Netflix weekend

What did I do this weekend? Knit and watch my DVDs from Netflix. I didn't even leave the house on Friday. What a liberating feeling. You'd think that once I got my car back from the mechanic that I'd want to go everywhere I haven't been able, but I stayed home and finished two sweaters. Two sweaters in two days. Not too shabby.
Well, they were both so close to being done. The Giotto jacket just needed its collar done and a bunch of ends run in. I was surprised at how long the jacket is when I tried it on, but it's not hideous. I'm really glad that I shortened the sleeves by an inch, as they're a shade too long still. Do women in Wales have ridiculously long Mr Gadget arms? Normally, I would flaunt a just finished project with a couple of wearings, but it's too muggy. I'm knitting out of season now, which is a bit strange. I'll have loads to wear once the weather turns!
The second sweater is the Lasso camisole, which also turned out to be surprisingly long. It looks like I knit myself a minidress. Now, I am not a mini anything kind of gal (except Mini Coopers, since they must be a snap to parallel park) and haven't worn shorts in this millennium. That camisole will never be worn as a dress. It didn't look that long in the picture, I thought crossly while trying it on, then recalled the metric to imperial measure conversion errors that I found in the pattern. Their sample wasn't this long. Well, I'm not going to unravel it now, but that would explain why I needed an extra skein! When dealing with any pattern, but especially converted ones, it's a good idea to double check the math. Maybe I'll wear this to work tomorrow...
Since I finished two projects, it seemed safe to start a new one. So, I've cast on for a wonderful contrast edged raglan sweater by Anna Bell. The yarn is RYC Cashsoft DK, a cashmere and wool blend yarn that I bought in the sad little yarn department at Liberty of London. The body is a beautiful, soft cornflower blue with pale pistachio edging. I'm already halway through the raglan decreases on the back. I chalk that up to large needles (I'm using 10 1/2s when the pattern calls for a size 8. I must knit so much tighter than the designer) and many hours in front of the telly.
This week, I've made a real return to my Netflix watching after months of having the same DVDs out. I think that sort of behavior accounts for their profits. So, in the past three days, I have watched To Catch A Thief, A Man and A Woman, and Being Julia.
Though I am a big Hitchcock fan, I liked that one the least of the three. Still, a great film. I adore Cary Grant. Very good extras on the DVD as well.
A Man and A Woman is probably best known to Americans for its unfortunately-adopted-as-Muzak theme. It's an amazing film. I'm beginning to outgrow my love of the New Wave, with all of its weird jump cuts and jittery editing. I get it, but a little goes a long way. Still, all of the cuts during the love scene make it quite compelling, and the director doesn't show his hand until the very end. I don't think that I would have liked this film when I was younger. A love story about previously married people in their 30s wouldn't appeal to a young audience. An American director would turn it in to a cute comedy if it were made today, but it was handled so beautifully by Claude Lelouche. A sophisticated, beautiful film.
I had Being Julia for a long time before I watched it. It turned out to be the perfect Sunday morning diversion. Wonderful acting, beautiful art direction, and a bit of an artful conceit in the form of the ghost of an acting teacher. Had it been made a different year, Annette Bening would have won an Oscar for her performance. Well, you know the appeal of the backstage drama.
I also had time to do a bit of reading, Two new issues of the big knitting mags hit the newsstand this week: Interweave Knits and Vogue Knitting. Frankly, the projects in Vogue were ghastly. I love their editorial work. VK does great trend forecasting and links between the collections and hand knitting. I love the way they style their layouts. I only liked a couple of the patterns, and am unlikely to make either. I love the brushed mohair pullover, but the yarn made by a South African women's collective costs a king's ransom when bought in quantities large enough for a garment. And I love fairisle, but I'd rather buy it than make it myself.
Yes, I've revealed myself as a project knitter. I'm not the kind to make unbelievable lace stoles or intricate Scandinavian color work sweaters. I'm not a process knitter. I enjoy knitting, but I'm in it for the finished goods. Therefore, I don't challenge myself as much as I should. I'm capable of much more. Maybe this is a life metaphor. My mom is the kind of knitter who can happily work on a lace shawl for three years and seriously asked how many sweaters I need when I told her I'd like to make six finished pieces a year. How many sweaters do I need? I don't even know where to begin!
In Interweave Knits, there is a mohair funnelneck sweater that caught my attention. Seems that I need a mohair pullover if two of them caught my fancy. The IK one is made of Colinette Mohair. Naturally, I would buy it from my trusted source in Staffordshire. I'm not sure that I could point out Staffordshire on a map. A visit to Wikipedia reveals that it is in the Western Midlands. That makes it so much clearer, doesn't it?
Between the two magazines, I got to see a lot of the new fall ads. The yarn manufacturers are trying to hoist a lot of ugly yarns on an unsuspecting public. VK is asserting a return of 80s styles. Please god, no. Sweaters in the 1980s were horrible-- lots of big shoulder pads, dropped shoulders, and weird intarsia. The Cosby sweater is a product of the 80s. Enough said? Does this mean that stirrup pants are due for a comeback? Oh, and they're showing a lot of chunky cables. Fishermen and Irlandais abound. I like a good cable, but a couple of the sweaters were just too much. They had more cable than the sound engineer at a rock festival. Sigh. I also saw that one of the yarn companies has picked up Anna Bell's Sgt. Pepper style jacket for their ads. Very cool.
There's also a new issue of Bitch on the stands now. I'm about a third of the way through it now. Excellent as usual! I should really resubscribe to Bitch (it's a feminist zine, not a porno mag) and Bust. Just like I should give money to NOW and read Ms. Magazine. I really loved Ms. for a while, but just drifted away from it. I don't know if I changed or it did. I've decided not to read Jane anymore. I'm not exactly a Jane Pratt fan, but the magazine has really changed since she left. Yeah, I wanted it to be Sassy grown-up, like the initial hype. It never really was, but seemed like it could be for a while. Now, totally not. Oh well.