Today has been full of joy. Firstly, Mariee Sioux’ album, downloaded on a Napster free trial, is a gem of an album. Her brand of folk music is the perfect thing for knitting to and she has photos of her feral child sitting amongst piles of jam jars and ladies spinning on her myspace which adds to her appeal enormously.

In other news, I have discovered this genius cupcake courier which strikes me as a great idea if a girl wants to get her buns about town unspoiled.

On a less joyous note, Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting, closed on 17th June without my being able to fly over to NYC and visit is personally. We shall just have to hope that the TATE realises soon enough that knitting *is* the zeitgeist and in a competitive moment, books the show for London so that I can get to see it. I am contemplating visiting The Knitted House this weekend, but I can’t help thinking it will be exactly like the knitted garden, but just, this time, a house.

I have to say my favourite knitting this year was probably mine and Caroline’s knitfest where we made random vegetables without patterns or gauge swatches or anything. We were deep in the realms of tea-drinking and inventiveness and it was great. But at the same time, as I knit up my walking stick cover in self-patterning yarn (all stocking stitch…) I find myself agreeing with something Liz said a while back about all these art/knit projects mainly being variations on stocking stitch and therefore not so interesting from an active knitter’s perspective. (The stick is so boring to complete.) The problem with the concept being amazing is that the knitting isn’t necessarily interesting to do.

But I love knitted art/culture things all the same and boring as it is to make, stocking stitch is beautiful and if I am feeling a tad low, a quick trip to this page never fails to please. Here are some of the visual delights to be found there:

And I always love Little Cotton Rabbits knitted cupcakes for instant eyecandy.

So many little delights to be found inside of a day… I will be starting Kiri tomorrow and pestering other knitters for chart-reading assistance! In the meantime, I am feeling very homely and am loving this painting by my oldest friend, Dorrie. We’ve known each other for 18 years and I’ve been redoing her website for her.

I love this painting she did of herself because it’s really how I see her when I think of her and it makes me feel like I am in her house with her, watching the stars outside, listening to the fire and drinking hippie teas together.