Warning

The blogger know as Moth Heaven (aka Julia) is a danger to other bloggers and should be approached with caution. Though she writes nicely about a very great many things and certainly seems honest and guided only by the finest of principles and her desire to spread joy and the love of wool where ever she goes, yesterday she tricked me into starting a new project and she could do it to you.

The set up:

I am home alone and defenceless. It is raining, which always lowers my resistance, as my energy drips as low as the water covered peonies. I am reading blogs. Many of them mention MS 3, but I am mostly clueless and unconvinced. I have heard much talk of this enterprise, in which a pattern for a lace stole is received by participants in several chunks, each Friday over the summer. You knit clue one, then clue two…you have no idea what you are making (except that it is a stole) and at the end you have something. I am overlooking these mentions, because I am working on other things and I am not going to do it. Not. I read Julia’s blog, in which she mentions falling down the rabbit hole on this one, and shows pictures of the pretty laceweight and beads (beads? It’s beaded?).

She has signed up. I leave her a comment to the effect of “I really need for people to stop talking about this stole thing. I am worthless and weak.” Thus revealing to Ms Moth Heaven that I am apparently ripe for the picking.

The swing:

At this point, Ms Moth Heaven does not reply to my comment. Not in the traditional email way to which I have some resistance. (Also, insulation. My inbox is such a disaster of Herculean proportions that I would not have seen her email for several days.) Perhaps knowing this, the woman phoned my house (this is not creepy, we know each other in real life.) and left me a message while I was busy working. The message essentially detailed how many people were doing it, shot down a few of my arguments against participating and invited comment, along with the expectation that I would return her call. Tricksy knitter.

The hit.

Now, Julia will tell you that this was an honest phone call – not actually a demand that I knit this thing, or a clear attempt at coersion…and she will likely say in her defence that by the time I returned her call a short time later, I had already signed up for MS 3, which she will tell you is proof that I wanted to do it anyway, and that it is not her fault, and that she did not corrupt me. In my rebuttal, I can claim that I only signed up so that I could tell Julia that I had and we could move onto other topics, and that I had not yet selected yarn or beads (or started the knitting) all of which means that I was clearly uncommitted and had no intentions as yet.

The Home Run.

I accused her of corruption straight off when I phoned. She (feigning innocence) maintained her position, and invited discourse on the topic. Why not ? She queried. I stated my concerns, and the felon Juila answered each of them in turn, pointing out the following, paraphrased here:

1. There are more than 4000 knitters signed up. Signups close Friday at midnight. How are you going to feel when everyone is having fun without you?

(This is dirty pool. Julia knows I hate it especially when people have fun without me.)

2. There are beads. You have beads. You put them on with a crochet hook. It’s easy, plus, they are optional.

(Again quite cruel, since she knows I am both consumed with the joy of the bead and frightened by it.)

3. If when you are done, you don’t want it for yourself, you will have Christmas present finished.

(Hellion. The vixen knows that the weight of holiday season lies heavy upon me even now in the warm time.)

4. It’s is only a little bit of knitting per week. Clue one was only a 1/2 afternoon of knitting.

(Right. Make it sound trivial. The woman knits like the wind.)

5. You have the yarn.

(That’s a low blow. She knows I am only knitting from stash because of the stove.)

Ms3Stuff0607

As a final sweeping oppostion, I told her that my knitting time was at too much of a premium to knit something without knowing the outcome, and she reminded me that knitting is fun, that I like knitting and that it is impossible for knitting time to be a waste.

Touché, Ms Moth Heaven. I am yours.

Ms3Kal120507

PS. I know that some of you will believe that I only told you about this because I am as dangerous as Julia and because misery loves company….but really? I’m just warning you so you can see right through it.

PPS. You have to sign up before midnight Friday.

PPPS. Julia might also tell you that the whole time she was “convincing me” I was rooting through the stash, thus making it appear that I was already on board. Lies. I was…..just , um.

Tidying up. Yeah. That’s it.