The Knitting Fiend/ Diet Diary

Subtitle: Other Perils of Garter Stitch.

Some say mindless garter stitch knitting places them in a Zen like meditative trance. It causes me to mutter. Overhearing my muttering causes The General to lift his nose up out of the mohair and ask difficult questions. Last night, he posed these:

• How many authors of knitting blogs have actually published books?
• Whose, as yet unwritten, knit blog book do you think you’d buy?

What caused him to ask these questions? Well, several well loved knit bloggers have written books which seem to be doing so well that some knitters have developed the impression there are “vast quantities” of blogger books “out there”. So, The General naturally wanted to know, “Are there really a whole bunch of knitting blog books ‘out there’?”

I told him I’m aware of only a few knitting blog author or books: “Mason Dixon Knitting”, “Wendy Knits”, books by “The Yarn Harlot”, Stitch McYarnyPants’s “Museum of Kitschy Stitches” and Annie Modesitt’s three books.

This prompted The General’s to ask, “So many hilarious knitting blogs and so few books? In your opinion, which knitting blog author should write a book? “

The two of us had a little discussion and concluded there are two books we’d like to see: One by Laurie of “Crazy Aunt Purl” , the other by Franklin of “The Panopticon”. (The General has a mad crush on Laurie, who as you know, owns four cats. He visits her blog regularly. I want to read more about Dolores. )

So, if the two of them would just decide to stop eating and sleeping and figure out how to string all their hilarious writing into book length material, they’ve got at least two customers lined up and waiting.

Several people have written to ask about The General’s frame of mind. He was very, very snuggly for a few days after Biggie’s death, but he has resumed his regularly scheduled late spring and early summer activities.

“Spring activities? Are they different from winter activities?” Absolutely. During winter, The General helps with the knitting. During summer, he romps with small outdoor animals. Last summer, The General’s outdoor friends were limited to chipmunks and rabbits, who I am afraid, do not enjoy the romping with The General.

However, in the past month, a frisky squirrel, noticing the absence of a rather large, swift athletic black cat has taken up residence in our maple tree; the squirrel enjoys taunting this fat orange cat.

Above and to the left, you can see The General and his challenger facing each other. Can’t see the squirrel? Look to the right!

You may not believe this, but that squirrel keeps daring The General him to catch him. This squirrel sits in trees and watches The General. When The General moves more than 20 feet away, the Squirrel runs down and starts racing back and forth on the split rail fence making loud squealing noises. He keeps squealing until The General notices him and assumes his jungle puss hunting position.

The General then approaches slowly; the squirrel stands his ground. Eventually, The General gets close; he winds up his fat haunches and springs. The squirrel always manages to leap into one of the many trees over hanging the fence, runs quickly up a trunk of branch and gets away.

Then, he turns faces The General and laughs at him! Seriously, the squirrel digs his little claws in the tree, faces down then laughs and laughs. Heck, he doesn’t just laugh; he runs around, barks and yips with joy!

The General always looks up at the squirrel, tries to climb but discovers the squirrel is a better climber. Then, he turns away, walks over to a timber and nonchalantly sharpens his claws. He moves further away and pretends to sleep in the grass. Then, the whole thing starts over.

Jim and I sit on the patio, drink our beers and laugh.

Thank you everyone who left comments yesterday. It’s comforting to know so many had kind feelings toward my sweet Biggie.

Late yesterday afternoon, Jim and I picked a nice garden spot between the patio and the cat door Biggie came through one icy cold winter night. We dug a deep hole and buried Biggie, laying him to rest with a hand written copy of his Haiku and a favorite cat toy. Above him, we planted a beautiful evergreen Rhododendron. It’s a Nova Zembla; every spring its big blooms will return and we will remember Biggie.