tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84460780327885658542024-03-11T06:15:44.347+00:00chronic knitting syndromeHelenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.comBlogger312125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-2652704189907220302013-10-31T19:31:00.001+00:002013-10-31T19:31:45.672+00:00Fingers Crossed<b>Knitting</b><br />
I still haven't tried on Rubble. Perhaps I'm in denial.<br />
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I've finished knitting and sewing <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/boxy">Boxy</a>. Last night I gave it a wash in hand-hot water - the yarn is oiled for industrial knitting - and then a wool cycle in the washing machine, and it is drying very carefully on the airer. I tried it on before washing and was very happy with it, so everything is crossed. <br />
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The shoulder seam is a three-needle bind-off and while I was doing it I
was worrying a little becasue the yarn is so fine in places. The idea of
casting off live stitches with fragile yarn was not a relaxing one: if
the cast off ever snapped, the whole thing could disintegrate very
rapidly. When I got to the end I discovered that I had done the thing I
so often do on a three-needle bind-off, which is actually to end up with
the row on the right-hand needle. At first this seemd like a disaster,
but I turned it around and cast off in the other direction, making it a
double seam. It hasn't made for a lumpy finish so I think it's turned
out to have been a very beneficial mistake, and I did it deliberately on
the second shoulder. <br />
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I don't particualrly like working with a short cicrular do I didn't knit the sleeves in the round. I worked them on the flat and then sewed up the sides and the sleeves at the same time.<br />
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When I tried it on, it was the lightest and warmest cloud. I hope I'm still happy with it when it dries and that it doesn't have to be turned ito a blanket.<br />
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I think I'm going to knit another <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/boxy">Boxy</a> very soon. I'm in a slight toil about the yarn. I had a very bad accident on eBay the other week: a nice woman in Austria was selling some madelinetosh Merino Light in different shades of blue. Europe means no tax, and no outrageous Royal Mail charge. Nobody else was bidding, so what could I do? <br />
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That's Denim, Mourning Dove, Stovepipe and Ink. I already have a couple of other madelinetosh blues. Very tempting. I think graduated rather than stripes. But on the other hand, I have some very nice light turquoise Wollmeise. Decisions, decisions.<br />
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I really like this <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sweatrrr/people">Sweatr-r-r</a>
but since I have decided never to knit anything with fitted armholes again, I
think I might just steal the idea of the coloured patches down the
front and apply it to another Boxy. Perhaps I could do that with the blues.<br />
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I've lately become obssessed with a shade of light green which is begining to show up everywhere. I bought a black and cream tunic which came tied up with ribbon in this shade, and I've seen it everywhere since. I thought a <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/shag-2">Shag</a> might be good and found a ball of Jaeger Matchmaker on eBay in a shade called Hop. This is a very good name for the colour; it has the zest of spring shoots. I need to track down another ball of it.<br />
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It turns out that Frau Wollmeise does a beautiful Spring green, called Fruhling, appropriately enough. She does some <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/wollmeise-pure-100-merino-superwash/stashes?status=&cf=%3F&photoless=0&search=green">fabulous light greens</a>, with names like Wasabi and Pesto and Pistazie and Lowenzahn (dandelion?) and Petersilie and Spinaci and Mistelzweig. Lots of vegetables in there.<br />
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The photograph isn't quite true: imagine a little more yellow. I wonder if I would have the nerve, or the complexion, to wear that. <br />
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Perhaps the matching nail polish is as far as I will go (Essie, The More the Merrier).<br />
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One of my neighbours has had a baby and I was wondering about knitting a hat. I didn't think she was a pink-and-white girl and I was very glad to see that Baby, when I met her, was wearing a black knitted hat with little white scottie dogs all around it. So I made her a <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/aviatrix-baby-hat">flying helmet </a>with some Cherry Hill Possum Worsted that I've been hoarding for a while. I have a few skeins of this. It's very warm but it's too soft to show up a stitch and the colours disappear so I have trouble finding uses for it. The colours show up very well in photographs but not so much in real life.<br />
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It's too big so I'll have to knit another one for this winter, but it's cute and as always so easy and quick to knit. <br />
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I think the last piece of knitting I have to report is this. <br />
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One of my loved ones asked me if I would sponsor him to shave his head in November, for a good cause. I said I would rather sponsor him not to shave his head, but either way he's going to need a hat. This is some lovely squidgy Malabrigo in a shade called Blue Graphite. Here it looks like black and in reality it's usually a subtle grey but in some lights it's a beautiful dark blue grey. This time of year the light in Ediburgh isn't good for seeing colours: my flat is on a corner, half facing north and half facing west, and I can sometimes be seen scurrying from window to window trying to make out what colour something is. The rooms are painted the same colour but look totally different: I once nearly had quite a bad row with a friend who would't believe that the bedroom is painted green because it looks like baby blue. She's a designer and knows about these things so professional pride was on the line, but nothing changed the name on the can of paint, Jade White. <br />
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The pattern is Stephen West's<a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/dustland-hat"> Dustland Hat </a>and I bought these smart new needles because I didn't have any 4.5mm dpns. <br />
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I pronounce the 'K' and the 'Z'. They're nice and light and slick.I got the wrong size but the yarn isn't falling off the needles all the time.<br />
<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-81038395475920165042013-09-17T03:31:00.001+01:002013-09-17T03:42:38.854+01:00Cool again<b>Knitting</b><br />
I tried on <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/bigrubble">Rubble</a> eventually, although I haven't had another look at it since the weather cooled down enough to actually wear it and I haven't photographed it. I think it's OK. I'll have a look at it soon and report back.<br />
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I have been blasting on with <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/boxy">Boxy</a>. I'm making the seamed version, because like <a href="http://jeanmiles.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/yesterdaywas-on-whole-success-at-least.html">Jean</a> and <a href="http://sallymelvilleknits.blogspot.co.uk/">Sally Melville</a> I think that garments hang much better if they're properly structured and seams help to give them structure. I don't seem to hate purling at all nowadays, and in fact probably feel exactly the same about purling as I do about knitting. Also, something with as many stitches as Boxy would get wildly twisted if knitted in the round, and I would get RSI in my shoulder, so flat it is.<br />
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I spent some time labouring over what size to choose, peering at other people's choices, but I eventually decided to do as Joji says, and chose the size that fits my arm circumference even although it's a bit bigger elsewhere. I'm making it slightly shorter than the pattern: the largest size is three inches longer than the smallest and one of the things I learnt from watching What Not To Wear is that long tops make your legs look short. Well, maybe not your legs, but certainly mine.<br />
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The purl rows at the shoulder don't really show up because of the marl, but I expect they add to the structure too. The pattern is well written and even I didn't make any mistakes doing the second side. At least, I don't think I did.<br />
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The yarn is lovely. The two plies are fairly loosely twisted together
but I expect them to fluff up and become more dense once it's finished
and washed: it needs a hand-hot wash to get the oil off. It's not totally
cashmere-soft at the moment but certainly very nice to work with, and
very airy. If the shape turns out to be a terrible mistake I can just
chop the arms off and use it as a blanket.<br />
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Remember my floorboards are six inches wide. This picture shows the front and the first six inches or so of the back. Since the cashmre is so soft and doesn't wear very well,I might make some plain black elbow patches, but I'll have to see first where the sleeves fall and if it actually has elbows.<br />
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<b>Telly</b><br />
<a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/09/13/last_tango_in_halifax_on_pbs_romance_done_right.html">Last Tango in Halifax is being shown in the US</a> and they're filming a second series. I think I was watchhing The Fall last time I wrote; it was terrifiic but I hope I'm not giving anything away if I say the last episode was a huge letdown. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b039ft8x">What Remains</a> finished on Sunday and we're still reeling from the ending.<br />
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Those of you who follow the <a href="http://idiosyncraticfashionistas.blogspot.co.uk/">Idiosyncratic Fashionistas</a> and live in the UK might like <a href="http://www.channel4.com/programmes/fabulous-fashionistas">The Fabulous Fashionistas</a> documentary showing on Channel 4 this week, on - oh, tonight, at 10.00.I expect it'll be available on <a href="http://www.channel4.com/programmes/4od">4OD</a>. <br />
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And on Wednesday there's a doco on BBC4 called <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03bgrvf">Knitting's Golden Age</a>. It seems to be the first in a series about textiles but the website isn't giving much away, and the Radio Times mention is full of the usual patronising nonsense, but we shall see. <br />
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<b>Family Snaps</b><br />
Thanks very much for the comments about the photographs. Yes, I'm very lucky, <a href="http://knitforwardsunderstandbackwards.blogspot.co.uk/">Mette</a>. I wish I were well enough to organize them properly and annotate them, but at least I can post some of them here. Here's another one.<br />
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This is my great-grandfather, Robert Glen, in the late 1920s. He's the one in the wing-collar, bowler hat and very shiny shoes. He was a butcher and cattle-dealer so those must be some of his beasts, as we used to say in Scotland. His son married the dark-eyed girl you saw in an earlier post. He was still working when he died on the 2nd of July 1929, at the age of
94, and he only died because his wife had died on the 13th of June. My
grandfather buried them 3 weeks apart.<br />
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<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-32415049216013298842013-09-17T01:28:00.003+01:002013-09-17T03:44:22.215+01:00Hot hot hotI wrote this a while ago and didn't get round to posting it, but rather than changing all the tenses I'm just going to post it and then start a new one. <b></b><br />
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<i>Some time in August </i><b><br /></b><br />
<b>Knitting</b><br />
I've hardly knitted a stitch since my last post. It has been so horribly hot that I couldn't think about it, not even the big cotton heap that is Rubble: I finished seaming it and gave it a wash but I couldn't bear to try it on.<br />
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<i>Provanmill is a part of Glasgow</i></div>
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When I say horribly hot, I am aware that this sounds a bit ridiculous to the rest of the world. I have family in Brisbane, Australia so it's one of the places on the weather app that I check most days: in Brisbane it is currently winter and the temperatures are much the same or hotter than those in Edinburgh, where it is currently summer.<br />
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I am a bit of a limp rag at the best of times but in this I am a damp, limp rag. My father used to call me Gollum but in fact he wasn't much better, as it's from him that I inherited an extreme sensitivity to sunlight. So although there has been much staying indoors, there has been little knitting.<br />
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I haven't entirely stopped buying yarn, however, weak-willed creature that I am. I bought a skein of madeinetosh Merino Light in Curiosity from eBay, thinking that it was a grey which would go with some of my blues, but when it arrived it has an undertone of greenish yellow which won't work with them at all. I might sell it. And I've been buying hugely expensive quantities of Wollmeise merino to make a <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/boxy">Boxy</a>, gathering it from thither and thon with the help of Ravelry stashes. <br />
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However, while I was waiting for it to arrive I had a casting-on accident. What happened was that I was shifting stuff off the sofa because I had a visitor coming. When I bought this sofa a few years ago a friend asked me if I was happy with it and I said, Well, it seems to be mostly covered with knitting and wool and books, but it's very comfortable, and she said, 'So it's really just a very expensive shelf?' Which it sort of is. Anyway, I was clearing wool and books off the shelf and carrying them through to put them on the bed (this is a small flat) and as I do every time I do this I had to pick up the bag containing some <a href="http://stores.ebay.co.uk/ColourMartUK">Colourmart</a> cashmere that I bought last winter. (The printout inside the bag says it was the winter before, but that can't be right, can it?) It's a black and white twist, slightly thick and thin.<br />
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I'd been swatching Wollmeise on different sizes of needles so I had the required gauge for Boxy at the front of my mind, so I fished the little Colourmart swatch out of the bag and what do you know?<br />
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<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-50847637996510964242013-06-28T04:29:00.000+01:002013-06-28T04:32:12.071+01:00Bootee Binge<b>Knitting</b><br />
You're absolutely right, <a href="http://jeanfromcornwall.blogspot.co.uk/">jeanfromcornwall</a>, it's knicker pink, a colour which haunted our youth, plainly. As far as I can see however, later generations aren't scarred in the same way so I took a deep breath and handed the blanket over and it appeared to be very welcome. I also handed over a rabbit, one of the <a href="http://www.jellycat.com/">Jellycat </a>soft toys, which I find irresistible, and it appears to be very popular.<br />
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The baby is a beautiful little girl and the first time she met me she slept happily in my arms, so she's obviously perceptive and intelligent too. Then I got sidetracked into bootees. I like Elizabeth Zimmermann's pattern in <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bootees-2">The Opinionated Knitter</a> and I couldn't resist casting on a whisper of Kidsilk Haze in Cream.<br />
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And then another one.<br />
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Impossibly cute. I followed these up with another pair in madelinetosh Merino Light which I think is called something Rose.<br />
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I must do another pair soon.<br />
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I'm sorry to have taken so long to post, Amy - I got the idea into my head that I really must finish <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/bigrubble">Rubble</a> before I could do another post here, but I've decided that doesn't matter. The second half has taken much longer than the first; I'm not sure why because I like the pattern and I want to have it finished but somehow it keeps sitting there and not growing. But now it's nearly done.<br />
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This is a very bad photograph but it's late at night: you'll have to forgive me. It's nearly done, just one more cuff to do and the neck. I'm not going to do the ribbed neck: I'll just pick up the stitches, knit a round, and cast off. It looks huge but every time I try it on it looks about right, which is worrying in that it means that I'm huge but reassuring in that it means I've made it the right size.<br />
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I've been called away for some emergency cat-sitting or I would have got it finished this weekend. I'll take something smaller and lighter, perhaps the denim <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/shetland-triangle-lace-shawl-2">Shetland Triangle</a> which you all thought I'd abandoned. I've been thinking for a while that after all those lacy shawls I used to do, I have recently had a long spell of being a project knitter. Franklin has obligingly written <a href="http://www.twistcollective.com/2013/spring/magazinepage_016.php">an article about this in the latest issue of Twist Collective</a>. Although I've enjoyed a lot of these big plainish projects, my thoughts have secretly been turning to froth again and it might be nice to test my enthusiasm on the Triangle.<br />
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And matinee jackets. Yes, Mary Lou, I think it's more a British expression. After some consideration I don't think it's the same usage as a matinee at the theatre, but more a distinction between nightwear and daywear. A baby at the time of my Granny's knitting pattern book would have worn a long flannel nightie which tied at the back, and been put into knitted garments for daytime.<br />
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<b>The Past</b><br />
I have had this photograph for a long time, since my mother died and I acquired her collection of family photographs.<br />
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It shows my mother's mother's parents, outside their house. Do click. They were Jessie and Robert Forrester. I like their vegetable garden. Jessie died before my grandmother married so I've never heard anything about her: my mother didn't know her as she did her paternal grandparents. I've wondered from time to time where the house was but I thought I didn't know, until one weekend recently when it occurred to me to google a couple of names that have cropped up in family stories. And what should I find?<br />
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It's at <a href="http://www.geolocation.ws/v/E/1786926/mill-of-torr/en">Mill of Torr,</a> Stirlingshire. The vegetables have vanished from the garden and it all looks a lot tidier now.<br />
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These were taken on the doorstep.<br />
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My Granny is the dark-haired girl on the right. (She's not the knitting Granny; that was my father's mother.)<br />
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Her brother Jim is the handsome man at the left in the top photograph. I don't know who anyone else is. You can see that country people didn't buy new shoes that would only be worn once for a wedding, but they did polish their boots very well.<br />
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This is Granny and Jim many years later. I'm almost certain this was taken against the wall of the outbuilding in the first two pictures.<br />
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The walking sticks are Jim's. He had very bad arthritis. You can see he still has his moustache and his lovely smile.<br />
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<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-89478244902744107252013-04-22T02:42:00.001+01:002013-04-22T02:44:25.628+01:00Still Dithering<b>Knitting</b><br />
I still haven't decided what to do with the pink shawl, but thank you very much for all your comments. <a href="http://seaeaglessightings.blogspot.co.uk/">Sea</a>, I know that the mum wants lots of pink things so I'm not worried on that score. It's the shade of pink that concerns me, and I think you're absolutely right about ballet pink, stashdragon.<br />
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I should watch some of Call the Midwife, <a href="http://mlegan.wordpress.com/">Mary Lou</a>, just to see the knitting. My Granny had a book of knitting patterns which were her staples, and there were two baby jackets in it which she must have knitted over and over. Matinee jackets they would have been called. Does anyone know why? I can't imagine babies ever went much to matinees. I thought the term would have passed into disuse but I see from <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/search#sort=best&query=matinee">Ravelry </a>that it's alive and well. There was another pattern in her book which she knitted over and over, for a short-sleeved lacy top to be worn under a tailor-made tweed suit. A woman's tweed suit was called 'a costume' in my youth. I think the tops might have been knitted from baby yarn as they were in those soft pastels like lemon and pink and wisteria, and a pale green. Pale green and lemon were worn by very small babies because you wouldn't know whether they would need blue or pink until they actually arrived. Changed days.<br />
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It does look better in daylight, <a href="http://fionawinning.blogspot.co.uk/">Fiona,</a> but not better enough, if you follow me. If it were a hotter pink, I'd be a lot happier. But I don't want to spend money on dye and anyway I think dyeing would knacker the cotton and acrylic blend. But the baby was born on Saturday so there's much more important things to think about than blankets. 3.2 kilos, which I believe is a perfect 7 pounds. Mother and baby are both well.<br />
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I have been making progress with the<a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/bigrubble"> Mediterraneo [BIG] Rubble</a>, so much so that I had to rip it back <i><b>again </b></i>because I had overshot the increases for the arms. I've made it a little longer because I was worried about it being too short, and now I think I've made it too long, but I won't really know until the underarm seams are sewn so there's no point in flapping, and anyway it won't be too too long and I think this is a pattern I'll knit more than once. In sewing terms, this is a <a href="http://www.burdastyle.com/blog/toile-anyone">toile or muslin</a>, a trial garment, except that I should be able to wear this.<br />
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The sleeves don't look wide enough here, but that's because it's squeezed onto a needle which isn't as long as the row. The neck comes up a bit higher than I expected and I have a very short neck so I don't think I'll add any ribbing. I think I'll just pick up the stitches, do a couple of rows, and cast off, so that it's a rolled neck edge. But we'll see.<br />
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<b>Telly</b><br />
It's the last episode of<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2249364/"> Broadchurch</a> tonight (Monday) and I shall be all agog. Actually finding out who did it will be a slight disappointment as it always is (or is that just me?) but it's been absorbing and the photography and music have contributed to that a great deal. I have arrived at an age where usually I just complain about music on television, but on this it has been a major part of the whole. I have been distracted by one major hole in the investigations (why haven't they got the boy's phone records from his provider?) but I'm prepared to overlook that for the purposes of suspending disbelief. Last week we saw a major suspect written out but another who had been drawn to our attention was strangely absent. . .<br />
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<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-37656768347893065762013-04-08T14:04:00.001+01:002013-04-08T14:04:24.872+01:00Hideous<b>Knitting</b><br />
I did do another round of stocking stitch before I started the picot bind-off on the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/round-or-pinwheel-baby-blanket-8">Pinkwheel</a> baby shawl, and then I started to warm to this project again. <br />
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The combination of garter stitch rows, YOs and picot bind-off. all worked out as well as I could have hoped and I was quite happy with it.<br />
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And then I washed and dried it, and I hated it again. I think it looks like a bit of old tat and I'm going to give it to my friend's cat-charity shop. Perhaps someone will give them a couple of pounds for it.<br />
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I've made Pinwheel Blankets in All Seasons Cotton before and been more than happy with them, and I'll use this border again, so it's sort of hard to say why this combination is so horrible. I think it might be down to the shade of pink, which reminds me of the 1950s, and not in a good way. It's the colour of old plastic and artificial silk and bathroom fittings and toothbrushes and plastic cameos and yes, the gums on false teeth. So I'll buy the baby a present out of a shop and we'll all be happier.<br />
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I started a stay-on sock and then couldn't understand what to do next. I'll have another go some day when my brain's sharper.<br />
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I forgot to mention that I finished the Denim Kidsilk Trio cowl and I've been wearing it ever since. I just cast off at the end, put a twist in it, and then seamed up the join.<br />
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I know, I'm terrible. So far, no-one has stopped me in the street and accused me of not kitchenering it.<br />
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<br />
I had thought of going to the <a href="http://www.edinyarnfest.com/">Edinburgh Yarn Festival </a>but abandoned the idea because I wasn't sure there was any seating and I didn't want to take the risk. How wise I was, for once. A friend who went reported that it was full of lovely stuff, but mobbed, jam-packed and full of queues. I hope I can go next time. She also said it was full of <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/stripe-study-shawl/people">Stripe Studies</a> and <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/color-affection">Color Affections</a>. After a moment's disappointment that I wasn't totally original, I decided that it's nice to be part of a wave.<br />
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<b>The Shape of Knitting</b><br />
Lynne Barr's wonderful new book <a href="http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Shape-Knitting-Lynne-Barr/9781617690211">The Shape of Knitting</a> arrived while I was packing to go and stay with the cat again.<br />
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The subtitle is A Master Class in Increases, Decreases and Other Forms of Shaping, and it has sections with her brilliant instructions and photographs.<br />
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And patterns.<br />
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<br />
A section on Three-Dimensional Knitting.<br />
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<br />
A whole section on casting on and casting off.<br />
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<br />
And more patterns.<br />
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I was very tempted to pack some yarn so that I can cast on while I'm away, but I've decided instead to take the turquoise Rubble and read, mark, learn and inwardly digest <b>Shape</b> before I do anything rash.<br />
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<b>Flickering Screen</b><br />
There's a good series on television just now called <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2249364/?ref_=sr_1">Broadchurch</a>. It stars David Tennant and Olivia Colman and it's another crime drama. I do wish that we ever had any other sort of drama on television especially when we have such good actors. Both of them are doing seriously good work on the London stage these days, and do we ever get to see it? No. Broadchurch is a cut above though and I find myself thinking about it between epsiodes (I cannot type 'episode' right first time) and wondering what the people are doing. It's in eight episodes, and we still have three to go. I'm going cat-sitting again and will be relying mostly on Netflix and dvds, but fortunately I'll be able to see Broadchurch.<br />
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P.S. A passing friend has just said how nice the horrible pink shawl is. She isn't usually given to unnecessary politeness. I shall see what I think when I come home.<br />
<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-7294004792231653322013-04-02T02:34:00.001+01:002013-04-02T04:05:23.036+01:00Bogged Down<b>Knitting</b><br />
I haven't been ill this time, just bogged down in a bit of knitting that I'm not finding very inspiring. At one point I was so uncaring that I didn't notice I'd picked up the wrong needle and I produced this abomination, pink Pinwheel and Mediterranean Rubble conjoined.<br />
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But I'm about to start the picot bind-off, unless I decide to knit another round first, so the end is in sight, albeit somewhat distantly. It's 530 stitches, give or take, which isn't too bad.<br />
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The cat-sitting went well. Here she is, telepathically informing me that it's 5 o'clock and time for her dinner. In fact, it was only 4.30 so she's going to have to wait a little longer. It was during that very hot week we had at the end of February and her Mummy and Daddy were colder in Spain than they would have been here. Now we're freezing at night again and lots of people have snow. Crazy.<br />
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I got some photos of past knitting. Boys in <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/doctor-who-scarves">Doctor Who scarves</a>.<br />
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One boy in a Doctor Who scarf. I would like to point out that he's got it folded double so it looks much shorter than it actually is.<br />
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And a Coffee Cozy. I don't think I blogged about this. It's some of the bright red Sirdar Sublime Chunky Merino that I used for the Doctor Who scarves. It is the most brilliant true red: it's called Tartan but could easily be called Christmas, a colour that endlessly pleases the eyes.<br />
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I made the pattern up out of my head. The ribbing has a slit at the side so that it can fit different sizes or be rolled up for a shorter cup. I thought it was for a paper coffee cup; apparently it was for a travel mug but it still fits, phew.<br />
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Someone on Ravelry has knitted <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/PikkuUnelmia/ystavan-halaus">another gorgeous stripy cowl</a>. I feel simultaneously disappointed and relieved that I don't have a lovely bag of leftovers that I could use as an excuse to cast on for this.<br />
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<b>Composing Lace</b><br />
One of my Twitter friends alerted me to a radio programme on the World Service about the Dark Days Music Festival in Iceland, which included an interview with Icelandic composer Hafdis Bjarnadottir who uses lace knitting charts as inspiration for her music - you can hear the holes being made. It's available to listen to<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01584zw"> here</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01584zw/The_Strand_Music_from_Iceland/">here</a>, but I don't know which of these, if either, will be available overseas. If you don't want to listen to the whole thing, the knitting bit starts at 11:20.<br />
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If you can't listen to it, there's a brief newspaper account <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/9964932/Icelandic-composer-uses-knitting-pattern-to-write-score.html">here</a>. It's written by someone who thinks knitting is frightfully amusing but we're used to that.<br />
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<b>Silver Screen</b><br />
Going round and round in pink circles left quite a lot of time for staring at the screen. I watched all of the latest <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1856010/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">House of Cards</a>, and then couldn't resist watching <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098825/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">the old one</a> too. I felt the new one was too long; there isn't really any reason for it to last 13 episodes except that that's how long a television series usually is nowadays; for the same sort of reason the last episode was unsatisfactory because everyone who should have been getting their just desserts was being set up for the next series. The writing wasn't always very exciting, and one was told things - she's an outstanding journalist, he's got great promise as a politician - without necessarily seeing any evidence for these statements. The relationship between the politician and the journalist was much more of a transaction than a relationship - interestingly, in the older show the woman initiated things and was much more of a driving force - well, not so much at the end, but still. Apart from that, it was all watchable and Spacey was as good as I'd hoped. I like Corey Stoll, who played David Russo and thought he shone. Robin Wright was convincingly dastardly and always beautifully dressed.<br />
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The old one (1990) was skipped through much more quickly, three books boiled down into four episodes, and the ending was as definite an ending as you could get. And everyone seemed to cope very well without mobile phones.<br />
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They're both on Netflix in the UK. I learnt recently that if you're travelling you can log into the local Netflix site using your home username and password. It remembers what you're watching and everything. I thought it was a mistake at first but it's just Netflix being practical. Bravo.<br />
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The BBC are showing <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074006/?ref_=sr_1">I, Claudius</a> again, all remastered and tidied up from 1976. They're not repeating it and it isn't available on iPlayer so one has to catch it on a Tuesday night. I was worried that it might seem very silly and out-of-date as innovative things often do 35 years later but I'm enjoying it as much as ever and am surprised by what huge chunks of it I remember vividly. The very modern style and avoidance of fake ancientness still works. Sian Phillips is entirely convincing as the deadly Livia and I'm dreading the appearance of John Hurt as Caligula. The scenery does wobble from time and ageing make-up has improved a lot since then, but it doesn't really matter.<br />
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I'd wanted to see <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2023690/?ref_=sr_1">Sightseers </a>since it came out and have finally caught up with it. It's a British film, a black comedy. It has been described as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074988/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3">Mike Leigh's Nuts in May</a> meets <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069762/?ref_=sr_1">Terence Malick's Badlands</a>, and that's pretty accurate. It's about a couple who go on their first holiday together, and the people they meet. You wouldn't want to be one of those people for, oh, lots of reasons. This is the lovely knitted poster.<br />
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I suppose that being told a film is very funny is always a bad idea as it almost inevitably sets you up to be disappointed, and I think it probably works much better in a cinema with a responsive audience than watched in silent solitary contemplation, so I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected. I think I should watch it again with a crowd. It certainly had some very good lines. The actors who play the ghastly couple are also the writers so I guess they may also be a couple in real life, although of course far from ghastly. <br />
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Thank you, Mary G.; it's nice to hear from you again.<br />
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<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-46605296436189468462013-02-26T03:20:00.000+00:002013-02-26T03:20:19.336+00:00More Very Plain Knitting<b>Knitting</b><br />
I've managed not to keel over again, so that's encouraging. As anticipated, I've ripped <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/navigator-2">the previous turquoise All Seasons Cotton sweater</a> and have started on a <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bigrubble">[BIG] Rubble</a>. (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.)<br />
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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 href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/navigator">a well-worn and much-loved sweater</a> 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.<br />
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So I eventually gave in and cast on again with a 4.5mm needle and knitted for a few inches.<br />
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The lower one was definitely closer to what I want so there was more ripping, and then more knitting.</div>
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I'm happy with it now.<br />
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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.<br />
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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<br />
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This one is on a 5mm needle.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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<b>Movies</b><br />
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 <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1856010/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">House of Cards</a> 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.<br />
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I recently joined <a href="http://uk.mubi.com/films/1293">MUBI</a>, 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.<br />
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One of the first films I watched was Nanni Morretti's <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1456472/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Habemus Papam</a>, We Have a Pope, which appeared coincidentally a few days after the resignation. (Which resignation? There are so many nowadays.)<br />
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I like Morretti's films very much anyway, and this one is a treat.<br />
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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.<br />
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<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-20328224424873272072013-02-12T21:58:00.000+00:002013-02-13T00:14:10.420+00:00<b>Knitting </b><br />
Sorry, it happened again. Another very bad bout, with a week in bed and another week to get back on my feet. I hope this isn't going to become a habit.<br />
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So there hasn't been much knitting, although I did manage to produce a Doctor Who scarf for a teddy bear.<br />
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I think it was just seven stitches, on an 8mm needle.<br />
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Good fun.<br />
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If I get a photo of it being worn, you'll be the first to know.<br />
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I've also done a couple of tiny baby hats for the May Day baby. First an <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/aviatrix-baby-hat">Aviatrix</a> in one of Regia's sock yarns. The colour is Candy and I think it makes a lovely baby yarn. Such a cute pattern.<br />
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Yes, I know I haven't sewn the button on yet. I'll do it soon. </div>
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And I did another Daisy Hat. According to Ravellry, this is my eighth, but there's at least one that I never got round to posting so it's probably my ninth. This is it last night, waiting to have the last petal sewn on.<br />
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And this is it today. I'm afraid the light's terrible.<br />
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Sometimes I need five petals for this hat, sometimes six. This is a five petaller.<br />
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It looks quite big for a newborn. This very pale pink, Shell, has apparently been discontinued so I had better stock up on it.<br />
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I have also been flogging round and round on the turquoise All Seasons Cotton sweater, which is a remake of my <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/navigator">Distressed Sweater</a>. I have split the body and started on the front decreases. In my foggy state I got the decreases wrong the first time, but I noticed and only had to rip out eight rows. Sigh. <br />
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But a complication has arisen. Yesterday I stumbled across a pattern, <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bigrubble">[BIG] Rubble</a> (there was a wee <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/rubble">Rubble</a> first, for children.) I absolutely leurve this new pattern, and the tension is identical to what I get with ASC. Also when I knitted the DS, I altered the neckline and had to do it about three times: I'm not looking forward to doing that again. I almost ripped the whole thing off the needles last night, but I made myself wait 24 hours before doing anything rash. (Impulsive, moi? Non.)<br />
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<b>Book news</b><br />
Lynne Barr has a new book on the way, <a href="http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Shape-Knitting-Lynne-Barr/9781617690211">The Shape of Knitting</a>, due out in April. Lots of clickable pics <a href="http://www.melaniefalickbooks.com/the-shape-of-knitting/the-shape-of-knitting/">here</a>. It looks like another opportunity for learning clever techniques while making lovely things.<br />
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I want to make that hat NOW.<br />
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<b>Pix</b><br />
One of my Tweeps directed me towards this, Tilda Swinton in a knitted evening dress. It's worth clicking on, and then clicking again, to see the detail. <br />
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It's a poster for an exhiition at the<a href="http://www.momu.be/en/index_momu.jsp?layout=momu"> Fashion Museum </a>in Antwerp, called Unravel: Knitwear in Fashion. It was held in 2011, so there's no point in jumping on a boat / plane / train, although the Mueum looks as if it would be worth a visit any time. The catalogue is<a href="http://www.provant.be/en/binaries/MoMu%20Expofolder%20EN%20DEF_tcm10-148997.pdf"> available in English</a>, but sadly has no photographs. <br />
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And this cat has a very reasonable question.<br />
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<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-73636110917063186492012-12-30T02:11:00.000+00:002012-12-30T02:19:24.738+00:00Catching Up<b>Knitting</b><br />
Well, Kaffe Fassett was a long time ago. Remember that? I was just about to write a post about that evening when I was felled by a very bad bout of the Damned Disease. Somehow, after all this time, I sort of expect that I've learnt to manage it or that it has eased off, but this was one of the worst bouts I've ever had. It came at that critical juncture when I might have bought some Christmas cards or some wrapping paper, so neither task got carried out. I'm hoping to send New Year cards.<br />
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Anyway, Kaffe was very good. He started by telling us how to pronounce his name - Kay-fe, with a long A - and I realized that I used to pronounce it that way but at some point got lost and started saying Kaff instead. So I'm now back on track. He gave a nice self-mocking account of his early days as a painter of white still lifes, with occasional touches of beige, and his snottiness about colour. It seems extraordinary to me that someone who grew up in Californian light should have been indifferent to colour, but there you are. His story brought the '70s back to me very vividly, possibly because of his friendship with Bill Gibb, whose creations I used to follow in Vogue and the Sunday colour supplements. It's hard to credit now just what an important blast of visuals and information Sunday newspapers were then.<br />
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<i>One of Bill Gibb's gypsy dresses for Baccarat, c. 1970: photograph by Mike Davidson</i></div>
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<i>More Bill Gibb dresses, with his trademark tiny yoke and voluminous swathes of mosaic-ed colour</i></div>
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Kaffe even learnt to knit on a train in Scotland, returning to London after buying armfuls of Shetland yarn while visiting BG's family in Aberdeenshre. Nice to think that the country which is so often characterized as grey and cold should have been the place that turned this Californian on to colour.<br />
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<a href="http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Kaffe-Fassett-Dreaming-Colour-Kaffe-Fassett/9781617690075">His book</a> looks gorgeous too: I had foolishly assumed it would be full of words, but it's bright and gorgeous.<br />
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During the bad bout I didn't pick up the needles at all for a week, so the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/doctor-who-scarves">Doctor Who scarves</a> ended up being a bit of a rush after all, with ends being woven in at the last minute. I've seldom been so pleased to receive a text saying 'Held up in traffic.'<br />
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As you can see, they didn't get fringes. Sublime Chunky Merino on 8mm needles, 25 stitches. I'm now doing a teddy bear-sized one with 7 stitches. I think these were about 6 or 7 feet long, but I'm banking on them stretching a lot once they get into the hands of the owners. I'm hoping very much to get a pic of them in wear, so I'll keep you updated.<br />
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When the people who were stuck in traffic arrived, one of them was wearing these.<br />
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Sequinned boots. I am so jealous.<br />
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Speaking of boots, we know now that next year's baby will require pink clothes, so I made one of these. Elizabeth Zimmermann's Bootees from The Opinionated Knitter. I've knitted <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/bootees">these before</a>.<br />
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Little sewing scissors for scale.<br />
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The floorboard is six inches wide.<br />
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Very simple pattern, even when watching Christmas films.<br />
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I used too small a needle size (2.75mm) so it's a bit cardboardy: I'll try again with a 3mm or a 3.25mm. Madelinetosh merino light in Sugarplum.<br />
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And I'm doing <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/five-by-five-cowl">this</a> for myself, in the Alder shade of Rowan's Kidsilk Trio. Heaven. I don't know why it's called Alder (isn't that a tree? A green tree?) because it's denim blue, pure and simple. It's the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/five-by-five-cowl">Five By Five Cowl</a> pattern and I'm half-way through the second skein. It looks shorter here, but should be a little over 40 inches when it's finished. I found that I was getting a big hole in the column where I switched from plain to purl, so big that it looked like a lace effect. I tried doing the plain stitches in twisted rib, but that made the rib very flat and I want it to look billowy and relaxed and puffy so instead I'm just twisting the last of the five plain stitches each time. This seems to be working quite well.<br />
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<b>Christmas</b><br />
I got a cold over Christmas, a very noisy spluttery one with a barking cough. My neighbours probably think I got a sea lion for Christmas. Although having a cold is like a holiday after that bout of CFS, it has meant that I still haven't recovered my appetite. This is <b>a)</b> very unlike me, and <b>b)</b> a damned nuisance at Christmas. I keep opening cupboards and finding more food that I haven't got round to eating, and drink that I haven't got round to drinking. I made a <a href="http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/chocolate-salame">Nigella chocolate salame</a> on Christmas Eve<br />
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and in spite of the best efforts of visitors there is still some of left. Unbelievable. I keep asking people how long refrigerator cake lasts and they laugh and say, 'In my house it usually lasts a couple of hours,' but I had a slice tonight and it was fine. (Yes, I know, one slice. I'm pathetic.)<br />
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I expect however that this problem will resolve itself in the usual way and by part-way through January the cupboards will all be picked clean again, and the recycling bag will be full of bottles, and things will be back to normal.<br />
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I hope you all had lovely Christmases, surrounded by the people you most wish to be surrounded by, that Santa was good to you, and that you managed to eat more than I did.Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-76691099685626543662012-11-26T02:17:00.001+00:002012-11-26T02:17:26.414+00:00Safely Back<b>Knitting</b><br />
The <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/rayures">stripy cowl </a>came whizzing home much faster than it went, in six days as opposed to over three weeks. Very mysterious. It has been impeccably joined. Thank you a million times, Jocelyn.<br />
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I'm not entirely happy about how I put the colours together. An artist friend told me that this is part of the creative process and that there's always a stage at which you think it's all wrong, wrong, wrong, but I think she's being kind and I could have done a better job of it. Ho hum.<br />
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I was going to wash it and dry it flat to get out the crease at the join, but the cotton makes it quite heavy and I thought it would take ages to dry, so I didn't.<br />
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You can see the <a href="http://techknitting.blogspot.co.uk/2007/01/jogless-stripes.html">jogless join</a> here or, I hope, not see it. Actually you can here, but it's not so obvious in real life and a little more steaming and finagling would have concealed it.<br />
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I was also thinking of knitting a matching hat but I realized that with the cotton (it's Rowan Wool Cotton) it might not be as warm as is needed at this time of year, so I didn't do that either. I will knit a warm hat for her, but it needn't delay this.<br />
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I've also had a very generous offer from someone closer to home, should any further grafting be required in the future. Aren't knitters nice?<br />
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I'm about two-thirds of the way through the second Doctor Who Scarf, although if there's enough time I hope to make both of them a bit longer.<br />
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I have also sneaked in a <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/marsan-watchcap">Marsan cap</a> in scarlet Sublime Chunky Tweed, the yarn I'm using for the scarves, which is for someone who works outdoors. It's a perfect red, not a blue-red and not an orange-red, just red. It looks a bit orange in this photograph but that's the flash.<br />
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<b>Kaffe Fassett</b><br />
Our appointment with Kaffe is this week. I found myself wondering about what I'm going to wear. I expect there will be a lot of fabulous intarsia pieces casually showing up and seating themselves in the audience (like a David Bowie concert where the fans show up in lots of gold eyeshadow). I don't think I've ever made any of his patterns, although I would probably list them as an influence. I did make a <a href="http://chronicknittingsyndrome.blogspot.co.uk/2007/10/back-in-business.html">beanie hat</a> from one of his <a href="http://chronicknittingsyndrome.blogspot.co.uk/2007/11/kaffe-fasset-sock-yarn-hat.html">sock yarns</a>, but I don't wear hats indoors, or in daylight for that matter. I could break my neck knitting something out of that ball of Kidsilk Stripe that I have, but I will probably stick to the second Doctor Who scarf, the end of which is in sight.<br />
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<b>Movies</b><br />
I watched a wonderful Swedish film recently, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0961066/">Everlasting Moments</a>. I bought it off eBay ages ago and hadn't got around to watching it. Based on a true story, it's about a poor young woman called Maria Larsson who wins a camera as a lottery prize.<br />
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The film covers most of her life, from before World War I, and her marriage to an intermittently drunk and intermittently violent husband, with the camera and her photographs cropping up when her situation permits. It's shot in a subdued but not dingy light, and the actors look like real people, not actors. If I knew more about Swedish cinema I would have recognized some of them but I'm glad I didn't as it made it more realistic.<br />
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It also has some very good knitting. I think my friend got rather tired of my shouting Shawl! or Child's cardigan! at intervals, but it was hard not to.<br />
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This long, waisted jacket appears frequently.<br />
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One of the things I liked about the film was that when it portrayed something shocking, it didn't then proceed to point out to you that you should be shocked: too many films do that nowadays. There's a lot of information available about it online, much of it better expressed than I can here, and I would strongly recommend it if you're interested in photography, the unrecorded lives of women or good films.<br />
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It made me think of <a href="http://knitforwardsunderstandbackwards.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/mette-sofie-larsdatter-1900.html#comment-form">Mette's recent blog post</a>, with the photograph of Mette Sofie Larsdatter. Do have a look.<br />
<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-46189105706684494992012-11-04T23:53:00.000+00:002012-11-09T16:33:01.215+00:00Kaffe Fassett<b>Knitting</b><br />
I finished knitting <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/rayures">the stripy cowl </a>a while ago and did my best to have a go at grafting it but my poor old befuddled brain couldn't get a grip on it at all. In fact, I just made a mess which I then had to unpick. Sometimes it's best to give up before you've started. However, an enormously kind knitting-and-blogging friend offered to help me out - I shan't give her away here, or you'll all be sending your unfinished garments to her - and I wrapped it up with the spare ball of yarn and sent it off, enclosing a little something to sweeten the task. When I was filling in the Customs slip (because yes, I send my garments overseas for finishing) I wrote 'Woollen scarf' and thought, 'I won't mention the chocolate on here, and then it'll be a surprise for her when she opens it.' Only after I'd posted it did I think that perhaps Customs might think I was concealing it from them. (I told you I was befuddled.)<br />
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Three weeks later it still hadn't arrived. Airmail to the U.S. usually takes about a week, sometimes even five days, and I've never known it to take more than two weeks, except when there was some sort of complication going on, like terrorists or Christmas. So I had pretty well written it off: I decided that the sniffer dogs had opened it and eaten the chocolate.<br />
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While I was facing that ghastly possibility I considered whether I would be prepared to knit it again but decided I couldn't really face it: it would just have to be written off. So imagine my joy when I received an email saying that it had arrived, intact, and on Hallowe'en - perhaps the Universe, which I understand sometimes takes an interest in these things, had decided to deliver it on the most chocolatey night of the year. Thank you, Universe.<br />
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<b>Kaffe Fassett</b><br />
I spend an inordinate amount of time on Twitter these days but don't actually follow many knitters so it was pure chance I picked up this gem, tweeted by <a href="http://www.sophiehannah.com/">Sophie Hannah</a>, the novelist, to fellow novelist Ian Rankin:<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-in-reply-to="260733087120502784">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>@<a href="https://twitter.com/beathhigh">beathhigh</a></b> My mum heard someone at library requesting 'Glorious Knitting' by Yasser Arafat. 'You mean Kaffe Fassett,' librarian said.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-in-reply-to="260733087120502784">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">— Sophie Hannah (<a href="https://twitter.com/sophiehannahCB1"><b>@sophiehannahCB1</b></a>) <a data-datetime="2012-10-23T13:29:01+00:00" href="https://twitter.com/sophiehannahCB1/status/260734576375246848">October 23, 2012</a></span></blockquote>
<script charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Isn't that brilliant? My mother loved malapropisms and she would have treasured that one.<br />
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It's topical too, because Kaffe is making an appearance in Edinburgh shortly, organized by John Lewis. It's on 29 November, which is a Thursday, at 6.00 p.m. He'll be talking about his new book, his autobiography, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kaffe-Fassett-Dreaming-Colour-Autobiography/dp/1617690074/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1352071121&sr=1-1">Dreaming in Colour</a>.<br />
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His talk is being held in the <a href="http://www.cafecamino.co.uk/">Café Camino</a> which is the café at St Mary's Cathedral, just across the road and down from the back entrance to JL, in Little King Street. Tickets are £10 each and you can buy them in the Haberdashery at JL, or by phone on 0131 556 9121 extension 4809.<br />
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He'll sign his books too, either the new one or old ones that you bring along (looks at shelf, wonders how many she can carry...). I'm looking forward to it. Just don't expect <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasser_Arafat">Yasser Arafat</a> to be there. For so many reasons.<br />
<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-26097080530848517032012-11-01T23:57:00.002+00:002012-11-04T23:54:36.634+00:00All Saints' Day<b>Knitting</b><br />
I've probably nearly finished the first Doctor Who scarf. I'm not going to cast off now; I'm going to knit the other one and then see if I want to add to this one. I should be finished them both, but I haven't been knitting much.<br />
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It's longer than it looks in these photographs.<br />
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It's about three yards long but the garter stitch will stretch a lot and I dare say by the time a boy has tied it around a lamp post and swung on it, it will be nearer four. I expect I will do fringes at the ends.<br />
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I bought an Addi 8mm circ, quite a short one again, and I'm using it with the KnitPro which doesn't seem so pointy now. I've got so many needles already that it hadn't occurred to me to buy an interchangeable set, plus I have a suspicion that the cord I needed would always be the one I couldn't find, but perhaps I should be more adventurous.<br />
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I won't be attempting to match the stripes in the second one, Joan. It's probably better if the boys can tell them apart easily, although they're cousins not brothers so the rivalry may not be too intense, and anyway it would do my head in.<br />
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My thoughts of knitting <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cerulean-3">Cerulean</a> have been supplanted by thoughts of knitting <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/boxy">Boxy</a>. The designer has hit on a way of giving the sweater a boxy shape without imposing it on the wearer as well; it's genius. It must be because of what she's done over the shoulders. Of course it's miles of stocking stitch on smallish needles but as long as it's lovely yarn, who cares? I've been looking for something like this since I decided that the collar of <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/slow-line">Slow Line</a> was a swatch, and I still have those skeins of two shades of blue madeleinetosh Merino Light.<br />
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And I also fell in love with <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mammas-hjemmestrikkede-genser-skappelgenseren">something Norwegian that I can't spell or pronounc</a>e which I shall call my Beatnik Sweater. I usually think garter switch sweaters are a bad idea for my current figure type because it stretches over all the wrong places and emphasises them, but the very open gauge on this pattern seems to avoid that. It looks particularly lovely in neutrals, I think, although I don't wear them very often apart from my beloved grey.<br />
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<b>Movies</b><br />
<a href="http://kmkat.typepad.com/kmkat_and_her_kneedles/2012/10/henri-le-chat-noir-shares-his-thoughts-on-halloween.html">kmkat</a> has beaten me to the new Henri film again, but here it is in case you missed it. He takes a very sombre view of Hallowe'en.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="236" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/R_fUsssnHPw?rel=0" width="420"></iframe>
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And if you need something to cheer you up after that, I can recommend this from the girls, and one boy, of Portland State University Department of Social Work, via <a href="http://feministryangosling.tumblr.com/post/33259562923/thank-you-ph-d-students-at-portland-state">Feminist Ryan Gosling</a>.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SFtXG8NYz54?rel=0" width="420"></iframe><br />
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Very uplifting.<br />
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<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-26049052012008756112012-10-10T23:55:00.003+01:002012-10-10T23:58:00.700+01:00Not So Grim After All<b>Knitting</b><br />
Perhaps because I was expecting it to be a chore, knitting the Doctor Who scarves hasn't been too bad so far. I've put in an inordinate amount of time in what can only be described as farting about, choosing the best needles. I started with a pair of Boye straights, but they're 14 inches long and I can't get comfortable with them. I bought a KnitPro circ, but the points are awfully pointy and hurt my finger, so for the moment I've gone back to the Boyes. The yarn label says 10 1/2s (US) or 6.5mm , and the Boyes are 10 1/2, but in my needle gauge they definitely measure 8mm and that's the size of the KnitPro.<br />
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I should really buy an 8mm Addi metal circ, but I'm sure I must have one somewhere already so I'm reluctant, although I know I'll give up in the end.<br />
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The yarn is nice, a looser twist than I expect from a tweedy yarn, but it doesn't fall to bits or split. I'm doing the ends as I go along. There's actually another colour, a grey; that ball in the middle that looks grey is a light blue called Camper.<br />
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I bought f-a-r too much wool. I nearly laughed when I opened the door and saw the enormous parcel the postman had for me, so I think other people may be getting hats and cowls for their Christmases - another reason why I should get over myself and buy some needles in the right size.<br />
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Once I've got the right needle I shall pick up speed. No doubt when I finish these I will be yearning to knit on tiny needles with fairy yarn, but someone has whispered to me that she is a tiny bit pregnant so that should fit in nicely. Time to dig out <a href="http://chronicknittingsyndrome.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/things-i-forgot-to-say-last-time.html">my copy</a> of Zoe Mellor's lovely <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/50-baby-bootees-to-knit/patterns">50 Baby Bootees To Knit</a>.<br />
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I hope that's better, Joan. I've changed the other one too :)Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-90872834915480939292012-09-26T23:32:00.000+01:002012-10-10T23:56:31.372+01:00Quick Knitting, I Hope<b>Knitting</b><br />
This is just a quick note about the yarn I've chosen for the Doctor Who scarf, for <a href="http://fionawinning.blogspot.co.uk/">Fiona</a>, and anyone else who might be considering setting themselves up with this chore.<br />
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The yarn I have chosen is <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/sublime-yarns-chunky-merino-tweed">Sublime Chunky Merino Tweed</a>. This is because, in no particular order,<br />
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<ul>
<li>it is chunky</li>
<li>it is discontinued so it's available at about half-price. There's quite a lot on eBay and <a href="http://www.kempswoolshop.com/home.aspx">Kemp's</a> have got it for £2.79 per ball. I bought some on eBay from a seller who had sets of it which went very cheaply, and got the rest from Kemps.</li>
<li>it is 80% wool, with a little viscose and a little acrylic</li>
<li>it is chunky</li>
<li>it comes in a wide range of colours</li>
<li>it is tweed so there will be a bit of variety in the colour to keep me interested</li>
<li>did I say it was chunky?</li>
</ul>
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You won't find it on the <a href="http://www.kempswoolshop.com/home.aspx">Kemps' website</a> by using their Search box: you need to go to Clearance Wools and then click through to the third page.<br />
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I also noticed t<a href="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Chunky-Knitting-Yarn-100-Wool-Choice-COLOURS-100g-/251143898549?_trksid=p4012.m2037&_trkparms=aid%3D555001%26algo%3DPW.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D26%26meid%3D2317458549628771351%26pid%3D100032%26prg%3D1019%26rk%3D1%26sd%3D230852673570%26#ht_1178wt_1204">his chunky 100% wool yarn</a> which looks worth investigating - terrific choice of colours.<br />
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If I'd been going to use aran / worsted weight, I would probably have settled on Wendy Traditional Aran, which is 100% wool and comes in a wide range of colours. There was an Irish tweed yarn I got very excited about but the postage was very high, so it wasn't a bargain in the end.<br />
<br />
In the end, I've spent more than I intended, but it's still a very good price for two good long woolly scarves and probably less than I'd pay for purchased acrylic ones. And I suspect I'll have some left over and it's a lovely yarn for quick cowls.<br />
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And Joan, I don't know how I'll avoid expiring of boredom but a stack of very demanding films should help. Some years ago I knitted four Harry Potter sweaters, and when one of them was accidentally put in the drier I knitted a fifth, so I'm capable of tremendous feats of endurance when my small relations are involved.<br />
<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-75458800616050227222012-09-24T22:22:00.000+01:002012-09-26T01:54:44.698+01:00Not a Lot<b>Knitting</b><br />
I didn't manage to get Rayures finished before I went to see the cat, and although I've finished the knitting since I got back there has been a strange lack of progress on the kitchener front. I did do a bit of wrestling with it, but the brain fog prevented any progress being made. (The first time I typed that, I typed 'barin fog', so you see what I'm up against. Sigh.) <br />
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I didn't do much knitting while I was away. The cat was snuggling a lot
and at first I thought this meant that she remembered me and I was very
touched, but then I realized it was probably down to the cold weather. Cats are like that. I
didn't get any lace knitting done at all, and only managed a few rounds
of the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/navigator-2">turquoise Navigator</a>. I still have about four inches to go before I start dividing for sleeves and so on. <br />
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<a href="http://www.doctorwhoscarf.com/">Doctor Who scarves</a> have become fashionable again and in a moment of rashness I asked one of my younger relations if he would like one for Christmas, expecting a polite rejection, but he was quite keen. I then realized that someone else might like one too so I asked him, and now I find myself having to knit two <a href="http://wittylittleknitter.com/">Doctor Who scarves</a> in three months. You will remember that Doctor Who scarves are very long. <br />
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I'm not hugely concerned about matching the colours to
this series or that, and won't be following a pattern, but I've spent an
unfeasible amount of time looking for an acceptable (to me) yarn at an
acceptable (low) price. It has to be chunky because I'm not one of
Nature's scarf knitters, and it has to be wool, or mostly wool, because I
couldn't bear to put all that effort into something that wasn't
actually going to be warm. On the other hand, there's no point in paying
a lot when there's always the chance it'll get left on the bus, is there? <br />
<br />
I think I've identified an appropriate yarn on eBay and will report back. The last time I knitted a Doctor Who scarf was in the late 1970s for my then boyfriend's housemate but I don't think I persevered to any extreme length. I had better try harder this time. Perhaps I should knit them both at the same time, so that I don't crack up, or break down, half-way tyhrough the second one.<br />
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<b>Cat videos</b><br />
And finally, proof that cats are better than dogs. Not that we needed it.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="214" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TyXJ1sAQtaY" width="380"></iframe>
Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-4879519148789722832012-09-06T03:34:00.001+01:002012-09-06T03:55:14.031+01:00Dis n Dat<b>Knitting</b><br />
I think I've nearly finished the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/rayures">Rayures</a>. It's almost five feet long.<br />
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I'm doing two shades of purple now and am tempted to add more but I think I'm just procrastinating because I don't want to do the kitchenering. In the round. I'm going cat-sitting again on Saturday so I'm trying to use that as a deadline for getting this finished.<br />
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I haven't decided whether I will resume the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/shetland-triangle-lace-shawl-2">dusty denimy Shetland Triangle</a> that I started last time, or just take the turquoise in-the-round <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/navigator-2">Navigator</a> from the previous post. I reckon I could really get a lot of that done while I'm Netflixing.<br />
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I spotted this photograph which was taken on the night of the London Olympics opening ceremony. I'm not particularly a fan of any of the people in it, but my eye was drawn to the shawl over H.M.'s arm - that yarn is Kidsilk Aura in Coral, isn't it?<br />
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I'm sure it is. I can't name the pattern but it looks familiar. I wonder who knitted it? I expect Ladies in Waiting have lots of time for knitting, or she might have knitted it herself. Or perhaps the designer of the dress arranged it. Anyway, it reminded me that I knitted a shawl in this very yarn and forgot to show it to you.<br />
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I'm sorry it's so crumpled but as you can see it hasn't been finished and blocked, and it had got dug into the clutter on the sofa. It was meant to be an <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/opal-4">Opal</a>, which is a lovely, simple and effective pattern, but I lost concentration at a crucial moment and it went wrong. If the pattern had a stitch count for each row I could have recovered, but it doesn't. Anyway, it's smaller than an Opal should be but it's still very soft and fluffy and a wonderful colour, so I'm sure it'll come in handy at some point. Once I've blocked it and sewn in the ends.<br />
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<b>The Flickering Screen</b><br />
I saw a film from Sri Lanka which was on Film Four recently, called <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1172522/">Machan</a>, a co-production between Sri Lanka, Italy and Germany. It's about a bunch of poor young men who are desperate to go abroad and make some money but cannot get visas, and come up with the idea of forming the Sri Lankan National Handball Team so that they can get to Germany for the international games. They don't know the rules, and don't actually have a handball, but they get some tee shirts printed and get their visas.<br />
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Their plan is to disperse as soon as they arrive, and I won't tell you any more than that. Apparently it's based on a true story, which I didn't realize when I saw it. It's has a cast of actors and non-actors and it's very good. I was expecting it to be quite light-hearted, maybe a variation on <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106611/">Cool Runnings</a>, but although it's funny it certainly has its dark side too.<br />
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<br />
Tonight I watched <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1625346/">Young Adult</a>, which I hadn't realized was written by Diablo Cody, who wrote Juno. I liked it and it was funnier than I expected. It's about a very unsympathetic character, a no-longer-girl who goes back to her small home town to disrupt her old boyfriend's marriage. She's played by Charlize Theron, who doesn't try to win us over at all and everyone else is good too.<br />
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And <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0920489/">Inspector Montalbano</a> is back for the winter on BBC4, bringing fabulous sunshine - which we need, I can tell you - and stunning architecture, exquisite tailoring, lots of shrugging and sensationally bad driving.<br />
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It's funny, we get a prim little warning beforehand about bad language, even although it's in Italian. For people who are offended by subtitles. Fortunately I have a friend who spent a year in Naples and she can help me out with translations and explications of the finer points, although as usual one often finds that insults are much less breathtaking when taken out of context.
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And <a href="http://kmkat.typepad.com/kmkat_and_her_kneedles/2012/09/cat-links.html">kmkat has already blogged about the Internet Cat Video Film Festival</a>, so I don't have to. Thanks, kmkat.<br />
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<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-51594171194074150422012-08-23T03:00:00.000+01:002012-08-23T03:24:53.897+01:00Round and round we go<b>Knitting </b><br />
There's not been a lot going on around here, due to the Summer Awfulness descending as it usually does, but there has been a little activity. I mentioned in my last post that I had started something else. First of all I did swatches. Ignore the one at top left.<br />
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It still always surprises me how much difference half a millimetre makes.
This is one of my favourite yarns, Rowan All Season Cotton, in my favourite colour, turquoise, so when it was half-price in the John Lewis sale it was, as we used to say, a no-brainer.
After the usual endless perusal of patterns I thought first of all of re-knitting <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/chrissy">Chrissy</a>, which went horribly wrong last time owing to the yarn coming up in different weights, but I haven't kept the original and can't remember how it fitted so I've settled instead on re-knitting Navigator, my <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/navigator">Distressed Sweater</a>.<br />
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I wear the original quite a lot so I know I'll wear this one, and the
shoulders fit me. I'm going to do the neck differently this time, or at
least try not to knit it three times, and I'm going to do the rips
again. They are borrowed from another pattern, <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/raspy">Raspy</a>.
I'm knitting the body in the round, so I'm going round and round with a
single purl stitch at each side as a fake seam, and my fake rip on the
front.<br />
<br />
While I was searching through cupboards for something that wasn't too hot to wear, I found <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/dapper">Dapper</a>, which I knew was a mistake even as I was finishing it two years ago but decided to put away until I could face ripping it. I ripped it. It's Rowan Wool Cotton in Cypress and the colour is just about right in the picture. A very nice shade, sort of verdigris. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsycj1Orz0SgwKYcmw6gpfwv1AYhc2b_2yS9kvVFOX6oS0a_SkrvR-WtgfSy23hSWnEc6JsoghXz6k2geWbruUTdLNA_uAOAj8GrHZv012FqNOcSJXXW4eb0_12NqXcgeJdBMbSvOBxWw/s1600/Blog+009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsycj1Orz0SgwKYcmw6gpfwv1AYhc2b_2yS9kvVFOX6oS0a_SkrvR-WtgfSy23hSWnEc6JsoghXz6k2geWbruUTdLNA_uAOAj8GrHZv012FqNOcSJXXW4eb0_12NqXcgeJdBMbSvOBxWw/s400/Blog+009.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Which was very well timed because I got distracted by something bright and shiny in the form of <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/rayures-2">Rayures</a>, a stripy cowl. I had a stash of Rowan Wool Cotton in lots of colours and this seemd the perfect way to use them up. The first time I photographed it, it looked like this.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsaTUQ1fQDSXb7nFJWTujYTfu71yoFTSn1kP6Bft68aWbCBI7T03Ca_yDZNGvzrqZvDh_8smClEgu5Ek4t9Il_IQuJn44EGSEZDss81zV98LAVUjypW7kkesIaPe-UWMiR51IeZ4ScZw8/s1600/Blog+006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsaTUQ1fQDSXb7nFJWTujYTfu71yoFTSn1kP6Bft68aWbCBI7T03Ca_yDZNGvzrqZvDh_8smClEgu5Ek4t9Il_IQuJn44EGSEZDss81zV98LAVUjypW7kkesIaPe-UWMiR51IeZ4ScZw8/s400/Blog+006.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Now it looks like this. The colours look less muddy in reality.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp8mQMHk3E40JNZV0wz6l1Syk0XBKyXkQFpK7aaYXT-yq5DJ5AAM_DfQbZHJUp7jF_9dGA1CkNLObILvOwqPqK0RQ_mvLDxC0081AETtf-SlVlrScugaQbt0LiZ1x2y2X4znAsXSxYsFc/s1600/Rayures+004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp8mQMHk3E40JNZV0wz6l1Syk0XBKyXkQFpK7aaYXT-yq5DJ5AAM_DfQbZHJUp7jF_9dGA1CkNLObILvOwqPqK0RQ_mvLDxC0081AETtf-SlVlrScugaQbt0LiZ1x2y2X4znAsXSxYsFc/s400/Rayures+004.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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You can see I've just begun to incorporate the Cypress. I'm going to switch into Cypress and pink, and then two pinks, and then I think I'll have a section of single stripes, if it hasn't got too bizarrely long by then. I want it to be easily long enough to be doubled. <br />
<br />
I didn't buy the pattern, just cast on 90-odd stitches and set off. Three rows is the perfect width for a stripe beacuse you can always do just one more. I'm doing a <a href="http://techknitting.blogspot.co.uk/2007/01/jogless-stripes.html">jogless join from TECHknits</a>, where you slip the first stitch of the second round. I've foolishly forgotten to photograph it for you, but I'll correct that later. I'm inordinately pleased with how it's turned out as I had a total lack of success the last time I tried to do a jogless join.<br />
<br />
So I've got two projects that involve going round and round in circles, not all that different from all the garter stitch I was doing before, but with less counting. <br />
<br />
<b>Yarn</b><br />
I've been meaning to blog about this for ages, actual years. When my friend trekked to Everest Base Camp she brought me back two gifts. One was a length of silk yarn which I made into a <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/kathmandu-scarf">long skinny scarf</a>, and the other was this.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3RB2765RyKzJnd8ls4pm0HOIBwtJui74euAXPuqvD_9wj-RGVMv2niYe1drMAu2lC39NM79ZI4VpEdwBkHtMQ0rOENlBLcew7581_gL4YJVRoRANcmBHUtcqG6t-iLTzu87VQncPWzG0/s1600/Blog+013.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3RB2765RyKzJnd8ls4pm0HOIBwtJui74euAXPuqvD_9wj-RGVMv2niYe1drMAu2lC39NM79ZI4VpEdwBkHtMQ0rOENlBLcew7581_gL4YJVRoRANcmBHUtcqG6t-iLTzu87VQncPWzG0/s400/Blog+013.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Apparently it's yak, but I don't know what do with it. It hasn't been spun, it's just sort of stranded along a length of white thread which I'm guessing is cotton. Click on it and you can probably see how soft and flimsy it is.<br />
<br />
I haven't even dared try to wind it into balls. Does anyone have any idea what I should do with it? Is it ready to be spun? <br />
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<b>The Goggle Box, or Idiot's Lantern</b><br />
I've been sitting in front of the flickering screen quite a lot, although I can't really remember much about it at the moment. But I was very sad to learn early on Monday morning (damn you, Twitter) that the director Tony Scott had died. <a href="http://chronicknittingsyndrome.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/movie-meme.html">I've written before about his True Romance</a>. Even although I don't watch most of the violent bits, of which there are many, the remainder adds up to one of my absolutely favouritest films ever. A gem of a script, a well chosen cast and photography to make your teeth water. He also made <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092099/">Top Gun</a>, which I was too snobbish to see when it came out but have since grown to love as a camp and knowing joy.<br />
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The films he made with Denzel Washington are all compelling. <br />
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People have often said of him that he was more about form than content
as if it were some sort of virtue for a film to be visually
uninteresting; his lighting and composition are never merely technical,
the feeling is always there. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOM7m9WdR9ZU9mzVbYAKxPOF1Bo5bFVvL0fLKalzeazDBcSzoDb-klxShtLf72H9s41AozhKTAI-l2cadXM2NpU4sT6ci9lQSuomAfSzNh0gvXhWjFfzb38ExM8SuZmGMhg3YmjCexJQY/s1600/dejavu03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOM7m9WdR9ZU9mzVbYAKxPOF1Bo5bFVvL0fLKalzeazDBcSzoDb-klxShtLf72H9s41AozhKTAI-l2cadXM2NpU4sT6ci9lQSuomAfSzNh0gvXhWjFfzb38ExM8SuZmGMhg3YmjCexJQY/s400/dejavu03.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120660/">Enemy of the State</a> I love too, where Will Smith does his Cary Grant. If you've ever wondered where the film and television convention of strapping the location and date across the opening of a shot came from, watch <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120660/">Enemy of the State</a> .<br />
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<br />
Here's a sample from True Romance, voiceover by Patricia Arquette. If the music sounds familiar, it's because it was first used in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069762/">Badlands</a>, an old Martin Sheen movie which isn't bad either. <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="285" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/YT-yylPUtx4?rel=0" width="380"></iframe>
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<br />
Nearly all of the people he worked with have said how nice he was, that he knew everyone's name, and how generous he was with time and help and advice. When did you last read that about anyone in Hollywood? If you listen the the commentaries on the True Romance dvd (yes, I've listened to them all) his tells you about how the film was made and why he did the things he did, and Quentin Tarantino's (he wrote the script) tells you about, well, Quentin Tarantino.<br />
<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-50649241114146199652012-07-02T01:36:00.000+01:002012-07-02T02:40:43.293+01:00Cat and Clips<b>Cat-sitting</b><br />
The cat-sitting went well. There wasn't any of this.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie8bl_UrWel_cL7MnjaiEchUPcjvmq-GnmEZp4UCG6ITeOz5voF8RGlxQCYw2pJki6Uak8PXJJBErQ58ilTnk-SHlggzUccGd_0SyNWaTKKo7VD0LfZoGFAfwFdGlPkomX62FzNaBlfkY/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie8bl_UrWel_cL7MnjaiEchUPcjvmq-GnmEZp4UCG6ITeOz5voF8RGlxQCYw2pJki6Uak8PXJJBErQ58ilTnk-SHlggzUccGd_0SyNWaTKKo7VD0LfZoGFAfwFdGlPkomX62FzNaBlfkY/s320/photo.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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There was some of this
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg26rfFlJKmTA4_4KeQ-xjlnLpcwqrfl7A6mbNhJsuFWLT2g8MNAmrN3iU6WMb846lCMHg9CEYbUVWwCRgt6ubHKy0qI3kcBjufMBNzWjuA2ggFFNOJCO4o5xl59q2DO_EMNYmTwQLsqAc/s1600/photo+01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg26rfFlJKmTA4_4KeQ-xjlnLpcwqrfl7A6mbNhJsuFWLT2g8MNAmrN3iU6WMb846lCMHg9CEYbUVWwCRgt6ubHKy0qI3kcBjufMBNzWjuA2ggFFNOJCO4o5xl59q2DO_EMNYmTwQLsqAc/s400/photo+01.jpg" width="322" /></a></div>
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and quite a lot of this.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhatolRrXUF1LU2svXXkb-lORNIRuveOteKqpr25BbeAYnC3P7chp4ilNu-QxHwCGliLDsilTsDa9SQMLCzZluyLSszVyzfxPfACTNcgYuqsdbPrND4BqHEh1ihwg1ReWl_I6XP7i2Dsjs/s1600/photo+04.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhatolRrXUF1LU2svXXkb-lORNIRuveOteKqpr25BbeAYnC3P7chp4ilNu-QxHwCGliLDsilTsDa9SQMLCzZluyLSszVyzfxPfACTNcgYuqsdbPrND4BqHEh1ihwg1ReWl_I6XP7i2Dsjs/s320/photo+04.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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But there was lots of this
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzK3Fcbagyecdx3HfIcGtCpo9JU6ZN-IIzTjUWLg9y1Dy7IGfJiT5jyiX7qLubUP16S0UiAX2PcGnH1C719SF9jNlKAC-r3qr2YWRtOa8kBVsBLId91j4O1DNwt0zp4YERlQukQB8s3Rg/s1600/photo+06.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzK3Fcbagyecdx3HfIcGtCpo9JU6ZN-IIzTjUWLg9y1Dy7IGfJiT5jyiX7qLubUP16S0UiAX2PcGnH1C719SF9jNlKAC-r3qr2YWRtOa8kBVsBLId91j4O1DNwt0zp4YERlQukQB8s3Rg/s320/photo+06.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
and this.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhznkHOe5_BVwwfPxN-I1FfAkS6v2whBwfjy6GNI4RYqOKEZ1NB9l9pU9MsY8Qg3vvw7NISdE6sJ2RQeOLzggeJI3dGEVq635uUkMWKV762r10za0CobJz3PaQIDYxsVK02j8jhgMNtRqw/s1600/photo+07.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhznkHOe5_BVwwfPxN-I1FfAkS6v2whBwfjy6GNI4RYqOKEZ1NB9l9pU9MsY8Qg3vvw7NISdE6sJ2RQeOLzggeJI3dGEVq635uUkMWKV762r10za0CobJz3PaQIDYxsVK02j8jhgMNtRqw/s320/photo+07.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
And even some of this.<br />
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<br />
She wasn't remotely interested in wool or knitting, so I managed to produce this.<br />
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It won't look like much to the uninitiated, but the cognoscenti will recognize it as a <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/shetland-triangle-lace-shawl/people">Shetland Triangle</a>. I have knitted this pattern before, but it was the first piece of 'proper' lace I did and I was impatient to get it off the needles so it's rather small. This one is madelinetosh Merino Light in Denim and I plan to use the whole skein and perhaps some more.<br />
<br />
Since I got home I've started something else, but that'll keep till my next post.<br />
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<b>Flicks</b><br />
<a href="http://chronicknittingsyndrome.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/henri.html">Henri</a> has taken a new look at the awfulness of life.<br />
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<iframe width="400" height="225" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IiYUzYozsAQ?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<br />
I've written before about <a href="http://chronicknittingsyndrome.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/knitting-inspectors.html">Heartburn</a>, a favourite of mine, one of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001188/">Nora Ephron</a>'s earlier films. I said then that I thought her films got softer and perhaps a little soppier and I wondered if this was down to the influence of the studios, but after reading her obituaries last week I thought that it might be the difference between having just been badly treated by Carl Bernstein, and being happily married to Nicholas <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0683380/">Pileggi</a> for 25 years.<br />
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Here she is toasting Meryl Streep.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/M4Moh-Sw7xE?rel=0" width="420"></iframe>
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<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-47204911178337328782012-06-14T14:09:00.001+01:002012-06-14T14:19:07.199+01:00Forwards and Backwards<b>Knitting</b><br />
I handed over the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/purity">Purity shawl </a>this week and there was lots of squealing, so I feel reassured. I'll keep you posted.<br />
<br />
After endless perusal of my Ravelry Favourites, sorry, Favorites, I remembered how much I always like the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/summer-flies/people">Summer Flies</a> shawl whenever I catch sight of it in my Friends' activities so I cast on in the lovely soft Madelinetosh Merino Light in Denim which I can't remember buying but of which I have three skeins. It's easy and fun, and although I would like to have charts the pattern is simple enough that it's easy to follow.<br />
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Then, during a bout of sleeplessness the following early morning I had a moment of clarity and thought, 'You know, you'll never wear that, it's far too fussy for you.' So when I got up I ripped it out, because I like this yarn too much to give it away to anyone else.<br />
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I decided to have another think about the Veera <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/slow-line">Slow Line cardi </a>I cast <a href="http://chronicknittingsyndrome.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/catch-up.html">on a while ago</a>, uncertain of whether I was casting on or swatching, and when I checked the pattern I discovered, in bold type, the words which I had mysteriously overlooked, '<b>and at the same time</b>', so I guess that's a swatch.<br />
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Eventually I remembered that I've always planned to do another <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/shetland-triangle-lace-shawl">Shetland Triangle</a> for myself, so I've cast that on in the Denim MML and I'm progressing quite happily, but it's packed away so I can't show you it. Imagine the above photo but with a tiny Shetland Triangle instead of a tiny Summer Flies.<br />
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I've also been reminded how much I like Veera's <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/alga">Alga</a>, and I need to swatch my two blue shades of MML which are different base yarns and see if they'll work together so I might take a skein or two with me to wind into balls - cat-sitting and wool-winding, what could possible go wrong?<br />
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Addi sparkly needles are clear plastic with silver sparkles in them, <a href="http://mlegan.wordpress.com/">Mary Lou</a>.
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Perhaps they only do them in Germany or Europe: I think I may have bought them from Germany on eBay. I have a straight pair as well which I think may have gold sparkles but I can't find them to photograph. And if you liked Alien, I think it's really worth listening to <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000631/">Ridley Scott</a>'s commentary on the dvd; he's very thorough and I learnt a lot from it. He shot a lot of Alien himself, with a handheld camera, so I'm looking forward to hearing what he's got to say on the Prometheus dvd. His brother <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001716/">Tony Scott</a> does very good commentaries too, but I think I might be the only person I know who ever listens to dvd commentaries because my friends always look at me in amazement when I mention them. I found Prometheus a lot less creepy than Alien, <a href="http://knittinglinguist.blogspot.com/">Jocelyn</a>. There is a very gruesome bit but you have lots of warning and I just shut my eyes until it was finished. It doesn't have the dark, gothic suspense of Alien which as Ridley pointed out isn't a science fiction movie, it's a locked house movie. In fact, Prometheus goes back to the idea of a clean hygienic future which was one of the conventions that Alien shattered with its big, dirty, dark spaceship and grimy disgruntled crew.<br />
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<b>Daily Japanese Textile</b><br />
My friend Valerie, one of the <a href="http://idiosyncraticfashionistas.blogspot.com/">Idiosyncratic Fashionistas</a>, has started a new daily blog called <a href="http://dailyjapanesetextile.wordpress.com/">Daily Japanese Textile</a> which is full of gorgeous stuff. If you're at all interested in textiles I recommend you take a look.<br />
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<a href="http://dailyjapanesetextile.wordpress.com/">Daily Japanese Textile</a></div>
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The items range from the luxurious to the humdrum and are always photographed in detail with a description; she knows what she's talking about so unless you know a lot about Japanese textiles too, I think you'll be in for some illuminating surprises.<br />
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<b>Telly</b><br />
I think I've tried <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1429534/">Braquo</a> before, Lynne, and found it a bit too violent for me, but I'll have another go. I've been meaning to say how much I like <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843678/">Scott and Bailey</a> and it's run through two series without my remembering, but it's available on dvd in the UK. I think it reminds me of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083395/">Cagney and Lacey</a> although it's actually so long since I saw that that I could be wrong. (Why isn't Cagney and Lacey being endlessly repeated on some cable channel, huh?) It has three very good actresses in it and although I felt that the second series was too taken up with their private lives and not enough with the work, it's still well worth watching. It's written by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0906550/">Sally Braithwaite</a>, who has some good stuff in her past.<br />
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<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-16400995867861262532012-06-06T23:47:00.002+01:002012-06-06T23:47:21.751+01:00What Next?<b>Knitting</b><br />
I have no idea what I'm going to knit next. I was so enchanted by the Purity shawl that I didn't look ahead at all. I had a couple of other things on the needles which are now finished or as good as, and I have no idea what to do next.<br />
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Purity is in the bath as I type, but I took some more besotted shots beforehand. <br />
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The <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/shoulder-cozy">Cloudy Cozy</a> is done. I've just realized I haven't got a photo yet of it off the needles. It's nice, although I knitted it on an Addi sparkly plastic needle and the tension is very loose. I realized when it was finished that the dark stripes will shed on to light garments, and the light stripe on to dark garments, so that was clever. It needs a soak and some cooler weather.<br />
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I've almost finished the coral <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/opal-4">Opal</a> but haven't taken a pic of that at all. I forgot to pay attention at one point so it's not quite the right shape, but Aura is not for ripping so it'll be fine as it is. It's the same needle size as the Cozy but I switched to an Addi Turbo and the tension is tighter. Gorgeous colour and the silk is particularly sheenful in this colourway. My impression is that different shades of Aura are slightly different in weight and appearance, but that can't be right, can it?<br />
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I have been sorting through my Favorites on Ravelry, looking for something that I simply have to cast on immediately.<br />
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I bought <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/berroco-norah-gaughan-vol-10">Norah Gaughan Vol. 10</a> recently. I always like her designs and there are a couple of good tunics in this book. Berrocco charge the same price for the online purchase of a PDF as they do for the hard copy, which I thought was a bit cheeky but after reading the discussions about supporting LYS and so on, I can see their point. I bought it online and then got clobbered for the price of two international telephone calls because I'd used a debit card instead of a credit card, so in the end I could have bought a nice shiny 200-page hardback for the same outlay. Sigh. I like <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/gregale">Gregale</a> very much, although I might omit the lace panels. I like <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/levanto">Levanto</a> too and there are a couple of nice cardis. <br />
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Then there's <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cerulean-3">Cerulean</a> from Kim Hargreaves' new book, Indigo.I like this, although the model looks very grumpy about it.<br />
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I'm not planning to wear it as a dress. Perhaps she didn't want to either, and that's why she's so grumpy.<br />
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Selection is further complicated by the fact that my body dysmorphia is even more severe than usual just now and I can't decide what might suit me, or more importantly, what might not.<br />
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I have the yarn for an <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cerulean-3">I Want You</a>, three balls of Rowan Kid Classic in the most heavenly shade of pearly misty bluey grey called Drought, but I think that's something to knit in the autumn.<br />
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And I've got some Kidsilk Haze Stripe which would make a good <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mohair-bias-loop">Mohair Bias Loop</a>, or perhaps another Shoulder Cozy. <br />
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Orr I could do another Purity; I do, after all, have another whole ball of Cream KSH to use, which weighed the same after I had finished the cast-off as it did before I started. <br />
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I've got a few days away from home coming up - I've got a cat-sitting gig - so I had better have something cast on by then.<br />
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<b>Movies</b><br />
I went to see <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1446714/">Prometheus</a> at the weekend. I'm an <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078748/">Alien</a> purist and haven't seen any of the sequels because they weren't directed by Ridley Scott, but I've seen Alien rather often and in all its versions, although I couldn't necessarily tell you what the fine differences are. I've listened to all the commentaries on the special edition dvd too. I would have quite liked to see Prometheus in 3D on an IMAX screen but my companions were another kind of purist and they insisted on 2D. I enjoyed it a lot and I thought <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1055413/">Michael Fassbender</a> was terrific. He plays an android (although they keep calling him a robot) who models his appearance and mannersisms on Peter O'Toole, and he handles his ambiguous role (I'm not telling you any more than that) with subtlety.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"> Michael Fassbender as David</span></div>
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Some reviewers have complained of a lack of character development, which makes me laugh. Obviously they thought they were going to see a Bergman movie. Some of the characters are fairly stock ( you can recognize who's going to get killed first) and you won't view life differently when you come out of the cinema, but it's staggering to look at, the sound and the music are outstanding and I didn't look at my watch once.<br />
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Noomi Rapace has the role of The Girl Who Runs Around Screaming a Lot and does well in it (I can't understand why anyone would complain about character development rather than the fact that she continues running around screaming after major abdominal surgery); Idris Elba is great as the Captain; and while I expected a fairly by-the-numbers perfromance from Charlize Theron, she does much better than that. The script was wittier than I expected too. There are all sorts of hommages in it, probably more than I spotted, so a working knowledge of sci-fi movies will enable you to get more out of it but it works well as a stand-alone too. It sets up enough ripples for a few more sequels or even a television spin-off, but unless Ridley directs them I probably won't see them. <br />
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<b>Telly</b><br />
When <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1733785/">The Bridge</a> finished on BBC4 we had a couple of episodes of another scandicrime, called Sebastian something but I found it so dull that I can't even be bothered to look up its name. There wasn't a single character in it that I cared whether I ever saw again (which was one of the problems for me with The Bridge, as well as the ludicrous number of red herrings) and I think with a serial or a series there has to be someone every now and again that you are actually glad to see on the screen, someone who doesn't just come in, snap at all the other characters and go out again. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1958961/">Lilyhammer</a> is coming on over here in the autumn, Mary Lou, so I'll catch up with that then. But I'm still missing Inspector Montalbano.<br />
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<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-67841181672808415672012-05-27T14:22:00.001+01:002012-05-27T18:10:10.150+01:00No More TwistFans of Beatrix Potter might recognize the title of this post. It's from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tailor_of_Gloucester">The Tailor of Gloucester</a> and is the note left for the tailor when his mice ran out of silk thread (twist) to stitch the last buttonhole.<br />
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<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Image copyright Frederick Warne</span></div>
You can see the original of the embroidered waistcoat and more of the illustrations <a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/b/beatrix-potter-tailor-of-gloucester/">here</a>, on the V&A site.<br />
<br />
The plain part of the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/purity-2">Purity </a>shawl took about one ball of Kidsilk Haze. It's easy knitting: the only thing you have to remember is to keep your increases nice and loose so that the edge isn't tight. The shape is a straight edge and a very wide, shallow U, both of which have a flounce of lace added to them.<br />
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<br />
Quite a lot of people on <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/purity-2/people">Ravelry</a> have just added the lace to one edge which gives a less fussy result and while I was working on it I thought I would have to cast off the straight edge and pick up stitches on the U, which I thought would (<b>a</b>) be a lot of faff and (<b>b</b>) make the lace edge a tiny bit rigid at the changeover. However, while I was peering at finished ones on Ravelry I realized that it wasn't necessary to do this - the U stretches out a lot and it makes a nice line across the back of the neck, with a slight rise at the nape. I'm glad I noticed that because it saved me a lot of work and actually looks better.<br />
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<br />
The lace is easy enough if you're a lace knitter, a six-stitch repeat which is very forgiving because of the flounced effect created by the row of YO K1 before the lace starts. I'm sure mine is full of mistakes but only I will see them. There's a fancy cast-off which I almost thought I wasn't going to do because I thought it meant turning the piece a lot, but when I tried it it was easy peasy and very pretty. It's a kind of crochet cast-off, done on knitting needles. So I've learnt something new.<br />
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The lace edging took about one ball of Kidsilk Haze too, making two balls for the shawl. Except that if you knit it all on 5.5mm needles (as in the pattern) at my tension, then you run out of yarn about a yard from the end.<br />
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<br />
So I hot-footed it back to my dealer, the Edinburgh branch of John Lewis, to get another ball, but not only was there no more Cream KSH from that dyelot, there was none in Cream at all. Quelle horreur. I did have a sneaky thought about finishing it off in some Kidsilk Night I have which is Starlight, a buff pearl with sparkles in it - if it had been for me, I would have done it without hesitation - but this is for a wedding shawl and one really can't cheat then, at least not when it's someone else's.<br />
<br />
However, the sterling Lindsay at John Lewis Edinburgh reached out to the JL Rowan mafia and asked if anyone else had a ball of Cream lurking and thanks to their eternal vigilance, the shawl can be finished. Claire in Cheadle rang me (it was on my birthday that all this happened, which made it even more exciting) with the right colour in the right dyelot, and organized its dispatch northwards. A ball was found by Sarah at Trafford too.<br />
<br />
I have it now but I haven't brought myself to finish the cast-off yet. How could anyone bear to finish this?<br />
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<br />
As some knitters seek out babies to knit shawls for (you know who you are), I think I shall be seeking out brides just so that I can make another one of these.<br />
<br />
Thank you Lindsay, and Claire, and Sarah, and all the other Rowan ladies who checked your stock. I don't know what I would have done without you.<br />
<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-34812781452630025212012-05-19T00:57:00.002+01:002012-05-19T01:02:01.045+01:00Henri<b>Cat </b><br />
Oh Lynne, thank you for reminding me. I had Henri in my list of things to be added to the blog and then he sank out of my mind. Here he is now. Be sure to turn on your speakers. <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="259" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Q34z5dCmC4M" width="450"></iframe>
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<br />
<b>Knitting</b><br />
The latest Pinwheel got ripped again. I weighed the yarn before I started doing the edge and after a couple of segments it was plain I didn't have enough. There didn't seem to be any white Paton's Jet left in the British Isles and I had gone off the idea of blue. What if they have a little girl later on? There was however a small cache of the yarn in cream, and I acquired that. <br />
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<br />
I got the original ten-pack of white on eBay for a trifle so it was a
bit galling to have to pay the full price for the last three balls, but
never mind. I think it's pretty.<br />
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<br />
I was pleased with the end result, and the friend who commissioned was pleased too, so Phew.<br />
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<br />
By the time that was finished I was only too happy to switch from my
lengthy not-very-fine-yarn-in-garter-stitch binge and turned my
attention to some froth. My Polish friend is getting married this summer
and I offered early on to make her a shawl or a veil, but she said that
was too old fashioned so I turned my attention elsewhere. But of course, I
yearned. The dress she has chosen is strapless and I can't help
wondering the priest will be altogether happy about her baring her
shoulders in church. Or have priests and ministers given up on that
front? Anyway, I couldn't resist, and if she doesn't wear it on her wedding day, she can use it to keep warm next winter.<br />
<br />
I have liked Sharon Miller's <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/purity-2">Purity shawl</a> from the
first time I saw it in Rowan 43 and somehow two balls of Kidsilk Haze
in a light, luscious, gauzy cream shade found their way into my sitting
room. (Oddly, it's just called 'Cream', and not some interestingly
Rowanesque name like Cloud or Sneeze.) <br />
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<br />
I'm doing the version which only has the lacy flounce along one edge. It's heavenly, like knitting with ice cream or candy floss, or the froth on a cappuccino, and I don't really want to finish it. <br />
<br />
<b>Telly</b><br />
Yes, <a href="http://auldfashioned.blogspot.co.uk/">Knitlass</a>, I think Saga is meant to be somewhere on the spectrum but it all seems very unlikely - would you ask an autistic person to conduct interviews? And while we're on the subject, do they really not keep any record of police interviews in Sweden? And it's one of those very scary serial killers who seems to be able to walk through walls and influence people's behaviour from a distance, and I just spend too much time thinking, 'But nobody would do that,' about all the characters, all the time. And the make-up department must have used up the entire Scandinavian supply
of putty-coloured foundation, as all the characters look on the brink of
unconsciousness. But no doubt I shall watch it to the bitter end, which is this Saturday night, just so that I can complain about it. <br />
<br />
<b>Ryan</b><br />
Sad news. <a href="http://handmaderyangosling.tumblr.com/">The Handmade Ryan Gosling</a> hs got a book contract so the website is saying bye bye. Here's a last thought for us to cling to.<br />
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<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-49959330042923416022012-04-25T23:09:00.001+01:002012-04-25T23:09:22.246+01:00Not Much To See HereI wanted to write a post tonight but I'm really too addle-pated* to manage very much so this will have to do.*<br />
<br />
<b>Knitting </b><br />
Knitting has been going round and round,<br />
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<br />
then rippity rippity, then round and round again. <br />
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<br />
I am suffering mild anxiety about having enough yarn. There doesn't seem
to be any white Jet left in the UK but there's pale blue so it will be
saveable if the worst comes to the worst. I will know soon.<br />
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<br />
This is a <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/shoulder-cozy-3">Chruchmouse Yarn and Teas Shoulder Cozy</a>,
which I have had my eye on for a while. When I wear the Crispy Crunchy
Cowl I find myself shrugging it down to keep my shoulders warm but it
isn't really deep enough so I've decided this is the answer. It's a bit like the beautiful <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/shadowbox">Shadow[] Box</a>, but not nearly so much knitting. <br />
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<br />
It's designed to be made from Rowan Summer Tweed and Kidsilk Haze
held toogether, but I think it's good in Kidsilk Aura too and I have a
few balls of light and dark grey which blink at me balefully from my
stash from time to time. Actually, I don't think I've seen any of these on the
<a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/shoulder-cozy-3/people">Ravelry project pages</a> that don't look good, whatever the yarn and it
looks good worn as a cowl in the neck of a coat too. <br />
<br />
<br />
I was well enough to get out last week and meet a friend for coffee (hi, Lindsay!) and she was wearing a beautiful <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/opal-4">Opal</a>
shawl in lilac Aura. Opal is another pattern that looks good <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/opal-4/people">in almost any yarn</a> and I wondered for the umpteenth time why I don't have one, so I've
ordered another couple of balls of Aura in Coral to add to the two I
already have. I love my <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chronicknitting/miss-marple-shawl">Miss Marple</a>
but it isn't quite big enough. I'm not a huge pink fan but I do like
coral and have arrived at the age where I need a touch of pink near my face to
stop people asking me if I feel all right.
<br />
<br />
Ryan is still thinking about knitting, and us.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
from <a href="http://handmaderyangosling.tumblr.com/"><i>The Handmade Ryan Gosling</i></a></div>
<br />
<b>Telly</b><br />
<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0920489/">Inspector Montalbano</a> has finished for a while. I was getting very used to my weekly dose of Mediterranean sun and Sicilian insults. I used to think how lovely it would be to go and stay in Montalbano's house and go swimming in the morning and drink coffee on the balcony - as a sort of hopeless dream because of course it's fictional, but then I discovered that actually you can: it's let as <a href="http://www.lacasadimontalbano.com/">a bed-and-breakfast</a> in the summer. This means that I have considered it and decided not to go, so I can't have the same idle dream now when I watch it, which is rather a shame. BBC4 has been showing them out of sequence but it doesn't matter a great deal: the sun is always shining, Livia is always cross with him, Mimi is always chasing a woman, and the food always looks delicious. <br />
<br />
It's been replaced by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1733785/">The Bridge</a>, A Swedish / Danish co-production. It looks promising but I'm concerned that the heroine is too bonkers even for a televison maverick detective. She exhibits so much asocial behaviour that one can't really believe she has come up through the ranks of any police force, and as usual on television, although she's distracted to the point of incoherence, she knows how to put an outfit together, usually one which involves a ration of cleavage. Funny, that. I gave up on <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1796960/">Homeland</a> because Claire Danes just seemed to be batsh*t crazy all the time and I could only believe in it when Mandy Patinkin showed up and put in a spot of calmness and good acting. I don't see the point of inserting female main characters into these shows if they're just as unhinged as the male ones we're used to, but that seems to be the way it is.<br />
<br />
This grumpy little cat was on LOLCATS ages ago and I've kept her on my desktop ever since. It's not so much that I acknowledge the state of mind in myself, although I do, but that it takes me right back to work and certain colleagues. <br />
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*I've just spent five minutes trying to remember the word 'cognitive'. That doesn't bode well, does it?Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446078032788565854.post-61541172679462487512012-03-28T03:50:00.000+01:002012-03-28T03:50:16.936+01:00Catch UpYou're right, Joan, I'm having a lengthier-than-usual run-in with the damned disease. I don't feel nagged at all; and thanks for the message.<br />
<br />
Every time I think of doing a catch-up it seems a more impossible task than the week before, so I've decided that instead of attempting a lengthy and lovingly hand-crafted post (this is a day for hyphens, isn't it?), I'm going to upload the knitting pics from my camera, add some comments in the order in which they appear, and if I haven't collapsed by then, add some pithy film reviews. As my boss used to say to stop me launching into one of my epics of thoroughness, 'One side of A4, Helen, and double-spaced.'<br />
<br />
<b>Knitting</b><br />
First of all, for <a href="http://jeanmiles.blogspot.co.uk/">Jean</a>, it's good to know that Ryan knows the proper name for a <a href="http://jeanmiles.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/snood-dont-blameme.html">cowl</a>. I would expect nothing less.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQFFyVucuLd-i35xqUcPdUeescGwGDBqgpHi7LFXRZ1MSGBGGFzSKb5efswAGJDurZyzBdWSgU-WKgZRYyeP8_1eU0JCErtv4AGIrGl8Us4kCP6DxbAY-DufZoxtCCkNcJNC5taCbqj84/s1600/cowl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQFFyVucuLd-i35xqUcPdUeescGwGDBqgpHi7LFXRZ1MSGBGGFzSKb5efswAGJDurZyzBdWSgU-WKgZRYyeP8_1eU0JCErtv4AGIrGl8Us4kCP6DxbAY-DufZoxtCCkNcJNC5taCbqj84/s320/cowl.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">from the <a href="http://handmaderyangosling.tumblr.com/">Handmade Ryan Gosling Tumbler</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Do you remember this? I finished it a little late for my aunt's birthday.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit3HpdgRGk3FNcb3y2Mf-TTfOXxO8vLcFIoMaAVROO-eiM4GrDGMk2pDJqlcT73n4zrdn-dzbyQfmEx3DRwU6R0FgOtMWjpz2OsCx_TYuF6uhaJoFFn9ADstRj4c9NX21jDWSM4rKjg1U/s1600/Blog+037.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit3HpdgRGk3FNcb3y2Mf-TTfOXxO8vLcFIoMaAVROO-eiM4GrDGMk2pDJqlcT73n4zrdn-dzbyQfmEx3DRwU6R0FgOtMWjpz2OsCx_TYuF6uhaJoFFn9ADstRj4c9NX21jDWSM4rKjg1U/s320/Blog+037.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I washed it and dried it carefully without actually blocking it, ignoring my inner voices the while, and then, finally, while I was wrapping it in pretty paper, I decided that I just wasn't happy with it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVUpRuCE4xKre0E4PaxV5RwbFDlS6xIn1QRWFRd1lEpdIFaNVWNrS22eo3wsgE9Azb_vEhRjpGLb5vqawG57dIV7M5p-5QI-mqJ-aIfldX8LTijjGaVnOYD6BiJf9F37idqx42Ncp7w8Q/s1600/Blog+058.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVUpRuCE4xKre0E4PaxV5RwbFDlS6xIn1QRWFRd1lEpdIFaNVWNrS22eo3wsgE9Azb_vEhRjpGLb5vqawG57dIV7M5p-5QI-mqJ-aIfldX8LTijjGaVnOYD6BiJf9F37idqx42Ncp7w8Q/s320/Blog+058.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The yarn was quite curly by now so I washed it again. </div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGghq-rgVYLAmnej9pE31KQgDceK3ks9wWpfyFPd-WCheTbJoyvIuJvD5CH518k63AGRgj9iTOxf53Awjrdytv80Fkzc7jnfJ6_u3LhOoHlXLMaZLH7d71khc6dhSyZyOPbLcQl3ouCXY/s1600/Blog+059.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGghq-rgVYLAmnej9pE31KQgDceK3ks9wWpfyFPd-WCheTbJoyvIuJvD5CH518k63AGRgj9iTOxf53Awjrdytv80Fkzc7jnfJ6_u3LhOoHlXLMaZLH7d71khc6dhSyZyOPbLcQl3ouCXY/s320/Blog+059.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And knitted it again, this time on 4mm needles. Can you see the difference?</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip-3z0bqnZaVCTWY7gxvN0png_rofuJpO_I5eeAxmVMFEWvxiT8Ia0CkcNt6tMK8Qfex4Ugca3vIlwvPTx16d5WscrxrW0qIEUaV3aFJmMJAuu3AqG02OrhB5g372O5QqTd6GFexkBjMc/s1600/Blog+066.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip-3z0bqnZaVCTWY7gxvN0png_rofuJpO_I5eeAxmVMFEWvxiT8Ia0CkcNt6tMK8Qfex4Ugca3vIlwvPTx16d5WscrxrW0qIEUaV3aFJmMJAuu3AqG02OrhB5g372O5QqTd6GFexkBjMc/s320/Blog+066.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div> My mistake was that the purple yarn, Wollmeise 100% Merino Superwash, knits up well in garter stitch on 5mm needels, but the pink, which is Wollmeise 80/20, just didn't. It was far too open and the yarn didn't bloom at all. No reason why it should. Something that surprised me was that although it was on smaller needles, I ran out of yarn the second time. I still did just eleven stripes. At six feet tall and slender, I think my aunt is more likely to wear it like a scarf and not to risk looking like a flagpole by having it flap around her.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkOhKPc8Q43yI5ZjcjjhJbeDprwnAhtKb92ji1XbtPbnTL5ScuU9VvecdKn9QEUmrVLBBlMBdgCU1108XIDy_5OlgXrhY8p_QuKCkS4oT_1iCOKDPqvdmPdCx8WgS50D87H_r5cPf6aFg/s1600/Blog+087.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkOhKPc8Q43yI5ZjcjjhJbeDprwnAhtKb92ji1XbtPbnTL5ScuU9VvecdKn9QEUmrVLBBlMBdgCU1108XIDy_5OlgXrhY8p_QuKCkS4oT_1iCOKDPqvdmPdCx8WgS50D87H_r5cPf6aFg/s320/Blog+087.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
I posted it successfully, meeting the second deadline I had set myself, and rang my aunt and told her that if she hated it, she could tell me it had got lost in the post. I still feel quite undecided about it, although by the time I'd completed it again, I was totally reconciled to the colours and like them a lot. She acknowledged its delivery and professed herself very pleased with it, although perhaps a little perplexed by why I has spent quite so long labouring over it in the end. The second deadline was that she was about to set off on an amazing trip to Japan for <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanami">hanami</a></i>, to see the cherry blossom, and she's taking the shawl with her so I think it was all worth it in the end.<br />
<br />
Thanks for the comment about Veera's <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/color-affection">Color Affection</a>, grannypurple. One of my Ravelry friends has knitted it a couple of times and posted links to other people's, so I've considered it and I like the arrangement of the colours which is a step further on from the simple stripes, but I don't find the curves quite as urgently appealing as the straight geometry. I'm very taken with her <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/pop-block">Pop Block</a>, but don't have any suitable DK yarn that might have tempted me to cast on. I got tempted by one of her cardis though, <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/slow-line">Slow Line</a>. I love the shape at the back. I used to think that garter stitch was something I did until I learnt to purl, but I'm completely hooked on it now.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwV_Was4slai3f3tF1Av7BAg8ZCHEBvkA_8Vw6KQ-yUYkT3tt8eqU7QjbLsVDu5CpVYRXM7FtNaDxsvu7EvGW3vTBkXUXfvJ4EA9E2DxlOSClJWFcWd3KxXxHbXDfdNM5o5UArdG-Ibk8/s1600/Blog+042.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwV_Was4slai3f3tF1Av7BAg8ZCHEBvkA_8Vw6KQ-yUYkT3tt8eqU7QjbLsVDu5CpVYRXM7FtNaDxsvu7EvGW3vTBkXUXfvJ4EA9E2DxlOSClJWFcWd3KxXxHbXDfdNM5o5UArdG-Ibk8/s320/Blog+042.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
A lot of people have knitted it in madelinetosh Merino Light so I thought I could use the Well Water and the Denim that I have left over. I started with the Well Water and after a while reached into the bag of Denim to pull out a skein, so that I could do a stripe and see how much they contrast with each other. Eeek. As soon as my fingers touched the skein, I knew it was a different yarn. It is of a heavenly, kitten-like softness, while the Well Water is not only the crinkly, hard-to-wind base, but altogether coarser, without actually being coarse. Of course.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN45Ru52pahvTDxx-QDAnsvCYWF-OGkb85IYCUzjA4RLmePJhSHdo2TjAAJ_gnK7DmwBLl5cUtgz3hzGtwj3Dl7rX_1LiB-jHX27sLnfezwqomE2RwQ8PKYJArKOa12S6v5vyHdoeHmaM/s1600/Blog+095.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN45Ru52pahvTDxx-QDAnsvCYWF-OGkb85IYCUzjA4RLmePJhSHdo2TjAAJ_gnK7DmwBLl5cUtgz3hzGtwj3Dl7rX_1LiB-jHX27sLnfezwqomE2RwQ8PKYJArKOa12S6v5vyHdoeHmaM/s320/Blog+095.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So I don't quite know what I'm going to do about that. I'm also a bit apprehensive about this top-down business: what if the sleeves are too tight for my um, mature, arms? But the pattern is very clear and I'm swinging along quite nicely.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I can think about while I'm doing this. I think this is my seventh <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/round-or-pinwheel-baby-blanket">Pinwheel</a>, my second in white <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/patons-australia-jet">Jet</a>. It's for a friend's great-nephew. He's already arrived but he lives in Australia so he doesn't need a warm woolly shawl yet. I haven't decided which edging to do on this one, and I might need to buy some more yarn in blue to get it to the size I want. But it's very agreeable, tracking round and round. It's much bigger than this now; I've started the third ball.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyGvDB9VtzA5ymAWyBLlgphWDSwt3erIHzRZFA3aqGQO62a7UuMoXsFTtMXjUV8AGzz5egmRpZUhOnb6gSXvLel7636K6CRVf_wYm4u8pr-lgDDFFSqwpmaee2YwfzRKk3f0kw05j1j_U/s1600/Blog+091.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyGvDB9VtzA5ymAWyBLlgphWDSwt3erIHzRZFA3aqGQO62a7UuMoXsFTtMXjUV8AGzz5egmRpZUhOnb6gSXvLel7636K6CRVf_wYm4u8pr-lgDDFFSqwpmaee2YwfzRKk3f0kw05j1j_U/s320/Blog+091.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<b>Movies</b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJWYXJvxCSq7g5vD9YMbO_PJWHpG1FMlb2PeuaMqxjiADccUssREriGni3P90-Uoek3_VUlhXyeAZ1j4Z_RnVMBTrsPWgl8pgs1V8qbDAp8_bhyNS1qcfm9Zn95cA9ZQnZl2eKislC5ag/s1600/Adele+BlancSec.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJWYXJvxCSq7g5vD9YMbO_PJWHpG1FMlb2PeuaMqxjiADccUssREriGni3P90-Uoek3_VUlhXyeAZ1j4Z_RnVMBTrsPWgl8pgs1V8qbDAp8_bhyNS1qcfm9Zn95cA9ZQnZl2eKislC5ag/s320/Adele+BlancSec.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
I watched <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1179025/">The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec</a> on blu-ray, and enjoyed it a lot. Adele is a sort of 19th-century female Indiana Jones - she's a journalist, not an archaeologist, but you can hardly tell. It's based on a French cartoon and although it's live-action, you can tell that great care has been taken to make the actors resemble the drawings. The effects are brilliant and blend in perfectly with the human actors, and there are some nice jokes. Some Egyptian mummies are brought back to life at the end and are revealed to have a lovely, dry, languid sense of humour, as I expect they might. I could stand to watch it again.<br />
<br />
Sometimes when I receive a dvd from LoveFilm, I have no memory of having ordered it and worse, no idea of why I might have. It usually turns out to be because I have decided to watch every film ever made by a particular actor or director, but sometimes it remains a mystery. This was the case with <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1346961/">The Eclipse</a>, which arrived last week. I don't usually watch any sort of ghost or horror stuff, because I'm easily terrified, but the blurb implied that it was more than that and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001354/">Ciaran Hinds</a> usually makes intelligent films, so I watched it. I actually felt my hair stand on end at one point - I'm not telling you when - and I slept with the light on for a few nights afterwards. What an idiot. If you're not easily terrified, it's a nicely shot 88 minutes set at an Irish literary festival.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQi3M10paX3GEKCOj42gvuE-npmbnIZ5a1aefrM3Ju1zrmduahx4nH5U0Or3guVToGoUQoXGKVO2-xqMfY_k01w4SxKjeAm37KTWbRc9oxHTaseWt1OxRkNUcsi8kbxjMveLuE_cF_PLI/s1600/eclipse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQi3M10paX3GEKCOj42gvuE-npmbnIZ5a1aefrM3Ju1zrmduahx4nH5U0Or3guVToGoUQoXGKVO2-xqMfY_k01w4SxKjeAm37KTWbRc9oxHTaseWt1OxRkNUcsi8kbxjMveLuE_cF_PLI/s320/eclipse.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">Speaking of Ciaran Hinds, I saw <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1340800/">Tinker Tailor</a>, which I thought was one of the most uneven films I've ever seen. Why cast Hinds and then not give him any lines worth saying? Colin Firth, much the same. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0835016/">Mark Strong</a> was handicapped by an awful wig - all of them had had their hair severely tampered with, and it was hard to see why. Gary Oldman's hair wasn't his own, but looked very like his own. And it's OK for Rikki Tarr to be attractive, so why spoil the luminous Tom Hardy with a hideous wig? And so on. And would Peter Gwillim have owned a foreign car? At other moments it took off, not least when <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0564402/">Simon McBurney</a> completely stole a scene with a slice of toast, and Oldman and Hurt were terrific, but it left me baffled. </div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">And I saw <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1540133/">The Guard</a> which is also set in Ireland, and although it contains much violence and shocking behaviour, frightened me a lot less than the story with the ghosts. It's funny too and has a terrific Irish and international cast, including <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0322407/">Brendan Gleeson</a>, </div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjGqNrWPFKqlzahne3_Z2Y09AFsDWGF7KoCexT5gZCs-OZAQ817rkFdjs0a4JuHX_VowRh3WXH2R9SmnqkUy6gPxMeKyPTdrvRfWZoX0P87zgAeYqWgjRhi-DeLb4i2l6RVrSYINO0Tk4/s1600/gleeson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjGqNrWPFKqlzahne3_Z2Y09AFsDWGF7KoCexT5gZCs-OZAQ817rkFdjs0a4JuHX_VowRh3WXH2R9SmnqkUy6gPxMeKyPTdrvRfWZoX0P87zgAeYqWgjRhi-DeLb4i2l6RVrSYINO0Tk4/s320/gleeson.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
and has Mark Strong without any unnecessary hair, complaining bitterly about the lack of intelligence and style among the drug dealers with whom he has chosen to work. Film trivia: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780536/">In Bruges</a>, which also starts Brendan Gleeson, was written by the brother of the man who wrote The Guard.<br />
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As you can tell, there has been a lot of sitting on the sofa, knitting in circles and staring at the screen. I haven't even been keeping up with blog-reading because that requires a level of concentration that's been beyond me, but I'm hoping to make some sort of return to the real world, or at least the knitting part of it, fairly soon. I'm missing you all.Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12045029232081633077noreply@blogger.com6