Knitting: The End is Near

No, I'm not standing on a street corner with a sandwich board sign, and this is not the movie 2012.  I am THIS close to being done with the Classic Lines Cardigan.  In fact, by the time you read this, I may already be done.

As I mentioned in my food post on Monday, my family was marvelous on the holiday weekend and let me have run of the livingroom TV for almost the entire weekend.  And I went nuts.  By the time I caught up with my backlog of "Caprica" episodes (Eric Stoltz has aged well, yum) I had joined the sleeves to the body and begun the raglan decreases.  Amusingly, my next show was the latest episode of "Fringe" where Walter goes to an alternate universe where "Back to the Future" starring Eric Stoltz is playing.

Aparently he was originally cast in the role, but focus groups didn't like him.  Can you imagine the classic lines with him in the role?  Boggles the mind.

At the end of "Lost" last night, I had not only finished the raglan decreases on the sleeves, and knit the collar band and sewn it down, I had picked up and knit the right side band and knit the turning row for it.

Actually I probably would have been done with it at that point in time if I hadn't waffled so much about the STEEKING.

I am expecting the exterminator tomorrow, so I had taken down my sewing table and sewing machine so I'd have room to pull all my pots, pans and dishes out of the cupboards.  I did NOT want to hand-sew the reinforcements for the steeks, and my machine was unavailable.  After waffling, procrastinating, and whinging for a half an hour, I finally said to myself that the yarn stuck to itself so much while I was knitting, it will stick together without reinforcing stitches.

So far, I was right.  I'm not going to be shoving it into a project bag and taking it down to the bus stop tomorrow morning though.  I'm not that stupid.

So next week I expect to be reporting to you how many squares I've gotten done on the New Traditions Afghan kit.

Miscellaneous: Greedy Reader

 I have a confession to make.  I got my birthday gift (a Barnes and Noble Nook) a bit early... like, three weeks early.  Now I've been going through about a book a day, and charging the thing at least once a day too... I'm assuming because I've been using it so much.

I've not used a Kindle, but from what I can tell, I made the right choice.  I've already added a 16 gig micro SD card to expand its capacity (Amazon was really stupid to take that option away from Kindle users in the redesign of the Kindle 2nd gen).  The touch screen to make menu choices or flip pages with a gesture is awesome.

And though I haven't used it while knitting, I *can* put my PDF knitting patterns on it, and they look great.  I think I'm still going to need to print charts however.  Can't use a magnet strip to mark my place, heh heh.

My one complaint is that the clicky buttons to turn pages are really loud... that kind of plastic-flexing, icky squeak sound that sets teeth on edge.  Which is why I was relieved to learn you could flip by swiping the touch-screen... and it feels more natural, too, like the kind of swiping gesture you'd make with a fingertip on a  paperback.

B&N was giving away a free copy of the first book in one of those ubiquitous "alternate history" vampires-live-among-us-and-everyone-knows-it fantasy series.  I've now gotten through book five in as many days.  I can't tell if it's because I like the series (I do, but not *that* much) or because I'm avoiding knitting that sweater.  Probably a little of both.

Today is Thursday, and so many TV shows are making their reappearance tonight, it's going to be insane.  I still haven't watched the V episode that aired this week, and I'll have Supernatural, Fringe, the Mentalist, and a score of others to catch up on.  Hopefully that will speed up the knitting, or at least kick it into a slow first gear.

TV: Premiere Season is here

The kids are back in school, so you know what that means... new TV season! A LOT of old favorites are back, some unexpectedly (like Dollhouse), some predictably (Fringe, Lie to Me, Supernatural), and some regrettably (what the HECK has happened to Smallville for pete's sake? Tom Welling is cute, but give me a break! Time Travel? Guh!)

There are also some new shows that caught my eye that I've been enjoying tremendously.

Warehouse 13: This was a summer-run show that recently had their season finale. I caught up with the early episodes through Amazon's Video on Demand service (now sent directly to my new TiVo, thank you very much!) and caught the last five or six episodes from "live" TV, or as live as TiVo gets. It's an interesting blend of "Friday the 13th: The series", steampunk, and "Eureka". I find both the lead agents appealing actors, and have always enjoyed Saul Rubinek's work, even though he doesn't often play a very appealing character.

Defying Gravity: Unfortunately on hiatus with a shaky status, this glimpse into the future of corporate space programs with a sci-fi alien twist was just starting to get good when it was unceremoniously dumped from the airing schedule.

The Vampire Diaries: I would have accused this show of trying to ride on the coattails of "Twilight" and its popularity, had the books not been published a good long while ago. It's a vampire tale set in High School, with mostly unknown actors, the exception being Ian Somerhalder (Boone on "LOST") as the vicious older brother to the main male character. It's very "CW" (ie lots of very pretty, very young people running around, full of angst) but I'm giving it a decent shot to mature. After all, my number one show "Supernatural" is also a CW show, and it's matured nicely into a very engaging show.

Now a short recap of the season premieres of old favorites, and my impressions.

Supernatural: The Brothers Winchester screwed up last season and broke the last seal heralding the start of Armageddon. Now we've got angels and demons running amok, and one renegade angel looking for where God might be on earth. When Castiel first showed up, and those wings unfurled, I was like "Heck yeah!" but now I'm to the point where I'd just rather get back to the Chupacabra-esque stories, and drop the whole "good vs. evil" stuff. And two brothers from the same family as vessels for the main players of light and dark? Don't really buy it. I don't believe someone is considered the ultimate evil because of something DONE to them. Sam's truly evil and started down that path because he was fed demon blood as an infant? Nuh-uh. Still, the line-by-line writing, production values, and acting on this show keep me coming back every week.

Fringe: I was a little confused by the premiere of Fringe this season. I didn't have time to re-watch the first season before the premiere, but from what I remembered and what happened in the premiere, it seemed that we were supposed to know or have seen things that I just don't recall happening.

Castle: Smart-alec Richard Castle (played by Nathan Fillion... YUM-o) is still with the precinct, following Beckett around. The whole flavor of the show, very liberally sprinkled with cheesey novel titles and grammatical nit-picking is a fun romp of a detective show with the right balance of realism and humor. Lord knows I'd watch Mr. Fillion read a phone book, but his impish behavior really makes the show.

Dollhouse: Joss Whedon. It seems the renewal of the show surprised him, along with the rest of us. I'm still not 100% behind Eliza Dushku as Echo, but at this point I suppose there's not much to be done about that. The rest of the cast has been top-notch, and the writing is stellar. The scene between Whisky/Dr. Saunders and Topher was especially poignant. I'm sad to see Amy Acker leave for another show, but there's always a chance for a return.