Twilight Knitting

I love the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyers. They have even inspired me to knit!

My parents live but a few hours from Forks, the town in which the books are set...so as part of my grad school graduation frivolity...on Monday we made a pilgrimage.

I, of course, wore the Twilight/Blood and Shadows scarf that I made.



It was a big hit. Edward liked it.



Alice liked it, too.



I am big nerd.

Another Midnight Showing

My friends and I went to the midnight showing of New Moon Thursday night.

There were 26 of us. Boys and girls. (Or, men and women...since we ranged in age from tween to mid 40's!) Luckily, my friends are not easily embarrassed, because I did indeed knit the entire time. In the car, in the line, in the theater, during the movie.

Last year I worked on my Twilight scarf at the Twilight midnight showing. This year I wore my Twilight scarf to the New Moon midnight showing.

The projects of the evening were:
1. Beret pour Moi, which was small and portable, but required some attention to be paid to it. I worked on this one in the car and then while waiting in line. Unfortunately, I messed up in one of the stitch repeats, and finding the error and unknitting was going to require too much attention be paid to my hands and not my friends, so I went on to my back up project.

2. Lacy Lady Scarf, which was larger, still portable, and brain-free. I worked on this one the rest of the time in line, and then in the dark DURING the movie. I didn't need to look at what I was doing. Also, I was sitting by the time the project grew to the point of being slightly unweildy.

The movie was good. The knitting was productive.

...and thankfully I was off work the next day, so I got to sleep in!

Why I Love My Yarn Shop

I went to Knit This, Purl That this afternoon.

The owner's daughter, who is around my age, was the only staff person. (I feel really bad, but I never can remember her name...luckily this blog doesn't ever use names, so I can call her YarnMaiden.) I shopped, we chatted, we looked at pictures of handknits from movies, and critiqued the shop's Twilight-inspired custom dyed yarn shipment.

I love this store for many reasons:

1. They have a great yarn selection.

2. They are NICE. They will let me wander around and pet/squeeze skeins undisturbed, or chat with me...depending on MY mood, not THEIR mood.

3. They go the extra mile. (Today I had taken in a pattern which called for one skein of a Cascade yarn that KTPT doesn't carry. It did not tell me how many yards I would need. YarnMaiden looked it up online for me while I browsed.)

4. They have stash cards. (Although, I tend to horde my filled cards...since no project ever seems important enough to use my $25 on.)

5. They are right up the street from the BEST THAI RESTAURANT EVER! (Pleasanton Thai House)

Where else can I go to enjoy the softness wonder of alpaca/silk blends, discuss recent and upcoming films (YarnMaiden and I have run into each other at the theater), be inspired by breathtaking works of handknitted art, and laugh at my own knitting foibles?

A good yarn shop is a terrible thing to waste!

Blood and Shadows

I really liked the Twilight books by Stephanie Meyer, and I had been looking forward to the release of the Twilight Movie for over a year. I made arrangements to go to see it with B1, Jester, and Pizza at the midnight showing weeks before it came out. And, as I usually do, I spent a lot of time pondering what I would wear. I wanted something appropriately festive...black and/or red. But, at the same time, I did not want anything "costumey" since I don't want to be one of those fans. So, being me, I decided on jeans, a long sleeved black shirt, and...a hand-knit Twilight inspired scarf. The only problem...I did not have a hand-knit Twilight inspired scarf. Still, it was over a month until the movie, which should have been plenty of time for me to make one.

I went to my LYS (Knit This, Purl That) and bought some beautiful variegated red, black, and grey wool yarn. It had some uninspiring name like color #something or other, I lost the ball band so don't remember what it was, or even what brand. I immediately renamed the yarn and the scarf "Blood and Shadows!" But, I didn't want to make just any old scarf, this was for an EVENT. It called for zip, zest, and zeitgeist. Since I have always gotten a lot of compliments on my meandering mohair scarf, I thought I would go with something like that.

After bemoaning the fact that all of my knitting books are in storage, I decided to bite the bullet and do an original design. It was only a scarf...how hard could it be? I had just made a set of coasters for the Sister, and so had mitered squares on the brain. I came up with a design that was a series of interlocked mitered squares, cast on, and merrily began knitting. Now the pattern itself was fairly easy. The only fidgety bits were when I had to cast on at the end of the rows to increase again for the next square.

There was one teensy little issue. My beautiful yarn was sock yarn, and I like really long scarves. It takes me long enough to knit socks, let alone a whole chain of socks. The scarf took forever. It was a black hole of time and effort. No matter how long I sat there and knit, it did not get any longer. Weeks passed and it still was nowhere near finished. (Confession...I worked simultaneously on another project, namely the berets and a sock, and grad school was really work intensive this quarter.) Needless to say, the scarf was NOT finished by the movie.

So, instead of wearing it TO the movie...I knit on it AT the movie. I had many hours of waiting for the film to actually start, first in line and then in the theater. Pizza thought it was hilarious that I was actually knitting, and Jester took a picture.

Once the movie was over, the rush/need/desire to finish Blood and Shadows waned considerably. If it weren't for the fact that I had to stay home from work sick one day, and have been spending a lot of time on the phone (lets hear it for hands-free that lets you chat and knit!), it still might not be done! I did finish it though, and personally think that it is quite lovely. I actually got it done in time to wear it to Berkeley's going away/graduation party. It is one of my favorites, so will not be given away...and it has good memories associated with it (the movie and the party). Not to mention the fact that everytime I wear it I think of Edward and all his wonderful vampire-ness!