A brief rant - and more blocks!

What a busy week it's been! Thursday afternoon already? Hello!!! I'd much rather be getting on and getting things done than languishing in a corner somewhere feeling bored and dejected, but honestly! Gimme a break! I feel like I'm going to nip into the toilet for a sec and when I come out a whole week will have passed! I thought only weekends were doomed to zip past in the blink of an eye?

Here's hoping that you aren't all TOO bored with hearing about my Mod Sampler quilt because - yes, you guessed it.....MORE BLOCKS! Here are a few shots of my 'D' blocks. Although these are far easier (and quicker) to complete than Block 'C', I found them really difficult to press for some strange reason. They kept wanting to crinkle up along the seamline - maybe that's symptomatic of poor sewing skills?!

OK, ok....stop yawning - I'm done now!

I was, until recently, primarily a knitter (some would say nutter). As such, I have subscriptions to about 4 knitting magazines and yesterday the new issue of 'Yarn Forward' was dropped through my letterbox and waiting patiently for me when I got home.

As with all similar publications, this magazine can be a bit hit and miss. I admit that I am an especially difficult person to please - after all, how well can you really expect ANY knitting magazine to cater for the young, homosexual male?! It's just a very messy demographic! This month I was actually pretty pleased with the balance of patterns and, if I was knitting for a woman, I would be pretty tempted to try out the red sweater dress on the cover. What do you think? 

Don't proffer that casual smile too soon - now look at this...

Eurgh! No way! Now, I am the first to admit that I bitch and moan about the fact that both mens patterns AND ready-to-wear are only ever available in a vomit-inducing range of blue/black/brown and similar exotic shades but this postbox red alone is enough to encourage me to revoke my comments - AND YET it doesn't stop there! Cables? Is that what we have come to? Have we pushed and exploited the boundaries of imagination and creativity for all these years and come no further than bloody cables? I've lost count of the number of times, this year alone, that I have written to knitting magazines to request that they hunt down a design for anything OTHER THAN A CABLED MENS JUMPER! It's frustrating and demeaning. I cannot help but imagine that editors feel obligated to 'throw in' a token pattern for men in order to remain 'p.c' but do not really give any thought as to what that pattern may be. Indeed, the fact that they've used a model here that bears a striking resemblance to Anthony Hopkins in 'The Silence of the Lambs' proves, I feel, that the editor is less than attentive when it comes to male orientated content! The recent so-called 'Men's issues' from The Knitter and Yarn Forward were, in my humble opinion, pretty laughable!

I don't mean to rant and rave. Indeed, on a more positive note, I am TRYING to negotiate a solution of my own by designing some menswear pieces. I'm not a professional though, and it is proving to be such a lengthy process.....

I'm going to leave things here for today - having read this post back it seems that throwing a tantrum precludes my ability to write coherently! I'll be back, hopefully a little more positive, very soon.

Love and light

M xxx