Films of 2014

I decided at the beginning of last year to document the films I watched in the cinema throughout 2014. Which I have done, you can see all my brief comments on the films I watched here, 32 in total, I’ve also written a list below. I have decided to choose my favourite films of the year as well as my least favourite. There are several films that I wanted to watch this year that I missed (The Lego Movie, The Monuments Men, Belle, Get On Up…). I do have a Unlimited card for the world of cine so I may well go and see films that aren’t my first choice but armed with the attitude of ah well, it’s already paid for, I see more films than I ordinarily would, as well as more films that I wouldn’t see if I was paying to see them individually.

The secret life of Walter Mitty
American Hustle
12 Years A Slave
August: Osage County
The Wolf of Wall Street
Cuban Fury
Dallas Buyers Club
The Grand Budapest Hotel
A Long Way Down
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The Double
The Other Woman
Bad Neighbours
Godzilla
X-Men  Days of Future Past
22 Jump Street
The Art of the Steel
Chef
Begin Again
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Boyhood
Guardians of the Galaxy
Million Dollar Arm
Lets Be Cops
Pride
Gone Girl
What We Did On Our Holiday
Fury
Nightcrawler
The Imitation Game
Interstellar
unbroken
Paddington

My favourite films of 2014
Grand Budapest Hotel
This is my absolute favourite film of the year. I loved it from start to finish and I still feel as fondly about it now as I did just after seeing it. It was fun, original, colourful, stylish and a bit silly. Ralph Fiennes was wonderful in this role, which really seemed to suit him and all the supporting cast were great! It’s on my DVD’s to buy list.

Guardians of the Galaxy
I’ve watched most of the avengers films, I enjoyed them, but they don’t really stay with me. But this film had an extra level of humour, humanity and a great sound track – very enjoyable and I really want to see it again soon.

Pride
A great cast, an intriguing and gritty story, fantastic music, lots of laughs and a lovely uplifting end. It was one of those films that stayed with me quite a while afterwards and I felt the need to find out more about the subject and people involved.

I also feel I should mention a few other films, Boyhood, a fantastic feat of a film and one that sparked much discussion afterwards, Begin Again, a very enjoyable film with a very watchable cast. I also want to mention 12 years a slave, brilliantly harrowing, a great story and film, but I couldn’t say I enjoyed watching it. The Imitation Game, again a fantastic film if also a little disconcerting, absolutely fantastic performances.

My least favourite films of 2014
The Art of The Steel
Utter rubbish, boring, predictable and a waste of time.

Lets be Cops
It was just about watchable, but fairly preposterous and from half way through I’d correctly predicted the rest of the film. Also nowhere near as funny as it should have been, though that could have been because all the amusing bits has already been seen in the advert.

A long way Down
I wasn’t overly impressed when I watched it, but it was alright, however it has made it to my list of least favourites as looking back through my list, I had completely forgotten I’d even watched (sorry Toni Collette).

Other films that were close to getting in this list, The Other Woman & Bad neighbours, both just a bit too ridiculous and most of the amusing bits from the films were in the trailers and just not funny enough and quite forgettable, I might just be getting too old for this sort of film. Another film that gets a mention here is The Double, for just being odd and depressing and a bit too confusing, I’m not entirely sure I got it, but I also don’t care enough to figure it out or watch it again.

I’d welcome any film suggestions you think I might like to watch based on what I’ve liked & disliked in 2014!

December in Film

Films I saw in the cinema last month…

Unbroken (top)
I saw an advert for this in the cinema back in November and thought it looked pretty good. I wasn’t disappointed, it was a great, epic and harrowing story. The lead actor, Jack O’Connell was amazing, having not seen him in any feature film before, just on TV, I thought his accent was very authentic, I had wondered whether I would find it distracting knowing he’s English, but I forgot all about it. I felt the film was cleverly managed juggling the focus between pre war life and the gruelling reality of his experience during the war.

Paddington (bottom)
Several friends recommended seeing this, I did wonder whether it would ruin some child hood memories of Paddington, but it didn’t at all, really like it, it was sweet and amusing. Paddington had the perfect voice and the rest of the cast was fantastic. I imagine this would be quite magical to watch as a small child without the knowledge of Paddington being computer generated. A charming film!

Sheep Carousel

After my knitting inspiration blog post back in October I have made good progress on my list of intentions, though the jumper has been hibernating for a month or so, partly as I was preoccupied knitting a few Christmas gifts in the form of a small cat and some cabled boot toppers.

The main thing on the list that I can’t wait to get started on is the Kate Davies Bláithín cardigan, for which I needed some steeking experience and some confidence. That’s where the Sheep Carousel comes into play, a smaller more achievable tea cosy that has steeked holes for the spout and handle.

I bought my yarn a little while ago and saved it to knit over Christmas as a treat to myself and a break from the jumper. I started on Christmas Eve and blocked it last night, so altogether it took 2 weeks, probably quite a long time by some knitters standards but for me that’s pretty good (plus I was back at work in between Christmas & New Year).

Overall I think knitting the tea cosy was a valuable experience, not only for the much needed steeking practice but I really enjoyed learning how to knit a vikkel braid – a new favourite technique and far simpler than it looks.

I do like an I-cord cast off too, something I previously learnt to do on another of Kate’s patterns, Paper Dolls. I love the sheep on the tea cosy design, although I have to be honest I won’t be using it as a tea cosy, it’s hard work to get on and off a tea pot as there’s very little stretch in it all, as much as an i-cord cast off looks great a bit of ribbing would have been much more practical at the bottom. That said I really wasn’t knitting this pattern because I wanted a tea cosy, I was knitting it for experience of the various techniques involved. So my tea cosy will live permanently on a tea pot looking pretty on a shelf and that’s absolutely fine by me!

Steeking  (the Wikipedia definition can be found here).
I remember not so long ago mentioning at knit group that I wanted to have a go at steeking, the response being a sharp intake of breath  from most knitters, and the look of sheer horror on the face of a relatively new knitter when I explained what steeking was.  The very talented Eleanor from Knit Nottingham had done it before and told me it’ll be fine, and to get on with it, in the way only a very experience slightly mad knitter could.

I’m not going to lie I was apprehensive and I procrastinated for a day or so before actually doing the steeking part of this project, but then last Sunday I got on with it. I read and re-read Kate Davies very useful tutorial on her blog and then set to work. Creating the crochet reinforcements was quite straight forward and everything made sense as I was doing it.

Before I cut the knitting I couldn’t quite get my head around how it was going to work, I could understand the actual stitches I was about to cut would sort of shrink back into the crocheted bit, but what about the stranding yarn at the back that I’d also have to cut….I decided to take a deep breath and just do it. I filmed it as promised for some of knit group, I posted it on my facebook page on Sunday and got few comments commending my bravery   – thanks for that 😛
Here is the video.

I was very cautious handling my knitting after cutting it in case it all fell apart. But by the time I stitched the facing down on the inside I figured it can’t really go too wrong even though a few odd bit of wool managed to escape. The Bláithín requires a slightly different kind of steek, a sandwich steek, which I already feel a litter more confident about as the raw edges will be entirely trapped between two layers of knitting.

Now that it’s blocked and looking a little more relaxed on my teapot I’m quite pleased with the end result. I particularly love the top and the clever colour work, I will definitely be introducing vikkel braids where ever I can from now on. If you want to know more about the yarn I’ve added details to my ravelry project.

What’s next….I must finish my grey and cream jumper before I do any other knitting… although I did just get a new phone which would definitely benefit from a new phone cover….and then it’s on to Bláithín.