Knit-Nerd-Rant

Image credit: http://sciencefiction.com/2015/10/15/nycc-2015-interview-clever-girl-jurassic-world/ [Spoiler alert - but seriously, it's out on disc by now] I finally got around to watching Jurassic World this past weekend - something I had been meaning to do for ages.  I grew up with the earlier Jurassic Park movies and adored them.  I was the little girl who could name a surprising number of dinosaurs, and inhaled any books that I could find about these incredible creatures. So, for the imaginative dinosaurs, I loved the movie.  It's completely over the top and ridiculous and once again tries to remind the audience that humans cannot and should not play god, nor should they think that they can possibly control it. The thing that rankled me was the portrayal of Claire - the woman who looks like she walked out of a midtown Manhattan boutique, with impossibly smooth hair for a tropical climate and who wears a pair of towering spike heels for the entire film....

It's been a while since I posted because I kept intending that the next post would be the pattern for this new sweater... and things got in the way.  I designed it on the needles, as I often seem to do, and just haven't sat down and reverse-engineered it.  It's a super big and floppy neckline, which is just oh-so-cozy. It's a bit theatrical, and perhaps not for the faint of heart. Here goes! The yarn suggestion is a  little tricky.  I rescued some super scrumptious tan lambswool from a Gap sweater that I found at a rummage sale that was just an atrocious pattern (turtle neck sweater with ribbing from the neck to the shoulders, then stockinette, also known as turns fashion model figures into potatoes). It's a chunky yarn - thicker than worsted weight, but probably not a full "bulky" weight. Needle suggestions - I did this all on a pair of straight 10.5s, though, if you have a circular of the same gauge, I would suggest that for the neck. Unless yo...

This seems to be a topic of the moment. While chatting with my sister, we started talking about body image and how things seem to be so skewed, and our own issues with our body shapes and our body image. The other day, I had a great experience with a woman at a dress shop. Then today, a friend posted a link to this blog post on Facebook, and it got me thinking. It feels like there's a lot of judgement out there, a lot of mean competition between women that only tears people down.  This benefits no one but the folks at Slim Fast and the successors to PhenPhen, the cosmetics industry, and Spanx. There's also a lot of counter-activisim in a few flavors. There are women who strike back with just reverse judgement, turning the prejudice on skinny women while glorifying the other end of the spectrum.  The perspective that I like best is what came out of the conversation with my sister.  It's that of the authors of Fatcast , a podcast that is looking to breakdown the idea t...