Month: June 2006

Happy Father’s Day, Dad! I just finished skimming through this lovely AskMetafilter thread about the lessons we learned from our fathers. Some are uplifting; some are sad; some are bitter. Worth a read.

Knitted Naughty Bits. Be sure and follow the link to Crochet My Crotch, which crochets vulvas to order. (EAR MUFFS?) Now that’s some subversive knitting!

The Dillon Brothers: A Study in Hotness. I figured this AskMetaFilter question on why Matt Dillon is so much better looking than Kevin Dillon would be deleted right away, but instead the discussion was really interesting and totally redeemed it. I like the person who squished up Matt’s features and spaced out Kevin’s. Points for creativity!

I have no idea what this “Ridin’ Dirty” song is, but go here and vote for Comedy Sportz’s lip sync version. It features everyone’s favorite ImprovBlogger Tara D in several scenes, including the promo shot of her writing “DIRTY” on a wall. HILARIOUS.

KnitSplurge: I’ve been watching the KnitterlyThings Shop in some time in the hopes more Vesper sock yarn would shop up… and today it did! I just bought a skein of Tartan.

Whoa… My e-mail to the ABC got our WWKIP Day pictures linked on their Arts blog! I also got in a plug for the TC SnB. Sweet!

Later: Someone from the Public Broadcasting Company of Japan read the article and rang the shop asking about both the Sydney stitch and bitch groups and the Melbourne “Knitta” people. I explained that the “knit graffiti” movement – as far as I can tell – seemed to be inspired more by magazine articles than any real creative urge. (It’s the same problem I have with the zombie thing, really.) She also seemed oddly fixated on how many men were coming to these knitting groups. She actually said she had a funny image of a bunch of funky young guys sitting around knitting. And while I know that would make a great image for a story, it’s sadly not the case. I’d love to get more guys interested in knitting, but most of them still think it’s a bit of a joke (as witnessed by the drunken louts who stopped by WWKIP Saturday). Maybe I should organise “Teach a Guy to Knit Day” or something. Anyway, I tried to play up the “hip” factor of Sydney knitting without giving her too much the wrong idea…

Underglazing
I had a really enjoyable pottery class tonight, mostly because I didn’t bother to try to throw anything. I turned my two crappy pots from last week and the new bottoms rather improve them, I think. Then I decided to start decorating. First, my curvy little vase. I decided she wanted to be pink. I was trying for a real gradation of colour, like fabric that’s been drip-dyed. Unfortunately that’s pretty hard to do with dry clay that sucks up moisture, meaning you can’t really “blend” the colour areas very much. I settled for some swoopy stripes. Then it was on to my chunky bowl from the very first night. I decided he wanted to be green. I then went back with a blue to do a thin spiral in the middle, but the spiral decided it wanted to be thick and spill over the side of the bowl. It’s more of a wave, really. I think it’s gonna look groovy once it’s fired and glazed. I really will need to do some more throwing next week though. I’m running out of things to turn and glaze!

This morning the Snook and I watched this clip of a lyrebird from one of David Attenborough’s nature specials. Lyrebirds are native to Australia and I’d heard they were good mimics, but I had no idea. It’s amazing! The chainsaws and the camera are the bits that blew my mind.

HOLY CRAP! Australia stuns Japan 3-1. I’m kicking myself for going to bed after the disappointing first half. (In my defense, we bought a new heater yesterday and being toasty warm is not conducive to staying up after midnight…)

“Tabby Cat Chases Bear Up Tree, Twice.” HA! This is particularly relevant this weekend because I finally managed to witness Dr. Amy’s mistreatment of the Snook. He’s maintained for some time that she attacks him whenever I leave the house, and he has a theory that he’s below her in the family power structure. (I, of course, am the top.) I just laughed at him until I actually saw her nonchalantly walk up to him and then lunge at his leg (resulting in a four-inch-long scratch). So yeah, I can totally buy a cat terrorizing a bear. Snookums is just lucky we don’t have any tall trees around. (Link courtesy of John.)