Uh...What Day Is It?

It only dawned in me last night that I completely missed last Thursday. I hate reading blog posts about, "Sorry I've been a bad blogger" but, damn, I have really fallen off the blog wagon.

We've been seeing a lot of movies in the last few days. We saw Catching Fire, American Hustle, Nebraska and Her. I recommend any and all of them.

Catching Fire was a slightly less dreary vision of Hunger Games than the first film but equally deft in its storytelling without spelling everything out for the audience. I don't know if absolutely all of it will make sense if you haven't read the books. I did overhear one woman on the way out of the theater saying she didn't understand what the ending meant. Maybe she was one of the many, many people in the theater who talked during the whole film or got a phone call. Grrr...

American Hustle was, I felt, an ode to Scorsese and New York in the 70s. It's slick, gleeful film-making with some really amazing performances. Seeing Jennifer Lawrence in this back-to-back with Catching Fire really highlights how talented she is. She is hilarious in this movie. Everyone is great.

Nebraska is a quiet, sweet little movie. Director Alexander Payne (Election, Sideways, The Descendants) goes for simple, unembellished visual storytelling. Great performances all around in this one too with a mainly no-name cast. Not one that really needs to be seen on the big screen though.

Her was my favorite of them all. Spike Jonze has written and directed a wildly original story beautifully. The film is quite sublime and surprising. It doesn't have the really off the beam insane vibe of a movie like Adaptation. It takes a wild idea--a man falling love with an operating system voiced by Scarlett Johansson--and tells a heartfelt, romantic and eye-opening story. Older Son saw all four films with me and this was his vote for best too.

While watching movies I've been knitting a few hats for charity. Nothing interesting, just plain stockinette.

Here's one.



But I am nearly finished with a cowl I started last week, Millwater knit in Mushishi. This is just what I need right now. Easy but not too dull.

Thursday is Late...Again

I'm going to "put the blame on Mame." Last night Wes and I went to the annual holiday screening of one of my favorite films (possible three-way tie with Goodfellas and Annie Hall) of Auntie Mame starring the impeccable Rosalind Russel. If you don't know what I'm talking about please stop reading and run to a video rental store, if such a thing still exists, and get it. You might start with His Girl Friday to build your love of Rosalind to a fever pitch. Really...go.



But now I owe you a Thursday post so how about some lovely handcrafted chapeaux.

I think the mannequin may have torn off her own arms. I would.

Green With Envy

Cedar Rapids

Wes and I had a chance to see a new film last night. Cedar Rapids had a screening as part of Sundance USA, a program that tries to bring a taste of Sundance to several film-loving cities. Cedar Rapids stars Ed Helms (The Office, The Hangover) and John C. Reilly. It's a very sweet but funny story of an naive insurance salesman who goes to a conference in Cedar Rapids. The director, Miguel Arteta (Youth in Revolt, The Good Girl) was in attendance and did a Q&A. I would show you the trailer but I think it gives away some of the best parts of the movie--why do they do that?! If you like somewhat offbeat comedies you should check it out.

Lips! Lips! Lips!

I'm really looking forward to the Rocky Horror episode of Glee but 1) Dianna Agron as magenta does not cut it and 2) the double casting of Magenta and Columbia reminds me of a preschool play so all the kids get parts.



Maybe I like the bunny version more.

The Funniest Part of the Movie

We went to see RED tonight. They ran this commercial before the movie.



When the cyclist crashed the woman next to us screamed in shock. Definitely my favorite part of the evening.

So Much Stuff

I keep blogging things. But only in my mind. So here's just a list of a bunch of stuff I've been wanting to share.

1. The pickles from last week came out really great. We pickled thinly sliced raw beets based on this recipe. We used a jalapeno instead of Thai chiles. They are sweet and really crispy. We've been enjoying them (probably too much) with feta and crackers. Goat cheese would be great too but we had the feta already. The radishes were done based on this recipe. We put radishes, red onion, jalapeno and garlic in together. The white vinegar/water brine has a really potent, nose stinging kick. Not bad but strong. I think I'd like a wine vinegar or cider vinegar next time. We're not eating the garlic because it's still a big chunk of raw garlic but the onions and chiles mellowed a lot.
   


2. Angry Birds is super-addictive. Like really, really addictive. Wes and I were up until nearly 2:30 last playing. Neither of us are terribly proud of this.


3. We went to see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World on Friday. We all loved it. If you like rock, comic books, Michael Cera, and/or video games this is a really fun time at the movies. We liked it so much that we bought the entire set of the books and got the soundtrack.


4. We also went to see Toy Story 3 again. We did it mainly to get out of the heat but, damn, what a great film. I wept uncontrollably for the last 15 minutes again.


5. We hid out at the mall today so I played dress up tried on clothes. I found the perfect Joan Holloway dress.
   
   
   
   Sadly I have nowhere I could ever wear this dress unless I suddenly start working at a law firm or go back in time. It's so hard to find a dress with sleeves that's flattering to a full figure.


6. My kingdom for a shirt that doesn't have jewels, beads or twelve pounds of ruffles on it! The pickings are so slim right now. At least the colors this season are more reasonable. Lots of soft grays and medium blues and none of that coral and screaming teal from last summer. I went into Banana Republic today and it looks like the entire shop was designed by Leanne from season 5 of Project Runway. All of this reminded me of here work in terms of the color palette and the soft ruffles. I think I might try adding some ruffles or rosettes or something to some of my shirts that I've gotten stains on. Better than throwing them out, right?


7. Gosh, it's hot.

Another Great Inception Spoof

For the Dora the Explorer fans.

Toy-ception?

Wes and I saw Inception over the weekend. It's a very good popcorn film. I suggest, if you see it, that you don't think about it too hard or it will all fall apart. It certainly wasn't as good as Toy Story 3 which was amazing. I cried for the last 15 minutes easily.

Here is a great mash-up of the two.

WIP It

There is progress being made. My Mondo Cable Cardi needs only half a sleeve and the collar. I finished the cabled band for the Celtic Bunny Hat.


Click for more fuzziness!

I started this charity scrap hat while at Secret of Kells a few weeks ago. It's pretty obvious it was knit in the dark.



My restarted for the sixth time Lloie's Cardigan is working out well. I finally got the gauge I was aiming for and now have a good hunk of sleeve.



I knit most of this last night at the final season bout of the Rat City Rollergirls. Erin put together an outing for a group from Purlygirls. It was so much fun! Key Arena was full and the match between Grave Danger and the Sockit Wenches was incredible. I just watched Whip It a few weeks ago so I was primed. I will definitely go again. It was a seriously good time. Now I need to watch the documentary about RCRG called Blood on the Flat Track. It's available on Watch Instantly on Netflix.

The Secret of Kells

When the Oscar nominees were announced this winter there was a film nominated for Best Animated Featured that I had never heard of, The Secret of Kells. It's a hand-drawn story about a young boy in the 8th century who defies his uncle, the Abbot of Kells, to work on an illuminated book. The uncles is consumed with building a fortress to keep out the invaders from the North. When a great book maker comes to Kells, after his own monastery is destroyed by the Vikings, Brendan learns the secrets of the art and discovers a magical world of nature.

The film is very beautiful. The visuals are quite stylized. I can't say any of us loved it though. The kids had a hard time understanding the story--and the accents. It's also more frightening than I was expecting. The suggestion of impending death and destruction is pretty heavy through the film. And the resolution is very abrupt and not terribly satisfying for children.

If you love hand-drawn animation you might want to catch this in the theater but leave the kids at home.

Where the Wild Things Are

All four of us went out into the cold and wet to see Where the Wild Things Are. The boys are now 9 and 11. Younger Son is still very immature for his age. He thinks everything is "too scary." He thinks Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Ware-Rabbit is too scary. He was concerned about seeing this movie. He was right.

The film adaptation is marvelous. It captures the truest essence of the book and the rawest emotions of childhood. At each small emotional pitfall Younger Son let out a little empathetic moan of concern. Eventually he came into my lap and watched the movie from there as I reassured him that, just like in the book, everything would be all right in the end. Sadly the mother of a sobbing four year old in front of us tried to keep her in the theater for the whole film, giving up far too late in the game. I saw at least two other families with very small children leave pretty early on in the movie. It is rated PG and it is strong stuff.

At some point during the movie, as Max ran through a forest in search of an angry Wild Thing, Younger Son said, to no one in particular, "That's what it's like when [best friend] hides from me." After the film I had a little time before bed to sit with each of my sons and talk about the movie and to talk about feelings in a way we haven't in a very long time.

This is not your standard kids' movie. This is a movie about the real, true feelings of childhood. It's about sadness, anger and loneliness and about love, family and friendship. I thought it was extraordinary. Not only did it do justice to the book, it expanded and enlightened it in a fresh, gorgeous and heartfelt way.

Humpday

Okay, the log line sounds pretty awful. Two guys, old friends, both straight, decided to enter an amateur porn contest* by filming themselves having sex with each other. Awful, right? But Humpday, a new film by Seattle filmmaker Lynn Shelton, is one of the funniest, most honest films I've seen in a very long time.



It's only in NY and Seattle but will be opening in more cities in the next few weeks.

Hollywood could learn so much from this movie about how to create real characters who are far more engaging, funny and poignant than anything you'll see in a studio movie.

*It's a real contest held in Seattle.

Every Little Step

Wes and I just got back from this very entertaining documentary. If you were a fan of A Chorus Line (I was a girl in NY in the 70s; I was a Fan) or even if you're not, this will make you want to do a little song and dance.

Update

The shelter called back and Bella #2 has already found a home. I'm very happy for her and the lucky family that gets to have her.

Also, we went to see Up tonight and it was fantastic. I cried at least four times and laughed a lot. I want to see it again. Really wonderful filmmaking.

Nothing Much. You?

So the Auburn Camp Shirt is making for very dull blogging. I could show you the tiny, little sleeve I've been knitting furiously on but...you don't care. I've started the cap shaping. In fact, I was so excited to start last night that I skipped ahead in the instructions and ended up ripping out about an hour's worth of work. I think I should be able to finish the sleeve tonight at Purlygirls. At least that's what I'm telling myself. Then it will be on to all the seaming of the itty, bitty stitches. And the sleeve hems and the collar. And, and, and.

Wes and I saw Watchmen this weekend. Read the book instead. It's more interesting and has less wooden performances. Oh, and don't bring your children. Some guy brought a little girl into the theater and I wanted to stand up and yell, "Get her out of here!" It's a very, gory, disturbing, violent movie with sex and nudity thrown in too. Leave the kids at home. Please.

You Know What Swatching Leads To

When I listed my possible NaKniSweMoDo choices (which have already started to change a lot) a commenter, Mary, pointed out that the Nature Wool I was thinking of using for Drops 103-1 is too thin to knit at 4.5 sts/in despite what the label says. Reading a bit more on the label I saw that it contains 242 yds/100 grams. That makes it it thinner than Cascade 220. Definitely too fine to knit at 4.5 sts/in. I wasn't worried. After looking at the Drops sweater I didn't think I would have any trouble changing the gauge. So I needed to determine my gauge. I swatched. I really, hardly ever swatch. I know, bad on me. I decided that on 6s I got a fabric that I liked that was 5 sts/in. I went back to my list and studied my queue a bit. Forestry jumped out at me. I didn't like it at all in the magazine. That belt...shudder. But seeing some completed sweaters on Ravelry and Veronik Avery's own photos of the sweater I really fell in love with the design.

So I cast on.

Three times.



I decided to knit this in one piece. It's just a raglan so no need for seaming. I also am solidly between two sizes and my gauge is a little iffy so I changed the numbers slightly. I had a *ahem* difficult time getting my ribbing pattern established. But the ribbing is done now.

I also pulled out some of the Noro Cash Laine I was thinking of using for this sweater. I haven't swatched it yet.

But then, I saw this scarf. I love a good stashbuster. I wanted to use up all my worsted-weight scraps. I started this the night before last. I found the pattern instructions really impossible to understand. I've never done linen stitch before. I ended up looking up someone else's better-written linen stitch instructions and it's going fine. But it's super boring and I hate knitting scarves. Also my scraps are mostly gray or green so it's not really popping.



And sometime last week I had a hankering for a sock project. My leftover Puck's Mischief from Selbu Modern was still sitting out. I started Retro Rib from Favorite Socks. It didn't grab me. For whatever reason the pattern didn't click for me. It's a very simple pattern but I couldn't get into it's rhythm. So I cast on for a heavily-modified Gentleman's Sock for Evening Wear from Knitting Vintage Socks. Much better but I've hardly worked on them.



I even got in a little knitting on my Sock Yarn Blanket while we took the kids to see Tale of Despereaux last night (Very scattered, uninspired movie. Our younger son enjoyed it but overall it was meh.)

So right now I'm all over the map. I'm hoping to pull myself together and focus a bit. Not my strongest suit.

Knitting, Reading, Watching

I'm well on my way on my second mitten. So far it looks a lot like the first one so I won't bother with a photo.

I actually finished a book recently. My reading has been slow and sporadic for months now. I just read Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer. He's a very engaging writer and weaves together many threads of the founding of the Mormon church, the growth of fundamentalist sects of Mormonism and a very brutal double murder committed by fundamentalists in the 80s. It's all very interesting and well told. In the end though the book is utterly lacking in resolution. It felt incomplete to me. It reminded me of why Capote putting off finishing In Cold Blood until Perry Smith was executed. Not that I'm hoping for an execution but two men sitting in prison for twenty-plus years is not a very satisfying end to a story.

Last night I started One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson. She wrote Behind the Scenes at the Museum, a novel I adore. I started this a long time ago when it first came out and for whatever reason I didn't get into it. I picked it up again last night and I am really enjoying it. I read the first two chapters last night and had to make myself put it down to get some sleep.

There has been a lot of movie and tv watching lately. Most has been mediocre but lightly entertaining.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is a seriously uneven but seriously hilarious pastiche of every musician's biopic ever made. Gross, raunchy, stupid but definitely funny.

Becoming Jane is a fictional imagining of a love affair that leads Jane Austen to...well...become Jane Austen. Pretty, sweet, too predictable. James McAvoy co-stars. This is a plus for me.

The Long, Hot Summer. Holy crap. Paul Newman just oozes movie star charisma all over this one. The cast is stellar with Orson Welles, Angela Landsbury, Lee Remick and Joanne Woodward. A gorgeous and entertaining film.

Twilight. Teenage vampires. They're in love. Yadda yadda yadda. If you liked the book then you know the drill.

Encounters at the End of the World. Werner Herzog goes to Antarctica and shoots mermerizing footage of the landscape and bizarre interviews with the people who choose to live and work there. Herzog inserts himself solidly in the center of the film. It's very interesting.

So there's a sampling of what I've been up to lately.

Dinner and a Movie

When SIFF announced it's Dinner and a Movie series last year Wes and I were really excited. We love Volterra. We love movies. It's an awfully pricey event so we just picked one to attend, Goodfellas, one of my favorite movies. We went last night and I am very sorry to say we were both under-whelmed. The food was good but not great and not anything I would normally choose to eat. The service was also not stellar. They only offered wine or prosecco to drink. I don't drink so I asked for iced tea. They told me I could have wine or water and that's it. This still seems so ridiculous to me. I can drink all the wine I want but they won't give me a soda? How does that make sense? Wes finally went over to the bar and wheedled a diet coke out of them. The movie projection was the most problematic. They screened the film off a DVD. The aspect ratio was off so the everyone looked short and wide and the room wasn't dark enough so it was difficult to see. All in all a disappointing, expensive night out. Next time we'll just go to a movie and go to dinner.

Oh, and a realized that I had misplaced some hexagons so I ripped out a few, sewed a few seams last night and reknit.

Haven't We Had Enough of This?

I just heard about a new documentary, Young@Heart, about a senior citizen choir that sings rock songs. It looks cute.



I'm not crazy about the poster.



Why is knitting still the international symbol for old age?