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Author: Kris

  • Craft Corner Death Match

    We had little impromptu Aussie craft-blogger meet-up today at Amy’s place to watch some episodes of Craft Corner Death Match. Joining us were Katherine, Helen, and Clinton. I wasn’t hugely impressed with the show, to be honest. I can see where they were going with the concept, but it’s got a few big problems for me:

    • The Host. He sucks! He just gave off this whole “Man Show” vibe that we all seemed to resent. I get that they were going with the whole “Rarr! Wrestling meets craft!” thing, but some of his jibes seemed bordering on the misgynistic and insulting. I don’t think he considered anything the contestants made useful or beautiful. It was a big joke to him. I kept waiting for him to tell the contestants to “make me some pie, bitches.” And the bit where they had to reach into his pants pockets to pull out categories? REALLY unnecessary.
    • The time limit. Ten minutes isn’t enough time to do anything. We also didn’t get to see very much of the contestants actually working either. The show either needs to expand to an hour or cut some of the (admittedly humorous) interstitial crap.
    • The judges. What’s with giving scores to two decimal points? That’s just silly. Some of them seemed rather petty and vindictive to the contestants too. I understand that everybody wants to be the next Simon Cowell, but it’s just not very pleasant to watch.

    So overall, I give the show 7.35 on originality, 4.46 on execution, and only a 6.329 on enjoyment. We had a lot more fun watching the fabulous Brini Maxwell afterwards…

  • Eat an iPod Shuffle.

    And you thought iPod Shuffles were just for listening to… (That one with the Crisco and the poppy seeds makes me wanna barf though!)

  • Celebrity Rock ‘N’ Bowl??

    Congratulations to my sister Amy, who helped organize the extremely successful Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Inaugural Celebrity Rock ‘N Bowl Event. The auction she put together raised $20,000 more than expected! Check out the pictures to see the celebrities that took place. All I can say is, if a member of my own family was in the same room as Ben Mackenzie from The O.C. and DIDN’T GET ME AND THE SNOOK AN AUTOGRAPH, she can consider herself OFFICIALLY UNINVITED TO ALL OF AUSTRALIA. Ahem. But congrats again, Sis!

  • No DUH.

    US President Turns Off Australian Women. Well, no DUH. I like the picture they chose to illustrate the story though. Heh. Baby fish mouth.

  • Cheesylove is Finished!

    CheesyloveAt long last, Cheesylove is finished! This is the Knitty pattern I started well over a year ago. At one point, I completely frogged it back to the beginning and started over (which meant re-casting on A THOUSAND stitches for the ruffle. Do you know how long it takes to do ANYTHING a thousand times? I do.). I was toying with the idea of putting short sleeves on it but in the end I decided I liked it better as a vest. Pattern notes follow.For the body of the vest, I used Heirloom EasyCare 8-ply. I can’t even remember why; it was that long ago. But it gave me the right gauge and it’s not too scratchy. The hearts are done in Heirloom Aristocrat 12-ply mohair/wool, which makes them stand out nicely. As usual, the Knitty pattern had several problems wrong with it. The biggest was that it told you to mark the side seams and then do your shaping on either side of it, without any indication which increases/decreases to use nor where to place them to ensure the ribbing didn’t get buggered. (This is part of the reason I frogged it back. My initial seamlines looked crap and it bothered me.) In the end, instead of merely marking the seam, I actually used two markers to isolate the actual side rib. Then I made paired increases/decreases in the ribs on either side of it so that they grew or shrank organically while the center rib remained whole. (Yeah, yeah, I know. It was a lot of thinking and planning for what basically amounts to the armpit of a garment. But I’m really happy with how I did it, and quite frankly I get a little thrill out of knowing that I did it the best way possible.) For the armbands, I simply picked up around the holes with the smaller sized needle and knitted 5 rows of K1P1 rib before casting off. (That way it matches the neckband.) It’s not the most stylish garment in the world, but I think I executed the design better than any other pattern I’ve tried before.

  • 622 Music Videos

    Good Lord! 622 Music Videos. I don’t know who this guy is, but he ROCKS. Most of them are in Quicktime, it looks like. Lots of stuff from 80’s and 90’s. (Amy’s gonna be all over this.) I’m grabbing the two Matthew Sweet videos right now. Squee! (Link courtesy of MetaFilter.)

    A little while later: Hey, that’s Samantha Mathis in REM’s “Strange Currencies” video, isn’t it? The forgotten little sister in the holy alterna-girl triumvirate of Claire and Winona. Major 90’s flashbacks here. And I really liked “At My Most Beautiful” too. I can’t figure out who the chick is. She looks like she could be one of the Phoenixes, but I can’t find her credited anywhere.

  • Keratosis Pilaris

    I just discovered that I’ve been suffering from Keratosis Pilaris my whole life! Well, I knew I was suffering from something, but I didn’t know what it was called. My brother’s got it too. I think I’ve been growing out of it, slowly, but it’s not completely gone yet. Damn bumpy arms!

  • A Tremor in the Force

    Did anyone else feel a tremor in the Force today? The Snook has ventured into the belly of the beast. I triple-dog-dared him to wear one of my Apple shirts but he declined. Wimp!

  • The BBC is Stupid

    This BBC story about eight newspapers “backing” the “Apple bloggers” (ThinkSecret, et al) is so stupid. No judge – or right-minded person, for that matter – would equate a case of corporate whistleblowing with leaking trade secrets. One is in the public interest. One is not. The public may be interested in knowing Apple’s every move – I know I am – but to compare it with Watergate is a bit much, I think.

  • The Tiger is Unleashed

    Woohoo! Tiger ships on April 29. It also looks like they aren’t making the Aussies wait an extra day, so we should be the first ones in the world to get it!