Knitting and spinning. The fun never stops.

I always thought the cell phone graveyard was a fictional place where, legend says, cell phones gather in their old age. Then they die there alone, far from the rest of the cell phones.

When doing some decluttering I came across the cell phone graveyard:

I think I’ll find a good place to donate them, now that I’ve discovered the graveyard.

It’s been a long day and I don’t have much to say. I have, however, made a wee bit of progress on my shawl-in-progress:

I’ve been doing a couple of rows a day. Slow and steady, yada yada yada.

When all else fails, post a picture of Lucy.

Then post a picture of Lucy’s paw fluff!

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For you I have
Two reviews.
A review of a book,
and a movie too.

The Movie

The movie first. Friday night the KOARC and I watched the movie “In Bruges,” starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, and Ralph Fiennes. The main action takes place (not surprisingly) in Bruges, Belgium.

Hitmen Farrell and Gleeson are sent by boss Fiennes to the lovely medieval city of Bruges to cool their heels after a bungled hit. And of course, hijinks ensue.

This film features a lot of graphic violence but a lot of very dark comedy as well, and the story becomes more and more surreal as the plot unfolds. I’m not a fan of blood and gore films, but while this one was, as I said, pretty graphic, it was filmed (dare I say) tastefully, so that while you knew full well what was happening, and in most cases saw it, it was not a sickening gratuitous blood and gore-fest.

Did that make any sense?

If you are a fan of the slightly absurd, are not turned off by hitmen doing what they do best, and want to see Colin Farrell put in an incredible performance, check this one out. It’s available on DVD.

The Book

The other day I received a review copy of Shibori Knits: The Art of Exquisite Felted Knits, by Gina Wilde. This book’s publication date is next week, I believe.

(Apologies for the seriously sucky photo.)

According to Wikipedia, Shibori is a Japanese term for several methods of dyeing cloth with a pattern by binding, stitching, folding, twisting, or compressing it. Some of these methods are known in the West as tie-dye. Western civilization does not have an exact word equivalent that encompasses all the techniques of shibori.

According to the description of the book on Amazon.com, Shibori Knits highlights the intersection between shibori and knitting, offering 20 patterns that utilize this transformative technique. Internationally acclaimed knitwear designer Gina Wilde guides knitters through three dynamic ways to add shibori to knitting. The first method uses physical resists (marbles or corks) that prevent specific areas of knitting from felting; where there are no resists, the garment does felt, creating unique fabric with bobbles and dimensionality. Another method uses nonfelting fibers as resists—for instance, a silk yarn knit with a wool yarn—to create windowpane effects or even mimic woven strips of fabric when felted. The third method creates ruffles and spirals when the fibers are worked in more than one direction; when felted, the work will shrink differently in the alternate directions. The textures created from each method offer a unique way to redefine felting and bring the beautiful and unexpected world of shibori to the knitter.

There are 20 projects in this book: hats, scarves, wraps, bags, a couple of baby things, sweaters, a belt and hand warmers. All the yarns used in this book are from Alchemy Yarns. When I figured out that the author is co-founder of Alchemy Yarns, that made sense. (See how quickly I grasp things like that?) There is, however, a guide to help you sub different yarns.

Here are a couple of my favorite projects. A hat:

And a wrap:

While it is a lovely book, it is not really my “thing.” So I’d rather someone else enjoyed it.

Would you like my review copy? Leave a comment to this blog entry (one comment per person, please) and I’ll randomly pick the recipient Wednesday (August 20) afternoon.

Lucy Sez:

“I can haz new playhouse.”

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Thank you so much for all your kind comments and good wishes. And thank you to the 99% of you who did not contact me with treatment suggestions or horror stories. I was specifically vague about health issues in my last blog entry to avoid stuff like that and I’m happy that for the most part, such things have been avoided. I realize that emails and messages of this sort are for the most part well-meant, but they do not help.

Onward . . . 

This is the moth repellent herbal mix I got the other day from Simpler Thyme. Boy, does it ever smell nice! I’ve shoveled a bunch of it into smaller muslin bags and stuck them hither and yon about my home and in my stash.

I have never had a problem with moths here, and I’d like to keep it this way!

Speaking of stash, lookie here:

More stash enhancement, this from Dizzy Blonde Studios, a new hand-dyer who happens to be a long time blog-buddy — La of JenLa. As I write this, her shop is sold out because piggies like me bought all her yarn but I advise you to snap it up when she restocks. The yarn is simply delicious!

What does Lucy think is delicious? Hanging with her Daddy on the weekend.

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Yet I have purchased more.

This is sock yarn (surprise, surprise) from The YoYo, purchased at The Loopy Ewe. ain’t it purty?

The colors are Carmel Macchiato, Masking Envy, and China Jade. This yarn is new to The Loopy Ewe as of this week’s shop update and I particularly like it because it is semi-solid, making it a good choice for more intricate lace and twisty stitch patterns.

And this is a skein of my beloved Tempted Good Grrl sock yarn, in the “Faded Love” colorway.

Doesn’t it remind you of old, well-loved jeans?

But that ain’t all. When Turtlegirl announced that she was destashing earlier this week, I snapped up 2 skeins of Socks That Rock.

I shall commence oinking any minute now.

Just In Case You Wondered . . .

You might have noticed that I have lately been posting a lot of pictures of my stash and writing lame poetry, but have had very little actual knitting progress to report.

This is because I’ve made little actual knitting progress. (Funny how that works, huh?). I’ve been having some spinal and neurological issues. I was actually told by my primary doctor to stop knitting until they figured out what was going on. While he might as well have told me to stop breathing, I have had to cut down severely on the amount of knitting I can do, not because I am behaving like an adult, but because I simply can not knit a lot of the time.

So I’m in the middle of my Tour of Pain, Summer ‘08 edition (I’m thinking of having t-shirts made). I’ve done the testing and diagnosis portion of the programme and hopefully I’ll have some answers in the near future and a plan for repair. Too bad I’m well out of the warranty period.

I’m not telling you this in a bid for sympathy, but to explain the lameness of the blog recently. And the projected lameness of the blog in the near future. Hopefully things will be back to normal sooner rather than later, because I’m running out of lame ideas for blog fodder.

I do realize that this makes my recent piggy behavior with regard to stash enhancement somewhat ironic.

In the meantime, ooh look! A picture of some grapes.

Lucy doesn’t have a care in the world, as long as she gets plenty of scritches!

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Oh wondrous shawl, oh gentle gossamer one,
Thou, as I knit from delicate wool
Grow, and catch light from the sun.

Pink and rose and deeper rose,
Subtle hues shimmer in thine depths
A wondrous flowerbed in repose.

Silent and still is the ball of wool,
As one lying fallow, quiet, until
Worked into glorious life by my needle’s pull.

Stitches float off needles and twist,
Lace forms and opens up before my eyes
A fairy wing emerging from the mist.

Gentle lace, thou art a living thing,
Your growth and spirit makes my heart sing!

Lucy sez:

“Don’t quit your day job.”

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