It's Been Busy

Ithaca College at Night

Fair Trade, Vegan Chocolate

I won a chocolate giveaway! I barely was able to photograph the bars before George tore into them. They are yummy, and great alternatives to traditional chocolate bars. (See The Dark Side of Chocolate to learn more about the forced child labor that enables big chocolatiers to succeed.)

The giveaway was hosted by Tamara McFarland, author of A Gentler World Begins with You, a fair trade blog. Coincidentally, Tamara is also the jewelry artist who crafted my gorgeous wedding ring set.

Mythos Sweater

I am taking a class for the Mythos sweater with Laura Nelkin (the designer) at Knitting Etc. -- it's my first sweater! (I usually prefer more instant gratification projects.) The yarn is Panda Cotton (a cotton, bamboo, nylon blend) from Crystal Palace Yarns. Some knitters criticize this yarn as being splitty, but I haven't found it horribly so. When it knits up, it is a dream, it's so soft! I'd like to make a pillow case and blanket out of it.

Mythos appeared in Knitty and was written to be knitted flat, but we knit the arms in the round and used Judy's magic cast on for the body. Besides a small gap in the armpit, the process was very painless (especially since Laura did all the hard thinking work and started the magic cast on for me).

It's always fun to have classes with Laura, but I've got to get knitting so hopefully she can help me with the grafting during this coming week's class!

World AIDS Day

Nightmare, Literally

Last night, I experienced a traumatic dream. For some reason, in the dream, I ate chicken tenders. Today, I feel like I should vomit to purge even the idea of meat out of my stomach.

When I think of chicken tenders, the first thing that usually comes to mind is the PETA t-shirt with a cute chick captioned, "I am Not a Nugget."

So...I blame George and the fact he made us watch "Bowling for Columbine" Saturday night. The movie reports that an eight-year-old boy pointed a chicken tender at a teacher in the school cafeteria during lunch and said, "Pow, pow, pow." As a result, he was suspended for three days.

In my dream, why was this violent image turned against me, by my own hands no less? That's not a subject for a public forum!