Posts made by Sockmonkey

Kraft Mac n Cheese. Made with Kerrygold salted butter and heavy cream.

Because I am one classy lady.

@Cupcake Yes! I second this! My husband and I saw this today and it was really lovely. I'm excited because on Friday, Guillermo del Toro is giving a talk at a theater here about the creative process and production of the movie. I'm going to be sitting in the front row with big, glittery stars in my eyes.

Anyone who lives in LA, this is going down at the Arclight Hollywood.

@Auspice Oh my gosh, that looks so much easier than what I was doing. I will try that on my next color change. Thanks!

@Auspice So actually, this brings up a decent question that I have just been too lazy to look up. How do you end one color and add another?

So when I get to the end of a row, on my last stitch: I go under the V, pull the yarn through to get my double loop. Pull the yarn through to finish the stitch. Then I make a single chain, turn my work and continue if I am sticking with the same color.

When I switched from yellow to black, I finished my last stitch but instead of making a single chain, I tied it off. Then I did a slip knot of the new color, went under the first V I could find.. blah blah. Should I have made the single chain before tying it off? Is that where I lost the stitch?

Am I switching colors all wrong in general?

@Auspice After ignoring my yarn like sullen child for a week, I picked it up again last night and was like I AM GOING TO FIGURE THIS OUT. And what I figured out was..

I was stitching completely wrong.

It's hard to explain what I was doing but it sounds sort of like what you described. Like .. it was like I was making that first chain on every chain, if that makes sense? Instead of pulling the thread through the loop and THAT becomes my double loop, I was somehow pulling through the loop and what was on my crochet hook every time.

Anyway, I figured it out and life is much easier now:

(I don't know why this is posting upside down)

I've somewhere managed to lose a stitch -- I was 50 across and now I am 49. I think it happened when I transitioned to the black. Or back to yellow. I dunno! So when I am done with this, it will probably be really skinny at the other end. But I won't care because this ugly Hufflepuff scarf will be my baby!

@Auspice Any help would be greatly appreciated because URG. It's not hard but it's hard.

So I knew that I wasn't going to make a temperature blanket. Starting off with a blanket seemed crazy. So I was like 'A scarf seems like a reasonable project' -- I decided to make a Hufflepuff scarf (PROJECT TWINSIES) because Hufflepuffs are awesome.

So I make my first chain. No problem. I make my turn. S'okay. Make my second chain. S'okay. Once I get to my third chain, it becomes a disaster. I can't find my loops anymore. Am I doing things too tight? I don't know.

So I give up and start over, this time making sure I stitch (is that the right terminology?) looser this time. I hit the same problem once I hit the third chain.

Give up again. Try a third time, going even looooooooser. AGAIN. THIRD CHAIN. NOOoOoOoOoOoOOoo!!

I decide to just .. give up on the scarf and just practice. Different yarn, smaller square. I switch to a ombre yarn because I figure with the color changing, it will be easier for me to see where the loops are (I had been working with black yarn previously). This time, I gets past the third chain and it's easier to work with. I don't know why -- it's the same brand yarn but it's just better. Friendlier.

So I guess I will just practice, practice, practice and eventually just make a blue scarf just to get my feet under me. My edges are shit though. I don't turn well. I don't turn well at all.

Someone posted about Temperature Blankets on Facebook this week and I was like 'Huh, I should teach myself how to crochet..'

It's not going well...

I'm not sure you can say the sky being blue would be equally as panic inducing as a person blinking out of existence before your eyes.

But!

You didn't like it. That's cool. There are plenty of shows that I am all MEH about that people have been wild over.

@Three-Eyed-Crow Oh! I forgot to mention: I think I am one of the few people who didn't hate season 1. Everyone who told me to watch Leftovers was like 'Just skip season 1, it's awful' but I actually liked it. Weirdos gonna weird, I guess!

@Admiral I didn't take it as the percentage of people missing being what defined some people's worry that it was a sign of the apocalypse -- it was the nature of their leaving. If millions of people suddenly blinked out of existence at the same time, it would be unnerving to say the least.

@Three-Eyed-Crow She was great in Fargo, she was fantastic in Leftovers. I agree that she should have gotten an Emmy!

Am I crazy in that I kinda wanna see a WoD game that doesn't have any supers? It would use the game mechanics but it's all mortals (not even mortal+ -- just plain ol' mortals) and have them function within a metaplot scenario. Not just .. here's a city, go make your own stories but that there is an overarching story that is building toward something.

I dunno. I just finished watching The Leftovers (I know, I know, I'm late to that party) and I think it would be so cool to have a game set in that world (for those who haven't seen the show: it deals with how people cope with the aftermath of an event where 2% of the world's population suddenly and inexplicably vanished). Granted, I'm an angst monster who loves RP that's all emotions and rip-my-heart-out drama.

@Lisse24

***=***

Also: Am I crazy for wanting a Leftovers themed MU*? Give me the apocalyptic angst!

@Lisse24 I'm going to toss this behind a spoiler for anyone who hasn't seen The Leftovers -- and I can't recommend this show enough, guys -- but:

***=Finale Stuff***

@Zobi The Good Place is on Hulu but they can only have five episodes on at a time due to streaming rights so you'd have to track down the first two episodes of season 2 somewhere else. But! If you can manage to do that, it's a good place to stay current. You know. Provided you have Hulu.

In other news..

I know I am really late to this party but OMG DID ANYONE ELSE WATCH THE LEFTOVERS?! I just slammed through all three seasons and Carrie Coon is amazing and I love her and she should be in everything. Like, she was great in the third season of Fargo (it's just a pity that the third season of Fargo simply wasn't as good as the first two -- not that that was on her) but she was transcendent as Nora Durst.

Like, seriously you guys.

@sg said in Good or New Movies Review:

@lithium ***=***

click to show

Honestly, the biggest plot hole was in the title crawl when they said the First Order ruled the galaxy all of a sudden. When their upstart base blew up in the previous movie. And they like didn't rule the galaxy then. And twelve seconds had passed between the movies..

Ignoring that huge hole, I enjoyed it. THe comedy largely worked for me except for the crank call at the beginning, but they did find their stride.

I just wish they cut an hour out of it, my back was killing me by the end.

***=***

When can we start speculating and talking about Last Jedi? I mean, yeah sure, I guess all the cool people are like Star Wars, whatever, pfft but I can't waaaaaaaiiiiiiitttttt....

pleasebegoodpleasebegoodpleasebegood

@Derp I can't really give much advice on how to find a decent trainer -- the times that I have had one, I just went with whatever ones looked good on Yelp. However, I do wanna mention an alternative that I really loved -- a private pilates instructor.

I never really liked doing gym workouts. I never really liked being in a gym. But for a while, I was seeing a woman who had a private pilates studio. I'd see her twice a week and it was just me and her in home. She was a former dancer and very knowledgeable about the body. I have some back issues that I need to be careful about and she was able to tailor our sessions around that. And pilates is tooooough. It will make you strong.

I dunno how much you are looking to spend; private instruction is definitely not cheap. But compared to my experiences with personal trainers (which were fine!), I really got a lot more out of that.

I really should reach out to her again...

I'm in love with Grace Gummer on Mr. Robot. She has such a great face.

And I did use Kate McKinnon once but it was only for a hot second so I still consider her in the 'PB I Haven't Had a Chance to Use' yet

Inspirational wall decals. Why? Just ... why?

I'll be browsing through real estate photos on Redfin and whenever I come across a photo of some room with script font plastered across a wall saying something to the effect of 'Home is where the heart is', my eye gets twitchy for at least an hour.

(Alright, I am being dramatic but come on...)

@Auspice I'm only kidding! I'm not going to troll this thread for PBs. It's just in visiting it, I found myself discovering people I had never known and seeing these interesting faces immediately began to spark ideas of stories behind them. What is the cause of the sadness that lies behind her eyes? Why does her lips curl in that devious little way? It ends up being a fun creative exercise, imagining the characters they could be.

@Arkandel No one would ever get mad about that! We're all mature adults here. Right?