I really like the idea of the Love Mattress – snuggles are the BEST – but I can’t see how it would work with a normal sheet.

Sweet! Queen Elizabeth plays Wii! (Link courtesy of the Snook, who refers to her as “The Q wii n.”)

I had a lovely little old lady in the shop today who just DEPRESSED THE HECK out of me.

She came in at lunchtime and wanted to know where the Feathers was. I showed it to her, and then answered her questions about how many balls she’d need to make a couple scarves. As we walked back over to the counter, she happily told me that the scarves were a special request from her niece, who was going over to Italy soon. She thought it would be a nice idea to take some handknitted scarves to the Italians who were hosting her. “That IS a great idea!” I agreed. “But… why not use a merino, or one of the natural yarns that’s actually from Australia? I’m sure her hosts would love to see what we produce!” She agreed with me, but added, “Oh, but that’s so much more expensive.” She was so nice – and so excited to be fulfilling her niece’s request – that I couldn’t really bring myself to argue with her. So I sold her her $30 worth of novelty acrylic and watched her head out the door. Sad.

I apologise in advance to the people of Italy, and I’d like to add that while Feathers scarves are indeed a fair representation of what Australians have been knitting in the past five years, they’re in no way an example of the finest knitted garments this country can produce.

It’s just less than 4 weeks til this year’s Opera in the Domain event, so I thought I’d get the ball rolling on planning. Last year there were about a dozen Sydney knitters who got together beforehand to knit and enjoy the sunshine before the performance. I think this year, with advance notice, we can do even better!

Where: The Domain, Sydney
When: Saturday, February 2, 8pm

Let me know if you’re interested in coming and I’ll fill you in on the details closer to the date. Or if you’re on Ravelry, just leave a comment on my post about it over there…

Food movies. Mmm, food. (Superficiality and hedonism being my only defense against the fear of one’s own mortality.)

Oh Jesus. Longtime readers of this site will no doubt remember frequent commenter “brigita,” a fellow blogger and ND graduate (not to mention Purple Weasel). She stopped blogging earlier this year when she had her first baby, the little girl I made this outfit for. Tonight I got excited when I saw B’s blog pop back up in my RSS reader. I was hoping for a baby update. I got a bad shock. I just don’t understand. Cancer isn’t something that happens to us, to people our age, to people who take care of themselves and who just had babies and who DON’T DESERVE TO GO THROUGH THIS CRAP. I’m scared to think how I’d react if it were me. I think I’d have crawled into a dark place and never left. I… I don’t know what else to say.

Sweet! I just got my Ravelry progress bars set up. They’re down there on the right. I managed to get them working myself, but I needed the Snook to do the fancy CSS stuff to make ’em look pretty.

Sweet! The Best of Bootie 2007 CD is available for download…

Happy blog-birthday to me!
This website is now seven-years-old. Wow, that really crept up on me! I remembered late in December that the anniversary was coming up, but somehow it slipped my mind over the holidays. It wasn’t until I saw M-H’s blog birthday post this morning (Hey, we’re twins!) that I realised the big day had arrived. So, just as I’ve done the past few years (2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003), I’ve compiled some fun statistics to celebrate 2007…

• Number of posts: 811 (A 15% decrease from last year’s 949!)
• Number of comments: 2454 (Interestingly, almost exactly the same as last year)
• Comments to post ratio: 3.02
• Posts mentioning the Snook: 167 (A big decrease from last year. I blame the seven-year-itch.)
• Most commented posts: Deathly Hallows discussion, my 30th birthday, asking for book recommendations, the arrival of our new TV (where an anonymous dickhead said we needed a cleaner), that creepy spinny dancer thing, and – this is CRAZY – the Happy’s Place discussion from SIX YEARS AGO
• Top 10 commenters excluding myself: Bex (163), M-H (115), Amy (106), Jenny (89), SlythErin (78), missfee (69), eileen (65), miftik (54), crumpet (52), and jussi (38)
• Most famous commenter: The Snook (that one was a LONG time coming!)
• Number of polls: just two again
• Moblog posts: only 16 (I’m hanging out for my iPhone)
• Major server outages: one, caused by a DDOS attack that is still ongoing, necessitating a move to a new web host
• Oscar Contest entries: 597; won by “Kent Bailey”
• Nike+iPod total distance run: 494.5 km / 307 mi (I made it just past Weathertop)
• Races run: City 2 Surf, Bridge Run
• Finished knitting projects: more than thirty, including 11 pairs of socks and seven tea/coffee cosies!
• Media appearances: two hours on the “Countdown to the Chaser” webcast, interview in Sun-Herald, interview on Sticks & String podcast, interview on ABC evening news
• Celebrity encounters: Kim and Kelly Deal, Nicky Epstein, Iron Chefs Sakai and Chen
• Biggest disappointment: being rejected by Google… twice
• Best geek moments: Astronaut Training Experience at Kennedy Space Center, dressing up at the Mythbusters
• Houses purchased: just the one 🙂

There are a few interesting trends there. Many of the top 10 commenters are new to the list, and most of them are bloggers themselves. Actually, most of them are people that I’ve met in real life. And while the majority are female, I still had several male commenters not far below them. Also, it seems that the longer I do this, the more the focus of the site seems to change and evolve. I don’t have that many “ZOMG! LOOK AT THIS COOL INTERNET THINGY!” posts anymore. There’s a lot more about my life, my family, and my interests. I spend more time on external sites (like Ravelry and Ask Metafilter). I can’t wait to see what 2008 has in store…

Okay, Reecie has one of the best New Year’s Resolutions I’ve ever seen: “Continue being hot.” LOVE IT! That one’s totally going on my list.