Links of the week, 10/05/2009

I find myself with a bit of extra free time lately, due to a series of events, so I thought it might be a good idea to restart the links of the week. Especially because I've found a way in which it is even less work for me to set them up!

feeling stitchy: Crafty Blog School

Feeling Stitchy has a quite nice Blog School series, with all sorts of tips to set up and personalise your blog. Link goes to 3rd item in the series, about creating a personalised banner, but they are all worth perusing.

PocketMod: The Free Recyclable Personal Organizer

While I'm thinking on buying some form of PDA/smarphone, I like this paper alternative to a PDA. I normally carry my planner and a small notebook with me, but this is still a good thing. You can create many different templates to print, and carry your small organiser with you. I really like the different options the printouts have.

Silver's Sock Class (tutorials)

All manner of socks tutorials. The standard one sock in 4 dpns, but also one toe-up sock on two circularl needles, and the incredibly exciting and incredibly scary two toe-up sock on one circular needle. I might need to try this last one, but I think I will do that in one of Alex's socks, and the ones that I plan to knit for me will be lacy, and it will probably confuse the heck out of me (his are just moderately plainly ribbed).

Needles & Knots: Heel Compendium

And one the same topic of socks, a page with instructions and pictures for all manner of knitted heels.

Where No Flag Has Gone Before

Good paper on the political and technical challenges behind putting a US flag on the Moon. I especially like the technical ones, of course!

Creative minds: the links between mental illness and creativity

Brains are funny things. I've held discussions over the illness/creativity link, and whether it's better to be horribly depressed and creative, or normal and less creative. For me, it's an easy question: I'd rather be normal than creative, because my creativity was no use for me when I couldn't get out of bed. But I can see how creativity in different areas can be linked to mental illnesses, and I like how the article approaches their "uses".

Green Karat: recycled jewellery

One of the threads in Remnants talked about diamonds, and the discussion led me to re-search for this site. They do all sorts of jewellery with synthetic diamonds/precious stones, and recycled gold and other materials (I seem to remember mostly from computers). The jewellery is really nice and really geeky as a bonus, so I wouldn't mind getting something from here. I'll see how many pennies I have in my piggy!

Microcopter

Having studied helicopter dynamics, I can assure you that they fly by magic. They shouldn't, much like bumblebees, but they do. They are sustained by people's belief that they will fly.

Cynical-C Blog

The Cynical Blog collects one-star reviews from classics of their genres. I read them and often wonder whether we read the same book or watched the same movie. For the books, I'm tempted to say they got it through Babble Fish several times before reading. Or something.

Rain's Knit-Bits: Blocking acrylic

As we've seen recently, blocking can have an enormous effect on even materials that don't block as easily. In my copious spare time I plan to start an acrylic lace shawl, and I will block is thus.