Magazine review (and potatoes)

I don't normally review magazines (usually too busy drooling to do a review) but "Simply Knitting" issue 5 arrived on the mat this morning and as I've got time on my hands I thought I'd give it a go. I subscribed to this magazine after the second issue, but I'm still waiting for my free gift, which was supposed to be a set of bamboo needles. I think this has probably coloured my views on the magazine, but I'll try to give a balanced picture.
I like the ideas section at the front - there's plenty of website addresses that I'll look up at some point and the calendar is useful.
The patterns -

• White Shores - interesting to knit but I wouldn't wear it. My almost 17-year-old daughter liked it, but not in white.
• Pompon fun - FUN? not my idea of fun.
• Pure and simple - great first project or a quick "Ooops! I forgot you were pregnant" gift for a quick knitter. Don't like the yarn, though.
• Bird mobile - I like the look but think it would be rather tedious to knit.
• Raspberry Ripple - I would prefer this if it was knitted from the top down; I would probably try and adapt the pattern.
• Summer Stunner - hmmmm, maybe if I was 2 stones smaller.
• Green Daze - thanks, I'll just take him home now, shall I?
• Have a ball - I like Kate's work (see her diagonal top in "Magknits") but this is unworthy of her, sorry.
• Itsy Bitsy - oh, purlease. No. For Kate Moss, maybe; for the real world, no, no, no.
• Crochet Bouquet - I will probably have a go at these eventually, although I suspect they are exactly the same as a dozen other easily available patterns for crochet flowers.
• One pattern, three looks - why?

I like the yarn reviews and articles about designers. If I were a new knitter, I would be very pleased with the "how-to" section and this month's free book is quite useful. I don't regret buying a subscription (where's my free gift?) but I much prefer Interweave Knits or Vogue.

You may have noticed the appearance of a new button in the sidebar. I have signed up for the Mystery Shawl Along. I have never participated in a knit-along before but I was intrigued by the "mystery". I like the idea that I don't know what I'm knitting, though I could say that about a lot of my projects! I have bought some Filatura di Crosa Centolavaggi for this project, which arrived this morning from Marchmoon. It is a very very pale grey so I'm considering a spot of dyeing this afternoon. Start date is August 1st so sign up now and join in the fun.

The new cardi from Giotto is going well - I'm on the bottom half of the body section so not a huge amount more to do, thank goodness. Much as I like the yarn, knitting it up three times is no joke.

I have been back to the doctor about my migraines and have now been signed off work for at least two weeks. Unfortunately, I haven't coped very well with these migraines and found myself sliding back into the black hole of depression. The doctor thought a couple of weeks away from the stresses of work would perhaps stop a full-scale descent and I am very relieved. I can't help feeling like a complete wuss because I know people who have much more stressful lives than I do, yet they cope and I don't.

On a completely different note - potatoes.

I love potatoes - chips, roasts, baked, boiled, mashed, sauteed, you name it, I'll eat it (it's the Irish in me) and I have discovered a means by which I will never have to buy another potato. It goes like this:

Buy potatoes every week, regardless of whether you eat them all. Store them in a cupboard which is dark and damp because of an undetected leak in the plumbing system. Add to the pile of potatoes regularly, putting new ones on the top and ignoring the old ones. After several weeks (when the cupboard is on the point of collapse) dig out the old potatoes at the bottom of the heap - they should have sprouted new potatoes along with a tangle of scary white root-like growths. The perfect solution to the problem of carrying heavy bags of spuds home from the supermarket - just allow them to reproduce in the convenient location of your kitchen cupboard. I think I will patent this tried and tested method of organic potato farming - there must be money in it somewhere!