Happy Towel Day, You Hoopy Froods!

Happy Towel Day, you Hoopy Froods!

There's a photo of the towel I knitted specifically for Towel Day a couple of years ago. It's still hanging in my bathroom, and will be worn with pride later today.

If you haven't read The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I can't begin to explain it here, but I heartily recommend that you do read it. It's the most insane look at modern life on this planet that you'll find anywhere. There are also two different DVDs of the story available. The first Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is pretty close to the book. This is the version that Robin bought me for my birthday a few years ago, and it's been a favorite ever since I first saw it on TV. It was originally a TV series.

What you should understand about the newer version of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is that Douglas Adams didn't believe in letting a story lie. He revised and polished it with each telling, so each version is kind of like an alternate history version of the same story. This version has the advantage of having been done after all the Hitchhiker books were written, so it doesn't cut off after the first three books, although it doesn't include Mostly Harmless.

Here are some ideas for how to celebrate Towel Day. For the more scholastic among you, here's the Wikipedia description, and it includes an excerpt from the first book explaining the significance of the towel. There is more on the internet about Towel Day if you consult a search engine, too.
If you don't get the ultimate guide version, here are the books in order:

1. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
2. Restaurant at the end of the Universe
3. Life, the Universe and Everything
4. So Long and Thanks for all the Fish
5. Mostly Harmless

There is also a short story called Young Zaphod Plays it Safe, which is almost a prequel, but is not included in the individual books. You'll have to buy a copy of the complete set to get that. Or, of course, the leather bound version.

And then, there are all the books about the books. Don't Panic by Neil Gaiman, And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer. There may be more. And I haven't even mentioned the radio shows.

Anyway, have a happy Towel Day!


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Happy Towel Day!

It's Towel Day, and I hope you're a hoopie frood who knows where his towel is today!

That first link is sort of a "Hitchhiker's Guide" kind of link. This one is more of a "Encyclopedia Galactica" kind of link.

If that doesn't make sense to you, read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy immediately! I mean it! Read the whole thing, all of it! Right away!

And do have a great day!

Fiberarts Update

Ever since the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, I've been thinking a lot about spinning. I got some (4 oz.) roving that's 50% merino, 25% silk, and 25% bamboo, and it's a dream! It's space dyed in one color, and goes from navy blue to natural white, with all the shades of blue in between represented. I'm spinning it with some slubs in it, and I'm going to ply it with some medium blue corriedale that I'm making slubby, too. I'm pretty sure I have a lot more of the med. blue, so I'll probably have a solid yarn to mix with it in a project. Here's the variegated blue.

And I've not only been thinking about it, I've been doing it! I have about half a bobbin of the medium blue spun, and I just started on the variegated blue yesterday. This is what I did yesterday.

I also got 8 oz of the same stuff that's hand dyed with lavenders and blues. It's in two 4 oz bags, and the bags don't seem to exactly match, so I think I'll use one bag for one ply and the other for the other ply and make it a slubby two ply. MAYBE, I might even sell it in my Etsy store!

All of the roving shown here is from Bullen's Woolens, and it's just dreamy, and a joy to touch or spin!

Oh, and while I was at the Sheep and Wool Festival, I got a bag to hold a sock project. It's a Hiya Hiya small project bag. The good part about it is that I can close the zippered top most of the way, and the yarn feeds out through the space left, and it's got a small zippered pocket inside to hold stitch markers, sock needles (I like to knit most of it on two circular needles, but the heel is much easier for me to knit on double points, so I like to have the double points with me for when I get to the heel.

The sock that's shown with it still needs the cast-on yarn end woven in, but it's a sample of the yarn I bought on Mother's day. I love self-patterning yarn! It's Red Heart Heart and Sole yarn in toasted almond.

I also bought a beautiful pendant knitting needle sizer from Carolina Homespun, although I believe it's distributed by Deborah's Garden. The one I bought is the light lavender one, and it's much prettier than it looks in the photo! I have to get a cord or chain for it!

I also ordered some stitch markers yesterday. These are being sold by Seeking Sanity on Etsy, and she's currently having a sale of some really beautiful stitch markers. She's about to move soon, and would rather sell her stock than move it, so check it out if you're in the market for stitch markers because she's got some great deals. The ones I ordered are, first a set of small markers (left) for socks. The end-of-round marker is a lavender glass, and the others are blue goldstone.

The medium markers on the right are a pale lapis, and very pretty. She's also made me a set of medium markers in blue goldstone. They were shipped today, and I can't wait for them to arrive! I was just looking at her site and found another listing for stitch markers that I like.

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For you science fiction fen, here is a reminder that Towel Day is rapidly approaching, and you should prepare your towel now! Towel day will be next Tuesday, the 25th of May!

As you can see, carrying a towel on Towel Day is mandatory, but there are a lot of other ways that you can celebrate. You'll have to scroll down pretty far on that link, but there are all kinds of celebrations all over the world, plus other ways you can celebrate, such as wallpaper for your computer.

42!

Oh, and if you don't understand that, you urgently need to read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!

Oh, and BBC in America has started showing Doctor Who and some other SF shows in the afternoons and Tuesday evening. Check your local listings for exact times!

Tonight, we'll be seeing a brand new Fringe and The Mentalist! If you check your guide and find a rerun of The Mentalist, keep looking. There'll be two episodes on tonight!

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I keep meaning to mention this and keep forgetting. My granddaughter wanted to buy some of the Sookie Stackhouse books, and asked me to put them in my Amazon store. So, I created a whole separate section for those books and videos. Check it out here. It has an advantage if you're shopping Amazon anyway. Amazon lists the first few books with the number of their order in the series, but quits after the first three or so. Then it's hard to figure out which is the next book. These are all listed in order, ending with a collection of short stories and the DVDs of the TV series.

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Comcast really surprised me yesterday!


First of all, they called me three or four times on Tuesday, to ask if the problems that have been going on for more than three years had magically healed themselves the way Christian Scientists think they can do. After being told that no, they hadn't magically gone away, they called me several more times yesterday to ask if the problem had cured itself, and did I still want someone to come out. I assured them that I did.


Then, nobody showed up!


Well, they told me that the supervisor (instead of a regular repairman) would be checking the whole building, and might not come to my door, but that was before I requested a new DVR.


I didn't realize until last night that he must have come and fixed whatever was wrong with the building. It took about a half an hour of watching before I realized that I had a crisp, clear picture that wasn't freezing or breaking up every 5 minutes or so. The sound didn't cut out at any point, or drastically change it's level, either! And the closed captioning continued to display, not fading out every so often. Then I started watching some recordings on my DVR, and, while not perfect, they were much better than they had been! I don't know what he did, but I can't help but wonder why he didn't do it thee years ago.


I have to say that I'm stunned and amazed! I'm almost afraid to say this out loud (because I'm afraid that if I say it, it will all go away), but I think they actually fixed it!


If this keeps up, I could even get to like Comcast!

I'm rethinking my need for a TiVo. I'm sure that I'd like a TiVo better, but it costs money, and the DVR I have didn't. It's a hard choice.


Well, I'm going to go do some spinning and enjoy my newly functional TV reception!


Have a great evening!

Happy Memorial Day and Towel Day!

Happy Memorial Day!

I wanted to make that headline red, white and blue, but the white wouldn't have shown up and I had to settle for red and blue.

In honor of the day, I have some clippings from the Maple Shade Progress that I just scanned this morning about me. They fit right in with the Memorial Day theme. If you click on them, you can see them large enough to actually read the text.

The first one was published around the end of October, or the beginning of November in 1962.

The second one was probably published in December of the same year.

If you notice, the second one has a credit for the photo--the photographer asked me to be in the photo partly because I was the only woman in the Aero Club at the time, and partly because he wanted to meet me. We later got married, so I guess it was a good way to meet me. 

Flying was one of the most fun things I've ever done!

Check out John's Steve Canyon blog, because he said he's going to write a Memorial Day post, and going to put my photos in it! That's a generic link to the blog because he hasn't gotten the post up yet. I can't wait to see it!

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Holly and I went out yesterday and visited Michaels, where I got a really nice, tiny vacuum cleaner made especially to pick up spilled beads and other small craft parts, and JoAnn Fabrics where I got a plastic container to replace the broken pencil case I've been using for holding small knitting stuff.

We also stopped at WalMart for a while and I bought a copy of the book with the story of the new Star Trek movie. I had been thinking about going to the movies to see it again (it's soooo good!), but the book was a little cheaper, and it was written by a friend of mine, Alan Dean Foster. John and I met him at MonCon in West Virginia in late Winter or early Spring right before the very first Star Wars movie came out. 

He and John and I were doing advance publicity for the movie. He, however, had been out to the studio where they were finishing it, and he got to talk to a lot of people that were involved that John and I hadn't gotten to meet. The thing that seemed to tickle him most was that the banthas were actually "elephants in drag." That's the way he expressed it. They told him that the elephants seemed to really enjoy dressing up!

One of the best things about meeting him was meeting his wife, JoAnn. She and I got along well.

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Here's where I had gotten to on my shawl two days ago. I was inspired to take the photo because it's about one quarter done in the photo. Yesterday, I did the 8 pattern rows that put 42 flower designs across in one row. I'm a real Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy fan, and couldn't resist noticing that.

Today is also Towel Day, by the way. Fans of Douglas Adams traditionally carry a towel with them all day on the 25th of May, and you may remember that I knitted a towel in the Towel Day KAL last year.


As is usual with lace, it looks like something that was wadded up and left in the trash for a week. The true beauty of lace doesn't emerge until it's blocked, so the photo is mainly to show how big it is at the moment. In the photo above, it was sixteen inches, measured along the front edge, and stretched to approximate the stretching that will happen during blocking. 

As of last night when I measured it, it was over 18 inches, and I've done some more knitting on it today. Considering that it averages six more stitches for each right side row, it goes pretty fast in the beginning, and slows significantly as progress is made.

It's intended to be about thirty six inches long measured along the front edge after blocking, so you would think that eighteen inches would be half way, but the halfway point is really at about twenty four inches as measured by yarn usage. The rule with these things is that a section that has a certain measurement uses enough yarn to knit the next section to half of the previous section's length. 

I'm into the second of four balls of yarn that have about 44o yards in each ball. And I'm more than 1/4 of the way through, so I think I'll have enough yarn, with just a little over to make it comfortable instead of close. I'm not so sure about having enough beads, though. I just used 1/4 of the beads that I bought, but I plan to use a pattern for the border that's more heavily beaded, so I may (or may not) need more beads. We'll just have to see.

After two days of perfect, fabulous weather, I woke up to rain today! And the forecast says that it'll be raining for the rest of the week! I'm glad Holly and I got to go out yesterday instead of today.

 

I hope the weather where you are is better than it is here! Happy Memorial Day! And don't forget your towel!

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Addition:

I just read a tweet by Neil Gaiman, and he said something about a show on Sundance tonight called Dreams with Sharp Teeth, and mentioned Harlan Ellison. Read more about it here.

New on Ravelry!

My daughter is new on Ravelry. If you drop by to see her, there won't be much to see since she only got on yesterday.

But feel free to drop  on by, introduce yourself and make her your friend.

A blockbuster Medieval movie will be on FX tonight and tomorrow. It's called Kingdom of Heaven, and it's one of the best I've ever seen of the period.

Actually, that's damming with faint praise. I love this movie! It's got everything. Action, adventure, historical figures, crusades, and a love story. This has so much in it that I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't love it. It just has everything, including Orlando Bloom! I can't praise it enough.

As a fiberartist, I have to say that the costumes are drop-dead gorgeous, and they seem to be very authentic, unlike most of what you see on the screen and TV about that era these days.

As far as costumes are concerned, the show not to watch is Robin Hood. The costume designer seems to think Robin Hood lived about 1890, and I saw Marian wear a top that I could go in WalMart and buy today. The stories aren't period, either. I watched an episode last week that's firmly based in modern knowledge and experience, and had motivations that would have bewildered anyone from the real middle ages.

Well, I'm going to go now and try to figure out why ComCast is malfunctioning (again) and not showing the movie I tuned in to.

Don't forget. Sunday is Towel Day. My towel is ready.

Do you know where your towel is?

Have a great Friday and check your local schedules for Kingdom of Heaven.

Indiana Jones and the Towel

This is what it looked like out my window at about 8pm last night. I just love the ever-changing view out my window.

I set yesterday aside to watch the Indiana Jones movies on SciFi.

Then I noticed that the BBC in America was showing the two Doctor Who episodes, Tooth and Claw and School Reunion, and after being on the computer for a while, I watched them from my DVR recording of them.

This was followed by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Yes, I got to watch them in chronological order for the first time, courtesy of my DVR. I don't know what's wrong with SciFi. They, of all people should know to show them in order instead of the way they were released.

Since I waited for all this to be recorded before watching (so I could fast forward through commercials), I didn't get any further on this.

But I got to see the Family Guy Star Wars episode and the Chicken whatever, also about Star Wars and Holly was right--they are VERY funny. I'm going to have to watch them about 10 more times (at least)!

During all this television, the towel was finished. I am now ready for Towel Day.




This is the whole towel, and below is a close-up.




I'm trying to decide if I should be happy with my towel and quit, or if I should try to find some navy cotton yarn and make another one. I always pictured the towel in navy blue, from the moment I heard about Towel Day. I can't decide.

I know I should be finishing up another project, but I picked up the yarn that was left from my poncho, and I'm making another one. The frugal part of me just doesn't want to let that yarn go to waste.

I will do other projects, but this is good, mindless filler knitting.

Holly and I went out on Saturday, and mostly did utilitarian errands before we had dinner. We debated about going to see Prince Caspian, but Robin called and needed/wanted her for something, so she said we'll do it next week. So, it was a very quiet weekend.

As soon as I try on the nearly finished poncho for fit, and add the closure, I'll post a photo.

I heard from John Saturday night. He said that Laura found software for the computer she gave me that she hadn't included. She's sending it to me. This may be the last bit of the software puzzle that makes it all work.

In reading news, I finished Prince Caspian this morning, and am now back to the Dresden book, Blood Rites.

I have to go. I have a busy day ahead of me. My books are in at the library and I have to go pick them up. I ordered a batch of books on self publishing. Maybe I'll be a publisher someday.

Then I have some other errands to do.

Have a happy Monday!

Welcome to the Middle of the Month

Today is the 15th of May, and that means that we're about half-way through the month.

Tomorrow is shaping up to be a really dynamite day on the SciFi channel. Their daytime rotation will be "Firefly," starting from the beginning with both episodes of "Serenity" and concluding with "Jaynestown," which is my favorite episode. If you're not familiar with Firefly, you should watch the whole series to get full enjoyment out of it. But it is funny.

On Sunday, SciFi will be having an Indiana Jones orgy. Check your schedules.

After not seeing a movie in a theater since Order of the Phoenix last summer, there are suddenly three movies coming out that Holly and I want to see, and they're being released on consecutive weekends.

First is Prince Caspian, the nearly next Narnia story. Well, it's the next one with the same children in it. I've read the stories, but I'm rereading it in this book, which is the approximate weight of the "Dawn Treader." It's not fun to carry around.

Anyway, the next movie in this cavalcade is the new Indiana Jones movie. See the aforementioned reference to Indiana Jones, and catch the previous movies on SciFi. By the way, if your love the theme music from the Indiana Jones movies you'll be fine. But If you don't want to hear it, turn the sound down on your computer before you click the link. I loved it for the first minute or so, but it gets old quickly.

Then, for Memorial Day weekend, the Sex in the City movie will be coming up.

Maybe we can see it on Sunday so that I can bring my towel with me for Towel Day. By the way, I have 10 inches of my towel done, and am beginning to think that I might be happier with a towel that's 20 x 30 inches rather than one that's 30 x 40 inches. Not only am I debating how much fun this is going to be to carry, but how much time do I actually want to spend knitting it?

I'm overwhelmed by all this.

Have a great middle-of-the-month!

Movie, Family and Knitting News!

Here's a photo of my granddaughter, Malaia, with her Aunt Heather's new baby boy, Mitchell. There's not much to say here except aaaaw.

My sister, Lynn, who is the best sister in the world, sent me an email that I saw just a little while ago.

It turns out that Karen Allen, who will be in the new Indiana Jones movie is a knitter, and also a knit designer. You can find out more about it all at www.karenallen-fiberarts.com. There's a lengthy introduction which is the best part of the whole site. Enjoy.

As if that wasn't enough, she also sent me a link for more information on the movie at http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/. The information on Indiana Jones is at the bottom left of the page, and there is a little sidebar next to it with a link to an extended trailer for the movie.

But wait, there's even more information on the new Sex and the City movie at the top left of the page. I haven't even read that article yet, but I thought you'd want to know.

The towel is a bit more than seven inches long at the moment. That's nearly 1/4 finished! It looks like I'm going to make it in time for Towel Day!

Oh, and there's a new pattern right after this post.

Have a great day today!

Friday the 13th is on Tuesday this Month!

Happy Tuesday the 13th!

I have to  check some things on the poncho, try it on, make sure the fit is right and probably add a tie or button near the bottom of the hood, but it's otherwise finished.

I've started the towel for Towel Day, although I haven't gotten very far.

I cast on 132 stitches with a gauge of 4.5 stitches to the inch for a total of (about) 30 inches. I'm hoping for 30 x 40 for this. We'll see how it goes. There's 12 ounces of yarn in the ball for a total of 608 yards.

I put up a pattern from my other blog for socks. It's right before this one. More will be up soon, and not long after that, I will be adding a PDF for each pattern, so that you can see the whole pattern and see if you want to commit to it before printing out the PDF. All patterns will be listed in the sidebar for ease in finding.

I've been trying to read Prince Caspian because I'd like to see the movie this weekend, and rereading it would be nice beforehand. But the copy of it that I have is in The Chronicles of Narnia, which weighs about as much as the Dawn Treader. I have no wish to carry it around with me when I go somewhere, so I'm reading a Dresden story, Blood Rites, because it's light and easy to carry.

At least that's the way it's supposed to work.

In actuality, I've gotten caught up in Blood Rites, and can't put it down. I've read it before, and it's probably my favorite Dresden book. I've worked on some low-budget movies (New Genesis and Invader), and in this book, Harry works on a porn movie. Besides, who could resist the first sentence in the book, "The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault."

But speaking of Narnia, on Saturday, at Borders, we saw the most incredible Narnia book ever. It's a Chronicles of Narnia Pop-up book! It's the most amazing pop-up book I've ever seen. It is far more detailed than any other, plus it's not just die-cut paper. There's a "page" for each book, and the Dawn Treader has real fabric sails, The Horse and his Boy has real string reins, etc. It is a stunning piece of art and engineering. We were amazed and awed.

Well, I've been out walking a lot today, and I'm going to lay down for a little bit.

Have a good evening!

Happy Monday!

I'm going to recap a bit on Mother's Day.

Here is the yarn Holly bought me for Towel Day.

I had wanted to get something fuzzy, like chenille. I was thinking of Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille, but couldn't find anything like that in the store available (Michaels) that was absorbent and towel-like. You can't see it in the photo, but this is a really big ball of yarn.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that Holly showed me her new pen. It's a Lamy fountain Pen, and we have both fallen in love with it. The photo doesn't make it look like anything special, but in real life, it looks and feels like you're writing with a big diamond. And the ink is a beautiful periwinkle blue. Somewhere between blue and lavender. Either of those labels could describe the color.

I've been knitting and am almost done with the poncho. It has about 2 more inches left to do on the hood, and this is what it looks like now:

I'm going to quit, now, because I'm currently missing Jake 2.0 on SciFi.

Have a great Monday!

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Addition:

I was just over at Crazy Aunt Purl's blog, and she has a contest going on. Hop on over there and sign up to win. She's giving away some high-tech shopping bags, but also a copy of her book each day for the next 5 days.

I'm entering mainly for the book!

Oh, and Saturday, Holly was asking me about the new Dresden Files books coming out this fall. I nearly forgot, she bought a copy of the next Dresden book while we were at Borders.

There are two that will be appearing at almost the same time, Welcome to the Jungle (which finally has a cover), and Backup, which is actually Thomas' view on something he and Harry do together. 

If you're new to The Dresden Files, the first book is Storm Front. There is also a DVD of the short-lived Dresden Files TV show. I cannot recommend these books highly enough. This is about a grown-up wizard named Harry. They are fabulous!

You may now resume your regularly-scheduled Monday.

Happy Mother's Day!

Holly and I celebrated Mother's Day yesterday, and had a wonderful time!

We stopped at Michaels and Holly got some origami paper, and bought me a big ball of Lily's Sugar 'N Cream yarn to make a towel for Towel Day. As you'll see, there is a KAL for knitting towels, and the deadline is May 25, which is Towel Day. On that day (which happens to fall on the day before Memorial Day this year) all participants are expected to carry the towel they made (or any towel) to show respect and honor for Douglas Adams (and to show what a hoopy frood they are). These are actually two separate things: the KAL, and Towel Day itself. So, you can participate even if you don't knit.

I'll show you a photo of the ball of yarn she bought me tomorrow. Technical problems with the memory card.

Then we went to WalMart because Holly had a gift card for $50 there, and there were some things she wanted to get. She bought me some wine coolers and snacks. What a thoughtful child!

Then we went to dinner at Macaroni Grill. After arriving there, we decided that it was probably a good thing that we decided to celebrate on Saturday because we had a 20 minute wait anyway. We had a delicious dinner with wonderful company and witty conversation.

Then we went to Borders. Holly was looking for a book that they were out of, Woman's World. She did find two rune books she wanted, The Book of Runes: Read the Secrets in the Language of the Stones, and Practical Guide To The Runes: Their Uses in Divination and Magic, plus a book on palmistry. She also bought me a bookmark.






The bottom of the close-up is the part of the bookmark that I like best. I bought one of these when I bought Deathly Hallows last summer, but It was damaged, which didn't show up at first, but eventually left it in danger of coming apart. So I've been looking for another one to replace it for a while because I really like it. So, I was thrilled with my gift!

All in all, it was a wonderful day.

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Addition:

I just came across this link for fellow Eureka fans: http://www.scifi.com/eureka/madeineureka/