Hurl-tast-tic!

I don’t know if anyone who reads my blog watches Lost. (Besides three people I know who read my blog - I don’t know anyone besides them that do actually read my blog - and one of them is my husband (who, like your mother, doesn’t really count!)

Tonight, I watched the first episode of Lost Season 4, and found it pretty darn good (actually, I found it so fantastic, that it killed TWOP, leading me to post on the blog) especially as Hurley was lovely and wonderful and all my fave characters connected to Hurley (if you watch Lost, I don’t want you to be spoiled and if you don’t - you don’t care about their names) made a stellar appearance. And, since the man who make up my Lost “characters I love who were probably brought on by original writer, David Fury, like Jin and, Bernard,” showed up multiple times, this was an A-1 episode for me. I’ve loved Sam Anderson since he played the eeeevil Holland Manners in Angel - but even my mom cried when he saw his wife Rose in Lost. (Actual quote: “I don’t know why those two are making me cry…but I am!”).

All in all - a great ep. Anyone disagree? Anyone confused and/or frightened?

Tilted Duster

As some of you know, I’ve had some woes with the Titled Duster from this fall’s Interweave - I gauge swatched it, washed my gauge swatch, and yet when I made the darn thing, the body was way. too. big.  I restarted it, got done with the body pieces pretty fast, and then started to cast on for the skirt sometime in the middle of November an lost my steam. It sat in my basement (which is where I was doing a lot of knitting and napping back when I was freelancing) and made me feel guilty.

Once I finished the gloves & the hat I had no desire to pick up something new, so I decided to keep moving on the Tilted Duster (take 2).

Right now I’m on repeat 6 of the skirt, and just have to finish that, do the sleeves & the collar. I’m a little nervous about the shoulders - when I put the stitched together sweater on originally, it looked sort of short in the bustal region (which as many of  you know - I myself am short on bustal regions so it could be WAY too short). I’m going to plow through with the skirt part, and then try on the thing again. If it really is too short, I plan on ripping out the seams at the top and knitting a few more rows in the shoulders to make the fronts a bit longer (the back seems just fine - its just the fronts that I’m worried will look wonky).

Pattern Woes

Has anyone tried the calyx handtote from the new Knitscene - I can’t seem to figure out the darn handle and its driving me crazy. I’d really like to make this guy, but at this point the project is a nonstarter thanks to the confusing instructions. Am I stupid or is something missing from the pattern?

TamTastic!

Every once in a while - typically in wintertime - I get the bug to try stranded knitting. For those of you who aren’t knitters, stranded knitting is a little bit like learning a Romance language when all you’ve had exposure to is a Germanic language. Instead of one piece of yarn, you hold two (or three, or four) - there’s a huge opportunity to get tongue tied and sound (or look) like a doof. I tried once, last winter, on the Corazon mittens from knitty, felted like I was a cat knitting with no thumbs and gave up. Then there was my “unconventional learning” period where I made a felted beer cozy (which Jason refuses to use, and has since been relegated to the trash can) So when I saw the Three Tams patterns in the new knitty, I figured I’d give one a try - stranded knitting and Noro? I can do that! If not, at least I’ll have another unattractive felted beer cozy.

The process was not as scary as I thought it would be based on previous experience. When you knit with two strands of yarn, the best thing to do is to put both strands on one finger - some places even have a little dongle that you put in your index finger to keep the yarn separated - I’d like one, but it isn’t necessary. The main annoying thing is that your yarn gets tangled like cat barf while you start out.

It’s pretty! Its fun to knit! I had no idea at this point if I’d wear it or not!

The biggest time sink was that once I started decreasing I had to move to double pointed needles. Double pointed needles + two or more strands of yarn = Black Hole. However, I did finish, and the best part was, I only had to weave in two sets of ends, and because of all the back stranded yarn (the yarn in the back as you carry the yarn you aren’t knitting to the point where you are knitting it - kind of like if you were dating two people at once on different days) lets you just stick your leftovers under the carried yarn and move on.

Overall, this is a B+. I like that it doesn’t really LOOK like a Tam (which is sort of like a wooly beret which makes me feel like a big doofus) but more like a hat. This is probably because I went down a few needles sizes (like 2) from the original pattern (without doing math) but in this case, it worked out. It’s also one of the only items in my wardrobe - inner or outwear - that happens to have white as a major color. But this does NOT mean I’m going to start making sweaters with reindeer on them for the holidays. Promise!

Everybody look at the HAT, not the dirty laundry in the background or the fact that I look like a frog.

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!