Thursday, April 27, 2006

Next Project

I've started working on my very first sweater - the Bombshell from Big Girl Knits

As far as knitting skills go, it's been fairly easy - just simple knitting and purling. The directions have been easy to follow. I'm just about to knit the short rows that are needed because I'm a busy gal. I've never done short rows, but I think I am understanding it - finally. I just need to understand how to do my measurements. The BGK book didn't do such a good job illustrating where each measurement is to take place.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Easter Baskets!

I knitted a couple of Easter Baskets this year. Cascade 220 is great for felting, but I was most impressed with Lion's Brand Wool. It felted up really nicely after only one wash. I also used a Joann's brand Bellezza Collection, Tessoro in Pink. It didn't felt AT ALL. Fortunately, this was for M and she loved it just the same.

Okay, for the boy baskets, I used blue and green. I think my favorite combination is the blue basket with the yellow/orange fun fur.

I knitted GOAM a skull tote back a while back (and I forgot to take a picture of it before I gave it away). D, GOAM's daughter really loved the bag, so I made a skull basket for her.
I think she liked it! :)

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Knitting- Hats!

Here's my latest finished project: Two cotton hats for a friend who's getting ready to undergo chemo.

It's interesting to realize that my knitting skills have gotten much better over the past few months. I used to hate knitting with cotton because I knitted really tightly. Well, I guess experience has finally bit me and I was able to knit this up with no problems. I did knit it from the brim up, but I like knitting from top down. I even switched to DPN's on the green hat! I usually never do that but my circulars weren't really long enough to do the magic loop well.

Movies & Books

Just finished watching two new movies.

Good Night and Good Luck

I have no idea how Clooney got the Oscar for this. He was barely on camera. It was, however, an interesting movie. The thing that sticks out in my mind are the parallels between the Communism scare of the 50's with our current day Terrorism scare.

The Squid and the Whale

What is it lately with the independent films and not having a story? This movie just didn't go anywhere. I'm reminded by the movie June Bug and Thumbsucker. Unlike those two movies, I did finish watching this one and just felt like I wasted my time. I love story which is one of the reasons why I love books and movies. This movie got such good reviews. I was just disappointed.

Proof

I liked this movie as it had a story line. I liked the way it ended with Paltrow's character coming to terms with her delusions and talent.

The Wedding Date

I have a confession to make. I love girl movies. I just do and I hate it when I do. This one was great because you got to see Dermot Mulrooney's butt and his six pack abs.

On to books - or really, just one book.

I checked out Patricia Cornwell's Predator book and felt a little lost as I didn't understand why she was in Florida or why they were so upset at the death of a doctor. So I looked and found there was a previous book, Trace. Before I finished Predator, I had to return it to the library because someone had put a request on it, so I went ahead and checked out Trace. It took me literally a month to read that stupid book and it didn't explain about any of the death of the doctor or anything. It was also ended abruptly and there were several plot points that she failed to wrap up. After I read Cornwell's Blow Fly, I took a long break from reading any of her work - mainly because of the same reasons - it was slow and I hated the characters. But The Last Precinct brought me back into the fold - it was great! The follow up book was equally great, too. Then along comes crap like Trace. I just hate it when I get burned again.

Candy Swap #1

I shouldn't have participated in this swap, but I just couldn't resist. Here's what my candy swap pal sent me:
I particularly liked the Birch Bark. M loved the Chocolate Rocks. We packed them in her lunch and she teased her friends that she was eating rocks. :)

Monday, April 03, 2006

Nerd Humor

I have an acquaintance who works for the UT-Austin Physics department and they were "victims" of guerrilla art. She sent photo's via email & I just have to share them.


Madam Curie - pretty self explanatory

Moebius - Underwear turned in the famous "strip"

Ada Lovelace - Known as the first programmer.

Grace Hopper - covered with bugs. :)
My fav: Feynman - None, Baby! :) Don't know why Cornell's is boxers with penguins.
Weinberg is in a thong, th-a,-thong, thong, thong

Schrodinger was represented by a box that said, "boxers or briefs? you won't know until you open the box" (ala the Schrodinger cat
"experiment")