Happy Friday the Thirteenth!

Happy Friday the Thirteenth!

You can find more information about Friday the thirteenth here, on Wikipedia.

One of the most interesting lines in that entry says "The asteroid 2004 MN4 will make its close encounter on Friday, April 13, 2029." Doesn't that sound exciting? I'm not sure if I'm happy or relieved that I probably won't be around to see it in this lifetime. No, I'm sure I'd love to see it!

You can find more information about that asteroid here, and Stargate SG-1 fans will be especially tickled that not only does this asteroid have a name (I didn't know that any asteroids were named), but that it's name is Apophis!

There are some people who consider Friday the thirteenth to be a very lucky day. Go out there and buy lottery tickets!

And, no matter what you think of it, brace yourself, because there's going to be another one next month! And, while you're bracing, there will be another pair of Fridays the thirteenth next year in February and March, and then again in 2026!

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Don't forget the premier of Dollhouse tonight!

There will also be a new Ghost Whisperer, Psych, and Monk. Monk is on at the same time as Dollhouse, but it and Psych are also on later in the evening (more like early Saturday morning), plus they're usually on sometime on Saturday, so you really have to check those listings!

Oh, and for science fiction fans who have kids, on Saturday mornings, on NBC, there's a cartoon called Jane and the Dragon. If you like animation, this is a really beautiful one, probably the most beautiful drawn animation I've ever seen. It's stuff for kids that won't make you barf! Hows that for praise?

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I've been looking around for a good top-down raglan pullover pattern to use for the Coraline sweater in place of the one on the Coraline site. I just don't see the point of all those seams, when it could be knit in one piece. And knitting from the top down means that you can try it on, and see if it fits right. You can end those sleeves at the right length, and make the bottom end where you want, too.

I have a copy of Knitting from the Top around here somewhere, and I'd be willing to bet that there's a pattern in there that would be perfect. 

Now all I have to do is find it.

Knitting with Mohair is a great book for pattern designers, by the way. It has some actual sweater patterns, but it also has some basic patterns for the bodies of sweaters, and pages of different kinds of collars/necklines you can put on them, different sleeve ideas. You can mix and match for the perfect designed-for-you-by-you sweater.

It's a beautiful day out there, and I have to get going and do some errands, so have a great day!

Dollhouse!

I'm sure you're all getting psyched for tonight's new episode of Lost, but bear with me and look forward to Friday, when Dollhouse premiers.

You probably already know that the dollhouse is stocked with people who've had their minds wiped, and are for hire to fill a number of jobs/positions. When hired, a "doll" has a new set of memories installed so they can do the job.

There's an article about it on io9 here. Here's a photo of Eliza Dushku with Middleman's Matt Keeslar in a scene from Dollhouse.

By the way, the plans for a DVD of The Middleman seem to be pretty solid for a release this summer, and they plan to judge whether to continue the series by how well the DVD does. So, get out there and buy it when it arrives! By the way, there's a Middleman fan club on Facebook, and a group on Ravelry.

If you liked the show, and have Comcast, like me, you'll want to get the DVD just so you can get the dialogue. Comcast broadcast the entire series without closed captioning on their standard resolution TV channel, and, in some cases, with the sound going off and on. Other people have been complaining about this on the internet. If you have Comcast and they do that to you, switch to the HD station. They actually add CC that's useable on a regular TV on their HD stations. The sound went on and off on all channels, though. I can't help you there, except to suggest that DirecTV is great!

There's a new post up on the Steve Canyon blog, and you can read it here. It was just posted and I haven't read it yet, but I do know that John will be headed to Ohio to an event that will honor Milton Caniff (among other things). You can read all about it at the above link.

And for those of you who have been waiting in suspense for the Steve Canyon hats, they're coming back! I have a grey one and love it. The construction is first-rate, and they're beautiful.

In the meantime, I've been working hard on the covers for the second Volume. It's going to be great, but I can't really tell you about what it's going to look like until John gives me the go-ahead. It's going to be wonderful, though!

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Here's a photo of the yarn I bought from WalMart on Sunday. It's all Caron's Simply Soft Eco, which is part Ecospun fiber, which is made out of recycled soda bottles. You know those Brita commercials? The ones where they show someone on a treadmill drinking water, and they say something like "20 minutes on a treadmill, eternity in a landfill." Well, that's not really true.

This lead to a really strange conversation between me and two other spinners one time. The conversation went something like this: 

Spinner #1: Here's a sample of another fiber I tried out--Ecospun.

Me: Wow, how did you dye that? What kind of dyes did you have to use? That really feels nice!

Spinner #2: Yeah, it does feel nice. What kind of fiber is that?

Spinner #1: It's Ecospun.

Spinner #2: But what kind of fiber is that? What's it made of?

Spinner #1 and me (in unison): Soda bottles!

Spinner #2: No, really, what's it made of?

You should be getting the general drift at this point, so I won't go through the next 10 minutes of quotes like, "You're kidding me, right? and "Is this a joke?"

The purples and turquoise are to finish a project that I started for someone else, and since it'll wind up a present, I don't want to talk about it too much here.

After finding that pattern for Coraline's starry sweater yesterday, it occurred to me that this might be the perfect thing to knit it in. The colors are a little darker in reality than they look on my  personal computer screen. I'll need more of it, but there's no dyelot, and that's all they had in the store.

I read over the pattern last night, and decided that I'd rather make this up knitted in the round from the top down. So, I'll probably eventually post a revised pattern for it.

Have a great Wednesday, and enjoy Lost this evening!

Coraline Sweater!

I found the pattern for the glorious starry sweater that Coraline wears in her new movie!

This is not my pattern, but I've put it in my sidebar so you can find it in the future. And for good measure, it's here.

If you know me, you may have noticed that I love stars. So, I was excited the moment I saw her sweater, and I've been looking for it for a while. It's possible to find it at the main Coraline site, but it's well hidden. I'll leave it to you to see if you can find it.

Have a great day!