I decided I wanted to enter 2008 without any UFOs*, so I ground out the last few inches of the Gothic Leaf Stole and grafted it together.

This pattern lent itself well to DK-weight Cascade 220. At this weight, you get a lot of nice texture. (Faster to knit, as well - each half was only eight repeats across, and nine reps high.)

In a word, it’s huge. Certainly the biggest thing I’ve ever knit. It’s 24 inches wide and 63 inches long, unblocked. (I myself am only 64 inches tall.) It required 4 skeins of Cascade 220 plus a wee little bit extra. Let’s say 17 ounces, and 935 yards.

It will be even larger once it’s blocked. However, it’s already so huge that I don’t have room to block it indoors. Blocking will have to wait for a run of nice weather this spring, so that I can lay it out on the porch.

Kimble was gracious enough to model it for me.

I’m pleased with the pattern, which you can buy from her site. It was clear and well-written, and included all the techniques you need to know (i.e. detailed information on working the kitchener graft).

My only complaint is that the chart is inexplicably printed in black on dark gray, which was cause for a great deal of squinting.

(Chart blurred for copyright reasons.)

Now I just need a shawl pin, stat. It’s only a matter of time before I forget to hold it when I lean forward over the wood stove, and accidentally drop the damned thing into the fire.

* Except the Really Boring Cardigan. We shall not speak of this project.

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Every so often, Netflix sends me a movie whose arrival is utterly inexplicable. Why the hell would I queue up Equus? A 30 year-old allegory about the dark perils of homosexuality? (I must have queued it up after seeing it mentioned in an episode of “American Dad.” These mystery arrivals usually turn out to have been something I saw referenced in a cartoon.)

Last night I intended to put the movie on and get some hard-core knitting done, since I didn’t actually want to watch it. But when I got home I discovered it was a mere 45 degrees (7 C) inside. Unfortunately, I can’t knit when it’s below 60 degrees (15 C). So I fired up the wood stove, put the movie on, then crawled under my black and yellow duckhunting sleeping bag to wait for the temperature to rise.

Here’s what you have to do to enjoy “Equus.” You have to interpret the movie as literal truth.

i.e. that it’s a story about the Horse God, a deity who is both commanding and subservient, who calls a young boy into his service. The boy’s avocation inspires him to enact peculiar rites to appease the Horse God. These rites get him into a bit of trouble, and at the end of the movie… well, I don’t want to spoil it for you. Let’s just say that the problem with deities is that they’re just so pushy. In trying to help the boy, a psychiatrist falls under the spell of the Horse God himself, and who knows what trouble he’ll get up to?

I’m telling you, if you watch this movie the right way, it’s positively Lovecraftian.

Now this trick is easiest if you’re half asleep, and you’ve recently spent a lot of time with the works of Neil Gaiman*. (In the last month I’ve watched Stardust and listened to the entire Fragile Things audiobook.)

Actually, I would very much like to see a version of “Equus” re-imagined by Neil Gaiman. Or maybe Stephen Fry. (I picture the Stephen Fry version as being something halfway between “Brokeback Mountain” and “Good Omens.”)

It’s been 50 years since the play was first written; surely we can do that, can’t we?

* I see that today, Neil Gaiman posted the awesome story behind his (equally awesome) dog. But no Cabal post could be considered complete without a mention of his handsome cape.

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I diverged from the Lobby Dishcloth mania and knit up a ninepatch at Christmas Eve dinner, and handed it over to a fellow dishcloth fan. (She runs hers through the dishwasher with the dishes. Isn’t that a clever idea?)

I spent most of Christmas Day here on the couch. Mirabile dictu! Knitting on the Gothic Leaf Stole! (That’s it, wadded up in the lower left-hand corner).

I watched Constantine, one of my favorite movies, for the fifth time. I was a big fan of the comic for many years, and I think they did a great job with the movie (even considering the transposition to Los Angeles and a dark-haired Constantine).

I let the credits run while I got up and busied myself making coffee, and was startled to hear voices at the very end. Did you know there’s a tag at the end of the credits, an alternate/additional ending? Without spoiling anything: it’s wonderful, and it resolves the only problem I had with the movie.

Edit: Not so much an alternate ending as a little bit extra. I found it here on Youtube although the quality’s a bit crap.

Incidentally, I see that Constantine 2 is in pre-production, which frightens me a little. I’ve always figured that they could only ruin it by making a sequel. However, I see that Jamie Delano and Garth Ennis are both writing the second screenplay as well, so I’m cautiously optimistic.

Also watched Bright Lights, Big City which I didn’t really care for. It was fun to watch for the 80s nostalgia, the way no one had a cell phone and everyone had to keep asking “Can I use your phone?” and then stretching out the cord (the cord!) to reach.

It was also funny for having a street scene in which I spied a charcoal gray Saab 9000. The movie was made in 1988, and I have a 1986 model, so it could well have been my car. Seattle-area movie producers, if you need a car for the set of an 80s movie, look me up!

Later, I pried myself out of the couch in order to waddle across the yard for Christmas dinner up at the main house. Do you know, I’ve had three Christmas dinners and two Thanksgiving dinners in the last 30 days. I think it’s nothing but salad for the rest of the year.

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