Kris Howard

Blogger, knitter, crafter, social media addict. Formerly at Canva & AWS. Recovering from 20 years in the tech industry. | 🇦🇺🇺🇸 she/her

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Last Notes

2026-07-18 05:13:15 GMT

Sydney Craft and Quilt Show 2026 - Most of my time at the Craft Show (https://craftfair.com.au/sydney/) this year was spent on duty at the Knitters Guild stand, but I did manage to do a quick cruise around the quilts to see what caught my eye. Unfortunately this year most of them just weren’t to my taste. There were a lot of modern, figurative art quilts covered in appliqué and embroidery, which I’m not a huge fan of even though I can appreciate the work and skill involved. There were some lovely traditional quilts as well, but most of them seemed to be SUPER BUSY and in crazy colours. I snapped some photos of the things that I liked or that made me stop and think.
This is “Modern Radiance” by Belinda Betts, which won First place in the Modern category. I don’t know if I love it, but it did stop me in my tracks.
This is “The Mighty Mangrove” by Janine Judge. I really like the way she’s done the zig-zaggy quilting in the sky.
“Taking the High Ground” by Zara Zanettino won the Judges’ Choice Award for her wall-hanging inspired by seeing an army of green tree ants climbing a rainbow gum tree. (I just realised that all three of these first quilts were made by people with alliterative names. )
This is “Cassandra’s Quilt” by Lynda Sturm. I think I would have liked it better with 30% less stuff in the center, but it’s undeniably awesome. It took Lynda 18 months to do all the appliqué!
And just look at the density and precision of the quilting. Yowza.
This one reminded me of some of the protest quilts I’ve seen online lately. It’s called “Don’t Miss Out” by Sarah Fielke, and it was designed in tribute to a friend and quiltingt mentor who passed away recently.
Magenpies (https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianBirds/comments/11c525x/magenpies/)! Rodd loves magenpies. This is “Between the Lines” by Bev Butler (more alliteration!), and it’s covered in incredible detail.
This is “An Impulsive Jungle Garden” by Nicole Honan. Again, it’s so colourful and busy it almost makes me feel anxious, but I somehow still really like it.
ROBOT (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUnibKe_o18)! This is “Roboticus Scrapii” by Julie McAllister, which won Runner Up in Modern Quilts. “My AI fantasy is a robot that roams [my studio] space, gathering remnanets and transforming them into new scrap quilts. Gosh, maybe he could vacuum too!” I want to live in Julie’s future.
The Show also included the “One Red Thread” exhibition, which has a theme every year that incorporates the colour red. This year the theme was RepaiRED. I found Brenda Wood’s piece “Shame Must Change Sides” really powerful.
The Show also included pieces from this year’s Australasian Quilt Convention Challenge (https://aqc.com.au/aqc-challenge-connections/) with the theme “Connections.” This one is called “Wheels of Freedom” by Francis J. Wild. I really liked the artist’s statement: “Many people see https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/94346
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2026-06-03 02:58:00 GMT

#innovation - Today I learned my hair salon offers little spectacle condoms to keep hair dye from staining your glasses.
https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/93938
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2026-04-21 16:38:22 GMT

YAY IT’S HERE - My only regret is I won’t be able to wear it to the next Sydney Tech Leaders meetup…
https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/93791
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2026-02-22 09:36:40 GMT

Burnout - It turns out that a two-month stint as an emergency overseas carer—including the attendant stress, staying in crappy hotels, trudging through snow, barely eating or exercising, and being apart from your partner—really takes a toll on a body. Two days after I got back to Australia, I tripped and completely stacked it on the footpath outside our house. My knee, ribs, and dignity were all bruised for the better part of a week. Just as those started to heal, I came down with a nasty virus. I’ve been a muddle-headed snot monster ever since. (PCR test came up positive for human metapneumovirus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_metapneumovirus), which seems to be going around.) The cough isn’t clearing, so yesterday my doctor put me on antibiotics for a suspected subsequent chest infection.
When it rains it pours. I guess my body really, really wanted a rest.
Relatedly, HCF sent me an extremely well-timed email in January offering a free mental wellbeing check-in (https://www.hcf.com.au/members/manage-your-health/mental-health-support). I signed up for a videochat session and got matched to a therapist in less than a day. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect; I’ve never met with a therapist before. She was lovely though, and I pretty much sobbed through the whole thing. You can’t really accomplish much in these sessions, but she gave me some good advice on the kind of therapist I might want to look for on an ongoing basis. She also taught me something useful – the four ways to solve a problem (https://findmytherapist.com/resources/self-care/how-to-use-the-four-options-of-dbt-to-solve-a-problem/). You can either solve it, find a way to feel better about it, learn to accept it, or stay miserable. I have a feeling I’m going to be mulling over that one for quite some time.
Take care of yourself, friends.
https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/92356

2025-11-09 07:18:48 GMT

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It’s being knit in the round, so there’s no wrong side. Maybe it means on the back side? Like do all the increases on the back side of the leg?
I get doing a centered decrease… but how many times am I doing it per row? And where? So confusing.

2025-11-09 06:58:24 GMT

Any German-speaking knitters online? I’m #knitting Loferl (calf warmers), and I’m having trouble with the decrease portion of the pattern. The Google translation makes no sense. Can anyone rewrite this in English for me? I don’t understand what the 2x2 refers to.
“Dazu im rückwärtigen Mustersatz 2x2 Maschen zusammenstricken, nach 4 Reihen 2 Maschen zusammenstricken, diese Abnahme nach weiteren 4 Reihen wiederholen, nach weiteren 6 Reihen 2x2 Maschen zusammenstricken, dazu links und rechts vom mittleren Zopf eine Masche abheben. 2 Maschen zusammenstricken und die abgehobenen Maschen darüber ziehen.”
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2025-10-16 20:51:16 GMT

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It’s there in the sidebar: “No AI used in writing this blog, ever. 100% human-generated.”
I just dislike the assumption that of course we’re all using it, so of course we need an explicit policy. That’s not true.

2025-10-16 08:31:19 GMT

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I’ve been writing original content online for 25+ years. There’s no need for a page or policy on my blog; there’s just a simple statement that I don’t use LLMs at all, ever. Much simpler.

2025-10-15 04:21:43 GMT

Anyone looking for work? Spoke to a friend today who is looking for a mid/sr dev to help out with a 3-4 week project. Ideally Typescript or Python with PostgreSQL. It’s related to transparency and democracy, so if you feel like you want to Do Some Good, this is one way! (And also, they can pay.)

2025-10-08 06:11:38 GMT

Typeknitting - https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/87626
Okay, this is very cool. Knit Hello (https://www.knithello.com/) is a typeface where you type in words and the representation it spits out is a #knitting pattern for the words. I love how simple it is, and how it uses slipstitches for the horizontal strokes. Genius! There are already a couple (https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/knit-hello-united-fanscarf) patterns (https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/knit-hello-variations-scarf) using it on Ravelry. The creator is Rüdiger Schlömer, aka Typeknitting (https://typeknitting.net/), who has also written a book on typography and knitting. I’ve just downloaded the sample font and tried it out. Oooooh, this is going to be very useful! (Link via Colossal (https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2025/10/knit-hello-typeknitting-rudiger-schlomer-digital-font-knitting-pattern/).)
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2025-06-18 03:38:29 GMT

After lunch, we have Rasmus Lystrøm giving a barnburner of an AI rant. To paraphrase Nietzsche, if you stare at an LLM long enough, you become more like an AI - hallucinating and full of bullshit. 😂✊ #YOWTLS25
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2025-06-01 05:10:38 GMT

LinkGaslighting? - For several months now I’ve continued my project where every day I go back through my archives and clean up broken links in old posts. If something is broken and I can find it in the Wayback Machine (https://web.archive.org/), I replace the link. Lately I’m noticing something new and insidious. Of course there’s a lot of linkrot, where stuff is just gone. (In my archives, Yahoo News and Make’s Craftzine are the two biggest offenders.) Then there’s stuff that’s gone, but the domain has been repurposed by someone else. Sometimes it’s obvious (porn and gambling ahoy!) and other times they create a plausible looking site filled with SEO glurge. And then there’s this third dark pattern I don’t even have a name for yet, where the same entity is still in control of the domain and the link goes to a plausible looking URL, but it’s NOT the page I linked to originally.
Here’s an example. In 2001 I wrote a post (https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/554) about Jenna Bush, saying I sympathised with her and that she was just acting like a college student. In it, I linked to a Salon.com article (http://www.salon.com/mwt/wire/2001/05/30/jenna_bush/index.html) about her. If you follow that link now, you are silently redirected to an article about her beliefs about safe sex (https://www.salon.com/2007/09/25/jenna_bush/). If you don’t look closely, you might miss the fact that the safe sex article is from 2007. If you go to the Wayback Machine, you’ll see that the actual article I linked to was about her buying booze (https://web.archive.org/web/20010605091134/http://www.salon.com/mwt/wire/2001/05/30/jenna_bush/index.html). I’ve now found several other Salon.com links to that redirect to posts about the same general topic of the post, but aren’t the actual one I linked to.
Another example. In 2013 I linked to (https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/11354) a Serious Eats recipe for “tobacco cookies” (http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/05/tobacco-cookies-recipe.html). If you click that link now, you’re redirected to a recipe for Chocolate Dipped Tuile “Cigarettes” (https://www.seriouseats.com/chocolate-dipped-tuile-cigarettes-cookies-recipe). That one gave me pause. Is that what I originally linked to? If that’s what the recipe is called, why did I call it something else? Here’s the Wayback Machine to the rescue again, confirming that there really used to be a recipe for tobacco cookies (http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/05/tobacco-cookies-recipe.html). WTF.
I’m not clear on why or how this is happening. Maybe some sort of custom 404 logic that picks out a keyword and sends you to a likely recent link? It’s infuriating though that they don’t give you any warning that it might not be the page you’re looking for. It makes finding broken links that much harder, because they’re actively trying to gaslight me. Links are a contract and a promise. Silently redirecting https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/77747

2025-04-09 09:33:08 GMT

YOU GUYS. EASTER SHOW BLUE RIBBON. I YELLED “HOLY SHIT.” #knitting #sydneyroyal 🏆🧶
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2025-04-08 02:19:54 GMT

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@nprofile…8t0c Not as useful for those of us using metric needle sizes. Need a way of encoding .25, .5, .75… 🤔

2025-03-28 23:46:34 GMT

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@nprofile…8t0c @nprofile…jc2n Yeah, that’s why I usually do the two circulars. On the plus side, means I can knit a pair of things at the same time.

2025-03-28 22:55:36 GMT

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@nprofile…8t0c I gave up on DPNs decades ago. Only use circulars now! Usually two-circulars method, but occasionally magic loop.

2025-03-27 22:19:57 GMT

Catching up on your blog, and as a dual US-Aus this caught my eye: “Incidently, Australia is one of the few countries in the world where more Americans live here than Australians live over there.” It feels right to me, but I’d love to know the source. I have no idea how to even google for that…

2025-03-16 10:15:03 GMT

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A bit more context for those who don't knit or know much about QR codes: A knitting pattern consists of a lot of text (and in this case, also a chart) so it's not feasible to encode the pattern itself into a QR code small enough to fit on a mitten. Compare these two QR codes. One is 25x25, and one is 29x29. The bigger one points to the actual URL for the mitten pattern (https://www.web-goddess.org/mittens.php), while the smaller one is using the goo.gl shortener to redirect to that same URL. I had to switch to a much thinner wool to knit the QR code at a resolution that would fit on the mitten (and would actually scan), so I needed the shortest URL/smallest code that would fit. In retrospect, I shouldn't have trusted Google. Lesson learned!
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2025-03-15 23:27:27 GMT

Google are breaking my mittens - Sonofa. Twelve years ago I knitted a pair of “self-replicating mittens” (https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/14046) with a QR code that pointed you to the pattern for the mittens, and I entered them in the Sydney Royal Easter Show. I was pretty proud of my cleverness. In the blog post (https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/11192) where I talked about making the mittens, I said:
I wanted my code to be as simple as possible, so I needed to use a URL shortener to mask my intended address. I settled on using Google‘s, reasoning that it was likely to be around the longest. (Though who knows these days, right?)
You can guess what’s happened, right? Google URL Shortener links will no longer be available (https://developers.googleblog.com/en/google-url-shortener-links-will-no-longer-be-available/) as of August this year.
Bastards are breaking my mittens. Perhaps I’ll have to add some embroidery. https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/56383
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2025-03-11 12:34:57 GMT

What I saw in Martin Place. The face I made.
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2025-02-12 05:53:42 GMT

Controversial quilts - “The American Quilter’s Society refused to show two artworks in an exhibition (https://hyperallergic.com/988785/is-female-anatomy-too-controversial-for-the-american-quilters-society/) centered around the color red after claiming they could be controversial… One quilt could be interpreted as depicting female anatomy, while the other references abortion access.” (Link courtesy of InarticulateQuilter (https://mastodon.art/@inarticulatequilter). https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/53737
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2025-01-09 09:07:41 GMT

Okay, this is getting fun now! I’m sure I’ll be cursing when it comes time to weave in all those ends though. 🧶 #knitting
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2025-01-01 08:16:44 GMT

After lunch and a nap, I managed to finish my Arkie shirt! I went down a body size on this one, left off the pockets, and moved the break point and top button up an inch. I think it looks great, and hopefully it’s the first of many completed projects in 2025. 🪡🧵 #sewing
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2024-12-18 10:38:00 GMT

I finished the alpaca beanie! I casted on 132 stitches and then just made the pattern up as I went. I put in a band of the same slipstitch pattern I used on the scarf, and I did radial decreases at the crown. I just need to weave in the ends and give it a block! #knitting
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2024-12-06 00:30:37 GMT

I’ve become an unofficial @nprofile…gmnz evangelist at #yow24! Love having a single feed of posts from both Mastodon and Bluesky. ❤️

2024-11-30 02:02:57 GMT

Ooh @nprofile…gmnz implemented my “tap at the top of the screen to scroll up” suggestion! I do it like 10x a day so this makes me very happy.

2024-11-25 11:09:09 GMT

The Wonderfully Queer World of Moomin. https://thenib.com/the-wonderfully-queer-world-of-moomin/ Awww, that’s very sweet! I knew that Too-ticky was based on her partner, but I didn’t realise that Bob(!) was a lover as well. #moomin 🩷

2024-11-24 22:37:15 GMT

TIL there was an Australian version of “Are You Bring Served?”, in which Mr. Humphries came to Australia to work in a near identical department store! 🤯 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Are_You_Being_Served%3F_(Australian_TV_series)
From: @nprofile…wxvy
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2024-11-24 06:25:25 GMT

This is rude, right? A recruiter on LinkedIn connected with me and immediately sent: "I wanted to check if you know anyone in your network who has experience in selling aws pls share me those leads." What does she think the job of a recruiter actually is, if I'm the one sending her all the leads?!

2024-11-16 04:13:27 GMT

I finished it! This is the Easy Eyelet Yoke Lite in my reclaimed @hobbii_yarn Twister. Such a fun knit, and really suits this yarn. ❤️🧶 #knitting
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2024-08-29 22:20:10 GMT

Scientists believe they’ve finally found the source for the mysterious Wow! signal. I’m a little sad - I once designed and knitted it into a “mystery scarf” for a competition. Great job Science, but I’m sad it wasn’t aliens… 👽 https://boingboing.net/2024/08/29/source-of-famed-wow-signal-likely-found.html #knitting
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2024-08-11 12:14:05 GMT

Still thinking about this Threads post I saw this morning. I'll be speaking at Future Tech Collective net month, and I feel a mighty AI rant coming on... https://www.futuretechcollective.com.au
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2024-07-29 11:53:54 GMT

The 3-colour linen stitch alpaca scarf continues to grow. I love how it’s turning out. #knitting 🧶
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2024-07-28 06:57:34 GMT

Is anyone looking for an apartment in Sydney? We’ll be vacating ours (2bdr, car space, St. Peters) next month when our renovation is finished! DM me for details if you’re interested in taking over the lease…

2024-07-21 23:55:23 GMT

Public service announcement for Sydneysiders: We will have a total solar eclipse on this date (July 22) in four years. That means TODAY is the best day for checking what the view of the sun will be like from your house or preferred viewing place. (If you forget and do it next year, you’ll be off by a day due to Leap Day.) We’ll be checking at my house between 1-3pm, but you can see the expected times for all Australia here: https://eclipse.asa.astronomy.org.au #eclipse2028 🌞🌑

2024-07-16 09:00:39 GMT

Me, #knitting in the round: Garter stitch! Cool! Knit every round! So easy!
20 minutes later…
Me: Next up, stocking stitch! Knit every round! Yay, so easy! … WAIT. SHIT. FML. 🤦‍♀️

2024-06-30 02:42:24 GMT

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@npub1xr8…3q0g The real question is how long I hold off before buying a loom. :P

2024-06-30 02:38:38 GMT

If you're curious about how we've managed to pull off early retirement, I wrote a blog post about it. (Spoiler: it involves a huge amount of luck and privilege.) https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/25473

2024-04-28 06:09:01 GMT

Finally the gradient on my Autumn Ginkgo Leaves scarf has reached the transition to orange! 🧶 🍃🍂 #knitting
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2023-10-01 07:37:34 GMT

It’s been 5 years since my last #frocktober - far too long! I’m looking forward to pulling my dresses out of storage and seeing what sparks joy (and still fits!). Today was blisteringly hot in Sydney, so I started the month off with a ruffly floral sundress. 👗
For those who haven’t seen me do this before, Frocktober is a fundraising campaign for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation. I’ve set a goal of raising $1500 (though my all-time record is $2350), and I’ll be wearing a dress every single day of the month. You can donate to my page here: https://www.frocktober.org.au/my-fundraising/4152/kristine-howard
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