Annie's Blog

Can I just tell you how beautiful the weather here in Louisville is today? Here’s a shot of downtown at 11:48 am EDST, with a temperature of 75 degrees and just 40% relative humidity. Sigh. Wish more days could be like this and I could be outside in them! 

in which a woman addicted to beautiful scarves puts forth an IDEA
 
I was thinking that with all the success we had with the Luxury Fiber Lace Scarf exchange, and the earlier Silk Scarf Exchange that perhaps we might want to put together our own “Beyond the Scarf” book through an exchange–that we could structure it the same way as we’ve done the previous scarf exchanges with the exception that the scarf would need to be an original and would need to include a written and/or charted pattern. We could either self-publish the patterns or put them in apassword-protected portion of the Mansion website (assuming such athing is possible) for members to download.So what do you think? We got some drop-dead gorgeous scarves inthese last two scarf exchanges, and I think we could do something that would be a.) useful and b.) commercially viable.

Here’s how it would work.  Each person would create at least one (and up to three) original scarves.  You would submit your scarf, two copies of the written and/or charted instructions (we can agree on chart standards later), a complete description of the yarn and needles you used, and some “permission to publish” form to be determined later.  The requisite address label, postage and chocolate for the swapmeistress should also be included.

Once all the scarves and patterns have been received, they’ll be photographed, shuffled and sent back to exchange participants so that SOMEONE ELSE will try to follow your pattern/chart and make a second scarf.  Once you’ve finished knitting someone else’s scarf, you’ll send the scarf and any corrections or questions or variations (and the label, and the postage, and more chocolate) back to me to be photographed.  We’ll then send your scarf back to the person who wrote the pattern.  Which means that not only will you get someone else’s scarf in the initial exchange, you’ll get a copy of your own scarf made by someone else.

At that point, we’ll verify that you do indeed want to submit your scarf/pattern for publication and we’ll try to have it published–ideally, we would have it commercially published and sold and sell millions of copies and split the proceeds….but I’d also settle for having the patterns assembled into an e-book of sorts and published on a secure website.  We can negotiate.

What do you all think?  Will this work?  Do you want to participate?  There are a ton of scarf books out there, but I think this one could be spectacularly unique…

–Annie (who really loves this idea and hopes that folks buy into it)

 
So all the talk of the town is focusing on Martha (so in my head I’m hearing “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!!!”).  Someone opined that the main reason Martha was prosecuted [so publicly] was because she was an interloper–a strong, successful woman in a man’s world.
 
I can’t even begin to tell you how much I disagree with that statement.  First off, she broke the law.  Insider trading is against the law.  Laws against insider trading help to prevent the very rich from getting very richer at the expense of the little people who don’t have the money or power to gain access to the “inside” information.  Second, there are many other women out there who are rich and powerful and who don’t break the law.  It’s a myth that the stock market is entirely a man’s world.  They just want us to think so…  And so to claim that Martha’s being persecuted because she’s a woman helps to perpetuate that myth.

 
Urgh.  Just makes me pissed off.  Someone go tell Teresa Heinz Kerry that she’s not a rich, powerful woman…  Or Oprah.  Or Jennifer Aniston.  Or Madonna.   And not just celebrities, either.  Martha’s celebrity had as much or more to do with her prosecution than anything else.  And since she makes her money by capitalizing on her public image, double shame on her for doing something to tarnish it.  A bad business decision on many more levels.

 
[looks for MS-designed flameproof suit and finds none]
 
–Annie