stuff and things.
friday night we went to see the decemberists (clicky here for a live performance on npr!). at one point, colin had the entire audience on their knees. literally. the whole main floor of st. andrews hall, down to the last jaded hipster, knelt down at a gesture from colin meloy. gorgeous music, amazing lyrics, mesmerizing performance. we enjoyed it so much. if you haven't heard them, you must. i think i fell a little in love with petra the violinist, too. she has this clear, high voice that gives me shivers.
threadbear fiber arts studio fucking rules. we took a brief detour through lansing on our way out to grand rapids saturday afternoon just to go there, and i was thoroughly impressed. it's a giant place FULL of wonderful yarn, etc., and instead of store kitties there are store doggies there. 2 of them. k amused herself petting the dogs and chatting with the knitters who were seated in cozy little groups on couches and overstuffed chairs, and even d wandered around pointing out interesting books/hanks of yarn/finished objects. i was overwhelmed. i ended up getting 2 skeins of a beautiful tan/lavendery koigu to make socks for my MIL with, some black and hot pink cotton to make a camisole for myself out of the Vintage Knits book, size 2 and 3 addi turbos and gorgeous tiny handmade stitch markers for the camisole project, and the summer issue of interweave. d found the Denise interchangeables and asked me, "weren't you looking for some of these?" indeed i had been, and told him that was what i wanted for my birthday (which isn't until august)- so he got them for me! i am so in love with circs after finishing both clapotises (clapotix?) and working on the big bad baby blanket for brooklyn that i am thrilled as hell to have a set of Denise needles.
they had the brand of yarn there that i'm using for the BBBB and i'm kind of disappointed that i didn't order another colourway, because i like the purpley-blue one a lot more than what i'm using (which doesn't look ANYthing like the pictures online, grr- in photos it looks like a sort of bright, hot pink mixed with some more pastel shades and a bit of light purple. in person, it's hot orangey-pink and bright grapey purple and i hate the way it looks in the skein.) knitted up it's not so bad, and i had just started liking it until i saw what the other colourways looked like in person and i got all bummed out again.
my nephew lucas' first birthday party was on saturday, hence the trip to grand rapids. his medical condition is much more stable but his diet is so limited that he's not gaining weight like he should be but is growing taller- so he's alarmingly skinny, and has large dark circles under his eyes. he was sleepy throughout the whole party (i think it was his muscle relaxers) but i got to hold him for a bit and made him laugh when i pretended to eat his toes. the party lasted a grueling 4 hours; thankfully, MIL has realized that she needs to stock up on alcohol when her kids are there, so she bought some sangria which we quickly availed ourselves of. finally, everyone started leaving so d and i went back to kelly's and played star wars trivial pursuit with keith and nick until it was late enough to go to Juke's for drinks. for the record, i am not a star wars geek. i enjoy the movies and everything, but i do not know how many landing lights are on an SR14 spaceship or whatever...but my husband does. thankfully, he was on my team and i didn't have to answer a single question. now LOTR trivial pursuit? i'll hand you your ass at that version. star wars is just not my fandom. i was relieved when we finally got to go to Juke's and hang out with julie anne, pat, and kelly-&-dan.
sunday the entire family (with the exception of lucas) went to see star wars. i was impressed. i was awed. i do not like yoda's feet. i knitted the baby blanket throughout most of the movie, 'cause it's a super-easy pattern except for the seed stitch border- which is fucking impossible to see in a dark movie theater, so i messed it up and had to rip out 8 rows (1008 stitches! *cries*) last night when i got home and saw that i'd fucked up in several places and split a stitch on one row, then knit both pieces of the split on the following rows. note to self: do not attempt seed stitch again in the dark, especially during exciting battle scenes.
poor k has a lousy cough/cold thing going on, so she and about a dozen other people in the theater were hacking throughout the movie- i can't wait to get this particular sickness. but she enjoyed the movie nonetheless, and would not let grandma cover her eyes during the scary bits. she said her favorite scene was when the babies were born, even though padme died. my favorite scene was when anakin finally decided to turn to the dark side and was kneeling down before Palpatine, and then the one word, spoken in that low, chilling, rumbly voice: "Rise."
threadbear fiber arts studio fucking rules. we took a brief detour through lansing on our way out to grand rapids saturday afternoon just to go there, and i was thoroughly impressed. it's a giant place FULL of wonderful yarn, etc., and instead of store kitties there are store doggies there. 2 of them. k amused herself petting the dogs and chatting with the knitters who were seated in cozy little groups on couches and overstuffed chairs, and even d wandered around pointing out interesting books/hanks of yarn/finished objects. i was overwhelmed. i ended up getting 2 skeins of a beautiful tan/lavendery koigu to make socks for my MIL with, some black and hot pink cotton to make a camisole for myself out of the Vintage Knits book, size 2 and 3 addi turbos and gorgeous tiny handmade stitch markers for the camisole project, and the summer issue of interweave. d found the Denise interchangeables and asked me, "weren't you looking for some of these?" indeed i had been, and told him that was what i wanted for my birthday (which isn't until august)- so he got them for me! i am so in love with circs after finishing both clapotises (clapotix?) and working on the big bad baby blanket for brooklyn that i am thrilled as hell to have a set of Denise needles.
they had the brand of yarn there that i'm using for the BBBB and i'm kind of disappointed that i didn't order another colourway, because i like the purpley-blue one a lot more than what i'm using (which doesn't look ANYthing like the pictures online, grr- in photos it looks like a sort of bright, hot pink mixed with some more pastel shades and a bit of light purple. in person, it's hot orangey-pink and bright grapey purple and i hate the way it looks in the skein.) knitted up it's not so bad, and i had just started liking it until i saw what the other colourways looked like in person and i got all bummed out again.
my nephew lucas' first birthday party was on saturday, hence the trip to grand rapids. his medical condition is much more stable but his diet is so limited that he's not gaining weight like he should be but is growing taller- so he's alarmingly skinny, and has large dark circles under his eyes. he was sleepy throughout the whole party (i think it was his muscle relaxers) but i got to hold him for a bit and made him laugh when i pretended to eat his toes. the party lasted a grueling 4 hours; thankfully, MIL has realized that she needs to stock up on alcohol when her kids are there, so she bought some sangria which we quickly availed ourselves of. finally, everyone started leaving so d and i went back to kelly's and played star wars trivial pursuit with keith and nick until it was late enough to go to Juke's for drinks. for the record, i am not a star wars geek. i enjoy the movies and everything, but i do not know how many landing lights are on an SR14 spaceship or whatever...but my husband does. thankfully, he was on my team and i didn't have to answer a single question. now LOTR trivial pursuit? i'll hand you your ass at that version. star wars is just not my fandom. i was relieved when we finally got to go to Juke's and hang out with julie anne, pat, and kelly-&-dan.
sunday the entire family (with the exception of lucas) went to see star wars. i was impressed. i was awed. i do not like yoda's feet. i knitted the baby blanket throughout most of the movie, 'cause it's a super-easy pattern except for the seed stitch border- which is fucking impossible to see in a dark movie theater, so i messed it up and had to rip out 8 rows (1008 stitches! *cries*) last night when i got home and saw that i'd fucked up in several places and split a stitch on one row, then knit both pieces of the split on the following rows. note to self: do not attempt seed stitch again in the dark, especially during exciting battle scenes.
poor k has a lousy cough/cold thing going on, so she and about a dozen other people in the theater were hacking throughout the movie- i can't wait to get this particular sickness. but she enjoyed the movie nonetheless, and would not let grandma cover her eyes during the scary bits. she said her favorite scene was when the babies were born, even though padme died. my favorite scene was when anakin finally decided to turn to the dark side and was kneeling down before Palpatine, and then the one word, spoken in that low, chilling, rumbly voice: "Rise."