I love movies. A lot. Well, that's probably the understatement of the year, as well some of you may now know from any number of my posts. Do you know how Douglas Adams defines the universe in the Hitchhiker's Guide? His description of the size of the universe could be applied to my love of movies. I've seen tons of them from every decade. Seriously! I've even seen some of the original motion pictures that were made by Thomas Edison. TCM had a great special on the history of movies and they showed so many of the originals it made my head spin. Silent films provide a bit of a conundrum though. It's very hard to follow what's going on if you aren't paying attention the whole time and I can't just sit still. I'm always doing something, usually knitting or crocheting with a cat or two on my lap, sometimes blogging or eating dinner or any number of other things (I'm actually watching an old Buster Keaton flick that has me laughing 'til it hurts. As I write this he's shaving a brand onto a cow so that he doesn't have to burn it on.). Movies are a very constant thread in my life. You would think I would have a great system of organization for the 200ish titles I have, but I have so many that I can't think of how to classify them all. I mean, I could go by genera, or lead actor, or year released, or viewing frequency, or director, or...the list goes on.
With the number of movies I watch and the wide range of years they come from, it's hardly surprising that my favorites are a bit eclectic. For someone who grew up with the Ninja Turtle movies and Indiana Jones, most people would never guess that I adore Kirk Douglas and Peter O'Toole, or that I will watch anything with Vincent Price or Johnny Depp in it. And let us not forget the actresses! I've loved Julie Andrews since the first time I saw Mary Poppins, Barbara Stanwyck always makes me laugh, and there's the always impressive Helena Bonham Carter. And that barely scratches the surface, I haven't even gone into the directors or costume designers or the voice actors that I love!
I was thinking about all this one day when it occurred to me what I should do. I'm so often inspired by the things I watch, granted it isn't always obvious since I don't think in straight lines, that I ought to make some manner of tribute to those I truly adore. The next thing I thought was, "Wow, this is gonna take a while". Not only do I have to come up with something really original, I also have to figure out how to make it. It's that second bit that's proving to be quite the challenge. Much like typing with a cat laying on both your arms and part of your keyboard. Not that that ever happens... Anywho, I've started playing with some pattern ideas which should be AWESOME once I figure out how to make them.
Being imaginative, coming up with neat things isn't terribly hard. Making them is a different story. I've been working on a scarf idea for several days now and all I have to show for it is some very abused looking yarn and some vague ideas about how to try it next. Evidently making a crocheted object have extra corners is not as easy as it ought to be. I've had some ideas for projects that I think can best be accomplished with knitting but most of them require multiple colors and I've never done that before so I taught myself the basics today at lunch. I can now do double knitting and intarsia, though they both need a bit more practice to tidy them up. If my idea works I should have something reasonably impressive to put up in a few days. Unless, of course, my idea doesn't work as planned (and it almost certainly won't at first, I'm not that lucky). Then it will take a bit longer. I do still have some other patterns to put up so patterns in general will keep coming until I'm really out of ideas.
Just for clarification purposes, the plan isn't to make things in honor of a specific movie though that won't always be readily apparent. More than enough people make Harry Potter themed stuff, for example, that I don't feel we need more of that sort of thing. My goal is to celebrate the people who make the movies. The Harry Potter series is based on great books, but if they hadn't used the people they did the movies would have sucked epically. Just look at how much Dumbledore's character changed when Richard Harris died; Michael Gambon is a great actor but his Dumbledore was NOTHING like Harris's and it markedly changed the tone of the Harry/Dumbledore relationship. Continuing with the same example, rather than making something Hogwartsy I might make a tribute to Alan Rickman where green and black figure in heavily as an homage to his noted role as the Head of Slytherin House. A fine distinction, but it makes sense in my twisted little brain.
On a related thread, does anyone know how to size a pattern so that other people can wear the object? Some of my ideas are for sweaters and, while I can do the math for my own odd figure, I have no idea what general sizing is considered to be or how to change the shaping to accommodate those other sizes because I'm fairly certain that shaping isn't always needed at the same places for different sizes. Perhaps the bible (aka the better homes and garden complete guide to needlework) knows. I shall have to check.
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