Knitting
Wow, this has been a busy week! I've got more cases right now than I've ever had and three of them opened this month. There's always a lot of work right at the beginning of a case. To make matters worse, I had my worst migraine ever Thursday. My head hurt so much it made my sick to my stomache. I had to come into the office for a short meeting with a client and to write up a court report. Then I went home and took a nap, then got back up for a hearing in the late afternoon. I went right back to bed afterwards and finally slept it off. Man, talk about bad timing. Early next week will be equally busy as I have 4 hearings and I need to finish up work and write reports for all of them. Then the long weekend - can't wait!
I did manage to sneak away for a movie last night:
This is another one that has been out for a while, so you probably know what it's about. Jack Nicholson plays a Boston mob boss named Frank Costello. Matt Damon is his protege who becomes a State Police Detective so Costello will have a man on the inside. Leo DiCaprio plays a State Police Detective who has uncles that were in Costello's crew, so he stages his departure from the State Police so he can infiltrate the Costello crew himself, undercover. Eventually Damon and DiCaprio are trying to figure out who each other are.
I loved this film. It's gotten great reviews (92% at rottentomatoes.com) and they're well deserved. I'm a huge Scorsese fan and have loved all of his movies, but this one will thrill those who have been disappointed with some of his movies lately. It's a return to the "mean streets" and it's incredibly suspenseful and gripping. It's a pretty long movie and by the end I was just on the edge of my seat, wondering if Damon was going to discover DiCaprio or vice versa and what was going to happen to Costello and the others. It was a wild ride and very satisfying. DiCaprio finally has sort of grown into his face, so he doesn't look like such a baby and he turns in a great performance as a detective who just desperately wants out of his situation and to regain his identity. I liked Damon too as sort of another Tom Ripley - a man who is able to hide an evil nature behind good looks and charm. I will warn you that there is sudden and intense violence in this movie that is very real. Oh, I also really loved the soundtrack. Scorsese did such a great job of chosing songs to play and repeat in key scenes.
I also have been doing a bit of knitting. I made another item for the Pine Ridge Reservation. Pre-felting:
And Post:
Project Name: Spirals
Designer: Pick Up Sticks!
Pattern Source: Leaflet
Yarn: Araucania Nature Wool (blue) and Cascade 220 (orange)
Yarn Source: Project Colorswap - Elizabeth
Date Started: 11/12/06
Date Completed: 11/15/06
Comments: I am very disappointed in how this hat came out. I used the rest of the Araucania Nature Wool for the main body of the hat and leftovers from my felted pumpkin for the brim. The Araucania is a thinner yarn than the 220 and the difference was much more evident in this hat than in the slippers - the brim is too big for the rest of the hat. I am amazed by how much this hat felted - it started out big enough for me to wear and ended up being baby-size. The other disappointment is that most of the french knots I tied ended up felting inside of the hat, so they disappeared. I could tie new knots on the already felted hat, but I don't want to have all that yarn inside the hat, so I'm just going to leave it as is.
I've also started another pair of slippers - same pattern as the child's pair I made earlier this month, but in an adult size:
When I finished the second one, maybe I'll put it on my foot so you can see how huge it is. I also finished another mitered square:
This is lucky number 13, so I decided to lay out 12 of them just to see how it's coming. The pattern in the book calls for 20 squares (4 x 5), so I thought I'd see how it looks at 3 x 4:
I did manage to sneak away for a movie last night:
This is another one that has been out for a while, so you probably know what it's about. Jack Nicholson plays a Boston mob boss named Frank Costello. Matt Damon is his protege who becomes a State Police Detective so Costello will have a man on the inside. Leo DiCaprio plays a State Police Detective who has uncles that were in Costello's crew, so he stages his departure from the State Police so he can infiltrate the Costello crew himself, undercover. Eventually Damon and DiCaprio are trying to figure out who each other are.
I loved this film. It's gotten great reviews (92% at rottentomatoes.com) and they're well deserved. I'm a huge Scorsese fan and have loved all of his movies, but this one will thrill those who have been disappointed with some of his movies lately. It's a return to the "mean streets" and it's incredibly suspenseful and gripping. It's a pretty long movie and by the end I was just on the edge of my seat, wondering if Damon was going to discover DiCaprio or vice versa and what was going to happen to Costello and the others. It was a wild ride and very satisfying. DiCaprio finally has sort of grown into his face, so he doesn't look like such a baby and he turns in a great performance as a detective who just desperately wants out of his situation and to regain his identity. I liked Damon too as sort of another Tom Ripley - a man who is able to hide an evil nature behind good looks and charm. I will warn you that there is sudden and intense violence in this movie that is very real. Oh, I also really loved the soundtrack. Scorsese did such a great job of chosing songs to play and repeat in key scenes.
I also have been doing a bit of knitting. I made another item for the Pine Ridge Reservation. Pre-felting:
And Post:
Project Name: Spirals
Designer: Pick Up Sticks!
Pattern Source: Leaflet
Yarn: Araucania Nature Wool (blue) and Cascade 220 (orange)
Yarn Source: Project Colorswap - Elizabeth
Date Started: 11/12/06
Date Completed: 11/15/06
Comments: I am very disappointed in how this hat came out. I used the rest of the Araucania Nature Wool for the main body of the hat and leftovers from my felted pumpkin for the brim. The Araucania is a thinner yarn than the 220 and the difference was much more evident in this hat than in the slippers - the brim is too big for the rest of the hat. I am amazed by how much this hat felted - it started out big enough for me to wear and ended up being baby-size. The other disappointment is that most of the french knots I tied ended up felting inside of the hat, so they disappeared. I could tie new knots on the already felted hat, but I don't want to have all that yarn inside the hat, so I'm just going to leave it as is.
I've also started another pair of slippers - same pattern as the child's pair I made earlier this month, but in an adult size:
When I finished the second one, maybe I'll put it on my foot so you can see how huge it is. I also finished another mitered square:
This is lucky number 13, so I decided to lay out 12 of them just to see how it's coming. The pattern in the book calls for 20 squares (4 x 5), so I thought I'd see how it looks at 3 x 4:
rdladd@arnan.com
