Big Girls Don't Cry...

...but they are muy triste when their nice gentlemanly Smoke Shawl decides to be VERY BAD over one weekend visit to parents and require unraveling to the very beginning. I had about six or seven repeats of the main chart done and I can only say that Mr. Smoke Shawl was just VERY VERY BAD. I can't even provide details because it's too traumatic. My brother kept telling me it wasn't such a big deal until I threatened to both stab him in the arm with my US 4 Inox needles and throw some turpentine on a painting he'd been working on for several weeks just to show him how it feels. That made him shut up good and quick. I'm only going to work on Smoke maybe one or two rows at a time for a while now. That's how mad I am. He needs to be punished.

But when I came back to my apt. today, the yarn goddesses took pity on me and delivered my supply of Kid Classic for Rannoch:

Clearly, I'm not going with the original color scheme. I'm make the body a deep purple (it came out looking raspberry-ish in the photo, but it's a true royal purple with a heathered quality). The fair-isle on the sleeves will include the same purple, a medium brown, a beige, a deep midnight blue and a lighter icy blue.

And last week, I also got some Rowanspun 4 ply from Cucumberpatch on eBay. It was so cheap and I was up really late one night. Bad combination. This is for a future Bressay Hap Shawl in the same Rowan as Rannoch.

Also, I saw Across the Universe this weekend.

If you haven't seen it, go. Now. Seriously.

I agree with all the critics. The movie is clearly imperfect, a little too long, has major plot flaws, etc. However, in the end, I just didn't care. It's directed by Julie Taymor, who also directed Titus and Frida and the Broadway version of The Lion King. If you go see this movie, I guarantee you will see the following things: Cute boys with earnest faces who sing! Amazing visuals! Psychedelic drug trips! Eddie Izzard weirdly rapping out "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite"! Joe Cocker dressed up like both a homeless man and a pimp while singing "Come Together"! Bono pretending he can act before singing "I am the Walrus"! Anti-war protests! And last, but certainly not least, Beatles' songs!

I was prepared to dislike the singing (the actors all recorded the songs live on set), but there's this raw, un-polished, unpretentious quality to it. Franz Kafka once wrote, "A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us." I think Beatles' songs will do the same.

Now, back to the daily grind, but the Beatles will pull me through and get me to post progress photos of my Hourglass sometime soon.