Yellowbird Yarn Room

A word can be worth a thousand pictures

Forgive the fiber-free post but I've had this thought in my head for several weeks now.  Does that ever happen to you? 

It's a bit like having a song stuck in your head, and sometimes the only way to free your mind is to sing it out loud and find solace in getting it stuck in someone else's head.  Then it's up to them to keep singing or pass it on.

It can start as a word or a phrase, but it can grow if it takes hold...and even bloom if it's lovely.  It can remain just a favorite phrase to visit when the mood fits, or it can turn into an entire one-sided philosophical argument that bubbles up and alters your mood despite your best efforts to contain it.

But I do have a reason for my thought, and that reason is social media.

After countless months of ignoring the growing internet buzz, I'm finally enjoying the fruits of Pinterest.  For someone like myself, who processes information best in visual ways, this is a virtual Eden that allows me to pick and choose what I like best and organize it into manageable plots.   

Niiiiice...

I've been on Pinterest for a number of weeks now (I couldn't tell you how many...time has altered itself quite a bit ever since) and have been enveloped by thoughts and ideas and pretty pictures, but I'm thinking today of one particular thought.

Have you noticed that words have become very popular?

They're pinned in snippets.  Funny little thoughts.  Inspirational quotes.

They're used in decorating.  Painted on pillows.  Decaled on walls.

They're used in fashion.  Worn on fingers...and nails.

They're everywhere.

I've heard arguments about how texting and the internet are killing language, but from what I've seen language is alive and well. 

Just more succinct.

It's Super Bowl Sunday...

...and I live in a house full of boys.

Unfortunately, I've never really understood the appeal of football.  I'm much more of a baseball kinda gal.  I don't think I'd mind watching soccer.  Or tennis when my kids are playing.  And golf is okay when I'm knitting lace or something that requires my full attention.  But football's just not my thing.  The rules hold no sense for me.

My husband still holds out hope, though.  Not his breath...just hope.  He's a wise man.

Now, my sons have never been overly interested in watching sports.  Not even baseball (with the exception of actually being at a game because...well...that's just a good time!).  Sports on TV always just seemed to bore them, and they never showed any strong allegiance with any particular team.  

But something changed over the last year.  I don't know what happened.  Perhaps their father's enthusiasm just finally won them over.  Perhaps the oldest has simply reached an age when he enjoys the comaraderie and banter with his friends, and the youngest has followed suit in the way that younger brothers do.

It's a mystery.

But there's one thing I do know:  my house has exploded in black and gold.

Yes, my husband is a Steelers fan.  The only thing he has ever asked me to knit for him was a stocking cap that came clear down his back, had Steelers stripes, and the Steelers logo positioned on the back of his head.  And I hadn't done much colorwork by that time.

I've done even less since.

No evil 'round here...

For Christmas this year my boys each got a fleece Steelers blanket and a Steelers quilt made by my mom, and my husband got a Steelers rice pillow (aka bed-warmer), also made by mom.  Since then my oldest has made a couple of ball caps out of Duck tape in Steelers colors, and both boys decided that they had to have arm warmers with Steelers stripes.

Well.  I may not get football, but I do get knitting for team spirit.

It's just a shame their team's not in the Super Bowl.