for me) I ought to simply embrace the extent to which I immerse myself in certain pursuits, oughtn’t I?

Indeed.