Sweet 16 and Never Been Tagged

...but passing along only adulation.

Yesterday, for the first time, I was touched by one of the "memes" that travel around the knitting blogs. What fun! I begin to feel more and more part of the community.

For anyone who hasn't heard of memes, they're sort of like playing tag and a party ice-breaker all at once. Someone tags you and you're "it." You follow the instructions yourself, post them on your page, and pass on the tag to the next few "its". This one came from Beate of Cloudberry Knit, who tagged me with one that calls for each person to tell six unimportant things about her/himself and then tag six more blogs.

I don't know many people that well in blog-land, though, and am not really comfortable tagging the ones I read. I went to Beate's site, was entertained by her six things, and thought about what to do. My problem may be solved, though, as the post seems to have disappeared. I'll take that as license to abandon the rules and make up my own!

Here are my rules:
-- I'll tell six unimportant things about myself.
-- And then I'll list six blogs I enjoy and say why.
-- If I can muster enough boldness, I'll leave comments there to tell them I've done it. (If any of them should chance to visit here, they need feel no pressure to play along. I'm just a fan!)

So here are six silly and random unimportant things about me.

1. I must love cookie cutters, as I seem to have a drawerful. One of my favorites is an antique one of a pig. And yet, when I make cookies, they're almost never the type you roll and cut out. Maybe that proves it's the cookie cutters, not the cookies, that I'm after.

2. I like to bring back tea towels from the countries I visit. I used to kid myself that I was doing it for gifts, but it was too hard to give them up, so now I know better!

3. When I was growing up, for one class at school we had to choose between home economics and chorus. I went with home ec. I love to sing, but at that age I was too shy. So I sewed a poncho, diapered a baby (doll), and baked a cream-puff.

4. While we're on the subject of school, back then I hated U.S. history, a class we were required to take. But now I'm fascinated, and seem to keep bringing home books about it.

5. I'm often sad when a movie is made from one of my favorite books; they usually don't match up to the picture my imagination paints. I don't plan to go see "Horton Hears a Who." I'd rather remember sweet, sincere Horton instead of wise-cracking Jim Carrey.

6. I think animals with black fur are rare and beautiful. I love black dogs, and I'm excited when I spot a black squirrel.

And here are six blogs that I truly enjoy.

Stash, Knit, Repeat Amy is a lovely person who helped welcome me into this world of blogging and posts beautifully knit projects, beautifully photographed.

Like The Queen Bess is a fellow Virginian who sometimes writes of places I know, a beautiful knitter and spinner of wool, a teller of tales, a lover of dogs and nature, and a generous spirit who lays bare her creative process.

Zeneedle Margene knits and spins lots of pretty things, leads me to many other interesting knitters, patterns, and vendors, and has a positive outlook that never fails to have me leave her site in a happy mood.

Spinning Spider Jenny Jenny posts some of the best tutorial information about spinning that I've seen anywhere, book or blog.

Soapbox Noricum combs Flickr and finds the quirkiest objects, sometimes ingenious and sometimes beautiful examples of crafts.

Cloudberry Knit (I'm making up the rules here, so I can point back to Beate if I want to. Ha!) I love Beate's exuberance, her energy, the knitted projects and other pretty things she shows us, and the glimpses of Norwegian and Danish traditions that she shares.

And here's one more, though I fear it's not active any more:

Fair Isle Fibres Fair Isle Faerie has offered a window into the life of a crofter (small-holding farmer) on Fair Isle in the windswept farthest reaches of Scotland. Sadly, her blog has gone quiet for a couple of months. I hope she'll continue one day.

I've never met any of these people, but what riches their writings have brought me!