Hilarity Monday - Star Trek Edition Part 2

I meant to post another bit in the past week about how my knitting is progressing, but I had a hell of a week and a very full weekend, and didn't remember to take the pictures of my stuff until late last night as my computer was already right in the middle of a big back-up, and then I didn't bring the cord with me to work today...

Bleah. I'm just exhausted. But I'm still working on the Prepster and the October Baby Blanket, and they're both coming along, although I'm kicking myself over a couple things about the Prepster. I also finished a couple of the squares for the Warm Woolies group on Ravelry during my stressed out knitting-while-waiting-anxiously late Friday night, and sent a bunch more yarn home in the box with a bunch of books on Saturday. To top it all off, yesterday was a very long day involving a photo shoot with two of the girls here and a photographer friend. I'll let you know when I've gotten the photos and added them to my portfolio.

So, anyway. Star Trek. I loved it. I will discuss it in detail some other time, because I'm about to go to class. Meanwhile, please enjoy this bit of Eddie Izzard, a brilliant comedian, talking about Star Trek.



Edited: I am a dolt. Sorry that showed up twice for a while.

A Small Promise

Why, hello, my little langoliers!

It's Saturday, and I'm too lazy to go to the gym, and as soon as it's late enough to decently call Katie I'm going to see if she's interested in going to get something to eat. After that I will work on the Basket Weave of Eternity while watching Finding Nemo, and then tonight a group of us are going to see Quantum of Solace, which has FINALLY arrived in Japan. Squeal!

Wow, you might be saying. How fascinating. La-de-da. Well, as I was catching up on some blogs this morning (Yarn Harlot has been blogging for five years, dudes, and Knitting the Blues' computer died. Very emotional), I realized that I have got to stop writing novels every time I get on here. I mean, if I ever hope to attract a readership, and I guess I do, I can't expect people to slog through six pages of me rambling about whatever every time they visit. I think people will be much more forgiving of me rambling about whatever for half a page at a time.

And pictures, of course. Pictures are important. Nice ones. This is sunset over the river and bridge that cut right through the center of Yatsushiro.

Plus a wee mention of knitting: The Basket Weave is 24 1/2" long. So, 7 1/2" in the pattern stitch left and than an inch in moss stitch (bleah). I still have not started the finishing on the first ball, but I think I might do that today, after I've gotten bored of doing the blanket for a bit.

Then some geekery, since perhaps none of you who read this, if you exist and are actually thinking about it, have seen any real evidence of my geekiness. Clearly that would be those of you who have never met me. Anyway, geekiness: I watched Amadeus last night for the first time in years, and was just marveling over that aging make-up on F. Murray Abraham. That's kind of a make-up artist legend, how Dick Smith made a cast of his own forehead to get the wrinkles he wanted for old Salieri. And it worked! He and Paul LeBlanc won the Oscar for it. Not just for the forehead, of course - the hands! Did you see his hands as old Salieri? Beautiful, seriously. Sick Mozart was pretty nice, too. Afterwards, being the geek I am, I put on my 25 Mozart Favorites and went to Wikipedia to find out how much of that was made-up whole cloth. Almost the entire relationship between Salieri and Mozart, turns out. Which is cool, it's a story that got pieced together for dramatic effect from bits of intriguingly vague history and the fact that if it was creepy that Mozart couldn't quite finish what turned out to be his own Requiem, it would be even creepier if some malevolent force made him write it and thus killed him! But I was surprised that it turned out his wife was also musical (which makes sense) and that fact was completely ignored in the film. Hmph. Oh! and I was wondering why one of the supporting actors seemed so familiar, and after a bit of digging on IMDB, it turned out he played Dr. Lyman Hall of Georgia in 1776, one of our family favorites.

Also, Quantum of Solace better not have any scars or contacts that change color, as Casino Royale did. Maybe it was the lighting, but come on. A make-up artist of the caliber that gets a mega 007 gig ought to be on that.

Okay, that's enough for today. If you didn't think make-up commentary was geeky, you do not know enough theater and make-up geeks. For that, I'm not sure if I pity or envy you.

A Bit of My Old Life, Preparing for the New

I had a very busy weekend, and so did very little knitting.  This is a preview of next year, I'm sort of hoping, because what I was busy with was mostly Graduate School Applications.  I'm only sort of hoping this is a preview because, while I obviously hope to get into the grad school of my choice, I also hope, futilely I'm sure, to still have time to knit once I start.

There was also a Halloween party on Saturday, 

where I was able to re-indulge in another geek craft - special effects make-up.  And oh my God have I lost it.  I mean, yes, I have only the smallest fraction of my old make-up kit with which to work, and not all the proper materials or tools, but still.  It's been a year and a half since I've done any professional make-up, and it shows.  But I gave myself 

a bullet hole and stab wounds that didn't look bad, despite the extremely obvious lack of liquid blood (whoops), and made some bruises on one friend's face that weren't terrible.  The zombie make-up I did for another friend was only "eh", though.  Fine for a Halloween party in backwoods Japan where it's going to be pretty dark the whole time anyway, but not great.  Other make-up artists would not have been impressed.  But, well, I'm done with all of that, and while I shouldn't let all the old skills I paid so dearly to acquire fade away, who really cares?  Sorry for the terrible pictures, btw, but I didn't get around to taking any until it was dark.  And then I was kind of, um, drunk.

Then the rest of the weekend was Graduate School Applications with a few rows here and there while I waited for something to upload or download or print out or whatever.  Last week I managed to do most of the first glove for Robin in the Daikeito yarn.  It's practically a lace weight, even though Ravelry says it's a sport, so I went down to the 5 DPSs, and it was very small.  I worried it wouldn't fit, so held off doing the thumb until I could have my tiny neighbor Katie (about Robin's size) try it on.  She tried it on on Tuesday night, praising the yarn (maybe I'll change her intended gift now) the whole time, and it fit just fine.  She's a non-knitter, and once again a non-knitter expressed confusion at the lack of fingers on the glove.  But she did live in Canada, so I guess she's entitled to want fingers on her gloves.  Robin, however, lives in Los Angeles, so I think it will be fine.  And it does look nice.  I tried to do the thumb that night, but I let myself experiment with picking up more stitches and decreasing in funny places and it looked terrible, so I frogged the thumb and put the glove aside.

                          

While I was waiting for Katie to get back from Kyoto to try on the glove, I cast on the head band thing for Sheila.  This is my first time knitting from a chart like this, and I'm not gonna lie, it was a pain in the butt at first.  It's still a pain in the butt, actually, because I prefer to take my glasses off when I knit, and that means I have to keep stopping, picking up the chart, and holding it up to my nose to see what the hell I'm supposed to be doing.  Breaks the rhythm somewhat.  But if I put on my glasses to knit I will eventually get a headache.  So bummer.  And I first cast on the variegated Patons Decor for the headband, because I want to use it, and it's pretty, and I only have one skein of the stupid stuff.  About twenty rows in, however, I realized that it was completely wrong for this pattern.  I mean, there's all this complicated (to me) pretty stitching, and this nice cabling, and it got completely lost in this dark variegated Thing.  So I frogged it, and started last night in the Patons Decor leftover from a scarf I did ages ago (that I hate - it's stockinette and rolls like anything and is dull and sits in a drawer upstairs, likely to be donated to the second-hand shop when I leave).  I have two partial skeins, the Lilac and the Sage Green.  I started this second attempt in the Lilac, which looks nice, but I have no idea if I'll have enough yarn.  Naturally, I couldn't be bothered with a gauge swatch and how would you do that for this pattern, anyway?  So here's hoping, and I'll do the second head band, for Emily, in the green.  Also, I think the yarn is just a wee bit thick for this needle size - it looks fine, but knitting with it is kind of awkward, and also since I only have size 6s in DPNs, the needles are very short.  Maybe for the next one I'll switch up to the 7s I have somewhere.

Huh, just occured to me - if I run out yarn, I could always unwind the scarf upstairs, right?  Hmm, Idea!

Yeah, I was watching Hot Fuzz the other day while recovering from Graduate School Applications.

Oh, and I just can't help saying how very extremely freakin' happy I am about the results of the Presidential election.  So very, very happy.  Things can change, people, they really can!  Yippee!  Okay, I'm done.