Repetitive

Yah, you people who doubted my ability to control the weather? FOOLS!


Two days ago I finished knitting another cowl and the last two days the weather has been in the upper fifties and low sixties (fahrenheit) and very un-cowl wearing like. I am omnipotent. Feel free to seek favor with cookies or large bills. Or Louis Vuitton wonderfulness. I am not picky. I am also not hardcore badass when photographed in an artsy manner. But I try.



In any event, I knit a cowl that is eerily similar in pattern to the one I knit a month or so earlier. It was going to be for a Craft-it-Forward Facebook thing, but then I realized that the Malabrigo worsted yarn is basically roving and I don't like it. Not one bit. I KNOW. Another secret I need to keep from the cool kids. Everyone loves Malabrigo. Hell, I love the colors of Malabrigo, but the worsted merino, well, I am not sure what is the appeal. It is roving in a skein. It is shite. Not surprisingly, it wears like shite as well (my fingertipless mitts have more pills than my local pharmacy). Nonetheless, even after I realized my yarn choice goof, I plugged on through and now have myself a cowl that does not shed every time I pull it over my face. I like it though it is a little smallish, or rather my head is a little biggish.


The pattern calls for two skeins and I used just one. As you can see here, that was what I had left for the seaming. Since this seemed ... odd, I measured the cowl before I seamed it up and it was in line with the pattern specs. I'm at a loss. When I finished seaming, I had maybe a foot of roving yarn left over. From the first skein. Which ... yeah? I dunno. It is not even really a happy thing as I am not in love with this stuff and am chomping at the bit to knit something else with the remaining skein. Meh.

The pattern itself was super easy to follow and overall, even with my poor yarn choice, I am pleased with the finished product. So that, not-so-meh.


Yarn: Malabrigo, Worsted, Merino Wool, #37 - Lettuce - 1 skein.
Needles: Addo Circ, size 5.0 mm (US 8)
Pattern: Tuesday Night Cowl
Time: A month.
Care: Hand wash cold and dry flat in shade or dry clean.

Still in Rotation

Quite some time ago, I knit Jillian a sweater. And, because, miraculously, I am not the worst parent in the world, the child has managed to grow. And grow. And so the sweater I slaved over no longer fits. Now, I suspect you think I am going to now tell you how I knit her another sweater, which, um, whoops! Not so much. Just because I am not The Worst Parent, I am also not The Best and so the kid has absolutely no handknits. Not a one. With this winter being cold, she could have used one so, negative points for me. Anyway, I did knit that one baby sweater, and guess what, I got me a baby who is wearing it.



Jillian was much younger when she wore this sweater and so she didn't beat it up too much. Juliet The Destroyer seems to grow at a slower rate, and is also smaller than Jillian was, so the sweater is getting a lot of wear. Which is good. And the sweater is actually holding up. Which is also good.

Oscar The Grouch

Today's Ten on Tuesday topic is Oscar flicks. Unfortunately my husband has never won an Oscar so I don't have any pictures of my, now deceased, cat with an Oscar. I do, however, have an old picture of Ernest with one of my husband's Emmys so, that is what I am using. Pictures are nice with blog posts. And both are awards for some sort of achievement related to the media, so let's pretend this makes sense and move on. Ten on Tuesday. Movies you like. Specifically your top ten favorite Oscar winning films. Unfortunately The Academy and me, we do not agree, because my favorite movies? Not Oscar winners. Pulp Fiction? Nope! The Hunt for Red October? Nada. Dangerous Liaisons? Negative Red Dog Leader. Steel Magnolias, Return of the Jedi, Taken? No, ni, non! I do realize that part of the problem is that I am not a huge movie buff. I like movies just fine, but I'm not the type of person that enjoys watching the same movie over and over. A book, if I like it, I will re-read immediately. But a movie, not so much. That being said, I do enjoy watching the Oscars, while eating cheese fondue and betting on who is going to win. So, in an effort to comply with the topic at hand, I went through some past winners and decided which, of the winners, were my favorites (and having typed this, I realize that this was probably what most people are doing because really, how many people's favorite movies won Oscars? I am thinking, not many). And then I came up with a list of, well a list anyway. So here we go ...

Not Quite 10 Oscar Winning Movies That Didn't Stink
in my humble opinion

1. Slumdog Millionaire: Okay, this one could actually be elevated to movies I like. Not only did it not stink, it was quite enjoyable. Well all but that bit where the kid was swimming in refuse. Swimming in shit? Not enjoyable.
2. The Departed: This was also really good. Also, as a bonus Leonardo DiCaprio actually looked manly (unlike in say .. Titanic, which eh, blech and booo).
3. Gladiator: I don't care for Russell Crowe, but he looked kinda hot, so that helps this emerge from the pack. And, despite the fact that I do not like this movie, I cry whenever I see the end. Which, is actually quite often as it is always on t.v. and my husband always stops to watch it. Anyway, since it can make me cry, it gets a nod from me.
4. Shakespeare In Love: This movie didn't suck. I saw it in the theater and didn't want to demand my money back. I haven't watched it again, mind you, but I remember thinking it was okay. Well, but for Gwyneth Paltrow. Ms. Goop may be pretty, but her personality seems so annoying and it leaches into her movies.
5. Silence of the Lambs: This movie scares me. Still. I've seen it, or bits and pieces of it, a million times and yet, I am always scared. I chalk that up as a sign that the movie doesn't stink. Also, there are oodles and oodles of great lines ... PUT THE LOTION IN THE BASKET. Enough said.
6. Amadeus: My husband loves this movie. Me, I like the crazy laugh they gave Mozart. It makes me laugh. A lot. The rest of the movie? I couldn't tell you a single thing about it. But the laugh? Total winner.
7. Patton: I know. This is an oddball choice. I watched it in high school in my history class and other than the fact that it was seemed like the longest movie ever, I really enjoyed it. This is odd since I have no love, or memory, for history. But there yah go. If it pleased my sixteen year old self, it must not stink.

Outted

Hi, my name is Jenna, and I have a secret. A deep dark secret. A secret that all the cool kids are gonna laugh over. A secret that will make 'em snigger and point.


I know it is rather pedestrian, but I like using a cable needle. I prefer it. Maybe it is gauche. Maybe it is old-fashioned. Maybe it slows down the knitting process. But there ain't no maybe about the fact that cable needles are just so much easier than the other options. So there you have it. I use cable needles because I like them. Commence the mockery!

Bed Side Table

When life gives you two kids and yet another snow day, well, if you're me, you gather The Little Mermaid, an exersaucer, and some goldfish crackers and then you hide yourself in the office with coffee. Lots of coffee. Then you dig through your e-mail and see that the Ten on Tuesday topic is 10 Things On Your Bedside Table and figure, I've got two hundred things on my bedside table so this is no problemo! I did give thought to cleaning off my bedside table before photographing it. Heck, I even thought about giving the dust a swipe, but then I decided authenticity would be more appreciated. Okay, that is totally not true. Though I appreciate authenticity when people share slivers of their lives, the reality is that I am vain enough to want to clean off my bedside table before sharing it with the internets. Unfortunately my kids care not about my vanity but instead about MORE PRETZELS WOMAN. So the pictures were taken slapdash and you get a glimpse of the real mess that greets me every morning, dust and all.

Without further adieu ...


1) My lamp. Something about a bedside lamp screams ADULT. Or this could just be because I didn't have a bedside lamp until, oh, about two years ago. I love this lamp and when my table isn't loaded down with stuff, it is like a little happy acrylic beacon that makes me smile. That being said, this lamp is a smidge obsolete now because my alarm clock (my husband's cast-off because he would send it flying whenever he hit snooze) has a built in night light. Nonetheless, I like the lamp and my husband has a matching one on his side, so it's staying. Note that the shade is once again straight. I noticed it was a bit wonky after I took the pictures and fixed that immediately. OCD? Me? No, why do you ask?

2) Two baby monitors. Two kids, two monitors, two reasons why I don't get eight straight hours of sleep.

3) Hand sanitizers. There are three different types of alcohol based hand sanitizers on my nightstand. It's not because I am some freaktastic germaphobe (I like to lick toilets as much as the next gal), but because of the kids. Inevitably someone is sick and since I am beckoned for binky retrieval or blanket fluffing (no, I am not kidding, it is ridiculous) at least once in the night, chances are I am encountering a snot factory or am one myself. The hand sanitizer is one of the ways I try to keep the snot factory to a factory of one, either by sanitizing myself before I attended to my charges or sanitizing myself afterwards.

4) Hand Lotions. All that alcohol hand sanitizer? It dries my shit out. So I have lots of lotions. These are usually lotions that are not my favorite smell good stuff, but more utilitarian. Currently I am a fan of a Gold Bond tube. It is made for feet, but I noticed that when I slap it on the feet at bedtime, my feet AND my hands look better in the morning. Win-win.

5) Stack o' books. These drive my husband INSANE. They are a leaning tower of trashy romance novels that I love and when I want to unwind before bed, these are my go to reads. Each has been read, at least, a dozen times, and each one I still thoroughly enjoy.

6) Borrowed books. There are two borrowed books. First, The Hunger Games, which I checked out from the library and HOLY GOODNESS! I've had it for two weeks and read it three times. It is fluff but oh-so-delightfully-good. Good enough that I am going to be getting my own copy once the library gets its back. The other is the new Susan Elizabeth Phillips book, Call Me Irresistible. It isn't as laugh-out-loud funny as some of her old ones but it was good enough that I started it at 10:00pmish and ended up going to bed at 2:00amish because I read it straight through.

7) Synthroid. You are suppose to take thyroid medicine in the morning and on a very empty stomach and that means nothing for an hour after you take it. So no coffee for an hour each morning after you take it. Ha! And, uh, not gonna happen. I leave the stuff on my bedside table and take it when someone wakes me up at some unholy hour, or, I take it the second I wake up. This lets me mainline coffee all the sooner. Also, Snythroid makes a good rattle when you have to bring a baby to bed and want to doze a little while longer. Unless you have a destroyer baby who can open child-proof medicine bottles. If that is the case then you might find yourself half-asleep, in a rain shower of itty bitty synthroid pills and wondering what the heck is going on. FYI, this is like a shot of pure adrenaline to the heart and really wakes you up quick.

8) Water bottle. Needed for the synthroid as you take it with "a full glass of water" but not "a full glass of coffee."

9) Stain stick. My laundry basket is just around the corner in the closet so this is the most convenient place to leave the stain stick and the best hope for me to remember to use it. Which I rarely do. Though I really should. Me = slob ∴ stain stick necessary.

10) Note pad & pen. Every night when I crawl into bed, I think of a dozen things I need to do the next day. And, every morning when I wake up, well, I can't remember them. So the pads and pens are suppose to be easily accessible so I can write stuff down. Typically the pen won't work or I am under the covers and so they never get used. But I leave them there. Hope springs eternal.