So, This weekend I've made a ton of progress on Leslie's cowl, which is great because maybe this year I'll actually be able to do knitted holiday presents for people! huzzah. Well, I'm starting with my siblings since there's only three of them, and perhaps in years to come I'll have amped up my knitting speed to be able to gift for more people. As it stands, I have a good plan set out, and I'm liking this New New Shale pattern enough that it doesn't bore me.
I got through about three repeats while watching tonight's Mad Men, which was fandamntastic, and much more emotionally satisfying than last week's episode. I loved Betty in this. And I looooooved Joan. I always love Joan. but ACK I am dead from Jon Hamm pathos. That man is a powerful talent. eesh.
What I'm most proud of this weekend (which was largely spent at Innsbrook with the family for my grandma's 80th birthday party, and that was great fun for everyone, I love those folks) is that I've ventured further into the epic world of...I don't know, urban homesteading? DIY cooking? Being Awesome? whatever you want to call it. Mom's been listening to this audiobook called I Love Pie! (great title) and has been convinced that we need lard in the house. Finally! She thought I was crazy when I started talking about cooking with lard earlier in the summer. Granted, I may have been foaming at the mouth a little, but that is only because the thought of delicious flaky biscuits and pie crusts and dumplings and cornbread et cetera is enough to drive anyone mad. But I digress. I now have a partner in fat-rendering crime, and to this effect we took a trip to Whole Foods (yes, yes, more like Whole Paycheck) after dropping off the bags and whatnot from Innsbrook and dithered around buying bread and various kinds of chocolate and looking at what kind of shortening they offered in their baking aisle. Mom chickened out at the meat counter, so I had to nut up or shut up (thank you, Zombieland, I will be saying that....forever, now) and lo, asked one of the butchers if they had pork fat. We ended up taking home a pound and a half of fat scraps, quite a bit of which was actually meat and my goodness it's a shame how much food goes to waste in a supermarket world. they were going to throw this stuff out! And I got it for free! FREE. And I know it's not ideal for making lard, but this is more of a trial run, in my mind.
We used the oven method, cutting up the fat (and separating a lot of the meat out for use in stews or whatever later) and putting it in the oven at 250 for...a couple hours, more like two and a half. Since this wasn't leaf lard or pure back fat, there wasn't a whole lot of lard rendered, probably about...1/4 of a cup. But it WORKED. And it's sitting in the fridge now, snowy white and ready for pie-making, which mom is all excited to start, perhaps as soon as tomorrow. More exciting still, I have a whole mess of pork cracklings which I plan to put in the green beans for Thanksgiving, unless I use them for something (or hell, just eat them) sooner than that.
To those of you naysayers who are going "LARD AUGH THE HORROR," including my dad and my girlfriend, I say to you: Shut your pie-hole. I am going to make kickass pastry with this lard, and complainers and folks who have bought into the actually quite unproven idea that saturated fats cause heart disease and are evil evil evil to the core but gosh does that do wonders for corporations that refine and sell vegetable oil OH WAIT ARTIFICIAL TRANS FATS..well, complainers are not going to get any biscuits. or Pie. Shazam.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Dan Brown Strikes Again
So we just got our (eighteen) copies of The Lost Symbol circulating today, which leads me to muse on the nature of the explosive breakout hit from #1 New York Times Bestselling etc Dan Brown. Now, I have little patience with these #1 New York Times Bestselling folks, particularly when they or their ghostwriters churn out a new monstrously thick thriller ever three or four months and they immediately top the bestseller lists because their legions of fans, who are apparently sheep, put things on pre-order and the books are automatically popular. James Patterson, I'm looking at you. If you aren't actually dead and your ghostwriters are just using your name to keep writing bestsellers. Now, in a capitalist society, there's nothing wrong with this practice. Hey, if these authors have figured out a way to make the big bucks with a minimum of effort, more power to them. But I cannot stand the collective cultural assumption that simply because these books are popular, they are also necessarily good. As the TWoP mantra regarding American Idol tells us, Loud Is The New Good.
And Dan Brown is very, very loud. Granted, I believe he actually does write his own books, and I've read Angels and Demons and DaVinci Code and found them both to be readable, somewhat exciting, and more intellectually stimulating than say, Twilight. But of course the ingredients label on a jar of mayonnaise is more intellectually stimulating than Twilight. Anyway. Dan Brown's books aren't bad, but they're not particularly good, either, or at least they're not exceptional. Angels and Demons was new and exciting when it was new, DaVinci Code was the one that made Brown popular because he hit on the clever tactic of Getting The Religious Right All Riled Up By Ripping Off A Book That Had Been Published Years Earlier. Holy Blood, Holy Grail actually is a fun read, and its artistic and symbolic content would actually make a decent novel. It's also a blatant lie, as admitted by its team of authors some years after its publication. The rampant OMG Jesus had a secret family silliness was taken by Brown and shoehorned into his second Robert Langdon novel, and it made the series wildly popular and controversial, but it also made DaVinci Code the lesser book in the series.
Here's a funny story about my experience reading these books: I read DaVinci Code first, because I was working at the Art Museum at the time, and everyone in the office was all abuzz about how there's this hit book making art exciting and accessible to people. So I read it, and was pleasantly surprised for the most part, but I also wished that this guy had maybe included the Illuminati and left all the Jesus nonsense out. Because he really did just take HB,HG, Gnostic philosophy, and some Wiccan stuff, and put it in a blender. This does not make for compelling revelations. At least not for me, thinking erudite person. Where were the Illuminati? I wondered. And then I read Angels and Demons, and realized that Dan Brown really did have the capacity to write intelligent thrillers, and had in fact done so, but then he wrote the Jesusy sequel and started pandering to the mob.
And what pandering and/or ripping off has he done in his third book about Robert Langdon, I wonder? Why he is only stealing from that actually very fun and clever Jerry Bruckheimer film, NATIONAL TREASURE. I'll repeat that. Dan Brown is Ripping Off National Treasure.
You may argue, but Allison, wasn't National Treasure pretty much ripping off The DaVinci Code in the first place and dumbing it down for an American moviewatching audience? Yes, that's true. But! National Treasure also had great pacing, really smart writing with funny quips, and an entirely satisdying plot. And it's a better movie than The DaVinci Code. How National Treasure managed to be that fun despite having Nicholas Cage in the lead still boggles the mind to this day. But the point it, it's good shit. And now, Dan Brown's latest literary offering has Langdon uncovering mysteries in Washington DC (!) involving the Freemasons (!!) and the lost treasure of Solomon (!!!). Of course since Dan's got to be a Debbie Downer about things, this mystery involves not an actual treasure but something about the secret name of God, probably. This I gleaned from the dustjacket and flipping to a random page that had a code on it. Secret name of God. I get that Brown is trying to make nerdy things exciting for the mainstream, but honestly, fella, an ACTUAL TREASURE (see: National Treasure and National Treasure 2: Electric Boogaloo) is miles more exciting than ancient secret wisdom that has apparently been covered up in a vast global conspiracy that could bring the civilization of the world to its knees (but probably ends up not doing so). Also, if there's a villainous villain with some sort of religious obsession and/or bizarre fetish, like Dan Brown seems to love writing, I'm officially declaring National Treasure as Less Lame.
But I'm not making truly official until I actually read the book. We'll see, folks! we shall see!
Last Point: Benjamin Franklin Gates has better hair than Robert Langdon. And Gates is played by Nicholas Cage. This pains me, but also proves my point.
And Dan Brown is very, very loud. Granted, I believe he actually does write his own books, and I've read Angels and Demons and DaVinci Code and found them both to be readable, somewhat exciting, and more intellectually stimulating than say, Twilight. But of course the ingredients label on a jar of mayonnaise is more intellectually stimulating than Twilight. Anyway. Dan Brown's books aren't bad, but they're not particularly good, either, or at least they're not exceptional. Angels and Demons was new and exciting when it was new, DaVinci Code was the one that made Brown popular because he hit on the clever tactic of Getting The Religious Right All Riled Up By Ripping Off A Book That Had Been Published Years Earlier. Holy Blood, Holy Grail actually is a fun read, and its artistic and symbolic content would actually make a decent novel. It's also a blatant lie, as admitted by its team of authors some years after its publication. The rampant OMG Jesus had a secret family silliness was taken by Brown and shoehorned into his second Robert Langdon novel, and it made the series wildly popular and controversial, but it also made DaVinci Code the lesser book in the series.
Here's a funny story about my experience reading these books: I read DaVinci Code first, because I was working at the Art Museum at the time, and everyone in the office was all abuzz about how there's this hit book making art exciting and accessible to people. So I read it, and was pleasantly surprised for the most part, but I also wished that this guy had maybe included the Illuminati and left all the Jesus nonsense out. Because he really did just take HB,HG, Gnostic philosophy, and some Wiccan stuff, and put it in a blender. This does not make for compelling revelations. At least not for me, thinking erudite person. Where were the Illuminati? I wondered. And then I read Angels and Demons, and realized that Dan Brown really did have the capacity to write intelligent thrillers, and had in fact done so, but then he wrote the Jesusy sequel and started pandering to the mob.
And what pandering and/or ripping off has he done in his third book about Robert Langdon, I wonder? Why he is only stealing from that actually very fun and clever Jerry Bruckheimer film, NATIONAL TREASURE. I'll repeat that. Dan Brown is Ripping Off National Treasure.
You may argue, but Allison, wasn't National Treasure pretty much ripping off The DaVinci Code in the first place and dumbing it down for an American moviewatching audience? Yes, that's true. But! National Treasure also had great pacing, really smart writing with funny quips, and an entirely satisdying plot. And it's a better movie than The DaVinci Code. How National Treasure managed to be that fun despite having Nicholas Cage in the lead still boggles the mind to this day. But the point it, it's good shit. And now, Dan Brown's latest literary offering has Langdon uncovering mysteries in Washington DC (!) involving the Freemasons (!!) and the lost treasure of Solomon (!!!). Of course since Dan's got to be a Debbie Downer about things, this mystery involves not an actual treasure but something about the secret name of God, probably. This I gleaned from the dustjacket and flipping to a random page that had a code on it. Secret name of God. I get that Brown is trying to make nerdy things exciting for the mainstream, but honestly, fella, an ACTUAL TREASURE (see: National Treasure and National Treasure 2: Electric Boogaloo) is miles more exciting than ancient secret wisdom that has apparently been covered up in a vast global conspiracy that could bring the civilization of the world to its knees (but probably ends up not doing so). Also, if there's a villainous villain with some sort of religious obsession and/or bizarre fetish, like Dan Brown seems to love writing, I'm officially declaring National Treasure as Less Lame.
But I'm not making truly official until I actually read the book. We'll see, folks! we shall see!
Last Point: Benjamin Franklin Gates has better hair than Robert Langdon. And Gates is played by Nicholas Cage. This pains me, but also proves my point.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Stitch 'n Pitch 2009
WOO! I actually went to and (GASP) enjoyed a baseball game! those of you who know me irl know that I hate baseball so much. But! watching baseball while KNITTING, that is another thing altogether. Also, the Cards actually won tonight, so that made it more fun.
Goodie Bag! Here's what I got:
2 cross-stitch patterns
1 cute jacket pattern "Sierra" in KidLin
1 basic men's sweater pattern, "Jonathan"
1 July/August issue Crochet Today
1 October issue Knit 'n Style
1 booklet of cardigan patterns of Virevolte yarn. totally 80s!
1 Louisa Harding pattern book which I actually already have a copy of from Myers House
1 Go Red Heart scarf pattern designed for Stitch 'n Pitch events
1 brochure telling me how great Manos Del Uruguay yarn is, as if I didn't already know. ha ha
1 brochure promoting Heifer International, good folks, them.
A ton of coupons for the various sponsoring LYSes
1 point protector which looks too much like a twizzler bite and I really wish it was, so I could eat it
1 ChiaoGoo 9mm bamboo crochet hook (well, I've got to re-learn sometime!)
1 set size 9 ChiaoGoo bamboo DPNs, 6"
1 skein Lamb's Pride worsted in a shade of pink that almost EXACTLY matches the shirt I wore to the game! Mom also received a skein of something cotton that matched her shirt! it was madness!
I also caught a ball of black Berocco eyelash yarn, and who knows what I'll use that for.
more importantly! I made a TON of progress on my St. James sweater! or should I say, my totally sexy Joan Holloway sweater that is red red red and super cute. I was able to try it on not once but Twice! at the game to see how it was coming along, and it's going great, fits nicely, and my adjusted decreased seemed to work out well. I did the first half of them with only 2 rounds between decrease rounds, and the second half with 3 rounds between. Now I'm going strong on the plain stockinette portion, and wondering if I should shorten that and get to the increases sooner because 1) I am short and 2) I have a tummy. we shall see! but for now, I'm extremely pleased with what I've accomplished.
Top-down knitting is so great! I never want to knit a sweater in pieces ever again! I will not be making that mistake! This is so much more fun. and not drudgery.
Goodie Bag! Here's what I got:
2 cross-stitch patterns
1 cute jacket pattern "Sierra" in KidLin
1 basic men's sweater pattern, "Jonathan"
1 July/August issue Crochet Today
1 October issue Knit 'n Style
1 booklet of cardigan patterns of Virevolte yarn. totally 80s!
1 Louisa Harding pattern book which I actually already have a copy of from Myers House
1 Go Red Heart scarf pattern designed for Stitch 'n Pitch events
1 brochure telling me how great Manos Del Uruguay yarn is, as if I didn't already know. ha ha
1 brochure promoting Heifer International, good folks, them.
A ton of coupons for the various sponsoring LYSes
1 point protector which looks too much like a twizzler bite and I really wish it was, so I could eat it
1 ChiaoGoo 9mm bamboo crochet hook (well, I've got to re-learn sometime!)
1 set size 9 ChiaoGoo bamboo DPNs, 6"
1 skein Lamb's Pride worsted in a shade of pink that almost EXACTLY matches the shirt I wore to the game! Mom also received a skein of something cotton that matched her shirt! it was madness!
I also caught a ball of black Berocco eyelash yarn, and who knows what I'll use that for.
more importantly! I made a TON of progress on my St. James sweater! or should I say, my totally sexy Joan Holloway sweater that is red red red and super cute. I was able to try it on not once but Twice! at the game to see how it was coming along, and it's going great, fits nicely, and my adjusted decreased seemed to work out well. I did the first half of them with only 2 rounds between decrease rounds, and the second half with 3 rounds between. Now I'm going strong on the plain stockinette portion, and wondering if I should shorten that and get to the increases sooner because 1) I am short and 2) I have a tummy. we shall see! but for now, I'm extremely pleased with what I've accomplished.
Top-down knitting is so great! I never want to knit a sweater in pieces ever again! I will not be making that mistake! This is so much more fun. and not drudgery.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Lifetime: Television for Watching Ironically!
Although if there's one thing Lifetime is good for, it's showing bizarre movies starring Valerie Bertinelli about former Lohan-esque starlets who go to rehab and then go into hiding in Indiana and...stuff. And of course now Lifetime is also good for Project Runway.
But! crazy cheesy movies make for excellent time spent knitting! and I'm making real progress on my St. James sweater. I love love love love love top-down knitting. this is so fun, this project actually looks like a sweater now and I can try it on and see how it's turning out and it's not a big huge mess like that ill-begotten cardigan was! hallelujah! This thing is gonna look super cute.
Just for the sake of keeping track for myself: I finished the raglan shaping, put the sleeves on waste yarn, and doing a few rounds of stockinette on the body before I start the first bit of shaping. woohoo!
tonight's Joanspiration on Mad Men was woefully lacking, but Christina Hendricks still looks supermegafoxyawesomehot, and great in turquoise. Also, Sal in his jammies. that scene killed me in several different ways. oh lord. I ought to go to bed, but I want to make a bit more progress on this sweater before I sign off. hooray for motivation!
But! crazy cheesy movies make for excellent time spent knitting! and I'm making real progress on my St. James sweater. I love love love love love top-down knitting. this is so fun, this project actually looks like a sweater now and I can try it on and see how it's turning out and it's not a big huge mess like that ill-begotten cardigan was! hallelujah! This thing is gonna look super cute.
Just for the sake of keeping track for myself: I finished the raglan shaping, put the sleeves on waste yarn, and doing a few rounds of stockinette on the body before I start the first bit of shaping. woohoo!
tonight's Joanspiration on Mad Men was woefully lacking, but Christina Hendricks still looks supermegafoxyawesomehot, and great in turquoise. Also, Sal in his jammies. that scene killed me in several different ways. oh lord. I ought to go to bed, but I want to make a bit more progress on this sweater before I sign off. hooray for motivation!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
I can't wait until fall.
I feel bad that I haven't been knitting as much lately, but the weather is hopefully going to stay cool for a bit, so I can work on my sweater. Yes, I need to block some scarves, and finish that tank top, but the sweater is, so far, a nice bit of easy circ stockinette knitting and I can work on it while I watch Mad Men, which is awesome (both the show and the ease of knitting while watching).
when is it going to be in the 60s? I want to be able to knit heavier things without dying!
when is it going to be in the 60s? I want to be able to knit heavier things without dying!
Monday, August 3, 2009
SWIIIIIFT!
After the orgy of yarn-purchasing yesterday, I spent most of this afternoon wrangling a lovely swift that Sue brought to work. Otherwise, there was no way in hell I'd be able to get that giant skein of Baruffa Cashwool into something workable for my Triinu scarf. But I prevailed! after hours of work and a nap in between tries. XD And then I balled up....pretty much all my other yarn, or at least everything I'll need for upcoming projects. woohoo!
Also I've finished eight repeats of the Raha scarf out of a total twelve listed in the pattern, but it's getting pretty long as is right now. (news flash: using a bamboo blend for a lace pattern: IT STRETCHES. oh lol) Since I don't want my gf to drown in this thing, I might stop it at nine. that should be good.
Other things I've learned today: The History Channel has finally, FINALLY got some new programming that does not suck. Sure, I miss the good old days when every other program was about the Civil War, or Hitler, but they've got a diverse audience now! and I need something more in my life than freaking Ice Road Truckers, which I will never watch, ever, and there is no way on god's green earth you can tell me that belongs on the history channel. it's crappy reality programming! just because they filmed it in the winter doesn't make it historical!
But tonight, oh joy, I sat (or rather stood by the swift, winding) engrossed through Sex in the Ancient World: Pompeii, which is fairly close to my heart since Pompeii was the setting of the first-year Latin books we had in sixth grade, and it's just hilaaaaarious what they left out. Friday's episode on ancient Egypt should be just as salacious, if not more. And then I watched Clash of the Gods, which is the basic mythology show with a focus on human psychology and how that informs the creation of these immortal figures, and what I like immensely is the visual style of it, very striking character design for the actors "reenacting" the lives of the gods to make the divine archetypes more relatable to a human audience and at the same time clearly otherworldly and awesome. Whoever did the hair and makeup on that show deserves an Emmy.
Also I've finished eight repeats of the Raha scarf out of a total twelve listed in the pattern, but it's getting pretty long as is right now. (news flash: using a bamboo blend for a lace pattern: IT STRETCHES. oh lol) Since I don't want my gf to drown in this thing, I might stop it at nine. that should be good.
Other things I've learned today: The History Channel has finally, FINALLY got some new programming that does not suck. Sure, I miss the good old days when every other program was about the Civil War, or Hitler, but they've got a diverse audience now! and I need something more in my life than freaking Ice Road Truckers, which I will never watch, ever, and there is no way on god's green earth you can tell me that belongs on the history channel. it's crappy reality programming! just because they filmed it in the winter doesn't make it historical!
But tonight, oh joy, I sat (or rather stood by the swift, winding) engrossed through Sex in the Ancient World: Pompeii, which is fairly close to my heart since Pompeii was the setting of the first-year Latin books we had in sixth grade, and it's just hilaaaaarious what they left out. Friday's episode on ancient Egypt should be just as salacious, if not more. And then I watched Clash of the Gods, which is the basic mythology show with a focus on human psychology and how that informs the creation of these immortal figures, and what I like immensely is the visual style of it, very striking character design for the actors "reenacting" the lives of the gods to make the divine archetypes more relatable to a human audience and at the same time clearly otherworldly and awesome. Whoever did the hair and makeup on that show deserves an Emmy.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
My Stash Just Exploded!
And by Exploded I mean there was a massive yarn sale at the Myers House Weaving Department and I spent a ton of money there, om nom nom yarncakes.
I now have laceweight yarn for my Triinu scarf! OMG! only ravelry lists it (Baruffa cashwool) as cobweb, jeeeeesus that is thin and I hope I don't have to use two strands together. it's gonna be gorgeous. Dark green soft as sin merino which I'll turn into a gorgeous Estonian lace scarf and drape around me like an elvish princess. mmmmm.
Also, joy of joys! I found more Classic Elite Premiere there! I bought two hanks of this lovely spring green at Knitorious, those were the last two they had, and in my foolishness I hadn't really thought about the fact that that is not enough yarn with which to make anything substantial, garment-wise. I scoured other LYSes for months trying to find more (nothing at Knitty Couture, Knit and Caboodle had it, but not the color I needed, no one on ravelry had any to trade or sell, etc) until today, where there was a whole shelf full of the stuff, and TONS of the spring green. Biggest shocker of the day? I got home with my stash, four new hanks of Premiere, and get out my old balls and their tags to discover that it's the SAME DYE LOT. whaaaat?!
I repeat, joy of joys. And I rode that high straight to the JoAnn way the hell out on Manchester where mom and I found a copy of French Girl Knits (I reeeally need to return the library's copy) and it was purchased at 40% off, and I'm going to make the Delphine Lacy Cap-Sleeved Top in beautiful bright spring green pima/tencel blend.
I also got some bargain barn yarn (sooo much fun fur in there, oh god) at 75% off, five balls each of some Crystal Palace Shimmer (in sparkly navy) and something nordic called Svale I've never heard of, but looks fairly nice. it's a sort of a pale grey. lovely.
the day of yarn continues! Kara and I are going to hang out and watch Brideshead Revisited (the real version, not that new movie) and work on our respective lace scarves. ta!
I now have laceweight yarn for my Triinu scarf! OMG! only ravelry lists it (Baruffa cashwool) as cobweb, jeeeeesus that is thin and I hope I don't have to use two strands together. it's gonna be gorgeous. Dark green soft as sin merino which I'll turn into a gorgeous Estonian lace scarf and drape around me like an elvish princess. mmmmm.
Also, joy of joys! I found more Classic Elite Premiere there! I bought two hanks of this lovely spring green at Knitorious, those were the last two they had, and in my foolishness I hadn't really thought about the fact that that is not enough yarn with which to make anything substantial, garment-wise. I scoured other LYSes for months trying to find more (nothing at Knitty Couture, Knit and Caboodle had it, but not the color I needed, no one on ravelry had any to trade or sell, etc) until today, where there was a whole shelf full of the stuff, and TONS of the spring green. Biggest shocker of the day? I got home with my stash, four new hanks of Premiere, and get out my old balls and their tags to discover that it's the SAME DYE LOT. whaaaat?!
I repeat, joy of joys. And I rode that high straight to the JoAnn way the hell out on Manchester where mom and I found a copy of French Girl Knits (I reeeally need to return the library's copy) and it was purchased at 40% off, and I'm going to make the Delphine Lacy Cap-Sleeved Top in beautiful bright spring green pima/tencel blend.
I also got some bargain barn yarn (sooo much fun fur in there, oh god) at 75% off, five balls each of some Crystal Palace Shimmer (in sparkly navy) and something nordic called Svale I've never heard of, but looks fairly nice. it's a sort of a pale grey. lovely.
the day of yarn continues! Kara and I are going to hang out and watch Brideshead Revisited (the real version, not that new movie) and work on our respective lace scarves. ta!
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