The Bog of Lost Scholars

30 March 2006

Socks and Shirt

Filed under: Crafts — Castiron @ 19:59

Two finished projects:

  • Fluted Bannister Socks, in Knitpicks “Dancing”, color Rumba, on #1 needles.
  • Shirt, in a batik print fabric bought at Jo-Anns lo these many years ago, McCalls 5781.

I’m wearing the shirt today; I’ll hold the socks until dance on Saturday so the folks who saw me knitting them last week will see the finished object.

Meanwhile, I’ve started a knitted tank top, Soleil from Knitty. I’m not usually a tank-top wearer, but I’ve had occasions where it’d be nice to have an extra layer under a shirt, so I’ll try it and see how I like it. I’ve also made progress on the DNA scarf; one skein’s almost used up.

24 March 2006

Muppets, Magnificence, and Misleading Music

Filed under: Film and Media — Castiron @ 21:29

The Muppet Show, Season 1. As a lifelong Muppet fan, I’m delighted that they’re rereleasing the Muppet Show episodes, and I love these discs. However, I have two complaints:

  1. An entire episode is one track on the DVD. You can’t easily go to a particular segment you like, or skip one that’s boring; it’s the whole episode or nothing.
  2. I don’t actually mind that some of the episodes are incomplete — I work in publishing; I’m well aware of rights issues. I do, however, mind that they never mention this in the notes. I’d rather have the Muppet Morsels say “Such-and-such song was omitted due to permissions issues”, so I know what’s missing.

The Magnificent Seven. First time I’ve ever seen it; now I’ll have to watch The Seven Samurai some day. I enjoyed it, in spite of having trouble understanding what was being said sometimes (see below) and in spite of some cheesy elements.

The Ladykillers, original Alec Guiness version. When your initial exposure to Alec Guiness is Obi-Wan Kenobi, you don’t realize how creepy the man can play.

(A side gripe: Neither of the latter two had English subtitles or captioning. Why the heck do DVD manufacturers go to the trouble of including foreign language subtitles on DVDs, but don’t include English subtitles? Those of us with hearing problems, or who are trying to watch the movie at a low enough volume not to wake the small children of the house, would really appreciate having the option of reading text.)

23 March 2006

Recent Reading

Filed under: The Castiron Reading Journal — Castiron @ 20:55

Robin McKinley, The Door in the Hedge. Nth reread; still greatly enjoyable fairy tale retellings.

Christi Mellor, The Three-Martini Playdate. This is not a true parenting handbook or your one-stop how-to-bring-up-decent-kids book (that would be Miss Manners’ Guide to Rearing Perfect Children, but I found it a humorous read, and it makes some absolutely serious points.

Hilari Bell, The Wizard Test. A nifty children’s fantasy novel, in which a boy who doesn’t want to be a wizard learns that he has magic abilities. Very good, and quite thought-provoking.

Karen Pryor, Don’t Shoot the Dog! An introduction to using positive reinforcement to train critters, kids, or yourself. It’s not your one-stop dog-training, ABA, etc. manual, but the basic concepts seem useful.

Patricia C. Wrede, Snow White and Rose Red. A good retelling of the fairy tale; one of my favorites of Wrede’s books.

Rosemary Kirstein, The Steerswoman’s Road. An omnibus of two novels, The Steerswoman and The Outskirter’s Secret. I’m very glad I read it. It’s got fabulous, fabulous worldbuilding. The characters are reasonably interesting, and the story’s engaging, but the world is what I really enjoy.

However? They’re books 1 and 2 of a series that isn’t finished.

If that doesn’t bother you, and if you’re at all a speculative fiction reader, I heartily recommend them. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t know in advance that they were a series, though, as I wouldn’t have read it yet, and I wouldn’t have that wonderful genealogy recitation scene from the second book embedded in my head. (Yeah, I’m a family tree geek, but I really did find it a moving scene.)

Megan Crane, English as a Second Language. If I were more into romances or ChickLit, or if I’d read this book when I was eighteen, or if I had ever been a hardcore recreational drinker, I’d probably have loved it. As it was, while I made it to the end, I skimmed much of it, and overall it didn’t do much for me.

22 March 2006

Still Sorting Stuff

Filed under: Dejunking and Organizing — Castiron @ 20:15

March’s focus room for the Handle Everything Once project is my bedroom. This one’s another fairly easy room to process; I have extraneous stuff in my bedroom closets, but not nearly as much as in the office or the hall closet. I was able to move one small chest out completely; another chest is going to move into my son’s room next month; and I still have two empty drawers in the dresser. I’ve cleared a fair amount of stuff out of the closet. This room will probably be done on schedule.

The living room is done. Hurrah!

I’m still making slow progress on the office. I purged a large number of cross-stitch patterns; now I just have to figure out where to unload them, as cross-stitch patterns aren’t selling for squat on eBay. The shelves are almost done; the closet, one of the big sticking points in this room, is about half done.

I’m definitely glad I’m doing this project. The results aren’t immediately visible (except in my bedroom — that empty spot where the narrow chest used to be is quite obvious), but I can tell the difference, and I’ve got a much better handle on what I own.

21 March 2006

Some Live Music

Filed under: Music — Castiron @ 19:03

My boyfriend and I went to hear a fair amount of live music lately.

First, Brave Combo, early in February. We agreed afterwards that it wasn’t one of their best concerts; it’s also the first time we’ve heard them since one of their major members left, so they may still be resettling. Still, the music was fun, and they did a rousing rendition of the Bumblebee song.

A couple weeks later, we heard the Austin Lounge Lizards. It’s the first time I’ve seen them live since I was in college (i.e. fifteen years or so), but they’re still excellent. They sang a new song, Go Ahead and Die, plus plenty of old and new favorites.

In early March, we went country western dancing to the strains of Lucky Tomblin. CW isn’t my preferred musical genre, but the sound was quite good, and they seemed quite talented.

20 March 2006

Craft Update: Finished Objects!

Filed under: Crafts — Castiron @ 19:19

Amazing how much progress I can make with a deadline, a road trip, and spring break. Things I have finished:

  • The ABC sweater for my nephew. Front view; back view.
  • The Booga Bag, finished while I was at the San Antonio Folk Dance Festival workshop. Unfelted; felted.
  • Fingerless mitts, made from Reynolds Odyssey, color 441. (It’s a little more reddish-purple than the photo indicates.) Each ply of this yarn is variegated, and the combination makes a nice subtle color change effect. Pity the yarn’s so pricey; otherwise I’d consider buying enough for a sweater.

Things I have worked on but not finished:

  • The Fluted Bannister Socks. I’ve turned the heels and am working through the gussets. This is the first time I’ve done an eye-of-partridge heel stitch rather than a regular heel stitch; it’s wasted on the variegated yarn, but next time I make a solid sock I’ll probably use it again.
  • DNA scarf. I’m using a heavier yarn than the pattern called for, so I changed the pattern a bit; it’s just the DNA cable surrounded by seed stitch.
  • Fantasy sampler. Just a few stitches.
  • Batik-print shirt. The sleeves are attached; the side seams are sewn (though I may rip and resew one). Basically, all that’s left is hems, buttonholes, and buttons.

Things I’ve ignored: Ruby, Flanders map, crocheted top, *^$&# Crane, Pentacle.

7 March 2006

Crockpot Bean Soup

Filed under: Food — Castiron @ 19:25

A standby recipe that I got from my folks, though I’ve tweaked it a little bit to use what I usually have on hand.

Well in advance of whenever you want to start making soup: Buy one bag each of several different dried beans. I usually buy half-pound or one-pound bags, depending on the bean; in this latest batch I have pintos, kidney beans, black beans, Great Northern beans (or might be navy beans; I bought the white bean that was cheapest), lentils, and split peas. Sometimes I’ll use lima beans; once in a while I’ll get a weird bean; I don’t tend to use garbanzos in this soup, but one certainly can.

Dump all the beans into a humongous bowl and mix well. (Except split peas, if you’re using them; keep them separate and add to the pot when it’s cooking time.) Put the mix into an airtight container, or more likely several airtight containers. I use old square jam jars that hold two cups of bean mix quite nicely.

(You could just buy a package of N-bean mix. But I’ve found that if I make this often, it’s much cheaper to buy the beans separately and mix; plus, that way I can customize the bean mix.)

To make the soup: Put the following in the crockpot:

  • 2 cups bean mix (soaked overnight if desired; boiled for half an hour if you have time)
  • 3-4 cans tomatoes (my folks use a can of diced, a can of crushed, a can of diced with chiles, and a can of whole stewed) OR a pint of cherry tomatoes, fresh or frozen, and a can of other tomatoes (this is how I use up cherry tomatoes from my veggie subscription)
  • a chopped up hot pepper (optional)
  • two Italian sausage links (hot or mild; optional)
  • a chopped onion
  • cumin
  • an extra couple cups of water if needed

(I’ve also added chopped carrots, and occasionally I’ve added cinnamon when I felt experimental. Normal humans like my boyfriend will also add salt at the end of cooking.)

Put the lid on, plug in the pot, and come back at night to lots of soup; I usually get 8-12 bowls out of a batch. It’s good with sour cream or yogurt stirred in.

6 March 2006

Illustrated Craft Update, and the Return of Stash

Filed under: Crafts — Castiron @ 19:49

My UFOs as of 1 March, starting from top left:

  • Buried in back, Ruby, which I still haven’t worked on.
  • The Crane. Haven’t worked on that either. If I don’t do the couching by, say, the end of summer, I’m either unloading the thing or cutting off the couching I’d already done and framing it without.
  • Middle back: the crocheted lace blouse, which I haven’t worked on, on top of the Fantasy Sampler, which I have (see the last UFO shot? there’s progress, even if not much!).
  • Below them on the left: the Flanders map (a smidge of work) and the pentacle (none). I’m definitely finding counted work impractical lately.
  • Below the frame on the right, the real progress. The nibling cardigan’s body is done, and I’m on the sleeves. I’m still trying to finish it before I mail Baby Norgi. And I have the cuffs done on the Fluted Bannister Socks.
  • And last, the batik print shirt. The collar is done; next I need to attach the sleeves.

Not in this picture because I started it on the 4th: a Booga Bag. I made the strap first, and I’m through with the base and starting the sides. This is of course taking knitting time away from the sweater and socks, but it’s my “punishment” for buying yarn for four projects. (I’ll cut myself a little slack on the KnitPicks order; I’d promised a friend that she could go in with me on my next order so we could get the $40 minumum and free shipping; she’d waited on me for a month already; and after finishing Norgi I was clear to buy one project’s worth anyway, though not two. The purchases from my local yarn shop, however, I could have probably passed up, even given the 20% discount. And the total purchases definitely break my “I can in good conscience start this project right when I get home/take package out of the mailbox” clause, especially given that I need to start the swatch cap for my Fair Isle sweater. On the other hand, I do get LYS-support virtue points….) Anyway, this project should move quickly, and now that the base is done it’s perfect mindless/in-the-dark knitting.

I love the colors of Noro Kureyon, and I’m looking forward to seeing the effect of the colors I chose for this bag (159, 139, and 147; I’d have used just 159, but they only had one skein). But I can’t help thinking that in some office in Japan, there’s some folks snickering over finding a way to foist off the efforts of their beginner spinning machine operators on the world. It should felt quite nicely, though. Once it’s done, I’ll start a pair of mitts out of Reynolds Odyssey, my other LYS purchase, and when those are done, my stash guilt will be largely assuaged.

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