Needle Tip

I knit. A lot. I also teach knitting. I subscribe to one of those Page-A-Day calendars, called "Stitch & Bitch: The Knitter's Calendar". If you don't knit, you can skim the next paragraph, which is a recent calendar page. If you do knit, you might as well commit it to heart, because it contains a very useful tip (it's something I do all the time).

If you’re anything like most knitters, you despise the finishing process. All that sewing, tacking thread, working away ends—bo-ring! Well, here’s one way to make the chore a bit less ominous. You probably already know that most sweaters require you to sew two shoulder seams, sew a sleeve into an armhole, and sew up the side and sleeve seams. With some planning when you cast on and bind off a section, you can leave tails that are long enough to use for sewing the seams together. To keep these long tails out of your way while you’re working, just tie them into a little figure 8 or wind them around a yarn bobbin.

You know I wouldn't quote this if there weren't some sort of point to it, and the problem here--I'm sure you caught it--is that "ominous" in the third sentence is mildly amusing and completely wrong. I am not a betting man, but I would bet you money that the word they were stabbing for with their three-millimetre needles (and somehow missing, despite the theoretical existence of an editor of some sort) is "onerous".

"Ominous" means "threatening" and is obviously related to "omen", which is direct from Latin. "Onerous", on the other hand, means "burdensome", is obviously related to "onus", and is again direct from Latin.

Check out these puddle-of-blood pillows from Make magazine via Boingboing.
Aren't they great? Aren't they awful? You lay your head on them and it looks as if you've bled to death! I may have to knit a couple from red chenille.