Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings
Tax the Rich

 

Knitting Friday

 

OK, I think I have a ton of knitting stuff to share with you today so let me get right to it.

#1 Starting a ruffled scarf

 I promised you a very simple way to make one of those popular ruffled scarves and pic #1 shows you the most difficult part of this project: winding the yarn around a cone. Because if you don't, this yarn twists on itself horribly. I'm using a cone of some Lion Brand lace. A lot of knitters say to use the cylinder from toilet paper. That's OK, but yarn cones are much sturdier.

 

What you need for this project is a K hook, coned yarn. and either the time to finish this project in one sitting or a place to place it between working on it. You can't toss this in your knitting bag without disaster.

 

#2 Work from the top

My ruffled yarn is slightly different than other brands because they have one side slightly thinner than the other; my yarn has a thick ribbon-like side (green) which sort of shouts: Don't work on my side.

 

Here are the steps I used:

1. Cone your yarn.

2. Get a K hook*

3. Fold under the raw edge end where you will start working about 4 times. This will bring the raw edge inside and you won't see it (In #2, the bottom of the scarf (on right of pic) is that folded raw edge. It's secure and it looks finished. You will treat this folded over end as one layer and when you pick up a loop from the top of this end (purple) , you will go through the 4 layers but only pick up one loop.

4. Starting from your folded over raw edge from the top of your yarn (top purple in pic #2), bring your hook through every other loop 10 times. (Note: at the raw edge to make it more secure, you could pick up every loop.)

#3 10 loops on the hook

5. In pic #3, you can see the loops on the hook. Just bringing the hook through the top loops puts them on the hook; you really are doing no craft work here.

6. Once the 10 loops are on the hook, mark them as #1 - the first one near the hook end, #2 - the second one near the hook end, etc. and proceed to take #2 over #1 and off the hook then #3 over #1 and off the hook, etc., until you are back down to one loop on the hook.

#4 Back down to one loop

 7. In pic #4 you're back down to one loop on the hook.

8. The rest of the project is just adding and removing the loops to the length of the scarf.

*This project is really not knitting or crocheting. It's just sliding loops onto a hook and using your fingers to bind them off. So you could use an appropriate sized needle instead of a hook.

 

I haven't finished this scarf yet so I will post the finishing off next week but I'm thinking this is going to be a simple finish as with all these scarves; just be sure you have secured the final loop, sewing it in place if necessary, because these babies unravel in a flash. This scarf is 3" wide and 34" at present. It's a very, very fast project. But having said that, I would never buy this ruffled yarn again. I think it's worse to work with than fake fur though ff seems to have more types of projects. The ruffled yarn seems doomed to make scarves, though it does have a shawl pattern which I just can't decipher.

 

And now it's confession time. I swore about 6 months ago never to buy yarn again except for special gifts. However, last week Knit Picks had a one week alpaca sale; baby alpaca no less. For three days I was just tempted; on the fourth day, I fell off the wagon.The lace alpaca was delivered yesterday. It is soooo soft. I want to raise baby alpacas. I would pet them all day.

 

Which brings me to my alpaca shawl, whose alpaca must come from a grumpy, grizzled old beast since it is warm but definitely not soft. This is the shawl which started as a little girl's coat, morphed into 4 shawl incarnations, all of them with major coverage problems (too much, too little.) Remember?

#5 Unblocked: 25" x 47"

 

Well, I can now report that this current version of the traveling alpaca shawl will be the last.

# 6 Blocked: 31" x 61"

As you can see right and left, this time it works.

I worked my typical shawl pattern: knitting at the bottom with 2 increases each row, each end (4 per row.) Then at the length, I knitted straight with a YO, K2tog/SSK each side to keep the open lace look. However, as you can see, that straight knitting didn't last long because, I find, knitting getting very tedious with heavy yarn. So I just bound off and picked up the same size hook as the needles (US 13, K hook) and worked even to my width. Blocking added 6" to the width and 14" to the length. I'm wearing it as I type and I'm toasty.

I've spent a lot of time crocheting this week because I conned myself into buying this lace-weight alpaca by promising to work on all the wool lace-weight yarn I have. However, I've learned only to crochet lace yarn not to knit it. Not that I don't love the look of knitted lace but life is too short for the angst of pulling out knitted lace-weight. So, I'm looking for airy crocheted patterns for lace. (When I say I have a lot of lace, that's not a brag. I love lace. We all have our quirks.)

My first foray into crocheted wool lace-weight is the summer mesh shawl from Lion Brand which I linked to last week:

http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/L10288.html?noImages=;utm_source=20111216_Dec16_Split2;utm_medium=Emails;utm_campaign=Weeklynewsletter;utm_content=P-rochetShimmerMeshShawlBag

Last Friday, I showed you this Summer Mesh in crochet thread. Here it is in red wool lace:

#7 Summer Mesh in wool lace

 

On the left, you get to see it before tinking.

#8 Just before tinking

On the right, the yarn blob shows the mistake I found. The good news is that I'm back to longer than pic #7 by now.

OK, I have more but let me leave you will a fun project if you want to do some experimenting.

 

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/a-little-of-this-a-little-of-that-shawlette 

 

Terri DiLibero from Ravelry has designed her first shawl (link above) and I've been playing with it in my spare time, basically to see that if I need to make it longer, there is a non-increase row I can repeat. (Row 9 looks like a candidate for this so far.) It's a crocheted shawl so mistakes you make when reading a pattern cold are easy to fix. Take a look at it. She put a lot of time into it and she generously is offering it free. I'm picturing it as a shorter summer cover-up (Just work to Row 9 and then repeats of that row?)

 

And finally, another plug for Ravelry especially since so many of my pattern picks link to it. This is the most awesome place to get knitting/crocheting help and ideas. Don't not join it because you think it's a social site and you're a lone crafter. It is a social site if you want it to be but you can also be a "Lone Crafter" and cruise this site for hundreds/thousands of hints, patterns, yarn requirements, etc. The price of admission (that's just a saying, there is NO cost to join Ravelry) is worth it just to see all the specs on a project you might be planning. For example, you can plug in your pattern's name and get such help as yarn ideas, helpful hints, and pictures of finished projects. Or you can just search on words like "raglan", "Estonian", "300 yards, fingering" - the list is almost endless. You get to see patterns which are exclusively posted on Ravelry and patterns from outside sites for which another Raveler has posted the link. It's a win-win situation. 

 

OK, that's it for this Friday. For all of you celebrating this week and weekend, Happy Holiday. See you next week.   

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings
Tax the Rich

 

Website Wednesday

 

I have to be here and there early this morning so let me get right to my picks for today.

 

http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/5-weird-things-i-did-in-high-school-that-didnt-seem-weird-at-the-time/

 

5 weird things I did in high school. Did you do any of them? Well, she does say that they were weird.

 

Check out the rest of the Thought Catalog since there are a lot of current, young topics running there:

http://thoughtcatalog.com/

 

It says its ideals are: 1.Thought Catalog is fun, smart, and creative. 2.The site is well-designed and clutter-free. 3.TC contributors are diverse. They’re at the vanguard of their respective fields, they’re students, they’ve been published everywhere from The Paris Review to Maxim. 4.We’re nobrow and nonpartisan. We don’t take any of this or ourselves too seriously. Culture is our politics. 5. Reading Thought Catalog will probably make you more interesting. You’re going to discover stories, ideas, and voices here that you won’t find in the mainstream media. 6.We’re about today. But our mission is also archival. We plan on sticking around for a longtime. 7.Our content is always vetted and (most of the time) edited. 8.We’re generous. We’re positive. We’re friendly. We prefer to focus on the good than the bad. We’re more celebratory than critical. 9 Important conversations happen here. 10.In a small way, you’re supporting the future of journalism.

 

You decide. Depending on the staidness of your workplace, check it out for the first time away from there.

 

http://www.theglobalintelligencer.com/december07/chrisjordan.php 

 

I like the above page on The Global Intelligencer since usually when pictures such as these are run you only get the first one with a caption like: Birds in Flight and you think, WTF, all I see is a sea of black? TGI "walks you through" each pic so if you're looking at birds, you'll finally see them.

 

Be sure to explore the rest of TGI at:

 

http://www.theglobalintelligencer.com/ 

They definitely have a POV, with which I can't argue: And what about the millions of people around the world who urgently feel the need to develop a more sanely balanced way of living? How do they learn about other individuals forging new and sustainable methodologies in science, economics, health, social services, alternative energy, education, agriculture, business and the arts?....The Global Intelligencer is one small piece of the puzzle. Its mission is to serve as an information clearinghouse for topics concerning individual, social and global transformation, making it available on a monthly basis to a maximum number of people worldwide.

A lot of good stuff here. And, who could not love a site which has  the World Toilet Association's environmental recommendations. 

 

http://mentalfloss.com/article/31792/12-stephen-frys-wise-witty-quotations

I've picked Mental Floss before but I happen to like Stephen Fry and here are some of his pithy quotes. We all tend of see the humans playing characters in TV/movies as only a digital beings. It's good to read that they think beyond the script.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/the-first-paintings-of-famous-artists

 

Again, I've used Buzz Feed before but I liked this page which shows the first painting of 14 famous artists. In many you see the future works, but Dali? Maybe it was before he grew that extremely silly mustache.

 

OK, let me end with a guy and a gal site. Not being a guy, I'm just guessing about the likability of this site:

 

http://guyism.com/ 

 

Click on Browse by Categories and The Library (for How-to Guides.) I can't say that I approve of "15 ways to successfully cheat on your girlfriend." since, from the comments, it's not a humorous piece. But then girls cheat on boyfriends; I just don't think they've developed a guide for that yet.

My girls pick is : http://www.xojane.com

I came to XOjane through this page:

http://www.xojane.com/family/what-my-mother-taught-me-about-the-eff-words-feminism-and-fear

which has an interesting story about a 1960s? Texas mom who aided abused women long before that problem was anywhere near the radar. I doubly liked the story because the mom's husband was a good guy. So many of these stories say: And being abused herself, she decided to help others.......

 

Yes, XOjane has your usual girlie stuff, clothes, beauty, sex/love, etc. but with a twisty headlines: I Had An Ovarian Torsion This Weekend, Which Is Exactly As Much Fun As It Sounds or Today Is National Proposal Day So Let's Celebrate By Looking At This Mortifying Email I Once Sent Asking A Guy To Propose To Me.

 

And be sure to click on Jane's stuff where you learn what stuff she couldn't get people to write about each week. I'm not explaining any more; you'll find out. 

 

Again, sorry about my guy site pick, especially if you don't like it. To me, XOjane is so much more interesting. But then, I'm a girl, which probably explains my difficulty in picking good guy sites.

 

Enjoy. See you next week. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings
Tax the Rich

Movie Monday - early murder mysteries, etc.

Looking back on my Friday knitting posting I discovered the misuse of a comma (I seem to strew commas with abandonment) and a list numbering which goes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6.

At one time this might have brought me angst and I'd attempt to correct this in spite of the fact that editing after publishing at this site is like giving a mouse a cookie. However, such angst has long departed from my psyche and I, and Alfred E. Neuman of Mad, just smile and think: What, me worry?

And then I hear things like the interview below: 

http://billmoyers.com/segment/anthony-leiserowitz-on-making-people-care-about-climate-change/  

Moyers is interviewing a scientist who specializes in science communications and the interview deals with global warming. After listening I'm beginning to doubt that my desire to be remembered in time as a good ancestor really matters. Leiserowitz points out that we need only a 2 degree rise in temperature to set us on the "no turning back" path to be remembered as (if in the future another species on another planet can or cares to remember us) the species called human on the planet called Earth.

So what does a misplaced comma or mislabeled numerical list matter?

On that cheery note, take a look at:

http://www.filmpreservation.org/preserved-films/screening-room/snow-white-1916

and watch Snow White from 1916. After watching some ancient forms of our present CGI shown in the first few minutes of this hour long film, I guess I should lighten up on my criticism of CGI today. It seems like from the get-go in movies film makers wanted to dazzle their audiences with the spectular. (Santa has a Christmas tree magically appear and dolls he leaves as presents turn into miniature people.) Do watch it for these early achievements.

I was heading for a thematic Movie Monday: evaluation of the who-dun-it? murder mystery with which Hollywood was so fond of in the 1930s and early 1940s (the mysteries before noir.) However, then I had to sit through The Case of the Lucky Legs (1935) on Sunday. This turkey is part of the Perry Mason movie series. 

Ellery Queen, Sherlock Holmes (that series started much earlier), Philo Vance, Bulldog Drummond and Charlie Chan are some of the most popular detectives who solved crimes on film during that decade. Most of these were just laughable turkeys with the mystery taking a back seat to horrible comic routines or boring nightclub singing. But some were quite entertaining. Philo Vance's The Kennel Club Murder Case, 1933 and some Charlie Chan entries (if you overlook the stereotypical portrayal of black characters) contain solid mysteries. (Charlie Chan in London, 1934)

Take a look at this site for a full list:

http://www.filmsandtv.com/genre.php?gs=1930Mystery

I guess heaven for me would be popcorn and watching these old gems and turkeys through eternity. I know why I like them: I don't like to watch my mysteries with hands in from my eyes. You know, the type with gore which moved from the slasher genre to the marketplace mystery genre after Psycho (1960). I guess the Victorian edict of "Don't scare the horses." applied to these earlier mysteries. They were so ladylike in their violence.

Which brings me to Hitchcock whom I consider a genius in the murder/mystery/suspense genres. And, I would say an unsung genius in the eyes of  Hollywood as it never awarded him a "real" Oscar. After sitting through the torture of The Case of the Lucky Legs this weekend (Truth Note: The 13 reviewers on IMDb loved this movie.) I sort of developed a theory as to the why of this slight. Mysteries were profitable for Hollywood since their studios, back then, ran 24/7. They were very easy to turn out movies since most had a pre-written story, many were vehicles for nascent stars and directors or former stars and directors on the wane, and, if they weren't top rung productions, they could always fill the marquee as the needed second feature. So I think Hollywood was very happy for the 1930s murder mysteries but unfortunately, like the popular town prostitute, they got no respect.

So when a rare film visionary such as Hitchcock chose to hone his skills in this genre (Hitch didn't start in this genre; Juno and the Paycock (1929) was one of his very early directorships), he was welcomed for his profitability but not his extraordinary talent in such a hackneyed genre. Even his Shadow of a Doubt (1943) which is still the quintessential "horror" story about Amierican evil and hypocrisy in a small town didn't get a nomination but The More the Merrier (1943) did.

Wow, it's late. Gotta go. See you next week.

 

   

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings
Tax the Rich 

Knitting Friday

#1 Just sittin'

O. A. Bear just sat around this week since I had not modelling jobs for her.  I knitted but no finished projects to show this week.

For anyone who's following; my diet still progresses. 50 minutes of tread milling at least four times a week and no "bad" foods. Wow! you're thinking, The pounds must be melting away. Not so. As so many of you know, it's a struggle. I'd like to say I do it to stay healthy; and, for the most part, I do. But in the US, the mantra is: You must be slim. You must be slim. Unfortunately, added to this is: By the way, doesn't that ad for pizza look tempting?

#2 LB Summer Mesh

I want to revisit this shawl (#2) from last week, because whenever I work on it, it brings me such such contentment and I think we all can use that in our lives. I don't know why this project makes me "happy" since I work a lot of lace, but it does. The link is below and it's a simple lace (the instructions for the bag with it look much trickier) with picots along each row.
  

http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/L10288.html?noImages=;utm_source=20111216_Dec16_Split2;utm_medium=Emails;utm_campaign=Weeklynewsletter;utm_content=P-rochetShimmerMeshShawlBag 

Working on it yesterday, I decided to give more details on some tips I learned. These tips are probably essential if you're working in crochet thread as I was. The trickiest parts of this project are the row ends for the two row pattern.

1. Mark the Row 2 side of your work so you don't have to guess what row you're working. (Coral colored blob of yarn in #2)
2. At the beginning of your first Row 1 (you only work this row once), you will make at single crochet. Mark this single crochet. 
3. At the beginning of your first Row 2, you'll chain 5. Mark the 3rd chain of this ch-5. (You will keep marking this chain stitch on every Row 2 throughout the project.) Work Row 2 as instructed and:
4. At the end of your first Row 2, you will approach your marked sc (3). Work a double crochet in it as instructed.
6. At the beginning of Row 3, you will ch 1 and work a sc in the dc from Row 2. Mark this single crochet. (For the rest of your shawl, you will continue to mark this sc on every Row 3.)

That's it really. At the end of every Row 2, you'll work in a  marked single crochet. At the end of every Row 3, you'll work in the third chain of a chain 5. Of course, with heavier yarn this marking is  over-kill. But with crochet thread, the stitch definition gets lost quickly.

One other quick tip: You work a picot in the middle chain of a chain-5. Just count two chains over from the left of the ch-5 and work the picot in the next chain. For some reason, this was so much easier than counting from the right.

And now, something completely different  in pic #4. For some reason, when I bought this fabric (which was not that long ago), it seemed like a good choice. At least, about half this fabric is now a skirt and it's got a lot of black in it so I can see its wear-ability in the spring and fall.

#4 A skirt

 

#5 Black, wool top

Which brings me to this black, wool top. It's from the generic shell pattern I posted some time ago. You can see strands of yarn on the right and left armholes. That's because I first decided to make this a long sleeved top until, at 3 a.m. yesterday morning, I thought: Am I nuts! Knitting with black is a bitch and I want to work long sleeves? So I bound off, cut the yarn at both sleeves (it's wool so I'll splice to crochet on the crab stitch) and probably promptly fell into a peaceful sleep. The lace pattern is very open on US 10 needles and consists of Row 1: *YO, K2tog; Row 2 - 4: K.

 

And finally, blue alpaca which has been around the block way too many times.

#6 Well-used alpaca

  I have no idea where I got this alpaca but I seem to remember that it began life as a sweater for the girl. Then she grew and it visited the frog pond because alpaca is a wool which lives forever it seems. This is the fourth variation of a shawl for this yarn. All the others were too shallow with very, very long tails. The pattern used in #6 is my own creation of CO 5 and 4 increases at the beginning and end of every row (as yarn overs) until you get to your length. (Note: Wanting to be sure this shawl didn't "grow" long tails, I ended my length before the stitches filled the 32" US 13 needles above. However, even though I'm now knitting with no increases, you can see that the stitches are bunched up. Beats me why this happens.) Once you reach your length, work straight but with a YO, K2tog or SSK at each end to keep the lace look without increasing.

I have high hopes for this project. More next week. And also next week: remember the ruffled yarn which is so hot? I was working out a pattern to make it into a shawl (no success) and I think I've discovered an oh-so-easy way to work it into a scarf - no counting, or measuring inches. More on this next week also.

See you then. Happy knitting.

   

 

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings
Tax the Rich

Website Wednesday

It's interesting that on the 10th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, news shows and headlines are blasting out the amount of money squandered there but not reporting to whom these monies went. You know, all of those who became very, very rich during this horror. The impression is given that a sewer manhole was raised and, for 10 years, the government just poured billions of dollars into it. Like our government went to munitions makers and said: Hey, we're starting a war and we would like a huge donation of tanks, weapons, ammo......

Unless the US has huge, secret, hidden, government factories, US officials went to private companies for war supplies. The monies our government squandered during this conflict made many people very rich and very happy. Good investigative reporters would be out following this money trail. That's the story which should be hammered into the psyche of the patriotic, flag-waving American citizen.

So know now, you men who build things that kill,
So know now, those who beat my free will,
So know now, all who hear this now,
They'll wear a mask of virtue, and take many bows.
(MiniMandaRuth, My poem for war profiteers from a soldier. DemocraticUnderground.com, 12/30/05 )

OK, let's segue gently into my website picks and start with:

http://the-talks.com/interviews/stellan-skarsgard/ 

which is a short interview with actor, Stellan Skarsgard (Don't recall his acting credits? Well, he's also dad to Alexander (True Blood) Skarsgaard.) I liked what Skarsgard said about paying taxes: Of course. If you make a lot of money like I do you should pay higher taxes. Everybody should have the possibility to go to school, and university, and have good healthcare. It's the same as what uber-rich J.R. Rowlings said in another interview. Refreshing, and encouraging.

But be sure to click about The Talks (A-Z Directory) and read a lot of interesting, short interviews with celebrities you may know, or not. The interviewer asks some thoughtful questions. 

Now, on to:

http://www.123inspiration.com/http://www.123inspiration.com/

I'm creative but I'm not artistic. I create wearable garments, arrange furniture innovatively, turn out pithy phrases at times and dress monochromatically. I hope I'm clever, and creative, and interesting, most of the time. At 123inspiration, you get a lot of interesting, clever, creative sites but also some really artistic ones. People who can make that leap into art. Click around to see what I mean. It's worth it.

OK, now this site comes with a question:

http://bookriot.com/2012/10/01/the-book-riot-50-10-libraries-of-the-rich-and-famous/

These are libraries of the rich and famous; you know, my favorite people. Scroll through them and then ask yourself the question: In which library(s) would I like to read? That is: Where would I be most comfortable opening a book? I picked more than one though I could whittle it down to just one favorite. Oh, and don't let the comfortable/non-comfortable chairs be a factor. Just assume you'll be able to drag your coziest reading chair in there with you. After all, what good is a fantasy if you can't fantasize?

Oh, and if you click Trailers on top, you get to see book trailers. That's a new one for me. Check it out.

And finally,

http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/the-happiest-facts-of-all-time

I'm sure I've used Buzz Feed before but some of these pictures just made me smile (like the first one.) These pictures are interesting, cute, and probably hokey to some of you (and me, most times) but after a week of dank weather, let's have some sunshine. Even if you've been to Buzz Feed before, click around. It stays current though probably not for office viewing.

That's it for today. See you next week. 

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings
Tax the Rich

 

Movie Monday - Men in Black III

 

There's got to be a lot of blathering today if I want to fill this post since my movie review could probably take just one line. 

 

To get political?, sports-minded? for a minute: What's with that multi-tatted guy and his Nazi salute? Talk about instant fame/infamy. I didn't bother to read the article because I got all I needed to know from the picture and headline in The Huffington Post which, unfortunately, probably makes me a moderately informed citizen in the US.

 

So the guy's been banned from professional soccer for life? Which makes me think: Was he trying to make a reasoned statement with that salute? (I may be wrong but all the tatts he wears sort of tells me he may have made some unreasoned decisions in the past.) Did he really wanted the world to know he was a Nazi supporter? Does he even understand what the Nazi Party stood for? He's much too young for its heyday in the 1930s so I'll assume he's picked up bits of their doctrine from modern-day rabid right-wing European groups. Now, whether he's meant to or not, his salute has ended his career in professional soccer (I'm assuming it's professional), and these personal beliefs may have destroyed a well-playing livelihood for him forever.  Is it fair to make him the poster child for a "we will not tolerate such an attitude/belief system when it is brought to our attention" draconian punishment? Obviously, from articles I have read re: the rise of neo-nazi beliefs, this guy is not alone in his thinking. Does scoring points with the politically correct crowd with this punishment help to eradicate fascist beliefs? (And as a side: Have you heard/read the hate-speak emitting from the mouths of some US politicians?) I'm just raising the questions here. Outside of a firm belief that draconian punishments always lead to more trouble, I don't have the answers.

 

OK, down from my soapbox. I spent the afternoon yesterday sewing. I made four skirts so it wasn't a total horror but never, ever will sewing be the creative hobby which I tell everyone who will listen (usually just my captive family) they should have. I was exhausted by the end of this sewing session. And yes, I know that if I had spent the time knitting, even with very large needles, I would have only have been able to finish one garment in that time period. Still, it was such a drag to pull out the all the extras you need when you sew. (The biggest surprise was that the sewing machine, which had been sleeping for about 5 years, still worked.) But I saved DH a lot of dough: I recycled 3 garments (jumpers to skirts) and used up 2+ yards of expensive fabric (which I had to get on sale), so all ended well.

 

And while sewing, I did get to watch the missing pieces of Men in Black III for my review so you can say, I doubled-worked yesterday.

 

First, let me give you the one line review I mentioned above: Action movies should stay in their genre and leave the explanations and angst for other venues. And now let me cite my exception to that one-liner: Hancock. I reviewed this one before and I liked it because, while an action flick, there was a back story which competent actors were able to play out so that you cared. Will Smith, Charlize Theron and Justin Bateman all had a complex relationship in Hancock and while the hook was the super strength of your titled character, the handling of the story of how he got there and where he was going were extra strengths which moved this action film into a second genre.

 

Not so with Men in Black 3. Still using all the CGI aliens from the first two movies, MIB3 takes us back into Agent K's (Tommy Lee Jones) past. On the premise that Agent J (Will Smith) has to travel into the past to change history so that K is not killed in the present, the movie also tries to answer questions about both these characters' back story. It winds up not doing anything very well.

 

I look at the three Men in Black movies this way: I: a good introduction to our two action heroes (K and J) with some nice comic touches. II: More depth in that there is an action story (preventing the destruction of the earth - again), a surprise ending which is played out quite well, and again, neat comic touches. III: again the destruction of the planet is imminent, time travel to the past, our heroes' back story and just too many loose ends.

 

Let me just list some of my questions: They open the movie with K and J working together but then K disappears (before our eyes) and J is told K died 40 years ago. What? I know that Boris the Animal's escape from prison (in our time) has something to do with this, but what? Then J decides to return to the past to meet the younger K and change history. OK, got that. But as he's about to use the machine to transport him back he says something to the machine's inventor which causes the guy to say: Wow, that means you've been back there already. When you get back (to present time), you have to tell me about it. Not only did I have no idea what that meant but J never sees the guy again so that's another loose thread. And finally, we are sort of promised the reason behind K's curmudgeon behavior. I don't think the movie delivers on that either. (Aside: And the chocolate milk as a plot point was just silly.)

 

Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, and Emma Thompson play their roles competently but I do think MIB2 could have ended this series. However, MIB3 grossed over $600 M (once again with 60%+ coming from foreign markets) so unless Jones's face fossilizes into a statue from Mt. Rushmore, the boys will be back for #4. See you next Monday.

 

P.S. Reading a comment on MIB3, I get the idea that the earlier MIBs were just dreams and K really did die 40 years ago. Oh, I am sooooo messed up.

 

 

Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings
Tax the Rich

 

Knitting Friday

 

Cripes! I just saw an error in Wednesday's post. It's "He's hoping" not "He hoping." Do I dare re-enter and edit? That could take an hour. Or do I stop trying to be so compulsively correct? What a choice!

#1 3-Triangle Shawl in cotton thread

  

You may remember my saga of summer cami cover-ups. On the right with #1, you see another 3-triangle shawl which can be found at:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/three-triangles-shawl

#2 3-Triangle Shawl in DK

 (Note: It's a Ravelry patten so you have to sign up and the picture of the shawl there is different today [you see less of it] but I'm hoping that the pattern is still the same since this is a great one.)

You can see by comparing pics #1 and 2 that different weight yarns produce completely different results. The one done in cotton thread looks "dense" unblocked and I think it's going to stay unblocked because the idea is to cover the cami, not emphasize it.

#3 Model w/cotton thread shawl (#1)

#4 Back view

One of my favorite dogs is modelling the cotton thread shawl in pics #3 and 4. The drape looks like the mantillas wore by noble Spanish ladies going to church in old movies. But I'm looking forward to it being a "grab and throw on as you walk out the door" sort of garment. We'll see.

#5 O. A. Bear

Which brings me to a new member of my Knitting Friday family. Seen in #5 is O. A. Bear, a rather huge gal (I'm saying she's a girl bear) who will be a larger model for me. Bear is so named because when someone walks into the room and see here sitting in a chair, the first words are: Oh, a bear! 

#6 First modelling job

I've put O. A. to work already and 

she's modeling the same back view as pic #4 but you get to see so much more.

However, O. A. is only going to be a shawl and scarf model since no way am I stretching my tops or hats onto her massive frame. She's one big bear.

#7 Birch Vest Yoke pattern

Which brings me to pic #7, a top-down shell, crocheted in the yoke and knitted in stockinette and lace for the body. It's in a white/beige heavy cotton (what was I thinking!) and it's from the Birch Vest pattern I first mentioned in 11/12. I had trouble linking to it then but today I found this:

http://www.knittingdaily.com/media/p/95296.aspx

You must do a free registration with Knitting Daily to get it but, because it was featured on their TV show ($5.50 otherwise), you get it free. However, when you look at the pattern you are going to think WTF? since it looks nothing like what's in #7.  I just work up the Knitting Daily pattern through the yoke. Then I pick up stitches on my knitting needles just below the armhole and knitted the rest of the garment. As you can see, I hold the yoke front together with a small shawl pin. 

Anyway, it's done. I do like the combination of crochet and knit but my choice of yarn was a mistake. Now, I'm looking at a biggggggggg ball of this yarn left over. It's not going into another top. What about an open shawl? Which leads me to my last picture and project, and some back story.

#8 Top into shawl

My thrifty (OK, say cheap) soul just had to buy 2 skeins of black boucle on sale at Michaels for $1 each. On the right in picture #8, you see the top I started to make with that yarn. In fact, try to picture that top at least 12" longer (I was going for the top over tights look) before I discovered the first dropped stitch about 8" down from my needles. No problem. Black boucle is forgiving. I just carried it up as close to the needles as I could (I had done two increases along the way so it was not a straight run to the needles), brought the loop to the back, pinned it and was going to tack it and move on. That is until I discovered the second dropped stitch way down in the work. And then I discovered a gap between two stitches. What? It was almost like knitting drunk since I had no memory of making these mistakes but that's the problem with any dark textured yarn: you knit "on faith" a lot of the time.

So then I thought: A black shawl. You can always use a black shawl. And I knew it had to be crochet since I am never, ever, ever going to knit black again. (Ha!)

When you decide to look carefully, you can find some really nice crochet shawls out there in free patterns that don't have you working 30, 40, even more different rows. Here's one:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/easy-iris-shawl

I'm so happy I found Easy Iris (only on Ravelry so you have to join to see it.) With this shawl, you crochet first to the length (the arrow in #8 shows the direction) and, when you reach it, you turn you work one-quarter and crochet only on one long side till you reach your width. What a great idea!. From the picture with the pattern, you'll see a two-toned shawl done that way but the concept would work one-toned, two-toned, striped?, variegated? ....... I see a lot of possibilities here. Of course, I'm not ruling out crocheting the length (as above), then turning and knitting the width (not with black yarn, of course.) I think I'll be revisiting this pattern a lot.

That's it for today. Did I tell you that Miss L sent us a postcard? She prints her name beautifully. She has passed her hip x-ray (It gets reviewed by Penn!) and has been sent on for her training. We all miss her.

See you next week. Happy knitting.