FO: Dinosaur Skin

Now that finals are complete, I could fit in some blocking.

Behold, an evolution!

(Color is most accurate above)

So long ago, I made my first sock. And while it was impressive for a first try, it wasn't quite perfect; the leg was too tight, the eyelets didn't show, the heel wasn't picked up very well. And I never quite got around to making the mate.

About a month ago, I needed something to knit at work. I had the unused second skein of Koigu. I had a simple shawl pattern.

Then I needed more yarn. So…a-frogging I went :D

(It is at this point I should say that my friends in knitting club think I like to torture them by frogging perfectly good FO's in front of their very eyes. I do not, but I must admit, it is pretty funny to watch.)

The scarf…shawlette…thing was actually finished in December, but as previously mentioned, I've had no time to block it until now.

Oh, and as for the project name? I have fallen deeply in love with the smooth, yet textured garter ridges that feel just like our skin fossil at the museum. And after all, no one does know what dinosaurs looked like ;)

Actually doing stuff

The very second I have a minute unoccupied with homework, music lessons, or obligatory comic creation, there will be some sleeve blocking, some seaming, and I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL FINISH THIS SUCKER.

Virtual pencil-pushing

Personal goal: write another play to submit by March.

I can do this.

I can!

So this time around, I want to give romance a try. Well not exactly romance, but some romantic interaction (if that just made any sense at all). I have a starting plot :D

This time around I'm going to try to keep tabs on the ol' blog. …If my writing sucks/stinks/makes you want to vomit, please alert me and I'll end your online suffering.

Have a summary then:
Hopeless romantic chess-champion Calvin Dunn is waiting for the perfect girl. Britney Carr may be charming and confident, but her grades are far from perfect. With militant teachers, chess tournaments, and the dreaded TRAUMA's (Test of Rational Analysis Underlying Mathematical Application) ahead, will Calvin ever get a chance to tell Britney how he feels?

This will be quite the project :P

FO: Monarch

Yarn: Malabrigo Lace in Glazed Carrot (such a yummy orange).
Pattern: Baktus


Sometimes, life is like a scarf. A good idea at first, and it starts out well. You have to work at it some, but a challenge is fun. But eventually you just get tired. Things are dragging on much longer than you thought they would. Mistakes are made all too easily, and they get harder and harder to fix. Nothing is turning out how you pictured.
It takes courage, confidence, and maybe even a little insanity to rip it to shreds and start over.

But it's all worth it in the end.


Look out, Fall. Here I come.

Yadda yadda yadda

These days I have no motivation.

At all.

Really.

*headdesk*

I'll get around to real posts soon enough. I just need to work up to it.

Last summer I managed to write stories on a deadline. This year?

…

I need to get myself together.

Hungry hungry cowl

Entrelac starts off slow, just a row of these curly little triangles hanging onto the needle for their lives.

And then it decides to EAT YOUR SOUL and gets HUGE AND THICK in the blink of an eye.

Studies show that entrelac may also forage for yarn. Keep your livestock safe. I've been lost already.

FO: Trompe-l'œil

What was I doing on the drive to Niagara? What else?

Vortex from the latest Knitty. Knit and finished in a day :D
Beware my flat hair.


Funny enough, in a last minute packing rush I stuffed the pattern printout, the needles, the leftover balck wool from my dad's hat, and a ball of random white yarn I found at the bottom of the basket with my stuff. I started knitting, but an hour into the trip I realized I was running out of white yarn fast, even though at the start the ball had been larger than the black wool!
There was a Jo-Ann in the shopping center where we stopped for drive-in lunch. My parents relented, I ripped back, and the day was saved with Paton's Classic Wool in Winter White xD

I highly recommend this pattern. The short row pattern is quick and easy to memorize, and who's doesn't love stripes?

Much-loved gloves

Recently became just "glove".

These were crafted last summer for my mermaid-loving cousin (who recently turned seven :) ). After almost a year of wearing them nearly everywhere, she was quite upset to have lost the left one. So upon receiving the remaining one to check the size (because I am always modifying things and never WRITING DOWN WHAT I DO *headdesk*), I went to search for the original green yarn I used.

To find there was none left.


So let's see how close I can get :P

Did you ever…

get into that mood where you obsessively look for patterns online because you are lazy and don't feel like finshing stuff you already started and get into that mood where you MUST CAST-ON NOW but you don't have the needle sizes specified and then you realize that doesn't matter as long as you get gauge so you're relieved somewhat and then you realize you really don't want to cast-on anything because at the moment all the yarn you own is uninspiring and so you look online for beautiful pictures of beautiful yarn you don't have and really want to have but you are poor and your schedule is full and trying to keep you away from it?

In conclusion, if I don't go yarn shopping soon, I might just kill myself.

x|

Super-duper Sunday

Steelers vs. Cardinals: another Pgh win :D

Me vs. my dad's future hat:

Eat my four inches of stockinette, hat!

I now believe I am in fact, a stress knitter. My family watching football is an incredibly stressful experience indeed :P

Tug-of-war

I am being yanked in many different directions.
I want to knit.
I want to draw.
I want to read.
I want to write.
I don't want to flunk school.
I also want to blog, but things are getting in my way.

So to hold you for now:

(Done during a slow day at work, didn't have an eraser, so some things were cleaned up a little when I got home, but I liked and kept the sketchy-ness.)

And also, my cousin lost one of the fingerless gloves I made for her, so hopefully I'll get to go yarn-shopping to make a new pair soon :D

November

Because I like to mess things up :D

NaKniSweMo (National Knit A Sweater Month)
NaFinSweMo (National Finish A Sweater Month)

Mon Cherie: it's getting on my nerves. Because I have been ribbing for a good month, and still have like eight rounds of ribbing to go. I swear it will cast-off by the 30th!!!
Er, I hope.

NaWriNovMo (National Write A Novel Month)
NaWriPlaMo (National Write A Play Month)
School: it does not like me.

So stay tuned for angst, anger, and more angst! And did I mention angst!
:P

When you have no electricity . . .

1. You play the piano for a good half-hour before your brothers shout that they're sick of hearing Fur Elise. Your mother agrees.
2. You try to draw, but this fails as there are no lights and the sun is setting.
3. In defeat, you listen to your iPod until you are sick of hearing Fur Elise play in the back of your head, despite what's coming out of the headphones.

Finally, the cable, Internet, and power come back on and you nearly sprint to the computer.

I discovered Haruha on Ravelry and had an itch, no, AN ABSOLUTE COMPULSIVE NEED to start it.


Malabrigo.
Lace.
<3<3<3
Sometimes, I wonder if loving my knitted pieces as much as I do can lead to some strange mental condition :D

However, there is a tiny (but evil) creature crawling back into my life

Grrr. Unfortunately, The Frog work in stages, too.
1. You're ecstatic because the lace is coming out so well.
2. You see a mistake a few rows back. No problemo!
Rippit.
3. You hurry along, churning out another lace repeat.
4. There's another mistake, but only a few rows back. We can make that up!
Rippit.
5. You knit like a madwoman (but a careful, chart-reading madwoman), lace flying.
6. Guess what I see a few rows back?!
Rippit (in an insane, sadistic frog croak/laugh way).

>:/ Orange is a lovely color, but I'm really starting to hate green . . .

Surprisingly, I still remember how to knit

Slightly blurry proof:

4 lace repeats of the body there. The lace pattern is surprisingly easy and now it's getting a little . . .

Dull.

Go ahead, groan and shoot me. I am a lazy-butt knitter :P

But I have GOODS!!

Mwahaha more yarn for me to fondle! I am possibly thinking of a hat for this one.

(And *cough* sit at the bottom of my stash basket while I go and not knit *cough*)

Ho-lee CRAP

As of right now, Thinking in Magenta has gotten 10,705 hits.

And I haven't even reached my blogiversary.




Thank you very very VERY very much good people with computers :D

BRrrrrrrrrrrrrrAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaIIiiiiiIiiNNNNssssssss

In zombie mode currently. Ugh.

I know, I'm sorry. Posts are coming! I promise!

*crosses fingers*

Excuses, excuses

Took a quick stop at Yarns Unlimited yesterday. It never fails to amaze me that one room can hold so much fiber; so many skeins, so many colors, the overwhelming need to touch everything!
In fact, this time, I couldn't choose!

I repeat: I walked into a yarn store and did not buy any yarn.

What I DID buy was this:

So vintage and adorable. This means there is definitely a blue, green, gray, or yellow sweater looming in my future. Black is just wrong. Besides, the buttons need to POP. So I browsed my queue for possible options.



Ysolda Teague must be one of the world's most well-known/popular knitters/designers. 1) She's Scottish. 2) Her patterns are amazing. 3) Her website is amazing. All of these point to the huge income she must be receiving from selling her patterns.
Of course, I'd be all too happy to contribute to that income :)

I'm gravitating towards Coraline. Not it only is it named after one of my many favorite books, Ravelers have made it look lovely in green and gray, and even purple!

The thing is . . .well, call me stubborn and cheap, but I don't like the idea of buying patterns off the Internet. I worry that I'll get ripped off (by the system, not the designer) and that the file won't download. Plus, it's not on my credit card :(

Well, I'll leave you with a sneak preview of some more fingerless gloves, and I tagged them with "designing" because even though it's Ysolda's pattern (again), I have less stitches, different numbers, less rows, and two colors.
Take that, lazy designer brain!

This cannot end well

I have discovered the Knitting Olympics and its partner, the Ravelympics.
Well, technically I already knew about them, but I had no idea what actually went on :P

So, I, the Olympics' number-one fan (it's pretty much the only sports program I watch ever), have decided to go for it.

My challenge? Pomatomus, in my Plymouth Dreambaby DK.
(Yes, I know I blogged about doing this pattern before, shut up, SHUT UP!)

And like the real Olympics, it will probably be filled with dangerous screw-ups, tears of frustration, and lots of screaming. Oh, me and my big ideas!

By the way, Happy 4th (am currently in New York, will be busy tomorrow, so am making the announcement early)!!!
Go Team USA!!!
Help me!!!

Apologies for the lack of words

Summer is weird; I am either totally and completely overrun with things to do, or I have absolutely nothing to do at all.
So yeah, of course I haven't been blogging :P

But I can offer hope for this situation: I haven't written short stories (or really, anything) for a while, so I am officially making July Thinking in Magenta Literature Month. Every Sunday I will post a new original short story, four in total.

Right now, though, it's still June, so here's some art to hold you over.

This one is actually kind of strange. I started to draw a girl, made her underwater, made her a doll, and made up the story that the doll was dropped into a pond. Yeah . . .

My cousin Rebecca was a good model and held a great pose for me at the pool last week. Her reward was to keep the original copy.

See you in July! :)

Bored . . .again . . .

So for the past week, my schedule was pretty much blah, blah, blah. I had no piano, no acrylics class, didn't start my job yet, and so on. So I pretty much just sat around.
All.
Week.

Boredom does weird things to you. This week I spent my time either boiling my eyeballs in a mad Internet/Ravelry frenzy, or burning my hands knitting, knitting, knitting.
And ended up finishing this in two days:


It's my contribution to Issue 2 of Teen Knitter and Crocheter Magazine. Right now I have some test knitters working on it, and it should be out in July along with the rest of Issue 2. I also have a comic for the said magazine to work on, to busy my idle time.

But I'm still boooooooooooooooored . . . . .*moan*