Friday, December 12, 2008

Loss of a legend, spinning and 2nd guessing a run.

Yesterday we lost an icon from another era. RIP Betty Page. One of the original pin-ups from the 50's. . While she faded into obscurity in the 1960s after converting to Christianity and serving as a Baptist missionary in Angola, she experienced a resurgence of popularity in the 1980s and had a significant cult following. Her look, including her jet black hair and trademark bangs, has influenced many and so many who didn't even know who they were emulating.

more info here
and here.

One of her last appearances was 5 years ago, where she agreed to attend the 50th anaversary of the Playboy magazine. She was quite reclusive and the mystery was perpetuated because she never granted interviews. She posed with Anna Nicole Smith and Pam Anderson. Thanks to thebettiepage.com for the picture.

Interesting how 50 years ago this pin-up had a college education and later dedicated her life to helping others while one of the latter had problems finishing HS and lived her life one embarrassing moment after another in the tabloids to a tragic self destructing early death.

The knitting is going famously or should I say it looks like the scarf will be finished this week. :) I've been watching the wife knit her new sweater the last few days and it's looking very pretty. We named it "The Velvet Grapes of Wrath"

On the spinning front, I was asked to run the programs in our spinning guild next year but I will probably decline because of my possible limited availability. Following Janel Laidman would be difficult anyways because of her many contacts in the spinning world.

I did join a new spinning group in Ravelry. One of the ladies I know on Plurk started this group where we voted on a pattern to knit from our hand spun then the fiber content and finally the colorway. It's a 4 once pattern that many of you spinners already know because it was featured in the Fall spin-off. We voted on a half dozen patterns and the Morning Surf won easily. The fiber content is superwash merino and colorway is Sunshine of Your Love. Not my 1st choice of color but I know it will look nice so it may end up as a gift or blog give-away.
The purpose of the group was in the first round we all spin and knit to the same pattern that would facilitate a wide variety of yarn weights and all in the same color. I plan to spin a 2 ply woolen style lace/light fingering weight. Others have already expressed interest in Navajo plied and chain plied so the color effects from these different methods will be quite interesting to see.

A few nights ago I thought I would try running with some mixed results. I ran about 3 miles while it felt like 30 miles. During my run, I felt pretty good as far as the legs and feet but the inability to breath made it hard to continue at a brisk pace. Yesterday I realized the last time I did any kind of running, it was at the gym we used to belong to almost 3 years ago. The good news was I was clipping along at a 6 1/2 minute mile pace. Not too bad for an out of shape almost 50 year old man. The bad news is that I've been soaking in the jacuzzi each night since and taking anti-inflammatories because I feel like I'm a hundred years old. I know I have some knee issues including but not exclusive to the lateral meniscus the ACL and MCL in both knees. The last two days have been a nightmare going up and down the stairs leading to our Condo. No swelling but pain like I'm not used to and in places I've never felt. For years my knees have been letting me know that arthroscopic surgery was in my future. When its really quiet and I'm walking up a flight of stairs you can actually hear what sounds like "rocks in a bag" or my knees grinding with each step. Maybe I should take it easier next time?

One last thing. We have been clipping through the Netflix queue and found a gem based on recommendations from movies we've already seen. We watched the first season of Doc Martin over the last couple days and thoroughly enjoyed the show. It's life in a picturesque English town nestled in a bay with a cast of colorful locals and the idiosyncrasies of a surgeon who left a prominent position in London for the simple life of a small town doctor.

6 comments:

  1. See if Klaus will swap it out for a color you might like better. Andrew LOVES "Atlantis".

    The stuff is like crack. Spins like a dream!

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  2. Anonymous11:17 AM

    Thanks for mentioning the new Rav group. I joined that. I had not really liked the other one with the same name where they talk about which fibers to spin for ages before making a decision.

    I missed the CMF sale.. when I looked they still could not place orders (USPS integration error... they really would have been better off offering free shipping as the sale instead), then I forgot. I have to admit that with my preferences against "Did you feed the cat Swiss cheese again?" colorways, I might be better off waiting for another project anyway.

    The fiber club I joined for this year (and it certainly seems to help me keep branching out, so it is a good idea for me) was the Susan's Spinning Bunny "Fondle This!" one. About half the fiber is normal stuff, but there is angora and cashmere and many of the months are +silk. It also has the benefit (to me) of not going through Etsy.

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  3. How interesting about Betty Page. I knew about the pinups, but nothing about her life after that.

    Good for you with the running, but yes, probably a good idea to take it a bit easier next time!

    And Doc Martin is one of my favourites!

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  4. Anonymous3:13 PM

    Oh, please reconsider running programs for GLASG, I know you'd be great at it, and it's not that hard. I'll tell you everything I know...

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  5. Back to let you know you've been tagged. :-)

    http://flyingpigknits.blogspot.com/2008/12/ive-been-tagged.html

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  6. The running . . . the knees . . . which is why my doc told me to do water aerobics.

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