Monday, June 26, 2006

Self-medication, variation 5783:

1 Smirnoff Raspberry Twister + Disney's Beauty and the Beast + mindless knitting

Still in test phase, but seems to be working.

Friday, June 16, 2006

The laceweight merino is still lying in a dejected, half-tangled mess on an end table in the living room. I feel guilty looking at it.

This morning I started my third attempt at knitting in the round with double-pointed needles. It's not a total disaster, although the stitch marker kept falling off so I gave up on it and just resolved to keep very good track of my stitches. Famous last words, probably, but so far I haven't lost track. I decided to try knit Kate from the Winter 2005 issue of Knitty. I just had a momentary image of Yoda poking me with a giant knitting needle and saying, "Do or do not, there is no try," so I guess I'd better see Kate to the end or I'll be a bad Jedi knitter.

I did knit in public on World Wide Knit in Public Day, but since I've been doing that for a month or so now it wasn't really that exciting. It might have been more fun to go hang out with a bunch of knitters in the middle of an intersection and knit, but I don't know any knitters with whom to do death-defying (or not so defying) knitting things. Rats.





Oh, the summer reading list has been updated...scroll down...

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Over the weekend, I went to City Knits in Detroit, which was a bit on the small side but had a lot of nice, reasonably priced yarn (at least, it was less expensive than the yarn in the yarn shop here in London). I met a very friendly hank of 1375 yards of lace weight merino wool, and decided it needed to go home with me. The yarn shop lady at the counter said she had never wound that particular yarn, but if I wanted her to she would. However, my mom was waiting for me and I've wound plenty of yarn by myself, so I just paid for the yarn and left.

About an hour ago I started trying to wind it. I'm trying to stay optimistic, but it keeps cringing and wanting to know what happened to the beautiful life I promised it when I took it away from its yarn store home. I feel like a bad parent.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Summer Reading List...

...because, you know, all the other knitters are doing it.

Actually, I don't have an actual list of books I want to read this summer, but since my roommate went home for the summer, I'll have no one to jabber at nonstop. So, when I'm not in the mood for listening to podcasts and knitting, I'll probably end up reading, because talking to the cat gets boring after the first five minutes.

Books finished as of June 1:

June 4 Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis

June 6 The Giver, Lois Lowry
I should have read this book when I was ten, like normal children, before I read Brave New World and 1984, but, since I didn't, this book just ended up being extremely unsatisfying. There were so many things that were alluded to but couldn't be discussed and resolved fully in a children's novel, which really makes me wonder why it was written for children. It is a unique take on the post apocalyptic totalitarian regime theme, and I wish the novel had been more fully developed.

June 8 Ghost Soldiers, Hampton Sides

June 16 Legally Blonde, Amanda Brown
I've read a few books after I saw the movie, although it isn't something I normally do. Generally I only watch the movie first if I either didn't know it was based on a book, or had very little interest in the book. Legally Blonde fell into the former category, and it's taken me however many years since the movie came out to remember to track down the book and read it. I was disappointed. The movie was better.

June 17 Girl in Hyacinth Blue, Susan Vreeland

July 31 The Dark Is Rising sequence, Susan Cooper
Over Sea, Under Stone
The Dark Is Rising
Greenwitch
The Grey King
Silver on the Tree
I started reading this series when I was twelve or thirteen, but didn't finish it then. I spotted it at the library and, having always kind of wondered how it concluded, checked out all the books. The first two books and the fourth book were very exciting, the third book was forgettable, and the last book was...alright. To be frank, I thought the ending was terrible. But there's a lot of references to King Arthur mythology, and Cooper is a skillful storyteller, so the series was overall, reasonably entertaining.

August 11 Eragon and Eldest, Christopher Paolini
This trilogy is shaping up to be Star Wars with dragons and no space ships, but so far it's been a fun read so I'm not complaining. It's a good way to get my "classic tale of good vs. evil" fix.

August 21 Going Postal, Terry Pratchett
What can I say about Terry Pratchett? His books are nearly nonstop hilarity from cover to cover, and this one was no different. RIght now I want to go to the library and check out every single book he's ever written, even the ones I've already read, but I wouldn't finish them all in three weeks and then I'd have loads of overdue fines.

Monday, June 05, 2006

May I introduce me, the online knitting group loser extraordinaire.

First, there's Knit the Classics. The May book was Pride and Prejudice, which I love (although I love Sense and Sensibility more, especially since Alan Rickman is in the movie and...well...Alan Rickman...), but did I read it? Nope. I even had a crazy idea that seven people commented in support of, but did I knit it? Nope. Now I think I can safely blame this on moving and working six days a week. But still. I was disappointed that I didn't have the time to do either of those things.

Second, there's the Sexy Knitter's Club. I was prepared to at least attempt to fit another project into my budget, because for some reason I really, really wanted to participate in the June KAL, but then the Tempting II pattern won, and it just doesn't tempt me. I tried to like it. I looked at the pictures and I read the pattern and I tried really, really hard to like it. But I just don't. So I won't be participating in this KAL.

Third, there's the Amazing Lace. A while back, I bought and frogged a sweater from Value Village that I had intended to make into the Marilyn sweater from Interweave Knits, but it wasn't working out at all. Now I really like the look of floaty, ethereal lace made with toothpicks and thread, but I don't have any in my possession and for one reason or another don't feel motivated to go buy them. What I do have are size eleven needles and fairly thick yarn. Hey, that sounds like a great thing to knit lace out of! And hey, there's a lace KAL on the internet! So I joined, because I was going to knit some lace anyway. Except I don't have a digital camera, and my roommate leaves for BC tomorrow. So, I'm not really sure how I'm going to finish all the "challenges." I reckon if I were really creative, I wouldn't need a digital camera. Maybe I can plug a USB cable into the lace itself and transmit it directly onto my computer. I wonder how much space lace takes up. My hard drive is getting kind of congested...