I think of myself as a disciplined person, but once it occurred to me to examine things, I had to admit that I am all about comfort.

This won’t be news to you, of course. I sell books and toys for a living and knit wooly things for amusement. You weren’t thinking that danger was my middle name or anything.

But there is a tendency to stay in our comfort zone which is almost akin to laziness. Even if that comfort zone is nightly rave-ups or rock climbing, or hair shirts and misery. Whatever we’re doing becomes habitual, and it requires a bit of a push to make us try something different.

I noticed it because I am singing hard music again, having been pushed into the master chorale. I am singing a solo with an E flat, a note I usually avoid, so I am back to practicing my vocalises again, instead of just singing. I am, thanks to Evan, sweating and suffering at the gym again, instead of decorously strolling along on the treadmill. I am listening respectfully to the wild notions of religious fundamentalists, instead of just talking with people who already agree with me.

This is good.

Push your comfort envelope a little with The Anti-Craft, a magazine whose motto is “You’re going to die anyway; you might as well knit.” It could well be a parody of Knitty, though they don’t admit that. I enjoyed it, and may make a thing or two from this first issue.

If you do not need a knitted voodoo doll, you might prefer MagKnits, where there is a handsome men’s sweater with an elaborate cable on the sleeve. The rest of the sweater is ribbed, so it could easily be adapted to a bawk or dog sweater.

The designer of the online bawk pattern tells me, by the by, that the name is an old in-joke. Who knows how many words have entered our language by this route?

Here is the first of the second pair of Fuzzy Feet, with a little suspense over whether there will be enough yarn to finish.

I am following the same pattern, using the same yarn (different color) and the same needle. With the first pair, I had a bit of yarn left over from each of the Fuzzy Feet, and with this one I am about to run out.

There is no mystery here. I am not very accurate, that’s all. I must have made this one bigger, somehow. It doesn’t matter — it will be felted, so the size will be determined later.

But it is a little surprising, all the same.

And a final random note — Ozarque is telling some interesting stories about cross-cultural miscommunication these days.