First off, thank you to everyone for your kind words about my purple Tomato! I'm BADLY behind in my e-mail, so if I owe you one, know that I'm trying to catch up tonight and tomorrow!
Second, as promised, here are some Hanami pics! I haven't finished the first repeat yet (I haven't actually picked this up in several days except to photograph it), but it's looking good.
In this pic you can see the beginning of the basketweave pattern...
In this one you get a better idea of the color variegation (although it's not as hot pink as it appears) and the overall look. I'm happy!
So we're down to t-minus 50 minutes to the premiere of "Mad Men" on AMC...is anyone else geeked for this? According to JP, his father was an ad executive in NYC in 1960, so if any of the characters are based on real people, he probably knew them. I don't normally follow any shows aside from stuff on the History Channel (more on that in a minute) and your normal Vh1 countdowns, but I've got a season pass on the Tivo for this one!
Finally, as I just mentioned, I'm something of a History Channel junkie. As in, I actually download HC podcasts and the Tivo learned long ago that recording any given HC program is a good bet. I double majored in psychology (for a job) and history (for fun!) so yes, I'm a history lover. Modern Marvels is probably my favorite show, for their unerring ability to make the most boring stuff (plumbing!) unbelievably interesting and watchable (did you know taking a poo in ancient Rome was a social activity? Me neither!). Tonight the topic was "Cotton," and of course I was fascinated. Among the things I learned:
-Modern cotton farming makes up a small percentage of the world's agriculture, but uses 25% of the world's pesticides.
-The profitable business relationship between Southern cotton growers and Northern mill owners may have prevented the Civil War from happening sooner than it did.
-Air jet vortex spinning (!!!) is the newest spinning technology in mass-production, where an AIR JET inserts the twist into the cotton singles. (Where do I get one of those?!?)
-A cotton boll is a veritable Ritz Carlton for those stinkin' boll weevils.
-Cotton production was almost done in by synthetics like polyester (ewww!) in the 70's, but old favorites like denim helped cotton make a comeback!
And on that note...
I'm still in love with the Indigo Ripples Skirt (of Rowan DENIM), so much so that I took fifteen minutes the other day to chart out the lace section. Primarily since IK's paragraph-form written directions turn into giant evil run-on sentences to my weary eyes. I'm mad at Jimmy Beans Wool now, though...I ordered my precious six balls of Denim Sunday night, assured by their website that it was IN STOCK, and got an e-mail Tuesday afternoon that ooops, it was backordered and wouldn't ship for a couple of weeks! Being that I'm down to two balls before I'm out, this has grouched me up. I would have ordered from Webs and gotten their bulk discount, but evidently they're more on top of their stock numbers and honestly informed me that they were backordered from the get-go. Grrrrr.
Regardless, this will be my "Mad Men" project tonight...the Denim is an unbelievable pleasure to work with, even for being 100% cotton (ouch) and somewhat splitty. I can knit these rows of unending stockinette-in-the-round without looking! Ideal, eh?
(In case you're wondering, the promo song is "You Know that I'm No Good" by Amy Winehouse. It's catchy the same way crack is addictive!)
