Happy New Year!

Here we are, two days into 2010. Resolutions generally go to crap but I'm making one anyways. Going forward, I want to have less clutter in my life. First step is to use up some leftover sock yarn bits and ends.

I cast on 500+ stitches (an odd number) on US 6 needles using a cable cast-on so that I would have an end on each end and not have to guess how long of tail to start with. Then I started with a new piece of yarn and began to knit in linen stitch.



Linen Stitch (2-row repeat):
Row 1: K1, (s1 purlwise with yarn in front, K1) repeat to end of row
Row 2: K1, (p1, s1 with yarn in back) repeat until two stitches before end of row, p1, k1

To create a fringe, I start each row with a different yarn, leaving a decent-length end and break off the yarn at the end of the row, once again leaving another decent-length end. When I'm done, I plan to either braid or twist the fringe together in groups of 3. Bonus - I have no ends to weave in.



I got a large amount of the knitting done while watching Doctor Who last night. It was fantastic! The end had me crying and laughing. I'll miss David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor dearly but I'm even more excited for Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor now. Then I saw this trailer for season 5. I'll be over here, squeeing in the corner.

Christmas Music for the Absurd

I often find the lyrics to "Baby, It's Cold Outside" to be a bit date rape-y but this video of Tom Jones and Cerys Matthews is something else. Bloody Welsh.

Mind Leap

Earlier today I had this in my head.

I could blame Chris from knitting on Thursday night but Lady Gaga is pretty ubiquitous these days. Not so common recently are The Everly Brothers yet they are responsible for my current earworm.

Today was another beautiful day and I was out and about for a bit enjoying it before coming home and watching a lot of the TV I didn't watch this week. Glee was a little more awkward and cringe-making than normal but once again featured Artie singing so I was happy and I really enjoyed this week's Fringe. It was also a fantastic week for The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I do wish the little kids could have convinced John Oliver to actually read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, though.

Half a Cardigan

Between feeling rather achey, coughing and napping this weekend, I managed to get past the halfway point on the Vine Yoke Cardigan.



It's still knitting along quite nicely and the garter stitch that has two very intuitive, easy to memorize charts is very easy to watch TV or listen to podcasts to. Now I'm just whiling away the hours until I can watch Doctor Who and the season premier of Top Gear that I didn't even know was starting up again today. I almost wish it wasn't. I already have James May's Toy Stories to give me my Captain Slow fix for the moment so a later- starting Top Gear season would have spread that out.



How can you not love an entire garden made of Plasticine? I had never even heard of Plasticine until this episode of Toy Stories and now I really want some to play with. It looks way more fun than Play-Doh. It's what Wallace & Gromit are made of. Why yes, I am a hopeless anglophile, why do you ask?

Embracing My Inner Fan Girl

Besides getting David Tennant at Christmas in Hamlet, his last two specials as the Doctor are supposed to air around that time, too. Tomorrow night is his third-to-the-last special, though. "Waters of Mars" is supposed to lead into the two-part regeneration story. As sad as it will be to lose Mr. Tennant, a good regeneration storyline is one of the things unique to Doctor Who and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I predict very little knitting to get done on the Vine Yoke Cardigan during the hour I'm watching it.

"Waters of Mars" is also scheduled to air on BBC America on December 19 and it is speculated that the American airing of the last two specials will follow on December 26 and January 2. I certainly hope that is true.

Happy Birthday, Sesame Street

In honor of Sesame Street's 40th anniversary today, I thought the Pointer Sisters could teach us all how to count to 12.

I already loved the Pointer Sisters because they had sang "I'm So Excited" and without that song you could never have one of the most classically over the top moments from Saved by the Bell. Jessie and the diet pills of quick addiction. A few years ago, I found out that they were the ones that sang the pinball counting song and that love grew exponentially.

To mark the occasion , the Vine Yoke Cardigan got to pose with my rubber ducky today.

Look, a bit of sleeve!

Validation

One of these days, I do intend to post about knitting projects again. It might encourage me to finish a few things, too. Startitis has been a bit high lately with very little pay out. Instead, I'm going to post again about something I've watched on the internet. Fly that geek flag high!

Unlike Girl Number 9, (the first episode of which was not bad and not too horribly full of exposition), Validation is happy. It also doesn't involve following a story in five minute chunks for a week. It's cute and adorable. It has TJ Thyne (Hodgins from Bones). It'll take about 15 minutes of your time.

See? Adorable.

Note: For some insane reason, I'm doing NaBloPoMo again. I wasn't going to but my extreme lack of blogging over the past few months is making me a little sad. It's going to get a bit high volume around here over the next month.