Um….I never thought I’d say this, but..

This movie is the most fascinating thing I’ve ever seen.

TWIK (or, This Week in Knitting)

I’d planned to write this post last Sunday, but things have been sort of crazy so I’ve decided to lump everything together:

Titled Duster - Most of my knitting energy has been devoted to the Tilted Duster this week. As I’ve written before, I was waiting to see if the fit was ok once I finished the skirt. I finished it this week (I think it was Tuesday) and the fit looks pretty good - no lines in weird places! YAY! I started on the collar, and I had to stop and unwind a bunch of yarn that I had used for the sleeves back when I made the darn thing too big.  Once I finish the collar, I’ll be on to the sleeves, and hopefully, will finish this week.

Fuzzy Tilted Duster

Spinning - Lots of spinning went on last weekend. I finished my first rounds of spinning from the fiber I had bought at Stitches 2 years ago:

2 silk hankies, one merino

Everything balled up

 

My favorite yarn so far

And I got some new fiber from the Yarn Barn of Kansas! Whee!

So far so good - I’ve learned a) my yarn does not have to be “perfect” and that I enjoy spinning! I’m finally making yarn the weight I want (which is “less bulky) and I like the process!

Eggtown

Ohhhh. I was so spoiled for this (and evidently, my source for this one was point. by. point.). On one hand, I LOVED it - on the other, I was so sad to know everything. The nice thing was that there was a lot of stuff that the source missed, so it wasn’t like you saw everything in the spoilers. If I CAN stand it, I will not be spoiled next week. (Ok, I’ll only be KIND OF spoiled…like what I know now, and what might come up, but not a play by play like I had this time).

With that, some thoughts:

1 - Ohhhhh Sawyer. I know I said Sayid looked good last week, but you? Also  saucy! Even though I have TOTALLY given up boxed wine (in favor of the real, bottled stuff after a horrific event involving boxed wine when I was 21) -  offer me a glass of boxed Dharma wine and I am yours.*

2 -  Clarie+ Aaron? Very cute. Also, how wonderful would it be to make and drink coffee in your OWN HOUSE after 100 days?

3 - Locke, I’ve always been your cheerleader but the “breakfast” you gave Miles? Scared the crap out of me.   Come back, Gentle Island Mystery Locke!!

4 - Jack was wearing waaaay too much blush in the courtroom. It was……blushy.

5.  I was so spoiled for the ending, I don’t have anything else to say BUT - that totally was Turniphead as we saw on the island…not a new Aaron.

*Jason, please know this is a FICTION show. You flashing boxed wine at me really won’t make me yours - unless we were on a spooky, scarey island with a smoke monster** and the closet grocery store is 5000 miles away.

**Bruno farting in our living room does not count as island with scarey smoke monster. Just saying.

The Rise and Fall of the Pattern

I’ve been in training for about 3 days, so my lack of posting is more about the fact that I’ve been learning about finances than about me being in the big fiber hole of spinning. Let’s just say that me + financial math = “Math is Hard Barbie” (gone goth). At one point, someone asked me what I thought and somehow, out of my mouth came the words (in full Ralph Wiggum voice) “I have the Super Mario Brothers song in my head!”*
I’ve been working on my hat pattern that I planned to post this week. Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances running out of yarn I have to put that plan on hold until I get another ball of the stuff I’m using from Sarah. (Who promises that she’ll get it to me next week, which means we’ll have a pattern by Saturday! YAAAY!) Let’s just say that with the amount I had, I made a Caliometry without the button. (D’oh.

I’ve continued working on the Tilted Duster, and a random sock that has no pattern whatsoever. In fact, last night someone asked me if it was a baby sock….sadly, no…its for me…just stretchy and without sizing. I needed to knit a sock, and so a sock I started knitting. I figure if it doesn’t work for me, I know 18 other people who might use it.

*Which was better than earlier that morning - it was the Love Boat theme song.

It’s like sticking your hands in a vat of cashmere.

After working on them for what seemed like weeks, I finished my gloves using this fabulous cashmere (which I got at Personal Threads, but can’t for the life of me remember what brand it is). I was originally going to use the pattern that came with the kit, but then I lost it. After the Broad Street Mittens, I decided to try another pair of gloves, and since the cashmere was originally intended for gloves - why not?

Instead, I used a pattern from Weekend Knitting. Its fairly simple - garter stitch cuffs, nothing too fancy. I really enjoyed working on these gloves - in part because knitting with cashmere is like knitting with butter (just not as messy and without the pesky refrigeration issues) - and in part, because I really like making gloves. I did learn a few things though - for starters, I evidently have small child hands, rather than normal sized adult person hands, so I ended up making some alterations on the fly. My alterations weren’t exactly enough, as the pinkies on both gloves are a little funky (see pictures below for it - see how its sort of high up and funky? I don’t really like that) and I think the thumb is a bit too high. Blocking these (because I dropped one a puddle in the garage) has helped slightly, but the look still annoys me.

I plan on wearing them anyway (as much as I can, as long as I can) because a) they’re cashmere, and b) they’ll remind me that to make something really fit well, you need to learn as much as you can about what part of the body you’re knitting for. I didn’t think my hands were any different than the people the pattern was written for, and therefore I didn’t adjust them to really fit ME. That’s something thats good for me to remember - instead of plunging in and doing something so that its done, I should really sit down and think things through to get the results that I want. If imperfect cashmere gloves will remind me to take a step back and do the job right, then darnit, I’ll keep them the way they are.*

I do really like knitting gloves, and already have a few other pairs in my list of projects to do. I like the idea of making the fingers, doing all the joins and making gloves the way I want them. There’s also a sense of risk, because I’ve never kept a pair for longer than one season.

The funky finger. See how the pinky join is a wee bit high and wonky?

Trying to take pictures of your own hands in hard.

*Also, I’m lazy and don’t want to unweave all the ends to fix it. I may be trying to better myself here, but I’m also a realist.

Words to Knit By, Part 1

I frequently find myself knitting to audiobooks, podcasts and other audio based works, so I’ve decided to start a monthly (ish) collumn called “Words to Knit By,” which focus on the works that I most like knitting to. These works inspire me, excite me, and sometimes (!) make me knit faster (or at least more diligently). Here are the two audio programs I’ve been listening to recently:

James Patrick Kelly’s Storypod:  So far, JPK’s Storypod has gone for three seasons - each of which I eagerly subscribe to. James Patrick Kellys work is firmly rooted in Sci Fi  - and in some cases, what sci fi writers call cyberpunk - but he also doesn’t subscribed to what his fans “want” or “need” - he writes what he wants. I’ve really enjoyed his Season 3, which have included everything from crazy cyberpunk to romantic comedies (which are so much funnier than “How to loose a guy in 10 days”).  As a taster, check out his “Free Reads” but go straight to Audible to get his Storypod. It’s worth it.

Escape Pod: Is the grandpapa of Scifi/Fantasy podcasts. Escape Pod has it all…sci fi cool stories, fantasy stories (but I eagerly await their fantasy podcast - I’ve forgotten the name. Escape Pod presents a better - or worse - tomorrow that resounds with each story. Escape Pod wants you to “Have Fun!”

And that’s it for this time around. But look for more…words to knit by!

First Day

It was my first day at work today (official day, I had two “meet everyone” days before the holidays). It was fun! Lots of work, but I enjoyed it.  Now, based on my last job (the one I had for five weeks) I’m being relatively cautious about my thoughts, but I did enjoy it.  Tasks that seems busy, but not scarey. People that are nice, interested in talking about both work and life. That kind of thing. The one thing that’s funny is that I have never - in my ten 12 years of working (counting my stints as a temp at many, many place during college) - I’ve never worked in a cube, so its definitely a new phenomena for me.   You can hear some conversations but not others, and sometimes (like I did twice today) you respond to queries that aren’t made to you.

During lunch, I started on a new pair of Fetching - just for me (having completed another pair in 12 hours for my aunt the day before Christmas).  The yarn is a little fluffy, but I hope it works out well.

And now, to book, knitting, and a glass of wine.

Trios Couleurs: Music

I’m getting ready to start a new job tomorrow (I’m going to bed soon, promise). But before I did, I made a few cds for going to work and coming home, and wanted to download a little bit of classical for my ipod, because you can’t do computer music where I’m working, and I don’t have any classical (or instrumental) on my ipod. I’m absolutely incapable of working and listening to music with words - I focus on the spoken words and can’t focus on the words I’m reading.

While I was looking, I came across my favorite album ever: the “Trios Coulers: Rouge” soundtrack by Zbigniew Preisner (don’t worry, I’m Polish and still haven’t fully figured out how to pronounce his name), who had a close collaboration with director Krzysztof Kieslowski (however, I *do* know how to pronouce his name) for many of his movies, including the Trois Couleurs trilogy (Red, White & Blue) as well as The Double Life of Veronique and others. His music is so beautiful, so haunting (and a note: some of them do have vocals - but they’re in Polish and French, so I never understand them) that I had to ask Jason if he was cool with me buying 15 of the tracks to the soundtrack to Red on iTunes (its not the whole album) - an album that I long ago lost. He reminded me I have Blue, and now all I need to complete my little “lost albums” of Preisner trilogy is the Double Life soundtrack (probably more amazing than Red).

If you like classical/instrumental, you MUST check it out. (Go to his site, and listen to some of his music)

Welcome, to the world of tomorrow

As I mentioned in “Is there a human doctor around?”, I got Bender’s Big Score for Christmas (though, when I wrote that post we were getting it through Netflix). Overall, its pretty good. I had kind of hoped that the main “villains” would have somehow tied into the series - like, I don’t know, Lrr, or maybe the Brain Spawn - because Nudar and his friends were kind of gross (a SPRUNGER? ick) and a little bit annoying on the first watch. I’ve watched it about 9 times now (and the extras, and the commentary) and they’ve grown on me, because they’re just the reason for the time traveling hijinx - which on first viewing made NO sense, but its sort of held up now that I’ve watched it 9 times. I almost understand it now (I’m really bad with time travel/multiple copies of people stories - I can never keep them straight). It was a little weird to watch an entire 1 and a half hour story - I’m used to plots flipping over at 25 minutes or less (we typically watch one disc at a time) and I’ll be interested to see how they chop it up for Comedy Central. While it certainly doesn’t stand up to some of the best Futurama episodes (like Jurassic Bark, or The Why of Fry) but overall it was a pretty fun way to bring back one of my very favorite shows. If you’ve already watched Futurama, watch Benders Big Score - if you haven’t, just ask to borrow my Season 1 DVD.

On a similar note, thanks to BoingBoing I came across what might be my new favorite way to waste time on the web. Modern Mechanix (”Yesterday’s Tomorrow, Today”), a blog that showcases the pasts’ view of the future. It’s a great look at the way people in the past (think the mid-20th century) look at the future, and its great for someone who likes Sci Fi, because SF is (often) an examination of the future - and SF from the 50s looks much different than SF from today. Modern Mechanix takes it one step further and showcases real predictions for “the future” from “the past” and “new technology” articles that range from the insightful to the absurd. (For another interesting take on this whole concept, read Asimov’s Change!: Seventy-One Glimpses of the Future (out of print, but I found it in a used bookstore) a look at the future (also known as “the past” or “now” for those of us living in 2007) written in 1981. Takes on the future are funny in light of all the talk about the future of the internet, communications, etc.

How much Xanax would someone scared of flying have to take to get on THAT?

Based on the amount of time in my youth I spent on the merry-go-round, I should look 20 right now.

And the gloves….still not done.

Do you really think people want to see pictures of us?

Probably not, but who cares? Recently, my dad gave me some pictures of the Omaha reception that I realized I hadn’t shared with anyone. And I have to because for one short day in my life, I had 1940s hair, and so I want to share it with my friends.

This was at the beginning of the party, so even though it looks like he’s hit the bottle, he hasn’t (yet).

Yes, I’m making the ”Live Long and Prosper” sign. Shut Up!