By way of failedmessiah a seder reading from Edah If You Could Prevent a Genocide Would You?

We who remember what it felt like to be degraded as slaves –
we have placed a plate of slaves’ food on our Seder table.
We who remember what it felt like to be beaten as slaves –
we call to mind now the pain of our fellow humans in Darfur.
We who have recently known the threat of genocide –
we commit ourselves to act while this next genocide can still be prevented.
We whose beloved State of Israel is under threat of annihilation by Islamic fundamentalist regimes –
we need to rise against such a regime as it threatens to annihilate the black African villagers of Darfur.

Do Something.
Do Something.
Do something.

Posted by zib at 03:15 PM | Comments (3)

April 11, 2006

It's a Whoops!

Re: It's a Wrap: Take 3

Instructions should read Work Set Up Rows 1 thru 6, not 1 thru 22.

I had worked on simplifying the pattern and knocked off a few rows and oops, forgot to change that particular number in the instructions. A million pardons for any confusion that may have caused.

Posted by zib at 05:11 PM | Comments (2)

49.9/49.8

No knitting today, you want yarn, no even better, how about some roving, ordered the Moonshadow (The Man picked that one out) and Dreaming (you know she meant Sleeping) with the Fishes colors last night from Fun With Yarn. Getting psyched up to tackle the Texan Yearling. Yeeehaw!

One more knit related note of note: TGB Design Team blog will be up soon. What would you like to see?

Now for the stuff that floats my boat.

Big news at the moment, besides the elections here is the arrest of Provenzano who is the Don of Dons. When The Man came into the kitchen and told me this, first thing I thought was - and Berlusca is on the way out, now that is quite a coinkydink (yes, I think coinkydink). Who knows, what was most notable was that Provenzano was picked up in the countryside of ..you ready for it? Corleone.

How cliche can you get!
It seems that Prodi and not our own personal political Jesus has won or at least he is claiming victory. A recount is needed. The #s are too close and if it were the other guy with 20k fewer votes he'd holler for a recount too.

We'd watched the debates between the two men. Berlusca just isn't a debate sort of guy. He gets flustered and is easy to incite (that and does the equivalent of calling the opponent a stupid poopyhead). You can tell his place is behind the wheel of his corporation he was able to spout off numbers and statistics with ease. Enough to make ones eyes glaze over. Actually his strongest point during the debates were on foreign policy. But the women in politics (he'd planned to bring in a woman VP, one of his ministers, Sicilian chickie which would have been cool) in general was way too patronizing.

Prodi had the propaganda down pat. He claimed he would unite a country divided. If the numbers from this election are any indication the country is pretty much split 50/50 (well at the moment it's technically 49.9/49.8. That's quite a task while at the same time re-distributing the wealth (this makes my head throb, really, now watch I get freaky visitors googling throbbing heads). Prodi also wants to pay women with children 250 euros a month, you know, because they have a kid and it's the government's responsibility to spend your tax money and pay for somebody else's child. We have socialized health care, subsidized school taxes for those under certain income brackets, oh hello welfare state! Ah, Prodi just came on to announce whatever he was announcing and was sure to add in that he and Bush are like this!

Carlo Stagnaro sums up what this means rather well here - Daisy Democracy in Italy: Prodi Yes, Prodi No...on the Brussels Journal. Pretty much, this split means nothing will be be accomplished. The Senate is split 158/156 and the deputies 340/277, still not formalized by the courts. No matter which way this one falls nothing will get done. Period.

I won't go into immigration and asshats who will not assimilate. BUT if you've been reading here for any amount of time you know how I feel about that. I fully support a Gas & Go policy. Gas the boats up that float over from Tunis and Algeria and give 'em a shove on up the coast. Nice is nice. Har.

Speaking of immigration and Italia. By way of FrontPage - Joseph D'Hippolito writes on How Will Rome Face Mecca. D'Hippolito points out some goings on with those prone to explode in our fair land as well as confirms the fact that Martino indeed is suffering from Asshatism.

"And then, one cannot ignore the potential conflict between some of the features of Islamism in its present state and fundamental questions for our society – the matter of human rights, beginning with religious freedom, the principles of equality between men and women, the monogamous structure of matrimony – which constitute the most valuable heritage of the secular-Christian tradition of Italy and the West.

Thank you Carlo Cardia and thank you Joseph for the fine read.

From Wolfgang Bruno - Creating the Online Infidel Library. A long read, a good read. Links at the end even.

Get real: This is a world war, at least a cold one. War has already been declared upon us, and it is irrelevant whether Westerners and infidels like this or not. We need to recognize this and start fighting back, before we lose this fight without ever having admitted that we were in it.

It is so easy for many to pretend nothing is going on. Especially when living where freedom is a given. Hey, there wouldn't have been so much noise about the Patriot Act if those very same people didn't already enjoy the freedom others have fought for.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, kids.
Without freedom, the above just won't be happenin.

Posted by zib at 10:52 AM | Comments (1)

April 10, 2006

clickity click

Posted by zib at 01:05 PM | Comments (5)

April 06, 2006

tuttifrutti in Djibouti

SEX and gold lame'. Quite a day kids!

Thank you for the wheretheheckareyouZib emails, it's nice to know the five of you are out there. Post FYS06 I found myself in hustle mode. Had to finish preparing our TGB special for Knitty readers, oh right, you won't find it on that page, you need to come in another door *insert wiggling of the eyebrows here*. It was a fun project, one stitch, three designers, three takes. And you get to see Wendy's bouti. :P

After walking Kiddo to school The Man and I made our way up to the bank then I made a beeline over to the market to see if the LOYM had anything for me. After Easter he tells me. Va bene. I can live with that, took those pale blue oddballs of cotton off his hands, couldn't just leave them there. On to the LYS. Mission was to check out the "novita" for primavera/estate from Filatura di Crosa. Esotico I've already posted, a couple others arrived, novelty stuff but "nice" novelty stuff, came back with two balls of the Multi-color - self striping mo, new blues/greens color, Tuttifrutti and Pixel. Pixel was from last season or the one before but it's a current and The Man was rather enthused about using it for something summer eveningy (I love taking him to the LYS ;) ). They still don't have any new Mexico cotton colors in (after Easter they said) which makes me Help, help, I'm being repressed!. Millefili comes in every color I want/NEED to have, why oh why couldn't it be a tad bit thicker?? Petrocity. Will have to say 50 Hail Amy's and uhm stuff over this.

The Pixel, still too fine, I'd passed it by many a time but what do I say to The Man when we're in the middle of SEX? NO?? Shirley U Jest! Besides, I think it will work well for a sketch I did the other day (see if we had a wheel he could do that groovy Navajo plying thing and I'd be set).

And then the stroll back to Casa Zib by way of the cafe at the end of the street with the comfy green chairs. My first gander at the coming fashions for Spr/sum. Great Green Horny Toads! It IS a conspiracy. WTF is up with the ruffles? You got a choice of ruffles or drab. Drab green (which has spawn way too much military/dom/femzi wear), drab red, drab everything else. The men get the hot pink, fuchsia, violet and lime.

Con. Spear. Assy. Says I.

Now what do they nice designers give us to wear with the drab drab drab? Lame' shoes of course. I have never seen so many pairs of gold and silver shoes, tennis, flats, pumps, even the boy shoes. They are just So Wrong. Not that that is much of a shocker, did I mention sequins were rather prominent? For the men.

I do believe we are seeing the beginning of the end. First it is capitulation to the intolerant. Then our footy men were forbidden from whipping off their jersey after scoring lest they offend people on the other side of the world. Then there was the return of metallic baby blue eyeshadow. Now, gold and silver shiny shoes.

Signs of the apocalypse my friends, signs of the apocalypse.

Posted by zib at 07:41 PM | Comments (9)

April 02, 2006

fys update

The Flashers Page has the final update.

Late commers have a * in front of the name to help us drooling over the stashes know which are new.

If you did not make the list have flashed leave a comment in this post so we take a gander.

For those of you who are repeatedly asking why you have not been added to the list, are you looking at the flashers page linked above or an old blog post? The list is in only one spot. Double check please. All names are listed in the way that you left the comment, not by blog name unless of course that is the name you left.

thanks again to all of you who have flashed along!

Now off to get some eyecandy ;)

Posted by zib at 02:05 PM | Comments (8)

April 01, 2006

The Flashing of the Stash @ Casa Zib

So, I had this plan for the FYS this year, since I shoot yarno shots of most every fiber of note at some point or another and I'll be linking to the pics of the individual numbered yarns, if I can identify them thru the plastic that is. This is more of an inventory exercise for me since my regular blog posts contain the yarnography shots.
I see many days of lusty browsin' there is a huge participants list to wade thru and admire :)

Again, thanks to all for flashing along!

Above, the closet, Stash Zone 1. It holds approx 70% of the stash. Over the past few months it has undergone a series of Cullings of Crap and once I found some really cool recycled plastic bags I attempted to organize my paints er yarns a bit more. Not shot is the 10% Crap which will be lugged to Kiddo's school for arts & crafts (and who knows, maybe they'll take up knitting too) fun and 20% which is yarn related to current/imminent designs and WIPS.

Click the numbered bed 'spreads' for a larger plastic filled pic.

A

1 BBB 80/20 Cotton/Petro blend. Perfect weight for making bags (Joeli, Ali, Roxy Lady, Babs) Now that I see how little I have left I do believe I should take the shop around the corner up on their offer of 1 euro a ball for their remaining stock. I need an orange shoulder bag anyways.

2 Silky chocolate brown quasi merc cotton from the LOYM, a few balls of "natural" wuss brown cott, 2 balls of Leopard's "Ocean" and a load of pale yellow merc cotton which isn't enough for the lacy cardi I'd designed specifically for the yarn. I just might have to go tank with it though at the rate things get completed round these parts it would be for next year.

3Oh yes, the Sonata by Elann.(not the bottom row, that's in a different bag) The Sonata I'd ordered to make a couple bags with. The Sonata I'd asked them about re discontinuing anytime soon. The Sonata that was not going to be discontinued anytime soon since it's an Elann label yarn. The Sonata that was discontinued within three months of me ordering it. Damn Sonata. Other half of the bag, tasty Grignasco "Mexico" merc cotton in fuchsia, navy and tan (another great bag making fiber used it for Via Diagonale and the cotton version of Sparticle), three balls of Jo Sharp summer cotton and three of Filatura di Crosa's Millefili in a springy mix.

4 Three sunshine yellow balls of Lana Gatto's "Maldives" (it's a cheap cousin to FdC's Brilla),a couple balls of FdC's forgot the name in an orange/yellow sweet merc cotton tape, think it's discontinued now, three hanks of Lana Gatto's Cairo in reds and six balls of FdC's Zanzibar, three in purples three in rusts The blues in the bag, stray FdC Brilla.

5FdC's "Melissa", another pinkish FdC I can't remember what it's called, 6 balls of Specchio from Leopard, nice cotton/rayon blend, four in red and two in a silvery grey, couple balls of the orange merc I used for the Serena wrap, a lone ball of Grignasco's Oasis, three balls of FdC's Millefili in a color that makes me swoon, finally 6 balls of Lana Gatto's Cleopatra, from Deb, a neat cotton with a rayon (?) wrap that makes it look like you were knitting with beads when it's knit up.

6A couple balls of FdC's Giardino, a black and orangish FdC "Pasta" ribbon, stray cream colored cotts, hank of Plymouth nature cotton that I'd used for both a 10 Minute Tank last summer and a Chakalaka and my ReKAL yarn, overdyed from a shell pink top with coffee and wine.

B

1 Superwash. Lilac wool, couple balls o silky tweed and odds and ends of Ornaghi's Lana D'Italia in rose, beige and offwhite.

2 My feltables. A couple of hanks of Elann's highland's wool that came over with the Sonata, damn Sonata and a few hoarded hanks of Cascade 220 which are patiently waiting to be made into something felted.

3More odds and ends, actually just odds I've purchased with one and or two ball projects to make. A couple black and one purple FdC Primo, two balls of Aurora wool blend , one of FdC's Sera (wool with sparkles ooh), a couple FdC "Alpaca Peru" in cream, two FdC College and two purpley/mauve skeins of a Lana Gatto boluce. Not many pics of the yarn in the big since I hadn't previously shot the yarnos.

4Oddballs including the Cascade 220 I'd used for Mancala Mia, rose colored stuff is wound off of the cones for ease of use, two balls of sock yarn. Yes, sock yarn. I once tried to make socks. It isn't that I tried and failed mind you, I just *ahem* needed the needles. Pretty wool, can't remember who it's from, still have it. Someday I will make 'em, just not, oy they're socks. I have issues with socks, but I shall make A sock okay?? I don't see anything wrong with making A sock and framing it. The yellow and green/yellow is FdC's Jazz print and keeping the rest company the Blue faced leicester from Fleece Artists (thanks again Michelle!) .

5 Granny panties. Well, that's what the wool reminds me of. Serviceable, it felts. Blah colors. I'd used a charcoal grey of it for the felted version of the Roxy bag. This was before the bright and tasty Cascade had arrived.

6More serviceable wool, it felts, nothing spectacular. Has the barberpole thing going on which adds a nice touch to felts, really should get around to doing something with it. Finally three stray balls of FdC's 127 Print which felts like a dream.

C

1 A gawwwgeous med blue with bits of purple and I can't believe I actually don't have a yarno pic of it. I'd tried to RAK this twice because it is so much it really does need to be made into a garment or something bigger than a purse but since it came back twice I have taken it as a sign that I really need a deep Med. blue purse.

2 The Happy Wool.

3 Wool/cotton and cotton/petro blends patiently waiting.

4Positano by Ornaghi. Still in an unfinished handbag form. Oops.

5Three messy balls of a tasty fuchsia cotton/silk blend.

6Three not so messy balls of a self striping cotton/wool blend. Has a very cool chenillesque texture to it without the potential for worms.

7A whole lotta heavy lilac cable cotton.

8 Seven balls of limey Lana Grossa's Multicott. Cotton/petro blend. I dig the color but not the freaking pilling.

9 More heavy cable cotton, this in a dark chocolate.

10 A few hanks of Filtex merc cable cott in black, robin's egg blue and orange. I miss that yarn guy, one day his unmarked white van just wasn't at the market anymore.

D

I know what you're thinking, damn! What hot Yarnography! Plastic is sooo hot!

1A lone hank of something. I think wool.

2 Handspunesque dark ash colored wool. Absolutely uninspiring, perfect for some manly man sort of knit.

3 and 7Dark chocolate linen/viscose blend. 4 balls and 6 hanks of it. Amazing sheen, lightweight, a RAK aborted :( Now I'm compelled to make something lacy to do it justice. Vediamo.

4Eight balls of funky blobby cotton with just a touch of lurex for sparkle. Dyed it with Kiddo for her scarf.

5 Eleven balls and 6 hanks of red red red lovely red merc cotton. Nice and splitty. Hope to get around to knitting this up for the summer. It really needs to be a tank top.

6 Bag o Mo. A few assorted balls of FdC's Multi Color (self striping even), a stray ball of angora, a tasty hank ofFleece Artists Mo (softest non itchiest mo I've ever met) and a couple other mixed mystery mo balls. I don't really care for mo, gets in my eyes and makes me cranky.

8Six balls of self striping superwash wool. Why oh why do they grow superwash sheep here, it would make a fun felted bag, unfortunately we won't be doing that.

9Eight balls of a weird wool felt tape. Don't have needles big enough to knit it. It's interesting in a squished mouse color. One of those ambivalent bags in the closet.

10 A lovely. Cotton silk. Patient. If it were not for the FYS pre-organizing I'd still be digging around for it. It will be a lacy shoulder warmer when it grows up.

E

1Ten balls of Mako Tape Cotton with silvery shiny stuff on it. It is a cold yarn, limp too and rather heavy. I've wondered if the silvery stuff can be sorta partially washed off, it looks like it was a post spinning treatment thing.

2 Another weird wool felt tape. I look at it once in a while and think, hey, what a weird wool felt tape, then put it away.

3 A bag of mohair/rayon. Coffee and caramel, wonder where the missing ball is now. Haven't done anything with it hence no yarno pic.

4 My bag o Valentino wool. 10 balls of purple tweed. It makes me cranky, I should see if it felts.

5 The recycled sari silk, recycled recycled sari silk and a hank of Hip Knits recycled sari silk. I'm almost tempted to amass enough to knit a freakin' sari at this rate.

6 I don't remember. From the label on a ball inside the bag I can see it is a few balls of FdC something. Wow I suck.

7Four big garish balls of merino from the "other" yarn guys. I was stunned that they actually had something that was PURE and not part petro I bought 'em. Yes, I bought them to encourage the "other" yarn guys to carry more NON petro based yarns. I do believe it is the first yarn purchase of its kind.

8 Oh yes, the cotton chenille. That reminds me I must get The Man to take me back to that other LYS. Remember the reverse bloom face/dish/something cloths pattern? My SP from Knittyboard SP3 sent me one she'd made herself. Very cool. I thought it was great and really liked the feel of it. When I found this shop and they sale section I couldn't help but adopt a few balls of cotton chenille.I got a three dark navy, three charcoal grey, two orange and five multi color which I still can't decide if I like or not. Now, I just need the facecloth pattern and I'll be good to go.

9Tasty loose "estivo" cotton waiting. Too thick for a stk st tank. Thinking bottom lacy top not. Promises to be a quick knit if I ever get around to it. I only have a blurry photo of it from last years FYS for some reason. I see I have quite a bit of yarno makeup shots to get done.

F

1 Handpaintedyarn.com wools and my Sirri Viking yarn

2 Heavy cotton tape, haven't opened the bag yet, no yarnos for it.

3 Two big hanks of "bamboo" cotton tape and a third hank that has been made into yarn cakes. Looks like this one just different colors.

4 and 5 Two packs, now wondering where the 16th ball is of cotton tape similar to the one above but with a silk thread wrapped around it instead of cotton which catches the light beautifully.

6 Three heavy cotton tape balls like 2 above in denim and red. Another one of those which I haven't even touched yet.

G

1, 2 and 3 Valentino 301 and 305. It was on sale, what can I say. Tasty texture on both, one of those some day yarns.

4Grapejuice a RAK, now that I look at it, I really should get it out of there and on the needles. Springy!

5A tasty wool/cott. Just right for a manly knit. I had started Sarnac with it. Since then it has been yoinked off the needles and shoved back in the bag. I don't want to talk about it. Still, nice yarn.

6 and 9Leopard De' File Merino/viscose/poly tape. Pale green silver and white. I had no idea there was this much of it in there.

7 and 10The cotton velour tape. Oatmeal and black. I'd used 3 balls of the oatmeal for a FBS. Weird stuff to work with, when I feel like putzing around with eleventybillion ends will use it again. It was an offerta I couldn't refuse. I knew I was getting something with ends issues and like a masochist I used it anyways.

8Red, cream and black wool/hemp or hemp/wool.

11Rayon blend novelty stuff. Made a rather nifty Sueetone

A load of sportweight merc cotton. Too light for bags unless I double it so there it sits. I suppose I should make up some lacy one ball project or three at this rate.

The Big White Box

1 Something something Kuma alpaca/wool/petro blend. Squishy soft, now in part a UFO. Che peccato.

2 and 10 Twenty balls of a wool/cotton blend just waiting for The Design.

3Big bag o Noro thick and thin cotton/linen.

4HEE! That is my silk fun fur stash! For more beards and brows!

5It's too dark and I can't remember.

6The best viscose tape. Love it!

7Linen and linen.

8Ten little balls of Crazy Cotton.

9There does not seem to be a number nine.

11 Ana handspun or handspun spun by Ana.

12 See #5

13 Groovy cotton/viscose.

14 More of the red cotton from Bag D.

15Cotton viscose tape from Ornaghi (I think it's ornaghi). It's currently on sale, must get more, decent yarnos coming for that one.

Tub of cones. Five of eltable wool tweed singles, a cone of Roadkill wool, some quasi chenille and a white wool which needs to be feltability tested.

You don't really want to see the crap and I really don't want to see the crap so we won't go there.

Absent the day photos were taken

Favorites that are part of those currently in use or that I was too damn lazy to dig out:
handpaintedyarn.com's something blobby in Pocitos, hpy.com's lace in a tequila sunrise flavor, SWT Bamboo, FdC Esotico, The Hand Maiden Sea Silk, family spun silk hankies, home dye job with imperial gunpowder on white cotton tape, Zen Yarn Garden hand painted merino.

My sincerest apologies to those tasty hanks and belle balls that I've completely spaced.

Plans for next year are in the works. The world needs a yarno version of the Kama Sutra.

Posted by zib at 09:11 AM | Comments (35)