Eavesdropped with my Pumpkin Spice latte YEEEEEAAAAAHHHHHHH.

Lady, to friend: I was talking to her and I noticed she had a book in her bag, so I pointed and asked if it was interesting. And y'know most people would say 'oh, it's not bad' or 'oh, i'm not too far into it yet' -- but she told me 'oh, I wouldn't read it if it wasn't.' What do you do with that?

...

What DO you do with that?

Elanor.

Since the steampunk swap is finishing up and my spoilee has received her package, I wanted to write up the pattern for the little cowl I made.



Supplies:

• Yarn: Rowan Purelife Organic Cotton, two skeins. 360 yards. I used colourway Chlorophyll.
• Needles: size 4 / 3.5mm.
• 8 buttons, the kind with little loops on the back, not holes through the center.
• Crochet hook with a small enough tip to put through the loops of the buttons.
• Tapestry needle.

Gauge: 

• Doesn't really matter for this project. It's knit longways so you can test out the length as you go. To increase the width,  add a multiple of 6 stitches.

Instructions:

1. Cast on 56 stitches.
2. (RS) K2, *p1, yo, k2tog through the back loop, p1, k2* to the end.
3. (WS) P2, *k1, p2* to the end.
4. K2, *p1, k2tog, yo, p1, k2* to the end.
5. P2, *k1, p2* to the end.
6. Repeat these four rows until you reach an agreeable length.
7. On a WS row, add your buttons: p2, k1, p2, k1, then on the next p, use your crochet hook to pull the loop off the left-hand needle and through the back of your button. Replace the loop on the left, make sure your button is facing the RS, and continue your p2, k1. Put a button on the first purl of every other 'p2, k1' segment. (Note, I didn't put buttons at the very corners.
8. As step 2 or 4, depending on which WS row you put the buttons on.
9. Cast off and sew in your ends!

And the clever thing is, the openings in the lace double as buttonholes. Keep this in mind when picking buttons, they'll need to squeeze through! I also left my cowl unblocked, as the cotton stays smooshier that way.

Conundrums.

So, this is definitely going to be a hat when it grows up.



Which hat, though, that's the real question.

SUSHI GIRL.

You'd probably never know it looking at me, but I like these sorts of grindhouse-y vibe crime films. Smokin' Aces. RocknRolla. Shoot 'Em Up. Hopefully Sushi Girl will make an appearance at the local indie cinema next year. But this one has added nerd bonus for me -- stars a fella whose last lead role was in by far the best (and certainly my favourite) iconic fantasy film of the 1980s.

Any guesses?






(Hint: fuck you, Labyrinth.)

Thoughts on an eReader.

I don't own an eReader. I don't want to own an eReader. Tom has a Kindle and he likes it well enough, despite the issues he has with the whole digital publishing industry. I've got nothing against the things, and I'm sure that people will agree pretty much universally that more reading in any form is a good thing.

That said, the new commercials for the Kindle are taking the 'proving books obsolete' route -- they made me laugh, and not in the funny ha-ha way. In the 'wow this is pitiful' way.

Exhibit A:


Wh-what? The page/screen visibility thing I get. But the superiority of the computerized place saver? Please. From the dawn of time, humans have been cringing at the thought of creasing their books, and for this neurotic population, the bookmark was invented. The bookmark is the unsung hero of literature. The bookmark is the book equivalent of an iPod skin or a keychain. I have a whole collection of great bookmarks, and none of them work with a Kindle. All of them, however, are as effective as a computerized place saver. Come to think of it, so is corner-folding, for all you barbarians.

Exhibit B:


We can already sit on our butts all day and get anything we could ever want or need with a credit card number and a click of a mouse. Heaven forbid we have to venture outside our caves for anything. Bookstores are awesome! Avid readers (who, I can only assume, given the nature of the product, are Kindle's target market) know the joy and relaxation that comes from browsing in a good bookstore for an hour. You walk in on a whim and come out with a whole new world. Or, like the lady in the commercial, you walk in on a specific hunt, and who knows? You find what you're looking for and buy it, or find what you're looking for, figure out you're not really interested anyway, and get something else, or maybe forget your first book entirely and get something different. Perhaps a local author is there for a signing. Then maybe you sit outside in a park and read.

Or you could download it in a minute from your armchair, and don't go anywhere for the rest of the day.

Exhibit C:


Okay, don't even try to convince me that people just can't carry all the reading material they wish they could. Who needs everything with them all the time? Nobody. And who switches between several books enough times per day to warrant carrying them all on your person? This is hardly a reason to ditch books in favour of Kindle.

And who are we kidding about concern over carrying lots of stuff? If I made my book thinner and a little lighter, I would just see that as an opportunity to cram more things into my giant bag (knitting!).

Headdesk, headdesk, long live the paperback, etc, etc. Paper books aren't going anywhere for a good long time (which is more than can be said for the digital copies of them, even after you've bought them -- but that's a whole 'nother issue ;) ).