03 December 2006

Closing in on the Hood

It feels so homey to say that I've got a sweater blocking in the other room. Why can't it smell as nice as saying 'I've got bread rising in the other room'?



I reeeeally want to finish this one before our next Guild meeting on the 13th and I've only got a hood, a button band and seaming standing in my way. Speaking of the button band, I'm having a hard time figuring out how I want to finish this one. I may try to set up a poll on possible closures. I'm thinking buttons since I have quite a few zippered cardigan sweaters, but the strange color of the yarn isn't really helping here. If we ever get a sunny day, I'll try to get accurately colored pics and seek the wisdom of the Internets for this one.

Movie Review

Since many of us knit while watching movies, thought I’d try to throw in a movie review or two if I stumble upon something interesting. Friday night’s sleeve cap was produced while watching Lumumba, a movie about Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Congo for a very brief and contentious time in 1960. I’m getting better about knitting to subtitles, but this one was a challenge. I didn’t feel that I had enough background knowledge to entirely follow everything so I had to watch pretty closely to make sure I didn’t miss important references. It was also a pretty tense film which I think may show in my tension here and there. The film starts with the murders of the leaders so even if your knowledge of African history is pretty slim, you aren’t wondering what’s going to happen. Granted, this just means that you sit through two hours of impending doom, but I guess I’d rather know the ship was going to sink rather than hoping for the movie-ending lifeboat to swoop in at the end.

Overall, I’d give this one a thumbs up for capturing the difficult work of nation-building in a post-colonial context. It has all the elements of a Hollywood political thriller with the added bonus of being real. Maybe not a good knitting movie, but one to add to your list if you enjoy intrigue and political history.

Excuse the political diatribe here, but I couldn’t help but watch and think of the civil strife in Iraq. People wonder how a country can descend into civil war after a tyrant is removed. I’ve gotten pretty steamed up lately about people criticizing Iraqi civilians for the strife and discord. After all, this is the time when things are supposed to be hunky dory and perfect and peaceful and optimistic. This film really showed how in a time of revolution and even following said revolution, massive internal conflict is inevitable. I don’t know what is right for Iraq, but I know it’s wrong to expect a nation to peacefully emerge immediately once out of a time of chaotic rule or to categorize people as inept or foolish for having the same difficulties that have occurred time and time again.

Aldous Huxley wrote, “That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.” So much to learn, so much work to do in this great and confusing world of ours.

2 comments:

African Kelli said...

I haven't heard of that movie. You've piqued my interest. And that sweater is so pretty!

Lone Knitter said...

Your sweater looks beautiful. I like the cabling on it. To answer your question about the heelless socks: I don't think I would recommend them (or this pattern anyhow) for wearing with shoes. Because the pattern is very loose and stretchy, I could see the fibers rubbing against one another too much and wearing out too quickly. Maybe another pattern would work.