Mixed Bouquet

Lee and CinDC asked about flowers in May: What's your favorite floral piece that you've stitched? Do you prefer your flowers as the centerpiece of the design or as an accent? I so wish I had a picture of this, but I finished Maureen Appleton's Floral Afghan before Blogger was photo-compatible (does there seem like there could have ever been such a time?) The photos I have of this fabulous piece are on a zip drive, and who can even access those any more? The piece resides with my mother, not sure if it is in Maine or Florida, but next time I see it I should take a couple of shots. (Here's someone else's picture of the pattern and several stitched parts.) Because I talk about it an awful lot, but have never been able to show you.

Three Cheers for the Red, White, and Blue!

I love how you all excuse my bad behavior.


In June, CinDC and Lee asked: Do you stitch patriotic/national pieces (or maybe just pieces that represent a specific place)? What's your favorite? Being as we are the international couple, We try not to play favorites. So I don't choose to stitch American patriotic pieces. However, at stitching camp we often stitch patriotic pieces.

I gave most of these to my grandmother who decorates with the patriotic all the time. 

My favorite is the last, Fourth of July--Quaker Style by Aury. (Similar ones can be found here.)

SBQ: Exchanges

I'm on a roll. Let's see how many answers to the SBQs I can catch up on!


Lee and CinDC ask, Do you participate in exchange or RR stitching? Why or Why Not? I no longer do. Mostly because every.single round robin I participate in goes horribly awry with my pieces never to be seen again. Seriously. I even did one with four people I know in person. And only one of us has hers back! 


I stopped doing exchanges when people on the Fair and Square exchange started stitching me these tiny pieces that were smaller than the prescribed sizes. Listen, if I'm going to put in the effort of stitching something 50 x 50, I don't want something 20x20 in return. Thanks but no thanks.


I would love to develop relationships with other stitchers this way, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I guess I just don't like you all enough! ;)

Patience, Dear

You guys, I went to a music festival this weekend and was out late Friday and Saturday nights. We hosted Sunday lunch (instead of dinner) so we could make it to the last concert, but we pooped out. I said it was because we were old. The dude reminded me that when we were in our 20s we had fewer responsibilities and could sleep later to catch up. "And we still had days where we hung around like zombies." (Or something to that effect.) And it's true. Didn't have to get up and walk the dog. Didn't have to make a taco party for eight. Didn't have to clean a whole house, just an apartment (if we even bothered). Still, we think our days of music festivals are over. Anyway, it's the perfect day to talk about being irritated rather than about my (nonexistent) stitching.


SBQ from CinDC via Lee: This statement is irritating: "Oh, I don't have the patience for stitching/crafting." How do you respond when you get that kind of statement? What's the best response you've ever heard/seen?
It turns out I have talked about patience a lot in the past nine years of blogging:
In 2004, I talked about being the one in the family "who has no patience."
In 2005, "I went to the source of all important human knowledge, written in part by a man who perfomed autopeotomy, so you know it's got to be good, the Oxford English Dictionary" and thought hard about the word "patience." (If you're only going to click once, click here. Autopeotomy! C'mon, how many stitching bloggers talk about that?)
In 2010, I substituted "tenacity and dedication" for patience.

SBQ: Taste

A while back, Lee asked: Name your favorite designer(s). Have your tastes changed over time?

I have a totally smart ass answer to this. 

You think?

I started stitching in the late 80s when a lot of what was available was country. This is not to say that was all that was available! (You know I hate that revisionist cross-stitch history.) I also stitched some really cute samplers without geese. Alma Lynne* was a favorite--of mine and the industry--and I did a lot of pieces that she designed. (My mom still has that hanging in her house. Seriously, dirty hoop marks and all!)

My tastes are still pretty eclectic. I'm less of a fan of Quaker and primitive. Also not a fan of cartoony or too-cutesy (twee) things. I'm not sure if there is a designer I will follow to the ends of the earth. Colors, yes. Designers, no.

* And what a pip!

SBQ: Records

This month, Lee asks: Do you keep records of your finishes? We are so lucky to have so many record-keeping tools at our disposal to record our accomplishments. So if you do, what recording methods do you use?  What do you think is important to record when you’ve finished a design?


I like to think that's what this blog is for! So that takes care of the period from August 2003 through the present. Between the time I started stitching (1988) and 1997, I had a project book. It had space for a photo and information about the design and the materials used to stitch it. I believe there may be a start or two recorded in that book that have no end date at this time. (Sad!) Between 1997 and 2003 however, things are a little sketchy. I did buy a new project book, but I didn't actually record any projects in it. (Go me!) I did make records on the patterns themselves and on scraps of paper that I have religiously saved. (To what purpose, I'm not sure.) Three years ago, I participated in a blogging project where I wrote a bunch of lists. I used my lists to record my stitching finishes. Not in great detail, but it is fairly complete, and it's no longer only recorded on scraps of paper.


As for what I think is important, it's almost never what kind of fabric and floss I used. I'm much more interested in the reasons I'm stitching--is it for a special occasion, did the design remind me of a person or a place, am I memorializing something or someone? What were the special circumstances? For example, the very first project recorded in the old project book was a Christmas gift in 1989 that was completed in January of 1990. (Practically on time given my usual practices!) I've recorded the classes I've taken and the gifts I've given this way.

SBQ: Luck o' the Irish

Do you have a favorite Irish or Celtic stitched piece?  If you don't, what about a piece that represents your heritage?  Or maybe a family tree style sampler?  Think about it, then tell us the story of your piece and show us your photos, if you have them.

The only Celtic pieces I have done are the ones I stitched for Dani for her birthday. Both are Ink Circles freebies (June and July 2007). Our tastes are so different, for some reason, I thought this is where they overlapped. So it has nothing to do with being Irish.


In fact, if you've been to see my 101 Things in 1001 Days, you will see that I am 3/4 French Canadian and 1/4 Polish*. I guess, then, we could call the marquoir a heritage piece, except that my 2/3** of my Canadian ancestors have been in Canada so long (since the French began settling Canada) it really seems I can't call myself French in any meaningful way.  


The only other piece I have done that marks my family's heritage would be the Souvenir Sampler I stitched for my parents' 40th anniversary. (Sorry that photo is not of the absolutely finished piece. I can't find one.)


*That's debatable since my people are from Vilni--we'll go with their self-definition instead of trying to figure out who owned that bit of real estate when various ancestors were born.
**I'm still working the other Canadian line. Who knows when they came over? So far we're up to 1743, but if some other Ancestry users are related to me, and they have it right, we're looking at relatives born in Canada as early as 1670. But I still don't know when they arrived from France.

SBQ: All You Need is Love

 month, Lee asks, "We like to stitch things for people we love. Show us and tell us about one (or more) of your favorite needlework projects that expresses your love for someone."

You may know that every year since our third anniversary, I have stitched a little something for the dude. (I skipped the first, because it was paper, and got him something appropriately papery. For the second anniversary, I started a stitched piece--it is the cotton anniversary--but tragically, I lost the piece I was working on. So even though we will have been married ten years this July, we only have seven pieces. Let's review, shall we?

2004: Chessie and Me

2005: Ewe and I

2006: La D Da

2007: SamSarah

2008, the year of the skin graft: Heart in Hand

2009: Monsterbubbles

2010: Erica Michaels. Oops.

Of all of these, my favorite is probably the Monsterbubbles. I just love that quote. We're movie quote people. So what will I stitch this year (and why wasn't it in the Crazy January starts, hmmmm?)

Grateful

This month, Lee asks: Tell us about a time that you were especially thankful for your ability to do needlework.  Try not to answer in generalities, but rather try to answer with a specific time, event, or happening that made you very thankful that you could stitch.  For instance, maybe your needlework got you through a difficult time.  Maybe your needlework made a happy time even happier.  Or perhaps your talent and skill created a wonderful situation.  You get the idea.


Ha! She's telling me to be specific! I used to say that all the time to the students. They had no idea what it meant.


Thanksgiving 2004, we're flying from Los Angeles to Washington, DC through Chicago. Do I even need to go on? We were trapped by a snowstorm for five hours. They finally put us on a plane, but we sat there for two more hours. The guy seated behind us was on his phone bitching and moaning to someone who had something to do with air travel. (I think the guy worked at the airport in some capacity). Here's the thing, his bitching didn't do a damn bit of good, because some schmuck had parked his car on the tarmac in the way of the deicer. (Pictured, but I was on a commercial flight.) I sat there stitching and thinking, "I am so happy I have something to do besides bitch and moan. What is wrong with this man? I mean, he couldn't bring a book? Or play cards? Or take up knitting?" You know, now that I think about it I was knitting myself in that scenario. But I could have been stitching.


Okay, it's summer of hmmmm...1996? My parents return from a trip to England, my dad asks me for a blanket. It was 90 degrees with 100 percent humidity. Turns out, he was rejecting his hip replacement. He goes to the hospital in New Hampshire and ends up in the hospital in Boston. Where they take out the hip joint. So there's a few days in the hospital. Then, my mother and I learn to put antibiotics in the chest lock. She pops in the drugs at 6am and noon, I have the 6pm and midnight shift. Then my dad rips out the chest lock and we have to put the medicine in a tiny little line, now it takes half an hour. A few days before I am scheduled to return to graduate school my mother asks me to stay and help her with my father. {Heavy sigh.}


That whole summer I was so happy to have the mindlessness of stitching to take me away from the stress. 

Scared Straight

Perhaps I was a little humorless on the last SBQ. After all, I read my horoscope occasionally even though I think that's a load of crap--and a lot more of you would tend to agree with me there. My parents are both first borns so the traits should be strong in this one, Obi-Wan. But they're not. Many people who answered the question said, as first borns, that cross-stitch played into their perfectionism. But I am no perfectionist. Stitching relaxes me. I can't get all het up if a stitch is out of place; you know I rarely unstitch. My stitching may reflect my need for approval. I do like people to make a fuss over what I've done. I can hardly see myself in the description of the first born. I'll concede that I'm scholarly. I think I show more of the traits of a last born: idealist, good sense of humor, hard working. Oh, and what about "tends to go against the norm?" C'mon, that's me all over! You could see my first born "need for approval" above as last born "attention seeking." See how much this is like astrology? (For the record, I'd say Sissy shows many first born tendencies, except for the part where she enjoys sales. FWIW, both my first born parents were also in sales. See? Load of crap.)

So I'd like to receive approval on my latest finish, Scared Silly. This is by Birds of a Feather, and I stitched it on the recommended fabric with all but one of the recommended fibers. I couldn't find the green the pattern calls for so I substituted one of the Loose Threads from GAST.

Sorry I couldn't show it to you sooner. The family descended on Thursday. Yesterday we went to New York to Kleinfeld's. Dianne waited on us. We aren't going to be on Say Yes to the Dress, though you may see the back of my head if the tattooed Asian girl from Manitoba makes it on the air in January or February. Keep watching! Sissy chose this dress* (with my help) after trying on about ten. (She only showed us five.) As it turns out the designers were there. Readers from Down Under may recognize the brother of the designer, Henry Roth. He is the mentor on Project Runway Australia. He congratulated us and gave us wet kisses after my sister chose his sister's design. For such a big (Australian) star, he was a delight.

*Link removed at my sister's request. Someone (ahem, Jersey) is trying to get a sneak peak of the dress. Please e-mail me if you'd like the link. I will have to vet you and be sure that you won't be passing this information on to anyone (ahem, Jersey).

SBQ: The Return of the Chart Title Quiz

Five years ago, I had this little meme on my blog. When Lee asked if she could use it for the August monthly SBQ, I was thrilled. But then you can see I got right to it. Sigh.

1. Are you male or female? Girl in a Red Dress (La D Da)

2. Describe yourself: Bitch, Please (Subversive Cross Stitch)

3. How do some people feel about you? Been Fun/Not Interested (Xs and Ohs)

4. How do you feel about yourself? Love Me (Hands to Work)

The comma makes all the difference here. "Love Me" is imperative {(You should) Love Me} and in my case, perhaps, declarative {(I) Love Me}. "Love, Me" is a signature, implying "I send my love to you," and what was meant by the designer. But I digress...

5. Describe your girlfriend/boyfriend/interest: Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater (Country Cottage)


6. Describe your best friend: Circle of Friends (Mirabilia)

I chose this one because it looks like us, all flat bellied and skinny in the hips.

7. Describe where you currently live: Old Brick House (By the Bay Needleart)


8. Where would you rather be? By the Sea (Yankee Stitcher)

Hey, one I actually stitched!


9. Describe what you want to be: Free to Be Me (Val's Stuff)

(Except much more in the Marlo Thomas sense than some kind of American (BOO-YAH) individualistic freedom patriot kind of way)

10. Describe how you live: Live Simply (Lizzie*Kate)

11. Describe how you love: I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm (Heartstring Samplery)

12. Share a few words of wisdom: Find Your Bliss (Ewe & Eye & Friends)

13. Now use a title to say goodbye: Get Lost (Subversive Cross Stitch)

SBQ: September, Or You Weirdo

Today's library stitching was a laugh riot. Josephine told us the story about heading up to the mountains at Labor Day to stay in a cabin with her sister. "I'll bring the food," Josephine tells her. She packs up cheese and crackers, candy, lunch meat, rolls, fruits and veggies. And takes the two hour drive (probably longer because they're in their mid-to-late 80s) up to the mountains. She and her husband unload the car. Josephine turns to Benjamin and says, "Go get the luggage." "What luggage?" he asks. They had neglected to put it in the car. There she is in a cabin with her sister and brother-in-law and no pajamas. She was so worried about having to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and being caught with no clothes on, so she wrapped herself in the sheet to visit the loo. She also slept on the edge of the bed. "All I could think was what if Benny puts his hand on my rump in the night!" The way she was talking, you would have thought it was her first long weekend away with a new boyfriend. It was hilarious. Her sister lent her a pair of slacks (size 20, which Josephine is not) and took her to the Family Dollar store. Her description of her new bra was so funny, and made me wonder what kind of undergarments older women usually wear. (It was an "uplifting experience" for the old broad.) She bought a oversized sweatshirt that said "Do Not Disturb: I'm Already Disturbed" to sleep in. Just her delivery of that line was worth the price of admission. I hope everyone starts leaving their luggage behind!

(In his defense, her husband was recently hospitalized with dehydration and told not to lift anything over five pounds.)

Speaking of dehydration, Mabel has been moved to an assisted living facility. Probably for the best because even before the dehydration incident she had burned herself with scalding water and had had a fight with a bee that got in her house resulting in several stings. I think she was ready. The facility is about an hour away, and everyone took her address so I'm sure she will have a healthy level of communication with the group.

This month's SBQ from Lee:

Is there anything that you do while you are stitching that is kind of weird or unusual? A quirky habit maybe? Or anything that you do that makes you think, Hey...I wonder if anyone else does this?

When I am getting down to the end of the floss, and I only have a couple of stitches to do, I will push the eye end of the needle through the fabric. Heck, I even make stitches using the dololly if I'm desperate.

Also, I sit through the commercials while I am watching shows on the DVR. I can't be bothered to put down my stitching to fast forward through them.

Only the Lonely

This month, Lee asks us:

Sometimes I wonder if we choose stitching because we are more comfortable with pursuits that we do alone, or does our stitching cause us to be loners? So what do you think?

Since we’re stitching alone most of the time, it seems to me that we get great joy from coming together with other stitchers. It can be such a good feeling when we find a group of people who speak our language and understand our stitching excitement and passion. But since not all stitchers are perfect, not all groups can be perfect either. So…if you could create your own perfect stitching group, what characteristics would make it perfect? For instance, would you all be near the same age, or would you like your group to span a generation or two? Would you enjoy political or religious discussions while you stitch or would that make you shy away? Would you like a big group or a small group?

This question reminds me of one we used to ask in graduate school: does the PhD process make you an asshole, or is it that only the assholes can survive the process? (If you think your favorite prof wasn't an asshole, you either 1) went to a liberal arts college or 2) didn't really know your professor.) I was talking about this with a faculty/staff therapist once and he preferred the term "narcissist" but the upshot was the same. There's just so much self-promotion involved with being a professor, it's not funny. Most people came down on the side of both. In fact, the whole process is such a mind f*ck, the Germans have a word for "damaged goods due to obtaining the PhD," promotionsbedchaedigt.

Nor sure if they have one for "being alone because I stitch." I actually think I'm not a loner, much as I pretend to be a misanthrope. Stitching is one of those things I happen to do when I'm alone like read or talk to the dog. But sometimes I read or talk to the dog or stitch in public. And I'd happily stitch in groups all of the time if I could find more of them. I mean, let's face it, the ancient ladies of my working class neighborhood who eat all the cake aren't my ideal group of women.

I'm not sure what my ideal group of stitchers is. Women who think. Who are interested in thinking about stitching beyond "this is what I stitched today," but who are also interested in the world beyond stitching. They should agree with Madeleine Albright that "there's a special place in hell for women who don't help other women." They don't have to share all my beliefs, but they shouldn't watch Fox News.

SBQ: Daddy

This month's SBQ, focuses on dear old dad.

Tell us about something that you have stitched or plan to stitch for any father in your life. Maybe it’s for your father, your father-in-law, your children’s father, your grandfather, your godfather, or someone who was or still is an important father-figure in your life. Why did you choose this particular piece of stitching? Tell us the story behind it.

Often times we identify our love of needlework and our skills with our mothers or grandmothers or other women. It’s understandable because often they were are first teachers or role models. Now let’s think about our stitching life as it relates to our dads. Is there anything about our approach to stitching that we can recognize as traits of our fathers? For instance, does your dad (or any other important man in your life) have an approach to one of his interests that you can observe and think, “Hey….if I substitute the word “needlework” for “fly fishing”, we’d be pretty darn similar!” So tell us about it. (That's me and dad in Canada in the 70s.)

The first thing I ever stitched for my dad was this Sue Hillis design of our home state. You may notice the little green bottles at Nashua and Keene. My dad was a beer wholesaler and his warehouses were located there. Clever, huh? This may have been my first major pattern alteration because I had only been stitching for two years when I did this.

I also made Dimples Design's Legends of the Silver Screen, Marilyn Monroe. It's just her eyes, and I did it because my father is a huge fan of Marilyn Monroe. He has a lot of photos and paintings featuring her. I gave it to him at Christmas, and he had no idea who it was. All of Nolan's eyes are completely recognizable.

When I was growing up, my dad's catch phrase was "No sweat." I think that I approach cross stitch that way, nothing is too difficult or complicated to take on. He also used to (may still, not sure) reload his own ammunition. And I think in a lot of ways that is like cross-stitch in that it is also an exacting but repetitious endeavor.

Here we are up at L.L. Bean's fly fishing school, speaking of fly fishing. We learned to tie flies up there, which is a similar craft.

The Nine Fingered Pedant Strikes Again

This week's SBQ is:
For seasoned stitchers: Define a stitching term or acronym for new stitchers.
Because I so rarely do exactly as I am told, I am going to undefine an alleged acronym. Lots of people have claimed (okay, I've seen it twice) that ort stands for Old Ratty Thread. No, it does not; that's a false etymology. Ort is a word in English. Go ahead, check the dictionary; I'll wait. I hate to say I told you so... (no I don't) but you should do more crossword puzzles.

I am a member of the yahoo group Stitching Bloggers, and I'm supposed to answer questions, which I never do.
Which of these do you prefer to use when stitching, and why? Hoop frames Q-snap frames Laptop/Tabletop stand or Needlework Stand.
None of the above. I stitch in hand. I like touching the fabric.
What's your favorite guilty pleasure? I won that list book with this list of guilty pleasures:
1. sour cherry balls
2. [redacted]
3. lying on the bed still wet after the shower and air drying
4. Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name"
5. reading so intently I can't hear what's going on around me
What is your least favorite household chore? Dude, all of them. That's why they're called chores.

Someday I'll be interesting again. I swear.
Also, if you got a random e-mail from facebook telling you that you should join, that was me. You won't recognize the name at all. Apparently my mother is a more sophisticated facebook user than I am. Apologies.

Needle and Thread

I haven't answered an SBQ in a while, so here are two--and quite a pair!

How many needles do you use during a project? Have you ever loaded up a needle for every color? Do you use a new needle for every project or recycle your favorite needle? I can't use needles for too long. I think I am physically acidic. (It's not just an acid tongue!) I remove the plating off needles--doesn't matter if they are nickel or gold or platinum--use a needle too long and it is down to the bare metal and rough. I use them as long as I can (so I guess I recycle) for one project or two or three, but eventually they become unusable. I have indeed loaded up a needle for every color, went out and bought one of these for the project even. It didn't turn out to save any time. (Ultimately, you still have to thread the needle when you run out of floss.) It was just a huge pita to keep everything where it belonged.

Do you consider yourself a "floss miser?" Not at all! When you think of it, the floss is among the cheapest parts of this whole endeavor--no matter whether you are using silk or cotton, nor whether you pay $1 or .20 for a skein of DMC. You hardly ever use a whole skein of floss on a project. There are some bobbins of floss I am still using that because of marks I made on them, I know they are from one of my first projects. And I am still using it eighteen years later! I throw away great gobs of floss. Doesn't mean I never try to squeeze out a couple of extra stitches--but that's more out of laziness than stinginess.

SBQ: Storage

This SBQ was suggested Jennifer:

How do you store your WIPs and other projects that you have kitted up?

Oooh! See how organized! There are all my kitted projects in a cheap plastic tote. Inside we find kits either in the original packaging or some sort of plastic bag. How charming.

Lest you think I'm all organized, here's the long shot. Go ahead and click on it. But the thing that is happening to my eyes is similar to what's happening with my camera. The photos it produces look fine when they are tiny, but blowing them up demonstrates that they are completely blurred. It may be time for a new camera.

Anyway, soon everything in this room will be cleared out so that we can start redecorating. Yay!

SBQ: Challenging

Barbara is right. Things have been crazy around here lately. The cold that made me hoarse at MD Sheep and Wool hasn't really let up. I'm better and worse, and right now I'm in a worse. I guess I should go to the doctor, but sheesh, I have too many other things to do. A friend is in town from Los Angeles this week, and there is not one night I have available to see her. That just doesn't seem right. Next week I have to get ready for the Vegas invasion which will be here in just a week. When do I get some rest?

I haven't answered an SBQ in a hound's age: What has been your most challenging project and why? I think it would be my cousin's wedding sampler. It had a billion color changes and loads of blended needles. I thought I would lose my mind! It wasn't particularly difficult stitching, but I am really impatient. (I really should try to get a photo of that one.) The most challenging project I'm currently working on would probably be the marquoir. It's huge, and I'm working on 40 count fabric. My eyes are about 20 years older than they were when I first started stitching. I think the real difficulty of this project, though, is just its giantness.

SBQ: Gettin' Flossie with it

Sorry about the title; I'm a little punchy today. I'm a bit relieved to have this question to write about; it gives me a chance to to think up one more stitching accessory that I can live without (to balance yesterday's top five). I just need one more, if you can think of anything.

How many different brands of “complete” embroidery floss sets do you own? How do you keep track of it? (i.e., spread sheet program, index cards, palm pilot, etc.)
I own only one set of complete floss: DMC. The DMC is in boxes organized numerically. The extra skeins are in the millennium keepsake chest.

I have a lot of Sampler Threads and Weeks Dye Works floss; a handful of Needle's Necessities, Caron flosses of all composition, and silk flosses from Krienik; a few skeins of Crescent Colors; and a couple skiens of Anchor. These are all kept in Ziploc bags.

To keep track I have an old "geek book"--with paper! checklists from the Stitcher's Pocket Inventory for most of the products I own. (I'm totally analog.) I haven't been keeping it up lately. What I usually do is take out the bag of ST or WDW, find what I need, make a list of what I don't have and pop over to Fireside Stitchery or Strawberry Sampler to get what I need.

I could use some kind of system whereby I can "check out" floss to a project. But that would be too much like workin'.

SBQ: The Bitch who Stitches

SBQ: How did you decide on the title of your stitching blog? Was it random, or does it have a special meaning to you or about you?

There was this wedding sampler I was stitching for my cousin, bride and groom standing at the edge of a wood surrounded by bushes. Every single stitch in those bushes was a different color. Hundreds of blended needles. I could hardly stitch for the complaining I did. I mostly got through it because a group of us stitched together semi-regularly. Whenever I took it out, they'd say, "here comes the stitch and bitch." In fact, we decided when we opened our stitching store cum bookstore cum coffee shop (no coffee in the stitching area) that we'd call it "Stitch and Bitch." This was before Debbie Stoller took the name for her own, of course.

When I imagined my blog, there were no stitching bloggers (that I had yet found) and I took as my inspiration the Knitting Curmudgeon. Like her, I hated when newbies-who-didn't-know-enough-to-realize-there-was-life-beyond_________ (aida in this case), took over interesting places. I was on rctn in nineteen-dickety-two when there were about 50 posts a week. Fifty intelligent and interesting on topic posts. Then something happened (I blame AOL and compuserve for releasing idiots the ill-prepared into the wilds of the internet). And then there were thousands of posts many of them on homeschooling, dying relatives that needed praying for, and how great Precious Moments kits were. It made me bitchier. And I thought this blogging-thing would give me a chance to unleash my ranting without having to actually read what those others were saying. So I was going to bitch...and the stitch and bitch thing came back to me. (The Knitting Curmudgeon has a lot more fortitude than I do because she continues to read those boards, at least every now and then, for fodder. I can't make myself. Who really cares if Jim-what's-his-name is stitching nude women--it's neither cute nor offensive.)

All this said, with the exception of my rants concerning Martha Beth Lewis, I actually find it hard to sustain the attitude I had set out to share. When I'm saying mean things to people I know, it's easy to know how far I can go. When I'm saying them in person to people I don't know, same thing--you stop when people recoil...or maybe just one more jab and then you stop. Out here, people are kind of thin-skinned. And it's hard to know when I've gone too far. OTOH, I'm not called the Stitch Bitch for nothing: WYSIWYG.

Recently I met people who I didn't know who also read the blog. Suddenly, I was horrified. I had said, things, and there were these people...Reading Them. And here I was talking to them. What had I said that they would remember; had I embarrassed myself? the poor dude? It's completely counterintuitive, but I like you all a whole lot better in the abstract than when you are shaking my hand. (Oh, it was a pleasure to meet you all, btw!)

If you're asking why I use a nom de blog, that's a whole other story.