Monday, July 28, 2008

Hopping Back on the Knitting Bandwagon

Once summer kicked in, my knitting was suddenly put on hold. It's just not as easy to knit in 90-degree weather. My hands get sweaty, the yarn sticks to the needles - it's an awful mess. Unless the air conditioning is on full blast, I have no business picking up needles and yarn. I did however, find a small retreat under the wings of the ceiling fan in my dining room. Turns out it's the only place in the apartment where I can knit comfortably in 90+ temperatures.


With that said, I've started working on my 3rd pair of booties. I'm making it for a couple who I think can truly appreciate funky and wild color combinations. I came across these two yarns and thought, Eureka! This is what I'm looking for!

Together they didn't look so good, so I decided to combine the green with an orange yarn I recently purchased. Sounds funky, sounds groovy. I did one bootie but now I'm not sure if I'm feelin' it. It looks a little crazy, but not the crazy I was going for. But who knows...maybe it works, and I just don't realize it. What do you think? (I haven't seamed it up completely, so you'll still see some random yarn hanging out.)



I'm also in the middle of knitting a cushion. I started it about a month or so ago and as I continued to knit, I realized it was too big. I didn't get too far, only about 10-15 rows, but still enough to feel some pain at the thought of unravelling what I had started. I had to accept my failure, unravel, and start over. I started this weekend and hopefully all will go well. Inspiration for the cushion came from a "Jennifer's Sofa" subway ad. There was a striped cushion made of fabric and I thought...hmmm, I can probably make a knit version of that.


Cushion from the ad

Cushion from the ad (close-up)


In the meantime, I've got plenty of knitting to do and..OH! I almost forgot. Some lady on craig's list was selling a ton of yarn for $1 a skein. ONE DOLLAR! Nice stuff too! So of course I jumped on it and bought 22 skeins. About 5 different kinds. Fun! Fun! Fun! I don't know what I'm going to make with all of it, though. The hubby wants me to make a bikini out of the burgundy eyelash yarn. I dunno...we'll see ;)

Monday, July 7, 2008

The Matrix Revisited...Again

The trailers for Wanted really pulled me in. I'm a sucker for a good action flick. So, on Saturday night, the hubby and a friend of ours took off to the Lincoln Square Theater for 110 minutes of car-jumpin', gun-slingin', fist-throwin', knife-jabbin' good fun.

As much as I looked forward to it, I have to say I was a little underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong, the stunts were great and the action was non-stop, but the execution of storyline could have used some work. From beginning to almost end, the movie was practically a dupe of The Matrix. A young man working at a dead-end job, stuck in a cubicle all day who has no sense of identity...c'mon. And then only to be rescued by a hot chick with a gun who, by the way, can kick serious ass. Oh, and let us not leave out the wise and all-knowing leader of the pack who reveals to our hero his true calling. If that doesn't have Neo, Trinity and Morpheus written all over it, I don't know what does. While Neo can dodge bullets, our Wesley can bend them around the corner. Close enough. Come on Hollywood, I know The Matrix was a hit, but let's move on.

If you don't care about the obvious carbon copy elements of the movie and are just in it for the excitement, you'll certainly get it.

You know what's funny? After the movie (and generally after every Angelina flick), my lips felt just little bit more plump than before I walked in. I think I've stopped puckering after two days.


Out of 5 poofy lips, I'd give it a 3. That's my rating and I'm sticking to it.