My next project is one I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I bought a few Japanese pattern books, and have been anxious to give one of the patterns a try, but I’ve been a bit nervous about figuring out the pattern. But really, I shouldn’t be. The schematics are very detailed, and I’m sure I can get help on Ravelry if necessary.

It would be much harder if I had to resize the patterns (they’re only given in one size), but most of them are close to the size I would make anyway.

I’m making the cover pattern from “Couture Knits 13″, which is part of the “Let’s Knit” series. I figured it would be best to start with something sleeveless. If I get through that OK, I can move on to more complicated pieces.

The lace is going a bit faster than I expected it to, even though there’s patterning on both sides. I attempted to do a swatch, but the lace pattern is very large, and it isn’t exactly square when knit up, so I’m not quite sure how to see if I’m on gauge. I decided to just cast on and go for it. I’m sure it won’t be too small. If I get a couple of repeats done and it looks like it’s too big, I guess I’ll just suck it up and start over with a smaller needle.

The yarn I’m using is fingering-weight cashmere from Plumknit yarn supply. It’s awesomely soft and light. I think the pattern calls for sport weight yarn, but I think this will work out. It won’t matter if it’s a bit more see-through, since I’d be wearing a shirt or cami under it anyway.

After an overload of stockinette, I’m taking a break with garter stitch.

It’s another Baktus, made with some beautiful red Zauberball from Heather. This time I’m just knitting it from the ball, rather than doing alternating stripes. Quick and easy, and mindless other than the increases and decreases. I’ve just made it past the center point, so I’m on the downhill slide.

I also cast on for a lace shell from one of my Japanese knitting magazines. It will be the first time I’ve knitted a real Japanese pattern. (I did make the Habu Chinese-style pullover, but that had English instructions, so it doesn’t really count.)

I don’t watch the Academy Awards every year, and even when I do, it seems like I’ve rarely seen any of the nominated films. But this year I gave it a whirl.

Because I didn’t realize the show started so early, I missed the first half hour. Which means I missed most of Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin’s air time. From the rest of the show, you would barely know they WERE hosts.

Overall, the whole show seemed kind of disjointed and a bit of a mish-mash to me, as well as too long (of course). It seemed like they did their best to get as many different people on stage as possible, in the hopes that audience viewers will like at least some of them.

Random thoughts:

Interesting that they’ve gone back to “The winner is”, instead of “The Oscar goes to”. Gee, you mean someone actually WINS? Who’d have thought? Is that why they now have all of those people up there to stroke the nominees’ egos before they announce the WINNER? So that the people who don’t WIN won’t feel so bad about not WINNING? Did they ever really think that saying “The Oscar goes to” really fooled anyone into thinking that there wasn’t a WINNER? That the LOSERS somehow felt better about LOSING if they didn’t use the word WINNER? That reminds me of one year when our office didn’t give out any raises. But I got a title change. Uh, yeah, that makes me feel soooooo much better.

The interpretive dance… hmmm. Well, I thought the dancers were talented, but it didn’t ring my chimes. I’d rather go back to having the nominated songs being sung. Or give more time to special awards.

James Taylor – you rock. I’m always touched by this segment. Too bad they snubbed a few people. I guess if your work is mostly TV, you don’t count, even if you’ve done films too. Unless you’re Michael Jackson, of course.

The horror film tribute: I kind of liked the idea, but couldn’t figure out why some of those movies were in there. “Beetlejuice?” Really? And “Twilight?” And why keep showing different clips from the same movies randomly throughout? Couldn’t they have used clips from more films instead? Or at least put all of the clips from the same movie together? It sort of seemed like they were trying to make it look like it was a lot more movies than it really was. How many horror films were really represented? Three?

Kristen Stewart, will you please learn to stand up straight when you’re on stage? You too, Miley. Sheesh.

John Hughes tribute:  Oh yeah… must re-watch some of those movies.

Meryl Streep: God, I love that woman. She looked fantastic, and handled both compliments and jokes with grace and laughter.

Lauren Bacall: kind of a back-handed compliment to just talk to her in the audience. What, you couldn’t bring her on stage? Oh yeah, we had to save time for all of the other junk. Right.

Sandra Bullock’s acceptance speech:  Sweet. I admit it, I had to reach for a hanky.

Asshat awards: And the <s>Oscar goes to</s> winner is… Elinor Burkett for peeing all over Roger Ross Williams’s acceptance speech for “Music by Prudence”. Fortunately he handled it with grace. First runner up: Sandy Powell for her “I already have two of these” speech. I think she meant it well, but worded it badly and it came out sounding arrogant.

Ten Best Picture nominations? Seems like too many cooks spoiling the broth. Or too many pictures diluting the vote. I understand that it highlights some films that wouldn’t otherwise get nominated, but it really seems like too many.  Thumbs down.

And the “awards speech” for best picture? Could that have been any shorter? Blink and you miss it. Couldn’t they at least have put up screen shots representing the nominees or something?

Oprah: Lovely speech, and from what I could tell, she looked great. Too bad I couldn’t see her or a lot of the other people who were wearing dark outfits against a dark background.

And what was up with all of the long shots? Was everyone having a bad hair day or something? I wouldn’t have had a clue who some of the presenters were if they hadn’t been announced, since I could barely see them, they were so far away from the camera. Charlize Theron? Keanu Reeves? Was it really them? Who knows.

Oh, and speaking of Charlize Theron… that dress! Yikes! Maybe that’s why they didn’t do a closer shot. Yes, folks, just in case you didn’t know where my breasts were, here they are.

Which leads us to the dresses… it’s always funny how the same dresses end up on both “best” and “worst” lists. But it’s a good thing we don’t all have the same taste, isn’t it? Otherwise life would be pretty boring.

My thoughts on some of the dresses, in no particular order:

Loved them: Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Mo’Nique, Meryl Streep, Queen Latifah, Elizabeth Banks, Sandra Bullock, Helen Mirrin

Hated them: Zoe Saldana? Fabulous from the waist up, but the bottom frightened me. It looked like she had a bunch of chenille bathrobes clinging to her legs. Diana Kruger (WTF?). Mariah Carey – it looked like someone stepped on the hem of her dress and part of it the skirt ripped off, while simultaneously nearly pulling the top down over her boobs. Great color for her, though. Sarah Jessica Parker – the dress looked OK in still photos, but I really hated how it looked as she moved around in it, and I didn’t care for the combo of silver and yellow.

Mixed: Miley Cyrus – a 17-year-old in a bustier and a slip. Seemed a bit inappropriate. The dress itself might have been fine on someone longer waisted, or at least someone with better posture. As it was, her upper torso seemed barely there. Anna Kendrick – I loved the dress, but it faded into her skin tone too much, so you barely noticed it. Maybe it would have been a better choice for Zoe. Kristen Stewart? A lovely dress, ruined by poor posture. I kept thinking she looked like she had to go to the bathroom.

Have you checked out Ravelry’s Finished Objects Radar? It’s a live feed of photos from projects being marked as finished.

In other random news, the weirdness of the “The Wizard of Oz” themes in the movies I watched must certainly have been the universe’s way of leading me to this, thanks to Chris:

Bobby McFerrin does a condensed version of “The Wizard of Oz”:

Citron is finally done!

I thought it would be done days ago, but I had severe ruffle trauma. First I got to row 9 or 10 of the ruffle (out of 11 rows), and was wondering why I had SO MUCH YARN LEFT. Heh. Because when I was doing the increase row for the ruffle, I got interrupted by someone at the door. When I picked it up later, I forgot I was on the increase row. As a result, only the first third of the ruffle was actually ruffling. Oh yippee – a couple of hours knitting had to be ripped, and then all of those hundreds of stitches had to be put back on the needles.

The second time I got to the end of the ruffle, I still had quite a bit of yarn left, though considerably less than the first time. I had already decided to work the last 3 rows of the ruffle in garter stitch, so I decided to work 2 more rows and have 5 rows of garter stitch, using up a bit more of the yarn. I bound off, which took about an hour in itself. Whew! Finished!

But wait, there’s more. Flipping the scarf around my neck, I decided that the 5 rows of garter stitch didn’t really look good, and the ruffle was too long. So I ripped out the bind off (which was not fun at all – the yarn was really sticky), pulled out the extra 2 rows I’d done, put all 540 stitches back on the needles, and bound off yet again. This whole process took about another 2 hours, after I thought I was done. Sigh.

I didn’t want to wet-block it, because I was concerned about blocking out the ruching and ruffle. I didn’t really think it needed blocking anyway, but I did want to see if I could get a little more width, just to make it easier to wrap around my neck. I threaded a blocking wire through the top edge, and then used a water-filled spray bottle to spray the top edge of the scarf along the blocking wire – just enough to dampen the yarn and let it relax a bit. Then I stretched the top edge out along the blocking wire and pinned it in place. The rest of the scarf was just left alone.

I ended up with about 5.5 grams of yarn left over. It will be a nice insurance policy whenever I make something out of the other matching skein of yarn.

A few people on Ravelry said they were surprised at how small it came out, even though they matched the finished dimensions. I knew it would be small, but since I planned on using it as a scarf, that wasn’t a problem. But I will admit that calling it a “shawlette” is probably a bit of a stretch, except for very tiny people. It’s easy to add more repeats, but considering how tedious it becomes to knit, I’d suggest using thicker yarn and larger needles to make it bigger, rather than doing more repeats. Unless, of course, you don’t mind purl rows that go on forever.

Despite the fact that it wasn’t particularly fun to knit, I’m very happy with it. It’s a very cute and clever design, and what’s not to like about the Malabrigo?

However, I think I’m done with stockinette for a little while. I need a break. So what better project than a garter stitch scarf? I’ve cast on for another Baktus.

Pattern: Citron, from Knitty, Winter 2009
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace, “Lettuce”, 1 skein
Needles: US 6 / 4mm
Ravelry: Project page, pattern page

Modifications: Worked the last 3 rows in garter stitch. Bound off as follows: K1, * K1, slip the tip of the LH needle into the 2 sts on the RH needle and knit them together TBL. Repeat from *.