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!
