Wednesday, October 31, 2007
 Happy Halloween, everybody!I've finally managed to get my party photos up, and I've included links to all the recipes if any of you are still looking for last-minute ideas. To the right you can see this year's centerpiece: Panna Cotta Brains in Raspberry Sauce. Disgusting yet delicious! Thanks to everybody who came along, and apologies for not getting more photographs of the costumes. We'll see you all next year in the new house! Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
 This marks the third year I've gone in drag. I'm getting a little tired of having a beard! Next year I'll have to go as something ultra-girly, I think. Anyway, our 5th annual Halloween party was a smashing success. Pics will be up once we've finished putting the house back together... Saturday, October 27, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
"You are a food sissy. With every microwaved meal, with every bland bite, with every glob of pasteurized processed American cheese food product that you shovel down your insensate gullet, you become more of a food sissy. Stop it. Get over yourself. It doesn't taste bad, it just tastes DIFFERENT. The only way to learn to like veggies is to EAT THEM CONSTANTLY until you like them."AMEN! It's tough love, but it needed to be said. And I say that as a reformed food sissy myself. Ask my mother. The only vegetables I'd eat growing up were potatoes and sweet corn. Deciding to "get over myself" a few years ago was the best decision ever. I have no idea how people can survive (or enjoy life!) without fresh tomatoes, coriander, roast pumpkin, capsicum (peppers for the Yanks), basil, spinach, etc. You're missing out on so much!
Last night I finished The Accidental by Ali Smith, which y'all recommended a few months ago. Unfortunately... I didn't like it much. I feel like an absolute git for saying that, because it won all sorts of awards and every single review I can dig up is uniformly positive. Yet somehow it just didn't grab me. I guess maybe it's because I'm a sucker for big, plotty stories (whether in books or movies), and I've never gone in for inscrutable character or mood pieces very much. This book reminded me of an Art Film. Intellectually I can tell that the writing is excellent and I can see what people are praising about it, but I didn't really find myself engaged on an emotional level. (I'm moving the rest of my thoughts inside, lest anyone get spoiled.) [more...]
I'm happy to report some Finished Objects for October. First up are my Whitby Socks, which I started on the way home from knitting camp at the beginning of the month. I had to frog and restart once, as the number of stitches suggested just wasn't working for me. (I actually went up to 67 from the 51 suggested.) It was an easily memorized pattern and the cables were fun without being bothersome. I also tried out an eye of partridge heel for the first time. The original pattern is from Knitting on the Road and the yarn is the last of my Colinette Jitterbug. I love the colours, but I don't think I'll be getting any more. (My Vinnlands are already starting to pill and felt from a single wear.) I knitted these at the same time on 2.75mm needles using the two-circulars method. I'll be cross-posting these at the Southern Summer of Socks as well. I think a goal of one pair per month is pretty do-able...    The other fun things I've been making are these toys from Jean Greenhowe's Jiffyknits. I bought the book a few years ago for the Halloween stuff but somehow never remembered to make them before our party. So far I've made two pumpkins, a scary ghost, and Frankenstein's monster. The patterns themselves are *extremely* simple. It's literally just garter stitch strips with no shaping whatsoever. (You don't even have to know how to purl to make these toys.) Construction isn't quite as fiddly as I feared, though sometimes you have to cut circles of cardboard to reinforce the round shapes. And I'm not sure the whole "knit a boulder and sew Frankenstein's legs to it to prop him up" worked very well. He's kinda wobbly. I do love joggle eyes though... AND - I'm happy to report that by posting these toys to Ravelry, I've now jumped to #4 on the list of people with Halloween projects. (You can see it on the "People" tab.) Next year I'm aiming for #1!
Did I mention that we're moving into the new house NEXT WEEKEND? It's exciting. I told the Snook the other night that I find myself a lot more interested in Chippendale issues now that we're buying here. Which is silly, because we've been here for four years already. Somehow I guess I never really felt attached to the neighborhood before. When everybody was going nuts organising meetings about the CUB site redevelopment, we kinda just shrugged our shoulders, thinking, "We don't have any property values to worry about. And we can always just leave." I could count on one hand the number of "neighbors" I actually knew. Now I find myself stopping to say hello to people. We haven't even moved into our building yet, and I've already introduced myself to half a dozen tenants. It's fun. I mean, we could've gotten a lot more "house" for the money if we'd bought out in the suburbs, but being a part of this vibrant, connected community is the whole reason I wanted to stay in the city. On a related note: I've just been invited to contribute to Life in Chippendale, a neighborhood blog I think I've mentioned a few times before. Steven assures me that even my mundane observations of life in the city will be welcome! Thursday, October 25, 2007
I was just about to fill out this big quiz from Andrew's site... when I remembered that my Grandpa Harter made it onto the Internet this month (Hi, Grandpa!), and I sent him my URL and now I have to think about what I say lest I give him another heart attack. So I may skip some questions. Read into that what you will. [more...]
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Me: Just the single skein? That'll be $1.20, thanks. Old Lady: I was just walking up York Street, in front of the Grace Hotel, and I passed a man and a woman walking. And he was very tall, and she was very small. And he had his hand RIGHT DOWN HER BACKSIDE! Right down there! I couldn't believe it! Me: (just holding my hand out for the money) Her: So I slapped him on the wrist! I told him that his behaviour was DISGUSTING, and that he should get a room, and how would he like it if that was his daughter, and someone was FIDDLING WITH HER PRIVATE PARTS in public? Don't you think that's appalling? Me: Well... I can think of worse things. I mean, I find spitting or littering in public really annoying because they directly affect me... but two people who are in love... Her: HE WAS FIDDLING WITH HER PRIVATE PARTS. Me: I get that, and I'd probably go home that day and say, "You wouldn't believe what I saw this morning," but I don't think it's the worst thing. Her: Well, I'm AUSTRALIAN, and I was raised with-- Me: I'm Australian. Her: (confused) But-- Me: I'm Australian. Her: You sound like you're from North America. Me: I'm AUSTRALIAN, with an Australian passport. Her: Okay, fine, you're Australian. I just mean that I was raised here, and I was taught that certain behaviour is wrong. Me: I was raised in the Bible belt, and I was taught to mind my own business. She got me outraged all right, but not in the way she expected! I mean, I can think of lots of stuff I find more objectionable than PDA. Smokers. Public urination. Golf umbrellas. The existence of leggings with zips. Two consenting adults making out on the street is pretty low on my list of triggers. Tuesday, October 23, 2007
My favorite is the mobile phone. Monday, October 22, 2007
Oh, and also coming: the breathtaking Mirasol Hacho (a 100% merino 8ply) and Mirasol Cotanani (a 60% cotton, 40% wool 8ply). Yes, you read that correctly. A wool/cotton blend READILY AVAILABLE IN AUSTRALIA. I swooned.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Friday, October 19, 2007
Last Friday I finished the second of Eileen's book recommendations, Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex. I knew absolutely nothing about it before I started, and I deliberately avoided the introduction at the front of my edition. I needn't have worried. The big "hook" of this story - that it's being narrated by a hermaphrodite - is given away on the first page. It's not so much the story of what Cal is, but how he came to be what he is. So instead of immediately gratifying my curiosity (and voyeurism), Eugenides' narrator abandons his intriguing opening in favour of the story of how Cal's grandparents immigrated to the US. They escaped the Great Fire of Smyrna (it was eye-opening to be reading this while the debate about the Armenian Genocide is going on) and eventually ended up in Detroit. Eventually the story skips ahead to follow the romantic tribulations of Cal's parents, first-generation Greek-Americans who had no idea what the previous generation had gotten up to. By the time Cal(liope) is finally born halfway through the book, I couldn't put it down. That's not to say the book is perfect. The family stuff is certainly compelling - and the hermaphroditic element is undeniably interesting - but overall I never really warmed to Cal as a person. I liked Calliope and I sympathized with her confusion, but I didn't find her sudden transition to Cal to be very believable. This review from the New York Review of Books spells it all out much better than I can. Still, the characters are all vivid and fascinating, and it taught me a little bit about a period in history I knew very little about. (My favorite part was probably the reintroduction of Desdemona to the narrative. I had actually thought several times to myself, "What happened to her? Did I skip a paragraph where she died?" Ha!) Now I'm on to The Accidental by Ali Smith, as recommended by Brittanie. Again, I'm going in cold. So far it's a very different read to Middlesex, like the difference between an impressionist Art Film and a sprawling Scorsese narrative. Thursday, October 18, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Thanks to everybody for all their kind words and commiseration. I feel kinda like I did a few years ago when I had several interviews at Kazaa and then they didn't hire me. I rated that as my biggest disappointment of 2003. (Of course, they got raided by the copyright police a few months later, which helped to take the sting out.) A lot of people have been telling me today that this is some sort of sign, that I wasn't meant to be at Google right now, that something better is on the horizon. And much as I'd like to believe that, in the harsh light of day I don't really think there are any greater forces at work. It just didn't happen. They didn't need/want me right now. And that's disappointing, yeah... but I also find myself being grateful for all the stuff I do have. We are buying an amazing house (I still have to tell you guys that whole story). I'm still working with people I care about in a business I want to succeed. I've got a great partner who supports me no matter what. I'm just going to try to remember these things. Oh, and I did get a completely unexpected pick-me-up. I was idly trawling the Ravelry forums last night searching for mentions of the shop when i came across the following exchange from about a month ago. ("LYS" means "local yarn store.") [more...]
And yeah, Wee Ben got booted. He was boring me a little bit, honestly. So I'm not too put out. I still think it's Matt and Tarisai's to lose...
Monday, October 15, 2007
The Snook and I have done some pretty crazy things in our time. We got married in Vegas with an Elvis impersonator. We've gone to grown-up Space Camp. We made a turducken. And yet somehow, I think this will be one of the best adventures yet: We're going to dinner with two Iron Chefs. SERIOUSLY. In just over three weeks, we will sit down to a seven-course meal prepared by Iron Chefs Sakei and Chen. How INSANE is that? I cannot wait. I am primed and ready for anything. So bring on your fish ice cream, Sakei! Bring on your slabs of foie gras and piles of shaved truffle! I know it's extravagant. I don't care. If you like food as much as we do, you'd do it too!
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Thanks to the ever-fabulous kylie gusset, five skeins of the Knittery's "Warm Pinks" Merino Cashmere sock yarn are winging their way to me from Melbourne. Not only is this a lovely yarn, but $5 from each skein is being donated towards breast cancer research. Two of the skeins are already claimed (by me and Hannah) but the other three are up for grabs if anyone's interested. Because kylie got them at a discount for her bulk order and consolidated one Sydney shipment to me to save postage, each skein is $24.00 (lower than what you'd get on your own). Let me know if you're interested! Friday, October 12, 2007
Stefanie linked to this week's NPR Sunday Puzzle, which is this: Name a well-known city in the United States, two words, 10 letters altogether. Add the letter A at the front, add the city's two-letter state postal abbreviation at the end, the resulting 13-letter chain will be palindromic, that is, it will read backward and forward the same. What city is this?It took me a couple minutes of doodling on the back of an envelope to get it. This will be a tricky one for non-USians!
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
 From the NSW Office of Fair Trading:Exchanging sale contracts is the legal part of buying a home. Before exchange, the agreement is usually just verbal and not binding. Up until you exchange contracts either you or the vendor have the right to change your minds.In other words, once you've exchanged, it's all locked in. AND WE'VE JUST EXCHANGED! Man, buying a house is a pretty glacial and frustrating process. We've had to wait two weeks just for one bank to fax a piece of paper to another bank. But we've just gotten confirmation that we're locked in, and the house is definitely going to be ours. I suppose this means that we can stop being so cagey about its location... RIGHT NEXT DOOR to our current apartment. Ha! Easiest. Move. Ever. So now we just have to wait for settlement. Default is six weeks, but we're hoping to get it pushed through faster so we can move in sooner. Special thanks to Andrew and Miss Fee for their advice regarding buying into a strata building. Stay tuned for the housewarming party...!
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Monday, October 8, 2007
I've been slacking off on the first week of the Southern Summer of Socks, mostly because of all the babies y'all keep having! As previously mentioned, my cousin Tony and his wife Molly just welcomed their daughter, Bailey, into the world. As this is the first GIRL I've had the opportunity to knit for, I jumped at the chance to pull out my pink yarn. I was gifted some glorious hot pink Manos del Uruguay Cotton Stria by my Secret Pal last June, and I decided it was just begging to become a Baby Surprise Jacket. I had just enough to squeak it out. I also found the most perfect big pink button in my button box:    It's all ready to send off, along with some pink Tim Tams! (Thanks to Amy for the suggestion.)
 "Sometimes I think of myself as a glorified mechanic..."Oh yes, you HAVE to watch this video. I know, I know; it looks like your basic wannabe-edgy Web 2.0 viral marketing crap, and it is. But this is viral marketing crap starring my very own SNOOKUMS! Sunday, October 7, 2007
 I think it's the "Dumb/Dork/Awkwardness" category that stings the most. Ouch! (Link courtesy of the very non-nerd Mary-Helen.)
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Update: WAIT! Hold the presses. I just realised that's a myspace account, not a livejournal one (as I imagined it). I have a myspace account! I'll email the offender myself. One Hour Later: Well, the person killed the post. Fair enough.
Friday, October 5, 2007
So... I just finished interviewing with two more people at the Company-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, and I feel like it went really well! I was relatively confident since I figured that they wouldn't have invited me back if they didn't like me. I gave the HR chick the low-down on the house situation (basically, the mortgage company doesn't like it if you change jobs before settlement, so I can't start for several more weeks) and they were really cool with that. I'm excited! Oh, and I got to ride in an elevator with a bunch of guys from YouTube, who pretty much define the term "scruffy lookin' nerf herder." Thursday, October 4, 2007
It's finished! I've got everything ready to send off to Alexander this week. After felting the hat last week, I then soaked the ears in watered-down PVA glue and propped them up on newspaper to dry. They took a lot longer than I expected (nearly four days), but they look great. I sorta pinched and pulled them to make them a little more curly and Yoda-looking. The pattern is here. I knitted it out of Naturally Alpine 14ply on big needles, and I had plenty left over from a single hank. I'm just making a bit of i-cord now to tie under his chin if necessary.    The second piece of the costume is the Baby Yoda Sweater, which I knitted on 4mm needles out of some completely random yarn from my stash. (The two sleeves are actually different yarns, but they're so close you can't tell. I figure Yoda probably wove his himself, so any variation is probably a good thing.) There's an i-cord tie on the inside as well as the outside. And the socks are just the pièce de résistance, aren't they? I started knitting just plain socks out of the leftover wool, thinking Alexander would need something to keep his feet warm, when the Snook pondered aloud, "You know what you should do? Put three toes on the end!" BRILLIANT. So there's no pattern here; I just made them up as I went. I can't wait til Kristen posts a picture of him wearing it!
 Vinnland SocksIn order to clear the decks for the Southern Summer of Socks, I took along my half-completed Vinnlands to knitting camp last weekend with the aim of finishing them off. And I did! The pattern is free from The AntiCraft. They're knitted toe-up utilising a short-row heel and toe (but one that doesn't involve wrapping!). My weird sizing issues turned out to be not such a big deal; the poochiness at the toe disappears when it's stretched across my foot. I used one skein of Colinette Jitterbug in "Velvet Olive," and I'm thrilled to say that I had less than 12 inches left over at the end. (Toe-up socks = ECONOMY, baby!) They're meant to have a tubular cast-off at the top, but I was drinking too much red wine to bother with such niceties. I just did a regular old ribbed cast-off, and they look fine. Oh, and I used 2.75mm needles to counteract my usual propensity towards overly tight knitting. I wore them in Sunday night's "Fashion Show" and there was such a response that I ended up teaching an impromptu "socks on circulars" workshop Monday morning!
A bunch of workmen spent all day yesterday installing neon tubing and crazy coloured lighting in the alleyway behind Tapestry Craft. I'm not kidding. Apparently it's to celebrate the "opening" of the lane (which is now to be called "Temperance Lane") and it'll stay up for three months. It's like our own little bit of Vegas in an alley. The rumour is that this has something to do with Clover's aim to develop Melbourne-style funky little laneways in Sydney, and that it cost $35K. Here's my question: Why? Why celebrate the "opening" of a street that was already there? Why spend thousands of dollars on a tacky art installation that very few people will see and then turn around and tell us bus fare hikes are needed? Not happy, Clover. Update: The new goss is that it might be for a movie shoot. Anybody heard what's filming in town? Way Later Update: Nope, it's not a movie shoot. When I left tonight, there was a proud-looking guy taking photos out there. "But what's it for?" I asked. "It's an art installation to celebrate the opening of the new laneway!" he said. "See, we put up a sign with the new name and everything!" I frowned. "But... the lane existed before. It just didn't have a name. I don't get why we're celebrating the opening of a lane that was already here." He looked crestfallen and shrugged. I think I hurt his feelings. I still think it's a stupid idea. Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Him: Do you think you can teach the kids' knitting class on Tuesday? Me: Who in the what now? Him: Kids. There are three little girls coming in for our school holidays knitting class. Me: Kids? Me? Are you sure? Him: Trust me, you were last on the list. Everyone else was busy. Me: Well, okay. I guess if it's only three they can't gang up on me. Turns out I needn't have worried. They were great! Sidonie, Nell, and Poppy ranged from 8-11 but they all picked it up SO QUICKLY! I casted on for them and then we just practiced our knit stitches the whole time. It was interesting to me to see how their personalities manifested in their knitting styles. Poppy was a bit bull-headed, and in her impatience to slip the stitch off the needles she'd often yank her whole needle out. "Grrr!" she'd growl, but by the time I got over to her she'd often fixed the mistake herself. Nell picked it up the fastest, but she didn't trust herself and every so often she'd freeze and I'd hear, "Something doesn't seem right... I think." Sidonie was quiet and methodical, but (like me) she tended to pull her stitches a little too tightly. They were all shy at first but I had them chatting away by the time their Mums returned. "Aww, just one more row!" they begged. The Mums consented, and five minutes later while they were chatting I saw Nell surreptitiously begin a second row. It warmed my icy black heart. I made three new knitters today!
Monday, October 1, 2007
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archives
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"Moblog" refers to posts and images posted directly from my mobile phone.
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