18 posts tagged “crafting and scheming”
Girlzilla wanted me to make a sweater for her and we decided on the tubey sweater from knitty. This was started around Valentine's Day and it's been a pretty fast knit. Really the hardest part has just been taking the time to actually be able to knit instead of the work-teach-clean-cook-drop dead cycle that has been my life lately. The yarns we chose aren't quite like the original, though. The shrug-like top part is Caron Simply Soft in a sort of brick red and the body is most like the Angel Hair super-soft fuzzy stuff (lost the band, so sue me) in all sorts of beautiful reds and purples. The shrug seemed to take forever and now that I've started the body it seems to be going fastfastfast.
Doesn't hurt that I was able to watch Jekyll and knit.
Jekyll is Exhibit J in a series of infinity of why British TV rocks. It's one of those productions where you hope evrybody involved makes boatloads of money. (Except maybe the sound guy. The music gets annoying sometimes and sometimes the ambient noise makes dialogue really hard to hear. There's so much dark humor and wordplay that you really need to catch every bit.)
You don't have to knit, but certainly...watch Jekyll.
That is all.
For Wolfman Dilbert I've got planned a handmade ski mask-type hat.
With antennae, angry eye ridges, and gargoyle ears.
Viz:
For added bonus, I know it's going to be yet another thing that no one else in the family except for this in Chez Monster will actually understand. The big plus that knocks this into must-make-now! territory is that I love the idea of knitting and waiting somewhere and showing it to people who want to know what I'm working on.
Ask not of the Sphinx, she may answer.
Heh heh heh.
I got him some other stuff I've found, like a stuffed Taz that's just asking to supervise his Internet surfing, and today I found a pair of computer speakers embedded in a pair of stuffed penguins. Perfect!
Got home from work about 1:30 am with a bunch of CD's to clean and copy from a friend of mine. Found Girlzilla not only awake but busily making candles in a smoky kitchen.She managed not only to use quite a few candy dishes and bowls that I had plans for (some big family do next week, you too?) but also splattered wax bits over the entire floor, the stove, both counters, and a whole lotta cabinets.
I've been doing dishes (the stuff in the sink had to be hand-washed, and it was slow going with all the bits of wax crusted all over) and scrubbing counters and those took up an awful lot of time that I'd expected to sleep during before going to class and work tonight. Feh. I know I'm going to have her clean the stove and floor and hopefully she'll have more respect for the coating properties of reborn candles.
On the other hand, the cookies she made were really good. Really, really good. I'd forgotten how much I liked that recipes sheer fudginess and rich flavor. She insists that I make some (along with the mini eclairs, almond butter tarts, pumpkin pie, and cookie dough truffles already planned) for Thanksgiving. Hers were a bit gloppy and blobby but excellent aside from that. A noble first attempt, certainly.
I've shown her how to cook a few things, like scrambled eggs and grilled cheese sandwiches. She's done pancakes from scratch lots of times, but this was her first time actually baking. She had me put them in the oven and take them out, and I measured the things that were in teaspoons but all the other stuff was her doing and I'm really quite proud.
She's bright enough but her passion has always been making and modifying things instead of worrying about what other people think of her. Things that she's made entirely herself that caused lots of me-too's at school include an Obama shirt for their mock election, a Gir (in puppy suit) hat, and the stuffed Dalek that she made herself after I showed her how to do the bobbles. (And I did the bottom for it, and that's it.)
Le sigh.
Haven't been here for quite some time, but I'd still lurk around, oh, everywhere else. Commented about a bookofjoe entry and now have my laziness immortalized over there in my very own entry.
Not one that I actually had to write, mind you, but still about me, me,me.
Way cool.
I know afterwards I was paying attention to my painting stuff, and realized the original entry for a magnetic gizmo wouldn't have worked for me anyway. Lots of times I'm just doing a touchup job with just a small can and a brush made entirely from wood and foam and not a magnetic bit in sight.
Hope that my slacker army benefits from my unceasing laziness and tendency towards the cheap.
What with getting sucked into slightly warped and not doing things like laundry, I found these:
They're all knit, and I think I could actually figure out how to make these.
I'd be delighted to actually have a good purpose for all that damned pepto-pink baby yarn that goes on sale from now and then.
I already have lots of kinds of blood red yarns, and I'd just want to tweak the expressions a bit. More My Little Pony meets Jack Nicholson for the unicorn, and some more actual terror for the victims.
The little girl, for example, could look more like Sailor Moon.
The big anime eyes I think would work nicely with the giant stabbing scissors.
Heh heh heh.
So yesterday (Saturday) morning I had an instructor meeting first thing to go to. It was scheduled for an hour and a half and grew to almost three hours, but was a really productive and informative meeting of all sorts of new things afoot at the dojang.
Trouble was, I'd already planned on training in the adult afternoon class and found myself with about an hour free between end of meeting and class.
Normally I'd have a book or some project going on with me, but right now I've got nothing on needles. I finally finished Benevolent Patriarch's socks (a fast knit really, but each one's long as my arm. Dude's big, yo) and the baby surprise jacket I'd been working on was handed of last week. The next baby thing I'm holding off on so the mom can let me know if it's a boy or a girl (appointment in like two weeks) and so I'm stuck at the moment with nothing to keep me from the kind of empty waiting that means I'm sure to get myself in trouble.
I'm toying with doing some jewelry, like beaded bracelets or maybe starting up a sweater. I get bored with unspeakable ease, and I'm built like a linebacker besides, so I'm leaning towards jewelry. I'm also hoping I can wheedle my digital camera back from Patriarch and get him to hand over all the stuff to upload pictures.
I'm definitely in the mood to show off.
Found at picmium, a collection of amazing little sculptures made entirely from old watch parts.
Viz,
I just can't decide if the artist likes bikes or watches more.
I'm afraid I'm just used to the classic dog-like animal as the extent of my use of the media.
I'm hoping that directions will show up.
Enjoy!
Everybody, and I mean abso-frickin-lutely everybody should go check out Neatorama right now and see the major chunks of coolness that they've got up at the moment. Check it out. There's this:
a Richard Sweeney paper sculpture and this:
wooden bicycle composed of nothing besides wood and glue- even the chain and gears. The bike was a school woodshop project to boot, which I'm betting put a bunch of birdhouses and baskets to shame.
Wonder what that kid'll be making in another twenty years?
Go. Now.
Took my evaluation for my next test, the dreaded second degree black belt. I did far better than I expected, and the comments were highly favorable. I thought I'd be in trouble with either underestimating my stamina (since I'd be demonstrating all my patterns and all black belt speed drills for the eval) or just with the generally spastic nature of my spinning double kicks (which are my highest kicks at the moment).
Seems most people need breaks during this and I didn't, and the speed drills were still sharp even though I was getting tired by then. Also? I was able to demo all that in full uniform even though the dojang was kinda steamy from the really huge kid's class just before, and I felt no soreness afterwards. I was able to train again this morning and did just fine, which tells me that stamina won't be an issue. Given that my physical shape is "John Deere tractor running low to the ground" I'm damned if I'll test and be obviously dying in front of an audience. I want to make sure this looks good, not just good...for a fattie.
Go, me.
Girlzilla's just learned some basic crochet and wanted me to look at how she's doing so far on a scarf project. It's her first thing crocheted ever, and it's surprisingly good. She's got even tension (and lots of experienced crafters have problems with that) and a good sense of how everything goes together with no split yarn or weird stitches from poking in wrong holes or going the wrong way. She's even faster than I'd expected, what with not knowing how to hold the yarn really, or how to pull the hook easily yet. She's soooooo going to do the textile design route. I just hope she uses the "E" from The Incredibles (read: Anna Sui") model for doing exactly what she wants whenever she wants and being brilliant.
Go, Girlzilla.
So now, we've been hanging out and had a most excellent slothful Saturday, filled with napping and crafting and snacking and season one of Charmed.
Ahhhhh.
And in the spirit of slacking, I had to find a good timesuck on teh Internets. Since I can't always waste my time with the merely visual, I present the writings on the stall. My personal favorite:
Hastings College
Music Building
Hastings, Nebraska USA 37076
Men's restroom, main floor
Written on tank next to handle:
Please wiggle Handel
Written below it:
If I do, will it wiggle Bach?
An oldie but a goodie. Rediscovered following lotsa other links that got me to grow a brain, which unfortunately is shutting down but is still right up there with mental floss for allowing me to justify wasting my precious time.
Great way to remember it's not just for porn.
BTW, please, everybody wish me luck on my test!
