web-goddess

The original plan was to head into the city to David Jones to get fitted for some new bras. (More on that in a minute.) Snookums decided to accompany me so we headed off down George Street. Just as we were coming up to Central, my jaw dropped. “Dude!” I said under my breath. “What?” said the Snook. “That guy we just passed is from Idol!” I had to ring Amy to confirm. It was indeed James Steele, Tassie drummer, dad, and member of the final twenty-four. Excellent! My first sighting of the year. Anyhoo, next stop was Capitol Square so the Snook could price some laptops. I wanted to go to “Capsule Paradise,” having been recently told by a customer that they had awesome Hello Kitty gear. And they did! It’s at the back past all the purikura booths (which I still find rather bewildering). It’s basically a wall of those prize machines you see outside Kmart in the States, but with awesomely inexplicable Japanese toys. I got a Hello Kitty “Zodiac” charm for my phone (she’s wearing a cow suit, which I think indicates “Taurus”) while the Snook got a crazy robot with guns coming out of its head. Very fun.

Eventually we made it to DJ’s and I managed to get someone in the lingerie department to fit me. As soon as she saw my current bra, she was like, “Yeah, you need to go down a size. You’re a 14 now, not a 16.” Woohoo! So after dealing with the embarrassment of having a total stranger see me topless, I got to try on about ten different bras and ended up buying four. The next time you see me, I will be much more statuesque. To cap off the outing, we decided to try Ichi Ban Boshi for the first time. The Snook was hoping to get some of the famed tonkotsu ramen but alas, it was long gone. I had the popular Tokyo ramen, while the Snook went for the spicy tantanmen. We also shared some gyoza, and I have to say they were some of the best I’ve ever had. Very crispy on one side with juicy, perfectly cooked pork inside with just the right amount of ginger. Thirty minutes later, we sloshed out of there with our bellies full of soup. It was a tiring excursion…

Ring Around the Collar
And just like that, we have a collar! As previously mentioned, I had to do some serious modifications of the pattern as this point. The depth of my neck shaping meant I ended up with a lot more stitches than the pattern called for, so I had to add in a bunch of extra cables and twists. I also wanted to cast it off with the red, so I ended up knitting it about a centimeter longer than I might have otherwise. But I like it! I think the zipper’s going to go all the way to the top of the collar so I can zip it up into a funnel-neck. It’s gonna be a warm jacket!

Cross stitch sampler dedicated to the Internet. That is BRILLIANT. See, I just need to figure out a way to use the cool stuff stuff people are doing with this craft on the Internet to reinvigorate the interest in it in Sydney. (Link courtesy of Moire.)

Click here for SCIENCE.

Funny Cats – classic compilation of frolicking cats. HILARIOUS. I love the shot of the cat licking the baby, and the end shot of the one pouncing at the camera. Cats are funny! (Link courtesy of Snookums.)

Cutting the Steeks
How do you turn a weird tube like this into an actual garment?

1. Have a big glass of wine.
2. Break out the sewing machine and carefully sew down the middle of the 1st and 3rd stitches of the 3-stitch steeks you put in for the neck and sleeve holes.
3. Stitch over those lines again. Seriously. And really go back and forth at the top and bottom a few times.
4. CUT THE SUCKERS.
5. Put it on and pray it fits, and that you haven’t turned $150 worth of Silk Garden into a big pile of short pieces of yarn.
6. Have another glass of wine.

I started with the neckline first, and here’s what I got when I opened it up. It’s like magic! It worked perfectly. Emboldened, I moved onto the sleeves. Once I had those cut, I went back to my shoulder stitches (patiently waiting on scrap wool) and did a three-needle cast-off to create the shoulder seams. Then I tried the sucker on. It actually fits! HURRAH! I’m waiting to cut the front though; I figure there’s no point in doing it until I’m ready to sew in the zipper. I decided to dive right in on the collar rather than start the sleeves. Unfortunately I’m having to improvise a bit here. The stupid Debbie Bliss pattern book doesn’t even SHOW a picture of the collar, nor do they include any schematics so I know what it’s supposed to look like. I also immediately ran into the problem that my neckline is a lot deeper than hers is. (She has an infuriating habit of assuming you get exactly the same row gauge she does, so she doesn’t bother specifying what length things are supposed to be.) So instead of picking up 13 stitches along the side of the neck, I picked up 37. That meant I had to invent a bunch of cables along that side. I think it’s going to look good though…

I’m very disappointed in the Big Brain, I have to say. It’s dinky! You can’t even walk inside! I don’t think a couple of crinkly lines hacked into a Hebel block should qualify as a Big Thing. Now the Big Gumboot… That’s AWESOME.

Pluto is no longer a planet. Isn’t that really weird? That they can just decide to rescind a fact we all learned as kids? I guess teachers will have to come up with some new mnemonics.

On a related mind-blowing note: “How many oceans are there?” Every American kid would say “four,” right? Well, get this: Australian kids say FIVE! Or at least, that’s what Snookums learned in school. He says they don’t count the Arctic Ocean; they count the North and South Atlantic separately and add in the “Southern Ocean” around Antarctica.

Silent Menace
I was playing with Dr. Amy Jones the other day when I noticed that her collar was looking pretty ratty. It’s the same ol’ Friskies collar they gave us when we took her home as a kitten, and it’s not the most stylish feline accessory anymore. It also looks like it’s thinned the fur around her neck a bit too. So we decided to take it off her, and now… We have a SILENT STALKER in the house. She just appears and disappears without any warning. We’d gotten so used to her having a bell that it’s really kind of creepy now to turn around and suddenly have a cat staring at you. She, of course, loves it. And to her credit, Snookums thinks she’s lessened the intensity of her pounce attacks (because she knows she’s got the element of surprise on her side). It’s kind of fun, actually. It makes her seem more mysterious and predatorial… in a cute little cuddly-wuddly kind of way.