Anyone else as excited as I am?

Welcooooooome (again) to the Woooooooorld of Tomorrrrrrroooooooow!

A new season of Futurama starts tonight!! Airing tonight on Comedy Central at 10 pm/9 Central. They've been counting down on the Comedy Central website for the last few weeks! Soooooo excited! Futurama is one of my favorite shows (I've got all previous seasons on the shelf already, if that's any indication). For those not as dorky as I, I'm sure there's something else showing on Thursday night at 10, but I'm been tuning in and celebrating a 1 hour return of some beloved silliness :)

Ooh, Movie Lists!

In addition to alphabetizing (my shelves for movies, CDs and books are all alphabetized), my anal-ness appears in a love of sets. Part of why I'm enjoying stitchmarkers so much! Closely tied to the love of sets is a love of lists. I have both books of "1001 places to see before you die" (the second one is the US/Canada volume), for example. I particularly love movie lists, being the movie buff that I am. The AFI lists are also part of the reason that my Netflix queue is maxed out...

A while ago, Anne sent me the link to the Yahoo Movies "100 Movies to See Before You Die" list. Am doing very well! The bold are the ones I've seen, and the italics are ones on my Netflix queue awaiting their turn.

12 Angry Men (1957)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
The 400 Blows (1959)
8 ½ (1963)
The African Queen (1952)
Alien (1979)
All About Eve (1950)
Annie Hall (1977)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Battle of Algiers (1967)
The Bicycle Thief (1948)
Blade Runner (1982)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
Blow Up (1966)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Breathless (1960)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Casablanca (1942)
Chinatown (1974)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Die Hard (1988)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Duck Soup (1933)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Enter the Dragon (1973)
The Exorcist (1973)
Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982)
The French Connection (1971)
The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather, Part II (1974)
Goldfinger (1964)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1968)
Goodfellas (1990)
The Graduate (1967)
Grand Illusion (1938)
Groundhog Day (1993)
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
In the Mood For Love (2001)
It Happened One Night (1934)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Jaws (1975)
King Kong (1933)
The Lady Eve (1941)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
The Lord of the Rings (2001,2002,2003)
M (1931)
M*A*S*H (1970)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The Matrix (1999)
Modern Times (1936)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)
Network (1976)
Nosferatu (1922)
On the Waterfront (1954)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Paths of Glory (1958)
Princess Mononoke (1999)
Psycho (1960)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Raging Bull (1980)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Raise the Red Lantern (1992)
Rashomon (1951)
Rear Window (1954)
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Rocky (1976)
Roman Holiday (1953)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Schindler's List (1993)
The Searchers (1956)
Seven Samurai (1954)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
The Sound of Music (1965)
Star Wars (1977)
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
The Third Man (1949)
This is Spinal Tap (1984)
Titanic (1997)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Toy Story (1995)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Vertigo (1958)
When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
Wild Strawberries (1957)
Wings of Desire (1988)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
The World of Apu (1959)

Overall, that puts me at 48 out of 100 (48%) , with 16 more on the queue. Better get watching then! :)

WWKIP Day!

Or, to translate, Worldwide Knit In Public Day! To learn more (or find one in your area!) check out the official website. Also where I found the blog buttons :)

So, to celebrate like everyone living in cities with actual yarn stores nearby, Sarah and I met up for an afternoon of KIPing. Granted, our post at this time of year is reeeeeeally quiet, so there wasn't much public to be IN, but it's still the thought that counts! Recently our Knit Nights have been hosted at homes, instead of Starbucks, so it was a little of a change back to old habits, to be KIPing again!

And the desert actually cooperated with us beautifully! Usually this time of year, it's already permanently beastly hot, and we have had several days of spiking temperatures already (including several over 100, which is a little early to be that hot, even here in the desert). Instead, our meet-up had a gorgeous surprise! A light breeze most of the day, and only in the upper 80s/low 90s!! Actually felt like a nice late spring/early summer day! With the breeze, it was the perfect type of day for some hammock relaxin'. Of course, we'll need trees to have hammocks, but at least it was a start! Gotta enjoy those nice weather surprises while we can - they are certainly few and far between around here. And knitting is as good a way to enjoy them as any :)

L is for...

Lace!

I looooove lace! Not that I like the girly lacy things, but that I like the patterns and pictures that are created out of nothing. I love how the same pattern can look so different with a heavier yarn or a light gauzy thread. Like how the Hemlock Ring blanket (LOVE that pattern!) is an old lace doily pattern reworked in a heavier yarn. There have been some really cute scarves and such done in lace worked in a super-bulky yarn (think Lion Brand Thick'n'Quick or Rowan Big Wool). Like some of Twinkle's designs, right? And at the same time, I'd love to do a Shetland Wedding Ring shawl one day (if you're unfamiliar, some great pictures here). Certainly not any time soon!! Way, way too advanced for my level right now, but something to aspire to? Obviously my own wedding is past, but maybe for our golden ;) Really, though, I think that's my inner masochist coming out. So many tiny stitches!

This particular lace piece is from the back of my I Do shrug, that I made for my wedding. The picture below is the whole thing :)

I like colorwork too, but I'm still very new to it, and not really drawn to intarsia in the first place. I guess you could say I appreciate color work more than have an intense desire to do it myself. Cables and lace, though (either together or on their own) are totally my cup of tea!

BAM!

Spice Weasel Chapstick Cozy!

Totally worth it to make me really pick up crochet. Just had to share :)

And for those who do not understand the allure of the Spice Weasel, watch some Futurama, and be prepared to bam it up a notch!

K is for...

Kool-Aid Dyeing!

An entry which could also have been N for Neon, or M for Mess in Sarah's Kitchen :)

Following Stitches, Sarah (armed with her new spinning wheel) became interested in dyeing as well. Hard not to be, honestly, as there were so many vendors at Market who had such GORGEOUS yarns.

So we decided to give it a try! She has a set of dyes for when we are ready to use the 'real stuff,' but for now, we started out with the classic Kool Aid packets. Armed with instructions from Knitty and an assortment of Kool Aid from the commissary here on post, we settled in one Knit Night in her kitchen to play.

We thought we had a full rainbow (including a bunch of shades of red and pink) but the yellow packet we had turned out to be a strawberry lemonade, not regular lemonade. So, one more for the pinks!

Sarah played with her roving, and I had a skein of thrift store wool. She had two batches of roving that she was playing with - one plain cream and one BFL (all streaky). The BFL dyed up very nicely, because the shades of the roving gave shades to the dyes. Just a little extra depth without extra effort :) Sarah's roving was in black cherry, lemon lime, and blue raspberry. The black cherry is a really nice dark red, almost maroon, and gave a nice contrast to the brighter green and blue.

Of the colors we tried, I used the strawberry lemonade and blue raspberry. I ended up with a very bright blue and very bright pink, and softer areas of purple as the two bled into each other. Since I have a whole skein of it, I think I'm going to make a full winter set - fingerless mitts, ear warmer, and either a small scarf or cowl with what's left. We'll see how far it all stretches! I know this is a crazy-bright yarn to actually wear, but I am a firm believer that winter accessories, if not classic and professional, should be bright and cheery. Winter days (even those with snow) are too grey and colorless and just plain blah, so accessories should be bright. See?

I had a lot of fun with the dyeing, so needless to say, we will be doing it again! Like I said above, I really like the black cherry. I can see dyeing something in that to actually wear! A vest or something. Reading up on the dyeing process, non-animal fibers don't take up the Kool Aid as well (or at all, depending on the fiber) so if your yarn has a binder thread or something, it will show up as a contrast color. Cool, huh? And there's something about the neon colors that's just fun. I'd like to do a felted tote or something in the Kool Aid spectrum, with a solid neutral for contrast. White always works, but I think they would look really well with black as contrast too - very stained-glass looking. Maybe one of my felted Fair Isle totes... Possibilities!

New Recipe Success!

Cadbury Egg Cake!

Yes, I did have Cadbury eggs leftover from Easter. Well, not so much leftover as hidden in the back of the fridge specifically for this cake. The recipe itself comes from Q99's morning show. Q99's a radio station playing where Anne lives. One of their morning show gimmicks is Feed Dave Thursdays, where listeners submit recipes for Dave, one of the hosts, to try. She heard this recipe and suggested it to me.

Here it is reprinted (so you don't have to worry about scrolling down the link on the Q99 page).

Cadbury Egg Cake

Ingredients

• 8 Cadbury eggs (original)
• 2 sticks margarine or butter
  
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup sour cream mixed with 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Melt Cadbury eggs and 1 stick of margarine, set aside. The eggs don't melt as quickly as the margarine does (not like melting plain chocolate squares) but they soften well, so with a bit of stirring you have the consistency you want.
   
2. Cream together remaining stick of margarine and sugar.
3. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each. Then add vanilla and mix.
4. Add Cadbury egg mixture.
5. Mix soda with flour. Add to egg and sugar mixture alternately with sour cream mixture.
6. Add nuts.
7. Bake in a tube pan at 350 for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until done.
8. Let cool for 15 minutes. Then turn out and cool completely.
9. Ice with chocolate frosting if desired.

My thoughts and comments:

• Delicious!! Zach's comments:

"You're making this again next Easter, right?"
"Is that a request?"
"No, more of an order."

• It's a very rich cake, nice and moist. Very pound-cake sort of consistency. The frosting is really not needed, unless you have an incredible sweet tooth! If I wanted to make it more presentable for a party or some such, I'd probably just dust it with powered sugar to make it more decorative.
  
• The nuts aren't listed as optional, but they probably could be easily omitted if that's what you want.
  
• I didn't use original Cadbury eggs. I used the orange cream eggs instead (that's what I could find at the after-Easter sales). It gave the cake a nice subtle orange flavor. I think that's how I'll make it from here on out!