wabisabi

iPodius: Podictionary

It may come to no surprise to anyone that knows us that The Other and I are, well -- we're word geeks. If I'm honest, I'm more of a French word geek than an English word geek, and one of my favourite items here on the computer is a copy of Le Robert, kind of the French equivalent of the complete Oxford, citations and etymology and all.  I'm constantly writing down French words that take my fancy and looking them up in Le Robert.

So I don't know why it took me so long to get around to subscribing to Charles Hodgson's most excellent podcast, Podictionary:  the podcast for word lovers.  It was on my list of things to go grab, but every time I went to the library I got involved in other things and forgot about it.

However, I had the pleasure of meeting Charles Hodgson at Podcasters Across Borders in June, and found him so interesting and delightful to speak with that I immediately went and subscribed using the hotel's fast internets.  I haven't missed an episode since, and I've gone back and grabbed some of the earlier ones as well.

Podictionary is a tiny, perfect podcast -- it appears daily, Monday to Friday, and it's generally well under five minutes in length.  A transcript of each episode appears both on the web site and in the show notes, and I do find I use it if I'm feeling tired; however, for the most part, the episodes are so concise and well-crafted that they are an easy listen first thing in the day.

Charles has also written a book, Carnal Knowledge:  A Naval Gazer's Dictionary of Anatomy, Etymology, and Trivia (St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0312371217) that will be published on August 9th, and which has one of the best book covers I've seen in a while.

so why do i have this overwhelming feeling

that if I were a man, I'd be more successful?

Or more widely read/listened to?

(Not to worry, I'm just having a couple of down days.  I'm sure I'll feel more positive about the deep, gaping chasm of bleakness I'm looking at in a few days time.  And yes, I know that it's an excuse not to look at my own faults and failings, and just conveniently blame it all on being the wrong sex, but there we are.  I'd much rather do that than face up to the fact that it probably just means I'm a talentless hack.)

vous avez dit serrault?

Yeah, this getting old stuff sucks -- every time you turn around someone else you love has popped the proverbial clogs.  First it was Philippe Noiret, then it was Jean-Pierre Cassel, then Jean-Claude Brialy, and now Michel Serrault.

Sigh.

You may, particularly if you are anglophone, remember Michel Serrault from "La Cage aux Folles" ("The Birdcage") -- or perhaps from "Garde à vue", a film I prefer, personally.

But you may not know that he formed a very successful comic duo with actor Jean Poiret (who wrote "La Cage aux Folles" and starred in it with Serrault on stage, before the movie was made.

The INA (French audio-visual archives) has an interesting film in which Serrault describes meeting Poiret and creating their first sketch. (The INA allows you to view some of the archive material, as well as purchasing it.)  You can also see a clip in which they talk about that meeting -- interesting that Poiret comments on Serrault's eyes, because I would have said that was what I found most striking about him.

Serrault spoke with host Olivier Minne (note to The Other:  look how young he looks!!!  Look at that HAIR!) on being an actor.

(Note:  when you first go to the INA site, you end up viewing an advertisement -- which can muddle up the link a bit, but I've left them anyway, because you might find it interesting to go poke around the INA archvies.)

And thanks to YouTube, I turned up a couple of the classic Serrault/Poiret sketches:

Le permis de conduire un orchestre

La vie de Chopin

Le prix littéraire

And I'll just let Jean Poiret himself sum up Michel Serrault.

(I swear that now that I have the fast internets, I'm going to end up lost in the INA archives...)

had i but known

...that this stuff was going to be so gorgeous, I would have bought more than just a small amount to sample:

I'm getting some dyed for myself, but I may have to go back and get the rest of this lot, as it's really, really, really pretty.  I didn't realize that in the shop, I only noticed how nice it was when I got it outside in the daylight when I got home.

(And Ted, if you want to know what it is, you're going to have to write to me.  I may tell you once I've actually got the rest in my hot little hands...)

just to fan the flames a little bit

I used to post lists and commentary on searches that led people to this blog, but got out of the habit, because, quite frankly, it ended up being the same things over and over again that brought people here.

(Although I will admit to being slightly surprised that "sunglasses at night" and "haypenny" pop up with some regularity.  Go figure...)

In the last two or three weeks, though, I've noticed that overwhelmingly, folks are coming here after searching for "Rowan Magazine 42".

Yes, I did write about it, briefly, when I came back from TNNA and mentioned the Kaffe Fasset sweater that I'd seen in the fashion show.

But obviously folks are chomping at the bit to get to their fall Rowan knitting.  I went to check the Rowan web site to see if they'd finally put up a preview of issue 42, but so far, there's still only the preview of Magazine 41 (Spring/Summer) up.

I'll admit to being curious myself to see what's up for fall.  I've not yet been able to renew my Rowan membership (we're playing catch-up with all the stuff we've let slide over the last year, and although the Rowan membership is there on the list of things, it's further down the list than other stuff like professional memberships and whatnot), but I'm looking forward to doing so and getting the fall issue.  In the meantime, I suppose we'll all just have to wait until Rowan sees fit to put the preview up on their web site.

And remember how I complained that the Purl Diving well had run dry?  I suspect that must be some variation on the idea that if you tell someone about something you've lost, the item in question will turn up immediately afterwards, making you look like a dork.  I groused about having no ideas, and then came up with several, one of which is almost finished and ready to be posted.

I'm not complaining, though -- I'm grateful that the muses have seen fit to throw me a bone.

And yes, I'm knitting -- not much, as I'm still finding myself feeling kind of up and down -- I'll feel better one afternoon, then crappy the next morning.  I almost hate to admit this, and you may remind me of it come January when I'm complaining about the cold and snow, but I'm suddenly looking forward to cooler weather when I don't feel quite so smacked down by the heat and humidity.

Stop laughing.  Stop it.  Stop it right now.  I did say I'd probably regret saying that later...

yeah, i'm still out here

I've just been sick.  Nasty flu/cold bug.  It's better, I'm just still a bit stuffed up and really tired.

I'm also going through kind of a panicky stage, because all of a sudden I've run out of ideas for Purl Diving.  No, not quite true, I had one that really belonged somewhere else, so I submitted it.  It's been accepted, but I don't know when it will appear as of yet.  But it meant a gap for Purl Diving, and now I'm just feeling, well -- uninspired.

I'm hoping it's just the cold.  I suppose it's possible that I have run out of things to say about knitting. 

In other news -- the morning after I photographed my lovely tomatoes for the sidebar, they were gone.  One, the lovely one starting to turn red, was gone, the other had been gnawed off and was just sitting there unattached.

Sigh.

I was so looking forward to those tomatoes.

Okay, more later, when I actually come up with an idea for a blog post.  It would seem that it's not just the Purl Diving well that has run dry...

coming to take you away

Okay, so I finished the next clue in the Mystery Stole 3 knitting, went to take a picture of it:

And all I can think is "Kali".  Protruding tongue, third eye.  No severed heads yet, but there're still four more clues to come.

I think I may be spending too much time on this.

(Yes, the image is awful.  What can I say?  The camera at least takes pictures, even if they leave a lot to be desired...)

ok, so bob geldof isn't coming, but look who is

So, I popped over to Ted's FibreFest North site just to see if there was anything new, and lo and behold!  There are some new names in the attendee list.

Really now.  What are you waiting for?  Sign up, before Sir Bob really does take your spot!

fiddlehead scarf: cast-on

Liz asked in the comments about the cast-on for the Fiddlehead Scarf I made a while back, so here are some notes about how to do it.  I will confess that I had to ask Ted how he'd done it, and we both agreed that the instructions on that point could have been a little clearer.

I apologize in advance for the photos -- our ancient camera is incapable of doing close-ups, so this is about the best we can do.  I'm grateful it's still working, as this has been the month of everything turning to toast (my beloved little French iBook died this week.  I cannot tell you how bereft I am, as it was my only way of accessing the fast internets via the library.  Now I am left unable to do that, unable to download podcasts or get anything done quickly.)

But I digress:

The cast-on for the scarf is the long-tail cast on, so the first thing you'll need to do is figure out how long a length to leave.  If you google it, there are formulas out there on the web, but essentially you wrap the yarn around the needle X times (where X is a certain number of stitches), and you figure out how many times X goes into your total number of stitches needed, and then you multiply your length of yarn by that number.

And then, you double it, because you've got to use your tail doubled for this.

To start, take your length of yarn:

Double it back on itself (leaving the appropriate length of tail for the cast-on):

The end of the yarn is in my right hand in the above photo.

Then, make a slip knot at the point where the end is in your right hand:

Leave a longer end than I did here -- you'll want enough that you can weave it in once you're finished.

Next, place the slip knot on the needle, and start working the long-tail cast-on.  The single strand of yarn will go over your index finger, and the now-doubled strand will go over your thumb, thusly:

Keep working the cast on with the single strand over your index finger and the double strand over your thumb until you have cast-on all the stitches you need for the scarf:

I hope this is clear -- I know the photos aren't quite close enough, and they're a little dark, because I had to wait until The Other got home last night to take them for me.  But I think this gives you the gist of what's going on with that cast-on.

coming to take you away

Just a couple of pictures of my version of the Mystery Stole 3:

The things that look like little flecks on the photos are the beads.  The colour is a little washed out from the flash -- and this only photographs remotely well on a dark background, so it all looks a little sombre.

I will confess that when I put the charts for Clues 1 and 2 together, and just glanced at them sideways, my first thought for a Theme Guess was The Lady of the Lake -- I thought I was seeing the hilt of a sword, and the start of bubbles as the sword rises from the lake.

But I think I'm wrong.  I'd initially thought the motif at the bottom looked sort of Indian paisley like, so maybe that's a better direction to think in.

Or perhaps that motif in the point is, in fact, a scarab, and what I'd thought were bubbles are, in fact, little balls of dung, and it's all in the chamber built by the scarab to lay an egg.

Or not.

Ultimately, though, I'm pretty much in the dark.  However, Clue 2 was finished last night, and now I can focus on the Tour de Fleece.  At least until next Friday.

(Quick Note to Liz, who asked in the comments about how to do the cast-on for the Fiddlehead Scarf:  I'll put some photos together this weekend and explain how it's done in a blog post.)