I’ve been reading Todd Klein‘s blog for a while now. He’s been a letterer in the comics industry for thirty years, and his site is really entertaining for anybody who likes design and text. He’s just announced that he and Alan Moore have collaborated on a special one-off print: Alphabets of Desire. I enjoyed the story of how it came about, but I’m thinking, “Greeeeat. How many hundreds of dollars is this gonna cost?” So I clicked over to his shop page. $16. And postage is another $4. I placed my order immediately. Hooray! I bought some art for the house!
Author: Kris
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Rap Graphs
Graphical interpretations of rap lyrics. Some of these are really funny, and some are just mystifying because me? Not a huge rap connoisseur. This one is totally my favorite though. (Link courtesy of Eileen.)
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Piano
Isn’t it always the way? You sit down to dinner, and somebody turns up with a piano.
Later: Did you know that it’s physically possible for two guys to physically carry a piano? I didn’t. I honestly thought that a piano – even an upright – weighed like a thousand pounds. So it was with great excitement and glee that I watched as two of the most Ocker guys I’ve ever seen maneuvered a piano up our front steps and into the dining room. (You’ll probably be able to see it in the distance on CouchCam in the morning.) Now all we have to do is get it tuned and the Snook will be able to give Darren a run for his money. (Thanks to Ma and Pa Snook for arranging for it to be sent down!)
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For Sale: One Useless Cat
For Sale: One Useless Cat. When I saw that link title, I totally expected it to be the Snook trying to sell Dr. Amy Jones on eBay. Instead it’s TOTAL CUTENESS OVERLOAD!
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ABC News… Victoria?
A-ha! I wondered why the hell we were getting the ABC News Victoria feed tonight. I figured it was because the Sydney staff were all getting pissed at their Christmas party.
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Life in Chippendale
I’ve just contributed my first post to Life in Chippendale.
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HTML Elements Quiz
How many HTML elements can you name in five minutes? There are 91 in total, and I managed to get 42. Of course, I totally cheated at the end. I probably only got 35 on my own.
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Internet!
We have Internet! And it’s all down to the Snook. When several ISPs all claimed that we weren’t able to get ADSL at the new house, he refused to believe them. He spent a week posting on forums and emailing technicians until he finally got someone to look into it. Lo and behold, that “no” turned into a “yes”! Now he’s busy fixing up our wireless network and bringing CouchCam back online. (Ooh, your first glimpse inside the house!) And lest I give you the idea that his handiness is all cerebral, he also broke out the powertools this week to mount my new IKEA mirror in the wardrobe. *sigh* I always did have a thing for Handy Smurf…
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Retro Rib Socks
Retro Rib Socks
Despite everything else that happened this month, I still managed to meet my Southern Summer of Socks goal of one pair per month. This pattern is “Retro Rib Socks” from Interweave’s Favorite Socks. (More photos are on Flickr.) I’ve now made FOUR pairs from this book; I love it. What I didn’t love was the yarn: TOFUtsies. It’s a blend of wool, cotton, “soysilk,” and chitin. (Yes, ground up crustaceans.) Sounds interesting, right? I had a hell of a time getting it to behave.My first problem was that I tried casting on from the center of the ball, thinking I’d do my usual “knit two at once” trick. Right away I ran into difficulty. This yarn is so loosely spun and apt to split that I just couldn’t make any headway with it. A single strand would always be pulled loose from the rest and I just couldn’t get it to sit properly. I tried about three different patterns before giving up and going to the outside of the ball. That worked a lot better. (Of course, it also meant I had to knit them one at a time, so I had to battle a little Second Sock Syndrome.) Also, as the yarn has very little stretch, I had to cast on over two needles to get it loose enough to go over my leg, even though I’d already gone up to my usual 2.75mm needles.
Okay, so that’s all the negatives. In the positive column, it certainly feels very nice to wear. I even made the Snook try them on to gauge the prickliness factor, and whether I could use the fiber for him. (He likes them better than pure wool but still finds them itchy. Weirdo.) The other nice thing is the meterage. I had heaps of this yarn left over, and I didn’t make them deliberately short or anything. You’d defiitely get a man’s pair out of a single 100g ball.
Next up: Jaywalkers! I’ve finally given in to the temptation, seeing as how everybody else in the known universe has knitted them.
