Cold, Rainy, Thursday

It's overcast, chilly and rainy here. The perfect day to stay inside.

Unfortunately, I had to go out.

The good news is:

The yarn for the sweater I'm going to make for myself arrived today. It's beautiful!

I picked up the instructions for the sweater from the library today (part of the reason I had to go out). I plan to actually buy the book, but that won't happen until a new influx of money next month. Here's the book:

The sweater I plan to make looks roughly like this:

I would want to make the neckline higher, with a little less negative ease, and make it a bit longer and add pockets, but this is the basic idea. And the yarn I got is the yarn that I made this set out of:

Sorry to repeat all this because I blogged about it the other day, but I didn't want you to have to search for the photos.

The buttons I'll probably use for this arrived yesterday. Steve has started casting things in pewter, and he sent me some shiny, silver-looking, tiny buttons with stars on them, and it suddenly occurs to me that this would be a perfect place to put them.

He also sent me some shiny, silver-looking buttons that are larger and have dragons on them! I'm excited! They're beautiful!

The bad news is that I finished the knitting on Holly's birthday present the other day, and started another project for her for Christmas, and I feel that I should finish that project before I start another one.

On the other hand, I will need to buy some beads to finish it, and I won't be able to afford them until next month, so I could probably talk myself into abandoning that project at any time, since I won't be able to finish it for a while, anyway.

I should mention here that I'm not going to say anything else about the project for Holly, so don't even bother to ask me about it! At least not on my blog.

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So, what this means is that I've got piles of knitting to do during all the wonderful TV shows that will be on tonight!

There's Flash Forward, Supernatural, Fringe, and The Mentalist on network TV. All of those are new tonight!

And on SyFy, there are three episodes of Masters of Horror, which I'm assuming is a show something like the Twilight Zone.

Be sure to check your local listings. Some of those things are on at the same time. I hope you have a DVR or TiVO! I do!

What could be more perfect? It's chilly and wet outside, but it's warm and snug inside with lots of fabulous stuff to watch on TV and more knitting than I can possibly do!

I hope your evening is as great as mine will be!

Catch-Up

I'm sorry I haven't posted much lately. There's been so much happening.

I went to the Fall Fiber Fest on Saturday, and I'll have to write about that in another post because I have had so much happening and not enough time to write about it.

The apartment complex I live in ripped out my whole kitchen yesterday (that's right, nothing but walls left at one point) and put in a whole new one. That means that I had to remove everything from the entire kitchen on Monday! There was a lot more in that kitchen than I had thought there was! It took me hours to package everything and drag it into the living room on Monday! I didn't want to start the moving project early because then the kitchen would have been unusable for making or finding food, and since I had grossly underestimated how much was actually there, it was almost 5 am before I got a chance to get to sleep.

Lucky for me, I woke up at a bit before 8 am (after a generous three hours of sleep) to let the workmen in. Then I had to get ready to get out of here at 9 to catch the bus. Well, I missed it, but I caught the next one and got to my dentist's appointment precisely, on the dot on time rather than a bit early.

Once I got there, I was disappointed to discover that they planned to clean my teeth rather than start on fixing the two that have a problem in the front.

I've had my teeth cleaned before, and usually wind up with the area where the teeth and gums meet being a little irritated by the process, but this time, I went out of there with my whole mouth sore. Most of the damage seems to have been done by the back of the tool pressing or rubbing on other parts of my mouth. I have a big sore spot next to my tongue!

Then, I used my day pass for the bus to go to WalMart to get a lot of stuff, but especially the calcium and mineral pills I need. Well, they had all the other stuff, but not the calcium, which is what I really needed right away, and what I have to find somewhere else immediately. I'm disappointed!

Oh, and I noticed that they don't carry Simply Soft Eco yarn anymore! I'm really disappointed with that, too! They do have Simply Soft back again (at a significantly higher price than they did have), but this particular WalMart never had a good selection of either, and the situation has only gotten worse.

I was thinking about knitting a scarf with some beads on it, and checked their selection, and found some very interesting beads there. I may ultimately buy the beads for the scarf from them.

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When I got home from the FFF, I found a catalog from Herrshners in the mail! That wouldn't usually be cause for rejoicing, but this is their special Annual Fall Yarn Sale issue, and they have some wonderful yarns! Yes, yes, I know that their usual catalog shows lots of Red Heart Super Saver and other such junk, but (previously unknown to me) they actually carry a lot of yarn that's made of wool, silk, and other wonderful fibers! I had no idea!

They had Moda Dea Silk'n Wool for $1.99 per ball! Unfortunately, with the stuff going on with the kitchen, I didn't call them right away to order, and they sold out of all the colors except pink by the time I called today. But there's so much stuff in the catalog I want at great prices that I'm going to have to rethink and regroup and place an order for something else.

I just looked at the yarn sale page that I put a link for above, and found the Moda Dea Sassy Stripes (I want some in the color Swish) yarn I wanted on sale for about $3 per ball instead of $5 (I'm rounding off). Which reduces the cost of the yarn for a whole sweater from about $75 to about $45! The shipping for that would be $11. I'm really tempted! The question is: can I afford it?

This is the yarn (in the same color) that I used to make the hat/scarf/mittens/boot topper set shown here:

I love this set! And I would really love to have a sweater from the same yarn. Yes, I know it's acrylic, but it's so pretty! And it would look so good with the Celtic knot sweater that is almost finished that I did last Winter! Here's a detail photo of that sweater:

The yarn is actually an off white color with tweedy neps in light and dark blue. I really have to finish this!

Soon!

I'd like to Knit the Sassy Stripes yarn in the pattern from Custom Knits that looks like this:

I would want to make the neckline much higher, with a little less negative ease, and make it a bit longer and add pockets, but this is the basic idea.

I'm also interested in the Red Heart Heart & Sole yarn in the color Rustica. I'd like to make a scarf (with beads), hat and mitts out of this. The Faded Jeans color is pretty, too, and I even like the Antique Rose colorway, in spite of the fact that I'm not really into pink. Enough of it to make all that would be about $28, plus about $10 shipping.

Decisions, decisions.

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Warning: Spoilers! Do not proceed unless you have already seen Stargate Universe!

I did get to see Stargate Universe on Friday, and I said I'm going to do a review of it, so here goes:

On Friday, SyFy aired the premiere two hours of Stargate Universe. The episode was titled Air, and was intended to be broken into two one-hour episodes (even though they were shown back-to-back as if it was one episode), so it was actually Air, Part 1 and Air Part 2. We'll be getting to see Air, Part 3 on Friday. I was beginning to wonder if they'd all be titled Air, but looking ahead on the schedule, I find that, no, they will have other titles.

The two episodes were very different. In the case of the second one, this was a relief.

Part 1 looks like it was probably a dynamite story when it was written and performed! Then it looks like a network executive got hold of it and decided that it wasn't exciting enough, so they butchered it.

I was timing some of this, and discovered that the commercials were only lasting about three or four minutes, but that the show in between was lasting for about five minutes before the next commercial. Which means that they really crammed every minute of commercials into it that they possibly could. I'm guessing that there was between 20 and 25 minutes of commercials in that hour. Possibly more.

If it had started with Eli Wallace solving the puzzle in the video game and then having General O'Neil show up on his doorstep, it would have been the best opening I've ever seen of a new show!

But I'm sure some network exec (and in this context, "exec" means "blithering idiot") thought that it didn't have enough action in the beginning, so they put people flying out of a Stargate and landing on each other and sustaining injury without any idea of why or how.

To begin with, ever since 1998 (that's eleven years, people), we've been seeing people walk into the Stargate on one end, and then walk out of it on the other end. Suddenly, people are walking into the Stargate, and flying out of it as if they'd been shot from a canon!

Reality check: have the execs even ever seen any Stargate episode?

OK, so to get there they had to dial nine symbols, rather than seven or even eight, so maybe this is different. Not likely, but possible. Putting all this "action" in the beginning with no explanation makes it eminently forgettable, though.

After viewing it all once, I forgot it entirely, and the memorable beginning came when Eli won the computer game. I almost fell off my chair laughing when Eli asked "If I don't sign it, what are you going to do to me?" and O'Neil said "We'll beam you up to our spaceship!" Eli laughed, too, but he was laughing because he thought they couldn't do it, while I was laughing because I knew they could and would!

Providing a flashback was, in my opinion, not a good move in this case, but part of the reason I say that is that the whole first hour was entirely flashbacks and flashforwards. Considering that the times between commercials didn't seem to be much longer than five minutes, on average, and that during each segment they showed at least three different time periods, no single scene was longer than about two minutes, and it was chopped up to the point that it lacked coherency.

It was so chopped up that it was impossible to follow the action!

In one scene, we see a man standing in his (or somebody else's?) kitchen having a conversation. He passes out (why?), and lands, not on the floor, but on a space ship!

Eli is on a ship. Then, inexplicably, there are explosions and they say they're under attack and have to escape. They escape, but the planet they're on explodes. What happened? Planet?

Air, Part 1 was so chopped up and schizophrenic that I found it very difficult to follow. Even after five viewings!

It looked to me (on first viewing) like they went through the Stargate at least five times! And traveled on an assortment of about 7 ships!

After ten more views, I think what happened is that they traveled on a human-made ship to a planet and then traveled from there through a Stargate to a ship.

But I couldn't swear to it.

I think that if it had been shown in time sequence, rather than crazy-nightmare-insanity sequence it would have probably been the best premier of a show that I've ever seen. The acting was great, the actual story was (I think, if I've pieced it together correctly) probably fabulous and the characters seem interesting.

I simply can't believe that anyone could take such great actors, and such a fabulous story, and manage to mangle it as badly as they did! I think they actually did us a favor by including so many commercials because they really only mangled a bit more than a half hour instead of the the more usual 3/4 of an hour.

Air, Part 2 settled down and told it's story in a logical, workmanlike, comprehensible way, so it was much better than the first part!

I won't give away the overall story (which would be difficult, even if I really wanted to do that), but it looks like the series will have great characters, good stories, drama and humor, just like the original series, which is still some of my favorite TV ever.

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Wednesday evenings have turned into a barren wilderness of nothing for science fiction and fantasy fans with one huge, enormous exception.

Eastwick is shaping up to be one of the best fantasy shows on television, ever. The best part of all this is that it is a type of story that will appeal to a much larger audience than the typical fantasy show, and maybe get some new people interested!

I can't wait to see what they're up to tonight!

Knitting and My Amazon Store

There's science fiction info at the end of this post, for you SF fans, skip to the end.

The yarn arrived yesterday, and here's what it looks like:

It's Moda Dea  Sassy Stripes and the color is Swish. You can see how it's working up into a scarf.

I thought it would make a good accent with the sweater, and I think it looks beautiful with it. I want to make mitts and a hat, too. I was hoping to make mitts and a scarf, but I may have enough for a hat, too.

I originally swatched this in stockinet stitch and ribs as well as garter stitch. The stockinet looks so neat and orderly, so precise. It looks like a beautifully knit fair isle pattern. But the garter stitch looks so much more random and disorderly that I like it much better for this. You'll get to see how it looks in ribs when I do the mitts and hat.

Oh, and I tried a new cast-on for this to get a bumpy, almost picot effect. This is also a good cast-on for places where you want an edge that stretches as well as being decorative.

Figure out how many stitches you need to cast on. Double that number, and add a stitch (or, if you are going to knit in the round, it should be an even number). Cast on the doubled number with a long tail cast-on. On the next row, K1 *Sl 1, K2tog, PSSO, K1* across. You'll wind up with something that looks like the edge of a picot hem, but there won't be a hem involved.

Now I have to figure out how to make a matching bind off.

I had a comment from a reader yesterday about yarn available (but not available) through my Amazon store. Here's what she (and you) need to know about that.

Things in the yarn section come and go quickly. Very quickly sometimes. Within the last two days, that yarn was available in my store. Now it's not. Tomorrow it may be available again. Or not available at all. Anywhere.

I leave certain things in my store, even though it says "Not available in this store" or even "currently unavailable" because even though I won't get a commission for it, it's something that CAN be bought, and I want you to be able to find certain difficult-to-find items and get them.

For example, there are a lot of the ball winders available with red trim. If I put one of those in my store and someone buys it, I'll get a commission. But, there are exposed gears on the underside, and the winder will eat your yarn. I had one, and it ate a lot of my yarn, although, at the time, it was the only ball winder available anywhere, and I loved it because it was the only one, and ball winders are awesome.

I don't want you to buy something like that, even if I get a commission for it. The ones with the blue trim are still available (new or used) even though if you click on it you get a page that says "currently unavailable." These have enclosed gears and will not chew up your yarn. 

By the way, everyone that used to carry them  is slowly selling out of them, and I suspect that they're no longer being made, so if you want one, grab it now. You may not get another chance.

So, if you want to wait a few days on the chance that I'll get a commission, fine. But in a few days, the yarn you're looking for may not be available at all. Anywhere.

If you want it, go buy it. Now!

And don't feel guilty, just tell others about my store.

One thing that people on Ravelry have been searching for is an item that Lily Chin talks about in her book, Knit and Crochet with Beads. She calls it an American Beadle, and uses it to place beads while knitting. 

I found an item that seems to fit her verbal description, and looks just like the item pictured in her book. This item is available in my store (although it went away for a day), and may be the answer for all those people who are going crazy looking for it. It's called a "Kantan Couture Bead Embroidery Tool" and it has a replacement hook so you don't have to replace the whole tool in case of accidents.

I have some various sized latch hook tools that I use all the time when knitting, and I love them. This looks like it may be a good size for fingering yarn for you sock knitters. I haven't tried it yet, so I can't really endorse it, but it looks like it would work well.

There are lots of unusual tools in the Fiberarts Needles and Tools section of the store.

For instance, there are some things (like socks and skeins of yarn) that I prefer to hand wash. I'd rather hand wash them even if I had a washer and dryer and didn't have to go out to do laundry. But I sure miss that spin dry at the end of the cycle. So, a salad spinner is the perfect answer. Don't leave it in your kitchen, though. I wouldn't want to use it to spin salad after I'd spun my socks dry in it.

For dyers, there are two scales, and a pH meter. The meter is inexpensive and far more long-lasting than pH paper. And it works even after you've added the dye. Paper doesn't.

And I use a rather unorthodox tool for dying and felting. Certain kinds of potato mashers are perfect for this. If you look at them in profile, they have a hook shape, so you can fish your skein out of a simmering pot safely. You can also provide needed agitation for wet felting with it. If you plan to provide really vigorous agitation for felting, try to find the kind with a rubber grip. It will help keep it from sliding if it gets wet, and provide a bit of cushioning for your hand while felting. I love mine. 

So, for the most part, items in my store are either things I've used and love, or things I've heard other artists praising. Recently, I tried to find some silk yarn to make rune bags from and had a hard time finding it. So, that's up in my store, even though I won't get a commission on it.

Now, on to the science fiction portion of the post.

Chuck is back in reruns on NBC at 8 pm, and will be available on DVD on the 16th of September. Adam Baldwin is wonderful in this!

Tomorrow, there  will be a Primeval marathon on BBC in America. They will be showing all the episodes that have been aired so far in order, in case you missed some.

Tomorrow, for all you fans of bad science fiction and fantasy, the SciFi Channel with be once again torturing us with Grendel. This is one of the all-time worst movies ever made. You have to understand that this is derived from an ancient Icelandic saga, which is so good it's practically eternal. To give you an idea about the quality of the movie, though, you should understand that they equipped Grendel with what some viewers have called "scud missiles." I've had numerous reports from others about how they fell off their sofas and nearly choked on their popcorn because of how unbelievably bad this movie is.

There's also a movie scheduled for tomorrow on SciFi that I haven't seen before. It has two of my favorite actors, Corin Nemec and Musetta Vander. It's called Mansquito, and according to the description in the digital TV guide, it has a lot of latitude to be a truly bad movie. I'm going to watch it to see Corin Nemec (who we wanted to get when I was still involved in Fade Out, and who starred for a while in Stargate SG-1), and Musetta Vander, who also appeared in a couple of episodes of SG-1, and Secret Agent, but whom I remember chiefly for her role in Oblivion, a campy movie that is a gem.

And for those fantasy fans, there will be a movie on Hallmark tomorrow that I would classify as PG--good to watch with the kids, but won't send you into a diabetic coma: The Good Witch.

As always, check your local listings. Times may vary.

And have a great Labor Day weekend!