Happy Monday!

Well, in the last 24 hours, my mobius hood has exploded from something that looked just a little longer than it did the day before to starting to look like a real hood!


It doesn't look in the photo like it would fit as well as it does in real life. Well, I did some shaping on the hood, and I still have some doubts about this project. I think it's really turning out nice, so far, though.

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

For those of you who don't know, the SciFi Channel has discovered that they can't trademark/register/copyright/whatever the term "SciFi." So they have embarked on a journey to find the perfect new name for their network. They have chosen SyFy as their new name. I read one report that insisted that they chose it because that's how they would spell it in a text message.

First of all, I doubt that they can't trademark it. Blaster, and a lot of other basic SF words were successfully trademarked in the past, which seems really silly to me. Unless someone else has already trademarked it.

Io9 has some really funny articles about this. The first one I saw was named SciFi Channel Changes It's Name to a Typo, and it was just an announcement of the change. The second one, 25 Other Names the SciFi Channel Could Rebrand With was funny. My favorite on the list was "Sci-Fi Except For All That Wrestling Channel," although I also liked "Zzzzzzzzzy-Phy."

Then there was a post called "15 More Alternate Names for the SciFi Channel," which continued the funny theme. One of my favorites from this list was the "I Cant Spel But I Kin Txt Chanel."

Here's what SciFi has to say about the name change in their own words. The theme that keeps repeating is the idea of "a name we can own." There was also a poll on your opinion of the new name in the sidebar. I voted against it, but it seems to be gone now. I can't find it on their site. But when I voted, the score was something like 157 for and over a half million against. I suspect they took it down because they didn't like the general direction in which it was headed.

But they are doing something good tomorrow during the day. They have reruns of Eureka on! On Wednesday, there will be episodes of Tru Calling on their daytime rotation, too.

This weekend, actually Friday evening at nine (here) they're showing Stargate: Ark of Truth for all of you, like me who haven't been able to scrape up the money for the DVD, even though it's not very expensive.

I suspect they're doing that to make it up to us for showing Beowulf last weekend. I didn't think anything or anybody could mess up a fine, classic, Icelandic saga as badly as Grendel, but Beowulf gave it a run for it's money.

NBC will be showing their usual Monday night science fiction shows, Chuck, Heroes, and Medium, and we'll be treated to another episode of Castle at the same time as Medium. The Monday night lineup is currently good for all old Firefly fans because we can get to see both Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin! It's just a shame Castle isn't science fiction (or fantasy).

Well, there's lots to do today, so I'd better get going.

Have a great day!

Pennsic is Over, but the Ravelympics Goes On...

Well, Pennsic is officially over. There's just enough time today to pack stuff into the vehicle and get on the road before you have to be off the site.

And the trip home isn't always fun.

One year, we were so disorganized, that it took us most of the day to get ourselves packed and on the road. After a week out in the ragweed (to witch I'm allergic), I carried/moved/dragged a lot more stuff then I should have that day, and went to sleep in the back of the van.

Steve woke me up and told me that I would have to drive home because he was tired. Then he climbed into the back of the van, leaving me half asleep, disoriented, and whining "But where are we?" in the middle of a snow/sleet storm.

Well we were somewhere near Breezewood, but all I could do was drive out of the parking lot he had stopped in (after I tried to clear the snow/sleet off the windows) and keep driving until I saw enough road signs that I could guess where I was and figure out how to get home. There wasn't much visibility with the precipitation, and it was almost dark when we left Pennsic, so it wasn't really easy. 

So, this is the one day of Pennsic where I can feel smug because I don't have to drag an entire encampment home in a six or seven hour trip. Especially when I look out the window at what the weather's doing. It's not overcast. Overcast is bright and cheerful compared to the day outside my window. It's raining, and it looks like it's going to develop into a storm any time, now.

Ooooh! Lightening! Yep, a storm for sure.

Well, so much for my plans to go to the grocery store.

But the Ravelympics is really just getting under way.

The wimple is up to a point where all the shoulder decreasing is done. I have pulled the needle tips off the Options needles in the wimple, and put stoppers on the cable. I'm going to have to go somewhere on the bus sometime this week, and it'll be a good project to take with me for the half hour ride (each way) to anywhere nearby.

In the meantime, I've picked up stitches around the bottom of the hood, and I'm knitting a band around it which will eventually have a button at one end and (when I get to the other end) will have a button loop knit into it.

Here is the hood with the stitches picked up.

This is something I should've swatched for, but couldn't really without reknitting the whole hood, which isn't something I was willing to do. 

So, I've ripped out the band twice, and I'm about to have a third try at it.

If I get too frustrated, I may go back to the wimple for a bit.

There are going to be two ribs from a 2x2 rib running around the bottom of the hood, and one rib is going to circle back and continue into the other rib at the end, making a buttonloop.

I bought some really beautiful buttons, but I've lost some of them since then. I have found some more on the internet, and I plan to buy them, but it's possible that when the Ravelympics deadline arrives, the buttons may not have. So, the sweater may not have all it's buttons at the end.

You can see the buttons here.

All the buttons down the front will be the same size, but I think the one that's going to be right at my neck may do better with one of the slightly smaller ones I bought at the same time. I'm glad I thought to buy some smaller ones. And I'm glad I was able to find them on the internet. They look so pretty with the yarn! 

I'm starting to love everything about this sweater!

Tomorrow and Tuesday, around 5 or 6 in the afternoon/evening, there will be the two-part episode of Stargate SG-1 called Mobius on the SciFi Channel. It's very good. And if you look at the schedule, you may notice that Charlie Jade is on every Monday night (actually, Tuesday morning).

The Sarah Connor Chronicles is back in reruns on Monday night, too!

I need to get back to another stab at the band around the bottom of the hood, so wish me luck!

Have a great evening!

Quiet Tuesday

Tru Calling is on the SciFi daytime rotation today! This would have worked better if I had told you about it before it happened, but I completely forgot.

I also almost forgot that Eureka is on this evening. There will be three solid hours of it: one rerun episode from last season, the episode from last week, and the all-new, never-been-shown-before episode, which, this evening, is What about Bob? What a wonderful addition to Tuesday evening!

On Friday, the SciFi Channel will be showing Doctor Who on it's daytime rotation. Especially not-to-be-missed, are Tooth and Claw (which shows the beginning of Torchwood), and School Reunion (where Sarah Jane comes back). For all you people who are getting psyched up for the Olympics or Ravelympics, don't miss the episode entitled Fear Her! It involves the 2012 Olympics.

Well, I found out why I can't get closed captioning on channel 50 (ABC Family) through Comcast. Part of what they were claiming was right, and part of it was wrong. And part of what I was telling them was right, and part was wrong.

With standard definition TV (NTSC in the US), the CC is imbedded in the information for the picture. If the CC is imbedded at the network level, if you have a TV that gets CC and it's turned on, it has to appear if you're getting a picture at all. That's what they were trying to tell me, and they were right about it. It's something that should be absolutely foolproof, no matter what. But they found a way to mess it up anyway.

High definition TV (ATSC), is so compressed to get a HD picture up there at all that they don't have room to embed CC into the picture. So it goes along with the sound. It can be displayed by any HDTV, but a standard TV hasn't got a clue and can't display it.

Comcast is broadcasting ABC Family on two channels. Channel 50 is supposed to have the SD signal, and 245 is supposed to have the HD signal. Can you see where this is going?

Right! They have the HD and SD channels switched! I was tuning in to 50 to get the SD signal and CC, but was getting the HD signal (which displays, but at SD), which doesn't have the CC embedded in the picture, and can't be displayed on my TV.

I called them today, and hopefully it will be fixed soon for all those people out there who haven't done a computer search on CC.

But I figured it out in time to see the last half of Middleman with CC, and then set the DVR to record the whole thing! It's wonderful! They throw in so many in-jokes for SF fans! At one point, Wendy and the Middleman are using code names over their radios, and one of them is "Gatekeeper" and the other is "Keymaster." Needless to say, the episode is about ghosts! It's a new favorite program for me. If you missed it, by the way, it'll be on later in the week a couple of times. Check your TV guides.

I'm still looking at cables for the shoulder of my Celtic sweater, and I should be swatching soon. I was trying to figure out how I was going to get the cable to start and how to turn the knitting so that half of the cable goes down the front and half goes down the back, and then I realized that I don't have to turn it. All I have to do is run the cable elements off the edge as I did on the hood, and will do on the buttonloops. Then just stop knitting and put the end on a stitch holder.

I need a cable with four individual strands for the shoulder, and then it needs to separate and two strands will go down the front, and two down the back. I'll add a short bit of I-cord that will go directly across the shoulder and be picked up at the edge in front and back. I could even weave it through the shoulder cable. This is going to be neat!

I'm going to put up a page within the next few days for the Celtic sweater. It will be just the beginning information right now, and I will add to it as I design it. So you can see the design process, too. Watch for the link to it in the sidebar within the next few days.

I will also be putting up a tiny ad for Designs Toscano in the sidebar. I love that company! I got some of their small gargoyles as a Christmas present one year, and I love them!

Have a great day!

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

Addition:

I have some early information about the Celtic sweater up. You can get to it by using the link in the sidebar.

I still need to make charts for the parts that are already done, and get them into the right places, not to mention the parts that I will be swatching and charting for the Ravelympics before it starts.

Be patient.

Quick Post!

I have lots to do today, so not much time for posting, so this will be short.

Do NOT forget about the second half of the season finale for Doctor Who this evening on SciFi!

There will also be an especially good episode of Stargate SG-1 (It's Good to Be King) on a bit before as well as Joan of Arcadia.

Dragon Sword is on sometime this weekend, too, followed by Dragonheart, both great stories for children as well as adults.

I'll be fighting with my computer later this evening or tomorrow in order to make some knitting charts for one of my Ravelympics projects.

In the meantime, I need to get out of here and on the bus!

Have a great Friday and weekend!

More Ravelympics and KAL!

I need to put together the chart for the rune bag and get back to knitting it. That's my project for today.

For the Ravelympics, I need to make some decisions real soon now. I'm thinking of making as many as two more projects for the Ravelympics.

I love that I joined Team TARDIS, and I really need to get going again on the Celtic sweater, but at the same time, I want to join Team Browncoat and Team Hogwarts!

I have yarn for a poncho, which might work for the shawl relay, but I'm not sure. I mean, it's not called the shawl relay. It would work well for Team Browncoat. The big advantage of this is that I already have yarn to do it with.

I'm also thinking that the cowl jump might be a good project for Team Hogwarts, and this would be a good, short project, but the problem with that is that I don't have yarn to do it in, or the money to buy yarn with.

Well, I take that back. I do have a batch of yarn in a faded denim color that's really pretty. I guess I could do it in that.

Now the problem is, how crazy do I want to make myself over this?

The big push is going to be on the Celtic sweater.

Do I really want to take on some more knitting?

Opinions! I need opinions!

I hope you're enjoying Eureka on SciFi today!

Last Day for Tour de Fleece and Comic Con!

Here are the two bobbins of singles, ready to ply.

Now there is a full bobbin of plyed yarn.

And a finished skein, ready to wash and dry! That means I met my goal for the Tour de Fleece!

OK, I realize that this is not an enormous amount of spinning, but it's more than I've done in the past year.

It turned out all soft and yummy. Well, it should, considering that I started with Merino wool. I'd have had to do something awful to it in order to mess it up.

I've been looking at the skeins that the Yarn Harlot has been churning out, and I feel like I'm going to have to do a lot of spinning to catch up to her beautiful color combinations. She really does beautiful work.

The last day of Comic Con is here, and it's the big day for John and Steve Canyon fans.

It's a long ride for him to get there, a long day, and a long ride home, so I probably won't know how it went until tomorrow.

In the meantime, G4 is not covering the con today, and although I thought I told the DVR to record days 1, 2 and 3, it only recorded 1 and 2. I couldn't find day three anywhere on their schedule, and I could've sworn it was listed earlier.

I haven't gone through and watched what I did record of Comic Con yet. From Thursday night on, there have been so many things I wanted to watch on TV that there isn't enough room on the DVR to store them. So, I've been watching all the things that I wanted to get off the disk and then removing them. 

But today isn't helping, because the SciFi Channel is running Eureka during the daytime. They'll be doing that again on Tuesday, followed by the premier of the new season. I love Eureka!

More knitting news tomorrow! This is exciting!

Have a great Sunday!

More Comic Con Fun!

I hope you've had a chance to watch the Heroes marathon on G4 today. It's just about winding down now, but I'm so thankful to G4 for showing it!

A lot of really good TV has been on over the last 3 days. I recorded it all on my DVR, but haven't had a chance to watch all of it yet, so I'm not as informed as I'd like to be while writing this post.

The SciFi Channel keeps sending me text message bulletins about what panels will be shown in which room at Comic Con. I just wish I could be there to see it all!

I have been recording the live coverage of Comic Con on G4, and I could have sworn that there was going to be another episode of it today, but the digital TV Guide says there won't be. I can't wait to catch up on all of the SF news, but I've been too busy watching Tru Calling and Heroes and clearing them off the DVR so it will keep recording all the good stuff that's out there on TV.

On the television front, the cable repairman was supposed to show up to day and fix my connection, but never showed up. I called one of Comcast's local numbers, and finally got to talk to someone with some sense. When I told her that channel 50 wasn't displaying closed captioning, and that channel 35 didn't have sound, she said "Wait a moment. Let me check something." Then she turned on the TV at the station. 

Guess what? Her TV was doing the same thing mine was!

It's just what I told them it was: they're not transmitting those signals on those channels.

She said that she would send the technical people in charge of all that a message to check their settings, and what was wrong. It hasn't solved the problem yet, but it may, once they get the message and actually check it.

And for the Tour de Fleece, I still have enough to do to keep me busy this evening. I've been doing a lot of TV watching and knitting the past three days, trying to keep up with all the information generated because of and including Comic Con.

I want to get all of the blue merino at least spun so that all I have to do tomorrow is to ply it.

One of my favorite bloggers included a URL for photos of telephone sheep. You really have to see this to believe it!

Comic Con Sweepstakes

Most of yesterday was used up getting help for my various problems (food stamps, help affording Medicare, etc.).

I still have more papers to fill out and get in right away. The woman there said I would get food stamps, but she didn't know how much.

I have just a short section of the Christmas present hood to kitchner together, and then block it. The purple shawl has the knitting finished and has to be blocked. The lavender Shetland lace shawl is knit and needs to be blocked.

As you can probably tell, I'm not real fond of blocking. But I have a steamer, which makes the whole process a lot less painful. Actually, I have a pile of other stuff to block, too, and I should do it and get some of it up on my Etsy store.

Photos of that will happen real soon.

In the meantime, I have forms to fill out, documents to get copies of, and mail out, along with some books to pick up at the library.

This Friday, the SciFi Channel will be showing Tru Calling in their daytime rotation. There are some great episodes being shown, notably the end of the series, where the plot starts to thicken. Don't miss it!

Speaking of Friday, later in the day they will show Joan of Arcadia and the next episode of Doctor Who. I think this is the next-to-last episode of the series, so I hope you saw last week's episode, Turn Left. It's shaping up to be a fabulous finale!

And the SciFi Channel sent me a text message this morning and let me know that there's a Comic Con sweepstakes going on right now. It sounds great. I've already entered, and I don't know why I'm lowering my odds of winning by telling everybody else.

For any of you who are lucky enough to be going to Comic Con, here's the schedule for SciFi channel stuff.

My friend, John, will be there, but he'll be spending all his time on panels, etc. Being a guest at a con is fun, but it has it's limitations, too. I hope he gets to see some of the con.

Busy Day

Today will be a busy day for me. I need to go out and buy all the vitamins, minerals, medicine, and miscellaneous stuff I expect to need for the next 5 weeks.

That entails a bus trip that is 15 or 20 minutes to walk to the bus early enough to be sure to catch it and then wait. The trip itself is about a half hour, and then the same on the way home. Plus, of course, the actual shopping.

In TV news, the SciFi channel will be showing Jake 2.0 during the daytime tomorrow, and Special Unit 2 will be daytime fare for Friday.

And, of course, on Friday evening, there will be the second episode of Joan of Arcadia, a new Doctor Who, and a new Stargate Atlantis.

In knitting news, here is a photo of the beginning of the navy hood.


It looks much lighter in this photo than it actually is. The yarn is Caron's Simply Soft, and it's really navy. I think they call it "dark country blue."

OK, I apologize. It's not a natural fiber, but it was in my stash when I was looking for something to knit.

And, just for fun, here is a photo of an interesting cloud/sun formation that was in the sky about a week ago.



It looks like there should be a myth to go along with this. Something like the Fenrir wolf eating the sun or something.

Make up your own myth and let me know about it in the comments.

Have a great Wednesday!

Start of the Tour de Fleece

I haven't gotten off to a really good start on the Tour de Fleece, but things have gotten underway.

So far, I have managed to get my wheel set up in the living room in a location where it can stay. This will make it so much easier to achieve my goal of doing some spinning every day (or at least almost every day). I finished filling up the bobbin to a point where it was level with the bit I had been spinning, and start on the next level of building up the bobbin. 


See how the yarn is built up level on the right? Well, I filled in that section and started on another level last night.

This is a project I started a while ago, and am continuing, so I have a photo of the first bobbin that is partially filled, and here it is:



The bobbin on the top is the one with fiber for this project, and the bag shows the rest of the fiber. There is a total of four ounces of merino wool for this color of the project.

If I finish this, I will start on a fuchsia color merino I have for the same project. I'll need two more colors of fiber, and the background will be done in  black commercial yarn.

I just checked the schedule on the SciFi Channel and discovered that SciFi hasn't totally eliminated Charlie Jade, they just moved it. It will be on tonight (actually tomorrow morning) at 3:00 am.

Lots of stuff to do today, so I gotta go.

And the Verdict Is...

Bronchitis, Acute

Sinusitis, Acute

Otitis Extreme, Acute

Or: bronchitis, sinus infection, and a bad earache. They didn't mention the throat that looks like raw meat, or the headache, muscle aches, joint pain or the rest of it.

They made me wear a mask because I was coughing, and the doctor said he noticed immediately how swollen my face was over the affected sinus (in spite of the mask).

When I expressed my concern to the doctor that I might have Strep throat, he said "Oh, it doesn't matter. What I'm prescribing will kill anything."

I woke up about 3:30 this morning and thought the side of my head was going to explode. As the doctor expressed it, "Your ear is very swollen." The problem with that is that it's got no space to swell up. Hence, PAIN!

I came home with a pile of medicine, which I'm taking, and I'm going back to bed.

I am told I will feel much better in a couple of days.

My bank account is $100 poorer, though.

The SciFi Channel has taken Charlie Jade off it's schedule for tonight and the foreseeable future. I hope you've had a chance to see Jake 2.0 all day, and then there's Doctor Who tonight.

I hope your weekend is better than mine is shaping up to be.

Happy first day of Summer!

SciFi Friday!

The SciFi channel has done it's best to make it a wonderful day for me. Charlie Jade and Doctor Who still coming up!

I got a comment from my friend, James, who is interested in getting info on camera gear to take photos of stuff to sell on the internet. I suspect there are a lot of people like that out there.

So, leave a comment and tell me what kind of stuff you want to sell, and I'll do my best to help you find the right equipment and learn how to use it.

Knit Picks saved this evening with a care package which will enable me to knit the runes bags (5 size 6 DP needles) plus yarn for 4 more socks.

I'm off to an evening of sitting and knitting while watching fabulous science fiction on TV. Right after I make and eat dinner.

Have a great weekend!

It's Good to be King

Today, in the early evening, the SciFi Channel will be showing the Stargate SG-1 episode, It's Good to be King, which is one of my favorites. Actually, the episode before it, Sight Unseen is pretty good, too.

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

Addition:

I went to the library yesterday and brought home a college course worth of  books on self publishing. I'll be busy for a while.

Have a great Tuesday!

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!