etc.

A bit better than Reloaded but not by much. Films like this make me pine for the 5-word-reviews of yore.

no, i haven’t forgotten about the linklog. and to prove it to you, i offer this delightful link from the CSM about the trendiness of all things knitty. as a related sidebar, i came Knit NY via some knitting goddess’ website (can’t remember whose, sorry!) some weeks ago and i’ve already added it to the agenda for the NY trip i’m taking in October. OCTOBER! why do you creep so slovenly towards me? [link to CSM from brainylady].

A few of you have asked about my plans for the heavenly fleece. Well, thus far, the plan is to make an afghan. Not a granny-squares afghan, just a single 199-stitches-on-one-4mm-circular-needle afghan. There’s probably a name for this sort of afghan, but I don’t know it. I was aiming for something in the range of 36″x60″ but since it’s going to be just a throw, it will probably be in the range of 36″x45″-ish. I have 1000 meters of yarn (1 kilometer!), so enough to work with, I think. The pattern? 3-4″ seed stitch border and a whole lot of stockinette in between.

The other afghans on the needles, the ones for the cats, are knitting up at a break-neck pace lately. 4 more squares and one will be all ready for sewing up (tips on sewing up would be appreciated if you have any. I was going to scour Stitch n’ Bitch tonight to see what Debbie has to say but real-life advice ranks high with me).

And in other plans, Atonement on audio has arrived at the library after a 9 month wait. I’ve had the worst luck with this book, I’ve managed to start-and-stop reading it about three times for all sorts of sundry reasons, so this time I’m hoping for better staying power.

I exercised restraint on Sunday like you wouldn’t believe. Knitomatic is a lovely little store, lots of interesting yarns and the funkiest big, plastic, bag handles circa 1972. And I didn’t buy a thing. Instead, I knitted for about an hour and trundled home feeling very proud of the self-discipline I exercised.

And then yesterday, I stopped in at Village Yarns (the ONLY yarn store between Hamilton and West-end Toronto that is open late on a Monday evening) and spent about a month’s worth of yarn dosh on Lady Godiva from Fleece Artist. I knew it was only a matter of time before I gave into Fleece Artist yarn, whenever I see any in a store I’m magnetically drawn by some sort of centrifugal pull away from the core of restraint and discipline and all those good things they talked about at Sunday School. The stuff is all hand dyed and they sell it in these wickedly tempting loosely-wound skeins that scream colour and texture so that you just can’t look away, nevermind get your grubby paws off it. I bought two skeins dyed in rich reds and pinks and wines and I was almost sorry to see them spun into balls because I just wanted to take them home and put them under my pillow and dream rich, fleecy dreams. Keep your eyes on the pictures to the right because tonight, more unabashed yarn photography.

Later that day: pictures are up. For the best viewing experience, you’ll have to come to my house.

Last night I played around with seed stitch borders. This morning I tested garter stitch borders. Results are here. So now I know: borders make your afghan squares lie nice & flat and they make them look a lot more respectable too. I’m tempted to rip out all 8 of the other squares I’ve done without borders but I don’t think the cats will mind the practice-workmanship too much.

Next up: a yarn swap at the brand new Knitomatic. Sadly, I have no yarn to swap, being a nascent knitter means that I have no stash left over from past projects. But I thought I’d use the swap as an opportunity to check out the new store and maybe dip my toes into the tempting pool of stash-building. Stay tuned.

Completely forgettable. I saw this film close to two weeks ago and I can’t remember a damn thing about it. So there’s your review.

I have the back door flung open, cool, green air floating in, the neighbour is evicting foliage from atop his carport as quietly as he can, small, blue pot of earl grey tea steaming in front of me, the cats languidly watching my knitting needles, unsuccessfully feigning disinterest.

In an hour, I leave for work, stopping first at the library to return five books (one overdue, oh dear!) and pick up three that came off the hold list for me. Our public library system does this charming thing: they leave these automated messages on your voicemail to inform you that the borrower with the card that ends in xxx has one or more items on hold for them at their local branch (I’m paraphrasing). I like these messages because they don’t give away what’s come in for you and it’s always a nice surprise to drop in and pick up something you put on hold months ago. Sometimes it’s a bit of a feat to remember why you put that particular book on hold all those months ago, but rediscovering the reason is all part of the fun, isn’t it?

I forgot to mention, I did another what’s-cool-on-the-web-these-days talk at my library a couple of days ago, it’s here if you’d like to have a look. In preparation for the session, I spent some time playing with Furl, to which I now have an unwavering devotion. Subject and keyword indexing, coupled with searchability: what’s not to love?

And finally, Modest Mouse and Metric. Surprisingly good music to knit by.

I had no idea yarn stores could induce such rabid jonesing. I’ve scoped out all the yarn stores within a 10 km radius of where I live, and I even found a little gem in a town close to where I work. And then yesterday, I stopped in at Michael’s on the way home from work under the cheap guise of needing a row counter (which was, in fact, true), but really, we all know that what I really wanted to do was fondle ball after skein after hank, including the acrylics. Turns out acrylics are a bit of a guilty pleasure for some, who knew?

I’ve made paltry progress on the kitty afghans, even though it is my project of choice at the moment. Mostly not enough time, but also the fact that I mistakenly assumed that the same number of stitches on the same size needles using the same weight of yarn would produce squares of equal size. Not so, I learn. Lucky for me, the squares in question are 5″x5″ so ripping one out and starting again means the total of about an hour’s work lost. Plus the fact that you don’t need to knit the whole square to know that it’s smaller than the last one you knit, also really helps. I’ll get this right one of these days, but in the meantime the afghans are affording just the sort of practice and experience-building I was looking for, so that one day I’ll be a sage-knitting-goddess, able to answer questions about gauge and tension and all those other things I don’t even know to question yet.

Oh and look! I joined the Toronto Knit Blogs Ring. If that’s not committment to the craft, I don’t know what is.

This guy Iñárritu is making films I really like. If you’ve seen Amores Perros, you’re already prepared for the structure of this one: three key characters’ separate life-narratives come together to create the plot of the film. The relationships between the characters in 21 Grams are not as oblique as those in Amores Perros which meant that I was making viable connections (that mostly turned out to be true) early in the film. Definitely worth seeing.

I’m still saying good things about the new blogger, for the most part, but I realized after much deliberation that what I don’t like about it is the “out-of-the-box-blogging-for-dummies” feeling it gives me. I learnt practically everything I know about html and css by monkeying with my blog templates, and those new templates, pretty as they are, are too intimidating even for me, nevermind the nascent blogger. I think what this will mean, in the long run, is less customization and more blogs that look the same as new bloggers take one look at the css and coding and back down in fear.

The more careful readers amongst you might recall me mentioning a pair of blankets that I started knitting for the cats last Fall. Well, I unraveled them this morning. Here’s a lesson from a new knitter: never cast on hundreds of stitches on to too short needles because stitches that are bunched so close together that you can’t tell one from the next are not happy stitches, and unhappy stitches inevitably means unhappy knitter. As an alternative to the big, boring, stockinette blanket, I’ve decided to try wee kitty afghans comprised of wee little squares instead. This will give me a chance to practice different stitches and patterns, and the kitties will be able to boast afghans as opposed to predictable blankets. How many cats do you know with afghans?

And quick word about the new design: if the text seems to cut off in the middle of the page, or blanks out for chunks at a time (giving you white space in the middle of a post or a line of text that’s literally chopped in half at the end of the page), refresh the page. It’s something I had to deal with with my last design (the 3-column one with all the css borders) which makes me think that maybe it’s a css border thing. If you have any insight, I’d love to hear it.