You wait a long time...

... and then three come at once ...


I haven't blogged in an age, and I haven't blogged about knitting since well before that; and I really enjoyed blathering away every day during the Ravelympics. So after reading Spinning Fishwife's blog yesterday, and then changing of the clocks which always makes me want to curl up and die for 5 months, I went and signed myself up for NaBloPoMo for November.


You have been warned.


In other news... Fat Charlie is complete.



I think I've mentioned how much I love this yarn before, but apparently I was so complimentary that one of the people from Malabrigo contacted me to ask if they could use my comment on one of their leaflets. My opinion hasn't changed, and it's cool that at least one of the yarn companies is using Ravelry to find out what people think of their yarns!

Final vital statistics

Pattern: Strangling Vines, by Nicole Hindes
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock, by Malabrigo (not on their website yet...); 2 skeins (400m/440 yds per skein), bought at I Knit London
Modifications: worked over 81 sts rather than the 45 in the pattern; worked each end using 0ne skein of yarn and three-needle-bind-off at the back of the neck (the skeins are slightly different; I don't care).
Measurements: 30cm wide by 220cm long (12" wide by 88" long).
Opinion: Love it!!


And because I'm a mean-spirited, snarky person at heart; two things which have amused me an unreasonable amount over the last couple of days. First, a flyer from a local ironing firm (name removed), with an offer which seems a little harsh, if not illegal?





And then a sign at the bottom of King Street yesterday...

As it was very near the local arts-and-graphics shop, and the lovely (albeit blogless) Vespertine was having her birthday party in an arty little shop just round the corner, you could have been forgiven for thinking there was some sort of Installation going on. Unfortunately, no. That would be the car park of Christ's Collage, Cambridge...

Literacy was preserved, however, at least for sad nerdy taxonomists, by the presence of these at the party...

(I remember an ex-colleague dealing with an early 20th-century index which had Illegitimacy: See BASTARDY pencilling in, in beautiful handwriting, Child Support Agency: See BASTARDS... I didn't like to inquire...)

And that's just about me for the weekend; talk to you (repeatedly) in November...

Theatricals

(non-Shakespeare buffs, look away now. No knitting in this post, move away, nothing to see, etc.)

Sue and I went to see CAST's production of Henry V yesterday afternoon, on the last day of their season which has included 8 cities in the US over the summer. I had slightly ambiguous feelings about it - definitely one of my favourite Shakespeare plays, and I saw the Kenneth Branagh RSC production which turned into the film in the 1980s, and of course the Olivier film; so I have pretty high expectations of any production of the play...

(And it was also a beautiful, utterly perfect Cambridge October afternoon of the kind which brings back memories of moving into new student accommodation and all the anticipation of a new year, and feelings of being incredibly fortunate to live here; and also disinclines one to spending the afternoon in a dark theatre...)


And you know, these guys were possibly better than all the performances I've seen before. It was an incredibly energetic, angry, edgy production; everyone but Prince Hal was playing several parts but they managed devices (different berets, addition of jewellery etc.) to distinguish between them. Likewise the women playing male nobles and ordinary soldiers.


The Chorus was taken by the whole cast apart from the actor playing Henry V; and was done by one or several voices depending on the circumstances; and given that student theatre is evidently still using props entirely constructed from palettes and bits of scaffolding, and with actors dressed entirely in army surplus (all of which was sort of reassuring), the plea to "Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts" was entirely appropriate... The battle scenes were done as sort-of-STOMP dance sequences to pounding dance music; and it all worked incredibly well.


There's also a huge plot-setting scene at the beginning with the Archbishop of Canterbury who explains the premise of/justification for the war that's going to happen in the play; and normally it's incredibly tedious and educational but at least we all know what's going on at the end of it (I think it might have been the original Dodgy Dossier, but it was at least comprehensible) . This time, the actor was almost a parody of Rowan Atkinson playing a member of the clergy; and he had a flunkey with a flip-chart - and not only did it all go by more quickly, but I actually understood a lot more than I ever had before...

We only had reservations about one of the actors, and only in certain parts; the rest of them were startlingly good (which is something I can't necessarily say about a lot of RSC performances I've been to)...

They cut quite a bit. A lot of the Fluellen/MacMorris scenes, which I don't mourn; but also Falstaff/Bardolph, apart from the mention that Bardolph is about to hang for raiding a church; I can entirely see why they did it because Falstaff would have meant another member of a touring company who wasn't part of the ensemble, but it was the only bit I missed...

Anyway, bravo them, and when we got out, there was still perfect autumn late-afternoon sunshine on Jesus Green

and we wandered over to Sue's and drank cava in the garden until the chill drove us in to eat homegrown tomato salad and beef stew... Lovely day.

Today I've been knitting freeform samples and writing directions for next weekend's workshop at White House Arts.

Don't miss this...

Neil Gaiman is reading his new book, The Graveyard Book, online via a series of videos; he's currently travelling the US reading one chapter a night. (And signing God-knows-how-many books with a broken middle finger on his writing hand. Ow...).

The main site is here:
http://www.mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx
There's also a mirror site here:
I've used a mixture of both - but apparently the first site has increased its capacity to cope with the numbers; I'm thoroughly enjoying the book, and the reading.

Also; I'm going to the reading/signing at the LSE on October 31 - anyone else interested? They still had tickets last Sunday...