I know there are knitting needles size in US, and in metric (mm). But I have seen UK measurements, which are labeled "former Canadian" or "old UK" (I have no idea how old). I have also seen Japanese sizes (middle of this page) which are like 5.1mm or 2.7mm. Additionally, needle manufacturers make needles which aren't quite to the charts, I have a pair of #9 Brittany Birch which are marked 5.25mm, a size which doesn't even show up on the huge needle size chart in the new Patternworks catalog. I'm curious, do you ever find yourself needing an old UK or Japanese needle size chart? Or have things settled into US and metric (mm) sizes pretty well?

Hovey Lee wrote to tell me she is having a Trunk Show this Saturday for her line of gorgeous jewelry - Crystal Charm. The show is in her studio in Emeryville, details are here. I cannot think of a better excuse to check out Ikea and the new shopping area in Emeryville while you are there.

Bay Area related - This week's Guardian, The Superlist Issue, contains information on Stitch and Bitch groups and craft gatherings in the city and the East Bay. Listings start on page 26 and go to page 28, and they are also online here.

I get word that the Urban Knitting Studio, a new yarn shop in the city, opened recently. I saw their booth at Stitches West and they look to be very cool.

Daily Candy, of all places, has up an article on using ink-jet shrinky dink paper to make your own luggage tags.

I'm working on my next knitting project, The Truly Random Scarf. I have four colors of Esprit and I want to make a various-widths striped scarf, but I don't trust myself to make a faux random pattern which actually appears random. So I took some left over glass marbles (the ones which they claimed were 3/4" but were much too small) and marked four with Dark Red, Light Red, Purple and Orange. I decided I wanted six different stripe widths, starting with 4 rows, but I don't want to eliminate the possibility of having two rows of the same width next to each other. So I have marked marbles, two each, with 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12. When I get to a new row I pull out one color and one number from a little bag. I'm using size 10 (6mm) needles and I'm working in garter stitch. Because I want there to be a definite right side, all the rows are even numbers so all the color overlap will show on one side. Of course, creating my scarf bingo was more fun than knitting garter stitch, so I'm only on my fifth stripe.

Jennifer send me this note about seltzer (thank you!), there is a service here in the Bay Area called the Seltzer Sisters which will deliver seltzer to your doorstop (like milk bottles!) in a container which will not loose it's fizz. They also offer flavored drink syrups, Fountain Service a non-alcoholic beverage catering service, antique bottles and crates for gifts, and recipes including tips for omlettes, matzo balls, salad dressing, and a New York Egg Cream. I'm impressed.

Ever since I saw a segment on Martha Stewart where her trainer (who I swear was in an old issue of Sassy) said that sparkling water counts for your daily water intake, I have been wanting to get one of these seltzer dispensers. It seems so old fashioned.

I like coconut sweets. When I was little my favorite Dunkin' Donuts donut was the toasted coconut. In honor of the bigger than my fist sized macaroon Scott brought me last night, I dug up some marthastewart.com coconut recipes.

• coconut bonbons
• coconut layer cake
• giovanna's pina colada
• ina's coconut cupcakes (Ina of the Barefoot Contessa)
• nesting baby bluebird cupcakes
• plain macaroons
• sesame coconut cookies

  and of course

• coconut cream pie

SF food news - the Ferry Building market is opening in July, with the markets moving over there sooner. I'm so happy.

Karissa Cove's site Crackers + Honey, is finally all done! This is where I got the I'm Foxy And Crafty apron, which is also sold in the Bust shop Boobtique*. You can also read her first zine on the site too. The first I heard about Crackers + Honey was from the (dearly missed) Dangerous Chunky**.

* I'm not linking to it because it appears to be throwing an infinite amount of security alerts.

** I think, I can't find the entry now.