Color for a Dreary Day

I was going to write about serious stuff like the topsy-turvy economy, how screwed up our priorities have become, how we've forgotten what Christmas is for, stuff like that. But, I decided instead to concentrate on something that makes me smile a little... handknit socks.
I found the pattern for these here, and originally intended to make a mismatched pair as shown on Faith's blog. I loved the way the first one I made turned out and really didn't think that the colors in the rest of the Noro Kuryon skeins would look very good, so I decided to try to match the second sock instead- I think it came out pretty well! I have a feeling that a certain 13-year-old girl for which they're made (ssshhh, they're for Christmas!) will love the bright colors and warmth of soft wool on her perpetually-cold feet. I should have enough from the two skeins to make myself a pair, though they will be completely different colors! The pile of yarn at the top is what I cut off after I cleaned up the ends. I did weave in the important ones at the beginning and end, and along the heel, but at color changes for the stripes I carried both colors for about 6 stitches and I felt that was likely enough to hold the new and old colors in place- anyone have any thoughts on that? Do you think the sock may be uncomfortable that way?

I have been knitting a ton, and we cocooned a lot this weekend and watched the Anne of Green Gables DVD's that my sister-in-law loaned us. Mirian and I cried in so many places, and of course I was ogling the gorgeous handknits throughout. What a great series! I can hardly wait to start on my next project!

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Mamma Mia!

I don't plan to give regular reviews here, I'll leave that up to my movie buff friend, Mary Beth, who's mind (like a steel trap) can quote great, classic movie lines all day long. I do, however, have to interject my enthusiastic feelings about Mamma Mia!, the first movie in a long time that has made me laugh from start to finish.

Don't ask me where I've been, but I truly knew not one thing about this movie when we went to see it and was happily surprised to learn it was a musical when the characters first burst into song a few minutes into the plot. Since the music, great 70's Abba tunes, was truly from MY early years (as in junior high, roller-rink), I could really get excited about it. I haven't felt quite this way about a musical since Grease came out when I was in high school.

I forsee taking our kids to the movie, and then all of us dancing around the house singing "Dancing Queen" at the top of our lungs with hairbrushes and vacuum cleaner hoses for microphones. It really was that fun, and although it would definitely be classified as a "chick flick", my husband got some big hee haws out of it, too.

Don't pay any attention to the criticism of Pierce Brosnan's singing...

Poor Pierce Brosnan. The former James Bond gamely tackles Abba in “Mamma Mia!” and critics find more entertainment in trying to describe his singing than in the movie itself.
“[His] singing is the best imitation I’ve heard of a water buffalo.”— David Edelstein, New York magazine
“[A]nyone watching Brosnan in mid-delivery will conclude that he has recently suffered from a series of complex digestive problems, and that the camera has, with unfortunate timing, caught him at the exact moment when he is finally working them out.”—Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

Pierce Brosnan (aka. Remington Steele and James Bond) really doesn't have to sing well to be classed as one of the "sexiest men alive", does he? (Anybody notice how all of these critics are men?)

The setting was phenomenal, I must put the Greek Islands on my "bucket list." Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

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