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  • Brokeback Mountain

    Brokeback_mountain
    I finally got to see Brokeback Mountain and I am glad that I did,
    although I had been rather cautiously interested before venturing into the
    movie theater. I am not sure that my
    mixed feelings were really due to the movie itself, but were more brought on by
    the whole issue of the disappointments that often arise from seeing movies made
    from beloved books and my own mixed feelings about Annie Proulx.

    I had seen The Shipping News and enjoyed it, which at the time
    surprised me because I had been absolutely completely unable to get through the
    book. I attempted to start it more than
    once; each time I gave up before getting very far. Eventually the project was abandoned as
    worthless. The problem here is that I loved the story by Annie Proulx. 

    Prouxl is an absolutely
    masterful writer of short stories, and I view the art of writing short stories
    as something completely different from writing novels. She is able to condense whole worlds,
    scenes, or moments from life into a single line and imbue them with fullness
    and life.  To be able to write a short
    story is to be a master of the microcosm, to be able to condense epics into
    compact spaces without losing any of their meaning or resonance. In The Shipping News I thought Proulx was a
    short story writer trying to write a novel and not particularly
    succeeding. My judgment may be too harsh.  Truthfully,  I have never attempted to read any other novel she has
    written, although I have considered trying That Old Ace in the Hole.  But I seek out and treasure her
    short stories.

    Back to the movie: It
    was certainly an excellent movie and it surprised me on several fronts. It was pretty faithful to the story. I think it was also pretty faithful to the
    setting of the story and the people and places it is supposed to depict,
    although I have no experience with the emotional lives of gay men and only a
    little glimmer of a feel for the west and cowboys.. The cinematography is absolutely
    beautiful. The movie itself is visually
    breathtaking. The story is well done and
    quite moving. People were sobbing all
    around me. That I was crying as well is
    no indication of anything as I will shed a tear at any particularly sad or
    romantic movie no matter what my intellectual thoughts on the quality of the film
    may be. Even Heath Ledger, an actor I
    had previously not thought much about, considering him more of a pretty boy
    than a serious actor, surprised me with a memorable performance.

    But, for all its beauty and sentiment I think the movie does
    not begin to compare with the story. I
    suspect if I had never read the story I would think it is an excellent and
    meaningful movie and the story itself would stay with me for some time. But the movie did not really stay with me:  I walked out of the theater, and, although I
    thought about the movie, it began to fade; the scenes remembered from the film
    were replaced in my mind by the text from the story, and found wanting. It was
    like the movie was a shadow. Annie
    Proulx’s prose conveyed far more, far more elegantly.

  • Put on a Happy Face

    We celebrate the return of winter to these here parts. I do enjoy the white stuff and even the cold,
    and even though my thoughts were beginning to turn toward spring gardening, I
    knew it was too early and Mother Nature still had evil tricks up her sleeve. Truth be told, I revel more in the white
    stuff than G does, who is grumbling about having to go out and plow. I am thinking about cross country skiing…

    Winterredux

    Of course, I get to spend the day indoors
    working at my newly functioning computer wearing bright and cheery Carnival
    Socks:

    Carnivalsocks1

    Basic socks knit according to directions from Annie Modesitt
    in Confessions of a Knitting Heretic.

    Yarn: Simple Stripes
    from KnitPicks in color Snapdragon

    Needle size 2

     

     

    I do really like the toe and heel, especially the afterthought
    heel, it fits nicely and snugly on my narrow heels. I am learning more about adapting sock
    patterns to my high instep and narrow heel, but this heel is quite
    promising. I would like to do something
    like this from the top down or toe up, but the afterthought heel has definite
    advantages. Hmm….more exploration of
    sock techniques is called for I think. I
    wonder if the short-row heel is similar?

     

    As for the toe, picking up the stitches and knitting it as
    an afterthought is fine and I could be easily adapted to a top-down sock. There must be some really neat way to cast on
    the 8 stitches at the toe and knit the sock toe up from that, although
    generally I don’t mind grafting at all; it just seems like it would be nice to
    not have to go back and finish the toes after the fact.

     

    I still prefer to call them carnival socks as they are
    rather garishly bright. Still, I can’t
    help but smile when I put them on, and who sees them under pants and covered by
    shoes, or snow boots? Yet I know they
    are there and even a dreary gray winter day is brighter because I know they are
    hidden away, warm and snuggly, on my feet.

     

    I tend to like bright and colorful things, although I am far more
    likely to keep them hidden away, like my brightly painted closets, or this box
    in which we store brown paper bags from
    the grocery store:

    Carnivalsocks2

    It goes so well with the socks, don’t ya think?

  • What to have for dinner

    Menu

    Bluefish baked on a Bed of leeks and Potatoes

    Beets with Mustard Sauce

    Sautéed beet leaves with crispy stems

     

     

     

    George and I have been doing the grocery shopping together
    the last couple of months and I really enjoy going with him. I think we have both relaxed as time goes on,
    he is more patient with my foibles and pickiness about getting this item versus
    that, and I am more patient. Certainly
    grocery shopping takes longer, but it is also so much more enjoyable and we can
    discuss what menu delights might come
    out of the new and unexpected things we see in the market. The whole process has turned out to be quite
    wonderful.

     

    Today I found some fairly nice produce, nice shallots and
    peppers, even tiny hot Thai peppers. There was also some local garlic that still looked pretty good, some
    fresh galangal root, and really lovely cauliflower without any brown spots or
    yucky areas. Even the ginger was young
    and still kind of pink, crisp and moist, not the old dried up stuff I usually
    find.

    Grocery1

     

    Then, on top of everything, the first thing I noticed when
    we walked into the fish market was a really huge pile of fresh bluefish,
    George’s favorite fish. Bluefish has
    been in short supply lately. We haven’t
    seen any in the market since early spring, surprising as there is usually a
    pretty reasonable bluefish season from mid summer to mid-late fall. When we talk to the manager, he tells me that
    the bluefish he has seen at the market have just not been good, but he will
    keep his eyes open. I know George
    reminds him every week, but I think he was despairing of ever seeing bluefish
    again.

    It took G a few moments to notice, he was thinking tuna, as that’s what we
    bought last week, and squid. I had to
    hint that there was something he would really like in the case and when he
    finally spotted it he could dance for joy.

     

    As it happened, we had just purchased some really gorgeous
    leeks at Hannaford and I knew they were sitting in the car. I knew I would sauté the leeks until very
    tender and soft and then layer them on top of thinly sliced Yukon gold potatoes, bake them until the potatoes were soft and beginning to crisp
    around the edges. Then I would add the
    bluefish on top with some herbed bread crumbs and bake it until everything was
    browned and bubbly.

     

    I still didn’t have tonight’s vegetable, I had left today
    open on the menu, but when I saw the beautiful beets in the produce section I
    knew they were going in my basket. The
    beets looked great, but even more telling, the stems were firm and crisp and
    the leaves looked absolutely fresh and crisp and luscious.

    Grocery1beetgreens

     

    The beets can bake while I make the potatoes and fish and I
    can toss them with a little mustard sauce just before serving. I will mince the beet stems up really tiny
    and caramelize them with onions until they are almost all soft and brown and
    jam-like, then I will stir in garlic and the beet greens, finishing off with a
    dusting of fennel pollen. 

     

    Ooh, I can’t wait for dinner time. Perhaps I should go down in the basement and
    see if I can find a nice bottle of wine.

  • Knitting mistakes

    My recent experience with frogging, re-knitting, and frogging again has put a damper on my knitting and sewing activities.  I am appalled, absolutely appalled, at the apparent lack of basic skill I repeatedly demonstrated with this sweater.  Rogue is really not that complicated of a pattern, and I am not even having problems with the more complicated bits, but rather with the simple, beginning knitter skills of casting on and joining a simple piece of knitting without twisting.  Did you know that a second opportunity to twist comes up when you pick up the cast on stitches to join the hem?  I never thought about it before, and in fact, the sheer genius with which I seem to seek out and commit  new mistakes truly amazes me.  I wonder why I even try to knit or sew or engage in any kind of fiberly activity….

    And yet, the urge to create cannot completely be suppressed, and I suppose even the exploration of ever new ways to create errors is just another adventure of discovery.

  • What knitting?

    My computer is down, has been down since the weekend, and I am waiting for the technician to come back with my new motherboard.  Thank goodness for onsight service.  At any rate he has come and gone once and will be back once the new part is delivered.

    Although I have been knitting, my knitting time has pretty much come to naught.  I have been knitting in an endless loop of knitting and reknitting, constantly repeating the same mistakes.  I am usually not quite this incompetent… well hold that thought and don’t remind me of my past failures.

    I have started Rogue four times.  Each time I thought I have had it perfect, each time I discover it is twisted.  What is it with me and this sweater?  I actually love knitting it, I love the pattern and I love the yarn.  Why can’t I do this correctly?  I can knit in the round without twisting the sweater, I have done it in the past…this is like that sleeve several years ago that I had to knit five times before it came out right (the first sleeve was fine).  Perhaps in my deep subconscious I really want to knit a cardiganized rogue and my brain is just to dense to realize this?    Well, I may take a break.  I may start something else.  I may return to the battlefield. 

    Someday my computer and my photo posting abilities will also be back in service.  Here is to functioning computers and competent knitting in 2006..hopefully coming soon…

  • Out of Touch

    I am still here and actually sewing, although at the moment the output has been more along the lines of muslins that are not working….I always reluctant to write about the things I am working on that never become anything (failure issues)  but then, if I don’t overcome that fear then I will probably have nothing to write about.

    Speaking of failure, my computer went down on the weekend during an ice/wind/thunderstorm.  The power went out but it is on a surge protector/UPS and nothing else died…who knows what happened.  At any rate I have been on the phone with Dell, the technician has been here, the problem was greater than originally suspected, and I am once again waiting for the technician to return with the new parts.

    Meanwhile I have finally reorganized my sewing room so it is actually functional and I can easily work at my paying job or sew or do both in there.  I am still hoping for a more major reorganization with a cutting table in the near future, but I needed a functioning room first.  Since this is a borrowed computer, there are no photo opportunities but they will come eventually. I had better get back to sewing before the computer gets fixed and I have to catch up on all that work I am missing.  Although now that I think about it, I am a little reluctant because the wind is high today and the power is a little wonky, the lights have been fading in and out all morning.  I wonder what that will do to my computerized sewing machine?  Probably best not to push my luck.

  • Winter 2006 Vogue Knitting

    The new Vogue Knitting arrived and I have had a wonderful time perusing it this weekend.  It is a very good issue, well done with lots of good ideas and interesting patterns.  I thought the last issue was quite good as well although I might not have sounded quite as enthusiastic as I felt when I wrote about it, and this one is even better.

    You can link to the magazine here, and photos of some of the patterns are available, unfortunately not all my favorites, a shame because I would love to show them to you.

    One thing I particularly like about Vogue Knitting in general, and this issue in particular is the emphasis on fashion as opposed just to knitting.  There are all kinds of knitting magazines and all kinds of knitting information, some trendy, some traditional.  I think traditional knitting skills and patterns are great, but what I often see in craft-based publications, both geared to knitters and sewists, is that they are often not particularly geared to what is going on in the world of fashion at the time they are being published.

    Now I know that fashion is not for everyone, and not everyone is interested.  They don’t need to be.  It is true that what most people wear in their day to day lives has little to do with the world of fashion. But I find it interesting.  I like the way this issue combines traditional knitting patterns and skills with some very interesting ideas that are pretty au courant.  Also most of the patterns are technically interesting and wearable, at least in some variation by someone.  I think there is very little here that someone wouldn’t want to try. In fact I can envision someone wearing almost everything here, not necessarily me.  Taste is so variable, as is style. 

  • Confessions of a sloppy seamstress

    I have a confession to make: the stitches on the patch of my DH’s red check shirt are not
    perfect. In fact they are not even all
    that attractive.

    Oh, the shirt is fine. The patch and the stitching is invisible from the outside, but the
    inside is a mess. I expect the patch to
    visible, but I had hoped the stitching would be lovingly perfect. Alas this is not so. Oh there are no knots or dangling thread
    tangles, just uneven imperfect stitches. I should redo it, but I will not. I seriously doubt that anyone will pull my DH’s shirt off him and say
    “oh you poor man, your wife can’t even mend your shirts nicely”. I don’t really think anyone will see the
    inside of DH’s shirt except himself and his laundress (me) and the sloppy work
    will remind me about how upset I was that night.

    I was upset because it was late, after 11 and DH was not yet
    home from the office. In fact I had spoken to him and he said he had much work
    still to do. Now, I don’t mind hard
    work and late hours, ghee, if I did I would never have married a surgeon. When DH was in active practice, I had little
    patience with other doctor’s wives who complained that their husbands were gone
    all the time and they had to do everything themselves. I always figured I knew what I was getting
    into. Besides I have always been a pretty independent sort, and I know
    perfectly well that when I’ve worked a 14 hour or longer day, I don’t feel
    inspired to help out around the house either.

    But now that he is “retired” and working at his retirement
    career, I hate for him to work that hard…it’s one thing when you are young and
    ambitious and driven, and another completely when you are in your 70’s no
    matter how fit and strong you are. I
    still don’t mind him working if he loves it. But so far this year he hasn’t left the office before 9 PM any night, and when he comes home he
    dreads having to go back. I am
    increasingly thinking it is time for retirement.  I want DH to enjoy his life.

    I wasn’t upset at DH, I was more worried and concerned about
    him. I was annoyed at all the other
    peopled involved, the staff who book him so heavily, the clients who keep
    plaguing him with increasingly niggling and pedantic demands that are, for the
    most part, repetitive nonsense.

    He finally called at 12:15 AM.   I made dinner while the poor thing drove
    home. He was not happy to go back to
    work on Friday, even thought it was only for a couple of hours.  After the late night, between work, and gym,
    and grocery shopping, there was no sewing yesterday. Can we make it better? Is it worth it? Only time will tell.

  • It’s not that there has been no sewing around here, it is
    just that the sewing isn’t really blog-worthy, or interesting to anyone who can
    sew on a button. In fact, that is
    precisely what I have been doing, at least in part…sewing on buttons.

    Somehow we had a little button popping festival around here
    lately and mending was in order. Not my
    favorite task mind you, I would much rather be creating something new, but,
    well old garments are old friends as well and I can’t resign them to the trash
    or the consignment bin (which wouldn’t take them sans buttons anyway) without
    offering up a little repair and restoration.

    Of course sewing on a button isn’t always a question of
    merely sewing on a button. For example
    the collar button came off of my DH’s favorite red and white checked shirt. It
    is not a new shirt, but then favorite shirts rarely are, by the time they are
    elevated to favorite status, all the previous favorites have pretty much fallen
    by the wayside. As a result the shirt is
    a little worn around the edges, like my DH, and like me in fact. I like to think we all get better with age,
    but truthfully, like shirts, we also get a little worn.

    Back to the shirt, the button fell off not because it wasn’t
    sewn on beautifully. All the threads
    were attached. The button fell off
    because it has pulled through the fabric which has gotten a little worn and
    frayed in that area from years of pressure from buttoning those button-down
    collars. It would be nice if shirts came
    with little bits of extra fabric along with the extra buttons to facilitate an
    invisible patch, but I harbor no hopes that this might happen. In fact I believe it is increasingly
    unlikely.

    And so I search high and low for a likely candidate. This shirting is very thin, everything I find
    is too heavy, or, if it is thin, it is too flimsy; the next button will also
    just pull right through, even with a layer of fusible interfacing between the shirt
    and the new inside patch. Finally I find
    it, a selvedge piece off an old white sheet that I have been using for muslins
    of late, light but strong.. A little
    interfacing is fused behind the hole in the fabric, the patch is applied on the
    inside of the shirt and lovingly sewn down with tiny little stitches, and,
    finally, the button is attached.

    I don’t suppose you want to hear about hemming jeans do you?

     

  • Slinking down to Knoxville

    When Miriam bought a pair of black slinky pants on sale at Chico’s I initially thought “no problem”.  After all, the kind of double needle hem that came on the pants is an easy thing to sew, how hard could it be to shorten the pants?  Hard no.  Time consuming yes.

    Initially I thought the pants looked so good on Miriam that I would willingly run out and buy her more whenever they came on sale and shorten them for her, now that I know the inseam length.  That was before I realized that I had to take the existing hem out before shortening the pants.  Obvious I know.  But I’ve been known to walk right on past the obvious without even noticing.

    The first time I tried to pick out the tiny black stitches from the ribbed black slinky fabric I thought my head was going to explode and my eyes were going to burst out of my head like cannonballs.  Of course I had a headache and sinus infection at the time.  Delay seemed the sanest option.

    Even with a clear head, seeing the stitches was difficult.

    Slinky1

    They look pretty good here don’t they? By carefully
    positioning the brightest (and hottest) halogen lamp in the house just so, the
    stitches seemed quite evident. Piece of
    cake I thought…

    Slinky2

    until I turned that edge up and tried to actually see the
    individual stitches hidden in that cushy slinky fabric. Believe me, I saw no more than you do in the
    above photo. There is a vague shadow of
    a stitch across the blade.

     Talk about tedious and time consuming work…2 hours later the
    old hems were out.

     That accomplished, it only took about 10 minutes to sew the
    new hems. I shall subject you to the
    boring hem shot:

    Slinky3

    I realize now of course that making slinky pants would take
    no more time, and probably less, than ripping out that hem.  The construction of these is quite
    simple. I traced the pants to make a
    basic pattern before I shipped them down to Tennessee.