lowercase L. It’s a blog that collects photos of people’s hand-written signs where they’ve capitalized all the letters except for “L”. It doesn’t sound like much of a phenomenon to me, but I’m sure I’ll start seeing them everywhere now… (Link courtesy of Daring Fireball.)
Month: February 2008 (page 3 of 8)
The Ladies of Grace Adieu
I just finished reading this collection of short stories from the author of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It’s lovely. Susanna Clarke created such a large and unique universe in that novel that I was happy just to be able to see more of it. The stories all feature interactions between our world and the world of Faerie. Several of them feature women, which is nice since the other book was so male-oriented. These aren’t complicated stories, and they feel more like fairy tales than anything else. The thing I really liked was the creepy mood throughout each one, that feeling that even in the must mundane British village, there are secret places around every corner just waiting to be wandered into. The writing is also amusing in places, such as the reworking of Rumplestiltskin. (“Mr. Simonelli or the Fairy Widower” is oddly stuffed full of references to Jane Austen. I suppose with a tale about five young ladies in Derbyshire though, you can’t escape that.) I think this review does a great job of laying out the strengths and weaknesses of the book. Just think of the stories as extended footnotes from the novel. They’re also great bedtime stories for grown-ups…
Glib Socks
These are my fifth completed pair for the Southern Summer of Socks, and I think they were the fastest to knit. Less than two weeks from start to finish! I’m still well on track to meet my goal of one pair per month.
This was my first time using the Cascade Fixation. It’s a really weird yarn: 98% cotton, 2% elastic. It’s thick and sproingy and I know a lot of people use it for bathing suits(!). I bought it because the Snook hates wearing wool on his feet, and I figured he might be willing to wear this. All the patterns I could find were either girly or boring though. I mentioned my frustration to Bex, and she remarked that she was working on a simple sock pattern at the moment. She e-mailed me the stitch pattern and it was perfect. (She’s since put the pattern up on Ravelry as a free download.) Read on for the technical details.For the needle size, I looked at the Flame Wave Socks from Interweave’s Favorite Socks. They use 3.5mm on the foot for a women’s sock, but suggest to use a larger needle to make the sock larger. I was also worried about my tension with knitting with such a sproingy yarn, so I figured it couldn’t hurt to go up to the 4mm.
I used Judy’s Magic Cast On for the toe, and then increased up to 50 stitches. (26 on the instep for the patterning, 24 on the sole in plain stockinette.) I knit both socks at once on two circular needles. I had him try them on constantly so I could work out the length of the foot. This stuff stretches A LOT. I used a basic short row heel, and then I picked up an extra two stitches in each gap when I started the leg again. (There’s still a bit of a hole there, but I’ll live with it.) So that brought me up to 55 stitches in total for the leg. Then I just kept going until I was nearly out of wool, when I switched to a 1×1 rib for the cuff.
Very happy with these! Now we’ll see whether they can stand up to the Abominable Feet of Destruction. (Cross-posted to Ravelry and the Southern Summer of Socks.)
I was having a good chuckle over these bad science fair experiments – some of those HAVE to be Photoshopped, right? – when I stopped short at the last one, “Plants and Pop.” Ohhh, man. My best friend Annie Fleck and I did a joint science fair experiment together in, like, fifth grade that was all about WORMS and POP. No joke. We kept various styrofoam cups full of dirt and earthworms in Annie’s basement, and every few days we’d add drops from various cans of soft drinks and observe the worms’ health. Based on how lethargic/dead they were, we somehow extrapolated which drinks had the most caffeine. It was Bad Science combined with Cruelty to Animals for the Double-Plus Win! We actually got to go to Regionals with it, which was all we really wanted (because it was held at a local college and we got to swim in their big pool for part of the day).
Huh. Every now and then somebody will ask a question on AskMeFi about some regional linguistic quirk, and I realise that I have it. This person is confused and annoyed by Midwesterners who say things like, “This needs fixed” or “Those need washed.” (As opposed to “This needs to be fixed” or “Those need to be washed.”) I really had no idea this was such a strange construction. Those sound fine to my Indiana ears.
On the flipside though, there’s a comment in there about some Pennsylvanians who say things like, “I’m done my book.” THAT? IS SO WRONG.
Me: Ever seen this?
Snook: I bet there’s a lot of pee in that pool!
A Public Apology
I’ve taken down the Sorry Day post. Things have gotten out of hand. One of the people who was harrassing me the other day sent the link to the woman mentioned in the post, and she’s been very hurt by it. That was never my intention at all. I deliberately left out all identifying details, and I took great pains to clarify that even though I disagreed with her, I still liked and respected this person. In fact, I’ve directed this person to my website in the past, and I didn’t say anything in the post that I didn’t/wouldn’t say to her face. Some of the comments got a bit rough though (not that I’m shifting the blame onto you guys!), and this woman isn’t very comfortable with blogs and the Internet. To her eyes, it looked like we were ganging up on her. I’m really very, very sorry about this.
The whole situation came to a head this week and I had to do something to clear the air. (I’ll also be apologising to the woman in person, and also the other woman mentioned in the comments.) To be honest, the decision to remove the post wasn’t an easy one to make. On one hand I want to admit to my error and make things right… and on the other hand, it fills me with a blinding rage to give in to the trolls who were harrassing me. (I do not believe that the woman in question had anything to do with them, other than being told about the post.) But you know what? I have to be the grown-up here. My friendship with the woman affected is more important than spiting trolls. So I’ve removed the post and I unreservedly apologise to the woman in question. I’m sorry.
And as for the troll in question? I don’t know what I did to piss in your proverbial cornflakes, and I’m sure at this point I don’t care. For future reference though, I do have a log of your IP addresses, and the next time someone asks me to prove it was you – as happened today – I might not be the bigger person after all.
F*** Cancer
Hooray! Brigita got her care package from me. It takes a lot to get me to cross stitch, you know. (I’ve posted some more pictures after the jump.) The design comes from Subversive Cross Stitch. And how adorable does Miss Violet look? What a cutie!
