More Distractions

All the bits of the Debbie Bliss Denim Cardi are finished. The back seems to be the right size after all, but I'm going to tack the whole thing together first so that I can check, before I undertake the massive seaming project. Yes, the yarn is discontinued, Mette, but it still crops up on eBay all the time.

And I've finished another ball of RYC Silk Aran on the Clapo-Ktus scarf. This is two-balls worth and I have four balls left so I think this is one third of the final length, although I might make it shorter if it gets too heavy.. I did the increases during the first ball, and have gone straight for the second.

I got distracted by something else bright and shiny. It was the Yarn Harlot's fault. She made a pair of mittens. I'm somewhat obssessed with silk. One of my more embarrassing secrets is a small collection of kimonos that I've bought on eBay because I couldn't resist their fabulousness, and when I spent 36 hours in Shanghai, I devoted two of them to going round a silk factory.

This angry little person is a decorated silk cocoon which I think I bought in one of the shops at the Smithsonian - can that be right? Anyway, it's about an-inch-and-a-half long, and if you shake it you can hear its owner and builder rattling about inside it. The filament for one cocoon unwinds to a length of about one mile. These 'hankies' each use one cocoon and aren't woven; they're sort of spread out on a frame - very good tutorial here in Knitty from the redoubtable Amy Singer. This form of silk is also known as mawata.

I had managed to ignore silk for spinning because if I allow myself to be diverted by spinning, I won't be able to knit all the things I want to knit, but the Harlot's unspun mawata seduced me completely and she offers the possibility of knitting it without the spinning. I found a British supplier who hadn't sold out, George Weil, and ordered some.

They sent purple, pink and blue and I started tearing them apart as soon as I'd opened the parcel.

I even knitted up a couple of little swatches.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but it's lovely stuff. 

Telly
First of all, British viewers of The Killing must go here.  I made some open sandwiches for the final episodes of The Killing on Saturday night - pickled herring, shrimp, salami and gherkins, on dark rye bread (I don't dare drink cofee after 5 p.m., Gretchen. and I didn't think of beer, so I was forced to drink wine). I put the lights out for Earth Hour - I know, I should have put the television off too, but really - and lit a candle. I discovered there are hazards to eating open sandwiches in the dark. I won't say anything specific here, because you might be going to catch the repeat, or you may be waiting for the American version which starts soon, but I wasn't disappointed. It was the person that I suspected quite a long time ago. I don't see Sarah Lund as some sort of feminist heroine, because she seemed to do the same things as male characters in her situation do (i.e. the television maverick), which is disappointing, and I'm curious to see how she's re-instated - we know she is because we've seen the trailer for Series 2 - but at least she didn't spend a lot of time bursting into tears. Actually, she didn't burst into tears once, which is good going for a woman on television these days. Gripping stuff.

It's the last episode of Silk on Tuesday night: there are three storylines to be resolved - who is going to get silk, will Billy be ousted, and the obssessed former client - and I think I can also see something sad looming on the horizon. I hope there's going to be another series.

 King's Bench Walk, courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

I think it's a very likely candidate for showing on BBC America, Mary Lou, as it has lawyers in wigs, and judges in robes, and fleeting glimpses of picturesque bits of London, so keep your fingers crossed. In spite of what one thinks of as the ubiquity of the Internet, there are a lot of American programmes which we still can't see. Even on television,  we can't always get what we want - Boardwalk Empire is only available to Sky subscribers: I'm not one and even if I wanted to be, I can't because I live in a 'listed' building, i.e. one of architectural or historical importance, so I have cable. In Edinburgh, it's quite difficult not to live in a listed building. And cruellest of all, Channel 4 took Southland for the first two series, but didn't take the third. I thought Southland was superb, James Ellroy meets The Sopranos, and I can't forgive Channel 4 for the oversight, presumably casued by Southland switching channels in the States.I wish the providers would get themselves sorted out.