Kitty :)

I have a fun housewarming party to attend tonight.  First, however, I'm hanging out with a warm snuggly Ella cat in my lap :)  I needed some time alone and kitty snuggles.  It will be good to be around friends, too, after holding myself together the last few days for one friend's memorial service and another's funeral.

Good and Bad

This post is brought to you by 4x the RAM!  My laptop was running slow and I realized I had the minimum RAM for the OS.  So I checked and kitted it up for $40 :)  This should keep her running happily for a couple more years.

The bad news…an old friend passed away recently.  He was my first boyfriend and a good friend through high school and college.  It's hard to imagine, last time I saw him he was happy and healthy.  He was a really good guy, too.  I hope this year doesn't hold more loss.

Limitless: book vs movie

Earlier today I finished reading Limitless by Alan Glynn.  It's an fascinating premise and I enjoyed the book.  The interesting, and sometimes confusing, thing is that Alan Glynn is a British author living in Dublin.  But his book has American characters, is set in New York City and uses US English, except for a few discrepancies.  These are more editorial annoyances than anything.  I love the literary references.

I just watched the movie and was struck by the largest UK/US cultural difference.  While the book ends with a more realistic outcome, the movie follows the American Dream formula.  In the US we like the myth that anyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, become wildly successful, all based on hard work and a bit of talent.  In England they have centuries of reality and class system and no such cultural fable.  As always with a book, there are layers of meaning and many details that weren't in the movie.

Honestly, I preferred the movie.  The details in the book were great, and I very much enjoyed reading the book.  The movie conveys the feel and mood better, and I am a sucker for a good happy ending.  Having read the book, it gave some great background to the film.  I'd suggest reading the book before the movie if you are so inclined.

Spring; New Project

First off, who doesn't like pictures of flowers in spring?  A month ago the first crocuses bloomed, though it has also snowed a couple times.  The daffodils are opening up to the newly arrived sun, and today I saw miniature Iris!


I did some (mental) work on the jumper.  I measured myself side seam-to-side seam across the front and back hip, discovering that my back is 10cm wider.  The jumper back is 4 or 5cm wider, so now I know what changes to make.





The project I'm really excited about, since I can work on it with strep or migraines or whatever (oh yeah, it's been an exciting month): a shawl pattern inspired by Estonian lace.  It uses unusual lace knitting techniques and I'm knitting a new-to-me shape.  Here's a beautiful example of modern lace inspired by tradition.

Lace Swatch

The shawl so far

Fitting Woes

Last night I thought I'd finished fitting the neverending Jumper.  Then I took photos today and realized, no.  There are wonky wrinkles in back that just won't do.  There's some wrinkling at the side seams too but I think that's from being basted together and taken in a couple cm.  Draping before final sewing should fix them.

I was mentally ready to sew the thing together.  Now I have more fitting and no motivation.  I'm hoping adding width to the back hip will fix the wrinkles, but who knows?

Fitting is so frustrating, especially on my own.  I see all these sewists with beautifully fitted dresses and wonder, how did they do that?  I can't even get a simple sheath to lie flat.