On the other hand, lambs are white and fluffy, right? And lions live in warm climates. So maybe Mother Nature's just playing with words.
Friday, March 31, 2017
Out Like A Lamb
After it being in the 50s to start the month, and it snowing today, I'm thinking Mother Nature got the "in like a lion, out like a lamb" thing backwards.
On the other hand, lambs are white and fluffy, right? And lions live in warm climates. So maybe Mother Nature's just playing with words.
On the other hand, lambs are white and fluffy, right? And lions live in warm climates. So maybe Mother Nature's just playing with words.
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
West-ern Colonnade
The knitting world is a broad and wonderous place, full of creative characters. One of them is a midwesterner named Stephen West who is, shall we say, more of a character than most. He has come to be known as a designer who likes bright colors, sharp lines, and an all-around unconventional aesthetic.
So imagine my surprise when I discovered that a shawl I (generally a fan of more simplistic, traditional designs) was thinking about knitting had been dreampt up by this maverick in his early years as a designer. Back in 2009, Stephen published his Colonnade shawl in Knitty, and it's been in my queue ever since.
While putting my feet up for the last few weeks, I decided to do a deep dive into the yarn stash and pulled out something I bought on a trip to Oregon about a decade ago: Deam In Color "Baby" (sport-DK) in Cloud Jungle (similar to their current offering, "Raincloud"). Even though Colonnade was designed for a much heavier yarn, I knew it would take substitution well, so the yarn and pattern made friends.
Mine's all one color, and I'm skipping the loop and toggle. I think it'll suit me quite nicely, and I'm tickled to think that I'm knitting the most uncharacteristic Stephen West pattern in a most uncharacteristic color. It's perfect.
So imagine my surprise when I discovered that a shawl I (generally a fan of more simplistic, traditional designs) was thinking about knitting had been dreampt up by this maverick in his early years as a designer. Back in 2009, Stephen published his Colonnade shawl in Knitty, and it's been in my queue ever since.
While putting my feet up for the last few weeks, I decided to do a deep dive into the yarn stash and pulled out something I bought on a trip to Oregon about a decade ago: Deam In Color "Baby" (sport-DK) in Cloud Jungle (similar to their current offering, "Raincloud"). Even though Colonnade was designed for a much heavier yarn, I knew it would take substitution well, so the yarn and pattern made friends.
Mine's all one color, and I'm skipping the loop and toggle. I think it'll suit me quite nicely, and I'm tickled to think that I'm knitting the most uncharacteristic Stephen West pattern in a most uncharacteristic color. It's perfect.
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
Free Stuff!
You know you're interviewing with a small, family-run business when they send you home with free merchandise. Even better, I spent most of the interview petting a friendly dog. Even if I don't get the job, I had a good morning.
Monday, March 27, 2017
Pinterrible
Oh, Pinterest! You try so hard to read your users' minds, but you frequently fail, and those failures are equal parts pathetic and amusing.
I've been pinning some pictures of women with pixie cuts (every so often I toy with the idea of cutting my hair that short, and then gradually talk myself out of it), and one or two of the pictures were of women with grey hair. Pinterest, only looking at tags rather than trends, decided that I must be looking for information about hairstyles for women over 50, and has inundated me with pictures that are completely useless to me.
I've been looking at pictures of medieval, renaissance, and Victorian kitchens because I love the wood and brick and tile, and so Pinterest shows me modernist, minimalist, micro-kitchens with stainless steel and glass and sleek, white surfaces.
I've been looking for examples of historic blackwork and smocking (embroidery and pleatwork) for my SCA garb, and Pinterest keeps showing me avant-garde runway fashion from Japan (where they love applying origami techniques to fabric).
It's rather like going to a library in a foreign country and having a hapless assistant who doesn't speak your language insist on finding all of your reference material for you. After a while, even this non-drinker wants to retreat to the local pub for fortification so as not to strangle someone. Pinterest is useful for keeping all of my inspiration photos and links in one place, but complete rubbish for trying to find new sources. And the best part is that, unless you encounter a previously-undiscovered bug in the system, the only help you can get is from "Pinterest Experts," who are just regular users with no access to the back end or the developers and who can only quote the FAQ at you. It takes "unhelpful" to new lows.
But golly, is it ever addicting.
I've been pinning some pictures of women with pixie cuts (every so often I toy with the idea of cutting my hair that short, and then gradually talk myself out of it), and one or two of the pictures were of women with grey hair. Pinterest, only looking at tags rather than trends, decided that I must be looking for information about hairstyles for women over 50, and has inundated me with pictures that are completely useless to me.
I've been looking at pictures of medieval, renaissance, and Victorian kitchens because I love the wood and brick and tile, and so Pinterest shows me modernist, minimalist, micro-kitchens with stainless steel and glass and sleek, white surfaces.
I've been looking for examples of historic blackwork and smocking (embroidery and pleatwork) for my SCA garb, and Pinterest keeps showing me avant-garde runway fashion from Japan (where they love applying origami techniques to fabric).
It's rather like going to a library in a foreign country and having a hapless assistant who doesn't speak your language insist on finding all of your reference material for you. After a while, even this non-drinker wants to retreat to the local pub for fortification so as not to strangle someone. Pinterest is useful for keeping all of my inspiration photos and links in one place, but complete rubbish for trying to find new sources. And the best part is that, unless you encounter a previously-undiscovered bug in the system, the only help you can get is from "Pinterest Experts," who are just regular users with no access to the back end or the developers and who can only quote the FAQ at you. It takes "unhelpful" to new lows.
But golly, is it ever addicting.
Sunday, March 26, 2017
Venation Shawl
I start a lot of knitting projects. A lot of them. I finish far fewer, and it's always something of an occasion when I do. After a tense half hour late last night where I tinked and re-knit the
last 20 stitches of the bind-off half a dozen times and finally cheated a
little so I wouldn't run out of yarn, I finished a shawl made from fiber dyed by my friend Dan of Gnomespun Yarn & Fiber Arts. This is Claire Slade's "Venation" shawl (squared crescent version, regular bind-off) in Gotland fiber in a color Dan calls Deep Cockscomb, which I spun into a two-ply sport/DK-weight on my Babe wheel.
This morning, the shawl took a bath with a bit of grapefruit-scented Eucalan...
...and then hit my version of a blocking mat for a gentle pinning. (Maeve included for scale, and because she and Kira supervise most of the fiber art that goes on in this house.)
The Gotland is crunchy, but it's got character and body, and the color is just so scrumptious that I wanted to show it off as much as I could, which led me to this very open lace pattern, stretching my limited yardage to the max.
I'm looking forward to wearing this... just as soon as it dries and I weave in the ends.
This morning, the shawl took a bath with a bit of grapefruit-scented Eucalan...
...and then hit my version of a blocking mat for a gentle pinning. (Maeve included for scale, and because she and Kira supervise most of the fiber art that goes on in this house.)
The Gotland is crunchy, but it's got character and body, and the color is just so scrumptious that I wanted to show it off as much as I could, which led me to this very open lace pattern, stretching my limited yardage to the max.
I'm looking forward to wearing this... just as soon as it dries and I weave in the ends.
Saturday, March 25, 2017
Honorifics
Dear Reign writers,
How is it that you write a show about royals and nobility without knowing which honorific suits which rank? I mean, it's clear the show's target demographic is teenaged females who aren't in the least bit bookish, but still... why not do one small thing that could subtly educate your viewers rather than making your show look even trashier than it already does?
Here's a quick primer:
King/Queen: (Your/His/Her/Their) Majesty (-ies), who refer to themselves in the plural (We).
Prince/Princess/Dauphin: (Your/His/Her/Their) Highness (-es).
Anything below that gets tremendously complicated and varies from one royal court to another, but nobody should be calling a Queen "Your Grace" or "Your Highness," and no Queen should be making official/public declarations in the first person.
I won't even touch the issue of your female characters looking like they just walked out of the Nordstrom prom catalog, nor your male characters wearing poet shirts and shiny leather pants, because, well, you do call this a fantasy show, and maybe polyester and pleather is your fantasy... but please, get the basics of addressing a regal personage correct.
On the other hand, thank you for casting Megan Follows and John Barrowman (it's a little sad that Barrowman is one of the few people with an authentic accent, but hey, CBS ain't the BBC), the latter because he's adorable, and the former because it's hilarious to me to see bits and pieces of Anne Shirley in Catherine de' Medici.
Shaking my quill pen frustratedly in your general direction,
Me
How is it that you write a show about royals and nobility without knowing which honorific suits which rank? I mean, it's clear the show's target demographic is teenaged females who aren't in the least bit bookish, but still... why not do one small thing that could subtly educate your viewers rather than making your show look even trashier than it already does?
Here's a quick primer:
King/Queen: (Your/His/Her/Their) Majesty (-ies), who refer to themselves in the plural (We).
Prince/Princess/Dauphin: (Your/His/Her/Their) Highness (-es).
Anything below that gets tremendously complicated and varies from one royal court to another, but nobody should be calling a Queen "Your Grace" or "Your Highness," and no Queen should be making official/public declarations in the first person.
I won't even touch the issue of your female characters looking like they just walked out of the Nordstrom prom catalog, nor your male characters wearing poet shirts and shiny leather pants, because, well, you do call this a fantasy show, and maybe polyester and pleather is your fantasy... but please, get the basics of addressing a regal personage correct.
On the other hand, thank you for casting Megan Follows and John Barrowman (it's a little sad that Barrowman is one of the few people with an authentic accent, but hey, CBS ain't the BBC), the latter because he's adorable, and the former because it's hilarious to me to see bits and pieces of Anne Shirley in Catherine de' Medici.
Shaking my quill pen frustratedly in your general direction,
Me
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