The Presence

This is an illusion scarf for my son - he and I are both big Nine Inch Nails fans (I listen to Ghosts every day!), so when I found this pattern on the interwebs, I knew I had to make it for him!

The design includes The Presence (a hand reaching out), and the NIN logo in the middle, and another hand on the other side. In Trent's song 'My Violent Heart' on the The Fragile album, the hand image is encoded in a spectrogram within the music! VERY cool. You can even download a whole new NIN album for free - The Slip is Trent's thank you to his fans. It's brilliant...

Anyway - the pattern is here (PDF link). Son chose the colours - both are Naturally yarn from NZ. I think it would be a bit clearer if we'd been able to get pure black for the contrast colour, but the dark grey seems to work OK, and the hidden image certainly is visible at low viewing angles!

I have a hand-drawn but gridded colour chart which I'm happy to scan and email people (the one in the pattern isn't so easy to read, so I drew a new one up).

Showing Off

I have quite a few knitting projects to show off - and thought I'd start with these Show-Off Stranded Socks, which I'm knitting for my friend Penny (she of Viennese fame) in exchange for boxes of the scrumptious Heiß Liebe (Hot Love!) raspberry vanilla tea. When it isn't being confiscated by Australian Quarantine. (I wouldn't mind so much if they were at least consistent - we've had one shipment opened and approved by Quarantine, and another one opened, confiscated and destroyed - same tea, same ingredients!)

Anyway - on to the sock. I'm a slow sock knitter. This one is now up to the heel, which is an unusual construction, so I'll need some quiet time to figure it out. I'd better get a wriggle on before winter hits in Austria!

The pattern is Show-Off Stranded Socks, by Anne Campbell.
Wool is Opal Feelings (bought in Vienna by Penny, and not confiscated by Quarantine ;).
Needles are beautiful short Brittany birch needles (a gift from Taph last year).
These aren't colours I would normally knit with, but they're really cheery and lovely, so I'm glad I'm getting the chance!

I've finished so many things of late I only have TWO things on the needles! How did that happen?! This state of affairs clearly cannot be allowed to continue .. stay tuned!

Meet Mort and Binky

OK, I know this is going to be either an 'Aaaaaw' or 'Eeeeew' post - but I'd like you to meet Dotter's new babies, brothers Mort and Binky (yes, of Terry Pratchett fame). They are her 17th birthday present.

They are black hooded 'fancy' rats, and just delightful (I must admit a prior involvement - I had a gorgeous little pet rat called Sarah when I was about 10). They're about 5 weeks old, and extreeeemely cute! Binky is very cuddly and Mort is more adventurous ...

A few good points of rats over mice as pets :

1) They don't smell bad

2) They can be litter trained, and don't wee and poo all over the place

3) They love being petted, and will relax and fall asleep in your hand while you rub their back

4) They're much more intelligent, and can even learn their own name, simple commands and tricks

5) They are curious, friendly and sociable, and love to play

I know, if you're not into rodents, well, you're not into rodents. But since we can't have a bigger pet (ie a dog), because of renting, this is a good alternative.