Gonna Take The High Road

...and not make the obvious joke. I know, you're shocked. Usually I would go for the low-hanging fruit (so to speak), but this time I'm going to let you make the joke on your own.

Am I the only one who is laughing at these... rings?

Pinktacular Hat And Scarf

What is the predominant color in my yarn stash? It might be pink. Okay, it's not, but I do have a ridiculous amount of pink yarn. What is it with me and pink yarn?

This is a hat/scarf set knitted with two of my pinks, Lion Brand Baby Soft in Bubble Gum and Patons Glittallic in Maroon Shine. I held one strand of each together on the hat.

The Glittallic, if you haven't seen it, has a fuzziness that gives the hat a bit of a soft halo effect. It's also got these bits of satiny or glittery ribbon interspersed throughout. When it's knitted up, it's just a random pattern of sparkly and shiny.

Fun!



I only used--wow, like less than half of the Baby Soft for the hat. So I wanted to do a scarf to go along with it. But, I'd used a whole skein of Glittallic, and I only had two skeins to begin with.



So, for the scarf, I alternated garter stripes of the two yarns and stockingette panels of just the Baby Soft. It waves a bit on the edges, which looks kinda cool, I think. (I promise you, this is not an accurate representation of the color. It is more soft pink than the electric pink shown here.)

Patwoman's Birthday Movie Review

Yeah, it's my birthday. As if that isn't scary enough, we went to see Paranormal Activity last night. I'd been reading all these reviews about how scary it was and how it was the scariest movie of the decade and how people got up and walked out of the movie because it was so scary...

So you know I had to go see it.

Let me say first, it's not that scary. It is very well done, though. I was very impressed with what they were able to do with an $11,000 budget. I'm thinking they spent most of it on film processing and the camera. (Maybe 2 cameras? Not more than 2, I'm sure.) Set was minimal, only 4 actors (plus the guy in the green suit). Very well done.

I won't spoil anything for you, because I think you should go see it. It is very enjoyable, if you can make it through the initial (slow) 30 minutes. Don't hold that dullness against it, either. It's a tension-building thing that works very well for the last half of the movie. (I did have the uncharitable thought of "People walked out halfway through because it was boring." But I'm glad I stayed.)

This movie is being compared to The Blair Witch Project pretty frequently. It does have that feel to it--kind of an unscripted, hand-held camera, this-is-how-it-really-happened sort of feel. And the marketing is just as ingenious as BWP was--except, thank God, they are not trying to say it's a true story. I just don't think I could take arguing with another idiot who can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality.

There were a couple of nice scares in the movie, too. Don't get me wrong. But seriously, the best part of this whole experience was listening to the two grown men in the row behind me--"Oh God!" "Oh no!" "Oh shit!" "I can't watch this!" "I'm not going to be able to sleep for a week!"

Hat!

‘Nother Christmas present. This matches the Cabled Scarf I knit a while back. Same yarn, LB Thick & Quick in Redwood. I used some plastic canvas to support the brim.
This makes a pretty cute set. I really like the seed stitch/cable combo, especially in that bulky weight yarn. I’m thinking I may want to make some mittens to go with this.

The pattern is Knit Newsboy Hat from Red Heart. The knitting took me a few hours, but I managed to stretch the finishing (cutting the plastic canvas, inserting it, seaming the brim and then weaving in the ends) to about four days. I have not even blocked this puppy yet.

Mrs. Buttersworth Has A Name

I read that story yesterday, actually. There was a contest to name Mrs. Buttersworth and now she has a first name. (It’s Joy, btw.)

This, of course, is a rather dull news story. I seriously regret spending 2.5 minutes reading it. I also regret spending another 30 seconds thinking, “I always assumed Mrs. Buttersworth was a snob, since she insisted she be called Mrs. Buttersworth, instead of by her first name—as anyone who’d known you all their life would be welcome to call you.”

I also regret spending 5 minutes writing this.

And I regret that you read this whole post.

I Don’t Think We Should Shoot Birds With Fireworks

It just seems wrong.

Let me summarize… You know I work in a tall building downtown. And you know birds are a big problem for tall buildings. They nest on them and then the bird poo damages the building. Everybody is always trying to come up with more effective ways of keeping the birds from roosting on the buildings.

Well, the company that manages my building sent a communiqué saying they would be scaring away the birds over the next few days. There will be sirens and high pitched whistles and pyrotechnics.

Wait, what? Pyrotechnics? Seriously?

I don’t know. It just seems unfair. It seems karmically wrong. No good will come of this.