Sherwood shrug and Star Trek geekery

Last week I was having a hard time pinning down the protagonist's voice for the novel chapter I'm writing. Her name is Sherwood, and you'll see that chapter here in the next week, along with the last of my work for the Apocalypses class. On top of being awkward and seventeen, Sherwood has some abilities that could make her life suck rather epically, but I didn't want her to come across as dour or depressed. I wanted a fun, sarcastic, slightly world weary voice for her - something I would enjoy writing for the duration of the novel - but I just wasn't hitting it. And the draft sort of sucked.

So I cast-on for Liesl, a cute lace shrug by one of my favorite designers. I figure since I'm only writing a chapter of this novel now, a shrug's the perfect sized project to accompany it - a mini novel knit.

Knit the shrug while brainstorming for the chapter, rewrote the first scene, and ta-da! The first scene totally works, the chapter is falling into place, and I've got a cute, super-soft shrug to wear in my favorite color.

The lace pattern looks like alien skin to me, so the shrug's first outing was to the the theater to see the new Star Trek movie. Kiah and I have classy rings for this kind of event. They come from the tops of 6-pack grocery store cupcakes. We are fancy.


Star Trek was fantastic! We saw it with our friend Reed, and all three of us grinned for pretty much the entire length of the movie. I'll admit, when I first saw the trailer months ago, I dismissed it as just another flashy remake, but I'm so glad I went. The movie managed to hit a sweet spot somewhere between cheesy and bowl you over in your seat awesome. The story was strong, the characters dead-on, and the visuals stunning (slight overuse of lens flare aside). J.J. Abrams and company somehow managed to flawlessly blend the old series and this newer, shinier universe and make something that works for both old fans and Trek virgins.

To sum the movie up in two words with inappropriate dialect: frakking awesome.

Afterwards, Kiah and I did our traditional movie day Burger King stop and made giant dorks of ourselves buying collectible Spock glasses. Our cupboard is going to be very logical.

Also, I spent the latter half of the movie trying to figure out the construction of Scotty's hat. It's basically a big floppy hat knit flat in garter stitch, but with a wedge of fabric knit perpendicular to the rest of the hat. Pattern should be up here in a few days, once I figure it out.

<3 Scotty <3