March Picks

Since St. Patrick’s Day is in March, I wanted to get an album of Irish music. I remembered the all ladies group, Cherish the Ladies, and decided to get another of their albums, Woman of the House. I was not disappointed! Though several years had passed between the last album I bought and this one, their sound is still the same, and I found this a comforting companion during the terrible night of report writing in my classroom. A great blend of instrumental and vocal pieces, and altogether good, solid Celtic music. Now I want to get the rest of their albums…

Apologies in advance for the weird cover... For a book for March, I decided to go with a mystery, so I got the first of Josephine Tey’s works, The Man in the Queue. My ‘bluestockings’ group is currently reading another of her books, Brat Farrar, which I’m really enjoying, so I thought I’d read another of her books. I was not disappointed. Tey has a wonderful style of writing and a real sly wit that has you laughing at the audacious statement that was just made so blandly. I fully plan to read the rest of the Inspector Grant novels. If you like Christie or Sayers, you should totally read some Tey as well. I’m not sure why she isn’t as well known as them, as she is just as good of a writer.

Also, I decided to bit the bullet and make another investment in my “beloved physical copies in Texas, bad books on my Kindle” plan, and bought the whole Inheritance series. I’m re-reading Eldest, and haven’t read the last two yet. Still not the world’s best writing ever, but a nice holiday treat! I guess I’m in a more desperate mood than I was when I first read this several years ago; while there are still some aspects of this book that make me either shriek with laughter or cringe, it’s a nice break from ‘school approved.’ I’m curious to see what the last two books hold…

What I’ve been watching, is Downton Abbey season 6, and the new Poledark season 1. I would have enjoyed both these things much more if the company had been better, but despite knitting furiously to avoid gnawing through my own leg, I did enjoy both these things. I now really want to read the Poledark novels that the series was based on… Also, fair warning, the last episode is not only a tear jerker, but also ends on quite a cliff hanger!

The Easter of Much Knitting

Now that the holidays are finally here, I’ve had some time to work on knitting projects. I’ve made some good headway on my peacock scarf—I love what you can do with short rows, and I love this yarn! That progress represents most of Downton Abbey Season 6.

I also finished the second Nelderoth sock! A lovely pattern, and one I’m already thinking of doing again, perhaps for myself, or perhaps for a gift… I’m all for Tolkien knitting!

I finished my second attempt at knit plaid; much happier with this one. I’m working on getting the instructions written up, and trying out a further refinement on the third one.

In the theme of ‘more effort than I usually devote to such things,’ I’ve been playing with a gingham dishcloth pattern I found. There is just something about taking a textile concepts and applying it to knitting… Just like knitted quilting, I find it fascinating!

Thought I’m not going to post a picture of it yet as there is only ribbing to see, I started my pair of Weeping Angel socks with the yarn my brother gave me for Christmas. I’m going to try some tweaks to this pattern as well; instructions are only a guideline, right? Also, I finally got motivated to finish my ‘Ned’ hat to match my Ned scarf. I made a band in the Ned pattern, sewed it together, and then picked up stitches and carried on with the Wurm pattern. So far, I’m pretty happy with the results! The big question, will the yarn hold out?

Parting shot: Tiny bunnies! *squee*

A Plaid Journey

One of the features that pops up on the Ravelry homepage from time to time is groups of similar objects—similar in color, style, or function. There was a display of David Bowie inspired items in the wake of his death, and two weeks ago there was a post on plaid projects. I was intrigued, and tried out a crochet plaid dishcloth almost immediately. I found the technique interesting, but I felt like the dishcloths was a) too thick, and b) too stiff. Both symptoms of crochet. I made it smaller than the instructions called for as I was using a heavier yarn, and I was seized with the desire to turn this pattern into knitting.

My first attempt was basically the same idea as the crochet, but with yarn overs instead of chain spaces. Drawback—I was cutting the yarn each time and had a ton of ends to weave in, and the pattern required you to pay a bit of attention. When I finished it and started crocheting the vertical strips through the yarn overs, I realized that they were too big, and it looked lame.

So, I’m trying a much simpler tack. Carrying the yarn from the stripes up the side isn’t the tidiest looking, but it sure beats weaving in all those stupid ends. I’m considering doing one row strips…who knows how far this madness will go? Now to see how the vertical stripes look over the stockinette…

While up super late writing report cards on Friday evening, I took a look at the new Knitty, and immediately fell head over heels in love with a scarf (they call it a shawl, but it’s totally a scarf!) pattern. I had the perfect yarn for it in the stash, and as a treat to myself for finishing I cast on Saturday evening while enjoying some Downton Abbey. Loving it so far!

Now that term is almost over, I’ll have time to do more work on creative things. I never get the half of what I planned done over the term breaks, but I’m going to try and make April really count. I don’t plan to go anywhere this holiday, so lots of cleaning, knitting, sorting, and reading should happen. Who knows? I might even go crazy and do some writing!

Parting shot: Lame pudding pie for pi day. Hey, anything was better than marking!

A bit of catch up 'cause life is crazy

Well, I actually have some FO (finished objects) to show off this time! Having last weekend off did wonders for my craft productivity… That being said, almost nothing at all interesting happened on the craft front this week. Little things like marking, sleeping, and not throwing students out the windows became rather time consuming.

First of all, I finished the first of the Nelderoth socks! I’m quite happy with how it turned out, and think I’ll be doing a version for myself in the near future. I’m a sucker for cables… Since I rarely blindly follow a pattern, I tweaked this one by omitting the texture pattern between the cable panels, and doing a German short row heel. If I did this again, I might use a subtle colored yarn to spice those stockinette bits up a bit, or I might try and find a texture pattern that I like better.

The other thing I finished last weekend was the amagarumi dragon that has been languishing in and out of my projects bags for the last two years. Meet Asea!

Asea means ‘leaf’ in Elvish, and I thought it was appropriate given the color of yarn I used. I love the finished result, but I would never crochet with that yarn again. It had a little thread wound round it for color interest, but it made it a real pain to work with. I had a few yards left after finishing of Asea, and I actually threw them out. Yes, that much of a pain!

Other than those two things, I just haven’t had the time to work on much else. I got the urge to finish things, and went with the two items that were the closest to being done! I need to get the socks ready so that when the upcoming chance to send items back home arrives, I’ll be ready. I still have my large projects more or less in the works, my cardigan and my second double knit scarf. I have a feeling that those will get more time spent on them over the holiday when I have bigger chunks of time to work on them. So, that’s all for now!

Since I wrote this a slight development has come up--I am no obsessively pondering knit plaid. Details to follow...

February Picks

Music-wise February has been all about my new favorite contemporary artist, Ed Sheeran. My sister asked for his album + (Plus) for Christmas, and I noticed that he was the guy who had done one of the songs for The Hobbit, “I See Fire” which I had liked. So, I took a listen…and got hooked. I bought X (Multiply) for my February pick, and then I found out that + had bonus tracks! A note of warning should any of you feel compelled to rush out and listen to Sheeran; I love his sound and some of his lyrics, but a lot of his songs are about a ‘party hard’ sort of lifestyle if you get my drift. Definitely not work approved, but I must admit that is part of the charm at the moment…

For books, I’ve been enjoying The Prestige. I decided to read it because I was thinking about how I’ve wanted to see that movie for awhile, especially since David Bowie played Tesla, and then I found the book and dove in. This is an excellent example of point of view; you get the story from several points of view as well as through some excellently done Victorian style journal entries. It makes me want to watch Now You See Me again… Now, I want to watch the movie even more than I did when I found out David Bowie was Tessla...

This month I’m also slowly watching through Castle Season 6, and so far I’m loving it. I was afraid that now that Castle and Beckett were engaged that the show would flop, but they are doing a good job of providing not only great cases, but good character development and plenty of Ryan and Esposito. Now the trick is to not rush through it too fast… I’m also doling out my last few episodes of Voyager Season 7. I borrowed Seasons 4-7 from my parents last time I was home, and as I’m two or three disks shy of the whole 7th season, I’m trying to make the geeky goodness last as long as possible. This is a show I’m going to have to have in its entirety one day…