Monday, November 09, 2009

THE ART OF SPEAKING DANGEROUSLY

Mediterranean Sunset Wrap

I have always played with words, both hallowing language and playing with it all at the same time. Throughout my life, my puns and word games have become part of who I am, both frustrating and entertaining  colleagues and friends alike. Even when I knew I might be driving somebody a little crazy, I couldn't quite stop myself. The thing is, I'm a bit pun-compulsive. A former boss, a wise and learned man, often engaged in pun forays with me as a way to relieve tension in very stressful times (budget season) and it's very telling to admit that I could invent more plays on fish and sea creatures than my erudite supervisor. Hey, I have talent.

Anyway, now that I've been released from active duty, the word plays have only intensified. If a word sounds like another, I'll substitute the other just because I can and, typically, forget about the inappropriate replacement until I'm using it in pubic. My friends call this 'Janeisms' and apparently they're catchy. A friend of mine went shopping for groceries the other day and blamed me when she requested 'orgasmic' produce of a store clerk. I only wondered if that gave the clerk a moment of consternation or maybe a chuckle. Otherwise, in the name of customer satisfaction, some new produce request might be out there now. Do we need any more additives?

My reason for telling you this is that occasionally you'll find what may look to be a spelling error or typo in my posts. I seem blind to my own spelling errors and often rely on others to catch me up there so the misspellings are probably just that but the typos may be mere expressions of my wayward self. My former professors would cry out in rage if they knew that I was still free-ranging language. I remember one telling me: "You don't have the right to invent language. Only the great masters of literature can do that." Huh. Twenty years later and I can just ream off hundreds of invented words society adopted simply because language at its best is unsupressible (is that a word?). None of these were invented by masters or even mistresses, for that matter, but by people like you and me working with language like the maleable, dynamic, communication its meant to be. 

Say 'pile'!

All right, back to knitting. Above you see a photo of a wrap I knit onboard the cruise this October during my purple and orange phase and a photo of the Glossop, England, workshop in progress. Here's the thing: see all those happy knitters? The moment everyone's stash hit the table, out came the cameras, not to take pictures of people but to photograph yarn! Me, too. 'Hey, that purple cluster there—say FLEECE!'.

Meanwhile, I have a newsletter coming out this week AND a new pattern! Curious?