illicit diversions

I have been working hard on my Spencer, and I have just done the cast-off for the neckline on the first front piece!  I am so incredibly excited!

Have a wee little picture from my laptop’s webcam camera.  I’m too lazy to get up and get an actual camera.

I actually finished the back of the Anne Elliot Spencer the other night!  I just now measured it, and it is exactly long enough!

The pattern gave no directions about what exactly was supposed to happen (binding off, what have you), so I just threaded a bit of junk yarn though the loops and called it a day.

Now for the rest of the garment.

I decided that what I needed to do in order to conquer the clover pattern was to do a practice swatch thingie.  So I cast on as if for the cardigan again with some junk yarn I have hanging around.  That actually was a huge help. I figured out the pattern, and then practiced my increases until I felt like I knew what was going on. It has worked out pretty well, so far!

Because of the way the pattern is written, it took me a while to figure out if I was supposed to repeat the row of knitting only  in between the rows with the YO’s that create the holes.  The answer is YES, but I’m a dufus and had to read the section on the clover pattern a few times before I realized that.

FULL STEAM AHEAD!

I am now nearly done with the back piece, and I’m hoping to cast on for the front pannels soonish.  Pictures to come!

I found a few neat people recently.

Craftzine linked to The Ongoing Project’s crocheted collar, which looks beautiful!  It is going on my list of things to try out sometime soonish. I’m not exactly sure what 2-ply means, so I see some experimentation in my future.  I have some very light stuff I use to crochet snowflakes, but I’m not sure if that’s too light or too heavy!

I recently came across Whip Up, which I feel like I’ve seen before, but maybe not. At any rate, it is a great little collection of how-tos and tutorials for most things crafty.  I re-discovered a nifty little idea for reusing fabric scraps and old egg cartons.  *adds to list*

I finished the lower portion of the Anne Elliot Spencer, only to reach the clover patter, fuck it up, and rip the entire thing out and start over. I have once again reached that point, and I think this time, I will write out for myself what I think is going on, and move my stitch markers pre-emptively and *crosses fingers* it will go much better this time. I need to look up how to do the increases, which I think take place on each end of the pattern, and are not described within the clover pattern instructions.

I have two projects that I’m actively working on at the moment, despite my project list at ravelry claiming I have 4. (It took me a while to figure out the difference between queue, project, and favorites.)

The first is a pair of the Daisy Stitch Hand Warmers from Purlbee. This is actually my second time knitting them, and I like to think that making the first set taught me a lot about knitting. I’ve gotten a bit better at managing the tension so the knit-3-together part isn’t quite so painfully difficult. I’m also changing up the pattern in that instead of doing stripes of different colors, they’re going to be yellow with one or two red stripes across the back of the hand, above the thumb hole! It looks really cool in my head. I also need to go read some thumb/finger patterns, because I’m not quite convinced I’m doing it right yet. There is a lot of post-knitting tightening things up in that area.

My second project is Anne Elliot Spencer by Canary Knits. It is an adorable little cropped shrug thing, the technical term for which is apparently a ’spencer’. Who knew? I’m starting that in a the nasty cheap acrylic from Red Heart, as I feel like I’m going to do some serious fucking up before I get it right. Somehow, I feel like I shouldn’t use the nice yarn until I am confident in my ability to make the actual pattern. I did cave and pick up a beautiful orange yarn for my second go at the spencer. I have some amazing dinosaur buttons for Jo-Ann’s that I feel will really make it an amazing garment!

I also have a pretty bright pink that is just barely hot enough for me to want to wear. I want to make it into a super-hot-yet-somewhat-badass cardigan/shrug item, but I haven’t quite found the perfect pattern.

The Watch It Now thing from Netflix is actually pretty cool. You can watch those crappy movies and TV shows that don’t really seem worth the several day wait for the disc to be mailed to you, and you can see the things you actually care about in DVD quality with the regular mail service.

That said, the first thing I watched that way was kind of a dud.

The sad thing is, this movie has all the hallmarks of a story I could really like. Ridiculous plot? Check. Angsty misunderstanding? Check. Lies, more lies, and selfish deceit? By the metric fuckton. So, I will completely admit, I was primed to love this stupid piece of shit movie. Except then it all went to hell in a sexist hand basket. (Are we actually surprised? No, but a girl can dream.)

I actually kind of liked the first half of the movie. Ridiculousness, silly scenes, overblown conniving - exactly my cup of tea. It was how everything was tied up at the end that completely ruined it for me.

1) Hypocrisy. Okay, so yes, everyone does it. But I expect a little more from my fictional characters. She is upset because he was doing it on a bet that will determine his career trajectory? When she was doing it all for an article? When all is said and done, those who live in glass houses shouldn’t be throwing stones around that casually. Both of them get a giant FAIL here.

2) Him. They did a pretty good job of showing what she saw in him, but what did he see in her? The entire movie, we’re shown him time after time gritting his teeth and trying to hang on to her, all for the sake of a bet that will bolster his career. We get a little bit of what he’s feeling during the visit home, but I’m not convinced enough for it to counteract everything that has come before. So his mad dash to get her back when he thinks she really did love him didn’t do it for me. Plus, it’d be cool to see him liking something else about her besides her love of basketball and ability to use his relatives to cheat at cards.

Which brings us to the last and most egregious sin committed by this movie.

3) The Taxi Scene. This is me wearing my radical feminist hat again, but this scene completely ruined the movie for me. Instead of “Don’t go to a job interview in DC because I am here and not there”, the correct answer was for him to kiss her sweetly, wish her luck, and with a lusty look in his eye, tell her to hurry back. Later, they could discuss her applying for jobs in the city, or a long distance relationship (now that he’s making the even bigger bucks with his ‘awesome’ new add campaign, he can probably afford it), or talk of him finding a job there. None of this shutting down her career bullshit. That completely pissed me off, and ultimately makes this movie a complete FAIL.

Craftzine posted about a new embroidery pattern shop called PimpStitch (tagline: “Keep Your Stitch Hand Strong”), and after admiring the adorable patterns, the name finally registered and I could feel my jaw dropping.

Really? Someone thought that was a good name? I mean, they got racism, sexism, and domestic violence all in one go. I’m almost impressed.

Maybe I’m being a little hypocritical here. I am a slash fan, and I speak completely seriously of pimping music, authors, and fic to other fans. But this context is so completely unexpected and inappropriate! And unnecessary! The fandom usage of ‘pimp’ is to show other fans awesome things in a way that brings joy to everyone involved. This usage of ‘pimp’ is faux-cutesy and vomit-inducing. I’m not really seeing any use that either reverses or negates the negative connotations of the word or is subversive to the usual meaning of the word.

I realize that not all crafters identify as radical feminists, or even feminist at all, but I expected better of both Craftzine and their demographic. It’s too bad, really, because I would totally buy Tamie Snow’s adorable octopus pattern, except I cannot give money to any entity with ‘pimp’ in the name. Sorry Tamie, I’m just going to have to draw my own adorable octopus.

I made a blog! Bitchin.