Stitch N' Bitch the TV Series?

Ellen Page is going to write and produce an HBO series called "Stitch N' Bitch." Are they going to make fun of us knitters or show us some love?

Green Wing

I'm sick. I have a cold. It's not awful but I'm feeling pretty sluggish. I spent all of last night sitting in front of my computer knitting Lamour and watching Green Wing on Hulu. What a bizarre show. It's like Scrubs but instead of silliness there is a lot of uncomfortable awkwardness and sex. Pretty funny stuff though.

Lamour is growing a reasonable rate. I will begin my first seamless set-in sleeve attempt shortly.

I Have Created a Monster or How We Ruined Our Lives

We have had the same tv for 14 years. We inherited it after my dad died. We finally decided to replace it as a Christmas/Hannukah/Valentine's Day gift to one another. When it arrived Wes discovered that we now get about 8 million channels (we don't have cable) including some basic cable channels. But our very old ReplayTV which has terrible recording quality can't "see" any of those new channels. So we got Tivo.

And now our life is over. We don't record that many more shows than we used to but somehow it seems that we are constantly feeling like we have to watch what's on there so there's room so we don't miss something else. It's a little nutty.

I had seen two episodes of this season's Top Chef on Hulu before we got the tv. I asked Wes to record it. He's watched three episodes with me and he is completely hooked. I just logged on to Facebook to see that he has joined at least two "Carla better win Top Chef" groups. When the man falls, he falls hard.

Excuse me, I better go watch some tv...

Blame it on Snow Madness?

As you all suspected I do have a little yarn lying around the house. In fact I bought a skein of yarn yesterday to make Wes a pair of fingerless gloves. So I pulled it out last night and cast on. And then I put on Coupling (Season 3) on Netflix Watch Instantly and knit my little hands off.



It is not my way to make a lot of changes to patterns but when it came time to knit the fingers on these I had to go my own way. The pattern I was using has you knit the cuff, start the thumb gusset, knit the rest of the hand then knit the fingers starting with the index finger. Look at your hand. Most people's pinky finger starts lower than their index finger. In the other gloves I've knit I've started with the pinky finger first, knit a few rounds and then knit the rest of the fingers. I'm also unhappy with the number of stitches I used for the fingers. Pinky is too small, middle finger is baggy.

At this point it was around 2:45 am. I decided to be sensible. Instead of ripping out and reknitting the fingers in the middle of the night I cast on for the other cuff! What was I thinking? Why didn't I just go to bed? Even when I went to bed I was awake for a while thinking about what other changes I needed to make to the gloves.

And now I'm am completely exhausted and I'm home with the kids for the end of Snow Week '08. My poor beautiful sweater is still stuck at the shop. I really wanted to show it to you. I've started the fourth chart in the main colors.



Snow, Day 2

Knitting on Colbert!

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Nailed 'Em - Radical Knitting

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Heroes Revelation

While watching Heroes last night I had a sudden realization.



Milo Ventimiglia is Joey Tribbiani.



It's at 3:30 in this video.

When One Door Closes Another Opens?

Pushing Daisies has been canceled. It's a travesty. Finally a creative, inventive, sweet, fun and gorgeous show comes to television and they can it. My only consolation is news that the Arrested Development movie might be a go.

Summer Watching Options

Thanks for new show recommendations in the Swingtown post. Some of them are on Hulu so I'll check them out soon. They've just added Raising Arizona so I know a good way to kill a few hours when I hit the summer doldrums. Or you can go watch ALF if that's how you roll.

As some of you suggested, Netflix is a girl's best friend when TV is on hiatus. Do you know about Roku? Wes and I just got it a few weeks ago. It's amazing. For $99 you get a set-top box the size of a cd box set. It connects directly to your tv and if you have wifi you can watch anything on your "Watch Instantly" queue from Netflix. The picture quality is very good compared computer streaming video. It takes very little time to start up and only rarely hiccups or pauses to buffer. You can watch an unlimited about of instant content from Netflix. You can also rate the films or remove them using the remote. It's a much nicer viewing experience than watching movies on the computer and it's great for you Mac users who can't otherwise use the "Watch Instantly" feature.

One more thing about Swingtown. Debbie commented "It's on network TV. How sexy can it get?" I think there's a huge difference between sex and sexy. There have been many good sexy tv shows.

Swingtown

Is anyone watching Swingtown? I've watched the first two episodes. It's about a button-down, suburban family that moves across the street from some swingers and quick as you can say "plot device" they decide, with just a knowing look between them, to try group sex for a change. The good things about the show are Molly Parker and the art direction. The clothes, sets and general coloration are dead on 70s. They are also having a lot of fun--maybe too much--with the music. But the fatal flaw for me is that for a show about sex it is completely devoid of any sense of sexy. It makes swinging look as dull as a Tupperware party. Shouldn't the sexual revolution be at least a little titillating? I'm ready to delete it from my ReplayTV but it's the only new non-reality show on this summer.

Televised Knitting

Meg produced a segment about knitting for the Seattle Channel. I just happen to be in it...

My Secret Shame

I don't like football. I actively dislike football. But everyone kept saying, "Friday Night Lights isn't really about football." "Sure," I thought. But I decided to be a sport about it and try it out. I got the first DVD from Netflix. After the first episode I still wasn't entirely sold. By the end of the third episode I was completely sucked in.

And now I have to admit to the world that I love Matt Saracen. Thankfully the actor who plays him is 25 which makes this still kind of icky but at least legal in all countries. I love the way everyone on the show always call him by his full name, MattSaracen. And mostly I think I love that he is what I always wanted the football players I dated in high school to be, rugged and cool but incredibly kind and sweet. In reality they were more like self-involved and badly groomed.

Thank You. Come Again.

Seattle's got a Kwik-E Mart. It's right by Wes's office so I sent him over with the camera. You can see all the photos on my Flickr.

Grey's News

Addison is going to get her own show. I guess that means she has another whole hospital's worth of men to sleep with.