Still Sizzlin’

I know, I disappeared again. I’ve been trying to get work done, and I also haven’t been feeling well. Ever since I got food poisoning in Rostov-the-Great, Russia, a year and a half ago, I’ve had repeated bouts of illness that may or may not be related to the original incident. I know – eww. Here’s hoping I’ll feel better tomorrow.

So – I don’t even remember all of what I meant to post here, but didn’t, in the last few days. I’ll do my best:

1. I already posted, immediately below this post, instructions on how to change the header image.

2. About a knitting Wiki: I think Eve makes a very good point, that contributing to a Wiki (at least right now) requires a bit of time and effort that most knitters would rather put into their socks-in-progress. On the other hand, as Utilly pointed out, the knitting tab in the current Wikipedia is already in use, and is part of an organization that’s already trying to make contribution easier. Yvonne’s two stumbling blocks (see her comment and the others to my post for the details) are very pertinent also: who pays for the space and who’s going to do the steady, on-going work. Because, of course, one way to get around the problem Eve points to is if knitters were able to simply email a contribution to someone on a “Wikipedian committee,” who would then enter it in the system in the proper way. But that’s labor-intensive. I have no idea what the right answers are to all these questions – I just stole the idea from Brenda Dayne! And I’m not even sure it’s the Wiki format she has in mind (she didn’t yet specify). I’m waiting with baited breath for her new series, in which she has pledged to explore all these issues and more. I do think, though, that one way or another some kind of online compendium (or at least a centralized means of sorting and organizing info) is pretty much inevitable, and I’m looking forward both to contributing to it in some way and to using it! I think Cast-On is a great forum to discuss the various problems and implications, and I hope you’ll all join me in listening!

3. Sizzle is progressing, partly because I’ve been too ill to do much else this weekend.



I apologize for yet another bad picture. Lighting conditions not good. What you see there is the completed back piece, with the partially complete front lying on top of it. I’ve got 30 rows left to do on the shoulders of the front piece, then a little sewing up, a little picking up, a few rows around the collar and the armholes, and I’m done!

Just when I really started making progress on Sizzle, the temperature dropped, we pulled out the rugs (as you can see in the photo), and I started fantasizing again about the Fair Isle cardigan. I really want to get back to it now – because I’m dying to wear it! They still haven’t turned on the heat (though there have been some hopeful-sounding clanging noises), but even after it’s on this apartment doesn’t ever get too warm for a cardigan until spring comes anew. Must finish Sizzle first, though, or I’m in danger of falling back into UFO land!

I still haven’t solved the needle problems for the FI cardigan sleeves, but I think I’ll just go ahead and finish them on the magic loop that’s slightly (0.25 mm) smaller than the needle I used for the body.

Now I need to catch up on everybody else’s blogs….