Too much for one post

... but I'm going to jam it in here anyway. It turns out that my looming-est deadline has been shifted and the pressure lifted a bit. (Whew!) I'm going to do more primary research before submitting my thesis proposal. Instead of writing madly for the next couple of weeks, then, I get to do one of my favourite things: spending time with moldy old newspapers. (I know -- sounds awesome, right?) First, I need to blog a bunch of stuff I've been wanting to tell you about for the last little while.

1. I was in Ontario last week at a conference. For me, one of the thrills of going to Ontario is going to Michaels craft stores! (Yes, really.) I wanted to pick up some Lion Brand Wool-Ease for an inexpensive sweater project -- and I went to Michaels in three different towns and couldn't find Wool-Ease! They all had the Thick & Quick version, but no worsted weight could be found. Has it been discontinued or something? Where in the world is the Wool-Ease?

1. b) At the Michaels in Belleville, Patons SWS was on sale for $2 a ball! I bought 16 balls of Soy Wool Solids (= 1600 m) in the colour "natural berry," to make some kind of cabled cardigan (even though I suspect cabling will be ... challenging, as this is a barely twisted single-ply yarn).

2. I bought a PedEgg, and it is awesome. I may love it a little too much. I want to grate the skin off my calloused heels all the time.

3. The book Knitting Noro by Jane Ellison is a good one. There are lots of good, basic patterns for cardigans, pullovers, and jackets that could be knit in all kinds of yarns. (I have my eye on the Turtleneck Tank [at right], for a bunch of grey alpaca-wool I have in my stash.) I'm thinking that (someday) I'll probably frog my ill-fitting Dolman Updated sweater to reuse the Kureyon in a pattern from this book, because I do love that yarn and that particular colourway.

4. Back to that conference in Ontario -- my M.A. supervisor was there. You may recall that I knit him a pair of socks once I'd defended my thesis. He loved those socks. He thanked me over and over; in e-mails months later he would mention them. A dream recipient of a handknit gift. Anyway, I spent time with him at the conference last week, and at the end of the first day we were standing around having a glass of wine and talking about what we'd been up to lately, and I mentioned Rhinebeck, and he started reaching around in his bag and talking about the socks I'd made him. Actually, he said, "I have some bad news." It turns out that he'd lost one of his socks six months ago, so he had brought me the surviving sock and asked if I would please knit him one new sock. He said, "I'm only asking you to do this because I really love those socks." Obviously, I'm going to knit him one new sock.

5. The new issue of Twist Collective? Be still, my heart. I simply must knit Norah Gaughan's Kingscot cardigan, and I'm also swooning over Kate's Sweet Pea Coat and the Postwar Mittens. And the design of the "Critter Comforts" feature is brilliant.

6. The forthcoming issue of Interweave Knits? It looks pretty good. I quite like the Manchester Jacket, the Ropes and Picots Cardigan, and the Dainty Pinstripes Pullover. I'm looking forward to having the hard copy in my hands to look at the patterns.

7. I recently picked up the book Crochet Me, mostly because I had to try to make the Icelandic Turtleneck pullover right now.


This project is simple enough for me and my minimal crochet skills. The FDC row was a bit tricky, but I eventually got the hang of it (I think). I don't want this top to be tight or clingy; I want to be able to layer it easily over a long-sleeved T-shirt. My actual bust measurement is 37 inches; the pattern has instructions for 38 inches and 41 inches. I chose to do the 41-inch size, but now I'm wondering if there will just be too much excess fabric with four inches of positive ease. (Any thoughts?) The yarn I'm using is inexpensive Jojoland fingering-weight wool, in a shade of dark blue that I only like (not love), so it's perfect for this highly experimental project (i.e., if my Icelandic top turns out to be very, very bad, it's OK). Crocheting is fun, but unlike knitting, I have to watch what I'm doing with every stitch. I can watch TV, but not a movie with subtitles.

8. I went to see Passchendaele, and I quite liked it. The reviews have been a bit meh, but I suspect a lot of those reviews were written by dudes who don't want women or romance in their war movies. The battle scenes were truly stunning. My only issue with the film was Paul Gross's casting of himself. I hesitate to even say it, because Gross is ridiculously handsome and I was very happy to look at his face for two hours, but his character is supposed to be in his mid-thirties, and Gross himself is ... no longer in his thirties. (Dead sexy, though.)

OK, enough. I have some work to do today, plus I have to get stuff ready for a research trip to Toronto tomorrow. Have a nice weekend! It's rainy and grey here -- perfect knitting weather.

Personal Metal

I did indeed go to a movie on Saturday afternoon, to the excellent documentary Global Metal. I don't know if it's showing widely, but if you get the chance to see it, you should go. I loved it. It totally rekindled a long-dormant affection I have for headbangers and heavy metal music. When I came out of the cinema (the Forum) I wandered into Future Shop and flipped nostalgically through the Metallica CDs; I couldn't choose between "Kill 'Em All," "Ride the Lightning," and "Master of Puppets," so I just wandered out again. Probably for the best.

I listened to heavy metal in high school, and I have this soft spot for certain late-'80s albums that, in my memory, are connected to certain boys. Because metal was definitely boys' music, and in high school, boys said what was good and what wasn't. In my group of friends, it was the boys who picked the music. Us girls made mixed tapes for our cars with girl songs by Salt 'n' Pepa and Pet Shop Boys, but in mixed company, boy music ruled. It was in the boys' basements that we would sit and listen to Kiss LPs and watch "Cliff 'Em All" over and over. It was because the boys said so that we knew Iron Maiden were amazing and brilliant and that Slayer was a kick-ass deadly band. It was at the boys' urging that a bunch of us travelled to Seattle to see Metallica during their Damaged Justice tour in the summer of 1989 (although us girls went to Calgary to see the show again, without the boys).* At our high school graduation ceremony, "Orion" was piped into the arena while we all marched out in our caps and gowns.

None of this seemed gender-oppressive at the time. These boys were so passionate about music that it made me love music, too. And us girls had a blast at those Metallica shows; we held our own in the mosh pits and banged our heads so hard that we couldn't move our necks all the way home. We bought the T-shirts and had crushes on the musicians (for me, it was Jason Newstead), but we really did like the music, too. From the boys I learned how to really listen to music and how to talk about music and take it seriously. They made me mixed tapes and really wanted to know what I thought of the songs. And when I came across Jane's Addiction and the Pixies in Grade 12 I knew that I'd started to find my music. (And when I went by myself to see both bands play at the PNE Forum in 1990, with Primus, all the boys were jealous.)

Over the last 20 years, I've been introduced to lots of different music by boys, but increasingly by other ladies, too. I've met women who are musicians and critics and serious fans. And I haven't listened to metal in a very long time. (Probably my last close encounter was at an all-day concert in the summer of 2004 on Fulong Beach outside of Taipei where Andrew W.K. played. I don't know if he's technically considered metal, but he's certainly freaking loud.) But I suspect I'll always have a mushy fondness for metal and the boys who love it. Global Metal is about both of those things, and I left the theatre on Saturday feeling exhilarated in that way that can only come from spending an hour and a half in the presence of really, really noisy music. (Seriously, watch the trailer.)

Link: interview with the filmmakers on CBC-TV's The Hour

Link: "I'm a huge metal fan" T-shirt

* My mind is blown a little bit right now. I vaguely remember cameras swooping around during the Metallica show in Seattle, and now there are all kinds of videos on YouTube of that show. I was there! I was right at the front, actually, so if you see a sweaty girl among all those sweaty boys, it might be me. :)

Xmas leftovers

No, not turkey -- flannelette! This year, I made pillowcases for Christmas gifts, for my parents, aunts, and brother, all out of flannelette except for my brother's. (I followed Mariko's instructions to end up with lovely French seams, which was a first for me, and they turned out perfectly.) The pillowcases were a big hit. I didn't photograph them because, well, they were just big rectangles. I ended up with some leftover strips of flannelette, which I put to good use around the house:




The first two photos show my new draft snakes, instructions for which can be found in Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing. The first one is in a living room window, and the snake stops what was a very cold draft and has the added feature of holding up Xmas cards. The second one is in my office, where there was also a cold draft coming in between the windows. These are just tubes of fabric filled with rice, and they really work!

The third photo shows Mooky's newest blanket, on a chair in Bill's office. Does it seem like I make Mooky a lot of blankets? That's because it's cuter to say they are blankies for the cat than to say they are protecting the furniture from the cat. I just sewed some strips of fabric together, and the other side is one solid piece; there's no batting between them. I sewed them together (wrong sides together) and zipped back and forth across the middle a couple of times to hold the two layers together, and then pinked the edges. (I love pink as a verb.) Easy peasy. Not only will it keep the cat hair off the chair, but now we won't have to turn on the light just to see if Mooky's sleeping on that black chair.

I had a nice Christmas day -- opening lots of prezzies, because I'm very lucky; talking on the phone to family; going to a matinee of Juno and then back home to stuff and roast a little chicken; eating like there was no tomorrow; slipping happily into a gravy-and-pie coma while watching The Sound of Music on TV. Perfect. Christmas is awesome.

Score!

A quick trip to the Value Village today yielded a sweet yarn score: three balls (plus about a third of another ball) of Scheepjes Invicta Extra sock yarn for a total of $3.99! This is enough yarn to make tall and/or very-cabled socks. Yay! Plus, just for its fun super-saturated colour photos, another Beehive booklet: "Children's Choice for 2 to 6 Years."



Have a good weekend! If you get a chance to see Lars and the Real Girl, you should take it -- it's getting mixed reviews, but I really enjoyed it.

Anything? Anything?

Nope, I got nothing. Been knitting my Woodland Shawl -- 12 repeats done, and it looks to me to be at about the halfway point -- but my camera batteries are currently recharging, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Um... I've been to a couple of movies. Last weekend we saw No End in Sight, which was excellent but had the unfortunate side effect of making me want to punch Bush and Rumsfeld in the face every time they spoke. Saw Eastern Promises a couple nights ago, and I enjoyed it. True, it's violent, but it's David Cronenberg; nothing he does now or in the future will likely gross me out as much as that typewriter in Naked Lunch did, and at least nobody's head explodes. Also, I finally watched Grey Gardens on DVD -- fascinating. It made me want to knit a pullover -- not to wear as a sweater, but to wrap around my head like a turban, à la Little Edie. And when I have time for a double bill, I've got DVDs of Jesus Camp and Hell House at the ready.

As for school, I'm reworking my reading list a bit at the moment, and I'm sending proposals to a couple of conferences. Same stuff, should be reading more.

Yep, yep, yep. Let's see... That's really about it. I hope you're enjoying your Friday, and that you have a nice weekend. What's the best movie you've seen lately? Thank god it's fall and good ones are playing again.

We went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night (3-d IMAX!). I loved it. I was also fond of the plaid sweater worn by Ron Weasley during the final action extravaganza; the front was plaid, and the back was herringbone. I know there are lots of knitters out there who figure out the knits in the HP films. I wonder if anyone is figuring out a copy of this one...

Added: Cirilia blogged about this sweater (and others) back in July. (I agree with her that Luna's sweaters were also excellent.)

Round up

1. Spring will begin at eight o'clock tonight (Eastern time), they say. Even though it's completely white outside, and cold, it does feel like winter is winding down. Hallelujah!

2. I'm sad that CBC Radio 3's Saturday night show is over. When Grant Lawrence signed off, I may have said "Nooooooo!" to my radio. (You may recall last spring's incident of winning the hoodie.)

3. I've started to read The Friday Night Knitting Club, but I'm also getting to that point in the semester when novel-reading time vanishes, replaced by paper-writing time. I know this not only because of my elevated stress level, but because at the end of yesterday's class no one even suggested going to the pub. We all just filed out of the room, glassy-eyed, mumbling about going home to work on our papers.

4. Bill and I went to see Zodiac on the weekend. I liked it, but I thought it was needlessly long. Amazing (and huge) cast. I also watched The Education of Shelby Knox (on DVD), which was excellent.

5. Oh, my heavens, have you seen Cookie A's new site and its stunning sock designs? The German Stocking? Now that's some sock knitting. I'd better not start any complex socks until the end of the school term, though.

6. I can't remember who blogged about Google Notebook, but thanks! Much better than just bookmarking web pages.

7. My crocheted blanket is big now, so I only work on it when I'm on the couch. What to do when I'm sitting at my desk, working, and need a little reward? Well, start a tiny crocheted blanket for Mooky, of course! It's actually geared more towards keeping my reading chair cat-hair-free than giving Mooky a blanket of his own, although I do think he'll like sleeping on it. But he loves to sleep on my red corduroy chair (at least, he looks pretty happy about it). Instead of continuing to cover the chair cushion in various photocopied journal articles and other pieces of paper that are within reach, I'm crocheting a ripple "blanket" the size of the seat. And I've been doing lots of, um, rewarding work, so it's almost done. (Next post: crocheted seat-cover cat blanket! Sexy, sexy, sexy.)

Va-va-Volver!

Bill and I went to see Volver on Saturday night. I loved it. How refreshing to see a movie full of women, for a change! Four days later, I can't stop thinking about this movie. Is this because of its depiction of strong female characters overcoming difficulty? Their snappy dialogue? The film's vivid and colourful mise-en-scène? Ms. Cruz's convincing performance? Not particularly.

It's because of the cardigans.

Oh my goodness, the cardigans in this movie! Do you remember? A parade of colourful lace cardigans! Stunning knitwear, my friends. I found a few images to refresh your memory, if you've seen the film:

~ Raimunda's fabulous red lace cardigan (which reminds me of Laura's sexy Serrano)
~ a better look at the red cardigan's sleeve
~ Raimunda's green leaf-lace cardi and her mother's pale blue zig-zag number (and from another scene, here)
~ a rather unsatisfying shot of Raimunda's purple lace cardi

The wardrobe designer for Volver should win an Oscar: Best Knitwear in a Starring Role.