Craft Sound Tip #1:

If you want to mimic the sound of aliens communicating via subfrequencial televibrations, walk around with a small cellophane bag filled tightly with googly eyes.

These glasses is super sex.

Are you serious??? Adorable.

They’ve already been sold, but check out this eye candy by Jennifer Morris! Not only is it beautiful to look at, but you can learn a lot about styling by looking at the various images for each set of jewelry. The various backgrounds used above highlight different aspects of the objects, and I love the effect of what looks like a lensbaby (or something similar, judging from the chromatic aberration). Absolutely gorgeous images.

Via Lobster and Swan.

Wanted to throw this one out there in case there is a knit blogger on earth who doesn’t read brooklyn tweed. Rowan Lima is constructed as i-cord, taming alpaca fibres and, I imagine, making for some interesting texture. Will I restrain my tight-fistedness enough to buy a ball… or two? Only time will tell.

We may not have enough science funding, and our Prime Minister might be a dork, but I love this country and I can’t imagine living anywhere else. Here are some things I love about Canada:

1. Moose
2. Blueberries in Sudbury!
3. Tommy Douglas, who brought us Universal Healthcare and was voted one of the greatest Canadians. Our healthcare system has saved millions of lives (especially the poor ones, which American media folks seem to have forgotten in their haste to bash the fake Canadian system they’ve conjured up from anecdotes about Medicare), including that of my aunt.
4. Canadian David Suzuki. ‘Nuff said.
5. Diversity in Toronto
6. Beach on St. Joseph’s Island
7. Caribana
8. Canadian Snow
9. A deer I ran into (on campus!) who was about 10m away but looks really far because I only had a cellphone camera
10. Mr. Dressup
11. The beau’s cottage
12. Kingston Sheep Dog Trials

These SweetAmbs cookies are beautiful.

This is called a Sliced Bread Notebook. It’s stylish, but not in the shape of bread. I am both amused and confused.

I started planning a trip to the States a little while ago and suddenly it’s the end of June and I haven’t blogged for a month and a half. Well, now I’m back. Sort of. I’ve been knitting, that’s for sure, but I’ve been working more than I’ve been knitting. Which is a good thing, because I’m suddenly looking at quite a few papers that need just a little more polishing and they’ll be done. Those are the UFOs I’m working on now; by the end of this year, I’m hoping to have published at least 5!

But you didn’t come here for yet another tirade about how my PhD is killing my blog. You came here to look at pretty pictures! So here are some (click on the photos for links):

Read the rest »

Happy Mother’s Day everyone! I hope that all of you, in the true spirit of the day, protested a war or somehow encouraged disarmament.

(I always forget that it’s a protest holiday and get my mom something and make her breakfast anyway, but it’s also important to remember the original intent of Mother’s Day.)

Photo via amysgster.