Nothing but this 'n that these days

With the clock ticking for SAFF and my stuff ready and sent on ahead (and safely in place), there's really nothing much for me to do before I leave next Thursday, except twiddle my thumbs...

 ...and read, and observe that Edgar Rice Burroughs surely did not like the Germans.

 ...and knit. I'm making progress on Forest Canopy with the marigold-dyed handspun Romney. It still looks like an amorphous blob, but it's a pretty yellow amorphous blob.

 ... and spin. Another 163 yds (4.6 ozs) of self-striping Romney. I'm amassing quite a bit of yardage.

 ...and play Jewelry Maker. These are amethyst stones, and pink opal.

...and admire my new CafePress goodies, from Curt's Store (link at the top right of this page).

But mostly, I'm twiddling my thumbs, and mentally commanding the leaves in North Carolina to wait until I'm there to turn.

I spy with my little eye

Future jewelry...

Amethyst beads (February Birthstone)

Pink Opal beads (October Birthstone)

Pink and White Fresh Water Pearls (June Birthstone).

Now, I wonder whose birthdays those might include (besides mine)...

This 'n That

I only saw one movie last year, and that was Inception (I was there alone- not alone, as in not having a movie date, I mean that I was the only person in the entire theater. It was a mildly unsettling experience). When it comes down to it, I rarely see any of the nominated movies until they come out on DVD (a result of living a long way from a first-run theater, and a disinclination go go anywhere at night). But I always watch the Oscar telecast, just to see the dresses.

Mostly last night, the dresses were stunning (and I don't say that lightly). Mila Kunis managed to look nearly naked and yet fully covered, and totally amazing. Hailee Steinfeld was perfectly adorable and age-appropriate.  Helen Mirren was Helen Mirren was jaw-dropping. I liked most of Anne Hathaway's dresses.

Even the intermediate ones weren't bad. A bit of sparkle around the neck would have kept Jennifer Lawrence's dress from looking like a formal version of Farrah Fawcett's swimsuit. A little less foof would have helped Halle Berry's dress. Nicole Kidman would have looked fine, minus the hip-wrap.

There were only a couple of real disasters: Annette Benning's dress did absolutely nothing for her (and was Warren Beatty drunk on the Red Carpet?). Cate Blanchet's dress looked like a mold encrusted picture frame, featuring her torso. And the less said about Scarlett Johansson's hair, the better.

All in all, an entertaining show, if you mostly ignored the hosts (who weren't as awful as many are saying, they just weren't very good). And there's no such thing as too much Colin Firth. Since The Oscars aren't American Idol, I could knit instead of taking notes.

I took a short break from plain and mitered leftover hats to knit Mary's Winter Garden Hat. The pattern is available from her blog, and on Ravelry.

I love love love the swirly decreases.

This lovely hat is a quick knit- I started it around supper time, and finished before the end of The Oscars. The yarn is Rowan Colourscape Chunky, colorway: Autumn, which I bought at Athena Fibers, before we left for California. It's beautiful yarn, and I thought I was going to make a mitered hat with it, but the repeats are too long. Turns out, that was a good thing- it's perfect for Mary's hat pattern. And best of all- one skein has enough yarn to knit two hats, and since the color changes are long, and the shades change throughout, Hat #2 is not going to be identical to Hat #1, except for the stitch pattern.

The Opal Dumbledore socks are coming along. For a colorway/repeat this chaotic, it's matching up perfectly! Go figure.

And finally, things are back to normal on Amazon, with Fearless Fair Isle Knitting doing just fine, thank you. But for one brief moment on Saturday, there was some major excitement in my neck of the woods!

Sock of the Day #2- Opal Something or Other

Since I'm on a roll, here's Sock of the Day #2. This yarn was from the Opal Rainforest line (fingering weight, not the heavier stuff). Not Tiger, but something that had orange and black (obviously) (I just looked around- it's some sort of Butterfly, from the Opal Rainforest 2 Collection).

I like Opal yarn- it's not particularly soft, but it knits up very nicely, and wears really well (as long as you don't go around in your stocking feet any more than necessary- but that's true of all handknit socks). I do love self-striping/patterning yarns and Opal practically invented the stuff (or was Regia first?). In the world of sock yarns, it's medium priced (around $18 per ball these days, I think I paid $15 for this) and fairly widely available (online and in yarn stores). I bought this in Portland, OR, probably at Knit Purl, 4 years ago or so, while on vacation. I knit the socks while on vacation as well (this stuff is wonderful for car-knitting. No thinking, just knitknitknitturhheelknitknitknitdecreasetoe).

I'm a bit anal about matchy matchy feet, and my stripes line up whenever I can make them do so. Opal happens to have fairly regular, if long, pattern repeats, so it's not too hard. And this stuff machine washes and dries very well. I do turn them inside out to reduce pilling, when I think of it (which isn't always).

Though I have had to darn several pairs of older Opal socks, these are not even wearing thin anywhere yet.