Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

Those of you who know me know I love pandas. And I specifically love the pandas at ZooAtlanta . I was a docent about a decade ago and can still tell Lun Lun and Yang Yang apart. Yes, I am one of those crazy people who looks at Mei Lan (already in China) or Xi Lan or Po and makes comments about which parent they resemble in which way, while the rest of the world just sees another black and white bear. The latest iterations -- Mei Lun and Mei Huan -- are entering the dangerously cute cub stage. Just viewing them on PandaCam can cause metabolic anomalies requiring insulin injections to offset the sweetness. They are also finally venturing into the exhibit dayrooms. Xi Lan and Po will soon relocate to China to join the breeding program at Chengdu. If you are in Atlanta this weekend, you have the rare opportunity to see up to six pandas of various ages all in one place.

I pre-ordered Tudor Roses back in June. I was excited the book would be back in print. The 1998 original features a dozen beautiful designs. Some are Fair Isle with Alice Starmore's brilliant sense of color. Some are cables. In particular, I had been lusting after the pattern for "Henry VIII," which is a sweater surely fit for a king. I had been stalking the book for awhile on the used book websites. I should have bought it when I saw it for a mere $150. But then Sweater Quest by Adrienne Martini came out in 2010. Adrienne wrote about her year-long quest to knit "Mary Tudor," the cover sweater. After that, prices on Tudor Roses went into orbit. In the meantime, some of Alice Starmore's other out-of-print books began to reappear. I decided to bide my time. "Patience, Iago, patience!" So when I saw the opportunity to pre-order Tudor Roses , I couldn't click the "it must be mine!" button fast enough. And when I saw the book was sh...