Wednesday, September 26. 2007
The ad on Something Positive today send me to www.squishable.com, where I found this! And boy howdy do I want it.
It's sold out, though, but I think I'll be joining the mailing list for when they come back around.
Either that, or I'll just knit a gi-normous squid. One of the two.
Monday, September 24. 2007
It is a little known fact that when Mr. Zabet and I got married, his aunt offered to make his groom's cake. I begged and begged him to ask for a red velvet armadillo cake (a la Steel Magnolias) but he refused. In the end, he left it up to his aunt to decide, and she made a very nice, beach-themed cake with a lighthouse topper as we had been married on a beach near a lighthouse. It's a good thing, too, since the actual wedding cake collapsed in transit to the reception site. We deftly substituted one cake for the other and the extended family just assumed we'd forgone a groom's cake entirely (which didn't surprise them much since we had already done a bunch of "weird shit" by their standards). I'm still torn today over whether or not the armadillo cake would have been the more awesome thing to have, though I know in my wedding-crazed state at the time I was really grateful to have a beautiful tiered cake to present to the guests. This cake, however, um... takes the cake. (Sorry!) (Ok, not really.)
Corpse Bride Wedding Cake by Anne Heap
Sunday, September 23. 2007
Last year, at our first AntiCraft birthday party, we did a poetry contest. The winning participant's poem began.
Nothing, nothing, nothing,
I am nothing.
I don't remember more, and the poem itself has been lost to the wiles of somewhere else, but it comes to mind today because, well, nothing is on my mind.
I'd love to create something from nothing, or more specifically, nothing from something. I'd love to create something that captures the void. Terribly interesting to you, dear reader, I am sure, because I can't think of the way I want to project it. Because let's face it, a black hole on a black cloth made of black yarn is only interesting for so long, but creating a sense of nothingness with craft would be really fantastic. At least, in my own strange opinion it would be.
What do you want to create today? What grand, unimaginable thing should spring forth from your very hands? What is your universe, o goddesses (and gods, of course) of glue and string and sticks and hammers?
Friday, September 21. 2007
I attended Wool Gathering last Saturday in Yellow Springs, Oh. It inspired poetry.
Wool, wool, glorious wool.
You don't agree?
I pity the fool.
Smooth, sometimes scratchy.
Comfy, often catchy
Wool, wool, glorious wool.
You don't agree?
I'll kill you in your sleep.
Make sure you really get the meat of that last line.
Still haven't heard back about the poem I submitted to a prestigious literary magazine. Somehow I think they might not get me.
Today is a rough day, comment me a poem. Need a theme? Try spiders.
Thursday, September 20. 2007
Did you know that the famous witches' scene in Macbeth is thought to have heavily edited by someone after Shakespeare? Shakespeare wrote in iambic pentameter (and indeed, Macbeth holds to this), but the witches' scene breaks into odd fits of heroic couplets. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
Thrice and once the hedge pig whined.
Harpier cries, "Tis time, tis time!"
Round about the cauldron go,
In the poison'd entrails throw,
Toad that under the cold stone,
Days and nights has thirty one,
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.
Double double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake,
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell broth boil and bubble.
Double double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Scale of dragon tooth of wolf,
Witches mummy maw and gulf,
Of the ravin'd salt sea shark,
Boot of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat and slips of yew,
Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe,
Ditch deliver'd by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab,
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.
Double double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble;
Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good. Obviously. So, get your Eye of Newt on with The Enchanting and Magical Witch Hat by Anne Carroll Gilmour. (Thanks, Janis!)
(Scroll down past the Mexican dinner and the Mormon Tabernacle to get to the photos.)
Pattern can be ordered by calling The Black Sheep Wool Co. at (801) 487-9378.
Wednesday, September 19. 2007
Ok, I don't think I can really ever top HYPNODOMINATION as a blog topic, so it is with a listless heart I present you with an ambitious art project to make one skull every day, which would have been so much freaking cooler if only I had posted it yesterday before the hypnodomination bomb.
Skull-A-Day
Be sure to check out the "United Skull" tshirt over in the sidebar. It's one of those superbly poignant but simple things that makes me go, "Now why didn't I think of that?!?"
(Thanks, Alice!)
Tuesday, September 18. 2007
Today, while enjoying a tasty Hendrick at 3rd St Coffee (warning, will open a MySpace page) I was asked what I was eating. I replied, "The Hendrick." Then explained the lucious olive-y, cheesy, vegetably goodness that is this sandwich. Oh, and it is good.
But as conversations are wont to do, the tide turned, and we discussed our lives. She offered me her card, with the warning that it had the itinerary from a workshop she had attended on the back. A BDSM workshop.
And then I kinda loved her a little more than I already did just for her willingness to ask about my sandwich.
She brought up the term "hypnodomination." One I hadn't heard before, but could easily guess the meaning.
How cool is that? I mean really. It might not necessarily have been my bag before, but I love the idea of being able to tantalize the mind of anyone (because let's face it, I am the luscious goodness), and to do it through hypnosis? Wowza. Fun times.
That's all, just been thinking about that and admiring the business card with such fun phrases as "Flogging--An introduction" scrawled on the back in lovely, choppy handwriting.
Sunday, September 16. 2007
From the fabulous studio of Insubordiknit (aka Jacey the Spin Goddess), may I present to you approximately 250 yards of squee?

And apparently it's time to pluck between the eyebrows again!
Friday, September 14. 2007
We got word that The Streetknit Project is up and running again for 2007, if anyone would like to do some charity knitting for Toronto's under-clad this winter. For more info about the project, Streetknit groups to join, and other Canadian options, visit their site at http://www.streetknit.ca.
(Image blatantly stolen from the Cthulhu Lives: The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. Please don't be mad, we only stole it 'cos it's the bestest trophy evah.)
Wednesday, September 12. 2007
I have to give a huge shout out to M. E. Williams over at DIY Life. He or she (I almost defaulted to "she" since it has to do with craft, but that's a bit sexist now, innit?) has written the only review of the site that has managed to get all the facts in order, down to spelling it "The AntiCraft".
Bless you, M. E. Williams, bless your every keystroke and text doc, bless your computer and your desk. Were I not to be getting my tubes tied on October 1st I'd totally have your babies. Well, and if I didn't hate children. Or if I weren't so skeeved about being pregnant. Let's not even talk giving actual birth. I am a wussie. Hello, Essure coils! But I digress. You rock, M.
(For the curious among you, Mr. Garth Johnson over at Extreme Craft comes in at a very close second.)
From Publisher's Weekly, the article found here.
"This year's most irreverent take on the crafting trend may be F+W's AntiCraft: Knitting, Beading and Stitching for the Slightly Sinister (Dec.). Writers Renée Rigdon and Zabet Stewart prove that no subject's too icky—they offer a how-to on creating beaded necklaces with skulls—or sticky. Their “duct tape corset” may not be typical, but then, a woman cannot live by cotton alone."
We're about halfway down the article, a brief mention, but hey, I'm a press whore.
The Cincinnati Enquirer has noticed the book.
I ordered the Quilter's Set of looms from Hazel Rose Looms last week, and they arrived on Monday.
Since Monday, I've barely been able to put them down long enough to draw breath.
Looms=love. Weaving=love.
My brain is a-flutter trying to be the dark and scary girl with these things, but they make me want to do nice things like make presents for my grandmother (Happy Birthday Nana!) and a big cozy flowery afghan for myself.
I'm sure soon the darkness will take over, and I'll come up with wicked things to do with them, but until then, I'm enjoying the respite of loving my little looms.
Quick review: Well made, rounded corners, perfect nail spacing, wide variety of wood options, and super fast shipping. I give this website five gory stars of joy and consumery goodness. Came with a nice little tote bag too.
Wednesday, September 5. 2007
Super secret information: I did not knit from early February until last week. Shocker, I know.
Yet finally, the bug bit me, and I set about my merry way on a pair of anklets with spare (oh so much spare) sock yarn. I knit the cuff, I started to knit the short row heel. I got halfway through it, and my hands . . .
So I'll say again, my hands can freaking bite me, as can my left shoulder, my back, and (on an unrelated note entirely) my knee.
I love you, knitting, but why do you hurt me so?
Tuesday, September 4. 2007
The September Surprise has gotten me thinking.
"Thinking what?" you ask.
"Shut up and let me talk," I reply, rage glowering in my perfect blue eyes. Then I get all embarassed and cry, and hope you don't make any cracks about my medication
I've been thinking about cross stitch. Most everyone knows about Subversive Cross Stitch and if you don't, you should check it out now.
I wanted something really scary though. I wanted my toes to curl when looked at it. I wanted to cringe in horror, but want it all at the same time.
And then I found it.
And maybe I don't want it after all.
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