Della Q Lily Crochet Roll
I just received my prize from Getting Loopy’s contest from the Della Q interview. I am oh so happy with the Lily Crochet Roll case from Della Q. The case holds crochet hooks from size D to M. It holds a couple hooks in each size. I received a beautiful purple silk case. After the episode, I looked into the Della Q collection. Although her bags are pricy, they are beautifully handmade. I really wanted to win and was completely thrilled when I did. I’ve already packed my hooks away. It is such a relief to be able to find them when I need them. The case is labeled for easy retrieval and organization. I was storing my hooks in a paper gift bag and boy was it difficult to find the hook I needed. It was with great pleasure that I threw the thing away. I will be saving up for a Della Q bag for carting around my current work in progress. I have to tell you my husband is very supportive of my crochet hobby, but he was getting fed up with the piles of yarn, the pink gift bag that had seen better days, and the fact that when I’m working on a project I tend to take over the living room. I bought a plastic bin for the yarn being used for my current project, so that got rid of another bag. Now I need bins for all the other yarn that I have in boxes and bags behind the couch!
Big Bow Cardigan Finished!
I need to take a picture, but I am officially finished with my Big Bow Cardigan. What makes it official? I wore it to work today. I know it’s a high of 76 today in Seattle and no one should be wearing any kind of wool today, but I wanted to show it off.
I am still working on the Snow Drop Scarf. I kind of stopped because I wanted to make a pair of socks for my husband, but the pattern I chose to start from is just way too hard! I found one pattern that I will try. I believe I have enough yarn to make it work.
I am also working on a rectangle sparkly shawl for my mom. I’m hoping to have it done by her birthday in October or at least by Christmas from Crochet World magazine. I’m not liking the yarn much. There’s a silver thread interwoven that tends to pull and bunch around the cotton thread. Hopefully it will finish up nicely.
I’m sorry, but I really liked Transformers II
Despite the title of this entry, I am not sorry that I enjoyed Transformers II: Revenge of the Fallen. The plot was fairly simple to follow even if it was filled with holes so wide Devastator could waltz right through them. The parents were hilariously annoying, Shia LaBeouf was perfect as Sam, and Megan Fox was hot. I actually liked John Turturro more in this movie than in the last one. He and whoever played Leo Spitz, Sam’s new roommate, had me laughing oh so hard.
My biggest complaint with the first Transformers movie was with the robot fight sequences. Because most of the ‘formers were the same color in robot mode, I could not tell who was fighting who and who was winning! The fight sequences were also shot with incredible closeups making it even more difficult to tell what was going on. This time around, Michael Bay and company decided to go more colorful. When Bumblebee was fighting the red Decepticon in the desert, I knew who was throwing the punches.
I love the nods to old school mythology with the Matrix of Leadership and Optimus Prime’s and Jetfire’s combination for the final fight between Prime and The Fallen. Something my husband brought up, Alicia, the hot robot babe/spy that tries to seduce Sam while away at college, is a Pretender. The Pretenders were toys that came out after the show stopped airing here in the States. I’m thinking that they were introduced in the Japanese episodes later on. Other happy moments included seeing the RC’s even though there was only one in the cartoon, Wheelie (am I spelling that right?), and of course Sound Wave.
I especially loved the introduction of a new mythology for the movies with the Primes and their history on Earth and the source of Energon. I want more of this in future installments.
Now we come to the stuff that bothered me. The twins are a stereotypical insult I had a real problem with. Their inclusion was both disgusting and racist. They were rarely funny and were this movie’s version of Jar Jar Binks.
In all honesty, though, I do not understand why this movie is getting panned. I saw no difference between this movie and the first except that I had an easier time distinguishing the good guys and the bad guys, and there was no more need for a set up. I say if you enjoyed the first one, you will probably enjoy this one just as much. Pay no attention to the negative reviews, most of what I’ve heard/read is nitpicking anyway, except for the twins. — 3 1/2 stars out of 5.
Big Bow Cardigan & Snow Drops Scarf
I finished the crochet portion of the Big Bow Cardigan the other night and am now waiting for it to dry before piecing it together and adding the buttons. I know this one has taken me forever! I got bored with all the single crochets once I got over the initial hurdles of where the stitches were supposed to go. I’m just glad the designer was open to questions on Ravelry!
Anyway, while looking for a project I could start with material already at hand, I flipped through the magazine one more time and came across the Snow Drops Scarf. It is quite pretty and I am enjoying working in filet for the first time. However, I am not happy with the yarn I am using. I forget right now what brand it is, so I will update later tonight when I have the tag in front of me. It bought it fairly cheap at Wal-Mart because I loved the color and how soft it feels. However, after working a few rows, I came across yarn that had begun to unravel or uncoil. Hard to explain but basically the yarn had puffed up to twice it’s normal diameter making it useless. I had to snip that off at both ends and kept going. I thought well this must be an anomaly, I’ll keep going. Well, I’m into my third pattern repitition now and I’ve had to snip several inches maybe now as much as a foot and a half of this fat yarn. I am quite annoyed!
On the other hand, the pattern is actually quite fun to follow, props go to Doris Chan the designer. Its not insultingly easy (at least not to me!) but neither did I feel I needed extra help to understand. My problems stemmed from not re-reading the instructions at the beginning regard the right side and wrong side and losing my place. My husband’s iPod Touch has a great program called Stitch Minder which really helps to keep you from losing your place. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find a similar widget for the Mac or for my PC for that matter. This makes it difficult when I want to crochet and he wants to use the iPod at the same time. In any case, if you happen to own an iPhone or Touch, I would recommend downloading this free app. It has saved me several times with the Big Bow Cardigan and the Dr. Who scarf.
I will post pictures as soon as I’m done with both projects!
Dreams and memories
Artist: Ralph I Steeds
Have you ever had a memory surface, and for the briefest of moments you could swear it was a real memory, or snippet from some book or movie you’d just enjoyed? Once the moment is over, though, you realize the memory was actually from a dream. This happens to me all the time. Sometimes, my dreams are about people at work and everyday sort of things. When they are that ordinary it takes a little time to realize that the events I so clearly remember never actually happened, I had only dreamed it. The memories/dreams that bother me the most are those where I’ve had a fight with my husband but only in my dream. I wake up very angry with him, and there’s nothing I can do about it. After all, in the real world he had done nothing wrong.
Most of my dreams tend toward the fantastical, though. These are the dream memories I think are a part of a book or movie. I tend to come to the realization that it was only a dream with a slight sense of loss. The fact that it was only a usually means I will never be able to revisit that world or find out what happens. Of course, if I had the luxury of sitting down and writing out my dreams the moment I wake up, I could maybe learn more about the world my subconscious has created.
For a long time now, I’ve been hoping to have another one of those dreams that would be interesting enough to perform a writing experiment. I’ve tried to write up my dreams before in order to develop a story (for snippets you need only look through this blog’s previous posts) but I have a terrible time translating them to paper. This is usually because I’ve left too long before I put pen to paper, but mostly because I try to force the dream to follow a linear narrative. I want to try and write up my next dream the way I remember it with the twists and turns and changes in identity that is so common in dreams.
I’m curious if anyone else has had this or a similar experience. I’d love to hear from you to reassure myself I’m not alone in this!
Star Trek, Oh Yeah!
I finally saw Star Trek! It took long enough! I felt like I’d been punched in the gut within the first five minutes! This movie had it all, drama, humor, action, and wonderful nostalgic moments.
After J.J. Abrams completely altered the time-line, I had no trouble with this relaunch. Chris Pine nailed Kirk perfectly even if he did not really try to impersonate Shatner. This worked for me because from the moment of Kirk’s birth, the time-line was irrevocably altered.
I was even happy with Zachary Quinto which I didn’t think I would be. He looked too much like Sylar in the previews, and I was afraid it would be too distracting for me. He was most definitely in character enough for me to nto be bothered by how Sylar he appeared. The background of this time-line’s Spock was fascinating, moving, even surprising.
Another actor who just totally blew me away was Karl Urban who played Bones. He played the crotchety Dr. McCoy to perfection down to the insults he mutters under his breath about Spock.
In short, this movie was awesome. Those few fans still holding out because Chris Pine isn’t Shatner need to go suck it up and go watch this movie. This is the best thing to happen to the franchise.
Blog Abandonment [updated]
So I’ve basically abandoned this blog. I can offer several excuses, but they would be excuses. Mostly, there hasn’t been much to write about lately. I have travelled to Europe and back, so I figure I’ll start there.
My husband and I flew into Madrid two weeks ago. We found our way to our hostel thanks to a very helpful clerk at the Metro station. Checked in at the hostel and went back out on the town. We were struck right away with how clean the city is. There is an army of street sweepers emptying trash cans, picking up trash, and washing down parks and streets. There was very little trash on the ground or dog crap anywhere. There was plenty of graffiti and old buildings and scaffolding around but it was still clean. We walked until our feet hurt and then walked some more. We saw some beautiful buildings and fantasized about getting an apartment overlooking the Palacio Real.
The views and photo ops were great but mostly we just felt completely at ease there. We visited the Prado Museum, the Plaza de España, saw the outside of the Palacio Real, and another museum whose name escapes me at the moment. We saw original Dali paintings and gorgeous masterworks at the Prado.
I will be writing more about the rest of the trip later and posting some pictures.
Update: I failed to mention el Parque del Retiro and the quirky statues there. Something else I forgot, there was one moment that shows you just how different the vibe was from here in the States. We were sitting in the park in front of the Palacio Real just taking a break from the heat and giving our sore feet some time to recover. I looked up to see an older woman waving me over. I went over there confused as to what she wanted. She needed help with her grandchild’s stroller buckle. She couldn’t get it unfastened and wanted desperately to pick her up. I unbuckled it for her and went back to my husband. It was a bit disconcerting for me. I’m used to people not asking each other for help because they’re afraid of being mugged or worse. In retrospect
Below are some pictures from the Madrid portion of the trip:
Getting Loopy Contests
I have been listening to the Getting Loopy in Prime Time podcast for a few weeks now. I enjoy Mary Beth’s interviews with designers and magazine editors. Every week, she hosts a contest. I have been entering them consecutively since I started listening. It finally paid off a couple of weeks ago, and now again on last night’s episode. I haven’t received my first prize yet, but I expect to in the next few weeks. I believe I won a bag of samples and goodies sold for the purpose of encouraging free form crochet. I kind of like the idea of free form, but I do need to learn more technique first.
Last night, however, I won something I’m really excited about. I won a copy of Creepy Cute Crochet! I have mentioned this book before, but could not convince myself to spend the money. Now that I will have a copy, I can begin my army of undead to battle the army of ninjas! Mostly, I just want to make my husband something out of crochet that he will actually want like a ninja. As soon as I get my copy, I will hopefully start a few projects and post about that here.
Getting Loopy comes on Monday nights at 6:00 PM PST. Listen in! It’s wonderful to hear about crochet and about other people who are into crochet.
Review: The Bone Doll’s Twin
A friend of mine gave me a five dollar gift card to Borders about a month ago. Armed with the gift card and 30% off coupon, I went off to Borders to wander through their sci-fi/fantasy section. After several false starts, I came across Lynn Flewelling’s The Bone Doll’s Twin. I’d seen this cover several times and although intrigued never actually picked it up to read the back blurb. The novel is a great deal darker than the blurb led me to believe, but in a good way. When the blurb writer describes Tobin as disguised as a boy, I had no idea just how misleading that statement was.
Flewelling is a compelling storyteller. I never felt the need to skip uninteresting prose or boring scene descriptions until the last few pages when I was ready to pass out and just needed to know what was going to happen next.
I found the story fascinating, but so dark that in my current emotional state I could only take in small doses of this novel. Tobin has lived his entire life with the ghost of his twin brother chained to first his mad mother’s side and then to his after her death. Except Tobin is not a boy. He was born a girl. In order to protect her, the adults in her life put in motion a plan that would mean the sacrifice of one child to save her life and the kingdom. Tobin’s life changes with the arrival of Ki, a younger son of a landless knight, as his squire. Ki brings Tobin out of strange shell and shows how to behave as a normal boy, not having any other children in his life until that point.
Tobin and Ki are happy for several years even with Tobin’s father, Duke Rhius away so much on campaigns or to be kept under the watchful eye of the king in Ero. Two weeks after receiving the devastating news that his father has fallen in battle, the king sends his emissary to collect Tobin and bring him to Ero where he will join the Royal Companions. His cousin, Prince Korin, welcomes him warmly, but shows signs of weakness when under the influence of too much wine. Ki and Tobin both suffer from the slights of some of the Companions, but with their fighting skills manage to impress a great many of the Companions and watching nobility.
Unfortunately, everything is about to unravel for them both.
A dark fantasy building slowly but fascinatingly to an epic story of a warrior queen and her struggles to attain the throne that should have by rights been hers upon her mother’s death. Wholly recommended to any fan of a good story whether it be genre or other fiction.
WIP: Big Bow Cardigan
I have been working on the Big Bow Cardigan by Julia Vaconsin from Interweave Crochet’s Winter issue for the past couple of weeks. I keep getting hung up with each new set of instructions. My biggest problem I find is that I have trouble seeing things spatially. I don’t know how the garment is supposed to fit together. Every time I arrive at a new set of instructions, I am lost all over again. I read, and re-read then attempt, frog and read again the instructions. I am very grateful that I have a co-worker who crochets and for the Crochetville forums. They have been so helpful in explaining the pattern to me in a different way so I actually understand! I am working on the back right now and it looks like I only have the left sleeve and the scarf that forms the bow left to do. Hopefully today I can get some advice as to how to move on from here because I am stuck yet again.
