Blue Washcloths

Hey everyone. I'm new and just wanted to post and say hi. I really don't have anything planned to knit in blue right now. But am secretly relishing the fact that the last two blue things I knit (washcloths) are for the only person I know who still supports Bush, my MIL. Maybe some of the blue will rub off on her (figuratively, of course).

knitting blue, thinking green

I worked on a little something blue (the child's geek spiral pullover from Loop-d-Loop in Crystal Palace chenille) while watching the Oscars last night. Hooray, Al Gore!

--Alison

Buttons!

Who doesn't love buttons? I've added some new ones to the sidebar. Feel free to use them on your own blogs, and give us a linkback. Thanks to Pam for whipping these up for us.

And a big welcome to all the new mebers I've been adding lately. We're glad you're here!

New to Blue

Hello all,

I just signed up today so I wanted to say "hi" and show you my blue stash and my recent blue project. I'm a big time - Atheist-Democrat-Knitter and I like this twist of knitting blue for democrats pride. I'm happy to knitta's for a cause out on the web. Well here is my blue stash.

I know that it is on the whimpy side, but in my defense I just got finished knitting an Irish Hiking Scarf, Hat, and Fingerless Gloves combo over the holidays. I even designed my own pattern (using two circs) for the gloves. But I plan on making something nice and democratic for this KAL. Here a picture of part of the set. Unfortunately, right in the middle of me grabbing the code for the picture of the hat & scarf Flickr.com decided to go down for maintenance so I'll have to post that later.

(I have this original pattern on my blog)

Thanks for adding me and I'll be posted some more blue thangs soon. Keep up the go democratic work knitters.

The Modern World

You guys will appreciate this cartoon posted today on Salon.com.

Also, I had a thought. Since we're all hoping to keep this KAL going at least through the 2008 elections, and since we're getting new members all the time (wahoo!), and since this is not your usual knitting-only KAL, I thought maybe we could suggest to new members (maybe by a link in the sidebar?) to not only post to introduce themselves in a general way and flash their blue stash or blue WIPs, but also maybe tell us something else, along the lines of the get-to-know-each-other threads we had a while ago when most of us first joined. Such as:

What brought you to the blue side? How long have you been blue?

What are the most important political/social issues for you in 2008?

That way we'll all know each other better, and people's posts are very likely to continually re-generate discussion.

Whaddya think?

Like blatent racism in your comedy?

Well...Fox News has the show for you! The 1/2 Hour News Hour (who ripped it's name off from a sketch comedy show) is Fox's pathetic answer to the high-brow comedy of The Daily Show. This clip is a rip-off of SNL's sketch on Barack Obama. They took a funny sketch and reduced it to fart jokes, basically proving further that Republicans are not funny. I warn you...this "comedy" will make you throw up in your mouth a little.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjIfaMwIFxU

New here!

Hi everyone!

Flip Flops and Hillary Clinton

Worthwhile Watching

I knit while I watch TV, and a good program worth watching is the News War special by Frontline. The first part of the 4 part series aired last Tuesday night - apparently the full series can be watched online if you are so inclined!

Obamania

I just read a very interesting (non-knitting) blog post comparing the 2008 Democratic candidates to those in the 1968 election. It compares Hillary, specifically, to Humphrey and ends with a convincing argument in favor of Obama. Thought you guys might find it as interesting as I did. The blog is called By the River.

Hello & a big push for Knitters for Obama!

Hi folks - Kate and Emma kindly asked me to join the KAL - it's great to have a place where we can be as blue as we want to be. I'm delighted to meet y'all.

Although I haven't yet started any campaign-related knitting, I have started Knitters for Obama at BarackObama.com - and I hope that some of you will be interested in joining. Knitters are amazing people, and this is a great chance to show it. Knitters For Obama will be a great place to hear about knitting events, and your participation helps show visible support for Barack during the campaign. Let's show that knitters are a force to be reckoned with! You can find the site and join here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/KnittersforObama

Here are some other things you can do to get the ball rolling:

- You can schedule a "Knit-In for Obama" in your community. A knit-in/stitch-'n'-bitch is a great way to bring your fellow knitters together to talk about Barack (and do some good knitting in public at the same time!) You can use the event to fundraise, or if you're more inclined, just to talk about Barack and get people motivated. If you need any help getting one started, don't hesitate to email me at krengren AT hotmail DOT com.

- You can call or email your fellow knitters and encourage them to join Knitters for Obama. We would like to see as many people join as possible - given how organized knitters are in general, we have the potential to reach hundreds or even thousands of people! You can send knitter friends to: Link

- You can donate to the Knitters for Obama Fund. Barack needs our support to make it in this race and your donation can go a long way toward helping him. Your contribution goes 100% to the Obama campaign. Support the Fund by donating here: Link

- You can blog about why you're supporting Barack for President in 2008 (which many of you may already be doing.) The more Barack gets out there in the blogosphere, the better! And you can put these buttons up on your blog - please, don't swipe the bandwidth:



- You can design, wear, and share Obama '08 knitted stuff. You can even sell knitted goods on Etsy or eBay to raise cash for the Obama campaign. Who wouldn't pay top dollar for toasty socks AND supporting a good cause? Again, if you need any help with this one, email me.

- You can help organize friends and family for other Obama events and fundraising activities. Barack is going strong, but he's going to need all the help he can get.

Thanks again and looking forward to working with you to help Barack mend the fabric of American politics. Cheers!

More knitting!

I finally finished my first FOs of the year! You can read more about it on my blog if you're interested, but here's a teaser:

That's the French Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks. If you look carefully, you can see that there is blue running through the colorway in small amounts. Also, it's not blue, but I was wearing a blue shirt when I finished it! The magknits.com short row rib scarf and a matching hat from The Knitters' Handy Book of Patterns:

Fox News Sucks

Ok, we already knew that. And they do suck and have always sucked for various reasons.

They've put out misinformation about Obama--already!--and refuse to apologize. Not like this is a shock to anyone, but still, good for Obama for refusing to ignore it.

This is going to be a long political season, folks!

actually, some knitting......

ok, its not entirely blue....but partly!

This afghan square is going to Squares 4 Survivors, a group that I send stuff to on a pretty regular basis.

I saw part of Obama's speach announcing that he's "in".

Honestly, for all the staff all the news stations have, you'd think they could assign someone to actually READ his website. They keep saying he has no plan for anything, all you have to do is go here and you can read all of his ideas in his position papers.

The thing that caught me off guard the most tho', was the interview they did when his wife said "he's a black man, he can get shot walking down the street, you can't live your life making decisions out of fear". Yes, folks, it brings to my attention that they live in the same country I do, but another world of sorts.

Anyway, I guess the race is on!!

Meet the Press, John Edwards, and D Candidates for President

This has been discussed here once or twice before, but I think is worthy of comment again now that most of the announcements regarding candidacy have been made amongst the Ds. Today on Meet the Press, Russert kicked off his "Meet the Candidates" series with Joe Edwards who is throwing his hat in the ring once again for the Democrat's nomination for Presidential Candidate. I'm looking forward to the series, but wondered why with so many amazing candidates (Hillary, Barak, Joe B.) why Russert would start with Edwards, who I think is easily the weakest candidate in the bunch.

I have to say that I have never been impressed with Edwards. He strikes me as unwilling to take a solid stand on any issue, preferring too often to go with the winds of change rather than leading the trends. I always want him to just come out and say what he means, or at the very least sound like what he's saying is actually what he means. He's wishy-washy, weak, and pandering and lacks charisma despite all the claims in the media during the last election that he was reminiscent of JFK with his youth and good looks (eh, I'm not impressed on that front either).

So a question (or two): If Edwards were the presidential candidate for the Dems, would you vote for him?

And what do you all think about a recurrent discussion of each candidate as they come up on Meet the Press?

Other random thoughts:
1-- I finished knitting a scarf this morning, which I had started months and months and months ago and lost interest in. When it's done blocking and I've finished knitting the matching hat (possibly) I'll share :)

2-- I watched Who Killed the Electric Car last week and thought it was a pretty good film. Anyone else see it? It's one of the few places I've seen people really compare hydrogen fuel with electric fuel (and the politicking behind that).

RIP Molly Ivins

I was heartbroken to read that Molly Ivins died yesterday (article). Every Monday morning I read her columns online from the previous week. Then around November, the columns stopped. I couldn't figure out what was going on until I read that she was being treated for breast cancer and was expected to be back writing in January. In January, she issued one last column blasting the Iraq war and then that was it. I'm going to seriously miss her funny, fiery, and above all, well-argued takes on politics. She was one of the best.

Also, I wanted to throw in a quick review and recommendation of a sheep-related political book that I just read. It's written by a woman, Linda Faillace, who owned a dairy sheep farm in Vermont along with her husband and children. The sheep had been imported from Europe in 1996, under the supervision of the USDA. All was going well until a couple years later, when the "Mad Cow" scare started reaching US shores. The USDA started an all-out witch hunt against the Faillaces and their sheep, claiming that the sheep may have been exposed to mad cow, despite all evidence to the contrary. It appears that these actions may have occurred under pressure from the big agribusiness industries to turn the spotlight from their extremely nasty and dangerous factory farming practices that were the actual cause of mad cow. However, the Faillaces have never truly found the answer to why they were so persecuted.

This book shows very clearly what happens when big money interests take over our government and how it ends up hurting the little guy. The Faillaces were basically driven to financial ruin by what happened. I did read an internet rumor that this book may be optioned for a movie, I sure hope it's true! It was very hard to read from an emotional standpoint (I definitely bawled at a couple points), but extremely riveting. I even got my boyfriend to read it and he stayed up until 4 AM to finish it (and was also crying)! Definitely check this book out!

Tellin' it like it is