Technical Difficulties

More work to come once the new battery arrives to save my laptop from brickdom.

Please don't call it a "snood"

Check out this article in the WSJ about "snoods" or what normal people call a cowl or circular scarf, and hip people call an infinity or eternity scarf. We already have something in the world called a snood, folks, and it is meant to corral all your long, beautiful hair in a sort of netted bag. Think '40s beauties or Scarlett O'Hara working at the hospital in Atlanta. Fashion marketeers seem to view "snood" as some sort of brilliant, Brit-inflected mash-up of scarf and hood. Now, I'm no genius, but wouldn't that be a "scood"? Grumble grumble.

Of course, I call it an infinity scarf. Or just Infinite.

Anyway, the weekend was not great, chez Purly. Penelope picked up some bug and (Warning: mildly gross Mom oversharing ahead) had diarrhea all weekend, with special added vomiting all day Saturday. Now, normally, with three kids I end up doing a fair amount of laundry, but this weekend it was all laundry, all the time. And then we have the dead computer (battery, hopefully). Luckily, Nick is busy grading papers, so I can borrow his computer for a mo'. But all my pics and the half-written pattern for a little vest/camisole thing (how do you decide when something is one or the other?) are trapped on the dead laptop. A replacement battery has been ordered (my 'top is almost five years old, so no popping down to the Apple Store, unfortunately), so I hope to be back up and running in a few days. Until then I'll be knitting hats and mittens for the kids' school Holiday Fair next month.

And the cherry on top is that my darling, ever-shrinking grandmother is in the hospital. Her bones are crumbling, and she's in a lot of pain. She is a smart, tough lady, and if she says she can't take it, it must be bad. I just wish there was something I could do for her.

Safari

Safari: Home page

Safari: User home screen

Safari: Search results screen

These are screen shots of the original user interface for Safari: O'Reilly Books Online (now Safari Books Online, as other publishers have come on board to add their content to this online interface). I worked with the development team in Belgium and the East and West Coast offices of O'Reilly to come up with the interface back in 1999-2000.

This was such an interesting project to work on because I not only had to reinforce the O'Reilly identity but take it into a new online realm. I also had to think about how different readers/users would want to work with our material online. Luckily, my earlier experience in educational publishing came in handy, where I had learned about different modes of learning. And my years working with Edie Freedman, Creative Director extraordinaire helped, too.

From here I went on to work for Gomez.com, largely in the GomezPro division, designing online tools for customers, including a tool to create online surveys, which was, again, interesting, as I had to think of all the different kinds of questions users would want to ask and then figure out the best design for those elements. I am looking through my archives for design samples from my Gomez days and will post what I find.

Pattern: Matryoshka Japonais

Who wouldn’t love their own set of soft, woolly, knitted dolls? My daughters can’t keep away from these three. They are based on the traditional Russian nesting dolls known as Matryoshka, which were in turn inspired by a set of Japanese dolls representing the Seven Gods of Fortune. The blue and white colorwork was inspired by Japanese indigo resist-dyed fabrics.

These dolls are a wonderful way to try intarsia and stranded colorwork techniques on a small scale. If that is too much, the dolls could also be worked plain with their faces added afterwards using duplicate stitch and their skirts embellished with embroidery.

This pattern is for all three dolls and includes five charts.

CSB Fashion Show Invitation

Invitation, envelope, reply card, raffle cards and tickets, note card (not shown: reply envelope, stationery sheet for staff use, and program) for The Children's Service Board of Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago 46th Annual Gold Coast Fashion Show

This was a two-color job, so I chose the classic combination of red and black for a sharp and sophisticated look -- previous years had gone for a softer color combination. The checkerboard added a graphic element to balance the lovely fashion sketch, and I really liked the impact of opening the invitation and getting that full-on pop of red.

Pattern: Infinite

Just one skein of luscious Rowan's Kidsilk Haze will give you the most popular accessory of the season: an infinity scarf. Wear it long, like a super-drapey cowl, double it up for that casual scarf look, or pull the second wrap up over your head like a smoke ring. $2.00 PDF download from Ravelry.

ETA: Infinite will increase in price to $4.00 on 15 November.

Infinite

You know how those infinity scarves, like this one from American Apparel, are all the rage? Well, I decided I could do better than that, and here it is in all its silky-mohair glory: Infinite.

And there are, if not an infinite number of ways to wear it, at least three ways to wear it. Doubled up as a cuddly neck scarf (above), with the second wrap pulled up over your head like a smoke ring (below), or as a long, drapey scarf (far below).

This lovely used just one skein of Rowan's Kidsilk Haze. I had this ball of Majestic, purchased at Yarns in the Farms moons ago, that I wanted to work up into something special. I know I'm going to get a lot of use out of this one, and a few folks on the holiday list may find themselves opening up a little bit of infinity on Christmas morning. Pattern is available for $2.00 on Ravelry here. Or you can buy it now.

ETA: Infinite will increase in price to $4.00 on 15 November.