Kiss My Knits!

Fellow Charlotteans, could you please be on the lookout for a lightly sloping parking lot or grassy hill? We’re wanting to help Em learn to ride her bike, and this method where you remove the pedals and lower the seat and start them off learning to balance seems to have good reviews. It’s gotta be better than the “run alongside method” which was causing my shins such damage.

Thanks!

Two topics: ‘who texted me?’ + ‘world: stop being an idiot around my kid.’

If you’re going to be in Charlotte on Saturday or Sunday, stop by Charlotte Yarn. They’re having a big anniversary do including a de-stashing swap/sale, where folks will be bringing stuff from their stashes to trade or sell. I myself will be there on Saturday with ungodly amounts of nice yarn at craaaaaaaazy low prices. Buy early, buy often!

In other news, the wrist and knuckles on my right hand hurt, so as much as it pains me today (so to speak) no knitting and minimal typing. Wah!

I did this for tonight’s Charlotte Knitting Guild meeting, where I’m giving a talk about basic hat design in conjunction with our charity project, Hats for Alex. We’re knitting hats for the Levine Children’s Hospital. To give you a sense of size, this hat is modeled on an apple. I deliberately kept it very simple, so that the individual knitter could customize it however he or she liked. Personally, I think this would look good with a little embroidered heart on the front.

The pattern is here on Ravelry, or here (pdf) on tvini.com just in case I screwed up the Ravelry link. Turtlegirl, I know you can’t see flickr at work, so pics are here and here.

It’s a baby hat, but the pattern tells how to do the very simple math to do spiraling decreases at the top of any hat, like this one or this one.

Hopefully the talk will go okay tonight. I have handouts. Everybody loves handouts.

Sorry the updates have lately been of the “quick! here’s a funny picture/link!” variety. In the summer, time gets a little more precious and it’s tough to eke out enough time for a meaty journal entry.

The cell phone dried out and now works just fine. It was touch and go there for a while – first the “enter” button didn’t work, then the “7” didn’t work, but now everything’s hunky dorey. Hurray! I get to keep my phone, which I am considering naming Hulk for its durability and size. Or maybe She-Hulk, since I actually read that comic.

Jayne hats continue apace. The line so far hasn’t gotten as low as it did last summer. I don’t think it will, now that CSTS has happened, as that event puts Firefly more top of mind for folks. It’s still amazing to me that there’s been a waiting list continually since early 2005. Atsa lotta Jayne hats.

At left, Emily art! She has re-written the Bard. In Emily’s version, Romeo goes over to Juliet’s house and gets married. Since he gets married at her place, he takes her last name instead of vice versa. They move in together and apparently Romeo throws a birthday party for Juliet. And they all live happily ever after. Dig the toothy grin on Romeo. That hack Shakespeare could learn a few things from Emily.

Em has decided she doesn’t want to go to astronomy camp. This is because she came home at about 10pm from the in-laws last week, and it made her realize just how tired she’ll be at that time. Honestly, this may be for the best. We were playing a board game last night at about 8:45, and she get rather upset (sad, not tantrumy) that she hadn’t won any of the three games we played. If it hadn’t been that late at night, she would have been just fine. We played one more game, which she won, so that helped a little, but mainly she was just tired.

If she can’t handle life at 8:45, I don’t know how she’d do on a car ride back from Gastonia at 10pm. Too bad the camp is paid for. I’m going to see if there are any other little kids in our life, maybe up in that neck of the woods, who might like to go.

However, today we’re going to the planetarium anyway, and to help soothe her last night I told her we could go to all three shows – the 2,3, and 4, which are different shows. We were going to go yesterday, but they weren’t going to do the Summer Sky Show, which is where an astronomy buff stands up and talks about the constellations. I find it interesting that she likes that more than a pre-programmed show with music and production values. Just a guy talking about the stars, that’s her speed.

I haven’t watched the video yet, but Jason Bateman confirms an upcoming Arrested Development movie. Get your chicken dance ready!

Daisy with a Mohawk and a big Smile.
Originally uploaded by sylkky2

Heh. Not my photo, but it does make me smile.

Feeling just a little punky, as we say around these parts, so I’m posting a few links to up the awesome quotient in my life.

Speaking of awesome, thank you, Erin of Anatomyofaskirt.com for fixing my favorite bags – and for the bonus funky handspun! Very cute!

Ice on Mars! World’s most expensive slushee to follow.

Reverse graffiti project where artist creates images by scrubbing the grime away. I wonder if he cleaned his room as a child.

Like the swallows to Capistrano, only wetter.

My favorite thing I found yesterday, a story of an awesome retort.

And last but definitely not least, cribbed from haldira, the teaser for Joss Whedon’s upcoming internet project, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. I can’t wait!

Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.