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You must have known this was coming. In fact when I said "crochet" this was the very image that word conjured up. The fact remains that the Granny Square is an important step in any young crocheters development.
Also I had a flashback to having a poncho of acrylic granny squares when I was a small child, that I think I used to accessorise with a purple cowgirl hat. Mum, is that right? Did Fid make it for me perhaps?
I woke up this morning with the thought that Ferris Bueller is married to Carrie Bradshaw. Isn't that weird, but in a good way?
That then lead me to ponder the films of John Hughes and be mildly annoyed that he still hasn't made a sequel to "The Breakfast Club". I have a great idea for a plot and it's not like the original cast is doing much of anything these days. I'm sure Molly, Ally, Emilio, Judd and Anthony would love to get a call. Yes, I know they are all firmly in their forties now. That's perfect! It'll be like an American fictional version of the "Seven Up" films.
The time is definitely ripe too, particularly as we've just got the sucky looking straight to DVD follow up to "Lost Boys" and it already feels like "Breakfast Club" imagery is everywhere right now. Just watch this advert for JC Penney and then compare this promo shot for "American Teen" (Click the photo for the trailer, I just watched it and it looks like quite a sweet documentary) to the original poster and then tell me John should not be revving up the word processor already. It would be all zietgeisty and everything.
Observe all my swatches! I am a swatching maniac!
My favourites are probably the circles, but I also really like working in the row of red shells to the white. If you are really interested, you can click on the picture and it will take you to Flickr where there are notes telling you which swatch is which stitch.
Obviously this has been taking up a lot of my time, but fortunately Doc C has been supportive of my new hobby. Before I actually got the book I'm learning from or any the wools or hooks, I did show him a couple of patterns for things that I could eventually make for him, and he said no, thank you, he didn't really want any of those but if he thought of something he would let me know.
Well that thought has obviously been percolating, because whilst he was watching me master the shell stitch this morning he started asking a few questions about the differences between knitting and crocheting, then got side tracked by the exciting notion of felting things and eventually, very nonchalantly, said "So, you know my very favourite hat?" and I said yes, and he said "Could you make me one exactly like that?". As it's a plain wool felted beanie in black, yes even at this very early stage I am fairly confident that I could make that. "With a grey stripe maybe?", yes I think so. "And felted?" well I definitely want to learn how to do that, so yes I think so.
I love having a project!
I knew it was coming, and we did get a full six months warning, but it's still a sad sad day.
"Scrabulous is disabled for US and Canadian users until further notice."
And right when I was in the middle of a game with Danny, with decent letters on the rack and everything! I mean it becomes all too obvious that this is just a ploy to stop me beating him for once. It's all that nefarious Birchall, I tell you.
On the other hand Jonny thoroughly trounced me this week and April was clearly squaring up to give me a good beating too, so maybe it's not all bad. Plus my phone has a Scrabble application on it that is actually licensed from Hasbro, so at least that's not going to disappear any time soon.
The question now is what on earth am I going to use Facebook for? I don't want to go back to being one of those annoying people whose vampire application keeps biting their friends. I know that there are two official Scrabble applications on Facebook, but one is for the US and Canada whilst the other is for the rest of the world. This clearly reflects the copyright situation, but it annoyingly means that I can't play a match against any of my friends in the UK anymore and I loved doing that. And anyway, the US one has technical issues and won't load.
Oh, and, to keep in the spirit of the thing, this photo was half-inched from the BBC news website a few weeks back, and shows the sixtieth anniversary celebrations for Scrabble in Trafalgar Square. I was sorry to have missed that particular event, I would have loved a photo of me next to a giant J tile. sigh.
I don't know what this building is, I would guess it was or is a pub or something obvious like that. I do know that it's in Asheville, and it's cool.
I believe I warned you that there would be photographic coverage of my excursions into the wild world of crochet. Here we go with step one, which is The Swatch.
When we got home I unpacked my new yarn and crochet needles and started following the instructions in the book. It didn't go well at first, but at about 1am whilst watching some really bizarre Japanese cartoons, I finally got the hang of it!
Then I unraveled it all, and started again from scratch this morning.
So far so good, I also had a go at the half-double stitch which went well but I'm finding the double a bit more awkward to start off.
Updates as they happen.
I am SO tired.
On our way to Asheville I texted April to say that we would be around today, and she phoned back to warn us that downtown would be cordoned off because there is a festival going on this weekend. And, my word, was there.
The streets were just packed and it meant that getting to all the shops we wanted to visit took a lot longer than we had anticipated, plus it was really sunny today. It was exhausting.
By the end of the day I was bright red and a bit headachey, but I had bought some dress making stuff and several different colours of wool. Doc C, on the other hand, got a very nice burger, but had no luck with a bike.
Maybe I'll crochet one for him, what sort of wool would you think I'd need for that?
New Specs.
Old Specs.
I really like the new ones, but I've only had them for an hour, so my eyes are adjusting to the new lenses still and making me feel slightly queasy. I really like that the glasses look different from different angles, because the frames are made from plastic with a slightly sparkly grey grid pattern to it. And the corners are blue, which you can't see at all here! Clearly I'll have to take some more pictures to capture these in their full glory.
Whilst we were at the opticians, one of the receptionists asked me what the legal drinking age was in the UK. Apparently she has a British fourteen year old staying with her, and he's been swearing blind he can drink all he wants back home. Even better he's been telling her how dangerous his home town is, apparently you can't walk down the street without getting stabbed. In Thetford.
After The Eye yesterday I thought I'd post a more soothing image today.
When we left work yesterday it had just stopped raining, so the tarmac was all shiny and the leaves had nice big raindrops on them.
Pretty.
Leaf with Raindrops
Originally uploaded by Alien Spouse
Alien Spouse Sees All!
Unless it's far away, or really close up. Anything in the mid-range though.
One of the local second hand music shops let people put up flyers advertising shows, and I noticed the other day that most of them have been torn down recently.
I'm not sure if that's just because it's the summer, and whilst college is not in full swing there aren't many bands playing locally or if it's because the shop has just changed ownership.
Either way I liked all the torn posters, and rusty staples.
When we were at brunch on Saturday with Laura, Jasmine and Randy, I mentioned that I planned eventually to buy a sewing machine. It's something I've been talking about for at least two years now, but for various reasons I've kept putting it off.
Anyway, Laura said that they had a sewing machine I could borrow, so that when it came to buying one I would have a better idea of exactly what I wanted from it. They dropped it off at the office today, I have so many projects that I want to try out that I really don't know where to start first.
It's a Husky 165 made by Husqvarna Viking and it has a lot of dials and settings and things. I'm going to sit down and read the instruction manual before I do anything else.
It's all very exciting!
The little black cat from next door is now convinced that our house is just another annex of her home, and she is very miffed that we are refusing her access to it.
She lies in wait for us, or if she suspects we're at home, she sits outside and miaows, and miaows, and miaows.
If we have the front door open to get a breeze going she will stand up on her hind legs to peer through the screen door window.
And if that doesn't get our attention?
Well, apparently she's not above launching herself at the screen, and hanging from it by her claws three feet off the ground. Clearly she knows a good action shot opportunity when she sees it.
As you can see now she is wearing a collar, so we know her name (Cairo), and the bell gives us a bit of warning when she mounts ninja sneak offensives.
That is one very determined little black cat.
If you were to rifle through my handbag, you would find a pink-and-white baseball.
It's regulation.
I'm just thinking that this would be a great companion game for anyone who already owns "The Antiques Roadshow" board game.
Right, Jason?
Although it would feel a bit odd buying it off the shelf at a junk shop. I mean if there is anything that you really should buy off Amazon, surely this is it.
At lunch time today we walked over to the post office, and in our P.O. box was one of the pieces of yellow paper that announces that we have a parcel to collect from the main window. I wasn't expecting anything, so I assumed it would be a book for Doc C.
The jiffy bag had my name on it though, and it was from my friend Mik.
When I opened the envelope, it was full of DVD screeners. There is everything from a nice gory detective drama to one of my favourite reality shows! I was thrilled!
I've now got a lovely selection of British TV shows to keep my accent topped up and for those frequent occaisions when I am completely sick of American adverts interrupting my viewing enjoyment every seven minutes.
Thank you SO much Mikster!
Laura and I decided to try a new cafe this week for our mid-week brunch. We had been thinking about trying it as a Pub Night venue, but it's only open between 11 and 4 so that wouldn't work unfortunately. However the cafe itself is in a gorgeous house with a really lovely garden, and it's only about ten minutes walk from campus so I can imagine going there with Doc C for a nice lunch sometime.
We both had the Tortilla mine was with a lovely Grape and Feta Salad, whilst Laura had a Melon and Tomato Salad. I failed to take any photos of the main course, but it was delicious. The combination of Feta with Grapes in a mint dressing is not one I'd heard of before, but I may have to try making it myself sometime. Doc probably won't want any because he doesn't like mint, so it will be all mine! Yum!
We didn't put up much of a pretence that we didn't want dessert, but they all looked amazing in the display chiller we had quite the dilemma just choosing one. Fortunately the owner's daughter (who I think was about 9 or 10, and for whom the cafe is named) was on hand to advise us. Actually you can just see her eye in the top photo, peeking round Cartoon Gene Simmons. She was doing a very good job of helping out by handing customers their receipts, advising on dessert choices and running round all the tables to check everyone was enjoying their meal.
After much debate Laura decided on the Lemon and Blueberry Cupcake, which she said was very good. I had a bar of dark chocolate with Cashews and Ginger. In the photo it looks enormous, but it wasn't that big honest! It was however really lovely. I could have eaten another one easily.
All in all it was an extremely nice lunch. Hoorah!
I can't believe I forgot to watch The first installment of "Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" last night, and that I don't have time before work this morning.
Now this is important: No-one is to tell me ANYTHING about this before I get a chance to watch it. I want zero spoilers people! Consider me a spoiler free zone until after the twentieth, when we all will, no doubt, be discussing our favourite parts and singing one of the tunes.
And also: Joss is King! Long Live Joss!
For those of you lucky people with some time to spare right now, please click on the lovely big button below and it will take you to that magical place: The Whedonverse.
The yoga mat I bought in October is starting to disintegrate. I know I've been using it nearly every day, but I was expecting to last longer than ten months. It's still fine for doing my Kinetic work-outs on, but it's not good for yoga because I can feel it breaking up under my hands and feet. Which does not make for a confident Downward Facing Dog.
Looking on the bright side that did mean I could go on-line today, and buy a very nice new yoga mat and bag.
Now that I've shown you what the net underskirt can do to make a plain black dress a lot more interesting, I thought I'd show you more detail of the underskirt itself.
First of all storage. I was told when I bought it that I shouldn't hang it up in a wardrobe, because then it would lose all it's volume. The best thing to do is to screw it up into the smallest possible ball, perhaps even going so far as to tie it up with an old pair of tights. I haven't got round to doing that yet, but I do keep it scrunched up inside two bags to restrain it's natural urge to spread out and take up all the available space in the world.
(For any sharp-eyed literati out there: Yes, the cotton tote I use is a lovely promotional bag for Susanna Clark's "The Ladies of Grace Adieu"; funnily enough, although I've had that bag for a while, I only read the book last week and it was fabulous. I'd been put off by poor reviews saying it wasn't as good as "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell" but I didn't feel that at all. Maybe it's because I personally really enjoy short stores, and I much preferred these illustrations.)
As you can see when you let it loose it's already got all those lovely voluminous ruffles.
Making up the skirt there are two different types of net, some very fine close-knit net, layered with a much coarser wider-knit net. This was hard to get a decent comparison shot of, because all the fabric is sheer and the auto-focus on my camera was extremely confused about what I wanted a picture of, but I think you can see it fairly well here:
One thing that takes a few minutes to get used to is not being able to see your feet, I had to really lean over to get this shot!
It's something to bear in mind if you are not very confident wearing heels and you've got stairs to negotiate.
I also asked Doc C to take a photograph of me wearing the underskirt before putting on my dress.
You can see here that the waistband sits exactly on my tummy button, which is quite high in comparison to most modern clothes, so I don't think this would work under a skirt designed to sit on your hips.
I asked about sizing when I bought the skirt, because it doesn't have a size label on it and vintage clothes can sometimes be too small for me. I was told they are pretty much one size fits all, and I think that's probably accurate. The waist band is very generous with a thick piece of very strong elastic holding everything up, I'd imagine it would accomodate most waist sizes quite comfortably.
I also think that it's only fair to warn you that the minute you put on one of these skirts there is an almost overwhelming urge to cha-cha around in it, and use your hands to swish it about. I defy anyone wearing one not to do that, even if it's just in the privacy of your own home before going out!
Finally, I also really like when I take off the skirt and step out of it, leaving the skirt sitting up by itself on the floor like a giant pink meringue!
As promised, here are more photographs of the pink net underskirt. Doc C offered to model, but I decided he should be the photographer, whilst I modeled and acted as creative director for the shoot.
I've mentioned before that the underskirt is vintage and was bought from Beyond Retro after I saw it on "How to Look Good Naked" presented by Gok Wan. I love Beyond Retro, and I had seen the underskirts there before I saw the show, but seeing the difference it can make to an outfit convinced me to buy one for myself.
I already had a plain black jersey wrap dress, which I'd bought from H&M. I'd been looking everywhere for a plain black wrap dress, and, whilst it's not a true wrap dress (the bodice wraps across and is stitched into the skirt, so you get the wrap effect on the top without the split skirt), it is still a very useful dress because I could dress it up easily but it was also a nice sensible length, colour and fabric with some movement in the skirt. The thing I like about putting the underskirt underneath it is that it changes the shape of the dress, and makes the skirt a lot fuller. The thing I don't like so much is that the elastic from the underskirt makes my waist look lumpy, so I always put on a wide belt to help with that. I particularly like wearing a hot pink belt with this particular outfit.
Allow me to demonstrate:
You can't really see the underskirt in these static shots so I insisted on doing some spinning around to show some movement!
And of course we had to have one low angle shot too to show off all the ruffles:
At brunch today Doc C had the breakfast burrito and a cup of coffee. I had Scandinavian Eggs (scrambled eggs, with salmon, red peppers and lots of dill), which came with toast and a salad.
I was a bit surprised by the salad because on the menu it said "fresh greens", which I thought would mean something else, perhaps sauteed spinach or steamed broccoli. The salad was tasty, it just wasn't what I would have paired with scrambled eggs.
I also decided today was the day to try a southern favourite: Sweet Tea. I've been sticking to nice familiar hot tea with a splash of milk, but sweet tea is much easier to get here, so I thought I should try and acclimatise.
It was nice; unsurprisingly it tasted exactly like cold sweet tea.
I took this picture on our way home when we were stopped at the lights. I took it to record that humongous Beatles bumper sticker, mainly because I find it a bit odd that The Beatles are still so freaking huge over here.
In the UK you can easily go for months without hearing a Beatles song; here I think my record is about a week. It's a Fab Four fixation, and just walking down the street today we were subjected to "When I'm 64" played far too slowly by a school band busking on the high street. I never had particularly strong feelings bout the mop-tops, but now, frankly, I am getting really quite sick of them.
There I've said it.
Anyway, Doc C pointed out that there was in fact another bumper sticker on the left hand side of the (here blacked out) number plate.
Those would be metallic relief bumper stickers depicting Uzi machine guns.
How weird is that? "All We Need is Love" and some serious firearms?
Clearly all rabbits are naturally rebellious, just as I always suspected from watching Bugs Bunny cartoons, or this one is a member of the golf course.
I was not aware that this was classified information, but I notice they haven't let slip about the equally nutritious potassium.
Bananas are so secretive these days!
Fortunately the internet will now tell all the banana's secrets, and I present them to you in a delightful table format (which lists the nutritional value of one large banana) right here.
Enjoy!
Bananas, raw
| Nutrient | Units | 1.00 X 1 large (8" to 8-7/8" long) ------- 136g |
|---|---|---|
| Proximates | ||
| Water |
g
|
101.88
|
| Energy |
kcal
|
121
|
| Energy |
kj
|
505
|
| Protein |
g
|
1.48
|
| Total lipid (fat) |
g
|
0.45
|
| Ash |
g
|
1.12
|
| Carbohydrate, by difference |
g
|
31.06
|
| Fiber, total dietary |
g
|
3.5
|
| Sugars, total |
g
|
16.63
|
| Sucrose |
g
|
3.25
|
| Glucose (dextrose) |
g
|
6.77
|
| Fructose |
g
|
6.60
|
| Lactose |
g
|
0.00
|
| Maltose |
g
|
0.01
|
| Galactose |
g
|
0.00
|
| Starch |
g
|
7.32
|
| Minerals | ||
| Calcium, Ca |
mg
|
7
|
| Iron, Fe |
mg
|
0.35
|
| Magnesium, Mg |
mg
|
37
|
| Phosphorus, P |
mg
|
30
|
| Potassium, K |
mg
|
487
|
| Sodium, Na |
mg
|
1
|
| Zinc, Zn |
mg
|
0.20
|
| Copper, Cu |
mg
|
0.106
|
| Manganese, Mn |
mg
|
0.367
|
| Fluoride, F |
mcg
|
3.0
|
| Selenium, Se |
mcg
|
1.4
|
| Vitamins | ||
| Vitamin C, total ascorbic acid |
mg
|
11.8
|
| Thiamin |
mg
|
0.042
|
| Riboflavin |
mg
|
0.099
|
| Niacin |
mg
|
0.904
|
| Pantothenic acid |
mg
|
0.454
|
| Vitamin B-6 |
mg
|
0.499
|
| Folate, total |
mcg
|
27
|
| Folic acid |
mcg
|
0
|
| Folate, food |
mcg
|
27
|
| Folate, DFE |
mcg_DFE
|
27
|
| Choline, total |
mg
|
13.3
|
| Betaine |
mg
|
0.1
|
| Vitamin B-12 |
mcg
|
0.00
|
| Vitamin B-12, added |
mcg
|
0.00
|
| Vitamin A, IU |
IU
|
87
|
| Vitamin A, RAE |
mcg_RAE
|
4
|
| Retinol |
mcg
|
0
|
| Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) |
mg
|
0.14
|
| Vitamin E, added |
mg
|
0.00
|
| Tocopherol, beta |
mg
|
0.00
|
| Tocopherol, gamma |
mg
|
0.03
|
| Tocopherol, delta |
mg
|
0.01
|
| Vitamin K (phylloquinone) |
mcg
|
0.7
|
| Lipids | ||
| Fatty acids, total saturated |
g
|
0.152
|
| 4:0 |
g
|
0.000
|
| 6:0 |
g
|
0.000
|
| 8:0 |
g
|
0.000
|
| 10:0 |
g
|
0.001
|
| 12:0 |
g
|
0.003
|
| 14:0 |
g
|
0.003
|
| 16:0 |
g
|
0.139
|
| 18:0 |
g
|
0.007
|
| Fatty acids, total monounsaturated |
g
|
0.044
|
| 16:1 undifferentiated |
g
|
0.014
|
| 18:1 undifferentiated |
g
|
0.030
|
| 20:1 |
g
|
0.000
|
| 22:1 undifferentiated |
g
|
0.000
|
| Fatty acids, total polyunsaturated |
g
|
0.099
|
| 18:2 undifferentiated |
g
|
0.063
|
| 18:3 undifferentiated |
g
|
0.037
|
| 18:4 |
g
|
0.000
|
| 20:4 undifferentiated |
g
|
0.000
|
| 20:5 n-3 |
g
|
0.000
|
| 22:5 n-3 |
g
|
0.000
|
| 22:6 n-3 |
g
|
0.000
|
| Cholesterol |
mg
|
0
|
| Phytosterols |
mg
|
22
|
| Amino acids | ||
| Tryptophan |
g
|
0.012
|
| Threonine |
g
|
0.038
|
| Isoleucine |
g
|
0.038
|
| Leucine |
g
|
0.092
|
| Lysine |
g
|
0.068
|
| Methionine |
g
|
0.011
|
| Cystine |
g
|
0.012
|
| Phenylalanine |
g
|
0.067
|
| Tyrosine |
g
|
0.012
|
| Valine |
g
|
0.064
|
| Arginine |
g
|
0.067
|
| Histidine |
g
|
0.105
|
| Alanine |
g
|
0.054
|
| Aspartic acid |
g
|
0.169
|
| Glutamic acid |
g
|
0.207
|
| Glycine |
g
|
0.052
|
| Proline |
g
|
0.038
|
| Serine |
g
|
0.054
|
| Other | ||
| Alcohol, ethyl |
g
|
0.0
|
| Caffeine |
mg
|
0
|
| Theobromine |
mg
|
0
|
| Carotene, beta |
mcg
|
35
|
| Carotene, alpha |
mcg
|
34
|
| Cryptoxanthin, beta |
mcg
|
0
|
| Lycopene |
mcg
|
0
|
| Lutein + zeaxanthin |
mcg
|
30 |
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