Still Not Much Further Forward

Knitting
I finshed Dapper and steamed it a bit, but I must admit to feeling completely indifferent towards it. I've tried it on and it's a bit big but nothing terminal. It's still a lovely colour. I think I could throw it away quite happily, but I should probably hang on to it and allow myself to re-discover it in a few months. This is more due to the yarn than the pattern: other people make lovely things with Wool Cotton, but I can't love it.

I swatched the yarn I thought I was going to use for a Queen Anne's Lace christening shawl. It's Colourmart's silk, cashmere and merino laceweight.

It's very nice, but I won't be knitting on four needles with it again. I found myself getting into a rage and could hardly bring myself to exercise enough patience to cast off. I'll be fine using it on long needles, and I've established that it suits the rosewoods very well, so that's something. It's still oiled for industrial knitting so it's not soft and delicious, but it blooms something lovely after washing.

Thanks for the baby cardi suggestion, Mary Lou. I'm not sure that my audience would appreciate it. The socks are lovely, Mette, and I just bought the Accessories book, so they are going on the list.

I've been looking at patterns. I'm very taken with the Fir Cone pattern. I was thinking of just doing a Shetland Triangle, but then I found the lovely Fir Cone Square Shawl. And then of course there's Raveller's lovely Fir Cone diamondways. And Beata has done a beautiful baby blanket. She uses that variation where instead of one big decrease, there's two wee decreases (I hope that isn't too technical for you) which gives two parallel lines of stitches. I think this is it. And now Blue Peninsula has given us this Stony Brook Stole which uses something like it but with subtle variations. I swatched the diamondways way in white Paton's Jet but it's too bulky. Back to the thinking board.


I'm making quite good progress with the latest All Seasons Cotton Pinwheel, but I think it's hideous.


The colour looked sort of sea green (it's Sea Spray, which I don't think was ever released) but beside the cream (Organic) it's turned very green. It looks like the sort of blanket you would be given by an elderly female relation, and I'm not yet ready to be that relation. The baby daddy is Irish-American so I'll wait and see; if it's a boy, I might hand it over, but it's far from a certainty.

I did a swatch tonight.

It doesn't have to be perfect, but I want to make sure I'm not using too small a needle, as I don't want to have to buy extra yarn. It's Rowan Kid Classic, one of my favourites. I'm not going to use that colour, which is called Sandstone but should be called Swede, a horrible turnip colour. Or that sort of melon which tastes like turnip. Sandstone is good for knitting Harry Potter scarves in the Gryffendor colours, but not much else, and it's been discontinued. Watch this space to see what I'm going to make and what colour I'm going to use.

It was Tony Curtis's birthday yesterday. He was 85.



And if you want o see him dressed as a man, this one from Operation Petticoat can't be embedded, but do click and go and see it on the YouTube site: Tony out-Carys Cary. Well, no-one could out-Cary Cary, but he tries.

Progress, Such as It Is

I've been slogging onwards with Dapper. I had a moment of joy when I joined the fronts but
since then the rows have been a lot longer. I've done a few more inches since this photo. And it's a much nicer colour in reality.

I'm not neglecting it, but last night I cast on for a giant sock.


No, it isn't really; it's a hat. A cupcake hat. I've wanted to knit one of these for ages. I've cast on 100 stitches for an adult size, although I'm still not sure that's big enough. I'm not quite sure who it's for. It's Rowan Kid Classic: I think the colour is called Feather.

I keep forgetting to tell you about this, which was a gift from Raveller after her visit last year.

The colour is a gentle lichen-ish green, too subtle for the light at this time of year. It's the Fibre Company's Road to China, a blend of baby alpaca, cashmere, camel and silk - do you have any idea how soft that feels? I think it will have to be a cowl, as it wuld be so gentle on the skin.

Knitting Mags
There's something about the covers of Interweave Knits which has been bothering me for a while but it was only this week that I made the effort to check: I was right. These three covers have all been used in the last year.

Is beige really a colour that makes magazines fly off the shelves?

Watching
There was a stunning documentary on BBC2 on Sunday night (14 March) about Detriot, Requiem for Detroit. It's available on iPlayer here although I don't know for how much longer. There's a clip on YouTube


and I expect more of it will become available there. I caught the opening shots and was hooked; it's a devastating story of a city and what led to its rise and its very rapid decline. With some hope at the end.

LoveFilm excelled themselves after the rude things I said about them, and delivered Goya's Ghosts almost immediately. It's very good, as long as you aren't looking for historical accuracy in the script - it's a made-up tale, set in period surroundings. It has a multi-national cast and was directed by Milos Forman, but was mostly filmed in Spain and is a US / Spanish co-production - some people have got terribly cross about the fact that Goya is played by a Swedish actor, but I have to say I got over the jumble of accents very quickly. Javier Bardem is staggering in it, not that I've ever seen him be anything less. I didn''t think Natalie Portman was so good, too modern, but the friend I watched it with disagreed, so take your pick.

If I knew Goya's paintings better than I do, I'm sure I would have recognized more of them amongst the background figures. I think there's must be miles of it left on the cutting room floor and I look forward to seeing the special edition double-disc dvd if it's ever released.

After that, I watched Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame. I hardly know where to start with this. It was made in Afghanistan and directed by a 19-year-old girl, Hana Makhmalbaf. The fact that her father is a film director doesn't really make this any less remarkable. The film gets its title from the figures of Buddha in the Banyam Valley in Afghanistan which were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001, and where the film is set. The lead character is a little girl of about six, who spends the day trying to get to school and is thwarted in lesser and greater ways. There were lots of times when I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. You should see it. The little girl, Bakhtay, played by Nikbakht Noruz, is enchanting and all the other children in it are well, impressive. It's shot in dazzlingly clear digital sunlight. I hope things are better by the time Bakhtay grows up.


And back on Planet Shallow, tonight I watched Fracture, which is just a legal detective story with a twist, but it's very stylish and has lots of good actors - Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling, David Strathairn, Rosamund Pyke, Fiona Shaw - and an ace script, a perfect Saturday night flick.

Gross

As I was getting up from the sofa this evening, I saw what I thought was a loop of yarn that had fallen on the floor. Expecting to pick up a strand of pale pink cashmerino softness, I was disconcerted to find a wet clammy purl of spaghetti. Eeeuw, as they say.

Lots of vanilla knitting here. Dapper inches on.


Yes, those are my toes holding the bottom edge down. When I have learnt to take photographs with my feet, I shall hold edges down with my hands.

The stripy legwarmer has been returned and the second one begun. It was on pause for a couple of days because I had lost the darker blue required for the middle stripe, but that turned up this morning so it's on the move again.


The first pale pink ballet legwarmer is finished. I didn't buy enough yarn (or, I didn't think to weigh the first one and stop halfway through the ball, take your pick) so I'm waiting for the second one. Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino.


I made a headband out of the leftovers from the first, because it is a truth universally acknowledged that every little girl who needs ballet legwarmers, needs a headband too.




I woke up at three the other morning and realized that I had better do some prioritizing, so I chose a pattern for the Everest cowl and cast on today in the daylight. I kept on coming back to Vent d'est, vent d'ouest on Ravelry, and I expect there are winds from both of those directions on Mount Everest, so I've gone with that. It's a pull-up cowl, more of a wimple, which is what I was looking for after advice from the Spinning Fishwife. The yarn is delicious and I would happily knit on it non-stop, but it's different shades of dark so I'll stick with daylight for the moment.

All this vanilla knitting has meant lots of staring at the idiot's lantern. I think I've seen every episode of The Big Bang Theory now, and lots more West Wing. Then on Sunday afternoon I watched Coco Before Chanel, which I was watching really just so that I could tick it off the list but which I found quite engrossing. It's beautifully photographed, and I think the French do historical films very well, partly because of their attention to detail and partly because they just get on with showing how things were, rather than preaching or disapproving. Little Tatou is in almost every scene and I never got tired of her: she gives a good impression of the realistic and determined person Coco must have been. For me, there could have been more in the way of fabrics and cutting and sewing, but I'm probably in a minority. I think I'll have to get the DVD (I watched it on FilmFlex) and watch the extras to get that, but I wouldn't mind watching it again anyway.

Then I saw The September Issue, so it was quite a fashion-filled forty eight hours. I enjoyed that more than I expected too. Grace Coddington was a treat, and it's good to see some grown-up women, complete with wrinkles, doing high-powered jobs. People always make out fashion is purely frivolous, but it's a serious business which requires creative ability too. I thought The Devil Wears Prada was a very dull film which needed more jokes: this is much better.

Grace Coddington with an enormous cat, from Vogue

And Ian Carmichael died at the weekend, which is jolly hard cheese for all of us.

So Far, So Good

Jean and Spinning Fishwife were very helpful at lunch on Monday with ideas about the Everest cosy. I took my swatch and we passed it round and rubbed it on our faces: it was only later that I realized this might have looked a bit odd. I don't think the people at the next table left early. A wimple / cowl / smoke ring seems to be in order, which can be worn in a variety of ways, so I've been prowling Ravelry and am down to the final few. I think.

I've had ample opprotunity to test the warmth of my new Jet Kaari this week, as the central heating went phut on Monday morning. Jet is 70% wool and 30% alpaca, and I can testify that it holds up very well. I have been lurking in the room with the fire, but I was pretty comfortable. The only bit of me that was cold was the gaping neck and I was able to fill that with a cosy pashmina, so I was kept warm very satisfactorily by a trio of wool-bearing mammals.

The boiler guy came today and fitted a new pump. I have a horrible suspicion that the old one was full of mouse poop, but we won't think about that. I discovered at the end of last year that that was their favoured route into the kitchen, down the back of the boiler. However, the multi-front mouse deterrent seems to have worked well and there have been no signs for the last week or so. Consumption of bleach and disinfectant should fall dramatically.

I decided that it would be a good idea to send the one completed legwarmer to be tried on before I made the second one, and I got a call tonight to say that it fits perfectly. Cinderella's slipper didn't fit better. So that's good to know. I spoke to the small pink person and asked if her sister liked the Mary Jane hat. 'No, thanks,' she said.

I'm progressing satisfactorily with the Dapper waistcoat: the knitting isn't hugely exciting, but I can't stop looking at the colour. I've realized that it's the same shade as MttR's lovely Ali jacket. Wool Cotton gives a beautiful finish, makes you look like a very good knitter. It's too late to photograph it tonight, but there's not much to see anyway. I'm just about to start the decreases on the first front and have used one ball of yarn.

I don't know how much my readership overlaps with KMKat's, so here's another chance to see something that she posted recently in case you missed it. It's an ad for Pringle of Scotland, drawn by David Shrigley, showing life behind the scenes at Pringle.



Actually, it doesn't rain all the time. That's just on the west coast. The voiceover sounds so like a friend of mine, it makes me giggle every time I hear it. It's really Bridget McCann.

While I've been working on Dapper, I've been catching up on Series Two of The Big Bang Theory. Sometimes Sheldon is just so me.

More and More Knitting

I baptised Kaari and dried it flat, and I'm very pleased with the result. I knew as soon as I first saw that pattern that I would knit it, so it almost doesn't seem new. I knitted a size smaller because I wasn't getting gauge and it's come out just the right size. I didn't make any alterations at all, although the neck is a very little shallower because I ran out of yarn. I'm wearing it as I type. Can you tell?

The neck has come out quite wide. Since I always planned to wear this over a tee shirt, this doesn't matter but when I make a summer one, I'll have to do something about it. I think it might be because of my narrow shoulders which don't hold it in place, so I'll just have to continue the front up a bit higher and think of a way of making the sleeves come up higher too. They have an unusual construction so it will take a bit of thinking, but it should be feasible. Or I could make it out of linen on large needles, and wear it over a cami. I'll think of something.

I've done one tiny legwarmer for the small pink person. I got my wires crossed and made it in stripes when apparently what is required is a plain legwarmer in ballet pink, so I'll finish these and then do the plain ones. It's RYC Cashmerino and some Wool Cotton from the stash. At least if these turn out to be the wrong size, I can get it right the second time. I made the pattern up.


I bought this skein of Habu Shosenshi, which I've been planning to get for a while: I already have some of it in grey and I have project in mind which will require two colours. More will be revealed. The shade is called Indigo, a very pale washed-out indigo.


The waiscoaty thing on the front of the latest Rowan mag, number 47, is meant to be made from Lenpur Linen, but I went with Rowan Wool Cotton. I won't be putting on the beads.

The colour is called Cypress, which I thought was a dark green but this is a sort of dusty turquoise, like verdigris but a little bluer. The vest, which is called Dapper, is knitted in one piece starting at the left front and is meant to be knitted without the front band and the armhole trims: they're added by picking up stitches at the end, but I've decided that I'm going to do it all in a oner. I expect I will realize why this is wrong when I'm nearly at the end, and there will be much smitting of the forehead, but I'm going to do it anyway.

I watched three more episodes of The West Wing on Saturday, and was greatly distressed to discover that there wasn't a fourth episode on the disk. I missed a lot of the seventh series the first time round, and it's interesting to watch it again anyway because we have discovered since that the writers based some of it on Obama's senate campaign. I consoled myself by watching some of the first series of The Big Bang Theory, which I was slow to discover and just love.

Here's a quickie.



And if you've got 10 minutes, here's some more.