Yearly Archive: 2012

Amigurumi (編みぐるみ) is, according to Wikipedia, the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. So, string + tool = cute stuffed thing. It’s a pretty cool hobby, and there are people who are crazy good at it. I am not one of those people. However, that certainly is not the fault of my teacher, Stacey Trock of FreshStitches. Several years ago (when Stacey was still living in the area and working at A Tangled Skein, I took an Introduction to Amigurumi class from her, and had a blast. I made an awesome little piggy, who has since gone on walkabout somewhere. If he ever resurfaces, I’ll be sure to grab a picture.

Since that time, Stacey has moved on to new things, and is now a full-time designer of cool amigurumi. And, for a limited time, you can get one of her ridiculously cute patterns (Frankie the Lobster) absolutely free! You should definitely check out Frankie, Stacey, and the rest of the FreshStitches menagerie. They’re all adorable.

If you’re a fan of Old Blue Eyes, you might want to check out this deal from Amazon, wherein you can get 22 of his greatest hits for 99¢. I’m not sure how long the sale will last, so if you’re interested, act quickly!

A wonderful story about a blogger who unexpectedly has his world view shifted a little by the man who invented the first internally programmable computer.

*sigh*

As you all know by now, I’m making two of the Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl. One (SSMS #2) is in a state very commonly known around this house: all finished except the finishing. This means that all the actual knitting is done, and all that’s left is the blocking and the weaving in of loose ends. I keep swearing I’m going to start blocking an item a day, and make an interesting week of it, but yet, mostly-finished items continue to languish in their little baggies, waiting to be finished and sent on to their new homes. Life as a knitted object is hard.

Last night, thanks to an off-by-one error and not trusting my instincts that something was wrong, I ended up making a series of unfortunate mistakes in SSMS #3. Rather than following my initial urge (throw it away and go find a big drink), I carefully stowed the offending shawl back in its project bag, and set it aside until more awake – and calmer – minds were available.

After my morning meds and daily cup of coffee, I sat down with the shawl to see if the harm was reparable.

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So, a while ago, Jenn mentioned that she was lacking a nail file at the office. Since I had failed to get her anything for her birthday, I told her I would build her an office survival kit as a belated birthday present. Those of you who know me know that I go all out for these sorts of things. The photo below shows all the items that I collected to put into the kit. I tried to cover most eventualities. (more…)

First off, if you own a Kindle (or use the Kindle app on your $DEVICE), you should probably read Pixel of Ink. It’s one of my favorite, “Oooh, cheap or free Kindle books!” lists. Though it still has its share of romance novels (because, really, numbers lean heavily that way), it seems to make an effort to include other genres that are often overlooked by some of the other bargain listing sites.

Like, this book, for instance:

The first volume in The Oz Chronicles recalls both Stephen King’s The Stand and L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz.

For free, it might be worth picking up, based upon that description alone.

Once again I turn to the wonders of the Interweb to ask for guidance, this time regarding RSS readers.

I’m playing around with the various readers out there, and am feeling both over- and underwhelmed by the options at my disposal. So, I figure I’ll provide my requirements, and see if any of you have any suggestions (or anti-suggestions) to throw my way.

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Well, nothing to behold yet, as I haven’t done anything with it yet. But I have one, dagnabit.

Zebra, the makers of the venerable F-301 ballpoint pens has come out with a fountain pen. The pen, available in black or blue, doesn’t have great reviews on Amazon. I’m not sure how much of this is from people simply not being used to fountain pens, and how much of it is from the product actually being shoddy. But, I saw one at the drug store today, and decided to give it a shot. I shall report back when I have impressions to share.

Tinking experiment: failed. Tinking lace is, as mentioned, a rather iffy proposition. This time, the coin landed on the, “HA HA!” side. One day, I will learn to use lifelines. But not today. Today, I will be ripping out my project (SSMS™ #3) and starting over. If that’s the worst thing that happens to me today, I can live with that. (*knocking on wood*)

*sigh*

Tinking is the process of un-knitting (tink = knit backwards). This is something that is done when one has made one (or more) mistakes. Sometimes, you catch your mistake pretty quickly, and you only need to tink a few stitches. Other times, you don’t catch the mistake until you’ve made a decent amount of progress. When that happens, you have a few choices: 1) tink back to the mistake; 2) pull your needles out and carefully rip back your stitches to the mistake, and then re-insert the needles; or, 3) throw your project across the room and find a good stiff drink.

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