Know any colors that changed the world? | Ask Metafilter.

Bang Bang Diet iPhone app. at Kottke.

Apartment Therapy New York | Best Outdoor Lighting 2009: Tips & Products.

Were B+W movie sets painted B+W? | Ask Metafilter.

Why are windscreen wipers so, well, crap? Am I mistreating my wipers? Is there a better brand to use? | Ask Metafilter.

Bodies in Motivation » Knee pain and 30 Day Shred. Excellent information and links on knee pain you can develop while working out. I have discovered that as my legs gets stronger my knee pain lessens.

Bodies in Motivation » Explaining Exercises. A nice explanation of how combining types of exercises works to build your metabolism, and video of how to do burpees (oof).

What I Learned Today – The Week. This is a reminder to myself to subscribe to this.

Yay, Amy Karol’s second book, Bend the Rules with Fabric, is officially out. I have a copy and I really like it.

The book talks about all the things you can do to decorate and personalize fabric for purposes of clothing, accessories and toys. The beginning of the book talks about supplies and techniques, and I was especially pleased to find that none of them require you to buy a huge amount of expensive equipment.

She covers things from dying fabric to printing on fabric using your home computer printer. One of my favorites is using freezer paper to put silk screen like effects on fabric. I like these sheets:

The book is full of simple but stunning ideas for decorating everyday things including undies:

and shoes:

and some simple stitching to make a plain shirt into something that looks very nice indeed:

I’ve focused on the projects that appeal immediately to me, but the book is full of projects for kids and ones you can do with kids, including transferring drawn images onto clothing and making custom printed dolls.

Amy Karol’s blog is Angry Chicken where she documents life and gives instruction all sorts of great projects. Her first book, Bend-the-Rules Sewing, is equally as awesome. I talk about more here.

10 Most Downloaded WordPress Plugins of All Time | Best Design Options. Via Action Hero.

Graphic Adventure ‘Simon the Sorcerer’ Comes to the iPhone | Touch Arcade.

‘Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor’ – A Wonderfully Imaginative Game (Review) | Touch Arcade.

What is the best way to go about getting an expired domain? | Ask Metafilter.

Rethinking the Cost of Websites » Blog: Raised Eyebrow Web Studio, Inc..

swissmiss | Web Canvas. A Firefox plugin that shows web designers different screen sizes so you can design for everybody.

Is there anything fun to do in Tacoma? – The Stranger.

Lochaerie & Lake Quinault, at Into the Fray.

mirrormirror: Hot Date Seaplanes and Kayaks.

9811 15th Ave SW

via Seattle Street Food, Thai Food, Tacos, Hot Dogs: Chefs + Restaurants : gourmet.com.

West Seattle Blog… » West Seattle food news: The Swinery is open.

Ask Seattlest: Where can I Get a Good Waffle? – Seattlest.

Hot Dog Of The Week: Seattle Style | Serious Eats. With cream cheese? I didn’t know.

I’m happy to let you all know that Kristen Rask (she who owns Schmancy and curates the annual Plush You! show) has a new book (it’s a kit too) coming out in mid-September called Creature Crochet. To celebrate she is giving away a copy to one lucky reader. I got a look at the copy she brought to the summer UCU but, sadly, wasn’t able to rip it own and play with the yarn inside.

To enter simply leave a comment with this post. If you want you can tell us the creature-centric crochet project you’ve ever taken on, or if you’ve never crocheted in your life. The Fine Print applies. I’ll be closing comments and letting the random number generator choose a winner around 10 am on Wednesday, Sept. 2nd, PST, so you’ve got a week to enter, good luck!

LocalHikes – Monte Cristo.

Good hikes around Seattle. | Ask Metafilter.

LocalHikes – Lake George.

Short Hiking Trips in Seattle area | Ask Metafilter.

Hike to Rattlesnake Ridge In Washington’s Central Cascades.

How much should I be spending on my clothes? | Ask Metafilter. It is a bit of a puzzle to figure out what you should spend money on and what should be considered disposable. Here is to hoping Old Navy continues to offer the V-neck t-shirts I rely on to replenish once a year.

Making Things: Ballet Flats For Emergencies. Please let these catch on all over the US.

i love u smartwool! | Ask Metafilter. What products are way better than their cheap counterparts? Is rich person shampoo really better?

Mighty Goods: Pear Lunch Tote-Fully Lined-With Napkin. A really good use of the oversized pear fabric from Orla Kiely’s Target line.

Martha Stewart Halloween Decorations – Grandin Road. A new line of Halloween decorations from Martha Stewart, I love the ghost costume. from Busywork.

A New Kind Of Cake Flour » Eat All About It. Unbleached cake flour is coming from King Arthur.

Low calorie snack recommendations | Ask Metafilter. Nicely varied suggestions in the responses.

shutterbean » Baked Falafel.

Wine Adviser | Washington’s Pacific Rim brand gets rieslings right | Seattle Times Newspaper. This is the brand that is still owned by Bonny Doon but moved up here to Washington. I must seek out the Autumnus red.

Buttermilk Cupcakes in a Jar. at Martha Stewart

Caramel and Fleur de Sel Popcorn. at Martha Stewart

CakeSpy: South African Munchies: Delicious Crunchies. These sound absolutely delicious.

I’ve been experimenting with oh so famous the Martha Stewart tissue paper pom poms as decorations for our upcoming post-wedding reception in Ohio. (You know what is so brilliant about theses? You can ship them mostly assembled but flat and just poof them out when you get there.) I discovered that these smaller ones, shown here as napkin ring decorations, made with larger rounded ends make for especially charming faux flowers.

To make them I followed the usual instructions using four sheets of tissue paper cut into 4″ by 6″ rectangles. I folded in roughly 3/4″ accordion folds and trimmed the ends like so:

Separate the layers and you can use a bit of floral tape to attach them to a floral wire stem. These are currently gracing my dining room.

The guys behind Wexley School for Girls will be speaking at tomorrow’s Grassroots Business Association meeting on Creating Loyal Customers with Social Media Marketing. This is gonna be a good one. We’re nearly at capacity for the meeting so please let us know if you’re planning to attend. Details here.

Riot of Daisies » Blog Archive » New Stitch Markers. Plastic coiless safety pins to use as stitch markers for knitter, an alternative to the Clover locking ring markers.

Kitchener stitch dog tag – Patternworks. Dorky, but useful.

Dolce & Gabbana Ruched Nylon Knitting Bag. Love it but what a price tag.

Cardigan Empire: How to Hem Jeans in 3 Easy Steps. Via Mary Sheely on Twitter.

Short row heel vs. heel flap [Archive] – KnittingHelp.com Forum.

Knitty: universal toe-up short-row sock formula.

Flickr: thedailypurl’s sock knitting bag.

Apparel & Accessories | Kids’ clothier Kate Quinn Organics grows up with a cozy women’s line | NWsource. Cool, the not-so-secret outlet store is very close to where I live.

Snacks! Opens in Ballard | Slog. I need to find an excuse to get drunk in Ballard so I can visit this place late at night and tipsy, as it is obviously meant to be visited.

Escape from Chase | Ask Metafilter. Question about Seattle credit unions.

Where are some good (and affordable) custom clothiers in Seattle? – The Stranger, Seattle’s Only Newspaper.

Seattle Sketcher | Cooling off at Picnic Point beach | Seattle Times. Must remember this as a place to visit.

Travel | Oregon’s Columbia Gorge Hotel likely to reopen next month | Seattle Times Newspaper.

The Arts | ‘Suffer for Beauty’ catalogs women’s fashion extremes, from corsets to cones | Seattle Times Newspaper.

Look at that, I have a heel on my sock. I only needed to rip back four times to get it all right. That dark line of thread you see is a lifeline that I got a whole lot of use out of. I used the Japanese short rows from nonaKnits which explains the basics, but I found this tutorial for Japanese short rows in the round at Adorabubble Knits to be the most useful. Though, I turn, slip, then add a pin. That difference didn’t seem to affect how the gaps closed on the last go around. I will try the turn, add a pin and then slip next sock to see if there is a difference. I’ve also discovered that stringing pins on my yarn ahead of time, just like you would if you were knitting with beads, saves a lot of frustration when I’m in the midst of short rowing. Thanks again to Amy Singer for her excellent Favorite Sock Recipe, I suspect I would have given up on other forms of short rows.

While I was at Sock Summit I splurged on a handbag from Queen Bee. This is the Large Rita size in Hemp Denim with the Peony design. The closest I can find on their site is the samller size.

I was drawn to the flower design on front (after a spring full of looking at be-flowered dresses I cannot seem to shake the attraction) but it was the details that I fell for. It’s got everything I love:

• large enough to hold a magazine
• sturdy enough to stand on it’s own when plopped on the floor
• zipper top (after my wallet was snatched I cannot do open top bags)
• large loop zipper pull to reduce fumbling
• two exterior pockets on the back for iPhone and keys
• single short strap, long enough that it’s able to be hiked up over a shoulder using one arm
• strap is removable so I can easily replace it with longer adjustable strap for those moments when I need it to hang across my body (Nordstrom Rack is usually the case)
• not one but two interior pockets for makeupy things and my littlest camera, both are deep enough to reach the bottom of the bag, and the zippered one has the same large loop zipper pull
• and most essential, a light colored interior so I can actually see what is down there

One could not go to Sock Summit and come away not having gained at least enough knowledge to start a basic sock. In this case I took Amy Singer‘s class called Knitting Without Wool where she gave us Amy’s Favorite Sock Recipe, taught us Japanese Short Rows (there at nonaKnits) and showed us a super secret stretchy bind-off that will be published in Knitty in the Autumn. (I’m, apparently, a bind-off geek and am gleeful to have learned three new stretchy bind-offs at the summit.)

So, this is a toe-up sock knit in Fixation, started with Judy’s Magic Cast On. The picture above shows the cast-on end with the ball of Fixation holding the sock open. Isn’t the cast-on breathtaking?

This pattern uses an ankle gusset (is that the right thing to call it?) and, at least from what I can tell so far, a fairly shallow turned heel using the aforementioned Japanese Short Rows. I have a high instep so I think this combination will work out well for me. I got to the short rows last night:

The technique uses placing pins at turns, and using those later to lift the bit of yarn up and over the needle. In class we talked about using coiless safety pins. You can use locking or split ring stitch markers as well but I think those are awfully big for a sock (and I don’t already own any).

I set out to find coiless pins and ended up with these Button Pins from Joanns. The only other coilless pins I could find were in the beading section and were 1 1/8th inch and seemed a bit big at that size. The button pins have a little bump in the wire but are only 3/4ths an inch and work really nicely. Here is the package:

In my research I also came across these coiless plastic safety pins that Riot of Daisies uses as stitch markers. They are 1″ long and still a bit big for socks, I think, but if you want to break free of the peach and mint green locking stitch marker monopoly these would work well. See also Colonial stitch markers (which I didn’t see in the mega-store) and 3/4 inch coiless safety pins at Angelika’s Yarn Store, as well as larger sizes.

Next I decrease the ankle gusset stitches and then it’ll just be a question knitting a tube up to to the top. I did buy four balls of Fixation just be to sure I would have enough and at this rate it looks like I’ll have a pair of knee socks before I’m done.