I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch,
He said to me, you must not ask for so much.
And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door,
She cried to me, hey, why not ask for more?

Truly, does it get any better than Leonard Cohen?  I don’t think so.

Frequently when I spend the evening listening to music, I think to myself “man, I have a lot of Tom Waits”.

In somewhat the same vein – I am one of those people who believes music is a better if you listen to it loud, so you can feel it as well as hear it.

Not germaine to the general direction of this post at all, but important to say regardless:  This is going to be the best year ever!

I listen to music.  These are two of my favourite artists:

I love Madeleine Peyroux’s voice, I think it’s so pure and beautiful.   I’m also a huge fan of Leonard Cohen (whose lyrics are pure and beautiful), so it’s a given that I am all over her version of his amazing song “Dance Me To The End of Love”.  This song makes me want to wear heels and a little black dress, then dance the cobblestone streets of Paris with my own personal Cary Grant.

I believe wholeheartedly that Ray Lamontagne has the.sexiest.voice.in.music.  And this is him singing live!  He is freaking amazing. This song pretty much makes me want to bear his children.

I seem to have developed my very first crush on a fictional character, namely Eric from True Blood:

 

I watched all of Season One and heard/read all of the Eric love and thought “whatever”, but this season I’m loving his humour (and new haircut), so I’m firmly on the Eric Love Boat now.

Alan Ball is amazing; of course I was a huge fan of Six Feet Under, but I also think American Beauty is a fantastic movie and will be remembered as a classic in years to come.

Next up: reading the Sookie Stackhouse books (once I finish my own personal literary Achilles Heel – 100 Years of Solitude)

Further to Micheal Jackson’s departure from this mortal coil, my all time favourite MJ song

Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough

(I can’t find a video without embedding disabled so you have to click on the link)

Irrespective of any personal issues he had and they way he lived his life, he was a musical genius in his prime, and will always be remembered as such.

Today I have received proof positive that  the days of  of my youth have passed me by:

Not in the passing of Farrah Fawcett – an icon of my teen years and indeed, the inspiration for the feathered hair that I and so many other women/girls sported at that time.

Not in the passing of Micheal Jackson -  a musical  figurehead of my generation, whose impact has been both worldwide and lasting

No, my recognition that I am now a middled aged woman came as the result of an advertisement on the radio, kindly letting me know that The Pretenders – the “alternative” band I discovered during my teen years who sang songs such as “Bad Boys Get Spanked”, and whose ouevre included such lyrics such as “I shot my mouth off and you showed me what that hole was for” - yes those Pretenders, are playing Casinorama this year.

Pardon me while I go and turn up the volume on my TV and look into getting an adjustable bed.  *sigh*

You pretty much had me at Let’s Get It Started, but after this weekend, I can only say that in the words of David Cassidy circa The Partridge Family:  I Think I Love You

Just sayin’ is all.

Not the best pics, but here is the promised photos of the Spring Forward socks:

In use:

I was a little unsure how the pattern would work in self striping yarn, but I ended up liking these a lot.  I have visions of a pair for myself in a pale creamy yellow or a mossy green though, I think it would look nice in a single colour yarn as well.

I’ve had a couple of doctors appointments this past week and used the hours sitting in their offices, patienting waiting my turn,  to my advantage and worked on the RPM socks, I’m already at the heel flap of the first one.  The pattern for this one is super cool, and I’ve actually had random people comment on them while I’ve been knitting away.

And finally, apropos of watching So You Think You Can Dance on television,  the Stevie Wonder song “Higher Ground” is one of the coolest songs of all time.

1. I no longer have to wear a hat, scarf and gloves. In my house.
2. I have a semi legitimate reason to have a bike in my living room.
3. Hot Day + Cold Beer.
4. So You Think You Can Dance is on TV
5. I finally actually see the next door neighbours who moved in last December
6. I can leave my house in the morning with wet hair
7. You actually experience day light
8. Sandals
9. Watermelon
10. Thunder/Lightening > Snow

I finished the Spring Forward socks and will post photographic evidence of same tomorrow.  I’ve also started the RPM socks so I’m on fire as far as the whole sock knitting goes.

I also experienced a moment of female empowerment this weekend when I managed to fix and actually start our lawnmower!  The lawnmower is tempermental and I am short tempered, an interesting enough combination that my neighbours would all come out and watch me try to get it going (and the incipient temper tantrum I would throw when I wasn’t able to do so).

But I bested the bladed bastard and managed to get the front yard done before it broke again and I gave up.  Ha, ha, ha.

I’m enjoying working on the Spring Forward socks, the lace pattern is very easy to follow and the pattern is well written. I even did a fairly good picking up stitches for the heel, something I’ve had problems with in the past.

I went with 60 rows of the lace pattern for the ankle of the first one and unfortunately have a suspicion that I may not have enough yarn for the 2nd sock. If not, it’s no biggie, the whole process have gone pretty quickly and if I have to rip this one out and start again, it will be good practise and I’ll be able to fix the few errors I did make (the colours of this yarn are very forgiving as far as mistakes are concerned).

Not sure what pattern I’m going to do for the next socks; I do still like the RPM socks from Knitty, but I also really like the Mojo pattern as well and think the stripes of the Austermann Step yarns I have would look really funky in this sock.

Now that I’m getting a bit more into the whole sock knitting thing though, I’ve seen a lot of patterns I like. I have to knit four pair, plus at least one for me though so that’s a good thing. For my Mum, sisters and niece especially, since they were supposed to get their socks for Christmas 2007.

Socks:

The Green/Grey Austermann Step socks, completed except for the heel (which I’ll be doing this coming Wednesday when I stop by The Naked Sheep where the lovely owner, Lisa is willing and ready to steer me in the right direction).

And since I’m on a roll:

Another Austermann Step, for this one I’m using the Spring Forward pattern from Knitty. So far, it’s going well, although I did have to restart last night as I’d dropped some stitches and wasn’t able to pick them up in the pattern. No biggie though, and the lace pattern is very easy to memorize.

The other excitment for the weekend was the delivery of a new stove:

My old stove was at least 20 years old and finally gave up the ghost, so my Landlord bought a brand spanking new one for the apartment. It’s not as wide as the old one, but the inside seems wider and deeper. Regardless, it’s amazing to have a new one and I’m busy planning all the goodies I’ll be able to bake, so expect a photo of carrot cake at some point soon.

And newly painted kitchen walls and cupboards.