Take a gander at these swatches the Tsock Tsarina is doing for a sweater based on change-ringing.  I am deeply in love, and I'm going to be watching ever-so-carefully.  I mean, yes, I have my own designs to work on, but does that mean I can never knit from a purchased pattern ever again?  No, no it does not, and I love the geekiness behind this.

I like the darker swatch better, especially in the colorwork band. 

This is a SC post!

With all the hoopla over the bride at a wedding , I've always thought it was unfair that the groom and his friends get so little press.  (At least it's easy for the men to find an outfit that looks good on all of them--it's a rare man indeed who looks bad in a good suit.)  And to make up for the neglect, we present groomsmen gifts which are very nice indeed.  It's only fair...

I have five Age of Conan keys that are good for 7 days of free play; if anyone wants one, just let me know.  If you get me before I go to Pennsic you can download the client (which will take an awfully long time, I imagine), or I can lend you the install discs.  But I'm leaving for War on Saturday, so if I don't get mail before then you're out of luck till the second week of August.

This is a SC post!

Ever wish there were a central site for website reviews?  You know, somewhere that you could list your opinion of whatever cool (or horrible) website you found, that would be somewhere everyone knows to look?  Well, Talkreviews.com is starting up to be exactly that.  Of course this means you can review your own website, but if you do any people find out about it, you're gonna look kinda silly.  So just depend on being awfully cool to get good reviews, and eventually you can be one of the top websites too.  Neat, huh?

This weather?  This that we're having today and had yesterday?  With the perfect temperature and the low humidity and the cool nights?  It would be lovely if this weather happened to continue for, oh, say the next two weeks and a bit.  Because this is perfect.

Just, you know, in case anyone with influence is listening...

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I must say, it takes a serious exercise of imagination for me to contemplate wanting to make my breasts bigger; in point of fact, about 15 years ago I had surgery to make them smaller, and while I have made many decisions in my life that I regretted later, that particular decision has never been one of them and I'd do it again in a heartbeat if it were necessary.

But there are women who are not quite as blessed by genetics as I was, and who feel as if they're too small; I am not going to get into the feminist implications of that, and just say that they can do whatever they like with their own bodies.  However, those had their enhancements done with silicone implants should seriously consider something I've just learned is called breast revision: the replacement of silicone implants with saline-filled ones.  Silicone can be bad for you if the implants leak, while saline is just absorbed into the tissues of the body. (Of course you still don't want them to leak, but if they do they're not going to poison you before you can get them removed or fixed.)  This is especially important for older implants, since they have a life of only about 10 years.  So if you've got silicone implants?  Get them replaced.  It's better for you.

The box o'yarn for Twining Ivy arrived last night, and, despite all my good intentions of working on the Big Fleece Thing for Liam (which has been a saga in and of itself), I cast on instead.  I'm through the bottom seed stitch band and into the first stretch of stockinette before the decreases for the waist shaping--this thing might not be meant exclusively for larger women, but I'd like anyone to be able to get a good-looking sweater out of it, and waist shaping is very important for that.

What I'm mostly concerned about is that I'm basing all my measurements for this test version on me--I am, after all, going to wear it.  Which is fine for the first-pass "Is this a plausible design?" version, but for the production version of the pattern I'm going to have to get some data on more typical bodies, because I know quite well I'm insanely short-waisted.  My rib cage ends all of an inch above my waist; this is one of the reasons I've gotten into making my own clothes, because it's so damn hard to find things that fit.  But it also means I can't assume that my measurements are typical.

The handy thing about this design is that, with all the vine design done in appliqué, the body is just plain stockinette with the occasional decrease.  So it's nice boring watch-a-movie knitting. 

It's getting to be that time of year again: the time of year when we should start gearing up for the Alzheimer's Memory Walk in the early fall.  They're generally held then, one assumes to take advantage of the cooler weather; it wouldn't do to have people participating in a charity event falling over from heat stroke.

Anyway, what the walk really needs is local team captains, people to get walkers together and promote the event in their own areas.  It's pretty easy to become a team captain with information and materials you can find on the Alzheimer's Association website, and then all you have to do is schedule your walk.  If you already walk for your own health, this is a great way to help out others at the same time, so think about joining a walk in your area or, if your area doesn't yet have one, becoming a team captain.

I have to wonder if I'm living in my own little version of the timeline again, because it seems like everyone else in the Northern Hemisphere is complaining about the heat.

Meanwhile, what I've been noticing about this summer is that it's been noticeably cooler than usual--rainy and humid as all get out, yes, but not really all that hot.  Not that humid's a lot better, since it can make an otherwise just warm day miserable, but still.

I guess there's plenty of time for it to get horribly hot; we're well into the Dog Days, and anyway Pennsic is about to start and it wouldn't be Pennsic without miserably hot weather.  But really, this is not a bad summer, all things considered.

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I'm not big into women's magazines (though I admit a deep and abiding love for Real Simple), so I don't do a lot with relationship quizzes and makeup tips and that sort of thing.  But every now and then it's fun to go and do a quiz, or look at the diagrams of how to put on eyeshadow, or read articles on what's the best kind of shoe--and if nothing else, there are always those moments where you have five minutes where you have to be sitting at your desk but you're not actually doing anything, and in those moments a silly quiz can be a girl's best friend...