A big thank you to whoever created del.icio.us, now I can keep track of the sites I visit, as opposed to Google Reader, which only captures RSS blog feeds. Not that it’s terrible or anything, and I haven’t lost my love for Google (did you see their Gmail April Fool’s Day joke?!)
But as always, please send the links *you* like to lelah olender at gmail dot com. Without you, This list really shows the “I” in “I Like It A Lot”!
Sewn, stretch cast-off for knitting. Who can remember which Elizabeth Zimmerman book the stretchy cast-off is in? Not me. And do I even like to read her books? Not really. I majored in Linguistics, the theoretical branch. I like knitting patterns as technical as they can come- basically, patterns and puzzles concerning words was my major! So. This is a tutorial, which I like because the photos make it very easy to understand. Which is good, because then you don’t waste time trying to figure out convo-speak means in a technical world (knitting is technical, trust me, we discussed it in my old computational psycholinguistics class, along with Jacquard’s punch machine for weaving, which was the first computer ever).
Here’s something to employ that new technique, summer socks for flip-flops. They look really fast and look like they’re good for those in colder climates- when you transition to wearing flip-flops, your feets hurt when the bands are, because you lost your calluses from last summer. These socks would help pad your delicate winter tootsies. This pattern is no excuse to start wearing flip-flops to the office! You can’t get away with “…but I have socks on!!” here. Only in Japan, in maybe a restaurant or teahouse, and maybe if you were an employee.
Now, the only time I ever made soap was when I was little and I melted my Mom’s good soap in the frying pan to make “new” soap. It was a long, hot summer day. I was bored. I used the stove by myself. Needless to say, I got in big trouble, and I even got grounded! Ha! But this recipe looks really easy, and if I did it now, I certainly wouldn’t get grounded. Especially since you’re not just melting soap in a frying pan!
SpiritCloth is back! This time she shows us how to color fabric with crayon. The finished result she shows isn’t what you’re picturing… it’s really professional looking.
The Yarn Museum is a virtual museum that spinners post photos of their artisan yarns on. For a fiber addict like myself, this is such eye candy. I haven’t submitted anything yet, but I certainly will. What spinner would shy away from being a part of that? They have categories, sort of like challenges, so it’s not only organized, but it’s interesting. People here are really creative, taking a very, very old craft and making it so new and now.
Do you also sew?Fitzpatterns has a whole set of free downloads for some really cute, urban, contemporary clothing patterns for us cool types. Well, I’m not so much cool as I am a big dork, but I try. I really like the woolen cape, I printed the pattern out, but right now I can’t afford the $70 of fabric it requires (and I also went… $70? I could *buy* one for that much!). But if you are a die-hard sewer, it’s cute to make, and would be stunning if done properly and sewn well. Spending that much isn’t an issue then. Take me for example. I spent $60 on 9 skeins of yarn last week to make the Hourglass sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. It is tweedy, though. I love tweedy things.
Well, that’s all for this week! Keep coming back here, though. I do post between Tuesdays, I’m not actually all talk!
