WH11 Begins - and Helps Soothe My Own Soul
If you read my Life & Times blog today, you may have an idea that I'm having what can only be called a sucky day. Not a drop a hot dog down your shirt, step on the cat's tail, get rear-ended in the parking lot kind of day. But a gawd-this-all-blows, when-is-it-going-to-be-better, I-just-want-to-curl-up-and-cry kind of day.
It's hard for me to be very original or crafty on a day like that. It's hard for me to pick up any projects at all, even.
But no matter how lousy a day I'm having, how miserable I feel, I can almost always manage to work at the simple-minded knitting that is a Wearable Hug.
I mentioned yesterday that I had a feeling I needed to start WH11 soon, and so in spite of everything today, I got
the 57 stitches of Lion Brand Homespun yarn in the Barrington colorway cast onto my needles and began working.
A Day's Work on a Wearable Hug
And the knitting did its work, too.
For me, fairly mindless knitting - K3, P3, rinse and repeat is the pattern for a WH - while watching fairly mindless television serves as a form of meditation. The rhythm of the needles soothes me, calms me, and tv shows help me to forget my worries. I admit it, I'm a tv afficionado, and I like a lot of programs that many people might call dumb.
Lately, I've been Tivo'ing the show Family Matters to watch while I knit. Most people might remember this as "The Urkel Show". It's on weekday afternoons on ABC Family, two back-to-back episodes.
Originally a spin-off from Perfect Strangers (Bronson Pinchot as Cousin Balki), Family Matters was about a black family in Chicago. Mom was the character from Perfect Strangers, the chief of security at the newspaper that Balki and his cousin Larry worked at. Dad was a Chicago police officer. The extended family included Mom's sister, Rachel, and her son Richie; Dad's mother; and the kids, son Eddie, oldest daughter, Laura, and youngest daughter, Julie.
What I've been most enjoying about these shows is watching the character of Urkel. Yes, believe it or not, I think Jaleel White was the real treasure of the show. His character was introduced as a one-shot gag for an early episode in the first season, and he caught on so well with the audiences they brought him more and more into the stories.
Jaleel White accomplished something pretty remarkable for such a young actor. He created a memorable character - and when the show started in 1989, he was only 13 or 14 years old. He performed that character with consistency, building logically (sit-com logic, but logic nonetheless) on a background story and on events from previous episodes to create a well-rounded, if preposterous, entity. What he did took skill that many actors never develop at any age.
Yes, many of the plots were dumb. Yes, much of the way the characters were presented was stupid. But really, did Lucy Ricardo make any more sense when she decided to....well, she did something newly ridiculous every week, and she did it with such comedic flair that we all loved it. And we loved Lucy, too.
Jaleel White has the same comedic talent, and he showed it at an amazingly early point in his career. The downside is that he may have typecast himself into a corner, so it may be some time before we really see him shine as the star of any new show again. He did graduate from the UCLA film school in 2001, and currently he works most as a professional writer. One of his most prominent writing gigs is as part of the NBA "Blog Squad", where Jaleel has an ongoing blog about professional basketball.
If you enjoy a strong physical comic along the lines of Lucille Ball, John Ritter, or Harold Lloyd, consider checking out Family Matters. You may be pleasantly surprised.
After a few hours of mindless knitting and laughing at Jaleel White, I can't say that I felt all better. But I definitely felt better.
And even if that's all you ever get from knitting, it's worth it.
It's hard for me to be very original or crafty on a day like that. It's hard for me to pick up any projects at all, even.
But no matter how lousy a day I'm having, how miserable I feel, I can almost always manage to work at the simple-minded knitting that is a Wearable Hug.
I mentioned yesterday that I had a feeling I needed to start WH11 soon, and so in spite of everything today, I got
the 57 stitches of Lion Brand Homespun yarn in the Barrington colorway cast onto my needles and began working.
A Day's Work on a Wearable Hug
And the knitting did its work, too.
For me, fairly mindless knitting - K3, P3, rinse and repeat is the pattern for a WH - while watching fairly mindless television serves as a form of meditation. The rhythm of the needles soothes me, calms me, and tv shows help me to forget my worries. I admit it, I'm a tv afficionado, and I like a lot of programs that many people might call dumb.
Lately, I've been Tivo'ing the show Family Matters to watch while I knit. Most people might remember this as "The Urkel Show". It's on weekday afternoons on ABC Family, two back-to-back episodes.
Originally a spin-off from Perfect Strangers (Bronson Pinchot as Cousin Balki), Family Matters was about a black family in Chicago. Mom was the character from Perfect Strangers, the chief of security at the newspaper that Balki and his cousin Larry worked at. Dad was a Chicago police officer. The extended family included Mom's sister, Rachel, and her son Richie; Dad's mother; and the kids, son Eddie, oldest daughter, Laura, and youngest daughter, Julie.
What I've been most enjoying about these shows is watching the character of Urkel. Yes, believe it or not, I think Jaleel White was the real treasure of the show. His character was introduced as a one-shot gag for an early episode in the first season, and he caught on so well with the audiences they brought him more and more into the stories.
Jaleel White accomplished something pretty remarkable for such a young actor. He created a memorable character - and when the show started in 1989, he was only 13 or 14 years old. He performed that character with consistency, building logically (sit-com logic, but logic nonetheless) on a background story and on events from previous episodes to create a well-rounded, if preposterous, entity. What he did took skill that many actors never develop at any age.
Yes, many of the plots were dumb. Yes, much of the way the characters were presented was stupid. But really, did Lucy Ricardo make any more sense when she decided to....well, she did something newly ridiculous every week, and she did it with such comedic flair that we all loved it. And we loved Lucy, too.
Jaleel White has the same comedic talent, and he showed it at an amazingly early point in his career. The downside is that he may have typecast himself into a corner, so it may be some time before we really see him shine as the star of any new show again. He did graduate from the UCLA film school in 2001, and currently he works most as a professional writer. One of his most prominent writing gigs is as part of the NBA "Blog Squad", where Jaleel has an ongoing blog about professional basketball.
If you enjoy a strong physical comic along the lines of Lucille Ball, John Ritter, or Harold Lloyd, consider checking out Family Matters. You may be pleasantly surprised.
After a few hours of mindless knitting and laughing at Jaleel White, I can't say that I felt all better. But I definitely felt better.
And even if that's all you ever get from knitting, it's worth it.
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