the vortex: Ravelry, ink, and thanks for all the fish

Ravelry. Whatever you like or dislike, whatever fiber you do anything with, whatever your political, religious, or baseball team preference, whatever you read or write - there's a group for you in Ravelry. What that means is that it's a one-way street. You never leave. Even when you think you're not there, you are, because you're thinking about a pattern, or a yarn, or a discussion thread, or a new friend, or a new technique that you just must learn. (I've been obsessing on oak and squirrel mittens for weeks. I've never done colorwork. Must. have. mittens.) It's scary.

This afternoon I joined a group for asthmatic knitters. (See what I mean?) I'm also in a group for people who want to have pen friends. (See what I mean?) When I mentioned fountain pens, at least a dozen posts sprung up, from people who love fountain pens, miss fountain pens, want us all to see their fountain pens...

Now, you're probably wondering how, in the name of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, am I going to link asthma and pen friends? Simple. I have read almost everything that Louise De Salvo has written, whether on Virginia Woolf or her own memoirs. One of her books, Breathless, tells of her developing such severe asthma and chemical sensitivities that she was forced to stop using her beloved Mont Blanc fountain pen because she could no longer tolerate the ink.

When I first read that book, I was taking notes with a Sheaffer. As I'm typing, I'm getting ready to write a few letters with my Waterman Charleston (a gift, a wonderful gift), filled with purple ink. Reading, writing, knitting - all knit together, as it were - into the teabird organism. Who would I be without ink?

I'm going back in, now. Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish.

(By the way, Knitnana is trying to force me to buy some of this. Just because I love ravens, and the Pallas Athena color looks like the Adagio black tea flavored with plum that I'm drinking now, I have to buy it? What do you think? )