Really, after the kerffuflle with the International Olymp1c Committee (don’t want to denigrate the word, here) I’d considered not watching the bloody things at all. But the boys wanted to and we were bound for the beach which means lazy evenings so… yeah. I cast on. I’m knitting a marvelous little shrug (Layering Shrug by Juju Vail) with Team Sasquatch. Mine seems to be all fococked with gauge, but the pattern is pretty...

Knitters Outraged After U.S. Olympic Committee Squashes Knitting Olympics—and Disses Knitters. Oh you really MUST read this. I posted this on Facebook shortly ago with the note for non-knitters that: All of the patterns that the Olympic committee is picking on (yes, I understand trademark infringement, fair use, etc, read on…) are NOT designed by Casey. NO ONE is making money off of them.    These are patterns made up by Just...

A frightening number of friends of mine have gotten ill lately. We’re all generally of a certain age (post 35, shall we say…) and all getting oddly ill. Kind of out of the blue. To refresh–I had hand tremors for 2-1/2 years, the need for Prevacid for 1-1/2 years, then suddenly 9 weeks of migraine (not migraineS–one loooong migraine. No joke). My MOTHER (not a doctor) diagnosed the gluten problem. I’ve been gluten...

I occasionally write about movies here, but only occasionally. Mostly because I don’t get out much any more, but also because being a movie critic—let me amend that—being a good movie critic is a tricky art. I truly feel that to be useful as a critic you have to look at what the writers and directors were trying to accomplish and then analyze whether they achieved their goal. This means going a fair bit beyond “two...

Recently I was interviewed for USA Today’s article 10 years later, those who left NYC look back. During the course of the interview I was struck by the kindness and generosity of the three people with whom I made contact at the news organization—the reporter, the videographer/photographer, and the web video editor. Seriously smart, funny, kind people who didn’t fit the casual stereotype of biased media in any regard. They were...

I am not a fast knitter. Seriously, I’m not. Yes I knit Continental, which is supposed to be faster, but as far as I can tell this makes me a more secure knitter (in that I can knit and purl without looking at my hands). I realized I wasn’t a fast knitter when Wendy test knitted the Madame Defarge Stole for me and went faster than I could get instructions to her. She’s FAST. From time to time I try to focus on speed—when...