Ch-ch-ch-changes

I'd like to start with an apology for the fact that I have not managed to catch the daytime light for ANY of these pictures you are about to see. Bear with me until after tomorrow, my last teaching day (YES!), and then we'll be in business again.

Okay, changes! Well, one change. A haircut:

My hair salon is about 1.5 blocks from a yarn store. More on that tomorrow...

In the meantime, what else have I been up to?

Making more mitten progress. I love this cuff!

Watching movies, including The Thin Red Line on Monday night and The Muppets on Tuesday night (yes, in fact, that does seem like a very strange lineup. Both evenings, however, were completely awesome).

Reading in the library and checking out many many books to keep in my locker. It's kind of fun to open that thing and see basically a whole shelf of books just about Philippians and Gregory of Nyssa, two of my favorite topics.

Enjoying awesome mail. These prints are part of my October giveaway prize from Leigh-Ann's blog, and they are from the lovely Ciera. I really like the pot of clover.

 This is from Knit Picks (in case you can't tell from the logo that is shouting at you over and over again). Scheduled sweater cast-on is Friday.

What have you been doing?

Design inspiration: The Young Victoria

I just rewatched The Young Victoria and thoroughly enjoyed it the second time.  I was so struck by all the costuming in this period piece: the details in the gold embroidery, the spare military cut of the men's clothing in contrast to the fullness and drape of the women's sleeves and dresses, all the lace, and the great jewel tones paired with rich neutrals. Also, stripes, stripes, stripes! 

I have a whole bunch of new designs bouncing around in my head right now, and one finished object that was definitely inspired by this movie. These are striped armwarmers with Knit Picks Palette in Silver and my own handspun singles.  I love the silver sparkle!

What's been inspiring you lately?

More of the dishcloth parade

The log cabin fever has finally abated, but I have a whole load of cloths to show for it. Instead of posting them all at once, I think I'll just save some of the photos up and have a dishcloth of the day at the bottom of the next few posts. You'll all know why!

I'm working on a few slow-moving projects at the moment: 3 sweaters and a laceweight shawl. I think I might have to start a few scrappy socks just to have some instant gratification and knitting that takes a bit less concentration. Just to explain the seriousness of the situation, I'll provide an example. N and I were watching a movie and having some wine last night, and I didn't do any knitting because the honeybee lace cannot be knit with wine on board. A movie without knitting? Very weird, as I'm sure many of you know.

Speaking of movies and knitting, I watched the Jane Campion film Bright Star this weekend. It's a John Keats-Fanny Brawne romance/biopic that was a bit high on 19th century "romance thwarted by social and financial circumstances" style drama for my taste, but the peaceful settings, gorgeous costuming, and scenes of Fanny crafting (sewing, embroidery, dress-making) made for a pleasant knitting + movie experience.*

Come chat in the comments and tell me about your favorite movie-friendly knitting project or your favorite movies to watch while knitting!

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*I will not go into an extended commentary here on the more troubling aspects of the depiction of Fanny as seamstress, except to say that her creativity was presented initially in such a way as to make you think it would be liberating for her, but there was never any further reflection (on the part of the character or of the script as a whole) on how income from her fashionable creations might have mitigated the "Keats can't afford marriage" problem or how the material self-expression could help her actually connect with other people or break her out of a self-obsessed romantic wallow. Ahem. It was still very pretty to watch!