Knotsewmuch

I am old.   I roamed the earth as a child with dinosaurs as companions.   Electricity was a latecomer.   I say this as a disclaimer for what is to follow.   I was a Nerd before Nerdism was cool.   I was a Nerd before it was mainstreamed and there were Nerd gatherings on a large scale.   That is why I am jealous. I recently attended LeakyCon in Portland Oregon with my teenage daughter (because none of her friends could afford to go and I was not going to let her go by herself).   For those of you out of   the know, LeakyCon is a gathering of fans of the Harry Potter Novels (Potterites).   They have quite kindly opened their doors to fans of Supernatural (Supernaturalists) and fans of the Doctor Who series (and its spin-offs) (Whovians).   Thus it has become a polyfandom of epic scale. I found myself, one Friday morning, surrounded by approximately 4,000 people much younger than I.   They were attired in fan t-shirts, Etonesque black robes with fetching accessories of approp

In this world there are things which are inherently wrong. The list is long and varied.   Who knew one of these was a lace shawl in economy class on a European vacation?   Yet here I sit, me and my WIP shawl.   I was going to get a lot accomplished, after all, I have ten hours of sitting, right?   I was going to get at least to the next pattern change. Guess not. First on the list of "why nots" is the sheer number of people on the plane.   They walk by, they jostle elbows, they squirm.   Heck, I squirm.   Who designed these seats? Second, evidently my brain goes into a test pattern on a plane.   Yarn over, slip-slip knit becomes equivalent to string theory.   Incomprehensible to my poor brain.   I have often referred to economy as 'cattle class', and apparently it's what I deserve.   Moo. Third on my list is the service.   I have not flown for a long time.   Okay, a very long time.   All right, Lindbergh was the pilot on my last flight, okay?

A couple of weeks ago, I took a couple of teenage girls to the movie "The Hobbit".  This experience and several others have caused me to formulate a complaint. The movie was too heavy on swordfights and short on actual Tolkien to suit me, and I waited the entire movie for Smaug who remained elusive.  That, however, is not my major complaint. Why do filmmakers have to distract me with knitting?  I spent a great deal of the movie working out the patterns of various knitted garments worn by characters in the movie.  As an aside, it is almost impossible to take notes in the dark confines of a theater.  I saw Dwarvish mitts, Hobbit vests as well as several other tantalizing glimpses of knitting flashing by on the screen.  Now I have to rent the DVD when it comes out and freeze frame at the exact proper moment.... While I am complaining about the Hobbit here, the worst movie of all time for perpetrating this outrage is "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" starring Jo