Official FO
This week just flew by, didn't it? It seems like I was just posting about LAST weekend. This weekend was fun and busy as well. I sewed the backing onto the second snake scarf, so those scarves are now officially FOs:
Project Name: Snake Scarves
Designer: Me, I guess
Pattern Source: Chart from 1,000 Great Knitting Motifs
Yarn: Rowan Classic Yarns Cashsoft 4 Ply
Yarn Source: The Yarnery
Date Started: 10/20/05
Date Completed: 3/26/06
Comments: When I bought this book, Red and Ben were looking through it and both wanted something knit with the snake motif. I thought it would be cool to make a scarf with the head on one end, the tail on the other and the body wrapping around your neck, just like a real snake. In order for the chart to fit on a kids' scarf, I needed to knit at 7 stitches per inch, so knitting 2 of these was quite a long process. I knit a garter stitch border, but it still curled, so I decided to attach a fabric backing, which would stop the curling and cover up the ugly wrong side. I got a big piece of a heavy velvet or velour type of fabric from Artscraps for $1. Not what I originally intended, but the price was right. I screwed up the cutting on one of them, so I had to mend to pieces together, so it has a bit of a boo boo on the back. I had already sewed it half in before I made the mistake. A real knitter would have probably ripped it out and cut a new piece of fabric, but it's on the back, it's for a kid and I was sick of sewing on the back already, so I just sewed a little scrap on.
I also finished knitting the Nantasket Basket, as the lovely and talented Chris showed on her blog on Sunday. We had a lovely time chatting and knitting. I was going to felt the basket that afternoon, but I kept forgetting to bring it down to the washer with me when I was using it for its intended purpose. I'll try to do it tonight.
I also took a break from the Project Spectrum madness and made a necklace for a friend's birthday gift.
Not a pink or a red in sight! It might look familiar since I made a similar one for another friend's birthday last year. I just liked how it came out so well I decided to follow the theme. One of these days I'm going to make a similar one for myself.
Saturday night I went to the Fine Line to see one of my favorite bands, Cowboy Mouth.
I've talked about Cowboy Mouth here before. It's an awesome live show. The lead singer/drummer describes them as a cross between The Neville Brothers and The Clash, and that sounds about right. I do not like The Fine Line. It's way too crowded for my tastes. There's a lot of women flipping their hair in your face and guys pushing you out of the way to get where they're going and drunk people doing who knows what. However, Cowboy Mouth is so happy and their show is so wonderful, you can't help but smile. So, a good time was definitely had.
Sunday was movie club. I went out for brunch with Jackie first, at Bar Abilene. I had never been there before. The brunch was pretty good. It's a buffet, which includes an omlette bar and a lot of tex-mex food, as well as breakfast standards like eggs, french toast and waffles. The bacon was amazingly good. This is the movie we saw:
I thought it was just ok. It did not grab me and hold my emotions as some reviewers have described. Everything just seemed a little too simplistic and little too pat for me. The story is set in South Africa, about a young man who is a thug. He makes a living stealing from other people with his three friends, and sometimes their victims get hurt or even die in the process. One night he steals a car from a wealthy woman and doesn't realize there's a baby in the back. He takes this baby back to his shack and begins to care for it as his own. This transforms him from a cold-blooded killer to a real human. I felt like the acting was really good - the young men in the gang, a neighborhood woman who helps Tsotsi with the baby and the baby's parents all did a great job in portraying their characters without oversentimentalizing or overacting. My problems are with the script. It just seemed like all of the characters were stock roles - the poor thug with an abusive father, the thug who is really sensitive and smart and shouldn't be in this life, the wealthy crime victims, the single mother with a heart of gold who's wise beyond her years, etc. I just think things are a lot more complicated than this film portrays and that people are capable of change, but it doesn't happen overnight and it doesn't happen after one triggering event - although to be fair, there are about three things that all happen in one night that trigger Tsotsi's transformation, the culmination of which is finding the baby. We did have a great discussion of the film afterward.
Since I was in the neighborhood, I checked out Paper Source afterward and picked up a few items, including a kit for making Thank You cards. I like their motto - "Do something creative every day". This is a very nice store, with beautiful papers and fun gift items. I made the cards since they have red in every one and thus fit into Project Spectrum:
I also started a new Project Spectrum project. I have a ton of Tahki Cotton Classic in a lot of different colors. It's one of my favorite basic yarns, so a few of my wonderful knitting friends have sent me skeins now and then. I was going to make some hats with it, but I decided since I have so many, it would be fun to make a mitered square afghan, ala Mason-Dixon Knitting. So, here's my first square in March red and pink:
Project Name: Snake Scarves
Designer: Me, I guess
Pattern Source: Chart from 1,000 Great Knitting Motifs
Yarn: Rowan Classic Yarns Cashsoft 4 Ply
Yarn Source: The Yarnery
Date Started: 10/20/05
Date Completed: 3/26/06
Comments: When I bought this book, Red and Ben were looking through it and both wanted something knit with the snake motif. I thought it would be cool to make a scarf with the head on one end, the tail on the other and the body wrapping around your neck, just like a real snake. In order for the chart to fit on a kids' scarf, I needed to knit at 7 stitches per inch, so knitting 2 of these was quite a long process. I knit a garter stitch border, but it still curled, so I decided to attach a fabric backing, which would stop the curling and cover up the ugly wrong side. I got a big piece of a heavy velvet or velour type of fabric from Artscraps for $1. Not what I originally intended, but the price was right. I screwed up the cutting on one of them, so I had to mend to pieces together, so it has a bit of a boo boo on the back. I had already sewed it half in before I made the mistake. A real knitter would have probably ripped it out and cut a new piece of fabric, but it's on the back, it's for a kid and I was sick of sewing on the back already, so I just sewed a little scrap on.
I also finished knitting the Nantasket Basket, as the lovely and talented Chris showed on her blog on Sunday. We had a lovely time chatting and knitting. I was going to felt the basket that afternoon, but I kept forgetting to bring it down to the washer with me when I was using it for its intended purpose. I'll try to do it tonight.
I also took a break from the Project Spectrum madness and made a necklace for a friend's birthday gift.
Not a pink or a red in sight! It might look familiar since I made a similar one for another friend's birthday last year. I just liked how it came out so well I decided to follow the theme. One of these days I'm going to make a similar one for myself.
Saturday night I went to the Fine Line to see one of my favorite bands, Cowboy Mouth.
I've talked about Cowboy Mouth here before. It's an awesome live show. The lead singer/drummer describes them as a cross between The Neville Brothers and The Clash, and that sounds about right. I do not like The Fine Line. It's way too crowded for my tastes. There's a lot of women flipping their hair in your face and guys pushing you out of the way to get where they're going and drunk people doing who knows what. However, Cowboy Mouth is so happy and their show is so wonderful, you can't help but smile. So, a good time was definitely had.
Sunday was movie club. I went out for brunch with Jackie first, at Bar Abilene. I had never been there before. The brunch was pretty good. It's a buffet, which includes an omlette bar and a lot of tex-mex food, as well as breakfast standards like eggs, french toast and waffles. The bacon was amazingly good. This is the movie we saw:
I thought it was just ok. It did not grab me and hold my emotions as some reviewers have described. Everything just seemed a little too simplistic and little too pat for me. The story is set in South Africa, about a young man who is a thug. He makes a living stealing from other people with his three friends, and sometimes their victims get hurt or even die in the process. One night he steals a car from a wealthy woman and doesn't realize there's a baby in the back. He takes this baby back to his shack and begins to care for it as his own. This transforms him from a cold-blooded killer to a real human. I felt like the acting was really good - the young men in the gang, a neighborhood woman who helps Tsotsi with the baby and the baby's parents all did a great job in portraying their characters without oversentimentalizing or overacting. My problems are with the script. It just seemed like all of the characters were stock roles - the poor thug with an abusive father, the thug who is really sensitive and smart and shouldn't be in this life, the wealthy crime victims, the single mother with a heart of gold who's wise beyond her years, etc. I just think things are a lot more complicated than this film portrays and that people are capable of change, but it doesn't happen overnight and it doesn't happen after one triggering event - although to be fair, there are about three things that all happen in one night that trigger Tsotsi's transformation, the culmination of which is finding the baby. We did have a great discussion of the film afterward.
Since I was in the neighborhood, I checked out Paper Source afterward and picked up a few items, including a kit for making Thank You cards. I like their motto - "Do something creative every day". This is a very nice store, with beautiful papers and fun gift items. I made the cards since they have red in every one and thus fit into Project Spectrum:
I also started a new Project Spectrum project. I have a ton of Tahki Cotton Classic in a lot of different colors. It's one of my favorite basic yarns, so a few of my wonderful knitting friends have sent me skeins now and then. I was going to make some hats with it, but I decided since I have so many, it would be fun to make a mitered square afghan, ala Mason-Dixon Knitting. So, here's my first square in March red and pink:
rdladd@arnan.com
