Over the last couple of years, I’ve been pretty consistent with regular blog posts. Missing the last two installments has readers asking whether he is he alive or dead?

QueerJoe – Alive or Dead?

Sorry to pull a Mitch McConnell. With bed-head and all, the feature photo of me was taken this morning. I know there’s no newspaper in the photo to prove it. So I’ll post this to Instagram and Facebook, because anyone who knows the two of us knows Thaddeus wouldn’t know how to post to social media. Solid proof.

Apologies for the absence. I really have no valid excuse. I just didn’t get around to posting a blog entry this past Friday or Monday.

You can probably tell from the photo that I’ve been getting some sun. And as I mentioned in the last blog entry from a week ago, I have been reading again. I’ve also been continuing to knit more swatches for my Expert Table next month.

Thanks to those who checked in.

Current Knitting

I was able to finish the swatch I started last week and start another.

I used the Ritz Cracker motif to decide on two things. Does the motif work as a stranded knitting chart, and do I like it? It does work. I would probably make it two rows taller, and I would definitely find yarns that were closer in color to the background and the cracker. Knitting the motif also made me realize I would never wear such a garment. I don’t pull off the funky look very well.

The other swatch is a simple repeating graphic which I would also never make a full sweater from. Just a bit too fussy for my tastes.

Fortunately both swatches will just be cut up and have zippers sewn in and not knit into actual garments.