martinimade

Is anyone else really underwhelmed by the most recent Interweave Knits? I know summer issues are difficult because it's not the season for snuggly handknits but the mag has done OK with this issue in the past. This one, tho, is very meh. Only one pattern speaks to me -- the Icarus Shawl, which will be for a fellow knitter -- and the rest I am completely indifferent about, save the Wedgewood Blouse, which I intensely dislike. (In the interest of self-disclosure -- I've never been a big fan of Norah Gaughan's designs. Briefly, Grumperina made me reconsider, since she is working on a Gaughan sweater and I tend to like the things that Ms Grump works on. I am still not won over.) Also, the news and views bits have already made the rounds of the knit blogs, which makes it seem like Interweave is late to the party. Maybe it's just impossible to keep up with the speed of the internet when you are a quarterly. Hard to say.

I do like the pub in general, but this issue won't be one that I thumb through when looking for inspiration.

In other news, the mint war wages on. There is a new wrinkle -- not with the mint, tho I am starting to wonder if napalm is indeed against the Geneva conventions. Mooch has taken to coming outside with me for the single purpose of teasing the big black lab next door. Most cats would have the sense to run away from a barking dog. Not our Moocher. He gets right next to the chain link fence and taunts the pup, securing the the knowledge that the pup is trapped and can only bark. Which he does. With abandon. I'm half-tempted to fling Mooch over the fence just to see what happens. I suspect that would be wrong. Satisfying, but wrong.

And the neighbor, who seems to be a college student of some ilk, came out this afternoon to see what all the hoopla was about. "Wow," she said, after I explained that it really would be OK if her dog ate the cat. "He's really big."

Yes, yes, he is.