Happy New Year!
Thanks for visiting and I'm glad you're here. I'm a fiber artist, theatre artist, yogi and mom living in Venice, CA. I'm starting this blog (and later podcast) to share adventures in knitting and other crafts and all things high and low culture, in Los Angeles and beyond. Along the way I'll be talking about travel, yoga, photography, the causes I'm passionate about and life in general.
I'm new to this platform so it will be pretty basic for a while. I'm in the middle of packing for a family trip to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic but I want to post every day this year, so I'll focus on content for now and let the visuals evolve. Just for fun, let's start Knit Culturista with:
Culture
My husband is an ER doctor and was unfortunately working New Year's Eve and today, so my son and I had a fun and low key night. We went to Killer Shrimp, one of our favorite places, and then onto LA Connection Comedy Theatre. I did quite a bit of improv back in the day and thought my 12 year old son would enjoy it.
I haven't seen any live improv since The Groundlings kicked me to the curb in 2000, but this was really fun. Great cast, some classic games and some that are all theirs. They're also known for dubbing scenes in classic movies, which they screen before the show. They did a great job making it a fun and festive evening. They're in a small black box theatre on Ventura Bl. in Sherman Oaks. This is the view from one side, with another seating area stage left.
I was really in the mood for a big, critically acclaimed novel so Life After Life was a natural choice. I'm more than halfway through it and it's just kind of chugging along, like a train that pulls out of the station and slowly picks up speed. This is my first Kate Atkinson, and it's beautifully written and inventive, though not exactly keeping me up at night. I'll be finishing this up on vacation so have to start scouring my shelves for the perfect beach read.
A wonderful thing happened this year - I decided that, except for a few comedies and Revenge, I'm no longer watching anything on network TV. How liberating! Having pretty much cleaned out the old DVR, I've turned my sights to Netflix and happened upon this gem. The set-up is similar to Fargo set in West Yorkshire, though a comedy it's not. I'm about to watch the last episode tonight, and it's been picked up for another season. I do have to watch this with English subtitles, which you can easily set on Apple TV by pressing and holding the center button.
The last film I saw in the theatre was Gone Girl - I have a kid and don't get out much. Plus he's past the age of wanting to see every animation and more into stuff only his father will take him to. I loved this book and really wanted to see this in the theatre, and it was everything it was cracked up to be. It was a very faithful interpretion of the book, so if you read it you'll be watching the whole thing unfold and if you haven't, well you're in for a treat.
I know, me and everyone else, but really, how could I not mention Serial. I've been a podcast fanatic for years now but this has made the format go viral. My Downcast list is filled with mostly knitting and true crime, oddly enough, so this was a given. I'm not an obsessive of the Reddit caliber, but a series of articles called Jay Speaks is a follow up that you'll want to read if you're a fan.
As for music, I haven't really cared much since the 90's about anything new. This has to do less with age than 1. The death of CDs 2. Parenthood 3. Podcasts and audiobooks. Music seems to be everywhere and always available, which makes it kind of like a lover you get bored with. Having said that, after streaming my own extensive holiday playlist for the last few weeks, I stepped down to jazz for a few days, and finally settled on Electronic Chill on iTunes Radio. Just right for hanging around the house and won't put you to sleep. Which brings us to:
Knitting
I've finished my first design! Unfortunately I can't share it with you yet because I'd like to submit it to Knitty, and they are very particular about designs they accept never appearing anywhere. It's a long shot, but as soon as that's ruled out it's all yours. In the meantime, I'm working on the Hitofude Cardigan by Hiroko Fukatsu. It's less than $2.00 on Ravelry. It's an all-over lace design in fingering weight yarn with an innovative construction. It will take me forever because I'm not the fastest knitter, but it's pretty easy to memorize after a few repeats. For this project I will thank my favorite podcasters Barb and Tracie at 2 Knit Lit Chicks, plus a haul of Madelinetosh that I bought from a massive Craigslist destash.
Well I'm knackered (thank you BBC). So much more to discuss tomorrow, including my new spinning wheel! Once again, happy new year. Let's make this one great.
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