Another year, another Valentine’s Day Massacre!

Yes, we’re doing it again.

No, not taking out a rival gang!  We’re too peaceable and non-violent.  Right? Right???  Besides, we haven’t actually taken out a rival gang as yet, even though we really enjoy  snapping in formation.

Ahem.

Anyhoo, the weekend of February 13th and 14th we’re having an EVENT.  We haven’t worked out all the details yet, but you can expect:

* Reduced Prices!

* The Sock of Savings!

* New Stock!

* Junk Food!

* Other Cool Stuff!

* Even More Cool Stuff!

So mark it in your calendar, okay?

To prepare, go watch this (while knitting of course):

Brought to you by Roger Corman, the man behind such films as Little Shop of Horrors, Humanoids from the Deep, and Ilsa, the Tigress of Siberia to name a few.  It’s sure to be a faithful, well-researched, historically accurate rendition.

Back when I first adopted my cat Gigi, my friend the Roving Reporter suggested that she required a beret.  I mean, look at this face:

Because I am a master procrastinator, one day I decided that of all the things on my mental list of possible projects, this was the one I should make happen.  To save at least a little time (you know, so I could get more procrastinating in), I decided that if I could find a pattern I’d use that instead of working out my own.

I did a little search on Ravelry and came up with the International Cat Hat: France, le Mieux by Stacy Mar.

If you aren’t my Ravelry friend (mollyann, just in case) or if you are and don’t constantly check your “friend activity” (i.e. enabled stalking) then you will have missed the finished result:

I am convinced that Gigi is the cutest cat ever.

That said, she did not happily just wear the hat.  She is very placid, but she’s still a cat, so I had to choose my time wisely.  I woke her up, so she sat mostly immobile with it perched on her head and then hunkered down again for her morning nap:

As far as I know, she does not wear the hat around when I’m not home.

This isn’t quite horror-inspiring, but for some reason I feel compelled to share.

Nothing is more manly than a cardigan with a picture on it:

That thermos is no doubt full of strong, black, masculine coffee.

Those of you who know me are aware that I’m addicted to 40’s and 50’s radio.  There is something about the really obvious paradigms and rules of narrative that I find soothing - and also, I find the advertising to be absolutely fascinating.

Dragnet - brought to you by Fatima cigarettes.  Richard Diamond, Private Detective - brought to you by Camel cigarettes (”When asked the question, ‘what cigarette do YOU smoke, Doctor?’ 9 out of 10 doctors respond ‘Camels!’”)

Lux soap was a big radio sponsor, running Lux Radio Theater in the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. (click the image to download/listen to episodes)

Remember Lux?  They also sponsored the publication of knitting pattern booklets in all the Commonwealth countries.  I’ve blogged about them in a few places.

So I was listening to my stories the other day on a slow afternoon at the store, and came across an interesting public service message at the end of a Lux Radio Theater show.  It was an ad for soap, but also WWII era propaganda for, of all things, fat conservation.

You see, a shortage of “industrial fats” meant that production of your favourite soap might be slowed down.  Therefore it behooved households across the country (and Canada too) to save their household fats and take them in to their butcher for 4 cents a pound.

So here’s the giant irony:  during WWII, America had a fat shortage.  A SHORTAGE OF FAT.  IN AMERICA.

And where was all the fat going?  TO MAKE BOMBS.  TO BLOW UP THE GERMANS AND THE JAPANESE.

Somehow this seems to align nicely with the Paper Street Soap Company.   The first rule of fat club is, don’t talk about fat club.

Anyhow, in  a vain attempt to bring this back around to knitting, here’s a way to combine the two: