Long time no post! The middle of my June has, indeed, been crazy (a friend’s FABULOUS wedding, and running around North America with another friend!), but the last few weeks have been quiet. I’ve done some research, but mostly I’ve been rediscovering time for myself. One thing that I’ve lost in the past few years, in my desperation to keep up with both my arts and academics, is that I don’t really give myself much ME time. Yes, I spend (far too much) time on the internet, reading webcomics etc., but that’s not ME time. However, for two weeks in the middle of this month my computer was getting repaired (oops), and so I had to find other ways to entertain myself than the endless streaming of digitized information. So, gleefully, I’ve been reading children and young adult fantasy novels, a guilty pleasure that I feel absolutely NO guilt about. I discovered Rick Riordan, first via his new book “The Red Pyramid” and then via his “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” series (OMG I just finished book 4 and haven’t bought the last book yet NEED NOW), which despite what I’ve heard about its related rubbishy movie has been really quite entertaining. I also went to see Knight and Day with a friend, and to my surprise it was quite awesome. Not fourteen flavours of awesome, but at least five. And I’ve gone SWIMMING. If it weren’t for my dislike of public pools, I’d go swimming all the time. I find it calming and restorative, and I do some of my best thinking underwater.

Representative of this whole rediscovery, however, is a craft project I began years ago. The yarn, pattern, crochet hook and beads were a store-created kit given to me by my parents, but as I rarely worked on gifts for myself, it was often put off until I went on holidays (or at least plane flights), because crochet hooks are OK on planes (knitting needles aren’t). But on this trip home, I’ve finally finished it.

It’s lovely, soft, and light. And its structure reminds me that I shouldn’t over-structure my life — leave time for the ME-time, and the arts and academia will follow.

Tags: art vs. academia,crochet,life
Categories: Academia, Arts, crochet
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I am really bad at finishing things. This is particularly true if I don’t have a deadline. If I have a deadline—say, costuming needs finishing for a performance, or paper needs written for a conference—then I’m usually quite good at getting it (mostly) done. But things that don’t have a deadline languish. Some things I simply forget to do—like drawing. Others get procrastinated on—blogging is one of these.

That’s why I have a spreadsheet that I call “life schedule”. This is a bit hyperbolic, but roughly true. It sprang from my original outlines for my PhD, which it still contains—including a month-by-month breakdown and a week-by-week. But then this past January I expanded it. Knitting, writing, dance, etc.: if it was a creative or academic project, it was put on there (and that sums up pretty much my whole life). Each received a monthly goal, such as writing one-shots, blogging once a week, or filling two sketchbook pages. However, I made the mistake of thinking of NEW projects for knitting / crochet.

You see, by my bed I have a bag that I knitted and felted. Originally, it was to be my project bag, and filled with anything I was working on. Over the last year or so, however, it’s turned into the languishing bag. Unfinished projects were shoved into there to be promptly forgotten, and on a recent review of the contents (when I was procrastinating on something else), I found eight unfinished projects. This might not seem like much, but I don’t know how long some of these have been ignored. Some may pre-date my move across the pond.

So, instead of picking up the needles then and there and haphazardly trying to work my way through the chaos, I turned to my computer. Everything under “knitting” for my life schedule was promptly deleted, and each month was assigned an unfinished project until August. Hopefully by then I’ll have everything finished, and can turn to working through my lovely skeins in a desperate de-stashing attempt.

On the needles first, hopefully finished by Easter?

A stuffed “chocolate” bunny.

Yum!

Tags: crochet,knit,projects,the hibernation offensive
Categories: Arts, crochet, knit, projects
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YAY RAVELYMPICS!

I have a confession to make. I didn’t have the wherewithal to withstand a lack of fiberwork in my life—so on Friday I started asphyxiation from the anticraft. I managed to finish one motif before Ravelympics cast-on, and thus can put it away (without worrying it will fall apart) for the next few weeks.

Shiny crochet thread!

But on to Ravelympics! The first “event” I’m competing in is Designer Original Dance, where one must knit or crochet a design sample (but not necessarily write or edit the pattern). What am I designing? A chess set!

The King and Queen

My inspiration was the fact that I could only find a few chess sets on Ravelry (and only one knittable, the others being crochet), and I didn’t really like the designs. I became a bit of a chess set snob when working years ago at the swordshop (we sold chess sets, too), and thus decided to throw together a design of my own. So far only the king is finished, and the queen is halfway there. The rook should be easy, the knight should make me kill things, and I’m not quite sure what’s going to happen with the pawn. Or the bishop.

If I finish my other Ravelympics events, I might have to redevelop this into a Chinese chess set. They have CANNON.

And on that note, so long and Happy Chinese New Year!

Categories: crochet, knit, projects
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So, on promised pictures, we have my cousin Leah’s stackable cats!

The StackCats were made of handspun (or handdyed… I don’t exactly remember which) Scottish wool. Mmmm. Sooo much fun to knit with! The cats were made from a pattern by MochiMochiLand and have been sworn into the service of attacking people who enter my cousin’s dorm room. Yay!

Other knitted deliciousness: a Golden Snitch!

Pattern here at Inner Child Crochet

And, finally, my mother asked me to knit her a nativity set. Unfortunately, I only finished Mary and Baby Jesus before Christmas:

However, since my mother got to pick the yarn, I’ve worked with WONDERFUL yarns, especially this absolutely delicious soy-wool blend. I’m currently working on Joseph, or rather, his robe–his body is finished. I’ve decided I really can’t STAND cotton yarn; I’ve gotten such huge blisters/calluses from knitting with it. Ugh.

But anyway.

SEE YOU IN THE NEW YEAR!

Tags: fandom,nativity,stackable cats
Categories: crochet, knit, projects
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Well, I really have no excuses for not writing, as I’ve been knitting and crocheting. Of course, when you fill up your spare time actually DOING the crafts, there’s no time left to blog about it. And then NaNoWriMo happened.

ANYWAY.

Thought I was done with my bellydance socks, but not so much. They’re starting to felt on the bottom, which may or may not be bad — we’ll see how it affects traction. I’ve also been washing them with my pink bellydance trousers (ok, they’re actually thai fishermen’s trousers… but still, they’re great to dance in casually). As the trousers bleed EVERYWHERE, the socks have gained a bit of (blotchy) colour.

In other knitting, I’ve finished the Stackable Cats, but have yet to take pictures of them (I want to gift them first). So more info about those when I post the pictures.

In crocheting, I’ve been using the “Anarchy Irony Hat” from The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller as a base for making NaNoWriMo hats for my co-ML and myself.

…obviously, I fell behind and the suckers aren’t finished. They were supposed to be for my co-Ml and myself (we co-led our area) for our kick-off party. Maybe they’ll be done by next year’s NaNo. Of course, knowing my luck, they probably won’t match next year’s t-shirts. Alas.

Also have been knitting this headband with spare wool left from the StackCats.

Because I can!

My first cabling project, and mmmm cables. I <3 cables now. A great first project, by the way, and you can find the pattern for free here.

Combo projects: bellydance! For Halloween I bought myself a bellydancing outfit (it was an excuse), and decided I needed accessories to go WITH the outfit. Intro crochet and maille! I used the “Ruffled Corset Belt” pattern from The Happy Hooker for the belt, but only about a couple rows of it before adding the maille. It took me FOREVER to adjust it to my yarn. Originally I just wanted to use a sparkly black crochet thread for a nice spidery look, but I must have ripped that out about five times. I also thought I might cut the pattern in half, so I could tie it on either side, but that also proved too troublesome. I ended up using a light worsted wool combined with the crochet thread to add texture. The maille itself is aluminium (plain and anodized black trim, with red points on the headdress), with a gap left on each side so I could tuck up my top skirt. The headdress was a free-form piece, using longer and longer crochet stitches as it got wider. I also added rings around the crochet stitches just for a little accent, and a ruby-coloured freshwater pearl to the front triangle.

Headdress

Apologies for the less-than-great pictures; I took them while running out the door.

I’m also currently knitting a nativity set for my mother, who chooses the most delectable yarns (alpaca and soy-wool blends, mmm!). Mary and Baby Jesus have been finished, but no pictures of that yet.

Will hope to update far sooner next time!

Tags: amigurumi,bellydance socks,cables,stackable cats
Categories: crochet, knit, maille, projects
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Despite my blog silence, I’ve been knitting like CRAZY. The Stackable Cats are almost finished (pictures forthcoming); they only need to be slightly felted, stuffed, and sewn. I’ve begun a filet crochet bookmark which will hopefully turn out well(ish), and on the things-to-do-for-people front I’ve two mailled bears and a pair of maille glove-backs to do. Luckily, I have a week-ish off from life (yay!) so I can focus on getting all that stuff done!

Until then, have a picture of the panda with his mommy, who named him Seamus.

Seamus and his Mum

Tags: armoured bears,stackable cats
Categories: crochet, knit, maille, projects
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Well, I fail on that “soon” update, and totally forgot to take pictures of Mr Fuzzybottom pre-assembly. However, I come bearing pictures!

However, I much prefer Mr Fuzzybottom sitting on his fuzzy bottom:

He’s so incredibly bright red that I’ve decided to give him a title: Mr Fuzzybottom, the Hellephant.

In other news, made an armoured panda for my friend Erin, which turned out so nicely that I took pictures of him pre-maille:

as well as post-maille:

Also, he hung out with Snorri a bit before he was shuffled off to his new mom:

Also, I’ve begun on the Stackable Cats. Details on that later, with possible pictures.

Tags: armoured bears,mr fuzzybottom,stackable cats
Categories: crochet, knit, maille, projects
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So I FINISHED the bellydance socks on Wednesday, YAY!

They turned out pretty well. I used this pattern with minor changes, primarily in that I used 5mm DPNs to cast on/bind off and for the two to three rows following/before. Added a new stitch every 3rd two to three rows before each bind off. If I ever make another pair, I might add slightly fewer at the very top, as it flairs a bit too much, and I also might fuss with the type of stitches… the k2p1 looks a bit funny when it’s all pulled out. BUT a very successful and not too difficult first attempt at a sock-like object!

Two weeks ago I also created something that should have made it up here a LONG time ago. I would like to introduce Snorri Sturluson, the armoured bear.

Two points if you know where the name is from. Snorri is a crocheted body made from wool yarn with mailled… well, maille, of nickel silver. Once again, the pattern was okay, but if I do it again I think I’ll just develop my own.

FINALLY, I’ve been mailling like a mofo the past few days, and THIS is the result:

3 bronze and 3 aluminium byzantine bracelets, 2 helix bracelets, 4 diamond bronze earrings, 4 triangle brass earrings, and 4 stainless steel earrings with beads. The bronze and brass pieces are currently sitting on my desk in a pile of ketchup to make them all shiny, and I should probably go rinse them. And then lunch. Until next time!

Tags: armoured bears,bellydance socks,jewelry
Categories: crochet, knit, maille, projects
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