Update on the Imagination Contest

If you read this blog all the time, you know that I set myself the challenge of entering the Lion Brand Imagination Contest.

Well, it has to be submitted tomorrow, and I'm not even done the knitting, let alone the finishing, which is going to be extensive, so this post will be short, and you can expect nothing up here tomorrow!

As usual, it's my own fault. I have a hard time finishing/letting go of projects because if they're done, what will I have to do?

And this is especially boring for you because, I can't publish photos of it! You're going to just have to imagine that I'm busy and doing lots of really neat stuff to finish this.

But if you want some really entertaining stuff from a knitter, you should read today's post from The Yarn Harlot. Actually, her post isn't really about knitting, it's about baseball, and it has a very funny science fiction twist at the end.

************************

If you're reading this and it's still daytime, the SyFy Channel is running a Primeval marathon on their daytime rotation as I write.

But don't touch that dial just yet! BBC in America is doing the same thing with Torchwood!

There's a new Warehouse 13 on SyFy tonight, and a new White Collar and Covert Affairs on USA, too!

***********************

I have to get going. I have a lot of knitting and even more finishing to do, and somewhere in all this, I really need to get some groceries, so I'm going to be very busy today and tomorrow.

Have a wonderful week, and I'll be back later!

LOST Weekend!

All you Losties probably already know that he grand finale of Lost will be on Sunday night.

Make sure you don't miss out on the rebroadcast of the very first, two-hour pilot, being aired tonight, though. Tomorrow night, they'll hit all the highlights of the story so far, and then show the two-hour series finale!

They said they'd answer our questions. They said that they'd let us find out what's been happening all this time.

I hope they're right! There have been a few clues this year, but no real answers yet.

So, set your DVRs/VHSs to record all this.

You're going to want to watch it again.

You know you will!

********************************

BBC in America is going to be showing the newest Doctor Who episode tonight, too. It's Vampires in Venice, right after the rebroadcast of Flesh and Stone. Where I live, it's on during Lost, but they'll be showing both of them two more times later in the evening and on into early morning, plus Vampires will be on Tuesday evening, so you don't have to miss Lost to catch it!

In case you aren't paying attention, there will be a lot of science fiction on BBC in America this week. Torchwood will be on during a lot of Monday, and they seem to be making Tuesday evening dedicated to science fiction, including another rerun of Vampires in Venice. This Tuesday, however, there will be a lot of Primeval, starting at 11 am. Keep an eye on them all week, though, because they seem to really be caught up in the science fiction thing this week! Check your local listings.

I've heard that The Legend of the Seeker will not be returning after this season, and that means the series finale will be coming up soon, so don't miss it on the CW, Sunday night (if that's when it comes on where you live). I'm really disappointed that it's been cancelled.

I'm going to go and do a little spinning, run some errands, and enjoy all the fun stuff on TV this weekend!

I hope you have a weekend that's as much fun as mine is going to be!

Shore Leave Sunday

If you've been following my Twitter posts over in the sidebar, you've had a small taste of the Shore Leave experience, and I have to say, I enjoyed it. There were rumors of who was drunk, who attracted more than half the female population of the con, the second most popular person at the con being a 'droid, who called who what, who missed out because they were at the filk sing, which guests sang karaoke, and reviews of local Chinese restaurants (traditional at cons).

It wasn't the same as being there, but if you missed it, you can catch up here. There are links to photos of Klingons and 'droids as well as people just having fun.

I'm hoping to do the same thing for Pennsic later this month.

This will be short because I want to get back to watching Harry Potter movies on ABC Family. If you're a fan, you should check it out because they're showing a large assortment of trailers for Half Blood Prince during the commercials.

While watching BBC in America last night, I found that we're going to have one really amazing week later this month, starting on the 20th! The first thing up will be Children of Earth (Torchwood), shown over 5 consecutive nights from Monday through Friday, the premier of Being Human on Saturday,  and the Premier of the Doctor Who episode, Planet of the Dead.

My DVR is having a hernia this weekend, but it'll be bleeding internally after that week!

Speaking of watching BBC in America last night, they reran the episode of Primeval that was inevitable, and that I had been waiting for: the one where a dinosaur goes to the Middle Ages and is chased by a Knight through another anomaly into the present.

I really have to go watch Harry now!

I hope you've had a great weekend!

************************

Addition:

This whole thing with Shore Leave has started me down memory lane as far as SF cons are concerned. Which led me to discover something interesting. For years, at every con I went to, there was another con-goer called Filthy Pierre. He was in evidence sitting in hallways, playing wonderful songs on a keyboard. Well, my discovery is that he has an entry in Wikipedia! Yes, everybody's friend, Filthy is immortalized in their pages!

What started me off on this is that I wanted to find out the dates and places of upcoming cons with an eye toward maybe going to some of them, and, as everyone knows, Filthy is the person to contact about that.

Wow!

Happy Armed Forces Day!

Happy Armed Forces Day!

Not that I'm actually doing anything to celebrate Armed Forces Day this year, but you could if you wanted to. There are instructions here for how to have a happy AFD.

In the meantime, I salute all the members and former members of the Armed Forces of the United States!

I have more news in connection with this, but I'll have to wait until I inform the people involved before I can make it public.

***************************

In a slightly related story, I got my copy of Volume 2 of the Steve Canyon DVDs today! I just got home from going out with Holly, and haven't watched it yet, but the outside and inside covers look great as do the disc labels. My DVD player is having a problem with it's connection to the TV, and I don't know exactly what's causing it, so I have to straighten that out before I will be able to see it. But you can read more about it here.

************************

Holly and I went on our weekly trek to fun, this time to AC Moore, where I bought a skein of Tweedle Dee that I've been drooling over for quite a while. I plan to make a Crazy Aunt Purl Beret with it.

I also got a "task" chair from WalMart, and will be using that as soon as I manage to assemble it. I've been wanting this for more than two years, ever since I moved in here. Not only will I be able to use it for the computer, but I can use it for sewing once I get a table to put my sewing machine on.

***********************

SciFi is having the new episode of War of the Worlds on today, followed by Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The first episode of the new season of Primeval will be premiering later tonight on BBC in America.

And Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire will be on (I think) ABC tonight.

I hope you're having a great weekend!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope everyone who has born a child had a very happy day today!

I have had an absolutely wonderful day today!

Holly arrived at 10:30 today, just as she said she would. Unfortunately, I woke up about two minutes before she arrived. But it was all OK.

She took me out to get all the stuff from WalMart that I would've gotten last Sunday if I had had the forethought to be prepared for it, thus saving me a lot of discomfort and dampness (this was the first day for two weeks that it hasn't been raining, plus it's supposed to rain Monday, too). My back is a lot better, but still wouldn't have been happy with having to walk to the bus, and come back on the bus carrying a bunch of heavy stuff. 

We went to an early dinner at Ruby Tuesday and had fun (as usual) just being with each other.

This was followed by the new Star Trek movie!

I have to say it was excellent! I loved it to pieces. I will mention some overall impressions, and I don't think I'm giving too much away here, but if you absolutely don't want to know anything about it, skip the rest of this paragraph. It starts back at the beginning, and tells a story about how the Enterprise crew got together. The wonderful part is that they've gone back to the beginning with a whole new group of actors to play the old characters from the beginning. This story involves time travel, and it changes things so that all the stuff that happened originally may be completely changed. So we have the characters young again, and a chance to tell all new stories from the beginning should they choose to do so. And why wouldn't they?

OK, no more spoilers from here on in. J.J. Abrams did a fabulous movie, with a great story. The story had all the old characters, who were acting so much in character that there was a lot of the movie where I knew exactly what a particular character would do, and, in fact, I was able to say some lines along with the characters on the first run-through. At the same time, the situation had so much in it that was unexpected, and so many actions and reactions that were unexpected that it was exciting, non-stop action/excitement/fun all the way through!

I've had a wonderful day!

***********************

I also want to wish a belated happy birthday to my brother, Jeff!

Happy Birthday, Jeff!

I kind of took yesterday off to let my back get in better shape for today. I don't think he'll see it here on the internet anyway, but I still want to wish him a happy birthday, which was yesterday.

I have to get back to being nice to my back instead of sitting here making it hurt more.

All the photos I promised will be up real soon now.

Oh, I nearly forgot: I watched Doctor Who and Torchwood on BBC in America yesterday, and they were full of trailers for the new season of Primeval, which starts next Saturday, and also (and this is the part I'm really excited about) trailers for Children of Earth, the next Torchwood story, which will be on in July (they're not pinning down exactly when). They didn't say anything about the new Doctor Who Season, though, and I'm disappointed about that.

I hope you've been having as good a weekend as I've had!

Quiet Saturday

I've only taken a few photos with my new camera to test it out, but I thought you might like to see some of them.

Here's a photo of a gargoyle that Steve gave me for Christmas in 1999. I really love this little gargoyle.



We've had cloudy, rainy days most of this week. I was hoping to get a chance to take some photos of the full moon because my camera has a long lens and I should be able to get some good shots. But we've had complete cloud cover all the time that it's been near full. Last night, the ceiling was at zero feet.

But things started to clear late in the afternoon, and the sky looked like this.

Right after that  picture was taken, the TV started displaying tornado warnings for my area. Actually, the warning expired at 7:20 local time, and they were still showing warnings at 9:30. You know Comcast. Anything to make a problem for viewers. They can take a public service (like announcing a storm warning) and turn it into a public nuisance.

***********************

I still haven't gotten to the bottom of the pocket openings on the Celtic Sweater, but I decided to put another Saint John's cross on each side in the shaping instead of the generic knotwork I put there the first time. Photos tomorrow when I get some daylight to work with. I have a flash, but natural light is so much better.

**********************

The BBC in America showed a rerun of the first episode of Primeval. They'll be showing it again tomorrow in case you missed it the first time around.

They also showed a rerun of the latest Christmas episode of Doctor Who, and the first episode with Donna Noble, Partners in Crime.

Hope you're having a great weekend!

Strange Saturday

I woke up really early this morning (for me, almost middle of the night). I staggered to the bathroom (which was what prompted awakening at that insane hour), dragged myself back to bed, and the phone rang.

I answered it and was greeted with my daughter's voice demanding "Why are you up so early?"

Half asleep, I had visions running through my brain of causing cosmic ripples through space and time just because I was awake. Ramifications so dire that she had to call to find out why the planet was tilting.

Once I explained, then she wanted to make sure that I was aware that I had listened to bad information on the news. My mistake was listening to a news report on a broadcast TV station. She proceeded to explain that Robin had listened to the news on PBS, and it was so much more reliable. She may be right about that. 

She then launched into an explanation that there's no basis for thinking that the bank I deal with might fail because 39 banks have recently failed according to the FDIC (plus two more that I know about since then). She said that those banks failed because they were "playing the stock market."

When I was in Junior High (about 50 years ago), the teacher told us about banks. He said they make money by "investing money." I asked how they invested money, and he said "By loaning a portion of the deposited money (such as for mortgages) and collecting interest on it, and by investing in stocks and bonds." That seemed like a risky plan to me when I was 14, but it's worked pretty well up until now, so maybe I was wrong about the risk.

But I still don't see how that means that keeping money in a specific bank is safe.

Oh, and she said that even though the news report I saw said specifically that the FDIC was broke, they were WRONG! They also said that some people high in the government had a meeting and said that the problem is fixed (without saying how).

Then she said that the broadcast TV news programs were reporting that the FDIC was broke because the government wanted them to do that.

The US government wants to convince citizens that they're incompetent and failing? Well, we knew they are anyway. 

Did I miss something?

Probably. I was half asleep at the time. It's possible that she didn't say what I think she did.

Then, she called back later to say that when I wrote "Arrrrg" yesterday, I misspelled it, and that it should be spelled "Arrrr."

I want to go back to sleep!

***************************

Somebody in the apartment place I live is moving out, and I got some stuff for almost nothing in their please-don't-make-me-move-all-this sale. 

Once I actually unpack at least most of the stuff I've been slowly unpacking for the past year, I should have a workable bedroom. And maybe I can find some stuff to sell.

Monday evening, we will have four more episodes of Lost. And I found a really zany article about the show online here. It favors the explanation that Lost actually has it's plot taken from an episode of Red Dwarf.

And, speaking of Red Dwarf, more news about the revival.

The same blog has a post about talking like a space pirate, too.

This all comes from a fabulous blog (news site?) I just found called io9.

The wit and the news keeps rolling on this not-to-be-missed site. I even found an article about Fringe being the most reassuring show on TV.

The new Primeval is about to come on BBC in America, and I want to catch it, so I'm going to stop writing now.

In the meantime, I hope you're having a great weekend!

Hannah Came to Visit!

Yes, folks, hurricane Hannah is here. She's planning on leaving soon, though.

It was pouring down rain when I woke up, and it's still falling out of the sky.

There are flash flood warnings in my area.

Holly sent me a text message and asked if we could postpone going out.

Really, it's not so bad. A lot of rain is coming down, but I'd never guess it's a hurricane from the lack of wind. Yes, I saw the radar images on the weather channel, but this is more like a warm front rain.

Cold fronts bring storms. Warm fronts just bring rain that goes on and on.

Yesterday, I went shopping at Potomac Mills Mall. People are starting to speculate on whether we're into a recession or not. We've been in a recession for about five years (although the statisticians have played with the figures to try to prove we're not) and we're in a full-blown depression now. The mall is the proof.

This is the first year that I've gone shopping in September and could find almost nothing in the way of Fall and Winter shoes, clothes, etc. The mall was a very sad place yesterday. I was looking for Fall and Winter shoes, and they had lots of summer sandals on clearance, but not very much in the way of real shoes or boots. It was pathetic.

I found some Totes boots on clearance for $10, which I would have bought in an instant if they had been navy blue, but they only had black. I was thinking about going back and getting them, but I think (after a lot of consideration) that the navy rubber boots at TJ Maxx may be a better idea. They would be warm with heavy socks (if they're big enough) and waterproof for when the snow turns to slush. And tall enough that the snow isn't going to slosh in over the tops of the boots and treat my feet to a dose of frozen water. 

There may be something wrong with me. I've always wanted navy blue Wellingtons, and never had them. At 65, I may not have another chance. They'll look good with my new coat, and boots for under $20 has to be a good deal. What am I waiting for? I should just get them.

I'd like some dressy shoes and some sneakers, too. I was hoping to remedy that situation yesterday, but no luck.

I did knit almost half of a mitten on the bus and waiting for the bus, though.

At this point, I have three (ambidextrous) mittens and a hat finished, and have enough multicolored blue yarn left for a very long scarf. I keep thinking that there must be some small item that I'd like to use some of that yarn for. Maybe a tam? Will that go with my coat?

Time to dig out my copy of Homespun, Handknit. This is one of the knitting books I love most. A magazine (I think it was Spin-Off, but I'm not sure) had a contest for patterns for small projects using handspun yarn, and they published the winners in a book, and this is it. It's a great book to just sit and read. Even if you're a very experienced knitter, it's got so many tips and tricks hidden in the patterns that it's really a treasure. One of my all-time favorite knitting books!

Oh, the mittens are knitted, but the cuffs want to roll up, so they need a bit of blocking before they're ready for their close-up.

On the way to the mall, I stopped at JoAnn Fabrics and got some nifty things.

First, there are the glow-in-the-dark beads for my Harry Potter KAL charms class. That was good. The mittens and hat I just made all have button loops on them so I can park them on a button and not lose them while at the same time not filling up my pockets. The coat will probably need some extra buttons just for them, and I found some beautiful ones that I think will match (or at least go with) the buttons on the new coat. If not, they will match some buttons I already had for future projects. I love my button box!

I also got some things to go with the single Options needle that I've bought so far. They had some coiless safety pins in the bead department for 30% off. Others have pointed out to me that these are great to pin to your project to use rather than the little wire things that go with the needle or cable sets. The little wire things are just guaranteed to get lost, they're so small. But a pin fastened to your project is not going anywhere and is perfect for tightening the cables.

I also found some needle pullers. They're small pieces of a rubber-like material to grip a sewing needle that's stuck in some fabric and doesn't want to move. They're also great for gripping the Options needle tip so you can fasten on the cable.

Well, there were several things I planned on doing today, but they involve going out, and I don't happen to have an ark handy, so I'll probably do them tomorrow.

A rerun of Chuck is on tonight. And a new episode of Primeval on BBC in America.

Have a great weekend!

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!