some bits and pieces, gleaned clean from today's bliu machine...

exhibit a.

i was shocked to find an unbelievably likable shrug pattern from tahki stacy charles in their latest newsletter. not only is it classy, modern, (and dare i say, in aran weight yay-for-green wool), the pattern is free on their website for an indeterminate amount of time. snag it soon before it gets bumped off the radar by some horrid cotton tape yarn with self-striping metallic glitz.






exhibit b.

i of all people know that there's nary a cat that isn't deemably cute (except you know who you are, butterball), but i felt a complete gravitation toward this pic at cute overload. honestly, i think it's the vintage wallpaper that wins me over. what is that thing hanging on the wall? it doesnt matter, it's shabby chic!




exhibit c.



for some reason, i had overlooked supermaggie in the realm of online coolycrafty. amazing felted scarves at supermaggie! featured at left is the hole scarf in mint. browsing the site almost tempts you to grab some roving and take a warm sloshy bath with it.


exhibit d.

doesn't it always strike you as wonderfully coincidental when diverse blog communities intersect, crossing unexpected paths? i remember feeling like that quite strongly when i first met shannon okey (shown at left on knitty gritty) and susan kaup at a most random boston blogger meetup in cambridge practically four years ago. i was pretty naïve during the whole thing. :) and now look how amazingly these gals and guys influence the blogosphere!

anyway, while doing research and playing around with phpFlickr, i meandered over to all things alceste, a blog with a few cute phpFlickr scripts. dan coulter... i see that name almost constantly on my subscription to yws-flickr yahoo groups. :) [*update* dan confusion! the alceste guy is 'dan steingart', oopsie.] then i click over to his girlfriend's blog, sally says. and wouldn't you know it, she's a knitcraftchick! and then, she references the sgt. pepper knit coat by anna bell, whose elfine socks are on my needles now. whoa. and i finally made a connection between anna bell, the sleek designs on magknits, and the next-door neighbor to dear glampyre on the hipknits pattern page.

anyway, it probably makes sense to no one but me, but with the above concessions, my mental representation of the blogosphere kind of imploded. it was a little messy.

despite the fact that it seems like there are a gazillion people out there typing their hearts out, i definitely get a sense of the social hubs, the existence of a finitely small, strong community that makes the system of knowledge truly work...