Everybody Loves Saturday Night

elsn: deleted scenes

1. In which I profess my love/slight obsession with Ronnybrook's Blueberry Yogurt Cheese. If that is not available, Wild Berry will suffice, but isn't really a substitute.

2. In which I learn that my stepfather's older brother has died, and I take a few moments to remember a man I didn't know very well but who always struck me as a genuinely good person, and one who will be very much missed.

3. In which I discover that I have unwittingly become some sort of IT guy at work, which is hysterical because the technology all around me at home is a mess.

4. In which I am stopped at a light with a dude who asks for spare change, and when I give him the 30 cents in my pocket says he was drafted into the army in 1965, and a bunch of other stuff I can't really hear because we're on Atlantic and it's noisy, and he continues to talk as we cross the street and just before we go our separate ways he asks if I'm a teacher. Or maybe he said preacher.

5. In which I learn that cuticles bleed a lot. I had no idea they could bleed that much.

6. In which I discuss this new thing that Colleen turned me on to, this "room escape" series of Flash games that are maddeningly addictive. Like the ones on this page.  They're really not that new, but I'd never heard of them before. If you're into the sort of Myst-like puzzle solving hidden clues sort of games, you might like these. Some are better (way better) than others.

7. In which I discuss the heightened state of awareness our block seems to be on, given that three businesses have been broken into, some more than once. We've had the police come by to ask if we've seen/heard anything. Very Law & Order.

8. In which I then claim that no, this does not make me feel any less safe in this neighborhood. I mean, I can't speak for the business owners, but you know. This stuff happens everywhere, and the fact that I know it's happening and that detectives are on it makes me feel better about it. And folks have a way of pulling together 'round here.

9. In which I am totally stoked about the food co-op our 'hood might be getting. There's an organizational meeting next week that I plan on attending.

10. In which I devise a plan to devote the month of March to knitting the $1.50 Cardigan. While watching every DVD in the Masterpiece Theater: George Eliot boxed set I just picked up for an outrageously cheap price (not really in demand, I guess).

i see. it's like that, is it?

Sheesh. I barely have time to enjoy my newly washed and functioning keyboard than I have to go and do another stupid thing. This time I somehow disconnected my iMac from the computer end while it was on. As opposed to accidentally unplugging it. I don't know what happened. I stood up at my desk, and the next thing I knew: unplugged.

When all was again plugged in and turned on, I received this message:

So I did. iMac turned off. I turned it back on. Same message as before. I turned it off again. Turned it back on. Same message. I turned it off again, unplugged at the surge protector end, waited 10 minutes (this is the amateur computer person's version of "go back to the room you were just in to look in the same places you just did for your keys"), turned it on. Same message.

It is, I believe, the Apple equivalent of the Blue Screen of Death. Only they call it "kernel panic." The "panic" part I get. What's a "kernel"?

Jackie recommended booting up from the Installation DVD, which was fortunately (and somewhat amazingly, given the status of this office) easy to find, and that got me past the message. But then I was faced with choosing to reinstall an old version of OS X or quitting the installer to choose a startup disk. Among my options for startup disks was the current OS X folder. Made sense to me, so I clicked it.

I chose poorly.

So I've lathered, rinsed, and repeated, this time gulping in hope and installing old OS X, with plans to upgrade upgrade upgrade once I can get back into my computer.

It occurs to me that both Apple and PC would be better served by co-opting Douglas Adams. Wouldn't you rather see this when your computer crashes?

Update 3:22 pm: Reinstall failed. Time to call in the professionals. Damn.

speaking of crochet . . .

No doubt you've read the Yarn Harlot's wonderful tutorial post on how crochet enhances, stabilizes, and complements/compliments knitting.

(Thought 1: If it has the YH Seal of Approval, can the reconciliation of these two crafts be far behind?)

(Thought 2: Knitters should stop apologizing about their use of crochet in any capacity.)

Crochet has been on my mind recently, more than usual, due to a pending deadline for Interweave Crochet. Folks, if you haven't picked this magazine up, I recommend it. I don't recommend it as a contributing writer, but as a knitter. Because these garments are stunning no matter how they're constructed.

(Yes, I still identify first as a knitter. But I'm starting to identify as bi-crafty. Who knows? Maybe some day I'll be polymorphously crafty!)

Look at this gorgeous lacy, ruffly cardigan, for example:

It's from the Winter 07 issue, FYI. Check out how it defies the things knitters think they know about crochet. This cardigan has shape--whether it's shaped by design or by drape I don't know/can't tell. It doesn't look like armor, either.

Or take this--this will blow your mind:

I know it's a small image, but look closely. This cardigan is entirely crocheted. The body is worked in Tunisian crochet, which does look like knitting on its side, kinda. This little number is from the Fall 07 issue.

Tutorials for this particular kind of crochet can be found at StitchDiva. I also love the video tutorials at Nexstitch.

Tunisian crochet is also known as afghan crochet or afghan stitch. In fact, that's what my grandmother called it when she taught it to me. See, in addition to being a masterful quilter, my grandmother also crocheted afghans. Many, many, so many afghans. I have one here:

Tunisian crochet lends itself uncommonly well to cross-stitch designs. These were all the rage in the 60s-70s. Recently I came into a stash of old afghan pattern books that my grandmother owned. Some of them are kinda gross:

Some of them are wild:

Peacocks! and the one behind it is actually very pretty--with a sort of crewel embroidery design as opposed to cross stitch.

The one on top here I would actually make, in a different color combo.

It occurs to me that this post is backward--I could have started with the afghans and gone into the modern, but the way I've done it sort of proves that what people are doing today with crochet is, in fact, my grandmother's crochet. It's just refashioned for different garments, and in different yarn. And we can all thank our respective deities for that.

i think i'll go for a walk

Wow, I'm tired. No reason I should be, just feels like I never fully got started today. A walk would do me good, I think. I took a nice one yesterday, through the neighborhood park, watching all the kids with their sleds, feeling all nostalgic.

And then all the Minnesota kids did real well at the Oscars.

The big surprise of the night for me was "Falling Slowly" taking home best song. You would think the Academy would go for the big Disney production number, and I would've placed money on that. But no--it goes to the stripped down and pure duet. Which is awesome.

The reason I do not have a finished Starsky to show you is because I apparently lost the skill to sew in sleeves somewhere between last October and this weekend. I could not for the life of me get the first sleeve centered, no matter what I did. Pins, measuring, nothing worked. Something you would think a non-knitter would be able to do on sight alone, simply escaped me. Then I couldn't work out the right give-and-take to get the raglan decreases to line up). I had a severe case of the stupid, apparently. I think I started and ripped out the same sleeve about five times on Saturday before giving up. Last night I picked it up again while I sat down to watch the Oscars and now, I'm happy to say, my first set-in sleeve is set in, and the sleeve itself is halfway seamed. I wish seaming didn't take so long. It never seems like it will.

glorious

The view from my office window is glorious.

While other parts of the US and Canada have been pounded with snow, NYC has not. It's snowed a handful of times, never for very long, and it usually melted within a day.

It started snowing last night, or early in the morning. I got home between 11:30 and 11:45 pm and went to sleep around 12:30 (shocking! I'm so tired this morning too!). I woke up when it was still dark to the sound of a shovel scraping along pavement. It is a comforting noise and lulled me back to sleep.

It should have prepared me for this sight:

But it didn't.

I suppose that in the time I've lived in NYC, we've tended to had one big blow-out snowstorm per winter. I think the first winter (2003) there were more than that, but in recent years it seems like it takes forever for the snow to come, and then it goes away, and then some time after Groundhog Day we get slammed.

It's so pretty. I know a lot of you are sick of it, but indulge me, since it's the first time for us this season. And it won't last--supposed to be sickly dangerous gross sleet (I'm sorry, I mean "wintry mix") by tonight. Michael has to work and we've agreed that if the weather turns very ugly, he'll stay at his mom's in Manhattan.

And thank you, Winter Goddess, for waiting until after I went to the opera to unleash this torrent of precipitation.

Oh, the opera. First time at the Met for me! I went to see Il Barbiere de Siviglia, and it was magnificent. I think this should be a regular thing for me, this opera-going. Certain tickets are actually less expensive than regular Broadway shows.

(Also, I love YouTube, for allowing me to provide you with one of the more glorious duets from  this opera, featuring the glorious Beverly Sills.)

On the more low-brow pop culture front, I really really want to see "Be Kind Rewind."

nearing the finish

Starsky's belt is all wrapped up; all that I have left to do is seam the sleeves and sides. Doubtful that I'll get the chance to do that today, though, but perhaps by the start of next week I'll have a brand new sweater. Woo!

Finished up the belt while watching The Jane Austen Book Club--another book-based movie, but one for which I had previously read the book.

Loved the book. It's fun, witty, completely enjoyable.

The movie, I believe, fared better on the small screen than it did in the theater. I think I would've been a little more bored, a little more impatient with the movie if I'd seen it in the theater, but on DVD, while I'm knitting? A good way to spend an evening.

Everyone in the movie is at least 15 years younger than their book counterparts. Fine, I suppose, but one of the main points of Fowler's novel is that Austen's novels--as with most novels of that time period and the periods which followed--are only concerned with young unmarried women; their mothers are either absent, foolish, invalids, or completely irrelevant. Fowler's book presents a number of women in their 40s, 50s, 60s, navigating the same territory as Austen's heroines. I can't argue with the casting (especially not Kathy Baker), but maybe it would've been a nice touch to have the movie follow the book in this case.

The DVD is worth renting if only for two absolutely hilarious deleted scenes. I can't even tell you what they are--you'll know them when you see them.

Sadly, this is all I have time for today.

ha!

Guess what I'm typing on right now. Go on, guess.

Yesterday Michael and I had a little conversation that went a little something like this:

Michael: What's up with your printer?

Me: You need to hook it up to the laptop, not the Apple--the keyboard doesn't work on the Apple anymore [yeah, yeah--haven't moved my ass to get a new one yet].

Michael: Uh, yeah, it does.

Me: Huh? Are you telling me the Mac keyboard WORKS?

Michael: I didn't have any trouble with it. The "g" was sticky but I worked around that.

And lo, he was right. Not only is the "g" not sticky anymore, but all the keys that didn't work--the Shift, Ctrl, arrow keys, numpad...they all WORK. In fact, the space bar works better than it did pre-coffee.

Remember this. I did this to a coffee-soaked, dust-covered, mangy Apple keyboard:

And 10 days later, the keyboard is fully functional.

I did put duct tape over the USB thingies. I don't know if that was necessary or not, but I figured the precaution wouldn't hurt.

Also, the dishwashing liquid? Possibly not necessary, but for me things don't get clean unless there are suds.

I love it when a plan comes together.

belt it out

Whew--I definitely needed the extra skeins of Cadena on Starsky. I didn't need much of a second skein for the shawl collar, but I did need to dip into it. And the belt is going to take more than one skein as well--I'm nearly at the end of one skein and the belt is a mere . . . hang on while I measure . . . 41 inches? Wow! That's farther than I thought, actually. That's more than halfway there. Still, my point stands: I'll need another skein for the belt. And I think I'm going to forgo the belt loops, just because I really don't like knitting the fiddly bits. My plan is to sew the belt on, at two separate points in the back.

Here's what 41" of belt looks like, all coiled up.

I have no idea how the color is going to come through--in previous photos the sunlight made it seem, according to some of you, that the yarn was a dusky rose-ish color. It's not--it's brown. A reddish brown--the color is named "mahogany."

So most of this was knit while watching The Namesake, which came out rather quietly last year but is worth renting. It's directed by Mira Nira, who did Monsoon Wedding (which I was a little "eh" about, but I can't remember why) and the Reese Witherspoon-led Vanity Fair (which I loved). One thing about Nair--you know you're going to get an absolutely gorgeous movie to watch, and The Namesake is just beautiful (there's a nifty DVD extra that shows how certain scenes were inspired by photographs). Storywise, the movie felt a little too ambitious and something was lost for me when the movie started focusing more on the second generation, but I did like how it told a different sort of immigrant story. And I loved Irfan Khan as the father.

Haven't read the book the movie is based on. Should I?

c is for . . .

Chrysler Building.

I took this picture in the beginning of January, shortly after signing up to do the ABC 2008 Project. I knew when I started that I would use the Chrysler Building, and it so happened that one peerless wintry day I was in the backseat of a car coming off the FDR Drive, and I could see the perfect top of the Chrysler Building gleaming in the sun.

I've written before about my love for this building. It's my favorite building. I love the shape, the art deco-ness, its uniqueness. I love that it looks like it's made of platinum. It is unmatched in elegance.

I love that I can walk down almost any street in Lower Manhattan and I'm able to glimpse this building. It's grounding, that way. Especially on days when nothing seems to be working and I allow myself to wallow in doubt and wonder whether it's just time to pack up and move on to the next city. The Chrysler Building doesn't convince me to stay, but it reminds me that there is much beauty and inspiration here, if I can simply remember to stop and look up.

a little hit of lace, a whole lotta love

I finally get to post about this. My fault, really--I finished this Flower Basket Shawl back in July, with every intention of sending it to my mom immediately . . . but then it sat around my apartment until this past Tuesday. Folks, this is what I mean when I say I am horrible about getting to the post office.

It's also been on Flickr and Ravelry since July, so some of you have already seen it. It deserves a spot on the blog, however, because if I do say so myself, it turned out incredibly well.

I used Touch of Twist Zephyr in Garnet, doubled, on US 7 needles. It went quickly--knit up in 8 days. I think it helped that I'd made the shawl before. I love, love love this yarn. It is dreamy to work with, it blocks to perfection, and it feels like gossamer. I have enough left over to make another FBS for me. It's either that or another Lotus Blossom.

Mom loves the shawl. I love it. I'm sure the color reads more pink here than it is in real life--a vibrant red, an appropriate color to receive on the 14th of February.

Happy birthday, mom--seven months late.