Wool 100% -- How is Knitting Like Sex?

I wanted to write up a post on Wool 100% when I saw it two weeks ago, but I got a little busy. It's an interesting film, albeit sort of loud and makes you paranoid that your neighbors think you're having a rave in your room or something. Although Vogue Knitting wrote a small piece about it last winter (which I discovered later), I don't think many knitters know about it. Let me tell you a story.

Nystacular and I were getting pretty crazy and going anti-hermit for the day. Our big outing? Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in IMAX 3-D. Big let down, btw. And not in the awesome Radiohead way. That's the 3-D, not the movie. I love Harry Potter. Awesome knitwear.

So we're waiting for the movie to start, our giant yellow plastic glasses sitting on our laps amidst a crowd of families and nerdy college kids. Nyssa turns to me and says, "Let me tell you about this movie I saw." We had discussed the film earlier, at one of our nerdy hermit days (Scrabble, Food Network and Cartoons. Very often insanely short games of 2-person Clue or Gobblet, which I always lose.)

As a knitter, I'm intrigued at any movie about wool (obviously). Nyssa tells me that it's really weird. These two old ladies collect junk and they have cute hairstyles. They take care of their finds and clean them up. There's a garbage man--but cute who these sisters both like when they're young. They like him, so they're going to knit him a baby.

Why are they going to knit him a baby? Because when they were young, their mother was pregnant, and as she finished a piece of knitting (which laid across her stomach), her belly grew. So knitting=babies. (She didn't tell me this part.)

Now, don't think I'm giving away too much, because I didn't even get the ending until I saw the preview again just now. If you don't get it, just shoot me an email at recordcozy@gmail.com and I will explain it to you, if you'd like.

So this morning, @knitthecity reposted a link to something about "How is knitting like sex?" Of course, it was a humorous answer. But my mind went straight to Wool 100%, "Because they both make babies?"

Yes.

I think if you're a knitter, you'll identify with Knit-Again, a girl who appears after the women find a bunch of red wool. Her mantra is, "Damn it! I have to knit it again!" That comes out like a siren, and the old ladies cover their ears as Knit-Again rips off her asymmetrically knit red dress and starts frogging.

She's always knitting, and she gets pretty pissed when it's not right. I know how that goes.

It is weird as hell, but I liked it. If you're like me, you'll be jealous of Knit-Again's awesome yarn the entire movie. Go see it. If your library's as cool as mine, they might have it in stock.

There's a lesson, a moral, if you will, and I will close with Nystacular and my Twitter conversation the next day on the subject:

Just watched Wool 100%. Knit-Again messed up my knitting rhythm. And I think she also scared my neighbors. #knitting #movies

Nystacular@recordcozy did it leave you confused? because it left me wondering. I grew to love knit again, but then I hated her in the end

recordcozy@Nystacular Why'd you hate Knit-Again? Because she kept stabbing things with knitting needles or because she would spontaneously get naked?

Nystacular@recordcozy because knit again tried to kill the ladys I think? but really, can you ever be sure with anything in that movie

Nystacular@recordcozy or maybe she was just a physical metaphor for spring cleaning

recordcozy@Nystacular She didn't try to kill them. Just liberating them from the evil clutter demons! So I guess it is about spring cleaning. & fire.

Can't Even Go to the Movies -- Love, Cables

I just saw the new Harry Potter film IN 3D! Well, the first 10 minutes and the previews were in 3D. But, as any good knitter will, I spent the entire movie not concerned over magic and Death Eaters, but moreso with the knitted items the cast wore.

Though I did identify the various techniques used to craft Ron's sweater and admire each girl's cardigan while longing for some cooler weather, I was most intrigued by Hermione's hat, a simple cable and lace beanie.

This clip shows Hermione and her handsome hat quite -- quick and blurry-- but it's there. Yay for videos! (Marker 2:20 or so maybe a little later.)

Of course, I came home and immediately started my search for duplicating this pattern. So far I've found that some other knitters have made their own Hermione hats. Here, JL Yarnworks crafts a nifty little hat in Patons Classic Merino, a worsted weight yarn and Size 5 circs and DPNs (pattern on linked page).

But I was thinking of basing the pattern off of the Winter 06/07 Knit.1's Skull Cap Cabled Hat (one variation of mine here on Ravelry), which uses DK weight yarn and only Size 6 DPNs. Although this pattern uses a 4-st cable with 2 sts in between the cables, a slight (or not so slight) modification of the number of stitches in the non-cable panel to 3 to account for the lace pattern. This adjustment doesn't worry me because the original cable pattern came out much too small the first time I knit it. I'll double the band size of the Skull Cap to match Hermione's, of course. I'm thinking of a deep red for the color, like Cranberry. Then we're cooking! Or knitting!

I've make several different versions of this hat with different DK weight Knit Picks yarns including Swish DK and Elegance. I think it'll be just as awesome as a nerd hat can be. I'm especially excited to start working on this one because Knit Picks just released new weights of their Gloss yarn (like the extra perfect Gloss DK-- shivering with knitty joy!). That means soft yarn and super warminess!

Oh, knitters. You can't even watch a movie without thinking about cables. You can't even watch cable with thinking about cables. What am I going to do with you?