Baby's got gauge!!!

I swatched last night for the Sand sweater. As I tend to knit fairly tightly and often have to go up a needle size, I tried a size 10 1/2 circular rather than the size 10 recommended. (I also did this because I have a nice Addi Turbo size 10 1/2 and my only size 10 circular is a crummy old Boye made out of the brightly colored aluminum).

So I knit up a 6 inch by 4 inch piece, checked it out. And yup, size 10 1/2 it will be.

I didn't do any more on it than swatch. I decided as I am within striking distance of finishing the Spanish Shawl I wanted to do that last night.

I also was watching another movie - "The Hudsucker Proxy" this time - and wanted something simple that I wouldn't have to look at. (And "The Hudsucker Proxy" is a movie you want to be looking at - there are a lot of subtle things in it that you can miss (I had to rewind and replay several places).

It's a really, really good movie. I'm kind of surprised it didn't receive more hype when it was in the theaters. It is very much in the vein of the old "screwball" comedies. Tim Robbins is very appealing as Norville Barnes, the "moron" who is pulled in to drive the company into the ground. And Jennifer Jason Leigh is FANTASTIC as a fast-talking career-girl, doing a voice that was like a combination of Bette Davis, Kate Hepburn, and Rosalind Russel. I found myself wanting so very much to be able to talk like that.

Oh, and despite what it seems like at the beginning, it is a movie with a genuine old-fashioned Happy Ending. (And, hopefully I'm not giving too much away here, but a genuine old-fashioned Deus ex Machina Happy Ending, at that!)

Two thumbs up, on the Fillyjonk-o-meter.

It's the kind of movie I'm a total sap for anyway - visually arresting, with a vintage feel to it. And interesting and quirky characters. And, at heart, a fantasy. I love movies that take the "everyday" world and subtly transform it, making it different from what it actually is. (for example, the Nero Wolfe tv series)

I don't much like movies that are either flat depictions of the real world, or flat depictions of the real world with people much prettier and more perfect looking than the ones you encounter in the real world.

I'm thinking I want to see more Coen brothers movies. I enjoyed "O Brother Where Art Thou" and I liked this one (also written by them) even better (almost well enough to consider buying a copy). There's another one of theirs out called "The Man Who Wasn't There" that was playing in the video store when I was in there that looked really good.

And I liked Fargo, at least the slightly-sanitized version I saw on cable TV.