Stitch 'N, Katrina, & Books

Good morning and all that rot!

So we had the Stitch'N Club planning committee meeting on Thursday and I think it went very well. We talked over ways our lil' group could help the Hurricane Katrina survivors. After one member sent out a list of needed items organized by a local Lion's Club, we decided on crocheted/knitted washcloths. It might not seem like much but when there's thousands of people housed in a stadium with limited facilities things like a hot shower have got to seem like a luxury. The semi carrying all these goodies outta Ohio will leave on Monday, Sept. 19th. So I sent out a letter to the group asking them to put together as many washcloths as possible before Friday, Sept. 16. Even the busy people! I told them even one donation will help.

We'd already spent our budget this week paying for the reconnect fee on our electricity. So this weekend I sold a few books at Half Priced Books and took a couple items I had just bought (but not used) to Meijer's and then picked up a nice big cone of cotton yarn to get started on the washcloths. I'm crocheting them since I'm much quicker and familiar with it then knitting, heh.

If you work in the Downtown Columbus area and would like to contribute to our donation please get a hold of me at knittyknotty-@-gmail-.-com and we can arrange some sort of plan for collecting them!

Today I have Hash researching other ways of getting donated goods to the folks down south. I know Red Cross will take moola but I'm not sure if they're accepting actual goods. I'm sure there's got to be another group that we can continue to donate items too.

Another idea we had was making hats, gloves, and scarves for the southern refugees that have been given temporary housing here in Ohio. When winter comes it's going to be pretty harsh considering what they're used to. We figured these items would really come in handy and we still have a good deal of time to get things done.

On the knitting front… I've ran out of the beautiful aqua yarn my SP gave me so my sweater is on a short hold until I can pick some more up.

I went to the library this weekend and picked up 4 books on knitting… all of which were pretty disappointing for various reasons. =(

Vogue Knitting on the Go: Teen Knits – Err guess I should have looked thru this was closer in the library. All patterns are sized for kids/teens. Blah! Especially considering they had several really cute patterns.

Vogue Knitting: Very Easy Knits: The Best of Very Easy Very Vogue – Easy = bland according to this book I guess, heh. Or at the very least mid-80's styles. There's a whopping 2 patterns in the entire book that didn't make me cringe. Only one of which I might make and wear.

Stitch 'N' Bitch Nation – All in all this was the best out of the bunch. I've only flipped thru the first book and wasn't terribly impressed but now that I actually know how to knit I'll need to give it another look thru. This book has some cute patterns, some useful patterns, and some typically cliché patterns (how many cell phone cozies and leg/wrist warmers does a person need?!). I really like all the tips and tricks that are mixed amongst all the pages. They're actually the best part of the entire book. The second part being the photos and blurbs about Stitch 'N Bitch groups all over the world (though one lady said knitters are brilliant mathematicians and crocheters are lazy, WTF?! Cuz we don't have to count our stitches/rows/incs/decs/etc. or anything… it does it on it's own I guess.)

Hollywood Knits Style – Gag. More then half the patterns in this entire books were SO mind-numbingly simple I could have made them up on the fly… even as a newb knitter. God only knows how someone can tell me to knit 30 sts until it's 30 in' long and then say "Ta-da, I'm a pro-designer!" No. I'm sorry. You're not. I've seen dozens and dozens of better designs AND instructions free all over the net. In my opinion… this author just gets off on the fact that she knows famous people. Not to mention her skewed sizes. She's been CA too long as she seems to think 33" around the hips is LARGE. 'Nuff said as they say, heh.

And with that ladies and gentlemen I will quit bitching. Cuz I'm sure that's what it sounds like, heh. And on some levels it is, especially about the short/simple patterns. There's nothing more irritating then paying for a book of patterns that could have been written on a napkin. OK I understand this for things like beginner patterns, where the person is still learning. So in the case of a newb knitters book its fine to everything all nice and simple. But if a "pro" designer has nothing but simple patterns in a book not labeled for newbs than I feel severely cheated. And more than likely my fellow stitchers have shared a similar pattern for free on their blog, or prefered stitch community message board. So why should I pay someone for something I can get for free??