Since two of my main obsessions/hobbies are knitting and watching movies, of course I love to find ways to combine the two! Knitting while watching movies is obvious, and something I do pretty much every single day, but I also like to plan out projects around my movie watching sometimes.
Before I started my new graphic design career, I mostly just knit accessories I was designing, then when I was no longer designing patterns I started mainly knitting sweaters. When I was knitting the plain body of this Ocean pullover (ravelry link) in 2019, I decided to take it with me to a movie in the theater and, whoa, game changer! I learned that as long as my knitting is plain knitting around-and-around I could fully knit for 2 hours straight in the dark, no problem!
So I knit the entire body of that one in theaters, and when that was done I immediately planned out my next movie theater project. This time, I planned a striped sweater where each stripe would be one movie.
I picked out two colors in a soft cotton-blend yarn and started taking it to movies in January 2020, making it to four movies before… you know. That stopped being an option. So, the bottom 4 stripes were knit in theaters to Dark Waters, Color Out of Space, Birds of Prey, and Frozen II. Then the rest of the body stripes I knit to movies at home: It Chapter II, Transit, The Half of It, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Then I just knit stripes to match for the sleeves and top:
I didn’t start going back to movies in the theater until summer of last year. At that time, I had my Improvised Cable-Yoke Sweater body on the needles so I had that in theaters until I completed the body. Once I started getting used to going to the theater and knew that was part of my life once again, I started planning a new theater sweater, of course! I picked out a buuuunch of coordinating colors and swatched up the yarn and picked out a pattern (Tensho—rav link), then I knit the bottom colorwork section at home. Oh I actually knit the bottom ribbing in a theater but I did conclude that stockinette is the ideal theater knitting!
So for this one, I started really keeping track of the movie knitting more, keeping a log in my ravelry notes of each movie stripe and the rating I gave each movie!
Bottom ribbing (Mt Scott colorway): Anatomy of a Fall (rating 9 stars/10) Solid chunk above the bottom colorwork (Mt Scott colorway): Killers of the Flower Moon (8/10) Springfield stripe: Priscilla (8/10) Italian Ice Speckle stripe: Saltburn (4/10) Cattail: Dream Scenario (7/10) Foster Powell: Godzilla Minus One (7/10) Mt Scott: Poor Things (9/10) Springfield: The Boy and the Heron (7/10) Italian Ice Speckle: All of Us Strangers (7/10) Cattail: Past Lives (10/10) (only knit for half the movie) & The Zone of Interest (9/10)
And then for the sleeves—two at a time (always!)—I decided to also do movie stripes, but at home because I can’t be messing with magic loop tangles and shaping in the dark!
Sleeve solid chunk above the bottom colorwork (Northstar Kettle): Ordet (8/10) Springfield stripe: Pather Panchali (8/10) Italian Ice Speckle: Amanda (7/10) Cattail: I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians (8/10) Foster Powell: Dead Pigs (7/10) Springfield: The Battle of Algiers (9/10) Italian Ice Speckle: Häxan (6/10) Cattail: Incendies (8/10)
Once I finished the theater body section of the above sweater, I immediately started a new theater project, an improvised tee (rav link)! This one is just a box with a wide mitered neckline, and I did the colored movie stripes rotating between three colors, with 1-row white stripes between them. Those stripes were helpful—I took the time to knit them at home and inspect the previous movie stripe for errors, since the silk-blend yarn was slippery and I’d often split a stitch or something else that I could just drop down and fix at home.
Stripe 1 (orange): American Fiction (rating 7/10) Stripe 2 (green): Lisa Frankenstein (8/10) Stripe 3 (aqua): Drive Away Dolls (7/10) Stripe 4 (orange): Problemista (9/10) Stripe 5 (green): Immaculate (7/10) Stripe 6 (aqua): Late Night with the Devil (7/10) Stripe 7 (orange): Monkey Man (7/10) Stripe 8 (green): Challengers (7/10) Stripe 9 (aqua): Civil War (6/10) Stripe 10 (orange): Abigail (7/10) Stripe 11 (green): I Saw the TV Glow (10/10) Stripe 12 (aqua): Evil Does Not Exist (8/10) Stripe 13 (orange): Furiosa (7/10)
Once I completed the body of that one, I planned out my next theater knitting, doing something different this time. I decided I wanted to use up some leftovers—specifically, the tote bag full of small balls left over from my Hue Shift blanket project (rav link) from a few years ago! (That blanket was also a movie project, but this post is about sweaters, so I’ll talk about that another time!) The blanket used 40 colors and I had small quantities of almost all of them, in worsted superwash wool.
I decided to hold it double for a quick and warm sweater, making marled stripes, and I planned out the order of the stripes and approximately how they’d marl when held together.
Once I got started, I thought about how this project would work as a theater project, and I made a couple of giant balls of pre-spliced yarn to work from. I started with purples at the bottom, so then I spliced together through all the shades of blues and greens, so that I could just knit and knit and not worry about color changes.
I used the Carbeth pattern (with some minor mods but basically as written) and because of how the stripes worked, there’s no correspondence with this one between the stripes and the movies I knit to. But I think the movies I knit the body in were: It’s Such a Beautiful Day, A Quiet Place: Day One, The Fall Guy, Kinds of Kindness, and Longlegs.
I think this will get a lot of wear in the winter—it’s so cozy and warm! There are some things I’d do differently if I were to make it again, particularly with the yoke stripes, but I actually ran out of my Hue Shift leftovers in the yoke and I had to scramble with my stash to find some pink and red yarns to make it work. So, not exactly as I envisioned, but pretty close!
And of course I have another movie project on the needles right now! This one is another cotton-blend sweatshirt-y kinda vibe, in allll different colors. I’m knitting the body in theaters and the sleeves to movies at home (rav link).
Above is a shot I took a couple of movies ago—sleeves are finished there. I may have finished the body in a movie yesterday, not sure, but below is the body now. And here are the movies and ratings!
Body (in theaters): (grey) Twisters (rating 6/10) (dark blue) Trap (7/10) (light blue) Cuckoo (7/10) (coral) Alien: Romulus (7/10) (green) Strange Darling (7/10) (dark red) Blink Twice (6/10) (light green) Red Rooms (8/10) (white) Inside Out 2 (7/10) (yellow) The Substance (8/10)
Sleeves (at home)—different colors for the two sleeves: Femme (cuffs) (4/10) Fancy Dance (8/10) Oddity (7/10) Holy Spider (7/10) Tótem (8/10) Rebel Ridge (7/10)
If you love both movies and knitting, I recommend theater knitting! And if you like adding a kind of game/randomized element to your knitting, try movie stripes. I think it’s fun for the stripes to be slightly different widths because there’s a meaning behind each one. Nerdy maybe but I like it!
I flew down to California to visit my family four weeks ago, and flew back to Portland a few days later with a completely different life! I already knew I’d be heading down with no tattoos and coming back with one; I didn’t know I’d be heading down with a job and coming back without one. So here I am a few weeks after it all went down, figuring out my new life now, and ready to start sharing here on the blog, where I plan to be posting a lot more frequently now!
We went down to my parents’ house on Wednesday July 10th; the next day we went to Universal Studios with my parents, brother, sister-in-law, nieces, and other two brothers to join later in the day. Sometime around late morning, I learned that I no longer had a job! Company reorg meant several of my coworkers learned their positions were cut, and the timing was just a bit unlucky for me!
The rest of that day felt a lot like a dream, being at this theme park, going over everything in head, what my new life would look like, the things I needed to do once I got back home. Knowing I wouldn’t be back until the following week so I just had to kind of sit on everything and enjoy my trip and family time as much as possible because there was no point in letting that be ruined. It definitely wasn’t ruined, it was just made very weird. Having this massive life change happen at a moment when nothing had really actually happened yet, I was still on my vacation, it was just kind of looming.
Anyway, the next day we got up in the morning and my 10-year-old niece Nico asked if I could teach her how to knit!!!! Best question ever. I spent a few hours learning that she’s a complete genius (I already knew she was a smarty but holy moly)—after like 2 hours she knew knit stitch, bind-off, long tail cast on (!!), and magic loop method! And she kept wanting to learn more and more so I explained to her the difference between knit & purl, in the round & flat, stockinette & garter, and what ribbing is, etc etc. She was so excited to learn. We took a trip to the nearest craft store and I got her some yarn and needles to keep her going, and printed out the learn-to booklet tutorials I made for my old job, and she says she’s continued knitting after that day! This was a big highlight of the trip of course!
Then we had a picnic and got to meet my new sister-in-law’s family, and then my parents took us to Amoeba, yay! Love that place. Then the next day we hung out with my parents around Burbank and then, the reason for the trip, my brother’s wedding party was that night. They technically (legally) got hitched last December, but this was the big party, families and friends coming together to celebrate.
Their dress code for guests was: pick a color and wear all that color (no black or white). I started my outfit planning by shopping for shoes, and I scored yellow Dr Martens on ebay, never worn perfect condition, yessssss. I got yellow shoelaces too for extra yellow. So then I went fabric shopping at Bolt and picked a solid and a print, even though I know for the dress code I should’ve just stuck with a solid only, but I didn’t want to make a solid-color dress, to be quite honest, because I just like prints best. So I planned to pair the solid with the print. I just needed to pick a pattern! After searching around and sewing a couple of sample dresses, I landed on the Crepe wraparound dress by Colette (or Seamwork). Here’s the test one I made with some fun cotton fabric I got free from work, and then the official one in the Bolt linen-blend fabrics.
And then I made a matching hat and mask cover with the fabric leftovers, and grabbed my yellow glasses, some vintage yellow earrings, and I even bought some new yellow socks from Sock Dreams. I also bought a yellow keffiyeh that I thought I might wear but it was too hot (duh) so I turned it in my purse instead. The morning of the party, I impulsively decided to paint my nails, which I hadn’t done since high school, and I also found this fun bracelet at a little craft fair we stopped at that day.
A pretty rad thing Matt & Renee did for the wedding party was to pick an official wedding tattoo and have tattoo artists at the party! I got to 42-years-old with no tattoos but I always kinda thought I’d get some eventually, so here was my chance to break the seal!
Surprisingly, our dad also decided to go for it! Also his first. So it was the two of us first timers, and my other brothers Ben and Paul who already have about a thousand tattoos between them, all getting them together at the same time. Such a fun family activity!
The tattoo is the empathy symbol, which was created in 1973 by an anti-war activist. I wanted mine somewhere a little discreet since it’s my only tattoo for now, but I do plan to get more! Probably in places less painful than on the spine!
The party also had a great live band playing 90s cover songs, a fun digital photo booth, and a Palestinian food cart which matched my keffiyeh! Plus temporary tattoos for anyone who didn’t want a real one.
Just in case things didn’t feel hectic and eventful enough already, the party happened a couple of hours after Trump was shot! Pete and I learned about it while getting ready to head out the door and told my parents in the car, and then everyone did a good job of not talking about it at all during the actual party so that was good! What a week!!
The next day, we headed down to San Diego to stay in a hotel with Pete’s parents who were there to be close to the hospital where his dad had just had surgery while recovering. Again, very weird and eventful vacation. We first met going to school in San Diego (we met at the college radio station, then reconnected a few years later, post college), so we had fun revisiting some of our old neighborhoods and fave restaurants during our couple of days down there.
That day, while out for dinner and to grab a few things, I cut my arm really badly on a dirty sharp metal edge at a store. The next day we found a pharmacy after lunch and I got a fresh new tetanus shot since I wasn’t up to date on that. Fun vacation activities!
And then that morning I got news that the thing I’d been most scared of happening for the past 4.5 years finally happened: my immunocompromised mom tested positive for covid. It was a huge kick in the stomach and I was terrified about what would happen, but my parents had just gotten the most up-to-date booster a month earlier so that timing was pretty ideal, and she was able to get on paxlovid immediately. Also, we’d been extra super-safe with Pete’s parents and always worn masks in the hotel room with them and eaten meals separately, so we were extremely relieved that we’d made the choice to be that safe once we learned the bad news. In the end, my mom did get very sick (still is, three weeks later) but never had to go to the hospital, I’m sure thanks to the vax & pax. My dad tested positive the following day, and also was quite sick but is recovering.
Pete and I never got it (I tested twice), due to some combination of luck, masking indoors everywhere except for in the house, using a CPC mouthwash every night, sleeping with the window open and a fan on, and having gotten the Novavax shot last November. Of course, having stayed in the same house, I think luck was probably the largest factor of them all. Thank the universe that we didn’t have to deal with having covid again on top of everything else going on!
So there were the many highlights/lowlights of this short little trip to see my family. What a time. As soon as I got back, I dealt with returning my laptop and getting my stuff from the office, and some paperwork, and I’m in the process of getting on unemployment (my plan is actually to try to get on Oregon’s self-employment assistance since that’s more in line with my goals now), and then a week after returning I volunteered at TypeCon for four days. So the whirlwind continued. Finally this week I’ve been settling into a new routine (kinda not really but yeah), coming down from the chaotic state of mind I was in for those couple of weeks. Phew!
More to come about the future for sure, but for now… I’ve removed all mentions (I think, I hope) of sales being donated to mutual aid, since now I need sales for boring things like groceries and bills. I’ll be putting a lot of my time towards mutual aid stuff though, and some money too, so buying patterns from me does still support mutual aid work in some way. Anyway, I plan to start updating old patterns, and to start putting some new things into the world too, so this blog will be put to more use now! See you soon!
“Stop asking musicians what they think” He said softly as he poured himself a second drink And outside, the world slipped over the brink We all thought we had nothing to lose That we could trust in crossed fingers and horseshoes That everything would work out, no matter what we choose
The first time it was a tragedy The second time is a farce Outside it’s 1933 so I’m hitting the bar
If I was of the greatest generation I’d be pissed Surveying the world that I built slipping back into this I’d be screaming at my grandkids: “We already did this” Be suspicious of simple answers That shit’s for fascists and maybe teenagers You can’t fix the world if all you have is a hammer
But I don’t know what’s going on anymore The world outside is burning with a brand new light But it isn’t one that makes me feel warm Don’t go mistaking your house burning down for the dawn
-Frank Turner (from the song 1933)
If you’ve been following my blog/work for a long time, you may remember that I used to be very into making mix CDs. I even made a knitting pattern collection with pattern names inspired by albums and I made a mix CD to go with it. I was reeeally into making mixes in college and for years after I’d make themed mix CDs for occasions. I made a moving to Portland mix in 2007, a 2-year anniversary of living in Portland mix in 2009, and a wedding mix in 2010, and I posted about some older mixes here too. In the era of music streaming, mix CDs are a forgotten artform, but at least we can still make playlists!
I’ve made lots of playlists over the years, but in 2021 I got a especially obsessive and made a big one that I spent way too much time on. I started building it in 2020 then kept adding to it through around spring 2021 when I decided to finalize it and call it done. It’s called Rage & Hope and the whole 54-track playlist is available on Tidal (the streaming service I use and I highly recommend!! They pay artists way better than spotify and basically everything can be found there, and you can even transfer your playlists from one to the other if you decide to switch!), as well as on Spotify here, and on YouTube here.
And then I made a followup in 2022, again adding new songs as I discovered them throughout 2021 and finalizing the playlist in spring 2022. This one is only 44 tracks and I put more thought into the order, so the playlist name Anxiety & Action is the order of the songs, somewhat. I really really love this playlist. It’s also on Tidal, Spotify, and YouTube. (All the song lyrics in this post are songs from the Anxiety & Action playlist unless otherwise noted.)
Now that some time has passed, I’ve started slowly building a third one in the series, maybe to finalize later this year, we’ll see. Working on that has made me go back and listen to these two more and want to share them with you! I put a lot of work and heart into them so I hope you listen and enjoy ❤ And if you know any songs that you think would fit well with these, that might be a good track for my third one, let me know!
And now for more lyrics…
From common grief to Bristol up in flames We came here begging justice and instead we got the blame For peace disturbed, out on the streets tonight And watching on the BBC you know something’s not right When mourners come with candles and with flowers Are wrestled three on one, and pinned down by the state’s full powers This is their world. And these have been the rules But we have come to break it down with bloody fingernails for tools
This threat of violence, this tightrope wire We can no longer bear it, we are all too fucking tired No minutes’ silence, we will sing higher Don’t tell us to light a candle when we have come to start a fire
Safe at home, you watch it on TV And never think that one day you could be the enemy That you might one day be under attack From all that should protect you, hoping someone has your back The history books are screaming from the shelves That no government who outlaws speaking to defend ourselves Has good things planned; a storm ahead I see And not one of us will bear it without solidarity Oh I see trouble all my days This ailing failing world sends signs of fire and flood and plague But from the rubble, from the razed The mightiest cathedral from these ashes we will raise
Take heart my sisters And this fire will never die And take heart my comrades And no one left behind
If I spend my life on the losing side You can lay me down knowing that I tried There’s a better world and on a quiet day When I hold my breath I can hear her say She’s on her way
– Grace Petrie (from Losing Side)
If you like protest-y (some songs more than others, some not at all) folk-y singer-songwriter-y type music, I extreeemely highly recommend Grace Petrie! She appears multiple times on both of my playlists. I even made my old phone case (below) from lyrics of one of her songs (the last track on Rage & Hope), and I’m thinking about making a new phone case using lyrics from the song above, or using the Arundhati Roy quote that she’s referencing in the lyrics.
There’s a crooked line that runs Through every crease in this map And you want to take us all the way back
To see the rot in no disguise Oh what a time to be alive The scum, the shame, the fucking lies Oh what a time to be alive
You’ve been carving tales for dummies Out of live oak and out of pine Let’s turn your heroes into mummies Throw them straight onto the fire Yeah just below the surface lurking A shadow breathing through a straw Clinging to the myth that you were cheated Yeah the myth that you were robbed
– Superchunk (from What a Time to Be Alive)
Worriers also show up twice on each playlist, and I love them so much.
Set my sights on The life that you get when you put the hard work in Only to be told Keep your fingers crossed that they vote you a person I apologize You’ve been trying to go with the safer bet It’s true I didn’t think that far But how do you plan for the death of a safety net?
– Worriers (from End of the World)
Sometimes silence is a loaded gun In the hands of all of us Nothing hurts like doing nothing can They’ll only give it up when we rip it from their cold dead hands
– Worriers (from Yes All Cops, on Rage & Hope playlist)
And The Weather Station is another favorite who makes multiple appearances on Anxiety & Action, from the album Ignorance (2021), which is probably my number 1 favorite album of the last ten years or so, so check that out if you don’t know it!!
Thinking I should get all this dying off of my mind I should really know better than to read the headlines Does it matter if I see? No really, can I not just cover my eyes? Oh tell me, why can’t I just cover my eyes?
– The Weather Station (from Atlantic)
Separated by all the dreams you drift into Separated by all the things you thought you knew You don’t really see any problem here, but I do You don’t really have to believe me if you don’t want to Separated by the relief you want to feel Separated by the belief this cut can heal
– The Weather Station (from Separated)
art by NO Bonzo
There is one song that’s on both playlists, each by different modern musicians, my favorite classic protest song, Bread & Roses. This song/concept is why I have bread and rose emojis in my social media bios. Lyrics vary a little by version, but the point remains always. Here are some of them…
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes Hearts starve as well as bodies, give us bread, but give us roses
As we go marching, marching, un-numbered women dead Go crying through our singing their ancient cry for bread Small art and love and beauty their trudging spirits knew Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses, too
As we go marching, marching, we’re standing proud and tall The rising of the women means the rising of us all No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes But a sharing of life’s glories, bread and roses, bread and roses
And in case anyone wants to just see the tracklists here, each playlist divided into four screenshots, Anxiety & Action first…
And I’ll leave you with a song that was clearly written during the last administration but I can’t say I don’t still sing along nowadays…
I manage my fantasy baseball team better Than I manage my anger these days And I’d trade my best pitcher For a draft pick and a picture Of the president writhing in pain
It’s a weird thing to wish for, but I can’t stop wishing Refreshing the browser, someday If I live long enough And the world doesn’t end My wish will come true in a way
And he’ll die like we all die In pain or asleep And we’ll still have our fantasy baseball And the next fascist fucker in line for the job Of demolishing hope for us all
So I’m putting in love now, I’m putting in faith Putting fear on a long term IL I’m going outside, I’m gonna help organize Something better, something beautiful
– John K. Samson (from Fantasy Baseball at the End of the World)
Throughout March I played along with this Letterboxd movie challenge called March Around the World, and I got really into it! If you followed my instagram stories you saw as I posted each one I watched… The challenge was to watch 30 movies from 30 different countries in March but I ended up getting up to 38! These are everything I watched in the order that I watched them:
And below are my top 20 sorted by my rating—everything except the last two are all the movies I rated 4 stars or higher, so many great movies! (The last two were 3.5 stars but there were a lot more that I rated the same so those weren’t necessarily in my top 20.)
A requirement of the challenge was to write a review (had to be more than just a couple of sentences) for each movie watched, so I’ll share my reviews for my top five! Four of my five favorites happened to be political movies; I watched lots of movies for the challenge that didn’t have political themes but my favorites mostly happened to.
My greatest discovery of the challenge was the director Mikhail Kalatozov and my top two are a tie between the two of his I watched. His filmmaking—framing, long takes, cinematography—is incredible, in the true sense of the word, like there are shots in both of the movies that I have no idea how they were created. I love movies. Btw, my top five aren’t really ranked, just those first two by the same director and then my three other faves which could kinda be in any order.
Letter Never Sent (USSR, 1960, on Criterion Channel) — my review:
Holy moly this movie was amazing!! SO freaking beautiful, truly every frame a painting. And INTENSE! And unbelievable, like truly, how TF did they make some of those segments?! I want special features on this so bad, telling me how they made it, all the details, I’d watch hours of features/commentary/anything released about this film, but sadly nothing seems to exist. The criterion blu ray has an essay and nothing else 😦 Anyway, the story is simple, but I’d recommend this movie to everyone based on the visuals and suspense alone!
I Am Cuba (Cuba, 1964, on Kanopy and Hoopla) — my review:
Wow. Spectacular. I’ve done a bit of research about it after watching which has enhanced it (since I went in knowing nothing except that I LOVED Letter Never Sent and this was the same filmmaker), and I plan to watch some more video essays about it and then rewatch in the future. Truly amazing filmmaking, gorgeous, and beyond impressive, like baffling. The only reason I gave it 4.5 instead of 5 is that, upon first watch, I was a liiiittle bored during some segments and felt like it could’ve been a wee bit shorter, BUT, I did watch it on a night when I was a bit sleepy, and like I said I went in with no context, so I think probably on a future rewatch I’d up it to a solid 5.
The Battle of Algiers (Algeria, 1966, on Criterion Channel, Kanopy, and also Max) — my review:
A movie about a resistance movement against a western occupying force who has been oppressing an Arab population on their own land for generations and claiming it’s ridiculous for people to call them fascist because they were on the anti-nazi side in WWII. The occupiers aim to take down the leaders of the resistance movement, declaring that once those fighters are gone the resistance will be over, not realizing that with their forceful oppression they are only creating a new generation of resistance fighters who will eventually win in the end.
The atrocities committed here by the French were actually much milder than what’s being done by Israel (funded by the US) as I’m writing this. It’s distressing to think that there’s probably a sizable population who would watch this film and side with the resistance and yet believe that Israel is in the right. (I’m coming at that theory from a point of being cynical about media literacy and people connecting dots to the present, and that “sizable population” I’m imagining is made up of people who’d never watch this movie; my partner disagrees that they’d side with the resistance because racism, so who knows!)
Beans (Canada, 2020, on Hoopla and also Hulu) — my review:
Oh I LOVED this! It had me crying all throughout, but that’s partially the buildup of watching a lot of heavy movies back to back to back for March Around the World, sometimes I cry at a small thing because of the weight of everything.
But damn there were some relatable feelings in this. The feeling of experiencing (or witnessing) political violence and wanting to be way stronger and tougher and braver so you’re ready for next time, because you know there will be a next time. A twelve-year-old should not have to feel that way, but I knew exactly how she felt.
That mixed with some general coming-of-age feelings and happenings. High stakes and low stakes all mixed together. A very specific story about a very specific person in a very specific time and place, and yet completely relatable in multiple ways. Really really loved it.
Unrest (Switzerland, 2022, on Criterion Channel) — my review:
I LOVED this! I can understand that’s it’s definitely not for everyone and many (most) viewers (if forced to watch for some reason) would think it’s boring, but it ticked some rarely-ticked boxes for me personally!
1: Anarchist political history! Very interesting topic, more movies please!
2: Period setting about, like, normal people, and dealing with art & technology of the time and the part it plays in people’s lives. By normal people I mean, not royal or ultra-wealthy people, as so many period films are about, not about war, or someone famous (well except Kropotkin, but it wasn’t even really about him, and it was definitely not a biopic!). And the way we saw the novelty of this new technology / artform of photography, the collecting of portraits, and also the new tech of clocks + telegraph, so times could be synced, and what a big deal that was…
I loved all that in the same way I loved Portrait of a Lady on Fire, seeing how if a normal person (without a lot of money to go to the symphony or whatever) wanted to hear music, they had to make it themselves, and if they wanted a picture of someone, it had to be drawn or painted, and if they wanted to embroider flowers onto cloth, well they didn’t have a way to take a picture of the flowers to use for a reference point, so they had the actual flowers as the reference for the needlework. All these things, things we don’t think about, taking for granted that we can hear any kind of music any time we want, etc, I love seeing that in films, but it’s rare. That more realistic look of what things were like in a past time for people living their lives. More please!
Those were my top five but since we’re getting into issues with some of these movies I’m going to toss in my review for one more that I liked a lot…
Omar (Palestine, 2013, on Kanopy) — my review:
A complex story with twists and turns, but the fact that the Israeli military treats Palestinians like prisoners in their own home is never complex, that’s always clear. An anxious movie, good pacing, the love story aspect didn’t fully click for me, but I definitely mostly liked it and thought it was a good and interesting look at what it’s like to live in the West Bank. Of course, watching it in 2024 makes it tougher, and maybe that should say “what it WAS like” because I’d assume it would be different now.
And a quote from an interview with actor Adam Bakri, because I didn’t know that the wall divided between neighborhoods within the West Bank, not just between Israel, until I watched this movie:
People would actually think it divides Israel from the West Bank, but actually it also crosses through Palestinian towns in the West Bank, and it divides neighbors from each other. Even when I did the scene and I was standing in front of the wall, it hit me, the meaning of this huge thing that you see every day. And that they see every day in the West Bank. It almost covers the sun.
If you want to read my silly reviews of any others you can find them all on letterboxd here! Since I’m a big nerd, I made a spreadsheet of the movies I wanted to watch, and I kept adding new movies/countries throughout the month. In the end, above are all the ones that I watched in March, 38 movies/countries in 25 different languages.
One of the rules I made for myself was that every movie had to be streaming on either Kanopy or Hoopla (both free with my library card, no ads), Criterion Channel or Mubi (the two film streamers I’m currently subscribed to), or Tubi (free to everyone with ads). Limiting it like that simplified/streamlined the challenge for me a bit, and I figured would make it somewhat accessible for sharing recommendations—most people in the US should be able to get kanopy and/or hoopla with their library card, and Criterion Channel is amazing (I’m brand new to it and it’s my favorite streamer, I love it so much!!).
The 40 above are all the ones I have on my spreadsheet that I didn’t get to in March—40 more countries! So I actually changed my Letterboxd list from “March Around the World 2024” to “2024 One Movie Per Country!” and I’m gonna continue adding to it every time I watch a movie from a new country throughout the year. We’ll see how close I get to all 78 by the end of the year (or if I end up growing the spreadsheet even longer!).
As I’ve mentioned before, I highly recommend using the JustWatch site or app to check where movies are available to you, especially if you’re not in the US or if some time has passed since March 2024. Where I said something is streaming in my spreadsheet is where I plan to watch it (or did watch it), not necessarily the only spot it’s available.
I really enjoyed doing this, and definitely plan to do it again next year but maybe just 30 next time. I actually enjoyed the movie challenge so much that I immediately found another movie challenge that I’m now doing throughout April! It’s less intense—no reviews, for one thing, and most movies don’t have subtitles and many of them are a bit sillier, like less attention required, so it’s just a fun way to watch some things that have been in my to-watch list for years, and/or that I wouldn’t normally watch.
Most of the movies I plan to watch for this challenge are in the grid above, and all the ones I’ve watched are here. I get to watch another by Mikhail Kalatozov for this challenge (yay!) plus there’s a little overlap with countries I haven’t done yet (Belgium, Turkey, Rwanda). If you’re interested, it’s the Letterboxd Season Challenge which runs from September through early-May every year, but I’m cramming it all in now since I only just learned about it! Later this year, I can start the next one on time and it’ll be a chill, slow-paced one-movie-per-week challenge as it’s designed to be. In conclusion, yay movies!
I know how annoying it is to scroll forever to get to a recipe, so I’ll go ahead and post the main recipe first at the top, then I’ll tell you all about my annual Soup Swap afterwards, plus give you a few more favorite recipes I’ve made to swap over the years!
This recipe that I wrote was adapted from this tweet that I bookmarked back in 2022. I don’t know the person, but I saw that prompt asking for soup recipes and read through all the replies, copying the ones I wanted to try into my recipe notes:
So I tried it out in January, took notes, and wrote my version all out as this recipe:
Pumpkin Black Bean Beer Cheese Soup
Makes about 5 large servings. Contains: cheese, gluten. Could substitute vegan cheese to make vegan (use a kind that melts well and has some sharpness, ideally.)
Ingredients 2 TBSP olive oil, divided 1 fake sausage (the large Field Roast Smoked Apple Sage works well; this is optional or use whatever meaty element you like) ½ tsp liquid smoke 1 green onion, finely chopped 4 TBSP flour 1 can of pumpkin 1 TBSP diced chipotle peppers 1 can of black beans, drained ¼ tsp salt 1 tsp onion powder 1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp smoked paprika 1 can of beer (I use Simpler Times lager) 4 cups broth or water + Better than Bouillon of choice (for this, I use approx 1 tsp BTB paste per 2 cups water, added directly to pot after adding water) 4–5 oz shredded cheese (cheddar or blend)
Instructions Heat 1 TBSP olive oil over med-high in pot, add sausage, turn down to medium and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until it’s lightly browned. Add liquid smoke, green onion, a little salt and pepper, and cook while stirring another couple of minutes. Add another TBSP of olive oil, then whisk in flour 1 TBSP at a time. Add pumpkin, then chipotles, stir all together over heat. Add beans and all spices, stir together, then stir in beer. Scrape bottom of pot at this point to deglaze anything that’s stuck. Add broth (or substitute), stir everything, then bring to a boil. Turn heat down to simmer for 15–20 minutes. Taste and add seasoning if needed. Turn off heat and stir in shredded cheese. Serve! Eating with good bread for dipping is recommended! Or I bet pretzels would go well. It freezes surprisingly well! (But if you worry about the cheese freezing, you could freeze before adding cheese, then add cheese after reheating.)
A few more notes: That’s the sausage I used for this, I like it a lot! I think the soup would work well without the meaty element. The first time I made it, I used a bit of Ikea’s pea-protein based fake ground meat (which is no longer on their website so maybe they stopped making it, sadly) cooked with meatless pork flavor powder (from an Asian market) and fennel seeds to make it sausage-like. That worked well too!
I added the flour step to thicken the soup more, because I like a thicker soup, and I think it worked, but feel free to skip that step! You can definitely use regular onion if you like, as the original recipe tweet said, I just prefer green onion and I think it works well here.
That’s my soup all jarred up for my Soup Swap! I doubled the recipe to make about 10 servings, bringing 7 to the swap and keeping a few for myself (mostly because I had 7 empty jars).
My knit night group started having annual soup swaps, every year around February usually, almost 10 years ago! Our first one (pictured above) was January 2016, and we’ve done it every year except 2020 (because we were late to plan it that year, put it off till March, and then you know what happened) and I believe 2022 as well—in 2021 we swapped outside and it was a bit less fun, so I think we skipped 2022 and then got back into it last year.
We evolved over the years from plastic containers to glass mason jars, which work quite well for single servings of frozen soup! We each make around 6–8 servings of our soup, put some kind of labels on them (with allergens), freeze them beforehand, and bring them to the swap in coolers.
We hang out, knit, eat lunch (soup, of course!), and then it’s swapping time! Someone counts swap participants, puts pieces of paper with numbers in a bowl and we draw numbers for our swapping order. This year I drew #1! Then we go around and say what our soup is and what it contains, so we can start planning out our top choices.
Then it’s swap time! We go around in number order, each picking one soup, around and around, until we have the number of soups that we brought. I brought 7 this year so I chose 7. If you bring 8 or more you risk getting multiple of the same soup or leaving with your own soup, since most people bring 6–7. The more participants, the more soups you won’t get, so as our swap has gotten bigger strategy has gotten more important (choosing the ones you think will be more popular first) and we have to just accept that we’re not gonna get all our top choices. (This year I missed out on 2 or 3 that sounded amazing!)
That’s how it works! We’ve gotten the process pretty perfected over the years. I recommend organizing a Soup Swap with your soup-loving friends!!
And now, some of my favorite soups I’ve made over the years! Last year I made a pretty great corn chowder, using this recipe from Monson Made This and modifying it… here’s my version of the recipe:
Sweet Potato Poblano Corn Chowder
Ingredients 4 TBSP olive oil or vegan butter 1 medium-sized onion, diced (I used a shallot) 1 red bell pepper, seeded & diced 3 poblano peppers, seeded & diced Optional jalapeño and/or serrano pepper(s) for spice (I used 1 jalapeño and 1 serrano) 1 large or 2 smaller carrots, diced 3–4 garlic cloves, minced ½–¾ cup flour (depending on how much you want to thicken it) (I used chickpea flour) 8 cups vegan chicken broth (or other veggie broth—I used vegan chicken bouillon cubes) ¼–½ cup nutritional yeast Black pepper to taste Salt to taste (approx 2–3 tsp) Optional more spices (I used 1 tsp each aleppo pepper, smoked paprika, mushroom umami) 2–4 sweet potatoes (depending on how large they are), peeled and cut into ¼ inch cubes 3 ears of corn kernels removed, cobs reserved (I used 6 of the frozen half-ears, plus a bit more frozen sweet corn) 1–1 ½ cup full-fat coconut milk 3–4 green onions, thinly sliced fresh parsley or cilantro for garnish (optional)
Instructions In a large stock pot or Dutch oven, combine the oil, onion, peppers, carrots, and garlic. Sauté on medium heat for about 5 minutes until the veggies begin to soften and sweat, but not brown. Stir in the flour and cook for another 2 minutes. Add stock, nutritional yeast, sweet potato, and reserved corn cobs. Taste for seasoning and add salt, pepper, and other spices to taste. Bring the soup to a gentle boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook uncovered for about 10–15 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are just cooked through. Remove the corn cobs. Using an immersion blender (or carefully remove 4 cups of the soup and blend it completely), blend the soup until it gets a bit ruddy in color, but there are still large bits of pepper and sweet potato remaining. Add corn kernels and coconut milk. Continue to simmer for another 5–10 minutes. Stir in green onion and taste for seasoning. Serve warm, with optional herb garnish. (Could also add spinach, kale, or cabbage, etc, to bulk it up and add some green!)
Back in 2019 I made a Sweet Potato & Farro Curry Soup which was a slightly modified version of this from Cookie and Kate. It was amazing and I made it a few times since but kinda forgot about it and really need to make it again for myself! Pretty easy, too!
Sweet Potato & Farro Curry Soup
Ingredients 2 TBSP extra-virgin olive oil 1 yellow onion, chopped (small or large, depending how much onion you like) (my double batch used 1 large onion) 1 red bell pepper, chopped (I used 5 little Sweet Baby Bell Peppers for every 1 regular bell pepper) 1 pound sweet potatoes (2 small to medium or 1 large), peeled and diced (about 3 cups) ¼ tsp salt, more to taste 2 TBSP Thai red curry paste 1 cup uncooked farro, rinsed 4 cups (32 oz) vegetable broth 1 can (1½ cups) coconut milk (see note below) ½ cup water 1 can (15 oz) chickpeas, rinsed and drained, or 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas ½ bunch of kale (4 oz), chopped (about 3 cups) (mine was made with baby kale, less than this, around this much total for the double batch) ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, to taste (optional, if you like it extra spicy) (I skipped this so everyone can add their own spice to eat as they like)
Instructions In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat until shimmering. Stir in the onion, bell pepper, sweet potato and salt. Sauté for five minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion starts to soften. Add the curry paste and stir until the vegetables are coated and the curry is fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the farro. Add the coconut milk, vegetable broth, and water, and stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 25 minutes. (Note: if you’re using Trader Joe’s brand farro, it’s partially cooked already, so it only needs about 10–15 minutes here.) Test the farro for doneness—if it’s tender and cooked through, add the chickpeas and kale. Stir to combine, cook for 5 more minutes, or until the kale is cooked to your liking. Taste, and season with more salt as needed. Stir in the optional cayenne pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls and serve. Leftovers keep well, covered and refrigerated, for about 4 days. The soup freezes well, too.
Notes I used Trader Joe’s Reduced Fat Coconut Milk; use non-reduced-fat for a thicker soup. For a thicker curry, less soup-like, to eat with naan or rice, skip the ½ cup water and use more sweet potato, smashing some of it after cooking, to thicken. Original recipe had no coconut milk, only 2 cups water instead. Original recipe goes in to detail about using different grains instead of farro. The red curry paste I use happens to be vegan (no fish or shrimp content) but many (most?) are not, so be sure to read labels if that’s a concern!
The very first year I made a Vegan Peanut Stew from this recipe on Budget Bytes and it was amazing. It’s one I remade again for another soup swap year because everyone loved it, and I’ve made a few more times for myself. I hadn’t made it in years and then about a month ago I remembered it and made it again—it’s so easy and delicious!! A great lunch (I froze servings with rice in the same container so it was a ready-to-go lunch, perfect for bringing to the office), will definitely make it more regularly!! Even though I use the recipe pretty exactly from the website, I’m going to put it here because nowadays you never know when sites will stop existing and that link above will become broken.
Vegan Peanut Stew
Ingredients 1 TBSP vegetable oil 4 cloves garlic 1 inch fresh ginger 1 medium sweet potato 1 medium onion 1 tsp cumin ¼ tsp crushed red pepper 6 oz can tomato paste ½ cup chunky peanut butter 6 cups vegetable broth ½ bunch or 2–3 cups chopped collard greens (or kale or mustard greens—I usually use kale) cilantro rice for serving
Instructions Peel and grate the ginger using a small holed cheese grater. Mince the garlic. Sauté the ginger and garlic in vegetable oil over medium heat for 1–2 minutes, or until the garlic becomes soft and fragrant. Dice the onion, add it to the pot, and continue to sauté. Dice the sweet potato (½ inch cubes), add it to the pot, and continue to sauté a few minutes more, or until the onion is soft and the sweet potato takes on a darker, slightly translucent appearance. Season with cumin and red pepper flakes. Add the tomato paste and peanut butter, and stir until everything is evenly mixed. Add the vegetable broth and stir to dissolve the thick tomato paste-peanut butter mixture. Place a lid on the pot and turn the heat up to high. While the soup is coming up to a boil, prepare the greens. Rinse the greens well, then use a sharp knife to remove each stem (cut along the side of each stem). Stack the leaves, then cut them into thin strips. Add the collard strips to the soup pot. Once the soup reaches a boil, turn the heat down to low and allow it to simmer without a lid for about 15 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are very soft. Once soft, smash about half of the sweet potatoes with the back of a wooden spoon to help thicken the soup. Taste the soup and add salt if needed. Serve the stew hot with a few cilantro leaves if desired. You may also add some rice, and add some spice if you want! I usually add brown rice.
The second swap year I made Four Corners Lentil Soup from My New Roots, which is one of my favorite lentil soups I’ve ever made, definitely recommend if you like a lentil soup! Again, this recipe is straight from that website, but already the webpage has a broken image so who knows how much longer that link will work.
Four Corners Lentil Soup
Ingredients 1 cup red lentils, picked over and rinsed very well 1 large onion, or a couple leeks, chopped (I used shallots) 5 cloves garlic, minced 1 TBSP minced ginger root 1 TBSP Ground cumin ¼ tsp cayenne pepper (I also added a small amount of Turmeric) 1 15 oz can of tomatoes (some of mine were fire roasted); or 4 large, fresh tomatoes, chopped 4 cups stock (I used vegetable broth) salt to taste 1 un-waxed, organic lemon
Instructions Heat oil in a medium pot and sauté onions, garlic and ginger for 5 minutes until soft. Add a pinch of salt. Add spices and stir for another minute or so, until fragrant. Add tomatoes, 3 slices of lemon and rinsed lentils, then add vegetable stock. Stir well. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the lentils are soft. Squeeze in the rest of the lemon juice. Serve hot with some cilantro, green onions or parsley on top with a slice of lemon.
Happy soup-making, and please share your favorite (vegetarian) soup recipes in the comments if you have any!! I’m always looking for new ones to try!
How about some knitting content on this blog?! I started knitting this sweater in summer 2020, with plans for it to be my around-and-around in plain stockinette movie theater sweater when I started going to movies again, once the bottom edging was done. And then I originally had a vague plan to do a simple raglan top, with like a cable design running along the raglan decrease lines. When I actually got to the top years later, I had a new idea to do an all-over cable pattern as a round yoke instead, and it worked!!
I picked out Hawthorne sock yarn held double, for a worsted-ish weight, in the Cattail colorway. I knit the bottom edging in 2020, then just kinda let it sit, waiting to go back to theaters, since the whole point of it was to be my theater knitting project. That ended up not happening until summer 2023, so I ended up knitting small bits of the stockinette body off and on throughout 2021–2023, then I did knit a few chunks in the theater for Barbie, Talk to Me, and Bottoms… and I finally finished up the body in fall 2023 when I had covid and was wanting a lot of mindless knitting.
Since it worked out so well, I thought I’d share what I did for anyone who might want to try to copy me… The explanation below is based on notes I took for this sweater that I improvised / designed on-the-needles for myself, to fit my own body. With the exception of the bottom edging, this is not a pattern, just me telling you what I did. Adventurous sweater knitters will hopefully be able to use my notes as a starting point or guideline or as inspiration to improvise their own similar sweaters, maybe. If anyone does, I’d REALLY love to see, so please comment here with a link to photos!!
I don’t have any photos of the bottom edge by itself, but it’s constructed the same way as a lot of my old patterns (like this top and this hat and this shawl), what I called the “sideways edge cast-on”—stitches are added along one side across the whole edge so you don’t have to pick them all up later. You basically knit the sideways edge pattern, always increasing 1 stitch at one end (at the beginning of every WS row in this case), and leave the extra stitches on the circular cable for later. Then you’ll increase extra stitches across the first sideways row, which tightens up the sideways stitches and makes the row-to-stitch ratio correct for a smooth edging.
Bottom Edging Cast on 9 sts. Setup Row (WS): K1, purl to end.
Row 1 (RS): Cable 2 over 3 Left, K3, Sl1 WYIF. Row 2 and all WS rows: KFB, purl to end. Row 3: Sl1, K2, Cable 3 over 2 Right, Sl1 WYIF. Row 5: Cable 3 over 3 Left, K2, Sl1 WYIF. Row 7: Sl1, K2, Cable 2 over 3 Right, Sl1 WYIF. Row 9: Cable 3 over 2 Left, K3, Sl1 WYIF. Row 11: Sl1, K1, Cable 3 over 3 Right, Sl1 WYIF. Rep Rows 1–12 until piece is the circumference you want around your body. You may want to put some stitches onto scrap yarn or another circular needle so you can hold the whole piece around your body. Or, determine the final measurement you want the piece to be, measure half or a third of that final measurement along the in-progress piece, count the top stitches, and multiply to determine the final stitch count you want.
My stitch count when I stopped the edging was 144 top stitches, plus 8 working cable pattern stitches, so 152 total stitches.
On the next RS row, bind off 8 stitches (the cable stitches), then K1, (M1, K2) to end. Stitch count has increased by half of the original stitch count (minus the 8 bound-off stitches). My original stitch count of 144 increased to 216. Piece is now ready to knit stockinette stitch around these stitches.
I worked around in plain stockinette now, until the piece measured my desired length from bottom to underarms.
Then I did some math and decision-making for what to do next. I had this idea for a cabled yoke in my head, and I ended up planning it all out once I had my stitch count figured out.
To start, I bound off for the underarms: I knit to 6 sts before beginning-of-round, bound off 12 sts, then knit to 6 sts before the halfway point, bound off 12 sts, and knit to end. My stitch count at this point was 192.
I decided, for my cable pattern plan, to figure out my sleeve count so that my total stitch count was a multiple of 20 (so each half—front and back—was multiple of 10, because I planned to do 9-stitch cables with 1 stitch between). I determined my numbers based on gauge and desired measurement of sleeves at the top… So my sleeve count total per sleeve was to be 66 stitches, minus the 12 picked-up stitches on each sleeve (those 12 stitches I bound off for the underarms, to be picked back up for the sleeves) = 54 new stitches per sleeve, times 2 = 108 stitches added for the yoke. 108 + 192 (my current stitch count) = 300 stitches total to start the yoke.
So I worked my yoke setup round as follows: *Provisional Cast On 54 sts with scrap yarn onto left-hand needle, knit across half the provisional sts (27), place marker for new beginning-of-round here, knit other half of provisional sts, then join across to other side of bound-off sts and knit across the half-round to next set of bound-off sts; rep from * (placing second marker for halfway-point), knit to beginning-of-round marker. My stitch count now = 300 (150 each half).
Now that I had my yoke stitches ready to go, I began the cable pattern that I’d planned out. I worked each half (front and back) the same; each half had 150 stitches, so 15 cable segments. Each cable segment was 9 stitches wide plus 1 purl stitch. I added the cables one at a time, and only added the purl stitches once there were two cables next to each other.
My cables started as 3-over-3-over-3 braid style cables, worked as follows. Rnd 1: Cable 3 over 3 Left, K3. Rnd 2: Knit all. Rnd 3: K3, Cable 3 over 3 Right. Rnd 4: Knit all.
So that’s the basic cable pattern, a 4-row repeat. Since I introduced a new cable on every cable row (every other round), half the cables were introduced with the left cable worked first (Rnd 1), and half with the right cable first (Rnd 3). That way all cables were worked the same, all left cables around the same row, etc. On the “Knit all” cable rows nothing happened with the yoke pattern, so it was just a knit-all round, until the purls started being introduced between the cables (once they filled in enough to be placed next to each other), so then the knit-all rounds became “knit the knit stitches and purl the purl stitches”.
My first four rows were worked as follows. Yoke Rnd 1: (K40, place marker, Cable 3 over 3 Left, knit to marker) twice. Yoke Rnd 1: Knit all. Yoke Rnd 1: (Knit to marker, K3, Cable 3 over 3 Right, K51, place marker, K3, Cable 3 over 3 Right, knit to M) twice. Yoke Rnd 1: Knit all.
So then I just kept added a new cable on every other round, placing a marker at the cable, until they started being right next to each other with the purl stitches between—then I didn’t place markers anymore because the purl stitches made it clear where each cable started. I had the cables all planned out, so I’d know which one to introduce next. I made this basic spreadsheet chart just to plan out the order of the cables. It’s upside down but the point was just to decide when each cable started, so I could count how many stitches to knit between them on each cable round.
When all the cables had been introduced, there were 15 cables across each front and back (30 total) as well as the same number of single purl stitches between each cable, and back to just 2 stitch markers, one at the beginning and one at the halfway point.
So now I started working decreases, decreasing every other cable on a round, spreading the decrease rounds out more at first, then closer together as I got closer to the top. So half the cables became 8-stitches wide, then the other half, then half became 7-stitches wide, then the other half, and so on. I continued working the cables as braids, so they’d become 3-over-3-over-2, then 3-over-2-over-2, then 2-over-2-over-2, and so on, until they eventually became 1-over-1-over-1 braids. Note that for the decreasing section that follows, the front and back were no longer exactly identical since there was an odd number of cables on each side.
I kind of experimented with exactly how to work the decreases in the cables, seeing what was easiest while also looking good. It didn’t end up mattering too much exactly how I worked the decreases, in terms of looks. I think it was easiest to decrease in the back-cable section of stitches, so the decrease was hidden under the cable twist. However, I didn’t always have control over where to put the decrease, depending on when the decrease row happened within the cable pattern—at first, you can chose anywhere to decrease, but then you have a 3-over-3-over-2 cable and the next time you decrease it needs to be in one of those 3-stitch chunks, not the 2-stitch, and then when you have a 3-over-2-over-2 cable of course the next decrease needs to happen in the 3-stitch part. So where the decreases were placed would be determined for each cable round, whatever made the most sense.
Here’s vaguely how I worked my yoke decreases. Rnd 1: Work even (knits as knits and purls as purls). Rnd 2: Work cable row with every other cable decreasing 1 stitch (15 sts decreased total). Rnd 3: Work even. Rnd 4: Cable row with no decreases. Rnds 5-6: Repeat Rnds 3-4. Now repeat Rnds 1-4, so every other cable row is a decrease round, switching which half of cables is decreased, until all cables are down to 6-stitches wide (2-over-2-over-2). 210 stitches total. Continue repeating Rnds 1-4 until all cables become 4-stitches wide on a Rnd 2 repeat, stopping after that Rnd 2. Now repeat Rnds 1-2 only twice more so all cables are 3-stitches wide (1-over-1-over-1). 120 stitches total.
At this point, I worked some short rows for the back of the neck. I didn’t write down what I did, just worked back and fourth a few times, continuing the 3-stitch cables in pattern as established.
Then I worked 1×1 ribbing for a few rounds, and I bound off using the Tubular Bind off. I was so relieved to try it on at this point and see that it worked!
Now the body was done, it just needed sleeves. I put the provisional stitches onto the needles, picked up 12 stitches along the underarms for each sleeve, and starting working stockinette around them, two at a time.
I decreased 2 stitches every 7 or 8 rounds, until they were about 3 inches shorter than my desired final length. At that point, they were each 49 stitches, perfect for dividing into 6-stitch wide braided cables with 1 purl stitch between. I worked 2-over-2-over-2 braided cables with no knit-all rounds between for several rounds, to really pull in the cuffs, then I switched to working a round plain between cables to loosen up the bottoms of the cuffs. This was a weird improvised choice; if I were to re-knit the cuffs now I’d just do the plain row between cable rows for the whole cuffs. Oh well, they turned out find in the end!
And that was it, I weaved in the ends, tried it on… it was good, but didn’t fit PERFECTLY… the neck was a bit tight and the sleeves were a little short.
So when I blocked it, I pulled the neck to stretch it a bit bigger, and I tugged on the sleeves to lengthen them a little, and now it does fit perfectly, yay!! I love it so so so so much.
Btw, the hat I’m wearing in these photos is my Siskiyou pattern in Knitted Wit yarn, one of my most-worn hats in the winter time!
I’ve improvised sweaters before, but just boxy drop-shoulder styles (this pullover and this pullover and this cardigan—these are all in my ravelry projects if you want to see them there) so this was my first shaped garment that wasn’t using a pattern someone designed. I’ve been editing garment patterns for my job for 5 years now, which means I’ve basically been knitting them in my head, so I think I’ve absorbed a lot of garment design basics that help my brain think about how to go about knitting a sweater without a pattern now. I plan to make many more like this, without a pattern, and I may have even cast on and started swatching a new idea for one last night! It’s so fun!
It’s time! I’ve finalized my 2023 movies list. I wanted to see as many 2023 releases as possibly possible before putting a cap on the list, so I kept watching them through the end of last week and then I messed with the order a bit more and called it done. I’m sure I’ll have second, third, eighth thoughts about the list order in the future but at some point you have to just call it done!
There were A LOT of great movies in 2023, and I watched 172 of them, so I decided to make an official top 20 list, and then include 15 extra honorable mentions, which are just my numbers 21-35. I am counting movies that became available for me to see (in Portland, Oregon, USA) in 2023, so that means a lot of movies on this list are labeled as 2022 in Letterboxd/IMDb but that’s because they premiered at festivals or in other countries that year. And some movies that were on a lot of critics’ lists are not eligible for mine because I don’t get to see them until 2024, so they may appear on 2024’s list.
Added in February 2025: I’ve decided there were a couple of movies I’d been counting as 2024 movies that critics all counted as 2023 because of limited releases—I didn’t want them crowding my best-of 2024 list so I’m retroactively adding them to 2023. I’m not updating any graphics or the text of the list below, just noting here:
The Zone of Interest is retroactively added as my #3 film of 2023. Part of me knows it should be in the #1 spot, but I just can’t bring myself to knock 1 & 2 out of their spots because I love them so much. And Monster by Hirokazu Kore-eda is stuck in the #11 spot. It also could go higher, it’s just hard to mess with the list after it’s been set and I didn’t want to bump Barbie out of the top 10.
Notes about where to watch things: I’ll say where they are currently available to stream at the time I’m writing this, but most are also available for digital rental, and where they are streaming might change by the time you’re reading this. I highly recommend JustWatch where you can search any movie (or TV show) and see where it’s available to watch. Some of these are very new and are only for rent (or in theaters) as I’m writing this but may be streaming somewhere in a couple of months.
With all that said, let’s go! Starting with my number 20 and working down to number 1…
20) A Thousand and One. Small indie drama. Good damn movie, excellent acting, and a great subtle look at gentrification and its impacts, etc. Streaming on prime.
19) The Artifice Girl. This one I didn’t love at first, I think because I’d been expecting something completely different, and when it ended I was like, huh, that was something else, okay. Then I listened to some people talk about it, thought about it a bunch, and gave it a rewatch a few months later. Recommend it for sure, but be aware going in that it’s a very small movie (small budget, cast, setting) about big sci-fi ideas, but it’s mostly just talking. It’s so good tho and can’t wait to see what the filmmaker does next! Streaming free on hoopla and tubi.
18) The Royal Hotel. Another one with an internal conflict between my expectations and what it ended up being, but like in a really interesting way. I went in expecting not to like it very much and then kinda loved it. Very tense thriller where not a lot actually happens but you’re constantly on edge because you never know what might happen, and you’re really feeling the anxiety of the main character at all times. Another one I kept thinking about after. For rent.
17) Sick of Myself. Wild movie. Not for everyone. So uncomfortable but I loved it. Streaming on paramount+ / showtime.
16) Lola. I love this movie. It’s not perfect (like, I can’t think too hard about some aspects or I start picking them apart) but low-budget indie sci-fi found footage + fighting nazis + time travel (ish) yesssss please thank you!! And it’s fun and funny and scary and sad, good stuff! (Also, it’s only 79 minutes long and streaming free, so no excuse not to check it out!) Streaming free on tubi.
15) Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Another one I had to sit with awhile; didn’t feel like I LOVED it immediately after watching (I never read the book so I didn’t have a personal connection beyond having been a tween girl) but then I found myself thinking about it, and it grew a bit in my mind, and I think I even ended up changing my star rating from 3.5 to 4 after a few days. Good stuff. Streaming on starz.
14) Fremont. Weird, so so funny at times, interesting, thoughtful, just really great and also that guy from The Bear who everyone loves is in it so check it out! Streaming on mubi.
13) Killers of the Flower Moon. I don’t think I need to say anything about this one, it’s great. Glad I was able to see it in the theater. Streaming on apple tv+.
12) The Quiet Girl. Went into this not knowing much except it was nominated for an Oscar last year and it popped up on Kanopy so I threw it on one night. I was knocked out by it! I’m gonna actually quote a Letterboxd review here that I read after watching because it made me love the movie even more than I already did: “…first watch since I saw a significant review call it boring. Each to their very own, of course, but there is so much taking place in glances and snippets and half-sentences and closeups of wallpaper and a stolen cup of milk and a single biscuit and a busybody and a broom and a card game and a weeping mattress and why haven’t they brought the hay in yet, that I simply cannot ever be bored by this gentle and perfect piece.” –review by Gemma G. So when I finished it, I thought it was a 2022 release since it was in last year’s Oscars, and I even snuck it onto my favorites list for that year, then I was so happy to later realize it didn’t come out in the US till ’23 so I could put it on this list! Streaming on hulu, and on kanopy for me (might vary by library).
11) Anatomy of a Fall. Another one I’m so glad I got to see in the theater. I highly recommend the filmspotting podcast discussion of this one if you’ve seen it; that made me appreciate the movie more that I already did. So good. Best kid actor AND best dog actor. For rent.
10) Theater Camp. This one, I liked it but didn’t LOVE it the first time—I don’t think I even had it on my in-progress favorites list early in the year, or maybe I did but it was low down in the honorable mentions zone. Then I rewatched it on New Years Eve, and I guess I was in just the perfect mood for it because it was SO FUNNY, I was laughing so much, alone in my living room. I guess it needed a second watch for me, it just clicked, I absolutely loved it. So I squeezed it into my top 10! I moved numbers 10-13 around a bunch, but in the end, I thought… this list is my favorites (not “best”) and Theater Camp was the most enjoyable for me to watch, so it gets the spot! Streaming on hulu.
9) Barbie. Again with the enjoyable factor. Just so fun. Watched this a second time too, and there are so many jokes packed into it, I still couldn’t even catch all the hidden visual jokes in the background. Love it. Streaming on max.
8) Poor Things. I was happy to get to place this side-by-side with Barbie on my list because they are so similar! Was also happy to have gotten to see this in the theater, excellent big-screen movie, visually spectacular. Not for everyone (the older couple sitting down the row from us walked out about 20 minutes in!) but so much going on, so interesting and creepy and fun and weird. (And for the record, I’m not a big Yorgos Lanthimos fan; this is his first one I’d say I loved.) Still in theaters.
7) How to Blow Up a Pipeline. Fucking fantastic. If the title makes you bristle, treat it as a heist movie. Streaming on hulu, and on kanopy for me (might vary by library).
6) Bottoms. Funniest movie of the year. So funny. SO so so so so funny. Streaming on mgm+.
5) Blue Jean. This one hit me SO HARD. It’s not like breaking new ground or anything (indie drama about a lesbian teacher), but it’s just so well done at what it is. I LOVED the last 15 or so minutes (maybe even just 10 minutes, I think you’d know what I’m talking about if you’ve seen it) so so so much, really stuck with me. And it’s EXTREMELY timely to right now in the US (and the UK too) even though it takes place in Newcastle in 1988. Streaming on hulu.
4) Asteroid City. Bought it on blu ray, rewatched once already, plan to rewatch more times. It’s so dense and complex and also fun and silly. Top tier Wes Anderson for me; we’ll see where it settles once it’s not new (and there are several I need to rewatch) but this could potentially be my favorite. Streaming on prime.
3) May December. So much has been said about this movie, I don’t feel like I need to say anything beyond, it’s excellent. And Charles Melton deserves all the awards and success. (I loved this video essay if you want more!) Streaming on netflix.
2) Rye Lane. Perfect rom com. Perfect movie. The art design, the clothes, the actors, the energy, the humor, the sweetness, everything. Perfect. Everyone who misses good rom coms should watch it. Everyone who thinks they don’t like rom coms should watch it. Everyone should watch it. Streaming on hulu.
1) Past Lives. I know for some this has an even more personal connection, but for me, this deeply personally relatable movie was about the human experience of only being able to have one life, and grieving the other lives you don’t get to have. Not because of regrets and not because you wish your life was different, but simply because we only get one life. And that realization is worthy of mourning when it surfaces. For rent; supposed to be on paramount+ / showtime on february 2.
And then, my honorable mentions list (or numbers 21-35)—I still REALLY loved all these, especially the ones in the top half, and wish they all could’ve fit in my top 20 but that’s not how numbers work: Showing Up — streaming on paramount+ / showtime, hoopla, and on kanopy for me (might vary by library). Reality — streaming on max. Revoir Paris — streaming on prime, and on hoopla for me (might vary by library). Priscilla — not streaming yet, but it’s supposed to be on max eventually. Return to Seoul — streaming on prime. Monica — streaming on amc+. Lakota Nation vs. United States (I was terrible about watching documentaries in 2023, but I watched this one and it was excellent!) — streaming on amc+. Suzume — streaming on crunchyroll. Polite Society — streaming on prime. The Eight Mountains — streaming on criterion. Mutt — streaming on netflix. Riceboy Sleeps — for rent. Totally Killer — streaming on prime. Influencer — streaming on amc+ and shudder. Infinity Pool — streaming on hulu, and on kanopy for me (might vary by library).
To be honest, my honorable mentions were initially 13, ending with Totally Killer, but I wanted a nice clean grid so I forced 2 extras onto the end; I chose 2 horror movies that I liked because I was sad I had almost no horror on my entire list even though I love horror. Just not a good year for horror. Plenty that were fine or okay, just none that I really loved. Totally Killer was the only one I’d say I loved but that’s because of the fun time travel and 80s elements and stuff, not the actual horror of it. (It’s a wacky slasher that’s like “Murder Back to the Future” in the way that Happy Death Day is “Murder Groundhog Day” and Freaky is “Murder Freaky Friday”—so check it out if you like that kind of thing, which I do!) And honestly, I liked M3gan better than those last 2 I added, but I figured everyone knows that already so I wanted to choose ones people might not know or have seen. Influencer is really fun; Infinity Pool is definitely not for everyone but worth watching if you like horror!
That’s my list of all 172 movies I watched that were released in 2023, because I’m a spreadsheet nerd! I got that spreadsheet by downloading my data from Letterboxd and editing to be all the 2023 releases. In order to more easily keep track this year, throughout the year instead of just at the end, I plan to make a 2024 ranked list and add all the 2024 releases to the list as I watch them. So, 2023’s list was my 35 favorites; my 2024 list (no link yet because I haven’t watched any 2024 releases yet) will be ALL the 2024 releases I watched.
And speaking of Letterboxd, here are my 2023 stats (everything I watched in 2023, so different from 2023 releases): 472 movies watched in 2023, including rewatches.
And those themes and nanogenres are fun! I think horror movies must have more overlapping nanogenres and themes, because I watched more drama than horror and yet almost all of those are horror, hah! I’m not constantly watching horror movies, I swear, letterboxd out here making its users look creepy af.
That’s it for 2023, glad I got this up while it’s still January at least! Maybe at the end of 2024 I’ll be able to do better about seeing everything I want to see in December and I’ll be able to finalize my list closer to the end of the year… it’s so hard though because so many possibly-good movies are released in theaters in December! And I’m usually only able to go to the theater once per weekend, so I can only see so many. Sigh. Anyway, let me know if you watch any of my favorites and what you think! Happy movie watching!
I’ve thought of 2023 as Senior Year of the pandemic. Not because there’s any graduation or ending in sight, just because it was the fourth year, and I feel like we’ve all grown and changed so much since 2020, or Freshman Year. 2023 was a bit rough—it’s the year I finally got covid—and it’s also been, like, the year of finally feeling like we’re living normally within the new post-2020 world. First vacation since 2019, regularly going to movie theaters since we stopped in March 2020, working in the office part-time throughout the whole year.
This is also the year I spent a long time re-thinking, re-designing, and finally re-launching this blog. There aren’t a ton of new posts yet, but I think it’s going okay so far. I’d made plans to “start blogging again” a couple of times over the years… and that never really worked out, as you can see by scrolling through my one single post in 2018, then one single post in 2019, then, well, nothing until I redesigned it last year. So that’s one big project I did in 2023! Restructuring my websites too—now that the year has come to an end, my old web server space (that I’d been paying for since December 2003, yes TWO THOUSAND THREE) is finally cancelled and leethalknits.com is no more, so I have plans to repost a lot of my old knitting tutorials that lived there here on this blog this year. Anyway, big change for me, no longer having that web space.
In other genres of making… knitting! I kind of returned to knitting / knit-designing for work a bit this year, which is awesome and I love it! I still do graphic design for all the books and patterns for Knit Picks (I’ve designed 61 books/ebooks total now! SIXTY ONE <surprised face emoji!>) but we’ve been cutting back a bit on books and I’ve now had time to also regularly design free knitting patterns for Knit Picks!
I designed a bunch of hats in the last year and really enjoyed doing it! Hope for a lot more to come in the future. You can see all the patterns I’ve done for KP (most free, a few paid) on ravelry or Knit Picks, or I have a page on my payhip site where I list them (but that’s not always up to date).
For work, I am also the cohost of the Knit Picks Podcast, which comes out twice a month most of the year (with short hiatuses in summer and for the holidays right now). I always chat with Stacey about what knitting projects I’ve been working on, so give that a listen if you’re into that kind of thing. (We also interview people and have other coworkers join us.) I’ve chatted a lot about starting new sweaters without finishing ones I already have on the needles, but lately I’ve been trying to finish some for the end of the year!
I finished this Andean Treasure cardigan (the Atrium pattern from the book Metropolitan Knits) very recently, which I absolutely love, and which I started in 2019! Ooooops. Here it is on ravelry or on instagram for more info/photos.
And I finished this Chroma Twist pullover (which is the Ice Fire Wrap pattern converted into a simple drop-shoulder sweater) last night, at the time of writing this! (Okay I started writing this post a couple weeks before finishing it… I finished the sweater on December 30th, just in time for it to be a 2023 FO!) Here it is on ravelry or on instagram for more info/photos.
In the first half of the year I knit a couple of gifts that I was really happy with: an improvised hat with yarn that I spun, and Elizabeth Zimmermann’s 2-piece Baby Jacket in sock yarn leftovers, held double. I have two more knit sweaters and one crochet sweater still actively on the needles right now, plus another sweater that I kinda started over a year ago but never really got going on, and another sweater that I got pretty far on a couple of years ago, and then lost a yarn ball that I need to find… anyway, those will be 2024 projects! Oh and my movie-sweater project—I knit a stripe every time I see a movie in the theater (on ravelry here).
As for sewing, for the last couple of years I haven’t been doing a ton. I did sew a few things I love this year, like these pants! (Free Range Slacks pattern, one of my most-used patterns.) And those navy blue pants I’m wearing with the Ice Fire sweater above (Peppermint Wide-Leg Pants pattern).
And two very comfy pairs of flannel pants, both made with thrifted flannel sheets, both using the Luna Pants pattern.
And these two pairs of shorts, both using the Iris Shorts pattern, which I like a lot!
And also these Skye Shorts, which look like a skirt! And then I grabbed the Rey pattern set from Seamwork which is a belt bag and bucket hat, and I got kind of obsessed with making bucket hats!
I made a few bucket hats for myself, wore them a ton in the summer, and then went wild making bucket hats for Christmas gifts for my entire family! So fun!
I custom-picked the fabric for each person’s hat from Spoonflower, and used thrifted fabrics for the solid-color sides. They are all reversible and have plain solid neutrals on the other sides.
I think that covers everything I sewed all year (except my Halloween costume, which I mentioned at the end of my last blog post), but I did buy some fabric throughout the year, so I REALLY plan to get back into regular garment sewing in 2024! For real!
I talked A LOT about movie stuff in my last two posts so I won’t spend much time on that, but this was definitely the year I got REALLY back into movies, spending a ton of time watching them, shopping for blu rays / DVDs, keeping up my Letterboxd, etc. A major hobby of 2023 for sure.
I was also still really into cooking as a hobby (which I got REALLY into in late 2021 and have been ever since), as well as gardening in the summer months, which I link with cooking since I garden for the food. 2022 was the first year I got REALLY into gardening, built a big raised bed and another smaller bed, sewed a bunch of fabric grow bags, woodchipped the whole garden, etc. In 2023 I built another smaller raised bed and sewed more bags and expanded what I grew.
I grew almost everything from seed, with a whole seed-starting station in the house with three grow lights. So fun to start with a tiny seed and watch what it becomes!! I did this fun seed-organizing project too, using VHS cases! (More on instagram about that.)
I also got more into growing flowers than I had before, because I learned how important it is for flowers to attract the bees and other pollinators who will then pollinate the food plants, so it’s all connected and also zinnias are so pretty!
Gardening has been a frustrating hobby for me, since my yard gets A LOT of shade thanks to some very large trees, so between that and the slugs and squirrels and aphids, I have a lot of factors I have little to no control over making it hard to be successful.
With all that, I still managed to grow a good amount of tomatoes (15 different types!), peppers, beans, tomatillos, greens… and a much smaller amount of squash, cucumbers, carrots, beets, potatoes… and even now in January I’m still eating kale, leeks, and some herbs fresh from the garden!
This year, I plan to focus on the things I most like to eat, and the things that have been relatively easy in my experience, and not try to grow ALL THE THINGS. Easier said than done… it’s always so enticing in the spring to start ALL THE SEEDS when they are tiny seed-starting cells and it feels so low-commitment. Then summer comes and things are taking up space that aren’t all looking healthy and I don’t even love to eat some of the things and it feels very silly to be nurturing plants like that but I’ve done this to myself. Sigh.
And then in 2023 I made a lot of delicious foods! I’ll just show you the things that I made for the first time in 2023, to keep things limited. I made hot sauce using very hot peppers from my farm share. It turned out TOO HOT for me, so I separated it into 2 bottles, the super hot one for Pete to use, and I blended the rest with a peach and it worked so well! Delicious!
I made kimchi for the first time using napa cabbage leaves that I grew! My cabbages didn’t form heads, but the leaves still worked, and the kimchi was great!
I made nocino using green walnuts from my friend Anna’s yard. I made two kinds, one with lots of added spices, and the other with only cinnamon sticks and nothing else. As of late December, the cinnamon-only batch tasted good and the other one did not, but I’m leaving it to sit for longer and hoping it tastes better after more time!
I got very into soups in the fall and winter! I used leeks that I grew to make potato leek soup and it was soooo good, and I made pozole verde using tomatillos I grew (and soy curls as the “chicken”) and I loved it so much!! Will definitely make again, an excellent way to use tomatillos!
I made a vegan corn chowder for my annual soup swap, which was very fun as always. This year’s soup swap is coming up soon and I’m thinking I’m gonna make a pumpkin-beer-cheese soup with black beans that I tried recently and was delicious.
I made bagels! They were soo good. I need to make them again. They were surprisingly pretty easy to make; the hardest/most annoying/messiest part was adding the toppings so I had a plan to make them again without toppings, maybe just adding something to the dough itself instead. But I still haven’t done it, oops. I will soon!
I made deli “meat”! I’m a big fake-meat lover, so I wanted to try this recipe, but it turned out a little disappointing. Very airy, like a spongy texture, almost. I still enjoyed eating sandwiches with it, but I’d try a different recipe next time.
I started 2023 by making sushi rolls on New Years Day! It was a serious project, took many hours total, but was delicious and fun to eat and worth it to do once in awhile as a treat. I did it again in October, but not quite as many rolls or different fillings that time. I did mostly no-fish rolls—I think I used one can of smoked salmon but that was the only fish. I made chickpea-based and tofu-based imitation crab salad kinda things, and then just lots of different veggies, teriyaki tofu, cream cheese, etc.
As for other things besides making… I took a trip to Des Moines (to visit my brother and now-sister-in-law) and Chicago (just for vacation, my first time there) and it was great! Above is Pete, me, Renée, and Matt at the Iowa State Fair, which was very weird and had a lot of tasty food!
I got to meet and hang out with Renée’s kids which was the best part of the trip—they are awesome kids, and I’m so happy they are now part of my family!! Matt met Renée in… 2018? 2017? But they lived in different states, then he moved from California to Iowa in 2020 (I think? time is blurry) and this was my first time seeing his new home and meeting his family so it was a long time coming and a fantastic time!
So then since we were taking the trip out to the midwest, and we had the vacation days, and we had friends taking care of the cats and garden, we decided to also go to Chicago. It was a long trip, around 5 days in Iowa and 5 days in Chicago, some of those being partially travel days, so it was basically 2 very different vacations back-to-back, which was A LOT after not having traveled since 2019. But no regrets, it was worth it, just exhausting!
In Chicago, we tried to explore as many different neighborhoods as possible during our time there. Our favorites were Pilsen and Avondale; there were so many cool spots, stores, museums, etc, all over the city. Above is the Haymarket memorial statue, very cool to see. I posted more photos and wrote more details about where we went and stuff on instagram if you’re interested: day 0 (just there in the evening/night) and day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4.
A few months before our big trip, to test out being away from the cats overnight (because we got them in summer 2019 and had never left them alone for a single night!!) we took a one-night trip to Bend and the Painted Hills, beautiful!
A highlight was that the last remaining Blockbuster is in Bend, so fun! It’s a fully functioning Blockbuster, just like the one I worked at in college (2003-2004 in San Diego) but it also has some kind of museum display stuff on one side. I bought a couple of previously-rented DVDs and a mug as souvenirs. So silly to think it was just my workplace 20 years ago and now it’s this novelty.
I also took a trip in December down to Burbank to hang out with my parents and see my other two brothers. I got some knitting done with Gracie the cat supervising. Ate some good California Mexican food, yum!
Thinking back on 2023, a few hard times stand tall in my memories… first, in February, on the day Portland got the second most snowfall in one day in all of recorded history, our old furnace broke and, after a series of events involving a despicable company and then a very good company, we ended up being without a working furnace for (I think…) about 10 days. Thank goodness for space heaters and electric blankets! We were okay but it was a very stressful time. If you’re in Portland, never ever ever consider using Pyramid Heating, and I do highly recommend Three Rivers Heating.
Then the day after we lost heat in the snow storm (or possibly late that night), a tree (okay, a big chunk of tree, but it was the size of a small tree!) fell on our house in the back yard. It didn’t do any damage, but it was a whole other thing to deal with during an already stressful time. That’s a week I’d never want to relive.
And lastly, speaking of times I’d never want to relive, in October we both got covid for the first time. My first symptom was 100 days ago today as I’m writing this, and I’m happy to say I feel very close to 100% of my old self now. I think I crossed a line around New Years Day… For most of December, I was still coughing almost every day, getting tired more easily, etc, but I think the last time I had to use the inhaler I was prescribed was mid-December, and for the last couple of weeks I have not been coughing at all most days.
Anyway, moving backwards, we managed not to get covid until then with a combination of very good luck, always masking indoors, never eating inside restaurants, and avoiding high-risk situations. We took these precautions on our midwest trip and made it home safely and healthy. But masks and luck will only take you so far, and Pete finally brought it home from the office at the beginning of October. Both of our first symptom was a very sudden bad stomach ache; his on October 5th and mine late on the night of October 7th. Because no other symptoms came with the stomach ache at first, we figured it was something we ate and had no reason to think it was covid. But then he had his first flu-like symptoms on October 8th, felt worse on the 9th, and then I started feeling it on the 10th, and that’s the day he tested positive. So, it was clear based on that that he was the one who got it first and gave it to me, and that he was carrying it and likely very contagious without knowing on the 6th-8th… which was important because we went to a party on the 7th! Because we always mask indoors, we stayed in the outdoors section of the party the whole time, except to go inside to grab food, where we masked. Of course we were two of the only people who put masks on to go inside, but hey, turns out we would’ve probably given covid to a bunch of people if we weren’t, so yeah. As far as I know (and of course I told the party host and my friends who were there!) no one got covid at that party. Masks are good, wear them, they work, they kept us healthy for almost 4 years, and they kept others safe from us as well.
And because that paragraph was so long, I’ll repeat that both of us had sudden stomach aches as our first symptom, 2+ days before other symptoms, so if you think you may have had an exposure and you have a weird stomach ache out of nowhere, consider that a warning sign that you should stay home and avoid others for a few days just in case (or at least wear a mask!). After the main symptoms started, Pete was lucky and only felt very sick for a couple of days. He was already feeling much better by day 3 and then had some lingering cough and ickyness for maybe 2 weeks total but not bad at all. Me, on the other hand, I got much worse on the second day, and then worse again on the third day… I couldn’t eat anything, I couldn’t do anything. I called the doctor to try to get paxlovid I think on day 3 of main symptoms, couldn’t get through to anyone all day, got a video call appointment the next day, was told I didn’t qualify for paxlovid, but she prescribed me 4 other medications, for nausea, cough, respiratory. They helped somewhat (the nausea one helped A LOT since my biggest problem was not being able to eat) but I stayed very sick for quite a long time. I took a week off work completely, and then I managed to work from home for the next two weeks since I didn’t want to use all my time off but I was very foggy working for at least that first week. Once I tried doing anything other than sit on the couch, I would get very tired quickly… and then after like 4 full weeks I’d try doing things like go to the office for a day, or go to a fiber festival, and I’d have to fully rest the whole next day to recover. If I did two things in a row, like go to the office for a partial day, then stop at a grocery store on the way home, I’d feel so tired like I’d run a marathon by the end of it. So all throughout November and most of December I tried to have a rule for myself that I could do one thing per day. Like, go to a store, or go to the office, or cook a complex meal, etc, and pretty much rest the rest of the day. Like I said, finally around the end of December, I felt my body shift and I no longer get exhausted from doing two things in a row or whatever else. I’ve taken some long-ish walks recently and they’ve gone well. So I’m very relieved because after a couple months had gone by and I felt how I did, I was quite worried I might be stuck that way! I do think that forcing myself to rest as much as I did throughout those months helped my body to heal and return to normal.
Phew, that was wordy and not so fun (so here’s a random photo of socks that I finished knitting early in the year) but I wanted to write about it! I am terrified of how my body might handle a second covid infection, so I will be continuing to live how I’ve been living for the last almost-4 years. I know I’m different from most people, but I do encourage anyone who read this far to think about how hard it is to wear a mask indoors versus how hard it would be to live with long covid. For me, it’s a non-issue. Wearing a mask is so easy and just totally normal now, even if I’m the only one in the room. Covid is still mysterious in so many ways because it’s so new, but a lot of experts, researchers, doctors are thinking about it as similar to HIV nowadays, in how it affects immune systems. People are getting basic colds now that last weeks and feel brutal because their immune systems are messed up from multiple covid infections. I very strongly believe that it’s in everyone’s best interest to avoid getting it as much as possible, so I’ll use this tiny platform to say that. I don’t plan to talk about it more on this blog unless there’s a reason to, but it was a major part of my 2023, so that’s that. Happy new year!
I initially wrote a massively long post about my love of movies over the last several years, with multiple favorites lists, and then I realized that was ridiculous and I needed to at least split it into two parts. So, my previous movies post became part one, which was kind of just about movies in general and leading up to 2020 and my faves-of-the-decade list… so now we’re at 2020.
I was always up and down with how much attention I gave to new movie releases and stuff, but I pretty much always gave movies some amount of care and attention. And then 2020 hit. The year of 2020 was okay, movie-wise, actually, because theaters shut down, and all new releases were happening on streaming. So I was continuing to pay attention that year, listen to my podcasts, catch as many new movies as I could. I was keeping up enough that I made a top-ten list at the end of that year. I posted that on social media and then I have heavily updated it on Letterboxd over the last couple years, adding ones that I hadn’t seen yet when I made the original list, and moving things around a little (the order is very arbitrary… every time I look at the list I want to movie things around, and there are several I want to revisit and possibly reassess):
And then 2021 hit… that was when things got hard. Movies were being released in theaters but I wasn’t going to theaters. Listening to film podcasts started making me sad. I mostly stopped paying attention to new releases. I started watching mostly TV shows. I started keeping a Diary on Letterboxd in 2021 and logging all the movies I watched—I was still watching movies on streaming sites, but mostly just whatever I came across while browsing. This continued on through 2022. We went and saw Nope in the theater that summer, but we were anxious about it, and it was fine but it didn’t make us excited to keep going to the theaters, so that was the only time we went that year.
In November of 2022 something in me snapped back in to place and I suddenly wanted to watch all the good movies that had been released that year! I started listening to my podcasts again, and started watching some movie YouTube channels. I don’t know why it happened so suddenly, but I just wanted to watch everything! I think it had to do with crossing a line around that time from feeling like I was waiting for things to go back to normal, to coming to terms with the *new normal* and knowing that we were never returning to 2019-life. The movies that had been made were available for me to watch at home, and at that point I’d been watching movies solely at home for two and a half years, so I was used to it, and there was nothing I was waiting for, so I just decided to dive in and catch up on everything I’d missed!
So from November 2022 through January 2023 I watched as many 2022 releases as I possibly could, and then I made a massive favorites list! It was this intense project that I put so much time and thought into, like I was making up for the past two years of not caring about movies. So below is that list in reverse order; it started as my top 25 of the year, and then I since added three more that I didn’t have the ability to watch until later.
Notes about where to watch things: I’ll say where they are currently available to stream at the time I’m writing this, but most are also available for digital rental, and where they are streaming might change by the time you’re reading this. I highly recommend JustWatch (I use the app on my phone but you can just use it in a browser) where you can search any movie (or TV show) and see where it’s available to watch. Also, Kanopy is my favorite streaming service and it’s completely FREE with my public library card! If you don’t have it, look into if it works with your library! (Hoopla is also free with library card and very cool but they don’t have as many movies.)
*JustWatch seems to be having an issue with Kanopy and newer movies—Kanopy is not showing up as an option for a lot of movies that I know are on it, on my app. So if I list Kanopy* that means it’s there for me, but JustWatch doesn’t list it, so maybe it’s not for all libraries, I’m not sure.
And again with the arbitrary ordering… I agonized over the order at the time when I made the list, but now, almost a year later, some of these have stuck with me much more than others and I feel like my order would be quite different if I did it all over again now. I still at least like all the movies though, so whatever it’s fine!
So here they are, my top 28 films of 2022!
28. Three Minutes: A Lengthening. A documentary about a short film snippet of a group of people in a Jewish village in Poland in 1938. Currently streaming on Kanopy and Hulu.
27. Emily the Criminal. (Kinda want to take this off the list because I’m mad at Aubrey Plaza for that fucking milk ad; only partially kidding…) Currently streaming on Netflix.
26. Meet Cute. I think a lot of people didn’t like this because they expected a silly rom-com, which it is not. What it is is a time-travel movie about depression, and I kind of loved it. Currently streaming on Peacock.
25. God’s Country. Intense. Currently streaming on Hulu and AMC+.
24. On the Count of Three. Another comedy about depression, light on the comedy heavy on the depression. Currently streaming on Hulu.
23. Significant Other. Sci-fi horror with some original elements that made me really like it. Currently streaming on Paramount+.
22. Fire Island. Super duper fun. Currently streaming on Hulu.
21. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed. Icon. Currently streaming on Max and Kanopy*.
20. Riotsville, USA. EXTREMELY relevant today, and also a very engaging doc. Currently streaming on Hulu.
19. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. Currently streaming on Netflix.
18. Bros. I know a lot of people didn’t like this, but I thought it was a really cute and fun rom com and I liked the cheesiness and the song at the end! Currently streaming on Prime.
17. We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. Not for everyone, very slow and not much happens, but it stuck with me and made me think a lot. I will say, I’ve seen people compare Skinamarink to this and I hated that one, so I don’t think they are much alike although I understand the comparison. Currently streaming on Max and Kanopy*.
16. Something in the Dirt. Another weird one that made me think a lot! Currently streaming on Hulu.
15. Prey. Excellent. (A note: I’ve never seen any other Predator movie and that didn’t affect my enjoyment of this one.) Currently streaming on Hulu.
14. Not Okay. I don’t think many people have seen this one, but I think it’s worth watching! Currently streaming on Hulu.
13. She Said. I thought this was fantastic and it hit me very hard and I’m a bit angry that it got little awards attention and I think most people just never watched it. Currently streaming on Prime.
12. Glass Onion. Just a really really fun time! Currently streaming on Netflix.
11. Triangle of Sadness. So much fun. One of the only movies on this list I’ve already watched twice, first alone and then I had to show it to Pete. I had originally squeezed it into my top ten but then I had to add one more later so it got bumped to 11. Currently streaming on Hulu and Kanopy*.
10. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. Currently streaming on Paramount+, Showtime, and Kanopy*.
9. Hit the Road. Currently streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, Paramount+, and Showtime.
8. The Fallout. Simple but extremely effective for me. Made me a huge fan of Jenna Ortega. Currently streaming on Max.
7. Women Talking. This is one that I wasn’t able to watch until after I made the initial list—I loved it so much that I had to squeeze it into the top ten. Currently streaming on Prime and MGM+.
6. Everything Everywhere All at Once. Currently streaming on Prime, Paramount+, Showtime, and Kanopy*.
5. Aftersun. Currently streaming on Paramount+, Showtime, and Kanopy*.
4. Nope. So so good. These top five were hard to put in order! For awhile I think this was in the number two spot. Currently streaming on Prime.
3. After Yang. One of my favorite genres: quiet drama that’s also sci-fi. By the writer/director of Columbus. Currently streaming on Kanopy*.
2. Petite Maman. By the writer/director of Portrait of a Lady on Fire. As an extra bonus, it’s only an hour and 12 minutes long. (This is generally listed as a 2021 release but I went by US release dates.) Currently streaming on Kanopy and Hulu.
And my number 1 of the year: Barbarian! I randomly put it on one night thinking it was just a whatever-horror movie, and WHOA. I tweeted this immediately after watching it: “I just watched this—was planning to do some crafty stuff while watching but once it started I was so tense & not wanting to look away, I ended up watching the entire thing without multitasking (rare for me!!) and pulling Karl onto my lap for comfort when it got scary. Very good!” Then I listened to some podcasts talk about it, and watched some YouTube videos (this is a good one!) and I kept liking it more and more. I watched it again with Pete and it completely held up on a rewatch. It’s just so fucking good. Currently streaming on Hulu and Max (and NO physical media release planned! so sad!!).
So after I finished making that list, I kept on paying attention to new movies, watching whatever I could, listening to my podcasts… I have an in-progress 2023 list where I’m dropping all movies that I give 4 stars or higher, so I’ll finalize that into an official list in January, once I’m able to see all the 2023 releases I want to see. (Frustrating how so many come out right at the end of the year, or have had a very limited release so are on critics’ lists but still aren’t available digitally for the rest of us.)
In the summer we wanted to join the Barbenheimer fun, with Barbie being the one we were actually excited to see, and opening weekend happened to be Pete’s birthday weekend too! So we dressed up in our most Barbie-and-Ken-esque clothes, masked up, and saw it at our local chain theater, which happens to have comfy recliner seats, making it extra spread out. We had a great time and decided we were ready to start seeing movies in the theater again!
The difference between summer 2022 and summer 2023, in terms of comfort level in a movie theater, for me anyway, I think, is that by summer 2023 I’d been required to work in the office part-time for over a year, so I’d gotten very used to being in an indoor space for many hours in a row, wearing a mask, around lots of people not wearing masks. In summer 2022 that wasn’t super normal for me yet and I’d get anxious in a space for a length of time like that; by this year, it’s just life. So being in a theater is comfortable again! Yay!
We’ve now seen eleven movies in the theater this year so far! Some have been great (like Anatomy of a Fall) and others not (hated Saltburn), and there are ones we’ve watched at home that I really wish we’d seen in the theater (most recent was May December). I’m just glad to be going again, I missed it so much!
A final side note, my fave theater experience of the year was not a 2023 film—it was the remastered Talking Heads documentary Stop Making Sense at the Hollywood Theater, so good!! I’d never seen it before, so seeing it for the first time on the big screen with a crowd was amazing and instantly turned me into a huge Talking Heads fan! I took my Halloween costume idea from it even, Tina Weymouth in the jumpsuit she wore in that doc:
I’ve always loved movies, always always, but I’ve also kind of fluctuated with how big a part of my life movies are. My whole family was always big into movies… in fact, my brothers loved horror movies from an age way too young to actually watch them! They just loved the idea of horror movies and like the trailers/commercials and pictures, and would dress up at Halloween every year as characters from movies they hadn’t seen. When I was 10 or 11 (?) I was Garth from Wayne’s World (which I’m pretty sure I also hadn’t actually seen), Matt (8ish) was some kind of horror villain dude, and Ben (6ish) was The Terminator. (Ben is now a cinematographer, and has worked on horror movies like Bone Cold, Dylan’s New Nightmare, and 13 Fanboy. Paul is also a filmmaker!)
So I lived in a movie-loving household, and in high school I would go to the movies pretty much every weekend, then in college I stopped for a few years because I lived on campus without a car and it was a big deal to go see a movie, but also I started taking film classes so I was learning about older movies and watching different kinds of things that were new-to-me. In my last year of college I worked at Blockbuster Video so I rented tons of movies and was going to the theater a bit more too. Then for a few years after that, money was tight and I didn’t live near any cheap second-run theaters so my main movie consumption was Netflix DVDs… until we moved to Portland in 2007 where (at that time) there were a bunch of awesome cheap second-run theaters!! So we started seeing tons of movies all the time, basically up until 2020. (The Laurelhurst theater below is one we used to go to a lot, back when it used to be second-run, mocked up with movie posters I designed for graphic design school!)
Also, in that time, post-2007 until I went back to school in 2016, when my full-time job was knit designing I would watch tons of movies while knitting for work… I got into several film podcasts—I’ve been listening to Filmspotting since I lived in California in 2006, and am still a regular listener; my number one fave film podcast now is Maximum Film! since I discovered it around 2019 I think. In 2011 I even did a year-of-movies thing on the blog where I watched 365 for the year and kept track of them all (like a proto-Letterboxd-Diary). Over the years I had phases when I’d watch lots of old stuff, criterion-type stuff, etc, although when I was designing I couldn’t really do subtitles because I needed to look at my knitting/notes.
These days, I knit a lot of more basic things just for fun, so I can knit to subtitles, and I’ve been watching lots of movies in other languages this year! I was initially going to have this blog post be catching up on movie stuff up to the present but that got WAY too long, so I’ll be posting again soon with my 2022 best-of list and more present-day movie stuff.
In January of 2020 I put together a list of my top films of the past decade—my top two of each year 2010-2019. So, it’s a bit different from what my actual top 20 of the decade might be. I also only allowed myself one film per director on the list, to help narrow things down. Below is my resulting list!
I’ll say where each movie is currently available to stream at the time I’m writing this, but most are also available for digital rental, and where they are streaming might change by the time you’re reading this. I highly recommend JustWatch (I use the app on my phone but you can just use it in a browser) where you can search any movie (or TV show) and see where it’s available to watch.
My Faves of the Decade:
2010 number 1: Never Let Me Go (currently streaming on Starz); number 2: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (currently streaming on Netflix). I loved Never Let Me Go so much that after I saw the movie I read the book, then I got the movie on DVD and watched it again, then years later I listened to the audiobook. (I’m not usually a big rewatch/reread person—too much new stuff!!) One of my top favorite movies and books of all time. If you haven’t seen or read it, I recommend doing whichever you prefer to do first—I really think the book and the film are both worth anyone’s time. If you have no idea what it is, I’ll tell you it’s a kind of soft-sci-fi drama, but I actually went into the movie knowing nothing about it, not even the trailer or plot summary, and I’m glad I did, so I’d recommend not reading anything at all about it!
2011 number 1: The Cabin in the Woods (currently streaming on Roku, Tubi, Pluto—all free with ads); number 2: Bridesmaids (currently streaming on Peacock). I loved Cabin in the Woods so much when I first saw it that I saw it twice in the theater! I can’t think of another movie I went to twice in the theater since Titanic when I was 15. I don’t know how well it holds up now though because I haven’t watched it in probably ten years.
2012 number 1: Safety Not Guaranteed (currently only available for rent); number 2: Frances Ha (currently streaming on Kanopy—free with library card, Netflix, Mubi, Criterion, AMC+, and Tubi—free with ads). If I rewatched both of these now I’d probably switch the order. I loved SNG so much when I first saw it in the theater, and then I bought it on blu ray and rewatched and haven’t seen it again since; whereas Frances Ha, for some reason, I didn’t see when it was new, and I actually didn’t see until I was making this list in 2020 and looking for blindspots. I absolutely loved it, and I’ve since bought the Criterion blu ray, but it felt weird to put a movie I’d just seen for the first time as my number one fave from 8 years earlier.
2013 number 1: Only Lovers Left Alive (currently only available for rent); number 2: Her (currently streaming on Max). I’ve seen each of these only once and really need to give them both a rewatch! I think I’ll still love them both.
2014 number 1: What We Do in the Shadows (currently only available for rent); number 2: The Grand Budapest Hotel (currently only available for rent). Another pair I think I’d flip now, or I actually think I’d probably choose a different film instead of WWDITS just because I feel like that one was really of its time, and there are a few others I like better than it now, shrug.
2015 number 1: Inside Out (currently streaming on Disney+); number 2: The Witch (currently streaming on Kanopy—free with library card—and Max). Yet another I’d change if I edited the list now—I haven’t seen The Witch (or the vvitch) since the theater, so I’d want to rewatch. I did actually rewatch Inside Out a couple years ago and I feel like I didn’t love it as much I did the first time… and I think there were some other 2015 releases that have risen higher for me now.
2016 number 1: Arrival (currently streaming on Hoopla—free with library card, Paramount+, and Pluto); number 2: 20th Century Women (currently streaming on Kanopy—free with library card—and Max). Love these both so so much.
2017 number 1: The Florida Project (currently streaming on Kanopy—free with library card, Hoopla—free with library card, Showtime, and Paramount+); number 2: Lady Bird (currently streaming on Kanopy—free with library card, Netflix, Paramount+, and Showtime). So good.
2018 number 1: Blindspotting (currently streaming on Max); number 2: Annihilation (currently streaming on Hoopla—free with library card, Paramount+, and Pluto).
2019 number 1: Us (currently streaming on Netflix); number 2: Parasite (currently streaming on Max). These two are kind of tied, and I need to watch Parasite again because I only saw it in the theater, then I might flip them… but there’s something weird about my personal number one movie of a year also being the Best Picture Oscar winner, you know?
physical copies of movies from faves of 2010s and faves of 2018 and 2019 lists
Looking up JustWatch for beloved older movies to see where they’re streaming is reinforcing my commitment to buying movies I love on physical media! I own all the movies on this list except three and I’m on the lookout for those. I buy a lot of used DVDs and blu rays and also Criterions during sales and I’ve started buying more recent releases new if I really love them, to support the films and to support physical media continuing to exist! Best Buy announced they will no longer have physical media next year; Barnes & Noble still does and they are my favorite chain store to buy from (online or in-store). Of course I prefer buying from a local non-chain when possible, but sadly most of the places where I used to buy them either closed or have little to no movies anymore, and the place where I love shopping for used ones barely has any new. Anyway, I love having a physical collection!
If you like lists, I also have best-of lists on Letterboxd for 2018 (above), 2019 (below), 2020 & 2022 which I’ll do a separate blog post about, and an in-progress list for this year, which I’ve basically been using to drop in all movies that I give 4 stars or higher, making it easier to form my list at the end of the year.
I joined Letterboxd around 2018 I think, but started using the Diary to log everything I watch in 2021. I love having that record, and the longer I do it the more I can use it to look back and see if I’ve already seen something (and if I liked it, etc), since my movie memory gets foggy after awhile. I love Letterboxd so much that I wanted to include it as a social media link on this blog, but the WordPress template doesn’t have a logo for it, so that generic link at the top after the twitter bird goes to my Letterboxd profile. If you love movies, I highly recommend it! I love looking at reviews on there after watching a movie, especially if I really loved it (or really didn’t)!
So all this kind of leaves off at the end of the previous decade. I’ll do a separate post with my more recent lists, because (spoiler alert) I made a top 28 faves list for 2022!! And since it’s so recent I wanted to really list them all out. If you’re here for knitting content, that’ll come too eventually. It’s what I do while I’m watching all these movies, after all. It’s all connected!
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