Football and Movies

Yesterday was the Army/Navy football game.  Since Hubby went to West Point, that game is bigger than the Superbowl for us.  Well, to be honest,  I still don't care all that much, since it is football.  But I do make an effort to watch at least part of it.  This year I only caught the first half.  And not really even the whole first half; we missed the cadets marching onto the field, and the National Anthem, and the kickoff, and the first 3 points...and I left the party before halftime.  But that was fine with me.  I didn't want to go to the party in the first place; I only went to keep peace between Hubby and me.  Army lost, again.  I think the last time they won was in 2003.

Anyway, the reason I left early is that I had promised months ago to take Angel and Princess to see "Voyage of the Dawn Treader", the new Narnia movie.  The original plan was to go on Princess's birthday, since that was the opening day for the movie, but Hubby reminded me that he would be at work on Friday, and of course we couldn't just leave Kitty at home alone, so we changed our plan and went yesterday.  Despite having to drive almost an hour from the party to the theater, through crazy traffic, it worked out fine.  Princess was particularly excited, because it was her first time to go to a theater.  Angel has only been once before, to see "Prince Caspian", when she was Princess's age.

The movie was good, better than I had expected it to be.  Actually, I was a little concerned last week, when I heard about some stupid comment that Liam Neeson(the voice of Aslan, who is basically God) made about Who Aslan is supposed to be.  Fortunately, his comment wasn't part of the movie itself, just something he said in an interview somewhere.  It was perfectly clear to me Who and What Aslan represented in the movie.  Anyway, enough about the stupid actor; back to the movie.  It was scarier than I'd expected(both girls were snuggled up to me, putting fingermarks on my arms), and the White Witch kept reappearing(she was in "Prince Caspian" at one point too) which she didn't do in the books, as far as I recall.  Other than that, I don't remember any huge, glaring "artistic license" moments in the movie, of which I'm glad.  I grew up reading and rereading the Narnia books, and I still love them, so I'd hate to see the general storylines or messages messed up by hollyweird.  I am glad it'll be months before it's out on DVD, because I think it's too scary for Kitty at this point.  In a year, though, it should be alright.

Visiting family!

I'm in Kansas, visiting my family. ☺ The girls and I are having a blast. My sister has brought her girls over every day that we've been here, so it's been pretty wild. Here's a little sampling of what we've been up to....

♥

A daffodil at the zoo

Angel, reading to her sisters and cousins
All eight girls, at the zoo. (3 belong to my sister Sara, and 2 to my sister Rebekah)

Watching "Annie" on movie night

Me, having a little quality time with my dad and our firearms. ☺

♥

I haven't had much knitting time, and what I've had was mostly spent tinking. I dropped a stitch on my Adamas shawl, and it fell several rows. I tried to pick it up, but since it was lace, there were yarnovers and decreases in the way, and that just made it worse. I hadn't used lifelines, so I couldn't just rip. I had to tink back about 5 rows, before I was able to pick up the stitch properly. Now I've caught back up to where I was before I messed up. I think I'll finish this repeat, then put it aside to work on Surf.

♥

In case I don't get time to be on the computer tomorrow.....Happy Easter! I hope you have a wonderful Resurrection Day celebration. ☺

Terminator: Salvation

It's a very good movie. I fully intend to rent it when it comes out on DVD, so I can catch whatever I might have missed the first time around. In this movie, John Connor(played by Christian Bale: swoon!) is a soldier. He's not leader of the resistance, yet. The machines have taken over, and are in the process of eradicating all humans. The Terminators still look like machines, not like people. John hasn't yet met his father, Kyle Reese, who is still a teenager at this point. But the machines know who Kyle is and why he's important, so they're trying to get to him before John does. John is assisted in his quest by a human/machine hybrid, which the machines created for infiltration.

The original Terminator makes an appearance, but considering how he looks and the fact that he doesn't speak a word, I'm pretty sure he was computer generated. However, his famous line, "I'll be back" is heard, just not from him. It's a great story of bravery, trust, redemption, and insanity. And there are lots of awesome guns. All in all, a terrific movie. Go see it.

Designing a pattern...

I am neck-deep in designing a pattern, which I intend to submit for publication. I have to keep it mostly secret for now, but I just have to share my excitement. And my exhaustion. I've designed several projects before, but none that I wanted to submit anywhere.

With this one, I was inspired by the yarn, which is unusual for me. I usually come up with an idea, then find a yarn to go with the idea. I saw this gorgeous yarn, at Walmart of all places, and knew I had to use it. I'm not generally a big fan of acrylics, but this one is so pretty. It's a Vanna's Choice Print yarn. It's variegated, but not in the same way most variegated yarns are. It's two colors, a dark pink on one side, and a lighter pink on the other side. So it knits up like double stranded yarn. The variegation is very subtle. It makes a lovely knitted fabric.

So I saw this beautiful yarn, and knew that it would be perfect for a garment for a little girl. Since it's acrylic, it's washable; a very important consideration for kids' clothes. And I've already said I love the way it looks knitted up. I'm not telling yet what type of garment I'm designing, but suffice it to say: it will include ruffles and lace, and it will be sized from 2 to 10, for girls.

I've spent the last couple of days swatching and calculating, and calculating some more. And I have to keep meticulous track of every stitch, so that it can be translated into a marketable pattern. I'm about halfway done with knitting my first sample, which will be just the perfect size for my youngest daughter this fall. After I finish hers, I'll recalculate for the next size, and the size after that, and the size after that. And the size after that. Fortunately, three of the sizes will fit my girls this fall; I may simply knit and save the other two sizes for when they will eventually fit someone. Or I may ask for test knitters. Actually, I'll probably ask for test knitters anyway, just to check my arithmetic; it is just basic multiplication and percentages, but still, a double-check is always good. I am very glad I have so many friends online who knit; I'm sure I'll have no trouble finding people who would like to try out my pattern in advance of its publication. It will be published, either by the online magazine I'll be submitting it to, or by myself here on my blog.

Anyway, I am exhausted from all this calculating, and knitting. My left wrist is sore; I need to take a little break from the knitting. So I'm going to a movie this evening with Hubby. We're going to see "Terminator: Salvation". I'm going to just turn off my brain for a little while and enjoy the movie. Note to self: don't forget the earplugs. Movies are so loud they hurt my ears, especially my favorite type of movies: action. I have hearing damage from shooting without ear protection last fall. I learned my lesson quick, let me tell you!