Demonic Progress

My Life Is Complete

Behold the power of the blog!!!

A few days ago I asked for help, as a desperate need to own the theme song from Hockey Night in Canada had consumed my soul.... I had looked and looked in vain for it, all over the internet. And lo, faithful reader Petula Darling came through for me with 4 (count 'em, F-O-U-R) different versions, which she kindly shared with me! She is a goddess. And I do feel bad that after listening to one of the versions, she had to pour bleach in her ears because of the horror of it. (It did sound pretty bad; I swear you could hear the polyester leisure suit the singer was wearing, LOL.)

So in case any of you have not been fortunate enough to have grown up watching Hockey Night in Canada, here is what you have been missing:

Hockey Night in Canada Theme Song

Re-arranging the Furniture

I've been moving stuff around on the blog. As you may have noticed over on the left margin, I've gotten rid of the "On My iPod" list in favor of a list of my favorite songs, constantly updated courtesy of Pandora.com. Under the list of songs is a link to Yarndemon Radio, which is a station I created on Pandora and which plays music that I like. Ostensibly. (Some of the artists I chose; some of the music played on the station is chosen by the Pandora software, based on the analyses of the Music Genome Project. You can make your own radio station. It's easy! and fun! I did it; you can too.

I think it's cool.

Thanks go to Stacy, who Must Get a Blog SOON since I appear to be talking about her all the time and could be linking to her.

So, unrelated to the entire rest of this post--
From the Off-the-Wall Department....here's a list of my 5 favorite things today:

1. Pandora.com.
2. Cute Bento boxes.
3. Camilla the Hen.
4. Wearable Animal Heads.
5. Food Sculpture.

Clever Norwegians

I drove down to Saco today to look at this year's line of Dale of Norway sweaters. It was actually a nice drive, and Saco is a nice town. The people are very friendly there.

Just to make it clear: this is the Dale of Norway sweater collection, not their yarn line. Dale has an impermeable barrier between the two parts of its company. The sweaters are gorgeous, ranging from very traditional styles like Setesdal and Fana, to more modern designs. It will be tough choosing the styles for Unique One to carry this year. The new sweaters will be arriving during the summer, July, I think. I've always loved this line because of the Norwegian knitting tradition and because of the high quality of Norwegian wool from which the sweaters are knit.

Oh yes, and we're not mentioning the half-finished Dale of Norway I am "knitting" -- started over a year ago. Okay? Okay. Go over to Amazon or iTunes and listen to Of Montreal's song, "Oslo in the Summertime". It will take your mind off my unfinished Norwegian project. And if you like that song, I also highly recommend Of Montreal's song "Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games", which has nothing to do with Norway, although it does mention Antarctica. Have fun. :)

Good Music.

Lark Watts. Give him a listen.

(Thanks to Crazy Aunt Purl for the pointer.)

Oh Geez! and I'm out of control

Oh geez, I wish I could go to Bonnaroo this year! Most of my favorite musicians will be there, from Tom Petty to Mike Doughty to Andrew Bird. But, I can't go (even if I could afford to go). It butts up against the end of the June Knitting Cruise, which butts up against the Summer TNNA show in Indianapolis, which butts up against the rest of my life.

I started a new project yesterday, and actually I also started another new project four days ago, but in the I'm-hiding-it behavior of a true addict I neglected to mention anything about these things. If you don't admit you're doing it, you're not really doing it, right? Heh heh.

The first project is a crocheted scarf. The object of this game is to use my utterly fabulous new ebony crochet hook I snagged from Grafton Fibers at the Spa. It's a bobble pattern found in Vogue On-the-Go Crocheted Scarves, and I'm using 3 skeins of Frogtree Alpaca fingering weight:
And The Gorgeous Hook:

The second project is a cashmere scarf, a kit I also nabbed at the Spa, from Springtide Farm. Yes, these are the people who have the famous goats that strutted through Manhattan with supermodels on the ends of their leashes, promoting cashmere for Saks Fifth Avenue. Let me just say, their cashmere is totally TO DIE FOR. It makes you never want to knit with anything else ever again. *sigh* And Unique One doesn't even sell it. *SIGH* Here's a pic:

Okay. Well I also started a sock with a bran'-spankin'-new yarn we just got from Tahki/Stacy Charles called "Dream". I fell in love with it because it looks like miniature guernsey wool. The company means for you to use it double, on a size 8 needle, but I'm going with a single strand on size 2's, making a sock from my Gansey Socks pattern (a pattern I hand out on the knitting cruises). The yarn is 80% wool, 20% acrylic or nylon. It feels kind of like a wool crepe, so it isn't really soft, and it isn't really itchy, it's just kinda different. I think it will make a cool-looking sock for summer. It feels kind of like cotton, but it's kind of stretchy, too. It is odd and therefore, I love it. Look for it in the store.

Well, all right. I also brought home some Diasantafe yarn to make another summer sweater. More about that later. And I also talked to a friend yesterday about casting on Vivian Hoxbro's Rainbow Jacket. This is getting embarrassing.

In some form of redemption for my knitting soul, I did briefly consider working on my over-a-year-old Dale of Norway sweater yesterday, to the point that I actually located the bag it is in.

You know that old song. "Call Me Irresponsible....."

iTunes, Coldplay, and a Warm Fuzzy Feeling

Not knitting related, but I'm always up for a good cause: over on iTunes, Coldplay has an EP called "Fix You". iTunes, Coldplay, and Capitol Records will donate 100% of the proceeds from the sale of this EP to the American Red Cross' Hurricane Katrina Relief and the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences' MusiCares Hurricane Relief Fund.

Pretty classy.

It's only $2.99. I must say, I'm enjoying it in the earphones right now. :)

Stop-Action Knitting

Check out the music video for Steriogram’s song “Walkie Talkie”! I can’t believe how many hours it must have taken to produce it all, let alone animate it. Even if they used a knitting machine, it would still take a long time to piece it all together. What a job. I love it. Great New Zealand band, too.

from an article about the video:
"Everything in the clip is knitted: from the band’s instruments, to their recording studio and even the film camera that Gondry uses in his cameos role. Sound waves, tape reels, film rolls and other little details are all represented by wool and yarn. The outside world doesn’t escape the woolen treatment either - cars, trees and buildings are all knitted."

A piece about the making of the video is here: http://steriogram.com/. They show knitters literally knitting up the items in the video while it’s in production.

Knitter's got soul

Check it out, chicks -- music from Wren Ross:

Black Sheep

Had To Be Ewe

Dry Clean When You Care

Here's a little ditty to help you remember...