Elizabeth Julia

Last night Taylor and I were lucky enough to snag two free tickets to a sneak preview of the new movie Julie Julia. It's about a young woman, Julie, who cooks her way through every single recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year. As she slices and dices Julie blogs because what she really wants to be is a writer. She happens to like cooking so it becomes her subject. While Julie is cooking herself and her husband into a frenzy a second story is running - the life of Julia Child and how she happened to learn to cook and to write her first cookbook.

I absolutely loved the movie. It was so uplifting, funny, and touching. It also reminded me of me, and all my fellow bloggers who write about knitting. What's the connection, you ask? The connection is Julia Child and Elizabeth Zimmerman. Julia is to French cooking, as Elizabeth is to knitting. Just like Julie prepared every one of Julia's dishes, I have thought about knitting every one of Elizabeth's patterns. I don't think the movie has inspired me enough to do this but I have had the thought, and I do write a blog about what I do knit. I just bet there are some knitters out their who have knit their way through the Knitters Almanac, and possibly blogged about it. I know there are bloggers who have developed large followings of readers, as Julie eventually did when writing about Julia. Perhaps I found this so charming because I recognized the process of Julie and Julia from a knitter's perspective.

So how, exactly are Julia and Elizabeth alike? They each have a passion. Both married really nice men, who supported their endeavors even though cooking and knitting weren't exactly the kind of activities women's libbers approved of in the years of the 60s and beyond. They both wrote books, shared their knowledge through teaching, and had TV shows long before programs about food, crafts, etc became commonplace. I think they both had amazing senses of humor as is evident in their writing and TV performances. The two of them made mistakes and realized their viewers/readers also would make mistakes. They made us comfortable with being human.They made it "okay" to enjoy some of the "womanly" crafts.

And how are all us bloggers like Julia? That's pretty obvious I think. We have a passion for our knitting and we vent our frustrations, and pat ourselves on the back through our writing. We get ideas for new projects, new techniques, designers and products from reading each others blogs. Julie was hoping to become a published writer. I think most of us aren't that ambitious, but blogging helps sort out our thoughts about something we love.

Whether you're a cook, a knitter, or a blogger I hope you'll see this movie. Even my husband, who loves to eat, only cooks occasionally, and tolerates my knitting, enjoyed the movie. As Julia and Elizabeth always said,

"Bon Appetit" and "Good Knitting"

Footstool or Tuffet?

The last few mornings I have awakened to an ache in the back of my leg. It took me a while to figure out that possibly this is due to sitting on the patio with my leg resting on a small wooden table. I think maybe the combination of ankle brace and wood surface has been aggravating my muscles, or some such thing.

Therefore, I got a pillow to add to the table and sure enough my leg already feels better. However, Bob decided that my new footstool arrangement is also good for him. So what is my new creation? A footstool for me or............

a tuffet for Bob???????????

A Perfect July Afternoon

This has been one perfect summer day. It started at 9:30 when my friend Linda came over and we drank coffee on the patio. When she left, I read the paper, ate lunch and enjoyed the warm air, interspersed with a cool breeze and listened to the trickle of the fountain. I continued in perfect heaven, adding a little knitting project, and I

finished one white wool glove!!!!! A perfectly satisfying summer project.

About the glove: knit in white wool sport yarn from Mission Falls. It knit up in a breeze and both the yarn and the pattern were a pleasure to work with. Unlike cotton, wool hides flaws and feels fantastic on the hands. I know it will feel good in the winter. It's a little plain, what with the white and all (it kind of reminds me of a garden glove). I had intended to add a fetching little cable, but as a first time glover I found I had my hands full with a thumb and four fingers. Can't wait to knit the second one and I have an idea for a little embellishment.

Now, to complete my lazy summer day, I'm off to fix some ice tea, grab my book and return to the patio. I may pick up the summer shell later on.

It just occured to me that if I hadn't had my ankle incident, I wouldn't have had a chance to have such a nice day. Hmmmmm..............

Knitting News

Diminishing Rib Cardigan is complete and this morning I washed and blocked it. The hard part is waiting for it to dry. I complained earlier of cotton/bamboo showing all irregularities and I hope that I'm wrong. It's looking pretty darn good already and that tubular bind off has smoothed out nicely.

Summer Shell is coming along. I'm about 5 inches into it and enjoy the color changes of the variegated nubbly yarn. However, it's knit, knit, knit with no variation on little tiny needles to get the correct guage, and I'm loosing interest. I thought it would be a nice pallette cleanser after Diminishing Rib but I'm cleansed already so...................

I started knitting gloves this morning. Now this is a quick and challenging activity. I'm using Ann Budd's directions in The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, and I'm looking for a good cable to insert on the back of the hands. Between thumbs, fingers, cables I'll be so entertained I'll be dying to go back to my Summer Shell. Did I mention that this is my first attempt at gloves? Oh, yeah.

Nice and Delicious

I've been so busy feeling sorry for myself that I hadn't noticed what a delicious life I have until Sasha and Diana pointed it out. They are right, of course. How many times have I wished my life would slow down so I could appreciate it? About a zillion. Well, things have slowed way down and aside from feeling a little helpless it's not so bad. Now I'm off to watch day time TV, read my book and knit. And I can do all 3 at once.

Small Life, Big Project

Here's what happens while trying to take self portraits: the pictures turn out a little funky. But, I had to report that while watching first, Serena, and then Venus, whoop those Russians, I managed to finish up the Diminishing Rib Cardigan. It was well worth the effort and even though I did a little whining along the way I enjoyed learning some new techniques - tublular bind on and bind off; I cord edging; increases on ribs.

More pictures when it's been washed and blocked and I have nerve to ask Taylor to take pictures. He's quite busy taking care of this invalid and maintaining a more than full time job. I'm afraid that a photo shoot would put him over the edge.

10 Good Things About .....

It's been almost a week since I took my nosedive on the lawn in front of my house. My ankle is still talking to me, and I'm trying to make the best of being couched for what seems to me a very long time. In trying to make myself feel better, I'm listing the good things that are happening due to my accident. Here they are:

1. I check my email and face book everyday - often many times a day.
2. I finished reading a murder mystery, Payment in Blood, Elizabeth George, and didn't figure out who the murderer was (Is this good?).
3. I have watched more Wimbledon than any other year.
4. I started reading Stubborn Twig, Lauren Kessler.
5. I have almost finished knitting the Diminishing Rib Cardigan and figured out how to do the tubular bind off along the way.
6. Taylor has brought me every single meal since last Wednesday.
7. I haven't made the bed.
8. I haven't done dishes.
9. I've increased my percentage of wins for Spider Solitare to 21%.
10. I've caught up on all the episodes of Nurse Jackie, and the new season of Weeds.

I can see my life has become very small.