Schadenfreude

I'm sure that as usual us plebs are going to end up paying the highest price for the meltdown on Wall Street, but for a few brief moments today we experienced a bit of schadenfreude when the greedy traders all of a sudden realised that the US taxpayer wasn't going to bail them out after all. It was a close call and possibly by the time this post appears on my blog the Republican Party machine will have arm-twisted a dozen of their members into voting for the bailout. Will the world really end tomorrow if this doesn't happen? Will we experience the horrors of the Great Depression as some fear? Will unemployment rise to 60%, will people be dying of starvation in the streets? Or will we regroup and go on, poorer but a bit wiser and not quite so confident that our superannuation will carry us in our retirement years.

Will Monday 29 September 2008 (US time) go down as the day capitalism collapsed? I seriously doubt it. Anyone who thinks that capitalism is dead should go along to any left-wing gathering and observe the all-pervasive low-level capitalism in action as aging hippies try and flog badges and bumper stickers and newspapers to all and sundry.

And it is too much to hope that the seriously immoral will pay for their crimes. At the age of 37 I have a strange sense of deja vue; in the 1980s we had Michael Milken and co. with their junk bonds; today it's subprime lending. Gordon Gecko and the Greed is Good mantra and the immorality and lack of social responsibility have always been around in the past and will still exist tomorrow. And the world somehow survives to the next day.

It's days like today where it is good to be a non-materialist.

So can someone please explain why I felt compelled to spend money I didn't have on a fresh collection of knitting paraphanalia?

Photos to follow.

On the needles:
At work - Baby blanket in Peaches 'n' Cream double-worsted cotton (Springtime colourway)
At home - Veronik Avery's Short-Row Hat (in Noro) for 100g swap
At Home - Forest Canopy Shoulders Shawl

(The last two are from patterns I actually bought as PDFs off the net. So far, they have been worthwhile.)

Lost in the wild
A Magic Yarn Ball I made up for a fellow Aussie Raveller using two skeins of Nor Kureyon (argh!), buttons, a bar of soap, lollies and a crochet needle.

I stupidly neither took a photo of it nor sent it registered post, so I have already made up another (with a different pure wool 12-ply yarn which is nice but no Noro), expecting to have to send it (probably by registered post this time). I've already taken a photo.

I also haven't yet received my stashbuster swap parcel :(

Recently received
At least I have already received my own Aussie Magic Yarn Ball, made out of the softest wine-coloured merino yarn, containing lindt chocolates, tea, candies, embellishments and a giant 12 mm crochet hook.

Pictures of finished objects

I finally finished Jackie's scarf in Vintage Twist (just in time for the warmer weather)

I finally made some mitts for myself (also in Vintage Twist, the pink colourway). This was from yarn rescued from my frogged Flat-Top Hat by Iris Schreier.

My stashbusting swap pal Noeller67's daughter seemed pretty happy with my gift.




And I finally started the Forrest Canopy shawl for the No Sheep for You swap (made out of Bendigo cotton in the colour teal). It doesn't look very impressive yet.

Books I may or may not have acquired in recent weeks (from swaps and direct purchases) include: all four Barbara Walker Treasuries (apparently even if you knit one sample a day, it will take 2 years just to get through the first book) and a book about knitting 2 socks at a time on circular needles (I can dream). Plus a few back copies of Yarn magazine.

I know I am getting old...

• When I look at the school kids sprawling over the train seats and catch myself thinking: "In my day, we had to give up our seats to full fare paying travellers." (I was quite put out when I discovered that it is no longer a condition of a student transport pass that they give up their seats to full-fare paying travellers).
• When men in their 30s and 40s offer their seat to me.  This never used to happen to me.  I'd like to think this is because they are chivalrous men enamoured by my beauty but I fear the reason is that they think I am pregnant or ill and likely to pass out or puke if forced to stand for long distances.

I am not sure which of the two scenarios is disconcerting me more...

The modular hat was nothing but frustration - I couldn't get the triangles to match up on the top and I hated the look anyway. Urgh! So it is sitting in the frog pond waiting to be ripped. I fell back on an old stalwart, whipping up a pair of Seed-Stitch Mitts using some Cleckheaton Merino Silk Spun yarn in my stash. I think I'll have enough yarn left over to make a matching Calorimetry. So that's my international stash buster swap out of the way.

I've also joined up for 3 Australian swaps - a 100 gram challenge, a "no sheep for you" and a "magic wool ball" swap. My intention is to completely fulfill these using only yarn from my stash. Apart from the obligatory chocolate "extras" and postage.

Elvish Leaves Dishcloth

Now this is a dishcloth I don't want to use. I made it with some lovely soft 8-ply cotton I had in my stash and I think it is just a little too fragile and nice to scrub the floor with. I was seriously tempted to continue the lace pattern and turn it into a scarf but I didn't have enough yarn. I think this will become a doily.