Happy birthday to me…
Well, it’s not exactly cake, but toasted homemade bread with Nutella and a tealight on top (served in bed) are close enough!
Author: Kris
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Happy birthday to me…
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Martha’s Poncho
Oh, good grief. Knit Martha’s poncho. I am disgusted to admit we’re planning a poncho window display for the shop. (Link courtesy of Amy.)
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MeFi Meetup
Hoey alerted me that there’s going to be a Sydney MetaFilter Meetup on April 1st, if anybody’s interested. Unfortunately that’s our five year anniversary so I’ll have to miss this one…
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Comic book red
The couch isn’t the only thing that’s changed color around here lately… (Only three days til I turn 28, and as you can see, I’m still fighting it.)
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Eggbert the Easter Chick
Check out my new favorite holiday creation! A nice lady came in the shop the other day looking for wool to duplicate a little knitted chick a friend had given her. I squealed like a girl, especially once I turned the chick over. How cute is that? The lady told me I could copy her handwritten pattern if I wanted. That night I whipped up a prototype and set to altering the pattern (so as not to infringe copyright; I don’t know where the customer’s friend got the pattern in the first place). My version has a slightly rounder head and short rows in the tail to make it flip up. The pattern is currently available for free in the shop, but I’ll reproduce it here for the rest of the world. They’re really quick to make; I’ve done four already. Hooray for stash-busting! Happy knitting…You need:- scraps of 8-ply (worsted weight) yarn
- 3.75mm needles
- cotton ball or other stuffing for head
- bodkin or wool needle for sewing up
- cardboard for beak
- egg, chocolate or real!
Cast on 32 stitches.
Row 1: K1, increase 1, K to end.
Repeat first row until you have 44 stitches on the needle.
Knit four rows plain.Short row tail:
Row 1: K4, slip next stitch as if to purl, yfwd, move slipped stitch back to left needle. Turn.
Row 2: K4 to end.
Row 3: K3, slip next stitch as if to purl, yfwd, move slipped stitch back to left needle. Turn.
Row 4: K3 to end.
Row 5: Cast off 15 stitches, K to end.Repeat previous five rows for the other side. You should end with fourteen stitches left in the center of your knitting.
Head:
Knit three rows plain.
Row 4: K1, K2tog, K to last three stitches, K2tog, K1.
Row 5-6: Same as Row 4.
Knit two rows plain.You should now have eight stitches remaining on your needle. Cut the working wool leaving a footlong tail. Thread the tail onto your sewing needle and run it through the remaining stitches, cinching them tight. Then use the tail to sew up the head, back, and underside of the duck (leaving a hole to insert your egg!). Stuff the head and use some scrap wool to cinch the neck. I used contrasting wool to make knots for the eyes, and the beak is a sewn on piece of cardboard. You can get pretty creative embellishing these things! Have fun…
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Amazing Race 7
For the record, the Snook and I are firmly on the Rob and Amber Love Train for this season of Amazing Race. Some folks think Rob’s just “smarmy and sneaky,” and you know what? He totally is. That’s what we love about him! Paying the bus guy not to tell anybody else the information? Genius. Paying the driver not to open the other door? More genius. Making the other teams foot the bribe? Priceless evil genius. Here’s the thing though: Devising strategems and trying to screw the other guy over never works unless you can actually back it up by being a good racer. And Rob and Amber are currently kicking the race’s ass. He’s workin’ the Spanish. He correctly predicted the money issues on the shopping trip. And he owned that book detour. Go team Boston!
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Gandalf on Corrie.
Gandalf on Corrie. *blink blink*
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Dammit.
Dammit. After working so well, my comment spam tactics seem to be getting less effective. Some jerk managed to slip several through the cracks today. They’ve figured out the link limit. Crap. Now I need a new idea.
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Colorization Using Optimization
Colorization Using Optimization. Wow. That sounds really boring and technical, but check it out anyway because it’s actually mind-blowingly cool. Those video clips at the end are so neat. (Link courtesy of Ernie’s mini-blog.)
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ThinkSecret is no New York Times.
John Gruber tells Think Secret: “You’re no New York Times.” And you know what? I agree with him. People are jumping all over this lawsuit as some sort of sky-is-falling, First Amendment, bloggers-versus-The-Man type of thing, when in reality it’s about a crappy gossip site publishing trade secrets and trying to claim it’s legitimate journalism. It’s laughable. I also don’t buy the argument that Think Secret’s “reporting” is good for Apple and that it doesn’t hurt the company. Gruber effectively debunked that myth for me a few months ago.
