Fiberarts Content Is Back!

For all you people who are not interested in fiberarts, skip down. I may get to another topic before I'm finished.

I got a catalog from Mary Maxim on Monday stating that they have 500 new items. They used to have those  catalogs with all the tacky, ugly yarn. They still do have that kind of yarn, but they have a lot of really fabulous yarns at great prices, too!

Most of the new items are not yarn, but some of them are. I've been going through the listings of new yarn, and will list some of them for you. Bear in mind that since these are new, I haven't had a chance to try them. I'm just passing along information, here.

For you sock knitters, they now have Simply Sock Yarn. They do not, unfortunately still have the wonderful Comfort Sock Yarn that they used to have at such a great price. I'm finishing up the last sock from the batch I ordered from them right now.

For novelty yarn interest, they're now carrying Bernat Boa Yarn. I've tried this before, and it's a very interesting novelty. It feels (and looks) like knitting with feathers. I think it's listed as new because there are new colors. Another novelty fur yarn is Patons Moxie Yarn. They appear to have taken the "fur" part literally, and it only seems to be available in colors that could be natural fur grown by something. More fur yarn in decidedly unnatural colors is available in Red Heart Fur Sure. I, personally like it in eggplant. For the ultimate in novelty yarn, try Red Heart Sashay, which is supposed to be a self-ruffling yarn. You can get a free ruffled scarf pattern (shown below) for this yarn if you register and sign in. I have no idea how this works to make the ruffles.

The scarf shown was made with one skein, but I think I'd like it better with two. But it's still not bad for about $5!

If you're looking for a hand-dyed, multicolor effect, there's Lion Brand Amazing, which has just come out with some new colorways, so maybe that's why they're listing it as new. There's also the Mary Maxim sport weight wool blend yarn, Mardi Gras, which is not new, but has come down considerably in price.

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Still on the fiberarts topic, but switching gears, Holly sent me an email about a sheep named Shrek. You can read about it here. Shrek managed to evade the shearers for seven years, and when they finally caught him and sheared him, the fleece weighed 60 pounds! Knowing Merino fleeces, probably half of that weight was lanolin, dirt and vegetable matter, but that's still an incredible weight for a Merino fleece!

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World Wide Knit in Public Day (which is not a day, but a bit more than a week starts on the 11th of June. That sounded like a long way off when I read about it a few weeks ago, but it's coming up fast (Saturday). You can click on the link and it will lead you to lots of organized events in a lot of different places, but if there's no organized event, you can just go out somewhere and knit while you're there. Pick a project that's easy to carry around, and go!

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Some of the new seasons of Summer shows have begun, even if USA did call the first episode of the new season of Covert Affairs the "Season Finale!" If any of you haven't seen it yet, it's more of a spy fi than science fiction. It started last night, right after the season premier of the delightful con called White Collar.

Doctor Who is continuing on Saturday evenings on the BBC in America's Supernatural Saturday. I, personally, find their idea of Supernatural Saturday a bit disappointing, since it consists of one hour of new programming which follows a rerun of the previous week's hour. I really like the idea of rerunning that hour, but my idea of an evening of programming is more like 4 hours. Once they've run through all the new Doctor Whos, they'll be switching off to another show. One of the new ones will be Battlestar Galactica. If you haven't seen it and always wanted to, keep an eye on Saturday evenings on BBC in America. They'll be rerunning it from the very beginning. They're also advertising several new science fiction or supernatural shows for Saturday evenings.

One of their new shows is called Outcasts.  It'll premiere on June 18th, and there's far more then I can put here if you click the link. When it comes out, it will replace Doctor Who, which is having it's mid-season finale on Saturday, and will finish up the season in the Fall.

It's getting late, and I want to watch some TV (if my TV is still working). I've (finally!) found an LCD TV
and ordered it through Amazon, and it will hopefully be here next week.

I hope your TV set is healthier than mine, and that you have a great week!

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Happy Heathen Rites of Spring!

Today is the first day of Spring! 

It started a little before 8 am here. Today is the Spring Equinox (also called the Vernal Equinox), from an astronomical standpoint. That means that the sun is directly above the equator today, and the day and night are equal. Find out more in the link to Wikipedia.

I'm looking forward to more sun, warmer temperatures, and lots of sneezing, coughing and exhaustion from tree pollen.

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There was just so much to talk about yesterday that I either omitted things or found them later. So, here goes a try at getting the rest up here. This is mostly short items, but a lot of them.

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This is the United Nations International Year of Natural Fiber! I didn't know anyone else was celebrating what I have ever since 1988, when I learned to spin! Unfortunately, they plan to stop celebrating it at the end of the year, not go right on like I will. With any luck, this will make the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival the best ever this year!

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I got a comment on yesterday's post!

Thanks Jo for all of your excellent posts...and not just the ones about what I'm up to with you. You are an outstanding writer and artist and my life would be so much poorer of an experience if not for meeting you that August day in College Park in 1976!

John, I really would have missed out if I hadn't met you, too. Never in my life have I known anyone who is so supportive of the creative people around him, and I'm honored to be one of them. Everyone around you does better work and gets opportunities that they never would have had if not for you.

And you're really the best friend ever, right up there with my Mom and Holly as the best friends of my entire life. 

I wouldn't have had the chance to do the covers for the Steve Canyon DVDs if not for you. And I wouldn't have a computer if not for you. Yes, thanks Laura, I haven't forgotten that you gave me the computer, but you wouldn't have known I needed or wanted one if not for John.

I never would have had a chance to work on movies if not for you, and I never would have had my own IMdB page, either.

And I haven't even mentioned what a fabulous artist you are. And that's only a small part of your creativity. How many people have dreamed of making movies and creating special effects? How many people have dreamt of bringing back a wonderful series like Steve Canyon? How many have done it? 

You did it!

You are the best!

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Just because you aren't John, doesn't mean you can't comment on my blog, you know. I love comments, and might even answer yours!

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I found a great tutorial on how to do applied I-cord! I'm going to add it to my sidebar so you (and I) can find it again! 

There was time that this tutorial would have driven me crazy and I'd have had a hard time doing it, but since I found Knit Picks needles, I've discovered that the sharp points they have make picking up stitches easy without a crochet hook. I just insert the left needle in the place I want to pick up the stitch, and then knit it! Easy as that! I love Knit Picks needles! So, if you have trouble picking up stitches the way she shows, you might try needles with sharper points or inserting the left needle and then knitting as a way of picking up a stitch.

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The new Knitty has an unbelievable lace shawl called shipwreck in it! I am absolutely in love with this pattern! There's another triangle called the Aeolian Shawl that I thought was very pretty until I saw Shipwreck. Among the other patterns that are so beautiful are Ripple, and many more neat patterns and especially Fit + Float, a beautiful lace scarf that gets lacier at the ends until the ruffle.

I'm really going to have to make the Shipwreck shawl! I'm already thinking about changing some of the center patterns, but I love the big net-look edging! And the iridescent beads are just perfect on it! I like the hearts, too, but I think it needs starfish on it somewhere. The leaves in the third pattern out from the center look like seaweed, and I can't bear to remove the hearts, so I guess the stars would have to be in the very center. I'd rather have them where the leaves are, though. But look at that border! It looks like a net, but it also looks like water washing up on the beach in that photo, and when worn. I love it!

Oh, I have to do this!

Get the pattern on Knitty!

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Science fiction is pretty thin on TV tonight unless you're into Battlestar Galactica. If you are, we're already in the middle of a BG extravaganza. Today, the SciFi Channel is actually the All-Battlestar-Galactica-all-the-time channel.

Who is the last Cylon? Who cares?

I liked the original BG, and I really wanted to like the new BG. 

I loved the original Starbuck. And I really wanted to love the new Starbuck. I like Katee Sackhoff, and if you take away Starbuck's viper, and give her a T-34, she's me. So, I really, really, really wanted to like her and the show, but it all went wrong for me somehow.

And I just couldn't, no matter how much I tried.

So, for those of you (like John) who love the show, don't let me be a wet blanket, this is your day, enjoy!

Other than that, we do have a new episode of Dollhouse, and it promises to be a good one.

Have a great Spring!

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PS--The Yarn Harlot is making Battlestar Galactica socks!

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Another PS--You should really watch this even if you're not a fiber artist and/or don't like sheep!

These people made art out of sheep, and it's SO funny! You'll love it!

Still Hangin' in There

The earache hung on for all of Wednesday, got a bit better yesterday and is back again today.

But I did get out and get my new phone.

The old one was doing fun things like: a half hour after I ended a call, it would make a little alert noise and inform me that it had just ended the call. That's happened five or six times. And it leaves me wondering if I used up 2.5 to 3 hours of minutes that I didn't actually use. I don't know.

So, I got a new T-Mobile G1. It's got some wonderful features that make it easier to use than my old Sidekick 3, but some features that leave me wishing for the Sidekick. I was able to transfer all my phone numbers to the contact list on Google, and it uploaded them to the G1 in about a second after the service was connected and I'd switched the SIM card to the new phone. 

It also uploaded my calendar from Google, which means that almost all the work of setting up a new phone was done before I even started. And the good thing about the calendar is that it opens to the month view every time (because I set it to do that), unlike my Sidekick which would give me a note that said "No upcoming events in the next 7 days" instead of letting me see a calendar.

Switching the SIM card was not as easy as it might have been. You need to apply an excessive amount of force to remove the back the first time, which you need to do to switch the card. I called Holly to see how to remove it, and she assured me that I was doing the right thing, I just needed to be a bit more assertive.

It has some great features, though.

It can pinpoint where you are and give you directions from your present location to any address you care to type in. Well, it does if you're in a 3G area. They put in a 3G network in DC, and continued it out into the suburbs to just about 3 miles short of where I live. It still works fine as a phone, and does very well with the internet, but I know from using Holly's phone that it does even better on a 3G network. Once it knows where you are, it can give you a local map or a satellite photo of the place you are, which can be useful if you're looking for a place that's nearby and can't figure out how to get there.

It has a free application that will let you take a photo of a barcode on an item in a store, and tell you how much it is, plus let you know the prices of the same item in nearby stores and online.

I downloaded a free application that will let me record a sound and make it into a ringtone. I can't wait to make my phone sound like the middlewatch from The Middleman! If you liked that link, search for "Middleman" on YouTube.

One of the things I don't like about it is that I can't pair it with my bluetooth headset. Holly's had hers now for at least 4 months, and she still can't get her bluetooth headset to communicate with it. She said it found and started talking to her computer almost instantly, but there's nothing the two of them can do together. 

She'd much rather have it talk to the headset. 

So would I.  

The instructions in the manual (and online) just don't work. I'm going to have to call them and ask them how to do it.

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There's a new Ghost Whisperer on tonight, and, of course, a new Dollhouse. SciFi will be showing a rerun of Moonlight, always worth watching, as well as Battlestar Galactica.

TNT will be showing The Lord of the Rings trilogy over the weekend, starting tonight with The Fellowship of the Ring, followed tomorrow night by The Two Towers, and finishing Sunday evening with The Return of the King. If you're busy on Friday or Saturday evenings, you can catch the whole trilogy on Sunday, starting late in the morning.

Have a  great weekend!