Yarn Review: Merino Frappe

For the past few days I have been working on a project I can't tell you too much about just yet ;) But I can give you a review about the yarn I am using if you'd like.

I decided to use Merino Frappe by Crystal Palace Yarns. It is made up of 80% extra fine merino and 20% nylon and comes in balls of 140 yds. The yarn has a small halo which allows it to show off texture (cables, knit direction) but the individual stitches are not as defined (which is great for my project) and gives it a nice mossy type of look. The fabric has a wonderful drape but I am using size 10 needles when the yarn calls for 7 to 9, still I can tell that this is not the type of yarn to be stiff or unforgiving.

It is very easy to work with and stitches do not get split or dropped easily. Very warm and soft, this would make perfect winter garments and it comes in a wide variety of colors.

Have you ever used this yarn before? What are your thoughts? Pros? Cons?

Movie Review: The Watchmen

So, while in Las Cruces this weekend visiting some friends that go to NMSU, we decided to go see The Watchmen. We didn’t know exactly what it was about, but had something to do with superheroes killing superheroes, so how bad could it be right?

The opening sequence came on and I was like “Damn, this is a heavy opening” and pretty much as the film continued, a version of the same thought ran through my head. The movie was very dark and very heavy. I don’t just mean the colors were dark and it was raining 90% of the time, the mood was dark, the story was dark, the dialogue, everything. Most superhero movies, Batman, Superman, etc, have a relatively simple plot: bad guy gets neutralized by the good guy, happy, feel-good type of film. This one was not so simple. There was a lot of strong, and generally controversial issues.

Clearly its makers wanted The Watchmen to be an epic type of movie. Often though, in their attempts for epic, they just ended up making it long. There were definitely scenes throughout that I thought either could be left out entirely or could easily be shortened to get the same feeling, same gist, across without all the extra bells and whistles.

For 2 hours and 45 minutes of film, the last 15 minutes of happy, sunshine-y, feel-good-ness did not make up for the 2 and a half hours of gloomy, dark, weighty epic-wannabe. We still left the theater kind of feeling withdrawn and down.

I would give this movie three out of five stars. The visuals were good, the sound was intriguing most of the time; the movie was different than most others and certainly other superhero movies.

Movie Review - Gran Torino

So I went out and saw Gran Torino last Saturday with my little brother. If you have not seen this movie, I whole heartedly recommend you do! Clint Eastwood not only stars in this film, he directed it. As with all of his films, this one does not disappoint. It is the type of movie that makes you laugh, makes you anxious, makes you mad, makes you sad and holds your complete attention the entire time. I don't want to give away too much of the film, but it follows a man who was in Korea and has lived since with an inate racist tone. As his neighborhood starts to change around him, he has to deal with the fact that perhaps those he has hated all these decades might not be quite as "un-American" as he thought.

Have you seen this film yet? What did you think?