Escaping Suburbia

I’ve been neglecting the spinning for a while in favor of a couple of crocheted afghans. Two afghans at a time? What was I thinking?

The first pattern I started is the Hobo Blanket, using 17 different colors of Knitpicks Palette yarn. Here’s where I was with that one a little over a month ago:

Further along now. It’s a pretty mindless pattern, easy to work on while riding in the car or watching TV. There are lots of color changes, though, because I’ve only been doing one or two rows of each color. I think I’m going to try to slip in a couple of wider stripes from here on out.

I’d gotten those yarns to start the Babette Blanket, but got a few squares into it and got distracted & gave up. But then again, I really wanted to make a Babette, so I got more yarn and am going to try again. So there! Take that, short attention span!

These are my colors this time around:

I love them all, but I’m hoping the combination of these colors into the squares doesn’t end up looking like a 1970′s kitchen. I have a few squares done so far — need to take some photos soon.

Now that I’ve started these two big projects, I will probably go back to spinning and do nothing but that for a month or two. Or maybe I’ll take up a new hobby altogether, like soap making. I learned how to make goat’s milk soap yesterday…

Ugh. I’m trying to make both my blogs look nicer & it’s not going very well. I love all the free templates available from WordPress, but my lack of coding ability is catching up with me. There’s something not quite right about each one I try.

I want MWV Local to look more professional – with more of a magazine or news-site feel. This one… I don’t know what the heck I want out of this one.

Grumble, grumble. Please bear with me if it looks stupid here for a while.

The other day I was at Costco and, as usual, made a run through the book section. What I saw there had me cracking up for the rest of the day:

Classics. Right on. Why so amused, then?

Because the books were all neatly displayed at the young-adult end of the table, next to the Twilight series. Sorry, “saga”:

I’m all for encouraging folks to read the classics, I just think it’s kind of… amusingly sad I guess?… that publishers are resorting to this sort of transparent pandering.

What really gets me rolling, though, is the idea of a sparkly Heathcliff.

Sparklecliff!

::giggle::snort::

I wonder how effective these covers will be in selling these books, and I wonder how the people who might never have given them a chance otherwise will feel about them. I fervently hope that at least a few 13-year-olds will have their reading horizons broadened in a way that will instill a love of books in them forever. Meanwhile, OMG, go to the store and get one of the classics in a cover that isn’t so horrifying to carry around.

Sparklecliff!

The Democrat Herald ran a story yesterday about a local apartment complex attempting to ban any kind of flag from being displayed on vehicles parked on the property. Somehow I doubt the apartment manager is going to win this one in the long run, but anyway, it’s the headline I have a problem with…

Apartment bans U.S. flags

Technically correct, though oddly specific, considering that the ban includes flags from other countries, sports teams flags… ALL FLAGS.

So, what is the DH trying to do here by calling attention to the U.S. flags in the headline? Are they being intentionally inflammatory in this relatively conservative city? Judging by the comments already left on the article, they succeeded. Liberals have been blamed. One commenter has “a feeling there is a nice group of veterans who will be visiting this place soon“, himself included. (Is that a threat? What does that mean?) Someone else thinks the manager should be fired for being unpatriotic.

Wait, I thought it was ALL FLAGS. An across the board policy. Can we get a little outrage for the Beavers and Ducks?

Anyway. Thanks, DH, for giving that wedge just another little tap.

P.S. For the record, I tweeted my dismay at the DH yesterday (where way fewer people would see it), but they didn’t reply and it’s still bugging me. So they get a blog post.