so i’m just back from a good drilling at the dentist and in a FANTASTIC mood and thought that i would write a blog entry. thankfully for all of you, i will be writing it over the next few days for a wednesday post and you will be spared most of my bitching.

i’ve been obsessed with finding “new” and interesting TV lately what with the writer’s strike still going on (COME ON!! i’m sick of reality TV!) everyone who knows me knows that i despise all reality TV but project runway. i’m so glad it’s back on the air! i was actually sorry to see elisa go last week. she had really grown on me. it’s too bad that the challenge itself was such a snoozer. god, can we get a little more creative please? pour on the pressure, apply the heat! i wanna see these designers sweat!

in an effort to get more project runway into my veins, i started (and finished!) watching project runway canada (don’t click on the link unless you want to know who won!) which is the greatest thing since sliced bread. i’ve gotta be honest here. i actually LOVE iman and brian baley more than heidi and tim. iman is amazing as a host. she really has strong opinions and i totally agreed with her on every decision. she also strikes me as being very sweet and caring.

brian baley and iman

brian baley, the mentor, was great too. he actually MENTORED. he had opinions and real words of advice for the designers. where i feel that tim gunn has pulled back from giving helpful commentary (maybe at the behest of the producers?) brian would come out and tell them what he thought was wrong (or right) with a garment and steer the designer in the right direction. mustache aside, i really adored him. i can’t wait for the second season! too bad that it’s not available in the US. watch it on youtube. trust me, you won’t be sorry you did.

amongst all the PRC watching i was knitting on koolhaas finished koolhaas. this took me FOREVER to finish but it’s because i was really only able to fit in a few rows here and there amongst all the other things.

large koolhaas

hiding

i made it large so that it would fit my dad. if it’s a little too big, he can flip up the ribbing. looks great right? uuuuhhh, what’s that? let’s zoom in…

oops

ooooooops! forgot to cross one there! oh well, it still looks ok, i think! oh, and i got my new gorillapod. combined with the new camera, i expect my FO pics to be much better.

i also got to do a little sewing this past weekend. i whipped up two new pairs of cloth shoes for the peanut. these will be the last that i make seeing as she’ll probably be crawling and walking sometime in the next 4 months.

pair #1

pair #2

i followed the tutorial again but used my pattern for making 6 to 12 month sizes. (i’ll post this on the patterns page soon.) feel free to download this PDF and make your own as well. notice that i didn’t exactly make right and left foot shoes. seriously, you don’t need them.

shoes shoes shoes!

anyway, all in all, peanut has 4 pairs now. i made three of them and the fourth (top left) comes from kaya’s kloset etsy store. if you don’t want to make your own baby shoes then i highly recommend you get her to make them for you. she does great work.

i leave you with a picture of some highly yummy “mac daddy” from the veganomicon (which i got KP for christmas.)

yum!

and the nut’s new teeth! so cute i could die.

smile!

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don’t answer that!

i’m home sick today. apparently, i can go to work sick. i can go to work pregnant. but i cannot go to work pregnant AND sick. let me tell you how impossible that is… pretty damn impossible. last week i rushed rushed rushed to get two projects finished up at work so that i could have an easy last week this week. then saturday hit and i started sneezing. i thought that it was just allergies but now that i’m still stuffy and miserable two days later, i realize that i caught a cold. i HAVE to get better before the peanut decides to show herself. can you imagine going into labor while having a cold? i’m trying not to.

so, here’s a quick and mostly photographic update of the state of things before i hop in bed for a nap.

the brooklyn handspun trifecta is done.

the trifecta is complete!

yarn: brooklyn handspun superwash soft spun sock yarn in winter’s calling

needles: 2.5mm addi turbos, magic loop and 3.25mm addi turbos for the hat

pattern: none for the socks and mittens. the hat i used this bonnet pattern from hello yarn

because i know that you all love the care bears, here’s sunshine bear being a good sport and modeling them for us.

KP asked if i was playing dress-up. i’m glad i’m having a girl! thanks to veronique for letting me use her icord maker for the mittens!

this is how the peanut’s room is looking.

progress on the peanut’s room

pretty messy, but almost there. the crib (on the right) is holding lots of clothing and other assorted baby crap until i can get around to sorting and unloading it. on the floor, you’ll see the flor tiles i bought. i love them! they go perfect with the room and make it feel much warmer in there. that cane rocking chair was a gift from my parents and i’m looking forward to sitting in it and looking out the window nursing the peanut. it was a little hard on the bum so i constructed a VERY simple pillow for it out of some cute bee fabric i had in the stash.

and now that i’m home sick, i’ve started up some new projects to keep me going.

monkey socks using some lovely koigu that sandra bought for me for my birthday last year.

monkey beginnings

they are actually much further along than this given that i’ve done nothing but knit, watch james bond movies, and mouth-breathe for the past 48 hours.

and my dad’s mittens using leftover chocolate brown debbie bliss merino aran (no pictures yet).

ok, just a few last pictures to send you on your way. i got some lovely gifties in the mail late last week. knits for the peanut!!

a lovely hat and sock set from danielle.

and i’m pretty sure this is a baby surprise jacket and some booties from sarah (i miss you sarah!)

thanks ladies! i’m sure the peanut will look smashing in these!

and if you’re a battlestar galactica fan and haven’t watched last night’s epsiode yet, stop reading. dude, i’m sure starbuck is a cylon. one of the final five. my vote is that she wakes up in a bath of goo by the end of the season! all of the dialog in the episode points to it. watch it again if you don’t believe me. there’s no way that leoban could know everything that he knows about her and then encourage her to die without knowing that she’d be reborn. she even said to lee, “they’re waiting for me on the other side.” uh huh. cylon. i’m loving this season!

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i’m feeling a bit random today so let’s just dive into it!

i joined the we call them pirates knit along this week. i figured that since i’m already making the items i may as well show them off! i’m really excited to see what other people there are doing with the pattern. lots of creative uses of colors and yarn! i have yet to post but i just uploaded a progress shot and i’ll have to jump over there today and update everyone. wanna see?

past the second repeat..

i’m on to the third repeat! i have a feeling that i’ll finish all the colorwork on this this weekend and then start on the lining of the hat. i have a three day weekend ahead of me (thank you MLK!) and i’m sure to spend most of it relaxing or working on the homefront.

i also joined project spectrum which is less of a knit along for me. i’m going to try and take more pictures that include the colors than craft with them mainly because i’m still knitting from my stash and i have baby things to make (and a baby to birth.) of course, if i have the chance, i will knit with the colors! they are all good choices picked by lolly!

my parents got a new digital camera this week courtesy of the amazon gift certificate that KP and i got them for christmas. what with the arrival of their first grandchild, they felt they needed a camera that would give them great pictures. here’s the family dog.. HRH abby.

and here’s a load of vintage knit and crocheted items that my dad found the other day! i’m getting them all for the peanut and will probably update them a little by replacing the buttons and ribbons.

dude, do you see the yellow and white poncho hoodie with the pompoms?! my daughter is definitely wearing that!

if you haven’t seen the dumb moves of banks lately, you should check this out, though i’m sure this story is all over knitblogland by now. i, personally, have only knit with STR once and it was an ok experience. i fully support women-owned businesses though! especially knitting-related businesses so i feel it’s necessary to say, “stupid bank, you know not who you deal with.”

and lastly, TV has gotten really good around chez gleek lately. i’ve become enamored with without a trace (i guess it’s on CBS but i watch it on TNT) and on sunday we have a big night of TV coming our way: rome, 24, AND battlestar galactica (well, strike that.. boy am i glad i checked their website.. they’ve moved the premiere to the 21st.) surely my DVR will lose its little mind over this.

p.s. i hear that jess is working on a tutorial on how to make her cute drawstring bags. stay tuned!

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many of you who know me know that i have a wide array of taste in music. i grew up on 70s folk music and then graduated to classical music through most of my young adult life. i turned to pop music in college and completely overdosed on it (now i can’t stand it at all). then came techno or electronic, or whatever you want to call it. i met some great friends working my first web design job in detroit and they were into the club/rave scene, and especially detroit techno. we’re talking about derek may and the like. really brilliant stuff. i was smitten from the beginning and still am! in fact, though my newer favorites have been the magnetic fields, the shins, and thievery corporation, i still listen to techno/electronic music on a daily basis. the real front runners in my ipod playlist are aphex twin, bill laswell, boards of canada, luke slater, etc. hhmmmm, i believe it was a minidisc of luke slater that i really got KP to think that i was the coolest girl ever.

one of the first techno discs i ever owned was EBN (emergency broadcast network.) most of you are probably shaking your heads, not knowing who i’m talking about. after all, my audience is mainly knitters. but if you know who i’m talking about, then you know what’s coming! EBN were the bomb (i’m not sure if they’re still around) because they took all of these old video clips and mixed them to music. it’s the perfect match of video and beats. if you’re a media nut like i am, then you’ll find their offerings to be mind-blowing. every time i see them, i want to pop a VHS in my recorder, tape infomercials all night long, and make mash ups with them. of course, i don’t have that kind of time because i knit too much, but if i did have the time, that’s what i would do with it.

so in honor of halloween (the one holiday i can’t stand but can’t wait for the peanut to be born so that i can dress her up.. oops, i forgot to tell you that it’s a GIRL! see how i slipped that in?) i present these videos found on youtube. why today? well, some of them are so good, they’re creepy. watch, you won’t be disappointed.

(click through to the extended entry to see them. i know that they won’t make it to my RSS feed because of the embedding.)

(more…)

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before we get to the sock questions, i’m going to do a little TV talk. it’s been a good week for TV already! i’m excited for tomorrow’s battlestar galactica premiere. from what i’ve heard, the writers are up to their old magic again: making humanity’s future bleak and full of despair. i can’t wait! if you’re into the whole spoiler thing, you can watch the whole first act of tomorrow’s episode on scifi pulse. see ron moore’s blog for more info.

now, regarding the title of this post, if you watch project runway, you probably saw last night’s reunion episode. it was sort of a bore except for the funny outtakes and watching keith and jeffrey be jerks. but what’s up with vincent? the man has anger management issues and a seriously unbalanced mind. what’s worse is that he spent a good 5 minutes bashing the other designers and then claimed “it’s my opinion and i’m sticking by it.” lame way to get out of actually defending your untoward comments, but whatever. then i head over to the bravotv.com website today and see a video where vincent trashes all blogs and “blogspots” (i can only think that he means bloggingprojectrunway.blogspot.com because “blogspots” is not a real internet term) saying that the opinions of its writers are worthless and that they are all probably child molesters (i kid you not. go watch the video for yourself. he’s obviously delusional. thank you laura.) well, i’m here to say that, yes, vincent i didn’t like you before but now i can’t stand to see one more picture of you EVER. i have an opinion. i’m not a child molester. start acting your age for goodness sake! educate yourself and stop slamming other people. you’ll get nowhere in life by building up so much bad karma. remember that what goes around comes around.

now, on to LOST!! just when i thought this show couldn’t possibly offer anything new or had maybe jumped the shark, POW! the “others” are not what they seemed. where did those houses come from that they live in? plumbing? ovens? reading groups? the first ten minutes of the show could have taken place in middle america! amazing! i totally didn’t expect it and i love when something happens on a show that i wasn’t expecting. i now look back on the middle of season 2 and realize that all the mundane, everyday events that happened where there to mull us into a little complacency. those cheeky writers! i’m seriously impressed.

hello socktoberfest! lolly suggested that we share our sock history with our readers to kick off the month of socks.

When did you start making socks? Did you teach yourself or were you taught by a friend or relative? or in a class?

my first major project ever was socks! i decided to learn to knit by taking a class at FIT and during the class i made a hat (which i have since frogged and used the yarn for the zigzag scarf) and started a pair of koigu socks. boy was i am ambitious! i had no idea how to use DPNs much less knit in the round.

What was your first pair? How have they “held up” over time?

the koigu socks have held up ok over time though they became seriously slouchy after two or three wearings. i have since learned that 74 stitches for a sock is too big for me.

What would you have done differently?

i realized that i hate DPNs and since have switched to the two circular needles method. i would have made the socks smaller and the leg longer.

What yarns have you particularly enjoyed?

koigu, brooklyn handspun, and sweet georgia are my favorites so far. but i haven’t made many socks yet and i have plenty of yarn in the stash!

Do you like to crochet your socks? or knit them on DPNs, 2 circulars, or using the Magic Loop method?

two circulars. magic loop is cool but would require me having to buy longer addis. a long time ago, i found a great deal on ebay on 24″ circular addis and bought two of each size between 00 and 3. no need to switch now!

Which kind of heel do you prefer? (flap? or short-row?)

i prefer short-row now that i’ve figured out the trick to it. i hate picking up stitches so the flap is out for the time being.

How many pairs have you made?

only 6 pairs and i had to look at my completed projects pages (2005 & 2006) to remind myself! the koigus, socks for mom, jaywalkers, embossed leaves socks, sockapalooza socks, and KP’s socks. i’m working on my angel pair right now! and i have more in the queue, of course.

wow, i really need to get crackin’ on some socks!

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starting this week, new fall TV shows are popping back onto the tube fast and furious. the only show this week that i cared to see come back is law and order which starts new episode on friday!

but what am i most looking forward to?

1. battlestar galactica – OF COURSE! starts on october 6th! and if you’re as big a fan as i then you should be checking out the webisodes on scifi.com pulse. they have a new ’sode every tuesday and thursday and they are really well done (if short.) they are also possibly the newest, coolest thing that a network has done for a show in a long time. talk about breaking all the molds!
2. lost – the season finale last season had me nearly peeing my pants with glee! so many new paths and plots to consider. i can’t wait to see what “the others” have in store for us this season.
3. veronica mars – she’s back!! so is logan. i can’t be happier.. i especially want to find out why her dad ditched her at the airport. what was so important that he left his top-girl hanging?

all in all, i expect much knitting to occur while watching my favorite shows this fall! horray!

###

this post is severely lacking in progress or pictures, sorry to say. i actually broke down over the weekend and started working on the second sock for KP. he’s been so patient waiting for these socks that i feel i should just knit on them and FINISH THEM ALREADY! i’ve been working on them far too long and i feel guilty when i glance over at my WIP bag and see them languishing with the clapotis. so since the last massive update i’ve done one more repeat on clapotis, 4″ of the second kyoto sleeve, and a few inches on the second sock for KP.

on saturday, KP and i rented a car and drove up to connecticut to visit our family for the day. while he played frisbee with his brother, i knit on one of the lounge chairs and chatted with my father and mother in law. i got a little flack from one of the guests but i think that he just wanted to know more about what i was doing so after a few jabs in the ribs, he was asking about how i learned to knit and everything was ok after that. the problem with driving to any destination, though, is that i’m always the navigator and have to give directions and watch for signs AND i get car sick easily so i can’t knit in the car. saturday was pretty shot knitting-wise.

sunday, i got a chance to see lisa and veronique’s new, cute apartment before lisa and i headed over to jess’s place for some world cup action. i must say that i’m pretty happy with my world cup participation this time around. KP and i watched almost every single game (except for that one that KP accidentally deleted from the DVR! oh well) at home after work. we managed to avoid most spoilers during the day so it was as if we were watching them live with everyone else. the univision coverage was SO much better than ABC. yeah, i don’t understand a lick of spanish but at least i don’t have to listen to american color commentary which is repetitious at best. i watched the last game at jess’s in english and was surprised at just how bad it is! ugh. jess and her lovely husband put out a great spread of cheese, crackers, chips, dip, fruit, wine, and beer. they were great hosts and all their friends were nice to hang out with.. though i found myself surrounded by france supporters and i was rooting for italy.

anyway, i’m very VERY happy that italy won! i love italy. our trip there was probably one of the best trips we have ever taken. the people we met there were warm and welcoming, the food and wine amazing, and my maternal grandfather is italian as well. i have much to love about italy. the more i think about it though, they got really lucky at the end. if zidane hadn’t flipped out and headbutted materazzi (i love the announcer in this clip.. “POUR QUOI? POUR QUOI?” jeez, what does it look like?), the french team may have been able to pull through in the penalty kicks. from what i’ve seen online today, zidane flipped out because the italian player was talking smack at him? give me a break! this is a professional sport filled with testosterone. if you can’t take the trash talking, you might as well not play. you have to be able to turn away or tell the other player his mother is a goat. anything but give in and resort to hitting or striking another player on the field. materazzi may have insulted him but zidane should learn to control his temper.

anyway, i have a full work week ahead of me but next week, KP and i are off! we’re going to visit friends and family around the tri-state area and make a trip to cape cod! i can’t wait. i really need a vacation and some extended knitting time.

###

so, early last week when my friend jen wrote me to see if i was available over the weekend to hang out if she flew to NYC, i said, sure! i’ve got no plans this weekend. which was true. i looked at the calendar and it was the only weekend without family gatherings or a birthday or craft fair. i went from having no plans to having so many plans in the space of a heartbeat that my head is still swimming!

let’s start off with friday. around christmas time, the lovely spiders gave me a $75 gift certificate to school products for being their webmistress (i’m such a lucky girl) and i held on to it in the hopes that i would be inspired to by a pattern or two to buy yarn for. i met up with sarah and lisa around 3:30PM at school products to do some shopping.

after much hemming and hawing, i decided to buy a multitude of colors in lamb’s pride worsted so that i could make a bunch of stuffed animals for all the little babies out there popping into my life. i have the jess hutch book that she has (sadly) stopped offering so i’m thinking about a bear and a snake from there. the black in the pile below is especially for embroidering faces on the animals. i can’t wait to make a few! then i also sprung for two skeins of laceweight merino (405yds per hank) and one skein of soft chenille for a new sleepy eye mask. guess what? i spent a total of $77 on all of it! only had to fork over $2 in addition to the gift certificate. i’m amazed at my restraint.

from school products, we went to the point to meet up with everyone else.

(more…)

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i’m not a particular fan of organized sports. i played tennis in high school until it got too competitive and i got too lazy (these were the days when i had a high metabolism and i could eat anything i wanted.. ha. that phase of my life ended about 10 years ago now.) i never watched sports on TV though my father has been a lions football fan his entire life and he could watch golf for hours. but sometime in my late teens, my cousin kate and i found THE OLYMPICS, and all was good. now i look forward to the summer games every four years. i’ll sit in front of the tv and watch just about any sport from beach volleyball to synchronized swimming.

and that was all she wrote until i found soccer (or football to the REST OF THE WORLD except maybe australia with their australian rules football which is really cool and i love watching on fox sports world.) soccer in spanish… and i don’t speak spanish. it’s just much more fun that way! GGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLL!!!! anyway, just so you know, i’ll be putting my 24 watching on hold over the next week or two so that i can watch world cup soccer. the DVR is booked up with hours upon hours of soccer on ESPN2 and univision, so much that i had to erase the first part of battlestar galactica season 2 in order to make room! but it’s worth it.

i will be knitting and watching at the same time, though. no worries. i’m working on the raspberry rib jacket.

jacket in progress. so cute, so small.

and it should be done soon. i’m going to cast-on birch and get the pattern together for kyoto… and of course, work on KP’s socks which i haven’t touched since i last worked through the heel (i’m a bad wife.) my good friend, jen, is also in town this weekend and we’re going to hang out on saturday so i’m looking forward to a nice chill weekend of friends, knitting, and WORLD CUP!!! woo hoo!!!

###

last night, i got home around 10:30PM after working the box office at the play and all i wanted to do was sit down, watch the new episode of veronica mars, and eat some toast. once again, though, damn WWOR (the local UPN affiliate) screwed me and put on stupid basketball instead! so i recorded an hour of the pathetic new jersey nets instead of finding out what logan was going to say on the stand in his father’s murder trial. why does this always happen when i’m tired and irritable? looks like i’m not the only person that is pissed off about it. now i suppose i have to change my DVR settings to record veronica mars on ANY day of the week instead of just tuesday or wednesday? replays seem to be on sunday when sopranos or big love is bound to be on, of course. stupid networks.

i watched 24 on DVD instead. season 2 is just as good as season 1!

###

hand it to marie to produce a great sock yarn. i was skeptical. i really was. when i was knitting this sock and trying it on, i kept thinking that there was no way it was going to work and i would have to go back to square one and start all over again. but i was wrong (and it’s not the first time.)

hooray for not being wrong! the yarn fluffed up and became very nice and soft. the whole sock relaxed and now it looks as though i knit it with koigu…. but it’s superwash and has much more yardage. huzzah!

i’m doing a modified version of the rib and cable sock pattern from fall 2005 IK. i decided not to do a heel flap because i didn’t like the one in the pattern. it turned out looking a lot like the one that beth did recently and i wasn’t keen on the idea of sending my pal cloven hooved socks. call me crazy but it just doesn’t send the right message. i re-read my sock pal’s requirements (her foot is one inch longer than mine and a half an inch bigger in the ball) and realized that she’s looking for socks to wear with clogs so i thought it best to make snug socks.. socks that won’t bunch up and fall with wear. this was the point when i ripped out the heel (for the second time) and put in my first ever short row heel.

i used the wrap method from wendy’s toe-up sock pattern and the elfine sock pattern and it was really easy! much easier than i thought it was going to be… even purling three loops through the back was easier than i thought it was going to be. the only thing that i had to do was close up the holes at the join and i did that this morning before taking the picture above (next sock i think that i’m going to pick up stitches there instead.) i didn’t change the toe pattern all that much. i did take out a few rows of straight knitting between the decrease rows but that’s about it. these should fit my sock pal (fingers crossed) as they are about an inch longer than my foot and they are stretchy. i’m totally pleased! AND i finished it in about a week. so tonight i cast on for the second one and KNIT KNIT KNIT!

one sock down

in TV news, i finished watching all the MI-5 that i could. i wish the fourth season was available on DVD! it looks like this show isn’t on BBC america (why?!?!) and i have no idea when they’ll release it so now i just have to sit tight? wait? ugh, i HATE waiting. lisa let me borrow the new pride and prejudice and oh my. matthew macfayden has kicked colin firth off the the island! (you know, that desert island where i’m allowed to have three famous people? yeah, colin firth, you have been replaced. sorry.) i love matthew in MI-5 and he got even better in P&P. they even managed to ugly-up keira knightly enough to make me believe she was elizabeth. i felt it was a faithful adaptation and a lot less glossy than the BBC version which made it even better. let’s face it, those were the days when baths were few and far between, after all.

so now that i’m done with all-things-british for a while, i’m on to a TV show that everyone on this earth seems to love, 24. i’m sorry that it’s taken me this long to get to it. really, i am. but i really hate the networks. they certainly know how to ruin a good thing. i see it happening with lost already. there’s nothing like building up great suspense and then throwing six weeks of repeats into the mix. just when you get right on the edge of your seat, they pull the chair out from under you, and i’m sure the network bosses are thinking that we’ll all stick around to see what happens next, right? no. we get pissed off, lose interest over the six weeks, and don’t turn it back on. i think that they have a lot to learn from cable channels: a) don’t stop running new episodes unless it’s a holiday, b) schedule the shows in runs so that (a) is possible, c) have marathons. a marathon of BSG is what got me all caught-up so that i could watch season 2 with everyone else! networks simply don’t have the space in their schedule for them, but they should, and if they want to keep their audiences around, they have to change. so now, i’m only going to watch 24 on DVD. this way i can enjoy the show in runs where it stays suspenseful and exciting. i’m really looking forward to it.

###

this weekend, i played catch up. mainly i caught up on my sleep, laundry, cleaning, organizing, tv watching, and knitting but i’m sure there are a few other things that i caught up on as well. like socializing. i certainly haven’t done as much socializing this winter as i hoped i would. last winter was particularly bad. KP and i spent loads of time hanging out at home and enjoying the fireplace but then all the rest of our social life suffered so we’re making a concerted effort this year to get out more.

a couple of weeks ago, we attended a birthday party at my friend danielle’s. i took a few pictures but mainly spent the party talking to people i hadn’t seen in a very long time. i owe danielle though. she made this beautiful, absolutely stunning appetizer tray and i promised to put a picture up here and hadn’t gotten around to it.

mmmmm, doesn’t that look yummy?

isn’t it gorgeous, ladies and gentlemen? danielle went out of her way to make sure there were plenty of vegetarian and vegan goods on hand to keep people satiated. she did a bang up job. party at danielle’s next time!

the spread

it was great hanging out at her place and seeing all of our friends despite the total of 5 hours of sleep i was running on. this weekend, KP and i got to see everyone again at a baby shower (a baby shower with a keg even!) where i was admonished for not posting the above pictures. i’m a bad blogger.

ok, now it’s time for an olympic update!!! the events are progressing quite smoothly around gleek’s olympic village.

(more…)

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after having the most hectic week ever, i was really looking forward to my episode of lost tonight which, according to last week’s teaser, afforded some new intrigue into those poor castaways. and what happens? it’s a goddamn repeat. what gives? i just re-watched the teaser from last week and it said “coming up on lost” not “next week’s a repeat so don’t bother to record but we’ll be back in like two weeks with new hot shit.”

so disappointed. now i’m forced to watch the parent trap which is all i have laying around here. my prime suspect 6 (or prime malarkey as we call it around here) is on its way from netflix. shit.

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man, i feel like i was run over by a truck.. or a bus.. or some other large moving vehicle. remember how i was feeling crappy? well, it hit me like a ton of bricks and tuesday and wednesday i was laid up at home, barely able to move, much less go to work. i ask KP to get a gun and put me out of my misery at least twice but he refused. he’s a good man. as is my usual style whilst sick, i sat on the couch all day and watched movies.

have you seen shall we dance? not that crap jennifer lopez remake but the original japanese one? so very cute. i actually lifted my boycott of subtitled movies (this boycott is in effect only because i can’t knit and read subtitles at the same time.. well, i didn’t think i could but now it seems possible) and popped this in on tuesday. there’s just something about japanese men and women ballroom dancing that is so strange yet endearing that i couldn’t help but laugh and cry at many points in the film. yes, i’m sick but that doesn’t mean i’m overly emotional. i highly recommend it.

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if you’re a battlestar galactica fan, as i am, then you should definitely check out the stellar podcasts from scifi.com. ron moore, executive producer and creator of the new BSG series, watches the show and comments on the different elements that have brought that particular episode to air. but you can learn a heck of a lot more about ron just by listening closely to the background noise.

what i have learned..

1. ron has no idea how to turn off the ringer on his phone. he complains that his wife won’t pick it up and then sheepishly admits that he has no idea how to work the darn thing.
2. ron does not cut his own grass.
3. ron lives by a busy road and likes to keep his windows open.
4. ron has children and they love to play in the house.
5. ron is a chain smoker. i heard him light at least three cigarettes in the last podcast.
6. ron secretly has the hots for kandyse mcclure (PO anastasia dualla). on two separate occasions he mentions her beautiful eyes (they are beautiful, for sure) and how he gave her the first name “anastasia.. a beautiful name for a beautiful woman”. aawww, puppy love.
7. ron only does podcasts with david eick when necessary. and this is not just because david only co-wrote a few episodes, but because ron is the soft-spoken type whereas david is more talkative. a podcast with them both means that david talks 95% of the time and ron only 5%.
8. ron cares very deeply about this show, its cast, and its ultimate storyline. if you have ever wondered what goes through the mind of a show’s creator, these are the podcasts to listen to. ron is a smart man. admit it all you original TV show lovers/new TV show haters. he knows that cheaping the story is not an option but he’s not a true idealist either. he knows when a plot point or action makes better TV than something more “real”.

those are just a few things… everytime i download a new podcast on monday and listen to it during my lunch, i’m surprised at the thought and care that went into the previous friday night’s showing. but i really shouldn’t be surprised. battlestar galactica IS THE BEST SHOW ON TV. i can’t say it enough. every episode speaks to me in some way. either it’s the acting, the story, the editing, the music.. sometimes it’s all of those things rolled into one (which is really spectacular, by the way.)

so if you haven’t started watching this show yet, i have good news. in one week, the first season (including the miniseries) will be available on DVD! you can buy it/rent it on netflix, watch it all and then wait for the inevitable season 2 marathon on scifi. you’ll be all caught up and ready for some good discussion. come on! don’t say i never told you that you’re completely missing out. all those people that i converted to firefly fans will understand, i’m sure.

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i got off my butt this morning and took a few pictures in order to keep those foaming at the mouth for knitting content satiated. but before i get to that, let’s do a little recap. battlestar galactica is STILL the best show on TV. i just want to make that clear as there are some people out there that still don’t know about it. each week, i’m surprised and left wanting more… on a friday night, no less! since i’m gaining in years, i’ve noticed that i no longer like to go out on friday nights. after a long, stressful week at work, i like to kick it back with my hubby and a nice glass of montepulciano and watch TV. battlestar galactica is the perfect way to end my week. i look forward to the next one the minute the episode is over… then i re-watch the episode over the weekend to pick up all the stuff that i missed. the good news is that i’ve hooked kaitlyn into it (sorry about leaving the DVD at home last night! doh! i can be a real airhead sometimes…) and i have joy and KP as well to talk about it with. the other good news is that i got katie into firefly (i feel like a drug pusher, “just try the firefly. you KNOW you’ll love it.”) now KP and i will have someone else to go see serenity with in september.

other than these few things, i’ve been doing a lot of freelance. my current client, marc, JUST introduced me to phpicalendar which i’m nuts about! i’ve been looking for a substitute for .mac for a long time and i think that this will really do the trick. when i get it installed, i’ll leave it open to the public for a while so that you can see how it’s working. i plan on being involved in the dev process of it since i know some PHP. gotta love the internet.

ok, knitting content. not much is going on. i’ve been working on the christmas gifts which is fun although not that fulfilling because i know that none of it is going to me. once i get to 75% done on each of these, i plan on starting up 1) the tubular camisole from glampyre for myself in debbie bliss cotton cashmere & 2) the circular shrug from yesterknits in lamb’s pride bulky medieval red, also for myself (backpack: patterns in the queue). it’s nice to have more than one project going at once!

here’s the beginning of mom’s cabled sock (pattern from brainylady… see backpack for more info). i like this pattern. it’s very simple and easy to understand. alison does leave out a lot of the directions so you should know that this pattern is not for sock-newbies. give another fully written pattern a try first and then try this with those techniques you learned. i’m going to try the short-row heel on this one. hopefully i understand it enough.

after ripping back the clapotis, i’m back in business and i think that i’ll have enough yarn to make a decent sized version of it. yeah! the only bummer about this thing is that the darn straight rows take FOREVER! this is why i have more than one project going on at once. too boring otherwise.

and, in closing, i present the clapotis-race-to-the-finish! which i think that lisa is going to win.. she’s crafty, that one.

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i was thinking that it’s been a long time since i got on this blog and actually talked about something other than knitting, and today is not going to be the day when i do something different. my life lately has been filled with work and knitting, so there’s not all that much else to talk about.

i am still watching and LOVING battlestar galactica. it just keeps getting better and better. i’m impressed that the writers and directors have really gone out on creative limbs to bring us controversial storylines each week. i think that ron moore, the head writer/creator, is quite brilliant and is drawing from every direction to bring these stories to fruition. i think that i have even seen a bit of dune in it!

i’m also still watching six feet under and entourage on HBO. six feet under has really captured me after i said that it was getting boring only a few weeks ago. they killed off nate, which was a blessing, and that led to some great story arcs. entourage is just pure fun. it’s mindless and certainly not boring. those boys crack me up! i’ve got nothing bad to say about any of these shows.

since it’s been so hot outside here in NYC (the temperature has been in the high 90s several weeks in a row) that i have no desire to spend much time outdoors. KP went to the farmers’ market in prospect park over the weekend and the park was dead. no one out and about. it’s just too hot to do anything except sit in the a/c and do your best not to wilt… and this is probably why con ed is having such a rough time lately. we were on only 70% power on saturday while they tore up the street one block over. this is not a good time to be sucking down electricity but what can be done? when bush finally recognizes that global warming has completely done in our ecosystem, it’ll be too late. consider ourselves done for. the only good news here in that we’ve got only a little over three years before he is out of the white house.

anyway, the good news is that i just got a new shipment from netflix with some movies to watch (after i finish watching doctor zhivago for the umpteeth time.. david lean + cold russia = a good summer combination) and tonight i’m seeing a co-worker’s new film, light and the sufferer, that he has worked on for the past ten years or so (and damn, i’m just about to out myself as to where i work.. oh well, it was inevitable.) it’s his baby and i’ve heard about it ever since i started working with him four years ago so, needless to say, i’m stoked to see the final outcome of all that hard work!

ok, now, the crafty portion of this entry. i decided that it was probably best if i practice making cables on something other than the socks that i want to give mom for christmas so i started up a quick and dirty cabled hat from stitch ‘n bitch nation using some red heart TLC acrylic in copper that i snatched from the yarn swap at kaitlyn’s two weekends ago.

look ma, cables! i know they’re a little tough to see in this picture but you get, well, the picture. i’ve updated the backpack with all the new info including pictures of my clapotis which is coming along nicely. oh and be sure to check out the action (lisa) shots (melani) of people using the stuff i have made for them (also in the crafty gallery.)

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ok, so does ANYONE in my audience watch battlestar galactica? (if none of you, you’re all frackin’ crazy!) this really IS the best show on television, it’s not just hype. i have never felt so touched by tv as i did this past friday with the episode “valley of darkness” (season 2, episode 2). what sets BSG apart from other shows on television right now is that it develops the character relationships, hones them, fine-tunes them until they are so real they could step out of the screen and sit with you on the couch.

i’ve only recently discovered this whole phenomenon of podcasting (where have i been?)—no doubt due to the prominent placing of it in iTunes—and have been listening to the podcasts from scifi.com today while at work. i was pleased to learn that i felt the same way about this episode that the writer, ron moore, did. there’s a great couple of scenes where starbuck and helo visit her old apartment on caprica (they’re homeworld.) her home is dirty and a wreck.. she led this bohemian life, never paying the bills, painting, smoking cigars. all she had left for dry goods was one package of noodles, but there are batteries in the stereo. she puts in a CD, presses play, and a somber, beautiful piano fills the room. a hush has fallen over her as she takes a deep breath and relaxes. the place is a mess but she and helo, all battered and bruised, come in, sit down (she sits on the arrow of apollo which is hilarious), and just stare out into space and at each other. it’s all the complete opposite of how the episode has been—fast-paced, high-action, no rest for the wicked—a chance for two soldiers to put their feet up on the coffee table and rest.

ron moore remarks in the podcast that he was very pleased with this moment—not only is the music perfect but so is the lighting, the pacing. it’s really quite striking. it’s a moment of calmness amongst so many moments of sheer terror and heartbreak. i watched that episode over again on saturday and was still taken in by the simplicity of those scenes in starbuck’s apartment. her relationship with helo (obviously something has occurred with these two in the past) is one that’s hands-off. you can tell that she is pretending to be on a professional level with him, and he takes the cue to just sit back and listen. starbuck remarks on how everyone is fighting to get back what they lost after the cylon attack but that she never pined over any of her crap (that’s an understatement.. her apartment looks like a tornado hit it.) she just fights because it’s the only thing that she knows how to do, yet her statement is a contradiction at this moment. here, she is sitting, not fighting. she’s reminding herself of why she fights: for the peace of living. the episode as a whole was the best hour of television i have watched in a long while.

now, i’m just waiting for my BSG season 2 poster to show up at work (thanks ebay!) so that i can look at gaius all day, if i choose. you should see all the firefly fliers that i have up near my computer! did anyone watch firefly last friday? scifi is re-airing them before the movie comes out. you should be watching!!

ok, i will post some crafty content later tonight (or tomorrow) once i get the images off my camera. i finished an umbilical cord baby hat (from the first stitch’n'bitch) and am working on a bag for all of my knitting. i’m almost done with it but i think that i’m going to pull out a seam tonight and try putting it back together again. i don’t like the way that it all bunched up.

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i’ve updated the reading blog to reflect the two books that i’ve read recently: out and harry potter and the half-blood prince. i’ve taken great care not to reveal any delicate plot points in my review of HP so if you’re mad at me for posting spoilers in that last entry, you can jump over to my reading site and get a sanitized viewpoint. ok, now i can go back to talking about battlestar galactica (awesome premiere on friday!), firefly (you can catch it this friday on scifi!), knitting, and anything else i can think about… like maybe some more harry potter!! (shoot me now)

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last week was the scifi marathon of battlestar galactica in a run-up to the new season which starts on friday, july 15th. i, of course, was at work during the marathon so i had my trusty DVR record them all so that i could watch them at my leisure. i’m also happy to report that i have managed to hook in my husband to the series (although he will patently deny that he has ever heard of it or that he ever watches television, so don’t bother to ask him about it) hence i managed to spend most of the week and weekend catching up starbuck, boomer, and apollo. after watching them all, i am now happy to declare that BSG is my favorite show on TV. no, really. i’m not kidding.

i used to be a huge fan of six feet under but somewhere along the last few seasons, they’ve severely lost their way. i watch it more now out of respect and curiosity than love. SFU is depressing. nate is depressed. claire is depressed. ruth is practically out of her mind she’s so depressed. i get depressed just thinking about it. all the magical elements of it have disappeared. it’s no longer lighthearted and whimsical when faced with death and betrayal. sad, too, since it was really a great show.

now, BSG, on the other hand, is dark, gritty, and endearing all at the same time. i find myself engrossed in all the plot lines, not just one or two. you can’t really expect a show about the survival of the human race to be entirely upbeat and happy so there are no initial letdowns here. BSG deals with such a wide variety of issues (politics, love, war, religion, suspicion, etc.) that there’s something here for everyone.

my main interests center on the history and religion of these humans fleeing the cylons. the story is that they all came from kobol, the birthplace of humanity, and that at some point in their distant past, thirteen tribes fled kobol (there was some sort of war.) twelve of the tribes formed the twelve colonies (all named after the twelve signs of the zodiac) and the thirteenth tribe colonized earth. forgetting earth for a second, the twelve colonies are certainly a veritable wealth of differences. though they are separate entities, they were united under one government and their system of living evolved from there. they are also polytheistic and mention the names of the greek gods often (apollo, aphrodite, zeus..), say things like “thank the gods”, and even have small, carved representations that they pray to. it’s all extremely interesting! what a great basis for a fictional civilization! just as much as i loved the chinese tie-in in firefly, i love this polytheistic religion of BSG.

in a glowing article on salon today, laura miller theorizes that these folks are supposed to be our ancestors not our descendents and here i think that she’s wrong (the rest of the article is a great viewpoint on the show that i couldn’t fault in the least.) i think that they are supposed to be our contemporaries… that when the thirteen tribes left kobol, it was a long time ago and the two civilizations—the 12 colonies and earth—evolved separately over that time.. that if they ever find earth, they will find us here, as we are today. we wove a different history from them; threw away our polytheism, our paganism, in search of one true god. it’s what the cylons have been preaching to gaius, but what really is the difference? one god, many gods? i’m anxious to see where the writers take this. it gives me goosebumps when i see the signs, the foreshadowing that’s leading the way to a fully realized universe.

and this one plotline is just one element of what makes BSG so great. the characters are amazing. the sets and ships and props are all intensely believeable. if you’ve thought that it’s blasphemy to remake a cult tv show and so didn’t watch battlestar galactica for that reason, then you’re missing out! give it a shot. you may find yourself re-evaluating your position in no time.

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well, i’m tired and at home after a loooooooong weekend. thankfully, i had today off from work (4 days weekends are tops) so i hit some of the summer sales in manhattan and even stopped by school products for some cashmere/silk hand-dyed hanks for a clapotis to be made as a christmas gift (who’s the lucky recipient?) i have other ideas for other presents but they are stash-busters, thank goodness.

so, since i’m feeling rather lazy, i’ll just link to my new gallery for pictures of my truly, lovely ladies of knitting…

mmm, pints, goldfish, and knitting.

oh, and i finished my one skein wonder!! it’s a little small so i might see if it fits anyone who looks vaguely smaller than me amongst my group of girls. just vaguely, mind you. wouldn’t want to be blatant about it.

(mind the books.. i must find a better location for posed shots.)

so i’ll be back with an extended entry tomorrow including more battlestar galactica talk since it is an all-day marathon on scifi tomorrow (set your DVRs!) and the new season on july 15th.. then harry potter and the half blood prince (book six) is released on july 16th! i’ve decided, after some start-stop-started-again plans, that i’m going to go to an independent book store in brooklyn to pick up the book at midnight. i figure, why not? i never stood in line for star wars so harry potter it is. maybe it’s the whole wand thing?

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the scifi channel, home to my beloved battlestar galactica, has picked up the original firefly episodes and will be airing them before the movie serenity is released. the good news is that scifi will be airing the epsiodes in the correct order and will also be airing the 3 episodes that never made it to the original run. you can see all of these on the DVDs though so i still suggest you go out and buy them only to prove to “the man” that firefly is kickass and should never have been cancelled in the first place.

mmmmm, i’m looking forward to more of mal, jayne, and simon. *growl*

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update: still in LOVE with firefly and i’ve only seen six episodes so far. i must buy this on DVD so that i can watch it over and over and completely annoy my husband. so now i’m looking forward to the movie coming out in september since this show only lasted for one season on fox. my question is, what do you think the chances are of a different network picking up firefly after the movie is released? i can’t wait to get home tonight, cast on the honeymoon cami (by the way, i made need help on this.. anyone willing to play teacher?), and watch some more!

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nope i don’t have tivo (at least not yet, i’m thinking about switching from time warner to satellite since time warner doesn’t seem to want my business. they disconnect my cable every six months for no reason) but i have the DVR from time warner cable and what is saved on my hard drive is pretty paltry.

over the past few years, i have gone into complete despair over the state of tv programming. i hate reality tv and it seems like that’s the only crap that’s on nowadays. america’s next top model, who cares? really? survivor? please. that show is completely staged. reality? no. it’s all very far from being real. as soon as you turn the camera on someone, they become someone else. it’s a phenomenon that documentary filmmakers have been challenged by for decades.

anyway, my lineup on the DVR currently consists of: new episodes of law & order on NBC; hey, hey, hey on the international channel; and absolutely fabulous which i can never get enough of. pretty scarce, wouldn’t you say? there just has been nothing on television lately that appeals to me.

i use tv like most people use alcohol, as a stress-reliever. i love to come home at the end of a day, kick it back on the couch, knit and enjoy some mindless boob-tube action. take me away from the daily grind! but do i do when there’s nothing even remotely interesting on? i rent. netflix is my savior! it’s rating system really kicks it if you rate enough dvds. it’s worth it to spend a couple of hours clicking on those stars. if it weren’t for netflix, i would have never rented my two new/old favorite shows: battlestar galactica and firefly.

first off, battlestar galactica which is currently in re-runs of season 1 on scifi. i rented the miniseries that led to the tv series and, god, it was great. the special effects were not overboard. in fact, they use paper!! i love it! printouts all over the bridge of galactica. starbuck is a girl! i double-love it! she’s spunky, too, gotta great right hook, and is a believable soldier.

if you saw the old 1970’s series, then you should watch this show for the pure nostalgia factor. my husband couldn’t get enough of the references to the olden, golden days of lorne green and walking trashcan cylons. in true remake fashion, now, the cylons look just like humans (and some are hot, hot women) and are waging war against their makers. edward james olmos is solid as commander adama. mary mcdonnell projects authority and confidence as the president of the colonies. now, i’m just hoping that scifi releases season 1 on dvd soon because i’ve already missed the first two or three episodes on the reruns. damn.. really, this show is not to be missed.

mmmm, my other soon-to-be favorite show (until six feet under returns to air) is firefly, a joss whedon creation (he also created buffy the vampire slayer and angel, if you like those shows.. which i did not, sorry.) too bad fox cancelled this series after only one season. i watched the first hour last night (yes, ONE HOUR and i was COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY HOOKED ON IT LIKE A DRUG) and can’t wait to get home and watch more. a while back i was checking the apple quicktime trailer site and saw the preview for “serenity” (the movie version of the tv program) and thought “this looks kick-ass but who are all these people?” then, not but a week later, hanzismatter’s tian was asked about the serenity logo and my curiosity was peaked! i jumped over to netflix and google to check it out.

firefly is a bit abnormal as far as scifi goes but i think that’s what makes it exceptional. there are no aliens.. no laser guns. it’s just humans that have expanded far beyond our solar system and colonized other planets. the dominate race and culture seems to be chinese which makes a heck of a lot of sense, and the characters are apt to curse or speak to each other in mandarin (at least it sounds mandarin and i have a good ear for these things. it may be mangled chinese according some posters at hanzismatter. correct me if i’m wrong.) since i haven’t watched much of it at this point, i can’t really expound on the merits of the storyline but the plot wastes no time on getting into the nitty-gritty of it all. if you hate long lead-ins and expositional dialogue, then you’ll love this show. mmm-mmm, looking forward to getting home tonight and watching more. any other fans of these shows out there?

so, it turns out that all my new favorite shows are on DVD! so much for cable.

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