WIPs & Books: Lots of Both!

KNITTING: Simply Summer Socks by Liz Pankratz
Beekeeper's Quilt by Tiny Owl Knits
Mr Fox Stole My Heart & Mini Fox by Tiny Owl Knits
YARN: Knitpicks Comfy Fingering in 'Peapod' and 'Hollyberry' (socks)
Knitpicks Full Circle Bulky in 'Mocha' (Mr Fox)
Various mini skeins and sock weight leftovers (hexipuffs)
READING: Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney
The Reluctant Assassin (W.A.R.P #1), by Eoin Colfer
LISTENING: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
My Ántonia, by Willa Cather

Wow! That's quite a busy week, isn't it? So much to cover! Let's start with the knitting stuff.

Upon request, I'm knitting a pair of Simply Summer Socks each for my sister-in-law and her daughter/my friend. I just started the first pair yesterday, and got the majority of what I've thus far completed finished while watching the BBC production of David Copperfield this afternoon. (A word or two about the movie- it's not a great adaption of a great book, and I would have gotten very little out of it had I not recently read the book. Despite it having a multitude of actors who I have seen in the various British shows and movies I watch, few were truly memorable, the exception being Sir Ian McKellen, whose portrayal of Mr Creakle is absolutely stunning.) I'm doing green heel and toe contrasts for the red socks, and right now I can't decide if the color combination is reminding me more of Christmas or strawberries. 

As there is a KAL for the Mr Fox Stole My Heart & Mini Fox going on in the Tiny Owl Knits group on Ravelry right now, I'm taking the chance to knit a Mr Fox. I knit a Mini Fox a while back, but never did get around to knitting the full sized thing. Upon hearing of the KAL, I managed to find some yarn in my stash... of finished objects that I never, ever use. I ripped back the Instant Gratification Scarf that I knit but have only worn once on a very, very cold day. As I don't think a Mr Fox would find much love in my own wardrobe either, I'm going to gift him to somebody- I won't say who, though, because the recipient may read this blog and I don't want her to find out! 

As for my Beekeeper's Quilt, I've been much more productive this month than I was last month. In July, I knit 3 hexipuffs, but this month I'm aiming for a higher goal- one a day. So far I'm doing quite well, and have completed a total of seven and a half. 

I've been reading a lot this week, as well- firstly, Beowulf, which I have to read for school this year but I'm getting a head start on. The copy I'm using has both the English translation and the original Old English, and while I can't make heads or tails out of the latter it's interesting to compare the two. So far I'm enjoying it much more than I have any other book I've read for school, and I look forward to studying it in the coming year.

I'm also reading Eoin Colfer's new book, The Reluctant Assassin. I only got it today and I've only read a few chapters, but it's already enjoyable and has the same delightful humor as his other books. I have yet to see if it will live up to the standards set by Artemis Fowl, though.

In terms of audio books, I listened to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, a few days ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I read about half of it a few years ago, but never finished it- having done so now, I can't think what stopped me in the past. I also started My Ántonia last night, but I've only listened to the beginning of it and haven't had time to form an opinion of it yet.

Sorry for this novel of a post! But, at long last, it is finished. I'm linking with Tami's Amis today!

P.s. Be sure to enter my Etsy shop giveaway here!

The Hobbit Didn't Win?

I know, I know, this post is about two days late. Let's just say that the computer has been in use the last two nights. Forgive and forget, eh? (Or you could be slightly cooler and say, 'I will never forgive, and I will never forget.' I won't hold it against you if you want to be like Thorin or Mordred.)

So, the 85th Academy Awards were on Sunday. Which means, I was sitting in front of the TV from 4:30 till 11. Thankfully I had my knitting with me.

I always look forward to watching the Oscars, or at least, I have for the last three years or so. I love seeing all the pretty (or not so pretty) dresses, harshly judging the host, and groaning as the same commercial is shown over and over again. There are always a few categories that have a movie that I want to win, and often times it does.

This year's Oscars was great. I ate chocolate, was delighted when Anne Hathaway won Best Supporting Actress for her role in Les Mis, and wasn't at all surprised that Argo won Best Picture (after all, the newspaper's will win/should win column the morning of is usually correct in their predictions). But what I was surprised -and even angry- about, was that The Hobbit, and Unexpected Journey didn't win Best Hair and Makeup.

Don't think I wanted it to win just because I wanted The Hobbit to win something. I really did want it to win because it seriously deserved Best Hair and Makeup. Look at this thing I found... link. It shows all the characters before and after makeup, and after looking at it, it's impossible not to think they should've won Best Hair and Makeup.

So there you have it. My rant about the Oscars 2013. Apart from the Hobbit's loss, I'm very happy about the whole thing.

But if The Desolation of Smaug doesn't win Best Hair and Makeup....

Ain't Them Bodies Saints

There are some movies that make you think, I could see that again. Fewer are the ones that make you say, I need to see that again. And every once in a blue moon, there's a film that makes you think, I need to see that movie again right now.

Ain't Them Bodies Saints fits right into the last category.

You might think that my opinion of the movie is biased because my brother made it. But no, I loved this movie and I loved that my brother made something so beautiful. Since I saw it last night, it's happened a few times; I've been thinking, and not really paying attention to what I'm thinking, and then I realize that I'm thinking about Ain't Them Bodies Saints.

The movie takes place in a time before now. It never says exactly when. Mid nineteen seventies I think.  It's very Texan, with all of the characters speaking with Texas accents. It has a very old fashioned quality, and has an intelligence a level above most of the movies that are coming out around now. I think that, if I were to summarize the plot, I could not do it justice. I'll leave that to the more talented.

All I can say is that I can only hope that I could one day create something so amazing and beautiful as David has done.

24

It was my goal to write one post every day of January. If you avidly follow my blog (which you probably don't), you'll realize that I did not meet this goal. I came sort-of-not-really close though. So I'm going to say it officially this time. I am going to write one post every day of February unless there are extenuating circumstances. There. I said it.

I thought I'd write a quick one this morning to bring the count up from uneven, prime 23 to beautiful 4 time 6 twenty-four. I wasn't going to write a post this morning, because I thought this morning was going to be a mad dash to get everything ready and then go to geometry class, but turns out I still have an hour before I have to leave for geometry.

I have geometry class every Thursday. Most of the time the schedule is pretty straightforward; go to class, come home at 12:15, relax for the rest of the day. But today is special. Today, almost immediately after I get picked up from class I drive off with my family in our big white van. The destination: Houston.

We're driving down to Houston to see my big brother's film, Ain't Them Bodies Saints. It premiered at Sundance the Sunday before last, and my mom and my brothers Ben and Dan got to go up to Utah to see it then. But the rest of us had to wait until it came to Houston.

So now the time has come and I have to cut this short (although it is rather long already) to go and prepare myself a lunch for the car. There's little I hate more than packing lunches.

Christmas 2012

On Christmas day or the day after, two blog posts appeared in my Reading list. Both were entitled Christmas 2012. I thought I should carry on the pattern (that has been broken by several of the other blogs I follow. Stupid people. Just kidding).

At this point in time, there are two in three chances that you know me and know my family's Christmas traditions. But for the other third out there (how unfortunate you are to be included in that category), I'll explain a little about how Lowery Christmases go.

It all starts in August (yep. Our Christmas celebrations are so elaborate it takes us five months to get through them all). There's usually a time when the whole family is together, and at that time we each draw a name from a hat, or possibly a flower pot. Then we all sit around for a few months until the holidays hit, and we go around to the stores and find some special presents for whoever we picked out of the hat (or flower pot). Think Secret Santa, but under a more dignified and as yet unspecified name.

Then, at six o'clock on Christmas Eve, all 11 of us (and now a couple of in-laws as well) gather around our table for a meal of bread and cheese. A poor man's meal, you may think, but it's a wonder how many gourmet (and, of course, expensive) cheeses you can find in the world of Central Market.

After we've eaten as much as we can, we sit around the Christmas Tree with glasses of eggnog and a platter of cookies. We start with the youngest, in this case (and every case for the last 13 years) me. I dramatically put down my eggnog, arise from my seat, and take a present from the tree. I then give this present to whoever I picked from the hat all those months ago. This person opens the present, says thank you and all, and then they take a present from the tree. And so on so forth until everybody's person is discovered and everybody has at least one present (unless their secret santa forgot who they had, in which case one person is very sad and another person is very sorry).

This year, my brother Thomas was fortunate to have his name picked by me. I made him a hat and scarf following the patterns Turn a Square by Jared Flood and His (Birthday) Scarf by Monika SteinBauer, both of which are free. I don't have any pictures yet, but hopefully will get some soon.

I also gave some other people presents. Namely, my sisters and mother. Because girls are so much easier to knit for than boys. I don't have any pictures of these, either, but the patterns I used were Forget the Fingers (for my mom), Oh, Helen! (for Mrs Elizabeth Joseph, my newlywed sister), and Cranberry Sauce (for my sister Mary Margaret). All of these are also free. And I also knit a shawl for my sister Rebecca, but I designed the pattern. I'll get it up in a few weeks (or months) if I can ever decipher my notes.

But onto more important things now- the presents I received. 

Two books, Stitch Library and Literary Knits. The latter is from my brother David, who had me for Christmas. Both of them are amazing. The first will contribute greatly to my designs with the endless supply of cable patterns, lace patterns, and simple knit and purl charts. The second already has any money I got for Christmas begging to be spent on the yarn reacquired for some of the projects (but I'm restraining myself because I have quite a few projects already on the needles...)

Also on Christmas Eve I was given a Doctor Who book, Dark Horizons, from my brother Nate, and an amazing Tardis pencil case from Mary Margaret. 

This picture doesn't do the wonder of this pencil case justice. She made it herself. She wrote the little words on the panel on the front. And made them bigger and smaller as does the real Tardis. And she lined it. Others may gaze in wonder at what comes off my knitting needles, but Mary Margaret's talent warrants even more respect. (Especially since she's also one of the smartest people on our street, can command a pencil across a sheet of paper like none other, and has more skill with a calligraphy pen than I've scene before. And yes, I might be exaggerating just a little bit, out of gratitude for my pencil case.)

On Christmas morn, we always awake to find our handmade felt stockings filled with candy and other goodies. For me, I found lots of yarn this year. True, I did pick it out myself, but there's no joy greater than finding some scrumptious balls of yarn at your place at 7:30 in the morning on 12-25)

This yarn is a beautiful self-striping aran weight under the brand name of Quasar. I'm planning on combining my new stitch book with this yarn to create a slouchy hat. 

These three skeins are Kroy Paton's Sock, but it is intending, not for a pair of socks, but for a scarf. The pattern I'm using is Koigu Linen Stitch Scarf, and it costs five dollars but if you do a quick search for 'Linen Stitch Scarf' on Ravelry you'll find some free ones as well. This is going to be my Thor scarf, because the colors are wonderfully reminiscent of how Marvel has reproduced the Scandinavian god.  

Of course there's more, but not that I can remember right off the bat. So onto Christmas day....

Since most of our celebrations are done on Christmas eve, we usually just mill around on Christmas day, taking naps and eating chocolate. For the past couple of years, though, we've gone to the theater on Christmas Day. Last year, we went to see The Adventures of Tintin (have I mentioned that it's co-written by Steven Moffat, who is the head writer and executive producer of Doctor Who?). This year, we went for something more serious: Les Miserables, starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, and Anne Hathaway. The musical was so wonderful, we all left the theater in tears. 

While we were watching it, the snow began to fall, and our dream of a white Christmas transitioned into reality. 

Mary Margaret failed to take any photos of our wintry landscape, but this one is pretty cool. Hope she doesn't mind I borrowed it. I think it's of one of our outdoor cast-iron stools or flower pot holders or something. 

We by no means were caught in a blizzard, but it was still very chilly so we were very grateful for the Indian meal Nate and his girlfriend, Niha, prepared while we were watching Les Mis. 

After dinner me and Mother washed and dried a lot of the dishes, because our hot water heater broke (only for half the house, thank heavens) and we couldn't run the dishwasher. 

And that concludes the 2012 Christmas celebrations. Tomorrow I have a costume party to attend, and on the 31st most of my family departs for a five day backpacking trip to Palo Duro Canyon. I'm really looking forward to that- I'll have the house almost to myself!

Merry Christmas all, and apologies about the long post. The next one will be shorter, I promise. 

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

When I heard that they were making three films out of the Hobbit, all interest in seeing the movie left me. I mean, three movies out of one book? But then my best friend saw it and told me it was great... and told me a few of the funnier parts of the movie... and said that the dwarves are really, really cool... and slowly I got more and more excited to see it. Not that slowly, considering it only came out last Friday and I've already seen it and love it. 

At about three hours in length, the movie does get a little dull at moments, but in general it is action packed and enjoyable. Though it's true that most of the dwarves' characters are underdeveloped, this is entirely understandable when you have fourteen new characters to introduce and almost all of them are dwarves. So they did a good job developing the characters of Bilbo (well obviously), Thorin, Kili, Bofur, Balin, and sort of Fili. 

I couldn't help but notice that several of the dwarves wore some rather fetching knitted things... and I've already knit up some of Bofur's moss stitch fingerless gloves. 

Bofur is my third favorite dwarf, after Kili and Thorin. Firstly, because he has pigtails like Pippi Longstocking, topped off with a fantastic hat. Secondly because he has fingerless gloves that I can so easily copy. I've also noticed that he has a nice garter stitch scarf in long stripes of dark orange and browns and grays that I may be replicating someday...

But here are the gloves I made to copy his. They obviously aren't exact, but how far can you stray when you're given a picture of simple moss stitch fingerless gloves? 

Louisiana, the Edge Of

People might say that since Shreveport, Louisiana is right next to Texas, they would feel pretty much the same. Not exactly true. 

As soon as we crossed the border last Thursday, it was all, "Louisiana is just so gloomy! Look at the clouds! It's so much better in Texas!" 

We are all avid lovers of Texas. 

The reasoning behind taking the three hour road trip to Shreveport was not just so that we could find fault with Louisiana, but to visit the movie set of my brother David's film Ain't Them Bodies Saints, which he wrote and is directing. If you google it a quarter billion results will show. 

When we reached David's rented house in Shreveport at around 1:30, David was about to leave for the set.  They were going to start filming around five, so we had three hours to do whatever we wanted before following David to the set. 

And so, lunch it was. A certain Bodacious Barbecue caught our attention, and we headed over there for their trademark Botato (say with a strong southern accent), a baked potato with their bbq brisket, tons of butter, cheese, and sour cream. 

Bodacious Barbecue

They were  big fan of pigs. The entire diner was filled with statues of pigs. My lame excuse for this bad picture is that we were getting in the car and I didn't have time to take a better one. 

We finished lunch around three thirty or so and set off to find the set. We had directions, we had the address, we were happy. 

Three hours later, we arrived at the set which should probably have taken about ten minutes to get to had we not gotten hopelessly lost. 

Ah well. We got there. David had time to say hello. We met Ben Foster and Casey Affleck. We saw all of the trucks and eighteen wheelers needed just to film a movie. It's bigger stuff than we thought. 

 They were filming inside the house and we couldn't go in obviously, but we were given headsets that allowed us to hear everything that was going on. We were also given awesome chairs.

 I can't help but wonder if Elizabeth's mind is somewhere else; her fiancé, perhaps?

 Equipment. Confusing equipment.

 A corner of the house where they were filming

 Big air conditioning thingy.

Since the film takes place in the 70s, there were some awesome police cars:

I want one of those cars for my sixteenth birthday. 

It was so amazing. We're all very, very proud of David for being in complete control of all of this.

Anastasia

My friend Rose and I seem to be going on a Disney spree. In the past few weeks, we've watched Sleeping Beauty, Tarzan (for the first time), Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Hercules (also for the first time), and now Anastasia.

On the Anastasia DVD special features are four drawing tutorials. I did 3 out of the four:

Anastasia

Dimitri

Bartok

Well. My favorite, needless to say, is Bartok, who is going insane over a lollipop. Anastasia looked like a monkey until the next to last step (she still does look a little simian). And Dimitri... well, he's not too, too bad. The artist was really into using angular lines to make him look rough and muscular, and his crooked nose apparently keeps him from being overly handsome. In my drawing, it's more his overall appearance that keeps him from being handsome at all. His, as Rose calls it, Leonardo DiCaprio hair needs a little work.

There was also a tutorial for Rasputin, but it looked nothing like Rasputin. More like a drunk goblin with a hand bigger than his face. 

Thank heavens I wasn't on the drawing crew for that movie! 

Breakfast

Another short film- not stop motion this time. Live action. I call it: Breakfast

Kinda wonky, but it was just practice. 

Poster Revamp

Earlier today my dog Homer starred in the poster of the Dark Knight Rises. With the help of my friend Rose and her PC (the only flaw in Macs is that they don't have Paint) I have given the poster some new flair:

Batman! 

The Dark Knight Rose

This is the Batman's darkest hour. He'll rise higher than ever before and then fall so much further. 

Actually a quote from Doctor Who, with a bit of manipulation (the Batman instead of the Doctor). I think it fits the movie almost perfectly.

Batman (Homer)

Last night at 9:45, my siblings Rebecca, Thomas and Mary Margaret and I went to see the Dark Knight Rises. At 12:00, we saw the Dark Knight Rises. 

It was amazing. Few movies warrant no complaints, but this was one of them. Anne Hathaway as Catwoman was perfect; no connection to the high-pitched princess in Princess Diaries I and II. Bane, too, was awe worthy–– my brother Thomas said a mix of Voldemort's wit and Darth Vader's voice. 

On Tuesday, I watched Batman Begins for the third time. On Wednesday, I watched the Dark Knight for the first time. I loved the Dark Knight–– and still can't decide whether I like the Dark Knight or Batman Begins more. Naturally, DKR trumps all...

The Food Chain

I've been working hard again. Well, I say working hard. In this video, a moose, lion, rabbit, and elephant chase each other up a sweater and disappear at the top. It's still very jolty, but I think that's the computer's fault and not mine, because I used a tripod this time so I barely moved the camera at all. Well, I say barely.

The Avengers. It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. "Earth's Mighiest Heroes" type thing.

Most five-year-olds can draw a better superhero than I can. The same goes for my friend Rose. And yet, we still went to the trouble of drawing several. It goes the with Avengers craze.

First, my drawings:

Iron Man

Thor

The Hulk

Captain America

Hawkeye

Loki

Black Widow

And then Rose's:

Iron Man

The Hulk

Thor

Hawkeye

Captain America

Wow. I expect art museums around the world will be calling momentarily with offers of five million dollars or more.

stop motion, beware!

You could say that I've been making this Stop Motion Animation film for months, if you count letting the photos sitting on my phone since heaven knows when working. If you don't, then I've been working on this film for about half an hour. I call it Wax Ballet, and I am very, very proud of it, with good reason. I think it's one of the best thing's I've ever done. I think it's one of the best things anybody's ever done. 

The movie stars a waxman I made from and old pumpkin spice candle, but unfortunately he was thrown away before his movie was released and isn't... er... available to receive fan letters. Sorry for the inconvenience. You can send them to me in his place. 

The Avengers

You could google 'The Avengers' and maybe on the millionth page my blog would come up. You could probably count on me scrolling through page after page searching for a link to my blog, if I didn't have better things that I'd rather be doing.

I recently got back from seeing it for the second time. I saw it first last Sunday, and even though that was just more than a week ago I found myself looking forward to seeing it again as soon as I found out I was going to. It's that good. 

(Okay, so that's not saying that much. I would have gladly watched The Hunger Games a week after I'd seen it, as well as a good deal of other movies. But that's completely aside from the point.)

The obvious question after seeing The Avengers is, Did you like it? That's the obvious question after every movie, unless the movie is so utterly amazing that nobody could fail to adore it or the movie is so utterly terrible that nobody could fail to hate it. But another question just as frequently asked is, Who's your favorite superhero?

I'm sure that loads of people say Loki and Hawkeye. Me included. I'm not sure you would actually classify Loki as a superhero. But he's still my favorite. It took a while for me to decide this, but after seeing it again I decided that they are the two coolest characters. Though, Iron Man comes up pretty close behind.

If you were to stay in the theater until the credits listed the special thanks just to see if you're there, like I did, you would be rewarded, not with your name in the actual credits of an actual major motion picture, but with a short clip of the Avengers, eating shawarma, looking slightly miserable, very tired (I think Captain America is actually asleep), and full. Who said waiting through the credits was a waste of time?