I've managed not to keel over again, so that's encouraging. As anticipated, I've ripped the previous turquoise All Seasons Cotton sweater and have started on a [BIG] Rubble. (Yes, Fiona, we often follow each other: I still mean to knit a shadow[]box :) It's always interesting seeing a pattern going viral amongst one's Ravelry Friends, zigzagging up the page.)
I was working with 5mm needles, but my Inner Knitter kept telling me that it looked too wide and, more importantly, the fabric was too floppy. Since I've already got a well-worn and much-loved sweater in this yarn, you'd think all I'd have to do would be check Ravelry to see what needle I used, but alas, I didn't record it. Perhaps I knitted it before I joined Ravelry.
So I eventually gave in and cast on again with a 4.5mm needle and knitted for a few inches.
The lower one was definitely closer to what I want so there was more ripping, and then more knitting.
Since I finished the two little baby hats I've been thinking about a Pinwheel Blanket for the baby. I decided All Seasons Cotton would be a good idea again and at first was keen to do it in the old Printed version, in the pink colourway, Heart.
I used that on the edge of an earlier Pinwheel. It's discontinued, but I found someone on Ravelry who was apparently interested in selling some so I contacted her: No Answer was the loud reply. This was a mite frustrating as I could see that she had read it, and that was busy chatting to her real Ravelry friends, but after a while I began to wonder if the mother-to-be might think it was a bit hippy-dippy and tie-dye, so I went back to thinking about plain pink. There's a pale pink, called Fez, so that's what I got
This one is on a 5mm needle.
It's a very soft shade, quite close to the Shell of the Handknit Cotton I made the latest daisy hat from. It's very pretty. Sometimes in artificial light I think it's the colour of the gums on false teeth, but it probably isn't.
I'm going cat-sitting again, so I'm going to take it with me. I really want to take the turquoise, but Baby is due on May Day and I don't think she's going to be late. I know how 'bags of time' can turn into Eeek!, so I'm not going to take any chances, especially as I would like to do quite a fancy border on it. Famous last words. I'm slightly apprehensive about the cat-sitting in case I get ill again - one of my plants died of neglect during my last bout - but I'm thinking positive.
Movies
The cat's Mummy and Daddy don't have as many channels of tv as I do, so I'm taking my iPad and planning to catch up with House of Cards on Netflix. I've watched three episodes and although I'm not quite sure it warrants 13 episodes, I'm fairly hooked. Spacey is terrific, of course, and there are all sorts of other good people. I still remember the BBC original, which I leurved, and Ian Richardson is a hard act to follow, but I don't think there's any point in comparing them: that was then and this is now, and so on.
I recently joined MUBI, which is wonderful. It's another online movie service, but instead of replicating the same selection of blockbusters as everyone else, it works on a smaller, more perfect base. They put up a new film each day and leave it there for a month, so at any time there are 30 films to choose from. Some of them are current, and some are films I've always meant to get round to seeing. Some I haven't heard of. At the moment it doesn't run on iPad, so I shall miss it when I'm away, but they're working on it. It's available in lots of countries so probably the best way to find it if you're not in the UK is just to google MUBI. It is amazingly cheap.
One of the first films I watched was Nanni Morretti's Habemus Papam, We Have a Pope, which appeared coincidentally a few days after the resignation. (Which resignation? There are so many nowadays.)
I like Morretti's films very much anyway, and this one is a treat.
Briefly, a new Pope is chosen, but when he's informed he has a panic attack and refuses the position. It looks gorgeous, full of red and pink silk robes and spectacular surroundings - the Palazzo Farnese, not the Vatican. If you've watched many Italian films you will recognize a lot of the Cardinals; Moretti has put together a remarkable collection of ancient faces. I wonder if they bought the cardinals' robes at an outfitters in Rome or if they ran them up in the wardrobe department. I don't suppose you can buy cardinals' robes off the peg.
