Two too-cute mooses

Mom found this on Kim Komando's blog, and it is too funny. Apparently, all children, whether on two legs or four, enjoy romping in a sprinkler. :)
(no sound needed; it's just a random song in the background)

This Video of the Day is from Anchorage, AK. It features moose, among the largest animals in that area. A moose can stand seven feet tall. That’s huge!

But they are much smaller, and cuter, as calves. Here two calves make their way into someone’s backyard. One stumbles across a running sprinkler. And the fun begins.

The calves romp and play in the sprinkler as Mom looks on. They look just like playful children. It’s a very cool moment caught on camera. It’ll brighten up your day.

O is for...

O is for oran shuish! Or orange juice, either one. Since about middle school I have been a self-proclaimed orange juice addict. And to make it worse, I am picky. I really only want Twopicana Puhr Pwemium (as we call it, being an insane family). Not that concentrate stuff, and surely not that "orange beverage" you get in the gallon jug. So, yes, because my mommy loves me, we usually have a big thing of orange juice right next to the milk. Yay, Mommy!

This picture is from middle school (when I first started my Tropicana-only-please crusade), and I received a carton for my birthday. I'm happy as a clam, needless to say. :)


O is for "oran shuish" because of my comic-book-dorkiness. In "Sounds of Violence," a Green Arrow graphic novel, younger GA Connor gets shot up pretty badly and is rushed to the hospital. Older GA Ollie is a match for blood donation, so he gets pumped pretty low, and is subsequently pretty loopy. I have scanned in a few panels below so you can see for yourself:

Normally, for those of you not in the know, Ollie looks like this: all superhero and bad-ass. He's not used to being sick and vulnerable. Which is why I think the oran shuish scene is great.


Yes, I already know I am a dork. :)

Sock # 3 of 3

All of my socks are done! I have completed my blue pair. I will never have to do another sock again! haha!

Well, I take that back... I have actually churned out three more socks since finishing my first two. But they are tiny, and not baby-sock tiny, I mean keychain-sized tiny. We found a website that makes keychain sock forms that come with a pattern for making your own tiny sock to go on the keychain. They are just the cutest things I have ever seen, so I made a few to use up leftover sock yarn. (yes, of course, pictures will come later)

And then I really got sucked in when the blurb said to "make one in every color and switch them out for the holidays." Eek! How awesome would that be? Holiday themed tiny socks! too cute! KnitWits has been talking about geting their stuff wholesale to sell in the store, and we decided that we should also get Sparkle the Peacock sock displayer and the Kitchener Dogtags (Lara you are not allowed to buy your own dogtags, little bird says so). But how cool is their stuff? Too much fun for us.

...

Socks are done!

MOVIE REVIEW: The Dark Knight

Unless you've been living under a rock... a rock on another planet.... I am sure you have heard of a little movie called The Dark Knight. Well, John found out that it was playing in IMAX theaters as well as in regular ones, so he looked online to see if we had any in the area (we actually have two, but one's across the water in Hampton). So I called ahead and got us tickets for Saturday at the Marine Science Museum (which, by the way, is a great place that has renamed itself the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center). The IMAX experience was both the best and worst of what I was expecting it to be: glorious "swooping between the buildings" shots where you got a little vertigo because it was so real, but it was also a little seizure-inducing during the fight scenes at the end where you just wanted to be about twenty feet further back. Overall, though, I enjoyed it and the movie.


I don't think that anything I will say will make someone change their mind about whether they will go and see it or not; this is one of those movies where the subject either is or isn't your cup of tea. But I will warn you that it is fairly dark subject matter: The idea of someone so crazy that they want to blow up a hospital just to see it burn. Forcing a literal "kill or be killed" situation onto innocent citizens. Trying to balance personal life with doing the right thing for the masses (in not just Batman's character). Lots of killing mobsters, threatening facial mutilation, and beating up bad guys. (And brace yourself for Two Face's bad side; they really went all out, and it's very similar to Jeff Loeb & Tim Sale's depiction in Dark Victory. It's one thing to see it drawn, but it's a whole different matter to see it on a real face talking to you.) In sum, it's more of a Frank Miller work than a Batman: The Animated Series episode.

Not that I enjoy B:TAS over Frank Miller, I like both characterizations equally. I just feel that there is dark, shallow, and violent, and there is deep, psychologically dark. Batman, I believe, is psychologically dark; but let's face it, as much as we love how stunted Batman is, if every comic and every episode was a foray into how he misses his parents, we'd all go crazy. Often I want to watch/ read the fluffy, action-hero plots that hint at how he is different from normal people, just enough so the kiddies can enjoy themselves, but the comic book dorks are happy on the inside (the animated Justice League recently has done well with that, I think). Though, to be able to do the lighter stories like that, you need to establish that Batman is indeed psychologically different. Dark Knight is really trying to develop that last push Batman gets that sends him fully into character. The main plot point of this movie is that he has to realize how much is needed to be sacrificed in order to be truly effective in Gotham; he can no longer try to separate Bruce Wayne from Batman.

I found a fairly good review online, and his main objection was that while Dark Knight was dark, it did not transcend into something greater than a fun summer movie. I considered that, and I am not sure yet if I agree if you could do a 'transcendent' Batman movie. I think the main issue with trying to portray Batman's pathology- and thus "be something more"- is that he is not a dynamic character, not even in the good comics. And by "dynamic," I mean that he does not interact much with the other characters. He is like the column in a room that does what it's supposed to do while the frantic activity goes on around it. In the comics, Batman is usually silent with only his mental narration letting us know what's going on (mainly because he rarely has anyone around him to talk to). Frequently, too, other characters step in and narrate for a few pages-- which I often find just as revealing of Batman's character as his own thoughts are. But such a mental monologue is impossible to do in a movie without being tremendously campy (Anyone watch Scrubs? They at least poke fun at the inner monologue while they do it). There is a pacing and a tempo in the panels of a comic book that I think would be very difficult to translate to the big screen, no matter how hard you tried. Believing that, I think that I am a little more lenient towards movie directors who are trying to develop comic book stories: I understand that it will not be as glorious as the first time I read Year One, but I am willing to go where they take me... so long as they don't drastically screw things up, like Tommy Lee Jones' Two Face referring to himself in the plural! Don't get me started on that travesty.

In the end, I enjoyed the movie tremendously (though I kind of want to see it on a small TV now, and not on IMAX, haha) Heath Ledger was glorious as the Joker (sooooo creepy), and Gary Oldman really came out of his shell as Gordon. Michael Caine can read the phone book for me, and I will love him, and Christian Bale is always yummy ... But let's face it, Batman fans have had to live with several VERY BAD movies, and we are desperate for ANYthing that does a good job in portraying our favorite vigilante. Yet, as desperate as we are, this movie did not disappoint, and I will definitely buy it for my own collection.

What the heck?

Seriously? Do real people take pictures that are this good without crazy amounts of photography doohickeys and gadgets? Because I want to know how Dudley Bug gets this kinds of pictures. Especially underground! I mean, this thing is National Geographic worthy! Sheesh... people and their crazy-good photography skills that I am seriously envious of.

Caver silhouetted against the spray from the Picadilly Waterfall in Cwm Dwr, Swansea Valley, South Wales

Socks!

I have knit two socks! ...no, not a pair of socks, as one is purple and one is blue, but nevertheless! I have knit two socks. :D

Last night at the sock class, I finished my for-the-store demo sock (the purple one) and finished the first of my old socks (the blue one). Yesterday, I pulled the blue pair back out, thinking that since I am in "sock mode" I might as well finish the old pair. It has been sitting under the coffee table for a few months now...

On to sock #3!

I'm a Dork!

So I Netflixed Batman: Gotham Knight, which is a series of 6 animated vignettes that are meant to fit between the movies Batman Begins and the upcoming Dark Knight, and I am enough of a comic book dork to love it. :) Most of the stories were done by Japanese teams, so the animation has an obvious anime feel to it. Not the standard Speed Racer or Gundam-type anime, but definitely in the Japanese style (and pretty dark, I mean it is Batman after all). It is a different medium for Batman, but it was still good. I personally disagreed with only one story's style, but I can understand the argument for the artistic reasoning behind it.

So I watched the show, then I turned on the commentary, and there were some really good things said, and I just needed to share them. The three people doing the commentary were:
- Gregory Noveck of DC Comics (Sr VP- Creative Affairs)
- Kevin Conroy, voice extraordinaire of Batman (mmm... what a yummy voice)
- Denny O'Neil, "writer & editor of Batman comics for a long time"

My comments are in () and stage notes are in []


Story #1 - "Have I Got a Story for You"
GN: [Batman turns away into the mist and is all mysterious and Batman-y] When Batman walks away in that last piece, I always like to think of that as the Mean Joe Green, "Have a Coke and a smile" moment.

-----

DO: It was the genius of the guys who first created Batman to make him look evil. Really, he looks like a medieval demon. But he's on our side. Well, we're fascinated by evil, and it's a way of having your mythic cake and eating it. He's a dark, tormented figure, but he's a good guy.
KC: And it's interesting you mentioned Hamlet earlier, because when I first auditioned for the job in '92, I didn't have any exposure to the Dark Knight. And I was really pretty naive about Batman, but I had trained at Julliard for the classical stage and had done lots of Shakespeare. And I happened to be in LA on another job, and they suggested I go in on this. And when they were describing to me what the character was, his background, avenging his parents' death, living in the shadows, dark tortured soul, the first thing I said was, "You're doing the Hamlet story!" (Go, Hamlet!)


Story #2 - "Crossfire"
GN: If you are listening to this commentary, I will take it on faith that you are a big fan... (haha, like anyone else would be listening to the commentary track on a comic-book animated movie?)

-----

KC: I'm always amazed at how powerfully people react to this story, to these characters. I've told this story before, I don't know if you've heard it: I live in New York, and after the 9/11 incident everyone was doing what they could to volunteer. And I called up and I found out they really needed restaurant workers to feed all the relief workers. And I said, "Well, I'm an actor, of course I have restaurant experience, what do you need?" [chuckles] So I ended up doing the night shift cooking for the relief work down there. And after a few nights into that first week, one of the other cooks said to me, "My day job is I'm an architect, what's your day job?" And I said, "Well, I'm an actor." And he said "You do some special kind of acting? I recognize your name." I said, "Well, I do voice work." And he said "I knew it! I knew it! You're Batman!" And I said "Well, that's amazing you know my name" He said, "Oh, this is amazing! You're not gonna believe it, the guys are gonna freak out! Can I tell everyone?" And I said, "No one's gonna know it, no one's gonna know... it won't make any difference." So he goes into the dining hall, and up until then, you can imagine, that first week was pretty dismal, a really somber atmosphere. And he goes, "Guys, guys you're not gonna believe who's been cooking your dinners every night... It's Batman!" And there was this long silence, and then you hear "BULL!" from the back of the auditorium, and someone else says "PROVE IT!" So, from the kitchen, this was great, I got challenged, so I say, [goes into dramatic Batman voice] "I am vengeance, I am the night, I AM BATMAN!" And there was this silence, and from the dining hall you hear, "HOLY CRAP! That IS Batman!" And all these cops and firemen come streaming back into the kitchen and they're like, "Aw, you know that episode when you and the Joker... and when this happened and that happened... and when Commissioner Gordon did that... my son and I have been watching..." And people started laughing and carrying on for the first time in days. And that guy that had recognized me, that architect, leans over to me in the kitchen, and says "So how does it feel to be Santa Claus?" You know it's amazing, I had never seen that reaction in a crowd before. He says, "You got people laughing and carrying on in here, and it's all because of Batman."


Story #3 - "Field Test"
DO: [Scene where characters are playing golf in a downtown course; you can see the skyscrapers over the treeline] There's no golf course in Central Park. My God, that looks like Central Park!
KC: Haha, Can you imagine the acreage that would be required? The most expensive golf course in the world!
[after a pause]
GN: I think we brought out some clubs to Sheep's Meadow once when I was a kid... That and a lot of Frisbees and hackey sacks.
DO: Oh yeah.
KC: Lotta Frisbees.
GN: My guess is that Bruce Wayne never played hackey sack.
KC: [thoughtfully] Nooo... a little too light hearted, I would think.

-----

DO: [dark, misty, foggy, harbor scene; barely-visible illuminated skyline in the background] THAT'S our Gotham City, a place of fog and mystery. [discussion leads to the evolution of Gotham as its own character with a distinct personality] What I always say is that Metropolis is New York City on June 25, in Sheep's Meadow, on a nice day with kids playing. And Gotham City is New York City below 14th street on the coldest night of the year, and it's 3 in the morning and you're kinda lost... and then you hear footsteps. That's Gotham.


Story #4 - "In Darkness Dwells" (best cape-work out of all six episodes, in my opinion)
DO: [foggy, misty Gotham overhead shot] And if it were that cloudy, the Batsignal would actually work!

-----

GN: [Batman is having a conversation with Gordon, while hanging upside-down like a bat] This is pretty skillful in and of itself. A, he's keeping his cape straight up... or straight down-
DO: Starch!
GN: And second, he's reaching back behind him, handing this little thing... [a radio com-link for Gordon to wear]

-----

GN: [Batman has just been infected with a hallucinogenic toxin] I don't think there's anything more dangerous than a hallucinating Batman.
KC: Imagine what comes out of his imagination.


Story #5 - "Working Through the Pain"
GN: Quick costume change from the last piece, but still bleeding. (poor Batman)

-----

DO: I've always thought that violence is a tool that Batman doesn't know how to replace, and that he takes no joy in using.


Story #6 - "Dead Shot"
DO: [Scene of Bruce exercising in a massive home gym] I've lived in towns smaller than this version of Wayne Manor!

-----

DO: [Final scene of episode, Wayne Manor living room] Citizen Kane's living room!
GN: Wayne Manor's never depicted as warm and welcoming, is it?
DO: No, never.
GN: It's always kind of cold and empty.
DO: Yup. Another metaphor for Bruce Wayne's life.
KC: ... Rosebud...
GN: [ignoring Kevin Conroy's mutter] You think Alfred's ever tried to spruce it up and give it some color, or he's more interested in preserving the way it was?
DO: I think Alfred's got a lot of stuff to do every day. I mean, think about what his workday must be! He just doesn't have time to play interior decorator on top of his other jobs.




Final synopsis: Kevin Conroy's voice is like a velvet snuggle-blanket. You just want to wrap it around yourself and cuddle in it. I love his voice! He could read the phone book to me and I would be happy. :) Besides, who doesn't love Batman?

Miscellaneous Works in Progress

My fingerless gloves that started all the craze for gloves amongst my friends. Though now I am adding the lower fingers back on, a la Knitty's Cigar Smoking Gloves. Tofutsies # 722. I love 'em. Gloves are so easy to knit, and people are so amazed by you knitting them. It's a win-win situation: you look fancy, but don't have to exert yourself too much. :)



John's double knit hat (one layer Tofutsies #732, one layer alpaca) was greatly admired by his dad, so I am making one for his dad too. This time Tofutsies and Sublime Merino. I am still undecided if I like how it is perfectly striping like that. We shall see when it's all done. (Yes, that is Frank's face peeking in the picture down at the bottom of the frame. He became interested in all these things I was playing with on the floor and decided to come investigate.)

Little white sweater shrug from an out-of-date, on-sale pattern book. :) I thought I was being clever by taking a picture with the pattern in it, but you can't really see the pattern can you? Sorry about that. Anyways, I am using Plymouth's Dreambaby DK for the body, and Sirdar's Snuggly Bubbly (also in white) for the accents that are tan in the original. Yes, I did raid the baby yarns for this one; where else can you get cheap, machine washable, and soft? The sad news is that I am most likely going to have to pull it all out. The pattern calls for the yarn held treble, and I held mine double, but I think it's still too thick for acrylic to be worn without sweating to death. That is why this one has been put aside.

My first and only pair of socks. I'm not like other people who are very anti-doublepoints, I just don't see a need to knit socks. I don't know what to do with them when I am done! Socks are MUCH cheaper to buy in a store, and sock yarns can be used for so much more than socks (see above gloves and hats, haha). Other projects display the pretty colors better than socks do. So I signed up for our sock class just to learn how. I got past the heel on both socks, then was distracted by the lace shawl class. (I knew that if I put down the big lace rectangle, I would never pick it back up! So I powerhoused my way through the shawl without doing anything else. I know, that's really rare for me.) So now my socks sit on needle, alone and forgotten, because I jsut don't care if they get finished. I need to finish them, if for no other reason than the principle of it all!

N is for ...

N is for Neeenja! I am a ninja! haHA! No, really, I am. I've got photographic proof. :)

When I was in Tokyo, I thought it would be a waste to go to Japan and never get on a shinkansen (bullet train) at least once. But I didn't want to go to somewhere large like Kyoto or Osaka where I would want to spend another two months! I just wanted a day trip, so I planned one out to Koka ... otherwise known as the Middle of Nowhere, Japan. :) In my pre-trip research, I found that Koka was the home of one of the two main styles of ninjutsu, and that now they had a ninja village recreation for visitors (a Japanese Colonial Williamsburg, basically). My trip was pretty long too: three hours out to Kyoto on the shinkansen (that's 230 miles away from Tokyo), then a few more legs on conventional trains to get me out to Koka Station, then a phone call to get a bus pick-up from the station. It was pretty risky, as I couldn't really read the signs and I wouldn't have been able to ask for help. I had grown used to the Tokyo station names, but now I was outside of my comfort zone. Oddly enough, I didn't have a panic moment until on my way home, and that was just a small one.


The first thing you saw was in the train station: huge, life-sized murals on the walls of the station.





Once at the village, it was pretty clear to see why this ninja village was out in the country, hidden in the mountain jungle: Ninja is enveloped in secrecy; whole families devoted their lives to the study of the techniques of assassination and espionage. Therefore, as a ninja, you don't want your home base to be easily found, since then your enemies would come find you (duh). Also, ninjas were very technologically advanced. The museum part of the village had rows of different styles of throwing stars (shuriken) and hidden blades, chemical powder mixtures for medicine and espionage, scaling ladders, and secret codes. You don't want your rival ninja clans finding and using your gadgets against you!

Was Stan Lee a ninja fan when he created Wolverine?

Walking up the trail to the Ninja House, you pass the Shinobi Shrine (picture above, on left) and the monument for Sarutobi Sasuke (on right). The Shinobi Shrine is dedicated to all the fallen, nameless ninja of years past. Ninja did not fight for fame and glory, or even recognition; their work was done in secret. To be recognized as a ninja meant you had been seen, and that was to fail your mission. The Shinobi Shrine also has the largest wooden statue of Daikokuten, one of the seven gods of prosperity. The Sasuke monument, however, is dedicated to a famous fictional ninja from the region. A little bit of tourism in with the culture. :)

The main part of the tour is the ninja house, an actual ninja house belonging to the Fujibayashi ninja family. It was disassembled and transplanted in Koka in 1842, and is pretty plain looking until you are shown all the trap doors and secret rooms.

Escape hatch to the attic, escape tunnel disguised as a well outside, and escape hatch underneath the hearth fire itself!

You could also test your skills as a ninja at the Mizugumo Water Spider Pond, Castle-Scaling Wall, and Shuriken Throwing Range. One website called the pond, where you try to walk on water like a ninja, useful for "only anime-like amusement" as the ninja crossed bodies of water completely differently: you'd think to stand on the wood disks and try to walk, but ninjas sat on them, partially submerged, and kicked with their legs. Apparently fun times for all, as you try to walk across the pond on the wobbly disks.

All photos are mine, but Photoguide helped me out with the captions and fun facts, since I couldn't read most of the signs while I was there.

MOVIE REVIEW: Lucky Number Slevin

I LOVE THIS MOVIE! Yes, there is a bit of foul language and there are some boobs visible (I forgot about those when I got Mom to watch it with me -oops), but I think the plot twists are too much fun, and therefore make up for a lot of transgressions in my book.



Here's the Netflix summary:

An identity mix-up places an innocent man in the middle of a mob war in this
noir crime thriller. While checking out his missing friend Nick's apartment, Slevin (Josh Hartnett) is mistaken for Nick by thugs. Just how much trouble is Nick really in?! Slevin finds out when he's forced to participate in a high-profile murder for a powerful crime boss. The top-notch cast includes Lucy Liu, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley and Bruce Willis.

... and I can't describe the plot any more without giving away too much. It's a very twisty story. :) The best kind, dontchya know. I purposefully don't try to guess plot twists, unlike a certain boyfriend of mine, so I finished my first viewing wanting to go again and pick up all the clues. I'm sure someone could guess the movie from the start when all the clues are laid out, but you definitely have more fun just going for the ride.


I think my favorite part was Lucy Liu as Nick's neighbor; she's completely crazy, but the happy kind, so she's amusing. And Josh Hartnett wanders about in a purple towel for a good chunk of the movie (the thugs interrupt him after his shower so he clenched his knees a lot, heehee). Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley are the rival mob bosses, and they are superb... as can be expected. The acting all around was very well-done.

Truth be told, Black Dahlia was so bad that I immediately pulled this out of my movie collection so I could get in my mind a good Josh Hartnett movie. I laughed at myself because I was about to watch Sin City as well, but it was too late at night.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Black Dahlia

Okay, I'll admit it, I have no inspiration to review this movie. It was that bad. Not in a fun, campy, Godzilla vs Mecha-Godzilla way either. This was just bad. And I'm not the only one who thinks so: critics gave it two-three stars (according to Netflix's critic reviews), but they said very not-nice things about it. Let me list the problems I had with the movie:

1. Josh Hartnett sleeps with every female in the movie, except the crazy lady and the dead girl. Which is sorta OK, but not really. He's not James Bond, and he should know better. (Especially as he gets caught and the girl he has feelings for gets really mad at him, ruining his one relationship.)

2. Hillary Swank is not believable as a pretty rich girl. Maybe that's my personal bias coming through, but I think she has a horse-face and is not attractive. Thus, her role as "rich girl who slums in seedy bars picking up casual-sex partners" just didn't fly for me. She was believable in Million Dollar Baby because you could see her as a boxer, getting her face punched a lot. She just doesn't work for me as the vixen.

3. The plot is VERY murky throughout the whole movie, then is resolved VERY suddenly by an old affair, an illegitimate child, a weird painting, a boyhood friend (who has no previous screen time and may or may not have mental issues), and a crazy lady with an axe. (It's confusing trying to explain it, I know!) I know it's based on a fictional book and not reality, but the crazy lady was a minor character in one previous scene... then suddenly we know that she's the killer, and we know all this back-story about why she snapped and brutalized a random girl! (Maybe reading up on Hugo will help you understand her ranting; Gwynplaine is referred to a few times.)

4. The plot seemed to me like large chunks were cut out between the book and the film. It skipped around a lot, and the writers expected the audience to keep up with random, new characters and sub-plots. The only way I can describe it is that the book originally translated to a five-hour movie, and they cut it down to two. All those little bits that help a plot flow along seemed to have been cut out.

5. We seemed to focus a lot on the seedy side of the Dahlia's life. I think movie producers (or the author, James Ellroy) over-dramatized her personality a little. There is no evidence that she worked as a prostitute, just that she had numerous dates and a love of life. You can take that to mean the girl is a free spirit or a slut, whichever you want. Add to the fact that she was trying to become an actress, and a jaded mind could easily portray her in a negative light. But whether she was or not makes no difference to me, until a movie goes on and on about it with no censorship... (we even get to see some of a "nudie picture" that she allegedly made, which I would have called porn and didn't need to see at all)



Final Summation: I want those two hours of my life back. Seriously. Don't waste your time on this movie. If you want a sexy, convoluted 1940s thriller, go rent LA Confidential. That's a much better movie.

Noni Medallion Bag

This is what happens when I work at a knit shop: new yarns and patterns come in and I have to be familiar with them... then I start matching up color possibilities ...then I fall in love with them and can't resist buying them. However, this time I have found a alternative to buying great amounts of yarn: I can knit it as a demo model for the shop. haHA! This way I can match colors, not have to buy the yarn, knit the project, then not have to find something to do with the finished object. It's a great plan.

So when Noni came out with some new patterns, I fell in love with the Medallion bag right away. It is just so awesome! Granted, it's huge, but we suspect that their model in the picture is a midget because the finished bag is only supposed to be 20 inches long. I pined after it for many weeks, not wanting to make a bag that big, and not wanting to fiddle with a pattern that complicated to make it smaller. So I finally came up with my "make it for the shop" idea and I cast on happily. I chose Cascade's new teal color because it's so rich looking. And black because white bags show dirt too easily!

I am about halfway up the sides now. It has been put aside for the moment (baby blankets for the shop are easier to knit in public, this bag takes concentration), but I am determined to finish it because it looks so good! I suppose I should admit that I am not as philanthropic as I seem; part two of the "make it for the shop" plan is selfish. If I like the end product, I buy the yarn and keep it for myself. :( But, if the bag is too big for what I carry around, then the shop gets it as a model, I promise.

Even the bottom is complicated! Well, it's not really that complicated a pattern to knit, but most bottoms are solid colors even when the bag is fancy.

Mom's Hat

Catching up on posting pictures of finished projects:

This is Mommy's first hat I made for her. It's on Scarlet Fleece's sock yarn in color "Horizon." (They have moved their production center, though, so Horizon is not as saturated now. We believe the change in water from one place to another changed how the dye adhered to the yarn. Weird, I know, but it means that this is essentially a discontinued color since they can't get it this dark anymore.) We like Scarlet Fleece partly because they have great yarn, and partly because they are local! Well, Powhatan, VA is about as local as you can get since we are in a big metro area. It's hard to raise sheep in suburbia. :)

This was also Mom's first occurrence of "subtly" picking out what she wanted me to knit for her. :) She saw the colors and loved them (Mommy is very earth tones), and she wanted a hat that was small enough to shove in a coat pocket in case you needed it. Funny story about that: when we took our Floridian aunt to First Night in Williamsburg, she kept laughing at us because she ended up with three hats and a scarf shoved in the pockets of the coat we loaned her. "Why do I feel like I am the size of a bus? ...Oh, because I have a dozen winter accessories shoved in here with me!"


And because I spoil my boyfriend, I have to spoil my mother as well. She saw me putting an alpaca lining in a wool hat I made John (to protect against the itchiness of wool), and she comes trotting out with her hat and asked for a lining too. "Just an inch or so, not too much" was what she wanted to provide extra warmth for her ears. :)

(please ignore my pasty white arm caught in a glaring camera flash)

Stripey Baby Blanket

LOOK! It's a pink snake!

haha, No really, it's the start of a baby blanket. This one is striped (see title) with the variegated yarn, then pink, variegated, purple, variegated, pink... etc. etc. I've got a few more rows done than what the picture shows, and it looks really good. :) This is a demo model for the store, so I am a little mad that I have to follow the pattern exactly because I feel wider stripes would be easier to knit. For example, make the pink and purple stripes double-wide in between the variegated rows. But, you have to follow the pattern PERFECTLY with models because people come in to the store, see it, then want it, and you need to be able to sell them the pattern so they can get what they want. It makes sense, but I have never followed a pattern so closely before in my life! It's weird!

I'll be sure to post a picture when I get it all finished. I think it'll look really nice. And it's SO soft!

Mom's Scottish Sweater

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAAY!!!!! THE EVIL SWEATER IS DONE! Whoo ha! ...Well, it really was done a month ago, but that whole "camera dying" episode has left me without a picture of it to post. I now have a picture, thus I post. :D


Mom was very specific that she didn't want any "bra fat" so I made it as fitted as possible without being too tight, and I think it turned out fabulously, if I do say so myself. :) Momma seems to like it to, except that she asked for it to be 3/4 length sleeves right before the summer heat came! She is anxious to be able to wear it out in public.

And I LOVE how the colors flow down the sweater! The color is called "Canyon" from Blue Heron Yarns's Mercerized Cotton; and since you have to hold it double, the colors blend really well together. I personally think that holding the yarn double makes the blue more noticeable, because when the blue bits line up it's very bright against the tan.

Overall, it was worth knitting the dang thing because it looks SO good now that it's finished. I just had to keep reminding myself that as I knit it. :)

What the heck?

This article was over to the right in my "IN THE NEWS" section, but I wanted to post it in case anyone missed it:

Running as Art
Has the tedium of wandering through a museum ever made you want to run
wildly through the halls? Well, now you can be paid to do just that. Tate
Britain’s newest installation, Martin Creed’s Work No. 850, defies conventional
notions about appropriate behavior in art spaces—runners have been hired to
sprint through the site's neoclassical sculpture galleries every 30 seconds for
the next 4 months. The work is intended to convey a sense of "aliveness," in the
sense that motion can be considered the opposite of death’s absolute stillness.
Due to safety concerns, visitors will not be allowed to join in the
running.

Just for reference, according to the Free Dictionary:
Tate Britain is a part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, along with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is housed in the Tate's original premises on Millbank on the site of Millbank Prison. Construction commenced in 1893 and the gallery originally opened on 21 July 1897 as the National Gallery of British Art. The gallery was renamed "Tate Britain" in March 2000 before the launch of Tate Modern. It is now dedicated to the display of historical and contemporary British art.

HAVEN'T I ALWAYS SAID THE TATE IS WEIRD?!! This proves my point. Granted, I originally made that statement about the Tate Modern (or as I call it, the Tate Modern House of Crap), but apparently all the other Tate museums are just as weird. Maybe they had to run through Tate Britain because there was no room in the Tate Modern between the piano hanging upside-down from the ceiling, the row of 24 little bricks stacked two high, the urinal tipped onto its side, and the picture of a naked woman wrapped in fishing line...

Art is weird.

Camera malfunction

Stupid camera! grrrr..... I am so saddened by my camera. Since about last December (I noticed it starting at Lara's wedding because there was a lot of need for many cameras then), my camera has slowly been dying and it angers me. There has been a steady progression of it not recognizing the batteries put into it, such that now it won't even turn on... even with fresh, new batteries there is not enough juice to turn on! :( I am so sad / angry becuase it's only about two and a half years old and it has totally pooped out on me. Technology should last longer than that.

So the other week when I was in Lynchburg, we were passing a Ritz camera shop in the mall, and we stopped in to ask if they do repairs. They do. So I asked roughly how much it would be. They pulled out the big book of pricing, and for my camera model it would be $250 to repair! >:O What the heck! I can buy a whole new camera for that much.

Now I am in a quandary because I can't think of too many other places that would repair a digital camera... and I definitely can't afford buying a new camera / fixing mine for that much. :(

Thankfully, I have caught up on taking pictures of knitting projects because Lara told me that you can get a CD of pictures when you develop a disposable camera. So I got a little cheap camera, took a LOT of pictures in one night, then I dropped it off this morning to be developed. Except that I am just getting the digital copies of the pictures, not any prints. Which seems funny to me.

Does anyone know a place that fixes cameras?