So much fiber, so little time

A tree no more

The maple that appeared in recent photos is now just a pile of sawdust. It had been unwell* in the last year because of damage from a really bad thunderstorm in 2003, so I called in the tree guys. They estimated, given the local storm damage, that they'd get to me in two to three weeks. In a mystery of space and time, they came the next day. But, no, I'm certainly not complaining!

*I love the phrase. It reminds me of one of my favorite lines from My Favorite Year: "Ladies are unwell, Stone. Gentlemen vomit."

A movie for spinners?

There's a New Zealand horror/comedy movie going slowly into wider release called Black Sheep. The IMDB taglines had me rolling on the floor:

Get ready for the Violence of the Lambs!

Get the flock out of here!

There are 40 million sheep in New Zealand... and they're pissed off!

A new breed of comedy horror

The sheep on this farm have turned to the baaaaaad side

Color me confused

Why does the DVD of Shirley Valentine have "US English" and "UK English" audio tracks? For that matter, why has BBC America starting putting closed captioning notices at the beginning of programs? Have the knuckle-dragging mouth breathers suddenly begun watching UK programming? Huh?

Self-destruct sequence

Yesterday was a dangerous day. It started with me slipping and falling onto my left foot with my toes curled under. I now have a rather bruised and slightly sprained big toe. Then just an hour later, I cut a finger with a knife. I tried very hard not to hurt myself for the rest of the day.

That meant I knitted almost to the end of the thirteenth repeat, where I'll thread a lifeline. I shouldn't need it, though, since there are 28.5 g of yarn (out of 100) still in the ball.

Meanwhile, I'm going to use my beautiful braising pot to make a batch of lentil soup, and maybe I'll force the mixer to do a loaf of bread. Just the thing for a snowy day!

Indigo hat

Here's the finished indigo hat. The colors are too close in value and the yarn a little too textured for the mosaic pattern to show up well. I'll use that pattern again one of these days, though. Poor Hedy - her baldy styrofoam bean has taken on a smurf-like cast from the crocking!

This weekend should be nice and cool. I've got a bunch of DVDs, and maybe I'll plow through more of the Clun Forest while I watch them. I do need to plan a new knitting project, though. It's down to one of two yarns on hand. First, I've got the textured alpaca/wool/silk leftovers blend that I see as a cardigan for me. And there's also the alpaca/merino/tussah laceweight I spun up last summer. That cries out to be a spectacular lace shawl. It's time to browse through the stitch pattern books for ideas.

And I watched The Two Towers yesterday. Hmm, I found it disconcerting that Gollum sounded like Donald Duck. I'll stick to the BBC Radio adaption, I guess.