Harry Potter

I went to the Harry Potter movie with different expectations than you. Or most of you. I read books 2-4 but couldn’t get past the parts the first 100 pages in book 5. So I watched the movie and called it good. A year later, I didn’t remember anything about the 5th book. I thought this must’ve meant that I didn’t see it. So I re-watched movies 3, 4, 5 in prep for seeing the 6th in the theater. And I recalled some of the details of 5 but the ending was a total shock to me. The Boyfriend laughed since he remembered everything and couldn’t understand why I didn’t. It just wasn’t a remarkable movie. Sure it was a Harry Potter adventure, entertaining in a way that they usually are, but the plot wasn’t juicy enough to grab me. None the less I was excited to see the 6th movie expecting some relationships and maybe a payoff on the Ron Herminie thing.

The 6th was ok. Not having read the book I felt like there were a few plot twists I missed until later than my fellow viewers. It definitely felt more choppy than any of the previous movies. I missed the moving stairs, I missed the transition from Hogwarts to the Christmas party, I missed the fat lady, and I felt like it was missing a great deal of character development on Snape. It’s clear fairly early that he must be the mystery character but why is he playing both sides? I think the director meant to build intrigue for the next movie but cut too much of the explanation of what Snape was thinking. Or Alan Rickman didn’t express enough during his screen time, which I can’t imagine. I did like how dark the scenery was and overall the movie felt more like the first movie which roused pleasant feelings for me. Here’s the part that really hit home for me, someone dies at the end of these movies. I cried over Black, but didn’t even blink an eyelash over Dumbledore. Come on, I cry if a horse dies on TV and I don’t even like horses. Again not enough character development, I spent the movie noticing how odd Dumbledore was acting but not connecting to him. So next year when I’m trying to remember this movie, I’ll be able to check back here and see that I would give it a C+ overall.

I might have to start watching Sesame Street!

Absolutely Exhausted..

I’m exhausted after the first day. Hopefully the energy will come back. I did get nicknamed The Mayor since I couldn’t walk around without bumping into several people I know and having hugs and hand shakes. I guess that must be how Dad feels when he’s in public. It’s exhausting!!!

I spent the last week with family knitting while we shopped, ate, shopped some more, and road in the car to get to shopping. I finished a two pairs of socks and started a few more... The Boyfriend had the camera with him in Colorado so I’ve been limited in my picture taking, but he returned this morning and I quickly stole the camera!


That leaves me with the July SKA Mystery Socks and the On Hold Socks to complete for the end of the month.

Jowls...

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Family...

First there was baseball...
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and knitting....

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We watched the entire John Adams mini series. This was my third time and you’ll be shocked to hear that there was some knitting during the film. This time I didn’t cry when Abigail dies but everyone else did.

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Then there was pressure washing, I still don't get what the deal is with that, but of course I supervised and knit.

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This year the Samurai family engaged in the traditional shopping but introduced a new sport, the knit shopping. There were no injuries.

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Then there was Funtown and The Thunderbolt, I refrained from knitting.

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Memere did come over to contribute to the knitting front. And later LT and I saw the movie The Proposal. I think I might have embarrassed her by laughing so loud in the theater. It definitely wasn’t the knitting in the theater, that didn't bother her one bit.

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Oh and did I mention we did manage to hit four yarn shops in our shopping adventures? It was torture!

Named My colors

Here are the fruits of my labor...

1. Coach McGuirk
2. Finch
3. Meeples
4. 4. Bird of Paradise
5. 5. Ulie

I feel like a proud mother!

Sunny Day Playing with yarn

Today I knit. Well I knit for a while, then I dyed. I was feeling ambitious, maybe it was all the sunshine streaming in, who knows. I had a few skeins of sock yarn to dye and some color skeims in mind so I started the yarn soaking. Then that ambition lead me to 10 skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash in color 850 that I got in 2006. I had initially fell in love with this color and wanted a sweater out of it. At the time a lime green sweater was just what I needed…or so I thought. I don’t recall what the cost per skein was, but it seemed excessive, so I decided to piece meal it. I bought a skein every time I went into a yarn store that carried it, and my parents got me a few skeins for my birthday and Christmas. Before I knew it, I had 10 skeins! That’s 2,200 yards of superwash lime green. Again, it seemed like a good idea at the time.


The yarn has been waiting for me. Smiling and waving every time I go into the “bulky yarn bin”. Perhaps that yarn multiplied when my back was turned and that’s how I got 10 skeins, it’s not that I actually bought 10 skeins. Yes, I’m a big girl but I’m not that big. The Hey Teach, knit on size 7s used just under 700 yards. There’s no way I needed 2,200 for one sweater. And I would like to knit another Hey Teach.

So I thought about it and decided over-dying 5 skeins was the most likely way to get me to actually knit this yarn. Did you notice the funny little yarn cakes that Cascade 220 comes in? Yeah, it can’t be dyed like that. Looking around I determined that the legs of my chairs were about 2 yards. Flipping the chair got Linus’ attention. He had to come inspect my work as I wound 1,100 yards around the four legs. Isitt felt that the yarn needed her personal touch and we spent a good ten minutes wrapping the yarn together. All I could think was it’s a good thing The Boyfriend and I cut all their nails last night.


Once the Cascade was wound, it too went into the dye pot. The result is a perfect Samurai teal color. Some skeins are more variegated, others are darker. It’s the first time I do this kettle dying thing so I wasn't sure how much agitation was needed to keep it semi-solid as opposed to solid or blotchy.


I also dyed the sock yarn in a variety of purple and red shades. So teal, purple and red and a yellow. Where did the yellow come from? I also bought yellow yesterday. It must be a backlash to the grey weather because yellow isn’t one of my colors. Red, Purple, and Teal; those are my colors. And if you don’t believe me, take a look at my finger nails. Right now the tips are a lovely shade of purple. It was worth it to spend a sunny day playing with yarn. Ahhh summer!

Yarn Spree

Yesterday I hit Tess’ Designer Yarn Shop in Portland. It was a much better experience than the first time I visited. I think I circled the place 3 times, and picked up and put down different colors of sock yarn about 100 times before I settled on these.


I also wandered into Knitwit’s Yarn Shop (by far my favorite Portland yarn shop) where I was pleasantly surprised to find Schaefer Nichole. I’ve never seen it anywhere but online. I had to buy two skeins. I’m not wild about the one on the right but it’s Nichole and it’s squishy and it smells sooo good. The Boy thinks it smells like sweat. The knit sibs said vinager. I say, it smells like wool is supposed to!


Knitting the Perfect Pair by Dorothy Ratigan tricked me. With a title like that, you know it’s going to have a lot of introductory text informing you how to get the perfect yarn-pattern combo. At least that’s what I’m expecting. But when it arrived, via Amazon, and I flipped through I was disappointed with the lack luster sock patterns that made up the second half of the book. I didn’t want to knit a single one. But then again when I first looked at Wendy Knits’ Socks from The Toe Up, I didn’t think I’d make any and as of this moment I’ve made two pairs and have two more on the needles. Maybe there’s a knit along for this new book. Or maybe I should read it before I dis it.


I did finally finish my 5th pair of socks. They are Better-Than-Booties Baby Socks by Anne Bud. I used Berroco Sox which should be a self stripping yarn but this stitch pattern really distorted them. I’m always amazed at how fat baby socks are. Those little feet must be super wide at the heel. I currently have 10 pairs of socks on the needles. I’m actively knitting on 7 of those. 3 are for knit alongs. We're on week 6 of the 52 Pair Plung which means I'm a pair behind where I should be. It seems like I’m just crawling along on all of them, but when you spread out your knitting time between 7 wonderful socks it does slow things down. I’ll have more sock progress to report soon.

Clothes...

Yesterday was exhausting. Mum and I spent 5 hours going through all of my clothes, sorting, throwing out and giving away. It was hard work trying everything on saying


“Yes work appropriate,"


"No weekend wear," or

"Dear god you can’t possibly wear that in public!”


My closet was a nightmare before we began; clothes strewn across the floor, disheveled piles to the ceiling, and I had no idea what was in there. Turns out I have a lot of long sleeve black shirts. Who knew? I used to be very vigilant about switching my summer and winter clothes every 6 months. I’d send a bag or two to Good Will and reassess what I had before shopping for the next season. It’s been over a year since I last “turned the closet”. I think all the turning momentum went into turning the yarn.

So the good news is that Mum and I successful fit both seasons into my closet. We found the floor. I now have 65 extra hangers. We packed up 6 ½ trash bags of clothes for Good Will, 3 bags for friends who are smaller than I, and one bag for the parents. And what did Mum and I do when we were finished?

Oh you’ll never guess. We went shopping and got me a few more things.

We are Sv-ou less!!!

Today was a perfect quiet Saturday for the Samurai family. The Boyfriend made pancakes, we took a nap, he read, I listened to audio book while knitting socks, the kids raced up and down the hallway, we had dinner with the in-laws and then there were fireworks! Not the in-law induced kind, the Independence Day kind. Happy 233rd Birthday America! AND IT WAS SUNNY to boot.

The only thing miss was the Sv-ou. Sv-ou is my new favorite word. Rhymes with you, Sa-v-ou!

Ohhh Svou!

What the Svou?

Let’s Svou!

Where has all the Svou gone?

See Svou is fun to say!

I’ve been on a Law & Order SVU kick these past few weeks. Boyfriend started referring to it as Svou and I svou-ed with him. I even doubled the Netflix amount so that I’d have a disk here at any given time. Well we’re Sv-ou less at the moment which means I’m less than thrilled. The Boyfriend is offering Deep Space 9 or Blue Planet...I can hardly wait. Please hold me back. I’m rolling my eyes and searching desperately for a Lord of the Rings or Futurama to watch.

Isitt was busy today. It was actually the first sunny day we’ve had since she joined the family. It was nice to watch her and the boys laying in the sun.

While laying in the sun one of the numerous toys crept onto her section of rug. She really did try to ignore the toy and blend into the paisley design of the rug.
Inevitably she was overwhelmed by the toys impudence and forced to take action against it.

Balance was restored and the toy was granted sanction on the rug.

The end.

July Begins!

Today was the first day of July, which means that all of the July Knit-Alongs start. I’m tempted to stay up all night so I can continue the fun.

In Sock Knitters Anonymous we’re doing a Mystery Sock. The pattern called for white, red, black, & green. Naturally, I had to choose completely different colors. I did follow the contrasting color guidelines so yellow will complement the purple, while pink and green are also complements if you consider pink to be red. “The Kids” obliged me for a photo with the yarn.

I'm sensing that this clue is supposed to look like cherries, mine is more like Universe B in The Farnsworth Parabox episode of Futurama. The characters are the same but the colors are off.

I also updated the family profile on the sidebar to include Isitt after Mr. Nate pointed out what a slacker I am for having a new family member and not adding her for two weeks. Mac is with the food dish, Linus is grabbing for attention, and Isitt is just looking sweet.

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The On Hold Socks are a go. Love the yarn. This may be my new favorite yarn. 10% cashmere and oh so squishy!!!