I know what I'm asking Santa for this Christmas. He-Man & She-Ra - A Christmas Special. Here's what Amazon has to say about the plot: In this special Christmas episode of the He-Man and She-Ra cartoons, their sidekick Orko accidentally gets beamed to Earth during a test of a new spy satellite. Orko manages to get back Planet Eternia, but brings along two Earth children, Alisha and Manuel, with him. Since it's Christmastime on Earth, the kids are naturally filled with the holiday spirit, but this overflowing goodwill attracts the unwelcome attention of the Horde Prime and Skeletor. Will the combined power of He-Man, She-Ra and the spirit of Christmas be enough to stop them? Holy crap, I had no idea this even existed. I remember watching He-Man and She-Ra back in the good ol' days, when afternoons were filled with episodes of Jem, Bionic 6, and Tiny Toons. Bionic 6 was my favorite of them all, but hardly anyone I know remembers it. There's a funny memorial site here. What a time suck. But TV was better than homework, right? Anyway, I'm sure baby Jesus would have watched He-Man and She-Ra too, had there been televisions and microwave popcorn in 10 A.D. Speaking of which, is anyone surprised by the news the microwave popcorn is bad for you? And not just for the industrial workers, who are well-represented at butterflavoringlunginjury.com A lovely site, by the way, which also wins my vote for the most improbable url of the year. Turns out the microwave popcorn bags release harmful chemicals as they heat up to pop the corn. I guess we're back to popping our corn the old-fashioned way. In artery-clogging coconut oil. Hooray!

Last night the weatherguy had me all in a tizzy with his promise of snow (Yes, we get snow in Seattle - we call it solid rain). He failed to come through for me. He's adorable, but a liar. An adorable liar. Anyway, several months ago my sewing machine foot pedal began shooting sparks and sizzling, so I decided to give my sewing projects a hiatus. I finally got a replacement pedal this weekend, so it is back to the sweatshop for me! I am really a novice sewer, but the beautiful projects on display here, here, here, and here really inspire me to hone my skills.

The BBC reports on a knitting group focused on helping women quit smoking. I think that's awesome. It would work even better if the women knit with recalled Bernat Fur Out. Bernat has received two reports of garments made of the recalled yarn burning, with one person receiving singed eyebrows. Of course, trading your 2-pack-a-day Gauloise habit for a 2-skein-a-week Manos habit isn't that much of a cost savings.

It's a good thing I didn't start knitting until after I got married. I give you... the knitted wedding. The champagne reception is at 3pm, with speeches and knitted cake. You may knit through the reception. There are drinks but you may want to bring a picnic, as the food is knitted. Knitted! I know wedding cakes tend to be dry, but this is ridiculous.

Here's a pic of the now frogged 1x1 ribbed cuff on my sockotta sock. The picot isn't really working out either, so now the 1x1 is looking pretty good. Garh. And have you seen the commercial for Kraft cheese crumbles? Apparently, they're crumbelievable. Another perfectly good song, ruined. You can read the lyrics here. But it's very eco-minded of Kraft to have found a use for all the cheese sweepings that fall out of the cheddar slicer machine onto the factory floor. Yum.

Wow. Reading Viv's tasting notes on new Dry Soda makes me want to leave work early and track down a bottle. Kumquat! Lavender! Lemongrass! Rhubarb! All you folks who don't live in the Seattle area are just going to have to wait. Or you can just get a nice bottle of sparkly turkey and gravy soda from the folks at Jones Soda. Ew.

I was working on my second pair of socks EVER (in Sockotta, thanks for asking!) and I was loving the stripes, but seriously displeased with the ribbed cuff. I was using size 0 needles, but the 1x1 rib was just sag city. Then, I saw this. Yes, definitely. So I frogged the socks (all those tiny size 0 stitches - argh!) and I am ready to begin again. I was about to start right away last night, but Lost started up and I knew I couldn't knit and watch at the same time. Too many details in that show. I can't knit during the Daily Show either, because then I'd miss Jon Stewart's priceless facial expressions. Knitting is more suited for shows like Joey. Which I like to watch with the TV set turned off.

If any of you remember back to this summer (Lord knows I don't), you might recall a post in which I gushed about the fabulous Russian join. Whee, it rocks. Today I discovered that if you forget your chibi at home, you can actually Russian join by hand. I was knitting with Kureyon, so it was very easy to pull apart the strands and weave the yarn through. Unfortunately, I was on the bus so I couldn't follow through with the spit-splice. If I've learned one thing in my decades of riding public transit, it's DO NOT LICK YOUR PALMS ON THE BUS. Because if you do, you'll be the main character in about a dozen "I saw the weirdest person on the bus today" stories all over town. Plus, the bus is a rolling petri dish, and it's better to keep your orifices closed as much as possible. So I dry-spliced for a while, which does not work very well but is better than palm-licking in public. So, to finish the licker theme, I give you a recipe for a new drink we invented over the weekend - the Northwest Cosmopolitan. 5 parts blueberry juice 3 parts citrus vodka 2 parts orange brandy 2 parts lime juice 1 part simple syrup Shake with ice and strain into 'tini glasses. Follow with an espresso chaser. Or don't, but it won't be as Northwest.

Some researchers in the UK just discovered that being cold actually increases your risk of coming down with a cold! Read all about it here. Apparently, when you get cold, your blood vessels constrict, which keeps your infection-fighting white blood cells away from the places where icky viruses tend to hang out. Like your nose. So cold noses must be avoided at all costs! Luckily, this is another case when knitting saves the day. Enter the nosewarmer.

I finally made the easy Heart scarf from the Breast Cancer Awareness issue of Knitty. I think it turned out very cute. I used one strand of a mystery pink wool held together with a strand of Douceur et Soie in a slightly darker pink. This scarf was kind of itchy, so I rubbed it down with hair conditioner and stretched it out to block. Voila, soft scarf! Even though you can't tell so well that the scarf has a heart design, you can tell that it has some sort of cool lace thing going on.