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Showing posts from August, 2010

Having Opinions, and other Societal Faux Pas

We're still on old pictures here at Chez Yarn. This one is an oldie but goody from last winter. Three skeins of Sundara Sock. Yum. So what has me blogging the day after I blogged? Timer . Vicky Cristina Barcelona . Scarlett Johansson. Wikipedia has just informed me that Scarlett Johansson is Jewish. I knew my Jewdar was failing, but this is not the product of diaspora. I loved Scarlett in Manny & Lo when she was just a child, but I never would have guessed she was Jewish. (Technically she is only half Jewish, but it's the "important"* half, her mother's half.) And why should it matter? Because that is what I grew up doing, the age old conversation filler of "is she/he Jewish, or isn't she/he?" I rarely think on this, because I am so culturally removed from where I grew up (Long Island), I come in contact with so few Jews, and the climate of political correctness has changed. To tell you the truth, I am really uncomfortabl

For those about to rock - we salute you.

I finished my eighth(!) Shetland Triangle this weekend. No, that picture above is not the Shetland Triangle. I don't have any recent pictures. I'm not motivated to take pictures of anything lately, even the record number of yarn skeins I wound into cakes on Saturday. Instead of bemoaning my creative paucity, I've decided to fill in the blanks with an unblogged project from last year's deadspot. Last spring I knit a lovely Serenity baby blanket for my husband's best friend's first child, a baby girl. Did I mention this is a free pattern? It is a free pattern, and from the charts at least, an error free, free pattern. I really enjoyed knitting this project. And the reason's why are, what? What did I like about this project? Do I even know? Hmmm. 1) The lace was challenging but not fussy. 2) The occasional cabling was easy, and eye pleasing. 3) The yarn is Dream in Color's Classy, in the Chinatown Apple colorway. I took a big

Monday Mornin' Quarterbackin'

Thoughts for the day... 1) I've only knit one gift this calender year, a ribbed hat for my niece Meaghan. 2) Be careful what you wish for. I wished for a day doing nothing on the couch yesterday and that's what I received. I couldn't get out of my own way; I was molasstic inertia. The list of what I didn't do with all those voluptuous hours of freedom is long and sad and whah whah whah all the way home. It really pisses me off when the precious hours and days of my life are squandered. What some people wouldn't give for the leisure and bounty of my small life and I don't take advantage of it. I am unable to take advantage of it. What causes this paralysis? What makes me inert? Is it guilt or trauma or stupidity? Maybe that's why I've always been unsympathetic to the travails of Hamlet. I don't like what I see, because I see it in me. No matter how bitter the above tone, I am not really miserable, just exasperated with myself

Healing...

So I decided I'm taking tomorrow off to get some things done that went undone last weekend and the weekend before. This way, this weekend coming up I might be more apt to get motivated to work on a couple of overdue projects, instead of attempt to play catch up and whine at my failure. Did I mention I was cranky? Well, I thought it was worth mentioning again. I always think it's worth mentioning. And this, really, is why I find being alone preferable. I wouldn't want to listen to anyone tell me they are cranky, but I have a congenital urge to share this information myself. So I blog it. Hopefully it doesn't do any damage out there in the cyberspacial innertubes. That's a cool word, cyberspatial. Yes, I made it up just now. That's what words are for, to communicate exactly what one is thinking or feeling. If there isn't a word to do that, I say, make it up. Language is the clay of communication. Molding it is one of my life's greatest ent

Portrait of a Shawl

So I'm back to comfort knitting. This is only the second skein of my Malabrigo sock stash that I have caked, but the first skein to be knit. It's a Shetland Triangle. My seventh. I've started an eighth. I was sick all weekend and I took it like a sport Monday morning. It's frustrating to have a body so heavily influenced by my brain. If it's possible to have one's hormones give one a fever, than that is what I think happened to me. And then Sunday I experienced some enervating bowel distress. Sweet baby jesus, that was fun. This morning I was thinking of Mary Baker Eddy . In simple terms, her development of the Church of Christ Scientist may be wholly attributable to her own experiences with somatoform disorder.

Mit Gegenüber, or where I get in touch with my Inner Bitter.

I was looking for some fantastic German word or phrase to encapsulate the anarchy in my mind. Mit Gegunuber are two words I put together. It may not be proper German grammar, but I make the rules on this har blog. It means, to me, "with opposite" or maybe it should mean "opposite with." Oppositional. You know they have personality disorders based around oppositionalism . I feel oppositional right this moment. Like a petulant two year old. Gimme gimme now now. Our crick has dried up. First time in the four years we've been here that it has run dry. I'm ornery, the weather's ornery, who isn't ornery? They should stay away whoever they are. I'm ready to spread the wealth on any unsuspecting passerby. Poor, poor passerbys. Yeah, so a few weeks ago I rewatched The White Ribbon. It was a foolish mistake on my part. The critical press couldn't get out of their way on this one. I have nothing nice to say about most of the re