web-goddess

This is the first unveiling of my latest knitting project, a cabled jumper for the Snook. The pattern is from the Sirdar Denim Book of Aran Knits (which for some damn reason isn’t up on our site, so I had to link to it elsewhere). He wanted something warm but not itchy, something like a sweatshirt that he could wear around the house. So I’m knitting it in Denim Sport Aran (wool, cotton, and acrylic blend), which worked really nicely on my sampler sweater. I’m calling it the Looking Glass Sweater because, with all the naiveté of a rookie knitter, I decided to adapt the pattern to be knit in the round instead of flat. So I cast on the body stitches, knit my ribbing, and then knit the first round of the pattern. Then I stopped DEAD IN MY TRACKS. The first problem is that this annoying pattern writes everything out in words instead of using a simple, succint chart. (I hate words.) It wouldn’t be such a bit issue except for problem two: every even-numbered round has to be knit backwards, and every single stitch has to be inverted (knits become purls, etc.). This is because in the original, the even-numbered rounds were on the wrong-side of the garment, and I’m knitting it from the front-side only. At any rate, I spent about two hours tearing my hair out before I cracked open Excel and plotted my own damn chart. It’s now a hundred times easier. I still like the concept of every other row being inverted from the original though, like some sort of Mobius strip or 4-dimensional space, which is why I’ve given it the name that I have. Never let it be said that knitters are not philosophical!

On a side note, cables are really hard to photograph! If you use the flash you lose all shadow and definition of the cables. This is the best I could do without the flash. As you can see, the sweater has panels of double moss stitch on each side, followed by a braid, a section of slip-stitch ribbing, and a triple intertwining central cable. Pretty neat, huh?

Oh. They bought a house. That’s not very earth-shattering!

Has anybody seen that Cursed movie with Christina Ricci? I only know of it because Margaret and David reviewed it on The Movie Show recently, but they showed a clip featuring Mr. Pacey Witter (aka Joshua Jackson) who’s sporting a smokin’ hot Ewan-McGregor-as-Obi-Wan-type beard. Basically, I’m asking if it’s worth sitting through a crap teen horror-fest just to get a quick Pacey fix…

As promised, I have actual video footage of the Tapestry Craft team knitting with Nuala, the Channel 7 weather girl. From left to right, that’s Albert, me, some chick from Australian Country Spinners, Nuala, Joseph, Leanne, and Rebecca (on the stool in the back).

More trouble with Apple Australia
Yesterday was exactly three weeks since I was promised a replacement iMac G5. Unfortunately upon contacting the company, it seems they’re still dicking me around. It’s going to be yet another week. That makes more than TWO MONTHS that the machine’s been sitting dead on my desk. To rub even more salt in the wound, they’re now telling me that data recovery isn’t covered by the warranty and I’ll have to pay for that myself. Granted, I have 90% of it backed up (from the last time the damn machine broke down, which was a mere four months ago), so it isn’t a huge loss, but there were a few dozen new photos that I’d be upset to lose. I just wrote a fairly scathing reply back stating that I’d be filing formal complaints all over the place and it seems like them covering the costs of recovery is the least they could do. Otherwise it looks like the Snook and I will have to shell out a hundred bucks for a Firewire hard drive enclosure, pry the drive out of the machine, and see if we can back it up ourselves. Bastards.

Update: I just filed an official complaint with the Office of Fair Trading.

I’m ranting about Australia over on Ask Metafilter again…

Return of my Inner RENT Rat
SQUEEE! My good buddy Kelly McMahon just sent me a link to the official RENT trailer. Holy crap, how did I miss that it’s coming out so soon? It’s like I can feel the Christian Bale lust fading as my long-dormant Adam Pascal crush begins to bloom again. His long hair does look kinda wacky though. (That said, the two-second glimpse of “Roger leading his punk band” ROCKED MY WORLD.) It really does look like he’s going to be the central character of the film. I think Rosario Dawson is going to be a great Mimi. Other than that, I’m just tickled to see so many of the cast back together. Anthony Rapp looks to be given short shrift (in the trailer, at least) but Jesse Martin seems to be nicely featured (and deservedly so, since he’s probably the only recognizable face to most of America). I wonder if they’re going to keep it a true musical, where the songs spontaneously arise out of the action, or whether they’re going to do some cheat like in Chicago, where the songs are just fantasies in one character’s head. I wonder how well it will translate to film, seeing as how the best part of the theatrical version was feeling like you were really there, that you were really part of the whole experience. (The finale – with Mark shining his camera all over the audience – used to bring me to tears.) Man, I just can’t wait to see this! And hey, there’s a blog too. It’s nice to know that the Larson family is so involved.

Dammit. WHAT is Andrew and Kathleen‘s secret? It’s killing me. I mean, I think I know – you’re all thinking it too – but we could be wrong, right? So come on, guys, tell us before I explode!

Ebert gives Batman Begins four stars! Now maybe I can convince the Snook to go see it. (I like superhero movies a lot. Him… not so much.)

Yes, it’s true. As Tracey noticed, that was me knitting with the Nuala, the Channel 7 weathergirl, on the evening news tonight. A bunch of us from the shop went down to help promote the Salvation Army’s Knitting for our Homeless event this weekend. Man, my hair looked RED! The Snook’s extracting the video and I’ll have it posted in the morning.

After the newscast I headed into Glebe for my catch-up Weight Watchers meeting (since yesterday’s was cancelled because of the holiday). Again, I LOST WEIGHT. That doesn’t sound remarkable because you people don’t know what I ate this past weekend. On Friday night Amy watched me eat a veal schnitzel the size of a dinner plate with a side of deep-fried potatoes and wash it all down with three pints of beer. (Mmmmm, beer.) And I still lost over a kilo! My weight loss is now defying the LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS. I can’t explain it. It’s like a sign from the universe telling me that my efforts to get rid of this virus are ALL IN VAIN, because it’s a GOOD VIRUS, and I love it and want to keep it forever. My precious, precious virus.

Oh, yeah, and so I ended up doing some more famewhoring, because there was a journalist at our meeting covering the Weight Watchers group leader pay dispute (which is spearheaded by our leader). The journo explained that nobody had to be photographed if they didn’t want to, but most of us ended up hanging around. The guy took a bunch of pictures from behind and then asked if anybody was willing to go up front for a few. Nobody moved. Finally I was like, “Sure, why not? I’m not from this bloody country anyway.” So I stood up and told my little story while the the photographer circled the room. Later I asked the journalist where the story would run and she said – barring any legal complications – it should appear in Good Weekend sometime soon.

So keep your eyes out for my newly skinny form, soon coming to every form of media in Australia. I expect to be appearing on Neighbours next year…