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.

Happy Accident

I had my second Kai-Mei from Cookie A.'s Sock Innovations just a few rounds of toe decreases away from being finished for several weeks yet it just sat by my chair, tucked out of sight. This weekend, I finally pulled them out and finished them.

Yarn is Cascade Heritage in some non-descriptive color number.

Today I wore the socks and looked down to realize that the shoes I had picked quickly before running out the door this morning showed off the pattern quite nicely.

See?

I was so taken by this happy coincidence that I even put the socks and shoes back when I got home after going straight to the gym from work. I needed the picture that much.

Venting Frustration

There is no picture of a finished Vine Yoke Cardigan in this post. There is a finished Vine Yoke Cardigan in my apartment. It is not a Vine Yoke Cardigan that fits me. To distract me from the failure, I decided to make the antithesis of a woolen, knit cardigan. That object is a cotton, crocheted potholder.



Double sided, started after eating dinner and paying some bills, I still managed to finish it in one evening. It fits in my hand. It is making me much happier than the Vine Yoke Cardigan. I may be going insane.

Now that I've made it through NaBloPoMo, I'm going radio silent for at least tomorrow if not through the rest of the work week. I hope to reblock the cardigan this week before I inevitably give up the ghost and frog it. I'll blog about it once I can properly address it. On the upside, I'm not as big as I thought I was.

Another Pair Down

I finished the RPMs this afternoon after I finished packing up all of my stuff at my parents' house.



After checking on the Vine Yoke Cardigan when I got back, I'm starting to think that I should have gone down a size or two. I'm going to put the buttons on tomorrow and then see what I think. My gauge was on but I'm thinking I need a new bust measurement taken.

The Thanksgiving Letter

Last year, CaliforniaKara posted a Thanksgiving letter passed down to her from a coworker. In the letter, the coworker's sister gives very specific instructions for what she is expecting people to bring for the meal, down to the appropriate recipe to use and container to bring it in. One of my favorite selections was to the family tasked with bringing fifteen pounds of mashed potatoes "in a casserole with a serving spoon".

Please do not use the over-size blue serving dish you used last year. Because
you are making such a large batch you can do one of two things: put half the
mash in a regulation size casserole with lid and put the other half in a plastic
container and we can just replenish with that or use two regulation size
casserole dishes with lids. Only one serving spoon is needed.

I shudder to think what this woman would do with my family's assorted collection of plastic dishes and the occasional aluminum foil or cling wrap cover.

I Braved Black Friday

I went shopping on Black Friday. OK, we didn't even leave Litchfield for the Albertville Outlet Mall until 9 this morning and all I bought was a long-sleeved red t-shirt from Old Navy but I did survive. My sister, mom and I went with two of my aunts and a cousin who had already hit a bunch of the usual suspects earlier this morning. Shopping-wise, it may have been a waste of time for us but we did have a good time together. Also, because the drive to the outlet mall isn't that short and we also went to St. Cloud after we were done there, I got a decent amount of knitting done today.



I'm continuing to knit from stash with KnitPicks Sock Memories, a yarn that was discontinued a few years back. The pattern is RPM by Aija Goto from Knitty Summer 2006. I cast it on Tuesday night after finishing the knitting on the Vine Yoke Cardigan. I'm already past the ribbing on the second sock. They're on US Size 1.5 needles so they're a relatively fast knit as far as socks go.

Tomorrow, I think I agreed to do more shopping, this time with my mom and grandma to Jo-Ann's for pillow forms. I end up being so much more of a "girl" when I'm home. I even end up wearing make-up on a semi-regular basis. It's like I become a curious study in traditional gender roles.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I'm not even going to try to find time to blog during the rest of the day. I'm off to help get the last few things ready and then spend some time with my family.

Almost Done

Before leaving for work this morning, I blocked the Vine Yoke Cardigan.



I had debated taking it with me and blocking it at my mom and dad's house so I could be finished that much sooner but I decided to be a little patient. Sunday night, the buttons are going on, though. I cast this on sometime on Halloween weekend, so I'll still have a fully-done sweater in less than a month.

I've been finishing cleaning my parents' basement tonight. I feel like vacuuming at 10:30 at night is completely unnatural. My sister and I are rewarding ourselves with tonight's episode of Glee before bed. If we don't watch now, one of our cousins is sure to spoil us tomorrow.

Buttons

As the end of the Vine Yoke Cardigan has been getting close, I started to look for buttons. I was almost positive that I was going to have to order them from somewhere as even when I'd find ones that would kind of work, I wasn't thrilled with them and there were never at least nine of them which is what I need. Then I stopped at Lila and Claudine's in Mahtomedi for the first time.

In addition to being a cute shop with a decent selection of yarn, especially considering that it's not huge and is also a gift shop, they had buttons that look like they're going to work perfectly.



Now I'm off to finish the knitting while watching V. Can't believe it's going on hiatus already.

Palette Cleanser

I think The Pipettes have scrubbed the endless loop of "Bad Romance" from my head.



Speaking of the alphabet, John Oliver admitted in this week's episode of The Bugle that after filming the segment of The Daily Show where he was reading Sarah Palin's book to a bunch of six-year olds, he did have to read them a bit from Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, a book about the letters of the alphabet climbing up a coconut tree together. Unfortunately, he did this reading while the camera and sound crew packed up their equipment so there is no recording of it. Also not shown on camera but discussed on The Bugle was the fact that while John Oliver was torturing children with Going Rogue, Zooey Deschanel and Ben Gibbard were in the same bookstore and were witness to it all. Never thought I'd want to be a fly on the wall in a bookstore where the words of Sarah Palin('s ghostwriter) were read aloud.

So Close Yet So Far Away

I've finished the left sleeve of the Vine Yoke Cardigan and am on to the left front.



I've begun to search for buttons with little luck. I need nine of them and it seems that every time I find some I might like, even if they're a bit more than I'd like to spend, there are never nine of them. I'll have to keep the search going and hope that I don't end up with a completely finished cardigan that I can't fasten.

I'll just keep knitting away and watching Spooks. It was titled less creatively as MI-5 in the US. I say less creatively because it's about a bunch of spies that work for MI-5, the UK domestic intelligence agency. I'm on the second season, which has Matthew MacFadyen and Keeley Hawes. It's extremely well-written and they aren't ones to resort to torture a la Jack Bauer.

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.

White Collar

On recommendation from a friend, I checked out White Collar, a show about an FBI agent who needs the knowledge of a con artist he put away to solve a case. He gets the con released into his custody and they go around solving cases together.



It's a fairly middle-of-the-road, entertaining cable procedural. I'd put it on par with Psych but not quite as good as Leverage. It's got Tiffany(-Amber) Thiessen as the FBI agent's wife if you're feeling any Saved By the Bell nostalgia. Not shown in the trailer is Natalie Morales who was in the fantastic but short-lived The Middleman, which was a poor choice for ABC Family which is more interested in poorly written teen pregnancy drama. She runs and points guns really well which is a great skill to have when you're playing an FBI agent in a procedural.

Because Then You Don't Freeze to Death

Someone is tweeting as Laura Ingalls Wilder (@HalfPintIngalls) and as someone that grew up as a Little House obsessive (books, not TV series) I am highly amused. In the spirit of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month), or NaKniSweMo (National Knit a Sweater Month), Laura is participating in NaTwiHayMo (National Twist Hay Month). She's twisting up 33 sticks of hay a day to use as fuel.

Twisting 33 hay sticks a day for NaTwiHayMo is hard, but it's so satisfying when you win! Because then you don't freeze to death.

On October 27, she was getting ready to celebrate the harvest and Halloween

It's time to bob for apples! Except here on the prairie we bob for salt pork instead.

She was a bit afraid that her costume was a bit edgy.

It'd be a riot if I dressed up as a grasshopper plague for Hallowe'en, wouldn't it? Or is that "too soon?"

But have no fear, she made it work.

But I'd be, you know, a SEXY grasshopper plague.

At least when Laura finds the high point in Chicago not getting the 2016 Olympics, it doesn't come off as really negative.

Chicago is now out of the running for the Olympics. Maybe now De Smet will get it? We have PLENTY of room in S. Dakota!

Laura's really taking to this internet thing.

Oh dear, I clicked on this link and learned what "NSFW" means. Naughty Shameless French Women! http://ow.ly/li2g

Wish List Time

My mom called me the other day asking me to send her my Amazon wish list for Christmas again this year. Last year, she finally saw the value in this and I got a few movies and the Yarn Harlot calendar from it. I'm building a new list for this year and I'm looking for suggestions. This is what I have so far. I'm looking for suggestion. A book you think I shouldn't miss? A fantastic movie? I really don't go to see movies at the theater often so there are plenty I haven't seen yet. I'm also looking for more knitting books to add to the list.

If there's something you think I'm truly lacking in my life, suggest it in the comments. My family are fans of a long wish list so the gift still has the feeling of surprise about it.

From Anarchy to Civil Rights Lovefest

NationStates is an online game in which you can build your own country and decide all of the policies for it. I used to have a nation on there a long time ago which I pretty much voted my conscience when it came to policy and attempted to be reasonable.

This time around, I have The Commonwealth of NoNeinNyet, in which I have been choosing the option that sounds like it will lead to the least regulation. Sometimes, choosing one policy over the other will have unexpected consequences. The greatest example I've seen of this so far is that by allowing bicyclists to ride where they choose, I ended up banning cars. It's things like that that lead from being classified as an Anarchy to becoming a Civil Rights Lovefest. I've basically created a nation full of slacker pot head libertarians.

Twist Collective Winter 2009

The winter issue of the Twist Collective is out and I've been browsing through the patterns. I do think that the best part of the Twist Collective is that it's easy to go back and download a pattern later. The Vine Yoke Cardigan, for instance, is from the Autumn 2009 issue. I do admit that that one didn't take me too long to get through.

My thoughts on the patterns are:

• Tanit's Jacket by Gudrun Johnston - cute, simple but not really my style or the appropriate shape for me.
• Skara Brae by Stephanie van der Linden - I think the color is my favorite part but I do like the used of all-over cables that aren't too heavy. Such a tiny gauge for a sweater, though.
• Mitaines & Moufles by Veronik Avery - Beautiful yet practical.
• Four Winds by Alasdair Post-Quinn - I'd like to explore more double knitting but I don't think this will be the pattern I try it on. The top makes me think of the seal of Rassilon. My geek knows no bounds.
• Dryad by Sivia Harding - Slightly different take on a stole construction. I like the use of beads to weigh down the corners.
• Lesley by Fiona Ellis - I feel like the cables along the bottom are a bit heavy and make it look almost unfinished.
• Polar Chullo by Mary Ann Stephens - well-designed chullo. Great if you're looking for something with ear flaps and polar bears.
• Kirigami - Eh. I think it might just be that I know I'd look like crap in it. I do have to wonder how its afterthought shoulder would work.
• Plaited Tam by Angela Hahn - I do not need more hats. I do not need more hats. I do not need more hats. Yeah, I like this one.
• Mystere by Cecily Glowik MacDonald - I like the subtle cable. Not sure how I feel about the garter stitch neckline, though.
• Orvokki by Mari Muinonen - Very cute motif. I'd make the mittens in a heartbeat. Not too certain on the hat, though.
• Bright star by Cathy Carron - Once again, a piece that doesn't really fit my own taste or shape. Serviceable if you need a cropped sweater to wear with pretty dresses, though.
• Karazuri by Leila Wice - I've seen cuter bag patterns for free. The description makes it sound like maybe there's something else to it that's not being picked up in the picture, though.
• Rover by Jennie Eveleigh Lamond - I think I need to find a kid that really likes puppies.
• Moxie by Kristi Schueler - some very nice colorwork. I wish it had been knit in colors that contrasted more. Definitely a pattern I'm going to have to wait for a bunch of people to post on Ravelry to get a better feel for it.
• Cambridge Cables by Becky Herrick - I think I like this but I don't think the photographer wants me to like it or there would be better pictures.
• Frost Tapestry by Robin Melanson - Lovely charts but I think all of the items worn at once would come off as too matchy-matchy.
• Ormolu by Barbara Gregory - Pretty. I think I'd go a bit batty knitting it and I don't think I'd pick it for myself.
• Farinelli by Ysolda Teague - I love Ysolda Teague, I really do, but I don't see myself needing lace-patterned opera gloves any time soon.
• Sarabande by Kristen TenDyke - I want to like it but I think I see bobbles and bobbles make me nervous. They make excellent Dalek bumps, though. Nupps, though, are clever little things.
• Manderley by Rosemary Hill - Nothing too special and I don't like how much plain stockinette there is. I like my lace more openwork.
• Kelmscott by Carol Sunday - Pretty Pretty. I think I'd like it better with a slightly more traditional collar.

So those are my initial thoughts. I still kind of wish that each pattern was about a dollar cheaper than what they're selling for but at least you can wait to buy until you're ready to knit.

Something that was totally awesome? Last night's Doctor Who. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. It built some fantastic momentum into the two specials left. Can it be Christmas yet?

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.

Hamnet?

On Christmas Day, BBC Two will be showing Hamlet.



Not only is that David Tennant as Hamlet, that's Patrick Stewart as Claudius. Best Christmas present ever! Don't worry, even if you can't get your hands on the British broadcast, it will be on PBS Great Performances in 2010.