Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

Twenty-five years of pandas is not enough. These last few days I've been crafting aggressively, mostly to alleviate my grief. ZooAtlanta's giant pandas, Lun Lun, Yang Yang, Ya Lun, and Xi Lun traveled to Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China last weekend. The panda building at ZooAtlanta is closed and empty. I was a docent more than twenty years ago when Lun Lun and Yang Yang were young and the hot new thing in town. For a couple years, I spent a few hours nearly every week with them and the people visiting them. I heard panda stories from people who had traveled across the country or around the world just to see giant pandas. At the beginning, Lun Lun and Yang Yang were sub-adults housed together. I can remember them playing king of the mountain. Lun Lun usually won, although Yang Yang was bigger. I could never figure out if she was better at the game or if he was letting her win? I can recall a panda thudding to the ground, then c...

Well, here we are in October. For us southeastern crafters, we should be coming up on Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair. But we all know what happened to Asheville on 27 September 2024. I had expected to spend this week planning and packing and driving up to the mountains for a lovely weekend with friends. This year SAFF and Rhinebeck were again scheduled for the same weekend. I understand that beginning next year, SAFF is on the fourth weekend for a decade. That means 10 years of Rhinebeck weekend followed by SAFF weekend. The world is slowly moving back into alignment. Dragon side In anticipation of SAFF, I worked diligently and monogamously on Dragons' Lore . This is the two-faced double-knit scarf designed by Rik Schell of Purl's Yarn Emporium . I purchased the scarf kit in January when I was nearby at Kanuga. I'd had nearly annual conversations with Rik at SAFF. I knew he had developed an alternative way of working two-faced double-knits...