And Then I Zig Zagged Again!

Here's another scarf. This one is Zig Zag Chunky Scarf  by Zoe Bartley. I used Caron Tea Cakes again, this time in Lady Grey, which is also basically blue.

This pattern works up very quickly, due to the chunky guage and the easy to memorize pattern. The zigzags give it a lot of texture and interest, so it's pretty gratifying to knit. It's also a pretty quick knit, so there's that.




I've been having some type of knitter attention disorder, where I need very quick projects. I really should be working on joining afghan blocks for my friend's afghan (I traded this work for some chainmail work from her.) but I do a couple and then I just... have to do something else.

Anyway, I love this yarn. Love this pattern. I put the pompons on the end, just like Zoe does in her pattern. But my pompons don't look as good.

They never do, do they? I just suck at pompons, I guess.

I Zigged, Then I Zagged

This is a recent scarf I finished. It's the Lace Zig Zag Scarf by Barbara Breiter.

I used Caron Tea Cakes in Oolong flavor. Very nice shades of blue and muted blues. It's a chunky yarn, so it works very nicely with this lace pattern.

The pattern is also very easy to remember, very easy to do. But it also has a nice impact, by switching directions of lace to give it that zigzag pattern. I like patterns like that.

I made this one pretty quickly, and mostly while watching TV, so that should encourage you to try it. It looks great, I think. And this one will become a Christmas Gift 2018.

Game Of Thrones 2019

Yeah. Like another year before it returns. I'm kind of angry and kind of ambivalent about it now. I mean, do we still even care about Game of Thrones?

Sure, I've already said that it's the best show on TV. And I still think the writing is exceptional. As a writer, it's rare that a story can surprise me. And GoT tends to surprise me sometimes. Not all the time, mind you. But sometimes, at least. And I like that.

That's why I get so bent out of shape when people spoil things for me. Because I like the surprise. And I think it's extremely rude to tell someone what's going to happen when they've already told you they like the way the show can surprise them.

But lately, I've been frustrated with GoT. It's mainly the production schedule. I just feel betrayed by waiting a year and a half in between seasons. I don't care if you're waiting on snow (there's fake snow, there's CG...) or sets to be built (there are plenty of union-certified workers who are ready and willing to take on the job) or scripts to be written (18-24 months is a ridiculously long time to write 6 or 7 or however few episodes they have left.) I think there is an unspoken contract between a show and its fandom that the show won't take advantage of the fans' loyalty by making them wait a year and a half or two years in between seasons.

Frankly, I've forgotten so much about what happened last season that I have very little motivations to watch next season. There's no tension. There's no "What's going to happen?"  No "How will this turn out?"  No "Who is behind this?" Nothing.

Maybe that makes me a disloyal fan, because I find myself not caring a whole lot about characters I had cared about previously. But I also think it makes the production company disloyal to the show's fans. It's like they're drug dealers and the show is the drug. They hooked you on the show at the beginning and now they just want you to beg for it at the end. And you're going to beg a long time for it, too. 

But here's the thing... I and all the other fans have had to go cold turkey without that drug. Some of us have passed through the withdrawal phase and now won't get hooked again.

If I'm being honest, I'm probably going to watch this last season anyway. I feel like I've invested so much time into this show that I have to. And I will probably enjoy it. But I will also not make a big deal about watching it on Sunday nights. It will just go into the DVR and I will watch it when I get time.

And I'll probably not be getting bent out of shape about spoilers, either. I just can't get that interested in it again.

Knit Or Not

It's actually crochet, but that didn't fit my clever little title. 

This is a finger crochet scarf that I did as a class a while back. I used two different colors of yarn so the students would see the two strands as I demonstrated. Many of them had never worked with two strands of yarn before, so it was a good way to show them how to hold them together.

Plus, I think sometimes it looks pretty cool to get that marbled effect with two colors, don't you? 

Anyway, it's been sitting in my bag for a while, so I pulled it out and thought about whether I wanted to finish it or frog it. I decided to frog.

Actually, that's not true. I decided to finish it, but I didn't have enough yarn left. (I apparently used some leftover yarn for this demo, so there is not a whole skein of either here.) So I ended up frogging it. Now I have these two grapefruit sized balls of bulky yarn.

What should I do with them?

Happy Groundhogs Day?

Stupid groundhog. 

And by the way, I don't get this whole Groundhog Day thing. He comes out and the day is nice and clear, and that somehow means more winter? Wouldn't it make more sense if he came out and saw the sky was cloudy and there was no shadow and that means more winter? That says to me the weather is pretty shitty. How does nice weather = more winter?

Whatever. I didn't make this stuff up. I did do some research on groundhogs day, however. And apparently it's carried over from Candlemas from Germany. So that makes sense. Or maybe it doesn't. If it were a German legend, it would be something in the Black Forest that would eat you. Like a giant evil groundhog. (If Grimm's Fairy Tales have taught us anything.)

But I digress. 

Turns out, groundhogs typically come out of hibernation about six weeks after Groundhog Day anyway. So, it makes perfect sense, no matter if he sees his shadow or not, that spring won't be for another six weeks.

Don't let the empty suet cage fool you.
Look at all the birds. That's why it's empty.

Still, I think he's wrong. For one things, the geese never left here. They stayed here in Indiana. It didn't get supercold here, though. (Well, it did for a very short period of time, but it was mostly mild.) And there was not much snow. So they did okay here.

Plus, I am seeing birds at my birdfeeder. Grackles, finches, and robins. Well, not robins. I see them in the yard. They don't like to eat at my feeder. (Snobby robins.) But, I'm seeing them, at least.

Even the geese paid me a visit the other day, much to Achilles' delight. They don't usually hang out until they start thinking about mating season. (Hm. Well, it is almost Valentine's Day.)

So all those things say to me that it will be an early spring. We'll see who's right, me or the groundhog.

Of course, I'm not a licensed meteorologist like he is.