and knitting

afternoon delight

Just a quickie.
The new MagKnits is out! Sesame looks awfully cozy and Crimes of Fashion is rather funny...

wound up

Thanks to Angela's deal spotting, I finally got myself a wool winder. It's such fun to make the tidy little yarn patties. Now I just need to get a swift!

It's been a pretty busy week in my non-knitting life, so in the absence of any finished projects, here's some silly randomness.
• Terrifying video of an army of roaches taking over a Tokyo subway station. (via Gridskipper)
• The Human Zoo (via Londonist) - "Presented to the public with only fig leaves to protect their modesty, the humans will become an important feature of zoo life as they are cared for by our experienced keepers and kept entertained through various forms of enrichment". Wacky!
• This blog entry about branding is sick making. "Because if there is one thing that I have learned from being an Alpha Mom is that things change constantly, one day my little boy is totally defined by his love for Thomas the Train and the next week it is on to the next new brand in a life that will be filled with many brand identities". (via Metafilter)
• Popgadget recently posted about Yohji Yamamoto's new collection with Adidas called Y-3. The Y-3 site appears to be down right now, but one of the items is a pink knit poncho with the traditional stripes down the sides (you can see a picture at Popgadget). We all know ponchos are supposed to be horribly out, but this one is rather cute. I think Japan should have the women from their Winter Olympics' team wear it for the opening ceremonies.
• My sister's making me jealous with her new knitting project, the circular shrug that the knit blog world has been buzzing about. There's a great thread on Craftster about the pattern.
• I updated Knitting in the News with a few more articles today. I especially enjoyed the story about Cast Off Knitting Club.
• BS Protector - no clicky if you don't want to read a naughty word.
• Amazon started a new thing this week - Amazon Shorts - short books you can download for 49 cents. I bought one by Tama Janowitz called These are the Eyes... that Paralyze. Their site gave me a few errors when I tried to download it, but it eventually worked out.

  I had sort of forgotten about Tama Janowitz. Remember Slaves of New York? I loved that movie when I was in high school, which then led me to her book. I'm happy I was reminded of her work.

• Sad Mac sweater (via Engadget) - this is bringing back some bad memories for me.

looming FO

My family celebrated my Grandmother's 85th birthday this past weekend. It was a lovely day.

During a break in the action, I snapped this photo of a piece of my family's history. The photo shows an apron that belonged to my great great grandmother, along with a photograph of her working at her loom back in Sweden.

I spent a good portion of the afternoon party knitting away while sitting out on the deck at my Aunt and Uncle's lake home. The weather was gorgeous!

Unfortunately, the pleasant conversation distracted me from orangina (AKA Shirley Temple) and I dropped a few stitches, so I put that away until I could get home and repair them, and worked on the easy peasy bias scarf.

I am so close to finishing orangina. I can't hardly wait!

PS: I updated knitting in the news again today with a couple more articles, but Bloglines didn't seem to pick it up.

disturbing(ly cute) knits

Here's something silly for the weekend.

These disturbingly cute knits are from a booklet (no ISBN as far as I can tell) I purchased in Japan for Jill and the lovely Miss Ada. I bought it at a store called Craft World in Osaka's really cool mall, Namba Parks.

I'm able to post it now because I finally sent it off to her.

Isn't this hat and kerchief adorable?

However, I do believe the hat and scarf below are my favorite. Don't all stylish little doggies need accessories?

knitting in the news update

I posted five new articles on knitting in the news this morning.

There's also a new knitting news feature on my sidebar. Typepad has an option to add RSS feeds to your blog, so you'll now see knit-related (or at least I hope so) headlines from Google News on this site. I'm not sure that anyone really reads them, but I'll also continue doing my monthly knitting in the news posts.

I'm now posting knit-related news stories on Knitting News. More details here.

pert opinions and fine eyes

I found this quiz via Pelotes etc., but I don't see it on her site anymore. Do visit her site though, because she has designed a really cute purse pattern, Isabeau.

You're Elizabeth Bennett of Pride and Prejudice by
Jane Austen!
Which Classic Female Literary Character Are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Rather than start a new post to add in a few random things, I'll continue here.
• Check out the great deal on lace weight yarn at handpaintedyarn.com. 850 yards for $5.95 - wow! I had seen this site before, but hadn't looked very closely. Thanks for pointing out the great deal, Subway Knitter. I ordered it in Barbie Rose and Molly. I'll use these to try out the Elizabeth I pattern I purchased a while back.
• I'm excited because I just registered for my first knitting class. I'll be learning to make basic mittens at my favorite local yarn store. I've had a hankering to learn to use DPNs, but have been intimidated. This project seems like the perfect opportunity to learn, seeing as mittens are a winter essential here in the tundra.
• Crafting Japanese (via knitting in public) - This is going to be a great resource for future amazon.co.jp purchases.
• Now, this one has nothing to do with knitting, but is too bizarre not to link. Some idiots stampeded to try to get their cheap hands on cheap old laptops. Also, check out the slideshow. A woman even wet herself so that she would not lose her place in line. Thankfully there are not photos of that. I found this via Metafilter, where there are lots of great comments on the story. My favorite, "Back in December 1982, I was watching TV with an Iranian friend who shook his head sadly and remarked, "In other countries, people riot for freedom, or for food. In yours, they riot for Cabbage Patch Dolls."
• Woo hoo - there's a new Rebecca out! Thanks for posting about it Yahaira!
• There is yet another collection by Kim Hargreaves now online (via yummyyarn). The photo on the splash page is kinda freaking me out, but I quite like Serene. Wouldn't it look great in peat?

kyss mej honey, honey kyss mej

So, I didn't get to finish Orangina/Shirley Temple over the weekend, but really, I have a good excuse.

I went to Ikea on Saturday (yes, Swedish meatballs were consumed) and picked up a new chest of drawers. All of the little bits and pieces were rather intimidating.

On Sunday, with classic Swedish pop music in the background, I put the darn thing together. What a chore! I'm really happy with it and am glad it was worth the trouble.

As you can see from the photo above, there are a couple more inches of ribbing to go on Shirley Temple. Now, I do love ribbing, but am quite looking forward to being finished. The fruit print bag next to it is my new knitting bag. Only $6.97! It's perfect because it has no zippers or velcro to catch on my knitting. Hurrah for bargain shopping!

dumbed down

Because I still don't have a finished object to post I'm here again with random things knit and otherwise...
• A little while back I posted about knitters whining about how knitting is supposedly being dumbed down. Here's a funny post on that same topic.
• Interactive Salaryman - make sure you click on members to see some silliness (via octopus dropkick)
• Jewelry from Angela Tong - beautiful things and she's also a knitter! I bought one of her swan rings and love it. I'd post a photo of mine, but I need a manicure.
• The Gap curvy jeans come in ultra low rise and regular low rise so I'm going to try them again. Perhaps the regular ones won't look so hootchified on me. I also hope they don't have that horrifying underwire for the tummy effect. You know what I'm talking about. They had better work, because I think I have to get a new pair today. I am right now wearing the magical growing jeans. Seriously, they expand by about 2 sizes throughout the day. It's awful.
• How to properly sew on a button. This blog gives an interesting peek into the world of bespoke tailors and is produced (I think) by the guy behind gaping void.
• Knit Picks has posted their new fall collection of yarns. I'm intrigued by decadence and panache, but am not so sure about the colors. Maybe I'll have to order a color card. I wish yarn manufacturers would work more closely with the fashion industry. Also, check out the pantone fashion color report to see the colors we'll supposedly be wearing this fall.
• Fine Sewer Art - One of my stranger "hobbies" is that I like to take photos of cool manhole covers. I even won a contest with one of my shots.
• Mugatu's Derelict Campaign from Zoolander, er never mind, it's actually one of the new Rowan books
• OK Go (video link) - Goofy boys dancing, complete with goofy choreography. What's not to love? (via Signal vs. Noise)

cold war

I did some cami shopping yesterday, which can mean only one thing -- I'm nearing completion of Orangina, or, as I've dubbed mine, Shirley Temple! I didn't find a camisole that would work with it, but I did find a nice little DKNY number that will be useful with other things. I also tried on the new jeans at the Gap. The "curvy" cut made me look like a slapper. Yech. So, no, I did not buy them.

I finally got to the ribbing section of Orangina while I was watching the third film in my Cold War Film Festival, Fail Safe. That is a very tense motion picture. I really loved Henry Fonda as the president. It was interesting to compare it with the previous film in the "festival", Dr. Strangelove, which covers virtually the same topic, but in a parodic manner. Both films feature great title sequences. If you are curious, the next film on the list is The Spy Who Came In From the Cold.

Back to Orangina/Shirley Temple. Can any of you give me any pointers about blocking? I plan to block each side separately before I sew up the side seams. The question is, do I dunk the whole thing in water and then pin it? Or, spray it and pin it? Or? Thanks for your help!

on deck

You don't know how hard it was for me to refrain my titling this post something like "Totally Tubular!!!".

I'm quite excited about Stefanie Japel's new pattern, Tubular Camisole. I bought it yesterday and think I have just the yarn for it, but if I didn't I would have considered buying one of the cool kits they have for sale on DiscountYarnSale.com.

However, I'm NOT going to start on this until I finish Orangina. I am so close to being able to do the ribbing section. Here's hoping I get some good knitting time this week...