Monday, March 28, 2005

Random Question of Today

Due to NetFlix in one case and a regionless DVD player in the other, I recently got to view the first two eps of Sex and the City, as well as the pilot of Twin Peaks. It's worth noting that I'd not seen any parts of either show. In favor of both shows, I did get enough sleep the night before. ;)

Sex and the City made me wonder if I'm a poor specimen of femininity. I found myself trying to understand it the same way I'd dissect a comedy of manners in English/Letters class. I wondered about the portrayal of both women and men, as well as the unreliableness of the narrator. I reserved some of my feelings about the characters as it was obvious some of the actors and actresses were still feeling their way into their roles. (With the exception of the gay friend Stanford, who was goofily endearing.)

The Twin Peaks pilot was suffused with nostalgia. It reminded me of Eugene O'Neill in a way - what was going on was distinctly less important than the past. It was beautifully shot in tones of mostly sepia and gold inside the buildings. I admired the starkness of the mountains and trees as contrast. The adults were sketched like a Stephen King town, with broad strokes and small quirks. The teens were believably teens, and yet I asked myself after the pilot if Laura Palmer would have been mourned so much if she hadn't been blonde and gorgeous? Possibly not.

So, for any who cares to answer, which do you prefer? Twin Peaks or Sex and the City? Why? Discuss.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Craft Update

Saturday I went with Dharia to the Spring Arts at the Station. We sold her handpainted handspun yarn and some Knit Picks yarn that we dyed. It was mucho fun. Dharia could draw children in, Sleeping-beauty-like, with her Magical Mesmerizing Spinning Wheel. Unfortunately, the draw still functioned when Dharia wasn't around, and I couldn't feed the addiction because I couldn't spin... heheheh. Maybe I should learn.

Anyway, Dharia seemed to be doing a good business (at least until I arrived ;) and I even sold two balls of old cotton that I decided I didn't want anymore, as well as one ball of my yarn that I dyed and included in the table. I now have some money to plot and plan about spending. I'm so silly. ;)

Preparing for the craft show along with the Women in Science seminar really ate up last week, so not-much got done on the knitting/crafting front.

State of my projects:

Ribbi Cardi is complete in terms of knitting. I've even shrunk the peices preparatory to sewing. Dharia mentioned having a sewing party at some point, or I could just attempt to mattress it on my own, but I'm not in a mad mad hurry, especially since we've not ordered the zippers yet.

The Pi Shawl (aka RubySlipper) has had its last set of increases done, so now I have ~576 stitches on my 24" size 9 Addi Turbo. It's a good thing the yarn is thin! I've managed to knit halfway through the first set of diamonds. I still love this project, and it was just the thing to pick up and drop at the fair, though at one point I lost some stitches and had to rework a diamond. I must take a picture, she's quite lovely.

I worked on Dan's Vest last night at SnB, and now I'm at the point where I need to bind off and work the front and back separately. This is exciting because I get to start the cabled neck pattern I designed. This is also troubling because I realized that I was getting 4 stitches to the inch instead of 4.5 partway through the body, but I decided I liked the drape of the fabric so well I cut out a set of increases and decided to complete it at this gauge. Hopefully it doesn't bunch up around Dan's middle too much. When I write the pattern, I'll write it for 4 st/inch. It helps that I have all this plugged into Excel and can just change one thing to get new numbers. I'm such a nerd. ;)

I still feel like I should work on something for Mom for Mother's Day. This is a tossup between a fun fur scarf (her request, really!) and the table runner I started embroidering for her last year. I think she might get the fun fur scarf, but the table runner looks fun. Hrrm.

Okay, back to work. :)