Bron's Blog II

Getting Back To Knitting

I know I said I'd be working on Something Pink exclusively after my mat was finished, but I picked up Holey Cable instead and knit another couple of inches. After all, it would be nice if I could have this sweater before the weather gets too warm to wear it:

I'll be making the neckline a bit smaller than Amy shows in her version. But after all, I don't have cool tats to show off so I can go for a little more coverage. ::wink:: At this point, I have one more full cable repeat to do before splitting for the front & back. It's just taking me a looooong time because I have almost 300 stitches on the needles. Sigh.

I did start another dishcloth:

And that's the extent of yesterday's knitting.

We watched a movie this weekend that I'd like to tell everyone to avoid like the plague. You see, back in 1973, a quirky little cult film called "The Wicker Man" was made. Most notable for the scene of Britt Eklund dancing nude around a hotel room, it is near & dear to my heart for all it's 70's Pagan imagery. (I even have a quote from the film on my sidebar.)

However, the remake of "The Wicker Man" with Nicholas Cage is neither quirky nor endearing. It is boring and boorish - just one long shrug. The head of the island is changed from a Patriarch to a Matriarch (how politically correct of them) and the island's main harvest is turned from fruit to honey....just so the protagonist can be near-fatally stung by bees. Twice.

Sheesh. It's just plain stupid. Period.

But it did serve one purpose. I've been meaning to get a DVD replacement for my old VHS copy of the original and now I'm stepping up the search! ::grin:::

Happy Monday!

Movies, Sleeves and Weight Watchers

Yesterday we watched two films, Lady In The Water (from Netflix) and Firewall on HBO. Of the two, "Lady" is a much better film. Although I love Harrison Ford, this film is so generic it lost me a quarter of the way in. He displays emotion but it's mostly over-the-top anger - no subtlety here! I'll admit, however, that the fight scene at the end was one of the grittiest I've seen. Talk about slugging it out!

On the flip side, I'd recommend "Lady" if you're looking for something different. I was expecting to either love the film (ie. "The Sixth Sense") or hate it (don't get me started on "The Village!") but remarkably I landed somewhere in the middle. It wasn't what I was expecting - we'd deliberately not read reviews - and the adult fairy-tale aspect was intriguing. M. Night Shyamalan had originally written the story as a bedtime story for his children but, of course, his fairy-tales are twisted! I enjoyed all the different characters and how they fit into the grand scheme and it was fun watching Shyamalan in the middle of it all.

The kids were a little disappointed, though, since we'd seen the movie trailers in the theater and were expecting something scarier. And I think we were all expecting a little something more at the end.

I managed quite a bit on Fountain's sleeves yesterday:

I think I'm finally going to change something in the pattern, however. They show the sleeves being 12" long before beginning the sleeve cap and in the picture, the model has the sleeves pushed up to above her elbows:

I'd like the sleeves to come to the bend of my elbow naturally - no pushing required. That's probably on my mind because I wore Nantucket last week and really enjoyed the sleeve length - not too long, not too short. :) I think I'll hold a Fountain sleeve up to a Nantucket sleeve & go from there. If I'm stopping soon, I'll need to step up the increases accordingly!

Either way, you just might be seeing a finished cardi sometime Monday. :) I'm going to mosey out today & see if I can find some off-white buttons to match. ::grin:: I can't wait to have this one finished - I really think I'm going to love it!

Now - on to that Weight Watchers bit. I don't know what it is - whether after 2 years I lost a little of my "oomph", a little of my drive, or what, but these final pounds are proving difficult...especially since I gained 10 of them back over Christmas! I tried counting calories as I was doing before the holidays and for 2 weeks, nothing happened. I finally decided I'd had enough with dicking around (so to speak) and on impulse I pulled up Weight Watchers Online & signed up for 3 months. For $65, someone else is telling me how much to eat (although not what to eat - I'm doing the Flex plan, not Core) and so far I love it. I enter everything I eat and am planning to eat into the Tracker and everything is figured for me - no mess, no fuss, no strain.

I've lost 4 pounds in 2 days. It's also good to get immediate feedback from the scale! (No - it's not "just water" either. ::wink::)

You'll never catch me at a meeting, but the online plan might just be the ticket for me. If all goes well and I don't hit a plateau, 3 months is probably all I need to get darn close to my final goal. It would be great to have all the weight gone by summer. :)

Now, if you'll excuse me, I hear an exercise bike calling my name.....