Today[another photoless day courtesy of my damned camara] I was a woman with a mission. I have decided to try to knit a top down sweater in some stash yarn and, after achieving a appealing gauge, went shopping for 40″ long size 10.5 bamboo clover circulars. Some 16″-ers as well for sleeves. No such luck. I did however wuss out and purchase the Fall ’04IK for the coveted Hoxbro shadow stripe tam and some Harrisville shetland style in Berry and Violet. Berry looks more aubergine to me than the aubergine did. Doesn’t aubergine mean eggplant purple? And if so why do ‘aubergine” colored yarns tend to be reddish purple instead of almost black blue purples? Those yarn color namers pick the one dime sized spot where the color fades to reddish purple I guess.

I am currently reading Cat’s Eye having just finished The Handmaid’s Tale…. both by Margaret Atwood. I resisted reading Handmaid’s Tail because of the story line. Being married, with 3 small girl-childs, I avoid anything that would fire up my feminazi tendancies and cause me to go around muttering curses with men being the main epithet. Looking at the Amazon.com reviews[linked to above] I am surprised to see somebody say the book is vulgar. Let me copy a phrase: “rather disgusting such as the way that she describes the handmaid’s sexual encounters with the commanders. These descriptions are extremely graphic: too graphic for the reader to bear.” I must have read an abridged version. Or be entirely too disensitized to obscenity. Of course graphic could mean ‘detailed’ in which case the reviewer is entirely correct. For those afraid of porn–men are not allowed to touch themselves or women at all. Unless they are commanders and have been assigned a handmaiden. He has ‘sex’ with the handmaiden once a month, when she is fertile, with his wife supervising the utter lack of contact. No touching, no leaning on, not even undressing except for the ummm under the belt stuff–they don’t even look at each other for heaven’s sake. Ok its unfeeling and therefore kinda obscene but not so graphic that this reader couldn’t bear it. I found myself sympathising with the commander which surprised me. I guess that is a mark of a good book–one that all the charectors are real and in some way sympathetic. IMB nobody has sympathy for non-entities. There were also quirky goodness parts. Like Moira the semi man hating lesbian ending up dressed like a playboy bunny working in a brothel. OK enough spoilers. And a link–I spent today telling myself that even if others found the book chilling because of the trend towards sanctity of life legislation at least nobody is anti birth control. Oh wait! What should Liz blog about today? Anti -birth control movement. Shiver shiver shiver.