Knitsteel has brought up an interesting question.

You know how a company can lose a trademarked name if it goes into common parlance as a common word?

"Yo-yo" for example, used to be a trade name for, if I remember correctly, a "patented rebounding device." Once enough people started saying "yo-yo," the company had to give up and change their trade name.

Threatened terms include "Kleenex," which is actually a trade name for "facial tissue," not that anyone I know ever says "facial tissue." I believe that in England, vacuuming is commonly called "hoovering," which probably threatens Hoover's trade name status over there. Successful companies work hard to maintain their trademark status, particularly in print. This is why, in a published written work, we capitalize "Kleenex," even if we use it as a common noun in speech.

I have studied this, of course, since I have a degree in linguistics. I mean, they make us learn this stuff, you know. I think of it as an interesting historical process in language change.

But Knitsteel -- if I am not leaping to conclusions here -- seems to feel that it is more akin to copyright violation, and that we should support the companies which not unreasonably want their names to be household words -- but not that much. She feels that we shouldn't use "google" as a verb, and presumably that the Brits ought not to use "hoover" as a verb, either.

I have honestly never thought of this as a moral issue before. What about you?

I am eagerly awaiting all your views.

In the meantime, you may need something to knit while you think about it. We had a bit of spring weather here, but have gone back down to freezing temperatures, so there is still time to knit a wool cap like this one:

Red- Light Special

Frankly, I wasn't wild about this hat. Nothing wrong with it, but it didn't call to me. However, if you look over here-- at brooklyn tweed's blog -- and scroll down the page, you can see some very intriguing versions of the pattern. It seems to be one of those that looks very different in different color combinations. It is designed for Telemark, of which I have quite a lot left over, being as how Pipes didn't take up near as much yarn as I had calculated.

Also, Brooklyn Tweed takes beautiful photographs, and kindly shares her patterns for free, so you will surely enjoy visiting her, whether you have a bunch of leftover Telemark on hand or not, and regardless of your upcoming weather.

It is my birthday today. I am celebrating by going back to work again. After the grocery shopping.

Having worked two six-day weeks in a row, I think it unlikely that I will have a sewn FO this week, so I am planning to cut out a muslin tonight for a jacket I want to make.

Making a muslin means that you cut and sew your pattern in muslin before using what they call your "fashion fabric."  You figure out the details of the pattern and fit it properly, mark all the adjustments on your pattern, and then are ready to make the real one perfectly. A muslin is to sewing what a swatch is to knitting, except that you can pull out your swatch and re-use the yarn, while your muslin uses up the fabric and thread and then you throw it away. That's why it's traditionally made in muslin, a very cheap cotton fabric.

That's also why so many of the sewing bloggers make what they call "wearable muslins": a run-through of the pattern in a cheap fabric which you can nonetheless wear when it's finished.

The nice lady at Hancock Fabrics, when I told her what I had in mind, found me a linen/rayon in navy blue at the $1 table,  which will be a nice try-out fabric for this jacket pattern. If it turns out well, it will also make a nice jacket for my SWAP Part II, which has admittedly gone off the rails a bit.

Along with housework, my encyclopedia entry and writing contest entry, and indeed most other things.

However, a birthday is a very good day to re-balance your life and think deep thoughts.

This year, I literally do not know what I will be doing next year at this time, a circumstance which has not been true for me for many years.

I'm going to quit letting that keep me from planning my SWAP, though.

BTW: If you are or would like to be a Beauticontrol user, Chanthaboune can hook you up. She is working toward a quota this month.

 Happy Read Across America Day!

This may not be one of the holidays you observe.It is Dr. Seuss's birthday, and we observe it here in Hamburger-a-go-go-land by dressing up in silly costumes (particularly Cat in the Hat hats), eating Green Eggs and Ham, and reading. One teacher yesterday told me that at her school, they were all going to read The Cat in the Hat at 1:46 precisely.

This is a fun holiday. It was also nice to have a normal conversation.

If you do not consider that a normal conversation, you have my sympathy.

My old friend M wrote to me about the struggles at her job (worse than mine) and some other trials she's dealing with. It's all part of the human condition, she recognized, "but like everyone else I feel egocentrically marooned."

That's it. Exactly.

We had some other normal conversations yesterday, too. Blessing was telling me about her favorite exercise DVDs. They have titles like "Thin Thighs in 8 Minutes!" and "Abs of Steel 7 Minute Workout!"

I've told you about my favorite exercise DVDs. 40 minutes of ferocity is what I like.

I did not heap scorn. I did, however, enlist the support of one of our customers. She is a little older than me, and I see her out running all the time.

"Tell me," I said, "would you rather have thin thighs or a great lipids profile?"

She went for the lipids. I knew she would.

"See!" I told Blessing. "When you are our age, you will not want an 8 minute thigh workout."

We then returned to the process of making the changes at the store sound good. People keep saying things like "Do I understand you correctly? You're closing the store?" Occasionally I get away with saying things like "We're taking the store virtual."

The Empress and I have realized that we are going to have to master the terminology. I may have learned to google for "SEO," but I don't yet know how to use it in a sentence.

The Empress is off learning these things. At least I hope that is what she is doing.

Here is Pipes, getting the last bit of ribbing.

This is an encouraging dpn picture for Simplespirit, who is going to make socks next weekend.

This triangle is what you are after. Some people use a square, but I like a nice stable triangle. You have one more needle, of course, to travel around with.

I'm doing the ribbed cuff of a sleeve, but it is the same as the ribbed cuff of a sock. Socks just don't have the sweater attached to them.

Work was a bit wearing yesterday.

A recap: I manage a store, and have worked there for about 15 years, less a sabbatical at a museum. Last summer, we opened a second branch in a nearby town. (It happens that this other town is our big football rival, and don't think that doesn't matter.) At the end of March, we will be closing the first store. I will be doing some of the many things I haven't been able to do much of for the store hitherto because I was managing the store: doing vendor tables at conferences and curriculum fairs, visiting the schools, doing workshops and inservices, writing stuff.... In particular, we want to make our website successful.

But the basic fact is this: we are closing our #1 store.

We got an advertising person to help us phrase this in flyers, letters, and emails. She said things like "We have more ordering options than ever before!" and used words like "consolidation" and "relocation." All the messages mention a big "relocation sale" throughout the month of March. We have been relentlessly upbeat and never used the word "close."

Yesterday, we started getting the word out.

It appears that the advertising person was successful, in that the people who come in say things like "Is it true? Are you really moving?" and "I hate it that you're moving!" There may be a sense in which getting people to think we are moving is a plus.

However, so far I have mostly seen angry and unhappy people. They want to know if business was really that bad. They want me to know that they are not planning to go to that other store and are teed off that I would think they should. They don't feel much better about the idea of shopping online, either. They resent the idea of our abandoning our town for the rival town.

There have been a few moments when  I have wondered whether it hasn't occurred to them that this might not be good news for me. For all they know, this means that I now have to drive all the way to the rival town every day. For all they know, this might mean that I will be unemployed. Not one person has asked about this. They are too busy berating me.

I expect the entire month to be like this.

Book Club was a bit of a break in the day. We discussed Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, a book which everyone had enjoyed in spite of the overall unpleasantness. We thought of footbinding and compared it with corsets and girdles and high heeled shoes. We considered women's complicity in their own oppression and that of their daughters. We debated whether it was acceptable for us to condemn the cultural norms of another society.

It was refreshing.

Today the sale begins, so perhaps we will see some people who are happy about the sale, rather than all angry or sad people. (Actually, I am keeping track of customer responses, and there were two people who were not upset. One even said, "I love you guys! I'll drive there! I'll keep comin'!" Bless her.)

Maybe we will be too busy for people to harangue me.