So I commanded myself recently that I was not allowed to buy any new yarn until I’d used up at least half of the stash I already have. Seeing as I have roughly 50 different types of yarn in my stash, that’s a bit of a feat. That’s 50 different types, mind you, not skeins—quite a few of those I have multiple skeins of. However, with these mismatched myriad skeins and a need to use them, I now have the opportunity to make something I’ve been wanting to for a while.

Crocheted coral reefs.

I first saw my first of these a few years back—not really sure how many at this point, but it was while browsing online for patterns. I eventually was led to the Institute for Figuring, who run the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef, a fascinating project combining crafting, mathematics, feminism, and… well, read it in their own words, as they phrase it far more intelligently than I can at the end of a long day.

Being a literature person, I could say that mathematics aren’t my strong point, and thus it’s odd that I’m attracted to this project. But that would be a lie—I enjoyed maths in school (to a certain point), and when I really started to get into knitting I wanted to revise my geometry (which I have yet to have time for). I just didn’t like it as much as reading. I have the feeling that, had I discovered knitting and crochet far earlier, I would have been far more interested in maths. (Small note: My mother loves maths, but to my surprise has only been casually interested in knitting and crochet so far, though she did once make me a fabulous scarf).

Anyway, the IFF had links to other reefs, both “satellites” of their projects and independent, which I browsed and browsed and browsed. Here and there, when I had a spare bit of yarn, I crocheted a small coral form; on one occasion of brief madness, I made an anemone out of plastic bags.

Cue moving! The instigation for the dalek has been the instigation for another item. One of our windows has a small but significant draft (as it doesn’t close properly), and I’m not one for stuffing tissues into cracks. Thus, I am knitting a draught dodger. Then, once it is finished and stuffed, it will become the base for…

…the Draught Reef.

If it goes well, I plan to make a jewel-toned reef that will conglomerate onto a ring… and be hung on my wall. Most of my walls have some sort of decoration on it (rather a lot, in some cases), but the one above my bed is surprisingly bare. As the rest of the room has batik prints, hanging jellyfish, postcards of sea otters and Hawaiian cards, a reef-garden wall sculpture would be fitting. Also, this will officially be part of the Hibernation Offensive, as it’s stash-busting AND gathering together knitted forms that have been useless until now.

So. Fibre art and wall sculptures. I think I’ve officially gone mad.

In short, once the Draft Reef is finished I’ll make the wall sculpture… After I knit a tea-cozy, because there’s nothing that makes crocheting slower than cold tea.

Coming soon: More bellydance articles, and a round-up of Festival!

Tags: art,crochet,knit,reef,the hibernation offensive
Categories: Arts, projects
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So to those who don’t know me personally, I’m a little bit odd. I also highly enjoy the odd and the peculiar; I am tickled by fandom, metafiction, and absurdity (this is probably one reason why I like A Very Potter Musical—it doesn’t strike me so much as a parody of Harry Potter as it does a loving mockery of Harry Potter fanfiction). Because of these interests, I tend to attract a certain caliber of friends—intelligent individuals that enjoy the geekier side of things. Part of my weekly schedule, after all, is movie night—not watching great works of cinema like Citizen Kane or The Godfather (unless it’s Valentine’s Day) or even A Charlie Brown Christmas (not enough explosions—my favourite Christmas movie is Die Hard). No, I watch BBC’s Merlin with medievalists (and friends). Or, if it’s out of season, Doctor Who.

Which brings us to today’s point.

I recently moved in to a new flat with flatmates of similar personality to those described above (ok, so one introduced me to Merlin, and started the movie-nights—credit where it’s due!). And when I live in a flat with people I like, I tend to get a bit crazy about themes and concepts that can be associated with said flat, though in a horribly geeky manner. Thus in undergrad our “quad” of four became Hobbiton; Frodo and Sam in one room, Merry and Pippin in the other. I’ve matured a little since then (just a little), and no longer need wide, overarching themes. However, there are certain things that geeky flats need.

DALEKS.

Okay, maybe that’s just what I think. But I suggested to my (then-future-)flatmate that maybe, just maybe, what our flat needed was a dalek. Which brings us to the “absurdity” mentioned above, because once seizing on an idea I can’t leave well enough alone. Thus my thought process proceeded something like this:

I know a knitting pattern for a dalek! Squishy knitted dalek! Yay!

Oooh, do you know what would be even more awesome? A TWEED dalek. He’d match Eleven!

NO NO NO. THE ONLY THING THAT CAN MAKE THIS MORE AWESOME? PURPLE.

Yes, folks, from the person who brought you the first-ever axe cozy (which I should really post on one of these days), I bring you: the purple tweed dalek.

And if you must know, I finished him while watching the whole of the Ninth Doctor’s series. In one day. I didn’t mean to, necessarily, but I needed a diagram on where to sew his blast-gun, etc., on to, and there was a picture in the booklet in the DVD boxset, and while it was out I might as well just watch a few episodes…

The end of the pattern encourages you to “go forth and exterminate the world with cuddly evil”. Now, I’m not so sure about the exterminating — I’d like to keep my visa, kthx — but cuddly? Boy, were they right.

Tags: art,Doctor Who,fandom,geek,knit,ramble,toy
Categories: uncategorized
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So I should be going and having dinner as a reward for actually writing part of a chapter (2700 words!!), but instead I’m rewarding myself by writing a blog post. Yes, I’m rewarding writing with…writing. My ability to reward myself with the same thing that was my task never ceases to astonish me (seriously, I do this a lot).

That said, I thought I’d write a few notes on teaching. I received a couple e-mails from last semester’s students over the weekend (mostly panics about “will I violate exam rules if I do XYZ?” to which I tend to reply “better safe than sorry, so try not to do XYZ”), and I was surprised at how much this made me miss my students.

I really like teaching.

And I’ve started to have a few worries about whether I’m actually good at teaching. I haven’t looked at last semester’s student comments yet (I’m waiting until I rework my syllabus over the summer—I’d like some distance on the semester before I destroy my soul), but student comment sheets can only go so far. Mostly because people don’t know what makes a good teacher until either a) they’re teaching themselves, or b) they’ve been taught explicitly to do or learn something new. Unfortunately, most of the teaching I do is ephemeral critical thinking skills (that don’t involve a workbook like mine did in elementary school), which is a bit harder to measure. I remember the teachers that TOLD me that I needed to start using my brain (yes, this happened…twice), but I don’t remember how they TAUGHT me to. It just happened as we went along.

Which was why this weekend was really nice, because I got to teach something where both student and teacher could see results. A bunch of my country dance friends organized a knitting afternoon, and one friend asked me to teach her how to knit at said afternoon. By the end of the afternoon she was casting on exceptionally well (I wish my tension had been that good when I’d started!) and have several rows of knit-stitch finished. I kept having flashbacks when I taught a friend from home how to knit, and that she’d been successful in learning, too (I should ask her if she’s still knitting). And tonight, I’m going over to a third friend’s to watch Glee (DON’T JUDGE ME), and as she’s just recently gotten into knitting, I’ve been asked to show her how to increase and decrease stitches. And I’m really looking forward to it.

Goodness, knitting, teaching and friends—since when did I have a social life? You’re not supposed to have one of those when you’re writing chapters!

Ah well. Off to have that reward-dinner now. Lysse out!

Tags: academic,art vs. academia,knit,life
Categories: Academia, Arts, knit
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No proper Friday Focus this week, as I will only be properly posting those when I have thoughts on something that moves me. And I don’t think I made that clear… oops.

But moving onward: as promised, updates on my chess set!

I’ve mostly written and tested the pattern.

I’ve finished typing up the edits, but need to knit a few pieces again to test the changes. The knights need to be given manes and ears, and as I retest pieces I need to photograph the process for the pattern.

And, of course, I need to finish the set, which means another knight, and couple more bishops and rooks, and about a baker’s dozen of pawns. Current, this is more-or-less what I have:

But at least they’re all standing!

Also, I need to finish the chessboard.

This is my first-ever intarsia piece. I’m writing the pattern as I go, and it’s pretty simple. Really, it’s the best place I could start for intarsia, as it’s simply big blocks of colour.

Finally, I’ve decided to work out a checkers piece as well—might as well make the board multi-functional! So… how many checkers are in a set?

Tags: chess set,knit,projects
Categories: knit, projects
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Apologies for the radio silence, as I was away for a week-ish and had limited internet access. To make up for it, this week’s Friday Focus will be a double feature (as soon as I finish writing it, eep!). However, on my week away, I managed to finish a TON of knitting in the Hibernation Offensive! First up is a flower which will be eventually turned into a fluffy brooch (once I get a backing):

Next, I FINISHED the chess set!

There’s still a few things I need to fiddle with – for example, the pawn is way too short, and I still need to find a base that will get the pieces to stand up. Still, I’m very pleased with the overall result, particularly when it comes to the knight:

Finally, because I had a bunch of leftover yarn and nothing left to knit, I used an old pattern (whose leaves were adapted for the above brooch) and made myself a much-needed tea cozy:

And that’s about it! Lysse out (until tomorrow).

Tags: chess set,knit,the hibernation offensive
Categories: knit, projects
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Phase one of the finishing hibernating fibre projects is complete; I have finished the chocolate bunny!

I’m mostly pleased with this, though it has some flaws. My ssk’s are not as good as my k2tog’s, which means that any left-handed shaping is bumpy on the left, and has gaps in the fabric on the right. I fixed some of these by manipulating the already-knitted strands with needles, but that only can help so much—it’s definitely something to be worked on in the future. After everything else is finished, of course!

Also, a quick update FYI: I’m going to be running around for the next week / away from the computer. I’m hoping to at least have the Friday Focus put up automatically, and maybe another entry or two, but it might fail. If so, I’ll run a double-Focus next week.

Tags: knit,projects,the hibernation offensive
Categories: knit, maintenance, projects
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Welcome to a new feature: the Friday Focus! These will be blog posts focusing on people who have inspired me in either my artistic or academic lives. These will usually be people I have met, who have had an in-person impact on me.

So, I’d like to start us off with Ysolda Teague. Although I learned to knit before I met her, Ysolda was my first knitting teacher. I took a class with her at K1, where we learned to knit her popular hat pattern urchin. She fixed my twisted stitches (so that’s what I was doing wrong!), and through her guidance in a pattern that uses simple shaping techniques, managed to cure me of my fear of knitting experimentation. I could only knit (twisted) and purl before her class; afterwards was when I started exploring shaping, colour, and felting with such projects as Mister Fuzzybottom and the Stackable Cats.

But, on top of being a fabulous teacher, she’s an amazing pattern writer and blogger. I especially love her blog: with its clean layout and its excellent discussion of the creative process it’s my favourite blog for knitting. Her assistant has recently started posting as well to the blog, and has continued the trend of high-quality and interesting posts on the subject. The blog’s absolutely gorgeous photographs are particularly inspiring, as Ysolda has a wonderful eye for both detail and composition (something that this blog could take a lesson or two from!). Also, her lovely insights into and documentation of the crafty side of life in Edinburgh makes me happy (and gives me new things to explore!).

So if you’re a knitter, a photography buff, or just like to read about Scotland, head on over to her blog, and see if you can find the picture of me post-successful-knitting. I wore that hat today!

Tags: Friday Focus,knit,Scotland
Categories: Arts, knit
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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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Well! Ravelympics is half over, and life has since intervened and given me very little time to knit. However! After a couple tries, the Bishops are created, and Pawns are nearly done!

For some reason even though both of these are simpler designs than the King and Queen they took much longer, being ripped out several times. I still haven’t figured out a proper base that will let them stand, either. After this, the Rook and the Knight remain. The latter will be definitely the most difficult piece, both to create and just to knit—I’m envisioning lots of shaping. The Rook may also prove difficult, as I’d really like to create a square tower. If that doesn’t pan out, it’ll be a round one with crenellations, but here’s hoping.

In other crafts, I’ve been costuming like CRAZY. That would be some of above-mentioned the life intervening—there’s a tribal b-dance performance in three weeks, and I’m making most of my costume from bits and bobs. I’m retrofitting a pair of trousers, revamping a drape, bustling a skirt, figuring out a headdress*, and making a belt. Next week sometime I’ll post exactly how I went about making it, but until then, look at the pretty hip-medallions I chainmailled this weekend!

The one on the left is the “raw” product, while the other is sewn onto a circle made of felt and covered with green stretch velvet. Nice, solid, and just stiff enough that the maille and the circle don’t go floppy. Thinking of branching out into peacock-coloured medallions, and am making a pair of the basic ones for my awesome teacher!

And that’s it for now; Lysse-bird out.

* I’ve got a headdress!**

** Please ignore the inside joke.

Tags: bellydance,knit,maille,ravelympics
Categories: knit, maille
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Whoo. After that long post on BD, felt like I also owed a quick seperate post on the other things this blog deals with: actual crafting, and academia. On the crafting side, I’ve two things soon to come. First is my first home-made BD costume, finished last week. Secondly,  and currently “on the needles”, is a knitted bag made with my first hand-spun yarn (it will potentially be felted). Also, the Ravelympics are coming up, which means I’ll be knitting like a crazy person, and hopefully blogging about it.

Finally, a few knitting links. There are two sites that I can’t recommend enough. The first is KnittngHelp, which not only has instructions and illustrations for pretty much all the basic stitches, increases, decreases, and styles of knitting, but has VIDEOS. Wonderfully clear VIDEOS!!! The second (which is linked to at the side) is ravelry, which is a marketplace/database/social networking site for knitting, crocheting, spinning, and other fibre art. You can keep track of your yarn, projects, needles, and hooks, organize a queue of projects you want to do (and buy a lot of the patterns and yarn for them!), and wander about favouriting projects and patterns like a crazy person. Oh, and chat about knitting and your other passions in the internal groups. Which sometimes do secret exchanges. SO MUCH FUN. You have to sign up and wait for an invite to join, but it is TOTALLY WORTH IT.

That’s it. Lysse-bird out.

Tags: knit,maintenance,projects
Categories: knit, maintenance
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