With socks, if they're bunching where the ankle and top of the foot meet, what needs to be adjusted to remedy it? Do I need to decrease more rows in the gusset? Do some crazy (long) short rows along the bottom/sides?

(I've finally worn my first pair and I followed Silver's Sock Class to make them. They turned out great, but I'm looking to customize the next pair to avoid the extra bunching bit at the ankle. I'm pretty good at making stuff up as I go along, but I hate frogging, so I like to get it right--or close to it--on the first try.)

This all started with the KnitPicks Andean Chullo pattern from their 2008 Winter catalog (I think..it's been a while!). The moment I saw it on the page, I *knew* it was the hat I had been searching for. (Don't look at me like that - I'm sure every knitter, at some point, has had one of those moments.) I thought about it, dreamed about it....and went to order the kit.....but Knitpicks was backordered. So, I saved it to my cart, and went on about my life.

I kept thinking about that hat....and the more I thought about it, the *less* I liked it. The shape wasn't correct - it was basically a multi-colored watch cap. The colors weren't right for me (even the alternate colorway they had was...not me)...but I still wanted it. I even called KnitPicks and asked them if I could create my own kit - but they said no, it ONLY came as the 2 kits, you couldn't (at that time) buy the pattern separate.

Well, OK then....I started looking for an alternative. I looked at a TON of chullo patterns...and finally hit pay dirt with the Blossoms Chullo by Deja Knits. THAT was the perfect hat.......except for the motifs. :lol: I immediately bought the pattern....and started trying to figure out what I was gonna do with it.

( What I did with the pattern - it got long! )

I had to share this with someone - since you really can't go out and accost people on the street to show them your latest project. And my husband was really getting tired of my "Isn't this the coolest hat EVER? I love the earflaps - isn't it *cool*! I'm glad it's cold....." :rotflmao:

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Aquarionics/~3/HrAowe1PVDI/

http://www.aquarionics.com/?p=4452

So, today I’m going to talk to you about the True Meaning of Christmas, because right now it’s that or the True Meaning of Art, and there’s a seventeen floor drop outside my flat, and I’d hate to have to throw anyone or thing off of it. Not least because it’s specifically in the Tenant’s Agreement for the entire block, Part Two, Subsection Seven, Thou Shalt Not Throw Projectiles From Thy Balcony. One small paper aeroplane, no matter how tempting, will cause the entire residents association to stop squabbling about the colour of the stairway to the laundrette; the TV Aeriel in the gym and the Legend Of The Missing Sinking Fund and instead come down upon my head like a ton of – tastefully repainted – building blocks. Presumably not ones thrown from a balcony, however.

Anyway, where was I before I started talking about throwing people from tower blocks?

Ah, yes. Respect For Your Fellow Man, and other themes of Christmas.

I’m going to be Privileged here, in the internet liberal sense of the word[1], and entirely redefine a word based purely on my perception of it. I am not religious. I have had the standard British education, which is carefully non-denominational, but is Church of England non-denominational. I sat though a large number of family services while a cub scout and later a scout, and my enduring memories of church are a) standing in the cold and frosty morning waving a flag, and b) not getting the decent parts in Joseph because I didn’t go to Sunday School. I have, over the last couple of decades, carefully formulated my own personalised form of religion which has the useful properties of supporting what I believe to be the case anyway, providing me with a personal moral compass, and being entirely uninteresting to anyone else in the world. In these three things it lacks only the community aspect a more mainstream religion would give me, and this is offset by the fact that I know every follower of my set of beliefs personally.

(I especially like comparing atheism to other kinds of religion. If only I could find some way of drawing electrical power from boiling blood, I’d be set for life. This is filed alongside the idea of attaching basic dynamos to coffins, so that if we’re going to do things like, for example, allow people to publish Hitchhikers Guide fanfic we should at least reap the rewards of Mr Adams’ post-respiratory revolutions).

So, for me the concept of “Christmas” has little to do with the celebration of the Nativity, Lights, Lack of light or anything more specific than “We, and people we like and are related to, and combinations of the above, have survived into the depths of winter. Long may this continue. I’ve thought of you, and would like you to have this gift. Now, lets eat”. Everyone else in the world is free to celebrate whatever they like. Enjoy whatever you celebrate, whoever its with. Even if you’re not in the depths of winter.

Bastards.

Just a heads-up, Joann.com is having a sale on yarn, every skein is on sale. They also have needles/hooks/notions/etc on sale too.

Apparently, you're all so much better at RP'ing and just about everything else than the rest of us. So why can't your huge, much-more-intelligent brains figure out that it might be annoying that you go on about your bff Jill and how much you like Mudkips right in the middle of where people are Rp'ing? Seriously. You spam the screen with bullshit because it's -so- much fun to ruin the lower life form's RP scenes.

Get over yourself and die in a fire, please.

Happy post-Christmas, BRPS!

I have a question, though. Why would you pair up a normally mean character with some 17 year old girl that he barely knows when the player has an "OTP" already ... and it's not them?
I mean, come on. This guy that she's playing is MEAN. She has him being overly bashful, overly embarrassed, and it's just mind-blowing to see. In a bad way.
So, how does one tell her friend to stop making him shag every single new friend he gets if the character's a fangirl? Because seeing this canon character with a new person every week (Last week, he was with a succubus! *face/palm*) is starting to make me rage.

Rage as bad as Luigi Largo.
Kthx guys. *hands out candy canes*

And before you ask, yes, the character is not supposed to be bashful.
Once in a great while is OK--I mean, hell, they're human, right? ... Well, most of the time.
It's just one of those slopped Canon/OC pairings.

(Oh, and someone else is trying their damndest to pair up my GAY character with a straight woman. She is not taking no for an answer and is setting up her character for heartbreak.
Helppppppp. DX)

Why would someone apply to a game with a long, fully written bigass application, with an end-note disclaimer that there are a few rules of the game they don't intend to even try to follow?

WHY would you waste your time like that? I mean, I appreciate the heads up. Usually I don't get potential players flat-out telling me 'I'm going to be a problem you eventually kick out', or even hinting at it. So, you know, thanks for that.

But still, WHY? You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble if you had just shot us a line to see if we were serious about that whole 'rules' silliness.

Oi.

The day after the 25th is always soporific after all the good food etc, don't think anyone would have energy for any sports, never mind boxing..you may all groan Though I did manage a walkies to the end of the road now the snow and ice have melted enough to not be a slippy-slidy hobbits - my balance is poor enough some days as it is without any "assistance" from wintriness.

Yesterday was good, if tiring - I do love a nice turkey dinner but always forget till I'm just about to start cooking exactly how much is involved, though I got plenty of help as usual, with mum laying out ingredients and pots and pans and dad doing the spuds and keeping an eye on the turkey while it roasted, I just had to prepare and cook the rest. With our bird we had roast potatoes, roasted parsnips, cabbage, asparagus, sage and onion stuffing, bread sauce and gravy, plus I stole a couple of forest's sausages, even though I shouldn't really: usually he does them in red wine, this year thanks to the large bottle of 12 year old malt whiskey (Glenfiddich, the one with the stag, no comments on horny drinkers, thanks... :) ) they were done in wine *and* whisky. Oh, and garlic infused olive oil. Oh my, tastiest things ever!

Gift-giving occured after lunch, quite low-key this year, dad got books and cds as usual, lots of poetry thanks to him being so inspired by his evening classes, he got the complete works of Ted Hughes and also Auden (my selected works not being enough Auden, clearly..), plus I got him some Billy Collins having heard a few of his being read out on the radio a few months back, and forest raided Amazon's poetry section also.

Amazon did good, to some extent, leastways I was delighted to open a parcel with an Eva Ibbotsen I've not read, and a book of Jung, and also the dvd of Inglourius Basterds, wheeeee! *squishes the Forest person for doing a good wishlist raid* The book I'd picked for my beloved however did not turn up, so he ended up with a print-out of the relevant page (wrapped in shiny paper at least). *sigh*

Checking the website, amazon say it was put on the Citylink van for delivery on December 22nd.

In Glasgow.

I am.. perplexed, to say the least. Luckily I'd also got some ginger chocolate and a wee wire gecko so he had something in his paws.

Oh and speaking of wee wire things, diddler is a star, as she made me the lovely beaded spider I was going on about on here a couple of months ago. Its so cute, all black and beady and spidery, very skillful work and as I'd completely forgotten about it, an extra surprise. A bag of my fave Whittards coffee will also go down a treat, yay thoughtful people.

I also gots chocolate and some bookses - the complete Hamish Macbeth series, plus Marco Polo's Travels - and a cd from tanngrisnir which I will listen to over dinner tonight, methinks. Ooh and a wee bottle of white wine, about a fifth of which went down very nicely last night while nodding off to Xmas television. At least I watched Dr Who earlier on, as it was seriously weird, maybe wine would have helped? :7

And now we have rain and I need to sort something to eat... *ambles off*

Edit: forgot to mention my other pressie, a ballet outfit for my doll. Which doesn't quite fit, as the clothes for said doll aren't availble yet so I had to guess that Corolle outfits might fit, and, er, sort of. Dolly has her tights on and the leotard, but it only goes to the waist, and the tutu is held on with a clip right now, and her cardi is doing dual duty as a wrap. Still looks cute and made me smile though, which is all that matters. Oh yes, and her feets are too big so the slippers are round her neck as though she's in mid-change... ::giggle::

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Grow-It/Contaminated-Compost-Clopyralid-Aminopyralid-Pyralid-Dow-Chemicals-Toxins.aspx

Contaminated Compost: Coming Soon to a Store Near You
9/4/2009 8:33:34 AM
By Barbara Pleasant
Tags: compost, herbicides
In Santa Rosa, Calif., the folks at Grab n’ Grow have been making compost and planting mixes for 25 years, using organic materials generated in Sonoma County. In 2002, the company detected residues of a potent herbicide called clopyralid in a batch of compost. The next year, Grab n’ Grow manager Don Liepold and his wife saw the herbicide’s trail of destruction in their raised bed organic garden — lettuce that refused to grow, curled and wilted peas, and stunted, gnarled tomato leaves.

As we reported in July 2009, clopyralid and its close cousin, aminopyralid, easily persist, sometimes for YEARS!, in hay, manure and compost. When contaminated materials are used in food gardens, tomatoes, beans and other sensitive crops develop curled foliage that looks like a disease, if they grow at all.

Both herbicides are manufactured by DowAgrosciences, which seems to have no moral or ethical problem selling products which clearly are polluting the public compost stream. Meanwhile, aminopyralid pesticides have been pulled from shelves in the United Kingdom. Liepold, the Rachel Carson Council and MOTHER EARTH NEWS think the U.S. EPA should take the same action here.

“I have been testing and detecting herbicide residues and thus rejecting cow manure, horse manure, turkey mulch, rice hulls, mushroom compost and yard trimmings,” says Grab n’ Grow manager Don Liepold. “I spent $20,000 in lab fees in 2008, and am on the same track for 2009,” he says.

It is extremely difficult to keep contaminated materials out of commercial compost. “One load of contaminated grass clipplings can ruin a batch of compost,” says Eric Philip of Anatek Labs in Moscow, Idaho. Philip has seen so many positive tests for clopyralid residues in compost that he would not use untested compost in his own garden.

“When folks have plants die in their home gardens, their first assumption is that they did something wrong,” Philip says. But with pyralid-laced commercial compost becoming more common, contaminated soil amendments are often to blame.

The source of pyralid pollution can be impossible to trace. For example, a horse stable may use hay brought in from a neighboring state, without knowing that it is laced with pyralid herbicides. If the horse’s manure or stable litter ends up in a garden, disaster is ready to strike. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Liepold stopped making one of Grab n’ Grow’s most popular products, Mango Mulch, for more than a year because he could not find an uncontaminated manure supply. Now he’s getting it from two local organic dairies.

Testing for contamination is a slow, painstaking process that comes at a steep price of $350 (or more) per sample, so most commercially-made compost is not tested.

Both of these herbicides were approved by the EPA before their persistence in compost was known, and before lab tests existed that could detect residues at damaging levels. We think approval of these pesticides should be revoked before the damage gets worse.

To express your concern about this hidden danger to your garden, write to your senators and congressional representatives to make your voice heard. You can also contact Rick Keigwin, director of the EPA’s pesticide review division.

See our earlier report: Milestone Herbicide Creates Killer Compost for lots more background on this issue.

Let me just say, I love meta humor in my RP. However, it still needs an IC justification. When we point out that the city your character hails from doesn't exist in our universe, the correct is not "It's just a joke relax kids". Yes, as a player, I can appreciate the joke you were making. But none of our characters can, and it doesn't make me want to interact with you when you get butthurt about that.

ETA: Holy crap, seriously? Seriously, dude? You just took our OOC objections into the IC conversation where no one had mentioned anything about it. *boggles*

• 14:00 Watching it #
• 14:01 Apparently it's over #
• 14:01 I just saw the last copuple minutes of EoT #

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http://saralamb.blogspot.com/2009/12/twelve-calm-nights.html

These next twelve days and nights always seem like a gift to me, the calm after the storm. Deadlines have been met, things are done, there is food aplenty and friends and family still around to visit. The Christmas knitting is done, wrapped and given:And projects planned but postponed are back on tap:I have been spinning and dyeing for this new project: a spindle bag, for the Golding Mandala

To my most dear and beloved husband.

I am seeking opinions on switching 100% pure alpaca for 100% pure wool which is the yarn that is suggested yarn to knit a heavily cabled cardigan. Is this a good idea?

I have not yet knit with pure alpaca and am wondering if this yarn can be substituted for wool with success. I'd hate to spend weeks knitting only to find out that I should have stuck with wool

Thanks for your input.

Just finished part one of end of time. When is part two?

http://www.cartoonlabs.com/comics/index.php?date=2009-12-26&show=sinfest

Sinfest
Tatsuya Ishida

Off to roobarb's any time now, you can all talk about me :-)

My road is sheet ice s'morning,
going to Commercial this afty (with luck!) Discworld peeps will remember it as "The Mended Drum" after I took it over, Landlord Paul invited me last Thursday. Phil-the-Dwarf, tiny_clanger, roobarb and possibly some of their rellies are invited to come with me Yay!